The Democratic party is fortunate to have highly competent defenders in the House such as Shiff, Raskin, Lieu, Goldman, Moskowitz, Dean (and more), whose competence, integrity and allegiance to U.S. democracy CANNOT be matched by ANYONE on the Republican side. The GOP reps.' bumbling, disjointed, treasonous theatrics are a disgrace to a body which has been sat at the will of voters to govern this country. Someone, please find sanity and bring her back!
In most elections the candidates strive to stake out their platform and positions. They try to show the differences so the voters have a clear choice. But this year the differences are stark.
In this Presidential race theres a 50 year honorable public servant. The other guy is a serial sex offender and business fraud.
Re-reading this, it occurs to me that you have be a really radical voter to support/endorse the raper guy. Like how do you wrap your mind around voting for a rapist? Just overlook it? How do you report on this candidate and call him serious? I don't get it.
They are really stark because for the second presidential election cycle, the trumpublicans have not had anything even resembling a “platform”. With them, it’s all #45s way or the highway.
Story in microcosm: Hur had to be forced to read his own report’s contents aloud as to Trump’s actions on TV. Vote in November: the choice is clear: Biden or Dictatorship!
Thank you posting Raskin’s comments and Lieu’s questions. It’s well worth taking the time to digest the facts brought out in that hearing. The main stream media really fell down on the job with this one.
Superb summary of Hur’s behavior and the GOP’s theatrics at the hearing. It was so hard to watch. And Hur had already done the damage with his report and with the aid of media.
“Stupid games”, indeed…we watch, horrified, as the rabid dogs of disinformation and dictatorship encircle our fragile democracy. They’re not lying in wait. They’re tearing at its flesh. Every time they pull away a piece of the truth, the approving crowd roars with anger. Contrary to our expectations, they are not horrified by the realization that the wounds they inflict are on each other and themselves. Rather, the blood-letting only creates in them a thirst for more. It is up to us to bind those wounds. If remembering who we are and why we are here can help, then let it be so. Remembering in this sense is not only a wistful act of nostalgia, but a call to action. I hope we still have the strength to do it, when our systems don’t seem able to assist. November’s election is our last hope in the war against authoritarianism in this United States. Then, and only then will we know if democracy has fallen prey to those bent on destroying it. It’s going to be a long, hot summer.
All of the above and then some. How Hitler rose to power is well documented. Perhaps someone could do a tweet or bullet point list to grab America’s attention?
Excellent. I think two of the most destructive people have been Robert Hur and Bill Barr. Both lied about reports that the public was waiting months to see. Both lied. How do we get anybody sitting on the fence to know that?
Sometimes I think McConnell did us a favor by denying the appointment of Merrick Garland. I go back and forth about him. He so much desires to be thought fair and unbiased. Good. But the wheels of justice haven't just turned slowly, they went into reverse. Instead of going after chief bottom feeder trump first, he who has and is causing this American calamity, the courts went for, yep, the shaman.
Add to that, the media that runs with all pro trump, always shows Fox's Peter Doocy (Doozy) asking his snide questions, forever restating that which is not true...........and pictures! trump,trump,trump, greene,greene,greene,jordan,jordan,jordan............even future pole dancer Boebert!
Why? Why can people believe this stuff? Why do they repeat crazy, made up stuff? Why have Biden's poll numbers gone down below trump's after that good state of the union speech?Why are blacks, Hispanics, the young now saluting to trump? (those awful pictures of Uncle Tim with the broadest smile, standing behind his master)
Is government cyclical? Like climate? Like the stock market? Like real estate? Or is the present state of the world with its love of dictators a contagious disease like the pandemic?
The GA judge just ruled the case can go on but either Willis or Wade, one of them, must leave. He also dropped 3 felony charges . trump must be singing Everything's Going My Way. I am singing We got trouble , trouble with a capital T.
About those 3 charges - According to legal analysis, his ruling was that they were filed without sufficient information for the defenses under GA law. The could be brought again. In other words he didn’t bar those charges or their evidence. The phone calls and other charge can be used as evidence in the conspiracy charge(s).
It is the RICO charge that is the most hazardous to Donnie. That and the evidence for the other charges seems to remain in tact. So maga can sing all it wants but their attorneys know this is not unusual or a blow to the case.
Add that the Manhattan criminal trial will now probably be delayed a month. I know the information you have written. However, in it are the words "could be," "can be," and "seem to." Until I see the words "will be," trump will be entertaining his blonde madams nightly at Mar a Lago with Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.
If you’d spent much time examining how courts operate you’d probably see this is par for the course. There are some other things to be determined by the DA Willis, like is it worth a delay to refile those charges. I’m not handling the case so it would be stupid for me to say the evidence “will” be used. The judge did not put anything in his ruling that is a reason not to use it. As evidence it is valuable with a jury. The 3 charges are a very minor issue. I’m sure not going to get in a fizz about it.
A little while ago it was reported that the NY Judge moved the trial to mid-April. Blame that one on the feds for not providing the documents when the DA asked for them. The DA needs time to review them also.
With a degree in political science where all sides of case after case were discussed intensely , often by guest court speakers and years of constant reading to keep up, I have to say I have spent much time. "Will be" is to be said by those in charge.
Circumstances change; so do the best made plans. I’m not in charge & I’m no fortune teller. But even if they said something “will be” I’ll wait to see. Not much in these cases is following the predicted path.
I only recently retired. Part of my job was tracking certain civil and criminal cases; pulling data from police reports & reviewing domestic homicides with a group of about 2 dozen members. One was Dr. Bill Smock who testified on strangulation in the George Floyd trial. It represented the Justice system from the courthouse to the coroner & included key service providers. Judges never spoke about what would happen in a pending case, particularly their own, other than general procedures. Their staff was bound by the same ethics rules. If the case being reviewed was in the judge’s court, the judge would leave the discussion at certain points.
Prosecutors and law enforcement have more leeway but aren’t in charge of the court so they would give information on their approach & what they expected but not what “will be”.
So I don’t understand how anyone in charge or otherwise can say what ‘will be’ except that the rules of the court will be upheld.
Again, thanks for making it clear what the stakes are for our country. I am a 70 year old retired theologian and would not have thought our country would ever come to have to listen to people like Hur politicize a simple task and do it so badly.
Don't know if I mentioned this on your page. I read an interesting article relating to "do we remember Nazism." It pointed out that obviously a huge chunk of America doesn't remember it directly. I'm almost 80 and I certainly don't. But I had parents and other relatives who did. Now there are a lot of voters whose great grandparents are the ones who might remember.
But we've all seen show after show, TV and movie, about the Nazis. And therein lies the problem. Kids are taught that the characters in movies and TV are not "real," and that goes for the events in them, however horrifying. For an uncountable number of Americans, the Nazis of WWII are just as real--or not--as the latest Marvel superhero.
I don't know if psychologists have looked into this. But it might explain a lot of the public feeling still that "it can't happen here."
There is a channel on TV called American Heroes Channel. AHC I call it the Hitler Channel. Hour after hour of Hitler and the Nazis film is shown. Should be required watching for all.
I lived it in my house having parents who were Holocaust victims. They never felt they were survivors because they had not been in the camps but their relatives were killed. My mom’s folks perished at the gas camp called Chelmno in 1942.
The public needs to be reminded on a regular basis of Hur's unethical efforts and inconsistent words, aided and abetted by MAGA. Hard to condense in a headline, but in today's new cycles and the flood of information on social media, headlines are read and remembered.
@StevenBeschloss, as always, this post is so well thought out and so well written. The Dems had great questioning at the hearing and sorted out the facts from the political journey Hur was on when he wrote his report. However, as you said, "Yet the damage of a special counselor who overstepped his bounds had already been done. It was hard to avoid the rancid impression that Hur, a Trump-appointed Republican who resigned from Justice the day before testifying, had exploited his duty for political purposes." Questioning by Rep Adam Schiff and the speech by Rep Raskin that your quoted got to the essence of the facts, the facts that should have been the report, the facts that Hur surrounded with political posturing. Hur has no healthcare credentials by which he could judge someone's quality of memory. However, he clearly decided that since he was appointed by 45 and wanted to please 45 and the GOP that has now got in line behind 45, he would put opinions not based on any qualifications he has, into the report to score political points with the cult. It was so upsetting that Hur, a public servant in his position as a Special prosecutor, would use the opportunity to play politics instead of doing his job. There use to be 1 media outlet that distorted the news to play politics. Now we have, or had since he resigned his position the day before the hearing, a Special Prosecutor in the Dept of Justice who is also speaking/writing from a respected title, and distorting the job he is supposed to do. I feel that this is just the beginning of the slimy political games that the GOP will play during the campaign. I fear even more that if 45 wins the presidency again, the entire government, all 3 branches which were established to be equal and independent of each other, will become the puppets of 445. WE CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN !!! God Bless America 🇺🇸
So well stated. All of it. The blatant corruption, the insidious sound bites, the stark choice we have before us. I join you in believing we will persevere, Steven. Thank you for these words.
Also, Garland should have done his job and read the report before allowing it to come out. He should’ve seen the inconsistency… Biden, knowing exactly when his son died, and Hur lying about it.
The Democratic party is fortunate to have highly competent defenders in the House such as Shiff, Raskin, Lieu, Goldman, Moskowitz, Dean (and more), whose competence, integrity and allegiance to U.S. democracy CANNOT be matched by ANYONE on the Republican side. The GOP reps.' bumbling, disjointed, treasonous theatrics are a disgrace to a body which has been sat at the will of voters to govern this country. Someone, please find sanity and bring her back!
In most elections the candidates strive to stake out their platform and positions. They try to show the differences so the voters have a clear choice. But this year the differences are stark.
In this Presidential race theres a 50 year honorable public servant. The other guy is a serial sex offender and business fraud.
Re-reading this, it occurs to me that you have be a really radical voter to support/endorse the raper guy. Like how do you wrap your mind around voting for a rapist? Just overlook it? How do you report on this candidate and call him serious? I don't get it.
Moral bankruptcy
They are really stark because for the second presidential election cycle, the trumpublicans have not had anything even resembling a “platform”. With them, it’s all #45s way or the highway.
Story in microcosm: Hur had to be forced to read his own report’s contents aloud as to Trump’s actions on TV. Vote in November: the choice is clear: Biden or Dictatorship!
Thank you posting Raskin’s comments and Lieu’s questions. It’s well worth taking the time to digest the facts brought out in that hearing. The main stream media really fell down on the job with this one.
Love Jamie Raskin!! The voice of reason and sanity in a chaotic world.
Superb summary of Hur’s behavior and the GOP’s theatrics at the hearing. It was so hard to watch. And Hur had already done the damage with his report and with the aid of media.
“Stupid games”, indeed…we watch, horrified, as the rabid dogs of disinformation and dictatorship encircle our fragile democracy. They’re not lying in wait. They’re tearing at its flesh. Every time they pull away a piece of the truth, the approving crowd roars with anger. Contrary to our expectations, they are not horrified by the realization that the wounds they inflict are on each other and themselves. Rather, the blood-letting only creates in them a thirst for more. It is up to us to bind those wounds. If remembering who we are and why we are here can help, then let it be so. Remembering in this sense is not only a wistful act of nostalgia, but a call to action. I hope we still have the strength to do it, when our systems don’t seem able to assist. November’s election is our last hope in the war against authoritarianism in this United States. Then, and only then will we know if democracy has fallen prey to those bent on destroying it. It’s going to be a long, hot summer.
Look what Trump did to Willis. Defamed her and caused irreparable harm to her reputation. And she is chastised for fighting back by McAfee
All of the above and then some. How Hitler rose to power is well documented. Perhaps someone could do a tweet or bullet point list to grab America’s attention?
Excellent. I think two of the most destructive people have been Robert Hur and Bill Barr. Both lied about reports that the public was waiting months to see. Both lied. How do we get anybody sitting on the fence to know that?
Sometimes I think McConnell did us a favor by denying the appointment of Merrick Garland. I go back and forth about him. He so much desires to be thought fair and unbiased. Good. But the wheels of justice haven't just turned slowly, they went into reverse. Instead of going after chief bottom feeder trump first, he who has and is causing this American calamity, the courts went for, yep, the shaman.
Add to that, the media that runs with all pro trump, always shows Fox's Peter Doocy (Doozy) asking his snide questions, forever restating that which is not true...........and pictures! trump,trump,trump, greene,greene,greene,jordan,jordan,jordan............even future pole dancer Boebert!
Why? Why can people believe this stuff? Why do they repeat crazy, made up stuff? Why have Biden's poll numbers gone down below trump's after that good state of the union speech?Why are blacks, Hispanics, the young now saluting to trump? (those awful pictures of Uncle Tim with the broadest smile, standing behind his master)
Is government cyclical? Like climate? Like the stock market? Like real estate? Or is the present state of the world with its love of dictators a contagious disease like the pandemic?
The GA judge just ruled the case can go on but either Willis or Wade, one of them, must leave. He also dropped 3 felony charges . trump must be singing Everything's Going My Way. I am singing We got trouble , trouble with a capital T.
About those 3 charges - According to legal analysis, his ruling was that they were filed without sufficient information for the defenses under GA law. The could be brought again. In other words he didn’t bar those charges or their evidence. The phone calls and other charge can be used as evidence in the conspiracy charge(s).
It is the RICO charge that is the most hazardous to Donnie. That and the evidence for the other charges seems to remain in tact. So maga can sing all it wants but their attorneys know this is not unusual or a blow to the case.
Add that the Manhattan criminal trial will now probably be delayed a month. I know the information you have written. However, in it are the words "could be," "can be," and "seem to." Until I see the words "will be," trump will be entertaining his blonde madams nightly at Mar a Lago with Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.
If you’d spent much time examining how courts operate you’d probably see this is par for the course. There are some other things to be determined by the DA Willis, like is it worth a delay to refile those charges. I’m not handling the case so it would be stupid for me to say the evidence “will” be used. The judge did not put anything in his ruling that is a reason not to use it. As evidence it is valuable with a jury. The 3 charges are a very minor issue. I’m sure not going to get in a fizz about it.
A little while ago it was reported that the NY Judge moved the trial to mid-April. Blame that one on the feds for not providing the documents when the DA asked for them. The DA needs time to review them also.
Donnie has been losing legal cases or paying to settle them for over 40 years. It’s only in recent years that it started to cause him pain. He owes so much $$ in judgements (plus attorneys) the RNC which is broke can’t pay them off. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2024/03/08/here-are-all-the-legal-bills-trump-has-faced-since-last-year-surpassing-540-million/?sh=67b16fa1c6be
I’ll leave the schadenfreude to you. I’m more concerned about what he’s selling to get the $$.
With a degree in political science where all sides of case after case were discussed intensely , often by guest court speakers and years of constant reading to keep up, I have to say I have spent much time. "Will be" is to be said by those in charge.
Circumstances change; so do the best made plans. I’m not in charge & I’m no fortune teller. But even if they said something “will be” I’ll wait to see. Not much in these cases is following the predicted path.
I only recently retired. Part of my job was tracking certain civil and criminal cases; pulling data from police reports & reviewing domestic homicides with a group of about 2 dozen members. One was Dr. Bill Smock who testified on strangulation in the George Floyd trial. It represented the Justice system from the courthouse to the coroner & included key service providers. Judges never spoke about what would happen in a pending case, particularly their own, other than general procedures. Their staff was bound by the same ethics rules. If the case being reviewed was in the judge’s court, the judge would leave the discussion at certain points.
Prosecutors and law enforcement have more leeway but aren’t in charge of the court so they would give information on their approach & what they expected but not what “will be”.
So I don’t understand how anyone in charge or otherwise can say what ‘will be’ except that the rules of the court will be upheld.
Again, thanks for making it clear what the stakes are for our country. I am a 70 year old retired theologian and would not have thought our country would ever come to have to listen to people like Hur politicize a simple task and do it so badly.
Don't know if I mentioned this on your page. I read an interesting article relating to "do we remember Nazism." It pointed out that obviously a huge chunk of America doesn't remember it directly. I'm almost 80 and I certainly don't. But I had parents and other relatives who did. Now there are a lot of voters whose great grandparents are the ones who might remember.
But we've all seen show after show, TV and movie, about the Nazis. And therein lies the problem. Kids are taught that the characters in movies and TV are not "real," and that goes for the events in them, however horrifying. For an uncountable number of Americans, the Nazis of WWII are just as real--or not--as the latest Marvel superhero.
I don't know if psychologists have looked into this. But it might explain a lot of the public feeling still that "it can't happen here."
There is a channel on TV called American Heroes Channel. AHC I call it the Hitler Channel. Hour after hour of Hitler and the Nazis film is shown. Should be required watching for all.
yes, documentaries can offset the fiction effect.
I lived it in my house having parents who were Holocaust victims. They never felt they were survivors because they had not been in the camps but their relatives were killed. My mom’s folks perished at the gas camp called Chelmno in 1942.
The public needs to be reminded on a regular basis of Hur's unethical efforts and inconsistent words, aided and abetted by MAGA. Hard to condense in a headline, but in today's new cycles and the flood of information on social media, headlines are read and remembered.
@StevenBeschloss, as always, this post is so well thought out and so well written. The Dems had great questioning at the hearing and sorted out the facts from the political journey Hur was on when he wrote his report. However, as you said, "Yet the damage of a special counselor who overstepped his bounds had already been done. It was hard to avoid the rancid impression that Hur, a Trump-appointed Republican who resigned from Justice the day before testifying, had exploited his duty for political purposes." Questioning by Rep Adam Schiff and the speech by Rep Raskin that your quoted got to the essence of the facts, the facts that should have been the report, the facts that Hur surrounded with political posturing. Hur has no healthcare credentials by which he could judge someone's quality of memory. However, he clearly decided that since he was appointed by 45 and wanted to please 45 and the GOP that has now got in line behind 45, he would put opinions not based on any qualifications he has, into the report to score political points with the cult. It was so upsetting that Hur, a public servant in his position as a Special prosecutor, would use the opportunity to play politics instead of doing his job. There use to be 1 media outlet that distorted the news to play politics. Now we have, or had since he resigned his position the day before the hearing, a Special Prosecutor in the Dept of Justice who is also speaking/writing from a respected title, and distorting the job he is supposed to do. I feel that this is just the beginning of the slimy political games that the GOP will play during the campaign. I fear even more that if 45 wins the presidency again, the entire government, all 3 branches which were established to be equal and independent of each other, will become the puppets of 445. WE CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN !!! God Bless America 🇺🇸
So well stated. All of it. The blatant corruption, the insidious sound bites, the stark choice we have before us. I join you in believing we will persevere, Steven. Thank you for these words.
Also, Garland should have done his job and read the report before allowing it to come out. He should’ve seen the inconsistency… Biden, knowing exactly when his son died, and Hur lying about it.
I’m so worried.