|
FOCUS: Beyond Any Treasonable Doubt - Isn't the President There Yet? |
 |
|
Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=20877"><span class="small">William Boardman, Reader Supported News</span></a>
|
|
Wednesday, 18 July 2018 10:49 |
|
Boardman writes: "Today's press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory."
Trump and Putin in Helsinki. (photo: Unknown)
Beyond Any Treasonable Doubt - Isn't the President There Yet?
By William Boardman, Reader Supported News
18 July 18
 he following collage of more and less hysterical reactions to President Trump’s embrace of President Putin includes cries of “Treason!” without any call to action. What can we do if this is as true as it seems? The answer, such as it is, follows at the end of this piece.
Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate…. No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant. – US Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, official statement, July 16
Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of “high crimes & misdemeanors.” It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you??? – John O. Brennan, former director, US Central Intelligence Agency
[Trump] gives every impression of betraying his oath of office…. Trump’s own national security adviser said the Russian election attack constituted an “act of war.” So what does that make his boss? Some – including former CIA di0044rector John Brennan – now dare call it treason. That conclusion was once unthinkable. No longer. – Max Boot, Washington Post columnist
Everyone in this body [US Senate] should be disgusted by what happened in Helsinki today. – Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska
I am a tea party conservative, that will never change. But Trump was a traitor to this country today. That must not be accepted. Speak out. – July 16 Trump/Putin tweet from Republican former Congressman Joe Walsh, now a syndicated radio host
The Trump team were colluding with the Russians in 2016 – and they are still colluding. – Carl Cameron, former chief political correspondent for Fox News
Persistent and disruptive cyber operations will continue against the United States and our European allies, using elections as opportunities to undermine democracy, sow discord and undermine our values…. Frankly, the United States is under attack. – Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the Senate Intelligence Committee in February 2018
Some [Republican officials] now reportedly seek to impeach [US Deputy Attorney General] Rosenstein on trumped up charges. To attack one of our national defense leaders as we are being attacked, and to do so to benefit our foreign adversary, is textbook treason. [emphasis in original] – David Rothkopf, CEO and Editor, Foreign Policy Magazine
This is an incredible, unprecedented moment. America is being betrayed by its own president. America is under attack and its president absolutely refuses to defend it. Simply put, Trump is a traitor and may well be treasonous. – Charles M. Blow, New York Times columnist
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. – United States Constitution, Article III, section 3
Since his first moment in office, President Trump has been guilty of impeachable offenses, most obviously by violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution: using the office of the presidency for personal profit for himself, his family, and his friends. At least some of the corruption of the Trump administration has been widely reported and even resulted in a few official resignations. But the impeachable corruption continues uninterrupted.
Now it appears more than likely that, since his first moment in office, President Trump has also been a traitor. And the apparent treason continues uninterrupted.
Among Republicans the response to Trumpian high crimes and misdemeanors has been largely limited to the wringing of hands, backed by mock-pious tut-tutting, and expressions of shock – shock! – to see sycophantic Putin-worship practiced so openly. Senator McCain’s exceptional response should shame the others, but smart money says it won’t. We live in a country where the expression “Republican patriot” is usually an oxymoron.
After hours of silence, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate majority leader, refused to answer any questions after making a brief statement lacking any noticeable principle:
The Russians are not our friends. I’ve said that repeatedly, I say it again today. And I have complete confidence in our intelligence community and the findings that they have announced.
Equally inert and unprincipled, Speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin issued a statement that had slightly better rhetoric but to no better point, given his own lack of effort to lead the House to seek the whole truth of the 2016 election:
There is no question that Russia interfered in our election and continues attempts to undermine democracy here and around the world…. The president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally…. The United States must be focused on holding Russia accountable and putting an end to its vile attacks on democracy.
Republican corruption is neatly crystallized in that last sentence, which harbors two viciously false ideas essential to Republicans’ hanging on to power. The first deceit is the notion that only the Russians are at fault, which is part of the cover-up of Trump allies engaging with Russians in a manner that has resulted in several of them pleading guilty to felonies. The recent arrest of Russian national Mariia Butina for conspiring against the US as a secret agent involves a nexus of Americans that includes Republican operative Paul Erickson, Donald Trump Jr., two National Prayer Breakfasts, and the National Rifle Association, among others.
The second, even more important deceit is that there’s no need to put an end to Republicans’ own vile attacks on democracy over the past two decades. Republicans have used voter caging, voter purges, vote-counting manipulations, disenfranchisement of voters, gerrymandering, and other techniques, legal and illegal, to shape a false electorate that will vote Republican. They have done this with little opposition from Democrats and a big assist from the Supreme Court’s denial of reality in weakening the Voting Rights Act. This Republican elephant has been in the room for a long time as officials avert their attention in what is metaphorically treason by default – and makes Russian manipulations that much easier.
OPEN TREASON – New York Daily News front page headline, July 17, featuring a drawing of Donald Trump holding hands with a topless Putin while shooting Uncle Sam in the head, spattering brains on Fifth Avenue
This is an extraordinary moment. It is without equal, not only in American history but in modern history. A hostile foreign power intervened in our election to help elect a man president who has since actively served their interests and has defended them at every turn. – David Rothkopf, Foreign Policy Magazine
BETTER OFF NOW – New Republican slogan, July 11
Trust no one. – Vladimir Putin at Helsinki
The argument that Trump is a traitor who has committed treason as defined by the Constitution is pretty straightforward, but depends on applying modern reality to the 18th century document.
At this point, there is no reason to believe Trump has levied war against the United States. There is good reason to believe that cyberwar is war within the intended meaning of the Constitution, and that Russia (among others) has waged cyberwar against the US, and that the president has failed in his sworn constitutional duty to defend the United States. That would qualify Russia as an enemy of the United States (a longstanding pillar of US foreign policy).
Is there any serious doubt, then, that Trump has met the Constitutional requirement for treason, by adhering to enemies of the United States, giving them aid and comfort (most recently and spectacularly at Helsinki)? But what can be done with that obvious reality? No matter how much more evidence piles up, the Constitution has a booby trap: Article III, section 3, provides that “The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of Treason….” That’s it. For now at least, the country is at the mercy of a Republican Congress that has been committing the moral equivalent of treason for decades. There’s no constitutional alternative.
William M. Boardman has over 40 years experience in theatre, radio, TV, print journalism, and non-fiction, including 20 years in the Vermont judiciary. He has received honors from Writers Guild of America, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Vermont Life magazine, and an Emmy Award nomination from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
 |
|
Another Russian Shoe Just Dropped - and It's Tied to the NRA |
|
|
Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=11104"><span class="small">Charles Pierce, Esquire</span></a>
|
|
Wednesday, 18 July 2018 08:50 |
|
Pierce writes: "Maria Butina certainly has been busy. Some of her work as an unregistered lobbyist involved work for the National Rifle Association."
Maria Butina. (photo: Zuma Press)
Another Russian Shoe Just Dropped - and It's Tied to the NRA
By Charles Pierce, Esquire
18 July 18
Maria Butina was allegedly a very busy unregistered lobbyist on behalf of the Russian Federation.
 h, my. Look what dropped! It’s…another shoe.
According to the affidavit in support of the complaint, from as early as 2015 and continuing through at least February 2017, Butina worked at the direction of a high-level official in the Russian government who was previously a member of the legislature of the Russian Federation and later became a top official at the Russian Central Bank. This Russian official was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control in April 2018. The court filings detail the Russian official’s and Butina’s efforts for Butina to act as an agent of Russia inside the United States by developing relationships with U.S. persons and infiltrating organizations having influence in American politics, for the purpose of advancing the interests of the Russian Federation. The filings also describe certain actions taken by Butina to further this effort during multiple visits from Russia and, later, when she entered and resided in the United States on a student visa. The filings allege that she undertook her activities without officially disclosing the fact that she was acting as an agent of Russian government, as required by law.
Butina certainly has been busy. Some of her work as an unregistered lobbyist involved work for the National Rifle Association. Investigative reporter Scott Stedman has been on this case at least since April.
And, at the end of June, the notion that the NRA laundered Russian money for the Trump campaign broke out widely. From Rolling Stone:
But Russia experts believe Torshin’s interest in U.S. gun culture masked a dark, ulterior motive. “It’s all a big charade, basically,” Glenn Simpson, founder of the research firm behind the infamous Steele Dossier, testified to the House Intelligence Committee. Much of what passes for civil society in modern Russia is, in fact, controlled by Putin. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee published a January 2018 report on “Putin’s Asymmetric Assault on Democracy,” which describes how the Kremlin has “sought to co-opt civil society by ‘devot[ing] massive resources to the creation and activities of state-sponsored and state-controlled NGOs.” Some of these faux grassroots groups buttress the Kremlin’s domestic agenda. Others are projections of Putin’s foreign policy. Sen. Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the committee, says it is common for Russian groups that “appear to be independent” but are “really Putin groups” to build relationships with civic groups in Western democracies, like the NRA – “to have tentacles,” Cardin says, “to try and influence public opinion here in the United States. It is certainly part of Putin’s MO.”
Exactly how lousy with Russian money are Republican and conservative American politicians and political organizations is still an open question. (The same question concerning the Republican president* is as closed as a tomb.) It would explain, to an extent, the supine reaction by the Republican majorities in Congress to the depredations of this administration*. There is no question that the Russian government has an incredibly well-honed instinct for finding American suckers. Vladimir Putin may be the heir to the Tsars and the commissars, but it appears that, in international politics at least, he’s the heir to Bernie Madoff as well.
|
|
|
MGM Resorts Is Suing Las Vegas Shooting Victims - Yes, Really |
|
|
Wednesday, 18 July 2018 08:43 |
|
Kang writes: "Here's an astonishing but true sentence: MGM Resorts International has filed federal lawsuits against more than 1,000 victims of last October's mass shooting in Las Vegas in an apparent attempt to avoid liability."
People run from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas last October. (photo: David Becker/Getty Images)
MGM Resorts Is Suing Las Vegas Shooting Victims - Yes, Really
By Jennifer Kang, Splinter News
18 July 18
 ere’s an astonishing but true sentence: MGM Resorts International has filed federal lawsuits against more than 1,000 victims of last October’s mass shooting in Las Vegas in an apparent attempt to avoid liability.
Gunman Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured hundreds more from a room in MGM’s Mandalay Bay Resort. It was one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history.
To sue victims of this shooting may seem, oh, unconscionable, but don’t worry: MGM has an airtight excuse. The lawsuits are “an act of compassion for the victims,” MGM spokeswoman Debra DeShong said in a statement Monday. She further explained:
“The federal Court is an appropriate venue for these cases and provides those affected with the opportunity for a timely resolution. Years of drawn out litigation and hearings are not the best interest of victims, the community and those still healing.”
What the hell?
MGM argued that any lawsuits holding the company responsible for injuries and death that occurred during the shooting should be “dismissed” because the company took reasonable precautions to prevent mass violence, such as hiring a security vendor.
The basis of the argument stems from a 2002 federal act which extends liability protection to any company that uses “anti-terrorism” technology to help prevent and respond to mass violence.
Las Vegas attorney Robert Eglet, who has represented several Vegas shooting victims, said MGM’s decision to file the complaints in federal court, instead of state court, is a “blatant display of judge shopping.”
“I’ve never seen a more outrageous thing, where they sue the victims in an effort to find a judge they like,” Eglet told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “It’s just really sad that they would stoop to this level.”
|
|
RSN | Ode to Emmett Till: Why the US Needs a Cold Case Bill |
|
|
Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=26125"><span class="small">Bill Simpich, Reader Supported News</span></a>
|
|
Tuesday, 17 July 2018 13:22 |
|
Simpich writes: "If you remember Bobbie Gentry's 'Ode to Billie Joe,' you remember that her narrator was with Billie Joe McAllister when they 'threw something off the Tallahatchie Bridge.' In the summer of 1967, much of America was obsessed. Not about the hundred of thousands of Vietnamese being slaughtered by Americans. Not about the race riots across the country triggered every time a young African American man was shot. The obsession was about what two young people threw off the Tallahatchie Bridge."
After their tragic and premature deaths, both Emmett Till, 14 (left), and Trayvon Martin, 17 (right), became symbols of the unique challenges that have faced young black men in America. (photo: Yale)
Ode to Emmett Till: Why the US Needs a Cold Case Bill
By Bill Simpich, Reader Supported News
17 July 18
 f you remember Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe,” you remember that her narrator was with Billie Joe McAllister when they “threw something off the Tallahatchie Bridge.”
In the summer of 1967, much of America was obsessed.
Not about the hundred of thousands of Vietnamese being slaughtered by Americans.
Not about the race riots across the country triggered every time a young African American man was shot.
The obsession was about what two young people threw off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
African Americans in the South knew what Mississippi-born Bobbie Gentry was singing about: The murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till during the 1950s.
The Chicago-born teenager was killed after defiantly telling his captors, “I’m as good as you are.” They couldn’t stand it. They threw his dead and mutilated body off the Tallahatchie Bridge.
Till’s murderers were acquitted by an all-white Mississippi jury. They bragged about it in Look Magazine weeks after the acquittal.
Emmett Till was one of thousands of African Americans lynched for challenging white supremacy. These lynchings were often social events, with European Americans celebrating while African Americans were cruelly tortured in public.
This history – and the history of slavery – caused post-traumatic stress that doesn’t just go away.
Emmett Till died immediately after a million North Korean civilians had been killed. They were carpet-bombed based on orders from President Harry Truman. They were driven into caves – and then Americans bombed the caves. Air Force general Curtis LeMay estimated that more than 20% of the North Korean population was killed. “We went over there and fought the war and eventually burned down every town in North Korea.“
There’s a good reason that the North Koreans are “paranoid.” This history – and the history of bombing civilians in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and other countries – causes post-traumatic stress that doesn’t just go away.
The primary perpetrators of these crimes against civilians were Presidents Truman, Johnson, Nixon, and Bush, father and son. We are talking about deaths of millions of innocent civilians. Not people of European descent.
These bombing campaigns are among the greatest crimes in recorded history.
These crimes are of a piece with the lynchings and slavery. Americans don’t like to talk about these mass killings.
But there is payback. Police continue to shoot innocent people of color. Why is it a surprise when people of color fight back?
People of color around the world are the target of American missile strikes. Again, why is it a surprise when they fight back?
Shooters continue to commit mass mayhem throughout America for no ostensible reason. But there is a reason. These shooters are part of a populace suffering from a mental illness caused by a historical climate of death and destruction.
The only way to treat this kind of disease is with communication and compassion. One person who offers a path forward is the new senator of Alabama, Doug Jones.
Jones was with the legal team that obtained convictions for two of the men who killed the “four little girls” in a church bombing in 1963 decades after the fact. When it was announced last week that the Justice Department is reopening the Emmett Till case, Jones announced that he is sponsoring a “Cold Case Bill” that would open up the civil rights murders of the 50s, 60s and 70s to public inquiry. Congressman Bobby Rush of Chicago is sponsoring the Cold Case Bill in the House. Tennessee’s own Cold Case Bill was signed by Governor Bill Haslam in May.
Jones’s bill requires the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to establish a collection of cold case records about unsolved criminal civil rights cases that government offices must publicly disclose in the collection without redaction or withholding. It would set up a Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board as an independent agency of impartial private citizens to facilitate the review, transmission to NARA, and public disclosure of government records related to such cases.
The Cold Case Bill is modeled after the act that released the records of the assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King. Its review board would obtain the case documents from dozens of sources, get the documents online, and enable citizens to put together these long-lost stories. Some of these cases could even be prosecuted. In other cases, getting all available parts of the story will provide great solace to the families, as well as a measure of justice.
The best way to heal the wounds of the past – and to prevent them from happening again – is for Americans to know their history. We need a Cold Case Bill to face up to these domestic horrors. We need a similar process to deal with what has happened in other parts of the world. We need to look at the hard things – as well as the positive things – and move toward healing.
No matter how you feel about Donald Trump, he is not at the center of this country’s problems. He is simply not important enough. This country has had deep problems for a long time. These problems are decades in the making, and previous leaders and forces are responsible. Trump is the symptom. The cause is deeper.
Bobbie Gentry wrote and sang a powerful ode to Emmett Till. She has said for decades that her song was inspired by his story. Nobody listened to her. They wanted to know the secret. Like Don McLean with “American Pie,” Bobbie was thoughtful enough not to water down the story by telling everything.
Instead, she wrote a song about how difficult it is for us to communicate with one another. A song about the breakdown of a family in the wake of sudden death. Bobbie calls it a song about indifference and unshared grief.
As a society, we still don’t know how to properly grieve – and honor – those who have fallen due to racism and war. The Cold Case Bill offers a way.
In my mind, Bobbie’s performance is one of the most powerful statements I have ever heard.
The story of Emmett Till is its hidden secret.
Bill Simpich is an Oakland attorney who knows that it doesn't have to be like this. He was part of the legal team chosen by Public Justice as Trial Lawyer of the Year in 2003 for winning a jury verdict of 4.4 million in Judi Bari's lawsuit against the FBI and the Oakland police.
|
|
ssuming we can do the job at all, the task of fumigating American democracy from what modern conservative Republicanism has done to it, which naturally includes the elevation to the presidency of a vulgar talking yam, is going to take decades, if not the odd century. 
