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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on October 2, 2023 at 12:16 am
In the waning hours of September 30, the United States averted the latest Republican shutdown of the Federal Government.
President Joseph Biden signed into law the stopgap bill to avert a government shutdown passed by Congress.
Funding for federal agencies was set to run out at midnight on October 1.
The Senate passed the measure after the House of Representatives abruptly reversed course earlier in the day and passed a bipartisan bill to extend government funding.
For weeks, no one knew whether a shutdown could be averted.
So the government will remain open—until November 17.
Then the country will be treated to yet another Republican extortion attempt: “Give us what we want or we’ll shut down the government again.”
The last time a government shutdown occurred was in December, 2019, during the Presidency of Donald J. Trump.
As Speaker of the House (2007 – 2011); (2018 – 2023), Nancy Pelosi proved she was equal to the challenge.
On December 11, 2018, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer met with Trump in the Oval Office.
And, true to his love of publicity, Trump made sure the meeting was televised live on TV.
Nancy Pelosi
Trump soon moved to the matter he truly cared about: Demanding $5.6 billion to create a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border: “And one way or the other, it’s going to get built. I’d like not to see a government closing, a shutdown. We will see what happens over the next short period of time.”
PELOSI: I think the American people recognize that we must keep government open, that a shutdown is not worth anything, and that you should not have a Trump shutdown. You have the White House—
TRUMP: Did you say Trump—
PELOSI: A Trump shutdown. You have the White House—
TRUMP: I was going to call it a Pelosi shutdown.
Charles Schumer
TRUMP: The wall is a part of border security. You can’t have very good border security without the wall.
PELOSI: That’s simply not true. That is a political promise.
[By “political promise,” Pelosi meant this was an appeal Trump made to his hardcore base. which he expected to re-elect him.]
SCHUMER: Twenty times you have called for, “I will shut down the government if I don’t get my wall.” None of us have said—you’ve said it.
TRUMP: Okay, you want to put that on my—I’ll take it. You know what I’ll say: “Yes, if we don’t get what we want, one way or the other…I will shut down the government. Absolutely.”
Trump, determined to bully Pelosi and Schumer into bending to his will, didn’t realize he had just set himself up for disaster.
Trump shut down the government on December 22. About 380,000 government employees were furloughed and another 420,000 were ordered to work without pay.
And Trump told Congressional leaders the shutdown could last months or even years.
For Trump, “the wall” was absolutely necessary—but not to keep illegal aliens out. They would go over, under or around it.
The real intent of the wall was to keep Trump in—the White House.
Trump’s fanatical base believed that a wall across the U.S.-Mexico border would stop all illegal immigration. And he knew that if he didn’t build it, they wouldn’t re-elect him.
The effects of the shutdown quickly became evident:
- For weeks, hundreds of thousands of government workers missed paychecks.
- Increasing numbers of employees of the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA)—which provides security against airline terrorism—began refusing to come to work, claiming to be sick.
- At the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) many air traffic controllers called in “sick.” Those who showed up to work without pay grew increasingly frazzled as they feared being evicted for being unable to make rent or house payments.
- Due to the shortage of air traffic controllers, many planes weren’t able to land safely at places like New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
- Many Federal employees—such as FBI agents—were forced to rely on soup kitchens to feed their families.
- Celebrity chef Jose Andres launched ChefsForFeds, which offered free hot meals for government employees and their families at restaurants across the country.
- Many workers tried to bring in money by babysitting or driving for Uber,
Pelosi, unlike many Democrats, realized this was America’s version of the Munich Conference: Democrats must hold firm against a tyrant’s extortionate demands. Otherwise, every time Trump didn’t get his way, there would be no end to such shutdowns in the future.
From the start, Pelosi insisted that Democrats would not surrender to threats of a government shutdown. And Democrats held firm, refusing to make concessions on the wall.
Second, Pelosi publicly stated that Trump could not make his annual State of the Union speech in the House of Representatives until the government was re-opened.
She politely cited as her reason that the building would not be “secure” owing to the shutdown and the nonpayment of the men and women who would be charged with its protection.
Since both the House and Senate must jointly issue an invitation to the President to make such an address, Pelosi’s veto effectively scotched Trump’s appearance.
For the publicity-addicted Trump, who revels in pontificating to adoring crowds, this was a major—and unexpected—blow.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 29, 2023 at 12:16 am
As former President Donald Trump lurches almost daily from one legal setback to another, many Americans ask: “Why do so many Republicans continue to support him?”
The answer lies in what happened 78 years ago in Berlin—when the “Thousand-Year” Third Reich collapsed after little more than 12 years.
While the Nazi Party ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945, its influence over all aspects of Germans’ lives was suffocating.
“Censorship prevailed, education was undermined, family life was idealized, but children were encouraged to turn in disloyal parents,” reads the back cover of Richard Grunberger’s classic 1971 book, The 12-Year Reich.
“‘Volk’ festivals, party rallies, awards, uniforms, pageantry all played a part in the massive effort to shape the mind of a nation.”
And yet, after the Reich surrendered unconditionally to the Allies on May 8, 1945, a strange thing happened: Virtually no German admitted to having been a Nazi—or having even known one.
American and British soldiers couldn’t find any German veterans willing to admit they had ever fought against Western, democratic nations. All the once-proud legionaries of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS swore they had been fighting “the real enemy”—the Russians—on the Eastern front.
Countless Germans claimed to have hidden Jews in their attics—despite the fact that six million Jews died horrifically before the Reich fell.
And almost universally, they blamed the conflict on the man they had embraced as their Fuhrer.
In short: Adolf Hitler had lost the war he started—making him a loser nobody wanted to be identified with.
In the decades since, the “loser” tag has continued to stick with those who once served the Third Reich. Mel Brooks has repeatedly turned German soldiers—once the pride of the battlefield—into idiotic comic foils.
Even the fearsome Gestapo was spoofed for laughs on the long-running TV comedy, “Hogan’s Heroes.”
“Hogan’s Heroes”
“Americans love a winner,” George C. Scott as George S. Patton says at the outset of the classic 1970 movie. “And will not tolerate a loser.”
And that is why Republicans have stuck so closely with Donald J. Trump—as President and former President.
A typical example of this occurred on June 8, 2017 after former FBI director James Comey testified before the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Comey revealed that, on February 14, 2017, Trump had ordered everyone but Comey to leave a crowded meeting in the Oval Office.
Flynn had resigned the previous day from his position as National Security Adviser. The FBI was investigating him for his previously undisclosed ties to Russia.
“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” said Trump. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”
This was clearly an attempt by Trump to obstruct the FBI’s investigation.
Yet Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan rushed to excuse Trump’s clearly illegal behavior: “He’s new at government, so therefore I think he’s learning as he goes.”
Paul Ryan
David Brooks, the conservative New York Times columnist, offered a more accurate explanation of Trump’s motives. Speaking on The PBS Newshour, Brooks said:
“We are a nation of laws. Donald Trump lives in an entirely different cultural universe. He is more clannist, believing in clan, believing in family, believing in loyalty, not recognizing objective law, not recognizing the procedures that is really how modern government operates….
“It’s not only that he doesn’t know the rules, but at all along and throughout his presidency, he has sort of trampled on the rules almost as a matter of policy, as a matter of character, because he doesn’t believe in that kind of relationships. It’s all personal loyalty, not about laws and norms and standards.”
Republicans don’t care that Trump has trashed the institutions that Americans have cherished for more than 200 years. Institutions like an independent judiciary, a free press, and an incorruptible Justice Department.
He has viciously attacked all of these—and Republicans have either said nothing or rushed to his defense. Many of them have tried to short-circuit Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation and prosecution of Trump’s inciting a deadly riot against Congress on January 6, 2021.
What Republicans truly fear about Donald Trump is that if they dare to hold him accountable for his lifetime of criminality, his Fascistic base will turn on them—and turn them out of Congress.
If Trump is convicted of multiple crimes, he will become a man no one any longer fears.
He will likely become the Republican nominee for President—and one almost guaranteed to lose in 2024 as he did in 2000.
He will become a figure held up to ridicule and condemnation.
Like Adolf Hitler. Like Richard Nixon.
And his Congressional supporters will be branded as losers along with him.
Republicans vividly remember what happened after Nixon was forced to resign on August 9, 1974: Democrats, riding a wave of reform fever, swept Republicans out of the House and Senate—and Jimmy Carter into the White House.
If they are conflicted—whether to continue supporting Trump or desert him—the reason is the same: How can I hold onto my power and all the privileges that go with it?
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In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Politics, Social commentary on September 28, 2023 at 12:10 am
A tall, blond-haired former naval officer, Reinhard Heydrich was both a champion fencer and talented violinist. Heydrich joined the Schutzstaffel, or Protective Squads, better known as the SS, in 1931, and quickly became head of its counterintelligence service.
Reinhard Heycrich
In September, 1941, Heydrich was appointed “Reich Protector” of Czechoslovakia, which had fallen prey to Germany in 1938 but whose citizens were growing restless under Nazi rule.
Heydrich immediately ordered a purge, executing 92 people within the first three days of his arrival in Prague. By February, 1942, 4,000-5,000 people had been arrested.
In January, 1942, Heydrich convened a meeting of high-ranking political and military leaders in Wannsee, Germany, to streamline “the Final Solution to the Jewish Question.”
An estimated six million Jews were thus slaughtered.
Returning to Prague, Heydrich continued his policy of carrot-and-stick with the Czechs—improving the social security system and requisitioning luxury hotels for middle-class workers, alternating with arrests and executions.
The Czech government-in-exile, headquartered in London, feared that Heydrich’s incentives might lead the Czechs to passively accept domination. They decided to assassinate Heydrich.
Two British-trained Czech commandos—Jan Kubis and Joseph Gabcik—parachuted into Prague.
On May 27, 1942, Kubis and Gabcik waited at a hairpin turn in the road always taken by Heydrich. When Heydrich’s Mercedes slowed down, Gabcik raised his machinegun—which jammed.
Rising in his seat, Heydrich aimed his revolver at Gabcik—as Kubis lobbed a hand grenade at the car. The explosion drove steel and leather fragments of the car’s upholstery into Heydrich’s diaphragm, spleen and lung.
Scene of Reinhard Heydrich’s assassination
Hitler dispatched doctors from Berlin to save the Reich Protector. But infection set in, and on June 4, Heydrich died at age 38.
The assassination sent shockwaves through the upper echelons of the Third Reich. No one had dared assault—much less assassinate—a high-ranking Nazi official.
Nazis had slaughtered tens of thousands without hesitation—or fear that the same might happen to them.
Suddenly they realized that the fury they had aroused could be turned against themselves.
Which brings us to the leaders of America’s own Right-wing.
The names of infamous Nazis were widely known:
- Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering;
- Propaganda Minister Paul Joseph Goebbels;
- Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess;
- Propaganda Film Director Leni Riefenstahl;
- SS-Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler;
- “Hanging Judge” Roland Freisler;
- Architect Albert Speer;
- Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop;
- SS Obergruoppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich; and
- The most infamous Nazi of all: Adolf Hitler.
Members of the Nazi government
And so are the names of the infamous leaders of the American Right:
- House Majority Leader Mike Johnson
- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell;
- Texas Senator Ted Cruz;
- Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas;
- Evangelist Franklin Graham;
- Florida Senator Marco Rubio;
- Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito;
- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis;
- Former President Donald Trump.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican leadership
The difference between these two infamous groups is this:
In Nazi Germany, ordinary Germans could not learn about the personal lives of their dictators—including their home addresses—and to conspire against them.
In the United States, ordinary citizens have an array of means to do this. They can turn to newspapers, TV and magazines. And if that isn’t enough, “people finder” websites, for a modest price, provide addresses and names of relatives of potential targets.
In Nazi Germany, firearms were tightly controlled.
In the United States, the Right’s National Rifle Association has successfully lobbied to put lethal firepower into the hands of virtually anyone who wants it.
Which brings us to the impending Republican shutdown of the Federal Government.
Behind this lies a civil war within the Republican-dominated House of Representatives.
The warring parties include Fascistic Right-wingers, moderates and those whom conservative columnist David Brooks says “simply want to burn the place down.”
A chief demand among Right-wingers: End all economic and military aid to Ukraine.
In the past, Republicans prided themselves on their staunch anti-Communism.
But since Russian President Vladimir Putin began making “campaign contributions” to Republican House and Senate candidates, Republicans have gone from being “Better Dead than Red” to “Better Red Than Un-Elected.”
Another Right-wing demand: Make drastic cuts in programs to help the poor—such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
A shutdown would halt paychecks for millions of federal employees. Among these:
- Air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers;
- Two million active duty military troops and reservists;
- FBI agents, prosecutors and Border Patrol officers.
Other consequences:
- Over seven million dependents on the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program would lose their benefits.
- National parks, monuments and campgrounds would be closed.
Depriving millions of hard-working Americans of the salaries they need to support themselves and their families will arouse fury in even the most law-abiding men and women.
So will depriving millions of needy Americans of food and/or medical care.
This is especially true when a political party—such as the Nazis and Republicans—makes clear its intention to rule by force, rather than by public consent.
Reinhard Heydrich believed himself invulnerable from the hatred of the enemies he had made. That arrogance cost him his life.
The day may soon come when America’s own Right-wingers start learning the same lesson.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 25, 2023 at 12:08 am
The governments of Central and South American countries use the United States as a dumping ground—of those citizens who might demand reforms in their political and economic institutions.
As a result, America is facing an invasion of illegal aliens which is overwhelming its schools, hospitals and housing.
According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR): “As of June 2023, FAIR estimates that approximately 16.8 million illegal aliens reside in the United States. This is significantly higher than our January 2022 illegal alien population estimate of 15.5 million.”
In New York City, for example, the arrival of more than 100,000 illegals since spring 2022 has overtaxed shelters and forced the city to house people in tents.
With more than 60,000 illegals in the city’s care, Mayor Eric Adams has made an unprecedented decision: The city will stop sheltering single adults after two months, and thousands will start being evicted on September 23.
“Never was it envisioned that this would be an unlimited universal right or obligation on the city to have to house literally [the] entire world,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration refuses to treat this onslaught for what it is: An invasion.
But one approach could strike a meaningful blow against illegal immigration. And it might well be called “The Zanti Option.”
Viewers of the 1960s sci-fi series, The Outer Limits, will vividly recall its 1963 episode, “The Zanti Misfits.”
In this, soldiers at an American Army base in a California ghost town nervously await first-contact with an alien race that has landed a space ship nearby.
The soldiers are warned to steer clear of the ship, and they do. But then an escaped convict (Bruce Dern, in an early role) happens upon the scene—and the ship.
The Zantis, enraged, emerge—and soon the soldiers at the military base find themselves under attack.
A “Zanti”
The soldiers desperately fight back—with flamethrowers, machineguns or just rifle butts. Finally the soldiers wipe out the Zantis.
But now the base—and probably America—faces a wholesale invasion from the planet Zanti to avenge the deaths of their comrades.
So the soldiers wait anxiously for their next transmission from Zanti—which soon arrives.
To their surprise—and relief—it’s a message of thanks: “We will not retaliate. We never intended to. We knew that you could not live with such aliens in your midst.
“It was always our intention that you destroy them…We are incapable of executing our own species, but you are not. You are practiced executioners. We thank you.”
Meanwhile, the United States braces itself for a real-life onslaught of tens of thousands—if not millions—of aliens.
Illegal aliens invading the United States
The reason:
Rather than deport them to countries in Central America—from which they would easily sneak back into the United States—the Federal Government could ship them off to more distant lands.
Like Afghanistan.
Or Iraq.
Or Syria.
Such a policy change would:
- Close the Mexican revolving door, which keeps illegal immigration flowing; and
- Send an unmistakably blunt message to other would-be illegals: “The same fate awaits you.”
Although this might seem a far-fetched proposal, it could be easily carried out by the United States Air Force. According to its website: “The C-5 Galaxy is one of the largest aircraft in the world and the largest airlifter in the Air Force inventory.
“The C-5 has a greater capacity than any other airlifter. It [can] carry 36 standard pallets and 81 troops simultaneously.
C-5 transport plane
“[It can also carry] any of the Army’s air-transportable combat equipment, including such bulky items as the 74-ton mobile scissors bridge.
“It can also carry outsize and oversize cargo over intercontinental ranges and can take off or land in relatively short distances.”
The C-5 Galaxy’s maximum cargo weight: 281,001 pounds
Instead of being stuffed with cargo, these planes could be stuffed wall-to-wall with illegal aliens.
The United States Air Force has a proud history of successfully providing America’s soldiers—and allies—with the supplies they need.
From June 24, 1948 to May 12, 1949, only the Berlin Airlift stood between German citizens and starvation.
The Soviet Union had blocked the railway, road, and canal access to the Berlin sectors under allied control. Their goal: Force the western powers to allow the Soviet zone to supply Berlin with food, fuel, and aid.
This would have given the Soviets control over the entire city.
Air forces from the United States, England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa flew over 200,000 flights in one year, dropping more than 4,700 tons of necessities daily to the besieged Berliners.
The success of the Berlin Airlift raised American prestige and embarrassed the Soviets, who lifted the blockade.
The Berlin Airlift
A similar triumph came during the Yom Kippur War after Egypt and Syria attacked Israel without warning on October 6, 1973.
For 32 days, the Air Force shipped 22,325 tons of ammunition, artillery, tanks and other supplies. These proved invaluable in saving Israel from destruction.
So the mass deportation of millions of illegal aliens lies within America’s technological capability.
In 1980, Cuba shipped thousands of hardened criminals to the United States via the Mariel Boatlift.
The United States should feel similarly free to deport those who violate its immigration laws.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on September 20, 2023 at 12:23 am
On November 6, 2012, Ann Coulter, the Right-wing activist and propagandist, was devastated by the re-election of President Barack Obama.
In lamenting the defeat of Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, she unintentionally explained why Republicans would soon engage in voter suppression and even violence to secure and/or maintain absolute power:
“Mitt Romney was the president we needed right now, and I think it is so sad that we are going to be deprived of his brain power, of his skills in turning companies around, turning the Olympics around, his idea and his kindness for being able to push very conservative ideas on a country that no longer is interested in conservative ideas. It is interested in handouts.”
Mitt Romney
In short: America was now “a country that no longer is interested in conservative ideas.”
When you can’t win with better ideas, you try to win with deceit and violence.
Donald Trump was another Republican who unintentionally previewed the methods he would employ eight years later on losing the 2020 Presidential election.
In 2012, he was a real estate mogul and host of the “reality show” The Apprentice.
Donald Trump
When it became clear that Romney was not going to be America’s 45th President, Trump went ballistic on Twitter. Among his tweets:
- More votes equals a loss…revolution!
- Lets fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us.
- We can’t let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!
- The phoney electoral college made a laughing stock out of our nation. The loser one!
- He lost the popular vote by a lot and won the election. We should have a revolution in this country!
To put Trump’s rants into real-world perspective:
- According to Trump, the electoral process works when a Republican wins the Presidency.
- It only doesn’t work when a Democrat wins.
- “We should march on Washington” conjures up images of another Fascist—Benito Mussolini—marching on Rome at the head of his Blackshirts to seize power. Which, in a democracy, is treason.
- “The phoney electoral college made a laughing stock out of our nation. The loser one!”
Ironically, the 2012 Republican Platform had fully embraced preserving the Electoral College: “We oppose the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact or any other scheme to abolish or distort the procedures of the Electoral College.
“We recognize that an unconstitutional effort to impose ‘national popular vote’ would be a mortal threat to our federal system and a guarantee of corruption as every ballot box in every state would become a chance to steal the presidency.”
And the loser didn’t win: He lost.
Obama got 60,652,238 votes. Romney got 57,810,407.
Fast forward to November 9, 2016, with returns clearly projecting a win for Trump over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Although Clinton got almost 2.9 million more popular votes, he swamped her in the Electoral College—-304 votes to Clinton’s 227.
Suddenly, for Trump, the Electoral College wasn’t “phoney.”
Similarly, Coulter no longer felt dismayed. She felt rejuvenated—for she had found her perfect Presidential candidate.
Appearing on the Right-wing radio program, “The Eric Metaxes Show,” she had said: “What is the point of talking about abortion or anything else unless you get Donald Trump in to build the wall, deport illegals, end this ‘anchor baby’ nonsense, stop importing 100,000 Muslims a year, in addition to two million Third Worlders per year. It’s madness what this country has been doing.”
Ann Coulter
Four years later, on November 4, 2020, Trump found himself facing defeat at the hands of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden. Suddenly he reverted to the sore loser of 2012:
“Millions and millions of people voted for us tonight, and a very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people and we won’t stand for it, we will not stand for it.”
“We were getting ready for a big celebration, we were winning everything and all of a sudden it was just called off. The results tonight have been phenomenal…I mean literally we were just all set to get outside and just celebrate something that was so beautiful, so good, such a vote such a success.”
Immediately after the election, Trump ordered his attorneys to file lawsuits to overturn the election results, charging electoral fraud.
From November 3 to December 14, Trump and his allies lost 59 times in court, either withdrawing cases or having them dismissed by Federal and state judges.
After running out of legal options to remain as “President-for-Life,” Trump played his final card: On January 6, 2021, he incited a violent attack on the Capitol Building to stop the counting of Electoral College votes.
But by May, 2017, four months after Trump had taken office as President, Ann Coulter had abandoned him. Her chief complaint: He hadn’t built the wall along the United States-Mexican border he had promised to erect.
“We want the ruthless businessman we were promised,” she told the conservative website, The Daily Caller.
“This is why we voted for him. I think everyone who voted for him knew his personality was grotesque, it was the issues.”
In short: She had backed a monster to wreak destruction on those she hated—and he failed her.
2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ADOLF HITLER, ALEX JONES, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AP, “DEATH’S HEAD REVISITED”, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CNN, CROOKS AND LIARS, DACHAU CONCENTRATION CAMP, DAILY KOS, DONALD TRUMP, ENRIQUE TARRIO, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HUFFINGTON POST, INFOWARS, JANUARY 6 COUP ATTEMPT, JOE BIGGS, JOSEPH R. BIDEN, MEDIA MATTERS, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, NAZI GERMANY, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NPR, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICUSUSA, PROUD BOYS, RAW STORY, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, ROD SERLING, SALON, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SS, 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 WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, TIME, TIMOTHY KELLY, TREASON, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWILIGHT ZONE, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UPI, USA TODAY, VOTER SUPPRESSION, WINSTON CHURCHILL, ZACHARY REHL
In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 19, 2023 at 12:21 am
On September 5, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years to federal prison for his role in the January 6, 2021 coup attempt.
But before he was hauled away by deputy U.S. marshals, Tarrio, 39, had his beg-a-thon moment with the judge who sentenced him: “On November 3, 2020, something that I never expected happened—my candidate lost. I felt like something was personally stolen from me.
“Every media channel that I turned to told me I was justified.”
Enrique Tarrio
He claimed that he was “not a political zealot” and denied that changing the outcome of the election was his goal on January 6.
Tarrio wasn’t in Washington on January 6. He had been arrested on January 4 in a separate case. Still, he was convicted for organizing the Proud Boys’ role in the riot and for encouraging the violence that interrupted the counting of Electoral College votes.
Wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and escorted by deputy U.S. marshals, he blamed himself and apologized to the officers who were injured during the riot—of which he was a proud instigator.
“Today I stand before you a different man… I wish to reorient my life’s purpose… I want to rejoin my local church and be an active part of helping others. I hope your honor can hear the sincerity. Please show me mercy. Do not take my 40s from me. God bless this entire court.”
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly wasn’t buying it:
“That day broke our previously unbroken tradition of the peaceful transfer of power, which is truly among the most precious things that we had as Americans. That previously unbroken string is now broken. And it’s going to take time and effort to fix it.”
Capitol Police facing off with Stormtrumpers
Kelly was especially disturbed by Tarrio’s comparing the January 6 traitors to the country’s Founding Fathers:
“You apologized here today, but I must say, comparing what Dominic Pezzola [another Proud Boys member who attacked the Capitol Building] did to George Washington—the man who helped encourage the notion of a peaceful, orderly transfer of power—by relinquishing power to let someone else be chosen. It slanders the father of our country.”
Just as Zachary Rehl’s lawyer had found excuses for his client’s treasonous behavior, so, too, did Tarrio’s legal team find excuses for his.
According to them, Tarrio was simply a “misguided patriot” instead of a terrorist, and was simply being a “Keyboard Ninja, saying things he shouldn’t have.”
Tarrio’s pleadings for leniency didn’t stop with himself. He also enlisted the aid of his aunt, godmother, mother, fiancée and younger sister.
His aunt and godmother sent in letters pleading for leniency which were read by defense attorney Nayib Hassan.
“Henry [Tarrio’s birth name] is not a monster like he’s made out to be,” one letter read.
Stormtrumpers inside the Capitol Building
Tarrio’s mother, fiancée, and his younger sister also spoke of Tarrio’s character as they asked for leniency, saying his incarceration has greatly affected his family.
“This mother stands before you today begging you for leniency for Henry,” his mother told Judge Kelly. “We need him home as soon as we can. The Henry that came into the system is not the Henry that’s here today.”
The younger sister cried as she spoke: “He is the glue that keeps us together. The idea of him not being around for all the milestones is hard to bear.”
Apparently, it didn’t occur to Tarrio—when planning the January 6 coup attempt—that there might be consequences for his treason.
Tarrio’s fiancée said the couple wanted to start a family together and asked the judge to consider the “direct effect” a long prison sentence could have on those ambitions: “Henry is a flawed man, as are we all, but he is not blind to it.”
In getting a prison sentence of 22 years, Tarrio proved lucky: The Justice Department had asked for a sentence of 33 years.
Tarrio’s sentencing is the last in a series of historic seditious conspiracy cases brought by the Justice Department after the Capitol Building was attacked.
* * * * *
History teaches us that republics that tolerate treason soon become former republics.
For Republicans, gaining—and retaining—absolute power has become their foremost reason for existence.
It isn’t enough for them to create voter suppression laws to prevent their opponents from voting. They now insist on the right to violently overthrow any Democrat who somehow manages to win the Presidency against them.
Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone” episode, “Death’s Head Revisited,” reveals how Republicans react when confronted with overwhelming evidence of their evil.
In that episode, a former Nazi SS camp captain returns to the Dachau concentration camp to savor the torments he once inflicted on helpless men and women. To his horror, he’s greeted by the ghosts of those victims.
To one of them—Becker—he says: “That was such a long time ago. Let’s forget about all that—unpleasantness—and move on.”
Thus have Republicans reacted when confronted with overwhelming evidence that President Donald J. Trump, having lost the 2020 Presidential election, incited violence against the Government of the United States.
And just as most of the Original Nazis were forced to confront their past “unpleasantness”-–and were punished for it—today’s Republicans must face punishment for their own.
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In Bureaucracy, Entertainment, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on September 18, 2023 at 12:38 am
“The Germans are always at your throat or at your feet.”
So said former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill after Nazi Germany had destroyed most of Europe and now lay begging for mercy from its former victims.
And what held true for Germans after World War II holds equally true for Fascistic supporters of Donald Trump when they face justice for their crimes.
Nothing better demonstrates this than the reactions of three members of the notorious Proud Boys terrorist group at their sentencing on August 31.
Their crime: Seditious conspiracy for their role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election.
On January 6, 2021, they launched a violent attack on the nation’s Capitol Building to prevent the counting of Electoral College votes. That count—as they knew—was certain to establish that former Vice President Joseph R. Biden had won the 2020 Presidential election.
Stormtrumpers scaling Capitol Building walls
Which meant an end to Donald Trump’s ambitions to become “President-for-Life.”
Self-described Proud Boys organizer Joe Biggs received a sentence of 17 years.
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.”
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly wasn’t having it, saying that American elections must be respected: “You did play a role in riling up the crowd. If you don’t like how an election is being conducted, you can speak out, call, write or meet with election officials. You can engage in peaceful protest. File a lawsuit.’
The judge ruled that Biggs qualified for a terrorism sentencing enhancement because he tore down a fence that stood between police and rioters.
Joe Biggs
Biggs, a veteran who sustained a head injury while deployed in Iraq, worked for Alex Jones’ conspiracy website Infowars.
A second member of the group, former Marine Zachary Rehl, got 15 years in prison.
“I know that I have to be punished and I understand,” said Biggs, who then pleaded: “Please give me the chance, I beg you, to take my daughter to school and pick her up.”
He added: “I know that I messed up that day, but I am not a terrorist.”
Fortunately, the judge did not agree with him.
“The nature of the constitutional moment we were in that day is something that is so sensitive that it deserves a significant sentence,” said Judge Kelly.
“Our Constitution and laws give you so many important rights that Americans have fought and died for and that you yourself put on a uniform to defend. People around the world would give anything for these rights.”
Rehl, 37, of Port Richmond, Philadelphia. described Jan. 6 as a “despicable day” as he read from a prepared statement through tears. With his lawyer, Norman Pattis, consoling him, Rehl told the judge he fell “hook, line, sinker” for politicians spewing lies about the 2020 election, causing him to lose sight over what was truly important in life—his family.
Zachary Rehl
A sobbing Rehl told the judge that he had lost his military pension and much more since his arrest: “For what it’s worth, I stand here today and say that I am done with all of it. I am done with politics; I am done peddling lies for other people who don’t care about me.”
Rehl had a considerably different attitude on January 6, 2021, when he joined the mob that stormed the Capitol Building. Newly surfaced body camera footage shows him pepper-spraying police.
At his trial, confronted with that footage, he said he couldn’t recall attacking police during the attempted coup: “If you believe I did anything wrong that day,” he told the jury, “I really do truly apologize.”
In the days prior to the coup attempt, Rehl advocated “firing squads for the traitors that are trying to steal the election” on social media.
After the riot, Rehl regretted that the mob hadn’t stopped Congress’ certification vote—which correctly documented that former Vice President Joe Biden had won the 2020 Presidential election.
“Looking back, it sucked,” he texted other members of the Philadelphia Proud Boys chapter on January 7. “We should have held the Capitol. Everyone shoulda showed up armed and took the country back the right way.”
Reading that text in court, Judge Kelly was appalled: “I mean, my God. My God.”
The January 6 coup attempt wasn’t Rehl’s first violent outing on Trump’s behalf. In 2018, he led a pro-Trump “We the People” rally outside Independence Hall that provoked violent clashes with anti-Trump demonstrators.
Norman Pattis, Rehl’s attorney, did his best to whitewash his client’s treasonous behavior: “If there’s a direct threat to democracy greater than an insurrection, I’d say it’s a stolen election. They decided to engage in behavior that reflected our highest ideals.”
He compared the Proud Boys’ actions to those of the Founding Fathers who took up arms to fight tyranny.
He said that the 30-year sentence prosecutors sought “will not promote respect for the law. It will create a martyrdom syndrome.”
The judge sentenced Rehl to 15 years’ imprisonment.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on September 12, 2023 at 12:12 am
Americans live by a series of myths—myths they would be the wiser to abandon. Some are embraced by liberals, others by conservatives, and still others by both.
Myth 4: Americans take pride in their history.
Americans’ ignorance of history—their own and that of other nations—has long been a scandal.
- A 2018 national survey by the Institute for Citizens & Scholars found that only one in three Americans (36%) can actually pass a multiple choice test consisting of items taken from the U.S. Citizenship Test.
- More than half of respondents (60%) didn’t know which countries the United States fought in World War II (Germany, Italy and Japan).
- And 57% did not know how many Justices actually serve on the nation’s highest court (nine).
- Only 24% correctly identified one thing Benjamin Franklin was famous for; 37% believed he invented the lightbulb (that inventor was Thomas Edison).
- Twelve percent incorrectly thought WWII General Dwight Eisenhower led troops in the Civil War; six percent thought he was a Vietnam War general.
if Americans are flagrantly ignorant of their own history, they are even worse at the history of other countries.
A major reason for this lies in Americans’ belief that other nations aren’t worth bothering about except when they threaten us. During the Vietnam war, soldiers referred to the United States as “The World”—as if the rest of the planet didn’t exist.
Americans, protected from Europe by the Atlantic Ocean and the Far East by the Pacific Ocean, allowed geography to isolate themselves from the messiness of the rest of the world.
Donald Trump, as President, gave a frightening example of this during a conversation with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi: “It’s not like you’ve got China on your border.” In fact, India does share a border with China.
Myth 5: The “Bible Belt” (the Deep South) is the spiritual capitol of America.
You won’t find these truths on “Green Acres” or “The Andy Griffith Show” but they form a stain on rural America that can’t be ignored:
- A 2015 study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior found that religious conservatives search more for online pornography on Google than anyone else.
- Educational attainment and college graduation rates in the Bible Belt are among the lowest in the nation.
- Smoking rates are high in West Virginia, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi—and so are rates for smoking-related diseases and deaths.
- Heart disease, obesity, homicide and teenage pregnancies are among the highest in the nation.
Myth 6: Americans are health-conscious.
The United States is experiencing an epidemic of drug overdose deaths. In 2020, the age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths increased 31% compared to 2019.
Adults aged 35-44 experienced the highest rates of drug overdose deaths while young people aged 15-24 experienced the greatest percentage increase in deaths.
In 2019:
- 12 million Americans 12 or older used marijuana
- 9.1 million Americans used tobacco
- 14.5 million Americans aged 12 or older used alcohol
- 9.7 million people misused pain relievers
- 6 million people misused hallucinogens
- 5.9 million people misused depressants
- 5.5 million people misused cocaine
- 4.9 million people misused prescription stimulants
- 2.1 million people misused inhalants
- 2 million people used meth
- 745,000 Americans used heroin
Myth 7: Americans only support democratic regimes.
The United States has long supported foreign dictators—so long as they’re reliably Right-wing.
- Between 1898 and 1934, the United States repeatedly intervened with military force in Central America and the Caribbean.
- The United States occupied Nicaragua almost continuously from 1912 to 1933. Its legacy was the imposition of the tyrannical Somoza family, which ruled from 1936 to 1979.
- In 1953, the Eisenhower administration ordered the CIA to overthrew the democratically-elected government of of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. His crime: Nationalizing the Iranian oil industry, which had been under British control since 1913.
- He was succeeded by Mohammad-Reza Shah Phlavi, a dictator who depended on United States government support to retain power until he was overthrown in 1979 by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
- In 1954, the CIA overthrew the democratically-elected government of Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz. His crime: Installing a series of reforms that expanded the right to vote, allowed workers to organize, legitimized political parties and allowed public debate.
- In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon ordered the CIA to prevent Marxist Salvador Allende from being democratically elected as president of Chile. When that failed, he ordered the CIA to overthrow Allende.
- His crime: A series of liberal reforms, including nationalizing large-scale industries (notably copper mining and banking).
- in 1973, he was overthrown by Chilean army units and national police. He was followed by Right-wing dictator Augusto Pinochet, who slaughtered 3,200 political dissidents, imprisoned 30,000 and forced another 200,000 Chileans into exile.
* * * * * * * * * *
Behind these myths: The belief in “American exceptionalism”—that the United States is unlike other nations in its innocence and steadfast dedication to human rights above all else.
Wrote Christian G. Appy, in his 2015 book, American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity:
“It was still unimaginable to most Americans that their own nation would wage aggressive war and justify it with unfounded claims, that it would support undemocratic governments reviled by their own people, and that American troops would be sent to fight in countries where they were widely regarded not as liberators but as imperialist invaders.”
For millions, that belief died a horrific death during the Vietnam war. Yet so long as millions remain convinced that America is guided by God and that its people are His faithful servants, these myths will remain vividly alive.
2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, AGUSTO PINOCHET, ALTERNET, AMERICABLOG, AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM, AMERICAN RECKONING: THE VIETNAM WAR AND OUR NATIONAL IDENTITY (BOOK), AP, AYATOLLAH RUHOLLAH KHOMEINI, BABY BOOMER RESISTANCE, BBC, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, BIBLE BELT, BLOOMBERG NEWS, BUZZFEED, CBS NEWS, CHILE, CHINA, CHRISTIAN G. APPY, CIA, CIVIL RIGHTS ACT, CIVIL WAR, CNN, COAL MINING, CROOKS AND LIARS, DAILY KOS, DEMOCRATS, DONALD TRUMP, DRUG OVERDOSES, DWIGHT EISENHOWER, EDUCATION, FIVETHIRTYEIGHT, FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIANS, GERMANY, GUATEMALA, HARPER’S MAGAZINE, HISTORY, HUFFINGTON POST, INDIA, IRAN, ITALY, JACOBO ARBENZ, JAPAN, JOHN F. KENNEDY, JOSEPH R. BIDEN, LYNDON B. JOHNSON, MEDIA MATTERS, MOHAMMED MOSADDEGH, MOHAMMED-REZA SHAH PHLAVI, MOTHER JONES, MOVEON, MSNBC, MYTHS, NARENDRA MODI, NBC NEWS, NEW REPUBLIC, NEWSDAY, NEWSWEEK, NICARAGUA, NPR, OPIOD ADDICTION, PBS NEWSHOUR, POLITICO, POLITICS, POLITICUSUSA, PORNOGRAPHY, POVERTY, RAW STORY, RELIGIOUS CONSERVATIVES, REPUBLICANS, REUTERS, RICHARD NIXON, ROE V. WADE, RURAL AMERICA, SALON, SALVADORE ALLENDE, SEATTLE TIMES, SLATE, SMOKING, STEEL INDUSTRY, 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 WASHINGTON POST, THINKPROGRESS, THOMAS EDISON, TIME, TRUTHDIG, TRUTHOUT, TWITTER, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, UNITED STATES, UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, UPI, USA TODAY, VIETNAM WAR, VOTER IGNORANCE, WORLD WAR 11
In Bureaucracy, History, Politics, Social commentary on September 11, 2023 at 12:15 am
“The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, contrived and dishonest—but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the clichés of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”
—John F. Kennedy
Americans live by a series of myths—myths they would be the wiser to abandon. Some are embraced by liberals, others by conservatives, and still others by both.
Myth 1: Americans are highly educated.
According to the 2020 U.S. Census:
- In 2022, the highest level of education of the population age 25 and older in the United States ranged from less than high school to advanced degrees beyond a bachelor’s degree.
- 9% had less than a high school diploma or equivalent;
- 28% had high school as their highest level of school completed;
- 15% had completed some college but didn’t have a degree;
- 10% had an associate degree;
- 23% had a bachelor’s degree;
- 14% had completed advanced education such as a master’s degree, professional degree or doctorate.
Myth 2: Rural America is the repository of old-fashioned virtues.
Years of “hayseed” comedies such as “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “The Real McCoys” “Green Acres” and “Petticoat Junction” convinced millions of Americans: If you want to find the “real” America, move to rural America.
If rural America is where you’ll find the “real” Americans, the future of the United States lies in peril.
Marshall County, Indiana
Derek Jensen (Tysto), CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
- Rural Americans overwhelmingly support Donald Trump—who refused to accept defeat in a legitimate Presidential election, schemed to overturn the voters’ decision, and finally incited an attack on Congress to illegally remain in office.
- Rural America is home to fundamentalist Christians, who demand an end to legalized abortion and birth control—and thus hope to gain dictatorial control over women’s lives. They brand pro-choice Democrats as “baby killers.”
- During the 2020 Presidential election, Joe Biden won 91 of the nation’s 100 largest counties, but hardly anywhere else.
- Trump won about five times as many counties. Democrats are thriving in major metropolitan areas, but tanking elsewhere.
- Rather than being a Garden of Eden, rural America shares many big-city ills, such as crime, opioid addiction and a decline in life expectancy.
- Nearly all of the economic growth that occurred between the Great Recession and the start of the pandemic happened in a small number of metropolitan areas, making rural residents feel that the recession had never ended.
- Rural Americans refuse to abandon industries that are now dying out—such as in coal mining and steel. Trump promised—falsely—to bring those jobs back. Rural voters have forgiven him for this because he delivered on cultural issues—such as appointing anti-abortion Justices to the Supreme Court who overturned Roe v. Wade.
- Nearly half (46.7 percent) of all people living in rural areas are in the South. For a century following the Civil War (1861-1865) the South was accurately known as a Democratic stronghold. But that changed after Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act into law.
- In short: When Democrats went from suppressing black rights to protecting them, the great mass of white, racist rural Southerners moved to the Republican party.
Myth 3: Most Americans take a vital interest in politics.
Most Americans are dismayingly ignorant of politics at all levels—local, state and federal.
- The attempted coup of January 6, 2021, was largely fueled by ignorance. The rioters believed that Donald Trump was the real winner of the 2020 election, and that Joe Biden had “stolen” it through fraud.
- They clung to this belief, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, including numerous court decisions rejecting GOP claims of fraud, many of them authored by conservative, Republican-appointed judges.
- And this ignorance continues: A large majority of Republicans still believe that Biden is an illegitimate President—just 21% say that he “probably” or “definitely” won.
Donald Trump
- Most Americans don’t know the names of their state and federal representatives or even the names of the three branches of government.
- Only one third of Americans can name the three branches of our federal government: executive, legislative, judicial.
- Most voters overestimate the percentage of the federal budget spends on foreign aid (actually, about 1%). Yet they underestimate the amount going to entitlement programs, such as Medicare and Social Security. As a result, they believe we can solve our fiscal problems without either cutting entitlements or raising taxes on the vast majority of Americans.
- Voters also often reward or punish elected officials for events they did not cause, such as short-term economic trends or droughts.
Such ignorance makes people more susceptible to lies and conspiracy theories, including those about the 2020 election.
Myth 4: Americans take pride in their history.
Americans’ ignorance of history—their own and that of other nations—has long been a scandal.
- A 2018 national survey by the Institute for Citizens & Scholars found that only one in three Americans (36%) can actually pass a multiple choice test consisting of items taken from the U.S. Citizenship Test.
- More than half of respondents (60%) didn’t know which countries the United States fought in World War II (Germany, Italy and Japan).
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on August 30, 2023 at 12:14 am
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan is furious.
Not at Donald Trump—who, as President, incited a violent attack on Congress. Its purpose: To stop the counting of Electoral College votes which would determine the winner of the 2020 Presidential election.
And Trump knew who that winner would be: Former Vice President Joe Biden.
No, Jordan (R-Ohio) isn’t furious at Trump for committing treason against the United States.
Jim Jordan
He’s furious that Trump is being prosecuted for trying to coerce Georgia public officials to “find” Electoral College votes which did not exist.
Specifically, Trump is charged with 13 felony counts:
- 1 count of violating the Georgia RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act (conspiring to overturn the vote count of the 2020 Presidential election);
- 3 counts of solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer;
- 1 count of conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer;
- 2 counts of conspiracy to commit forgery;
- 2 counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings;
- 1 count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents;
- 1 count of filing false documents;
- 2 counts of making false statements and writings.
Donald Trump
This makes Trump the only former President to face criminal trial as—officially—a racketeer.
And it makes Jim Jordan—who defended Trump’s rampant criminality throughout his four years as President—determined to act as his savior.
Thus, on August 24, he sent a letter to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who has brought the charges against Trump and 18 other defendants.
It opened:
“On August 14, 2023, you brought a 41-count indictment against 19 defendants—including a former President of the United States and current declared candidate for that office, his attorneys, a former White House Chief of Staff, and a former U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) official—related to the 2020 election for President of the United States.
“Among other things, you have alleged that these 19 individuals, 30 unindicted co-conspirators, and others were part of a ‘criminal enterprise.’ And you have identified a number of acts that you claim were committed in furtherance of this purported criminal enterprise, including:
“(1) the then-White House Chief of Staff asking a Member of Congress for the phone number of the Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives;
“(2) the then-President tweeting that hearings in the Georgia legislature were being aired on a news channel and commenting on those hearings; and
“(3) numerous acts taking place in other states not involving the conduct of the 2020 election in Georgia or the counting of the votes cast in Georgia.
“Your indictment and prosecution implicate substantial federal interests, and the circumstances surrounding your actions raise serious concerns about whether they are politically motivated.
“Turning first to the question of motivation, it is noteworthy that just four days before this indictment, you launched a new campaign fundraising website that highlighted your investigation into President Trump….
“Last week, the Fulton County Superior Court’s Clerk publicly released a list of criminal charges against President Trump reportedly hours before the vote of the grand jury….
“And unlike officials in other jurisdictions, Fulton County officials ‘have suggested [they] will process [the former President] as [a] typical criminal defendant[], requiring mug shots and possibly even cash bond.'”
In short: Fulton County officials intended to treat Trump the same way that any other indicted criminal would be treated.
Jordan then demanded:
1. All documents and communications referring or relating to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office’s receipt and use of federal funds;
2. All documents and communications between or among the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office and DOJ and its components, including but not limited to the Office of Special Counsel Jack Smith, referring or relating to your office’s investigation of President Donald Trump or any of the other eighteen individuals against whom charges were brought in the indictment discussed above; and
3. All documents and communications between the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office and any federal Executive Branch officials regarding your office’s investigation of President Donald Trump or any of the other eighteen individuals against whom charges were brought in the indictment discussed above.”
In the past, Republicans—including Jordan—have held sacred the separation of powers between Federal and state governments.
- In 1962, a Democratic President—John F. Kennedy—sent deputy U.S. marshals to ensure the safety of James Meredith, the first black student ever admitted to the all-white University of Mississippi. Republicans howled in outrage at this “violation” of “states’ rights.”
- In 1964, another Democratic President—Lyndon B. Johnson—signed the Civil Rights Act into law. Republicans were outraged at its demands that blacks be treated as equal citizens.
- And when Johnson ordered FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to “go after the Ku Klux Klan the way you do after the Communists,” Republicans again attacked him for “interfering” with “sovereign” states.
But now a local Georgia prosecutor has dared hold accountable a former Republican President for trying to disenfranchise the voting rights of 2,473,633 Georgia citizens.
So, for Jordan, the voting rights of those citizens must naturally take a back seat to the “right” of a losing Republican President to illegally remain in office as “President-for-Life.”
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PREVENTING THE NEXT REPUBLICAN SHUTDOWN: PART ONE (OF FIVE)
In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on October 2, 2023 at 12:16 amIn the waning hours of September 30, the United States averted the latest Republican shutdown of the Federal Government.
President Joseph Biden signed into law the stopgap bill to avert a government shutdown passed by Congress.
Funding for federal agencies was set to run out at midnight on October 1.
The Senate passed the measure after the House of Representatives abruptly reversed course earlier in the day and passed a bipartisan bill to extend government funding.
For weeks, no one knew whether a shutdown could be averted.
So the government will remain open—until November 17.
Then the country will be treated to yet another Republican extortion attempt: “Give us what we want or we’ll shut down the government again.”
The last time a government shutdown occurred was in December, 2019, during the Presidency of Donald J. Trump.
As Speaker of the House (2007 – 2011); (2018 – 2023), Nancy Pelosi proved she was equal to the challenge.
On December 11, 2018, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer met with Trump in the Oval Office.
And, true to his love of publicity, Trump made sure the meeting was televised live on TV.
Nancy Pelosi
Trump soon moved to the matter he truly cared about: Demanding $5.6 billion to create a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border: “And one way or the other, it’s going to get built. I’d like not to see a government closing, a shutdown. We will see what happens over the next short period of time.”
PELOSI: I think the American people recognize that we must keep government open, that a shutdown is not worth anything, and that you should not have a Trump shutdown. You have the White House—
TRUMP: Did you say Trump—
PELOSI: A Trump shutdown. You have the White House—
TRUMP: I was going to call it a Pelosi shutdown.
Charles Schumer
TRUMP: The wall is a part of border security. You can’t have very good border security without the wall.
PELOSI: That’s simply not true. That is a political promise.
[By “political promise,” Pelosi meant this was an appeal Trump made to his hardcore base. which he expected to re-elect him.]
SCHUMER: Twenty times you have called for, “I will shut down the government if I don’t get my wall.” None of us have said—you’ve said it.
TRUMP: Okay, you want to put that on my—I’ll take it. You know what I’ll say: “Yes, if we don’t get what we want, one way or the other…I will shut down the government. Absolutely.”
Trump, determined to bully Pelosi and Schumer into bending to his will, didn’t realize he had just set himself up for disaster.
Trump shut down the government on December 22. About 380,000 government employees were furloughed and another 420,000 were ordered to work without pay.
And Trump told Congressional leaders the shutdown could last months or even years.
For Trump, “the wall” was absolutely necessary—but not to keep illegal aliens out. They would go over, under or around it.
The real intent of the wall was to keep Trump in—the White House.
Trump’s fanatical base believed that a wall across the U.S.-Mexico border would stop all illegal immigration. And he knew that if he didn’t build it, they wouldn’t re-elect him.
The effects of the shutdown quickly became evident:
Pelosi, unlike many Democrats, realized this was America’s version of the Munich Conference: Democrats must hold firm against a tyrant’s extortionate demands. Otherwise, every time Trump didn’t get his way, there would be no end to such shutdowns in the future.
From the start, Pelosi insisted that Democrats would not surrender to threats of a government shutdown. And Democrats held firm, refusing to make concessions on the wall.
Second, Pelosi publicly stated that Trump could not make his annual State of the Union speech in the House of Representatives until the government was re-opened.
She politely cited as her reason that the building would not be “secure” owing to the shutdown and the nonpayment of the men and women who would be charged with its protection.
Since both the House and Senate must jointly issue an invitation to the President to make such an address, Pelosi’s veto effectively scotched Trump’s appearance.
For the publicity-addicted Trump, who revels in pontificating to adoring crowds, this was a major—and unexpected—blow.
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