In today’s post, I’m citing two commentaries that describe where we are– and one that outlines what we must do.
Last Monday, Simon Rosenberg’s post at “Hopium Chronicles” included a two-paragraph summary of Trump’s preceding week. I’m quoting both paragraphs in full, because they paint a very clear picture of the time and place we inhabit.
Just in the last few manic days Trump has launched a full out assault on the Fed (see Chairman Powell’s historic video, below). He is threatening to invade Greenland, bomb Iran, struck targets in Syria this weekend, and last night declared himself “Acting President of Venezuela.” He is now fighting with the oil companies over their reluctance to become part of his Venezuelan oil fantasy; threatened the credit card companies with a law that only exists in his mind; sanctioned the killing of Americans by his paramilitaries for dissent; threatened to veto the resumption of the ACA subsidies if passed by the Senate; and with another anemic jobs report on Friday received further confirmation of the failure of his tariffs to deliver for the country, or Republican candidates facing extinction over affordability. The lunatic HHS Secretary is returning America to a pre-modern health era, threatening the lives and health of tens of millions of Americans. Millions of people took to the streets this weekend, many in terrible weather. We are now more than a quarter of the way into the new federal fiscal year without a budget, and the government may run out of money again in 18 days.
Things are getting worse, not better, for Republicans and the country. Trump is threatening the fundamental security alliance that has kept us safe and free for 80 years. He is threatening the integrity of our financial system which has made us the wealthiest nation in history. He has walked away from the UN Charter which has created the basic governing rules for nations for 81 years. He snatched a foreign leader from his palace in the middle of the night, without Congressional approval. In the last few days he openly threatened both the oil companies, and the big banks, two powerful Republican-aligned industries who will be loudly complaining to Thune and Johnson today. Last night he declared himself the “Acting President of Venezuela.” He is encouraging his goons to kill Americans on the streets. His public performances and social media posts suggest he has completely lost his shit and it is time now for the keys to be taken away.
Rosenberg is a Democrat–a hated “progressive.” However, Charlie Sykes, was a rock-ribbed conservative pundit.
Sykes began his post by sharing an editorial cartoon that’s been making the rounds–ICE agents standing over a fallen Statue of Liberty, polishing their guns and explaining that “She was brandishing a torch.” He then pivoted to discussion of “Judgement at Nuremberg” a film he found relevant to the times in which we find ourselves. He then quoted Joe Klein for the “critical parallel.”
Innocent people are being rounded up in the streets of America now. One was killed last week. Too many of our fellow citizens are okay with this.
But they don’t even have the “Good” Nazis’ excuse: they know it’s happening. They see it on tv every night. Their tolerance for this brutality is making our country, palpably, a place it never was before. It is becoming the sort of country that people used to flee… to come to America.
That’s where we are. The critical question, of course, is: where do we go? What must we do? Rick Wilson–another former Republican (and former GOP strategist) has weighed in on that pivotal question.
To stop the immediate crisis, we must weaponize the very “propositional nature” of America. This involves a tactical veto of civil society: a collective refusal by elected leaders, local governments, businesses, the legal community, and civic and religious leaders to facilitate the “will to power.”
By creating friction in the gears of the state, we transform the grim anxiety of the populace into a functional resistance that protects the remaining guardrails of the Republic until the momentum of ICE can be broken at the ballot box.
Then, Wilson writes, we must create a National Commission on the Rule of Law to document every “butcher’s bill” and ensure that names like Renee Good are never forgotten. That Commission must then pursue the active prosecution of every functionary who used the machinery of the state to crush America–the “American SS and people like Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Greg Bovino, and Tom Homan, and the hundreds of lower-ranking DHS and ICE officials who executed these abuses.”
Wilson is right. We must return to an America in which “the rule of law is not a suggestion, but a binding commitment that carries a price for its betrayal.”
We the People can do that.
Well, if you’re expecting the Democratic Party to pursue any of Rick’s solutions, you may be disappointed. They can’t even prosecute Pam Bondi, even though she’s clearly breaking the law. Now we know why Trump “urged” Republicans to sign the bill, making releasing the Epstein files a law. And, while Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna are talking up a storm, there have been zero consequences.
Pam even wrote on social media this week about the protesters in Minnesota, “Nobody is above the law.” She got skewered on X for that one. Also, did you hear Trump threaten to pull the trigger on the Insurrection Act? I’m still waiting for Pam to declare she made a connection between Renee Good and George Soros.
The theatrics being portrayed in Washington have accomplished exactly what they were intended to do – put the Epstein Coverup on the back pages of the newspaper. Has anybody been talking about Sascha Riley’s case? While a young boy, he was trafficked to Trump and SCOTUS judge Clarence Thomas, Lindsey Graham, Jim Jordan, etc. Not a single outlet has covered it yet, and he’s offered to testify before Congress if they’ll issue a subpoena. He’s an Iraq War vet in hiding because his interviews even accuse these deranged people of murdering kids on film for jollies.
So, what will the Democratic Party do to inflict consequences on the guilty? Will they hold Bondi accountable? Will they let Sascha Riley be heard? Laws mean nothing to these people.
p.s. Once Sascha entered the picture, Lindsey Graham hauled ass over to Israel to see if Mossad leaked the video of him. #coverup #epsteinfiles
How can the DNC prosecute Bondi and the others without any authority and while the kneeling Republicans continue to dance around it all?
All of this gangster herd deserve prison – or worse/better. Stephen Miller is the de facto HHS operator while Botox Barbie obfuscates in front of every camera she sees.
Gee, Todd, where and who/what are your sources? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t doubt these monsters’ behaviors for a second, but corroborate and present hard evidence. Let’s see what happens.
I haven’t talked about Sascha’s case because I haven’t heard it corroborated anywhere. I don’t doubt it, but I have no additional facts to support it. It did seem some of the dates were hinky or didn’t match up. Frankly, I don’t see why it makes a difference unless it’s because he’s a male. It’s not like there isn’t plenty to prosecute already. And we aren’t getting ANY of it. We aren’t sharing ANY of the cases. Even ones we know are true.
153 Democrats just voted to send 3.3 billion to Israel.
What a bunch of cowards and ineffective milk ops.
Everything Republicans touch dies because democrats are too timid to oppose.
As long as people like Banks, Young, Braun, Beckwith, Rokita and Morales remain in power backed by gerrymandered legislators who believe that protesters are paid and can thus be criminalized and prosecuted, we are in mortal danger of becoming an authoritarian state and country.
HCR’s letter this morning shows a completely deranged report of a new grift in his Board of Peace where he gets to be king, demands tribute and controls who, when and where anyone on the Board gets to suggest rules that only he can approve. He descends into madness more and more every day. The Epstein files must really be damning for him to be willing to deploy everything short of nuclear (we hope) to protect himself from prison.
We don’t need any further evidence or witness of his depravity than what hundreds of women have already told us. The files are supporting documentation of their testimony. But, because they are women, they can be written off by the misogynists as hysterical and unreliable because, you know, they are emotionally unstable women who cannot be relied on to speak truth.
The mere fact that there are men, mostly white and privileged by skin color, and women who are just the same and sociopaths to boot, willing to grab everything for themselves and gleefully crow about how righteous they are, tells us that there are serious flaws in our government structures that need to be fixed. The trouble is that there are almost 1 in 3 voters who think that he and his merry band of thieves and murderers are doing a great job, still, after all evidence to the contrary. They are not inconvenienced and have more than they deserve by entitlement, so they are good with things as they are.
If ever there is a chronicle of the times written after the fall, the selfish and greedy should be named. Nuremberg was a reckoning to model for the consequences of the capital crimes being committed today. Let it be so.
RESIST.
One MSNOW that I like to watch is The Weekend. It gives me a look what younger people are thinking. Today they are reviewing year one of T2. It is the most depressing thing I’ve seen in years. We desperately need so much legislation to fix what is being destroyed, it is going to take the will to make radical changes. Neither political party has that will at this time. Democrats really need new leadership if they are going to be relevant.