I recorded the events of that day on my phone as they were occurring. I refuse to be gaslit by the right wing fascists. U saw what I saw. The fact that millions upon millions of my fellow Americans are SO STUPID and SO BRAINWASHED as to think that day was either “staged by leftists” or was a “patriotic act” is just preposterous and despicable. I’m EXHAUSTED and infuriated that this is where we are in history. It’s absolutely disgusting.
I am 84 years old and I never dreamed I would see times like these that I am ashamed of the way this Country has become. I have always been proud of America and how she has always been here for us and others, always at the ready to help not only her own but others as well. I sure cannot say that in today's times. I always hoped that I would be one of those responsible for leaving the earth in better shape for those who follow; my dream is now a nightmare thanks to Trump and his followers.
I am 82 and feel the same way Gail, but I refuse to give in to the worlds biggest lying con artist in the history of the USA Government, Trump, without a fight. As long as I am breathing, I will be fighting against what Trump is trying to turn this country into and he can take his dictatorship wannabe and shove it where the sun don't shine.
Liz Cheney has shown remarkable courage by speaking out against Donald Trump and his unconstitutional actions. She continues to stand up for the Constitution and the rule of law, calling out Trump’s lies and threats. This is no small feat, especially given how few Republicans have been willing to take such a bold stand.
While I strongly disagree with her politics, I deeply respect and admire the character and bravery she has displayed in this matter. I wholeheartedly agree with Robert: she deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Biden for her unwavering commitment to defending democracy.
True bravery is demonstrated when standing up for what is right involves significant personal risk. Liz Cheney's courage in opposing her party's direction highlights this principle. Meanwhile, the responsibility for the world grappling with the challenges of Trump's presidency rests squarely on the spinless Republicans.
If Biden gave pardons to all that may be prosecuted as retribution, in would knock the legs out from under Trump’s threats of “retribution.” He was hopping to use the FBI, IRS, and possibly the CIA to harass these brave people for standing up to him, but Biden could put them under an umbrella of safety. It is the least he could do.
I 100 percent agree. I rarely agree with her very conservative views, but her courage in standing up for the Constitution and the rule of law have made her a heroine in my opinion.
I do not believe she has done anything for which she should be pardoned. Medal of Honor from Joe would be appropriate. Hopefully, judges would shut down any case on her that trump tries to bring.
I don't argue that Liz has shown remarkable courage Patti, but in doing so she has kept the focus of the J 6 committee on Trump and away from the links of Boebert, Hawley, MTG, and the rest of the J6 conspirators in congress.
In doing so she ran cover for the conspirators, who are still sitting in Congress, and what has happened to Trump for all of her efforts? He got re elected
William, Liz Cheney is not Morning Joe or the spineless and craven Republicons licking tRump's ass. We're not blind to her being an arch conservative. The point is that she is putting aside her position on policies for the time being to join us in the fight for democracy. I look forward to the day where we can return to debating and fighting her on policy, but for now "the enemy of my enemy" is my ally and she deserves some recognition for her stalwart symbolic leadership to fight for our country. IMHO
So Liz is a hero in your eyes. Good for you, Good for Robert, Dismiss the fact that by keeping the J6 committee focused on Trump, she ran cover for her fellow Republicans in Congress. Or can you not see that? Or maybe you can, but don't care, because Liz has been lionized and turned into a folk hero.
I keep my eye on the ball, and the ball is the threat to our democracy and freedom.
Because you say so Carolyn.? Cheney did a great service for the co- conspirators in congress, didn't she. The whole proceeding was focused entirely on Trump. Nothing on the ones in congress who conspired with Trump, Like Laren Boebert who kicked off the invasion of the capital, by texting 1776, just as the Arizona electoral votes were to be counted and an objection raised
I'd be careful as to who I chose as a hero, because all of the congressional bad actors escaped congressional scrutiny, and are still in place,
"Liz Cheney ran cover for the traitors in Congress, and made sure that the whole effort of the J 6 committee was focused on Trump." ????????? Do you, perchance, recall that BENNIE JOHNSON was the Chair of that Committee? The committee had one task. They completed that task honorably.
I do recall that Bennie Johnson was the chair, but I also recall that for all practical purposes Liz ran the committee
The committee had a task to(1) To investigate and report upon the facts, circumstances, and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex (hereafter referred to as the "domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol") and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power,
The facts, circumstances and causes include the planning and participation of members of congress, which they did not do, and Liz ensured that they didn't by keeping it focused on Trump.
Bennie may have been the chair, but Liz ran the committee, otherwise we would not be talking about her, nor you and others championing her as a hero.
I did not impugn her loyalty to the constitution, just mentioned that she kept the Jan 6 committee distracted from the perps in congress, by keeping it focused on Trump and his administration.
Which, by the way, set us up for dictatorship to come. Image if the perps in Congress had been investigate and exposed we might not be in the situation we find ourselves
There are too many on the left that are as irrational and emotional as those on the right.
Yes, absolutely, William. We have urgent business that will take all of our energy thanks to the party of the Cheney family. This is no time to get syrupy.
Did anyone on this blog go along with evil-doers at their workplace to protect their job?
Does anyone on this blog come from a powerful family (which, by the way, committed heinous acts as a result of having that power and made a fortune doing it) ?
But Donna, it was only a million or more dead, and several million displaced in the middle east because of cheney and his war machine. I mean, think how happy the shareholders are. I wonder what ms. cheney is worth?
William, I would not ever want a republican in a Democrat’s admin again. Including, as some have suggested, Liz Cheney. But she absolutely deserves protection and deserves credit where it is due.
It is not a matter of Liz deserving credit for standing up for the constitution but liberals so eager for a hero to lionize should take into consideration that she played cover for Gym Jordan, Hawley, MGT, Boebert and the rest of the coup plotters.
EXACTLY. She was silent when a sitting president attacked the free press, America citizens and weaponized the Attorney General to put Michael Cohen back in jail. She was also silent as the maga started getting elected to Congress. Cheney went along with the other conservatives when Mitch McConnell basically declared war against President Obama because he was a Black man and he the audacity to get elected to that position
Cheney didn’t speak out against trump until he went off the rails and the Capitol was attacked. She saw it for what it was and recognized it as an attack on her family’s future. She knew where the Republican Party was headed because she assisted in the building of that structure. Cheney had no problem with trump and the Republican Party’s attack on Black Americans, The Voting Rights Act and Affirmative Action. AND she provided cover for all of her Republicans friends in Congress who assisted trump.
Why should she receive an award for finally doing what she had sworn to do.
Sacred feces, BlkGMagik, you are 100% correct, worth repeating:
"Cheney didn’t speak out against trump until he went off the rails and the Capitol was attacked. She saw it for what it was and recognized it as an attack on her family’s future. She knew where the Republican Party was headed because she assisted in the building of that structure. Cheney had no problem with trump and the Republican Party’s attack on Black Americans, The Voting Rights Act and Affirmative Action. AND she provided cover for all of her Republicans friends in Congress who assisted trump."
Absofuckinlutely correct. Thanks for the addition, and there are those on the left that lionize her. Sometimes the left is like an abused dog, they take abuse all day long, but at night get a treat, a pat on the head and told "good doggy" and they wag their tails.
Though I'd never condone the behaviour of the J6 mob or Trump's rhetoric then or now, I do hope that fellow liberals who've been wrestling with the role this controversial issue (Cheneys supporting the Dems) and others might have had in the outcome on November 5, and America and the world after it. I invite you to read my very first Substack post, from last week:
I can find no positives Ryan, when we are faced with extinction.
Trump, Musk, Thiel, all of them now have full power to do whatever they want to do, whatever they threatened to do, what is layout out in Project 2025.
Find me something positive, especially since the project will eliminate all honest opposition, and they have the tools to do it, a National Security State, created less than one month after 9//11 by the PATRIOT Act, and the NSA's Data Center at Bluffdale, UT which sniffs all electronic communications, including text messages.
Wow! It's gonna be one badass March this year! Let's have the Democracy March on Washington in January be in every town - we can have women, cool guys, wheelchair teams - go with Pussy hats, or against tyranny signs and then return to our states and help our communities learn what real democracy is. Talk with people you disagree with, ask them how they came to believe this or that.... ask them their sources... I'm going to print a small post card that I'm going to carry as a calling card for when they get disappointed by the conman and his conman contingent.
Oh, and I still have my pussy hat! I love asking peeps how they came to believe this or that and yes, sources need to be legit, but how do you tell FOX folks theirs is not legit? The postcard idea is good too. What is yours going to say? I must ponder it a while...and be sure to watch the tone of it.
Nancy, et al, one wheezy 75 y.o. Who wishes she could afford to fly to D.C. with you! There’s sure to be something local here. It is Berkeley, after all.🤭
From my little perch in New Zealand, I too look at America and am dismayed. However, reading your comments, Carolyn and Gail, I am proud to be another old woman who is not going to be cowed by the authoritarian bullies of this world. Good for you both and those thousands who are just as courageous. Keep your courage USA, you are not alone. We will leave the world a better place, it's just that people such as we three have less time than some!
I am also 90 years old and I could not have said it any better than you did Gail. Yes life will go on with the hope that we will have better times ahead . . . but I cannot feel regret for the legacy today's voting population has left for those to follow us.
71 years young here, Gail. What you said times a thousand. I still cannot believe this has happened. It is not the billionaires and the true MAGA nuts who terrify me. It is the rest of the supposedly sane and normal 75 million people who voted in 2024 (after seeing 9 years of this disgusting and vile person and January 6 to boot) for him. It is soulcrushing and mindboggling to this old guy. I will never ever understand this.
I will never understand how this happened either especially since he has shown his true colors over and over. How many times do people have to be kicked in the teeth before they learn?
Take heart that he got fewer votes than last time. His popularity is headed south, especially when he finally takes office again. And, he'll be a lame duck in less than three years, assuming our institutions hold(!) And he'll be our oldest-ever president. When Biden won in 2020, Trump, essentially, lost forever. He hasn't had Hitler's 12 years all to himself. We have to be sure he leaves office when he's supposed to. We'll survive.
This is how we got here: I’m a former teacher now whistleblower trying to teach the public how education declined. Some of my work is at WhiteChalkCrime.com where you can listen to four other teacher whistleblowers explain what’s going on in education. I just published my teaching memoir to bring others inside the dreadful world of education as it is now. I explain why civility and how to become a citizen isn’t taught. My book also explains how our schools paved the way for Trump
Ulysses S Grant warned how important education is saying: "In a Republic like ours, where the citizen is the sovereign, and the official the servant, where no power is exercised except by the will of the people, it is important that the sovereign—the people—should possess intelligence. If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason's and Dixon's, but between patriotism and intelligence on one side, and superstition, ambition, and ignorance on the other."
That contest is before us now because empowered bullies are running corrupt, inept schools that abuse teachers into puppets. Our schools have turned Americans into forgotten men and women rather than citizens.
There’s a solution even now. Run for school boards on a save democracy platform. You don’t need a child in the school. Run with two others so you can grab the power. This is one avenue where the autocracy can be weakened.
That is how the right took over the schools, and the Dems just ignored it, in spite of being warned by commentators on the Left for decades… It’ll take time to undo it, but no time like the present to begin.
YES YES YES!! it’s the failure of the education system to teach kids how to THINK CRITICALLY and discern fact from fiction!! This, combined with the advent of social media and those in government failing to adequately set up guardrails around its content from the beginning. Kids AND ADULTS believe the stupidity that they see on TikTok, a snippet from a self-annointed influencer is accepted as legit truth, podcast drivel is gospel, Facebook posts from someone’s uncle’s sister-in-law spreading LIES gets liked and passed on with ferocity.
And let’s not forget the advent of cable news, thanks CNN (the originator) and then of course Faux News gets the gold star (if China can’t own TikTok, then why does Rupert Murdoch get to own Fox?). When ALL Americans got their news from either ABC, NBC and CBS we all watched pretty much the same fact based reporting. We could choose how we thought about the facts delivered, but they were at least based in fact. We’re living in a fact-free America and I for one am p***ed off! Combine that with the racism that’s always been embedded here and the misogyny that’s now on steroids and we’ve got a recipe for constitutional disaster, and how will we come back from that?
And to the gentleman chiding Liz Cheney for not taking down the whole corrupt political machine, misogyny much dude? Has anyone noticed that it’s been ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY WOMEN (save for Adam Kinzinger for whom I have much respect) who have been speaking out and standing up for America?? The Cassidy Hutchinsons, etc.
There is certainly one thing that our parents told us that they were wrong about. They proclaimed that cheaters never win. Sadly they couldn’t have been more more wrong.
Amen. But there's hope. We need to radically change our approach to education, and gradually close the schools, thereby ending child apartheid, an evil created during the industrial revolution, which tore families apart. Keep the teachers but rewrite their job descriptions; create village learning environments among friends and family, and in every neighborhood. (This is how Abraham Lincoln grew up.) Kids get to live in the world as it is and learn from all the adults they encounter there. Get your head out of the classroom. Specialization and individualized curriculum are on the new education path. There can no longer be a unified curriculum, as there's way too much to learn, and more knowledge than any one student can absorb. Rather, get them on their true path, as Michelangelo was on his by age 14. It takes the whole damn village. (That's the name of my book—Amazon.)
Check out the plan I wrote in my book that’s a memoir and manifesto about teaching. It has some parallels to what you’re saying. The problem is crooks hold the power and they want it just as it is. See WhiteChalkCrime.com.
Yes, Vickie, I went on my own rant below, without acknowledging your main point. I also have worried about the public school brain drain—for many years.
Karen, on the subject of schools and teachers, I’ve always been angered by the fact that administrators are paid more than teachers. Not to mention that teachers have to fight for every penny of their salary as well as resources for their students! Grrrr!
You can STILL be proud! Less than HALF of the country voted for that obese rapist pedophile AND a good portion of THOSE Traitors IMMEDIATELY regretted their treasonous vote!
In other words: Bunkerboy, still with only roughly 35% support, has ZERO MANDATE. It's KILLING HIM!!!
I agree with you in principle, Gail. However, do you really believe the country has always been here to help US citizens and others? I was in high school in the 60s and vividly remember the lunch counter sit-ins, firehoses, church bombings, Philadelphia, MS, etc. I gladly served in the Navy, but our country has been guilty of many atrocities here and abroad. Native Americans, Latinos and African-Americans beg to differ with you as well.
I remember those days as well and I was not trying to sound callous or whatever when I sounded off. I should have made it clear that I just remember when things were much better in this country than they have been in recent years. My ancestors were Native Americans and we know they didn't live the life of luxury nor have others such as Latinos and African-Americans. I also can attest to the fact that women like me fought for our rights only to have men like Trump and those of his ilk tear down those rights. Now we have to start all over but I can honestly say I have always take up for the underdog whether it was my neighbor, myself or a total stranger. I would never wish to live elsewhere but I sure hoped for better for those I leave behind.
I keep thinking about all who have served, in world wars and more, to preserve our freedoms and those of others... It is unbelievable that so many have forgotten and disrespected that.
Indeed, also as to leaving the earth better than what you found it, the voters who voted for evil and the ones who in essence voted for evil by simply by not voting, to both, they have made almost sure among other things, that with Trump, he will be in essence the destroyer of worlds, he will do his utmost best to make sure the U.S landscape is soaked in oil of pollution, for ours and natures loss, he and his evil minions see that as their gain, profits to bring forth and a world of misery of hurt to voiceless among us
Same here. 84 and disheartened. Used to fly the Stars and Stripes in honor of relatives who served, but now it’s associated with the flag humper and his disciples. 😢
Rupert Murdoch has some small part in this...as well as every sniveling cowardly piece of media who refused to tell the truth about TFG, either because of their profit/loss statements or because of the media owner's personal interest in keeping the oligarchy (of which many of those same owners are 'participating members') in place.
Much, much more than a small part. He and his news organization were and continue to be the core of the MAGA apocalypse. Ranked #2 in my mind is Mitch McConnell. I am afraid history is going to give him a free pass. As Senate leader, he had a chance to stop the bleeding before the patient went into cardiac arrest. Now the patient is on life support.
I don't see how they can call themselves Fox News when they've admitted in court they are not a news platform. They are an entertainment channel and shouldn't be held to the standard of telling the truth.
Yes. However, a small ray of sunshine is that there is discord in the Murdoch family. Rupert is doing his damndest to keep the whole enchilada (Newscorp, et.al.) rightwing and pass it to Lachlan regardless of how the family Trust was set up. At least three of Murdoch's other kids are NOT politically aligned with Lachlan. Trouble in Murdochistan can only spell a weakening (and perhaps a bust) of the grip Murdoch has on rightwingnut "news".
NY Times, even MSNBC two of my sources and actually more to consider that “sane washed” this election. This was not a typical election with a Convicted Felon….and the obstruction of Justice, the threat to Democracy…and they hammered away on Biden’s ageism rather than his accomplishments and what he and Harris stand for and Harris’ accomplishments. Rather than reporting on rumps indiscretions, his relationship with Putin, and also the Russian interference in the 2016 election, they reported on every ridiculous statement he made, rather than the threat of his implications.
I don’t get why you people “don’t get it” about the “free press” - news media - the social networks!!!😳😳😳😳 Who owns them ? (And it isn’t the Railroad Robber Barons of the late 19th century) Well it isn’t rocket science! Ask Jeff Bezos to tell us on which side his “bread is buttered!
Don't worry. We get it; we know that almost all the major media is owned by only--what? 6, 8? oligarchs--and they know exactly where their bread is buttered and by whom.
That devil started the DEMISE of the Republican Party, which is about to CONCLUDE, if you get my drift! A man who went to the hospital where his wife was a cancer patient to ANNOUNCE to her that he was leaving her for another woman!
How did we get here ? A fertile ground for an effective rightwing media machine (yes including Russian psyops) controlled by the rich, a corresponding lack of same on the left,and the inability or refusal to grasp that freedom of speech in a social media world needs guardrails
What kept this nation together was a consensus of elites, on the left and the right, over basic principles of our democracy and the "facts", which filtered down to the public . That no longer exists like it did.
Our institutions and understandings have not been nearly adaptible enough to our changing techworld; even more true in the US than Europe.
We got here because 54% of our country operates at a 6th grade or lower literacy level and they can be easily manipulated. They don't care to hear policy issues. You appeal to them through their emotions, fears and hatreds.
I would say that has long been the case William. But with a splintering of the consensus of elites on basic common principles and values, an erosion of a common worldview, that splintering just works its way down to the public.
This is how: I’m a former teacher now whistleblower trying to teach the public how education declined. Some of my work is at WhiteChalkCrime.com where you can listen to four other teacher whistleblowers explain what’s going on in education. I just published my teaching memoir to bring others inside the dreadful world of education as it is now. I explain why civility and how to become a citizen isn’t taught. My book also explains how our schools paved the way for Trump
Ulysses S Grant warned how important education is saying: "In a Republic like ours, where the citizen is the sovereign, and the official the servant, where no power is exercised except by the will of the people, it is important that the sovereign—the people—should possess intelligence. If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason's and Dixon's, but between patriotism and intelligence on one side, and superstition, ambition, and ignorance on the other."
That contest is before us now because empowered bullies are running corrupt, inept schools that abuse teachers into puppets. Our schools have turned Americans into forgotten men and women rather than citizens.
There’s a solution even now. Run for school boards on a save democracy platform. You don’t need a child in the school. Run with two others so you can grab the power. This is one avenue where the autocracy can be weakened.
I ask this question, Vicki > WHO was responsible for protecting the electorate from "psyops?"
It's the American tendency to want short and easy answers -- and this may be closer to the real problem. (It was not only Democratic messaging, it was the failure to reach millions on the places where they get their messaging.)
There's a line in a song by Love and Rockets that goes like "You cannot go against Nature...coz when you do ... to go against Nature is part of Nature too." iow... If I can persuade you it's psyops, I have just engaged in psyops.
It has to happen every now and then. It's part of a recurring cycle left over from European tendencies. We let too many Europeans in after the Civil War. Now America is more European than it used to be. We thought we had escaped all that, but instead, we imported the problems of Europe.
You're not alone. I have seriously thought of starting a support group for folks with a heart and compassion, as we feel this much heavier than THEM. And by them I do mean our "friends" who voted for him, our parents, our grandparents, our bosses, our sisters and even my 20-year-old niece's boyfriend who wrote in RFK- 🤯. They don't see it or feel it the way we do, in fact I believe they're incapable. You're use of quotations and capitalization just resonated with me and I want you to know you're not exhausted alone and you're not scared or dumbfounded alone either. This is our community here, hidden in little subthreads -we find our people and we must stick together. 🌻
The 12 steps, ( with a higher power of YOUR understanding) could make this world a livable place. When worked they are solutions to problems that baffle us. This is my opinion and I've used them for 34 years. I have a happy and serene life despite the past election. I will continue to labor for Democracy and spread the word that freedom is out there if we work for it!
Hi W.J. Yes you are correct. If I had to believe in a Christian God I would never have lived the last sober 34 years with a positive attitude about life. I was a science teacher and believe in "reality" that can be proven with facts, which does take critical thinking.
I think this shows we have no collective memory.Lake Woebegon where the water is safe and fluoridated, all the children are vaccinated and no one dies of preventable diseases. They were teenagers during Covid which they remember a time of boredom z being grounded and noodling around the internet. They don't remember
I think it's worse than that. I think we have a severe airhead problem. More interest in video games than the course of the nation. Plenty of blame to go around.
Two people I know and like very much wrote in RFK. Not only is RFK loony toons as can be - or as my grandmother used to say “crazy as a bed bug,” but they might as well have just voted for Trump. That vote was a bratty little throwaway vote. It’s all utter insanity coupled with short-sighted stupidity, in my opinion. I’m scared for the future. I’m trying to be hopeful, but I am scared.
We cannot forget. This very day, I just rewatched the videos I took from that day, to remember the fury I felt watching all these delusional people with their Trump flags, their Confederate flags, and their arrogant, lowlife stupidity bashing windows, pepper spraying police, and hunting our Congress members.
It’s outrageous that no one did anything to hold Trump accountable. Not Bill Barr. Not our military. No one. And why didn’t Merrick Garland just arrest Trump on the day Biden was sworn in? It’s pure feckless weakness and foolishness. And now we get to watch the deplorable - yes, DEPLORABLE indeed - MAGA fascists burn it all to hell.
Jessie, it's as though the act of sedition of Jan. 6th was an act of patriotism to 77 million delusional trumpists, which in their twisted minds they have confirmed with their votes - "LIES have become TRUTH, and TRUTH, LIES". 31% of the 250 million citizens eligible to vote equals the 77-1/2 million who voted to return a raging lunatic to office, and the 100 million who didn't vote have defaulted upon their civic duty. Dr. Reich is correct that Liz Cheney has earned that Presidential Medal of Freedom, as well as every member of the House Select Committee for the prosecution of the sedition of Jan. 6th, and every single witness who sacrificed their career to the mobster. They have all shown the core integrity which each and every trump sycophant lacks.
Dumbed down to the max and so WATCH OUT!!! you voters who voted for the orange menace from hell, you're going to get what you asked for, to tear down the whole system, because you did not like what we had, so congratulations, because of your sheer stupidity, Trump voters are most surely going to get it, too bad though, you had to drag the rest of us with you, to all the hell on earth that will ensue by an evil deranged monster
We have done this to others and continue doing it to other countries even today, what do you expect from our masses who do not read or analyze the situation but for complex matter rely on a sound byte.
Situation in Gaza, Sudan, and Amsterdam are case in point
We are a mass of illiterate individuals who rely on their version of religious interpretation of thousands of year old Devine messages to live todays lives and select one (if allowed) to lead them.
...I feel his entire support base should be required to watch a continual loop of the 1943 film "Don't Be A Sucker" to realise they've been taken for ones.
Trump didn't win by a large margin, and he doesn't have a mandate, as some claim.
WHEN THE REALITY OF TRUMP'S PLANS hit people's wallets, many will wonder, can I afford more of this (declining US Dollar value, increased personal taxes, higher prices for most items, tax cuts for rich and corporations)?
THE TRUTH IS, Trump's plans include new annual tax increase for working people. The non-partisan Center for American Progress estimates that at @1,100 to @ $2,000 for a statistical family of four.
Liz Cheney has more class, strength, honor and decency than Cheeto Mussolini could ever hope to have. She has put her career behind her to speak her truth. She is amazing.
She personifies bravery, integrity and patriotism, unmatched by all of the present GOP members of Congress, whom exhibit obsequious fealty to the most criminal and deranged potus in history. She’s this democrats profile in courage hero for our time.
It is sad to see our country going down this terrible path. I am afraid for what the future holds for all of us. I just hope that those who voted for him realize their mistake one day. Not that it will change anything, but if they at least can admit they were wrong would be a good thing!
Carol, that is the orange man's problem. He knows in his tiny little pea-sized brain that he can never reach that point of decency that Liz Cheney has. He has absolutely no class, strength, honor or decency and the only ones that fawn over him are the derelicts and crazies. He is so narcissistic and he doesn't understand why real Americans simply cannot stand him! He hates that even Democrats approve of Liz Cheney and he hates that when she speaks the truth, it puts him in the worse light possible! Everyone knows what an ass he is, even those who lick his boots and say yes to everything he utters cannot stand him!
I don’t think, Pamela Hall, he had a role model to get him there. His father? Roy Cohn? He chose who to follow. The only role model that impressed him in a sad and negative way was his brother: Orange Putz doesn’t consume alcohol because of his brother’s death. Odd tho isn’t it that he considers for his cabinet reported alcoholics. Yes it is a disease and one needs help. He but that’s the route he should go v serving.
I think it is interesting that one of Trump's picks for an important position said he doesn't have a problem with alcohol because he has never been in therapy or gone to rehab. Of course, he hasn't. He is floating along on de Nile belting down his alcohol of choice. He is oblivious to how others perceive his actions.
Carol, I write not only to express my profound agreement regarding Cheney, but also to suggest the calories spent discussing preemptive pardons that, if accepted, likely would be viewed as admissions of guilt, instead, ought to be redirected to violators of non-violent crimes presently subjected to draconian sentencing laws.
Exactly, Barbara! Why issue a pardon to those who absolutely did nothing wrong and do not need to be pardoned? They are not guilty of anything except speaking the truth. Since when, here in America, has that become a criminal act? Pardons should be given to those who actually need a pardon. Those who have been imprisoned for non-violent crimes that the ultra-wealthy get away with every single day!
Agreed, Cheney acted with honor and did nothing wrong and everything right in her actions against Trump. But we live in crazy world where Trump may very well try to make it a crime to speak out against him, and make it retroactive. Hang Mike Pence could still happen. Crazy country
Peggy, Thank you for writing. I would add, were any of these public officials to accept pardons, which I’m quite certain they wouldn’t, said acceptance would help fuel MAGAt’s narrative regarding their criminality. Moreover, a presidential pardon wouldn’t protect them from being subject to state criminal investigations nor to civil suits, both of which could break them financially and otherwise.
No worries, Barbara Jo! These public officials will not accept a pardon because they know they have no reason to be pardoned. MAGAs want so badly for honest, true Americans to be found guilty of something in order to justify their complete and utter adoration of a convicted felon! Some MAGAs who use to be sane, normal republicans, know in their hearts they have sold their soul to a narcissistic grifter and in order to rationalize their behavior, they want honesty and truth to be found illegal! They want someone to say their stupid adoration is justified! It isn't and it never will be! These public officials need not be concerned about any investigation into what they have done. They have been an open book in their pursuit of standing up for America. These law suits when brought will be shown to be as frivolous as the suits the orange man tried to bring about the 2020 election! When you have absolutely no proof except because the orange man says so, it does not stand up in court.
Peggy, While you’re right on every count, we ought not minimize the impact financially and personally of being subject either to a criminal investigation or a civil suit. Either of those tactics is a favorite among authoritarians, who want to instill fear, and thus compliance, from the rest of us.
The fact that she HAS stood up against her evil, criminal party proves that she HAS learned something! I think she possibly may have even her past evil voting record may have been altered now that she has matured a bit.
Though I'd never condone the behaviour of the J6 mob or Trump's rhetoric then or now, I do hope that fellow liberals who've been wrestling with the role this controversial issue (Cheneys supporting the Dems) and others might have had in the outcome on November 5, and America and the world after it. I invite you to read my very first Substack post, from last week:
By the way, are you aware that, Nicalau Ceausescu, the Romanian dictator, facilitated the rapprochement between Mao and Nixon? Rupert Murdoch seems to have done the same for Putin and Trump. Murdoch, of course, did a lot more with Fox News.
Janet, While I thoroughly agree, I would add, to ensure its contents reaches a large bloc of the electorate, the current Democratically controlled Senate must hold a hearing similar to the Mueller hearing, but this time minus the impaired delivery I attribute to Mueller’s age.
As a retired, longtime Republican attorney I agree with you completely, although I probably share with Liz Chaney a few positions with which you disagree vehemently (not violently)! I very much like your suggestion of the Presidential Medal of Freedom! In fact several might be in order for the members of that committee
She deserves anything and everything they can do to honor her with respect and duty to the American people! Thank you Liz Cheney for your Service and Patriotic Sacrifice!
Though I'd never condone the behaviour of the J6 mob or Trump's rhetoric then or now, I do hope that fellow liberals who've been wrestling with the role this controversial issue (Cheneys supporting the Dems) and others might have had in the outcome on November 5, and America and the world after it. I invite you to read my very first Substack post, from last week:
I believe that Liz will go down in American history as a true patriot, who is willing to put her life on the line in order to preserve our constitution. If or when Donald Trump goes after Cheney, he may find he has met his match in his outrageous behavior. Liz, being a true dyed in the wool Republican will either inspire other Republicans to follow her lead or will shame other Republicans for what they have done or are not doing. Trump and MAGA are a temporary phenomena and after a few years of his outrageous behavior as president and the alcoholics and misogynists he is trying to appoint in the most important positions in our government, he will do more to bring about the next American Revolution then King George did back in the 1770s. Liz will be considered one of our greatest patriots of all time.
As I read this, Marc Neves, I envisioned all of us “chaining” ourselves to Liz like some do to keep a tree from being felled. Tho my mobility is limited, my scooter could help!
Biden may be split about giving Cheney a pardon. As the saying goes “why do you need a pardon if you’re innocent?”. Hunter was guilty as charged. Cheney hasn’t done anything wrong. If Biden gives Cheney a pardon, no prize for guessing what Trump will give in 2028 to his entire criminal administration. It’s tough but any more pardons from Biden will give Trump’s underlings free rein to do the unlawful things they’re dreaming of.
Quan, you are correct if we were discussing a sane government. But with the advent of Donald Trump, we are embarking on the period of insane government and anything he can do to protect righteous people should be done. Although publicly Trump may try to use Biden‘s pardons as a reason to give out wholesale pardons, Trump is leading the way in that by his willingness to pardon those who did the unthinkable by storming the capital. I am sure he will use his power to pardon in the future no matter what President Biden does before he leaves office.
The problem is getting hounded for years at mind-blowing legal fees to get to your ''won't last a minute." I am sad to say I've seen the endless pages of discovery demands in a picayune civil case in which my dad was the victim run into as a pedestrian. Biden can spare a list of these decent people years and millions of dollars of meaningless harassment. He should do so. I nominate Dr. Fauci and Cassidy Hutchinson and Olivia Troye, for starters.
Mmerose, those you have mentioned are excellent choices for pardons as the orange man most definitely will try and target them. President Biden has a unique problem in that these people did absolutely nothing to be pardoned for! They stood up and spoke the truth and for that the orange man CANNOT try to imprison them! What would he charge them with? They hurt his feelings? They said he was wrong? They have done nothing illegal so he really cannot imprison them for speaking the truth.
A very good suggestion I have seen elsewhere, is rather than a pardon (where the acceptance of the pardon implies guilt) the creation of a legal defense fund for the innocent victims that Trump will attempt to target with his weaponized DoJ. Can't we get some wealthy donors to start a fund?
I and many, many other people would contribute to a legal defense fund for those persecuted by Donald's (and Patel's, should he be confirmed) insane obsessions over people who have "offended" Trump with their honesty and truth-telling.
T L Mills, I will gladly donate to that defense fund! The republicans and democrats are constantly sending me donate ads for this and that. They say it is all up to me and if I donate they can stop this or that from happening. I just scroll past them; however, if there was a legal defense fund for these innocent victims of the orange man's narcissistic paranoia, I will gladly give everything I can to help them in their fight against him!
Also, tRUMP has said that anyone who criticizes A Supreme Court Justice will be jailed. He knows that what they did under his pressure was illegal and unfair as Hell. THERE WILL BE BLOWBACK.
You bet there will be blow back, Laurie, and hard! If the orange man honestly thinks that Americans will not stand up to his illegal targeting of any honest, decent American, he has another think coming! I will not sit quietly while he tries to destroy the country I love, the country that so many Americans gave the ultimate sacrifice to keep from wannabe dictators from trashing! I will speak up loudly and proudly! I will donate to a defense fund to help those that are targeted. The orange man may think he has a right simply because a corrupt supreme court said so, but true Americans will not sit idly by and let that crap happen!
I still have a problem that Joe Biden can sit idly by when he is our strongest defense against the illegal illegitimate tyrant that is coming in. This is still the Coup that was started on Jan 6th, 2021. with the attack on the Capitol. Ok, he is not idle, he has gotten some good judges on the courts. He is helping Angola region with trains. But with a fascist dictator who promises revenge and retribution against those who were doing their jobs honorably : will even more good judges on the bench help? These MAGAs have ignored the Constitution! I hope our military will adhere to the rule of law.
I hate him so much. Every projection is a confession. if he's not lying, he's telling us how he lies but trying to tell us how other people are lying. He's a psychopath.
I saw a YouTube clip today where Cash Patel described his criminal theory for what the Jan. 6 Committee did, but darn if I can find the reference. Not doing anything illegal sadly isn't protection against wrongful prosecution. Then I've also been tearing my hair out over the injustice of offering pardons, implying guilt! What a nightmare we are in!
rumpus is known to have a hard-on for Hollywood & entertainment collective, the bastard fancies himself a celebrity (cringing as I write it). He despises negative insinuations at him, how safe are the someones like Jimmy Kimmel, Colbert, Seth....
Yes. It’s the money and agony of going through this that may mentally and financially bankrupt many. Who are the big dollar patriots who will contribute to their defenses? (Or is Orange Putz saying all this to distract us from some worse deeds?)
One more take. Glenn Kirschner just now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNViyvhY2fc . I guess I'm persuaded preemptive pardons are not a good idea, despite the "heart in right place" temptation. I comfort myself with a pretty strong conviction that even the less affluent of Trump's targets will find legal representation (probably even pro-bono) and a sufficient groundswell of financial support through whatever ordeal materializes. As with the border families, the cruelty is the point.
Yes, steve reed ; They are killing women and girls. More than half of our population is female ; many of them young and childbearing age. They kill women and girls of all races and creeds, by making emergency health care illegal! ,with very little said by the media. what if a regime was doing something like that to men and boys? Now they would randomly jail , or even kill anyone with whom they disagree, or 'just' don't like.
Liz-- is a symbol of the good this country has to offer regardless of a political party an individual happens to align themselves with. Trump's sick vision of revenge will only weaken his own position.
What Liz Cheney needs is what we all need: every shred of evidence in both federal cases against Trump to be released to the public with only the names of grand jury members redacted.
Furthermore, let’s just get rid of Merrick Garland and install Stacey Abrams as Attorney General immediately. She can announce investigations into all Trump‘s co-conspirators now that there are no federal cases to compromise on #DonaldDuce. In six weeks, Trump will shut them all down, but why not rattle some cages now with a threat of filling them with members of Congress with active roles in the #SeditionCaucus.
I am struck by how many times Chaney and the January 6th committee were bombarded with death threats for telling the truth. How many times do MAGA politicians get death threats for lying? I would venture a guess, hardly at all.
They seem to prefer a banana republic without protection against threats. Therule of law is decaying and fast. Is there a legal way to get rid of orange man?
Trump is a traitor, his selection of his administration is bonkers, his campaign donations look like corruption, the pending legal procedures should continue.
I had the very same thought - with all the threats of imprisonment and even execution that he and Musk are throwing out they should both be arrested - X should be shut down and a special election held that is entirely by paper ballot with all ballots being counted by hand by a bipartisan group. It may take a few weeks to get the results but that would eliminate Putin's tampering.
Those threats may be actionable under both state and federal law. Not a matter of 1st amendment. Trump has not been inaugurated. Patel and Bondi et al are not public officials...yet.
If they threaten someone like Hotlanta Fani, she might take them to a grand jury.
Yes Marilyn, everyone talks about the rule of law, but it is the rule of the strongest and richests. Trump must be behind bars for the insurrection and the other proven facts.
Your elections are mine too: proportional, on paper, without interference.
Everyone sees disaster looming ahead, even Stevie Wonder sees it. But a grown up nation still listens to this tariff blabber...
Yes and would that put JD in the Oval even temporarily? And who would impeach? Not the next Congress; current one will soon recess for a long winter’s nap.
I admire and respect Liz Cheney for standing tall during this whole political upheaval. I also echo the suggestion that she be acknowledged for her strong voice with the Medal of Honor. I hope President Biden reads these words and honors her for the remarkable citizen she is. May she wear it proudly.
What Trump can't stand is basic intelligence, its something he never acquired in his earlier travels. Liz is a Republican, but the kind that we could rely upon to enrich the dreams this country needs to open the doors to our future and Trump can't stand the fact that Democrats welcome her opinions, even though we don't agree with a few of them.
You are so right. Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and all of the Jan. 6 Committee deserve the Medal of Freedom. Donald Trump and his ilk deserve to be rebuked.
I recorded the events of that day on my phone as they were occurring. I refuse to be gaslit by the right wing fascists. U saw what I saw. The fact that millions upon millions of my fellow Americans are SO STUPID and SO BRAINWASHED as to think that day was either “staged by leftists” or was a “patriotic act” is just preposterous and despicable. I’m EXHAUSTED and infuriated that this is where we are in history. It’s absolutely disgusting.
Good for You !!!
I don't understand how my nation has been transformed into a land of assholes
I am 84 years old and I never dreamed I would see times like these that I am ashamed of the way this Country has become. I have always been proud of America and how she has always been here for us and others, always at the ready to help not only her own but others as well. I sure cannot say that in today's times. I always hoped that I would be one of those responsible for leaving the earth in better shape for those who follow; my dream is now a nightmare thanks to Trump and his followers.
I am 82 and feel the same way Gail, but I refuse to give in to the worlds biggest lying con artist in the history of the USA Government, Trump, without a fight. As long as I am breathing, I will be fighting against what Trump is trying to turn this country into and he can take his dictatorship wannabe and shove it where the sun don't shine.
Liz Cheney ran cover for the traitors in Congress, and made sure that the whole effort of the J 6 committee was focused on Trump.
Liz also shares the same values and agenda as MAGAts minus Trump. She is an arch conservative.
No medal of freedom for her, and why are we discussing this stuff, when we are staring down the barrel of a shotgun?
Liz Cheney has shown remarkable courage by speaking out against Donald Trump and his unconstitutional actions. She continues to stand up for the Constitution and the rule of law, calling out Trump’s lies and threats. This is no small feat, especially given how few Republicans have been willing to take such a bold stand.
While I strongly disagree with her politics, I deeply respect and admire the character and bravery she has displayed in this matter. I wholeheartedly agree with Robert: she deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Biden for her unwavering commitment to defending democracy.
True bravery is demonstrated when standing up for what is right involves significant personal risk. Liz Cheney's courage in opposing her party's direction highlights this principle. Meanwhile, the responsibility for the world grappling with the challenges of Trump's presidency rests squarely on the spinless Republicans.
If Biden gave pardons to all that may be prosecuted as retribution, in would knock the legs out from under Trump’s threats of “retribution.” He was hopping to use the FBI, IRS, and possibly the CIA to harass these brave people for standing up to him, but Biden could put them under an umbrella of safety. It is the least he could do.
I 100 percent agree. I rarely agree with her very conservative views, but her courage in standing up for the Constitution and the rule of law have made her a heroine in my opinion.
I do not believe she has done anything for which she should be pardoned. Medal of Honor from Joe would be appropriate. Hopefully, judges would shut down any case on her that trump tries to bring.
I don't argue that Liz has shown remarkable courage Patti, but in doing so she has kept the focus of the J 6 committee on Trump and away from the links of Boebert, Hawley, MTG, and the rest of the J6 conspirators in congress.
In doing so she ran cover for the conspirators, who are still sitting in Congress, and what has happened to Trump for all of her efforts? He got re elected
William, Liz Cheney is not Morning Joe or the spineless and craven Republicons licking tRump's ass. We're not blind to her being an arch conservative. The point is that she is putting aside her position on policies for the time being to join us in the fight for democracy. I look forward to the day where we can return to debating and fighting her on policy, but for now "the enemy of my enemy" is my ally and she deserves some recognition for her stalwart symbolic leadership to fight for our country. IMHO
So Liz is a hero in your eyes. Good for you, Good for Robert, Dismiss the fact that by keeping the J6 committee focused on Trump, she ran cover for her fellow Republicans in Congress. Or can you not see that? Or maybe you can, but don't care, because Liz has been lionized and turned into a folk hero.
I keep my eye on the ball, and the ball is the threat to our democracy and freedom.
You have no idea what you are talking about Cheney is on the side of what is right for this country, and she is not supporting Republicans either.
Because you say so Carolyn.? Cheney did a great service for the co- conspirators in congress, didn't she. The whole proceeding was focused entirely on Trump. Nothing on the ones in congress who conspired with Trump, Like Laren Boebert who kicked off the invasion of the capital, by texting 1776, just as the Arizona electoral votes were to be counted and an objection raised
I'd be careful as to who I chose as a hero, because all of the congressional bad actors escaped congressional scrutiny, and are still in place,
"Liz Cheney ran cover for the traitors in Congress, and made sure that the whole effort of the J 6 committee was focused on Trump." ????????? Do you, perchance, recall that BENNIE JOHNSON was the Chair of that Committee? The committee had one task. They completed that task honorably.
I do recall that Bennie Johnson was the chair, but I also recall that for all practical purposes Liz ran the committee
The committee had a task to(1) To investigate and report upon the facts, circumstances, and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex (hereafter referred to as the "domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol") and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power,
The facts, circumstances and causes include the planning and participation of members of congress, which they did not do, and Liz ensured that they didn't by keeping it focused on Trump.
Bennie may have been the chair, but Liz ran the committee, otherwise we would not be talking about her, nor you and others championing her as a hero.
You’re wrong about Liz. She’s a true Patriot. Unlike all the Maggots
I did not impugn her loyalty to the constitution, just mentioned that she kept the Jan 6 committee distracted from the perps in congress, by keeping it focused on Trump and his administration.
Which, by the way, set us up for dictatorship to come. Image if the perps in Congress had been investigate and exposed we might not be in the situation we find ourselves
There are too many on the left that are as irrational and emotional as those on the right.
Yes, absolutely, William. We have urgent business that will take all of our energy thanks to the party of the Cheney family. This is no time to get syrupy.
Did anyone on this blog go along with evil-doers at their workplace to protect their job?
Does anyone on this blog come from a powerful family (which, by the way, committed heinous acts as a result of having that power and made a fortune doing it) ?
But Donna, it was only a million or more dead, and several million displaced in the middle east because of cheney and his war machine. I mean, think how happy the shareholders are. I wonder what ms. cheney is worth?
There you go again, W. Tsk.
Yep Pat. I see the world as it is, not as I would like to see. Tsk.
William, I would not ever want a republican in a Democrat’s admin again. Including, as some have suggested, Liz Cheney. But she absolutely deserves protection and deserves credit where it is due.
It is not a matter of Liz deserving credit for standing up for the constitution but liberals so eager for a hero to lionize should take into consideration that she played cover for Gym Jordan, Hawley, MGT, Boebert and the rest of the coup plotters.
EXACTLY. She was silent when a sitting president attacked the free press, America citizens and weaponized the Attorney General to put Michael Cohen back in jail. She was also silent as the maga started getting elected to Congress. Cheney went along with the other conservatives when Mitch McConnell basically declared war against President Obama because he was a Black man and he the audacity to get elected to that position
Cheney didn’t speak out against trump until he went off the rails and the Capitol was attacked. She saw it for what it was and recognized it as an attack on her family’s future. She knew where the Republican Party was headed because she assisted in the building of that structure. Cheney had no problem with trump and the Republican Party’s attack on Black Americans, The Voting Rights Act and Affirmative Action. AND she provided cover for all of her Republicans friends in Congress who assisted trump.
Why should she receive an award for finally doing what she had sworn to do.
Sacred feces, BlkGMagik, you are 100% correct, worth repeating:
"Cheney didn’t speak out against trump until he went off the rails and the Capitol was attacked. She saw it for what it was and recognized it as an attack on her family’s future. She knew where the Republican Party was headed because she assisted in the building of that structure. Cheney had no problem with trump and the Republican Party’s attack on Black Americans, The Voting Rights Act and Affirmative Action. AND she provided cover for all of her Republicans friends in Congress who assisted trump."
Absofuckinlutely correct. Thanks for the addition, and there are those on the left that lionize her. Sometimes the left is like an abused dog, they take abuse all day long, but at night get a treat, a pat on the head and told "good doggy" and they wag their tails.
Though I'd never condone the behaviour of the J6 mob or Trump's rhetoric then or now, I do hope that fellow liberals who've been wrestling with the role this controversial issue (Cheneys supporting the Dems) and others might have had in the outcome on November 5, and America and the world after it. I invite you to read my very first Substack post, from last week:
https://typerider.substack.com/p/positives-for-liberals-to-take-away
I can find no positives Ryan, when we are faced with extinction.
Trump, Musk, Thiel, all of them now have full power to do whatever they want to do, whatever they threatened to do, what is layout out in Project 2025.
Find me something positive, especially since the project will eliminate all honest opposition, and they have the tools to do it, a National Security State, created less than one month after 9//11 by the PATRIOT Act, and the NSA's Data Center at Bluffdale, UT which sniffs all electronic communications, including text messages.
Gail and Carolyn, your words made me choke up. At 77, I've got my wheelchair tuned up and ready to go to DC whenever necessary.
Wow! It's gonna be one badass March this year! Let's have the Democracy March on Washington in January be in every town - we can have women, cool guys, wheelchair teams - go with Pussy hats, or against tyranny signs and then return to our states and help our communities learn what real democracy is. Talk with people you disagree with, ask them how they came to believe this or that.... ask them their sources... I'm going to print a small post card that I'm going to carry as a calling card for when they get disappointed by the conman and his conman contingent.
Oh, and I still have my pussy hat! I love asking peeps how they came to believe this or that and yes, sources need to be legit, but how do you tell FOX folks theirs is not legit? The postcard idea is good too. What is yours going to say? I must ponder it a while...and be sure to watch the tone of it.
I'm (soon to be) 72. I've already signed up for the Women's March (again, sigh...) I'll be taking my wheelchair, too. See ya there!
Nancy, et al, one wheezy 75 y.o. Who wishes she could afford to fly to D.C. with you! There’s sure to be something local here. It is Berkeley, after all.🤭
Thankfully, we are close enough to drive there. Best wishes. Deep breaths (for all of us!).
From my little perch in New Zealand, I too look at America and am dismayed. However, reading your comments, Carolyn and Gail, I am proud to be another old woman who is not going to be cowed by the authoritarian bullies of this world. Good for you both and those thousands who are just as courageous. Keep your courage USA, you are not alone. We will leave the world a better place, it's just that people such as we three have less time than some!
I am also 90 years old and I could not have said it any better than you did Gail. Yes life will go on with the hope that we will have better times ahead . . . but I cannot feel regret for the legacy today's voting population has left for those to follow us.
71 years young here, Gail. What you said times a thousand. I still cannot believe this has happened. It is not the billionaires and the true MAGA nuts who terrify me. It is the rest of the supposedly sane and normal 75 million people who voted in 2024 (after seeing 9 years of this disgusting and vile person and January 6 to boot) for him. It is soulcrushing and mindboggling to this old guy. I will never ever understand this.
I will never understand how this happened either especially since he has shown his true colors over and over. How many times do people have to be kicked in the teeth before they learn?
Maybe till they have no teeth left?
Take heart that he got fewer votes than last time. His popularity is headed south, especially when he finally takes office again. And, he'll be a lame duck in less than three years, assuming our institutions hold(!) And he'll be our oldest-ever president. When Biden won in 2020, Trump, essentially, lost forever. He hasn't had Hitler's 12 years all to himself. We have to be sure he leaves office when he's supposed to. We'll survive.
This is how we got here: I’m a former teacher now whistleblower trying to teach the public how education declined. Some of my work is at WhiteChalkCrime.com where you can listen to four other teacher whistleblowers explain what’s going on in education. I just published my teaching memoir to bring others inside the dreadful world of education as it is now. I explain why civility and how to become a citizen isn’t taught. My book also explains how our schools paved the way for Trump
Ulysses S Grant warned how important education is saying: "In a Republic like ours, where the citizen is the sovereign, and the official the servant, where no power is exercised except by the will of the people, it is important that the sovereign—the people—should possess intelligence. If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason's and Dixon's, but between patriotism and intelligence on one side, and superstition, ambition, and ignorance on the other."
That contest is before us now because empowered bullies are running corrupt, inept schools that abuse teachers into puppets. Our schools have turned Americans into forgotten men and women rather than citizens.
There’s a solution even now. Run for school boards on a save democracy platform. You don’t need a child in the school. Run with two others so you can grab the power. This is one avenue where the autocracy can be weakened.
That is how the right took over the schools, and the Dems just ignored it, in spite of being warned by commentators on the Left for decades… It’ll take time to undo it, but no time like the present to begin.
Yes get people to run for school boards on a save democracy platform!
YES YES YES!! it’s the failure of the education system to teach kids how to THINK CRITICALLY and discern fact from fiction!! This, combined with the advent of social media and those in government failing to adequately set up guardrails around its content from the beginning. Kids AND ADULTS believe the stupidity that they see on TikTok, a snippet from a self-annointed influencer is accepted as legit truth, podcast drivel is gospel, Facebook posts from someone’s uncle’s sister-in-law spreading LIES gets liked and passed on with ferocity.
And let’s not forget the advent of cable news, thanks CNN (the originator) and then of course Faux News gets the gold star (if China can’t own TikTok, then why does Rupert Murdoch get to own Fox?). When ALL Americans got their news from either ABC, NBC and CBS we all watched pretty much the same fact based reporting. We could choose how we thought about the facts delivered, but they were at least based in fact. We’re living in a fact-free America and I for one am p***ed off! Combine that with the racism that’s always been embedded here and the misogyny that’s now on steroids and we’ve got a recipe for constitutional disaster, and how will we come back from that?
And to the gentleman chiding Liz Cheney for not taking down the whole corrupt political machine, misogyny much dude? Has anyone noticed that it’s been ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY WOMEN (save for Adam Kinzinger for whom I have much respect) who have been speaking out and standing up for America?? The Cassidy Hutchinsons, etc.
There is certainly one thing that our parents told us that they were wrong about. They proclaimed that cheaters never win. Sadly they couldn’t have been more more wrong.
Excellent writing. Says it all.
I am thinking a side effect of women having more opportunities than nursing and teaching has inadvertently led to a teaching brain drain.
I've long thought that teachers should be paid a lot...in order to lure good minds into teaching. And please more school days in the year!
Amen. But there's hope. We need to radically change our approach to education, and gradually close the schools, thereby ending child apartheid, an evil created during the industrial revolution, which tore families apart. Keep the teachers but rewrite their job descriptions; create village learning environments among friends and family, and in every neighborhood. (This is how Abraham Lincoln grew up.) Kids get to live in the world as it is and learn from all the adults they encounter there. Get your head out of the classroom. Specialization and individualized curriculum are on the new education path. There can no longer be a unified curriculum, as there's way too much to learn, and more knowledge than any one student can absorb. Rather, get them on their true path, as Michelangelo was on his by age 14. It takes the whole damn village. (That's the name of my book—Amazon.)
Check out the plan I wrote in my book that’s a memoir and manifesto about teaching. It has some parallels to what you’re saying. The problem is crooks hold the power and they want it just as it is. See WhiteChalkCrime.com.
Yes that’s part of it. But the crooks in power want that. They can’t control people like me who was great with kids.
Yes, Vickie, I went on my own rant below, without acknowledging your main point. I also have worried about the public school brain drain—for many years.
It’s intentional. That’s my point at WhiteChalkCrime.com.
Karen, on the subject of schools and teachers, I’ve always been angered by the fact that administrators are paid more than teachers. Not to mention that teachers have to fight for every penny of their salary as well as resources for their students! Grrrr!
Not exactly my idea of " Golden years" either Gail.
Thanks. You're right. At 71 I still turn my head when someone says, "Hey, Kid".
I'm 73 and am feeling the same way, Gail.
I'm a youthful 80 and in my boxing class, I think of people who are destroying my country when I attack the bag!
We’ve not always been there for others. During WWII we turned away a ship of Jews who were seeking asylum. We shouldn’t whitewash our history.
that happened in the 1930s, before the war, and who could have imagined that something like the Holocaust could happen?
You can STILL be proud! Less than HALF of the country voted for that obese rapist pedophile AND a good portion of THOSE Traitors IMMEDIATELY regretted their treasonous vote!
In other words: Bunkerboy, still with only roughly 35% support, has ZERO MANDATE. It's KILLING HIM!!!
I hope so.. I hope he’s chewing his entrails over it…
I agree with you in principle, Gail. However, do you really believe the country has always been here to help US citizens and others? I was in high school in the 60s and vividly remember the lunch counter sit-ins, firehoses, church bombings, Philadelphia, MS, etc. I gladly served in the Navy, but our country has been guilty of many atrocities here and abroad. Native Americans, Latinos and African-Americans beg to differ with you as well.
I remember those days as well and I was not trying to sound callous or whatever when I sounded off. I should have made it clear that I just remember when things were much better in this country than they have been in recent years. My ancestors were Native Americans and we know they didn't live the life of luxury nor have others such as Latinos and African-Americans. I also can attest to the fact that women like me fought for our rights only to have men like Trump and those of his ilk tear down those rights. Now we have to start all over but I can honestly say I have always take up for the underdog whether it was my neighbor, myself or a total stranger. I would never wish to live elsewhere but I sure hoped for better for those I leave behind.
I keep thinking about all who have served, in world wars and more, to preserve our freedoms and those of others... It is unbelievable that so many have forgotten and disrespected that.
I am 82 and could not agree more!!
As a fellow 84 year old, I heartily concur with your comments.
Indeed, also as to leaving the earth better than what you found it, the voters who voted for evil and the ones who in essence voted for evil by simply by not voting, to both, they have made almost sure among other things, that with Trump, he will be in essence the destroyer of worlds, he will do his utmost best to make sure the U.S landscape is soaked in oil of pollution, for ours and natures loss, he and his evil minions see that as their gain, profits to bring forth and a world of misery of hurt to voiceless among us
82 here, GB. This happened on our watch sad to say.
Same here. 84 and disheartened. Used to fly the Stars and Stripes in honor of relatives who served, but now it’s associated with the flag humper and his disciples. 😢
Rupert Murdoch has some small part in this...as well as every sniveling cowardly piece of media who refused to tell the truth about TFG, either because of their profit/loss statements or because of the media owner's personal interest in keeping the oligarchy (of which many of those same owners are 'participating members') in place.
Much, much more than a small part. He and his news organization were and continue to be the core of the MAGA apocalypse. Ranked #2 in my mind is Mitch McConnell. I am afraid history is going to give him a free pass. As Senate leader, he had a chance to stop the bleeding before the patient went into cardiac arrest. Now the patient is on life support.
I don't see how they can call themselves Fox News when they've admitted in court they are not a news platform. They are an entertainment channel and shouldn't be held to the standard of telling the truth.
Agreed re Fox News et al. Check out “Why Does No One Understand the Real Reason Trump Won?” by Michael Tomasky of The New Republic:
https://newrepublic.com/post/188197/trump-media-information-landscape-fox
Yes. However, a small ray of sunshine is that there is discord in the Murdoch family. Rupert is doing his damndest to keep the whole enchilada (Newscorp, et.al.) rightwing and pass it to Lachlan regardless of how the family Trust was set up. At least three of Murdoch's other kids are NOT politically aligned with Lachlan. Trouble in Murdochistan can only spell a weakening (and perhaps a bust) of the grip Murdoch has on rightwingnut "news".
I would not say no one, but I'm with Tomasky that this has been such a blind spot.
The “sane-washers” and that was most of the media—committed professional malfeasance that helped throw this election! Murdoch being the worst!
NY Times, even MSNBC two of my sources and actually more to consider that “sane washed” this election. This was not a typical election with a Convicted Felon….and the obstruction of Justice, the threat to Democracy…and they hammered away on Biden’s ageism rather than his accomplishments and what he and Harris stand for and Harris’ accomplishments. Rather than reporting on rumps indiscretions, his relationship with Putin, and also the Russian interference in the 2016 election, they reported on every ridiculous statement he made, rather than the threat of his implications.
I don’t get why you people “don’t get it” about the “free press” - news media - the social networks!!!😳😳😳😳 Who owns them ? (And it isn’t the Railroad Robber Barons of the late 19th century) Well it isn’t rocket science! Ask Jeff Bezos to tell us on which side his “bread is buttered!
Don't worry. We get it; we know that almost all the major media is owned by only--what? 6, 8? oligarchs--and they know exactly where their bread is buttered and by whom.
Hi LaVelle!
Newt Gingrich.
Alex Jones, Mitch McConnell,Lindsey Graham, Fox News, QAnon, Elon Misk, X,
Tucker Carlson. Vladimir Putin…..
Every member of Congress who voted against certifying the election.
Rush Limbaugh as well!
Truth!
Visited your site, and hate to break it to you, but you're suffering from Palilalia/OCD. If you're prescribed meds for this, resume taking them!
Go away maga
wtf...
And Trump gave him the medal of Freedom!
Limbaugh is dead.
But his stench lives on.
I never tire of hearing that phrase!
That devil started the DEMISE of the Republican Party, which is about to CONCLUDE, if you get my drift! A man who went to the hospital where his wife was a cancer patient to ANNOUNCE to her that he was leaving her for another woman!
Newt Gingrich did that.
But he was still a hero of the right wing, even after that disgraceful act.
Ronald Reagan got the ball rolling and the republicans are on a downward spiral and we are all going to suffer for decades!
How did we get here ? A fertile ground for an effective rightwing media machine (yes including Russian psyops) controlled by the rich, a corresponding lack of same on the left,and the inability or refusal to grasp that freedom of speech in a social media world needs guardrails
What kept this nation together was a consensus of elites, on the left and the right, over basic principles of our democracy and the "facts", which filtered down to the public . That no longer exists like it did.
Our institutions and understandings have not been nearly adaptible enough to our changing techworld; even more true in the US than Europe.
We got here because 54% of our country operates at a 6th grade or lower literacy level and they can be easily manipulated. They don't care to hear policy issues. You appeal to them through their emotions, fears and hatreds.
Sprinkle in religious proclivities, & the recipe is toxic.
It was Russian psy ops. Tilted the election.
Rupert Murdoch is Putin's ally. Start there.
Even though the Biden administration did more for these idiots than anyone in the last 40 years!👿👿👿💀💩💩
I would say that has long been the case William. But with a splintering of the consensus of elites on basic common principles and values, an erosion of a common worldview, that splintering just works its way down to the public.
Don’t forget Citizens United.
This is how: I’m a former teacher now whistleblower trying to teach the public how education declined. Some of my work is at WhiteChalkCrime.com where you can listen to four other teacher whistleblowers explain what’s going on in education. I just published my teaching memoir to bring others inside the dreadful world of education as it is now. I explain why civility and how to become a citizen isn’t taught. My book also explains how our schools paved the way for Trump
Ulysses S Grant warned how important education is saying: "In a Republic like ours, where the citizen is the sovereign, and the official the servant, where no power is exercised except by the will of the people, it is important that the sovereign—the people—should possess intelligence. If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason's and Dixon's, but between patriotism and intelligence on one side, and superstition, ambition, and ignorance on the other."
That contest is before us now because empowered bullies are running corrupt, inept schools that abuse teachers into puppets. Our schools have turned Americans into forgotten men and women rather than citizens.
There’s a solution even now. Run for school boards on a save democracy platform. You don’t need a child in the school. Run with two others so you can grab the power. This is one avenue where the autocracy can be weakened.
Good advice, Karen. Wherever and whenever possible join others in defense of truth and freedom.
@David. It’s a coalition of robber barons, assholes, and people who don’t know any better…
it's been slowly happening since the Revolutionary War but now it's torrential
Oh those AHs were here all along, the orange menace and his minions just gave them permission to come out from under their rocks.
*dumb-asses! Dumb-asses aren't ALWAYS assholes.;)
@David Gottfried. IT WAS PSY OPS, stupid.
Go Army. https://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jobs/specialty-careers/special-ops/psychological-operations
Don't be an ass Danial.
Says the MAGAT lumpen. Danial is a river in Egypt.
Daniel, it is important for us to understand what is meant by psy ops and its current effect...thank you. Some of us see these other factors as well.
I ask this question, Vicki > WHO was responsible for protecting the electorate from "psyops?"
It's the American tendency to want short and easy answers -- and this may be closer to the real problem. (It was not only Democratic messaging, it was the failure to reach millions on the places where they get their messaging.)
There's a line in a song by Love and Rockets that goes like "You cannot go against Nature...coz when you do ... to go against Nature is part of Nature too." iow... If I can persuade you it's psyops, I have just engaged in psyops.
Be careful out there.
The act of war is an emergency. Happens to be actionable. Could be our "redemption." All the other crap is rationalization.
The "spread" in the swing states was at most 2%.
I feel the same way but that's not entirely fair, a lot of them are just dumb $hits duped by the MAGA-lago Bandits.
Billionaire assholes
Perfect! Exactly Right.
Good question.
Well said!
It has to happen every now and then. It's part of a recurring cycle left over from European tendencies. We let too many Europeans in after the Civil War. Now America is more European than it used to be. We thought we had escaped all that, but instead, we imported the problems of Europe.
Jessica, I could not agree with you more. And that I have family members who I love who still support that POS frustrates me to no end.
So do I! They live in Florida and survived 2 major hurricanes in less than 2 weeks! Unbelievable
You're not alone. I have seriously thought of starting a support group for folks with a heart and compassion, as we feel this much heavier than THEM. And by them I do mean our "friends" who voted for him, our parents, our grandparents, our bosses, our sisters and even my 20-year-old niece's boyfriend who wrote in RFK- 🤯. They don't see it or feel it the way we do, in fact I believe they're incapable. You're use of quotations and capitalization just resonated with me and I want you to know you're not exhausted alone and you're not scared or dumbfounded alone either. This is our community here, hidden in little subthreads -we find our people and we must stick together. 🌻
Never give in or give up to the bully
100%!!! Never give up...hope is all we have left.
The support group idea is excellent. Just leave out the 12 steps.
The 12 steps, ( with a higher power of YOUR understanding) could make this world a livable place. When worked they are solutions to problems that baffle us. This is my opinion and I've used them for 34 years. I have a happy and serene life despite the past election. I will continue to labor for Democracy and spread the word that freedom is out there if we work for it!
That's good it's worked out for you. But some of us prefer logic and critical thinking.
Hi W.J. Yes you are correct. If I had to believe in a Christian God I would never have lived the last sober 34 years with a positive attitude about life. I was a science teacher and believe in "reality" that can be proven with facts, which does take critical thinking.
NO PROBLEM....we are about to be living through the hardest part! I feel so "normal" around y'all and I appreciate you :)
I think this shows we have no collective memory.Lake Woebegon where the water is safe and fluoridated, all the children are vaccinated and no one dies of preventable diseases. They were teenagers during Covid which they remember a time of boredom z being grounded and noodling around the internet. They don't remember
I think it's worse than that. I think we have a severe airhead problem. More interest in video games than the course of the nation. Plenty of blame to go around.
Two people I know and like very much wrote in RFK. Not only is RFK loony toons as can be - or as my grandmother used to say “crazy as a bed bug,” but they might as well have just voted for Trump. That vote was a bratty little throwaway vote. It’s all utter insanity coupled with short-sighted stupidity, in my opinion. I’m scared for the future. I’m trying to be hopeful, but I am scared.
I'll be they were both vaccinated as children!
Great idea, Kayte!
So well said. Hard to believe so many bought this garbage.
Sometimes simply remembering is a profound act of resistance.
We cannot forget. This very day, I just rewatched the videos I took from that day, to remember the fury I felt watching all these delusional people with their Trump flags, their Confederate flags, and their arrogant, lowlife stupidity bashing windows, pepper spraying police, and hunting our Congress members.
It’s outrageous that no one did anything to hold Trump accountable. Not Bill Barr. Not our military. No one. And why didn’t Merrick Garland just arrest Trump on the day Biden was sworn in? It’s pure feckless weakness and foolishness. And now we get to watch the deplorable - yes, DEPLORABLE indeed - MAGA fascists burn it all to hell.
Jessie, it's as though the act of sedition of Jan. 6th was an act of patriotism to 77 million delusional trumpists, which in their twisted minds they have confirmed with their votes - "LIES have become TRUTH, and TRUTH, LIES". 31% of the 250 million citizens eligible to vote equals the 77-1/2 million who voted to return a raging lunatic to office, and the 100 million who didn't vote have defaulted upon their civic duty. Dr. Reich is correct that Liz Cheney has earned that Presidential Medal of Freedom, as well as every member of the House Select Committee for the prosecution of the sedition of Jan. 6th, and every single witness who sacrificed their career to the mobster. They have all shown the core integrity which each and every trump sycophant lacks.
Well said, Dennis!
Everyone is stupid except for us smart people on the left.
I hate to agree with you on such a blanket statement but, so far, this has turned out to be pretty true.
Liz Cheney is an American hero. She’s been a clear voice regarding the dangers to our country. Yet, here we are.
I'm angry and scared. Why is Trump allowed to commit crimes and become President? I'm disappointed in the people who voted for him. Such shame.
Dumbed down to the max and so WATCH OUT!!! you voters who voted for the orange menace from hell, you're going to get what you asked for, to tear down the whole system, because you did not like what we had, so congratulations, because of your sheer stupidity, Trump voters are most surely going to get it, too bad though, you had to drag the rest of us with you, to all the hell on earth that will ensue by an evil deranged monster
Jessie, Chicken are coming home to roost.
We have done this to others and continue doing it to other countries even today, what do you expect from our masses who do not read or analyze the situation but for complex matter rely on a sound byte.
Situation in Gaza, Sudan, and Amsterdam are case in point
We are a mass of illiterate individuals who rely on their version of religious interpretation of thousands of year old Devine messages to live todays lives and select one (if allowed) to lead them.
...I feel his entire support base should be required to watch a continual loop of the 1943 film "Don't Be A Sucker" to realise they've been taken for ones.
Trump didn't win by a large margin, and he doesn't have a mandate, as some claim.
WHEN THE REALITY OF TRUMP'S PLANS hit people's wallets, many will wonder, can I afford more of this (declining US Dollar value, increased personal taxes, higher prices for most items, tax cuts for rich and corporations)?
THE TRUTH IS, Trump's plans include new annual tax increase for working people. The non-partisan Center for American Progress estimates that at @1,100 to @ $2,000 for a statistical family of four.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/fact-sheets-the-harmful-effects-of-project-2025-by-state/
Exactly. How can a country stoop so low?
Exactly Jessie!!
👍
Liz Cheney has more class, strength, honor and decency than Cheeto Mussolini could ever hope to have. She has put her career behind her to speak her truth. She is amazing.
She personifies bravery, integrity and patriotism, unmatched by all of the present GOP members of Congress, whom exhibit obsequious fealty to the most criminal and deranged potus in history. She’s this democrats profile in courage hero for our time.
It is sad to see our country going down this terrible path. I am afraid for what the future holds for all of us. I just hope that those who voted for him realize their mistake one day. Not that it will change anything, but if they at least can admit they were wrong would be a good thing!
If we do more to help them they realize it soon enough, and we work harder, the Midterms could change things.
Carol, that is the orange man's problem. He knows in his tiny little pea-sized brain that he can never reach that point of decency that Liz Cheney has. He has absolutely no class, strength, honor or decency and the only ones that fawn over him are the derelicts and crazies. He is so narcissistic and he doesn't understand why real Americans simply cannot stand him! He hates that even Democrats approve of Liz Cheney and he hates that when she speaks the truth, it puts him in the worse light possible! Everyone knows what an ass he is, even those who lick his boots and say yes to everything he utters cannot stand him!
I doubt Trump ever had a desire to be a decent human being.
I don’t think, Pamela Hall, he had a role model to get him there. His father? Roy Cohn? He chose who to follow. The only role model that impressed him in a sad and negative way was his brother: Orange Putz doesn’t consume alcohol because of his brother’s death. Odd tho isn’t it that he considers for his cabinet reported alcoholics. Yes it is a disease and one needs help. He but that’s the route he should go v serving.
I think it is interesting that one of Trump's picks for an important position said he doesn't have a problem with alcohol because he has never been in therapy or gone to rehab. Of course, he hasn't. He is floating along on de Nile belting down his alcohol of choice. He is oblivious to how others perceive his actions.
Pamela, I doubt he even understands what constitutes a decent human being!
My thoughts exactly, you put it all into the perfect words!! I need you as my ghostwriter!! 🤣
And, she’s a woman.
Everyone knows who has an ounce of sense.
RIGHT ON!!!
“Cheeto Mussolini “ 😂😂😂😂😂😂
Carol, I write not only to express my profound agreement regarding Cheney, but also to suggest the calories spent discussing preemptive pardons that, if accepted, likely would be viewed as admissions of guilt, instead, ought to be redirected to violators of non-violent crimes presently subjected to draconian sentencing laws.
Exactly, Barbara! Why issue a pardon to those who absolutely did nothing wrong and do not need to be pardoned? They are not guilty of anything except speaking the truth. Since when, here in America, has that become a criminal act? Pardons should be given to those who actually need a pardon. Those who have been imprisoned for non-violent crimes that the ultra-wealthy get away with every single day!
Agreed, Cheney acted with honor and did nothing wrong and everything right in her actions against Trump. But we live in crazy world where Trump may very well try to make it a crime to speak out against him, and make it retroactive. Hang Mike Pence could still happen. Crazy country
Peggy, Thank you for writing. I would add, were any of these public officials to accept pardons, which I’m quite certain they wouldn’t, said acceptance would help fuel MAGAt’s narrative regarding their criminality. Moreover, a presidential pardon wouldn’t protect them from being subject to state criminal investigations nor to civil suits, both of which could break them financially and otherwise.
No worries, Barbara Jo! These public officials will not accept a pardon because they know they have no reason to be pardoned. MAGAs want so badly for honest, true Americans to be found guilty of something in order to justify their complete and utter adoration of a convicted felon! Some MAGAs who use to be sane, normal republicans, know in their hearts they have sold their soul to a narcissistic grifter and in order to rationalize their behavior, they want honesty and truth to be found illegal! They want someone to say their stupid adoration is justified! It isn't and it never will be! These public officials need not be concerned about any investigation into what they have done. They have been an open book in their pursuit of standing up for America. These law suits when brought will be shown to be as frivolous as the suits the orange man tried to bring about the 2020 election! When you have absolutely no proof except because the orange man says so, it does not stand up in court.
Peggy, While you’re right on every count, we ought not minimize the impact financially and personally of being subject either to a criminal investigation or a civil suit. Either of those tactics is a favorite among authoritarians, who want to instill fear, and thus compliance, from the rest of us.
That's true, Barbara Jo. That's why I would donate everything I could to a defense fund for these people.
That's truly an angle I didn't think of right away Barb; You're likely on the mark, in that the gagats would 'spin' it that way.
In “for profit prisons”. What a blast of hypocrisy
She deserves the Medal of Freedom and more!
Another who thinks he is more like Mussolini!!! I hope he ends up the same way as well!
The fact that she HAS stood up against her evil, criminal party proves that she HAS learned something! I think she possibly may have even her past evil voting record may have been altered now that she has matured a bit.
Though I'd never condone the behaviour of the J6 mob or Trump's rhetoric then or now, I do hope that fellow liberals who've been wrestling with the role this controversial issue (Cheneys supporting the Dems) and others might have had in the outcome on November 5, and America and the world after it. I invite you to read my very first Substack post, from last week:
https://typerider.substack.com/p/positives-for-liberals-to-take-away
💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯
Actually, "more" is incorrect in this case, because the orange sadist has ZERO of any of those qualities.
Yep, good point!! 🍊💩🤡
💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
Jack Smith and AG Garland must release his report to the US public!
Hell yes
Think Rumania.
By the way, are you aware that, Nicalau Ceausescu, the Romanian dictator, facilitated the rapprochement between Mao and Nixon? Rupert Murdoch seems to have done the same for Putin and Trump. Murdoch, of course, did a lot more with Fox News.
The Romanians had documentation.
Agree completely. We deserve to know.
Janet, While I thoroughly agree, I would add, to ensure its contents reaches a large bloc of the electorate, the current Democratically controlled Senate must hold a hearing similar to the Mueller hearing, but this time minus the impaired delivery I attribute to Mueller’s age.
The cult will respond: lies, lies lies... 🙄
I agree, Jean. Like Joyce Vance wrote in her Substack quoting “1984”, and about “alternative facts” in T1, they believe 2+2=5.
And none too soon.
Exactly
But if he doesn’t release it - -
We shall miss Daniel Ellsberg even more .
As a retired, longtime Republican attorney I agree with you completely, although I probably share with Liz Chaney a few positions with which you disagree vehemently (not violently)! I very much like your suggestion of the Presidential Medal of Freedom! In fact several might be in order for the members of that committee
I agree, Noel!
Professor Reich: i agree. i think biden SHOULD award the presidential medal of freedom to liz cheney. thanks for mentioning this.
She deserves anything and everything they can do to honor her with respect and duty to the American people! Thank you Liz Cheney for your Service and Patriotic Sacrifice!
Might one be given too to Jamie Raskin who while grieving his son’s death then fighting cancer continued to honor his oath?
I agree 100% he was a strong and vigilant leader and honorable man who honored our constitution, our country and the countries people!
Though I'd never condone the behaviour of the J6 mob or Trump's rhetoric then or now, I do hope that fellow liberals who've been wrestling with the role this controversial issue (Cheneys supporting the Dems) and others might have had in the outcome on November 5, and America and the world after it. I invite you to read my very first Substack post, from last week:
https://typerider.substack.com/p/positives-for-liberals-to-take-away
Liz Cheney absolutely deserves a presidential medal of honor, but also, a presidential pardon would not be a bad idea.
I believe that Liz will go down in American history as a true patriot, who is willing to put her life on the line in order to preserve our constitution. If or when Donald Trump goes after Cheney, he may find he has met his match in his outrageous behavior. Liz, being a true dyed in the wool Republican will either inspire other Republicans to follow her lead or will shame other Republicans for what they have done or are not doing. Trump and MAGA are a temporary phenomena and after a few years of his outrageous behavior as president and the alcoholics and misogynists he is trying to appoint in the most important positions in our government, he will do more to bring about the next American Revolution then King George did back in the 1770s. Liz will be considered one of our greatest patriots of all time.
100% agree, Marc!
As I read this, Marc Neves, I envisioned all of us “chaining” ourselves to Liz like some do to keep a tree from being felled. Tho my mobility is limited, my scooter could help!
Biden may be split about giving Cheney a pardon. As the saying goes “why do you need a pardon if you’re innocent?”. Hunter was guilty as charged. Cheney hasn’t done anything wrong. If Biden gives Cheney a pardon, no prize for guessing what Trump will give in 2028 to his entire criminal administration. It’s tough but any more pardons from Biden will give Trump’s underlings free rein to do the unlawful things they’re dreaming of.
Quan, you are correct if we were discussing a sane government. But with the advent of Donald Trump, we are embarking on the period of insane government and anything he can do to protect righteous people should be done. Although publicly Trump may try to use Biden‘s pardons as a reason to give out wholesale pardons, Trump is leading the way in that by his willingness to pardon those who did the unthinkable by storming the capital. I am sure he will use his power to pardon in the future no matter what President Biden does before he leaves office.
Quan. I agree that a preemptive pardon, while enticing, actually is not necessary if one is innocent. Still, when Marc wrote it, sounded tempting.
Anything that sounds tempting may be dangerous.
And give actual Patriots incentive to fight back in kind!
Pardoning the innocent is absurd. Biden should honor Liz Cheney and use the occasion to denounce Trump for his cowardice and corruption.
She deserves the Medal of Freedom
The problem is getting hounded for years at mind-blowing legal fees to get to your ''won't last a minute." I am sad to say I've seen the endless pages of discovery demands in a picayune civil case in which my dad was the victim run into as a pedestrian. Biden can spare a list of these decent people years and millions of dollars of meaningless harassment. He should do so. I nominate Dr. Fauci and Cassidy Hutchinson and Olivia Troye, for starters.
Mmerose, those you have mentioned are excellent choices for pardons as the orange man most definitely will try and target them. President Biden has a unique problem in that these people did absolutely nothing to be pardoned for! They stood up and spoke the truth and for that the orange man CANNOT try to imprison them! What would he charge them with? They hurt his feelings? They said he was wrong? They have done nothing illegal so he really cannot imprison them for speaking the truth.
A very good suggestion I have seen elsewhere, is rather than a pardon (where the acceptance of the pardon implies guilt) the creation of a legal defense fund for the innocent victims that Trump will attempt to target with his weaponized DoJ. Can't we get some wealthy donors to start a fund?
I and many, many other people would contribute to a legal defense fund for those persecuted by Donald's (and Patel's, should he be confirmed) insane obsessions over people who have "offended" Trump with their honesty and truth-telling.
T L Mills, I will gladly donate to that defense fund! The republicans and democrats are constantly sending me donate ads for this and that. They say it is all up to me and if I donate they can stop this or that from happening. I just scroll past them; however, if there was a legal defense fund for these innocent victims of the orange man's narcissistic paranoia, I will gladly give everything I can to help them in their fight against him!
Start with ACLU which is mounting actions and could use funds.
I already donate to the ACLU and have for some years.
I know. I've been hung up on the implication of guilt issue ever since my post.
Also, tRUMP has said that anyone who criticizes A Supreme Court Justice will be jailed. He knows that what they did under his pressure was illegal and unfair as Hell. THERE WILL BE BLOWBACK.
You bet there will be blow back, Laurie, and hard! If the orange man honestly thinks that Americans will not stand up to his illegal targeting of any honest, decent American, he has another think coming! I will not sit quietly while he tries to destroy the country I love, the country that so many Americans gave the ultimate sacrifice to keep from wannabe dictators from trashing! I will speak up loudly and proudly! I will donate to a defense fund to help those that are targeted. The orange man may think he has a right simply because a corrupt supreme court said so, but true Americans will not sit idly by and let that crap happen!
I still have a problem that Joe Biden can sit idly by when he is our strongest defense against the illegal illegitimate tyrant that is coming in. This is still the Coup that was started on Jan 6th, 2021. with the attack on the Capitol. Ok, he is not idle, he has gotten some good judges on the courts. He is helping Angola region with trains. But with a fascist dictator who promises revenge and retribution against those who were doing their jobs honorably : will even more good judges on the bench help? These MAGAs have ignored the Constitution! I hope our military will adhere to the rule of law.
I hate him so much. Every projection is a confession. if he's not lying, he's telling us how he lies but trying to tell us how other people are lying. He's a psychopath.
He is a walking contradiction with way too much power and enabling billionaire psychopaths.
I saw a YouTube clip today where Cash Patel described his criminal theory for what the Jan. 6 Committee did, but darn if I can find the reference. Not doing anything illegal sadly isn't protection against wrongful prosecution. Then I've also been tearing my hair out over the injustice of offering pardons, implying guilt! What a nightmare we are in!
Just saw Preet Barara on JenPsaki laying it out: it's about 9 minutes in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGqG8AuDt14
rumpus is known to have a hard-on for Hollywood & entertainment collective, the bastard fancies himself a celebrity (cringing as I write it). He despises negative insinuations at him, how safe are the someones like Jimmy Kimmel, Colbert, Seth....
Yes. It’s the money and agony of going through this that may mentally and financially bankrupt many. Who are the big dollar patriots who will contribute to their defenses? (Or is Orange Putz saying all this to distract us from some worse deeds?)
One more take. Glenn Kirschner just now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNViyvhY2fc . I guess I'm persuaded preemptive pardons are not a good idea, despite the "heart in right place" temptation. I comfort myself with a pretty strong conviction that even the less affluent of Trump's targets will find legal representation (probably even pro-bono) and a sufficient groundswell of financial support through whatever ordeal materializes. As with the border families, the cruelty is the point.
sounds like a system of discovery out of control. there ought to be a law......
Yes, steve reed ; They are killing women and girls. More than half of our population is female ; many of them young and childbearing age. They kill women and girls of all races and creeds, by making emergency health care illegal! ,with very little said by the media. what if a regime was doing something like that to men and boys? Now they would randomly jail , or even kill anyone with whom they disagree, or 'just' don't like.
Liz-- is a symbol of the good this country has to offer regardless of a political party an individual happens to align themselves with. Trump's sick vision of revenge will only weaken his own position.
What Liz Cheney needs is what we all need: every shred of evidence in both federal cases against Trump to be released to the public with only the names of grand jury members redacted.
Furthermore, let’s just get rid of Merrick Garland and install Stacey Abrams as Attorney General immediately. She can announce investigations into all Trump‘s co-conspirators now that there are no federal cases to compromise on #DonaldDuce. In six weeks, Trump will shut them all down, but why not rattle some cages now with a threat of filling them with members of Congress with active roles in the #SeditionCaucus.
Garland, a profile in cowardice, ineptness, or both. I’ll go to my grave blaming him for Trumps second term, and it’s future fallout.
Oh heck YES!
Hear, hear... She has civil courage like you, Bob. Why is it not said more? Do people thinking like her and you fear his mob? Or worse?
There should be a campaign of support for everyone speaking out...
I would support that campaign!!
Loners are scarier.
I am struck by how many times Chaney and the January 6th committee were bombarded with death threats for telling the truth. How many times do MAGA politicians get death threats for lying? I would venture a guess, hardly at all.
Bill Reitz, astute observation. Thanks for that.
They seem to prefer a banana republic without protection against threats. Therule of law is decaying and fast. Is there a legal way to get rid of orange man?
Impeachment of a President Elect?
That's interesting.
Trump is a traitor, his selection of his administration is bonkers, his campaign donations look like corruption, the pending legal procedures should continue.
Reasons enough, but is it possible?
I had the very same thought - with all the threats of imprisonment and even execution that he and Musk are throwing out they should both be arrested - X should be shut down and a special election held that is entirely by paper ballot with all ballots being counted by hand by a bipartisan group. It may take a few weeks to get the results but that would eliminate Putin's tampering.
Those threats may be actionable under both state and federal law. Not a matter of 1st amendment. Trump has not been inaugurated. Patel and Bondi et al are not public officials...yet.
If they threaten someone like Hotlanta Fani, she might take them to a grand jury.
I hope that someone develops a record....
Yes Marilyn, everyone talks about the rule of law, but it is the rule of the strongest and richests. Trump must be behind bars for the insurrection and the other proven facts.
Your elections are mine too: proportional, on paper, without interference.
Everyone sees disaster looming ahead, even Stevie Wonder sees it. But a grown up nation still listens to this tariff blabber...
Nobody can put Trump in his proper place....but the henchmen are another matter.
On the other hand I've been in discussions in other venues whether Biden should offer pardons to Trump and his henchmen....
I don't think Trump would honor a quid pro quo....but others are still in deep doo doo.
Trump still has civil liability....exposure could be worth everything he has. Maybe he'd bargain....
Yes and would that put JD in the Oval even temporarily? And who would impeach? Not the next Congress; current one will soon recess for a long winter’s nap.
Good question 🤔
Thank you Liz Cheney for stepping forward and speaking.
Speaking for myself and including the energy of literally millions of individuals living in the USA as well as around the world.
We support you, we honor you and we are grateful to you for having the courage to stand up, step forward and speak your truth.
Thank you 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸✌️🌿
I admire and respect Liz Cheney for standing tall during this whole political upheaval. I also echo the suggestion that she be acknowledged for her strong voice with the Medal of Honor. I hope President Biden reads these words and honors her for the remarkable citizen she is. May she wear it proudly.
What Trump can't stand is basic intelligence, its something he never acquired in his earlier travels. Liz is a Republican, but the kind that we could rely upon to enrich the dreams this country needs to open the doors to our future and Trump can't stand the fact that Democrats welcome her opinions, even though we don't agree with a few of them.
You are so right. Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and all of the Jan. 6 Committee deserve the Medal of Freedom. Donald Trump and his ilk deserve to be rebuked.