THE LAND OF FREEDUMB

So, my friend The Talking Dog is back with a reflection on Guantanamo and our fucked up country.  

So here we are. What is really going on? I submit to you that Guantanamo ain’t just a ̶r̶i̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶E̶g̶y̶p̶t̶ bay in Cuba. The aftermath of September 11th was an extremely useful excuse to change paradigms, and once and for all, alter even the perception that the United States was some kind of “free country.” In conjunction with a suite of technologies made available as a result of the internet age, the same security and intelligence agencies that were widely [and rightly] blamed for the failures that led directly to the September 11th events were revitalized and reconstituted in various ways (“innovations” included the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence). There were, of course, massive increases in budgets of the Defense Department and the “intelligence community” agencies to “fight the global war on terror,” and of course, to spy on every aspect of our lives (often with the help of such useful technological developments as “social media” and the “smart phone,” serving as rocket fuel for Silicon Valley and Wall Street, and resulting in tech behemoths that, by market capitalization, are the largest business enterprises in the history of the universe.) As September 11th fades from memory over the years (and the rationale for GTMO with it), the surveillance state just gets more robust with each passing year, as do the technical means of maintaining control over us (as if employment at will and permanently precarious “health insurance” aren’t already doing the heavy lifting of suppression).

READ THE WHOLE THING HERE.

musical interlude

 

FROM ROGER FITCH and our friends down under at Justinian.

Goths at the gate

Roger Fitch Esq • Friday, November 29, 2024

Trump's narrow victory ... Gangsters, plunderers and incompetents ready to sack Washington ... Trump's narrow victory ... Dross on top ... Roger Fitch on America's kakistocracy 

"Trump's reckless venality is a reason for hope. Trump has the soul of a fascist but the mind of a disordered child. He will likely be surrounded by terrible but incompetent people. All of them can be beaten: in court, in Congress, in statehouses around the nation, and in the public arena ... the states ... have ways to protect their citizens from a rogue president" - Tom Nichols, the Atlantic 

"[C]ompetence is the last in the list of traits [Trump] seeks in nominees. That is usually a bad thing, but when the job they’re being tasked with is destroying all that is good and true, it's a reason for hope. Trump lost a lot of momentum early in his presidency because of his contempt for competence. Let’s hope that happens a second time around" - Amanda Marcotte, Salon 

≈   ≈   ≈

A convicted felon, he's been judged the worst president in American history. Yet, boosted by the invincible ignorance of some, a plurality of voters re-elected Donald Trump president of a country he nearly destroyed.

He plans to finish the job, endowed by the supreme court with newly-invented criminal immunity. We may be certain he will use it early and often. 

After the most expensive election in history, Republicans scored a trifeca with the presidency and both houses, but the 435-seat house is very close: 220 Republicans/215 Democrats, but three Republicans are new Trump nominees. Republican gerrymanders produce at least 16 seats, now 19, after a 3-seat North Carolina pickup: NC's 2022-elected supreme court re-allowed gerrymanders the previous court found unconstitutional.

After obstructing Biden for two years, a Republican-majority congress can't wait to undo his reforms, dismantle agencies, overturn regulations, stack courts and cut taxes for the rich. 

Corruption on an unimaginable scale will return. With Trump v US giving presidents immunity, and the court's watered-down bribery jurisprudence, Trump has little to fear in legal consequences. 

Kleptocracy rules, and the usual villains and lobbyists are queuing for pillaging permits. It's pay-to-play, especially if you're rich: cabinet-designees Linda McMahon and Elon Musk donated $15 million and $118 million, respectively, as "campaign contributions". 

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Like Silvio Berluscone and Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump escaped prison by getting elected. Now he wants revenge.

He plans to start by prosecuting all the people who prosecuted him, beginning with Special Counsel Jack Smith. Smith was previously head of a War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague, where he succeeded in trying and convicting criminal leaders in other countries. 

Berluscone - election saved him from the clink 

While in office, Donald Trump won't have to worry about any of the outstanding federal crimes he's been charged with committing during and after his first term in office, and thanks to a timely ruling from the party's Revolutionary Tribunal - the Supreme Court Six - he doesn't have to worry about being charged for crimes he plans to commit or may inadvertently commit during his next term in office, self-dealing included.  

He's demanding alarming additional powers, e.g, skipping senate confirmations, by recess appointments, and power for Treasury to selectively label as terrorist organisations, any non-profits that get in his way. Trump truculently stalled, then agreed, the transition's uncongenial ethics requirements.

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READ THE REST HERE.

Proud to be a "leftie"

 This is what the nominee to head the department of defense had to say about Guantanamo:

 “It got mucked up very early when left-wing lawyers and other protections came in,” he said. “It could have been a great place to expeditiously interrogate, try and, you know, execute, because we are in a war.”

Note: the other "protections" were from the Courts. He won't have to worry about that part for a long time, if ever.

meanwhile

 

From Roger Fitch and our friends down under at Justinian.

 

It's Hitlerish

Roger Fitch Esq • Friday, November 8, 2024

Reelection of a charlatan ... Republicans take popular vote for the first time in 20 years ... Amnesia ... Trashing a democracy ... Trump and his team of troubled men ... Mainstream media wilts in the eye of the storm ... Depravity, greed and revenge are the new normal ... Roger Fitch files from Washington 

"Some Trump voters may believe his lies. But plenty more want Trump to be terrifying and stomach-turning so that re-electing him will be a fully realized act of social revenge. Harris cannot propose any policy, offer any benefit, or adopt any position that competes with that feeling" - Atlantic

"What luck for the rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler

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Before the election, the NYRB and Atlantic warned that the 60th presidential election could mark the end of democracy in America. The Washington Monthly noted a Nazi analogy to the complicity of America's traditional conservatives in Trump's takeover of the Republican Party. The NYRB published reviews of new books on Hitler's 1933 ascent to power in Germany.

In one of the two dominant political parties there was no shame; no law, custom or standard of common decency that party operatives wouldn't transgress. Their presidential candidate, Donald Trump, was the worst, embracing racism and misogyny, or misogynoir, in the case of his opponent Kamala Harris.

Close to the election, the Republican candidate's behaviour became more erratic: at a charitable function, the white-tie Al Smith dinner, he descended into insults and obscenities in a room filled with Catholic priests, presided over by the Archbishop of New York. 

At campaign stops he called Harris a "shit vice-president" and extolled the genital endowments of a dead  golfer. His rallies became freak shows offering "extra buffoonery with a side of fascism", entertainment for his supporters and a continuation of the TV series that made him a household name, The Apprentice.

The ex-president himself saw it as a TV show. In explaining his loss in their "debate", he suggested Harris was given the answers in advance, like the 1950s quiz show scandals.

The Republican meanwhile hawked the same tat one might see in late-night TV ads: gold sneakers, trading cards (of himself), watches, the perfume "Trump" (Musk-scented?), even a "Trump bible" (printed in China) unsuccessfully foisted on Oklahoma school children.  

This was the classy candidate that the once-venerable Republican Party offered for president in 2024.

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READ THE REST HERE.

Military Plea Deal Upheld UPDATED

 You might remember that a few months ago a plea deal was struck (hit on the links for two earlier posts of mine on the subject) with the handful of men at Guantanamo who were actually charged with something. The deal was that the death penalty was taken off the table in return for their guilty pleas. A few days after the deal was accepted by the judge the secretary of defense (Austin) tried to renig on the deal. Yesterday a senior military judge said "no" you cannot pull out of a deal that was bargained for and accepted. Read more here. I will see if I can find an actual copy of the order but in essence the military Col. judge said that Austin vested authority in the judge to accept a plea deal and just because he didn't like the deal did not give him authority to overrule the deal. 

Not sure how much the rule of law will continue to be followed in this country but this was good news.

The secretary of defense has appealed the decision. sigh.

and I wonder what's gone wrong....

 

Musical interlude. The sequel

 

musical interlude

 

FROM OUR FRIENDS DOWN UNDER AT JUSTINIAN

 

Bring back Dwight Eisenhower

Roger Fitch Esq • Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Supreme Court's new term ... Judicial culture war ... Motions for Trump's immunity determinations ... Cognitive decline on the election trail ... Judges waiting to muddle the election results ... Election countdown ... Plans for a new Supreme Court ... Our US legal correspondent Roger Fitch reports from Washington 

"[Trump] was a particularly unattractive version of his titanically arrogant, spectacularly dishonest and shockingly ill-informed self, claiming that Democrats were slaughtering newborns, that Harris was a Marxist, that he'd championed the Affordable Care Act, that the Jan. 6 rioters were veritable peaceniks and that as soon as he turns his gilded hand to the war between Russia and Ukraine ... it will magically end" - NYT's Frank Bruni on the Harris-Trump debate

"[N]o one in the Republican party dare say the emperor is naked and demented" - Salon

"[T]he press ... is the weak slat under the bed of democracy" - AJ Liebling

The countdown to the presidential election has begun, and the media, clinging to the safer narrative, have given the candidates the full horse race spin. Although Trump's cognitive decline should be topic one, his rallies are often reported in facile headlines and articles that ignore, paper-over or polish the incoherent rants of the half-mad Republican candidate. 

The ex-president, now a convicted felon, has moved beyond personality disorder, egomania and malignant narcissism, into new realms of fantasy beliefs, yet his craziness is scrubbed up by the media.

At the 11th hour, in the midst of media "sane-washing", Trump's mental fitness is finally being addressed, even by the timid NY Times. 

As a Salon columnist remarked, the former president "was always hobbled with severe personality disorders and a lifelong aversion to learning, but this is different. He's losing words, forgetting basic details (like who he's running against) and droning on about stuff that only makes sense in his fractured brain".

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"[I]f the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court ... the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having ... practically resigned their Government into the hands of that ... tribunal" - Abraham Lincoln

"Judicial activism is a great threat to the rule of law because unaccountable federal judges are usurping democracy, ignoring the constitution and separation of powers, and imposing their personal opinions on the public ... We oppose stealth nominations to the federal bench ..." - Republican Party platform (2008)

READ THE REST HERE.

Give to the Guantanamo's survivor fund....

 I know, if you are like me, you are giving a lot to help with this election but if you can spare a little please help the Guantanamo survivors. Click here to support these men.

LEST WE FORGET

 

September 11. 23 YEARS LATER...

 As per my usual posting on this day I turn to my friend the talking dog. The dog was actually in the midst of that chaos and shares his reflections most years.

Here is this years. 

From Roger Fitch and our friends down under at Justinian.

 

Election muddling

Roger Fitch Esq • Wednesday, September 4, 2024

Mounting frenzy ... Democrats produce a Black Swan moment ... Trump's own goals ... Australia's most toxic export ... Murdoch - the man who gave us Trump ... Plans for a new "steal" campaign ... Republican judges  meddling in the election ... Roger Fitch files from Washington 

"Trump should step aside as his criminal convictions and continued legal troubles have clearly taken a toll on the 78 year old conman" - Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota)

"Kamala Harris has a resumé. Donald Trump has a rap sheet" - Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas)

Americans seem to be awakening from the learned helplessness induced by the Trump Stolen Election Delusion. For nearly four years, a political subversive and supporter of violent insurrection has been running around the country, claiming he won an election he actually lost by seven million votes. Many believed him. 

The spell of this absurdist drama may finally be breaking. There's been a remarkable change since the Democrats chose an articulate career prosecutor to stand for president against the incoherent felon representing the Republicans. 

Only weeks ago, Democrats were dreading their upcoming August convention, with President Biden's campaign seemingly doomed, even when facing such a dreadful candidate as Trump. 

What no one expected was a Black Swan event. Jonathan Alter explains.

That came when Mr Biden, though a "transformative" president, stumbled, withdrew, and was replaced as candidate by his Vice-President, Kamala Harris who has recently led by 3+ points. Trump is now the weaker candidate, and the election is soon - November 5th.

On the eve of the Democrats' convention, House Republicans released the report of a sham "impeachment investigation" of President Biden. As there was no evidence of wrongdoing, and Mr Biden was no longer the candidate, it sank like a stone.

READ THE REST HERE.