In a new piece I wrote for MSNOW, I offer some additional context for a topic we’ve been following here on Civil Discourse. It’s important and I wanted to share the view from the Deep South with the network’s viewers too. This piece helps to complete the thoughts I’ve been sharing here about the Justice Department’s deeply flawed prosecution of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
I do not understand why the judge in this case fails to see this as a vindictive prosecution. That is exactly what this is. I know she was appointed by trump. Is that going to be the basis for how she runs her courtroom? If so, when the Democrats are in charge, she should be impeached and shown the door, just like aileen cannon. All this is really just a bunch of crap to make the civil rights voices suffer…and it just really pisses me off.
this is what roy cohn taught donald when he and his father were sued for denying black people apartments. He countersued and won, which set him on a lifelong path of abusing the courts with frivolous lawsuits to make defendants suffer. Would be nice if the tables were turned and the DOJ, out of their budget, had to pay damages for their [genuine] lawfare. That is one use of my tax dollars i wouldn't mind.... unlike the money going for the marie antoinette ballroom.
A bawling child is unable to cause this kind of destruction. Destruction of everything seems to be the end game. Who will stop them? Guess is has to be us.
I’m sorry—do you honestly believe he has an endgame? A strategy? At this point in his mental deterioration he wants only vengeance and justification … with a side order of statuary.
He did NOT countersue and win. Not not not not. I worked on the case. NOT! The two women who heard him admit the violation, during a break in his deposition. were both good friends of mine. What he did was have a press conference, after foplding his hand, and announce that he had won, because we gave up on our attempt to make him rent to welfare recipients, which was a total fabrication. The fact that some sensible people like Joan were left with this impression is depressing testimony to the success of the Roy Cohn playbook.
thanks for the correction. not sure which book i read that stated these facts incorrectly. nevertheless, he has abused the courts his entire adult life. would be nice if the game were finally turned on him.
No need to apologize. If conmen never fooled otherwise intelligent people they woould have to go into some other line of work. I have written a two-page summary of what really happened, which I will invite our kind hostess to publish in this space, If she declines I will find some other outlet for it.
isn't it amazing that someone so privileged, who by objective accounts lived a charmed life, is such a whiny brat who feels life is so unfair to him and he is beset by enemies on all sides whom he has to vanquish. What a sick puppy he is, but unfortunately he is taking it out on the american people. Because we rejected him in 2020? He will never get over that ego injury and will bellow to his dying day that he actually won.
Let's face it....they can sue, win a great big payday and never see the cash. People of trumplandia do what they want, damn the courts, Congress, their voter base. No one knows how to stop them.
I couldn't agree more. Do your job and uphold the sanctity of the law! You hit the nail on the head. I hate all this mollycoddling of obvious retribution b.s. cases being allowed to hang around and cost the defendants so much more work and money,
Because of respect for authority and for institutions of State, because of the deference due to what underlies mere words like "Constitution of the United States" and titles like "President of the United States"... or "Judge", we find citizens kowtowing to a bunch of hoodlums put in place by a criminal conspiracy.
Even assuming that the election results involved are valid, a huge proportion of the population did vote for a man who had successfully brought off a putsch unique in world history for having lasted... not a matter of hours but... 1399 days. That permaputsch truly was a con to be proud of.
The main truth this shows is that of Nietzsche's contention that "In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." Something that, despite the clear evidence of history, especially 20th century history, people and the psychiatric establishment seem quite unable to get their minds around.
Unless and until this simulacrum, this crude caricature of a government comes to a natural end, citizenship will be replaced by slavery, willing or unwilling; including, of course, a caste of pampered and privileged slaves... whom we all can identify.
Shakespeare understood too well...
Lear.,Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar?
Earl of Gloucester. Ay, sir.
Lear. And the creature run from the cur? There thou mightst behold
the great image of authority: a dog's obeyed in office.
I try very hard to believe in the power of the people. And yet, I’m scared about the vote in November. People just want to be able to cast a vote. No one wants to be hassled intimidated etc., while standing in line. If they really put Ice agents out there, people will not go to the polls because the Ice agents have been given permission by the Supreme Court to stereotype the citizens of this country. Black people brown people anyone with an accent can be scooped up and disappeared. We have more than 70,000 people right now that fall into that category. Some of them might be criminals many of them aren’t I’m a white woman so I do not have fear of being scooped up and disappeared yet. But if we can’t get the numbers out there that are so overwhelming and the races are close. Prove me wrong but I see them confiscating machines, etc. they’re already trying to terrorize people in Ohio that are volunteers WTF? I’m an old lady who has lived through much and I’ll be damned if these fools are gonna intimidate me to silence, but I do realize that I am far stronger than many. and the crap that they’re pulling about mail and votes and deciding whether or not they’re even going to count them come on.
I'm in that old lady category too and from New England. Agree with you a 100% - the lawmakers from our respective states better get on this and represent their constituients, instead of shrugging their collective shoulders. It's pretty easy to have no respect for most all of them on either side! Trump and his buddies are probably among the worst things that ever happened to us.
I’ve seen news that KIND (Kids in Need of Defense Now), which provides legal services to immigrant kids, was also raided by ICE and HSI. Please add them to your list, thank you.
"And remember, they wouldn’t be going after your vote and after the people who work so hard to protect your vote, if it didn’t matter so damn much. You and your vote are powerful. This administration knows it and that’s why they are so afraid of us."
Thanks for saying this, Joyce. While we need to follow and condemn these political abuses of justice, we also always need to keep in mind that they are part of the attempt to intimidate voters, officials, the media and political opponents, they are demonstrations of weakness and fear. Maybe Trump and DOJ can fabricate cases against a limited number of groups and individuals but they simply cannot stop all of us from fighting to win back Congress and races up and down the ballot in November. As Tim Snyder says, do not obey in advance.
This is so typical of the climate of fear engendered around Trump by his supporters. It reminded me of the Sandy Hook parents who were relentlessly pursued by Alex Jones. Jones still hasn't paid the damages he owes to these people whose lives he made wretched by his poisonous podcast.
Then there was the case of the two Georgia election workers similarly unfairly traduced by the now disgraced Rudy Giuliani. Like Taylor and the some of the Sandy Hook people they suffered great financial distress as a result of Giuliani's lies. At least in that case the offender paid the full price but it still goes on. Giuliani's son is now in charge of the US part of the football world cup which has been beset with problems and the DoJ and FBI continue to pursue Trump's perceived opponents.
Trump looked a tired and weakened leader at the G7 and he seems now to be fuelled almost entirely by his resentment and misguided sense of victimisation.
And now the 15 arrested yesterday in Minneapolis, MN. Accused of what ? Conspiracy- I’m not exactly sure? people peacefully protesting their arrest were sprayed with chemicals and violently pushed around. Without warning. Unreal ~ unacceptable.
I have learned (and verified with Charles Schwab) that Schwab, Vanguard and Fidelity will no longer approve recommended donations to the SPLC from their clients' donor advised funds. I find this absolutely shocking. So, the mere allegations from the government is restricting a major source of funding to the SPLC - even though it is still a legal 501 (c). I let Schwab know what I think of its utter spinelessness and sent a donation outside of the DAF conduit.
I just wrote about the exact experience I encountered. So instead of using my Fidelity-held DAF, I gave online directly to them. What we're going through is caused by malevolence.
A DAF is not the same as an RMD. It is not connected to an IRA. Clients of those financial firms - of any age- can contribute to a "donor advised fund "charitable account (for which they get a tax deduction) and then recommend grants from that fund to legitimate non-profits. Up until now, if the recommended recipient was a legitimate 501 (c) (3), the financial institution honored the recommendation and sent the money from the donor's account. After the federal lawsuit against SPLC, the big financial institutions have declined to send money from a DAF to the SPLC. Schwab, at least, will still permit an RMD to go to the SPLC. But refusing to honor a DAF request cuts off a big source of funding to the SPLC. I might not have explained a DAF very well, but the internet should provide a fuller description.
No, Lee, your post was fine. I was asking for clarification because I’m having trouble understanding how a firm can legally refuse to honor a request that money be sent to a recognized 501 (c) 3 organization. Which is to say, I’m not familiar with how DAFs work. What — aside from large groups of investors taking their money and going elsewhere — would prevent a financial firm from restricting the acceptable restrictions to a list of White Christian Nationalist groups and no one else? (I understand if the answer is too long to go into here.)
Good hypothetical! The financial institution theoretically has the final say over a donor recommendation in a DAF account but to deny a recommendation because somebody has made allegations against a decades old non-profit is, to me, outrageous and shows all the collateral damage that the federal lawsuit is creating without even being substantiated!
Law licenses carry responsibilities to the state that issues them and to the courts that grant a licensee permission to practice before them. Todd Blanche has repeatedly violated the ABA's Model of Professional Conduct within the scope of representing DJT and during his tenure as Acting AG. It is time that congress put a stop to his lawlessness.
And not just Todd Blanche. When I read "...the government conceded error and walked back the false statement..." I interpreted that to indicate that the attorneys who worked on this case admitted to violating professional ethics. That they are not being punished severely by their bar associated ethics committees is why we are in this nightmare - far too many individuals who keep "getting away with it" with no accountability.
Is there a defensive action against a deeply flawed prosecution attempt? If the "process is the punishment", are there tactics, procedures, things that can be done to combat these "punishments"? Is there a playbook on what to do? Is there an agency to call, an association, an entity? If not, one should be formed. Example: an agency that can stand in the way of formulating a grand jury. Apparently a grand jury can be formulated with little "quality control" on the quality of the charges made. Maybe it is a flaw in the system. Can the system be changed? Can there be a way to check early on in the process the "punishment" when, indeed, the case if flawed and only brought as punishment? Just asking.
When Joyce speaks, especially on the work of prosecutors, I think of the old E.F. Hutton TV ads, "When she speaks, I listen," and so should every rational person in our nation who cares about the rule of law. What the Trump Administration is doing on an administration-wide basis is unprecedented in American history, and as they say, if they have time enough, they'll come after you and me eventually. -- Dr. Jim Vickrey, jimvickrey@gmail.com
I was a public school educator and used the SPLC's material every year I taught. I'm grateful for their existence and still donate every year! And I'm grateful for you Joyce, for keeping us informed! Thank You!
Please keep us posted on the Ohio raid of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. We get some local news but it is filtered and as a Cleveland resident, I am extremely concerned. We are a blue city in a purple county in a scarlet state. We need groups like the Collaborative.
I do not understand why the judge in this case fails to see this as a vindictive prosecution. That is exactly what this is. I know she was appointed by trump. Is that going to be the basis for how she runs her courtroom? If so, when the Democrats are in charge, she should be impeached and shown the door, just like aileen cannon. All this is really just a bunch of crap to make the civil rights voices suffer…and it just really pisses me off.
Or, in the alternative, the defendants countersue for abuse of office or malicious prosecution.
this is what roy cohn taught donald when he and his father were sued for denying black people apartments. He countersued and won, which set him on a lifelong path of abusing the courts with frivolous lawsuits to make defendants suffer. Would be nice if the tables were turned and the DOJ, out of their budget, had to pay damages for their [genuine] lawfare. That is one use of my tax dollars i wouldn't mind.... unlike the money going for the marie antoinette ballroom.
mo0ney well spent to me if the ballroom has a guilliotine...
Get out the knitting needles de Mme. Defarge
Exactly right! It’s inconceivable that NO ONE has dared to say no to this bawling child.
A bawling child is unable to cause this kind of destruction. Destruction of everything seems to be the end game. Who will stop them? Guess is has to be us.
I’m sorry—do you honestly believe he has an endgame? A strategy? At this point in his mental deterioration he wants only vengeance and justification … with a side order of statuary.
He did NOT countersue and win. Not not not not. I worked on the case. NOT! The two women who heard him admit the violation, during a break in his deposition. were both good friends of mine. What he did was have a press conference, after foplding his hand, and announce that he had won, because we gave up on our attempt to make him rent to welfare recipients, which was a total fabrication. The fact that some sensible people like Joan were left with this impression is depressing testimony to the success of the Roy Cohn playbook.
thanks for the correction. not sure which book i read that stated these facts incorrectly. nevertheless, he has abused the courts his entire adult life. would be nice if the game were finally turned on him.
No need to apologize. If conmen never fooled otherwise intelligent people they woould have to go into some other line of work. I have written a two-page summary of what really happened, which I will invite our kind hostess to publish in this space, If she declines I will find some other outlet for it.
Don’t think it matters anymore—Trump is aggrieved about everything.
isn't it amazing that someone so privileged, who by objective accounts lived a charmed life, is such a whiny brat who feels life is so unfair to him and he is beset by enemies on all sides whom he has to vanquish. What a sick puppy he is, but unfortunately he is taking it out on the american people. Because we rejected him in 2020? He will never get over that ego injury and will bellow to his dying day that he actually won.
Many legal options for the defendants.
Countersue for vast sums of money. That's all they respond to. Ms. Donald won suing the kkk after they lynched her son, and that shut them down.
Let's face it....they can sue, win a great big payday and never see the cash. People of trumplandia do what they want, damn the courts, Congress, their voter base. No one knows how to stop them.
Point! Not America First … but Me First & Only.
I couldn't agree more. Do your job and uphold the sanctity of the law! You hit the nail on the head. I hate all this mollycoddling of obvious retribution b.s. cases being allowed to hang around and cost the defendants so much more work and money,
Because of respect for authority and for institutions of State, because of the deference due to what underlies mere words like "Constitution of the United States" and titles like "President of the United States"... or "Judge", we find citizens kowtowing to a bunch of hoodlums put in place by a criminal conspiracy.
Even assuming that the election results involved are valid, a huge proportion of the population did vote for a man who had successfully brought off a putsch unique in world history for having lasted... not a matter of hours but... 1399 days. That permaputsch truly was a con to be proud of.
The main truth this shows is that of Nietzsche's contention that "In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." Something that, despite the clear evidence of history, especially 20th century history, people and the psychiatric establishment seem quite unable to get their minds around.
Unless and until this simulacrum, this crude caricature of a government comes to a natural end, citizenship will be replaced by slavery, willing or unwilling; including, of course, a caste of pampered and privileged slaves... whom we all can identify.
Shakespeare understood too well...
Lear.,Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar?
Earl of Gloucester. Ay, sir.
Lear. And the creature run from the cur? There thou mightst behold
the great image of authority: a dog's obeyed in office.
I fear you are right.
Yes!! Every. Damn. Word. Is absolutely spot on. Again, Professor, THANK YOU!!! I trust your works.
I try very hard to believe in the power of the people. And yet, I’m scared about the vote in November. People just want to be able to cast a vote. No one wants to be hassled intimidated etc., while standing in line. If they really put Ice agents out there, people will not go to the polls because the Ice agents have been given permission by the Supreme Court to stereotype the citizens of this country. Black people brown people anyone with an accent can be scooped up and disappeared. We have more than 70,000 people right now that fall into that category. Some of them might be criminals many of them aren’t I’m a white woman so I do not have fear of being scooped up and disappeared yet. But if we can’t get the numbers out there that are so overwhelming and the races are close. Prove me wrong but I see them confiscating machines, etc. they’re already trying to terrorize people in Ohio that are volunteers WTF? I’m an old lady who has lived through much and I’ll be damned if these fools are gonna intimidate me to silence, but I do realize that I am far stronger than many. and the crap that they’re pulling about mail and votes and deciding whether or not they’re even going to count them come on.
I'm in that old lady category too and from New England. Agree with you a 100% - the lawmakers from our respective states better get on this and represent their constituients, instead of shrugging their collective shoulders. It's pretty easy to have no respect for most all of them on either side! Trump and his buddies are probably among the worst things that ever happened to us.
Trump wants to replace trial by jury with trial by tantrum.
Good one.
I know it was probably a typo, but I’m laughing at “Tood” Blanche! Perfect.
Tood loves his (misused) tools.
I’ve seen news that KIND (Kids in Need of Defense Now), which provides legal services to immigrant kids, was also raided by ICE and HSI. Please add them to your list, thank you.
I missed that.
"And remember, they wouldn’t be going after your vote and after the people who work so hard to protect your vote, if it didn’t matter so damn much. You and your vote are powerful. This administration knows it and that’s why they are so afraid of us."
Thanks for saying this, Joyce. While we need to follow and condemn these political abuses of justice, we also always need to keep in mind that they are part of the attempt to intimidate voters, officials, the media and political opponents, they are demonstrations of weakness and fear. Maybe Trump and DOJ can fabricate cases against a limited number of groups and individuals but they simply cannot stop all of us from fighting to win back Congress and races up and down the ballot in November. As Tim Snyder says, do not obey in advance.
This TED talk by Miles Taylor shows how Trump uses his fanatical base to punish anyone who stands up to him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqCnUxA-BIU
This is so typical of the climate of fear engendered around Trump by his supporters. It reminded me of the Sandy Hook parents who were relentlessly pursued by Alex Jones. Jones still hasn't paid the damages he owes to these people whose lives he made wretched by his poisonous podcast.
Then there was the case of the two Georgia election workers similarly unfairly traduced by the now disgraced Rudy Giuliani. Like Taylor and the some of the Sandy Hook people they suffered great financial distress as a result of Giuliani's lies. At least in that case the offender paid the full price but it still goes on. Giuliani's son is now in charge of the US part of the football world cup which has been beset with problems and the DoJ and FBI continue to pursue Trump's perceived opponents.
Trump looked a tired and weakened leader at the G7 and he seems now to be fuelled almost entirely by his resentment and misguided sense of victimisation.
And now the 15 arrested yesterday in Minneapolis, MN. Accused of what ? Conspiracy- I’m not exactly sure? people peacefully protesting their arrest were sprayed with chemicals and violently pushed around. Without warning. Unreal ~ unacceptable.
I have learned (and verified with Charles Schwab) that Schwab, Vanguard and Fidelity will no longer approve recommended donations to the SPLC from their clients' donor advised funds. I find this absolutely shocking. So, the mere allegations from the government is restricting a major source of funding to the SPLC - even though it is still a legal 501 (c). I let Schwab know what I think of its utter spinelessness and sent a donation outside of the DAF conduit.
I just wrote about the exact experience I encountered. So instead of using my Fidelity-held DAF, I gave online directly to them. What we're going through is caused by malevolence.
I did this, too, and am equally incensed.
I’m not sure I follow you. You mean that if someone wanted their RMD to go to the SPLC those firms wouldn’t oblige?
A DAF is not the same as an RMD. It is not connected to an IRA. Clients of those financial firms - of any age- can contribute to a "donor advised fund "charitable account (for which they get a tax deduction) and then recommend grants from that fund to legitimate non-profits. Up until now, if the recommended recipient was a legitimate 501 (c) (3), the financial institution honored the recommendation and sent the money from the donor's account. After the federal lawsuit against SPLC, the big financial institutions have declined to send money from a DAF to the SPLC. Schwab, at least, will still permit an RMD to go to the SPLC. But refusing to honor a DAF request cuts off a big source of funding to the SPLC. I might not have explained a DAF very well, but the internet should provide a fuller description.
No, Lee, your post was fine. I was asking for clarification because I’m having trouble understanding how a firm can legally refuse to honor a request that money be sent to a recognized 501 (c) 3 organization. Which is to say, I’m not familiar with how DAFs work. What — aside from large groups of investors taking their money and going elsewhere — would prevent a financial firm from restricting the acceptable restrictions to a list of White Christian Nationalist groups and no one else? (I understand if the answer is too long to go into here.)
Good hypothetical! The financial institution theoretically has the final say over a donor recommendation in a DAF account but to deny a recommendation because somebody has made allegations against a decades old non-profit is, to me, outrageous and shows all the collateral damage that the federal lawsuit is creating without even being substantiated!
Law licenses carry responsibilities to the state that issues them and to the courts that grant a licensee permission to practice before them. Todd Blanche has repeatedly violated the ABA's Model of Professional Conduct within the scope of representing DJT and during his tenure as Acting AG. It is time that congress put a stop to his lawlessness.
And not just Todd Blanche. When I read "...the government conceded error and walked back the false statement..." I interpreted that to indicate that the attorneys who worked on this case admitted to violating professional ethics. That they are not being punished severely by their bar associated ethics committees is why we are in this nightmare - far too many individuals who keep "getting away with it" with no accountability.
Tood Blanche is allowable. But maybe Toad Blanche is better.
Is there a defensive action against a deeply flawed prosecution attempt? If the "process is the punishment", are there tactics, procedures, things that can be done to combat these "punishments"? Is there a playbook on what to do? Is there an agency to call, an association, an entity? If not, one should be formed. Example: an agency that can stand in the way of formulating a grand jury. Apparently a grand jury can be formulated with little "quality control" on the quality of the charges made. Maybe it is a flaw in the system. Can the system be changed? Can there be a way to check early on in the process the "punishment" when, indeed, the case if flawed and only brought as punishment? Just asking.
When Joyce speaks, especially on the work of prosecutors, I think of the old E.F. Hutton TV ads, "When she speaks, I listen," and so should every rational person in our nation who cares about the rule of law. What the Trump Administration is doing on an administration-wide basis is unprecedented in American history, and as they say, if they have time enough, they'll come after you and me eventually. -- Dr. Jim Vickrey, jimvickrey@gmail.com
I was a public school educator and used the SPLC's material every year I taught. I'm grateful for their existence and still donate every year! And I'm grateful for you Joyce, for keeping us informed! Thank You!
Please keep us posted on the Ohio raid of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. We get some local news but it is filtered and as a Cleveland resident, I am extremely concerned. We are a blue city in a purple county in a scarlet state. We need groups like the Collaborative.
Checkout the Brannon Center the Briefing today.
Every day is a new challenge/adventure…
I am taking care of à grackle-fledgling….devotion…and every day brings a new learning curb for both me and birdie involved…
Life-in-à-nutshell 🧡🌈🧡✨✨✨✨👍 (✅)😎
Oh, how sweet.