THOMAS PAYNE: "Common Sense" -- Jaime Raskin Lead House Manager quoted during the impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump

 

Amid Lead House Manager Jaime Raskin's personal tragic sorrow burying his son the day before, he summoned his brightest intellect and quoted extemporaneously from Tom Paine's 1776 "Common Sense."  I think it a paragraph worth stating during the trial of Donald J. Trump for his instigation of the tragic Capitol assault killing 4 and wounding 140 on January 6, 2021. We who are the enemies of fascism and authoritarian rule must find him guilty of perpetrating high crimes attempting to overthrow our republic by violent means.

“THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated”

THOMAS PAYNE

House Managers Cleaning House--So let it be written

 

The House Managers' presentation of the second impeachment of Donald J. Trump was utterly meticulous.  It made me proud to be a Democrat and be aligned with a party that has an abundance of academic excellence.  As you can see from the summary in Politico below Jaime Raskin, et al prepared for weeks and it showed.  All of their renditions were magnificent as they left most in stunned silence at the description of the extremist rightwing seditious and murderous attack on the Capitol.  It was a total implication of Trump and his instigation of it.  Republicans will be hard pressed to acquit Trump and yet a gambler's assessment would probably predict that Republicans knowing they are complicit by supporting Trump no matter his egregious lawlessness will, in fact, acquit the most immoral beast.  Republicans are without shame in supporting Trump's treason and his four long year attempt at the overthrow of Democracy and the rule of law. Trump would have failed a long time ago without Republican support and without Trump I think I can safely say the attack on the Capitol never would have taken place. 

It is a divine miracle that more than 5 were not killed that day in the Capitol on January 6 and another miracle that there were not more than 140 injured. If not for the Capitol Police a slaughter surely would have taken place. 

Yes, I am praying for a third miracle that Trump be in an exclusive historical club by being the only impeached president who was found guilty and never allowed to attain high office in our nation again.  Let this be the beginning of the cleaning of our house of Trump's malevolence purging it and us of its squalid lethal impact on our nation.  Our nation by acquitting Trump in the first impeachment stepped up to the water's edge of authoritarian rule but, perhaps, prayerfully now, will not dive in.  So let it be written!

POLITICO Playbook: Trump is furious, and McConnell might vote to convict

1) House impeachment managers nailed it. They prepared for weeks for the moment — and it showed. Rep. JAMIE RASKIN’S (D-Md.) emotional appeal to the senators — he told the story of burying his 25-year-old son one day and being petrified the next that the mob would kill his daughter and son-in-law in the Capitol with him — left the chamber in stunned silence. And Rep. JOE NEGUSE (D-Colo.) shredded the Trump argument that a post-presidency trial is unconstitutional, invoking big-name Republican voices to make his point.

2) Trump’s attorneys blew it. There’s a reason “My Cousin Vinny” started trending on Twitter when Trump’s lawyers took the floor. The meandering presentation by BRUCE CASTOR barely made sense: One minute he was complimenting senators, the next talking about getting lost in the halls of Congress. Then there was that weird digression about the phrases “floodgates will open” versus “release the whirlwind,” which one senior GOP aide described as “the long extended riff to nowhere.” And what was with the rambling about “smart jurists in Nebraska”?

“I ain’t no lawyer but I know enough to know that was some bad stuff,” Sen. RICHARD BURR (R-N.C.) told fellow Republicans in the cloakroom immediately afterward, per another senior GOP aide.

DAVID SCHOEN was marginally better. But his harsh tone — he accused the Democratic managers of being “fueled by … hatred” of the Republican base after Raskin nearly broke down crying — did not go over well.

3) Trump is pissed. Down at Mar-a-Lago, Trump was yelling at the TV as he watched the proceedings, per Tara. Maggie Haberman adds, “On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the angriest, Mr. Trump ‘was an eight' ...

The mood was similarly sour in the broader Trump universe. Mid-defense, Newsmax cut away from Castor to go to Alan Dershowitz , one of Trump’s attorneys during the first impeachment. “I have no idea what he’s doing,” Dershowitz said of Castor. “I just don’t understand it.” (Dershowitz also bragged that he taught Raskin at Harvard Law.)

4) It just doesn’t matter. Senate Republicans looking to justify an acquittal vote were hoping for a little cover from Trump’s team. So far, they haven’t gotten it — and in fact were highly critical of the defense. Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.), Trump’s top ally in the upper chamber, admitted he didn’t know where Castor was going in his presentation. Sen. TED CRUZ (R-Texas) said both Trump lawyers were bad and called Raskin “impressive.” Sen. JOHN CORNYN (R-Texas), a close ally of McConnell and former judge, complained Trump’s team “just rambled on and on and on … It was not one of the finest [legal performances] I’ve seen.”

In the end, though, only one Senate Republican changed his vote on whether it was constitutional to impeach a former president — Louisiana’s BILL CASSIDY.

5) Cassidy’s got stones. It’s not easy for any Republican to cross Trump, let alone one from a deep-red Southern state. Cassidy shocked the chamber — and his constituents — when he did just that, joining five other Senate Republicans to say the proceedings were in fact constitutional. Cassidy took the opposite position in a late January vote, and Republicans are already rebuking him in his home state.

Here’s how Cassidy explained his vote: “The House managers were focused, they were organized … they made a compelling argument. President Trump’s team, they were disorganized. … One side is doing a great job and the other side is doing a terrible job. … As an impartial juror, I’m going to vote for the side that did the good job.”

6) This thing is over. If the compelling presentations of the managers — and shoddy work by Trump’s – weren’t enough to move the GOP senators Tuesday, it’s not going to happen.

SPOTTED AT THE IMPEACHMENT TRIAL: Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) shaking his head during a montage in which Trump told the rioters, “We love you.” … Sen. JOSH HAWLEY (R-Mo.) not listening in the cloakroom. … Sen. RAND PAUL (R-Ky.), the only senator who refused to wear a mask, doodling on a pad of paper during the manager presentations. … Rep. AL GREEN (D-Texas), who infuriated his own party by forcing votes to impeach Trump in 2017 and 2018, sitting in the gallery and taking it all in. … Sen. SUSAN COLLINS (R-Maine) holding her hand over her heart for several minutes after Raskin’s presentation. (h/t the Hill pool) … MARK MEADOWS with a security detail.

Goldwater in Reverse

 

Goldwater's famous verse “Extremism in defense of Liberty is no vice and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue” is in error. 

Although I am a firm progressive this article below supports the truth of the reality of the vote. Although I love Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the other very left of center Democrats they can win regional elections but absolutely cannot win general elections and should be rejected as nominees for the highest office. Biden centrism is the only way to go and Democrats should be savvy, realistic and prudent about that! 

The phrase should read extremism in defense of Liberty IS a vice and moderation in the pursuit of Justice IS a virtue.  The election of

Joe Biden proves Democratic moderation is the only way to go to win high office elections (See link below.)

If the Democrats stick to centrist candidates like Biden, the Trumps of the world will lose. But if politics ever becomes the AOCs of the world against the Trumps of the world, the Trumps will win.

  https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/biden-democrats-marginalized-can-t-afford-take-risks-progressives-can-ncna1257097

"GOP senator warns his party must decide between 'conservatism and madness'-- Liberalism when necessary

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-senator-warns-his-party-must-decide-between-conservatism-and-madness/ar-BB1doW0Z?ocid=mailsignout&li=BBnb7Kz

"Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), who's said he may vote this month to convict former President Trump on an article of impeachment, is pushing back against possible retaliation from the Nebraska Republican State Central Committee by warning that his party must choose between "conservatism and madness."

 Cheers to Ben Sasse.  If one is a regular watcher of MSNBC one has seen Ben Sasse interviewed by a commentator like Joe Scarborough numbers of times. He is one of the heroes like Steve Schmidt of the Lincoln Project, Republicans cut from a civil cloth and separating from the insanity of some of the current composition of the Republican Party. 

I have said it is good that Marjorie Taylor Green was not expelled from the House because she serves to split the Republicrat Party down the middle so that it will become easier for Democrats to hopefully win more seats in the future and take a more commanding majority in both the House and the Senate. Republicans with their extremist Proud Boys, Boogaloo Bois and QANON crackpots will mean, I hope, doom for the Republican Party and that is, I believe, a good thing.

While I like what Ben Sasse has to say I will never, of course, be Republican. Unlike Sasse I do not believe in limited government which got Herbert Hoover canned when FDR was elected for the first of four terms to the White House because of his policy of strong government action. If they truly believed in limited government they would not deafeningly oppose a person's choice for a mate in marriage, a personal choice for the termination of a pregnancy and they would strongly support civil rights. I believe in government when necessary when it is impossible for the nation to survive without its economic help like now and I believe in the strong arm of government to stand against discrimination, against voter suppression and for individual choice on matters of private personal decisions.

Liberalism is the only way if one is concerned about the nation's economic welfare, fair and just government with respect to human rights and, yes, individualism when it comes to personal matters of choice.

WHY WE ELECTED JOE BIDEN PRESIDENT. Thumbs up to Joe

 

"Biden signs immigration executive orders and establishes task force to reunite separated families"

The separating of children from their parents at our southern border was the most disgusting crime against humanity perpetrated at the instruction of Donald J. Trump.  Trump should be hauled away to the International Criminal Court in the Hague for prosecution of crimes against humanity.  His Nazi like callous and egregious disregard for human rights is the earmark of his presidency and why his was the worst presidency by far in the annals of US historical depravity.  May he rot in jail for all his illegal, cruel and deplorable acts!

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/02/politics/biden-immigration-executive-orders/index.html

Jewish space lasers responsible for CA wildfires -- 5+2 = 8

 Jewish Space Lasers are responsible for the California wildfires (See link below). Yes, folks, Marjorie Taylor Green spilled the beans.  She, we know, is the authority on all things profoundly important.  So when she and others on the fringe right wing say that the Jewish Space Laser Agency is responsible for the California wildfires we must know that is true. Don't you know that 5 +2 absolutely equals 8, a lot of people are saying it does and I have it on good authority that 5 +2 = 8.  If Taylor Green also said that 5 + 2 = 8 one would have to suspend one’s disbelief because Taylor Green said it. It would also follow that the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is, in fact, true and that Jews control, well, everything and are responsible in toto for all the negative occurrences of humankind under the so called "sun" no matter that the Protocols’s text was a plagiarized version written attack on Napoleon II which had nothing to do with Jews. AntiSemites in 2000 years of history use things that are patently untrue because many will not question their veracity especially if they harbor an intense desire to hate the Jew and attribute or accuse them of everything they can think of that is malevolent.

Other anti-Semitic allegations of Middle Ages renown that Jews drink Christian children's blood otherwise known as the “blood libel” is a favorite of antiSemites no matter that kosher laws prohibit Jews from the drinking of blood. Those bent on indicting the Jew would, of course, believe it just as Taylor Green believes that the Jewish Space Agency set fire to the California forests.

According to QANON, an organization which pushes conspiracy theories as truth in which Taylor Green is a member in good standing, Hillary Clinton was operating a sex pedophile ring out of the basement of a pizza parlor in Washington DC never mind that the specified pizza parlor did not even have a basement. If you believe that I have another. QANON sells that 9/11 was a hoax as was the Newtown school massacre of children, a false flag.  We all know those children did not die and neither did the Parkland High killings occur when it is alleged that a gunman opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.  It is not as if one could not prove the falsity of those assertions.

Dear God save me from a nation that could be talked into the fact that 5+2 equals 8 or anything else that is clearly false. These types of preposterous allegations and unquestioned beliefs have been advocated by real live persons either in another century or our own and believed by persons with an alleged brain.

Terrifying is the fact that those who espouse and believe these canards of preposterous incredulity now occupy positions of power as Republicans in the second major political party in the US.  How can ½ of a nation believe utter fallacious stupidity? Is it because ½ of this nation is stupid or is it because I have it on good authority and you must believe that millions in this nation are certifiably nuts!

https://globalnews.ca/news/7607501/marjorie-taylor-greene-jewish-space-laser/

The Capitol Labor Committee Report

The Capitol Labor Committee sites a list of debilitating injuries Capitol Police suffered after the January 6 rightwing terrorist Capitol riot and sedition:

Capitol Police suffered in addition to the five deaths:

Brain injuries

cracked ribs

smashed spinal cord discs

one may lose an eye,

one was stabbed.

Today it was reported that another committed suicide.

Now I ask you how heinous is it that Republicans will vote to acquit the Trump Beast?

What will it take for Republicans to hold Donald Trump and other Republicans responsible for inciting a riot and sedition?

Call, email, or smoke signal as many Republicans as you can and tell them you are holding them ethically

responsible for this heinous act!

https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/watch/police-suffer-from-debilitating-injuries-after-capitol-riot-100148293907?fbclid=IwAR0IkbOR5Cb-inHs2cbkaNac_4sgf2COr8PmKmdtQsU7lTG2nxgbB4C6CBo

 

"Dispatches from DC: Brookline reporter recounts road trip to a subdued Inauguration"

 The article linked below by Susie Davidson concerning her arduous journey to Washington for President Biden's inaugural I thought was excellent! It is so well written and descriptive of her entire unusual inaugural trip. The invisible word that keeps jutting out to me is love. What other word could one use to appropriately describe the perseverance, difficulty and planning it took to add to her other inaugural efforts. She had to love our country and most of all love the electoral transformative Biden victory to make a difficult trip in our times a reality to add to her inaugural collection. 

Kudos to you, Susie, and your human essence that created and fulfilled this journey. I feel like we all have climbed Everest to see evil overthrown and goodness prevail in our wounded but still living land.

 

 https://amp.wickedlocal.com/amp/4249918001?fbclid=IwAR1VWczYmNYV4_KPXq4L-RiqazlCdyR7nmZrdyOitPQbmtebX10lpggRQSE

 

 

REPUBLICANS MUST CHANGE COURSE

 QANON Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene allied herself with posts calling for the killing of democratic Politicians and innocent others including law enforcement officials and officers.  This is completely insane if even 1/4 or more of the electorate actually believe in these crackpot ideas and if Republicans simply take them under their political umbrella they are aligning themselves with those who support assassinations and murder of those who uphold the law as well as those who are duly elected representatives of the people.  This cannot stand. Republicans through their support of those who support Trump are aligning themselves with murders not only of Democrats and others who are innocent but they are aligning themselves with murderers of the entire political system and American democracy.

Republicans must think about what they are doing and change course or the supreme advocate for them, Donald J. Trump, will take the entire nation down with him and them!  It is a worry of the highest order.  Donald J. Trump must be found guilty of incitement of insurrection as the article of impeachment says and never be allowed to seek political office again.  

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/marjorie-taylor-greene-facebook-posts_n_6010f257c5b6b8719d885347

A GRATEFUL NATION

 

I just viewed the Frontline documentary (linked below) on Joe Biden, a  good and decent man who is completely the opposite of the reprehensible, immoral and corrupt Trump. What a life story Joe Biden has had. It is one for the ages. It is one of loss, perseverance and success.

Those of us who know suffering place President Biden on our shoulders and thank him for being the sterling example of what a truly good man is and a man whose time has come to represent all the good this nation has been and all the good it still needs to be. 

He has come to save democracy and this nation.  For that I profusely thank him.  Go get em, Joe.  A grateful nation will be at your side!!

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/

JOE BIDEN

The Proud Boys Lost

 

I feel like 2000 pounds has been lifted from my shoulders. What a fabulous inauguration and the festivities after it rose to the occasion despite a pandemic. The inauguration came into the living room of all those who have a TV. It was expertly produced and it hit a cultural bullseye as it represented all of us -- black, white, brown, able bodied and the disabled from all walks of life and love preferences. In short, it was magnificent and magnificently beautiful answering the violence of January 6 sedition with love, hope and resilience.

The right wing extremist Proud Boys lost their war because this nation does not want to be at war with itself. It loves its freedom too much to end the experiment that has lasted over two hundred years. Here's to our new wonderful President Joe R. Biden and his enthusiastic terrific first Jamaican Indian woman Vice President, Kamala Harris. The festivities were a joy to watch. I look forward to the next four years and all the years of humane, prescient, qualified, intelligent leadership to follow!

God bless America, indeed!!

Kendron Bryant -- "I Just Want to Live" music video by a

 

Very talented young man who has something to say for all of us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dlJVslNLq0

August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King March on Washington speech -- Makes me cry every time. Gorgeous speech eternal in its message and melodious in its delivery. It will live eternally in history!

 

MLK Day remembrance. Particularly poignant in our time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs

"Stealing a Moment of Joy"

 "Stealing a Moment of Joy" by Yvonne Abraham in the Boston Globe is a wonderful article linked below and touches on so much of what I was feeling as well as so much of what I believe this nation to be and, perhaps, with a normal president, it will become.  I urge you to read its beautifully articulated and positive sentiments.

I am going to pray for two days straight, something I usually am not inclined to do especially with passionate belief because I question everything.  Since I can control very little of what will happen the next two days and because I want desperately for the inauguration of Joe Biden to go off without a hitch for him as well as those all around him to be safe I am going to pray.   It can't hurt and maybe just maybe it could help or at least help calm the unrelenting anxiety I feel!!

If we never stop worrying about the violence of the right wing that is what takes precedence in our minds and the terrorists win.  They want you to worry incessantly. Violence makes an imprint deep within us but the other good that is this country should make an imprint too.

Forward, always forward, bending the arc of the moral universe toward justice!

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/01/16/metro/stealing-moment-joy/?fbclid=IwAR1TcXIfXjAvlu9C0HTc7WM013ZfSiq-iDGzUUrMd0Qmb_KLZp9NkUnOVx4

The Original Sin

 

Joe Scarborough had an EXCELLENT show on today. If you can get it or hear it you should.

Joe's guests, Yale professor Timothy Snyder and Princeton Professor Eddie Glaude, zeroed in on the centrifugal force fueling what this election dispute is about. It is about race. I knew before that race was a large part fueling the ire of Trump's base but I did not think it was the largest part nor the only part. For Trump's minions on the Capitol steps, though, it was. When all is said and done race is the passion that drives our social fracture.

If persons of color were not allowed to vote, Timothy Snyder who wrote the NYT Magazine article "The American Abyss" linked below, said and Princeton professor Eddie Glaude agreed then Biden would not be president.

Trump and his Republican minions were protesting votes in black areas of cities in the disputed states. America's racist original sin was at the forefront of the Capitol attack! White supremacists were at the front of the line invading the Capitol. Moreover, White Supremacists love Trump because they finally got a white supremacist president in present time who speaks to that festering sore and made it work to elect him president. His white racist minions/mob want to keep Trump president for life! Trump sings their song and has throughout his presidency. White supremacists think the country belongs to them and they think a black man is not as good as a white.  They think he does not deserve to vote and to pick a president.  They scream this is MY Capitol.  I want to say this is my Capitol too and it is my black brothers and sisters Capitol as well!  The nation fought a civil war and paid the price of 620,000 dead to resolve that dispute. We are NOT going back!

Scarborough's segment today with Timothy Snyder who wrote "On Tyranny" was truth telling. If you can get the NYT Magazine article "The American Abyss" it explains much of the diagnostic cancer that is a primary truth of our nation and of the 2020 election. What antibiotic truth can each of us tell to cure our original sin?

If you want a democracy based on law, Professor Timothy Synder says, you have to care about truth. Nothing will stop the violence if one opinion passed off as truth is as good as another. Without truth you cannot, Professor Snyder says, have the rule of law and without law you cannot have democracy!

"The American Abyss"

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/magazine/trump-coup.html

F.B.I. report is said to have warned of plans for violence at the Capitol.

If the FBI knew about the Capitol attack which the FBI in VA said they were warned and passed it on to the Capitol Police then who told them to stand down?

If I were a betting person acting on simply a hunch I would bet the command to stand down not to prohibit the attack came from the highest at the top. Now who do you think that is? I think evidence for that WILL come out as Dump is an incompetent fool! The most profound question is why did the Capitol

Police invite these treasonous jerks in?

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/us/fbi-report-capitol.html

Memorabilia for Sale

 The fact that many of the seditionists carried Confederate flags, sweatshirts and T-shirts sporting a skull with the words Camp Auschwitz and the code 6MWE translated means 6 million was not enough referring to the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust are proof of what right wing extremism is all about. Right wing extremism is fascist authoritarian.  Groups like Proud Boys, Boogaloos, Neo Nazis and Confederate Civil War sympathizers are just a few of those who Trump says are fine people and those whom he loves. What more do you want to remove the beast in the White House post haste before many more all over the nation get killed and our republic is no more?

Further US flags all over government buildings are at half mast EXCEPT for the White House (big surprise NOT!)

An example of who Trump loves:

 

MAKES ME WANT TO THROW UP!

My Letter to President-Elect Biden

 

Mr.  President-Elect:  Our nation as you know has never been so tested by the rightwing forces of hate as it was yesterday.

When you assume office you will be assuming it in one of the most difficult and trying times that our nation has experienced in modern history; a time that needs not only the reversal of inhumane and uber destructive policies of Trump but also the strong prosecution of those that committed the treasonous and seditious treachery we all witnessed yesterday. 

This violent mob of thugs defiled the most precious building of our democratic process, the Capitol building -- the people's house.  This cannot stand and it must be dealt with strongly in uncompromising fashion to quell our outrage at these outrageous acts.  There must be harsh consequences lest a repeat performance happen again.  The only thing rightwing extremists understand is strong consequences  --  apprehensions, indictments, prosecutions, convictions and punishment for treason leading to jail or worse carrying the death penalty threat.

Four people were killed yesterday and the perpetrators walked away smiling thinking they won as the Capitol police, National Guard and others failed to do the protective job they were entrusted to do.  The Trump loving thugs say they love the police so much yet killed one by bashing him with a fire extinguisher.  The perpetrators of the orgy of violence must be hunted down mercilessly, indicted and tried for treason.  We must do nothing less than that.

An abomination that should not stand

 

The perpetrators of the attempted violent takeover of the US Capitol and those who helped to commit this illegal act should be located, rounded up, indicted and prosecuted for sedition and many other crimes.

Moreover, the defense of the Capitol was anemic. Capitol defense MUST be dramatically enhanced. The present squatter in the Oval Office White House must be held to account for his being the prime motivator of the ugly rightwing extremist violence to the Capitol building everyone witnessed yesterday. He is a rogue president and should be removed via the 25th amendment post haste or by any other legal means necessary!

One can only imagine the assault that would have occurred on the Black Lives Matter movement if they had been the ones to storm the Capitol and invade the chambers of Congress. What happened yesterday and what was allowed to happen because of the ineffective protection of the US Capitol building and because Donald Trump, President of the United States, advocated seditious overthrow of a legal US presidential election by lying saying it was stolen when it was not and directing rightwing violent thugs to proceed to the Capitol building.  This is an abomination and should NOT stand!

A film recommendation--"Beautiful Boy"

 

A profoundly moving film combined with acting excellence made for riveting viewing. I recommend it highly. It is a family drama surrounding their emotionally explosive encounter with a drug addicted son whom they love and try with all their might to help. It shows one the imprisoning grip that drug addiction can have on those whose personality traits and cerebral proclivities place the addicted in a solitary confinement prison out of which there seems to be simply no exit. The son, played by Timothée Chalamet with phenomenal expertise, is dependent on his family, especially his dad played with great depth by Steve Carell, to help him when he simply cannot help himself.

Even if one is not familiar with the problems of drug addiction one can still understand what it means to be held captive by an emotional situation the escape from which seems impossible. The drama is based on true life events of a family caught in the tornadic grip of a son whose imprisoning chains of addiction ultimately envelope them all.