Mike 03
Mike 03's JournalAmerican Catastrophe Through German Eyes (NYT Opinion)
New York Times
By Roger Cohen
Opinion Columnist
July 24, 2020
Trump says he wants to protect law-abiding citizens. In 1933, Hitler issued his Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State.
A recent cover of the weekly magazine Der Spiegel portrays Trump in the Oval Office holding a lighted match, with a country ablaze visible through his window. The headline: Der Feuerteufel, or, literally, the Fire Devil.
Germans have a particular relationship to fire. The Reichstag fire of 1933 enabled Hitler and the Nazis to scrap the fragile Weimar democracy that had brought them to power. Hitlers murderous fantasies could now become reality. War, Auschwitz and the German catastrophe followed.
I have known many thoughtful German diplomats over the years, including Michael Steiner, who labored to stop the Balkan wars of the 1990s, and Wolfgang Ischinger, the former German ambassador to the United States. It always seemed to me that their particular passion for freedom, democracy and openness stemmed from the knowledge of how easily these are lost.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/opinion/trump-germany.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Here's a link to the Michelle Goldberg/Timothy Snyder piece referred to
in this interview:
Trumps Occupation of American Cities Has Begun
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/opinion/portland-protests-trump.html
Timothy Snyder's book Bloodlands is monumental; I can't recommend it highly enough.
Same here. I feel like we're in that moment now where we're going to have to
admit that we can't stop him, and that creates an impasse that's hard to circumvent.
In past crises we at least pretended we knew what to do next. We'd issue a subpoena, file a lawsuit, hold a hearing, ask for an injunction, take something to a federal judge, demand an investigation, write a report. Or, the Senate "could do something" or "might do something", or we can pass a bill and talk about how we passed a bill. Impeach him. (And we did the right thing).
It's like Mary Trump writes at the closing of one of the chapters in her book: He always gets away it.
We have the federal troop situation, and we also have a legal test coming where John Yoo is going to help Trump rule by decree. We have a president flouting that he's ignoring transgressions by Russia against our troops, our country and our election.
And I think it's getting harder to believe there is any way to stop it. Yesterday I listened to Senator Merkley trying to explain what we could do about the federal police coming into our cities, but in truth, he ended up explaining why we actually couldn't do anything except write letters, make inquiries of DHS and the Border Patrol, and pass bills that the Senate won't take up.
Lastly, what on earth will Trump do to screw up the election? John Yoo believes he can have unlimited power now following the DACA decision by the SCOTUS.
I hate to sound pessimistic, because I'm usually optimistic, but we're hitting an impediment now that will take real ingenuity, creativity and some great legal minds to smash to pieces.
Kicking for visibility.
I hope you get an answer. This question has been on my mind for the past few days. What if the president/prime minister of a nation doesn't request or want it?
Living prior presidents plus the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, plus Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer? Or would we request intervention from some allied countries, who would request it on our behalf?
Good deal! But I thought all or nearly all of the Virginia Giuffre
civil lawsuit documents had been released. Maybe we'll finally see the complete depositions. One thing that was missing from the last dump were large sections of the depositions.
In any event, this should be interesting. Let's see if Dershowitz or any other politicians try to block it (again).
You know, I'd bet anything these goons are staying at Trump hotels and
properties, if there are such properties in the areas they are being deployed. Maybe that would be one possible way to track them down to get some identification or a fix on who they are, or catch them doing something embarrassing while off duty at the local bar. They have to park somewhere at night, and it would be tragic beyond comprehension if their tires were slashed or something of that nature. So don't do that!
Mike Bloomberg sets out to help flip three senate seats, help Biden win Florida, and more (NYT)
Bloombergs Gun Control Group Pours $15 Million Into Races in 8 StatesThe New York Times
By Reid J. Epstein
July 23, 2020, 7:00 a.m. ET
The group, Everytown for Gun Safety, hopes to help Democrats flip three Senate seats, win control of state legislatures and lift Joe Biden to victory in Florida.
The group, Everytown for Gun Safety, is making an initial $15 million investment in digital advertising in the states, an opening outlay of the $60 million it has pledged to spend during the 2020 campaign.
It includes $5 million earmarked for Florida, the lone state where Everytown plans on advertising in the presidential contest; $3.5 million in Texas, where the group is targeting six House races; and $1 million to $1.5 million in Arizona, Iowa and North Carolina three states where it will advertise in Senate races as well as in Minnesota and Pennsylvania.
The group also plans an initial $500,000 investment in Georgia, where, in addition to the state legislative contests, the group will advertise on behalf of Representative Lucy McBath, a suburban Atlanta Democrat who used to work as an Everytown spokeswoman.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/us/politics/bloomberg-guns.html
Companies, institutions and individuals with power who are immune from being
sued are free to take extraordinary risks with other people's lives and to profit by unethical conduct with zero consequences.
Just reading about the aftermath of Kent State
Fascinating, and eerie echoes.
President Nixon and his administration's public reaction to the shootings was perceived by many in the anti-war movement as callous. Then National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger said the President was "pretending indifference". Stanley Karnow noted in his Vietnam: A History that: "The [Nixon] administration initially reacted to this event with wanton insensitivity. Nixon's press secretary, Ron Ziegler, whose statements were carefully programmed, referred to the deaths as a reminder that 'when dissent turns to violence, it invites tragedy.'" Three days before the shootings, Nixon had talked of "bums" who were antiwar protestors on United States campuses,[49] to which the father of Allison Krause stated on national TV: "My child was not a bum."[50]
There's a lot more just about the aftermath: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings#Aftermath_and_long-term_effects
I'll just quietly drop this here...
Did Trump and Epstein Rape Two Underage Girls?
https://www.masstortnexus.com/News/5386/Did-Trump-and-Epstein-Rape-Two-Underage-Girls
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Modesto California
Home country: United States
Current location: Arizona
Member since: Mon Oct 27, 2008, 06:14 PM
Number of posts: 16,616