Posts Tagged ‘ARMY-MCCARTHY HEARINGS’
2012 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, APARTHEID, ARMY-MCCARTHY HEARINGS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BIRTH CONTROL, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DONALD TRUMP, FASCISM, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HONOR, HUFFINGTON POST, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JAPAN, JENNA ELLIS, JOE BIGGS, JOSEPH MCCARTHY, MATTHEW 7:17-20, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NELSON MANDELA, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PROUD BOYS, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SAMURAI, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOUTH AFRICA, 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 INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on October 25, 2023 at 12:11 am
“Senator, may we not drop this?…You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
The speaker was Joseph N. Welch, chief counsel for the United States Army—then under investigation by Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for alleged Communist activities.
It was June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy hearings.
And it was the pivotal moment that finally destroyed the career of the Wisconsin Senator whose repeated slanders of Communist subversion had bullied and frightened Americans for four years.
Joseph McCarthy
Today, however, other Americans should be asking themselves: “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Like self-described Proud Boys organizer Joe Biggs.
On January 6, 2021, Biggs was a member of the Proud Boys, a Right-wing terrorist group which violently attacked the nation’s Capitol Building.
Their goal: To prevent the counting of Electoral College votes—which, as they knew, would establish that former Vice President Joseph R. Biden had legitimately won the 2020 Presidential election.
On August 31, 2023, Biggs received a prison sentence of 17 years. He qualified for a terrorism sentencing enhancement because he tore down a fence that stood between police and rioters.
Biggs sobbed as he was sentenced.
He pleaded for leniency to take care of his daughter and cancer-stricken mother: “I wanted to see what would happen. My curiosity got the best of me. I’m not a terrorist. I’m one of the nicest people in the world.”
Joe Biggs
And like Jenna Ellis, a Trump campaign attorney from November 2020 to January 2021.
She repeatedly claimed that the “election was stolen and President Trump won by a landslide.”
On December 4, 2020, Ellis met state lawmakers in Georgia to persuade them to overturn the 2020 election results.
Indicted for her election-overturning efforts, on October 24 she tearfully pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting false statements: “As an attorney who is also a Christian, I take my responsibilities as a lawyer very seriously and I endeavor to be a person of sound, moral and ethical character in all of my dealings.
“If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges. I look back on this experience with deep remorse.”
Jenna Ellis
And like ex-President Donald Trump.
He’s facing four criminal indictments as well as civil trials for:
- Inflating his worth to avoid taxes;
- Misclassifying hush money payments to women during his 2016 campaign;
- Inciting a mob of his followers to overturn the results of the 2020 election; and
- Hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club.
Altogether, he’s facing 91 felony charges.
Rather than facing up to his lifetime of criminality, Trump chose to portray himself as a heroic victim—by comparing himself to the Nobel Peace Prize-winning anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison in South Africa.
On October 23, addressing a rally in Derry, New Hampshire, Trump said he would go to prison like Mandela:
“I don’t mind being Nelson Mandela because I’m doing it [running again for President] for a reason. We’ve got to save our country from these fascists, these lunatics that we’re dealing with. They’re horrible people and they’re destroying our country.”
Donald Trump
Among the characteristics of a Fascist regime:
- Corporate power is protected and labor power is suppressed.
- Rampant sexism.
- Cult-like worship of an “infallible” leader who never admits mistakes.
- Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.
- Disdain for intellectuals and the arts not aligned with the fascist cause.
- Loyalty to the leader is paramount and often more important than competence.
- Obsession with national security, crime and punishment.
- Fostering a sense of the nation under attack.
Trump’s four years in the White House can be accurately described as meeting all of these definitions of a Fascistic regime.
* * * * *
Clearly, the word “hypocrisy” meant nothing to Joseph McCarthy—just as it means nothing to Joe Biggs, Jenna Ellis and Donald Trump.
But it should mean something to the rest of us.
In feudal Japan, men who publicly disgraced themselves knew what to do. The samurai code of Bushido told them when they had crossed the line into eternal damnation.
And it gave them a way to redeem their lost honor—seppuku. With a small “belly-cutting” knife and the help of a trusted assistant who sliced off their head to spare them the agonizing pain of disembowelment.
In the armies of America and Europe, the method was slightly different: A pistol in a private room.
Considering the ready availability of firearms among Right-wing Republicans, redeeming lost honor shouldn’t be a problem for any of these people.
But of course it will be. It takes more than a trigger pull to “do the right thing.”
It takes insight to recognize that you’ve “done the wrong thing.” And it takes courage to act on that insight.
In people who live only for their own egos and wallets, such insight and courage will be forever missing. They are beyond redemption.
Their lives give proof to the warning offered in Matthew 7:17-20:
“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
2012 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARMY-MCCARTHY HEARINGS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BIRTH CONTROL, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, COMMUNISM, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HELSINKI SUMMIT, HONOR, HUFFINGTON POST, HURRICANE SANDY, JAPAN, JOSEPH MCCARTHY, MATTHEW 7:17-20, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, RICK SANTORUM, SALON, SAMURAI, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, 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 INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on August 18, 2023 at 12:08 am
“Senator, may we not drop this?…You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
The speaker was Joseph N. Welch, chief counsel for the United States Army—then under investigation by Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for alleged Communist activities.
It was June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy hearings.
And it was the pivotal moment that finally destroyed the career of the Wisconsin Senator whose repeated slanders of Communist subversion had bullied and frightened Americans for four years.
Joseph McCarthy
When the Senate gallery erupted in applause, McCarthy—totally surprised at his sudden reversal of fortune—was finished.
Today, however, other Americans should be asking themselves the question asked by Welch: “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Americans like Rick Santorum, former United States Senator from Pennsylvania (1997 – 2007) and Republican Presidential candidate in 2012.
Rick Santorum
Santorum has fervently sought to ban legalized abortion—even in rape cases.
He also wants to ban birth control: “It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”
But this did not stop him from marrying, in 1990, a woman—Karen Garver—who had spent six years as the unmarried bedmate of an OBGYN-abortionist named Tom Allen, who was 40 years her senior.
Today, as Mrs. Santorum, she has totally reversed her view on abortion and wants to see it banned.
Then there’s ex-President Donald Trump.
Donald Trump
On July 15, 2018, Trump tweeted: “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!”
He was referring to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, charged by the Justice Department with investigating the subversion of the 2016 Presidential election by Russian Intelligence agents.
The next day, Trump attended a press conference in Helsinki, Finland, with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Mr. President,” said Jeff Mason, a reporter from Reuters, “do you hold Russia at all accountable for anything in particular?”
Trump, refusing to condemn Russia, blasted the Mueller probe: “I think that the probe is a disaster for our country. I think it’s kept us apart. It’s kept us separated. There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it.
“People are being brought out to the fore. So far that I know, virtually, none of it related to the campaign. They will have to try really hard to find something that did relate to the campaign.”
Associated Press Reporter Jonathan Lemire said to Trump: “Just now President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. My first question for you, sir, is who do you believe?”
Trump responded by attacking Democrats and the FBI as partners in a conspiracy:
“You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server, why haven’t they taken the server? Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee?
“I’ve been wondering that. I’ve been asking that for months and months and I’ve been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? I want to know where is the server and what is the server saying. With that being said, all I can do is ask the question.
“I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be, but I really do want to see the server.”
Clearly, the word “hypocrisy” meant nothing to McCarthy—just as it means nothing to Santorum and Trump.
But it should mean something to the rest of us.
In samurai Japan, officials who publicly disgraced themselves knew what to do. The samurai code of Bushido told them when they had crossed the line into eternal damnation.
And it gave them a way to redeem their lost honor—seppuku. With a small “belly-cutting” knife and the help of a trusted assistant who sliced off their head to spare them the agonizing pain of disembowelment.
In the armies of America and Europe, the method was slightly different: A pistol in a private room.
Considering the ready availability of firearms among Right-wing Republicans, redeeming lost honor shouldn’t be a problem for either man.
But of course it will be. It takes more than a trigger pull to “do the right thing.”
It takes insight to recognize that you’ve “done the wrong thing.” And it takes courage to act on that insight.
In men who live only for their own egos and wallets, such insight and courage will be forever missing. They are beyond redemption.
Their lives give proof to the warning offered in Matthew 7:17-20:
“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2020PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANDREW JACKSON, AP, ARMY-MCCARTHY HEARINGS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, COLLEGE FOOTBALL, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, DREW PEARSON, DRUDGE REPORT, DWIGHT EISENHOWER, EDWARD R. MURROW, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GEORGE C. MARSHALL, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HARRY S. TRUMAN, JERRY SANDUSKY, JOE BIDEN, JOE PATERNO, JOSEPH MCCARTHY, JOSEPH WELCH, jOSH HAWLEY, Kamala Harris, LINDSEY GRAHAM, LOUIS FREEH, MEDIA MATTERS, MIKE PENCE, MITCH MCCONNELL, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NANCY PELOSI, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NIKE, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, PENN STATE UNIVERSITY, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, 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, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on April 8, 2022 at 12:10 am
Many “heroes” come out of the woodwork only after the danger is safely past.
First up: Today’s Republicans in the United States Senate and House of Representatives.
On November 3, 2020, 81,255,933 Democratic voters elected former Vice President Joseph Biden the 46th President of the United States. Trump, running for a second term, got 74,196,153 votes.
Yet more than two months after the election, Trump refused to concede, insisting that he won—and repeatedly claiming falsely that he was the victim of massive vote fraud.
Donald Trump
With the Senate due to certify states’ Electoral College results on January 6, Trump pressed Vice President Mike Pence to illegally flip the results of the election to give him a win. Pence refused.
For weeks Trump called upon his legions of Right-wing followers to descend on Washington, D.C. on that day. On December 20, he tweeted: “Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
On January 6, 2021, tens of thousands of Stormtrumpers heard Trump denounce the election. Then they stormed and breached the United States Capitol. They easily brushed aside Capitol Police, who made no effort to arrest or shoot them.
Many of the lawmakers’ office buildings were occupied and vandalized—including that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a favorite target of Trump and the Right.
Not until nightfall—hours later—did police finally restore order to the capitol.
Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley had intended to dispute the results of the 2020 election. As many as 25 Senators and 140 House Republicans had intended to join him.
But now most of Trump’s longtime Congressional supporters feared they would be tarred—rightly—as his accessories to that day’s outrage. They might even be voted out of office!
Suddenly, many of them found reasons to reject a challenge to the Electoral College votes.
In addition:
- Many of them piously claimed they were shocked—shocked!—by that day’s violence—carefully omitting that by their overt or covert support of Trump’s lies they had helped create the climate for its ignition.
- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell—who had refused to condemn Trump’s efforts to overturn the election result—called the invasion a “failed insurrection.”
- Senator Lindsey Graham, who had relentlessly defended Trump’s lies and outrages for four years, now dared to admit: “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are lawfully elected.”
- Twitter, which for years had ignored Trump’s flagrant violations of its rules against threats and harassment, now found it possible to ban Trump from its website.
Something similar happened in Washington, D.C., in 1954.
From 1950 to 1954, Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph R. McCarthy terrorized the nation, accusing anyone who disagreed with him of being a Communist—and leaving ruined lives in his wake.
Joseph R. McCarthy
Among those civilians and government officials he slandered as Communists were:
- President Harry S. Truman
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow
- Secretary of State George C. Marshall
- Columnist Drew Pearson
Finally, in 1954, McCarthy overreached himself and accused the U.S. Army of being a hotbed of Communist traitors. Joseph Welch, counsel for the Army, destroyed McCarthy’s credibility in a now-famous retort:
“Senator, may we not drop this?….You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Later that year, the Senate censured McCarthy and he rapidly declined in power and health.
- Senatorial colleagues who had once courted his support now avoided him.
- They left the Senate when he rose to speak.
- Reporters who had once fawned on him for his latest sensational slander now ignored him.
- Eisenhower—who had sought McCarthy’s support during his 1952 race for President—joked that “McCarthyism” was now “McCarthywasm.”
Fast-forward to July 12, 2012—and the release of former FBI Director Louie Freeh’s report on serial pedophile Jerry Sandusky. As the assistant football coach at Penn State University (PSU), he had used the football facilities to sexually attack numerous young boys.
Jerry Sandusky
But Sandusky was regarded as more than a second-banana. He received Assistant Coach of the Year awards in 1986 and 1999, and authored several books about his coaching experiences.
In 1977, Sandusky founded The Second Mile, a non-profit charity serving underprivileged, at-risk youth.
College football is a $2.6 billion-a-year business. And Penn State is one of its premiere brands, with revenue of $70 million in 2010.
PSU’s seven-month internal investigation, headed by Freeh, revealed:
- Joe Paterno, head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions, was aware of a 1998 criminal investigation of Sandusky.
- So was president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz.
- In 2001, then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary reported to Paterno that he’d seen Sandusky attacking a boy in the shower.
- Paterno, Spanier, Curley and Schultz then conspired to cover up for Sandusky.
- The rapes of these boys occurred in the Lasch Building—where Paterno had his office.
In 2011, Sandusky was arrested and charged with sexually abusing young boys over a 15-year period.
On June 22, 2012, he was convicted on 45 of the 48 charges. He will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
On the day the Freeh report was released, Nike—a longtime sponsor for Penn State—announced that it would remove Paterno’s name from the child care center at its world headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.
2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2020PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANDREW JACKSON, AP, ARMY-MCCARTHY HEARINGS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BLOOMBERG, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, COLLEGE FOOTBALL, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, DREW PEARSON, DRUDGE REPORT, DWIGHT EISENHOWER, EDWARD R. MURROW, ELECTORAL COLLEGE, FACEBOOK, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, GEORGE C. MARSHALL, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HARRY S. TRUMAN, JERRY SANDUSKY, JOE BIDEN, JOE PATERNO, JOSEPH MCCARTHY, JOSEPH WELCH, jOSH HAWLEY, Kamala Harris, LINDSEY GRAHAM, LOUIS FREEH, MEDIA MATTERS, MIKE PENCE, MITCH MCCONNELL, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NANCY PELOSI, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NIKE, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, PENN STATE UNIVERSITY, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, 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, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on January 7, 2021 at 12:11 am
Many “heroes” come out of the woodwork only after the danger is safely past.
First up: Today’s Republicans in the United States Senate and House of Representatives.
On November 3, 2020, 81,255,933 Democratic voters elected former Vice President Joseph Biden the 46th President of the United States. Trump, running for a second term, got 74,196,153 votes.
Yet more than two months after the election, Trump refuses to concede, insisting that he won—and repeatedly claiming falsely that he is the victim of massive vote fraud.
Donald Trump
This toxic lie has been feverishly embraced by millions of Right-wing voters—including many House and Senate Republicans—and threatens to rob the incoming Biden administration of its deserved legitimacy.
With the Senate due to certify states’ Electoral College results on January 6, Trump pressed Vice President Mike Pence to illegally flip the results of the election to give him a win.
And for weeks Trump called upon his legions of Right-wing followers to descend on Washington, D.C. on that day. On December 20, he tweeted: “Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
At the White House, tens of thousands of Stormtrumpers heard Trump his denounce the election. They they stormed and breached the United States Capitol. They easily brushed aside Capitol Police, who made no effort to arrest or shoot them.
Many of the lawmakers’ office buildings were occupied and vandalized—including that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a favorite target of Trump and the Right.
Not until nightfall—hours later—did police finally restore order to the capitol.
That night, House and Senate lawmakers met in their respective chambers to certify the Electoral College results.
Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley had intended to dispute the results of the 2020 election. As many as 25 Senators and 140 House Republicans had intended to join him.
But now most of Trump’s longtime Congressional supporters feared they would be tarred—rightly—as his accessories to that day’s outrage. They might even be voted out of office!
Suddenly, many of them found reasons to reject a challenge to the Electoral College votes.
In addition:
- Many of them piously claimed they were shocked—shocked!–by that day’s violence—carefully omitting that by their overt or covert support of Trump’s lies they had helped create the climate for its ignition.
- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell—who had refused to condemn Trump’s efforts to overturn the election result—called the invasion a “failed insurrection.”
- Senator Lindsey Graham, who had relentlessly defended Trump’s lies and outrages for four years, now dared to admit: “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are lawfully elected.”
- Twitter, which for years had ignored Trump’s flagrant violations of its rules against threats and harassment, now found it possible to suspend Trump’s account for 12 hours.
Something similar happened in Washington, D.C., in 1954.
From 1950 to 1954, Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph R. McCarthy terrorized the nation, accusing anyone who disagreed with him of being a Communist—and leaving ruined lives in his wake.
Joseph R. McCarthy
Among those civilians and government officials he slandered as Communists were:
- President Harry S. Truman
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow
- Secretary of State George C. Marshall
- Columnist Drew Pearson
Finally, in 1954, McCarthy overreached himself and accused the U.S. Army of being a hotbed of Communist traitors. Joseph Welch, counsel for the Army, destroyed McCarthy’s credibility in a now-famous retort:
“Senator, may we not drop this?….You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Later that year:
- The Senate censured McCarthy, and he rapidly declined in power and health.
- Senatorial colleagues who had once courted his support now avoided him.
- They left the Senate when he rose to speak. Reporters who had once fawned on him for his latest sensational slander now ignored him.
- Eisenhower—who had sought McCarthy’s support during his 1952 race for President—joked that “McCarthyism” was now “McCarthywasm.”
Fast-forward to July 12, 2012—and the release of former FBI Director Louie Freeh’s report on serial pedophile Jerry Sandusky. As the assistant football coach at Penn State University (PSU), he had used the football facilities to sexually attack numerous young boys.
Jerry Sandusky
But Sandusky was regarded as more than a second-banana. He received Assistant Coach of the Year awards in 1986 and 1999, and authored several books about his coaching experiences.
In 1977, Sandusky founded The Second Mile, a non-profit charity serving underprivileged, at-risk youth.
College football is a $2.6 billion-a-year business. And Penn State is one of its premiere brands, with revenue of $70 million in 2010.
PSU’s seven-month internal investigation, headed by Freeh, revealed:
- Joe Paterno, head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions, was aware of a 1998 criminal investigation of Sandusky.
- So was president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz.
- In 2001, then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary reported to Paterno that he’d seen Sandusky attacking a boy in the shower.
- Paterno, Spanier, Curley and Schultz then conspired to cover up for Sandusky.
- The rapes of these boys occurred in the Lasch Building—where Paterno had his office.
In 2011, Sandusky was arrested and charged with sexually abusing young boys over a 15-year period. On June 22, 2012, he was convicted on 45 of the 48 charges. He will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
On the day the Freeh report was released, Nike—a longtime sponsor for Penn State—announced that it would remove Paterno’s name from the child care center at its world headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.
2012 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, ARMY-MCCARTHY HEARINGS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BIRTH CONTROL, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, COMMUNISM, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, DRUDGE RETORT, FACEBOOK, FBI, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HELSINKI SUMMIT, HONOR, HURRICANE SANDY, JAPAN, JOSEPH MCCARTHY, KAREN SANTORUM, MATTHEW 7:17-20, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REUTERS, RICK SANTORUM, SALON, SAMURAI, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, 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 WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TOM ALLEN, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WONKETTE
In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on March 27, 2020 at 12:09 am
“Senator, may we not drop this?…You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
The speaker was Joseph N. Welch, chief counsel for the United States Army—then under investigation by Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for alleged Communist activities.
It was June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy hearings.
And it was the pivotal moment that finally destroyed the career of the Wisconsin Senator whose repeated slanders of Communist subversion had bullied and frightened Americans for four years.
Joseph McCarthy
When the Senate gallery erupted in applause, McCarthy—totally surprised at his sudden reversal of fortune—was finished.
Today, however, other Americans should be asking themselves the question asked by Welch: “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Americans like Rick Santorum, former United States Senator from Pennsylvania (1997 – 2007) and Republican Presidential candidate in 2012.
Rick Santorum
Santorum has fervently sought to ban legalized abortion—even in rape cases.
He also wants to ban birth control: “It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”
But this did not stop him from marrying, in 1990, a woman—Karen Garver—who had spent six years as the unmarried bedmate of an OBGYN-abortionist named Tom Allen, who was 40 years her senior.
Today, as Mrs. Santorum, she has totally reversed her view on abortion and wants to see it banned.
Then there’s President Donald Trump.
Donald Trump
On July 15, 2018, Trump tweeted: “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!”
He was, of course, referring to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, charged by the Justice Department with investigating the subversion of the 2016 Presidential election by Russian Intelligence agents.
The next day, Trump attended a press conference in Helsinki, Finland, with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Addressing a question to Trump, Jeff Mason, a reporter from Reuters, asked: “Mr. President, do you hold Russia at all accountable for anything in particular?”
Trump, refusing to condemn Russia, blasted the Mueller probe: “I think that the probe is a disaster for our country. I think it’s kept us apart. It’s kept us separated. There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it.
“People are being brought out to the fore. So far that I know, virtually, none of it related to the campaign. They will have to try really hard to find something that did relate to the campaign.”
Associated Press Reporter Jonathan Lemire said to Trump: “Just now President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. My first question for you, sir, is who do you believe?”
Trump responded by attacking Democrats and the FBI as partners in a conspiracy:
“You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server, why haven’t they taken the server? Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee?
“I’ve been wondering that. I’ve been asking that for months and months and I’ve been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? I want to know where is the server and what is the server saying. With that being said, all I can do is ask the question.
“I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be, but I really do want to see the server.”
Clearly, the word “hypocrisy” meant nothing to McCarthy—just as it means nothing to Santorum and Trump.
But it should mean something to the rest of us.
In samurai Japan, officials who publicly disgraced themselves knew what to do. The samurai code of Bushido told them when they had crossed the line into eternal damnation.
And it gave them a way to redeem their lost honor—seppuku. With a small “belly-cutting” knife and the help of a trusted assistant who sliced off their head to spare them the agonizing pain of disembowelment.
In the armies of America and Europe, the method was slightly different: A pistol in a private room.
Considering the ready availability of firearms among Right-wing Republicans, redeeming lost honor shouldn’t be a problem for either man.
But of course it will be. It takes more than a trigger pull to “do the right thing.”
It takes insight to recognize that you’ve “done the wrong thing.” And it takes courage to act on that insight.
In men who live only for their own egos and wallets, such insight and courage will be forever lacking.They are beyond redemption.
Their lives give proof to the warning offered in Matthew 7:17-20:
“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, ANDREW JACKSON, AP, ARMY-MCCARTHY HEARINGS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BORDER WALL, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CIA, CNN, COLLEGE FOOTBALL, CONSUMER PROTECTION, CONVERSATION WITH AN AMERICAN WRITER (POEM), CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOZ, DONALD TRUMP, DREW PEARSON, DRUDGE RETORT, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, EDWARD R. MURROW, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, EXTORTION, FACEBOOK, FBI, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, GARY SCHULTZ, GEORGE C. MARSHALL, GRAHAM SPANIER, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HARRY S. TRUMAN, HUNTER BIDEN, JAMES COMEY, JEB BUSH, JEFF BUSH, JERRY SANDJSKY, JERRY SANDUSKY, JOE BIDEN, JOE PATERNO, JOE POTERNO, JOHN MCCAIN, JOSEPH BIDEN, JOSEPH MCCARTHY, JOSEPH WELCH, LOUIS FREEH, MEDIA MATTERS, MIKE MCQUEARY, MIKE MURPHY, MITT ROMNEY, MORAL COURAGE, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NIKE, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, PENN STATE NITTANY LIONS, PENN STATE UNIVERSITY, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RUSSIA, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SUBVERSION, 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 SECOND MILE, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIM CURLEY, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, TWO POLITICAL JUNKIES, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UKRAINE, UP, UPI, USA TODAY, VLADIMIR PUTIN, VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, WONKETTE, YEVGENEY YEVTUSHENKO
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on January 2, 2020 at 12:23 am
“One man with courage,” said frontier general Andrew Jackson, “makes a majority.”
Yet many “heroes” come out of the woodwork only after the danger is safely past.
On September 25, 2019, GOP consultant Mike Murphy said that a Republican senator had told him the majority of Republican senators “would vote to impeach” President Donald Trump if they could do so anonymously.
In short: If they didn’t have to face backlash from constituents or the media or Trump, they would gladly stand up for the Constitution. Which is like a fireman saying: “If i didn’t have to worry about getting burned to death, I’d gladly rush into a burning building and save whoever was in it.”
“One Republican senator told me if it was a secret vote, 30 Republican senators would vote to impeach Trump,” he claimed during an interview on MSNBC.
Murphy—who has advised Republican politicians such as Mitt Romney, John McCain and Jeb Bush—implied that the GOP lawmakers fear that voting against Trump could harm them politically.
Yes, a shining example of true moral courage at its finest—and just when it’s most needed: “If we just didn’t have to risk our skins, we’d be glad to do the right thing.”
Donald Trump
Throughout Trump’s nearly three years in office, Republicans have remained silent or vigorously supported him as he:
- Repeatedly and viciously attacked the nation’s free press for daring to report his growing list of crimes and disasters, calling it “the enemy of the American people.”
- Publicly siding with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin against American Intelligence agencies (FBI, CIA, National Security Agency) which unanimously agreed that Russia had subverted the 2016 Presidential election,
- Firing FBI Director James Comey for investigating that subversion.
- Allowing predatory corporations to subvert Federal regulatory protections for consumers and the environment.
- Shutting down the Federal Government for more than a month on December 22, 2018, because Democrats refused to fund his “border wall” between the United States and Mexico.
- Attempting to extort a “favor” from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: Threatening to withhold military aid unless Zelensky agreed to slander Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic Presidential candidate Joseph Biden.
“I was never courageous,” the Russian poet, Yevgeney Yevtushenko, wrote in his famous poem, “Conversation With an American Writer.” “I simply felt it unbecoming to stoop to the cowardice of my colleagues.”
For Republicans “stooping to the cowardice” of their colleagues has long been a recipe for political survival.
Yet another Republican—Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy—terrorized the nation from 1950 to 1954, accusing anyone who disagreed with him of being a Communist, and leaving only ruined lives in his wake.
Joseph R. McCarthy
Among those civilians and government officials he slandered as Communists were:
- President Harry S. Truman
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower
- Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow
- Secretary of State George C. Marshall
- Columnist Drew Pearson
Finally, in 1954, McCarthy overreached himself and accused the U.S. Army of being a hotbed of Communist traitors. Joseph Welch, counsel for the Army, destroyed McCarthy’s credibility in a now-famous retort:
“Senator, may we not drop this?….You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Later that year, the Senate censured McCarthy, and he rapidly declined in power and health.
Senatorial colleagues who had courted his support now left the Senate when he rose to speak. Reporters who had once fawned on him for his latest sensational slander now ignored him.
But cowardice isn’t confined to politicians.
Fast-forward to July 12, 2012—and the release of former FBI Director Louie Freeh’s report on serial pedophile Jerry Sandusky. As the assistant football coach at Penn State University (PSU), he had used the football facilities to sexually attack numerous young boys.
Jerry Sandusky
But Sandusky was regarded as more than a second-banana. He received Assistant Coach of the Year awards in 1986 and 1999, and authored several books about his coaching experiences.
In 1977, Sandusky founded The Second Mile, a non-profit charity serving underprivileged, at-risk youth.
“Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State,” Freeh stated.
College football is a $2.6 billion-a-year business. And Penn State is one of its premiere brands, with revenue of $70 million in 2010.
PSU’s seven-month internal investigation, headed by Freeh, revealed:
- Joe Paterno, head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions, was aware of a 1998 criminal investigation of Sandusky.
- So were president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz.
- In 2001, then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary reported to Paterno that he’d seen Sandusky attacking a boy in the shower.
- Paterno, Spanier, Curley and Schultz then conspired to cover up for Sandusky.
- The rapes of these boys occurred in the Lasch Building—where Paterno had his office.
- A janitor who had witnessed a rape in 2000 said he had feared losing his job if he told anyone about it. “It would be like going against the President of the United States,” Freeh said at a press conference.
In 2011, Sandusky was arrested and charged with sexually abusing young boys over a 15-year period. On June 22, 2012, he was convicted on 45 of the 48 charges. He will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
On the day the Freeh report was released, Nike—a longtime sponsor for Penn State—announced that it would remove Paterno’s name from the child care center at its world headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 9/11 ATTACKS, AARON COPELAND, ABC NEWS, AFGHANISTAN, ALEXANDER SHUSTOROVICH, ALTERNET, ANDREW INTRATER, ANTI-COMMUNISM, ANTIWAR DEMONSTRATIONS, AP, ARMY-MCCARTHY HEARINGS, ARTHUR MILLER, ATOMIC BOMB, BILL CLINTON, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENTRAL AMERICA, CHAING KAI-SHEK, CHARLIE CHAPLIN, CIA, CINDY HYDE-SMITH, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS, DAILY KOZ, DASHIELL HAMMETT, DELORES DEL RIO, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP’S INAUGURAL COMMITTEE, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, EDWARD G. ROBINSON, EDWARD R. MURROW, ELMER BERNSTEIN, FACEBOOK, FBI, FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION, GEORGE C. MARSHALL, GEORGE H.W. BUSH, H.L. HUNT, HARRY S. TRUMAN, HILLARY CLINTON, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE, HOWARD DA SILVA, HOWARD FAST, HOWARD HUGHES, INTERNET RESEARCH AGENCY, IRWIN SHAW, J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER, JAMES COMEY, JIMMY CARTER, JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY, JOHN F. KENNEDY, JOHN GARFIELD, JOHN KASICH, JOHN MCCAIN, JOHN STEINBECK, JOSEPH R. MCCARTHY, JOSEPH STALIN, LEE GRANT, LEN BLAVATNIK, LILLIAN HELLMAN, LINDSEY GRAHAM, LLOYD BRIDGES, LUCILLE BALL, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MAIN INTELLIGENCE DIRECTORATE, MAO TSE-TUNG, MARCO RUBIO, MITCH MCCONNELL, MITCH MCCONNELL’S SENATE LEADERSHIP FUN, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUSLIMS, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO), NPR, OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETE SEEGER, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REUTERS, RICHARD M. NIXON, ROBERT MUELLER, Ronald Reagan, RUTH GORDON, SALON, SCOTT WALKER, SEATTLE TIMES, SIMON KUKES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESNTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VIETNAM WAR, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WIKILEAKS, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WORLD WAR 11, WORLD WAR ii, ZERO MOSTEL
In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on November 5, 2019 at 12:10 am
From 1945 to 2015, it was unthinkable for a Republican Presidential candidate to pay tribute to a Soviet dictator.
But that utterly changed when Donald J. Trump, a “reality TV” host with longstanding financial ties to Russian oligarchs, ran for President of the United States.
Donald Trump
The reason for the Trump-Putin bromance: Each had something to offer the other.
Putin wanted the United States to ditch the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance, which had preserved Western Europe from Russian aggression since World War II. And Trump had often attacked America’s funding of NATO as a drain on the American economy.
And Trump wanted to be President. For this, Putin could supply Internet trolls to confuse voters with falsified news—and even the hacking of key voting centers.
And monies. These Russian monies were officially classified as “campaign contributions,” not bribes.
Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III Mueller spent almost two years uncovering links between Russian Intelligence agents and members of Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign.
On July 24, he addressed Congress on Russia’s subversion of the 2016 Presidential election.
“Over the course of my career, I’ve seen a number of challenges to our democracy,” Mueller declared to members of the House Judiciary Committee.
“The Russian government’s effort to interfere in our election is among the most serious. As I said on May 29, this deserves the attention of every American.
“It wasn’t a single attempt. They’re doing it as we sit here. And they expect to do it during the next campaign.”
Robert Mueller
In his report, Mueller documented years of meddling in American politics by the Internet Research Agency, which runs the Kremlin’s online disinformation efforts from its headquarters in St. Petersburg.
The Agency reached 126 million Americans through fake accounts on Facebook. Its messages communicated with unaware members of the Trump campaign, and even prompted real-life rallies that mobilized crowds of unwitting voters.
Hours later that same day, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi) blocked the passage of three bills designed to tighten election security at the federal level. She claimed that Congress had already responded to election security needs for the 2020 Presidential election.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) came to the Senate floor the next day to personally object to House-passed legislation backed by Democrats.
Nor is Trump the only Republican receiving “help” from Putin. A network of Russian oligarchs—all of them answerable to Putin—has been increasingly contributing to top Republicans.
These Russian monies are officially classified as “campaign contributions,” not bribes—which, in fact, they are.
According to the Federal Election Commission:
One such major contributor is Len Blavatnik, who holds citizenship in both the United States and the United Kingdom. During the 2015-16 election cycle, he proved one of the largest donors to GOP Political Action Committees (PACs).
Blavatnik’s net worth is estimated at $20 billion. Before 2016, he donated to both Democrats and Republicans in meager amounts. But in 2016, he gave $6.35 million to GOP PACs.
Millions of dollars went to top Republican leaders—such as Senators Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), Marco Rubio (Florida) and Lindsey Graham (South Carolina).
Specifically, he contributed:
- A total of $1.5 million to PACs associated with Rubio.
- $1 million to Trump’s Inaugural Committee.
- $41,000 to both Republicans and Democrats in 2017.
- $1 million to McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund.
- $3.5 million to a PAC associated with McConnell.
- $1.1 million to Unintimidated PAC, associated with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.
- $200,000 to the Arizona Grassroots Action PAC, associated with the late Arizona Senator John McCain.
- $250,000 to New Day for America PAC, associated with Ohio Governor John Kasich.
- $800,000 to the Security is Strength PAC, associated with Senator Lindsey Graham.
![]()
![]()
Another Russian oligarch, Alexander Shustorovich, contributed $1 million to Trump’s Inaugural Committee.
Altogether, four Russian oligarchs—Blavatnik, Shustorovich, Andrew Intrater and Simon Kukes—contributed $10.4 million from the start of the 2015-16 election cycle through September 2017. Of this, 99% went to Republicans.
As Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell participated in high-level intelligence briefings in 2016. From agencies such as the FBI, CIA and the code-cracking National Security Agency, he learned that the Russians were trying to subvert the electoral process.
In October, 2016, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) issued a joint statement: The Russian government had directed the effort to subvert the 2016 Presidential election.
Two weeks later, McConnell’s PAC accepted a $1 million donation from Blavatnik.
On March 30, 2017, McConnell’s PAC accepted another $1 million from Blavatnik.
This is just 10 days after former FBI Director James Comey testified before the House Intelligence Committee about Russia’s efforts to subvert the 2016 election.
So, what has changed in the Republican Party? Essentially nothing.
Its enemies changed—from Russian Communists to American liberals. But its goal remains the same: The quest for absolute power.
When Americans feared Communism, Republicans depicted themselves as the only ones who could be trusted to protect the United States. Big contributions poured in from Right-wing billionaires like H.L. Hunt and Howard Hughes.
But then Republicans found they could enrich themselves and stay in power via Russian “campaign contributions.” So long as they did Putin’s bidding, the rubles would roll in.
So for a party of power-drunk would-be dictators, the decision was simple: Better Red than un-elected.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 9/11 ATTACKS, AARON COPELAND, ABC NEWS, AFGHANISTAN, ALEXANDER SHUSTOROVICH, ALTERNET, ANDREW INTRATER, ANTI-COMMUNISM, ANTIWAR DEMONSTRATIONS, AP, ARMY-MCCARTHY HEARINGS, ARTHUR MILLER, ATOMIC BOMB, BILL CLINTON, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENTRAL AMERICA, CHAING KAI-SHEK, CHARLIE CHAPLIN, CIA, CINDY HYDE-SMITH, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS, DAILY KOZ, DASHIELL HAMMETT, DELORES DEL RIO, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP’S INAUGURAL COMMITTEE, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, EDWARD G. ROBINSON, EDWARD R. MURROW, ELMER BERNSTEIN, FACEBOOK, FBI, FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION, GEORGE C. MARSHALL, GEORGE H.W. BUSH, H.L. HUNT, HARRY S. TRUMAN, HILLARY CLINTON, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE, HOWARD DA SILVA, HOWARD FAST, HOWARD HUGHES, INTERNET RESEARCH AGENCY, IRWIN SHAW, J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER, JAMES COMEY, JIMMY CARTER, JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY, JOHN F. KENNEDY, JOHN GARFIELD, JOHN KASICH, JOHN MCCAIN, JOHN STEINBECK, JOSEPH R. MCCARTHY, JOSEPH STALIN, LEE GRANT, LEN BLAVATNIK, LILLIAN HELLMAN, LINDSEY GRAHAM, LLOYD BRIDGES, LUCILLE BALL, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MAIN INTELLIGENCE DIRECTORATE, MAO TSE-TUNG, MARCO RUBIO, MITCH MCCONNELL, MITCH MCCONNELL’S SENATE LEADERSHIP FUN, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUSLIMS, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO), NPR, OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETE SEEGER, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REUTERS, RICHARD M. NIXON, ROBERT MUELLER, Ronald Reagan, RUTH GORDON, SALON, SCOTT WALKER, SEATTLE TIMES, SIMON KUKES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESNTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VIETNAM WAR, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WIKILEAKS, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WORLD WAR ii, ZERO MOSTEL
In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on November 4, 2019 at 12:15 am
There was a time when Republicans saw—and portrayed—themselves as America’s foremost defenders against Communism.
This was particularly true during the early 1950s. Case in point: Wisconsin United States Senator Joseph R. McCarthy.
Elected to the Senate in 1946, he rose to national prominence on February 9, 1950, after giving a fiery speech in Wheeling, West Virginia:
“The State Department is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.”
Joseph McCarthy
Americans were already growing increasingly fearful of Communism:
- Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin had not withdrawn the Red Army from the countries it had occupied in Eastern Europe during World War II.
- In 1948, the Soviet Union developed—and demonstrated—its own atomic bomb, an achievement U.S. scientists had claimed would not happen for at least a decade.
- In 1949, China fell to the triumphant armies of Mao Tse Tung. Generalissimo Chaing Kai Shek was driven from mainland China to the tiny island of Taiwan.
Anti-communism as a lever to political advancement sharply accelerated following McCarthy’s speech.
No American—no matter how prominent—was safe from the accusation of being a Communist or a Communist sympathizer—”a Comsymp” or “fellow traveler” in the language of the era.
Among those accused:
- Secretary of State George C. Marshall, who had overseen America’s strategy for defeating Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
- President Harry S. Truman.
- Playwrights Lillian Hellman and Arthur Miller.
- Folksinger Pete Seeger.
- Actors Charlie Chaplin, Zero Mostel, Lloyd Bridges, Howard Da Silva, Edward G. Robinson and John Garfield.
- Composers Arron Copland and Elmer Bernstein.
- Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who presided over the creation of America’s atomic bomb, thus forcing Japan to surrender.
- Actresses Lee Grant, Delores del Rio, Ruth Gordon and Lucille Ball.
- Journalists Edward R. Murrow and William L. Shirer, who had chronicled the rise of Nazi Germany.
- Writers Irwin Shaw, Howard Fast, John Steinbeck and Dashiell Hammett
Even prominent Republicans became targets for slanderous attacks on their patriotism. The most prominent of these: President Dwight D. Eisenhower—was labeled ”a conscious, dedicated agent of the Communist Conspiracy” by Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society in 1958.
In 1953, McCarthy attacked the leadership of the United States Army as “a hotbed of traitors” and convened an inquiry through the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
But the hearings exposed McCarthy as a bullying demagogue. A Senate committee condemned his behavior for “bring[ing] the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.” Shunned in disgrace by his onetime colleagues, McCarthy drowned his sorrows in alcohol, dying in 1957.
But even without McCarthy, Republicans rode the issue of anti-Communism to victory from 1948 to 1992. “Respectable” anti-Communists—like Richard M. Nixon—depicted themselves as the only ones who could be trusted to safeguard America.
Republicans held the White House for eight years under Dwight D. Eisenhower, then lost it in 1960 to John F. Kennedy and again in 1964 to Lyndon B. Johnson.
By 1968, with the nation mired in Vietnam and convulsed by antiwar demonstrations and race riots, Americans elected Richard Nixon, who preyed upon their fears and hates of blacks and “the Communist menace.”
The same strategy re-elected him in 1972.
Jimmy Carter won the Presidency in 1976 and lost it in 1980 to Ronald Reagan. And Republicans held the White House until 1992.
Upon taking office as President in 1981, Ronald Reagan decided to end the “stalemate” of “containing” Communism. He intended to “roll it back.”
American proxies fought Soviet proxies in Afghanistan and Central America, but the world escaped nuclear holocaust.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Republicans continued to accuse Democrats of being devious agents—or at least unwitting pawns—of “the Communist conspiracy.”
In 1992, President George H.W. Bush and the Republican establishment charged that Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton might be a KGB plant.
George H.W. Bush
Their “evidence”: During his tenure at Oxford University in 1969-70, Clinton had briefly visited Moscow.
After the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, Republicans found that accusing Democrats of being “Commies” didn’t carry the same weight.
So they turned to “domestic enemies” to rail—and run—against: Liberals, blacks, Hispanics, “uppity” women, war protesters, lesbians, gays, and—after 9/11—Muslims.
From 1945 to 2015, it was unthinkable for a Republican Presidential candidate to pay tribute to a Soviet dictator.
But that utterly changed when Donald J. Trump, a “reality TV” host with longstanding financial ties to Russian oligarchs, ran for President of the United States.
Donald Trump
Trump lavishly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin—and even invited him to directly interfere in the 2016 Presidential race.
The reason for the Trump-Putin bromance: Each had something to offer the other.
Putin wanted the United States to ditch the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance, which had preserved Western Europe from Russian aggression since World War II. And Trump had often attacked America’s funding of NATO as a drain on the American economy.
And Trump wanted to be President. For this, Putin could supply monies, Internet trolls to confuse voters with falsified news—and even the hacking of key voting centers.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 9/11 ATTACKS, AARON COPELAND, ABC NEWS, AFGHANISTAN, ALEXANDER SHUSTOROVICH, ALTERNET, ANDREW INTRATER, ANTI-COMMUNISM, ANTIWAR DEMONSTRATIONS, AP, ARMY-MCCARTHY HEARINGS, ARTHUR MILLER, ATOMIC BOMB, BILL CLINTON, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENTRAL AMERICA, CHAING KAI-SHEK, CHARLIE CHAPLIN, CIA, CINDY HYDE-SMITH, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS, DAILY KOZ, DASHIELL HAMMETT, DELORES DEL RIO, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP’S INAUGURAL COMMITTEE, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, EDWARD G. ROBINSON, EDWARD R. MURROW, ELMER BERNSTEIN, FACEBOOK, FBI, FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION, GEORGE C. MARSHALL, GEORGE H.W. BUSH, H.L. HUNT, HARRY S. TRUMAN, HILLARY CLINTON, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE, HOWARD DA SILVA, HOWARD FAST, HOWARD HUGHES, INTERNET RESEARCH AGENCY, IRWIN SHAW, J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER, JAMES COMEY, JIMMY CARTER, JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY, JOHN F. KENNEDY, JOHN GARFIELD, JOHN KASICH, JOHN MCCAIN, JOHN STEINBECK, JOSEPH R. MCCARTHY, JOSEPH STALIN, LEE GRANT, LEN BLAVATNIK, LILLIAN HELLMAN, LINDSEY GRAHAM, LLOYD BRIDGES, LUCILLE BALL, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MAIN INTELLIGENCE DIRECTORATE, MAO TSE-TUNG, MARCO RUBIO, MITCH MCCONNELL, MITCH MCCONNELL’S SENATE LEADERSHIP FUN, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUSLIMS, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO), NPR, OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETE SEEGER, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REUTERS, RICHARD M. NIXON, ROBERT MUELLER, Ronald Reagan, RUTH GORDON, SALON, SCOTT WALKER, SEATTLE TIMES, SIMON KUKES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESNTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VIETNAM WAR, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WIKILEAKS, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WORLD WAR ii, ZERO MOSTEL
In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on July 31, 2019 at 12:25 am
Upon taking office as President in 1981, Ronald Reagan decided to end the “stalemate” of “containing” Communism. He intended to “roll it back.”
American proxies fought Soviet proxies in Afghanistan and Central America, but the world escaped nuclear holocaust.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Republicans continued to accuse Democrats of being devious agents—or at least unwitting pawns—of “the Communist conspiracy.”
In 1992, President George H.W. Bush and the Republican establishment charged that Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton might be a KGB plant.
George H.W. Bush
Their “evidence”: During his tenure at Oxford University in 1969-70, Clinton had briefly visited Moscow.
After the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, Republicans found that accusing Democrats of being “Commies” didn’t carry the same weight.
So they turned to “domestic enemies” to rail—and run—against: Liberals, blacks, Hispanics, “uppity” women, war protesters, lesbians, gays, and—after 9/11—Muslims.
From 1945 to 2015, it was unthinkable for a Republican Presidential candidate to pay tribute to a Soviet dictator.
But that utterly changed when Donald J. Trump, a “reality TV” host with longstanding financial ties to Russian oligarchs, ran for President of the United States.
Donald Trump
Trump lavishly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin—and even invited him to directly interfere in the 2016 Presidential race.
The reason for the Trump-Putin bromance: Each had something to offer the other.
Putin wanted the United States to ditch the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance, which had preserved Western Europe from Russian aggression since World War II. And Trump had often attacked America’s funding of NATO as a drain on the American economy.
And Trump wanted to be President. For this, Putin could supply Internet trolls to confuse voters with falsified news—and even the hacking of key voting centers.
And monies. These Russian monies were officially classified as “campaign contributions,” not bribes.
On July 22, 2016, Wikileaks released 19,252 emails and 8,034 attachments hacked from computers of the highest-ranking officials of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Early reports traced the leak to Russian hackers.
On July 27, Trump said at a press conference in Doral, Florida: “Russia, if you are listening, I hope you are able to find the 33,000 emails that are missing [from Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s computer]. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
Hours later, the Main Intelligence Directorate in Moscow targeted Clinton’s personal office and hit more than 70 other Clinton campaign accounts.
This is treason—calling upon a foreign power, hostile to the United States, to interfere in its Presidential election.
Nor is Trump the only Republican receiving “help” from Putin. A network of Russian oligarchs—all of them answerable to Putin—has been increasingly contributing to top Republicans.
According to the Federal Election Commission:
One such major contributor is Len Blavatnik, who holds citizenship in both the United States and the United Kingdom. During the 2015-16 election cycle, he proved one of the largest donors to GOP Political Action Committees (PACs).
Blavatnik’s net worth is estimated at $20 billion. Before 2016, he donated to both Democrats and Republicans in meager amounts. But in 2016, he gave $6.35 million to GOP PACs.
Millions of dollars went to top Republican leaders—such as Senators Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), Marco Rubio (Florida) and Lindsey Graham (South Carolina).
Specifically, he contributed:
- A total of $1.5 million to PACs associated with Rubio.
- $1 million to Trump’s Inaugural Committee.
- $41,000 to both Republicans and Democrats in 2017.
- $1 million to McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund.
- $3.5 million to a PAC associated with McConnell.
- $1.1 million to Unintimidated PAC, associated with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.
- $200,000 to the Arizona Grassroots Action PAC, associated with the late Arizona Senator John McCain.
- $250,000 to New Day for America PAC, associated with Ohio Governor John Kasich.
- $800,000 to the Security is Strength PAC, associated with Senator Lindsey Graham.
![]()
![]()
Another Russian oligarch, Alexander Shustorovich, contributed $1 million to Trump’s Inaugural Committee.
Altogether, four Russian oligarchs—Blavatnik, Shustorovich, Andrew Intrater and Simon Kukes—contributed $10.4 million from the start of the 2015-16 election cycle through September 2017. Of this, 99% went to Republicans.
As Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell participated in high-level intelligence briefings in 2016. From agencies such as the FBI, CIA and the code-cracking National Security Agency, he learned that the Russians were trying to subvert the electoral process.
In October, 2016, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) issued a joint statement: The Russian government had directed the effort to subvert the 2016 Presidential election.
Two weeks later, McConnell’s PAC accepted a $1 million donation from Blavatnik.
On March 30, 2017, McConnell’s PAC accepted another $1 million from Blavatnik.
This is just 10 days after former FBI Director James Comey testified before the House Intelligence Committee about Russia’s efforts to subvert the 2016 election.
So, what has changed in the Republican Party? Essentially nothing.
Its enemies changed—from Russian Communists to American liberals—but its goal remains the same: The quest for absolute power.
When Americans feared Communism, Republicans depicted themselves as the only ones who could be trusted to protect the United States. Big contributions poured in from Right-wing billionaires like H.L. Hunt and Howard Hughes.
But when Republicans found they could enrich themselves and stay in power via Russian “campaign contributions,” they decided: Better Red than un-elected.
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 9/11 ATTACKS, AARON COPELAND, ABC NEWS, AFGHANISTAN, ALEXANDER SHUSTOROVICH, ALTERNET, ANDREW INTRATER, ANTI-COMMUNISM, ANTIWAR DEMONSTRATIONS, AP, ARMY-MCCARTHY HEARINGS, ARTHUR MILLER, ATOMIC BOMB, BILL CLINTON, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CENTRAL AMERICA, CHAING KAI-SHEK, CHARLIE CHAPLIN, CIA, CINDY HYDE-SMITH, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS, DAILY KOZ, DASHIELL HAMMETT, DELORES DEL RIO, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP’S INAUGURAL COMMITTEE, DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, EDWARD G. ROBINSON, EDWARD R. MURROW, ELMER BERNSTEIN, FACEBOOK, FBI, FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION, GEORGE C. MARSHALL, GEORGE H.W. BUSH, H.L. HUNT, HARRY S. TRUMAN, HILLARY CLINTON, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE, HOWARD DA SILVA, HOWARD FAST, HOWARD HUGHES, INTERNET RESEARCH AGENCY, IRWIN SHAW, J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER, JAMES COMEY, JIMMY CARTER, JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY, JOHN F. KENNEDY, JOHN GARFIELD, JOHN KASICH, JOHN MCCAIN, JOHN STEINBECK, JOSEPH R. MCCARTHY, JOSEPH STALIN, LEE GRANT, LEN BLAVATNIK, LILLIAN HELLMAN, LINDSEY GRAHAM, LLOYD BRIDGES, LUCILLE BALL, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MAIN INTELLIGENCE DIRECTORATE, MAO TSE-TUNG, MARCO RUBIO, MITCH MCCONNELL, MITCH MCCONNELL’S SENATE LEADERSHIP FUN, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MUSLIMS, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEWSWEEK, NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO), NPR, OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, PBS NEWSHOUR, PETE SEEGER, POLITICO, RAW STORY, REPUBLICAN PARTY, REUTERS, RICHARD M. NIXON, ROBERT MUELLER, Ronald Reagan, RUTH GORDON, SALON, SCOTT WALKER, SEATTLE TIMES, SIMON KUKES, SLATE, SOVIET UNION, THE ATLANTIC, THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, THE DAILY BEAST, THE GUARDIAN, THE HILL, THE HUFFINGTON POST, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESNTATIVES, UNITED STATES SENATE, UPI, USA TODAY, VIETNAM WAR, VLADIMIR PUTIN, WIKILEAKS, WILLIAM L. SHIRER, WORLD WAR ii, ZERO MOSTEL
In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on July 30, 2019 at 12:17 am
On July 24, former Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III finally addressed Congress on Russia’s subversion of the 2016 Presidential election.
Mueller had spent almost two years uncovering links between Russian Intelligence agents and members of Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign.
“Over the course of my career, I’ve seen a number of challenges to our democracy,” Mueller declared to members of the House Judiciary Committee. “The Russian government’s effort to interfere in our election is among the most serious. As I said on May 29, this deserves the attention of every American.
“Many more countries are developing the capability to replicate what the Russians have done.
“It wasn’t a single attempt. They’re doing it as we sit here. And they expect to do it during the next campaign.”
Robert Mueller
In his report, Mueller documented years of meddling in American politics by the Internet Research Agency, which runs the Kremlin’s online disinformation efforts from its headquarters in St. Petersburg.
The Agency reached 126 million Americans through fake accounts on Facebook. Its messages communicated with unaware members of the Trump campaign, and even prompted real-life rallies that mobilized crowds of unwitting voters.
Hours later that same day, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi) blocked the passage of three bills designed to tighten election security at the federal level. She claimed that Congress had already responded to election security needs for the 2020 Presidential election.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) came to the Senate floor the next day to personally object to House-passed legislation backed by Democrats.
There was a time when Republicans saw—and portrayed—themselves as America’s foremost defenders against Communism.
This was particularly true during the early 1950s. Case in point: Wisconsin United States Senator Joseph R. McCarthy.
Elected to the Senate in 1946, he rose to national prominence on February 9, 1950, after giving a fiery speech in Wheeling, West Virginia:
“The State Department is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.”
Joseph McCarthy
Americans were already growing increasingly fearful of Communism:
- Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin had not withdrawn the Red Army from the countries it had occupied in Eastern Europe during World War II.
- In 1948, the Soviet Union developed—and demonstrated—its own atomic bomb, an achievement U.S. scientists had claimed would not happen for at least a decade.
- In 1949, China fell to the triumphant armies of Mao Tse Tung. Generalissimo Chaing Kai Shek was driven from mainland China to the tiny island of Taiwan.
Anti-communism as a lever to political advancement sharply accelerated following McCarthy’s speech.
No American—no matter how prominent—was safe from the accusation of being a Communist or a Communist sympathizer—”a Comsymp” or “fellow traveler” in the language of the era.
Among those accused:
- Secretary of State George C. Marshall, who had overseen America’s strategy for defeating Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
- President Harry S. Truman.
- Playwrights Lillian Hellman and Arthur Miller.
- Actors Charlie Chaplin, Zero Mostel, Lloyd Bridges, Howard Da Silva, Edward G. Robinson and John Garfield.
- Composers Arron Copland and Elmer Bernstein.
- Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who presided over the creation of America’s atomic bomb.
- Actresses Lee Grant, Delores del Rio, Ruth Gordon and Lucille Ball.
- Journalists Edward R. Murrow and William L. Shirer, who had chronicled the rise of Nazi Germany.
- Folksinger Pete Seeger.
- Writers Irwin Shaw, Howard Fast, John Steinbeck and Dashiell Hammett
Even “untouchable” Republicans became targets for such slander.
The most prominent of these: President Dwight D. Eisenhower—labeled ”a conscious, dedicated agent of the Communist Conspiracy” by Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society in 1958.
In 1953, McCarthy attacked the leadership of the United States Army as “a hotbed of traitors” and convened an inquiry through the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
But the hearings backfired, exposing McCarthy as a bullying demagogue. A Senate committee condemned his behavior as acting “contrary to senatorial ethics and tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute.”
Yet even without McCarthy, Republicans rode the issue of anti-Communism to victory from 1948 to 1992. “Respectable” anti-Communists—like Richard M. Nixon—depicted themselves as the only ones who could be trusted to safeguard America.
Republicans held the White House for eight years under Dwight D. Eisenhower, then lost it in 1960 to John F. Kennedy and again in 1964 to Lyndon B. Johnson.
By 1968, with the nation mired in Vietnam and convulsed by antiwar demonstrations and race riots, Americans turned once more to those who preyed upon their fears and hates.
They elected Richard Nixon, who promised to end the Vietnam war and attack “uppity” blacks and antiwar demonstrators—and, above all, “the Communist menace.”
The same strategy re-elected him in 1972.
Jimmy Carter won the Presidency in 1976 and lost it in 1980 to Ronald Reagan. And Republicans held the White House until 1992.
Bureaucracybuster's Blog 
2012 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, ABC NEWS, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, APARTHEID, ARMY-MCCARTHY HEARINGS, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BIRTH CONTROL, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DONALD TRUMP, FASCISM, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HONOR, HUFFINGTON POST, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JAPAN, JENNA ELLIS, JOE BIGGS, JOSEPH MCCARTHY, MATTHEW 7:17-20, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NBC NEWS, NELSON MANDELA, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PROUD BOYS, RAW STORY, REUTERS, SALON, SAMURAI, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SOUTH AFRICA, 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 INTERCEPT, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NATION, THE NEW REPUBLIC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, THE VILLAGE VOICE, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY
LOOKING FOR DECENCY? YOU WON’T FIND IT HERE.
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on October 25, 2023 at 12:11 am“Senator, may we not drop this?…You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
The speaker was Joseph N. Welch, chief counsel for the United States Army—then under investigation by Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations for alleged Communist activities.
It was June 9, 1954, the 30th day of the Army-McCarthy hearings.
And it was the pivotal moment that finally destroyed the career of the Wisconsin Senator whose repeated slanders of Communist subversion had bullied and frightened Americans for four years.
Joseph McCarthy
Today, however, other Americans should be asking themselves: “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
Like self-described Proud Boys organizer Joe Biggs.
On January 6, 2021, Biggs was a member of the Proud Boys, a Right-wing terrorist group which violently attacked the nation’s Capitol Building.
Their goal: To prevent the counting of Electoral College votes—which, as they knew, would establish that former Vice President Joseph R. Biden had legitimately won the 2020 Presidential election.
On August 31, 2023, Biggs received a prison sentence of 17 years. He qualified for a terrorism sentencing enhancement because he tore down a fence that stood between police and rioters.
Biggs sobbed as he was sentenced.
He pleaded for leniency to take care of his daughter and cancer-stricken mother: “I wanted to see what would happen. My curiosity got the best of me. I’m not a terrorist. I’m one of the nicest people in the world.”
Joe Biggs
And like Jenna Ellis, a Trump campaign attorney from November 2020 to January 2021.
She repeatedly claimed that the “election was stolen and President Trump won by a landslide.”
On December 4, 2020, Ellis met state lawmakers in Georgia to persuade them to overturn the 2020 election results.
Indicted for her election-overturning efforts, on October 24 she tearfully pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting false statements: “As an attorney who is also a Christian, I take my responsibilities as a lawyer very seriously and I endeavor to be a person of sound, moral and ethical character in all of my dealings.
“If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges. I look back on this experience with deep remorse.”
Jenna Ellis
And like ex-President Donald Trump.
He’s facing four criminal indictments as well as civil trials for:
Altogether, he’s facing 91 felony charges.
Rather than facing up to his lifetime of criminality, Trump chose to portray himself as a heroic victim—by comparing himself to the Nobel Peace Prize-winning anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison in South Africa.
On October 23, addressing a rally in Derry, New Hampshire, Trump said he would go to prison like Mandela:
“I don’t mind being Nelson Mandela because I’m doing it [running again for President] for a reason. We’ve got to save our country from these fascists, these lunatics that we’re dealing with. They’re horrible people and they’re destroying our country.”
Donald Trump
Among the characteristics of a Fascist regime:
Trump’s four years in the White House can be accurately described as meeting all of these definitions of a Fascistic regime.
* * * * *
Clearly, the word “hypocrisy” meant nothing to Joseph McCarthy—just as it means nothing to Joe Biggs, Jenna Ellis and Donald Trump.
But it should mean something to the rest of us.
In feudal Japan, men who publicly disgraced themselves knew what to do. The samurai code of Bushido told them when they had crossed the line into eternal damnation.
And it gave them a way to redeem their lost honor—seppuku. With a small “belly-cutting” knife and the help of a trusted assistant who sliced off their head to spare them the agonizing pain of disembowelment.
In the armies of America and Europe, the method was slightly different: A pistol in a private room.
Considering the ready availability of firearms among Right-wing Republicans, redeeming lost honor shouldn’t be a problem for any of these people.
But of course it will be. It takes more than a trigger pull to “do the right thing.”
It takes insight to recognize that you’ve “done the wrong thing.” And it takes courage to act on that insight.
In people who live only for their own egos and wallets, such insight and courage will be forever missing. They are beyond redemption.
Their lives give proof to the warning offered in Matthew 7:17-20:
“Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
“Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
Share this: