June 14, 2023
Afternoon Update:
** Michael Schmidt & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Aileen M. Cannon, the Federal District Court judge assigned to preside over ... Donald J. Trump's classified documents case, has scant experience running criminal trials, calling into question her readiness to handle what is likely to be an extraordinarily complex and high-profile courtroom clash. Judge Cannon, 42, has been on the bench since November 2020, when Mr. Trump gave her a lifetime appointment shortly after he lost re-election. She had not previously served as any kind of judge, and because about 98 percent of federal criminal cases are resolved with plea deals, she has had only a limited opportunity to learn how to preside over a trial.... A New York Times review .. identified [only] four [cases] that went to trial. Each was a relatively routine matter.... Judge Cannon's suitability to handle such a high-stakes and high-profile case has already attracted scrutiny amid widespread perceptions that she demonstrated bias in the former president's favor last year.... In that case, she shocked legal experts across the ideological divide by disrupting the investigation -- including suggesting that Mr. Trump gets special protections as a former president that any other target of a search warrant would not receive -- before a conservative appeals court shut her down, ruling that she never had legitimate legal authority to intervene....
"Lawyers who have appeared before Judge Cannon in run-of-the-mill criminal cases ... said she is demonstrably inexperienced and can bristle when her actions are questioned or unexpected issues arise.... The Trump case is likely to raise myriad complexities that would be challenging for any judge -- let alone one who will be essentially learning on the job.... Judge Cannon's [Senate Judiciary Committee] questionnaire answers put forward few experiences or accomplishments that clearly distinguished her as seasoned and demonstrably ready for the powers and responsibilities of a lifetime appointment to be a federal judge." ~~~
~~~ Marie: An argument I keep hearing pundits make is, "Well, she may not know much, but she has clerks who will set her straight." Really? She had clerks last year when she made those wild-assed, contra-Constitutional rulings in favor of Trump, and her clerks either did not set her straight or she did not heed them.
Rachel Siegel & Abha Bhattari of the Washington Post: "The Federal Reserve is leaving interest rates unchanged for the first time since spring 2022, signaling a new chapter in the central bank's fraught fight against inflation. The decision at the end of the Fed's two-day policy meeting on Wednesday was widely expected, after a long run of rate hikes pushed the central bank's benchmark rate up by five percentage points in 15 months. The Fed also signaled more rate hikes would come before the end of the year, according to economic projections also released Wednesday, though it was unclear when exactly those increases might happen."
Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "Top Democratic strategists, including current advisers to President Biden and former U.S. senators, met last week with former Republicans who oppose Donald Trump at the offices of a downtown D.C. think tank. Their mission: to figure out how to best subvert a potential third-party presidential bid by the group No Labels, an effort they all agreed risked undermining Biden's reelection campaign and reelecting ... Donald Trump to the White House.... [There were] about 40 people in the room and others appearing on Zoom.... Attendees included former White House chief of staff Ron Klain, Democratic National Committee senior adviser Cedric L. Richmond and Stephanie Cutter, a former campaign adviser to Barack Obama who has worked with the Biden team. They were joined by former senators Doug Jones (D-Ala.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), along with representatives of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, former Weekly Standard publisher Bill Kristol and Lucy Caldwell, a former Republican consultant...."
Maybe Jack Smith Has Another Trump Indictment Up His Sleeve. Jamie Frevelle of Mediaite: “While it's only speculation, Ryan Goodman and Andrew Weissmann write in The Atlantic that none of the 37 counts outlined in the 49-page indictment include a charge of dissemination of classified information, a 'steeper' charge. The reason for this, they suspect, is because these charges were made in Florida -- but the possible dissemination, or communication of information or materials may have happened in New Jersey.... The recording they mention is the one obtained by CNN in which Trump is heard 'waving around documents' and saying, on tape, 'Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this' and 'This was done by the military and given to me.'... There are concerns that [Aileen Cannon] may not be objective when it comes to the former president. There is also the chance that Cannon could 'pocket-veto' the charges by scheduling the trial for a date after the 2024 election...."
Mike Ives of the New York Times elaborates on Fox "News" running a chyron last night that called President Biden a "wannabe dictator": "The onscreen text appeared briefly at the bottom of a split-screen broadcast that showed President Biden and former President Trump speaking from respective podiums, at the White House and a Trump golf club in Bedminster, N.J. 'Wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested,' the chyron read. It did not refer to Mr. Biden by name, but the implication was clear.... A spokeswoman for Fox News said, 'The chyron was taken down immediately and was addressed.'"
~~~~~~~~~~
Maanvi Singh of the Guardian: "Hours after facing criminal charges for the alleged mishandling of classified documents, Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters at his golf resort in New Jersey that his indictments were a 'corrupt' and 'political pursuit' designed to destroy him.... He baselessly accused [President] Biden of orchestrating the federal charges against him, calling them a political 'persecution'. In a remarkable moment of projection, the twice-impeached, twice-indicted president who is being investigated for election interference said Biden 'will forever be remembered as not only the most corrupt president in the history of our country, but perhaps even more importantly, the president who together with a band of his closest thugs, misfits and Marxists tried to destroy American democracy' Trump also called Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought federal charges against him, 'deranged' and a 'thug'. He misconstrued the Presidential Records Act ... and balked at charges over 'possessing my own presidential papers, which just about every other president has done'. In fact, the classified documents are not Trump's own -- the Presidential Records Act stipulates that all official documents belong to the federal government. And no president in recent history has refused to return hoards of classified documents." ~~~
~~~ AND there's this from the Guardian's report: "Over a split screen of Trump's speech in New Jersey and Biden's at the White House Juneteenth celebration, the [Fox 'News'] chyron read: 'Wannabe dictator speaks at the White House after having his political rival arrested'." ~~~
~~~ Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "Hours after pleading not guilty in a federal court in Miami to charges related to his handling of classified documents..., Donald J. Trump defended his conduct on Tuesday with a string of familiar falsehoods. Appearing at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., Mr. Trump drew misleading comparisons to other political figures, misconstrued the classification process and leveled inaccurate attacks at officials. Here's a fact check of claims Mr. Trump made related to the inquiry." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Lawrence O'Donnell & Neal Katyal agreed on NBC News that Trump used his Bedminster speech to further admit his criminal mishandling of documents. Earlier in the evening, BTW, O'Donnell said that Trump would be sitting in Aileen Cannon's courtroom holding a big fat bribe for her: "rule my way and it will buy you a seat on the Supreme Court." I'm personally glad O'Donnell said this, because it jibes with a comment I made in recent days, so O'Donnell makes me feel a little less out there in my opinion of both Trump's and Cannon's motivations. MEANWHILE, over on CNN, Jake Tapper played a very short clip of Trump's Bedminster remarks, then took just as long to simply list all the misstatements Trump made in the clip (and the lies were not even Tapper's point in airing the clip).
Marie: Rep. Jim Himes (D-Ct.), who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, said on MSNBC yesterday that he had seen the classified documents that Trump, Biden & Pence had retained. He said that the documents that Trump stole were far more sensitive than those Biden & Pence had found. It's pretty hard to believe that Trump just happened to grab classified documents at random because he likes to save things. Trump saved that stuff because he intended to use it for personal gain.
Grumpy Trumpy. Shayna Jacobs, et al., of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal charges that he broke the law dozens of times by keeping and hiding top secret documents in his Florida home -- the first hearing in a historic court case that could alter the country's political and legal landscape. 'We most certainly enter a plea of not guilty,' Trump's lawyer Todd Blanche said at the arraignment in a small but packed courtroom, where Trump sat at the defense table, scowling and with his arms folded for much of the hearing. Flanked by his lawyers, Blanche and Christopher Kise, the former president listened impassively as U.S. magistrate judge Jonathan Goodman said he planned to order the former president not to have any contact with witnesses in the case -- or his co-defendant Waltine 'Walt' Nauta -- as the case proceeds. He did not speak at all except to whisper to Blanche, seated to his right, and Kise, seated to his left. Blanche objected, saying that Nauta and other potential witnesses might be members of Trump's security detail or other staffers who rely on him for their livelihood. The facts of the case, Blanche said, revolve around 'everything in President Trump's life.' The judge relented somewhat, saying that Trump should not speak to Nauta or witnesses about the facts of the case. As to which Trump employees might be affected by the restriction, the judge instructed the prosecution team to provide a list. Trump finished signing the bond paperwork at about 3:31 p.m., after it appeared it had to be returned to the defense table twice more because he and his lawyers didn't sign or initial every line needed. 'Third time's a charm, Goodman said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "Former President Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges on 37 counts following a Department of Justice indictment alleging he violated both the Espionage Act and obstructed justice in taking classified records from his presidency and refusing to return them.... Trump was accompanied by attorneys Todd Blanche, who is also representing him in a New York prosecution related to hush money payments, as well as Christopher Kise, who previously represented Trump in the Mar-a-Lago probe.... Blanche entered the not guilty plea on Trump's behalf. Trump and his co-defendant Walt Nauta, who is alleged to have aided Trump in concealing the records, were released without bond restrictions or travel restrictions." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times story is here.
Megan Caponovo of KCRA (Sacramento, Ca.): "While Trump and an aide charged as a co-conspirator — Walt Nauta -- were booked in Miami federal court, Nauta was not arraigned along with Trump. Nauta, a Navy veteran who fetched Trump's Diet Cokes as his valet at the White House before joining him as a personal aide at Mar-a-Lago, was granted bond with the same conditions as Trump. But he did not enter a plea because he doesn't have a local attorney. Instead, Nauta will be arraigned on June 27 before Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres. He doesn't have to attend in person." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jonathan Lemire of Politico: "President Joe Biden and his top aides have taken a vow of silence on the federal indictment of his predecessor, Donald Trump -- and have explicitly ordered the national Democratic Party and his reelection campaign to do the same. That directive was issued in recent days..., according to three people familiar with the instructions. But that decision has some Democrats and allies worried that Biden could miss a chance to underscore the seriousness of the national moment as well as deliver a political blow to his top White House rival.... Some in his inner circle hope the decision will be revisited if next year's general election looks like it could be a rematch with Trump even if the legal fight has not been resolved by then." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Very noble, Joe. Now, every campaign ad you cut should show a headshot of Donald Trump that for all the world looks like a mugshot. If his collar shows, make sure it's open, unironed and orange.
Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Former Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday said he could not defend the 'very serious' allegations against ... Donald Trump in a federal indictment over the handling of classified documents. 'Having read the indictment, these are very serious allegations. And I can't defend what is alleged,' Pence said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal editorial board. 'But the President is entitled to his day in court, he's entitled to bring a defense, and I want to reserve judgment until he has the opportunity to respond.'"
Analisa Novak of CBS News: "... former House Speaker Paul Ryan believes Trump's indictment is a significant matter that goes beyond politics.... Ryan noted the indictment is related to matters of national security. 'I used to have the same documents myself as Speaker of the House,' Ryan said. 'So I think this goes beyond just some petty thing.' Ryan added that he is 'not a Trump fan,' and said that when it comes to the 2024 presidential race, 'we want a nominee who is not weighed down by so much baggage in order to win this election.'... He said candidates for the Republican presidential nomination like Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence and Chris Christie are 'very viable people.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Thomas Durkin & Joseph Ferguson have a Conversation about what should lie ahead for Trump and how his motor mouth will insure that outcome. A few outtakes: Durkin: "My quick calculations indicate that you're talking about 51 to 63 months in the best case and in the worst case, which I'm not sure would apply, 210 to 262 months." Ferguson: "I'd tell him: If you want to die in jail, keep talking." Ferguson: The evidence cited in the indictment is technically a series of allegations. "but when you're speaking at that level of granularity, these are things that actually exist in proof, the proof that is to come.... Nothing is put in the indictment unless it exists in actual fact." Ferguson: "The only way to avoid [the danger that Trump will continue to share government secrets] is to put him in isolation in supermax where he doesn't get to talk with people." Durkin: In the meantime, "especially if he keeps suggesting or threatening violence, that the government will be put in a position where they don't have a choice but to try to move to detain him." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.
Bret Stephens of the New York Times hangs on to the archaic notion that "conservatives" have the capacity to be logical, even-handed and fair-minded: "For many years, but especially the past three, conservatives have warned of the dangers of a criminal justice system that is overly reluctant to put and keep dangerous people in prison.... These same conservatives should try being consistent when it comes to the federal indictment of Donald Trump."
D.C. Grand Jury Hears from Nevada "Fake Electors." Natasha Korecki, et al., of NBC News: "... back in Washington, [a] grand jury investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and Trump's efforts to stay in office is also moving ahead in full force. Nevada GOP Chair Michael McDonald, a close Trump political ally, as well as Jim DeGraffenreid, the state party's vice chair, were spotted by NBC News entering the area where the Jan. 6 jury is meeting at the Washington federal courthouse Tuesday.... McDonald had previously confirmed to NBC News that federal authorities seized his cellphone as part of the investigation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Kara Scannell of CNN: "A federal judge will allow E. Jean Carroll to amend her original defamation lawsuit against ... Donald Trump to include comments he made at a CNN town hall. Carroll, a former magazine columnist, asked the judgefor permission to amend the initial November 2019 lawsuit so she could try to seek additional punitive damages after Trump repeated statements a federal jury found to be defamatory.... One day [after a jury found in Carroll's favor,] Trump appeared at the CNN Republican presidential town hall and said, 'I have no idea who this woman -- this is a fake story, made up story.' He called Carroll a 'whack job' and went on a tangent about her ex-husband and pet cat. Trump's lawyer opposed the amendment and said they wanted to move to dismiss the original lawsuit, which deals with comments Trump made while president and has been held up on appeal." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Paul Duggan of the Washington Post: "A D.C. chiropractor who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was sentenced Tuesday to two months in jail for a misdemeanor offense. But he still faces a wrongful-death lawsuit accusing him of assaulting a police officer who later died by suicide. The D.C. officer, Jeffrey Smith, 35, suffered a brain injury when he was struck with his own baton, according to the lawsuit. Smith, who killed himself nine days after the riot, was among four police officers who died by suicide in the weeks and months after battling the mob at the Capitol, authorities said.... The chiropractor, David Walls-Kaufman, now 66, who lived and worked on Capitol Hill, was not criminally charged with assaulting Smith because prosecutors said they lacked sufficient evidence to prove that allegation beyond a reasonable doubt."
Matt Viser & Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "President Biden met with NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday afternoon as a host of challenges confront the allied group, reiterating America's commitment to protect NATO countries that neighbor Russia at a time when Moscow's aggression is on stark display in Ukraine. The meeting, held in the Oval Office, paved the way for a NATO summit in Lithuania next month where the alliance's 31 member states will face a range of thorny issues.... At the start of Tuesday's meeting, Biden stressed the United States' commitment to defending any NATO country if any part of it comes under attack, a sentiment increasingly important to the eastern allies from Poland to the Baltics."
A Note on White House Etiquette. AP: "Transgender advocate Rose Montoya is no longer welcome at White House events after posting on social media a video of herself and two others going topless for a time at Saturday's Pride Month celebration on the South Lawn. 'The behavior was simply unacceptable,' White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. 'It was unfair to the hundreds of attendees who were there to celebrate their families.'"
Range War. Collin Anderson of the Washington Free Beacon: "The Biden administration is supporting [Berkeley, California's] plan to ban gas stoves, arguing in federal court that such bans do not violate federal law and thus can be replicated in states and cities nationwide. Officials from President Joe Biden's Department of Justice and Department of Education filed a joint brief in federal court on Monday arguing in favor of Berkeley, California's ban on natural gas in new buildings. Berkeley in 2019 became the first U.S. city to enact such a policy, but a federal court struck it down in April, finding that federal law prevents cities and states from restricting natural gas appliances." ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE. Kelsey Tamborrino of Politico: "After a weeklong blockade of floor action by conservatives, the House passed bipartisan legislation Tuesday to prevent the federal government from banning gas stoves -- the latest Republican bid to stop what they say is the Biden administration's anti-fossil fuel agenda.... Republicans have touted their legislation as pushback against overreach by the Biden administration, even though there are no federal proposals to outright prohibit the sale of gas stoves under consideration."
Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "It has long been an axiom of the House majority: Vote against a piece of legislation put forth by your party if you absolutely must, but never, ever vote against the 'rule' to bring that legislation to the floor. Until the last few weeks, that standard had held for more than two decades. But now, about a dozen rebellious House Republicans have decided to leverage their badly needed votes on the routine procedural measures to win policy concessions, breaking the longstanding code of party discipline and threatening the traditional operation of the House. 'Who cares?' asked Representative Eli Crane of Arizona, one of the members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus.... Making such changes would fundamentally alter the nature of the House.... Should the group of Republicans continue their procedural resistance, it would sow chaos for [Speaker Kevin] McCarthy's efforts to legislate, potentially upending the consideration of government spending bills needed to avert a shutdown this fall."
Wherein My Kevin Explains Macroeconomics. Jonathan Nicholson of the Huffington Post: "Less than two weeks after the end of the debt limit fight that Republicans said they started because they worried about government red ink, House Republicans moved a step closer to possibly adding as much as a trillion dollars more in debt through tax cuts. The tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee late Tuesday approved a trio of bills that would extend or expand parts of the Trump tax cuts from 2017 and take back green energy tax cuts included in last year's Inflation Reduction Act.... Asked about the disconnect between threatening default in the debt limit fight, which ended June 3 with President Joe Biden signing a bill suspending the limit until 2025, and potentially adding massively to the debt, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters Monday the problem was spending, not revenues. 'I look at it from the perspective of that if Washington is not taking your money, it's much more efficient used by you,' he said." MB: May I just point out that, once again, McCarthy's double-speak is nonsensical. Debt is debt is debt whether you spent too much or made too little money. ~~~
~~~ Marie: In fairness to My Kevin, his defense of "fiscal responsibility" is just as sensible as his defense the other day of storing dozens of boxes of classified documents in a public bathroom at Mar-a-Lardo: "Bathroom doors lock." Yes they do. From the inside.
AP: "Fox News sent Tucker Carlson a cease-and-desist letter over his new Twitter series, Axios reported Monday, amid reports of a contract battle between the conservative network and its former prime-time host.... Fox has demanded Carlson stop posting videos to Twitter, The New York Times also reported Monday -- as the network's lawyers accuse Carlson of violating his contract, which runs until early 2025 and restricts his ability to appear on other media outlets. Meanwhile, Carlson's lawyers have said the network breached the contract first."
Beyond the Beltway
California. Jill Cowan of the New York Times: "A Los Angeles City Council member was charged on Tuesday with embezzlement, perjury and conflict of interest, becoming the latest in a procession of elected city leaders to have been accused of corruption. Prosecutors said that Curren Price, 72, a former state legislator who has represented South Los Angeles on the City Council for a decade, voted on projects that benefited developers who paid his wife's consulting business a total of more than $150,000 between 2019 and 2021. The allegations were tied to three counts of perjury and two counts of conflict of interest."
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Wednesday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Wednesday is here: "At least three people were killed and 13 injured after Russian missiles struck a commercial area in Odessa, in southwestern Ukraine, overnight, the Ukrainian army's southern command said early Wednesday.... Russian rocket attacks killed three people and injured three others in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko.... Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived at U.S. military headquarters in western Germany on Wednesday ahead of a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group...."
News Lede
New York Times: "At least 79 people drowned in the Aegean Sea after a large boat carrying migrants sank early Wednesday, the Greek authorities said, in the deadliest such episode off the country's coast since the height of the 2015 migration crisis. More than 100 people were rescued, but the Greek Coast Guard warned that the death toll would probably increase."
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Reader Comments (19)
A most unhappy birthday to you, Donald J. Trump. I'll bet that
indictment wasn't exactly the gift you were expecting. Ha, ha, ha,
as Hillary said yesterday.
Maybe P.D. can do us a nice little poem for trump the chump.
You want to die in prison?
So predictable…hours after appearing in a courtroom to face a pile of charges, the most damning of which were made possible because he can’t keep his big mouth shut, Fatty goes on another lie and threat infused rant.
He just does and says whatever he wants.
Here are a couple of guys with decades of experience in national security law, both as prosecutors for the US and one also as a defense attorney for clients accused of national security breaches.
The guys are Thomas A. Durkin, who spent much of his career working in national security law, and Joseph Ferguson, who served as a national security prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, where Durkin was also a prosecutor.
Here’s their hot take on the possible consequences of Fatty’s big mouth:
“If you want to die in jail, keep talking…”
They also point out the vastly different—and unusually diffident—approach the government has adopted because this crook is a former president*.
“If Trump were anyone other than a former president, he would not have been given the luxury of a summons to appear in court. There would be a team of armed FBI agents outside his door at 6:30 in the morning, he would have been arrested and the government would be immediately moving to detain.” They point out that the MAGA horde’s claims that Fatty is being treated differently are true, just not in the way they mean.
And about that yapping?
“…people should understand that the things that he said already are being used as evidence of intent. From now on, the repetition of them constitutes new admissible evidence. It’s not like, ‘Oh, I’ve already said it, so I might as well keep saying it.’”
They also point out very ominously how an asshole with a tendency to
Shoot his mouth off and brag about all the secrets he knows gets treated:
“ I can tell you what it would mean to anyone else. They’d be put in a hole in the wall in maximum security at Florence, Colorado, and they would apply what’s called ‘Special Administrative Measures.’”
And because of that big mouth, imprisonment would mean complete isolation in a maximum security wing in a supermax prison, because he couldn’t be trusted not to keep yapping about national security secrets.
Keep talking, you fucking traitor.
Lots more.
https://theconversation.com/if-you-want-to-die-in-jail-keep-talking-two-national-security-law-experts-discuss-the-special-treatment-for-trump-and-offer-him-some-advice-207482
I have a birthday poem for Fatty…
It’s your birthday?
Enjoy it while you can.
Next year, we hope and pray
You’ll be Orange Jumpsuit Man
@Akhilleus: First of all, let me compliment you on writing such a beautiful poem. I mean, it's Pulitzer material. Move over, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
That conversation was great. Thank you for linking it. Republican "leaders" who are willing to concede that the allegations are "damning" or "troublesome" always precede their remarks with, "If the allegations are true...." But based on what Ferguson & Durkin say, the clause should be, "If Judge Cannon doesn't throw out the proof...." That is, DOJ already has hard evidence & testimony for everything in the indictment; now, it's just a matter of getting that documentation and testimony in front of an impartial jury.
Not only is Trump uncontrollable, he actually plans to incriminate himself. I think it was Lawrence O'Donnell who noted that when Trump made those remarks last night about how the Presidential Records Act gave him the right to retain all those documents, he was reading it off a teleprompter. That is, it's not just the off-the-cuff stuff he says that gets him in trouble; even copies of his prepared remarks are self-incriminating.
P.S. to Whom It May Concern: If you are a friend or relative of Walt Nauta, it's time for an intervention. Sure, the guy is a jerk, but don't you want to at least try to save him from doing hard time for Donald?
The following from the Guardian piece––. "In a remarkable moment of projection, the twice-impeached, twice-indicted president who is being investigated for election interference said Biden 'will forever be remembered as not only the most corrupt president in the history of our country, but perhaps even more importantly, the president who together with a band of his closest thugs, misfits and Marxists tried to destroy American democracy'".
These comments are extraordinary not only as projections but are another blatant example of serious psychological problems. So much has been touted regarding Trump's mob boss mentality but I think this man is seriously sick which makes him even more dangerous.
@P.D.Pepe: I think you're right. Back in 2015 or so, I had the sense that Trump made all those "projection"-type charges against his rivals as a Roy Cohn sort of defensive technique, and Trump knew exactly what he was doing.
But when I watched a few clips of his speech last night, and on a number of other recent occasions when I've seen clips of his saying something outrageous, I did get the impression he believed what he was saying. This change may be the result of being perpetually surrounded by yes-men, but the effect is a descent into madness. IMO.
Sorry Forest, but I'm pium out of poetic inclination to come up–-or down, as the case would be to comprise a ditty for a dirty dealer and since Ak has already done the deed no need for another. But we could have started with Humpty Dumpty Trumpty falling off his wall and go on from there and end up like the nursery rhyme in which all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty back together again. We hold out breath for the same outcome .
Does anyone here have a clear sense of why, how or to what degree calling someone a Marxist in 2023 retains any power to frighten?
As someone raised during the height of the Red Scare back in the 1950's and 60's, I remember its potency, long since dissipated, but have no sense at all of what it conveys today to people much younger than myself.
"Godless communism" maybe retains some of its sting for Evangelicals, but I wonder.
I'd place the epithet in the category of calling Democrats pedophiles, both of which must have some bite, but both so obviously and laughably absurd they must repel at least as many as they convince.
Most sources define Marxism as being concerned with the struggles
of lower and middle class workers, with the conflict between
social classes, and with economic inequality.
Doesn't sound like a negative to me unless you're afraid those 'others'
are going to get a dollar or two of your billions, which are probably
stashed in offshore accounts to avoid taxes.
The only negative I see is that Marxists believed to achieve their
goals involved revolution. There's been a lot of that and from what
I've seen over the years, it doesn't turn out well.
Democracy leaves a lot to be desired and isn't perfect (especially
right now) but it's still way up there in forms of government as far
as I'm concerned.
Marie,
As much as it pains me to say it, I don’t believe, despite the mountain of incriminating evidence against him, that Trump will ever see the inside of a supermax cell. But you know who might? Nutty Nauta. That guy will go down hard. He’ll do time. And while he’s marking off the days and years behind bars, he can think of the guy who put him there, out cheating at golf, not thinking of ol’ Walt ever again.
The Trump Way. Find ‘em, use ‘em, fuck ‘em, forget ‘em.
Ken,
I doubt any of the Trumpists who toss around slogans and watchwords like groomers, commies, Marxists…pick your idiot imprecation…could explain what these terms actually mean and what evidence they have that allows them to employ such words.
Because they have no real meaning. To them, that is. Words like “woke” have been stripped of meaning. They’re mere shibboleths, passwords that let other traitors and drooling idiots know that you’re one of them.
They’re just run of the mill boogeyman phrases. Might as well be calling Biden a poopy-head, or stinky-pants as a commie.
It’s like members of a biker gang who wear the same tattoos and markings on their jackets. It’s a gang thing, and words like commie and woke are part of their gang signs.
Oh, along with waving guns around and threatening to kill people they hate.
Which many of them have already done.
It would be very hard to improve on an old classic like "Happy Birthday to You" but somehow changing the third and fourth lines to read "We hope the next one's in prison, and many more of them too" seems appropriate.
Akhilleus,
I think you're right. Marxism is just a word to most people, pretty much devoid of meaning beyond its use as a tribal identification.
Makes me wonder, too, on this Flag Day how many know its origins and intended meaning. I have known since I was a kid that it came around once a year and knew the date on which it landed, three weeks or so before the Fourth when flags were ubiquitous, but I didn't know much more about it.
Looked it up this morning and learned more than I knew.
https://www.va.gov/opa/publications/celebrate/flagday.pdf
Wonder what it means to folks today. Like "Marxism," not much I'd guess.
But it sure meant something back in the day when some people burned it.
Thanks for all the discussion of the whinemaster the day after the press covers itself with glory as usual, by covering his every move. It is nothing short of disgusting to see that even MSNBC covered the freaky black vehicles on the Floriduh highways. "Poopypants" whining at Bedminster was choice...I heard one sentence and he sounded like that brat in third grade who only knows revenge...which is apparently his mental age. This IS a disgrace and not the way he intends it when his pouty little mouth spews it. They are eating it up in China, apparently, per NPR. Comeuppance, for the hoity toity USA...
Jeanne,
Missed that bit about China laughing at us because of Trump. For decades, a standard pejorative in both the Soviet Union and Red China was “Western decadence”. They viewed us as weak followers of narcissistic urges. Trump’s ascension only seems to prove to them the accuracy of that hoary phrase.
@Ken Winkes: I'm pretty sure what today's wingers mean by "Marxist" is "pro-government." So anyone who thinks government can solve problems or that government policies and can have positive outcomes for people is a "Marxist." In their view, "Marxists" are robbing them of their freedumbs, making them give unfair advantages to "those people," and forcing them to give "those people" all the freedumbs & opportunities that should be the exclusive privilege of nice white straight Christian men. Anyone who believes in equal opportunity or equal justice is a Marxist. What most of us describe as "Western liberal democracy," wingers think is Marxism.
I suspect that the impact power of "Marxism" as epithet is that the cult thinks of it as property theft by "the state." Since most of the cult is probably NOT in the .01%, why should that fear trigger their amygdalas? Maybe:
-- they don't have much but by gum they ain't gonna let "the state" take it
-- "the state" is revenooers, and we don't cotton to them 'round hyere
-- when they win the Powerball they want to keep it all
-- they know in their instinctual memory that "marxism = bad", but they don't know that there is no one in the U.S. who is working to bring about Marxism, much less "communism."
-- and, they think "socialism" is "communism-lite" that inevitably and quickly leads to the hard stuff -- and that government social programs are "socialism"
Finally, they really don't do words, so much as they do feelings. So if "marxism" jiggles your synapses and raises your systolic, its done the job the speaker hoped for.
MSNBC, Rachel and friends, discuss above the implications of DiJiT's tiny crowds at his court calls. One they didn't discuss, but might apply in Miami, is guns.
Even if I were a gun-guy, and a rabid DiJiT supporter, I don't think I'd want to go painted, large and rowdy in a place where everybody can legally carry a loaded weapon. I don't know how far back the USSS wanted to keep people, but clearly they didn't hold 'em, with fans running alongside the limo on the way out.
That said, I have seen NO reporting on the presence or absence of guns at the event.
Peter Groves of Tennessee contributed this as a NYTimes comment.
I liked it.
"The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism.
With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power.
A fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends.
The symptoms of fascist thinking are colored by environment and adapted to immediate circumstances. But always and everywhere they can be identified by their appeal to prejudice and by the desire to play upon the fears and vanities of different groups in order to gain power.
If we define an American fascist as one who in case of conflict puts money and power ahead of human beings, then there are undoubtedly several million fascists in the United States.”
—Henry A. Wallace, FDR's Vice-President"