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Liz Cheney

“Thou Art the man” Said the Prophet Cheney

July 27, 2022
by Peter Feinman
Trump contemplating his future

One of the many stirring moments in the Hebrew Bible occurs when the prophet Nathan says to King David:

THOU ART THE MAN (II Sam. 12:7).

This example of truth to power has had an enduring impact on Western cultural values. It strikes a chord when Martin Luther nails his theses to the wall or John Hancock boldly signs his name to the Declaration of Independence.

Liz Cheney is following in these footsteps. Even prior to the televised House Select Committee hearings, she had asserted this charge against the former President of the United States. In the opening broadcast, she itemized the charges to be brought against the Loser just as Thomas Jefferson had spelled them out in the parts of the Declaration people routinely skip over.

Now she has upped her game. Just as the stirring words of the opening of the Declaration are the ones most frequently recited, Cheney has ratcheted up her words of existential doom facing America if the insurrectionists are not brought to justice. Teddy Roosevelt said “We stand at Armageddon, and we battle for the Lord.” Prophet Cheney continues in that mode. We the People are standing on the abyss of nonexistence and may topple into it if the insurrectionists are not held accountable.

Finally, at long last, there is public evidence that she and the House Select Committee are not waging this war alone. The DOJ has revealed that it is actively pursuing the investigation of the insurrection – not just January attack but all the ways in which the Loser sought to reverse the election, overthrew the government, and replace the rule of law with the rule of Trump.

Cheney has called out the Republican men in their fifties, sixties, and seventies, who hide behind executive privilege and fear to tell the truth. She has told them that one day Trump will be gone but their dishonor will remain forever as a permanent stain on their lives. How stupid do

Steve Bannon
Jeff Clark
John Eastman
Rudy Giuliani
Jim Jordan
Doug Mastriano
Mark Meadows
Peter Navarro
Scott Perry
Roger Stone

have to be not to know that they are going to be subpoenaed and indicted at some point in the near future. All the nonsense about executive privilege and the showmanship of going medieval will be for naught. Whatever concerns there may be over indicting a former President who has announced his candidacy for 2024 do not apply to them or any of the other people associated with the fake electors. Once the DOJ issues the subpoenas, who will be the first to flip? Soon there will be a betting line.

One cannot help but notice the role of women in the actions against the male insurrectionists. This is not to take anything away from the frighteningly scary Sydney Powell [who will play her in the movie?] or Ginni Thomas. Still, it is women who have borne the brunt of the attacks from the brave male Trumpicans with their anonymous obscene phone calls. True, men who told the truth have received them as well. But overall the invective and threatened kidnapping against the female Democratic Michigan governor exceeds that against the male Republican Georgian governor who easily triumphed in the Republican primary.

These attacks against women highlight another facet of the political dynamic. We have the image of attractive young white women working for older more powerful males. Doesn’t that seem a lot like Hollywood? I do not mean to suggest any sexual activity occurred. I do mean to suggest that a familiar power dynamic is at play. The women are there to serve the political needs of the more powerful males. If they fail to do so and instead turn against them under oath, on the cable talk shows, or both, then all hell breaks loose.

After all, the head of the Trumpican party who led the insurrection has a decades long reputation for abusing women. It is only when he lost his mojo during the first decade of this century that he ceased any physical abuse of women. Where would the Trumpican party be without “Lock her up! Lock her up!” If Joe Biden had been the candidate in 2016, Trump would have been rendered silent. Do you think a crowd would rally behind “Lock Hunter up. Lock Hunter up”?

Loyalty is one way to be endorsed by the Loser. Another way is to have taken care of women, i.e., physically put them in their place. Have you ever seen an abuser whom Trump didn’t endorse?

Abortion just continues the pattern.

If only the real world was like Westworld before the female programming went haywire.

If only all wives were from Stepford.

HE CAN’T HIDE SO HE HAS TO RUN

“Thou art the man” prophet Liz Cheney is an existential threat to Donald Trump. He is right to pour out all the invective he can muster against her. If she prevails, he loses. It is a zero-sum game. So far he controls the Trumpican Party so her future in Wyoming is non-existent. However her future in the national arena is just beginning. She is the greatest hero in America so far this century, this millennium. That designation will not change after the Wyoming primary.

In 2024, all the Trump wannabees will have fallen by the wayside. None will criticize him. Only alternate-reality Pence who thinks he was ordained to be President will persist. And then there will be Cheney, eager to go one-on-one with him. Watching Trump hide from Cheney in the 2024 elections will be a sight to behold. It will be one for the history books. His cowardice and gutlessness will be on full display … when he is not pleading the Fifth in all the cases brought against him.

Josh Hawley Declares 2024 Candidacy: Run, Josh, Run!

July 26, 2022
by Peter Feinman
RUN JOSH RUN! (CNN)

Expectations for the House Select Committee presentations were not high before it began.

“Don’t Expect Must-Watch TV” Jacob Bacharach (NYT 6/9/22)

But the Capitol riot hearings, which begin on Thursday night, may well be a dud.

            Even if they manage to drag a few million eyeballs away from the streaming platforms for a few evenings and days with some measure of spectacle and the promise of comeuppance for some minor and expendable figures from Trump-world, their scope and impact are likely to be minimal….
            They will serve as great font of rambling commentary on Twitter for a few days, among the relatively few people who regularly tweet about politics.   

Wouldn’t you like to have the opportunity to be so wrong in the lead editorial in The New York Times!

He concludes his piece with:

A terrifying historical counterfactual is that the only thing that might have gotten enough of the G.O.P. on board to matter would have been if the rioters had actually hung Mike Pence, and even then, it is hard to be sure.

We will never know what the reaction would have been if the insurrectionists had succeeded in killing Pence, Pelosi, or Hawley. It is possible that would have caused the 25th Amendment to be invoked and not just talked about. I have not seen any polls or interviews with Stop-the-Steal proponents about how they would have reacted then.

The Jan. 6 Committee Has Already Blown It

The op-ed below this editorial was “The Jan. 6 Committee Has Already Blown It” by David Brooks. He took issue with the Democratic goal of recasting the midterm election message by casting Republicans as being responsible.

They are expected to use witnesses like the former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson [who testified on June 28, 19 days later] to show exactly what went on inside the administration that day and in the lead-up to it. One lawmaker told The Washington Post that voters have shifted their attention to issues like inflation and the pandemic, so it is key to tell a gripping story that “actually breaks through.”
No offense, but these goals are pathetic.

Perhaps he spoke too soon in his dismissal of Cassidy Hutchinson!

However his larger point in his final sentence about the threat to bring American democracy to its knees is valid as Liz Cheney well knows. Brooks is right to be concerned about the 2024 election and civil war in America. If anything, he should be concerned about the 2022 elections.

Eventually, skeptics saw the light about the hearings.

“I thought the Jan. 6 committee wouldn’t matter. I was wrong” by Max Boot (Washington Post 6/14/22)

The committee’s hearings are exceeding expectations, because it is not behaving like a typical congressional committee. There is no grandstanding and no preening. There are no petty partisan squabble…. There have been no anti-Trump, much less anti-Republican, rants. The committee members are focused with forensic, factual intensity on the question of Trump’s responsibility for the events of Jan. 6.

The House Select Committee has set a standard which the Hunter Biden investigations and Joe Biden impeachments won’t come even remotely close to matching. Those Republican clown shows will only be shown on Foxhub.

…There is only the relentless march of evidence, all of it deeply incriminating to a certain former president who keeps insisting he was robbed of his rightful election victory…. Trump’s own aides have made an open-and-shut case that he I not fit to run Mar-a-lago, much less the United States of America.

It would seem the Murdoch Wall Street Journal and New York Post agree as well. More to come.

Paul Krugman has joined the bandwagon as well:

Crazies, Cowards and the Trump Coup (NYT 6/30/22)

Like many people, I expected the worst from the Jan. 6 committee: long, droning speeches, grandstanding by posturing politicians, lots of he-said-she-said.
            What we’ve gotten instead has been riveting and terrifying.

The reviews are in. The House Select Committee is boffo at the box office. It has sustained an 8-show summer series with a sequel promised.

What “more”? Second seasons often do not live up to the promise of the original series. It looks like we may be teased with “leaks” while the show is on hiatus.

There is a spinoff. In fact more than one. The DOJ appears to be gradually upping ante for the insurrections. There should be a slew of subpoenas in the coming weeks. Even if the Hitman indictment is delayed until after the election, there are plenty of subordinates who could be indicted before the election season. How about the day before Trump announces his candidacy, the DOJ indicts the first round of insurrectionists? That would make for must-see TV.

The second spinoff is in Georgia. Fulton County is moving ahead with subpoenas and target letters. It is only a matter of time before the indictments.

In the meantime, we can content ourselves with some of the more amusing aspects of the work of the House Select Committee. We can anticipate that on Josh Hawley’s tombstone, the words “Run, Josh, Run” will be inscribed. The phrase will join “Tricky Dicky” and “Slick Willie” as a defining nickname.

When the movie version is made the scene of ketchup on the wall and plates on the floor are sure to generate gales of laughter.

The scene of grabbing the steering wheel of the car and the throat of the Secret Service will play differently depending on the audience. For the people who believe in the rule of law, it will be seen as the desperate attempt of the Loser at the last moment possible to salvage victory by leading the coup at the Capital in person. For the people who believe in the rule of Trump, it will be seen as their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, fighting to the very end to save the country.

Keep in mind that Rusty Bowers has been excommunicated by the Arizona Republican Party for telling for truth.

Unfortunately, there is one area where Liz Cheney is seriously wrong. She stated that Trump “is a 76-year old man”: true. And he is “not an impressionable child”: false. He temporarily appointed Sidney Powell a special prosecutor to wreak havoc with his enemies.  Kurt Bardella, a former House GOP staffer speaking about the upcoming 2024 announcement said, “This guy has the impulse control of a freaking toddler.” He echoed the words of Mary Trump about her uncle having the emotional maturity of a three-year old.

The problem with trying to prove intent to overthrow the Constitution is that Trump lacks the mental necessities to understand what the Constitution is and or what he was doing to it. All he knows is that he wanted to keep playing President and people were telling him playtime is over. Perhaps the next hearings will address the fact that he is an immature child and not Rambo.

P.S. No matter what, Trumpican minds will not be changed.

SCOTUS and Hutchinson: The Howard Baker Moment Has Arrived

July 5, 2022
by Peter Feinman
Gorgan (Courtesy startrek.com)

The Howard Baker moment is here. It has been a longtime coming. It is not an exact repeat of original Howard Baker moment. At that time, a Republican Senator told the Republican President that it was game over and the President resigned. Hard as it may be to believe today, Baker succeeded because he had the votes in the Senate to back him up and Nixon knew it.

The current version is slower. Think of The Apprentice, the fake reality show that rescued the failed businessman from oblivion. There was a time when the show was gangbusters in ratings. “You’re fired” became part of the national discourse. And then it faded. Little by little the show declined. Finally it reached a point where it was past its expiry date like athletes who do not know when to retire. And then it was gone.

The double-dose of SCOTUS on abortion and Hutchinson to the House Select Committee is doing the same. Combined the decision and the testimony mark an inflection point in the political career of Donald Trump. From this point forward it is all downhill and he knows it. Hence the fuss and urgency about announcing his candidacy for 2024 now. It is a desperate attempt by him to regain the momentum which instead will highlight that he is headed in the wrong direction.

TRANSACTIONAL PRESIDENT

During the Trump presidency, we were introduced to a new concept – transactional. It is not the word was new but that its application was. It made a national policy of the President of the United States asking “what’s in for me?” with the “me” vacillating between the country and himself personally.

Now there were no more alliances. You want America to protect you? What’s in it for me? Countries were expected to ante up if they wanted the United States to shoulder the burden of protecting them. Obviously Ukraine was a money loser so if the Russian invasion had occurred on his watch Trump still would have done nothing even if he was not submissive to Putin. His cost-benefit analysis would have calculated that Ukraine was a big drain on American resources so why support it. Keep in mind this was a Commander in Chief who could not understand why people volunteered to serve in the military forces to begin with.

As it turns out, many people who voted for him also had a transactional relationship with him. They knew he was pond scum slime but he was their pond scum slime who could deliver for them. What he most famously could deliver for them was judges in general and Supreme Court judges in particular. Then with the help of Mitch McConnell, he fulfilled this promise. He did appoint people to the Supreme Court who had no qualms about lying directly to the face of Susan Collins and the Senate Judiciary Committee. Seriously how stupid a human being did you have to be not to know that the Trumptees on the Court would reverse Roe v. Wade as soon as they had the opportunity to do so?

The bargain had now been fulfilled and there is nothing left. People who turned a blind eye to the truth of Trump now no longer have to do so. There is nothing else for him to do. We saw the results in Georgia in 2020. The missing 11,780 votes were found and then some. Approximately 28,000 Georgians voted in 2020 and left the presidential line on the ballot blank. These people had decided to hold their noses no more. They would vote Republican but not Trumpican. The Republican voters Trump alienated in Georgia were the reason he lost the state. The Trumpican candidates in the primaries this year in Georgia did not fare well. His hand-picked Senate candidate is not faring well either according to the polls. Being totally unqualified for the job disqualifies him with enough Republican voters to overcome the alleged value of the Trump endorsement. Unfortunately for Democrats this means non-Trump Republican candidates may win in 2022 where Trump-endorsed candidates will lose.

In any event, it is game over for the transactional supporters of Trump. He has nothing left to offer them and has become a laughingstock criminal instead. Fatigue has set in.

THE INSURECTIONIST PRESIDENT

For the insurrectionist president it is only going to get worse. As the “far-left Marxist” Washington Examiner exclaimed, Hutchinson’s testimony “ought to ring the death knell” for Trump’s political future. He is now on record with the House Select Committee as being “unfit to be anywhere near power ever again.” Apparently Hutchinson was able to accomplish what a million dead Americans due to Covid could not – publicly expose the shortcomings and inadequacies of Disinfectant Donny once and for all. From this point forward it will be easy for Democrats to ridicule Trump ceaselessly in ways everyone can understand.

Plus there is more to come. There are people in the White House past and present whom they public does not know. Journalists with their “sources” may know their names, but We the People do not. Now we know who Miles Taylor is. Now we know who Cassidy Hutchinson is. How many more people like them are there? If you are a twenty-something recent college graduate starting your career in politics with internships and paid-positions at the highest level, do you want to sacrifice your future for an insurrectionist? True you may be the recipient of phone calls and threats from Trump goons, but you can endure them. What about your next job? How many analysts can Foxhub hire to explain that January 6 was either ANTIFA or legitimate political discourse?

It is reasonable to expect more and more disclosures about the truth of January 6 in the weeks to come. Some apparently already have happened. Which of the inner circle will be the Michael Cohen of the insurrection? The avalanche has started and will only pick of speed and power in the weeks to come. The only issue for Garland will be when to indict the former president and not if.

This avalanche of truth my carry forth into Congress itself. As staffers come forth to corroborate Hutchinson’s tale of Trump insurrection, closet Republicans who have kept their heads down and swallowed their pride these past five years may suddenly regain their courage. They have been shown up by a 25-year old. I am not suggesting that Mike Pence will finally man up; let’s not get carried away. But some Representatives and Senators will stand up and be counted. After all, after August they cannot be primaried!

What do we have to look forward to?

More revelations.

More indictments.

More disclosures in ongoing Georgia and New York cases

A “Michael Cohen”

By election time, the three Trumigoes in Arizona running on a stolen election campaign mantra will look as absurd as the “abortion is human sacrifice/demons are transferred via intimate sex” secretary of state Republican candidate in Michigan. It is déjà vu 2010 for Republican candidates all over again.

It is possible to even be optimistic that 2024 will not lead to the destruction of America. It is hard to image Ron DeSantis rallying people to the Capital for a coup.

FINALLY

Way back on August 6, 2016, even before the presidential election that year, I wrote a blog about presidential candidates from New York State. In the blog I wrote about a Star Trek episode:

[In] the Children Shall Lead, the children on an outpost are rendered orphans but display no trauma over the horror of losing their parents. The cause is a beast called “Angel” by them and named Gorgan. The richly-costumed sleekly-haired human-looking monster is skilled in exploiting their  pain to service his gain. He dominates them and in the ways of science fiction takes control of the Starship Enterprise.

Not to worry. Kirk’s dedication to the spirit of Star Trek prevails. His hero and role model is, after all, Abraham Lincoln. He takes back his ship. He takes back his crew. He returns the Enterprise to its rightful path. He defeats the monstrosity that has temporarily commandeered them. In the final showdown between the forces of light and the forces of darkness, Kirk calls on the deceived children to see the ugliness of the monster who led them astray. He tells them:

Without you children he’s nothing.
The evil remains within him.
Look how ugly he really is.
Look at him and don’t be afraid.

With each phrase, the children see more and more of the truth and the image of the monster becomes uglier and uglier. In the end, Gorgan is revealed as the grotesque monster he always was underneath his superficial exterior. As befitting his debased nature, when exposed for the disgusting ugly incarnation of evil that he is, his parting words to his former admirers who now spurn him are:

Death to you all!
Death to you all!
Death to you all!

Thank you Liz Cheney and Cassidy Hutchinson. That moment of exposing the truth for all America to see has arrived.

Ketchup on the wall
Dishes on the floor
Grab the wheel
Grab the throat.
Rambo?

Day 1: Cheney Skewers Trump – DeSantis Flotilla Smells Blood in the Water

June 15, 2022
by Peter Feinman
DeSantis smells blood in the water. Thank you Liz.

It is not the Mueller Report. That report became the Great Disappointment. All that time. All that effort. All that anticipation. And for what? A dull boring presentation and report that led to nothing thanks in part to Attorney General Bill Barr who had not yet seen the light. Also the format led to numerous opportunities for Congressional Trumpicans to bloviate hot-air nonsense to their hearts content. Thanks to the shortsightedness of the would-be future Speaker, the House Select Committee was able to function as a responsible entity. It shows what Congress is capable of when it focuses on getting the job done and the job is working for the American people and not themselves.

LIZ CHENEY: A STAR IS BORN

For Liz Cheney, it is as if all her life she was waiting and preparing for this moment. The fate of the American democracy literally is on the line. We survived a close call after the 2020 election – not realizing how close it was to ending – and we still face a moment of truth in the 2024 election, but Cheney provides hope that America will emerge triumphant from the January 6 Day of Infamy. Unfortunately, the futures of both Ukraine and the United States are on the line and both Putin and Trump are determined to prevail.

Cheney already has earned a place in the history books. She has done so in a literal sense. Her opening argument will join the ranks of the Lincoln-Douglas debates for theater and brilliance … and this time we have a visual record and not just the printed word. Her words will become standard reading in law classes in how to prepare an opening argument for a jury trial. She will be studied by debate teams. She will be remembered in American history classes.

Think of all the remarks raised against her. Think of all the comments/tweets by Trump, McCarthy, Jordan, Taylor Greene, Gaetz, and the other assorted characters that populate the former Republican Party. As the students of history, law, and politics in the future study and contrast her presentation with the sad, pathetic remarks by her adversaries, they will laugh in amazement that such simple-minded imbeciles actually could be in positions of power. Of course, this assumes the America remains a democracy otherwise all bets are off.

AN AUDIENCE OF ONE  

The audience for Cheney and the House Select Committee is not simply the American people. When people audition on Foxhub, they are speaking to an audience of one. Similarly, here, Cheney and the House Select Committee have one person in mind during their presentations and for the final report. That one person is not the current President of the United States or even the former President who is the target of the investigation. Obviously, the one person is the Attorney General.

So far and in his own way, Merrick Garland has been as big a disappointment to the House Select Committee as Barr was with the Mueller report. To be fair, the times they are a changing. Like a turtle finally sticking its head out of its shell, Garland appears to be elevating his position in the investigation. The round-up of hundreds of lesser figures appears to have reach its limit. The low-hanging fruit has and is being prosecuted. Many have pleaded guilty. Now it is time to move up the chain of command, to indict the people who initiated and organized the multiple attempts (7) to over through the government and steal the election. At this point, it does seem that the Attorney General is listening.

Unfortunately, the clock keeps ticking. While the House Select Committee will have completed its work prior to the 2022 Congressional election that may not be enough. Preventing the Trumpicans from shutting down the committee in the new Congress is insufficient. The information collected needs to be turned over to the DOJ prior to that. Furthermore the DOJ needs to act before the campaign season picks up in earnest. For the sake of saving the American democracy, We the People need the co-conspirators to be indicted so they are a campaign issue (In the 2022 Congressional Elections, How Many Candidates Will Have Been Indicted?  December 22, 2021). Taking action in January is too late.

THE STAIN OF DISHONOR

From time to time, I have written about the opportunities to be a profile in courage. Think of the people who have had the chance: Mike Pence, Sean Hannity, Kevin McCarthy and the list goes on and on. One desperate Hail Mary was that there would come a time when the Congressional closet Republicans would finally shed their fears and publicly embrace the truth that they know in their hearts to be true: the President was “bat crazy” as Hannity delicately put it. As day after day, week after week, and month after month passed by, the chances of these closet Republicans overcoming their fear of being mocked as “weak RINO” seemed slimmer and slimmer. The last chance was when they would have nothing to lose. The primary season would be over so they could not be replaced. That final moment of truth is fast approaching as Cheney said:

I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.  

When the Unpresidential Library is built and the wall of dishonor is created the names of many of Cheney’s Republican colleagues will be on it. The House Select Committee is their last chance to redeem themselves.