We are already moving on to the Next Big Lie courtesy of Donald J. Trump. If the ex-president and his supporters in Congress are to be believed—and they never should be—the current prosecutions are all politically-driven efforts to punish an innocent man. This includes the current indictments in New York and Florida, and likely ones in D.C. and Georgia. In Trumpland, they are all part of a larger conspiracy, led by President Joe Biden in the White House, to jail his top political opponent.
Wow. This is so on point, but it should be spread to a wider audience than this community, where I am afraid you are preaching to the committed. I don't have the marketing savvy to tell you how to do that, Jay, but it needs to be sung from every mountain-top in this country. YOU should be on the same panels as Joyce Vance, Andrew Weissman, et alia, saying this loudly and clearly. Your voice is so clear and decisive. This country needs the slap on the cheek you can deliver with your essays.
To paraphrase P.T. Barnum, there must have been lot of suckers born in the past few years-worth of minutes for that man to be able to drag the national security of this country through the swamp he said he would drain back in 2015/16. The hangers-on in the Congress who colluded with him are scared, their pants are dirty, and that is why we are seeing this all-out assault.
Somehow get this piece out there to a broader public ear.
I heartily agree with what Christina said! Jay, you write so well and so clearly it's impossible to misunderstand any of the great points you make. I think this is one of your best posts ever, if not THE best.
Perhaps you could ask other Substack writers (like George Takei for instance) to cross-post this important missive. I too have shared it on my Facebook page, but I'm not widely read. And for sure none of the MAGAts who really need to see this are flocking to our pages to be educated or persuaded. You might also consider getting this published as an op-ed in some of the big newspapers with national reach - WaPo, NYT, LAT, Miami Herald, etc.
Yes, it is a vote of confidence, because I have followed you for a while, and genuinely value your multi-faceted insights having experienced your posts about law, politics, and now having seen the creative genius behind a play you "birthed" (your words). All I am advocating is a break-through to a wider audience (good for you, good for the country), not that I have any clue except peripherally as to how to do that.
Have already done so on FB. Not a subscriber to any of the others or I would do so there as well. Prefaced my post with Judge Luttig's comment for those who won't read the full newsletter.
I shared to Connie Schultz's page on FB, she carries a bit of weight, especially here in Ohio. Also pointed her towards Indigo, something I sense she would find meaningful.
I did exactly that. My friends who need to read this won't because to them Donald Trump is a saint, and I can't think of any way to get them to consider him in any other way.
It's truly mind-boggling to me that anyone can believe the tripe that Repubs like Ted Cruz are saying. And for Grassley to decline to read the indictment.... idiotic! I found the indictment clear and easy to understand.
I've posted the newsletter to my FB page with the excerpt, as preface, of what Judge Luttig had to say.
That's exactly what I was thinking. Jay makes the points so clearly that I wish there were some way to put them on a billboard! Maybe he could submit an opinion piece to the NYT or WaPo that would have wider circulation?
Once someone has their mind made up, particularly if they decided quickly, it is oh so difficult to change their mind. Plenty of cognitive biases confirm that this is common. Logic is hard work, emotions come easy. One of the things people do to protect themselves (their egos) from being wrong is to simply fall back on a cognitive bias. People can see photos of all the evidence of treason, “but that can’t be my candidate,” their mind screams. If you grew up in an abusive or neglectful way, this goes into overdrive. Unfortunate how we do not teach about common human flaws (but that idea would only inflame the big deep state idea). So, the rethuglicans keep feeding this beast (as Cruz just did). And then safely surround themselves with people like them so that they don’t have to be challenged (or suffer the emotional quake that weak people do) on their absurd thoughts. It seems the best approach is what they have been doing: methodically gathering evidence, unemotional approaches, following up leads, and so on. Ah, if only society (and the media) would starve TFG of attention, I think he would melt like the Wicked Witch of the West.
That is the bottom line- a group beset by fixed delusion and powerlust have abdicated the common ground rules that inform our democracy, and instead participate in a call-and-response screech designed to fasely swell their diminutive numbers and propagate extreme lies and miscreantic mechanisme within their lab created rancid winds.
It is our duty as persons within this nation to produce rebuttal and rebuke and model veracity
Unfortunately, we can't count on our media to do their jobs. They need chaos because it's profitable. The truth and perspective are out the window. If our media is willing to both sides this, and give equal weight to this bullshit, we're screwed.
Many journalists have called for reducing his coverage - no that is incorrect, reducing his image and hysterical coverage. Unfortunately, what that man does is news, but we don't have to see his face plastered across our media platforms every day. Just type the story, no graphics, and be done with it. People see that man's face, even in a disagreeable light, and click. STOP the IMAGES. [FWIW, we are such an image-based society these days, few will click through if the header is text.]
It's not just his image they need to stop. They constantly frame this as practically normal, which for him it is, but this is not normal. They give free reign to Republicans to lie their asses off with little to no pushback. They belittle President Biden every chance they get, never failing to mention his age, like that's far worse than everything trump has done. It has to stop.
In view of the situation before us I am thinking that there needs to be some type of messaging system, not too unlike the “Lincoln Project” that continuously injects accurate truth-points and cognitive-dissonance messages into the MAGA minority sub-society.
Also while Trump is the loudest voice promoting his own propaganda, he is not the only voice; other individuals who have significant influence must be singled out and denied, refuted, and censored by anyone with the means to do something to resist them and ultimately make them pay a high price for their seditious actions, behaviors, and influences.
What if we focus on the brave Republicans who are willing to speak out ? .. perhaps even contribute to their primary elections ... can we get a list of those folks?
(Republicans have ALWAYS been the opposing party for me - I worked with my parents on the Adlai Stevenson campaign! - but they have not always been the enemy...)
Jay, what we are dealing with is a disengaged, willfully ignorant populace. They are not interested in understanding difficult subjects, and not willing to invest the minimal energy required to truly learn about how government and criminal law work. I appreciate everything about what you are doing here but we are the willing and interested minority. How do we get to the people who care more about what a Kardashian had for breakfast?
I wish I were confident that you are right…. I grew up with people with the mindset that supports Trump, and each of the many times I have returned home with the expectation that surely things will have changed, I have been sorely disappointed…
It always fascinates me that out of one side of their mouths, they talk about how Biden is old, demented and cognitively compromised. Out of the other side of their mouths, they talk about what a criminal mastermind he is to arrange all of this......
and to finish your thought, a man only three years younger than Biden, who can barely string four words into a sentence, and who has no personal grace, who promised much and delivered not one thing except a massive tax cut that did nothing but add to the deficit.
Biden may not be everybody's cup of tea, but he was masterful at the State of the Union address, and again with the recent kerfluffle with McCarthy over the "debt ceiling negotions" where in he got McCarthy to negotiate on a budget and actually extended the deadlines for the debt ceiling.
He was always a skillful facilitator between disagreeing factions… which was not always put to good use (it was Biden who , for Bill Clinton, facilitated the almost complete disruption of the welfare system that allowed poor Mothers and their children (and a few fathers) to, at least eat… along with facilitating the emerging of the private, for profit, prison system, where so many of those children ended up, (thru the heavy hammer of the “three strikes and your out” and “children tried as adults” laws, that sent people to prison for life, for 3 relatively minor crimes)… (where many of them still labor, primarily assembling parts for Lockheed’s military apparati… This disruption of almost all support for the poor (parents were given the option in some places, to work at half minimum wage, in programs set up as a boon to businesses… (this work was often offered late at night, to parents that had no private transportation, all designed in a way that left children uncared for, which, along with their lack of food, contributed to their ending up in prison (and this almost complete withdrawal of welfare for the poor, was accomplished while leaving Corporate Welfare Completely Intact, such as mostly larger corporate farmers, being paid “not to grow food”….) I recognize Biden’s very important skills as a facilitator… and his familiarity with “how government works” are important assets, making him potentially a much better President than an inexperienced one… I wish I could have more confidence in how he chooses to use them…
Not that I expect the true faithful to listen, but the other argument I've been using with them is:
The documents case in now in front of a TFG-appointed judge, with a jury pool drawn from his most supportive state. These are the best possible people to be open to any serious evidence he can present of his innocence.
An innocent man in these circumstances would want to quickly clear his name and get back to his campaign.
A guilty grifter will want to drag this out as long as possible, fundraising off it the whole time while undermining faith in the rule of law.
News reporting sometimes implies Trump chose key docs to keep just before leaving the WH. I posit TFG started his "collection" from Day One in the Oval Office. "Oh, here's a keeper! I can USE this some day ... oh, look at THIS one! Somebody would pay Dearly for this!"
Prosecution of the planners of J6 may have helped to expose some helpful evidence to counter the false narrative, but that didn't happen in a timely manner, we are still waiting for justice to be served to the PowerPoint Coup planners and Lindsey Graham better not have been granted immunity in GA probe considering the shit he continues to spew. Remember when he was quoted as saying (sic) 'They could have told him aliens took the ballots and Trump would have believed them'. F'ing idiots, criminal f'ing idiots, all of them!
Trump is projecting - what he tried to do while president and what he will absolutely do if he is re-elected. So, of course, that’s what he assumes Is happening now.
Let's also remember it wasn't just American lives and intelligence he put/s at risk.
As with the Israeli intelligence he "declassified" to show off for Russian visitors his first year in office, he's also putting foreign intelligence and personnel in significant danger.
Jay, what about the big lie that any of this document espionage has to do with TFG’s psychology? He has been used by the Kremlin repeatedly for DECADES, his daughter is chummy with one of Putin’s girlfriends and his sons admitted that most of their operating cash has come from Russia.
Stop papering over the ruthlessness of this crime cult with “buffoonery”. Oleg Derapaska is kidnapping Ukranian children. Putin is terrorizing the world with his war crimes against Ukraine. And TFG helped make it possible. Regardless of his vulgar behavior, he and all the goons who served him should have been prosecuted starting in 2021, not in the run up to the next presidential election.
Are you suggesting that Trump be hauled into The Hague as a war criminal? I can see some merit to that, given Ukraine and his apparent involvement with Russia.
I’m suggesting that we stop seeing TFG as acting as an American. He is a member of a multi-national crime syndicate and has been actively helping our enemies long before he stepped into American homes as a fake successful businessman. He’s not a war criminal. He’s a Russian asset.
Ok. I am totally terrified. I was scared the 4 years tfg had his tiny hands on the red phone and the nuclear codes. I was angry when tfg dragged his feet on and politicized the pandemic. I was mega upset with Jan 6 insurrection. I was worried when Reagan showed clear signs of dementia his last 6 years in office.
But nothing, nothing is as scary as now.
It feels like we have entered an alternative universe.
Wow. This is so on point, but it should be spread to a wider audience than this community, where I am afraid you are preaching to the committed. I don't have the marketing savvy to tell you how to do that, Jay, but it needs to be sung from every mountain-top in this country. YOU should be on the same panels as Joyce Vance, Andrew Weissman, et alia, saying this loudly and clearly. Your voice is so clear and decisive. This country needs the slap on the cheek you can deliver with your essays.
To paraphrase P.T. Barnum, there must have been lot of suckers born in the past few years-worth of minutes for that man to be able to drag the national security of this country through the swamp he said he would drain back in 2015/16. The hangers-on in the Congress who colluded with him are scared, their pants are dirty, and that is why we are seeing this all-out assault.
Somehow get this piece out there to a broader public ear.
Thank you for this vote of confidence. We are all doing our part, and my platform though smaller than some is mighty in enthusiasm!
I heartily agree with what Christina said! Jay, you write so well and so clearly it's impossible to misunderstand any of the great points you make. I think this is one of your best posts ever, if not THE best.
Perhaps you could ask other Substack writers (like George Takei for instance) to cross-post this important missive. I too have shared it on my Facebook page, but I'm not widely read. And for sure none of the MAGAts who really need to see this are flocking to our pages to be educated or persuaded. You might also consider getting this published as an op-ed in some of the big newspapers with national reach - WaPo, NYT, LAT, Miami Herald, etc.
Yes, it is a vote of confidence, because I have followed you for a while, and genuinely value your multi-faceted insights having experienced your posts about law, politics, and now having seen the creative genius behind a play you "birthed" (your words). All I am advocating is a break-through to a wider audience (good for you, good for the country), not that I have any clue except peripherally as to how to do that.
We can help by sharing this on our own social media with the hope that others will read it and share it as well. That’s a start.
Have already done so on FB. Not a subscriber to any of the others or I would do so there as well. Prefaced my post with Judge Luttig's comment for those who won't read the full newsletter.
I shared to Connie Schultz's page on FB, she carries a bit of weight, especially here in Ohio. Also pointed her towards Indigo, something I sense she would find meaningful.
I did exactly that. My friends who need to read this won't because to them Donald Trump is a saint, and I can't think of any way to get them to consider him in any other way.
I have done so, but my social media reach is intentionally small (to keep my sanity)., and of course all of my friends on SM are like-minded.
Which is a thing I do, almost daily. I don't know if it's doing any good, but I shall keep trying.
It's truly mind-boggling to me that anyone can believe the tripe that Repubs like Ted Cruz are saying. And for Grassley to decline to read the indictment.... idiotic! I found the indictment clear and easy to understand.
I've posted the newsletter to my FB page with the excerpt, as preface, of what Judge Luttig had to say.
It's absurd that they re-elected Grassley given the statements he's made in last many years, and his age...
I say that despite being 71 [a youngster compared to him], but really he needs to retire and let younger people have a chance.
That's exactly what I was thinking. Jay makes the points so clearly that I wish there were some way to put them on a billboard! Maybe he could submit an opinion piece to the NYT or WaPo that would have wider circulation?
I share Jay's posts with lots of people I know. Hopefully they will share it also.
Once someone has their mind made up, particularly if they decided quickly, it is oh so difficult to change their mind. Plenty of cognitive biases confirm that this is common. Logic is hard work, emotions come easy. One of the things people do to protect themselves (their egos) from being wrong is to simply fall back on a cognitive bias. People can see photos of all the evidence of treason, “but that can’t be my candidate,” their mind screams. If you grew up in an abusive or neglectful way, this goes into overdrive. Unfortunate how we do not teach about common human flaws (but that idea would only inflame the big deep state idea). So, the rethuglicans keep feeding this beast (as Cruz just did). And then safely surround themselves with people like them so that they don’t have to be challenged (or suffer the emotional quake that weak people do) on their absurd thoughts. It seems the best approach is what they have been doing: methodically gathering evidence, unemotional approaches, following up leads, and so on. Ah, if only society (and the media) would starve TFG of attention, I think he would melt like the Wicked Witch of the West.
Love that last line.
Me too. If only!
That is the bottom line- a group beset by fixed delusion and powerlust have abdicated the common ground rules that inform our democracy, and instead participate in a call-and-response screech designed to fasely swell their diminutive numbers and propagate extreme lies and miscreantic mechanisme within their lab created rancid winds.
It is our duty as persons within this nation to produce rebuttal and rebuke and model veracity
Unfortunately, we can't count on our media to do their jobs. They need chaos because it's profitable. The truth and perspective are out the window. If our media is willing to both sides this, and give equal weight to this bullshit, we're screwed.
We can’t count on them, but we can put pressure on them. And we must.
Chaos is profitable. Well said.
Many journalists have called for reducing his coverage - no that is incorrect, reducing his image and hysterical coverage. Unfortunately, what that man does is news, but we don't have to see his face plastered across our media platforms every day. Just type the story, no graphics, and be done with it. People see that man's face, even in a disagreeable light, and click. STOP the IMAGES. [FWIW, we are such an image-based society these days, few will click through if the header is text.]
It's not just his image they need to stop. They constantly frame this as practically normal, which for him it is, but this is not normal. They give free reign to Republicans to lie their asses off with little to no pushback. They belittle President Biden every chance they get, never failing to mention his age, like that's far worse than everything trump has done. It has to stop.
Agree.
In view of the situation before us I am thinking that there needs to be some type of messaging system, not too unlike the “Lincoln Project” that continuously injects accurate truth-points and cognitive-dissonance messages into the MAGA minority sub-society.
Also while Trump is the loudest voice promoting his own propaganda, he is not the only voice; other individuals who have significant influence must be singled out and denied, refuted, and censored by anyone with the means to do something to resist them and ultimately make them pay a high price for their seditious actions, behaviors, and influences.
What if we focus on the brave Republicans who are willing to speak out ? .. perhaps even contribute to their primary elections ... can we get a list of those folks?
(Republicans have ALWAYS been the opposing party for me - I worked with my parents on the Adlai Stevenson campaign! - but they have not always been the enemy...)
Jay, what we are dealing with is a disengaged, willfully ignorant populace. They are not interested in understanding difficult subjects, and not willing to invest the minimal energy required to truly learn about how government and criminal law work. I appreciate everything about what you are doing here but we are the willing and interested minority. How do we get to the people who care more about what a Kardashian had for breakfast?
I don't think it's quite that bad. If it was, the Republicans wouldn't need to gerrymander and suppress votes to the extend they did.
People are quite aware, actually.
I wish I were confident that you are right…. I grew up with people with the mindset that supports Trump, and each of the many times I have returned home with the expectation that surely things will have changed, I have been sorely disappointed…
Agreed completely!
EXACTLY!!
It always fascinates me that out of one side of their mouths, they talk about how Biden is old, demented and cognitively compromised. Out of the other side of their mouths, they talk about what a criminal mastermind he is to arrange all of this......
and to finish your thought, a man only three years younger than Biden, who can barely string four words into a sentence, and who has no personal grace, who promised much and delivered not one thing except a massive tax cut that did nothing but add to the deficit.
Biden may not be everybody's cup of tea, but he was masterful at the State of the Union address, and again with the recent kerfluffle with McCarthy over the "debt ceiling negotions" where in he got McCarthy to negotiate on a budget and actually extended the deadlines for the debt ceiling.
He was always a skillful facilitator between disagreeing factions… which was not always put to good use (it was Biden who , for Bill Clinton, facilitated the almost complete disruption of the welfare system that allowed poor Mothers and their children (and a few fathers) to, at least eat… along with facilitating the emerging of the private, for profit, prison system, where so many of those children ended up, (thru the heavy hammer of the “three strikes and your out” and “children tried as adults” laws, that sent people to prison for life, for 3 relatively minor crimes)… (where many of them still labor, primarily assembling parts for Lockheed’s military apparati… This disruption of almost all support for the poor (parents were given the option in some places, to work at half minimum wage, in programs set up as a boon to businesses… (this work was often offered late at night, to parents that had no private transportation, all designed in a way that left children uncared for, which, along with their lack of food, contributed to their ending up in prison (and this almost complete withdrawal of welfare for the poor, was accomplished while leaving Corporate Welfare Completely Intact, such as mostly larger corporate farmers, being paid “not to grow food”….) I recognize Biden’s very important skills as a facilitator… and his familiarity with “how government works” are important assets, making him potentially a much better President than an inexperienced one… I wish I could have more confidence in how he chooses to use them…
Bravo, one of your bests. Excellent read.
Not that I expect the true faithful to listen, but the other argument I've been using with them is:
The documents case in now in front of a TFG-appointed judge, with a jury pool drawn from his most supportive state. These are the best possible people to be open to any serious evidence he can present of his innocence.
An innocent man in these circumstances would want to quickly clear his name and get back to his campaign.
A guilty grifter will want to drag this out as long as possible, fundraising off it the whole time while undermining faith in the rule of law.
Let's see which route he takes.
News reporting sometimes implies Trump chose key docs to keep just before leaving the WH. I posit TFG started his "collection" from Day One in the Oval Office. "Oh, here's a keeper! I can USE this some day ... oh, look at THIS one! Somebody would pay Dearly for this!"
Prosecution of the planners of J6 may have helped to expose some helpful evidence to counter the false narrative, but that didn't happen in a timely manner, we are still waiting for justice to be served to the PowerPoint Coup planners and Lindsey Graham better not have been granted immunity in GA probe considering the shit he continues to spew. Remember when he was quoted as saying (sic) 'They could have told him aliens took the ballots and Trump would have believed them'. F'ing idiots, criminal f'ing idiots, all of them!
Interesting! Lindsey Graham actually said that… It must be exceedingly difficult to be Lindsey!
There was a time when he mostly did seem to be lucid…
In case I misquoted, it wasn't by much!
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/15/donald-trump-aliens-votes-georgia-grand-jury-lindsey-graham
Trump is projecting - what he tried to do while president and what he will absolutely do if he is re-elected. So, of course, that’s what he assumes Is happening now.
Let's also remember it wasn't just American lives and intelligence he put/s at risk.
As with the Israeli intelligence he "declassified" to show off for Russian visitors his first year in office, he's also putting foreign intelligence and personnel in significant danger.
As a national security risk, that man should never, ever be allowed near the presidency. But we all know that, and that is what is frightening.
Jay, what about the big lie that any of this document espionage has to do with TFG’s psychology? He has been used by the Kremlin repeatedly for DECADES, his daughter is chummy with one of Putin’s girlfriends and his sons admitted that most of their operating cash has come from Russia.
Stop papering over the ruthlessness of this crime cult with “buffoonery”. Oleg Derapaska is kidnapping Ukranian children. Putin is terrorizing the world with his war crimes against Ukraine. And TFG helped make it possible. Regardless of his vulgar behavior, he and all the goons who served him should have been prosecuted starting in 2021, not in the run up to the next presidential election.
Are you suggesting that Trump be hauled into The Hague as a war criminal? I can see some merit to that, given Ukraine and his apparent involvement with Russia.
I’m suggesting that we stop seeing TFG as acting as an American. He is a member of a multi-national crime syndicate and has been actively helping our enemies long before he stepped into American homes as a fake successful businessman. He’s not a war criminal. He’s a Russian asset.
Ok. I am totally terrified. I was scared the 4 years tfg had his tiny hands on the red phone and the nuclear codes. I was angry when tfg dragged his feet on and politicized the pandemic. I was mega upset with Jan 6 insurrection. I was worried when Reagan showed clear signs of dementia his last 6 years in office.
But nothing, nothing is as scary as now.
It feels like we have entered an alternative universe.