Tag Archives: William Barr

A Horrendous Ruling …

Posted on by under Election 2022, Election 2024, Law and justice, Political commentary, Rants

Are we getting tired yet?  Are we sickened by all we see coming out of the extreme right, the former guy & his minions, and the exaggerated evangelicals?  Would we like to just go somewhere ‘far away from the madding crowd’ and live out our days in peace?  Yeah … me too.  But guess what?  That’s what they’re counting on … the right-wingers who would replace our Constitution with their bible, and replace our democracy with their theocracy are hoping we’ll get so exhausted by it that we’ll tuck our tails between our legs and slink off, leaving them to do as they will.  But NO!!! We’re gonna all take a few nice deep breaths and remind ourselves what’s at stake here, then get back in the saddle and do whatever we can to stamp “PAID” on the lunacy that resides in the U.S. today.

I was enraged and incensed by the news that U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ruled to appoint a special master to review the Mar-a-Lago search, possibly delaying the Justice Department’s work that is certain to result in charges against Trump.  The first thing I said was to call her a not-very-nice word meaning prostitute, for in my book she has prostituted herself … she indebted herself to Trump in exchange for a prestigious judicial appointment.  And this week, he called in the debt.  And she paid it, even though her decision goes against the people of this nation, goes against the rule of law, goes against everything she learned in her tenure at University of Michigan Law School.

I share here Robert Hubbell’s views of the horrendous decision …

Judge Cannon did everyone a favor.

Robert Hubbell

7 September 2022

In one respect, Judge Aileen Cannon did everyone a favor in her decision to appoint a special master to review the Mar-a-Lago search. She wrote an opinion so awful and bereft of legal reasoning that commentators on all sides of the political spectrum are panning the opinion as an abomination. Indeed, they are falling over themselves to find adjectives, comparisons, and metaphors that adequately describe the havoc of her decision. Here is a fair sampling:

          And then there is Bill Barr, a man who destroyed his legacy to support Trump. Here is what Bill Barr told Trump’s supporters during an appearance on Fox News:

  • The opinion, I think, was wrong, and I think the government should appeal it. It’s deeply flawed in a number of ways.
  • [T]he government has very strong evidence of what it really needs to determine whether charges are appropriate . . . there’s some evidence to suggest that they were deceived.
  • [N]one of [the government’s case] really relates to the content of documents. It relates to the fact that there were documents [at Mar-a-Lago] and the fact that they were classified and the fact that they were subpoenaed and never delivered.

My point is not to trash Judge Cannon’s integrity, intelligence, or fairness. She has already done so beyond my meager ability to add to the opprobrium already heaped upon her. Rather, the point is that Judge Cannon now understands she is universally regarded as the most incompetent, biased, and clueless federal district judge in the nation—and that is saying something!

          How Judge Cannon responds to that stomach-churning realization is what matters. Will Judge Cannon attempt to undo her grotesque error by revising her order? Will she reject efforts by Trump’s team to exploit the legal gruel disguised as analysis in her opinion? Or will she redouble her efforts to serve as Trump’s surrogate defense counsel from her position on the bench in the Southern District of Florida?

          The next few days will provide much more information about Judge Cannon’s intentions. I infer (read: speculate) that she is in legal waters way above her head and tried to kludge a remedy unsupported by the law. The result is a Frankenstein’s monster that will haunt her for the remainder of her career. Her decision is already being cited as “The Loose Cannon Rule,” under which criminal defendants can seek a stay of federal criminal proceedings whenever evidence is seized under a search warrant.

          The DOJ has many paths forward, most of which are legally complicated and equally unsatisfactory. But as Bill Barr also noted in his comments to Fox News, the decision is more like a “rain delay.” One of the most likely steps is for Merrick Garland to proceed with the special master process and appeal the order staying the investigation—which is a constitutional insult of the highest order.

          In her order, Judge Cannon has told the Article II branch of the government that it may not perform the duties granted to it by the Constitution. As Neal Katyal noted yesterday on MSNBC, none of his first-year law students at Georgetown would suggest such an outlandish and unsupported violation of separation of powers. Although the University of Michigan Law School is not the guarantor of the future performance of its graduates, the faculty at the U.Mich.Law should be revising their syllabi to add a few extra sessions on separation of powers—not to mention a deep dive into US v. Nixon. And judicial ethics. And legal research. And common sense.

          In the end, Judge Cannon’s decision is so bad it cannot stand. The DOJ will find a way to circumvent the worst parts of her ruling. Trump stole classified documents, concealed them, lied about it, and refused to return them after being served with a grand jury subpoena. He is in deep trouble. If past is prologue, Trump will make his predicament worse by uttering new lies and issuing new admissions.

They Are NOT Heroes

Posted on by under Election 2020, History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

Suddenly I’m hearing Mike Pence, Bill Barr, Ivanka Trump, and others referred to as ‘heroes’.  I don’t see it that way at all.  At some point, they did step up to the plate and do their job for We the People, but for years before that, decades in the case of Ivanka, they failed.  Instead they licked the boots and played “yes-man”, enabling a lunatic who was intent on turning the United States into his own personal playground.  I am not alone in my view of these and other people, for yesterday Frank Bruni wrote of them in his column in the New York Times …

Don’t Let Bill Barr and Ivanka Trump Visit the Reputation Laundromat

June 16, 2022

By Frank Bruni

The Jan. 6 committee’s televised hearings are many things: the coalescence of scattered revelations into a clearer, cleaner narrative; an unblinking appraisal of the madness of King Donald; an opportunity for Americans to reflect on how close things came, and might yet come, to falling apart.

But for Bill Barr, Bill Stepien, Ivanka Trump and others, they are also something else — something we should not be taken in by.

They are a trip to the reputation laundromat (or perhaps, for this crowd, the reputation dry cleaner). Donald Trump’s onetime acolytes are trying to expunge the stain of their sycophancy. And they’re betting that in a country and era of fickle attention spans and feeble memories, they’ll have more luck with that spot than Lady Macbeth did with hers.

Early this week, the committee showed testimony by Barr, the former attorney general, that he told Trump again and again that Joe Biden had won the 2020 election fairly and definitively. It showed testimony by Stepien, who was Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, that he was among a group of aides — “Team Normal,” he called them — who pushed back against Rudy Giuliani’s hallucinatory insistence that the election was being stolen.

And last week, of course, was Ivanka Trump’s star turn. That’s when we saw her testimony: that she said a big no to the Big Lie.

But her, Barr’s and Stepien’s words don’t amount to moral reckonings. They reflect professional calculations.

Team Normal? If you were still working for Trump by the fourth year of his presidency, there was nothing normal about you. If you served that campaign, during which Trump repeatedly telegraphed his intention to declare any result other than victory an illegitimate one, there was nothing normal about you. If you’d taken the measure of the man before Election Day 2020 and decided, yes, he’s fit to lead America, good for this country and worthy of my efforts and energies on his behalf, there was nothing normal about you.

And if, in the weeks after Election Day, you finally stopped abetting his delusions, midwifing his megalomania and whispering sweet reassurances in his ear, you weren’t returning to normal. You were simply cutting your losses. It was time to hitch your wagon to a sturdier, steadier horse, to find another patron and another payday.

Stepien, as my colleague Michelle Cottle wrote in The Times on Tuesday, “slunk away, coat collar flipped up and hat brim pulled low in the hopes that no one would notice him fleeing the spiraling freak show to which he had sold his services and his soul.”

Susan Glasser, in The New Yorker, also had it right. Reflecting on how Stepien and Barr are now styling themselves (and being showcased) as blunt tellers of Trump-foiling truths, Glasser wrote on Monday evening that they are “not only Trump’s accusers but also first-class enablers of Trump and his lies — until Trump finally found a lie too big for them to enable. Even when it came to their qualms about Trump’s ‘rigged election’ crusade, their outrage came conveniently after the fact, not when it might have made a difference.”

Amen. We can be grateful that Barr and Stepien didn’t travel the final autocratic mile with Trump and not discount their disgraceful road to that point. We can remember how Barr, in advance of Robert Mueller’s report, released a toned-down summary of it that was clearly meant to dull its impact.

We can remember that before Mike Pence patriotically refused Trump’s order not to certify the election results, he pathetically performed the role of Trump’s evangelical beard. And don’t get me started on Ivanka. I’ve spent ample time in her temple of self-celebration, as have others. She and her husband, Jared Kushner, will always do what’s profitable for them, and if that occasionally intersects with the public interest, well, accidents happen. We can think a word of thanks without uttering a syllable of praise.

There were Republicans who took a chance on Trump at the start and got out fast, accepting that either he’d fooled them or they’d kidded themselves. There were Republicans who signaled that much was amiss. Those who didn’t — including Pence, Mike Pompeo and others with presidential aspirations in 2024 — forfeited the moral high ground and can’t credibly reclaim it now.

Nor can they pretend that they were anything other than transaction-minded actors in the most transactional administration I’ve observed. When they benefited from their proximity to Trump, they held their noses, bit their tongues and cuddled close. It’s possible they persuaded themselves that his flaws weren’t so different from any other vain leader’s, that politics is invariably messy and that their compromises were “normal” ones. That’s awfully convenient. And utterly absurd.

A Bombshell That Few Noticed

Posted on by under Election 2020, Election 2024, Law and justice, Political commentary, voting rights

Last week, we found out that the former guy had instructed then-acting-attorney general Jeffrey Rosen to “Just say the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R congressmen.”  I saw this headline in numerous news sites that I visit daily, and like most of the rest of you, I growled a bit, called him a few choice names, then moved on to other stories.  But as Robert Reich points out … that was the wrong move.  This is THE story that is most important in its implications.  I’ll let Mr. Reich explain …

A Trump bombshell quietly dropped last week. And it should shock us all

Robert Reich

A newly released memo shows that Trump told the acting attorney general: ‘Just say the election was corrupt [and] leave the rest to me and the [Republican] congressmen’

We’ve become so inured to Donald Trump’s proto-fascism that we barely blink an eye when we learn that he tried to manipulate the 2020 election. Yet the most recent revelation should frighten every American to their core.

On Friday, the House oversight committee released notes of a 27 December telephone call from Trump to then acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, in which Trump told Rosen: “Just say the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R congressmen.” The notes were taken by Richard Donoghue, Rosen’s deputy, who was also on the call.

The release of these notes has barely made a stir. The weekend news was filled with more immediate things – infrastructure! The Delta strain! Inflation! Wildfires! In light of everything else going on, Trump’s bizarre efforts in the last weeks of his presidency seem wearily irrelevant. Didn’t we already know how desperate he was?

In a word, no. This revelation is hugely important.

Rosen obviously rejected Trump’s request. But what if Rosen had obeyed Trump and said to the American public that the election was corrupt – and then “left the rest” to Trump and the Republican congressmen? What would Trump’s and the Republicans’ next moves have been? And which Republican congressmen were in cahoots with Trump in this attempted coup d’état?

Make no mistake: this was an attempted coup.

Trump knew it. Just weeks earlier, then attorney general William Barr said the justice department had found no evidence of widespread fraud that could have overturned the results.

And a few days after Trump’s call to Rosen – on 2 January – Trump told Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, to “find” votes to change the election outcome. He berated Raffensperger for not doing more to overturn the election.

Emails released last month also show that Trump and his allies in the last weeks of his presidency pressured the justice department to investigate totally unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud – forwarding them conspiracy theories and even a draft legal brief they hoped would be filed with the supreme court.

Some people, especially Republican officeholders, believe we should simply forget these sordid details. We must not.

For the first time in the history of the United States we did not have a peaceful transition of power. For the first time in American history, a president refused – still refuses – to concede, and continues to claim, with no basis in fact, that the election was “stolen” from him. For the first time in history, a president actively plotted a coup.

It would have been bad enough were Trump a mere crackpot acting on his own pathetic stage – a would-be dictator who accidentally became president and then, when he lost re-election, went bonkers – after which he was swept into the dustbin of history.

We might then merely regret this temporary lapse in American presidential history. At best, Trump would be seen as a fool and the whole affair an embarrassment to the country.

But Trump was no accident and he’s not in any dustbin. He has turned one of America’s two major parties into his own cult. He has cast the major political division in the US as a clash between those who believe him about the 2020 election and those who do not. He has emboldened state Republicans to execute the most brazen attack on voting rights since Jim Crow. Most Republican senators and representatives dare not cross him. Some of his followers continue to threaten violence against the government. By all accounts, he is running for president again in 2024.

Donald Trump’s proto-fascism poses the largest internal threat to American democracy since the civil war.

What to do about it? Fight it, and the sooner the better.

This final revelation – Trump’s 27 December call to the acting attorney general in which he pleads “Just say the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me” – should trigger section 3 of the 14th amendment, which bars anyone from holding office who “engaged in insurrection” against the US. The current attorney general of the United States, Merrick Garland, should issue an advisory opinion clearly stating this. If Trump wants to take it to the supreme court, fine.

WHY???

Posted on by under Election 2020, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry

If you thought I let off all the steam in this morning’s rants, you’d be wrong.  Two things are puzzling me at the moment … puzzling and annoying me … leading me to keep asking over and over — WHY???  The former guy needs to fade into oblivioun … he is, or at least ought to be, irrelevant now, yet he keeps popping back onto the radar.  Somebody please, put him somewhere, like a mental institution or better yet, a prison.

I don’t believe a word of it …

You remember June 1st 2020, right?  That was the day that the former guy, having seen his approval rating drop even lower than usual, decided a photo op was just the thing to boost his ratings.  So, he and his band of merry men (and women) walked from the White House to a church in Lafayette Park so he could hold up a bible and let the press take pictures of him doing so … pictures that would be splashed all over every major news outlet by that evening.  However, his walk was only accomplished after the Secret Service and other federal law enforcement agencies cleared the path of peaceful protestors protesting the brutal police killing of an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, a month prior.

The protests were peaceful, no violence until federal law enforcement officers showed up.  According to The Washington Post the following day …

“In a massive show of force, federal law enforcement officers fired rubber bullets and chemical gas at peaceful protesters outside the White House on Monday evening … Hundreds of protesters were pushed away from Lafayette Square, where they were protesting the police killing of George Floyd, by the National Guard, U.S. Park Police and Secret Service. The ambush began half an hour before the city’s newly imposed curfew of 7 p.m. went into effect.”

There were photos, videos … it cannot be denied.  And yet, yesterday a report by the Interior Department’s inspector general did just that … denied that law enforcement cleared area for the former guy’s ludicrous walk to church.  According to the report, the area was cleared of protestors in order to allow contractors to safely install some fencing.  BULLSHIT!  I believe that just about as much as I believe elephants can fly!

What I don’t understand is why this particular lie?  What is the purpose, one year later, of telling a lie covering up actions that occurred as a result of egomania by the former guy?  Does the inspector general who issued the report honestly think that We the People are so stupid that we don’t remember the scene from one year ago?  And what’s the point?  The former guy is gone, he surely isn’t still pulling strings in the Department of the Interior, is he?  Police do not use violent means to clear peaceful protestors from an area so that they can build a fence.  Period.  Give us credit for a little bit of intelligence!

Defending the indefensible

This week the Department of Justice led by Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that it would continue defending the former guy in the lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll.  A bit of a refresher for those who may not remember this situation …

Ms. Carroll has claimed, and for the record I believe her, that the former guy raped her in the 1990s.  More than a dozen others have made the same claim, most quite credible, and I remind you of that old saying, where there’s so much smoke, there’s a fire somewhere.  When Ms. Carroll made her claim, the former guy rudely denigrated her in public, calling her rude names, saying he had never met her (this despite the fact there are photos of Ms. Carroll and her husband with the former guy at a party) and that he couldn’t have raped her because she isn’t his ‘type’.  Ms. Carroll filed a lawsuit against Trump for defaming her character and calling her a liar among other things.  At that point, then-Attorney General William Barr stepped in and said that the former guy was acting in his official capacity as president when he denied ever knowing Ms. Carroll and made statements assaulting her character, and thus could be defended by government lawyers — in effect underwritten by taxpayer money.

Long story short, he lied and called her names, Bill Barr said he had a right to do that because he was the then-occupant of the Oval Office, and that We the Taxpayers should pay to defend him and prove that in his position at the time, he was above the law.

Today, William Barr has left the Justice Department, replaced by a man for whom I have a great deal of respect, Merrick Garland.  However, I am extremely disappointed in the decision by the DoJ to continue defending the former guy at our expense!  WHY???  Is this a democratic republic as stated in the U.S. Constitution, or is this a banana republic that supports egomaniacal dictators???

In 2020, Barr argued that the former guy was a federal employee whose statements were part of his employment duties and who was thus entitled to protection under the Westfall Act, which grants civil immunity to federal employees for actions that are part of their jobs.  Since when is calling a woman a ‘slut’ part of the president’s job?  So, by this standard, if a sitting president kills one of his staff with a knife or a gun, would that be defensible under the Westfall Act?  Where is the line … and when do We the People finally stand up and say, ENOUGH!

Again, I want to know why the current DoJ is still upholding the former guy’s actions.  I just need an explanation … We the People deserve an explanation.

What The GOP Looks Like In The 21st Century

Posted on by under Environmental Issues, History, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

Is there a single member of the former guy’s inner circle who isn’t in deep legal doo-doo?  First, there’s Giuliani whose home and office were raided by the FBI last week and who is in more than one pot of boiling water.  Then there’s Jared Kusher whose apartment company has been charged with repeatedly violating state consumer protection laws by collecting debts without required licenses, charging tenants improper fees and misrepresenting the condition of rental units.  Former Attorney General William Barr is being investigated for a possible conflict of interest in the case against heavy-equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc., and the list goes on.  Hopefully, at the end of the day, charges and indictments come down against the former guy himself, for he is undoubtedly at the helm of most of these issues.  It is my fondest hope to see the former guy in an orange jumpsuit and behind bars for the rest of his life.

And yet, the GOP goes on, producing more, nastier criminal types like Kevin McCarthy, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Margie Greene, Matt Gaetz and more.  In my mind, I can almost hear Richard Nixon loudly asserting that, “I am not a crook!”  In truth, Nixon was no more a crook than some 90% of today’s GOP … but he paid the price, while today’s lot are applauded.  The difference?  Probably the likes of Fox ‘News’, the New York Post, and other Murdoch-owned outlets that wouldn’t recognize truth if it hit them in the patootie, and the influence of social media.  Compared to Nixon in 1973, today’s liars and crooks have nearly unlimited coverage ‘round the clock … Twitter, Fox, Newsmax, Facebook … they are all complicit in giving voice to the lies, to giving the crooks a megaphone with which to make their meritless case.  To be a star on Twitter or Facebook, you needn’t be honest or intelligent … you only need to have a huge number of followers, which you can get by being off-the-wall outrageous.  Integrity?  Not necessary.  Honesty?  Not a requisite.

You’ll hear, from many on all sides of the fence, that “both sides do it”.  No, my friends.  While the Democrats are not beyond party loyalty, and while no doubt they tell a lie or two here and there, they are in no way the accomplished Pinocchios that today’s GOP is home to.  One single example:  The GOP and its right-wing media arm have put out the completely baseless lie that Joe Biden is “coming to take your beef burger”!  Biden has never, to the best of my knowledge, even mentioned cutting beef consumption, and he’s a smart enough man to know he’d find his head on the chopping block if he did.  Now personally … my family and I eat beef maybe once a month, so I really don’t care if the powers that be stop slaughtering cows, but that’s just me.

But you’ll hear it on Fox, you’ll hear it out of the mouths of the Republican fools … and there is not a single element of basis in fact for that outright lie.  It bears as much merit as if the Democrats put out the lie that Republicans are going to force every person over the age of 18 to own a gun.  But see, we don’t need to make up lies about the Republicans, for they make themselves look bad every day without our help!  They think we sit around trying to find ways to make them look like idiots, but they’ve done that job for us!

But let us talk about substance … if the Republicans don’t like President Biden’s ideas, why don’t they come up with alternate policy proposals, meet at the table, and give a little, take a little, ending with a compromise that benefits the nation?  Why don’t they propose ways to ensure that everyone, regardless of employment, gender, ethnicity, or religion has affordable health care?  Why don’t they give us their ideas for how to repair the damage done to the Earth’s environment by humans?  Why don’t they propose ways to meet the challenges that face us in the 21st century?  Why?  Because they have none, because they are too busy being the party of racism, of negativity, of conspiracy theories, to actually propose meaningful, useful, legislation.  Does anybody doubt that they have spent more time promoting the Big Lie than thinking about how to help the people of this nation?

Republican Representative Anthony Gonzalez, when asked about the beating of Representative Liz Cheney by other Republicans because she stood by her beliefs in voting to impeach the former guy, replied …

“If a prerequisite for leading our conference is continuing to lie to our voters, then Liz is not the best fit. Liz isn’t going to lie to people. Liz is going to say what she believes. She’s going to stand on principle. And if that’s going to be distracting for folks, she’s not the best fit. I wish that weren’t the case.”

And that, folks, sums it up in a nutshell … if you have a conscience, if you are honest and a person of integrity, then you are “not the best fit” for today’s Republican Party.  Need I say more?

Lookin’ Good, Merrick Garland!

Posted on by under Biden's Staff Picks, Law and justice, Political commentary

Merrick-GarlandYesterday was the first of the two-day confirmation hearings for Merrick Garland, President Biden’s choice to head the Department of Justice.  I have felt for weeks that Garland would be confirmed by the Senate, for he is both liked and respected by those on both sides of the aisle.  According to an article in The Washington Post …

“… there was little acrimony and many Democrats and Republicans on the panel appeared to treat his confirmation almost as a foregone conclusion.”

Several Republicans seem certain that Garland will be confirmed …

“I believe so. There were people that weren’t totally satisfied with his answers, but i didn’t hear anybody get really irritated. … For the most part, he answered pretty well.” – Senator Chuck Grassley (republican) from Iowa

“That certainly seems likely. I thought he did fine. It was frustrating in that he answered very few questions. He approached it more like a judicial nominee dodging every question.” – Senator Ted Cruz (republican) from Texas

“Judge Garland is about as sure a bet as you can have in the Congress these days that he will be confirmed. He has navigated these questions with extraordinary adroitness and aplomb.” – Senator Richard Blumenthal (democrat) from Connecticut

To be sure, there were contentious lines of questioning, especially from the likes of Senator John Neeley Kennedy, a republican from Louisiana, and the ignoble Josh Hawley who cheered the attackers on January 6th, and did everything in his power to try to overturn our votes on that day.  But, Garland remained cool and his answers brought no rebuttal.  For example, Hawley arrogantly twirled his pencil while attempting to goad Garland into a conversation on defunding the police, and on what constitutes ‘domestic terrorism’.

Garland, who prosecuted the Oklahoma City bombing perpetrators before becoming a federal judge,  looked Hawley straight in the eye and responded …

“As you no doubt know, President Biden has said he does not support defunding the police, and neither do I. We saw how difficult the lives of police officers were in the body-cam videos we saw when they were defending the Capitol.  The use of violence or threats of violence in an attempt to disrupt democratic processes.  So an attack on a courthouse while in operation trying to prevent judges from deciding cases, that plainly is domestic extremism, domestic terrorism.”

Lindsey Graham, who would not allow Garland’s hearing to take place earlier this month, reared his typically ugly head, quizzed Garland on whether he thought James Comey, who was fired by the former guy early in his administration, was a good FBI Director.  Garland calmly replied that the question was not useful and that he didn’t intend to get into critiquing other directors.  Then Graham responded churlishly with …

“Well, you’ve been very political, and appropriately so, at times. I just find it pretty stunning that you can’t say, in my view, that he was a terrible FBI director.”

However, at the end of the day, Lindsey told Garland, “I think you’re a very good pick for this job.”  Even Senator Kennedy, one of the more obnoxious among republican senators, said “You’ll be a good attorney general.”

Perhaps Garland’s most powerful statement, at least in my eyes, was when he said …

“I am not the president’s lawyer, I am the United States’ lawyer.”

Quite the contrast from previous Attorney General William Barr who saw himself and the entire Department of Justice as tools at the former guy’s disposal.

No doubt there will be some Republicans who will oppose the nomination, likely Tom Cotton, Mike Lee, and Josh Hawley among them, but the general consensus is that Garland will win senate confirmation when the vote is taken on March 1st.  Score one for justice.

Hypocrisy Does Not Deserve Praise!

Posted on by under Election 2020, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary, Trump's Staff Picks

Two things from the aftermath of the Capitol riots by ignorant mobs, aka domestic terrorists on Wednesday bear reflection …

Hypocrisy does not earn praise, in my book

Over the past 36 hours, a number of members of Congress, White House staffers, and Cabinet members have either spoken out against what Trump did on Wednesday, or in some cases have resigned their positions in the Trump administration.  There are people who think they deserve high praise for finally, after four years, finding their conscience.  I beg to differ, for these same people threw their lot in with Trump and many have been enabling him and his crooked endeavours for four years now.

So no, one right does not erase four years’ worth of near-daily wrongs.  Sorry, but these guys don’t get a pass, and in fact, part of the blame for Wednesday’s fiasco lies on their shoulders.

ryan-mcconnellSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday urged members of Congress not to contest the electoral votes, as some planned to do.  And at the end of the day, he denounced the violence that had been ongoing for much of the day, saying …

“They tried to disrupt our democracy. They failed. This failed insurrection only proves how crucial the task before us is for our republic. Now we’re going to finish exactly what we started. We’ll complete the process the right way, by the book, we’ll follow our precedents and our laws, and our constitution to the letter. And we will certify the winner of the 2020 presidential election.”

EXCUSE ME, but to praise or even forgive Mitch McConnell for his role in the lead-up to Wednesday’s attack is impossible.  His is the ultimate hypocrisy, for on February 6, 2020, Mitch McConnell had the chance to ensure that the events of Wednesday would never have happened.  Instead, he chose to lick Trump’s boots, held a sham of an impeachment trial, not even allowing lawmakers to review the evidence in the case, but merely insisted that the Republican-majority Senate vote to acquit Trump.  Mitch McConnell must share in the blame for what has happened, for he is one of the few who could have almost single-handedly stopped it before it ever happened.

mike-penceAnd Mike Pence … there is some sympathy for Mike Pence.  He refused Trump’s request to basically install a dictatorship by shredding the Constitution and tossing out the legitimate votes for Joe Biden.  Yes, I’m glad he for once found a pair of cojones and stood up to Trump, and yes, I realize he is paying a price now, but DAMMIT … it’s much too little, far too late.  No, I have no praise for Mike Pence, for this is the first time since January 20, 2017 that Mike Pence has shown one bit of conscience or courage.

barr-stupid-2Then there’s William Barr who must surely share a portion of the blame, for it was he who in early 2019 essentially said that a sitting president is above the law, thus putting paid to any attempt to prosecute Trump for the many times he abused the power of his office and obstructed justice.  IF he had not protected Trump for the 22 months he served as Attorney General, it is highly likely that Wednesday’s events would never have occurred.  So yes, Bill Barr helped bring about the deadly fiasco from which we are still reeling.

And then there are the rats deserting a sinking ship, leaving their positions in Trump’s administration a full 13 days before they would have lost their job anyway …

Take, for example, Elaine Chao, Secretary of Transportation and wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who announced her resignation, effective next Monday, saying the terrorist attacks on the Capitol on Wednesday were …

“…  a traumatic and entirely avoidable event as supporters of the president stormed the Capitol building following a rally he addressed.  It has deeply troubled me in a way I simply cannot set aside.”

Where has her conscience been for the past four years, as he ordered small children to be taken from their parents and put in cages, as he attempted to take affordable healthcare from every low income family in the nation?  No, sorry Elaine, a day late and a dollar short.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos who has spent four years diverting funds from public to religious schools, and made it harder for women who are sexually abused on college campuses to bring charges against their abusers, has also resigned her position, claiming in a letter to Trump …

“That behavior was unconscionable for our country. There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me.”

No, Betsy … you’ve licked his boots and enabled him for four years … you don’t get high fives now.

Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s former acting chief of staff, resigned as special envoy to Northern Ireland on Thursday, saying …

“I can’t stay here, not after yesterday. You can’t look at that yesterday and think I want to be a part of that in any way, shape or form.”

Gee, Mick … a conscience?  Where was it in 2017 when you attempted to convince Trump to cut Social Security and Medicare?  Where was it in 2015 when you allowed a government shutdown simply because the proposed spending bill included funding for women’s health?  Oh no, you are not a good man, a man of conscience.

Keep in mind, also, that these people would be out on January 20th anyway, so they are leaving less than two weeks early, and no doubt already have plans made for whatever comes next.  Plus, none of them needs the paycheck, to put it mildly.

It is said that a leopard doesn’t change his spots …

Yesterday, Trump said, in a video which I will not watch …

“A new administration will be inaugurated on Jan. 20.  My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power. This moment calls for healing and reconciliation.”

Don’t believe it for a minute, folks, because just 24 hours prior to that, he incited the violence we saw on Wednesday with quite the opposite message …

“All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical left Democrats which is what they are doing and stolen by the fake news media. That’s what they’ve done and what they’re doing. We will never give up, we will never concede. You never concede when there is theft involved.” 

Are those the words of a person who seeks healing and reconciliation?  I think not.  There is not a snowball’s chance in hell that he has done a 180° turnaround in just 24 hours.  No, his declaration that he would ensure a smooth transition of power is a pure falsehood, he does not mean those words, but was likely coerced to say them by whatever staffers and advisors remain in his employ.  They are intended to mollify those of us who would just as soon see Trump taken to a cliff and thrown off.  He wants us to become complacent.  Well don’t.  Don’t turn your back on him, for he is even more dangerous than a rabid dog.

twitterI understand that Twitter has restored Trump’s account after a 12-hour ban.  They should not have.  They should have decided as Facebook did, to keep his account closed until after he leaves office, at least, for this is his means of communication with the ignorant masses such as those who rioted and pillaged on Wednesday.  Take away his tweety-machine, for Pete’s sake!  Don’t let him air his grievances to thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people who aren’t intelligent enough to see his lies!

Just A Little Bit Of Snarky

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2020, Law and justice, Political commentary

countdownI can barely remember a time when we could go to bed at night without losing sleep wondering what the latest atrocity from the person in the Oval Office would be when we wake in the morning.  I look forward to seeing such a time again soon.  Why … I might even have to retire Snarky Snippets!  Just 49 days to go …

Take Away The Pardon Pen!

Last week, Trump gave the ignoble Michael Flynn an early Christmas gift … a pardon.  Flynn, you may remember, pleaded guilty to a felony count of “willfully and knowingly” making false statements to the FBI.  Flynn was involved in Russia’s interference in our 2016 presidential election and should, like others, be sitting in a prison cell today.  Instead, he is a free man.

With Flynn’s pardon, people began to speculate about who else Trump might pardon before he leaves office at noon on January 20th.  Let’s start with this headline …

Trump Has Discussed With Advisers Pardons for His 3 Eldest Children and Giuliani

Hmmmm … now why would his three eldest children need pardons?  Obviously, they have committed crimes and Trump knows about it, else he would have no reason to even consider pardoning them.  So … as they say, “inquiring minds want to know,” and this inquiring mind is now determined to find out just what Ivanka, Junior and Eric might have done that would send them to prison if not for daddy’s pardon pen.  Oh, he’s also considering a pardon for his son-in-law, the atrocious Jared Kushner.

Typically, a presidential pardon is issued when a person has been charged with a crime.  Thus far, none of Trump’s children have been charged with a crime, so any pardon would be a pre-emptive one covering crimes for which they might be charged in the future.  How the Sam Hell does that work?

Junior had been under investigation by Robert Mueller’s team for his role in dealing with the Russians for damaging information against Hillary Clinton, but he was never charged.  Probably should have been but wasn’t.

What all of this says to me is that there has been a great deal of criminal activity taking place behind the closed doors of the White House that is highly likely to be uncovered by the Justice Department once it is no longer led by toady William Barr.  I can guarantee you that none of it was in the best interest of this nation and its people, but rather served to profit Trump and his businesses.

According to the New York Times …

Such a broad pardon pre-empting any charge or conviction is highly unusual but does have precedent. In the most famous example, President Gerald R. Ford pardoned Richard M. Nixon for all of his actions as president. President George Washington pardoned plotters of the Whiskey Rebellion, shielding them from treason prosecutions. And President Jimmy Carter pardoned thousands of American men who illegally avoided the draft for the Vietnam War.

I think that it’s time to put some restrictions on the presidential pardon pen.  Right now, there are none except that the president can only pardon federal, not state crimes.  I think no president should be able to pardon a murderer who has not been proven innocent, or a family member for any reason.  And I certainly don’t approve of this pre-emptive pardoning, where the person is pardoned for crimes that we don’t even know about yet!  This is just ridiculous.

Speaking of Attorney General William Barr …

It seems he might be having second thoughts about having been Trump’s toady, now that Trump has obviously lost the election and will soon be on his way out the door, taking all his minions with him.  For the first time since he took office in February 2019, Barr disagreed with Trump in a move that likely infuriated the child in the Oval Office.

Barr’s comments, in an interview with the The Associated Press, contradict the concerted effort by Trump, his boss, to subvert the results of last month’s voting and block President-elect Joe Biden from taking his place in the White House.

Barr told the AP that U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they’ve received, but “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”

Apparently, Trump’s attorneys were none too happy with Barr’s statement, as Rudy Giuliani and his political campaign issued a scathing statement claiming that, “with all due respect to the Attorney General, there hasn’t been any semblance” of an investigation into the president’s complaints.

Other administration officials who have come out forcefully against Trump’s allegations of voter-fraud evidence have been fired.  Would he fire Barr, with only 49 more days in office?  Sure he would!  He’d fire just about anybody, but at this point, I doubt he would find anyone willing to take the job for a period of less than two months.

Speaking of Trump’s attorneys …

Respected and respectable lawyers shy away from working for Donald Trump, for they would be risking their reputation, and potentially their license to practice law by working for him.  So, his legal team is not the best and the brightest, but one of his lawyers, Joe DiGenova is beneath even pond scum.

On Monday, DiGenova made an appearance on NewsMax, the latest in right-wing propaganda media, and said this …

“Anybody who thinks the election went well, like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity, that guy is a class A moron. He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot.”

Seriously???

Chris Krebs, you may remember, is the former head of election security in the Department of Homeland Security, who stated in no uncertain terms that there was no widespread voter fraud, and that the 2020 election was the most secure in the nation’s history.  He was fired a few days later on November 17th, by an irrational person who has no conscience, no ability to discern fact from fantasy.

Condemnation of Joe DiGenova’s remark about Chris Krebs was swift, including calls for his disbarment and the charge that he was behaving like a “mob attorney”.  No word on Trump’s response, but no doubt he will praise and approve of DiGenova’s comments.

countdown

Roger Stone Strikes Again

Posted on by under cartoons, Election 2020, Free Press Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary

I have long been against the death penalty, but I think I could make an exception in the case of Roger Stone. On July 10, Trump commuted a 40-month prison sentence that was handed down to Stone after he was convicted of lying to Congress and tampering with witnesses as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into 2016 election interference. Namely, Stone lied to Congress about his contacts with WikiLeaks, which released hacked emails with the aim of boosting Trump’s prospects. In the weeks leading up to the commutation, Stone made a number of media appearances where he asked Trump to grant him clemency and said that in exchange, he could be a more effective campaigner for the president’s 2020 reelection efforts.  Well, he is living up to that promise.roger-stoneLast Thursday, Stone made a video appearance on Alex Jones’ conspiracy theory program, InfoWars.  Stone declared that the only legitimate outcome to the 2020 election would be a Trump victory. He made this assertion on the basis of his entirely unfounded claim that early voting has been marred by widespread voter fraud.

Stone argued that “the ballots in Nevada on election night should be seized by federal marshalls and taken from the state” because “they are completely corrupted” and falsely said that “we can prove voter fraud in the absentees right now.” He specifically called for Trump to have absentee ballots seized in Clark County, Nevada, an area that leans Democratic. Stone went on to claim that “the votes from Nevada should not be counted; they are already flooded with illegals” and baselessly suggested that former Senator Harry Reid (a democrat from Nevada) should be arrested and that Trump should consider nationalizing Nevada’s state police force.

Are you growling yet?  Just wait … it gets even better.

Stone recommended that Trump consider several actions to retain his power. Stone recommended that Trump appoint former Representative Bob Barr, a republican from Georgia, as a special counsel “with the specific task of forming an Election Day operation using the FBI, federal marshals, and Republican state officials across the country to be prepared to file legal objections and if necessary to physically stand in the way of criminal activity.”

Stone also urged Trump to consider declaring “martial law” or invoking the Insurrection Act and then using his powers to arrest Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, “the Clintons” and “anybody else who can be proven to be involved in illegal activity.”  Apparently, Stone defines “illegal activity” as anything that is not supportive of Donald Trump!  In essence, I am engaging in illegal activity by his definition simply by writing this post. roger-stone-3Now, it’s easy enough to write Stone off as the nutcase he is, but the danger here is that in the past he has been one of the people Trump listened to.  Is he still?  Are there saner heads in the Trump administration who would … or could … talk Trump out of following Roger Stone’s clearly unconstitutional advice?  Would the republicans in Congress finally grow a pair and understand that this behaviour is in essence burning the U.S. Constitution, breaking the highest law in the land?  Would the military refuse to do Trump’s bidding, should he decide to follow Stone’s advice?  Would William Barr finally decide to do his job instead of toadying up to Trump?

Yes, I hear you saying, “It’s not possible.  Even Trump wouldn’t act in such an irresponsible dictatorial manner.”  Think again.

The ‘norms’, the restraints on presidential power that are built into the Constitution, the checks and balances we once believed would ensure that we would not lose the democratic principles on which the nation was founded, have all been shattered in the past three years.  You also never imagined a president would turn on the people of this nation, calling them anarchists and criminals, simply because we don’t agree with him.  You also never dreamed a president would have so little regard for our lives that he would keep the secret of a deadly virus and encourage us to go out and be exposed, and if we die, well, “it is what it is”.  Think back … there are hundreds of things he has done that you never thought possible.

I told you this morning how the Trump administration is once again playing Russian roulette with our lives, altering and manipulating CDC data so as to not “make Trump look bad”.  The agencies we have always counted on to protect us are now agents of Donald Trump and are diligently seeking to undermine our freedoms, our Constitution, our alliances, and in fact our very lives.  So, is it really such a stretch to believe that Trump might impose martial law, or break the law to devalue our election?  Are we really so sure the safeguards are strong enough to hold against a corrupt president and his band of boot-licking sycophants?  Think about it.

Stupid and Stupider

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Social commentary

I have many things swirling around in my head tonight.  Each day, it seems there are new horrors and abominations coming out of the Trump administration, campaign, and Trump himself.  So many that I cannot keep up with them and I wonder if we won’t all just implode before November 3rd!  Perhaps that’s his goal.

So much stupidity … it boggles the mind!stupidityThe most recent jaw-dropper came on Wednesday when, speaking in North Carolina to a group of trumpeters, Trump said …

“If you get the unsolicited ballots, send it in, and then go — make sure it counted. And if it doesn’t tabulate, you vote. You just vote. And then if they tabulate it very late, which they shouldn’t be doing, they’ll see you voted, and so it won’t count. So, send it in early, and then go and vote. And if it’s not tabulated — you vote. And the vote is going to count.”

So many points to be made here … where do I even start?  First of all … IF I were willing to risk death by voting in person, DONNIE, I wouldn’t be using a mail-in ballot to start with!!!  Damn but that man is a portrait of stupidity!

More to the point, however, is he just told the people of this nation to break the law!  It is against the law … both federal and state … to cast two separate ballots for the same election!  And as the highest person in the law enforcement community, don’t you think he ought to know that?

And perhaps most importantly, is he saying this just to get people to break the law, to attempt to vote twice, to back his false claim about voter fraud being a huge problem?  Voter fraud isn’t even a notable problem, but he has been claiming it is since before the 2016 election, and he’s still crying ‘Wolf’ today!  Is his ‘advice’ to the people of this nation just a sorry attempt to add more chaos and turmoil to an already chaotic election?

And then, Attorney General William Barr didn’t even understand that what Trump was suggesting was illegal!  Barr’s response when being questioned about Trump’s statement by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer was …

“I don’t know what the law in the particular state says.”

Duh.  And he’s the frickin’ Attorney General???  Another portrait of stupidity!barr-stupidFor the record, folks, if you try out Trump’s idea in real life, you will either be blocked from voting in person or your mail-in ballot will be “spoiled”, and it is quite possible that neither of your votes will count … AND you could be arrested on felony charges.

A few nights ago, my friend Herb introduced me to The Young Turks (TYT) videos, and last night he sent me this one to review.  Take a look and give it some thought, for there are some serious potential ramifications to the delayed counts of mail-in ballots, as well as Trump’s illegal suggestion.

It is what it is???

The doc who replaced Dr. Anthony Fauci as Trump’s top medical advisor is Dr. Richard Atlas, who predictably has no background in epidemiology or immunology.  In the past week, Dr. Atlas decided to embrace the theory of “herd immunity” as regards the coronavirus pandemic.  Never mind that the top scientists and medical experts have warned that there likely is no herd immunity for this virus, for Dr. Atlas is Trump’s latest bootlicker who will say what Trump wants us to hear, rather than what we need to hear.

Herd immunity, for those who may not fully understand, is the ideology that if we let everyone be exposed, the old and infirm will die off, and those who survive will be immune to the virus.  Hmmm … as one of those who is ‘old and infirm’, I have a bit of a problem with this philosophy!  I have spent the past six effing months stuck in my house to protect both myself and my family … I’m not about to let a knucklehead like Atlas kill me now!

Of course, those who support this theory say we will protect the old and infirm, keep them somewhere safe, but what they fail to tell you is that we have children, friends, and grandchildren who can very easily bring that virus in to us.  We are not going to be kept from the rest of the world forever!  No, I am not going to go live in some bubble just so Trump can have his bloody economy back!herd-immunityDr. Anthony Fauci, who I DO trust with my life, rang in on this ‘herd immunity’ issue on Wednesday:

“We’re not there yet. That’s not a fundamental strategy that we’re using. The fundamental strategy that we clearly articulate and go by through the task force is to try to prevent as many infections as you possibly can prevent.”

Listen to Dr. Fauci, folks, not the asshole doing Trump’s bidding.  Our lives have exactly zero value to Donald Trump and his minions, as he has proven time and time again, most notably when he was asked about the U.S. having the highest death toll on the planet, and he responded with, “It is what it is.”  What a guy, eh?

Something to ponder …

I get a daily newsletter from a writer, Heather Cox Richardson, that is typically a summary of the political news in the U.S. the previous day.  Yesterday’s post led off with an interesting question …

“As I wade through the flood of news today, all of it trying to tilt the playing field toward Trump in the upcoming election, it strikes me there is an elephant in the room that we really need to identify: why is Trump so hell-bent on reelection? He has made it clear he doesn’t particularly like the job. He has no real goals for a second term. He feels victimized by the media and his opponents. He prefers Florida to Washington, D.C., and he really likes to golf. He claims to be wealthy enough to do whatever he wants. So why on earth is he apparently determined to bend our democracy to the point of breaking in order to win reelection to a job he doesn’t seem to want to do?”

She makes some excellent points, I think … he truly doesn’t seem to enjoy actually doing the job, reading briefings, sitting in meetings, listening to experts, and seems to far prefer being at one of his luxury properties golfing and stuffing his face with expensive food.  So … why, indeed, does he lie, cheat and steal to retain the position?  Is it the power?  Is it the fear of the many criminal lawsuits that he’s sure to face once he loses the immunity Bill Barr has given him as a ‘sitting president’?  I don’t know, but it is a conundrum, if you think about it.

I find Ms. Richardson’s newsletter thoughtful and informative, so if you’re interested, you can sign up for it for free here.