Category: Politics
What he did
Here’s the link to this article. I encourage you to subscribe to Steve Schmidt’s The Warning.
AUG 3, 2023
Donald Trump tried to overthrow the American republic because he lost an election. Nearly every single Republican member of Congress helped him do it by suborning his ceaseless and premeditated lies. They stoked the fires of incitement that led to Trump’s coup as his collaborators and partners. Ambition and fear overwhelmed their duty and patriotism.
The wretched truth is that with scant exceptions the entirety of the Republican Party from its elected officials, party officials, donors, activists and volunteers abandoned America in favor of their faction. George Washington’s fears had come to pass just as his warnings went unheeded by this generation of Americans. In his farewell address on September 17, 1796, he said the following:
However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
Every American has an absolute obligation and duty to read the details of the most important criminal indictment in American history carefully and thoroughly. The language is stark, vivid and declarative. The indictment rejects the jaundiced notion that there is dispute around the details of the election. Instead, it boldly embraces reality in a way that the overwhelming majority of the American media has refused to do so on a consistent basis. It declares flatly and directly:
He absolutely did lose the 2020 presidential election. Yet, he wanted power. What he did was try and take it through a conspiracy of lies and thuggery. Though he knew he lost, he didn’t care. What followed was the most reprehensible actions in American history by an American president. They represent a betrayal of stupendous dimensions. What Donald Trump did was amoral, illegal and nearly cataclysmic.
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Donald Trump desecrated the sacrifices and patriotism of the men and women who laid down their lives so America could endure and survive. He tried to take America away from all of us. Donald Trump isn’t just a failed and seditious president and an accused criminal, he is an abomination and every loyal citizen should be enraged by what he did. He assaulted our ancestors and our descendants, while trying to burn down our way of life and taking our right to choose our leaders from us. It cannot be forgiven, excused, rationalized or minimized. The propaganda of Fox News and all of its derivative media cannot hide the simple truth. Trump tried to destroy the United States. He is a domestic enemy.
We must not allow the ambitions of one man and his cabal to destroy the American way of life. It cannot happen. It must be fiercely opposed. Donald Trump and his cause are a national cancer, and it remains deeply embedded in our politics. This age of extremism must yield, or democracy will be lost.
The only thing that matters is that the Republican frontrunner doesn’t believe in democracy. He is running on a platform of revenge and retribution.
Everything is on the line in 2024. Will it be America’s last election not decided in advance?
Let’s hope not, and let’s work very hard to make sure it isn’t.
How to Read the Indictment
Here’s the indictment. Click trumpj6indictment link below for larger view.
Now, to Joyce Vance’s excellent article.
United States v. Trump, again
Here’s the link to Joyce’s article. Please read!
AUG 2, 2023
First off tonight, I want to thank all of you who sent emails and left comments about my Mom. I appreciate all of them, I’ve read through them and continue to read them. I’ve gained a lot of strength from your support, and I’m touched and honored by the stories you’ve shared. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Today, Tuesday, August 1, 2023, was the day the Justice Department indicted the wretch of a former president for trying, and damn near succeeding, in preventing American voters from determining the outcome of the presidential election in 2020. It’s about time.
The January 6 investigation was massive, and it’s remarkable Jack Smith got to this point so quickly. He owes a huge debt of gratitude to the House January 6 Committee, which did prosecutors’ work, unearthing much of the evidence that was used to indict. In a very real sense, prosecutors in this case stand on the shoulders of the members of the House who insisted on pursuing the investigation and made Americans believe that accountability for the former president was possible.
The conduct, the swarm of different angles Trump worked to try and steal the election, makes for a complicated prosecution. It was a massive effort at political interference in the constitutional processes that make our country a republic. The factual basis for the charges, even though we’ve lived through the events themselves, is not simple like the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case is. There you can readily wrap your mind around the basics and understand Trump kept classified documents he wasn’t entitled to and obstructed the government’s efforts to get them back. You can’t do the January 6 investigation in one sentence like that. Trump had a lot of moving parts in play to try and hold onto power, some legal, and many others not.
So the question has always been, how would Jack Smith make sense of it all, organize the conduct, and charge this case? It has to be done in a way that, legally speaking, is air tight—there’s no point in fighting for a conviction that you lose on appeal—but it also has to make sense out of a morass. For instance, we all understand now that there was a scheme to use fake slates of electors to try and interfere with the count of votes under the Electoral Count Act. But in the wake of the election, as news of an event here and another there began to emerge, we didn’t have the roadmap we have now for understanding the component pieces, which include efforts in swing states, the attempt to pervert DOJ, the pressure campaign on Pence, and so on. That’s the challenge: draft an indictment that will make compelling sense to 12 jurors in a courtroom who get to hear all the evidence and make a decision based on it. Which of Trump’s many crimes do you charge him with?
Now we know.
Tonight, I want to give you a bit of a guide for reading the indictment for yourself. I think it’s important to do that. Set aside an hour or two, or find ten minutes here and there over the course of the next week. You’ll understand it better if you read it for yourself. The indictment is written in a manner that makes it clear prosecutors wanted it to be comprehensible to anyone who wanted to read it.
The indictment is a speaking indictment—the story of the three conspiracies that are charged is told in detail.
First off, you get some framing in the introductory paragraphs. The government alleges that Trump “spread lies” and that he “knew that they were false.” And it sets up some parameters: Trump could legally lie about the election and say it was tainted by fraud. That’s okay—what I would call awful but lawful. He could challenge the results in court and seek recounts. But DOJ draws the line in paragraph 4 and says that what he can’t do is pursue “unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results.” In other words, some of what he did, the lawsuits for instance, was lawful. His lies to the public were distasteful and inappropriate but still, not crimes. But then Trump crossed the line into criminal. That’s the conduct, we learn in the introduction, that we’re going to hear about in the rest of the indictment.
It’s done artfully; it clarifies that this isn’t about going after Trump for his speech, which is arguably (at least in his view) protected by the First Amendment. It’s about his conduct, illegal conduct. In the opening lines of the indictment, prosecutors effectively gut the First Amendment defense Trump has been floating for the last two years.
There is only one defendant, Donald Trump. That’s likely a strategy for streamlining the process to get the case to trial as quickly as possible. He has six uncharged and therefore unnamed (but as good as identified) co-conspirators. We’ll get to them in a moment. The indictment alleges three separate conspiracies:
- one to defraud the United States by interfering with the lawful processes that are used to collect, count, and certify the presidential election (18 USC § 371)
- one to obstruct the January 6 congressional proceeding in which the results are counted and certified (18 USC § 1512)
- one to defeat citizens’ right to vote and have their votes counted (18 USC § 241)
It alleges that each conspiracy was fostered by the “widespread mistrust the Defendant was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud.” There is also one substantive charge of obstruction related to the second conspiracy.
The penalties are serious. 18 USC § 371 carries a five-year maximum. The two charges under 18 USC § 1512 each have a 20-year maximum penalty. And the maximum penalty for violating 18 USC § 241 is 10 years. While the sentencing guidelines often set a lower range the judge is advised to sentence within, here, and especially if Trump has picked up one or more prior convictions before he’s sentenced, there is serious time associated with conviction on any one of these charges.
Here’s the trick to understanding the indictment. Because the same facts underlie each of the charges, the government sets them out only once, in the first count. Then it adopts them as the factual basis for each of the next three charges. That means that the first count, which begins on page 3, takes up the bulk of the indictment. It concludes on page 42. But once you’ve read it, you have the facts and the key aspects of each of the conspiracies that are charged. If you want a refresher on the basics of conspiracy law before you get started, we did that here at Civil Discourse, back in July of 2022, with chicken videos to explain the finer points of the law: “Conspiracy! Understanding the basics (with chickens).”
First, we get the “purpose of the conspiracy.” This is a standard inclusion in conspiracy indictments. In essence, here, it’s the purpose of all three conspiracies. The government alleges Trump’s purpose “was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using knowingly false claims of election fraud to obstruct the federal government functions by which those results are collected, counted, and certified.” The plain, legal prose is so dry that it almost masks what this is about: a president who wanted to take away the right of Americans to vote.
The next section clarifies who the “co-conspirators” referred to throughout the indictment are. But because they aren’t charged in the indictment, DOJ policy says they can’t be identified by name. Instead, we get descriptions that all but identify them after informing us that Trump “enlisted co-conspirators to assist him in his criminal efforts to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election and retain power.” I’ve added their likely identities in italics following the language describing them from the indictment:
a. “Co-Conspirator 1, an attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant’s 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not.” Rudy Giuliani
b. “Co-Conspirator 2, an attorney who devised and attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice President’s ceremonial role overseeing the certification proceeding to obstruct the certification of the presidential election.” Trump lawyer John Eastman, whose communications were disclosed after a judge found the crime–fraud exception meant the attorney–client privilege should be set aside
c. “Co-Conspirator 3, an attorney whose unfounded claims of election fraud the Defendant privately acknowledged to others sounded ‘crazy.’ Nonetheless, the Defendant embraced and publicly amplified Co-Conspirator 3’s disinformation.” “Kraken” lawyer Sidney Powell
d. “Co-Conspirator 4, a Justice Department official who worked on civil matters and who, with the Defendant, attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations and influence state legislatures with knowingly false claims of election fraud.” DOJ environmental lawyer and AG wannabe Jeffrey Bossert Clark
e. “Co-Conspirator 5, an attorney who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.” Kenneth Chesebro, another lawyer involved in devising the fake electors scheme
f. “Co-Conspirator 6, a political consultant who helped implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.” Identity unclear
Next up is a section entitled “Federal Government Function” that manages to explain, in one paragraph, how the electoral college system works. It will also make you wonder why we still use this godforsaken system that unduly focuses presidential selection power in less populated parts of the country, but we’ll leave that for another day. Like all conspiracy indictments, this one has an involved section on “Manner and Means,” which is an overview that explains how they did it. Here, it’s a helpful summary of all the conduct that’s laid out next. There is the use of fake fraud claims to try and subvert the outcome of state elections, the fraudulent slates of electors, the attempted subversion of DOJ, the pressure campaign on Vice President Mike Pence, and Trump’s exploitation of the violence at the Capitol on January 6 to try and convince Congress to delay certification of the vote.
Before the indictment dives into the details of those means of effectuating the conspiracies, we get a section you don’t normally see in indictments, where the government sets forth its evidence that Trump knew the fraud claims he was making about the election were false. We discussed the importance of the government being able to use circumstantial evidence to establish what was going on inside of Trump’s mind, notably, that he knew he’d lost the election but lied about it. The government uses three and one half pages of the indictment to set out its evidence in that regard in detail. With that important detail established, we then get a detailed layout of each of the “Manner and Means” of executing the conspiracy, and it’s here that you may want to spend some time. Most of the contours are familiar; we know about the events in Georgia, for instance, but some of the detail is informative, and it’s an excellent refresher to make sure you remember the details you first learned while watching the January 6 Committee hearings.
So we get a speaking indictment, or as MSNBC anchor Ari Melber quipped tonight, a shouting indictment. We still have some unanswered questions. The status of the unindicted co-conspirators isn’t clear. Often, people identified that way are cooperators, but that doesn’t appear to be the case here. It seems likely that some or all of these people will face charges in the future. Their crimes are set out clearly in the indictment, and there’s little rationale other than expediency, a weak one at best, for permitting them to escape accountability for their conduct. But there are other people who appear to be working with the government. Mike Pence, after trying to fight off his subpoena with all sort of excuses, testified and would seem to be the only possible source of information about his personal conversations with Trump, which includes this fascinating passage in paragraph 90:
On January 1, the Defendant called the Vice President and berated him because he had learned that the Vice President had opposed a lawsuit seeking a judicial decision that, at the certification, the Vice President had the authority to reject or return votes to the states under the Constitution. The Vice President responded that he thought there was no constitutional basis for such authority and that it was improper. In response, the Defendant told the Vice President, “You’re too honest.” Within hours of the conversation, the Defendant reminded his supporters to meet in Washington before the certification proceeding, tweeting, “The BIG Protest Rally in Washington, D.C., will take place at 11.00 A.M. on January 6th. Locational details to follow. StopTheSteal! [emphasis added.]
Still more interesting is the question of Mark Meadows’ status. In paragraph 28, there is information that seems like it would have to have come from him: “On December 23, a day after the Defendant’s Chief of Staff personally observed the signature verification process at the Cobb County Civic Center and notified the Defendant that state election officials were ‘conducting themselves in an exemplary fashion’ and would find fraud if it existed, the Defendant tweeted that the Georgia officials administering the signature verification process were trying to hide evidence of election fraud and were ‘[t]errible people!’” If Meadows is actually cooperating, in the sense that he’s finally decided to share everything he knows about Trump with prosecutors, that would be big. But there’s little additional information in the indictment to suggest that. Prosecutors aren’t obligated to reveal all of their evidence, but in the event they want to convince some of the six unindicted co-defendants to cooperate, they might want to show off a little more evidence to help them understand the peril of their situation if they don’t. Five of them, after all, are lawyers, and all quite capable of assessing the evidence. It’s surprising we don’t get more here if Meadows is in fact on board.
So, take some time when you can, and read the indictment for yourself! Encourage others to do it, too. Most importantly, don’t accept the defeatist mentality that no Trump supporters can take in the information and change their minds. While his hardcore base may not, there are others who may support him for policy or political reasons, but who, when confronted with the hard facts about his complicity, including Count Four where he is charged with a conspiracy to interfere with Americans’ right to vote, may finally decide they’ve had enough.
Finally, cameras in the courtroom. Chief Justice Roberts could ensure these proceedings were made publicly available. He can order that there be cameras in the courts. And he should. That final charge makes it clear that we are all victims of this crime. We have the right to watch the proceedings.
Because this isn’t a case about classified information. We’ll see more of the proceedings in public, and it should kick into gear more quickly, with arraignment scheduled for Thursday afternoon. The Judge, Obama appointee Tanya Chutkan, confirmed in the Senate by a vote of 95-0 in 2014, has signaled she means business with that prompt kickoff. But given the time it takes to get cases to trial in the District of Columbia’s courts, often over a year and a half, we’ll have to wait to see if there’s even a prospect of this case, so highly important and certain to be aggressively litigated, getting to trial ahead of the election.
Today was one of the good days for people who believe in the Republic. No man should be above the law. Trump is finding out that democracy and the Constitution are for real.
We’re in this together,
Joyce
p.s.: If you’re not already a paid subscriber and you’re enjoying Civil Discourse, I hope you’ll consider up-subscribing (if that’s a word). But we live in challenging times, and I understand that not everyone can or wants to buy a paid subscription. I’m happy to have you here either way! I’m glad we’re all committed to saving the Republic. Tonight, it feels like we’re making progress.
The MAGA vandals
Here’s the link to this article.
AUG 1, 2023
America is being vandalized. Specifically, the American people are being abused and denigrated by their politicians. More precisely, they have become the targets of systemic gaslighting from the MAGA radicals and fascists who seek power by overturning democracy — lest they be forced to share it with a political opposition.
This era has shown that cowardice, dishonesty, idolatry and a bottomless disregard for shame are a potent rocket fuel for advancement within the corrupted ranks of the MAGA sewer. The abandonment of principle, integrity and decency have become credentials in a toxic culture in which grievance, entitlement and taking are virtuous, while empathy, duty and responsibility are for losers. This is the polluted river in which Kevin McCarthy is a champion swimmer.
His noxious pablum is unrestrained by reality, truth or any worry that he will ever be asked about it again after sundown. Here is a a perfect example from CNN quoting the oft-lying Speaker and the only one ever called a p***y on the floor of the House by another member of Congress. Here’s McCarthy being taken at face value by CNN, which seems oblivious to his Orwellian slop. McCarthy asks:
How do you get to the bottom of the truth? The only way Congress can do that is go to an impeachment inquiry.
Yes, the truth. Kevin McCarthy has certainly shown himself its staunch defender. Lol.
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Anyway, this pursuit for truth, which apparently includes launching an impeachment inquiry against the president of the United States without any evidence whatsoever, and assailing his son for cruelty’s sake and satisfying the bloodlust of a political mob, has led the kitty of the House to a familiar figure when it comes to grotesque hypocrisy and impeachments. CNN sets the stage perfectly for the sinister arrival of Newt Gingrich, the last GOP speaker to illegitimately impeach a Democratic president over nonsense. Proving that anything remains possible in America, that very same speaker would one day be able to accompany Callista Gingrich, his former mistress and now wife, to the Vatican where Donald Trump honored Catholics and their faith by making her ambassador to the Holy See.
According to CNN:
Speaker Kevin McCarthy in recent weeks has heard similar advice from both a senior House Republican and an influential conservative lawyer: prioritize the impeachment of President Joe Biden over a member of his Cabinet.
Part of the thinking, according to multiple sources familiar with the internal discussions, is that if House Republicans are going to expend precious resources on the politically tricky task of an impeachment, they might as well go after their highest target as opposed to the attorney general or secretary of homeland security.
And McCarthy – who sources said has also been consulting with former House GOP Speaker Newt Gingrich on the issue – has warmed up to an idea that has long been relegated to the fringes of his conference.
“The fringes of his conference” is quite a description and declaration of naïveté from CNN about reality. There is no fringe in the MAGA majority. It is an undulating blob of layered imbecility, cowardice, vice, extremism, ignorance, ambition, incompetence and scheming, bubbling and gurgling together in a ceaseless assault against democracy. The fringe and its middle are identical. MAGA is round and without edges.
The proposition at hand for the country is whether a majority will tolerate the lies, corruption, malice and cruelty offered by the MAGA GOP because of the imperfections of the Democratic Party. There is no comparison between the two in terms of comportment, ethics and political morality. MAGA tried to overthrow the government, and is running on a scorched earth platform of revenge and retribution. Alongside the confederacy, Jim Crow and McCarthyism, MAGA is amongst the most odious concoctions ever created from the fumes of American nativism and know- nothingness. It is a pestilence.
In the end, the American people have to decide what the future of the nation will be. Perhaps the majority is ready to end the American experiment begun in 1776 and passed down for nearly 250 years. Are you? I’m definitely not.
A Texas district called for 22 days of prayer to launch the new school year
Here’s the link to this article.
An atheist group called on the Burnet CISD to “cease promoting prayer and remove this post”
JUL 28, 2023
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Earlier this week, the Burnet Consolidated Independent School District in Texas posted an official call for prayer leading up to the new school year.
Their image was even titled “Pray to the First Day,” with each of the next 22 days dedicated to a different school or group of adults, with the students themselves saved until the very end.
Needless to say, a public school district has no business telling people to pray, even if it doesn’t go into detail regarding which religion or what to say.
On Thursday, the Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the district urging officials to “cease promoting prayer and remove this post from its official social media.” Anne Nicol Gaylor Legal Fellow Samantha Lawrence wrote:
The District serves a diverse community that consists of not only religious students, families, and employees, but also atheists, agnostics, and those who are simply religiously unaffiliated. By promoting prayer, the District sends an official message that excludes all nonreligious District students and community members. Thirty-seven percent of the American population is non-Christian, including the almost 30 percent who are nonreligious. At least a third of Generation Z (those born after 1996) have no religion, with a recent survey revealing almost half of Gen Z qualify as “nones” (religiously unaffiliated).
This wasn’t a lawsuit. It wasn’t a threat. It was a reminder that calls for prayer shut out every member of the community who isn’t religious. And let’s be honest: The implication is that these are Christian prayers, so non-Christians are excluded too.
If a church in the area wants to waste its time praying for a better school year, that’s their business. But it sure as hell shouldn’t be something district officials call for.
The good news is that the Burnet CISD has already relented. In an email to FFRF sent less than 90 minutes after the initial letter went out, Superintendent Keith McBurnett wrote, “The Facebook post referenced has been removed, and the District will refrain from posting anything similar in the future.”
Problem solved… unless people notice and complain, in which case it’ll be interesting to see how district officials respond.
In any case, if the people in the community actually want to make a difference, then they should demand the Republican-dominated state legislature give educators raises to keep them in the profession and reverse a statewide teacher shortage, stop banning books that challenge students’ minds, end the assault on LGBTQ students, and do more to prevent gun violence instead of putting more armed guards in schools.
They won’t. Instead, they’re just praying (for nothing in particular in most cases) while voting to make schools worse. 78% of the county voted to re-elect Republican Greg Abbott as governor in 2022. Other Republicans on the ballot won by similar margins.
The end result is that students will continue to struggle because most of the adults in their lives have no clue how to fix the problems they’ve created.
Lawrence: We now know who the star witness in the Trump docs case will be
The inmates are running the congressional asylum
Here’s the link to this article.
JUL 26, 2023
Marjorie Taylor Greene is a living symbol of national decay. Her prominence is fueled by the preeminence of dimwittedness, ignorance and idiocy over intelligence, wisdom and common sense within the United States Congress.
Let’s watch:
Truly, there are no words. Serious political parties from serious nations do not elevate people like this. She is a fool and a hypocrite of such stupendous dimensions that it is almost impossible to comprehend the totality of it all. MTG is a conspiracy theorist. Yet in 2023, she is a GOP front runner to be Trump’s vice presidential running mate.
Tommy Tuberville is another MAGA politician who is unfit for a position of public responsibility as a senator in the United States Senate. The vapid former Auburn football coach seems like he was cooked up in a boiling pot of cliches about southern football coaches who can barely read, function or think off of the gridiron. Here is how Wikipedia describes the addled airhead from Alabama:
Tuberville invested $1.9 million in GLC Enterprises, which the Securities and Exchange Commission called an $80 million Ponzi scheme.[122] He lost about $150,000 when the business closed in 2011.[123]
At Auburn, Tuberville participated in the Auburn Church of Christ.[124]
Tuberville’s interests include “NASCAR, golf, football, hunting and fishing, [and] America’s military”. He enjoys country and western music.[125]
It is most unfortunate for hundreds of America’s most senior career military officers that the “coach” has taken an interest in their careers and the institutions they have served for most of their adult lives. Tuberville is currently holding up the promotions of more than 265 senior military officers, and has the potential to instruct the promotions of more than 650 military officers by the end of the year. It is quite an accomplishment for a man who has repeatedly lied and exaggerated about his father’s World War II service, from making up stories about his five Bronze Star and Purple Heart decorations to his involvement in the liberation of Paris.
Here is how Stars and Stripes has framed the issue, and the outrage of hundreds of military families whose lives have been thrown into chaos as part of the collateral damage from Tuberville’s war on the US military:
Hundreds of military spouses are demanding Senate leaders find a way to end an Alabama Republican senator’s single-handed blockade of more than 280 senior officer promotions.
Roughly 500 spouses in a petition delivered Monday on Capitol Hill blasted Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s procedural hold on all general and admiral promotions as an “inappropriate and unpatriotic” political maneuver that harms the impacted officers and their families. Tuberville has blocked the Senate from confirming batches of general and admiral nominations by voice vote since February in protest of a Pentagon policy that reimburses service members for travel expenses incurred to seek certain reproductive health care banned in several states, including abortions, and allows them to use their personal leave to do so.
“No matter your political beliefs, we must agree that service members and military families will not be used as political leverage,” the Secure Families Initiative, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that advocates for military spouses and families, wrote in the letter to Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the upper chamber’s majority and minority leaders, respectively. “It’s time to end this political showmanship and recommit to respect the service and sacrifice of those who pledge to defend this nation.”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had this to say about the matter, which was also reported by Stars and Stripes:
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters at the Pentagon that he expected Tuberville’s hold on military promotions was making U.S. adversaries “pretty happy that we create this kind of turbulence [and] put that on our force.”
It is an incredible comment. The Secretary of Defense is remarking that hostile powers are delighted with the chaos a US Senator from Alabama is causing in the US military. It is frightening, unacceptable and infuriating.
There is a simple truth about this rancid age. Atop the list of national threats are many of America’s politicians who reside in a spectrum of craziness, ignorance, certitude and arrogance that is unbound by concepts such as patriotism, duty, obligation or responsibility. The American people deserve better. However, in order to get it, they are going to have to care a lot more than they do now. Looking at MTG and Tommy Tuberville, it is clear that the inmates are running the congressional asylum.
That’s a bad thing — for all of of us.
On Sunday, I shared my thoughts after seeing ‘Oppenheimer.’ I haven’t stopped thinking about it as it serves as a perfect reminder of the dangers of electing someone as corrupt and evil as Donald Trump, and giving them the ability to start a nuclear war. In this commentary, I also talk about how sycophants like Kevin McCarthy and others only serve to increase the danger we all face by submitting to Trump’s every whim:
“Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds”
Here’s the link to this article.
JUL 23, 2023
“Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” — J. Robert Oppenheimer
‘Oppenheimer’ is an extraordinary and stunning movie. Seventy-eight years have passed since the Trinity test site outside of Los Alamos, New Mexico. It marked the beginning of a new epoch in history, where mankind harnessed the powers of the gods and became capable of triggering Armageddon.
Matt Damon plays General Leslie Groves, the architect of the Manhattan Project. He perfectly captures 2023 America’s lassitude towards the weapons that remain poised to destroy human civilization. Here is what Damon said:
How did I forget about this? It’s like the Cold War ended and my brain played a trick on me and said, ‘OK, let’s put that away, you don’t have to worry about that anymore’ — which is absurd.
But as soon as Russia invaded Ukraine “suddenly overnight it became the most important thing for us all to think about again.
Damon is one of the greatest actors of his generation, and among the most thoughtful as well. His comments aren’t an expression of vapidity or disinterest, but rather a spot-on assessment of how the overwhelming number of Americans think about the weapons that can destroy 10,000 years of human civilization and history in an instant.
I’ve written about this subject before. General Douglas MacArthur was the first person to speak directly to the existential issues raised by the dawn of the nuclear weapons age. They remain dire and true 78 years later.
The winds of catastrophe are stirring
·
JAN 31
Even though nuclear weapons have not been deployed in combat since 1945 does not mean that they no longer exist. There are thousands of them under the control of the following nations: United States, Russia, China, UK, France, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and India. The most nuclear arsenal in the world belongs to the United States, and it consists of three elements. The United States can deliver its nuclear weapons to any spot on Earth via airplane, land-based intercontinental ballistic missile and submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missile. The weapons are under the command and control of the US Armed Forces, and can be launched on orders from the president of the United States. Since Harry Truman, the following Americans have held the unilateral power to destroy the world: Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. One of these men is unlike the others.
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During the hectic days after January 6, Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously queried Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley about the security of America’s nuclear arsenal. Milley responded that he had everything under control. Overwhelmingly, the American media and people yawned at the news, and believed what Milley told Pelosi — which is absolutely not true. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff isn’t part of the decision-making process when it comes to Armageddon. The president alone has that authority.
Everything in the American government is designed to move slowly — except one thing. The launch of the nuclear weapons are the exception. Should the president give the order, it will be carried out by highly-trained professionals who will not hesitate to execute it. In fact, right now, in this second, they are at their duty posts at the bottom of a silo, under the seas or in the air, awaiting the order.
What Matt Damon said is true for most of us in 2023 because no sane society would choose Donald Trump as the person to hold the power of extinction. Yet, we did.
The world came extremely close to nuclear war in October of 1962. Perhaps the only reason it didn’t was the profound wisdom, steeliness and courage of John Kennedy. Today, we have replaced wisdom with a deluded moral infancy and addlement that makes a mockery of the life and death issues that rest on the president’s desk.
We live in a cynical time in which there is so much evil operating in plain sight all over the world. Yet, after 78 years of having the power to destroy the planet, mankind has not pulled the trigger. It is a blink of an eye and an eternity all at once. What lies ahead is unknown, but it will be dangerous and deadly. What keeps us safe is judgement and morality. When that disappears all that is left is the mushroom cloud.
Why have we stopped believing these weapons exist — like all weapons — to be used?
‘Oppenheimer’ helps us remember the world in which we live. I recommend that you go to see it.
The winds of catastrophe are stirring
Here’s the link to this article.
JAN 31, 2023
There are a confluence of dangerous events occurring that have the potential to trigger global catastrophe at the end of the lifespans of the generation that endured human civilization’s greatest one. They are nearly all gone. Eleven years from now, it is estimated that there will be less than 1,000 American veterans left out of 16 million that served in the Second World War. Today, there are slightly more than 100,000 alive from a war that killed 400,000 Americans, and defined an era that came to be known as the “American century.”
During it, the United States became the most powerful nation in world history, and the guarantor of the international order that emerged in the aftermath of the destruction of the Axis powers. Since then, the world has seen the greatest expansions of prosperity and freedom in the annals of human history. Though there remains great injustice and inequality there has never been a comparable 80 year period of progress — ever. The expansion of human rights and dignity, democracy, international cooperation coupled with stunning scientific, technological and medical advances are astonishing when judged against the sweep of human history. The pace of progress, change and the disruptions that come with it are continuing to quicken. They have have taken us to the brink of a new age of artificial intelligence and powerful machines that will be able to think, decide, act, and perhaps kill. We live in an era in which the genetic foundation of human beings can be altered in a laboratory, and where space will become a frontier for economic development and exploitation.
The United States has been a clumsy and unwise hegemon at times. It has blundered and made costly errors that include interference in the sovereign affairs of too many countries with a heavy hand and three tragic wars — in both Vietnam and Iraq, which were wars of choice, and one in Afghanistan, which was a war of necessity that drifted into an experiment, and then defeat.
Yet, for nearly 80 years the United States has played a singular role, despite all of its many flaws, in holding back an inexorable tide that has risen higher across each century of human existence. It is a tide of death and suffering caused by war.
There are two generations of Americans that have led the United States since 1961. Joe Biden is the only member of the “silent” generation to reach the White House and the first president in history to take back power from a younger generation — the “baby boomers,” whose parents were part of the generation born between 1901 and 1927.
Generationally, those Americans were part of a cohort that stands out. They are unique among the named generations that are inevitably shaped by the seismic events that define epochs of history, cultural transformations and war.
Their children are the “baby boomers,” who were defined by the 1960s, the Vietnam War, civil rights movement, peace movement, assassinations and Watergate. They were the largest generation in American history. The “millennial” generation eclipsed them in size and dwarf the younger generations named “Z” and “Alpha.” There is only one American generation that is called “greatest.”
The “greatest” generation was the name of a book that told the story of America’s oldest living generation by the legendary Tom Brokaw, NBC Nightly News anchor and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The name stuck. It became the moniker of an entire generation that included within their numbers plenty of arch segregationists. Yet, it fit because the events that defined their lifetimes included the greatest economic crisis in world history, the greatest war in world history, the greatest rebuilding in world history, the greatest economic expansion in world history and the most sustained era of global peace in world history. The Second World War remains the greatest catastrophe in human history. As an event, it stands at the edge of living experience and history. Soon there will be no eyewitnesses to the landing beaches, concentration camps, naval battles and air war left. There will be no living humans who are devoted to making sure there is no catastrophe that exceeds what happened to humanity in the 1930s and 1940s.
There are two facts of this moment that are indisputable.
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First, the United States is burdened for the first time since secession with a political party that is utterly, fundamentally, and absolutely incapable of governing. It is a hive of corruption, madness, malice, incompetence, grift, fraud and irredeemable dishonesty. It is led by a rogues’ gallery of unfit, self-interested, proudly ignorant, and despicable cowards, who have abandoned every previously stated principle and piety with acts of servility, cowardice, arrogance, duplicity and submission.
Second, the 15th century was deadlier than the 14th, as the 19th century was deadlier than the 18th, 17th and 16th. The momentum of human suffering and death was driven by the Industrial Revolution through the birth of the atomic age, and the dawn of an era in which mankind possessed the power to cause its own extinction and trigger its own Armageddon.
The 20th century cannot be forgotten because it was so lethal and demonstrated the savagery of which human beings are capable. It was a century of unequalled blood thirstiness and madness during which the greatest horrors and crimes ever recorded were committed. When it ended, two nuclear powers stood at the brink of destruction for 45 long years. They fought against each other in vicious proxy wars all over the world, but the deadly momentum of warfare that killed more people in the next war than the last was held back. Ultimately, the Soviet regime, built on the principles of totalitarianism, crumbled against the superior system led by the United States. There was even a book that proclaimed we had arrived at the “end of history.” Francis Fukuyama, its author, was celebrated and acclaimed. Today, it looks like a boast reminiscent of the arrogance of the White Star Line that played along with the hyped rhetoric that declared, “Not even God himself could sink this ship.” The collapse of the Berlin Wall was so sudden that it took on the trappings of the miraculous during the moment of excitement, liberation and possibility. Perhaps the most stunning achievement since its collapse might be the fact that for multiple living generations it seems like it never existed at all.
The first global war began in August of 1914. There was no comparable event in human history to which it was comparable. It killed 16 million people, and among them were 116,000 Americans in a spasm of violence between 1917-1918. The war destroyed the Austro-Hungarian empire, Ottoman empire, defeated and humiliated Imperial Germany, redrew the boundaries of the Middle East and Arabia and beggared the British and French empires. The horror of trench warfare and the protracted stalemate triggered a search for meaning in the cause within the democracies whose societies were being shattered by the losses. The cause became a “war to end all wars.” Nobody in the moment could imagine worse. How could they?
The next war would start slightly more than 20 years after the “war to end all wars” ended. The Second World War would kill more than 85 million people around the world. Most historians label its beginning as September 1, 1939, and end on September 2, 1945. The truth is that the killing began in the mid 1930s with aggression by fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan. The world looked away until it was too late.
When the Second World War ended, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, a highly decorated veteran of the First World War and the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, accepted the surrender of the Japanese Empire aboard the battleship USS Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay at the beginning of the atomic age. Unlike the unconditional surrender of Germany, which was done in private, the surrender of the Japanese was the most listened to global broadcast in history on that September day in 1945. MacArthur’s comments were divided into two parts, separated by the signing of the surrender documents by the defeated Japanese representatives and victorious Allies.
Here is what he said during the first part of the ceremony:
We are gathered here, representatives of the major warring powers, to conclude a solemn agreement whereby peace may be restored.
The issues involving divergent ideals and ideologies have been determined on the battlefields of the world, and hence are not for our discussion or debate.
Nor is it for us here to meet, representing as we do a majority of the peoples of the earth, in a spirit of distrust, malice, or hatred.
But rather it is for us, both victors and vanquished, to rise to that higher dignity which alone befits the sacred purposes we are about to serve, committing all of our peoples unreservedly to faithful compliance with the undertakings they are here formally to assume.
It is my earnest hope, and indeed the hope of all mankind, that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past — a world founded upon faith and understanding, a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance, and justice.
After the surrender document was signed MacArthur delivered an address that spoke to the realities of the new era during which mankind held the power of extinction over the entire planet.
Here is what he said:
Today the guns are silent. A great tragedy has ended. A great victory has been won…
A new era is upon us. Even the lesson of victory itself brings with it profound concern, both for our future security and the survival of civilization. The destructiveness of the war potential, through progressive advances in scientific discovery, has in fact now reached a point which revises the traditional concepts of war.
Men since the beginning of time have sought peace. Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn have failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. We have had our last chance. If we do not now devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door. We have had our last chance. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character that will synchronize with our matchless advances in science, art, literature and all material and cultural developments of the past two thousand years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.
There are few words that have ever been spoken that are more profound. They should be considered at a moment when public character has been disintegrated in a vat of MAGA acid, and one of America’s two political parties has been seized by an extremist cause that combines recklessness, stupidity, malice and dishonesty into an ideology of nothing that could cost everything.
There is a simple question that deserves contemplation. Is humanity’s most deadly event in front of us or behind us? Has the centuries-long escalation of violence come to its end, or will the 21st century become the deadliest of all?
The world is interconnected, and it seems to be spiraling.
The war in Ukraine is intensifying.
The Netanyahu extremist government in Israel has incited chaos, and provoked what might become a third intifada.
Military strikes were launched against Iran, which has become the principal supplier of weapons and drones to the beleaguered, yet lethal Russians.
The United States Marine Corps opened its first new base in 70 years with the establishment of Camp Blaz in Guam. Should war come with China over Taiwan, they will be the first American ground forces in the fight in much the way the 1st Marine Division was against the Japanese on Guadalcanal.
As reported by NBC News, a four-star US Air Force General has made clear in a memo the urgency for American forces that he thinks war might come in the Taiwan Straits in 2025.
Iranian warships are currently visiting Brazil.
More than 100,000 Americans will be killed by Mexican cartel-produced fentanyl in 2023.
There have been frivolous and corrupt eras before this one. They all ended. Most ended suddenly. Films and literature memorialize those last fleeting moments of peace before the storm that washes away the excess, and restores human memory about the meaning of war, death and suffering.
I believe that MacArthur is correct about the linkage between human survival and human character in an era in which there are weapons that could extinct civilization in the hands of people who don’t remember — and don’t appreciate — the greatest catastrophe in human history. We are at a dangerous hour. It is made more dangerous by the collapse of character across the whole of the elected leadership of the Republican Congress.
Praise be
Here’s the link to this article.
JUL 22, 2023
Watching a woman stand up and ask Donald Trump how his religious faith has deepened since 2015 has settled the debate around whether there are in fact stupid questions. There are.
Here was Donald Trump’s answer to the following question: “How has your faith grown since you decided in 2015 to run for president, and who has mentored you in your faith journey? Remember before watching that he has been credibly accused of sexually assaulting 26 women, and was found liable of sexual abusing E. Jean Carrol and disparaging her.
There are a few things that stand out from Donald’s deluded answer, which are the following:
1. He made America great. This is the precise quote:
I’ve made America great. We can do it again. Right now, we are not a great country.
2. The FBI is attacking Catholics. This is the precise quote:
They made them like the enemy. It’s horrible. How could a Catholic ever vote for a Democrat or a guy like Biden again after the experience they’re going through?
3. His spiritual advisors are super grifters Pastor Paula White and Franklin Graham. This is the precise quote:
We are not a great country because of this…I‘ve gotten to know…evangelicals. I know so many people, and they feel so good about themselves and their families. They base it on religion, and they have never had that kind of an experience where I got to know so many…and Franklin Graham and Paula White, they are such incredible people.
No Virgin Mary, the thrice-married Paula White is a religious hustler without shame, reserve or boundaries. She speaks in tongues, and makes millions tax-free while doing it. Her schtick is amazing and insane:
Mesmerizing, isn’t she? So far as wack jobs go, Pastor Paula resides in the thin air where lunacy, cynicism, and hucksterism combine to assault the weak-minded, lost and vulnerable with an open air con that declares itself the word of God.
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Some years ago, Paula was spotted leaving a Rome hotel with tele-fraud and faith healer Benny Hinn. They denied a romantic relationship and their parishioners were assured that any time their shepherds spent on their knees was devotional. Here is Hinn’s schtick. Personally, I’ve always thought Ted Cruz or Trump should try the white suit. It would fit perfectly:
Franklin Graham dishonors his father’s legacy and memory with each faithless hour of his corrupted life and witness. He is a man who loves political power above all things, and has been a useful tool for the extremist political movement led by Trump.
Graham is a divider whose rants are pure bigotry, dressed up as the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let’s compare the two:
Here is Jesus and “The Sermon on the Mount:”
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons[a] of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Here is Franklin Graham:
Every Muslim that comes into this country has the potential to be radicalized — and they do their killing to honor their religion and Muhammad. During World War 2, we didn’t allow Japanese to immigrate to America, nor did we allow Germans. Why are we allowing Muslims now?
Here is a great summation from GLAAD about his anti gay bigotry.
Graham loves Donald Trump. In fact, he has repeatedly compared Christ to Trump, and blasted all criticism of Trump as demonic. Author Eric Metaxas, who “lamented those who question the idea that Trump was ordained for the presidency of God,” said the following in a Washington Post article from 2019:
The idea that Trump was heaven-sent has come with harsh criticism of those who do not support his leadership. In a conversation Thursday in which evangelist Franklin Graham suggested that criticism of Trump was coming from “a demonic power.”
These people are nuts and frauds, and they have well-earned the contempt of millions of Americans who see them as such. They are appalling people. It is no surprise that Donald Trump loves them back. They are each others’ golden calf.
Lastly, the idea that America was “made great” by Donald Trump is a narcissistic fantasy from Donald’s small and wretched imagination. It is the dogma of a disorderd mind made more needy by the endless sycophancy and corruption that feeds his brittle ego. He may believe it, but the truth is that the belief is a bad joke. He was the worst president in American history, and stands as a singular marker of national decay and rot.
Donald Trump is the greatest con man in American history. His answer showed you why. There is a name for the people who don’t understand what I’m talking about. They are called “marks.”
Don’t be a mark for hustlers like these.
On the podcast this week, I sat down with Fred Guttenberg, who lost his daughter Jaime in the Parkland shooting, to share his disappointing interactions with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Marco Rubio. Here is a brief clip from that conversation, where he speaks about his experience with them as people, lessons he learned from his first foray into politics with DeSantis and Rubio, and what he would have done differently:
If you’d like to listen to the full conversation, please consider becoming a premium podcast subscriber, which you can do here.
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