Tag Archives: Trump

Trump and Ellsberg

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I was researching a column on the connection between Donald Trump and Richard Nixon when the news broke, Daniel Ellsberg had died at the age of ninety-two. The report was not a surprise. In March, Ellsberg had announced that he had been diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer. He had been, in recent weeks, giving a series of interviews recapping the tumultuous events that made his name a household word in the 1970s and warning that those events continue to have relevance today.

Ellsberg’s words ring true. The case of Daniel Ellsberg prompted actions by Richard Nixon which triggered events eerily like the actions of Donald Trump and the events they have triggered today. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

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Trump: Indicted. Again.

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Donald J. Trump, twice impeached while President of the United States, has now been indicted twice since leaving the White House. I never imagined I’d be writing a lead line like that.

Trump has been charged by a federal grand jury sitting in Miami with putting the United States at risk by mishandling nuclear and military secrets after he left office. The indictment contains thirty-eight counts, alleging Trump:

  • Retained top-secret documents detailing U.S. nuclear secrets, military vulnerabilities, and plans for retaliating in the event of an attack after he left the White House.
  • Left such documents in boxes inside his Mar-a-Lago club’s ballroom, even as large gatherings were held within it.
  • Was caught on tape showing secret U.S. battle plans to private citizens, admitting as he did so that the plans had not been declassified.
  • Moved boxes of secret documents out of a storage room so his lawyers would not find them when they searched for papers that needed to be returned to the National Archives in compliance with a subpoena.
  • Asked an attorney to hide or destroy any “really bad” documents that were in his possession instead of returning them to the government in compliance with the subpoena.

Conviction on any one of these courts could result in a substantial fine and a jail sentence. Trump has now been arrested and arraigned on these criminal charges.

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Stormygate.

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The headlines say it all. Donald J. Trump, the first American President to be impeached twice while in office, is about to be the first ex-President indicted for a criminal offense after leaving office.

The impending event has seen the chattering heads of cable television and social media wagging with speculation ever since the news, quoting “sources,” broke last Thursday. Trump and his lawyers confirmed the news Friday, announcing that the Donald would travel to New York on Monday and would report to court on Tuesday for his formal charging and arraignment.

As is tradition in New York, the grand jury’s formal accusation is under seal until the arraignment and the district attorney has said nothing, meaning all comment is made in the absence of any factual knowledge of the sum and substance of the charges. That hasn’t stopped the speculation. Nor has it stopped the clear calls for protest demonstrations, bordering on violence, coming from Trump and his acolytes. The New York Police Department is on full alert.

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The Hypocracy Committee

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Kevin McCarthy was so desperate to become Speaker of the House of Representatives he not only gave Jim Jordan chairmanship of the judiciary committee and membership on the oversite committee, he also created a special sub-committee, on the so-called “weaponization” of the federal government for Jordan to run.

This gives Jordan the power, among others, to hire dozens of staff members, paid for by we the taxpayers, to dig up dirt and blast away at President Joe Biden and Democrats.

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How Could You?

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If you are voting for Democrats, you can leave now. This isn’t for you.

If you are voting for Republicans, or not voting at all. Stick around. I have a question for you.

What the hell are you thinking?

Do you hear the words, “Democracy is on the line” and chuckle? Don’t. It is.

There are more than three hundred people running for election who believe the Big Lie that Donnie Trump won in 2020. He didn’t. Sixty judges and scores of election officials, many of them Republican, said he didn’t. There is hard physical evidence that HE knows he didn’t. NO evidence of improper voting that changed the outcome of the election was discovered anywhere.

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We Had This Beat

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More than one million Americans have died of complications of Covid-19. Can you wrap your arms around that number? Does it seem possible? Everyone I know has been touched by Covid one way or another. I lost my mother-in-law. And it didn’t have to be this way.

American is in many ways like Australia. As reported by the New York Times (the link is probably behind the Times’ paywall, but it is excellent and worthy of credit), both countries are English-speaking democracies with similar demographic profiles. In Australia and in the United States, the median age is thirty-eight. Roughly 86 percent of Australians live in urban areas, compared with 83 percent of Americans. Yet Australia’s Covid death rate sits at one-tenth of America’s, putting the nation of twenty-five million people (with around 7,500 deaths) near the top of global rankings in the protection of life.

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Republicans Engage in “Legitimate Political Discourse”

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There was a time when our two major political parties took policy matters seriously. I remember my first political convention, the Democratic meeting in Miami in 1972 which nominated George McGovern to face, and be pummeled by, the incumbent Richard Nixon. One of the things that impressed a then young reporter was the work of the platform committee.

The committee met and considered the issues of the day. They heard presentations, took testimony, and in the end voted on a position to take. At first, I wondered how valuable the exercise was. While the platform represented a compromise position so the party could say what it stood for, it could not bind all its members. And with opposition when it came time to govern, there is no way to expect the positions of the platform committee to translate directly into policy.

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