In case you doubted that threats of violence can cow a person, consider the case of Federal Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart, the judge who approved the search warrant for Mar-A-Largo to retrieve the stolen national security documents Donald Trump had taken when he left the White House and was refusing to return while his possession of these documents threatened the secrets with exposure to our enemies when he sold them to Putin.
Right on target, TC. The treatment of the Judge by the MAGA rage machine is becoming too 'normal' alas. The rage machine is only going to ramp up---and until everyone in the responsible media realizes that the rage machine has no guiding principles other than chaos, we are in for a terrible time. Things are not looking good. The mainstream media can't seem to grasp that these are not normal times, that covering Trump as someone "normal" is stupid, and that making sure everyone knows how well Biden is doing is essential for the survival of democracy. The fact that T still has his 30% + is terrifying. By the numbers of registered voters, Dems should dominate, but the GOP has tilted the table in a million ways.......
The difference between them and us: If Obama or Clinton or Carter had removed top secret documents from the WH and held them in an unsecured private residents, we as fellow Democrats would have supported a "search and removal" - followed by possible prosecution.
Because the law is the law. And even people we agree with politically can be crooks and/or make legal mistakes that they should be held accountable for. No matter who they are or how loud they howl.
So Earth to GQP fanatics: your guy looks like a crook, sounds like a crook, acts like a crook. And I bet he smells like one, too. Not a duck. A crook.
Until someone in government has the balls to demand that every single example of terroristic threats against a public official is investigated by the FBI, and the relevant perps brought in for questioning, the MAGA crowd will continue doing this stuff. Terroristic threats and threats of violence are NOT protected free speech, as many court cases have held. I'll bet a lot of the perps involved will fill their drawers when the G-men come to call..... As for the Gravy Seals and Oaf Keepers, heightened surveillance and aggressive monitoring of illegal activities will be needed to keep them from acting on their worst impulses. We also need new restrictions on "paramilitary" weapons like the AR 15.....
("There Is No Happy Ending to America’s Trump Problem", NYT, Damon Rinker, Aug. 21, 2022)
I feel as if we just keep hitting dead ends with anything involving tfg/MAGA....seems to be no way to hold anyone accountable for anything without risk of triggering Armaggedon or at least making things much worse. What kind of diabolical hold does this guy and his ilk have on us?
We are like Jeb Bush, who literally folded before our eyes on the Primary stage with then-candidate T.....appalled but helpless, and his folding was not due to the level of real possible violence the Judge and his family are facing. I just do not see any way out of this. Even if, by some miracle, tfg runs and is massively defeated in 2024, there will be a new hell to pay I am sure.
It is hard to stay hopeful when we are in what more and more feels like a death spiral. Sartre was on to something in No Exit....we seem unable to escape tfg and that is turning into an " eternal torture".
“The release of the affidavit is not appease Trump and his supporters in the least. He will do all he can to ensure that it only escalates their rage.”
100%! Releasing redacted or not, everything and anything will only increase the MAGA rage.
I know where Judge Reinhart can buy some INERT Claymores, which would make a nice welcome for the more violent MAGA crowd should they show up at the judge's house.....probably fill some drawers too, when they suddenly pop up.....
Can we just say it already? The only good Donald Trump is the one fertilizing daisies. And his cult is equally in need of a dirt nap. You cannot negotiate with toxins, but sometimes, the chemicals that are toxic above ground can make good fertilizer and help the planet thrive.
"Our experience, as Americans, tells us that there is a clear point at which we must act in the face of corruption, lawlessness and contempt for the very foundations of democratic society. The only way out is through. Fear of what Trump and his supporters might do cannot and should not stand in the way of what we must do to secure the Constitution from all its enemies, foreign and domestic."
well said, Tom. but am I wrong to read it differently? my take was that he was trying to make both sides "happy" by allowing the release with so many redactions it'd be gibberish. I saw it as strictly performative, since there can't be any way in the world that he thinks a redacted affadavit is going to make the MAGA psychos happy. if he thought for a moment that those fanatics would be satisfied with anything but the whole thing, he's pretty dumb. I suppose that there are plenty of pretty dumb judges, but after a lifetime of courtroom tv shows and other melodramatic sources, I persist in this notion that judges are wise. I know, I know....
it's just that old points of view die hard.
in the meantime, TFF can't seem to keep his mouth shut and every time he opens his mouth, he gets himself more in dutch. and does anyone believe that he has the patience or focus to have gone through those boxes himself? I sure don't. but again, I've considered him moronic for so long, I might be overlooking the possibility that, like many psychopaths, he can hyper-focus when he turns on the psychopathy. and I'd prefer not to think so.
I think you nailed it. The terror the judge feels must be beyond the beyond, but a redacted document is just fuel for their lunacy. Witness Protection? What can be done for him and his family? ❤️🤍💙
TC, This is a piece of yours that I didn't like. I thought accusing Federal Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart of cowardice was unwarranted. I read the judge's instruction with regard to the affidavit as open ended in that he would decide once receiving the redacted affidavit from the DOJ. Now that Judge Reinhart has made his decision, how does it stack up with your interpretation of him as Jew acting out of fear?
The following are quotes from RELEASING A REDACTED AFFIDAVIT WILL SOLVE NOTHING:
- In case you doubted that threats of violence can cow a person, consider the case of Federal
Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart,
- The Thousand-Year MAGA went after the judge tooth and nail, hammer and tongs.
- For a Jew, the terror could only be magnified with the free-floating anti-Semitism that flowed freely
through the comments and threats. I get that.
- This is why Judge Reinhart made the unprecedented decision yesterday to declare that the
government had not met its standards for keeping the affidavit that underlays the decision the
judge made to approve the search warrant from being exposed, despite the fact this action went
against every other judicial decision made about revealing prosecution affidavits that expose the
methods of investigation,
- Judge Reinhart is acting out of fear. He thinks that if he acquiesces with the demands, if he does
what he can, that the wolves will be appeased and he and his family will be saved.
- The good jurist is in desperate need of a history lecture by someone at his synagogue about the
2,000 year unremitting history of what has always happened to Jews who have tried to “throw the
I do not practice criminal law, but with what little I know I was shocked—not surprised, but shocked— when I read that the Judge had told DOJ to produce a redacted affidavit. TC must have hit the mail on the head here. What’s worse is the judge is pulled from both sides. He tried to placate MAGA, only to have peers express incredulity at the possibility of the affidavit being released. Today I read that he issued a more fulsome order saying maybe he would not be in a position to order release of a meaningful affidavit. Adding to his difficulties is that he is a Magistrate Judge, not an Article III judge with a lifetime appointment. He was appointed in 2018 so I assume he’s a Republican. If so, he’s seeing his chance at an Article III appointment evaporate.
The one thing I have learned about most judges is that they get flustered easily. (Admittedly it’s a difficult job in the best of times.) When flustered judges become unpredictable. I have no idea what will happen Thursday. He’s in a no-win situation of his own making.
Right on target, TC. The treatment of the Judge by the MAGA rage machine is becoming too 'normal' alas. The rage machine is only going to ramp up---and until everyone in the responsible media realizes that the rage machine has no guiding principles other than chaos, we are in for a terrible time. Things are not looking good. The mainstream media can't seem to grasp that these are not normal times, that covering Trump as someone "normal" is stupid, and that making sure everyone knows how well Biden is doing is essential for the survival of democracy. The fact that T still has his 30% + is terrifying. By the numbers of registered voters, Dems should dominate, but the GOP has tilted the table in a million ways.......
The difference between them and us: If Obama or Clinton or Carter had removed top secret documents from the WH and held them in an unsecured private residents, we as fellow Democrats would have supported a "search and removal" - followed by possible prosecution.
Because the law is the law. And even people we agree with politically can be crooks and/or make legal mistakes that they should be held accountable for. No matter who they are or how loud they howl.
So Earth to GQP fanatics: your guy looks like a crook, sounds like a crook, acts like a crook. And I bet he smells like one, too. Not a duck. A crook.
Until someone in government has the balls to demand that every single example of terroristic threats against a public official is investigated by the FBI, and the relevant perps brought in for questioning, the MAGA crowd will continue doing this stuff. Terroristic threats and threats of violence are NOT protected free speech, as many court cases have held. I'll bet a lot of the perps involved will fill their drawers when the G-men come to call..... As for the Gravy Seals and Oaf Keepers, heightened surveillance and aggressive monitoring of illegal activities will be needed to keep them from acting on their worst impulses. We also need new restrictions on "paramilitary" weapons like the AR 15.....
Thank you for seeing through the subterfuge. Surely there are those in mainstream media who see that too, right? Right?
Between your TAFM today and
("There Is No Happy Ending to America’s Trump Problem", NYT, Damon Rinker, Aug. 21, 2022)
I feel as if we just keep hitting dead ends with anything involving tfg/MAGA....seems to be no way to hold anyone accountable for anything without risk of triggering Armaggedon or at least making things much worse. What kind of diabolical hold does this guy and his ilk have on us?
We are like Jeb Bush, who literally folded before our eyes on the Primary stage with then-candidate T.....appalled but helpless, and his folding was not due to the level of real possible violence the Judge and his family are facing. I just do not see any way out of this. Even if, by some miracle, tfg runs and is massively defeated in 2024, there will be a new hell to pay I am sure.
It is hard to stay hopeful when we are in what more and more feels like a death spiral. Sartre was on to something in No Exit....we seem unable to escape tfg and that is turning into an " eternal torture".
Thanks, TC, (I think).
“The release of the affidavit is not appease Trump and his supporters in the least. He will do all he can to ensure that it only escalates their rage.”
100%! Releasing redacted or not, everything and anything will only increase the MAGA rage.
I know where Judge Reinhart can buy some INERT Claymores, which would make a nice welcome for the more violent MAGA crowd should they show up at the judge's house.....probably fill some drawers too, when they suddenly pop up.....
Can we just say it already? The only good Donald Trump is the one fertilizing daisies. And his cult is equally in need of a dirt nap. You cannot negotiate with toxins, but sometimes, the chemicals that are toxic above ground can make good fertilizer and help the planet thrive.
I like this from Jamelle Bouie, NYT, today:
"Our experience, as Americans, tells us that there is a clear point at which we must act in the face of corruption, lawlessness and contempt for the very foundations of democratic society. The only way out is through. Fear of what Trump and his supporters might do cannot and should not stand in the way of what we must do to secure the Constitution from all its enemies, foreign and domestic."
The only way out is through!! Thanks, TC.
I had to laugh when I clicked on your email and saw the full headline. My Inbox truncated at "...will solve..." and my mind filled in "nothing".
well said, Tom. but am I wrong to read it differently? my take was that he was trying to make both sides "happy" by allowing the release with so many redactions it'd be gibberish. I saw it as strictly performative, since there can't be any way in the world that he thinks a redacted affadavit is going to make the MAGA psychos happy. if he thought for a moment that those fanatics would be satisfied with anything but the whole thing, he's pretty dumb. I suppose that there are plenty of pretty dumb judges, but after a lifetime of courtroom tv shows and other melodramatic sources, I persist in this notion that judges are wise. I know, I know....
it's just that old points of view die hard.
in the meantime, TFF can't seem to keep his mouth shut and every time he opens his mouth, he gets himself more in dutch. and does anyone believe that he has the patience or focus to have gone through those boxes himself? I sure don't. but again, I've considered him moronic for so long, I might be overlooking the possibility that, like many psychopaths, he can hyper-focus when he turns on the psychopathy. and I'd prefer not to think so.
I think you nailed it. The terror the judge feels must be beyond the beyond, but a redacted document is just fuel for their lunacy. Witness Protection? What can be done for him and his family? ❤️🤍💙
I agree.
TC, This is a piece of yours that I didn't like. I thought accusing Federal Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart of cowardice was unwarranted. I read the judge's instruction with regard to the affidavit as open ended in that he would decide once receiving the redacted affidavit from the DOJ. Now that Judge Reinhart has made his decision, how does it stack up with your interpretation of him as Jew acting out of fear?
The following are quotes from RELEASING A REDACTED AFFIDAVIT WILL SOLVE NOTHING:
- In case you doubted that threats of violence can cow a person, consider the case of Federal
Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart,
- The Thousand-Year MAGA went after the judge tooth and nail, hammer and tongs.
- For a Jew, the terror could only be magnified with the free-floating anti-Semitism that flowed freely
through the comments and threats. I get that.
- This is why Judge Reinhart made the unprecedented decision yesterday to declare that the
government had not met its standards for keeping the affidavit that underlays the decision the
judge made to approve the search warrant from being exposed, despite the fact this action went
against every other judicial decision made about revealing prosecution affidavits that expose the
methods of investigation,
- Judge Reinhart is acting out of fear. He thinks that if he acquiesces with the demands, if he does
what he can, that the wolves will be appeased and he and his family will be saved.
- The good jurist is in desperate need of a history lecture by someone at his synagogue about the
2,000 year unremitting history of what has always happened to Jews who have tried to “throw the
wolf a bone.
Any thoughts?
Hard hitting, but needed to be. The media is so very much part of the problem.
I do not practice criminal law, but with what little I know I was shocked—not surprised, but shocked— when I read that the Judge had told DOJ to produce a redacted affidavit. TC must have hit the mail on the head here. What’s worse is the judge is pulled from both sides. He tried to placate MAGA, only to have peers express incredulity at the possibility of the affidavit being released. Today I read that he issued a more fulsome order saying maybe he would not be in a position to order release of a meaningful affidavit. Adding to his difficulties is that he is a Magistrate Judge, not an Article III judge with a lifetime appointment. He was appointed in 2018 so I assume he’s a Republican. If so, he’s seeing his chance at an Article III appointment evaporate.
The one thing I have learned about most judges is that they get flustered easily. (Admittedly it’s a difficult job in the best of times.) When flustered judges become unpredictable. I have no idea what will happen Thursday. He’s in a no-win situation of his own making.