Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Al Bellenchia's avatar

The NY Times, like most of the MSM for the last 7 years has failed us all, by playing “fair and balanced” and practicing straight reporting of DJT and the MAGAs. Our peril will continues as long that that journalistic pretense does.

Expand full comment
Elizabeth Johnson's avatar

Here I am, a busy girl in Massachusetts, yet I knew Trump was a criminal by March, 2017. Having trained as a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer guardian ad litem (GAL) for children in the care of the Court because of abuse and neglect, I immediately recognized in FBI Director James Comey's behavior, after his intimate Valentine's Day dinner with Trump: he was memorializing in detailed notes, including direct quotations, an interview with a criminal because those notes might prove useful evidence in a future prosecution.

As a CASA, I interviewed a dangerous father in a library; we had a neutral conversation punctuated with gentle yet probing questions. Immediately afterwards, I scurried to my car and wrote down every single detail I could remember, including direct quotations, and gave a copy to my CASA Supervisor. That is exactly what FBI Director James Comey did after that dinner with the former guy (tfg -- Biden's useful nickname for him). Comey gave a copy of his notes to a Columbia University professor, making them permanently unavailable to our national criminal. I recalled that Comey had had a decade's experience successfully prosecuting the NYC Mafia in the SDNY, and he knew exactly what had just happened.

After Comey's notorious firing by tweet while leading an FBI recruitment in California, he was replaced by Andrew McCabe, another successful former SDNY Mafia prosecutor. McCabe realized his imminent firing as well, so immediately appointed Robert Mueller as a special investigator into our criminal's connections with Russia. The cruelty was the point in McCable’s firing, as well, as it was timed to cut off his pension by a few hours. I also recalled that tfg was trained in criming by the notorious Roy Cohn, famed Nixon ally and Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s Mafia lawyer.

Saddled with recognition of the criminal patterns that Comey and McCabe had recognized, I struggled with how to alert people in my small world to the danger posed by this president. I felt like Cassandra -- able to foresee a future that was so unbelievable that I would be considered crazy if I tried to call it out directly. I spent 3-5 hours a day for years, combing the news for details that would raise similar questions in my readers' minds (A former teacher, about 800 of my 1200 Facebook friends are former students).

Many dismissed me as a "Trump hater" who wouldn't even give him a chance. I am not a Trump-hater; as a former CASA volunteer, I see in tfg signs of horrific child abuse, which have been amply corroborated by his niece, Mary Trump. However, his role as President of the United States of America, overrides my feelings of compassion for this evil man. The best CASA volunteers I have witnessed are themselves survivors of similar horrific abuse.

It was only after the November 2022 election and subsequent response and analysis that I can lay down my burden and say "the kids [and country] will be all right."

National CASA/GAL Association for Children https://nationalcasagal.org

Expand full comment
11 more comments...

No posts