Would You Rat Out A Mob Boss?
By Thom Hartmann A...
Donald Trump essentially called for the whistleblower and his sources to be put to death, accusing them of being spies and telling his employees at the United Nations that we used to deal with spies differently. In all probability, he was referring to his former attorney, Roy Cohn, who successfully prosecuted Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and demanded that they both get the electric chair, which happened. The press and many politicians are concerned about the safety of the whistleblower, but the issue that's getting less attention is the impact of the presidents call for the death penalty on everybody else in the White House or who has worked around the White House who may have information to share. When Trump attacks someone, as happen with Christine Blasey Ford, they start getting death threats and have to go into hiding. If you had worked at the White House and had knowledge of Trump's crimes and corruption, would you now consider coming forward? A lot of people will not want the danger to themselves and their families that crossing this president who behaves like a mafia boss will bring.-Thom
Comments
#2
Question:
Can we not hold Fox News culpable this crime spree or the current administration? Laterally they are spreading false information to rile the MAGA crowd. Is it a first amendment right to purport to be a news source, when in fact you are spreading nothing but lies and misinformation to support the financial success of DJT and Fox? Basically it is a hate crime using hate speech.
#3
Absolutely they are culpable! And the First Amendment is not absolute. There's gotta be some limits for such flagrant abuse, fatally wounding democracy itself. Otherwise, we may very well descend into a big-lie-half-truth era similar to pre-war Germany: recession/depression; scapegoating ethnicities; corrupt wealthy elite; egomaniacal tyrant drunk on power...
The last box to check is recession/depression, and that bubble is about to pop.
#4
Deepspace, it's a pleasure to read your well measured response to Trump and his acolytes.
I've been reading a book by Danny Kannerman, now considered among the elites in the field of behavioral science and the father of behavioral economics. In short he has done a lot to help us understand things like why people stick to world views and why it so maddening in terms of getting say, a die-hard Republican or Libertarian even consider ideas foreign to their worldview. Frankly, it's depressing to consider that by my estimate 35% of the nation will go down in flames with Trump rather than desert him.
This does not bode well given Trump's play at establishing a 2016 alternative to reality that his people will suck up faster than Jonestown kool-aid.
Even more disturbing is given the state of affairs today where the fuck are the Millineals? This is there moment to define history and frankly I'm afraid too many are busy Instagramming and FBing to see that there world will literally be in fire by 2030 and a nightmare of eco-dystopia by 2050.
Every one of those young people with a Republican parent needs to ask Mommy and Daddy why they are trying to kill them and the world?
OMG! Here I go.
Anyway, I like your style and WTF we might just get lucky. Remember when "W" almost choked to death on a chicken bone watching a football game at the ranch?
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Cha-ching! Another article of impeachment to fundraise off -- giddy campaign apparatchiks are up all night sucking up coffee and the millions from their spitting, sputtering base. What's he averaging now, about one or two a week?
High crimes and misdemeanors and abuse of power: unpatriotic and traitorous secret deals with sketchy Russian oligarchs; foreign entanglements built on debt and laundered money; international treachery; self-dealing foreign policy; coddling murderous dictators; gratuitously leaking highly classified secrets to his ruskie bros and butt-buddy Kim; seeking help from foreign nations to undermine the beating heart of our democracy; breaking his oath of office and eroding the public trust; breaking international treaties; afflicting our allies and comforting our enemies; misappropriating congressionally approved funding; declaring phoney emergencies to circumvent the democratic process; cavalierly undermining the Affordable Care Act, cutting short the lives of millions of poor people...
Whew! Take a breath.
...proclaiming edicts that destroy the environment; using his official position and government resources to extract unconstitutional emoluments from his seedy businesses, both domestic and foreign; extortion; racketeering; bribery; tampering with witnesses; coverups and payoffs; obstruction of justice; contempt of Congress; defying lawful subpoenas; calling the free press the "enemy of the people" like the Nazis did; ramming through bigoted travel restrictions targeting an entire religion; initiating cruel and racist border policies; perpetrating humanitarian atrocities; separating mothers and babies; throwing kids in cages; serial infidelity; serial sexual predation; serial lying; serial pathologies; serial this and serial that.
But his number one standard operating procedure is to lie to all the people all the time. Right-wing media swamps might keep in mind that well-worn adage erroneously attributed to Lincoln, the founder of their party that Trump commandeered: “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Although, evidently, you can at least fool all his voters all the time. Fake news indeed! USA, USA, USA!
It's easy to lose track of which crime is what. How in the hell do our intrepid representatives charged with oversight responsibility even begin to separate one from the other to classify them as high crimes, low crimes, or in-between crimes? To the general public, it's all just one big, swirling, bubbling pot of nasty-smelling stew feeding the crazies!
And now what -- threatening to execute whistleblowers?! (Gee, ya musta been sh*t-talkin' with Wayne LaPierre again, kissin' up for that much-needed legal defense fund.) His State Department audience nervously giggled a little but sat mostly in stunned silence.
And no, his Ukraine scandal is not a made-up story by Democrats, partisan hacks, and those amorphous Trump haters, as unconscionable Republican committee members would have us believe without evidence. What a lame defense! The roadmap to most of the real evidence of his extensive corruption and criminal behavior -- and his clear intent -- is laid out in his own words! He and his goofball sidekick Giuliani are themselves those "very bad spies" that he wants to whack for telling the truth, largely by accident and folly. Maybe that's what Pelosi meant by "self impeachment."
But really, these two stumblebums are the original leakers, wittingly or not, of most everything on record so far, or so it seems. At one time or another, all the flat-out admissions and consciousness of guilt have come directly out of their own mealy-mouthed mugs for all to witness. The FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit would have a field day analyzing this shifty duo of blabbermouths.
So what exactly are we still missing here, Nancy the Speaker? For him to actually shoot someone on 5th Avenue? C'mon, soldier! Outa the foxhole! Move! Move! Move!
Just like Michael Cohen the Fixer says, he speaks in code like the reality-show, wannabe New York mob boss that he has always aspired to be. Trouble is, his cartoon brain can no longer discern (if it ever could) just how transparent his absurd, B-rated, capo dei capi code-talk is to normal people. Bada bing, bada boom, what a low-rated fakester and loser!
But who in their right mind can keep it all straight, or who would even want to? Bat-boy, bat-sh*t crazy-talk, an insane Wackamole game gone wild in a bizarro universe! Mr. Orange with white puffy eyebags hogging our screens, would you please just go away to some happy farm and leave everyone alone? We don't hate you. It's more like sheer disgust -- a profound weariness of the soul.
It's no wonder the House is having a hard time keeping the public hearings tightly focused so that the ignorant masses might have a chance to understand objective reality. Remember that? By the time one scorcher hits the front page, the biggest purveyor of fake news on the planet takes a morning dump and the whole story changes anew. It's all so routine by now: Hide, deny, blame, breathe; Hide, deny, blame, breathe...
And why is he so angry and moping around through all these daily, embarrassing, woe-is-me, self-pity, clown-show tours, anyway? That's a sign of weakness there, big tough guy ...Baby Blimp.
His prescient media soothsayers have been telling us that he actually wants to be impeached. It would be a badge of honor to proudly display for his fightin' mad rallygoers who like to punch people -- a political ploy that's somehow going to win him re-election, a sly gambit only he can understand ...as a stable genius.
Yeah, right. Does anyone really believe his fragile ego can handle such a big black smudge on his glorious legacy, whether or not the Senate actually convicts? He'd be only the third president in history impeached out of the House. (Nixon wisely resigned before that eventuality -- knowing there were enough Senate votes for a conviction -- to get a pardon from Gerald Ford so that he wouldn't go to jail for his crimes after he left office.)
Of course, every nutjob who plans to vote for him is already aboard the crazy train, so an impeachment won't snag any more bums over the long haul. In fact, he'll probably lose a few along the way when they finally become disillusioned by his juvenile antics (as they should), and there are only so many idiots in the villages. He's maxed out his base, and they ain't enough to win, dang it!
Unless he cheats. Like last time.
But now that MAGA hat is just a threadbare rag that's way too ironic since this not-so-great dealmaker is the one who has ruined our standing in the world in just his first three years. So here are some new scarlet letters to stick on his bonnet during the brewing court battles looming on the near horizon:
STOOJ
"SPRING TRUMP OUT OF JAIL"
You heard it here first. Sorry.
}:--))