Tag Archives: Biden

Pardon Me ….

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I have had a belly full of “journalists,” “pundits” and “opinion writers” whining about Joe Biden’s pardoning of family members in the closing hours of his presidential administration. I have not read Jake Tapper’s book and never will. But every time I see a reference to Trump’s pardoning of the January 6 insurrectionists he directed to attack the Capitol in pursuit of a false narrative about the 2020 election, I see a reference to Biden’s pardon and how “history” will judge him poorly for doing it. Virtually everyone who addresses the pardon issue (Trump has now pardoned over 1,500 people, I have read, and more are in the pipeline as the payoffs keep coming) seems to feel they have to compare Biden’s family pardons to what Trump is doing.

What did they expect Biden to do? It was a no-win situation. He knew that Trump had vowed revenge against him and his family for the investigations that Trump still whines about. Should Biden have left his family to their fate at the hands of a lunatic bent on revenge and any form of pay-back he could produce? I think not. If Biden had abandoned his family to Trump’s revenge, what would the pundits have said then?

And we see this playing out as could be expected. Reuters reports “Ed Martin, the Justice Department’s pardon attorney, wrote in an email seen by Reuters that the investigation involves whether Biden “was competent and whether others were taking advantage of him through use of AutoPen or other means.” https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-justice-department-examining-pardons-issued-by-biden-2025-06-02/ This will ultimately be a futile quest to exact revenge on Biden and his family, but that has never stopped Trump from trying. Trump sees the Department of Justice as his personal law firm. The Supreme Court has essentially ratified that idea in its immunity decision.

It’s clear to me at least that Biden foresaw correctly what Trump was likely to do. Rather than leave his family at the mercy of a revenge-obsessed Trump who is still rage-tweeting his claims to have won the 2020 election, Biden chose to protect his family. I see no fault in this. He had a difficult choice to make and made it. Surely the pundits can find something else to whine about.

 

The Nauseating Descent of Mainstream Media

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[+Homage to Harry Litman]

This is not how I had planned to spend this day, but I can be silent no longer. This morning I read the latest USAToday hit-piece on President Biden’s decision to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, to protect him from the vengeance that has been promised by the incoming Trump administration and the compliant Supreme Court that has granted the President of the United States king status, free of criminal responsibility to pervert the Department of Justice to serve the personal goals of the president rather than do its statutory jobs with political neutrality.

I have stated previously my belief that the media’s obeisance to Trump will cost it, and the country, dearly. Now, we see plainly the media doing exactly what experts in authoritarianism, like Yale Professor Timothy Snyder, have repeatedly warned against – obeying in advance. If they believe that someone of Trump’s ilk is going to give them credit for this, they are ignoring the lessons of history and will come, too late, to regret their cowardice.

I subtitled this piece regarding Harry Litman, who, after starting to write, I chanced to discover had resigned from the Los Angeles Times in protest to the editorial interference of its billionaire owner and Trump supporter. For those interested, Mr. Litman’s statement can be read here:

https://open.substack.com/pub/harrylitman/p/why-i-just-resigned-from-the-los?r=4gbf6r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Everyone should read it.

Returning to my own thoughts inspired by USAToday’s attack on Biden, the title implies there is a “debate” over Biden’s legacy resulting entirely from his “broken promise” not to pardon his son. To clarify, the author, Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is, as near as I can tell, not a relation to Vivek Ramaswamy, the Trump bootlicker of same last name. An odd coincidence, but there it is.

 The article notes that “The backlash against the 82-year-old lame-duck chief executive was predictable, swift and bipartisan,” implying the criticism is justified and widespread. The first “authority” cited is Marjorie Taylor Greene, Congressthing from Georgia, famous for belief in QAnon and other phantasmagorical conspiracy theories, screamer during Biden’s SOTU speeches, supporter of Matt Gaetz, and, well, you probably know the rest.

But, as if there were no history, notable Democrats have also jumped on the “let’s self-immolate” bandwagon. Adam Schiff is cited, claiming “It sets a bad precedent.”

Ramaswamy goes on to note that Biden’s pardon has “precedent-setting nature” that “could shape how he is remembered for years to come” because, according to Douglas Brinkley, presidential historian and professor of history at Rice University, he said he wouldn’t do it and “There’s nothing positive about it.”

There are plenty of positive aspects to it, to which I will return after I finish excoriating this execrable piece of journalistic nonsense. The author, for example, claims that virtually universal condemnation of Biden’s about-face on the pardon “make clear that his legacy will be defined by his two sons – and his nemesis Donald Trump, whose two nonconsecutive terms as president will serve as bookends to Biden’s single term in office.”

I suggest, with full disrespect, that Ms. Ramaswamy and the USAToday editors need to read some more history. And, after noting that Biden stepped in after the catastrophic failure of Trump’s administration to effectively deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, promising to and “mobilizing vaccination shots and instituting an unpopular mask mandate. Over time, COVID deaths declined, Biden lifted the mask mandate, and Americans went on with their lives.”

But that apparently counts for nothing because “Biden’s presidency also was at times rocked by turmoil. Inflation rose to a 40-year high [not plausibly charged to Biden], 13 soldiers died during the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan [a deal made by Trump], migrants poured into the country illegally along the southern border [Trump stopped the bipartisan deal to address this], and wars in Ukraine [Putin, Trump’s idol, started that war, not Biden] and the Gaza Strip [chargeable to Biden, really???] “tested the nation’s influence on the world stage.”

Well now, considering that Trump’s legendary ignorance and refusal to learn about foreign affairs, almost certain conspiracy with Russia to get elected and with whom he treasonously shared U.S. state secrets, any testing of the nation’s influence, if chargeable to anyone, is chargeable to Trump. And, to quote from the line in Natural Born Killers (movie), “you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

The author’s bias is further evident in the claim that Kamala Harris’ loss to Trump dealt a “serious blow to Biden and his legacy since many of his accomplishments in office will almost certainly be wiped out by Trump when he returns to the White House in January.”

The reality is that history, if there is any after Trump’s presidency, will condemn Trump’s legacy for destroying the progress made under Biden’s presidency. If you don’t know about the American economy under Biden, you haven’t been paying attention. If you don’t realize what a bunch of losers and lunatics Trump is proposing to populate his cabinet and bring down the federal government, you understand nothing about how this country is governed.

It’s more than a little curious that a historian like Douglas Brinkley is so quick to make sweeping interpretations of current affairs when historians have always warned us against premature judgments about historical realities. Maybe he just likes seeing his name in the media. Equally disturbing in a piece of this nature, is the author’s observation, delivered without context, that Trump’s “attempts to pressure Ukraine into investigating Joe and Hunter Biden resulted in his first impeachment, which ended in a Senate acquittal.”

Yes, Trump was acquitted but he wasn’t found “not guilty” of the acts he obviously took (it’s on the tapes and everyone with a functioning mind knows what he did); he was “acquitted” because the Republicans in the U.S. Senate refused to do their duty, refused to hear evidence or witnesses of Trump’s traitorous conduct because they feared his vulgar retributive response. The author ignores those facts because they conflict with the narrative flow and, besides, Trump would not approve.

Finally, the author gets around to the reality of the Hunter Biden situation. Quoting the ever-quotable historian Brinkley:

If it had been a different type of Republican being inaugurated president in January, Biden may have thought twice. But the thought of Trump in the end having control over his son’s future in a federal prison was a bridge too far.

Indeed. Imagine that Joe Biden leaves office with his son exposed to Trump’s promise revenge along with the useless space-occupying Congressman Comer also promising to continue pursuing Hunter after years of fruitless and costly investigations into the Biden family. Republicans smell blood in the water and like the sharks they are, figured Hunter was an easy target once Joe Biden was out of the way. What would be said about Biden then? That he failed to protect his family in the face of multiple overt threats by Trump and his vengeance army? That he was a “bad father?” Worse?

Nevertheless, Ramaswamy persists with a roundup of Democrats eager to get their names in the press by criticizing Biden’s decision to protect his son, including Sen. Michael Bennett, D-Colo and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash.

Finally, the author notes, without acknowledgment, that her earlier statement about the “unprecedented” nature of the Biden pardon was exaggerated if not outright false:

…many [presidents], like Biden, have faced criticism for how they’ve used that power. Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon probably cost him a second term. Bill Clinton was pilloried for granting a series of pardons in his final hours in office, including one for his brother Roger Clinton, who had been convicted of selling cocaine to an undercover police officer. Trump pardoned dozens of people during his first term, including his son-in-law’s father and some of his closest allies who were convicted of crimes ranging from financial fraud to witness tampering and more.

Ah, but Ramaswamy notes that “Biden … is the first president to pardon one of his children” while dragging into the story the unnecessary criticism of a Trump-appointed judge who gratuitously offers his judgment that “nowhere does the Constitution give the President the authority to rewrite history.” Another example of a Trump-appointed judge speaking about a political matter that is none of his business. Maybe he’s looking for a Trump appointment to a higher court. We’ll know soon perhaps.

Finally, Ramaswamy drags in Melissa DeRosa, identified as a “Democratic strategist and author” bitching that Biden’s protection of his son from the promised vengeance of Donald Trump and his army of mindless sycophants was somehow going to contribute to the further splintering of the Democratic Party. Until now I though Ms. DeRosa was bright and committed to the country’s welfare. She was the “right hand” to Governor Cuomo during the pandemic that rages through New York in 2020, killing tens of thousands. Cuomo, you will recall, was forced to resign in the face of accusations of sexual misconduct, about which one hopes Ms. DeRosa was ignorant. Why she would choose now to say that Biden’s decision to protect his son against Trump creates questions Joe’s standing as an “honorable man with integrity” is beyond my ability to understand.

You might think from all this that Joe Biden acted arbitrarily to free his son of the potential consequences of an objective, independent prosecution directed by politically neutral law enforcement. In fact, however, the reality is that Trump has sworn vengeance against Joe Biden and his family. Anyone with a reasonably objective mind should be able to understand that the President had good reason to protect his son from what Trump credibly promised.

As Harry Litman noted in his resignation announcement cited at the outset of this post, Trump is exactly what you see. With the help of his appointed judges, the inexplicable reticence of Attorney General Garland, and the unprecedented interference of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Trump-appointed majority, Donald Trump has escaped accountability for his many crimes before and during his presidential terms. Now that he has been given a free hand to exact retribution against his perceived enemies, he has made clear his determination to use that power to the fullest.

Given that reality, I salute Joe Biden for protecting his family to the extent he can by using the power the Constitution gives him (no exceptions for President’s family members and plenty of precedent). There was no reason for Biden to leave his son at the mercy of a criminal like Donald Trump so his “legacy” could remain untouched. Like all presidents, who occupy the most difficult job in the world, there are many grounds for criticism for those who never stood in his shoes. In my book, Joe Biden has no reason to be concerned about how history will judge him in relation to his predecessors and successors. He has much to brag about, and his decision to protect his son is among those difficult decisions of which he should be most proud.

 

 

 

Woodward Nails It

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Disclosure: Bob Woodward and I knew each other in college, a long time ago. He was in the class behind me. We were friends then, and I still consider him one. We do not, however, socialize or otherwise see each other on a planned basis. This has been true since we talked occasionally during the Watergate crisis. He once generously referred to me as an advisor. I don’t know about that, but I do have high regard for his achievements as a consistent and reliable reporter on the inside stories of Washington into which he has had unique access and insight over many years and 23 books. If I have criticized (rarely) some of his conclusions, I have never questioned his commitment to truth as best he could discern it, a challenging undertaking in a place like Washington. One doesn’t earn two Pulitzer Prizes for fake news.

I have just finished War, his latest. As I read the book’s treatment of two international crises during the Biden administration (the latest and ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023), my first thought was how vivid was the portrayal of the complexity and stress of the nation’s international relations. The step-by-step negotiations, the dissembling, the uncertainty, the constant risk of escalation to unthinkable disaster – all of it — is laid out in remarkable detail.

The other main thought was how masterful Joe Biden was as leader of the United States’ response to these astonishing complex and fraught situations, while Donald Trump was violating US law by interfering in negotiations to enhance his status as an international king-maker. Biden’s constant masterful probing for pathways to success, considering options for de-escalation, serving as a calming influence while influencing often hostile nations to consider options to avoid calamity was extraordinary to observe.

Woodward’s ultimate conclusions bear repeating, but everyone should read this book, War, to get deep insight into how diplomacy is conducted and how difficult and fraught every interaction can be when lives are on the line. In those details is the ultimate proof of why the presidency should never be entrusted to Donald Trump again.

Woodward quotes Jake Sullivan’s assessment that seems exactly right:

The president has essentially created the necessary permission structure for sustained American support to Ukraine…. Would there be a war in Ukraine today if Trump were president? I would say probably not. Why? There’d be no war because Putin would be in Kyiv…. Trump would have waved him right in. Because when it comes to these dictators, Trump’s basic view: I let them do what they want….

The legacy of the Biden presidency will be the core national security team that he built and kept in place for nearly four years. They brought decades of experience as well as basic human decency. War shows the traditional and novel ways Biden and his core team pursued an intelligence-driven foreign policy to warn the world that war was coming in Ukraine, to supply Ukraine with the weapons they need to defend themselves against Russia, and to try to tamp down escalations in the Israel-Gaza war.

The real conclusion comes from Woodward himself, just before the end of the book:

Trump’s war was the coronavirus pandemic and his performance revealed his character. These interviews showed a man with no fidelity to the truth, fixated on re-election and unequipped to deal with a genuine crisis.

Trump was warned by his national security advisers that the virus was deadly and a major threat to the country but he never developed a plan to respond. He did not know how to use his extraordinary executive power to prioritize saving American lives. Through defiant pronouncements, he downplayed and deflected any responsibility for handling it. There was no compassion. No courage….

I once asked Trump, “What’s the job of the president?” He said, “To protect the people.”

It’s a good answer, but Trump failed to do it.

And then:

Donald Trump is not only the wrong man for the presidency, he is unfit to lead the country. Trump was far worse than Richard Nixon, the provably criminal president. As I have pointed out, Trump governed by fear and rage. And indifference to the public and national interest.

Trump was the most reckless and impulsive president in American history and is demonstrating the very same character as a presidential candidate in 2024.

Add to that the recent New York Times Editorial Board’s assessment:

Nothing Has Changed – Don’t Be Misled by the Republican Political Theater

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Make no mistake Someone apparently tried to shoot Trump. I say ‘apparently’ because based on the evidence disclosed thus far, it is equally possible that the shooter intended only to frighten him or that the real target was the audience. While the shooter has much in common with the typical mass-murderer of school children (a youngish white male, a loner bullied in school), he was reportedly a registered Republican. His father also an avid Republican, Trump supporter and, of course, deep fan of guns – it was reportedly his gun that his son used.

In saying that, I do not subscribe to the conspiracy theories unsurprisingly circulating on social media that the entire event was staged in light of the imminent Republican National Convention, etc. One man, a father and firefighter, was killed in the incident and two other spectators were severely injured. An AR-15 bullet will do that, as we have learned to our deep sorrow from the many school shootings in which such weapons were used.

Not that Trump cared about anyone but himself. Reports indicate he has never reached out to the families of the man killed or of those wounded. President Biden did and was rebuffed by the widow who claimed her husband was so devoted to Trump that he would not have wanted her to accept the President’s condolences. That’s where we are.

Trump played golf, apparently not much unnerved by his alleged brush with death. Curious but given his past, not altogether surprising. To repeat, on the basis of known evidence so far, I do not subscribe to the claim that the entire affair was staged. The shooter was also killed. On the other hand, many mass shooters fully expect to die in the process.

I understand there are many unanswered questions. In time I expect there will be more clarity around why there has been no medical report on the nature and extent of the injury to Trump’s ear, and there are no authentic medical reports on the treatment he received. Why did Trump finally appear with a very large white bandage over the affected ear? There are reports indicating that he may not have been hit by a bullet at all but that his ear was damaged by a piece of the teleprompter that was shattered by a bullet. Strange but … not proof of the staging argument.

Also, there is no proof that this was in fact an “attempted assassination,” as the press has universally accepted without evidence of anything but an alleged nicked ear. There will be investigations and reports. Perhaps then there will be clarity about these and other questions begging for answers. Other than glorying in the additional attention he is receiving, and constantly craves, there is little if any real evidence that he came within an inch of being killed.

Meanwhile, everyone should calm down. A man is dead. The shooter is dead. Two people are hospitalized with undetailed but likely devastating wounds from the AR-15 bullets.

That said, the Republicans reacted true to form, blaming Democrats for “demonizing” Trump and thus inviting disaster. Naturally, those Republican sycophants ignored their consistent refusal to consider any meaningful restraints on ownership of automatic weapons. The NRA and their devotion to a strained interpretation of the Second Amendment were also ignored. Typical. One Republican claimed that President Biden had ordered the “hit” on Trump. Thoughts and prayers on that one. Republican Trump-worshippers remain among the worst, the most appalling Americans alive today.

Meanwhile, the Democrats were busy decrying violence in our political affairs and urging “unity.” Of course. Thoughts and prayers on that one too. The media also have been hysterical in their response to the incident, reporting as fact numerous matters about which they have no reliable evidence. It’s déjà vu all over again.

The reality is that Trump demonized himself. Here is a very brief sample of how he did that:

Trump’s immigration “policy” led to separating hundreds of children from their parents, in some cases apparently permanently, and locking them in cages. A perfect prescription for creating future terrorists who will never forget what was done to their families in the name of the United States of America. [See Who Will Punish Trump Administration Crimes Against Humanity?

Trump lied grotesquely and repeatedly about the COVID pandemic, promoting quack-sourced non-scientific remedies, repeatedly reassuring the country that the pandemic would end shortly with little impact. In fact, more than a million Americans died from COVID, and the damage continues. [See The Triumph of Hope Over Experience?]

Trump tried to use a foreign government to undermine his 2020 political opponent’s campaign, was impeached (twice) and acquitted only because his Republican sycophants in the Senate refused to hear the evidence and did not care what he did. Trump committed many other crimes in office. [See … A Man Unacquainted With Honor, Courage, And Character …. and Donald Trump — A Gangster in the White House]

When he left the White House, Trump took top secret documents with him and when this was discovered and the Archives demanded they be returned, he lied about them, refused to return them, hid them and engaged in other clear acts of obstruction of justice, adding to the ten that Robert Mueller’s investigation uncovered.

Trump has been found guilty by a criminal jury of fraud – 34 felonies. Not to mention the judicial determinations that he raped at least one woman.

There are dozens, likely hundreds of other examples, including many not revealed because Trump routinely destroyed documents that were supposed to be retained as official records of the Office of the President. But Trump never cared about that Office or his oath. His presidency was an occasion only to further enrich himself.

The mainstream media have apparently lost their minds entirely. The New York Times decided Joe Biden should drop out of the 2024 race solely due to his terrible debate performance, without mentioning anything about Trump. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has conferred upon the President the absolute and unchallengeable power to commit crimes in office, even to the point of purloining the Department of Justice, among other agencies, to overthrow the presidential election of the very government the Court claimed it was protecting. In a bizarre twist of logic, the Court, claiming to prevent inter-presidential revenge-taking, gave the President the power to remain “king of America” for life and to appoint his successor. If the Biden administration doesn’t do something drastic about the Trump immunity decision, democracy in America will end with the next election if Trump wins. Imagine thereafter Trump’s son, Donald Junior, as President. It’s no joke.

The perfidy of the Supreme Court is not limited to the immunity question. Justice Thomas, bought and paid for by secret gifts from a billionaire Republican “friend,” wrote a concurring opinion on an issue not before the Court in the Trump immunity case. Thomas declared that the appointment of Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, had been unconstitutional and therefore that the criminal cases against Trump at Smith’s behest could not stand. And, dutifully attendant to Trump’s needs as always, after endless delaying tactics but in practically no time after the filing of the then-inevitable motions to dismiss the stolen secret documents case, Trump’s judge-in-his-pocket, Aileen Cannon produced a 93-page opinion dismissing the document theft charges.

Now the New York Times apparently has awakened, at least partially, and produced in the last Sunday Times a special section entitled:  He Failed the Tests of Leadership and Betrayed America. Voters Must Reject Him in November: Donald Trump is Unfit to Lead.

So obviously true and yet, maybe too little too late. This was before the shooting. Trump has now selected one of the most despicable human beings in America to run with his as his Vice President: J.D. Vance. And while the Times on the same day recounts in detail the efforts of Republican functionaries around the country to suppress the votes of Democrats, it still plays the both-sides game in giving uncritical attention to the views of Trump’s most dedicated supporters in Congress and elsewhere.

The Supreme Court has unleashed the dogs of war by purporting to empower the President to violate the law with impunity. Joe Biden has many critical decisions to make if democracy is to be save from the very brink of destruction. The media also must choose now. There is no question left about the intention of the Republican Party to promote Donald Trump’s fascism until it has destroyed American democracy as it has existed since 1787.

I have read suggestions that Arabs and Muslims in Michigan, for one example, will not vote for Biden because of his support of Israel in the ongoing conflict with Hamas. I asked whether those single-issue voters have forgotten that Trump, immediately after taking office, imposed a ban on Muslims coming into the United States, labeling them all as potential terrorists. How many times must the lesson be learned that Donald Trump is no one’s friend, no one’s ally – he’s in politics for himself and his family alone. How many times?

The countdown clock is ticking to doomsday. Everything is on the line.

Sources: Who Will Punish Trump Administration Crimes Against Humanity? https://shiningseausa.com/2020/02/23/who-will-punish-trump-administration-crimes-against-humanity/

    The Triumph of Hope Over Experience?  https://shiningseausa.com/2022/02/26/triumph-hope-over-experience/

    … A Man Unacquainted With Honor, Courage, And Character …. https://shiningseausa.com/2024/02/06/man-unacquainted-with-honor-courage-and-character/

    Donald Trump — A Gangster in the White House https://shiningseausa.com/2022/04/11/donald-trump-a-gangster-in-the-white-house/

Project 2025 – The Republican Doomsday Scenario – Part 1

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Departing from their practice in 2020 when the Republican Party declined to publish a platform other than “whatever Trump wants,” the Party of No is working from a massive 887-page document entitled, “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” also known as Project 2025, Presidential Transition Project.

While the document goes to some lengths to share the “credit” for its creation with multiple “conservative” sources, make no mistake: the Heritage Foundation is the root of this poisonous tree. The copyright to the document is owned by the Heritage Foundation alone. Out of 36 authors and editors listed, 28 have Heritage or Trump administration credentials, as do many of the “contributors.” The Advisory Board is a Who’s Who of right-wing groups with misleading names like Alliance Defending Freedom, American Center for Law and Justice, Center for Equal Opportunity, and Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

The silliest part of this document is the claim that “Indeed, one set of eyes reading these passages will be those of the 47th President of the United States” an obvious reference to Donald Trump. It is widely known that Trump doesn’t read much of anything, certainly not a dense 887-page treatise on the details of government. And don’t forget that Trump believes that as President under Article II of the Constitution, “I can do whatever I want.”

But if Trump could write more than just his name, he might well have produced much of this “plan.” It’s full of hysterical and anti-historical rhetorical nonsense about government “dishonesty and corruption,” a mythical “ruling and cultural elite,” “toxic normalization of transgender­ism with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries,” and “globalist elites in Washington” ignoring the looming threat of China and the imminent peril to the “very moral foundations of our society.” Oh, and the conservative concerns are also based on the claim that “The long march of cultural Marxism through our institutions has come to pass.”

The proverbial pot has called the proverbial kettle black.

We somehow missed the descent of the United States into a roiling hellscape while distracted by these “inconvenient facts:”

  1. Airports are mobbed with travelers taking trips for pleasure and business. For past three months, travel agency sold-passenger trips are up 6.53% year-over-year; domestic trips are up 9.58% YOY and international trips up 1.71% YOY;
  2. The U.S. enjoys a “roaring economy with an unemployment rate that has just last month ticked up to 4% after 27 months below that number, with wages growing faster than the inflation that plagued the U.S.—and the world—after the pandemic eased. The highest wage growth has gone to the lowest earners, helping to cut the nation’s extreme wealth inequality;”
  3. “… the Bureau of Labor Statistics … released another blockbuster jobs report. The country added 272,000 jobs in May, far higher than the 180,000 jobs economists predicted. A widespread range of sectors added new jobs, including health care, government, leisure and hospitality, and professional, scientific, and technical services. Wages are also up. Over the past year, average hourly earnings have grown 4.1%, higher than the rate of inflation, which was 3.4% over the same period.” “ the FBI … released a report showing that violent crime in fact dropped by more than 15% in the U.S. during the first three months of 2024;”
  4. “In November 2021, Biden signed into law the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. In June 2022 … the Safer Communities Act, a gun safety law. In August 2022 he signed into law the CHIPS and Science Act that invested billions in semiconductor manufacturing and science, and the Inflation Reduction Act that provided record funding for addressing climate change and permitted Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over drug prices.”
  5. “Total U.S. vehicle sales of 6,548,694 units for the first five months of 2024 represent a5% increase from the same period in 2023.”
  6. “The restaurant and foodservice industry will continue to grow in 2024. Sales are forecast to top $1 trillion for the first time in history, and the nation’s second-largest private sector employer is on track to add 200,000 jobs, pushing total employment to 15.7 million people …. 45% of operators need more employees to meet customer demand.”

I could go on with many other citations to facts about the bustling U.S. economy but the point is made. Project 2025, like most of Trump’s and Republicans’ indictments of the United States is based on a fantasy, a gross distortion of reality by a political party with nothing constructive to say.

Unfortunately for the country, including the people being fooled by the Trump/Republican scam, the results of the Project 2025 agenda will be catastrophic. Details in the follow-up posts in this series.

Sources: https://www2.arccorp.com/articles-trends/sales-statistics?utm_source=homepage-card

   Heather Cox Richardson Letters from an American: June 7, 10 & 11, 2024

   https://www.marklines.com/en/statistics/flash_sales/automotive-sales-in-usa-by- month

https://restaurant.org/research-and-media/research/research-reports/state-of-the-industry/#:~:text=Sales%20are%20up%3A%20The%20foodservice,employees%20to%20meet%20customer%20demand

President Biden Should Address the Nation

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I write to urge Joe Biden, President of the United States, to appear on national television and address the nation regarding the collapse of the House of Representatives as a functioning legislative body.

The House of Representatives is essential to the development and passage of legislation that is essential to national security, financing the government, and a multitude of political, economic, and social services on which the country, and many parts of the world, depend. It is now clear that the House as a functional half of the Legislative third of the Constitution’s three central elements is no longer functional as a small minority of elected officials, most of whom supported the overthrow of the government on January 6, 2021, now answer to an unelected person who has made clear his determination to return to the presidency and dismantle the federal government.

Most “educated” Americans are aware that the U.S. Constitution sets up a tripartite arrangement of government authority such that each of the three parts operates as a check against the others. The constitutional Framers did not, however, understand the role that political parties would come to play within that system.

As best we can tell from the historical records, the Framers believed the checks and balances established in the Constitution among the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches would over the long haul produce outcomes that reflected the ‘will of the people.’ The basic idea was that the will of the majority would control outcomes, but protections for the minority position were built in as well, especially through the series of amendments in the Bill of Rights and others later.

Part of the success was dependent upon the Fourth Estate – the free press that was watching everything and sharing factual information (including information the politicians wanted to keep secret) to help the voters to exercise their ultimate control over who was placed in positions of power in the tripartite system.

It was in many ways a brilliant arrangement that has stood the test of time most of the time, including even the development of political parties. It has withstood demagoguery, treachery, treason, and, yes, even ignorance. It has so far withstood the emergence of the Fifth Estate, defined roughly as “groupings of outlier viewpoints in contemporary society … most associated with bloggers, journalists publishing in non-mainstream media outlets, and the social media.”https://tinyurl.com/4e7bsxjv

To be sure there are cracks in the edifice, but cracks have appeared, and been filled, many times since the ratification in 1787. The Civil War comes to mind, among others. The system has flaws, of course; it is a complex and novel system created by humans who had limited knowledge of science and who were focused on creating a national legal regime that would never again depend upon an autocrat, a king or king-like person, as ruler. The resulting government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” has performed miracles and also perpetrated outrages such as the near-extermination of the Indigenous Tribes that occupied the contingent for centuries before Europeans discovered it. The new system also failed to deal effectively with slavery and paid a dear price for that mistake. Again, the Civil War leaps to mind. We are still plagued with the consequences of the powerful tribalism that determines so much of our national and local policy today. Whether and how we can resolve those issues is beyond my understanding.

Now, however, a new and existentially dangerous phenomenon has emerged. The evidence is everywhere, all day every day, as the news media perpetuate through breathless coverage every inane and insane utterance from the mouth of Donald Trump and the politicians who sustain him. The evidence also may be found in the stunning reality of Trump’s indictments in four cases:

As of March 2024, Donald Trump has been personally charged with 88 criminal offenses in four criminal cases. This total reflects charges related to Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, election interference in Georgia, falsifying business records in New York, and mishandling classified records after leaving the presidency. Donald Trump is the first former president in U.S. history to be criminally indicted.https://tinyurl.com/5ekhak9c

Trump is now acting as dictator to the House of Representatives whose far-right wing members actively support his every wish. The current Speaker has decided that obeying Trump is his most important responsibility. Thus, matters of national security such as aid to Ukraine will not be voted on because Trump wants to help Vladimir Putin subjugate Ukraine in preparation for Russia’s moving against NATO countries whom Trump will also undermine.

It is the privilege, of course, for every member of Congress to vote as he/she chooses, if the constituents are willing to accept those decisions. But voting against something is far different than refusing to hold a vote at all. Speaker Johnson, doing the expressed will of Donald Trump, has refused to bring Ukraine aid legislation to a vote despite the opinion of all responsible U.S. national security and military authorities that such aid is now critical to Ukraine’s ability to withstand the Russian onslaught.

I am reminded of the decisions made by the United States during the early phases of World War II when Jewish refugees were turned away from our shores, sent back to be slaughtered by the Germans.

Donald Trump has never been elected to the House of Representatives but is now essentially in charge of its agenda. Action of the U.S. Congress to pass legislation requires the participation of the House as well as the Senate. Speaker Johnson has subordinated himself and the rest of the House to the will of Donald Trump, which is, I suggest, a blatant violation of Johnson’s oath of office:

I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

And there is this:

5 U.S. Code § 7311 – Loyalty and striking.

An individual may not accept or hold a position in the Government of the United States … if he—

(1) advocates the overthrow of our constitutional form of government;

(2) is a member of an organization that he knows advocates the overthrow of our constitutional form of government;

(3) participates in a strike, or asserts the right to strike, against the Government of the United States ….

There can be no serious argument that Russia is not an enemy of the United States. The actions, or inactions, of the Speaker and those who support him are, in my judgment, clear acts of treason against the United States.

In researching this post, I also found this:

The Speaker’s role as presiding officer is an impartial one, and his rulings serve to protect the rights of the minority.

[House Practice: A Guide to the Rules, Precedents and Procedures of the House; Chapter 34. Office of the Speaker, U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

That Guide [citations omitted] also contains these commands:

Many matters have been held to be beyond the scope of the Speaker’s responsibility under the rules. The Speaker does not:

Construe the legislative or legal effect of a pending measure   or comment on the merits thereof.

 Respond to hypothetical questions, render anticipatory rulings, or decide a question not directly presented by the  proceedings.

 Pass on the constitutional powers of the House, the constitutionality of House rules, or the constitutionality of  amendments offered to pending bills.

 Resolve questions on the consistency of an amendment with the measure to which it is offered, or with an amendment that already has been adopted, or on the consistency of proposed action with other acts of the House.

 Rule on the sufficiency or effect of committee reports or whether the committee has followed instructions.

 Rule on the propriety or expediency of a proposed course of action.  Construe the consequences of a pending vote.

You can form your own judgment whether the refusal to permit votes, and thereby deprive the House of its constitutional role in the government, is consistent with all those directives. No doubt Republicans will bellow that Democratic speakers have also violated these rules. If so, they were wrong too, but right now the problem is Speaker Johnson and his lord and master, Donald Trump.

It is time for President Biden to address this treachery to the nation. The government of the United States cannot function if the House simply refuses to take up critical legislation at the will of an unelected former president and a small minority of extremist legislators. It is time, past time, to call the question on these traitors.

Merrick Garland Should Resign

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Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Robert K. Hur to investigate and determine whether to prosecute President Biden for retaining in an unsecured manner confidential government documents during periods when he was not Vice President or President of the United States.

Mr. Hur is a very smart man with great intellectual and experiential credentials. The report issued is remarkable in its level of detail and thoroughness with which the investigation was conducted. I believe it reached the clearly correct conclusion in declining prosecution of Mr. Biden and his “ghostwriter” to whom some confidential information was provided during the writing of Mr. Biden’s books.

The problem traces to the fact that Mr. Hur was a Trump appointee during his prior service as the United States Attorney for Maryland, a position in which he served from 2018 to 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_K._Hur Why Garland chose him to lead the investigation of President Biden will probably remain a mystery.

What is clear is that Mr. Hur, in deciding that the evidence did not warrant prosecution, went out of his way to psychoanalyze Biden’s thought/emotional processes and, in the end, in an action reminiscent of James Comey’s decision to violate DOJ policy and knife Hillary Clinton in the back on the eve of the 2016 election, to comment on how Biden would come across in front of a jury. The basic idea was to present Biden as a kindly old man with a failing memory who would be seen as sympathetic by some or all the jurors who would, out of sympathy, acquit him of any criminal charges.

These comments were not necessary to the ultimate conclusions of the report. The evidence alone, combined with the historical practices of prior presidents and vice presidents, including the conservative icon, Ronald Reagan in particular, and the history of non-prosecution by DOJ, were sufficient to support the non-prosecution conclusion. But Mr. Hur took the opportunity to plunge a knife in Biden’s back anyway, suggesting that he had, deliberately or otherwise, presented himself as an “historic figure” and a “man of presidential timber” but also a man whose memory was “significantly limited” with “limited precision and recall” of the details of events many years in the past.

At trial, the report found, “Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Thus, the report concluded, it would be “difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties-of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”

Given the thoroughness of the document investigation, reported in hundreds of pages of intricate details, including photos of document containers and of Biden in meetings with various folders and documents present at his place (shocking!), the absence of evidence that any of the secret materials were ever disclosed to anyone from a foreign power or otherwise seen by anyone except the ghostwriter assisting Biden in preparing his book manuscripts, the evidence and the evidence alone was a sufficient basis for the declination to prosecute. Indeed, the report makes this point repeatedly. The observations about Biden’s view of himself in history and the suggestion that he would appear to a criminal jury as a kindly doddering old man were gratuitous and completely unnecessary to the critical findings of the investigation.

Mr. Hur cannot possibly be unaware of the hypocritical claims being relentlessly made by Republican supporters of Donald Trump, and by Trump himself, that President Biden is “over the hill” and not mentally competent to serve another term as President. Yet Hur volunteered both his psychoanalysis of what was motivating Biden through his long years of public service and his commentary about how Biden would likely appear to a jury if prosecuted, which, of course, the report found unjustified.

I acknowledge that Hur drew a sharp distinction between President Biden’s response to the document investigation – full and immediate cooperation – with that of Donald Trump – resistance, lies, obstruction”

Most notably, after being given multiple chances to return classified documents and avoid prosecution, Mr. Trump allegedly did the opposite. According to the indictment, he not only refused to return the documents for many months, but he also obstructed justice by enlisting others to destroy evidence and then to lie about it. In contrast, Mr. Biden turned in classified documents to the National Archives and the Department of Justice, consented to the search of multiple locations including his homes, sat for a voluntary interview. and in other ways cooperated with the investigation.

That brief admission that Biden handled the investigation appropriately in contrast to Donald Trump does not overcome the gratuitous and disingenuous undermining of Biden, given Hur’s presumptive awareness of the currency of the issue in the political arena.

In the circumstances, Mr. Hur’s treatment of Biden’s alleged mental state is grotesquely political. The inclusion of those observations in the report will play out however it does. But Merrick Garland appointed him and enabled this repeat of the Comey experience to undermine another Democratic candidate for president.

Garland bears the ultimate responsibility for this situation and should resign now. He permitted Hur to “weaponize” the investigation into a political attack on President Biden that is enabling paroxysmal enthusiasm among the fascists supporting Trump, characterized as a “political nightmare” and “political disaster” by USAToday. http://tinyurl.com/57hzncsh

Garland diddled around with the Trump insurrection case, resulting in delays that may lead to the 2024 election being held before Trump is tried for public conduct in January 2021, an unconscionable failure. Now this.

It’s time for a new Attorney General.

 

 

 

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane … It’s ????

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In its continuing quest to out-stupid Fox News, CNN has published a rambling collection of actual and implied attacks on the U.S. government regarding the shooting down of four “things” by U.S. fighter jets under the direction of our Commander in Chief, the President of the United States. https://cnn.it/3lw7wGi

One “thing” has been identified as a Chinese surveillance balloon. The other three remain UFOs. OMG!!!! UFOs! In American airspace. Say it ain’t so, Joe.

The CNN headline says the “trio of new intrusions leaves America’s leaders grasping for explanations.” Grasping. Well, maybe. Or maybe, just maybe, the people we entrust with our safety against foreign forces of darkness and evil have decided it’s smarter to not be talking too much until they know more, by, for example, retrieving and examining the wreckage of these “alien” craft.

But we can clear up a few points right off the bat. If these three UFOs are genuine alien craft, do we really believe it would be so simple a matter as to send up a few fighters to blow them out of the sky? If it is that simple, and they are aliens visiting Earth for surveillance, is this a version of intergalactic “rope-a-dope” in which they let us shoot down these useless devices to “see what we’ve got” while we punch ourselves out” and then they swoop in and take over the planet? Has Marjorie Taylor Greene talked to QAnon and gotten the inside skinny on this, fed it to CNN and, well, go there if you like.

CNN says,

A deepening national security mystery is threatening a political storm after US fighter jets scrambled three days in a row to shoot down a trio of unidentified aerial objects high over the North American continent….the thin details trickling out of the Pentagon and Capitol Hill about are making an already highly unusual international episode even more bizarre and confusing.

Naturally, Republicans are using the situation, CNN calls it “an information vacuum,” to attack President Biden. CNN notes the “intrigue” ,,, unfolding against a tense global situation” which, if given a moment of sober thought, might explain why the administration is reticent to just start throwing around explanations and accusations in an evolving and potentially dangerous situation. Even putative Democrats like Jon Tester of Montana (yes, there) could not contain himself:

The military needs to have a plan to not only determine what’s out there, but (to) determine the dangers that go with it.

Fantastic. Why do we assume our military, the largest and most expensive in the world by far, does not have a plan? Because they aren’t revealing it to the entire world? Is there a coherent military person or other serious thinker who thinks it’s a good idea for the military, faced with a possible threat, to race out with details of its defensive plans so that the party(ies) behind the threat will learn the plan? Anyone think that’s a good idea? Anyone?

Orson Welles, where are you when we need you?

Well, we have CNN:

It’s not normal for Americans to settle down for the Super Bowl with their president firing off orders to blast unknown objects out of the North American sky.

Yes, we certainly don’t want Americans’ Super Bowl experience to be infringed by the War of the Worlds. CNN, always ready to help us understand current events, and undeterred by the possibility of unnerving Super Bowl fans, raises the specter of questions that remain unanswered but loom over us like a brooding omnipresence potentially ready at any moment to destroy the United States or indeed the entire world:

  • “Are the latest incidents linked in any way to Beijing’s espionage program described by the administration after the shooting down of the Chinese balloon and other reported crossings of other balloons over US territory? Any indication of successive Chinese breaches of US airspace would mark a serious twist in US-China relations already tested by a belligerent Beijing at what may be the start of a 21st century Cold War.
  • … are the latest strange objects flying over North America linked to some other hostile power or group, corporate or private entity? Are they even connected to one another or are they simply the result of coincidences at a time of heightened awareness and tensions?
  • If the latter situation is the case, is NORAD now picking up more objects that are potentially hostile given a state of heightened alert after the Chinese balloon crisis? If the objects are suspicious is there a sudden spike in such flights or did such objects fly across the continent with impunity in the past? Given the already increased threat to civilian aircraft – for instance from more low flying drones – is this a new problem that that should concern the aviation industry?
  • Finally, what is the political impact of this string of incidents. Biden was criticized by Republicansfor citing the possibility of injury to civilians or damage to buildings on the ground for waiting so long to shoot down the Chinese balloon earlier this month.”

Can you imagine the Republicans’ hysterical reaction if Biden had ordered an immediate take-down and Americans on the ground were hit by debris? And, what if the debris were alien in nature – a virus worse than COVID? Worse than the common cold? OMG!!! Alien debris. Run for your lives!

CNN then reveals that “The political blame game is heating up.” Well, that’s a shock. Can you imagine that Republicans would pass the opportunity to attack the President when matters of national security were at stake? You can’t because they never would.

Republicans, however, don’t really know what they want. GOP Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio (of course) objected on the one hand that the President “didn’t act quickly enough before” while simultaneously claiming the administration was “somewhat trigger-happy.” Then, to round out the complaints, CNN notes that China has claimed the U.S. had been flying “high-altitude balloons into its airspace more than 10 times since January 2022,” a charge the White House denied. [If it were true, do we seriously believe the U.S. would have admitted it?}

Finally, CNN joins the chorus by noting that Biden “has yet to speak to Americans in person about the trio of incidents over the weekend.” And it repeats, in case you forgot it, that Biden is under attack for waiting to shoot down the Chinese balloon while also noting that “New speculation and criticism could be premature as officials work to fully understand the sequence of events and more about the objects.”

On the other hand, CNN notes that It’s possible that “in a unique, fast-moving situation, the government may not know much more than it is saying.” But … “the piecemeal emergence of details is adding to the confusion.” On the other hand, on the other hand….

CNN wraps up with the Republican clincher:

Republican Rep. Matt Rosendale of Montana [again] appeared to make a direct link,,, between the Chinese balloon and the latest objects, even if there is no confirmation so far that they are connected.

It doesn’t give me much safe feelings knowing that these devices are smaller,” he said. “I am very concerned with the cumulative data that is being collected. … I need some answers, and the American people need answers.”

I can’t begin to tell you how concerned I am about the anxiety and lack of “safe feelings” being experienced by Republicans because mean old Joe Biden won’t tell them everything they want to know (if he did, they’d attack him for revealing too much).

“Such speculation may be premature, CNN acknowledges, “But fierce political debate over the balloon has clearly changed Biden’s tolerance threshold for unknown aerial objects. It’s now a case of shoot first, investigate later.”

Do you have a coherent idea what that means? In the context of the presence in U.S. airspace of unknown “flying objects,” it is particularly ridiculous. Do we really want the U.S. government to speculate about this situation? Would Republicans rather the U.S. investigate first or shoot first? Doesn’t seem like you can have it both ways.

As for me, we’re making plans to move to Area 51. If this really is aliens, that seems like the safest place to be.

Final Thoughts (Maybe) About the Republican “Performance” in the SOTU

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The New York Times published an interesting piece about the Republicans’ unprecedented outbursts during President Biden’s State of the Union address: Heckling of Biden Reflects a New, Coarser Normal for House G.O.P., https://nyti.ms/3Xq479c While it bore similarities to my own comments in The Barbarians Are Inside the Gate, it was a bit too abstract for my taste and replete with “both sides” implications, a now all-too-common trait of main stream media.

But what struck me most were the comments that gleefully recalled the moment when then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up Trump’s speech following one of his SOU addresses to Congress. In essence, those comments claimed that the obscene heckling of President Biden was justified by Pelosi’s previous conduct. What’s good for the goose, and all that. Hypocrisy, they say. You can’t have it both ways, they say.

I confess I didn’t read all the 666 comments the Times allowed before closing comments (a curious number, I note in passing – assess as you will), but of those I did read, not one noted the obvious difference between Pelosi’s demonstration of hostility to the then pretend president and the yelling and disruption that occurred during Biden’s speech.

I refer to the obvious fact that when Pelosi tore up Trump’s speech, Trump’s speech was over. He was finished talking. Should Pelosi have waited until Trump departed or until she was in the hall outside or called a press conference later to show her contempt? Maybe. But there is a fundamental difference between her post-speech demonstration and the multiple interruptions and crass behavior during the speech by members of the Republican Party. Her action did not disrupt Trump’s remarks, no matter how distasteful they were to her. The Republicans, on the other hand, did everything they could to disrupt and disorient the President. And they failed.

My final (maybe) observation: the writers at the New York Times, Washington Post and other newspapers that still claim to some degree of objectivity in matters political should stop calling these Republican Party louts “conservatives.” There is nothing “conservative” about most of them. They don’t just want less government; they want no government.

Just two days ago, Ted Cruz, officially the U.S. Senator from Texas, tweeted: “Abolish the IRS.” https://bit.ly/3Ih6PtCCruz is not the only Republican to advocate that. You may also recall that many other leading Republicans have advocated abolishing the Department of Education and other federal agencies, including Betsy DeVos, Trump’s Secretary of Education. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) introduced a bill in early 2021 with co-sponsors including (unsurprisingly) Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), to do that very thing.

To be clear, I for one believe the United States Tax Code is a monstrosity. One fine day, I plan to write about it in some detail. But the idea that we can in one swoop “simplify the Code” and then eliminate the IRS while still effectively collecting enough revenue to pay for the U.S. Miliary, among many other federal services that help assure this country’s safety and prosperity, is blatantly stupid.

The National Taxpayer Advocate did a Microsoft Word count of the tax statutes and implementing IRS regulations in 2012 and came up with roughly 4 million words. At roughly 450 words per page, that works out to around 9,000 pages. The National Taxpayer Advocate also noted that the tax code changed 4,680 times from 2001 to 2012, an average of once per day.  https://bit.ly/3DYxWa8

That was ten years ago. Most likely the Code is substantially larger today. Much of it is designed, by Republican and Democratic administrations alike, to foster or discourage various forms of economic and other behavior. Changing it to a simpler system whose focus is mainly, if not solely, to fund the government is highly desirable in my view but it’s not something that can be done overnight in a sudden “simplification.” Advocates for that approach are not “conservatives. They are either anarchists or … well, this is a family blog, so I won’t go further.

Suffice to say, the complexities of the Code and its pervasive influence on the conduct of American businesses is such as only a prolonged and careful reexamination has any chance of success. But the Code’s very complexity and influence has spawned entire industries of tax lawyers, tax-specialist accountants, software companies and tax preparers, all of whom have a vested interest in keeping the complexity. And then there are the giant corporations that benefit from manipulating their operations and accounting to pay less tax than the might in another system.

To return to the main point, the Republican Party has become the Party of Grievance. Their appeal to the good old days, when white people ran everything and most things were thought to be cheaper and readily available at all times, those days are gone. Permanently. The Republican Party is the Party of the Past, a past that never really was and that was unsustainable. You may be able to turn back the clock, but you cannot undo time. It moves forward whether your clock, or your mind, keeps up or not. To believe in the past that the Republican Party is selling is to believe in a mirage, a false idol that leads you to your destruction.

The Republicans can yell and scream until the dogs come home. They have nothing constructive to offer the American people or the country. Joe Biden was too gracious, too composed and, in boxing them in on Medicare and Social Security, too clever for the screamers. They won’t learn anything from it. They’re out there every day justifying what they did because Nancy Pelosi hurt their feelings. Grievance and more grievance – the Republican Party’s true platform.

The Barbarians Are Inside the Gate

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The reference is, of course, a play on the title of a famous book and movie about the battle to get control of RJR Nabisco in the late 1980s. Wikipedia tells the story well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RJR_Nabisco  The subtitle of this post is: “When They Tell/Show You What They Are, Believe Them.”

The original thought for this post began with the revelation that the Republicans, newly in the House majority, had disbanded the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, reported everywhere at the end of January. But it goes way beyond that.

I refer now to the disgraceful desecration of the Capitol by Republicans during the State of the Union address by President Biden on February 7. Picking up where one of their number yelled “you lie!” at President Obama during a 2009 address to the Congress on health care reform, the Republicans as a group and individually heckled and shouted at President Biden multiple times during his speech. It reminded me of the chaos we sometimes see in foreign legislatures where yelling and disruption are commonplace, where physical violence occurs between disputatious parties. But not here. Not here.

Obviously, no rational person expects the Republicans to agree with much of what Biden proposes. But the State of the Union address is not a place for street rabble to shout down the President. Historically, the displeasure of the party out of power has been adequately demonstrated by their silence when the rest of the Congress applauds usually while standing. It’s a strange ritual, to be sure, but it’s been going on for a long time and everyone understands what the play is.

Until now. The gang of Republican traitors and criminals who helped orchestrate the January 6 attack on the Capitol to try to overturn the 2020 election have turned the State of the Union evening into a circus-like affair. They show no respect for the office of the President, no respect for the sitting President, no respect for each other, and no respect for the American people.

To be clear, this isn’t just about bad manners. This same group is composed of QAnon believers (Marjorie Taylor Greene who shouted “liar” at the President), proponents of automatic weapons everywhere (Lauren Boebert), people whose moral compass has led them repeatedly to deny the reality of what happened on January 6, 2021, and who was responsible (see this video for the reality they continue to deny: https://nyti.ms/3HM77XH). They are the real election thieves, the book burners, the science deniers.

They are led by Donald Trump whose brazen disregard of the law and mores of American society and politics have led him to commit multiple crimes the complete listing of which would fill many pages. He and his sycophantic followers continue to deny the truth about the 2020 election. It was Trump who called the Secretary of State in Georgia to demand that he “find” just enough votes to overturn the will of the people of Georgia. Everyone has heard the tape by now. It was Trump who tried to extort the president of Ukraine to launch an investigation of his political opponent. Everyone has read the “transcript” by now.

And yet, and yet, Trump continues to walk free, to continue his false narrative, to continue stealing from his supporters, to continue as the most dishonest, corrupt political leader in modern American times and perhaps at any time in American history. The boorish display by Republicans at the State of the Union is just a symptom of a much greater and more important danger. Democracy itself is on the line.

And yet, and yet, many Republican commentators continue to raise the specter that if Trump is held accountable for his crimes, there will be civil war, or the door will be opened to retribution by the succeeding administrations intent on punishing their predecessors. If that is true, the idea of America as the Founding Fathers envisioned it is indeed already dead.

It doesn’t have to be that way. But those in charge of the many “investigations” must act and act soon and aggressively to change the course, the curse, of events. The evidence of Trump’s crimes is both overwhelming and widely known. His so-called defenses – mainly the ludicrous “lack of intent” claim – are preposterous but whether they are or not is beside the point. If it is true that “no man is above the law,” if it is true that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, then the salvation of American democracy demands that Trump be prosecuted for all his crimes in every legal regime where jurisdiction exists. He can make his defenses there where the rules of law and evidence govern.

I have no better idea what is going on, or not going on, at the Department of Justice and the Special Counsel’s office than anyone outside the inner sanctums there, but time is running out. The government must act, or it will be destroyed by the fascist proponents of winning at all costs, the believers in “alternative facts” when the truth denies their self-serving goals. Those people have made clear (just look at Kari Lake’s post-election conduct in Arizona and Ron DeSantis’ abuses of government power in Florida), they will stop at nothing to get what they want. The system that made America one of the most important countries in the world is on the line. It’s past time to call the question.