Special Prosecutors: Their Power and Limitations

The web site Salon.com is featuring an interview with a book author who has written the history of special prosecutors in the U.S.  I am currently reviewing the article and the interview transcript.




What is clear so far is that prosecutors act as important catalysts for decisions.  But without public pressure, Presidents have a tendency to remain in office no matter the results of special prosecutors' investigations.

This is a warning to those who believe the Mueller investigation will surely lead directly to the ousting of the President.  On the positive side, the current investigation of Our Military Leader is a crucially important one, both for what it says about the strength of our democracy as well as the impact it can have on events. 

Read the article here:
Special Prosecutors: Their Power and Limitations

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, 2018 Trailer

More to the point, the White House was stolen for Trump as Koch Brothers, and Republican operatives worked behind the scenes to expunge voter rolls. 

"We are not amused."

This quote, attributed to Queen Victoria, is exigently applicable to the feelings of many Americans today regarding our current monarchical Executive.  Many in the press and media, and certainly in entertainment, have found much material for merriment both for themselves and for others.

But increasingly in the press, there is no more amusement.  Recent editorials in The New York Times and The Washington Post attest to this welcome literary transformation. 

Now comes The New Yorker with a feature story on the man who transformed Our Military Leader (OML) from a D-list celebrity into a President, or so the article claims.  (I am still reading it at this hour, you see.) 

This article reminds me of the landmark book by Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death.  In this great 1985 non-fiction work, Postman lays out the dangers of a too-shallow television culture which was leading America into a zombie-like state of pixilation and stupor. 

Now, however -- and after all this time -- Americans seem to be waking up once again to reality, and none too soon.  The vexations are trumping humor.  Fear is triumphing over comedy.  No, we are not amused.  But we aren't stupid either.  And tolerance for inanity has its limits after all. 

Closing Out the Old Year

The fresh new-born baby of 2018, having long ago atrophied into a wizened old man, it is now time to say good-bye to a year strangely and unexpectedly filled with hope, albeit alongside bizarreness on a level never seen before in the U.S. executive branch.

But time to move on it surely is.  I am in process of understanding how this blog can be most useful.  This process, and a holiday rush, have meant a slowing of post frequency here in recent times.  It seems clear, however, that there is a place more than ever for rationality, study, and civil discourse.  This last statement may seem counter-intuitive what with raging "twitter wars" and the like.

At least we can say the American public is no more enamored of the banality, frivolousness, and sheer cruelty which can be on today's Internet.  They still, more than ever, want to be called to honor their better selves.

Perhaps, perhaps it is just possible there is a quite valuable role to be played by bloggers.   And perhaps the uncertainly of now opens up a golden opportunity for patriots, even of the musical kind. 

Forbes Magazine Lays Out Five Interlocking Conspiracies Affecting 2016 Election

... we do appear to be at a turning point, since we finally know what hold Putin has over Trump. Yet, we may be rather “at the end of the beginning,” in that we finally know how and why Trump became president.” The beginning of the end” will come once there is a viable path towards doing something about it.

Forbes magazine has laid out for the American people a scheme of five interlocking conspiracies which were carried out beginning in 2015 and continuing through 2016 and beyond, which Forbes says furthered Donald Trump's financial interests at the expense of the American people.

The article speaks for itself and is a must-read.

How Trump Deprived America of a Free Election: Forbes

Have I Not Even My Own Name Anymore?

The magazine label reads first, "READ MORE AT NEWYORKER.COM,"  then it says,

MY NAME
MY ADDRESS.

Now, I like The New Yorker all right, except for their inexplicable use of profanity, but it was a little jarring to see a promotion for the magazine's web site printed as if it were part of my address.

But this is what it has come to as we approach the final years of the second decade of the 21st Century.   People are "customers," "targets," and more.  Is it not this way of seeing people, which gets us angry?  Are we human still?  Or are we merely entities to be enticed, deceived, and exploited by big businesses?   (As I understand it The New Yorker is owned by Conde Nast and, along with other magazines in the group, is suffering circulation woes.  I sympathize with their plight.)  

It is long past time for a revision in the way our vast marketing and financial worlds are ordered.

People are tired of being ordered around.  


Best wishes from TMP for a wonderful Christmas lead-in period.  

Moment for History

Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama

 

 

 

Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama, elected one year ago this month, brought to justice the men who bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963.   You can clink on the link below for more information.

Then-Attorney Jones acting in his official capacity as a federal prosecutor was responsible for charging these criminals.  Any time is a good time to remember heroes such as Sen. Jones -- including this time. 


How Church Bombers Were Brought to Justice

A Breakfast with Words

Via Patriot in Exigency --


I could also say "a breakfast of words," as I so enjoyed reading this morning the introductory material to Thomas A. Bailey's book entitled A Diplomatic History of the American People, originally published in 1940...

Read more at Patriot in Exigency 

Mid-Terms Cement Fears of a Crisis in Democracy

Quick Link --

Tuesday's results and their fall-out have crystalized concerns about a crisis in democracy on the part of many.  As the Republican-led Senate posted gains in seats, citizens have been wondering just how this happened.   At the link below, writer Jonathan Freedland explains just how this has happened, at least technically.

Not mentioned in the article is the effect of big money on politics.  Surely we can blame big money in politics upon the capitalist system which creates not only a vast imbalance in wealth, but undue political power on the part of the wealthy. 

A must-read:
The Crisis in Democracy

Democrats Make Strong Gains in East and Midwest

Win Control of House of Representatives

and Seven Governorships

Gain Also in South and West

Mid-term election results reflect concerns about health care, economy, and the nature of public discourse.

Details coming soon

NAACP Charges Voting Machine Irregularities in Texas Counties

Quick Link --


Voting Machines Said to Switch Votes to Republican

Greg Palast on the Latest Voter Suppression News

Greg Palast Speaks on "Democracy Now," about a "very serious" voter suppression tactic being used by the Georgia Secretary of State, who is himself a candidate for Governor of Georgia.  Palast and others are suing Kemp (the Secretary) for violations of voting rights laws.  See the video below.  

V

More on Voter List Purges Coming Soon

I'll have more on the voter list purges in Georgia shortly. 

Please check back here later.

Greg Palast Sues

via Patriot in Exigency


My companion web log reports on the new Greg Palast lawsuit seeking to stop voter purges. 




https://patriotinexigency.blogspot.com/2018/10/greg-palast-and-cohort-sue-georgia.html

Mother Jones' Words Still Ring True

Sunday Inspiration.

The words of Mother Jones as related by   Elliott J. Gorn in Mother Jones.  The Most Dangerous Woman in America


"'...we are face to face with a conflict of the classes.'  Her fundamental assumption was the labor theory of value -- that the worth of goods comes from workers combining their toil and skill with natural resources.   From this followed the belief that capitalists unjustly deprive workers of the product of their labor, that the earth's treasures rightfully belong to the people, that the primary identity of those who toil for a living is with each other, and that out of such awareness will come change.    Government, she insisted, was a prisoner of capital.  'You assume that you live in a republic, but it is a mistake;   you live under the flag of an oligarchy.   Your President and Congress do not represent the people.  They represent the robber class, and do not represent the working class.'"

N.B.   Mother Jones was a labor activist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.   She affected people greatly through her love of workers, their children, and families.