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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump and Kushner must be prosecuted for crimes against humanity
There is no word to describe Trump and Jareds murderous criminality. Their willfull actions have resulted in the deaths of more than 150,000 US citizens they swore to protect.
Trump and Kushner must be prosecuted for crimes against humanity
Written by David Atkins / Washington Monthly August 1, 2020 Commentary
EXCERPT...
But the latest report from Vanity Fair implicates both Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner of an unspeakable horror orders of magnitude greater. Instead of implementing a comprehensive and aggressive national testing plan the pandemic team originally recommended, Kushner scuttled it. The president and his son-in-law were instead content to allow tens of thousands of Americans die as long as they were mostly people of color, and hailing from Democratic states and counties. Not only that, they saw it as a political opportunity to both cull the numbers of opposing voters and lay blame on Democratic governors at the same time:
Against that background, the prospect of launching a large-scale national plan was losing favor, said one public health expert in frequent contact with the White Houses official coronavirus task force.
Most troubling of all, perhaps, was a sentiment the expert said a member of Kushners team expressed: that because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national plan was unnecessary and would not make sense politically. The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy, said the expert.
That logic may have swayed Kushner. It was very clear that Jared was ultimately the decision maker as to what [plan] was going to come out, the expert said.
SNIP...
We even lack the vocabulary to even describe it. Gross negligence doesnt reach the level of the crime. Murder is lurid, but frankly not a comprehensive enough word to describe the death of 140,000. Treason comes to mind when considering that the President of the United States knowingly allowed 140,000 Americans to die because they were mostly his political opponentsbut despite his Russia entanglements, there is no direct evidence he did so on behalf of a foreign power.
CONTINUES...
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/08/01/trump-and-kushner-must-be-prosecuted-for-crimes-against-humanity/
The US needs to reckon with these two mass murdering traitors, immediately. Otherwise, until Jan. 20, 2021 they will have enormous power at their disposal to avoid that reckoning.
dalton99a
(81,062 posts)Kid Berwyn
(14,642 posts)I was asked by Jared through my son-in-law for recommendations; says Kurt Kloss, whose daughter is married to Kushners brother; Kushner is directly involved in virus response
By CNAAN LIPHSHIZ
Times of Israel, March 13, 2020
JTA A physician with family ties to senior White House adviser Jared Kushner said he solicited advice on Facebook for Kushner on how to deal with the coronavirus.
Kurt Kloss, whose daughter is married to Kushners brother, on Wednesday asked a group of fellow emergency room physicians on the social network for the advice on Kushners behalf, Politico reported Friday, in turn quoting The Spectator.
I have direct channel to person now in charge at White House, Kloss wrote in his post.
Hundreds of doctors responded and Kloss explained that Kushner, who is US President Donald Trumps son-in-law, had asked him for recommendations, according to Politico. Kloss sent Kushner 12 recommendations Thursday morning, according to the article.
Continues...
https://www.timesofisrael.com/jared-kushner-relative-says-he-solicited-coronavirus-tips-for-him-on-facebook/
Fiendish Thingy
(15,361 posts)Including Good German contractors who were just following orders.
Note for those too young to remember: the Independent Counsel (Watergate, Iran-Contra) has much more freedom and authority than a Special Prosecutor like Meuller.
Hestia
(3,818 posts)EVERYONE out. We know the major players, it's the left behind minions who can do major damage (like what happened with both PBO's administrations) and there is the MSM putting mics in their faces, looking for the "other side of the story."
I told my DH for months what separates them from mass murderers - it's only by a different means?
Lg prices must be too much because their gaslighting is no longer working.
Kid Berwyn
(14,642 posts)Ken Starr (and company that includes Brett Kavanaugh) had all authority necessary to investigate all he wanted, anywhere he wanted, and whomever he wanted without accountability to no one except Congress.
Robert Mueller had just enough to find and point out wrongdoing under a very narrow mandate and report back to his boss at Just Us.
Nuremberg Trial Prosecutors Warning About Trumps War on the Rule of Law
The sole surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg Trials warns that an executive order from President Trump regarding the International Criminal Court is cause for concern.
BY BENJAMIN B. FERENCZ | JULY 20, 2020
Given the death toll from COVID-19 and the continuing public outcry over police brutality in the United States, it may have gone largely unnoticed that on June 11, President Trump issued an executive order targeting the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Hague-based war crimes tribunal that the United States has refused to join.
Snip...
In announcing the sanctions, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo accused the ICC of being highly politicized and a kangaroo court. He said that the ICC would have done well to do the right thing and kill the investigation. Given that Pompeo was a director of the CIA when that agency is reported to have been complicit in the commission of war crimes committed by Afghan operatives, his views may perhaps come as no surprise.
As the sole surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg Trials, I believe a few words are in order about what the ICC is and what it is not. Contrary to the current administrations anti-ICC rhetoric, the court is neither unaccountable nor anti-American. It is a treaty-based organization whose statute has been ratified by 123 countries, including 27 of our 28 NATO allies.
Significant safeguards and limitations have been built into the ICCs operating structure to assure that it does not become some sort of supra-national court run amok. Its judges and its prosecutor are elected for fixed terms by a governing assembly representing each of the courts 123 member states, and they, along with the deputy prosecutor, the registrar and the deputy registrar, may all be removed from office for improper conduct.
It may hear cases related only to four specific crimes: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression. Its jurisdiction is generally limited to crimes committed by the nationals or on the territory of the states that have signed up to the court or that have voluntarily agreed to its jurisdiction. It has no enforcement arm of its own and must, therefore, rely on the cooperation of policing personnel from countries around the world to enforce its arrest warrants. Without such support, the ICC is relatively powerless.
Continues...
https://billmoyers.com/story/nuremberg-prosecutors-warning-about-trumps-war-on-the-rule-of-law/
The US Constitution makes clear We the People are in charge. The Nuremberg Trials then and the ICC today show the people of the world there are laws all nations must follow. Thats why Trump and his minions are sore afraid. We are on to their sorry arses.
JHB
(37,128 posts)...namely, tightening the rules and requirements for the 3-judge panel that oversaw the Independent Counsel under that law in effect at that time, and similar situations under current law.
The 1978 Ethics in Government Act contained a provision that "priority shall be given to senior circuit judges and retired judges." This was ensure the panel was composed of judges who'd already hit the apex of their careers and wouldn't be influenced by outside influences on the course of those careers. It was felt that younger judges were more likely to have political ambitions which could influence their decision-making.
Chief Justice Rehnquist simply ignored that provision when appointing the under-50, politically active David Sentelle to the panel.
Without Sentelle, Robert Fiske wouldn't have been removed and replaced with Ken Starr.
ancianita
(35,812 posts)blm
(112,919 posts)Genocidal.
Oh, there ARE words, Mr Atkins.
To constitute depraved indifference, the defendant's conduct must be 'so wanton, so deficient in a moral sense of concern, so lacking in regard for the life or lives of others, and so blameworthy as to warrant the same criminal liability as that which the law imposes upon a person who intentionally causes a crime. Depraved indifference focuses on the risk created by the defendants conduct, not the injuries actually resulting.
In one case, People v Register, 60 NY2d 273, 469 NYS2d 599 (1983), while exploring the meaning of "depraved indifference recklessness" the Court of Appeals ruled that intoxication is not a defense or excuse to "depraved mind murder," although it may be to intentional murder. Its analysis started with distinguishing reckless manslaughter from the "depraved indifference recklessness" necessary for murder:
"to bring defendants conduct within the murder statute, the People were required to establish also that defendants act was imminently dangerous and presented a very high risk of death to others and that it was committed under circumstances which evidenced a wanton indifference to human life or a depravity of mind. . . . . The crime differs from intentional murder in that it results not from a specific, conscious intent to cause death, but from an indifference to or disregard of the risks attending defendants conduct." 60 NY2d at 274.
Source: https://definitions.uslegal.com/d/depraved-indifference/
Words are ways to record the truth for all history. Let these depraved and cretinous ghouls meet justice in this world real soon.
blm
(112,919 posts)They will not be held accountable, will not receive any just punishment unless the press enlightens the ignorant.
Bet there are Dems who do not know this.
call it what it is
BigmanPigman
(51,430 posts)Take him to the Hague.
Zoonart
(11,747 posts)MY GOD! THIS!
Why is every paper of record in this country NOT screaming about this? Every elected official? Are we that frozen... trapped in the amber of this tragedy?
Is it not enough? Really? This is genocide of communities of color and political enemies.
Yes... they have declared Democrats enemies of the state.
Wake up America.
underpants
(182,271 posts)Get out and dont come back. I know that wont happen but this is failure lumped with indifference lumped with callousness lumped with nepotism lumped with privileged dumbass. Basically its Jared in a nutshell.
I don't even want them in prison...I want them banished. Strip them of their citizenship. Seize their assets, (if there are any).
Take their passports and cut them loose. GET OUT of my country.
Kid Berwyn
(14,642 posts)Be real quiet about their secrets and they might let you into the fort before din-din.
American mass media are tools of propaganda for the State (read: Ownership Class)
To help spread light, Maria Galardin's TUC (Time of Useful Consciousness) Radio, brought to our attention the work of the late Alex Carey...
Alex Carey: Corporations and Propaganda
The Attack on Democracy
The 20th century, said Carey, is marked by three historic developments: the growth of democracy via the expansion of the franchise, the growth of corporations, and the growth of propaganda to protect corporations from democracy. Carey wrote that the people of the US have been subjected to an unparalleled, expensive, 3/4 century long propaganda effort designed to expand corporate rights by undermining democracy and destroying the unions. And, in his manuscript, unpublished during his life time, he described that history, going back to World War I and ending with the Reagan era. Carey covers the little known role of the US Chamber of Commerce in the McCarthy witch hunts of post WWII and shows how the continued campaign against "Big Government" plays an important role in bringing Reagan to power.
John Pilger called Carey "a second Orwell", Noam Chomsky dedicated his book, Manufacturing Consent, to him. And even though TUC Radio runs our documentary based on Carey's manuscript at least every two years and draws a huge response each time, Alex Carey is still unknown.
Given today's spotlight on corporations that may change. It is not only the Occupy movement that inspired me to present this program again at this time. By an amazing historic coincidence Bill Moyers and Charlie Cray of Greenpeace have just added the missing chapter to Carey's analysis. Carey's manuscript ends in 1988 when he committed suicide. Moyers and Cray begin with 1971 and bring the corporate propaganda project up to date.
This is a fairly complex production with many voices, historic sound clips, and source material. The program has been used by writers and students of history and propaganda. Alex Carey: Taking the Risk out of Democracy, Corporate Propaganda VS Freedom and Liberty with a foreword by Noam Chomsky was published by the University of Illinois Press in 1995.
SOURCE: https://tucradio.org/?s=Alex+Carey&submit=Search
Helps explain how we got here and what we need to do to move forward, starting with putting the "Public" into Airwaves again, such as their once-Constitutional obligation required. Also help us with all that needs to be done to Recover.
underpants
(182,271 posts)Procurement rules Id guess are handled administratively and since Jared isnt actually an employee....
I didnt see any gain by him in terms of going around the purchasing process. The vendor, correctly, never got paid either.
I know theres no dumbass charge but the whole thing exposes how much he and his brain trust buddies are really just dumbasses. The tests require refrigeration. That includes shipping you morons.
If what the article alleges is true, he cast off blue states mostly to make their governors look bad*, that has to be a crime of some sort. It could be very hard to prove though.
*the complete disdain for human life just for ploy that also screams out - WE KNOW OUR PLAN IS EVIDENCE OF OUR FAILURE
Kid Berwyn
(14,642 posts)Master of incompetence Jared, Senior Advisor to the Prezidunce, headed the COVID-19 task force charged with the supply chain. The effort was staffed by volunteers, friends n cronies who mustve salivated like Pavlovs poodle at hearing the words logistics and procurement.
How Jared Kushner Is Tackling the White Houses Coronavirus Response Without Any Evident Experience
The presidents son-in-law and adviser has added the emergency-response supply chain to his extensive list of duties. He views himself as a disrupter but thats not always a good thing.
by Andrea Bernstein, WNYC, ProPublica, April 22, 2 p.m. EDT
EXCERPT...
Over a dozen people who have worked with Kushner in New York and New Jersey say he has long relied on phone relationships. So much of Jareds business was relationships, one associate said. In order to be able to get deals done you have to be able to call somebody. Another added: He has a huge rolodex. ... He would be like: I will just make a call. I will call so-and-so. He was young and rich and powerful, and he got along with people. That was a big part of his M.O.: to make a call, to make something happen.
At the White House briefing, Kushner shifted the responsibility for gathering supplies squarely to the states. The notion of the federal stockpile was its supposed to be our stockpile, he said. Its not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use.
SNIP...
Still, a lack of federal assistance remains a common complaint among governors and theres little indication that Kushner has made a difference. In a radio interview in late March, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she was told the White House is preventing her state from getting aid. Whitmer, who is seen as a potential Democratic vice presidential nominee, said vendors are being told not to send stuff to Michigan. Its really concerning. Trump said at one press conference, within a day of Whitmers interview, that he told Pence, Dont call the woman in Michigan. As of April 19, Whitmer was still expressing concern that the federal government wasnt helping her state obtain needed testing supplies. Meanwhile, Trump was openly supporting protests against Whitmer.
SNIP...
Officially, Kushner is not addressing the supply chain issues all by himself. He has a task force. But details have been scant. On April 16, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal and Tom Carper wrote to the White House expressing concerns about Kushners task force. Mr. Kushners task force, they wrote, reportedly includes a suite of McKinsey consultants, a private equity executive, and a host of other representatives from private industries. Though they have purportedly signed voluntary service agreements and have avoided participating in procurement processes, questions remain as to who exactly comprises this task force, the vetting process for its members, and what role the members play in addressing issues related to the pandemic.
Moreover, reports indicate that Mr. Kushners task force has been attract[ing] companies seeking to entrench themselves in hopes of winning lucrative government contracts down the line, the senators continued. underscoring the need for robust ethics oversight. Mr. Kushner and his task force appear to have substantial, and often disruptive, influence over White House policy initiatives related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
CONTINUES...
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-kushner-coronavirus
That was back in April, when an effective response would have been much easier. Now, the US is looking at tremendous loss of life, health and treasure. And a really big win for Putin.
underpants
(182,271 posts)Thats spot on
malaise
(267,784 posts)K & R
Kid Berwyn
(14,642 posts)Excerpt...
Inside the White House, over much of March and early April, Kushners handpicked group of young business associates, which included a former college roommate, teamed up with several top experts from the diagnostic-testing industry. Together, they hammered out the outline of a national testing strategy. The groupworking night and day, using the encrypted platform WhatsAppemerged with a detailed plan obtained by Vanity Fair.
Rather than have states fight each other for scarce diagnostic tests and limited lab capacity, the plan would have set up a system of national oversight and coordination to surge supplies, allocate test kits, lift regulatory and contractual roadblocks, and establish a widespread virus surveillance system by the fall, to help pinpoint subsequent outbreaks.
The solutions it proposed werent rocket scienceor even comparable to the dauntingly complex undertaking of developing a new vaccine. Any national plan to address testing deficits would likely be more on the level of replicating UPS for an industry, said Dr. Mike Pellini, the managing partner of Section 32, a technology and health care venture capital fund. Imagine if UPS or FedEx didnt have infrastructure to connect all the dots. It would be complete chaos.
The plan crafted at the White House, then, set out to connect the dots. Some of those who worked on the plan were told that it would be presented to President Trump and likely announced in the Rose Garden in early April. I was beyond optimistic, said one participant. My understanding was that the final document would make its way to the president over that weekend and would result in a significant announcement.
But no nationally coordinated testing strategy was ever announced. The plan, according to the participant, just went poof into thin air.
Continues...
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/07/how-jared-kushners-secret-testing-plan-went-poof-into-thin-air#intcid=recommendations_vf-trending-legacy_24c7d9c5-f64f-4ca2-aab9-2bc7a9762cbd_popular4-1
Trump, too, is destined for the chain gang.
malaise
(267,784 posts)seriously
Kid Berwyn
(14,642 posts)USA still doesnt have needed testing, PPE, or a plan.
Id say its a double-whammy, but theyre also fascist traitors.
crickets
(25,896 posts)the trump administration's actions and criminal lack of reaction to go unchallenged and unpunished. The entire world is paying the price for the US removing the CDC representatives from China, disbanding the pandemic team, and disregarding the pandemic strategies already in place and proved to be effective in prior outbreaks. It is not just our mountains of dead but the death rate all over the world that is, in large part, a direct result of the willful and intentional disregard of qualified personnel along with the destruction of US policies that normally would have handled this situation in a starkly more skilled and competent fashion.
There is no question charges should be brought and prosecuted. None.
Kid Berwyn
(14,642 posts)At every turn, he not only did the wrong thing, he has elected to do the worst thing possible. Take having no plan to deal with the outbreak since he first heard about it.
How many needless Covid-19 deaths were caused by delays in responding?
Most of them
By ISAAC SEBENIUS and JAMES K. SEBENIUS
StatNews, JUNE 19, 202
EXCERPT...
To compare each countrys responses to the pandemic on a consistent basis, we turned to the work of an Oxford University team that has constructed a stringency index based on 13 policy responses (lockdowns, border closings, tests, etc.) to measure how strongly each country responded over time. The Oxford index shows that 14 days from the date of the 15th confirmed case in each country a vital early window for action the U.S. response to the outbreak lagged behind the others by miles. The U.S. stringency score of 5.7 at that point was 25% of Australias (23), 23% of Germanys (25), 18% of Singapores (32), and only 15% of South Koreas (38).
Related: Rising Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations underscore the long road ahead
Due to exponential viral spread, our delay in action was devastating. In the wake of the U.S. response, 117,858 Americans died in the four months following the first 15 confirmed cases. After an equivalent period, Germany suffered only 8,863 casualties. Scaling up the German population of 83.7 million to Americas 331 million, a U.S.-sized Germany would have suffered 35,049 Covid-19 deaths. So if the U.S. had acted as effectively as Germany, 70% of U.S. coronavirus deaths might have been prevented.
Continues...
https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/19/faster-response-prevented-most-us-covid-19-deaths/
Precisely as you noted, crickets: Not incompetence, it is intentional and it is global.
2naSalit
(86,031 posts)Couldn't help it.
They need to be taken out of the ring of power but they also need to be prosecuted for those crimes as well as all the other crimes.
Kid Berwyn
(14,642 posts)The 117th Congress might start by asking the fired Inspectors General what they were working on when fired.
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/28/21265799/inspectors-general-trump-linick-atkinson
As for The Hague, Dumpco are sore afraid someone will hold them responsible just for what theyve done to families entering the country for asylum.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/17/trumps-chilling-blow-to-the-icc/
Lock up Stephen Miller in a kennel cage and throw away the key.
CanonRay
(14,036 posts)We simply cannot just move on, or it will happen again.
niyad
(112,424 posts)CaptainTruth
(6,546 posts)Nitram
(22,663 posts)ashredux
(2,593 posts)miyazaki
(2,219 posts)NNadir
(33,368 posts)certainot
(9,090 posts)do this shit and get away with it is their talk radio advantage - the only advantage they have. the one we give them by ignoring it.
it would be sad if limbaugh croaks and the talk radio monopoly falls apart and the country goes 15 points left and the left never knows their good fortune/luck and blames it on GOTV or donations or cycles or sudden enlightenment or some other minor unrelated events
ffr
(22,644 posts)OMGWTF
(3,891 posts)RealityBasedNewYorkr
(118 posts)Like negligent homicide, but at mass scale
H2O Man
(73,308 posts)PatrickforO
(14,514 posts)They are monsters. Horrible demonic monsters dealing death on every side.
Lasher
(27,497 posts)All Kushner has ever done is obey orders and pad his resume
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)At the very least, I want to see them in prison for the rest of their miserable lives. Although I have to admit that I would prefer that they end up like Mussolini and company.