This 40-minute video is well worth your time. That is, if defeating Trump is important to you.
“Dissenters did something brilliantly simple: in an unfree country, they began to behave like free people, thereby changing the moral climate and the country’s prevailing tradition.” — Andrei Amalrik, Russian historian and dissident.
Johnston, a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, teaching journalism, wrote a column posted to DCReport.org on Friday August 15, 2025.
Donald Trump ran for president promising the most transparent administration ever. And the White House claims it is exactly that, exactly what has been provided.
How then to explain the notice posted yesterday, Aug. 14, in the Federal Register, the official government rule change book, proposing to throw out all existing Freedom of Information Act requests unless the requester renews their request?
Building a record of public opposition is crucial.
This looks like a test at one agency designed to significantly reduce and perhaps stop entirely complying with the 1969 law governing how Americans can hold their government accountable by seeking documents, databases, emails, and other materials.
I agree. I rarely embrace Cato’s perspective on public issues, but here its analysis is spot on.
You can be sure that the largest group of FOIA requesters—big corporations and trade groups—will renew because they have a clear business interest. One of the unexpected results of the FOIA law is corporations using requests to find out what competitors, and regulators, are up to. Citizens and journalists are less likely to meet the proposed new re-request rule.
This proposed new rule is part of a piece in which the Trump Administration 2.0 has displayed sophistication in turning away answers to questions it doesn’t like, hiding information, and generally working to create the most opaque administration in history.
Evading Answers
It’s not just Donald Trump attacking journalists who ask questions he doesn’t like, calling them various derogatory terms and then moving on after evading the issue. You can see this in Congressional committee testimony of unqualified and poorly educated cabinet members like Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who can’t tell Artificial Intelligence from A-1 Steak Sauce.
To evade tough questions, McMahon and other Trump appointees often rely on feigned ignorance and irrelevant but long-winded responses that chew up the time of questioning lawmakers who generally are limited to 5 minutes.
All administrations to some degree try to deflect tough questions by journalists, Congress, and constituents. Trump 2.0 is just taking it to a deeper and darker level, often delivered with contemptuous smirks.
The Trump Administration asserts that this rule change is designed to increase the efficient use of limited government resources.
The federal Department of Energy “is being inundated with requests from vexatious requesters and automated bots… These requesters rarely respond to DOE inquiries… Therefore, DOE is undertaking this endeavor as an attempt to free up government resources to better serve the American people and focus its efforts on more efficiently connecting the citizenry with the work of its government.”
True, but…
No doubt that’s true, but as so often happens with trump loyalists what we are seeing is a meat axe approach rather than a scalpel or even a kitchen knife approach to cutting out the harm, in this case from what appeared to be bogus Freedom of Information act requests.
If you click on this link you can learn how to add your thoughts in the Federal Register comments. You don’t need to write anything long or complex. Simply writing that this is an abomination or unacceptable or contrary to good governance and should be rejected out of hand is more than enough.
The more people who respond the better the chances that our TACO president’s minions will chicken out and drop or ease the proposed new rule.
But building a record of public opposition is crucial so I strongly encourage you, whatever your thoughts, to take advantage of the law that lets you as a citizen advise your government on proposed rules changes.
Historian Heather Cox Richardson shows us what it takes to resist, and that we are actually very good at it.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a CRACK, a CRACK in everything
That's how the light gets in -- Leonard Cohen
Erica Chenoweth opens the introduction to her book, Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know with those four lines from the chorus to Cohen's Anthem. She then defines Civil Resistance as
"a form of collective action that seeks to affect the political, social, or economic status quo without using violence or the threat of violence against people to do so. It is organized, public and explicitly nonviolent in its means and ends." (page 1)
Civil resistance can be and often IS incredibly disruptive and confrontational. Chenoweth explains that people and institutions targeted often feel deeply threatened because civil resistance jeopardizes their power and status.
It is a method of conflict
It is waged by unarmed civilians without directly harming the opponent
In ConclusionFrom Joyce Vance's Civil Discourse substack post on July 20th.
It’s going to be another important, and probably exhausting, week. They all are these days. Last week, many of you turned out for the Good Trouble protests that cropped up across the country in honor of the late John Lewis. This week, it’s time to make some good trouble. It’s a time for conversations with people around us, especially the hard ones.
From Glenn Kirschner's (July 22nd) YouTube video (12 minutes):
FCI Tallahassee — September 2025 Special Access Secure Meeting Room 3A (“The STAR Room”)
Ghislaine Maxwell was no longer famous in the way she’d once loved. Infamy was all she had now, not just the infamy of prison life itself, but the longer sort, the kind where her crimes grew in imagination to something even worse than what she’d been sent down for.
It hadn’t felt then as it was described now; at first, it was naughty. Then it felt sexy, powerful. Even as she’d recruited the girls, she knew it was wrong, but Jeffrey had an effect on her. On everyone, really.
She didn’t stop, even as the girls got younger and more vulnerable. It got uglier, more seedy, and Jeffrey became more demanding and harsh.
Now, she was a blot of memory, a whispered name behind security glass, but unforgotten by the conspiracy fans, the desperate and weird men and women who wanted to know her secrets. She would have preferred to be forgotten by a world that had swallowed the headlines and then moved on to louder, uglier sins.
But that wasn’t in her power now.
For all that, she was not powerless. Not yet.
That’s why the Department of Justice had flown in on a Friday under sealed scheduling orders and moved her, silently, into a conference room that looks like it was built for narco-traffickers and foreign spies. Concrete walls. A mirror window on one wall. Two cameras, both blinking red. And one long table set like a tribunal altar.
Her ankles were shackled. Her wrists weren’t.
Two guards brought her in. One she recognized: Coosh Stoutamire, a Wakulla Florida native, a by-the-book corrections officer and a mother of five. They couldn’t have been more different, but she liked Coosh.
The other was new. Pale blue eyes. Rural thick. Tribal tats on his hands and fingers. Ex-military. Badge said Hollis. His hands looked like they’d broken horses and kneecaps.
Her lawyers were already seated, Amanda Leigh, the no-bullshit Upper West Side pit viper, and Ollie Nussbaum, all eyebrows and weary sighs. Across from them sat Todd Blanche.
Blanche wore the cold smirk of a man used to deals inked in blood. He had defended Trump, in the years before the base began to rot from the inside. Now he was back inside the government, “officially unofficially” acting as the President’s "special emissary" from Justice. He didn’t even bother with the preamble.
He slid a single piece of paper across the table.
“This is the statement we want Ms. Maxwell to sign. It reads, in part, ‘At no time did Donald J. Trump ever engage in or have knowledge of any illegal conduct related to Jeffrey Epstein, his associates, or any of the properties under federal investigation.’”
Amanda didn’t touch it. “You came all the way here for a lie.”
Blanche looked unimpressed. “We came for closure.”
“And what’s the price for this fairytale?” Nussbaum asked.
Blanche tapped the folder. “Presidential pardon. Full. Unconditional. Drafted, signed, and timestamped. Effective upon signature.”
Maxwell raised a single eyebrow. “I sign this and walk?”
“You sign this,” Blanche said, “and you disappear. In a good way. Spain. Argentina. Somewhere with coastline and no extradition treaty. Somewhere the opposite of this hellhole. We can make that happen.”
Amanda snorted. “Bullshit. You want to rewrite history. What happens when the files leak? When it’s revealed she perjured herself for a pardon? Think of that?”
Blanche shrugged. “You want to examine her…other options?”
A silence. The kind of silence that hums louder than shouting.
The woman beside Blanche - perfectly blonde, perfectly still - remained expressionless. Her presence was a quiet violation of the room’s equilibrium, an x-factor Maxwell couldn’t sort.
Maxwell finally leaned forward.
“I want to make something clear,” she said. “You are promising me my freedom if I lie for you. You want me to deny what’s already in the sealed files. Trump was Jeffrey's favorite guest. The one who didn’t need persuasion. The one who never asked ages.”
Blanche’s jaw twitched. “There are cameras in this room.”
Ghislaine smiled. “Then let the record show: he was worse than anyone knows.”
The blonde woman blinked once.
Blanche leaned in. “Ghislaine, I don’t care what you think you’re holding. I don’t care what you think justice looks like. This is not a morality play. This is asset disposal. You can do the right thing for your country. I’m offering you the only lifeline you’ll ever see.”
Maxwell sighed, whispered, “Let me see the pardon.”
Blanche looked discomfited for a beat, then slid the document across. The blonde said in a voice that sounded like honeyed darkness, “The final, signed copy is at Main Justice.”
Amanda responded. “I can’t recommend my client sign something without seeing the full, signed pardon. Todd, you know this.”
Blanche slid the folder into his briefcase.
”Last chance, take it or leave it.”
Nussbaum and Amanda stood. “We’re done here.”
“Sit,” Blanche said flatly.
Amanda didn’t.
Maxwell did not rise. “Fine. I’ll sign it.” Defeated. Shrunken. Feeling all her years and sins at once.
Blanche tapped the paper once more.
“You’re doing the right thing,” he said. “You’ll look good in retirement.”
She signed.
They stood.
The meeting ended with no handshakes.
As the guards moved to take her back, the blonde woman, nearly silent the entire meeting stepped slightly behind Blanche and leaned in toward Maxwell’s ear.
In a voice as soft as silk and as cold as chloroform, she whispered, “You’ll be taken from this facility now. Cooperate with these two officers.”
Maxwell flinched. Her eyes widened.
The woman didn’t look back.
They didn’t take her to her cell.
This was not procedure.
“Why are we turning right?” Maxwell asked as they moved down the east wing.
Hollis, walking behind her now, didn’t answer.
They passed her usual unit. Passed Medical. Passed laundry. They weren’t going to the motor pool area, or admin. Something clicked in her mind. Something dark. Something terrifying.
“Where are we going?” she asked again.
Coosh didn’t meet her eyes.
Maxwell’s breathing quickened.
“I’m not suicidal,” she said louder. “I’m a model inmate. Ask anyone. No one will believe this.”
They turned into an old storage corridor. No cameras. The air smelled of bleach and North Florida’s unique scent of earthy decay.
Coosh Stoutamire finally spoke, her voice thick and low.
“Honey,” she said, “you know what we gotta do.”
Maxwell stopped walking.
Hollis didn’t move. He just exhaled, long and slow.
Maxwell turned to face them both. “The same as Jeffrey, isn’t it?”
Hollis nodded. “You think there’s room for you out there? You’re the final thread. They don’t leave threads.”
“Will there be pain?”
Hollis sighed. “No. We all like you, Max. But if we don’t do what we gotta...it’s us next. Or our littles.”
She stared at them. “I want to speak to my lawyer. I did what they asked.”
“We’re past that, honey,” Coosh said.
“I want to speak to Amanda right now,” Maxwell said, louder. “You can’t do this. I know the rules. I will disappear. I’ll never say a word...”
Hollis stepped forward and grabbed her arm, his enormous hand wrapping around her entire bicep.
“Don’t fight,” he said. “Just…let me do my job.”
A thick arm around her neck.
“Please,” she grunted. “Please, I—”
She didn’t finish.
The next morning, the warden issued a brief statement:
“Ghislaine Maxwell, inmate 02879-509, was found unresponsive in her cell at approximately 4:14 a.m. She was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. Preliminary reports indicate suicide. No foul play is suspected.
“We also have some terrible news that has deeply affected the FCI Tallahassee family. Corrections officers Sarah “Coosh” Stoutamire and Walton Hollis were killed last night in a tragic vehicle accident just off the FCI grounds.”
The press didn't linger. A few headlines. A segment on CNN. A smirking joke on Fox. MAGA media outlet exulted. Donald Trump promised to release everything on “Famous liberal Democrat Marxist pedo Jeffrey Epstein, who I secretly helped catch.” Nothing would ever come of the promise.
Todd Blanche’s office released a statement:
“While we had no direct involvement in Ms. Maxwell’s final days, we are saddened to hear of her passing. Justice must move forward.”
Amanda Leigh tried to file an injunction. She demanded the visitor logs, the surveillance footage. But the files were sealed within hours under “national security considerations.”
The cameras in the conference room? “Data lost due to a systems update.”
The blonde woman? Never identified.
Six months later, Blanche would die of a massive, unexpected heart attack while working out at a hotel gymnasium.
And the statement Maxwell signed?
It appeared, days later, in story on Fox, leaked from DOJ.
Last night, (June 30, 2025) I attended my first event for a Democratic candidate for office in the Town of Greece, NY. Amorette Miller is running for election to the Greece Town Board, Ward 3. This QR code (if my picture of it works) will take you to Amorette's campaign website. Remember, ALL politics is local. This is where it starts for me, in my new hometown.
noun The state of being in action or of exerting power; action; operation; instrumentality. noun A mode of exerting power; a means of producing effects.
We/I do not control Congress. BUT we each control ourselves. As the American ELECTORATE, we have substantial influence, even though it may not seem like it with Trump in the White House. With EVERY mass protest, we must grow the RESISTANCE. By the way, Erica Chenoweth's book (cover pictured below) can be found in MANY public libraries. And it makes an excellent reference book.
As far as what Stoic philosophy says about this moment in America...
We blame our bosses, the economy, our politicians, other people, or we write ourselves off as failures or our goals as impossible. When really only one thing is at fault: our attitude and approach.
There have been countless lessons (and books) about achieving success, but no one ever taught us how to overcome failure, how to think about obstacles, how to treat and triumph over them, and so we are stuck. Beset on all sides, many of us are disoriented, reactive, and torn.
We have no idea what to do. On the other hand, not everyone is paralyzed. We watch in awe as some seem to turn those very obstacles, which stymie us, into launching pads for themselves. How do they do that? What’s the secret? Even more perplexing, earlier generations faced worse problems with fewer safety nets and fewer tools. They dealt with the same obstacles we have today plus the ones they worked so hard to try to eliminate for their children and others. And yet . . . we’re still stuck.
What do these figures have that we lack? What are we missing? It’s simple: a method and a framework for understanding, appreciating, and acting upon the obstacles life throws at us. [i.e. Stoic philosophy]
John D. Rockefeller had it—for him it was cool headedness and self-discipline. Demosthenes, the great Athenian orator, had it—for him it was a relentless drive to improve himself through action and practice. Abraham Lincoln had it—for him it was humility, endurance, and compassionate will.
Holiday, Ryan. The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph (p. 2). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Don't blame ANYONE (even yourself, or even citizens who either voted poorly or didn't vote at all). Resolve. Embrace the obstacles. We SHALL overcome, because THIS LAND WAS MADE FOR YOU AND ME.
Speaking of folks who needed help refreshing their recollection, Bove struggled today in his confirmation hearing under questioning by California Senator Adam Schiff. Schiff asked him about the detail we discussed last night, the allegation in Whistleblower Erez Reuveni’s complaint about Bove’s dismissive comments about the courts. That would be the courts he now hopes to be confirmed to serve on.
SCHIFF: Did you suggest telling the courts 'fuck you' in any manner?
BOVE: I don't recall.
SCHIFF: You just don't remember that.
The exchange between Bove and Schiff is also in the last video above.
If you're so inclined, you may find your US Senators. You may phone the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. A switchboard operator will connect you directly with the Senate office you request.
I called my two earlier today, asking politely, yet assertively for each of them to vote AGAINST Bove in his quest to become a federal district judge.
Ken Burns' documentary series "The American Revolution" will premiere on PBS on November 16, 2025. It explores the war for independence, featuring various historical figures and examining the impact of the revolution on civil liberties and democratic movements worldwide. (AI search engine generated text about Burns' project)
Recently, Burns' team sat for a panel discussion in Concord, Mass to discuss the project. You can view the YT video (here) at 1.75x speed and understand it quite well.
Please plan to view the project when PBS broadcasts it.
Charles Sumner is mainly known as the abolitionist statesman who suffered a brutal caning on the Senate floor by the proslavery congressman Preston Brooks in 1856. This violent episode has obscured Sumner's status as the most passionate champion of equal rights and multiracial democracy of his time. A friend of Alexis de Tocqueville, an ally of Frederick Douglass, and an adviser to Abraham Lincoln, Sumner helped the Union win the Civil War and ordain the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment, the Freedmen's Bureau, and the Civil Rights Act of 1875.
Washington Post today published an op-ed by Tameez headlined: What we can learn from the senator who nearly died for democracy. The embedded link in this paragraph is to a "gift article" in WaPo so readers can read the op-ed for no charge. It begins:
Threats to lawmakers are nothing new and happens on both sides of the aisle.
Capitol Police reported 9,625 threats against members of Congress in 2021, a record high. That number dropped to 7,501 in 2022, but began to climb again with 8,008 threats in 2023 and 9,474 in 2024. And those are the threats that have been reported.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's book We All Want to Change the World: My Journey Through Social Justice Movements from the 1960s to Today, was published on May 15, 2025.
“When a tyrannical administration tried to bully and threaten Harvard to give up their academic freedom and destroy campus speech, Dr. Alan Garber rejected the illegal and immoral pressures,” Abdul-Jabbar said.
The basketball star was the featured speaker for Class Day, which brought thousands of students and their families into the Yard as Harvard and the Trump administration square off over federal funding and international students.
Abdul-Jabbar, who spoke about his path joining the civil rights movement and decision to boycott the 1968 Olympics, said he drew inspiration from Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King Jr.
In praising Harvard, Abdul-Jabbar referenced King’s encouragement to people to “choose justice over injustice.”
“One of the reasons I’m so pleased to be here today is because I view Harvard University as being among the others willing to take Dr. King’s place,” Abdul-Jabbar said.
Abdul-Jabbar motivated seniors to take up King’s struggle for justice.
“As I look out all over the beautiful faces today who are ready to launch their lives of successful careers, I wonder how many of you will be among the others willing to take Dr. King’s place,” he said.
Outgoing College Dean Rakesh Khurana did not directly address the fight with the White House, but in explaining to the seniors what they could expect during the University-wide Commencement ceremony on Thursday, changed gears mid-sentence to lead a rallying cry.
“I will begin with salutations to President Garber — and by the way, can we give a huge round of applause to President Garber for standing up for what’s right?” Khurana said.
The crowd roared into applause and a 15-second standing ovation.
The opening epigraph to Abdul-Jabbar's book quotes a line from The Beatles' song (referenced in this blog post title and in the YT video above):
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
From the back cover of the hard bound edition (which I purchased),
"Protest movements, Even peaceful ones, are never popular at first.... but there is a reason that protests have been so frequent throughout history: they are effective. The United States exists because of them."
I know I want to change the world. My hunch is that if YOU are a reader of the Arizona Eagletarian, you do too.
Heather Cox Richardsonis the preeminent historian shedding insight on the lawless, oppressive and authoritarian Trump administration.
This is her Letter from an American (listen to Heather read the letter at the link) from last night.
May 27, 2025 (Tuesday)
Political scientist Adam Bonica noted last Friday that Trump and the administration suffered a 96% loss rate in federal courts in the month of May. Those losses were nonpartisan: 72.2% of Republican-appointed judges and 80.4% of Democratic-appointed judges ruled against the administration.
The administration sustained more losses today.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that 14 states can proceed with their lawsuit against billionaire Elon Musk and the “Department of Government Efficiency.” The administration had tried to dismiss the case, but Chutkan ruled the states had adequately supported their argument that “Musk and DOGE’s conduct is ‘unauthorized by any law.’” “The Constitution does not permit the Executive to commandeer the entire appointments power by unilaterally creating a federal agency…and insulating its principal officer from the Constitution as an ‘advisor’ in name only,” she wrote.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon struck down Trump’s March 27 executive order targeting the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, more commonly known as WilmerHale. This law firm angered Trump by employing Robert Mueller, the Republican-appointed special counsel who oversaw an investigation of the ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian operatives.
Leon, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush, made his anger obvious. “[T]he First Amendment prohibits government officials from retaliating against individuals for engaging in protected speech,” Leon noted. “WilmerHale alleges that ‘[t]he Order blatantly defies this bedrock principle of constitutional law.’” Leon wrote: “I agree!” He went on to strike down the order as unconstitutional.
Today NPR and three Colorado public radio stations sued the Trump administration over Trump’s executive order that seeks to impound congressionally appropriated funds for NPR and PBS. The executive order said the public media stations do not present “a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.” NPR’s David Folkenflik reported White House spokesperson Harrison Fields’s statement today that public media supports “a particular party on the taxpayers’ dime,” and that Trump and his allies have called it “left-wing propaganda.”
The lawsuit calls Trump’s executive order and attempt to withhold funding Congress has already approved “textbook retaliation.” “[W]e are not choosing to do this out of politics,” NPR chief executive officer Katherine Maher told NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly. “We are choosing to do this as a matter of necessity and principle. All of our rights that we enjoy in this democracy flow from the First Amendment: freedom of speech, association, freedom of the press. When we see those rights infringed upon, we have an obligation to challenge them.”
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis today denied the administration’s motion for a 30-day extension of the deadline for it to answer the complaint in the lawsuit over the rendition of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man sent to El Salvador through what the administration said was “administrative error.”
Despite five hearings on the case, the administration’s lawyers didn’t indicate they needed any more time, but today—the day their answer was due—they suddenly asked for 30 more days. Xinis wrote that they “expended no effort in demonstrating good cause. They vaguely complain, in two sentences, to expending ‘significant resources’ engaging in expedited discovery. But these self-described burdens are of their own making. The Court ordered expedited discovery because of [the administration’s] refusal to follow the orders of this court as affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.”
Trump is well known for using procedural delays to stop the courts from administering justice, and it is notable that administration lawyers have generally not been arguing that they will win cases on the merits. Instead, they are making procedural arguments.
Meanwhile, stringing things out means making time for situations to change on the ground, reducing the effect of court decisions. Brian Barrett of Wired reported today that while Musk claims to have stepped back from the Department of Government Efficiency, his lieutenants are still spread throughout the government, mining Americans’ data. Meanwhile, Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought will push to make DOGE cuts to government permanent in a dramatic reworking of the nation’s social contract. “Removing DOGE at this point would be like trying to remove a drop of food coloring from a glass of water,” Barrett writes.
Political scientist Bonica notes that there is a script for rising authoritarians. When the courts rule against the leader, the leader and his loyalists attack judges as biased and dangerous, just as Trump and his cronies have been doing.
The leader also works to delegitimize the judicial system, and that, too, we are seeing as Trump reverses the concepts of not guilty and guilty. On the one hand, the administration is fighting to get rid of the constitutional right of all persons to due process, rendering people who have not been charged with crimes to prisons in third countries. On the other, Trump and his loyalists at the Department of Justice are pardoning individuals who have been convicted of crimes.
On Monday, Trump issued a presidential pardon to former Culpeper County, Virginia, sheriff Scott Jenkins, a longtime Trump supporter whom a jury convicted of conspiracy, mail and wire fraud, and seven counts of bribery. Jared Gans of The Hill explained that Jenkins accepted more than $70,000 in bribes to appoint auxiliary deputy sheriffs, “giving them badges and credentials despite them not being trained or vetted and not offering services to the sheriff’s office.” Jenkins had announced he would “deputize thousands of our law-abiding citizens to protect their constitutional right to own firearms,” if the legislature passed “further unnecessary gun restrictions.” Jenkins was sentenced to ten years in prison.
Although Jenkins was found guilty by a jury of his peers, just as the U.S. justice system calls for, Trump insisted that Jenkins and his wife and their family “have been dragged through HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden D[epartment] O[f] J[ustice].” Jenkins, Trump wrote on social media, “is a wonderful person, who was persecuted by the Radical Left ‘monsters,’ and ‘left for dead.’ This is why I, as President of the United States, see fit to end his unfair sentence, and grant Sheriff Jenkins a FULL and Unconditional Pardon. He will NOT be going to jail tomorrow, but instead will have a wonderful and productive life.”
Today Trump gave a presidential pardon to Paul Walczak, a former nursing home executive who pleaded guilty to tax crimes in 2024. The pardon arrived after Walczak’s mother donated at least $1 million to Trump. The pardon spares Walczak from 18 months in prison and $4.4 million in restitution. Also today, Trump announced plans to pardon reality TV stars Julie and Todd Chrisley, who were sentenced to 7 and 12 years in prison for conspiracy to defraud banks of $36 million and tax evasion. Their daughter spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention.
Bonica notes that delegitimizing the judicial system creates a permission structure for threats against judges. That, too, we are seeing.
Bonica goes on to illustrate how this pattern of authoritarian attacks on the judiciary looks the same across nations. In 2009, following a ruling that he was not immune from prosecution for fraud, tax evasion, and bribery, Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi railed about “communist prosecutors and communist judges.” In 2016, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Türkiye rejected the authority of his country’s highest court and purged more than 4,000 judges. Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe pushed judges to stop protests, and the judiciary collapsed. In the Philippines in 2018, Rodrigo Duterte called the chief justice defending judicial independence an “enemy,” and she was removed. In Brazil in 2021, Jair Bolsonaro threatened violence against the judges who were investigating him for corruption.
But, Bonica notes, something different happened in Israel in 2023. When Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition tried to destroy judicial independence, people from all parts of society took to the streets. A broad, nonpartisan group came together to defend democracy and resist authoritarianism.
“Every authoritarian who successfully destroyed judicial independence did so because civil society failed to unite in time,” Bonica writes. “The key difference? Whether people mobilized.”
Seven decades ago, I was born into a Catholic family in upstate New York. I was baptized shortly thereafter. When I was 12-years old, I was confirmed in the church.
One year thereafter, with my mother's side of the family, I moved to Phoenix, AZ where I attended high school(s). I rarely attended mass.
In 2010, I began writing the Arizona Eagletarian. Primarily covering the AZ Independent Redistricting Commission. The first several hundred posts here on this blog remain as a record of that coverage.
"Eagletarian" was and is a play on the word egalitarian.
In my seven decades, I've lived a rich life. Rich in terms of many mistakes and some triumphs too.
In 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected Pope, head of the Catholic Church. Strikingly, he chose to take the name Francis.
The ABC News report, which I viewed on Hulu, noted that Bergoglio had a reputation at the beginning of his time as an archbishop as authoritarian. At some point thereafter, he had a substantive change in his personality. Personally, I hope to learn more about how and under what circumstances that change took place.
The Book of the Acts of the Apostles includes the story of the conversion of the Apostle Paul. That's the closest I am aware of for change similar to that which Bergoglio experienced. To me, reference to Bergoglio's "epiphany" was the most salient part of the ABC report. I hope to learn more about it in the near future.
In 2019, after a bitter divorce, I began reading and studying Stoic philosophy from books written by Ryan Holiday. The trilogy includes The Obstacle is the Way; Ego is the Enemy, and Stillness is the Key.
I have found great comfort and encouragement in the Stoic perspective.
Further, Pope Francis' life and ministry has had profound positive impact in the world. He will be missed. I hope someone who emulates him gets to succeed him.
...That Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a bad guy why is he trying SO damn hard to CON people into believing it when all he would have to do is present him to a US court and see if he has those tattoos on his knuckles? Of course, anyone with critical thinking/analysis skills might also ask Why Mr Garcia's FACE is not in the picture.
Why would anyone with at least half a brain believe Trump's dubious claims about ANYthing?
Contrary to what he said in the "UNtruth not so social" post above, Trump was NOT elected to replace courts of law. Said courts of law must be allowed to do their job without interference or subterfuge from the conman-in-chief.
The real TRUTH is so simple.
By the way, I wonder what Carville has to say about the apparently impending collapse of Trump's regime.
------
As an aside, today's news has Trump denying Hegseth will be replaced; WaPo columnist Max Boot decrying Hegseth's lack of experience and that the SecDef is most obviously in over his head; Your existential terror is adorable; Your government has no idea how to government? And also hates you? That meme with the adorable cartoon dog whose complacency is about to cause him to burn to death:
The ELEPHANT in the room, bottom line, MUST BE to have the courage to make GOOD TROUBLE!
Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson, who calls himself a practicing Stoic makes a solid case in this video today for why the Stoic virtue of courage is the most important. Without courage, there can be no other virtue.
The Stoics believed that a life well lived was one which always countered adversity with virtue. And they believed in four aspects of virtue: courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom. Each and every situation calls for one or more of these four Stoic virtues, and nothing in life exempts us from their power.
Today, we begin with one of the most important: Courage.
If you’ve read Cormac McCarthy’s dark and beautiful novel All the Pretty Horses, you’ll remember the key question that Emilio Perez asks John Grady, one that cuts to the core of life and what we all must do to live a life worth living.
“The world wants to know if you have cojones. If you are brave?”
Americans in this era of having to cope with Trump in his second term as president, gravely face the same question. If you've been paying attention, I don't need to make an argument for it. Trump is the argument. Unless the collective WE (the PEOPLE) RISE UP (and I am confident that WE WILL), Trump has already made short work of undermining the Constitution.
"Alone we are fragile but together we are strong." That's the quote. My take is that we are not all equally fragile, but together we ARE VERY much stronger.
With the April 5th Day of Action right around the corner, Ana María Archila and Jen Rubin discuss the mission of the Working Families Party, the reason people are coming together this Saturday, and how together, we are so much stronger than the forces of autocracy.
This interview has several key statements both by Ms Archila and by Jen Rubin. It's worth your 11 and a half minutes.
Over the previous few days, a few friends who have been paying attention to the news and maybe too much to what Trump has been saying, have been expressing less than optimistic concerns about Trump. Some of that arose out of Trump now spewing bullshit about running for a third term in the presidency.
I expect to hear MORE resistance to his BULLSHIT. I refuse to be silenced.
I have picked up on Trump's consistent backing down and backing off EVERY time he is BOLDLY confronted by WE the PEOPLE. I'm not the only one to have picked up on it.
Further, I and others have posted on this blog and on other social media, including Bluesky and Facebook.
Valarie Kaur, author of See No Stranger, posted the image above in 2022.
WE the PEOPLE MUST boldly confront Trump. Join me in refusing to be silenced. Join me in solidarity and optimism. When you are OPTIMISTIC, be MINDFULLY optimistic.
IF and when you are optimistic, you do NOT obey Trump's confusion and pessimistic BULLSHIT even if blasted subliminally, you will refuse to be silenced, just as I am.
Just last Friday, Michigan Law Professor and former US Attorney Barbara McQuade, in a written interview on Joyce Vance's Civil Discourse substack stated without equivocation:
Barbara McQuade, U of Michigan law professor, last Friday, on Joyce Vance's substack, Civil Discourse stated, without equivocation: The thing that gives me optimism is the way Trump backs down when he is confronted with resistance. One of his tactics is to exhaust us with conflicting claims. One day he says the president of Ukraine is a dictator and the next he denies saying that.
Professor McQuade authored the 2024 book Attack from Within AND IS OPTIMISTIC. So AM I.
Pay attention to what you say and to whom you say it.
From Yale professor and bestselling author of How Fascism Works [Jason Stanley], a searing confrontation with the authoritarian right’s efforts to annihilate public education, silence teachers, and use taxpayer money to undo a century of work to advance social justice action on race, gender, sexuality, and class. Combining historical research with an in-depth analysis of our modern political landscape, Erasing History issues a dire warning for America and the worst fascist movements of humanity’s past which began in schools; [...] Yale professor Jason Stanley exposes the true danger of the right’s tactics and traces their inspirations and funding back to some of the most dangerous ideas of human history. He shows that hearts and minds are won in our elementary schools, high schools, and universities—and that governments are currently ill-prepared to do the work of uprooting fascist policies being foisted upon our children through school boards, in courtrooms, and in the boardrooms of the companies trusted to train our teachers and create the materials they’ll share with their students. Deeply informed and urgently needed, this book is a vibrant call to action for lovers of democracy worldwide. -- from Goodreads.com
We've known for some time THAT Trump 2.0 was intent on establishing Fascism in America. NOW we have a better idea of how they intend to do so. In other words, attacking the universities and the law firms which challenge the Fascist policies and practices of Trump 2.0.
We've KNOWN (or at least I have been previously able to surmise) that Trump 2.0 is deathly afraid of the American ELECTORATE rising up to challenge them/it.
We NOW know that Trump 2.0 has been silent and backed off when it senses WE the PEOPLE are rising up as such. That is, similar to how during the 2024 election campaign, it/he alluded to but did not explicitly state how or why there would be NO NEED to vote in future elections.
NOW the challenge for FREEDOM loving America and Americans is to figure out how to do more than to simply react to the overt moves the administration takes each day. Instead, we must figure out how to anticipate moves and both tactically and strategically counter those actions to prevent it from entirely undermining the US Constitution.
We've seen and known this for the last two months. BUT it IS overdue for WE the PEOPLE to SAY IT, and say it LOUD. And say it OFTEN. And KEEP SAYING IT.
Why? Because when WE say it. And keep saying it, It makes it easier for the next gals and guys to say it without fear. With fearless boldness. If YOU are afraid "they" will come after you, do the math. There are FAR more of us than there are of them.
This YT clip with Katie Couric and Heather Cox Richardson is an hour long. You can listen to a little bit of it, or a lot (ALL). No matter how much, recognize the patterns of Trump's conduct. It's not rocket science.
Just know that as cringeworthy as everything Trump and his co-president Mush (typo intentional) say and do, Trump DOES back down every time WE the PEOPLE say it loud and say it often. And with emphasis.
EVERY single damn time WE confront Trump boldly, he backs down. They might be less afraid of federal courts and therefore willing to challenge federal judges, but they ARE afraid ofWE THE PEOPLE.
If you don't believe it, demand your local or national corporate media enterprise dedicate the work of its paid journalists to prove you/us wrong.
I dare them to stand up and demand Trump stand up to WE the PEOPLE.
He will NOT do it. Because the one thing his actions tell us more than anything else...
More than that Trump is Pewtin's asset
More than that Musk acts like he's got Trump indebted to him for the hundreds of millions of dollars spent to "rig" the election last November...
Is that Trump wants to be worshiped as a KING by the people of America.
He has said that he wants to get his agenda put in place prior to the 2026 mid term election.
I believe WE THE PEOPLE can push the timeline, make it even closer to today.
WHO OWNS WHOM?
Does Mush/Trump own the American government? Or do we?
We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
There is nothing I've paid more attention to over the last two months than Gene Sharp's knowledge and insight. Sharp was ALL about NONVIOLENCE and nonviolent struggle. NONVIOLENCE is far more powerful than violent struggle. It's ALL in this short book, 93 pages. First published 32 years ago.
Lest you think I make a premature declaration, have you attended or watched any of the Fight Oligarchyrallies the last few days with AOC and Bernie Sanders? Compare reports of expected attendance with those of how many people actually showed up.
I'm not going to spell out an abbreviated timeline for deposing the billionaires in power in the federal government at this time.
I am going to say that the greater the pressure from WE THE PEOPLE, the faster those who can expedite getting rid of Trump WILL get rid of him.
Mush may threaten Republicans in Congress with getting primaried. But the time has come to call those Republicans on the threat.
We have two seats in Congress that are subject to special elections on April 1, 2025. What happens when Dems win both of them?
Meta’s criticism has hardly curbed the memoir’s popularity. Wynn-Williams’s book is getting the kind of news coverage and social media chatter that many first-time authors can only dream of, having debuted at No. 1 earlier this month on the New York Times bestseller list for nonfiction and sold well ever since.
Might it be time to regroup and prepare for a dramatic change in the political dynamic at work (or play) since... well, since Trump and his ilk, along with other Big Money players arrived on the American political scene.
Nah, I must be dreaming.
Nevertheless, it feels BIG.
Once upon a time Sarah Wynn-Williams worked for Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook/Meta.
She published a memoir of her time at the right hand of a capitalist god.
Since a US court determined she would not be allowed to promote her book, the gods of Capitalism and Publicity dropped their mic and said, here let me take over for you.
Meta scrambled to silence a tell-all book. Now it’s a bestseller.
An arbitration ruling bars author Sarah Wynn-Williams from promoting her memoir tarnishing Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg with what the social media giant says are lies. Sure, just because a capitalist god tries to convince you something is a lie, you should believe them, right?
Maybe WE the people of Facebook should weigh in on the brouhaha.
“By the end, I watched hopelessly as they sucked up to authoritarian regimes like China’s and casually misled the public. I was on a private jet with Mark the day he finally understood that Facebook probably did put Donald Trump in the White House, and came to his own dark conclusions from that. But most days, working on policy at Facebook was way less like enacting a chapter from Machiavelli and way more like watching a bunch of fourteen-year-olds who’ve been given superpowers and an ungodly amount of money, as they jet around the world to figure out what power has bought and brought them. That’s the story I’m here to tell.” -- Sarah Winn-Williams
I was practically still a kid when Howard Beale (in the 1976 movie, Network) declared that he was mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.
What has changed in the last half century?
Some good things, and some not so good.
Bernie Sanders is rock solid and he's going to make sure Trump and Musk aren't going to continue their undermining of the entire American federal government.
Along with AOC, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Bernie has a HUGE platform and with the American electorate standing together with them, we are NOT going to have to take it any more.
Because... when WE fight, we WIN.
It has been about five months since Trump stole the election for his second term.
Many of us, my friends, were shell shocked by Musk spending hundreds of millions of dollars to corruptly win.
In that five months, like a dam holding back rising water, a movement Trump will not be able withstand, is almost ready to overtake that dam.
WE are NOT going to have to take Trump's lies and rampant abuses of power for very much longer.
For emphasis, this last video (above) is a half hour long. It likely won't take that long for you, dear reader to get the idea about how overwhelmed Trump and Musk are going to find themselves very, very soon.
At the time, agency management and Republican state lawmakers started acting like they had sticky fingers. Of course, it was fashionable to claim privatizing government services would "save taxpayer dollars. It was the 1990s. I worked as an accountant for the Arizona Dept. of Economic Security. Major efforts were underway to privatize copy making and social services. In another agency, privatizing prisons has had its biggest advocate in alternating two-year terms both in the state senate and House of Representatives.
That, to my mind was always complete and total bullshit. Because I could "see" that replacing state employee benefits with a new line item called profit, didn't add up to taxpayer cost savings.
This week, Thompson and Johnston lifted the veil on Elon Musk and his chainsaw gimmick. If YOU TOO have wondered why Musk isn't really showing any numbers (waste, fraud, abuse), David's gift for making complex issues easy to understand might just make sense to you.
Johnston doesn't mince words when it comes to calling out Trump corruption. He no longer works for corporate media enterprises, but did so for a LOOOONNNNGGGG time. Most recently he was a cofounder of DCReport.org, and for a few years taught journalism and law as an adjunct professor at Syracuse University Law School. Now, he's a professor of practice at Rochester Institute of Technology, teaching Journalism.
Boston College historian Heather Cox Richardson's and FB stand out star gives outstanding explanations and perspectives on our troubled attempts to fulfill the promise of our Constitution's preamble. She writes Letters from an American and publishes them on substack, Facebook, and YouTube..
Boston College historian Heather Cox Richardson's and FB stand out star gives outstanding explanations and perspectives on our troubled attempts to fulfill the promise of our Constitution's preamble. She writes Letters from an American and publishes them on substack, Facebook, and YouTube.. On what one thing most handily casts out the fear Trump and Musk clearly intend to sow across out nation fully deserves your undivided attention for a minute and a half.
That is, if you struggle with negative emotion (like fear, anger, and doubt) as a result of what cult leader Donald Trump tries to do every time he opens his mouth.
