bigtree
bigtree's Journal"They apparently believe the President is above the Constitution and has the autocratic power to suspend its provisions"

...what a putz.
Senator Sam Ervin Explains the Meaning and Consequences of Watergate (1974)
Why Was Watergate?
Unlike the men who were responsible for Teapot Dome, the Presidential aides who perpetrated Watergate were not seduced by the love of money, which is sometimes thought to be the root of all evil. On the contrary, they were instigated by a lust for political power, which is at least as corrupting as political power itself. . . .
They knew that the power they enjoyed would be lost and the policies to which they adhered would be frustrated if the President should be defeated. As a consequence of these things, they believed the President's reelection to be a most worthy objective, and succumbed to an age-old temptation. They resorted to evil means to promote what they conceived to be a good end.
Their lust for political power blinded them to ethical considerations and legal requirements; to Aristotle's aphorism that the good of man must be the end of politics; and to Grover Cleveland's conviction that a public office is a public trust.
They had forgotten, if they ever knew, that the Constitution is designed to be a law for rulers and people alike at all times and under all circumstances; and that no doctrine involving more pernicious consequences to the commonweal has ever been invented by the wit of man than the notion that any of its provisions can be suspended by the President for any reason whatsoever.
On the contrary, they apparently believed that the President is above the Constitution, and has the autocratic power to suspend its provisions if he decides in his own unreviewable judgment that his action in so doing promotes his own political interests or the welfare of the Nation. . . .
Antidote for Future Watergates
Is there an antidote which will prevent future Watergates?
If so, what is it? . . . Candor compels the confession . . . . that law alone will not suffice to prevent future Watergates. . . . Law is not self-executing. Unfortunately, at times its execution rests in the hands of those who are faithless to it.
And even when its enforcement is committed to those who revere it, law merely deters some human beings from offending, and punishes other human beings for offending. It does not make men good. This task can be performed only by ethics or religion or morality. . . .
When all is said, the only sure antidote for future Watergates is understanding of fundamental principles and intellectual and moral integrity in the men and women who achieve or are entrusted with governmental political power.
[From Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, Final Report, 93rd Cong., 2d sess., 1974, 1097103]
I annotated Shady Vance's Munich speech
JD Vance Spoke at the Munich Security Conference This Week
bigtree's breakdown:
...now its time for all of our countries, for all of us who have been fortunate enough to be given political power by our respective peoples, to use it wiselyto improve their lives.
Even though he didnt repeat the phrase American carnage, like he did eight years ago, Trump again began by tearing America down with a cascade of lies and untruths: that the economy is in freefall; that millions of criminals are flooding across the border; that America has lost our respect around the world; that our health care system is broken; that schools are teaching kids to hate America; that major cities are plagued with violent crime; that FEMA failed to help North Carolina victims of Hurricane Helene; that America is no longer developing fossil fuels; and more. None of which are true. One quick fact-check, for example: According to CNN, we are now producing more oil than any other country in the history of the world. -Hill
...the threat that I worry most about for Europe is not Russia. Its not China. Its not any other external actor. What I worry about is the threat from withinthe retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values that are shared with the United States of America.
Foreign adversaries and other bad actors are licking their chops as they watch the current administration remove individuals who have been key to protecting American elections and encouraging the spread of democracy around the world, said Levine, who was previously a former election official in Idaho. Cutting CISA and USAIDs election teams risks hastening the decline of the once-high regard for American democracy, and with it Americas leadership and moral authority. - CNN
I was struck that a former European commissioner went on television recently and sounded delighted that the Romanian government had just annulled an entire election. He warned that if things dont go to plan, the very same thing could happen in Germany too.
J.D. Vance: "I think the election was stolen from Donald Trump." - March 28, 2022
...when we see European courts canceling elections, and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether were holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard.
And I say ourselves because I fundamentally believe that we are on the same team. We must do more than talk about democratic values. We must live them.
WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith concluded that Donald Trump engaged in an "unprecedented criminal effort" to hold on to power after losing the 2020 election, but was thwarted in bringing the case to trial by the president-elect's November election victory. - Reuters
Consider the side in that fight that censored dissidents, closed churches, and canceled elections. Were they the good guys?
During a rally on the final Sunday before the presidential election, Republican nominee Donald Trump told an audience gathered in the battleground state of Pennsylvania that he wouldn't mind if a gunman shot through the group of reporters covering the event. After discussing the protective glass surrounding him, the former president said a would-be assassin "would have to shoot through the fake news" to get to him.
"I don't mind that so much," Trump said, drawing laughter and applause from his supporters. "I don't mind." - AP
We believe those things are certainly connected. Unfortunately, when I look at Europe today, its sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold Wars winners. I look to Brussels, where EU commissars warn citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest, the moment they spot what theyve judged to be hateful content.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump suggested challenging licenses for NBC and other broadcast news networks following reports by NBC News that his secretary of state had called him a "moron" after a discussion of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
"With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!" Trump, a Republican, wrote in a post on Twitter. -Reuters
Or to this very country, where police have carried out raids against citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments online, as part of "Combating Misogyny on the Internet: A Day of Action."
As one of her last acts before leaving office, the Democratic chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission ruled against four petitions seeking to punish television networks for how they cover and satirize presidential politics. Three of the complaints are from a group aligned with Trump. - NPR
I look to Sweden, where two weeks ago, the government convicted a Christian activist for participating in Quran burnings that resulted in his friends murder. And as the judge in his case chillingly noted, Swedens laws to supposedly protect free expression do not, in fact, grant a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief.
On Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump retweeted a series of anti-Muslim propaganda videos shared online by a high-ranking official in the ultra-nationalist UK political group Britain First. The unverified clips were initially posted by Jayda Fransen, Britain Firsts deputy leader, for the express purpose of stoking xenophobic anger at Muslims and Muslim immigrants abroad. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders could not confirm whether their contents were legit. - CNN
A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith-Connor, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and army veteran, with the heinous crime of standing 50 meters from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes.
On Tuesday, at an inauguration prayer service at Washington National Cathedral, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde confronted Trump during her sermon, In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives. And the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals, they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors.
In a Truth Social post at 12:39 a.m. ET this morning, Trump called Budde a Radical Left hard line Trump hater.
She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way, Trump wrote. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart. She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people. Many were deposited from jails and mental institutions. It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the USA. Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one. She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology! - Deadline
And in the interest of comity, my friends, but also in the interest of truth, I will admit that sometimes the loudest voices for censorship have come not from within Europe, but from within my own country, where the prior administration threatened and bullied social media companies to censor so-called misinformation.
WASHINGTON President Trump signed an executive order Thursday targeting social media companies such as Twitter, accusing them of having unchecked power and escalating his feud with the popular digital platforms he relies on as a political bullhorn as he runs for reelection.
Trumps order aims to limit the companies legal immunity for how they moderate content posted by users, a goal that legal experts said exceeds the presidents authority unless he persuades Congress to change the law. - LaTimes
To many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old, entrenched interests hiding behind ugly, Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation, who simply dont like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion, or, God forbid, vote a different wayor even worse, win an election.
...um, Vance, in the same fucking speech:
"And in the interest of comity, my friends, but also in the interest of truth, I will admit that sometimes the loudest voices for censorship have come not from within Europe, but from within my own country, where the prior administration threatened and bullied social media companies to censor so-called misinformation.
Misinformation like, for example, the idea that coronavirus had likely leaked from a laboratory in China."
...trust me, I say this with all humorif American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunbergs scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk.
The EU Commission on Friday formally charged X for failing to respect EU social media law. The platform could face a sweeping multi-million euro fine in a pioneering case under the bloc's new Digital Services Act (DSA), a law to clamp down on toxic and illegal online content and algorithms. Musk's X has been in Brussels' crosshairs ever since the billionaire took over the company, formerly known as Twitter, in 2022. X has been accused of letting disinformation and illegal hate speech run wild, roll out misleading authentication features and blocking external researchers from tools to scrutinize how malicious content on the platforms spreads. - Politico
Do not be afraid.
We shouldnt be afraid of our people, even when they express views that disagree with their leadership.
Fox News host Maria Bartiromo set Trump up to expound on his campaign's ongoing smearing of immigrants. Trump didn't take her up on the offer, instead choosing to focus on American citizens who disagree with his platform.
"I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within, not even the people who have come in [and destroyed] our country," he said. "We have some very bad people, sick people, radical left lunatics. And it should be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military." - Salon
Bondi and Trump believe they should be able to selectively enforce laws (or not) at their leisure or convenience
...but not governors?Pam Bondi has announced that the Department of Justice is suing the state of New York and more, saying : "New York has chosen to prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens. It stops. It stops today."
Pam Bondi has declared that the Department of Justice has filed charges against the state of New York, New York Governor Katy Hochul and State Attorney General Leticia James for allegedly refusing to enforce federal immigration laws.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/pam-bondi-announces-charges-against-new-york-state-officials-over-immigration-you-re-next/ar-AA1yVLBZ
Bondi said the Justice Department filed a suit against the state, Hochul, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Mark Schroder, commissioner of New Yorks Department of Motor Vehicles.
The DOJ announced similar charges against Illinois and Chicago last week, alleging there were state and local laws in place designed to and in fact interfere with and discriminate against the Federal Governments enforcement of federal immigration law, The Washington Post reported.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2025/02/12/pam-bondi-and-doj-sue-new-york-kathy-hochul-over-green-light-law/
...aside from the legal considerations, look at how she's conspiring with her boss (SC says that's fine) as he's currently balking at enforcing anything he's decided he doesn't want to, including things like the Foreign Agents Registration Act, an outgrowth of the response by the FBI and U.S. intel to the 2016 election interference by Russia on Trump's behalf.
Bondi is limiting criminal enforcement of a foreign agents registration law thats been used to investigate or prosecute Trump donors and allies and disbanding a foreign election interference task force thats identified foreign meddling in US elections, including in Trumps favor.
Bondi signed a flood of directives within hours of taking office Wednesday rejiggering priorities at the Justice Department and helping to fulfil a broader Trump administration push to direct more resources toward immigration enforcement.
Bondis memos on national security priorities labeled the moves as an effort to free resources to address more pressing priorities, and end risk of further weaponization and abuse of prosecutorial discretion.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/06/politics/bondi-trump-election-fara-justice/index.html
...in effect, Bondi is trying to claim that she's delaying or refusing to enforce the foreign agents act because she needs to spend the resources on rounding up human beings like cattle in places like NY and Illinois.
The SC has already found in the past that the president has broad enforcement powers under his constitutional obligation to faithfully 'execute' the law, including the discretion to not enforce, or to enforce selectively, or to enforce at their own decided pace.
Indeed, President Obama declined enforcement on a provision (which I can't recall right now), and the right has been exercised ever since, long-plotting, I suppose, to advantage that weak straw to support their intentions to just ignore the laws they don't like.
In fact, the Supreme Court just enhanced those Executive enforcement powers in their 'immunity' ruling which potentially would give Trump even more latitude in those decisions. It's not clear, though, just how far they will let Trump go before he makes moot the very Congress that mandated his Executive branch to act.
If Trump and Bondi can claim they are priortizing enforcement, then why can't states and governors?
Jack Goldsmith, the Learned Hand Professor at Harvard Law School and co-founder of Lawfare, joined Alan Rozenshtein, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota and Senior Editor at Lawfare, to talk about his recent Lawfare article discussing last year's Supreme Court decision in Trump v. United States and its implications for executive power. They discussed how the ruling extends beyond presidential immunity, the broader shift toward a maximalist theory of executive authority, and what this means for the future of American democracy.
(including a deep and important response from Jack on 'enforcement' powers, which could extend to things outside of just enforcing against criminality, but to all legislation.)
watch: (eye-opening)
WH's Orwellian claim that judges ruling against Trump are 'weaponized' against him
Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1 1hHeads up: The White House press secretary just claimed 'judicial pushback' on Trump's actions amounts to a "weaponization" of the courts.
We believe these judges are acting as judicial activists rather than honest arbiters of the law, Leavitt said.
When asked Wednesday if the White House believes the courts have the authority to issue nationwide injunctions to Trumps orders, Leavitt said the rulings have no basis in the law and have no grounds. She said the White House would comply with the courts but believed the administration would ultimately be vindicated.
This is part of a larger, concerted effort by Democrat activists, and nothing more than the continuation of the weaponization of justice against President Trump, Leavitt said, referring to Trumps personal legal challenges, including the criminal trial in New York in which he was convicted last year.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-judges-rulings-constitutional-crisis-presidential-power-a9c593cf3f9faec23a03f4a5123fefdb
...this is rich, coming from an administration whose president has targeted federal workers' jobs in the tens of thousands in order to install ideologically-friendly replacements for the non-partisan positions, applicants who are being asked on forms when they apply to affirm their affiliation with the republican party and their support for Donald Trump.
Just where is the Democratic party supposed to be weaponizing these cases from? Democrats are presently working on a number of legal responses to Trump's overreach, including a class-action suit on behalf of the party. But nothing has been filed from the party yet.
19 individual Democratic state AGs have filed suits to block the impact of several of Trump's executive orders, but, the fact that no republican AGs have done the same isn't 'weaponization'. That is exercising their right to defend the prerogatives of their states in court from what they see as undue interference or evisceration.
Plaintiffs suing the administration to retain or regain their jobs that they were unlawfully removed from by President Musk aren't weaponizing courts, they are seeking support from judges to get the Trump administration to follow the law.
Judges making rulings against the Trump administration aren't 'weaponizing' their own courts. That's absurd. They can't initiate suits, they can only respond to them.
The only ones who have been weaponizing government or the courts are the Trump republicans who practice their baldface lawlessness behind an already convicted felon found guilty by a jury of election fraud, and another jury for defaming a woman who the judge in the trial later clarified he raped.
If anything, Trump and his henchmen have weaponized themselves against their own interests in court in a cynical and deliberately ignorant transposing of guilt and blame onto the people they're abusing. They're trapped in their own delusions, and are now reduced to complaining that everyone is against them for things which everyone clearly should be against.
I'm going to guess the judges had a good chuckle to themselves reading about this, right before they went back to putting the finishing touches on their next, final decisions upholding their earlier, temporary injunctions.
The result of threats to the judiciary, which recognizes and regularly exercises their own equal authority with the Executive branch, is often to hasten their rulings against interests disrespecting their own. FAFO.
Niemoller's often repeated prescience, "First they came for..." contains no refuge for anyone, not even most of 'them'
Trump's clumsily constructed political pyramid is actually a bonfire which threatens to consume everything that supports it underneath; ignited from the bottom and engulfing, even, those near the top who believe they are doing more than just keeping a near-dead Trump in place at the pinnacle.
As Trump moves to eliminate all of the product of previous Congresses, and replace that infrastructure with a construction that only serves his own interests, he and his minions from VP on down are saying out loud that they intend to defy the rulings and authority of our third branch of government; indeed denying the authority of the Constitution itself as they would defy the courts which interprets those precepts.
What becomes of a Supreme Court of just nine individuals, albeit, six of them Trump or republican loyalists when Trump decides their authority over him has been made moot by the evisceration of any enforceable checks and balances on his power and authority?
Is this Supreme Court, even with the power they wielded in enabling Trump to avoid trial before the election, prepared to be nothing more than a rubber stamp of contrived authority subject to the will and whim of an unchecked megalomaniac - rather than function as an independently operating body in an equally balanced democratic system of government?
Are they as stupid as the republicans who are presently sleepwalking through the evisceration of their own power and authority?
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for meand there was no one left to speak for me.
Martin Niemöller
I keep reminding myself that these economic blunders involve what have been primarily republican business interests
...these republican legislators aren't mere U.S. legislators, they're also employees of the people who bankroll and enrich them.
How long are they going to stand by like scared rabbits as Trump locks their business interests down in his stupid box, and works to isolate them to the point where they are dependent on him?
Trump unraveled billions and billions of dollars in U.S. aid and assistance that would not have been politically possible if it hadn't benefited myriad state economies and business interests which provided the goods and materials to needy nations around the world.
Those trade relationships aren't so much government interests, as much as they're government helping provide economic opportunities for states here in America.
With all of the sweeping economic orders from the White House affecting so many aspects of our nation's trade, the effect is a quasi-nationalization of business and industry which is subject to this heavy-handed blundering from a federal government that now thinks it knows better than everyone else - even the people who work for the money Trump is throwing around like he's playing a game of Monopoly.
And now Rubio's been ordered to skip the G20 summit in Johannesburg?
How long is American business going to tolerate this fascist cosplay that threatens their very livelihoods before they get on the phone and the airwaves and tell Trump to keep his tiny hands off of their money?
U.S. under Trump has been transformed overnight into a predator state.
...for ages and ages, our nation's citizens have had the ability to represent themselves to the world as possessing and valuing the precepts of peace, justice, democracy which generations have sought to enhance and build on.
Even under a change in administrations hostile to those interests, they could point to the checks and balances which encouraged consensus over political domination, recognizing the diversity of the electorate and the realization that politics and political power in America is not a static enterprise.
What Trump has done, however, is to advantage his republican majority as some sort of king's court as they protect him from any consequences for his lawless dismantling of the federal government, and from accountability for embracing our nation's enemies abroad and alienating our allies.
There are no checks and balances as he assumes the right to transform America in one party's, one man's personal interest, despite that only half of the electorate voted for him and the balance of power in the legislature is almost equally divided between parties.
When a party in power assumes a mandate far outside of the public opinion or will there is going to be an opposite reaction in the populace, but, the midterms seem like an eternity away, and this kind of power grab isn't going to release its grip without pressure.
We are just like Germans, who no one distinguished from the crimes and abuses of their iron-fisted leader when the raids began on homes, schools, places of worship, and men, women, children who were never tried in court for any offense were dragged away and shipped to inaccessible and unaccountable concentration camps.
Most Americans won't know that the perky blond Trump press secretary just announced that Trump sent the first migrants to Guantanamo Bay - unknown, unaccountable, and uncharged - sentenced to a U.S. gulag primarily because there is no host country who presumably will receive them.
Trump just announced that he intends for our U.S. troops to participate in his ethnic cleansing of the Gaza strip so he can level it and build condos there. No more America striving for Palestinian self-determination. We are, in Trump's vision, to own the Gaza Strip.
We are now, with all of the branches of our government controlled by Trump and his republican cabal, and ethnic-cleansing people who imprison migrant families indefinitely without charge in concentration camps.
We are Germans under Hitler: Italians under Mussolini; soon to be Cambodians under Pol Pot. We have no real check on Trump's despotism until we vote and win majorities in the legislature again.
Then, and only then, can we hope to regain a sense in the world that Americans value something other than the repression and nihilistic megalomania of the Trump regime.
Dad was original DEI in government
It's the first day of Black History Month, and I'm writing this slowly to draw out the ignoble ending of an era; the bookend of my father's early and long career with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; set against the backdrop of Trump's prevaricating, political evisceration of the 1965 Johnson Executive order which put into action John Kennedy's dream initiative to lead the nation in setting standards of employment for the federal government which advantaged the expertise and talent of all Americans, not just a privileged few.
In June 1941, on the eve of World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had signed Executive Order 8802 prohibiting government contractors from engaging in employment discrimination based on race, color or national origin, but it had no enforcement mechanisms.
Kennedy's order granted the EEOC Committee, initially chaired by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson (who established his own EO after JFK's death), authority to impose sanctions for violations of the Executive Order.
Roosevelt recognized the value of the untapped pool of able black Americans who would help him realize his ambitious plans for war. The recruitment and retention of qualified black Americans into the federal government and military was coupled with efforts to make educational opportunities more available to them.
Indeed, my dad began his own journey toward opportunity by joining that very war effort, and later, before joining the federal government, advantaging his higher education with the G.I. bill, and working his way up to becoming Director of the Employment Opportunity Commission (renamed in the early 80's to take out the 'equal' part).
It's not just sad to see his legacy so callously discarded by this inveterate demagogue seeking to bastardize the meaning of discrimination to protect and preserve the remnants and vestiges of a disgustingly cruel era where my welfare and opportunities in this nation, and those of my father and family hung on this Executive Order from 1965 to protect us from the self-interested domination over our lives by racist bigots like Donald Trump.
What Trump has done in revoking the 1965 Act is to dissolve decades and decades of leadership from the federal government which forced the rest of the nation's employers to respect the rights of my father and me.
This biography is poignant reminder of just how tenuously my own rights to work and opportunity have been defended in this country since shortly after my birth in 1960; my dad working an entire career to make good on the promises John Kennedy made right before he was killed; what Johnson made certain became the practice of the land, all undone by one ignorant man determined to roil our nation's history and democracy.
I'm marking this moment by giving him his due, hoping folks here take some time to recognize and acknowledge the passing of this important era in our nation's history.
- Ron

SOME of the most important and relevant aspects of our Black History Month celebrations have been our highlighting and honoring of our country's African American heroes whose efforts helped our nation advance and grow beyond our challenging, and often, tragic beginnings. Although most would be loath to call themselves 'heroes' or volunteer themselves for any special recognition at all for their deeds, there is certainly a benefit in framing and promoting these brave citizens' struggles and triumphs as a guide to future generations as they navigate their own inter-ethnic/inter-racial relationships among our increasingly diverse population. Their work and sacrifices form the foundation for the actions we took to reject and defend against discrimination, racism, and other abuses and injustices; as well as provide sustaining inspiration for the conduct of our own lives.
The most enduring and important legacy of these societal pioneers has been the uplifting of a people, and the promises gained, of opportunity and justice for black Americans (and, subsequently, other minorities, women, and the disabled) to be realized through the affirmative action of our federal government.
It was only through the tireless activism and advocacy of notables like Martin Luther King Jr. and others in the civil rights movement in the 1960's, who were protesting and demanding equal opportunity and access for African Americans, that politicians like John F. Kennedy and his political predecessors saw fit to introduce and advance legislation which would bring the federal government into compliance with the aim of equal employment opportunity and require contractors who were hired by government agencies to form 'affirmative action' programs within their own companies as a prerequisite for getting tax dollars from Uncle Sam.
Although President Kennedy didn't live to see the passage of the Civil Rights Act, he did manage to accommodate the lobbied demands of Dr. King in both, his Executive Order 10925, introduced. in 1961, establishing a 'Committee On Equal Employment Opportunity' (providing for the first time, enforcement of anti-discrimination provisions) ; and in his introduction of the Civil Rights Act to Congress on 19 June 1963.
Almost a year after President Kennedy's assassination, Lyndon Johnson pushed the Civil Rights Act through Congress and signed it into law. One of its major provisions was the creation of the 'Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.' The law provided for a defense by the federal government against objectionable private conduct, like discrimination in public accommodations; authorized the Attorney General to file lawsuits to defend access to public facilities and schools, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights, and to outlaw and defend against discrimination in federal programs.
So, Dr. King and others in the civil rights effort, had done their part in agitating and promoting through demonstrations, the notion and the ideal of advancing equal opportunity into action and law. The passage of the Civil Rights Act was, by no means, the end of advocacy by black leaders. Neither was it the end of the political effort by Johnson and others committed to advancing and enhancing black employment and establishing anti-discrimination as the law of the land.
On September 24, 1965, President Johnson originated and signed Executive Order 11246 which established new guidelines for businesses who contracted with the Federal government agencies, and required those with $10,000 or more of business with Uncle Sam to take 'affirmative action' to increase the number of minorities in their workplaces and keep a record of their efforts available on demand. It also set 'goals and timetables' for the realization of those minority positions.
As far as the activists and politicians' abilities went, they had stepped up to the plate and hit the ball into the outfield. Now, the challenge was to bring the jobs home; to protect and defend the new employment provisions in the federal government, as well as, around the nation in the myriad of public facilities and other amenities which were connected to the federal government through funding. Enforcement was the key.
That would require reliance on a newly formed bureaucracy and its government managers and directors; some appointed by the president, most others brought into government on a less auspicious level.
One of those 'managers and directors' who was present and accountable in government at the time of these important changes in our employment law was my father, Charles James Fullwood.

Charles James Fullwood
In a bit of a self-indulgent look back at his almost 40 years in government -- in relation to some of the changes in the federal government's evolving embrace of its responsibility to defend and promote the remedies and benefits of the equal protection clauses in the Constitution -- we can see a tenuous, but, determined fight beyond the protests; beyond the political arena; to press on with the implementation and realization of some of the promises of the Civil Rights movement.
In Charles Fullwood's personal development and advancement in the military and in government, we can also see many of the dynamics of inclusion and adjustment in play which marked his coming of age in the midst of poverty and oppression, and also, the period beyond the bold actions and bold choices our nation subsequently undertook through their elected representatives.
As humble beginnings go, it's hard to get more quaint than his first home near an Indian reservation in the mountains of Black Hills, North Carolina. He said his daddy used to run a speakeasy with a still in the cellar which he liked to nip at a little when he fetched and filled the jugs for the blues-loving customers partying upstairs. A run-in by my grandfather with a local sheriff was said to have sent the Fullwoods packing and making their way up North in a hurry. The family of eleven settled down in Reading, Pennsylvania, and, but for a few exceptions, like Dad, lived most of the rest of their entire lives there.

On the Sidewalk Outside of 4th Street Address
Reading was a hard-scrabble, mostly poor community which was mostly known, as my father liked to say, for it's 'pretzels, prostitutes, and beer.' In his neighborhood, at least, he described a people who were laid low by poverty and discrimination, and advantaged more by the 'mob' than by the government or its industry. Their burly representatives were said to bring food and clothing to some of the needy families in the neighborhood, once, as Dad described it, looking in the door and seeing all of the children running around, remarked, 'Look at all the hungry little bastards! Little bastards gotta eat.'
Dad said that they would come by occasionally with items like underwear that folks had discarded, and, they'd take them -- happily, because it might be their only opportunity. It's not as if their father hadn't worked to provide for his large family. In fact, James Beulo Fullwood, who immediately applied for 'Relief', upon arrival in town, refused to send his children to school unless the local government provided all nine of them with new clothes. I'm told he got the clothes.


Somehow, Dad and his sister Olivia (who was a young, tragic casualty of the seedy side of the town) managed to gain admission to a Quaker grade school nearby and enjoyed the benefits of educational integration well before most of the rest of the nation. He also worked with the conscientious objectors in the Quaker community as a member of the local Civilian Conservation Corps.

Dad and the Reading Civilian Conservation Corps
Like most endeavors in his life, Dad was on the cusp of a revolution of societal changes which would both advance his careers, and bring his life experiences to bear as he took advantage of the opportunities that the political community's (and the nation's) determination to implement the 'Great Society' ideals expressed and advanced by King, Kennedy, and Johnson into action or law afforded him.
Charles completed three years of high school (vocational school) without a degree and worked as a machinist apprentice operating a drill press. As far as opportunity went in that town, he had the best of it at the machine shop.
He joined the U.S. Army, in 1942, during WWII. He'd had enough of life in Reading and the world was beckoning. That summer as he trained in munitions handling and other military tasks, U.S. troops had landed on Guadalcanal. A year later, as Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met together for the first time, Dad was aboard a Navy carrier bound for New Guinea (the time of his life).

He was attached to the 628th Ordinance Company and their mission was to establish an ammo dump near Brisbane, Australia. The voyage was 'uneventful;' touching once at Wellington, New Zealand and eventually docking at Sydney, Australia.

Members of the 628th Ordinance Company
"Today is cruel:" he wrote, in a brief, but compelling journal of his first voyage and his first trip abroad. "...the sky is cold. not a particle of cheery blue is seen. Nature has sketched a lifeless and deadly scene whose background is obscurity . . The elements are warring."

New Guinea -- Cadre and Locals
Dad gained a field promotion in New Guinea to Staff Sargent after his superiors recognized him as a leader among his unit of black soldiers. He had an experienced ability to relate with and communicate effectively with the majority of white commanders and superiors in the military and that also served to elevate his profile among the military leadership.
Dad returned from his voyage and two-month deployment to New Guinea and Australia, newly energized and ambitious. On the way home from the West, he had to repeatedly switch trains to ride on the 'colored' cars through the segregated states and towns. He arrived home to Reading and immediately threw his abusive, deadbeat father to the curb. He didn't plan to stay there long, though.

Dad and Sister
Charles received an honorable discharge in 1946. Four years later, he was a graduate student on the GI Bill at West Virginia State College. Dad met my mother there and married her after graduation. He received a degree there in Psychology and went on to further his education at Princess Anne College in Maryland, where he described living in a rundown, segregated, barrack-like dorm.


At WVa. State College, Dad became a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and joined the ROTC.

W.Va, College President, John W. Davis Presents the ROTC Unit's Colors to Senior Cadet, Lt. Charles Fullwood
He subsequently enlisted in the USAR in 1950 where he was assigned to work on civil affairs, recruiting, and personnel. Years after that, in 1963, Charles became a military policeman in the National Guard of the District of Columbia.

Public Safety Officer With D.C. National Guard
Back in his community, Mr Fullwood had also organized a civic association in his home named the Raritan Valley Association which was founded to further the goal of racial equality and for "greater awareness among Negroes of their own responsibility to the community."


It was also at this time -- right at the point in 1963 where President Kennedy is introducing the Dr. King-inspired Civil Rights bill of his to a divided Congress -- that Charles Fullwood was hired as an Employee/Management Relations Specialist in the Office of Undersecretary of the Army overseeing and processing complaints that passed through the Army Policy and Grievance Board.
When the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964, Mr. Fullwood had been promoted to a Personnel Staffing Specialist, Chief of Employee Services Section, at NASA, with responsibility for managing equal employment, mentally ill, and affirmative action programs; along with responsibility for recruiting and outreach. By 1966, he was NASA's 'principle action,' Equal Opportunity Employment Specialist for the Federal Government, and assisted in the implementation of Kennedy and Johnson's 'affirmative' action-based Executive Orders, 10925 and 11246.

Dad at NASA
By 1967, Charles had advanced to the U.S Civil Services Commission, assisting in developing general and special inspection plans for employer compliance with affirmative action laws and participating in EEO reviews.

Graduating Class at Judge Advocate General's School
In 1968, after being a rare bird in the Judge Advocate General's School and completing its International Law course, he was, simultaneously appointed Deputy Chief, Placement at the Office of Economic Opportunity Personnel and Job Corps. The remnants of the OEO that were reorganized into the Department of Health and Human Services. were the last vestiges of Sargent Shriver's hopes and dreams which Nixon had dismantled and tried to underfund and eliminate.
The next year, Charles Fullwood was moved to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as a senior consultant top legislative officers of state, local governments, and private industry in providing ways to implement Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
By 1970, he was promoted to a position as Deputy EEO Officer, responsible for implementing and evaluating a program of equal employment opportunity for employees of the Public Health Service hospitals, clinics, and major health services divisions.
Later, as Deputy Director of OEEO and HSMHA in 1972, Mr. Fullwood would direct the implementation and administration of affirmative action, upward mobility programs, and the processing of the Federal Women's and the Spanish-Speaking Program which had also been folded under EEO's mantle. This was the period where EEO had been granted actual authority to file lawsuits against violators. In the past, those cases were processed and prosecuted by the Labor Dept., with EEO merely providing friend-of-the-court briefs in support or opposition.
Dad took advantage of this period to play 'Lawrence of Arabia' and leave his paperwork-laden office and go out in the field to bonk some heads. He'd take a sheaf full of the new regs and new authority and put on his best angry administrator face for the code violators and abusers he encountered along the way. Not to diminish the effect of the enforcement ability afforded EEO, there were several landmark cases which were quickly prosecuted by the government and won.
____ It was also during this period that my father had become frustrated over being ignored, yet again, for a promotion in his membership as a major in the Army Reserve. He had been with the Reserve for over 20 years at that point, attending to that career at the same time he was submerged in his government one. Three times he had achieved the required service for consideration for advancement, and twice he had been passed-up.
Anxious that this third bid was destined to be rejected, he wrote then- Brigadier General Benjamin L. Hunton, USAR Minority Affairs Officer, and complained about a process where there were never enough blacks available in the pool to ever stand a chance of any minority gaining the promotion.

"There are a total of 61 officers in the unit," he wrote. "Two are minority group members; a total of 67 officers in another -- two are minority group members . . . a total of 63 in yet another unit with three minority members. The first cited has seven officer vacancies."
"The normal promotional procedure has been to select company and field-grade officers from the companies to fill headquarters vacancies. The procedure of promoting from within is as it should be. My only reservation," he wrote, "is that there are too few black officers at the company grade level available for consideration -- and when available, not selected for promotion."

450th - First Year With Unit
After little more than lip service from the general, Major Fullwood wrote then-Major General Kenneth Johnson:
"I am concerned that, despite the rhetoric and regulations, the Army Reserve and Command, have not now, nor in the past, initiated programs designed to seek and encourage blacks and other minorities to enlist in the Reserve forces . . ."
"Where they do exist, implementation of programs designed to recruit and maintain minority members has been delegated to local commanders with authority to implement according to local needs, but, without specific guidance or compliance review. Herein lies the problem; historically, the Reserve program, as you know, has been a haven for white boys. It has not changed . . . "

450th - Two Years Later
"I have approximately 22 years of combined service in the National Guard and Reserve Corps and am now being denied the opportunity for advancement. If local commanders can capriciously and unilaterally make the decision to deny me, an officer, opportunities that have been offered in abundance to whites, it doesn't require a great deal of imagination to realize the treatment black applicants to the reserve are being subjected to . . . The Reserve recruiting proedures and the Reserve program are, in the main, designed for whites, and consequently, mitigate against recruiting career-minded blacks," he wrote.

Dad's in the far back row, third from the left, behind a soldier
Major Fullwood recieved his commission to Lieutenant Colonel almost 3 years after he had lodged his complaints, and he retired from the Reserve at that rank in 1981.
Ironically, one year after that promotion, LTC Fullwood was assigned by the U.S. Army as an Education and Training Officer, providing support and assistance to U.S. Army Race Relations/Equal Opportunity Staff in preparation and presentation of the Unit RR Discussion Leader Course.

In a validating, but dumbfounding review by his commander, of his new promotion and new 'race relations' assignment, LTC Fullwood was described as 'diligent' and 'exemplary' in the performance of his duties. "His background as Director of Equal Opportunity for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare enabled him to greatly assist First U.S. Army in establishing the Unit Race Relations Discussion Leaders Course," the recommendation read.
No kidding.
Charles Fullwood would serve as Acting Director of OEEO and the Health Services Administration from August 1973 to September 1974. Next, he would serve as Special Assistant to the Administrator for Civil Rights, and then, as Director of the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity.

"The HSA Administrator is responsible for the administration of the EEO and Civil Rights programs," Mr. Fullwood told the 'Health Services World' magazine in 1976, after gaining his appointment, "And Dr. Hellman, HSA Administrator, has appointed me to implement them. I intend to do just that, with the help of all of the HSA employees," he said.
That's the long and short of Dad's military and public service. He advanced in the military and the government -- almost Gump-like in his relative obscurity; an uncomfortable aberration in the images capturing the racial make-up of his peer groups -- working to elevate and implement so many of the ideals and initiatives contained in the civil rights legislation that Martin Luther King Jr. and others fought for; working to implement the orders and initiatives from two successive presidents determined to make the 'Great Society' programs a reality (and Nixon, curiously providing the first actual governmental language), and serving as administrator for the inevitable outgrowths and expansions of those initiatives into the federal workforce and beyond; recruiting countless African Americans into the federal workforce, in his time, and providing some of the early backbone for the nation's new impetus in the hiring and advancement of blacks in government.
Most interesting to me, is that image after image shows the extent that, in those early days, Mr. Fullwood was usually, either the only black official in the rooms where important decisions were made concerning equal employment and other vestiges of the Civil Rights Act; or he was one of just a few. It's remarkable how steadfast he appeared over the years as he navigated his way to the senior positions he held in government and in the military.


Office of Equal Employment Opportunity Moves to HSA
In our nation's democracy, social, economic, and legal changes are advanced by a combination of activism, political initiative, and administrative implementation and interpretation. We are advantaged in the realization of our individual and collective ideals by activists, politicians, and bureaucrats. They all contribute.
It's wise to avoid getting too sentimental about the role of government in carrying out our ideals and addressing our concerns in the form of legislation or Executive actions. We, correctly, continue to press our concerns, even after we've passed our legislative remedies and tasked them to administrators and managers to implement. However, it doesn't hurt to recognize the tenacious, principled individuals inside of government who are driven by a determination to make it all work for as many Americans as possible to carry out our political mandates.
I think my father (with the help of countless others assuming the same responsibilities of implementing the dream) fulfilled that role with a characteristic routineness that mirrored the disciplined, principled personal life this African American sought to lead against so many obviously threatening odds; mirroring the unflagging commitment to the nation's advancement that countless generations of black Americans have repeatedly demonstrated, against all odds.
With all of the controversies today about corruption and greed influencing our political and governmental leaders, it's nice to know that there was a sober and trustworthy individual working on these issues behind the scenes. Charles Fullwood was transparently, if nothing more, a decent and principled man. That seems to be a rarity in government these days. It's certainly worth celebrating.
We're left to wonder just what we'd do without them; these good guys in government . . . I look optimistically to the future for more Chuck Fullwoods to run the bases after we've hit our political balls deep into the nation's outfield. How have we ever managed without him?

Going to be interesting when Trump's DOJ begins prosecuting his political adversaries
...and the people he's called out in his campaign, and in his reelection.
One of the first things I'd argue if I was a defendant would be that the FBI which presumably investigated is being run by someone with an open political vendetta against Democrats.
Moreover, unlike Biden's DOJ which had little to no relationship with the president, there's a reinforcing refrain from Trump about his predecessor about 'weaponization' which may work on a campaign trail , but is a damning projection of his own interference as he justifies his malfeasance by pointing to his false projections about a 'witch hunt' directed by the Biden WH.
In effect, Trump's DOJ is in a box of his own making, with the appointment of a henchman AG who has openly called for using the power of our nation's Justice Dept. to pursue and punish political opponents.
There is no precedent for that brand of politicization of the Justice Dept., aside from Trump's own politicized DOJ in his last term in office. It's one thing to campaign on a canard of what you claim your opponent is guilty of without proof.
Quite another to try and use that rhetorical prevarication in court as a shield or justification for abusing justice in your own presidency.
This fucker stood there before the nation and claimed it was common sense' to suspect an non-white person was to blame
...the hell with dancing around this 'diversity' claim for the cause of the midair collision.
Trump dug right in on his diversity dogwhistle, projecting it into the public ear for what must have been the 10th time since he took the oath.
He delivered it exactly like a southern segregationist shooting the shit with the Klan at the general store about how superior they were to the black people they kept under their foot.
It's 'common sense,' Trump is saying, that the white men who dominate the aviation industry are smart and capable, and all others have, "missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism."
I should be immediately disqualifying that Trump is still characterizing Americans he intends to lord over in 2025 - as if we hadn't already advanced generations and generations of all walks of minority Americans through the very same schools as their white male counterparts for decades and decades - with the same backward, insinuation that none other than those in the status quo of the white male-dominated industry could be qualified for big, hard airplane stuff.
But, apparently, we must be too stupid to recognize that the very same industry full of white men have been at the helm of the vast majority of the nation's aviation accidents. Or, that there's no empirical evidence in our own lives that minority Americans are inherently or demonstratively any less intelligent than any of the rest of the nation.
This is the rub for Trump. Most of us are living in the real world, unburdened by these defensive and compensating prevarications some use to make themselves feel superior to others who don't look like them. It's not something that most of us need or desire.
Moreover, the industry he's defending with his weird, racist paternalism has long ago recognized the need to cast a wide net in recruiting and retention of qualified applicants beyond traditionally represented groups of Americans, something essential for a progressive government or a growing business.
Trump is desperate for the nation to return to the days when these tropes he relies on to make himself feel less insecure were an oppressive cudgel the white male dominated majority in government and workplaces used to keep others from benefiting from the same opportunities they enjoyed.
But there isn't an actual impetus in the country to re-marginalize and subjugate what is a fully enlightened generation with a healthy sense of their own place in society, matched by an economy which relies on everyone's participation from the bottom to the top.
And people are not going to just allow themselves to be trampled by this old fuck. Trump is Norma Desmond, lost in his demented fantasy world where he never grows old, is forever young, and where he's the greatest star of them all, as his deluded act opens with him envisioning America floating face down in his decrepit pool.
Norma Desmond, Sunset Blvd.
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