Well, I suppose the headline really should read “Trump Administration,” since Trump has managed to assemble a group of people who are both magnificently inept and thoroughly dishonest.
It’s something every day–usually, thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic, buried under the propaganda and disinformation being spewed every day by the buffoon-in-chief.
NBC recently reported on a story first broken by Pro Publica.
On a Tuesday just before Halloween in 2018, a group of federal prosecutors and agents from Texas arrived in Washington. For almost two years, they’d been investigating the opioid dispensing practices of Walmart, the largest company in the world. They had amassed what they viewed as highly damning evidence only to face a major obstacle: top Trump appointees at the Department of Justice.
The opioid crisis was the most pressing public health issue facing the country before the arrival of the current pandemic. What the investigators had uncovered was proof of clearly criminal activity by Walmart–activity that played a significant part in creating and sustaining that crisis.
Opioids dispensed by Walmart pharmacies in Texas had killed customers who had overdosed. The pharmacists who dispensed those opioids had told the company they didn’t want to fill the prescriptions because they were coming from doctors who were running pill mills. They pleaded for help and guidance from Walmart’s corporate office.
Investigators had obtained records of similar cries for help from Walmart pharmacists all over the country: from Maine, North Carolina, Kansas and Washington, and other states. They reported hundreds of thousands of suspicious or inappropriate opioid prescriptions. One Walmart employee warned about a Florida doctor who had a “list of patients from Kentucky that have been visiting pharmacies in all of central Wisconsin recently.” That doctor had sent patients to Walmarts in more than 30 other states.
How did “corporate” respond? By repeatedly forbidding pharmacists from cutting off any doctor. Pharmacists were told to “evaluate each prescription on an individual basis.” One opioid compliance manager even sent an executive an email (viewed by ProPublica, which confirmed its contents), that Walmart’s focus should be on “driving sales.”
The prosecutor investigating Walmart’s behavior prepared to indict the corporation for violating the Controlled Substances Act. She had the support of her boss, who also believed the evidence justified what would have been an unprecedented step.(Fortune 500 companies don’t get indicted–gee, I wonder why…)
Before the Texas prosecutors could file their case, however, Walmart escalated concerns to high-ranking officials at the DOJ, who then intervened. Brown was ordered to stand down. On Aug. 31, 2018, Trump officials officially informed Walmart that the DOJ would decline to prosecute the company, according to a letter from Walmart’s lawyer that lays out the chronology of the case.
The Texas prosecutors appealed to higher-ups at DOJ, pointing out that dispensing opioids without a legitimate medical purpose is legally indistinguishable from dealing heroin.
Criminal law says if a person or entity is willfully blind or deliberately ignorant, they are as liable as if they had acted intentionally. Once Walmart’s headquarters knew its pharmacists were raising alarms about suspicious prescriptions, but the compliance department continued to allow — even push — them to fill them, well, that made the company guilty, the Texas prosecutors contended.
This wasn’t a situation where a few employees “went rogue.” Worse, the company was a repeat offender; seven years earlier, Walmart entered into a settlement with the DEA in which it promised to improve its controls over the abuse of opioid prescriptions.
The DOJ didn’t budge, so prosecutors tried another tactic: criminal charges against individual employees. Trump officials blocked that, too. Then prosecutors tried to bring a civil case, and Trump officials blocked that.
The lengthy story at the link is detailed enough to dispel any doubts about how thoroughly this administration has corrupted the DOJ.
The news of the Walmart investigation comes at a time when the Trump administration is being assailed for legal favoritism and cronyism. Attorney General Bill Barr has inserted himself into multiple investigations of Trump friends and associates. In February, four prosecutors on the case of Roger Stone, a Trump friend and adviser, quit the case in protest after political appointees undercut their sentencing recommendation.
The Trump DOJ has also pulled back on white-collar and corporate investigations and prosecutions. White-collar prosecutions are at a record low. Walmart itself seems to have already benefited from the Trump administration’s approach to corporate misconduct. The company was the subject of a seven-year investigation into bribery allegations in Mexico and around the globe. The Obama administration sought $600 million in fines, according to The New York Times, which broke the story, but failed to reach a resolution with the company. The Trump DOJ settled the charges for $282 million in June 2019.
It certainly pays to have low friends in high places…..
Disgusting behavior. People die so business can prosper. THIS is the Republican Party in action.
patmcc,
“Disgusting behavior.”
I strongly disagree. It’s appropriate behavior for a bunch of Nazis. Let’s try reality for a change.
And who can so easily forget Scott Pruitt?
OF COURSE the DOJ dropped charges and dumped on the prosecutors. One whining phone call from the ivory towers of Wal-Mart/Opioid makers and POOF! It all goes away. Corrupt doctors making millions off of unnecessary and illegal prescriptions? No problem. Keep up the good work. This “problem” of corruption should also be viewed as the exploitation of many people in a great deal of pain – real or imagined. Hey! There’s money to be made out there.
Marv calls them Nazis. That is too kind a label for the absolute gutter scum that is operating the DOJ and the rest of the executive branch…including the president, of course. They are crooks. They are utterly corrupt. It’s a crime syndicate in every way imaginable. People writing screen plays for mob movies must feel ripped off. They couldn’t imagine something this grotesque.
How many companies operate in China because of the Walton family?
Our only hope of ridding ourselves of Walmart is online sales going to other local and regional stores. A vast majority of business colleges study the “Walmart effect” on communities across the country. It’s a disease that kills off locally-owned retail and drives down wages.
Instead of restricting their growth, both capitalist political parties have allowed Walmart to prosper. Watching the DOJ roll over and play dead for the Walton family is just another chapter in the book of crony capitalism, which is one of the last phases before capitalism, and it’s “free market theories” die a painful death.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party pretended to put up a great fight as opposition to the GOP’s stimulus bill only to see Trump strike the inspector general oversight committee for how the $500 billion for corporate America is spent.
As Sheila said, the most blatantly corrupt administration this country has witnessed is now in charge of passing out monies to capitalists. Mnuchin gets to administer the funds, and he and Trump see fit. As we have seen during this national emergency, those republican governors who kneel at the throne of Trump get the supplies they need. Those who question his leadership and refuse to bow, are cast out of the Kingdom with medical supply vendors being told NOT to work with that particular state (see Michigan).
So, what do you expect will happen with the $500 billion corporate slush fund?
Quid pro quo on steroids. Trump is acting more and more like a despot who is ruling over the USA.
As for Marv’s question about the November election, it depends on what happens at the Democratic Convention. If the DNC insists on running Biden against Trump, Joe will be destroyed so the election will occur. However, if Joe backs down for health reasons and the DNC picks two strong candidates for P and VP, then Trump may play games with the November election.
Vernon,
“Marv calls them Nazis. That is too kind a label for the absolute gutter scum that is operating the DOJ and the rest of the executive branch…including the president, of course.”
Thanks for the correction. I’m just too nice. I need to change. Many thanks.
Todd,
“As for Marv’s question about the November election, it depends on what happens at the Democratic Convention.”
We’ve seen the United Nations become meaningless. I wonder what will be the place of the Democratic Party by the time of their convention? By then, they might also be meaningless.
Who knows? You might be too optimistic.
Before Pence was selected to run with Trump to “ride shotgun” for the federal government; he cut off all funding for Planned Parenthood Clinics in southern Indiana. These clinics, testing and treating men and women, were forced to cut off all medical care for low income people and those being tested for HIV and opioid addictions and resulted in epidemics of same. Those numbers were reported; Pence’s basic reason for cutting all funds was to uphold his anti-abortion law with no thought to full services provided by those much needed clinics.
In the fall of 2017, Trump’s first year in office; MSNBC produced a special of Chris Hayes’ program with Bernie Sanders which was filmed in the poorest county in West Virginia. Their investigations and research prior to the program, which consisted of interviews with residents suffering from loss of jobs and medical care and uncovered the mass opioid addiction victims including deaths, the pharmacies providing the medications, the doctors over-prescribing the medications and the manufacturers of those medications. All to rake in millions in profits.
There are many culprits to point fingers at along with Walmart but the only action we have seen in these seemingly endless “years of Trump” has been the finger-pointing and lip service aiming those fingers.
“It certainly pays to have low friends in high places…..”
And now people are dying due to the lowest person in the highest place on the globe who cannot be indicted (or impeached) for his lack of actions regarding the opioid epidemic due to lack of action by his personal DOJ and as we watch the Covid-19 Pandemic numbers in the country double as he panders to those who “treat him nice”.
Call it “Corruption” if you like; it looks more like government sanctioned murder to me.
You know corruption is at the fore of every single waking moment of president Nero!
During his 90 and some odd minute diatribe yesterday he repeatedly accused New York hospitals of graft concerning protective masks. He says that before, they would use 10 or 20,000 masks and now they’re using over 300,000! He claims he’s watching refrigerated Connex boxes being filled with bodies, and can’t figure out why? During any one of my 26 surgeries, I’ve never had a doctor come into my room afterwards with the mask on, I never had the CNA’s coming in with masks on, I’ve never seen housekeeping come in with masks on, I’ve never seen the charge nurses coming in with masks on, I’ve never seen the regular floor nurses coming in with masks on, now, they all wear masks 24/7.
The directive at the VA is not to wear a mask you had on with another patient. When you leave that patients room, you take off the mask and throw it away. So if you see 50 patients a day or whatever the number would be, that’s at least 50 masks that weren’t needed for the coronavirus. Of course areas of the hospital where people had compromised immune systems, they not only wore masks, but were wearing Scott rebreathers and such.
So, everything focuses back on corruption and is grift and graft. All of the emergency monies authorized benefit and un-proportionate amount of the wealthy rather than the average working man. Jared Kushner is a prime example, he got a huge tax break in this last $2.2 trillion bill. A tax break that could be worth more than the monies given to the healthcare field. Not just POTUS, but the GOP just can’t stop being corrupt! They been self-dealing since Trump is been in office. This situation right now might make people look back at the good old days when Scott Pruitt, Michael:, Michael Flynn, KT McFarland, Rick Perry, Tom Price, and a plethora of others, were the object of scorn because of their blatant corruption!
I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet, once he can get into his comfort zone, all bets are off so to speak. He is liable to do anything, including martial law. People keep saying that he can’t do this and he can’t do that, but if he declares martial law, he is the Emperor! Theoretically he could order every Democrat in government to be locked up for the greater good. Would those orders be carried out? Can anyone point to that not happening? He’s been loading up government with his toadies, including the Supreme Court and the Justice Department. So, we will see!
You saw yesterday how these heads of industry and corporations licked Trump’s boots during his 90 minute diatribe, it was one of the biggest displays of Lackey-ism and deferential subservience that I have ever witnessed. And these lackeys well know, if they conduct themselves in this boot licking manner, all of the money that they’ve received in the GOP’s corporate welfare tax bill a couple of years ago, money that they spent on stock buybacks no less, will be bailed out once again because that stock can be written off as a huge loss, so, hide your wallets!
Before the coronavirus, Sorry!
I’ve been wondering what became of the other eleven cases that Mueller farmed out to other U.S. Attorneys. There were twelve, but now Stone is done. I’ve not read from any reliable source what those cases were, where they were sent, or what happened. I’m guessing Barr has ended them without any fanfare. And think about this: Barr wants to have emergency powers to disregard constitutional rights during the COVID-19 response. God help us.
“government sanctioned murder” indeed! JoAnn can always be counted on to connect the dots. Thanks friend.
john,
“I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet, once he can get into his comfort zone, all bets are off so to speak. He is liable to do anything, including martial law. People keep saying that he can’t do this and he can’t do that, but if he declares martial law, he is the Emperor!”
Give him a break. How else could this IDIOT lead in the present socio-economic, political, environment?
Marv, LOL!
How does it go? “I’m not sayin, I’m just sayin,” ?
Listening to him talk yesterday, I found myself desiring to get a couple of root canals without anesthetics. I think the only thing he possesses, is a very well used 200 (?) word vocabulary. And that is generous! I can’t stand the guy, and even I feel embarrassed for him. President Nero has been fiddling for 3 years, for three and a half years, and the fire just keeps getting hotter!.
I really believe that the world is heading towards a hegemonic type of association, either one government or a bonded blend of these authoritarian nincompoops to solidify their power and control the masses more completely. It’s Nazism on a mass scale. When you hear about sacrificing the elderly and the infirmed for the benefit of corporations? That doesn’t just sound like Hitler’s Germany, it is Hitler’s Germany.!.!.!
The only silver lining there might be, is the authoritarians do not get along with each other, and eventually, once they’re done eating everyone else, they’ll start eating their own. Unfortunately there probably will be nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide, (wasn’t that a song?) The opposition will be beat down and eliminated, at least until they start turning on each other. This planet is the only place we have, really can’t go anywhere else! And, it’s going to really really really suck for our grand children, great-grandchildren and probably much further down the line than that.
History repeats, there’s no question or doubt about it! Mankind is too stupid to learn from his previous pains because of his mortality. Unfortunately, this is going to be on a much grander scale than anything in history before it.
Alternative spelling: B-A-R-R
john,
“That doesn’t just sound like Hitler’s Germany, it is Hitler’s Germany.!.!.!”
We have to be accurate. It’s all about TARGETING. Now we might start getting somewhere.
john,
The next step is to ORGANIZE AN EFFECTIVE, PEACEFUL, RESISTANCE. We might look at the WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING as one of a few pertinent examples.
John – “And, it’s going to really really really suck for our grand children, great-grandchildren and probably much further down the line than that.”
I don’t share your optimism that there will be an inhabitable world for our grandchildren and great grandchildren. Perhaps for the time being, but not ‘further down the line.’
john,
As far as any contemplated retaliation is concerned, we all might want to take another good look at http://www.KillingtheMessenger.info. There’s more than just JOHN GRISHAM, the author, out there.
BEWARE!!!!
if this country had a real time addiction education and clinics that do real time care,in place,the above issue would be less than what we see today.. i have been around addicts in some form all my life,mainly the heroin in the 60s in the NY,NJ metro area..from there calif in the 70s in L.A. area,and the bay area.cocaine,qualudes,up and down pills,,pretty tough to sleep in a truck at night parked in Oakland ca..or under the brooklynn bridge with quarter millon $ in king crab in your trailer waiting for daylight,(brooklynn cold storage).. i was mugged in manhatten in 1985 in alley,while my load of meat was being unloaded..all drugs? maybe more like a form of socioeconomic issues? or just negelct of the people,by the goverment..we can today evaluate peoples DNA for the addiction gene,,, i have,been determine by three shrinks in the drug field,i have no addiction issue… no matter the race,we have come a long way in science to be able to determine ones known DNA.. the opioid,seems the start where the manufactures were lieing about its addictive qualities seem to be under the rug,even here.. walmart is no corprate maiden,like wall street,profits above people. hense they deny any wrongdoing, and it goes down the greed chain,untill its forgotten by a new issue,until there is actual jail time in a regular hard core prison,for these people,who purvey to the greed while piling the bodies up, it will never slow down,,.. seems we now see where, a total amount of awards to be given in any one case,like,asbestos, have a total cap on payouts,who determines this? same ol greed system? those lawyers who paint themselves as t.v. gotta get us to get the money,,crew, have become a mainstream money pit,and im sure they get then full 50% before they cut a check,over someones missery….seems they would make great politicians.. trumps own private legal team has such a ad.. if we watch the opioid epidemic,we have seen a body count,above what corona is perdicted. the ACA did little to help,and gov donations (sarcastic eh?) to private in house addiction companies were a joke. unless some sort of leadership ever comes about,where peoples issues rise above the greed, we will never see change.because, over the last 4 decades,we ahve allowed the greed to pass law,litigation,rules,decorum,and general bullshit to pad the greed that has ,well taken over..its hard to not give a few bucks to someone down on their luck, looking into their eyes,i see our elected officials who conned the electorate,while swilling bonaparte and and big cigars while they step,over the bodies in there gentrified hoods…
best wishes, washdapaws
Yet, The Trumpet’s ratings of approval are still high. This quote below from another site seems to cover a lot of ground:
“But it does mean they tend to assume that most people will recoil from outright lies, deception, malice, injustice, sleaze, and thuggish imbecility when it is exposed and demonstrated to them.
But maybe that isn’t true.”
“Maybe enough Americans in enough states just don’t care. Or maybe enough of them do care but in an affirmative way. They like politics conducted like pro-wrestling. They smile at the vulgarity. They approve of a president who acts and thinks like a mob boss and prefer a politics of clientalistic corruption to an administrative state of well-trained experts and bureaucrats who aspire to scrupulous competence and ideological neutrality (while sometimes falling short of achieving it). ”
“Maybe they also like these things because they follow politics for the entertainment and the Trump presidency is fun. He spews rhetorical sulfuric acid at their political and cultural enemies, and he does it with relish and humor.”
“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
Abraham Lincoln
We do seem to have an abundance of Fools.
Monotonous,
“Maybe enough Americans in enough states just don’t care.”
The depth of the problem is much worse than you can imagine. It’s not all about intelligence. You had to see the HATRED grow from the beginning in order to calculate its INTENSITY. It was masked, covered-up etc., etc., etc. Fortunately, or maybe not, I was there at the BEGINNING.
Monotonous,
It’s all about HATRED. It’s the effect from a VIRUS OF THE MIND that Trump now has in his control. In the long run, it’s more, potentially, destructive than the Coronavirus.
We ALL better wake-up before it is too late. FINIS
99% of http://www.KillingtheMessenger.info has been deleted from the internet.
It’s now back on.
Marv – The only thing that could happen at the Democratic Convention worse by comparison with what is going to happen at the Republican Convention (Trump’s renomination) would be our nomination of such as a reincarnated Jeffrey Epstein, Charles Manson, or perhaps a Tulsi, and given such a choice under threat of death, I would choose Manson since he was, after all, a Hoosier, and didn’t cause the death of nearly as many people as Trump, who is just getting a good start; and it is worth remembering that Manson (like Trump) did not personally kill anyone personally but rather engineered their slaughter (like Trump).
I am arguing elsewhere that when the outcome of a policy is known (massive death of Americans) it isn’t policy anymore but is rather an act or failure to act subject to both criminal and civil liability. This, of course, is an unpopular view, but I am beginning to see such a discussion in the literature and have just learned from purloined emails that Fox is fearful of suits for damages from estates of those killed by their purposeful alignment of their “hoax” talk with that of Trump earlier this year, a fear generated, I assume, on advice of counsel.
I don’t know how all of this may work out in the courts at this stage, but I have little doubt that we will see litigation testing the concept of “policy,” which does not as a defense cover either the commission of crime and perhaps civil liability as well.
I for one would not be unhappy to see Trump and Murdoch in Cell Block A while their various properties were up for judicial sale in order to satisfy judgments.
Gerald,
“I am arguing elsewhere that when the outcome of a policy is known (massive death of Americans) it isn’t policy anymore but is rather an act or failure to act subject to both criminal and civil liability. This, of course, is an unpopular view, but I am beginning to see such a discussion in the literature and have just learned from purloined emails that Fox is fearful of suits for damages from estates of those killed by their purposeful alignment of their “hoax” talk with that of Trump earlier this year, a fear generated, I assume, on advice of counsel.”
I guess Trump hasn’t heard about the Nuremberg War Trials. He’s leading a disastrous WAR AGAINST AMERICA. You would be my first choice to be one of the Lead Prosecutors.
I’m going to change to preacher mode, not just because I have faith, because a lot of people have faith! They have faith that the ones they love you love them back, they have faith that the sun will come up, that there will be at dawn and a dusk of the next day, people even had faith that their employer’s checks he cashed, although that could be in question in the not so distant future.
Throughout Scripture, old and New Testament, the example of mountains often refer to governments and world powers. Jesus Christ was born a Jew, and he died a Jew, he never sat in church, because there was no church for his death. Jesus Christ worshiped and taught in synagogues, and was a frequent visitor of the temple. Jesus Christ Jesus Christ could not quote any New Testament Scriptures because they were not written yet. Jesus said this right before his death as is recorded in Matthew, “When you catch sight of the disgusting thing that causes desolation, as spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in a holy place, . . . then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains.” (Matthew 24:15, 16) what did that mean, was that something new? No! Jesus was quoting Daniel 9:27 and he indicated that this disgusting thing mentioned in Daniel had not appeared yet. Christ was put to death and 33 CE, but his prophetic teachings lived on to become part of the Christian Greek Scriptures, the New Testament.
The disgusting thing that causes desolation was the Roman army which surrounded Jerusalem 70 CE. Christ warned them to leave when these things happen, he told them that the disgusting thing would show up to cause devastation. The Roman army surrounded Jerusalem initially in around 66 CE, then drew for a moment. Those Jews that were in Jerusalem claimed they had outlasted the Roman army, those who listened to Christ and his earlier statements before his death, knew that they should leave! Lo and behold, the Romans came back and laid siege. Jerusalem was eventually destroyed along with the temple, the inhabitants were eating their own children. And the Roman summarily put them to death. So fleeing to the mountains had a literal and a prophetic meaning, true, 1st century Christians left Jerusalem and fled to the mountains, the literal mountain, and figurative mountains because they believed Christ as their ruler and King! Those Christians were saved from the massacre that took place. It took refuge in their “mountain” this was good!
So as Jesus left the temple, he was sitting in the Mount of olives, and in the 24th chapter of Matthew, as quoted, Jesus made it clear how bad the time this would be, and how important it was to be alert and recognize the times you are living in. He talked about the disgusting thing that causes desolation standing in the holy place. So he was tying in Daniel’s prophecy with a point in the future. He obviously was referring to Jerusalem when he told those in Judea to flee to the mountains when they witness this disgusting thing. It also states that a man on his rooftop did not leave his rooftop, and the man working in the field should not return to pick up his outer garment, and woe to the woman who is nursing a baby in those days! And pray that these things don’t happen during the wintertime. He also says that these things have not occurred since the world’s beginning nor will occur again.
He also said to beware of false prophets, that they will mislead many followers of him (the Christ). Christ also said that, “concerning the day and the hour, no one knows, neither the Angels of the heavens nor the SON, but only the Father.” That the father’s wrath will come like a thief in the night, and during that time, just like Noah entering the ark, those that died in the flood took no note of anything until it started to rain. Until that rain, people were marrying, being given in marriage, eating and drinking, living their lives!
One has to look at what’s figurative and what is literal, the prophecies and Daniel were a warning, Jesus Christ revisited that on the mount of olives as recorded in Matthew.
The thing is, the earth will still be inhabitable, there will be a cleansing that takes place, these individuals who have the power, the governments, ( “mountains”) will be eliminated. Now people claim it’s all a myth, and the reason they look at it that way, the religious leaders who have hijacked the message, hijacked to the religion itself, they have and will be called into account for being guilty of sedition against God’s government on top of being responsible of the death of so many people.
An interesting piece of information on Jerusalem, in Genesis, there was a great king and priest called Melchizedek, he was ruler over a great holy city state called Salem, this was before there was an Israelite or even a Jewish state. But because of his faithfulness, the city of Jeru salem was born and became the capital of the eventual Israelites. By the way, many scholars seem to believe that this King and priest, Melchizedek, was also one of Noah’s sons, Shem. He would’ve been an old man, but he still would’ve been alive as told by his age in Scripture.
So the earth is not going to be swallowed up and destroyed, but the governments that have misled so many, will! Scripture never indicated that the literal earth would be destroyed, only those rulers on it that are sleeting mankind. So, Linda” I don’t think you have to worry about your future generations literally dying from the leaders stupidity and man’s governments. Isaiah 45:5, Jeremiah 10:12.
And Psalm 119:90 which states, “you are faithfulness is through all generations. You have firmly established the earth so that it continues to stand” also read; ” Psalm 104:5 and Ecclesiastes 1:4.”
But that’s where hope and faith come in, you just have to be strong enough to accept it!
Gerald,
I believe, if Trump follows thru with going against the advice of our most expert epidemic advisors and, thus, encourages the danger of mass contact which leads to uncalled for deaths, I sure would like to have the opportunity to draft the indictment. Wouldn’t you?
Marv, as far as using civic disobedience, it is worked many times in the past, Gandhi was successful with it, so was Martin Luther King! Of course there is a probability that some are going to lose their lives in the process, that’s where the faith comes in, are folks willing to stand up for their faith? Do they really believe what they claim they do, or does it just feel good to say you feel a specific way without actually putting skin in the game. I found your link above extremely fascinating and hopefully everyone reads it! Of course I recognized you as one of the characters in the article, and I would expect no less, you are a brave man Marv!
There may be a time, just as what happened in Warsaw, those who are taking the lead, might have to sacrifice their lives for their fellow man, there is nothing more honorable and more respectable than sacrificing one’s self for the greater good! Unfortunately, we would seem to be outmatched, but, are we really? I find it fascinating that people who really pooh-pooh Scripture and prophecy, take an active interest in Nostradamus, or, have their fortunes told by spiritualists, Or enjoy their horse scope section in the newspaper, LOL! It makes no sense to me, but to them the logical. In this day and age, you better be right, because the wrong choice will be the last choice
Marv – I have used Nuremberg as one of my arguing points elsewhere. Thus it was Hitler’s “policy” to kill millions of Jews, gypsies, gays and unproductive oldsters, and those who carried out his “policies” defended themselves on grounds that they were merely “following orders.” It didn’t sell, and hence my argument that Trump’s sycophants should likewise be held liable both civilly and criminally because they are not carrying out legal orders given by a superior on policy grounds; they are knowingly assisting in the commission of crimes.
I think the central issue here is that it isn’t policy anymore when the result is known and criminal. It is, as here, plainly criminal, and insofar as office is concerned as a shield against such liability, it is noteworthy that Hitler was chancellor just as Trump is president. Thus public station is no excuse and quite the contrary in that it is their station that affords them the opportunity to carry out their sadistic plans. We cannot ever allow the pretense of policy to be a cover for criminal conduct by a Hitler, a Big Brother, or a Trump. Ever. . .
One parallel to AGW under way where I live is called a pandemic. A difference though is that countless lives have been saved here by our local leaders simply accepted the wisdom from epidemiology models instead of the shitstorm of ignorance eminating from our nations capital. Nobody will ever know how many lives their reliance on experts instead of common knowledge saved but it’s huge. Nobody blinked at the cost because we saw everyday the cost of the limitations we couldn’t overcome despite the magnitude of those we could and did.
Gerald,
You’re a terrific attorney.
Marv – As to drafting an indictment against Trump on the grounds you suggested, there might be a mens re problem since a “guilty state of mind” requires a mind, a perhaps lacking quality with Trump. There is always (as you know) an issue of remoteness in tort litigation, and especially in criminal litigation. Perhaps such an indictment could pass the muster of preliminary motion but would be subject to withering argument from the defense at trial in re remoteness, though I think that suits in damages would fare better on the remoteness issue than in criminal litigation, and that, as with other litigation, much would depend upon discovery in teasing out the intent of the defendant(s).
john,
“There may be a time, just as what happened in Warsaw, those who are taking the lead, might have to sacrifice their lives for their fellow man, there is nothing more honorable and more respectable than sacrificing one’s self for the greater good!”
Nothing better than this:
Mordecai Anielewicz, also spelled Mordechai Anilowitz, (born 1919, Wyszków, Poland—died May 8, 1943, Warsaw), hero and principal leader of armed Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II.
Anielewicz was born into a working-class family and attended a Hebrew academic secondary school. As a boy he joined Betar, a Zionist youth organization that among other things advocated self-defense for Jews. By 1940 he had gone to Warsaw and become active in a pro-Soviet group of young Zionists, Hashomer Hatzair. When Germany invaded Poland, he escaped to Vilna (now Vilnius), which the Soviet Union had annexed with Lithuania. He eventually made his way back to the Warsaw ghetto, where he set up an underground newspaper, Neged Hazerem (“Against the Stream”), and organized cultural and educational activities. He was out of Warsaw, spreading his educational and political ideas covertly in western Poland, when the SS (the Nazi paramilitary corps) decimated the population of the Warsaw ghetto by deportation and execution in late summer 1942. Over two months about 265,000 Jews were deported without open armed resistance to the newly established extermination camp of Treblinka, some 50 miles (80 km) away.
Convinced that Jews in Adolf Hitler’s Europe should protect themselves, Anielewicz rushed back to Warsaw to urge the ghetto’s elders to adopt armed resistance. Most of the elders had initially cautioned against resistance because they feared massive and disproportionate German retaliation, and many continued to argue that confrontation would provoke the final liquidation of the ghetto and the deportation of the remaining population. With strong support from other young activists, notably Yitzhak Zuckerman, Anielewicz’s view prevailed, and the Jewish Fighting Organization (Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa; ŻOB) was founded. Anielewicz was the obvious choice to command the ŻOB. He stressed discipline, the construction of bunkers, and the acquisition of arms.
On January 18, 1943, the Germans entered the ghetto to select Jews for a new shipment to the death camp at Treblinka, and the ŻOB met them with force, mainly pistols and grenades, starting an uprising and street battle that lasted four days and killed about 50 Germans—and all of the ŻOB defenders except Anielewicz himself. The Germans withdrew. The Jews interpreted the halt in the deportation as a victory—Germany backing down from armed confrontation. For two months the Germans tried various deceptions to persuade the ghetto’s remaining Jews to go peacefully to the boxcars that would take them to Treblinka. Anielewicz had effectively become the commander of the ghetto as well as the ŻOB, and he accelerated defensive preparations until the Germans returned with 2,000 troops and tanks on April 19, the eve of Hitler’s birthday and also, that year, of Passover. The ŻOB held them off at first, then gave ground slowly. On May 8 the Germans found the ŻOB headquarters bunker and gassed it. Civilian occupants surrendered, but Anielewicz and about 100 comrades died. Those not killed in the fighting took their own or one another’s lives to avoid capture. Despite the loss of its leadership, the remnants of the ŻOB continued to fight the Germans until May 16.
In his final letter to Zuckerman, Anielewicz wrote:
“Peace be with you, my dear friend. Who knows whether we shall meet again? My life’s dream has now been realized: Jewish self-defense in the ghetto is now an accomplished fact.…I have been witness to the magnificent, heroic struggle of the Jewish fighters.”
Michael Berenbaum, Britannica article
Gerald,
I agree with you.
Adolph Hitler was also “remote,” but I’m sure he didn’t want to take a chance with a trial. He knew you had to understand the “chain.” Trump is a fool. Hitler wasn’t. He knew better than to REVEAL a “chain” between him and his victims.
Marv,
I don’t believe I’ve read that particular article before, but, it really is a warning from the past. It took time, it took circumstance, It took willful ignorance. And, it also took complacency. Too bad this worm, this virus of the mind, virus of the spirit, virus of evil, however you want to put it, didn’t start in Germany, it started in the good old US of A, with, I might add, a great big helping hand from the British.
You know, it’s not an historical secret, Adolf Hitler admired the British, he also admired the Americans! He figured eventually, they would come over to his side of thinking. But why? Why would he think that? Because he was aware of the workings behind the scenes that most people really didn’t think about too much. There actually was a symbiotic relationship between the American British authority and Royal or Imperial Germany. And even after Imperial Germany was overthrown by the Nazis, that relationship continued! The mentality was almost identical, the British refused entry for Jews, the United States turned ships around, ships that were full of Jewish immigrants, and sent them back to Germany, to their demise!
After all, American industry was a huge driver of the German war machine, the capitalists in charge were no different than their German counterparts. Capitalism in Germany and capitalism in the United States not only drove the German war machine and later on the American war machine, but it enriched beyond imagination, those godless and conscienceless self-serving egomaniacs! These children of the robber barons!
You can’t tell me that the president and all those who were making the decisions were unaware! Eugenics was a huge take from the Americans and British by the Germans, so was Manifest Destiny that drove American expansionism, eugenics was used by the Germans as we all know, to attempt to build an invincible superior master race. Manifest Destiny was borrowed by the Germans for LEIBENSRUM or ( “blood and soil” living room). Also this was used to dominate what were considered inferior races and civilizations, to use them for slavery and experimentation. The same thing was done with Manifest Destiny! Slavery, annihilation of native raises, Americans do not have clean hands.
It’s easy to psychologically rewrite history, but, the United States is definitely a wolf in sheep’s clothing, the old saying, you’re talking out of the side of your neck, used to mean anything you say is untrustworthy, and, what’s going on now is just a magnification of that untrustworthiness. It’s just like a parasitic egg waiting for the right conditions to Hatch, and then it eats its host! And here you have that parasitic egg devouring its host and everything that would go along with it. How will it all end, well, I have my ideas, and everyone else has their own, of course, being on the mark will just create more misery.
john,
“How will it all end, well, I have my ideas, and everyone else has their own, of course, being on the mark will just create more misery.”
You’re right. What can you do when society can’t handle the truth? Do you just have to wait for the calamity? Maybe so. Sort of like, Germany at the end of W.W. II.
I’m reminded of the movie “On the Beach” starring Gregory Peck. I guess, we just have to make the best of a bad thing. Like you said a few days ago, make sure your family and close friends know that you love them. Take real good care.
Marv,
You take care of you and yours! I pray for strength, I admit it, and I also pray for those I care about, and I even pray for those that I don’t. One thing I’ve never been, is a hypocrite! Maybe when it all falls over the precipice, some of the willfully ignorant will open their eyes.
john,
It’s a shame that so many people are going to be hurt for nothing. Trumpism can’t succeed, it can only destroy.