Tom Rinaldo
Tom Rinaldo's JournalIf Chesebro also accepts a plea deal now, it clears the path for Trump's GA trial
And the pressure is on for Chesebro to flip and take a plea deal now, while the dealing is still good. A $6,000 fine and several years of probation must be looking pretty damn good compared to 5+ years spent in a Georgia prison.
Trump didn't demand his right to a speedy trial, so if Chesebro doesn't go to trial next week that doesn't mean a Trump trial is imminent, but it does mean nothing would stand in the way of setting the date for it, if there isn't an initial trial that must be completed first. It would also mean that Trump wouldn't get to see any preview of the evidence that will be used against him.
The Hamas terrorist attack can not be justified. It was not "justified."
However it, or something else along those lines, had become almost inevitable. Rabin and Arafat signed off almost exactly twenty years ago on the Oslo accords, pointing toward a two state solution. Twenty years is a life time, literally, for many of the Hamas terrorists. If a flame heats a pressure cooker for too long eventually it blows.
It sickens me when anyone attempts to justify what those Hamas terrorists just did. Those acts can never be justified, by anyone at any time. The tragedy that most of the world shares in however is that any number of alternate steps taken by any number of people over the decades preceding likely could have averted that terrorist attack. No matter what any might say to the contrary, it was predictable. Not the specific day or the specific means, but the terror itself was predictable.
This is the word my mind has settled on; inevitable, as opposed to justifiable.
I unreservedly and absolutely condemn what those terrorists just did, and I will not muddy moral waters by launching into some contorted exercise in both sideism. This was the meticulously planned and exercised slaughter of, by definition, innocents. The victims could not have been known to the executioners, their arms were not raised against Hamas. Their dreams, their intentions, even their possible personal commitment to full peace and justice in the Middle East were irrelevant to those who coldly plotted their slaughter. Wanton terror as a tactic can never be deemed acceptable. It can never be called justifiable. But sadly, sometimes when injustice simmers for too long, and all escape ways remain blocked, it can virtually become inevitable.
I knew Senator Feinstein when she was Mayor of San Francisco
I did not know her well, but I met with her when I was working on homeless youth issues during the 80's. She, and her administration, were highly supportive of our efforts. She assigned a Deputy Mayor to work closely with us, and it made a real difference. But what will always stand out for me was her immediate response to the assassinations of Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Milk. She was truly heroic on that day.
Dianne Feinstein had an amazing career. With great respect though, I still feel that, IMO, she stayed in office too long. Her effectiveness was diminishing and it reached the point where California would have been better served by someone else in that seat. Her legacy would have shown even brighter, I believe, if she had been a role model for stepping aside when the time to do so had come.
It is not a mere mathematical question of age. Senator Feinstein remained highly effective well past an age when many others should retire. And there are some amazing people who remain at or near the top of their game longer than she did at age 90.
Be that as it may, she remained a force for good until the end. I can understand why she didn't choose to retire sooner, and though I mildly fault her for that decision, it can't be condemned. Neither should others be condemned for having suggested her retirement. In the end it was her decision to make, and in the end she died doing what she devoted her whole life to; public service.
R.I.P Senator Feinstein. 
So will some "centrist", perhaps about to retire anyway, GOP Comgressperson at some point....
...propose that the office of Speaker of the House be vacated? It increasingly seems to me that only a counterbalancing threat from a non extremist in the Republican House caucus cancelling out the one the extreme right holds over his head, will ever get McCarthy to pass a budget with the support of Democrats. It will probably take the certainty that a small group of Republicans will move against him either way to get Kevin to reopen the government that he is about to shut down. And that will likely only happen after a small group of not absolutely crazy Republicans start freaking out that the American people, but more importantly the voters in their own districts, are about to hang the whole government shutdown and all the disruptions it will cause around the necks of the entire Republican Party.
I wonder how long that will take?
Thank God, Thank Godess, Thank Life itself for younger activists
Obviously I wasn't always 74 like I am now, or 54 like when I joined DU. When I was in my young twenties I was a whole lot less temperate in many ways. I thought we could change the world a whole lot more and a whole lot faster than it turned out we actually could. I lacked some of the wisdom then that often comes with age, but I had plenty of the passion then that often comes with youth. And without that we would have changed the world a whole lot more slowly and a whole lot less then than we actually did. I was willing to try a whole lot of things back then that conventional wisdom said could not work. And sometimes conventional wisdom was right, and sometimes conventional wisdom was wrong.
I am still willing to try things now that conventional wisdom says will not work, I just have come to better understand now why conventional wisdom is often right that something that might seem straight forward to me is actually more complex than it seems. And I try to adjust accordingly. Experience can be valuable, but I have not forgotten the key mantra of my youth; Question Authority. Those who over enthusiastically embrace the wisdom of experience are all too often mindlessly set in their ways. Those my age need to be challenged by youth.
To those of younger generations than mine, go for it! I'll try not to be foolishly offended when you catch me in the throes of over assuredness and/or nondefendable complacency.
We are not in a Culture War. We are in a Cold Civil War
There have ALWAYS been cultural divisions in America. It is an ugly truth that, over what now has been centuries, one demagogue or another, one political party or another, always tries to weaponize them for their personal or partisan gains. But something different is going on now. What commonly get labeled as culture war issues used to be just that, issues; issues that could be raised to excite one group or another, to stand up for or oppose one side or another, in the political arena. America may or may not to varying degrees be a melting pot, but it has never been an undifferentiated, of one mine, whole. We have always had divisions, and divisions have always been exploited.
Rarely however have such divisions been so consolidated into fundamental and opposing political identities as they are now. Certainly not in post WWII America; regionally perhaps, but not on a national scale the way those divisions are consciously being driven now by a deeply entrenched American institution, namely the Republican Party under the sway of Donald Trump.
It has always been an aspect of political parties to exploit hot button issues when they emerge, and Republicans have been particularly adept at doing so, with Richard Nixon especially successful at doing so on a national level. In so doing, he perhaps launched the modern era of partisan politics. It has been said, wisely, that nothing is new under the sun. Everything has its precursors. Maybe what has changed in recent years is mostly a matter of scale. Or maybe it is the entrenchment of opposing mind sets that once hold sway in a more transitory manner.
Elections often used to turn based on how effectively one candidate or another was demonized in relationship to some hot button cultural issue. Though individual politicians held out little hope that the hard core base of the opposing political party could be won over in any given political contest, they almost always made a play for what was defined as "the middle." Therefor the electorate itself was virtually never blamed for the ills that supposedly plagued America at any given time. It was instead the opposing political candidate and his or her closest allies who were disparaged.
That has evolved in insidious ways. Fueled by Trump's influence, whereas "liberals", for example, once got demeaned as "bleeding hearts" and "permissive", now they more often are attacked as "people who hate America." Republicans often openly now run against half of the American public. Whereas a George H. W. Bush once focused his attacks on a "soft on crime" Michael Dukakis, Donald Trump runs against "the radical left Democrats" who "want to tear down America." Those who support the MAGA so called agenda are defined as "patriots", those who oppose what Trump stands for are increasingly called "traitors."
This is not the terminology of a Cultural War. It is the terminology of Civil War. Increasingly veiled threats of a literal Civil War are becoming less veiled, as talk along those lines moves closer to the heart of the American political Right. It is time to call it what it is. No America has not yet entered into the second Civil War, not a hot war, violence is not yet its primary form of expression. But we are moving that way. We are already in the midst of a Cold Civil War. The United States never full out confronted the Soviet Union militarily, but none will deny the reality of the Cold War both sides engaged in then. It wasn't Peace. America, internally, is not now at Peace.
Republicans who pledge allegiance to "One nation, under God" increasingly are lying. Through their words and deeds they swear allegiance to the Republican States of America. Relatively few of them seek literal succession, not yet anyway. What they seek instead is overt Republican rule over the entire "United States." Their strongly implied message to Democrats is "convert, or become subjects."
It is time to recognize this paradigm for what it is. Conservatives of good faith believe in the democratic process. They don't view their non politically conservative neighbors as "the enemy." The alarm call must be sounded. We can't continue to sleep walk toward a full scale Civil War. It is time for all citizens of good faith to fight to "preserve the Union." It starts by actually acknowledging that the Union is at risk.
I think I found the ideal name for Musk's Social Media Sewage Stream
Xcretement. I believe the copyright/trademark is even uncontested. 
It's all going to fall apart quickly for Trump and his allies
Despite a virtually unified Republican front howling that all of the indictments are political hit jobs,the percentage of Americans who believe Trump and team committed real crimes keeps increasing. That number only goes up from here. At this point I have little doubt that Trump will stand trial, almost certainly in Washington, possibly in Georgia, and definitely in NY (unless that trial is pushed back to make room for others) well before the election. Coverage of actual trials will overpower the screams of partisan political spin doctors. Millions of Americans may be immune to actual facts, but millions more are not. It will only get worse for Trump.as more evidence emerges.
The Georgia indictments have pierced a false sense of invulnerability that once surrounded Trump. There were two main factors that previously had propped that up. One was fear of widespread civic unrest ensuing if the legal system made any serious moves toward jailing Trump. That damn has broken. That bluff has been called, and even if there actually was any substance to those fears which have not as yet materialized, the question is moot. The Rubicon has been crossed, there is no turning back, Trump is now being prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
It matters that Trump is facing RICO indictments in Georgia. It frames him as the boss of a criminal enterprise, which is exactly what he is. That framing will permeate all of Trump's legal travails from here on out, because it resonates as fundamentally true. For a one time President who wanted to fill his cabinet with players who looked like they chosen by central casting, he has become the one obviously drawn from that pool. And everything he does and says now reinforces his crime boss stereotyping. He can't help himself, Trump was born to play that role.
Georgia matters for another reason, one that many have commented on before. Trump faces State , not federal , charges in Georgia, and so do all of his conspirators. There are many, and over a dozen of them have already been named and indicted wit him. That aura of invulnerability that Trump once had was largely built on the power he held to pardon accomplices who remained loyal to him. Even out of office Trump vowed to regain that office and with it that power. His grip on the GOP base was so strong that most Republicans who sought the presidency for themselves instead still pledged to pardon Trump and associates once in office.
None of that matters in Georgia, and everyone knows it. Even the Republican Party in Georgia is not reliably under Trump's thumb. It will not change the laws in order to save him. That means that the pressure is on full force for Trump's associates to flip on him, and to do so soon. The minimum charge for a RICO conviction in Georgia is a 5 year prison sentence, to be served in a State, not a Federal, prison. No pardons are even theoretically possible under Georgia State law, before a convict serves his or her time. Once the flipping begins Trump's entire conspiracy will be exposed to the bare bones with irrefutable hard evidence. Lots of former Trump loyalists have all of the receipts. Any week now it becomes every "man" for "himself"
The best time to shoot someone on 5th Avenue is while running for President
Any criminal prosecution of a major party candidate during a presidential campaign is clearly partisan persecution and blatant election interference, by definition, case closed, according to the G.O.P. No need to review any evidence.
Defund the Special Prosecutor, Replace the District Attorney, Pardon any and all participants! How dare anyone allege that crimes could have been committed by an announced presidential candidate?!? Everyone knows that we are automatically in a crime free zone.
I'm straight, white, and male. I lost getting some good jobs due to Affirmative Action.
I have no complaints. Not then, not now. I understood the need to hire someone else. I supported the decision not to give me the job. This was in the 80's. The organizations I was applying at were in the community mental health field. They wanted and needed a diversified staff. In both cases qualified people were hired, and that is all I needed to know. Honestly, I was more qualified in those specific instances, but they hired good people and got a well balanced staff due to affirmative action priorities. Their agencies worked better with a diversified staff. Our nation works better with a diversified work force. Our society is kinder, our communities are safer, our potential to grow as a people moving forward together is best realized through affirmative action, when otherwise a legacy of inequality would continue to be passed on from one generation to the next.
I got other good job opportunities, after all, I was a straight white male.
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