October 27, 2019
This week, we have crossed the Rubicon. While we have never had any illusions about Trump and his cabal of corrupt toadies, this week we have seen definitively that if they can’t maintain power through subterfuge, they will take it by force.
On Wednesday, Florida Frat Boy, Matt Gaetz led a band of miscreants to storm the SCIF where witnesses in the impeachment inquiry were being heard. The stunt was a trifecta of stupid, dangerous and violent. It was stupid because 12 of the group who busted into the SCIF sit on one of the three committees conducting the impeachment inquiry and have ability to question witnesses and elicit information. It was dangerous because the purpose of a SCIF (which stands for Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) is to enable discussion and handling of classified or sensitive intelligence information in a secure environment. Cell phones are not allowed in a SCIF because they can be hacked and turned into listening devices by any number of hostile foreign actors. Yet several of these heedless lunkheads refused to give up their cellphones and tweeted and attempted to live stream from the SCIF. It was violent because the sight of more than 30 men rushing into a secure facility was designed to intimidate the woman there to testify- Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Laura Cooper, (Source: “Republican storm closed-door impeachment hearing as escalatingUkraine scandal threatens Trump,” by Toluse Olurunnipa, Josh Dawsey and Mike DeBonis, The Washington Post, 10/23/19).
This ridiculous gambit, a desperate attempt to change the subject from Ambassador Bill Taylor’s damning testimony from the day before, fooled no one. Taylor’s 15 page opening statement left no doubt that Trump had demanded that Zelensky publicly announce an investigation into Burisma and Hunter Biden as the “price” of a White House visit and delivery of Congressionally-authorized military aid, (Source: “Why Ambassador Bill Taylor’s Testimony Was So Damaging To Trump,” by John Cassidy, The New Yorker, 10/23/19).
Next, Trump’s lawyer actually argued in federal court that Trump could neither be indicted nor investigated for a crime, a position that garnered an incredulous reaction from Judge Denny Chin and that was characterized by Judge Marrero in a separate case as being “repugnant to the nation’s fundamental structure and Constitutional values,” (Source: “In court hearing, Trump lawyer argues a sitting president would be immune from prosecution even if he were to shoot someone,” by Ann E. Marimow and Jonathan O’Connell, The Washington Post, 10/23/19).
The most ominous development, though, was the news that the Justice Department had opened a criminal inquiry into the roots of the Russia investigation. This is a bizarre case of the Justice Department investigating itself. Attorney General William Barr has made no secret that he lends more credence to right wing conspiracy theories than to the conclusions of our own intelligence agencies, (Source: “Justice Department is Said to Launch Criminal Inquiry Into Its Own Investigation,” by Katie Benner and Adam Goldman, The New York Times, 10/24/19).
The playbook that unspooled over this past week may feel as if it was imported from an alien authoritarian regime, but the truth is that it is as American as apple pie. We have always used violence to silence dissent. Just ask the Black Panthers or those who were students at Kent State on May 4, 1970. We have always used the power of the state to ruin the lives of those who refuse to conform to the status quo. Just look at Dalton Trumbo. We have always resorted to unsupportable arguments to maintain an unjust status quo. Just read Plessy v. Ferguson. Let’s face it, the tactics aren’t new, only the targets are.
Thanks Lisa! I learn something every week!
Thank you Nikki!