Category: Politics and Government

Clarity About the Trump Illegal Papers Caper

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The Facts are Not Complicated. The Right’s Reaction is Shameful

A Short Recap of What Led to the Raid

  • Trump and team were specifically briefed before the end of that Administration about what the law required for documents security.
  • The National Archives knew from about the time Trump left office that sensitive papers had been illegally taken. They reached out early on and repeatedly to Trump to get this corrected.
  • Several months ago, officials went to the Trump compound in Florida and took back 15 boxes (!) of illegally and improperly taken papers.

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Good Days, Good News

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The Last Few Days Show Promise on Many Fronts

Public Perceptions Count

It seemed as though two thought patterns kind of ran through the country over the last few months.

One has been dissatisfaction with Biden, which in turn led to even worse than normal forecasts for the president’s party in the upcoming midterm elections. The other has been a general national grumpiness, post pandemic peak, which we have commented on in this space before. People, in their eagerness for normalcy, are in something of a bad mood generally, and that reflects back on politicians.

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Three BIG Problems – One Simple Solution

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Most of Us Ignored the First Two – Until the Third One Affected All of Us

Its All About People

We have had two long-running, serious – and interrelated problems for decades. The third one is a bit more recent. All three revolve around people – what people want and how people treat each other on a national and personal level.

Problem 1

The first of these is border security. Ignore the nonsense of the Trumpists; they actually made the problem worse, with their infantile focus on a mythical wall. But setting that aside,

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About The Week

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The Last Week Was Full of Noteworthy Topics. Some Highlights to Look At Closer

Russia and Ukraine: Good News, Bad News

First the bad news. Russia continues to make some progress in its aggression, now occupying about 20% of Ukraine’s Eastern sectors. And it continues a clear policy of terrorizing civilians and destroying communities. Bombing cities can be an acceptable if terrible thing in wars with much at stake, as WWII. But doing so in this conflict is clearly immoral. The list of war crimes and abuse gets ever longer.

But there is good news,

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Three Old Blog Posts Came Back to Haunt Me This Week

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Where Are We Heading? What Does July 4th Mean? The Key Questions Call Us Out

What Started This Blog in The First Place?

This little blog came to life in June of 2018. The first post raised the issue of how we could relate to each other going forward as fellow Americans:
Of Tribes, Truth, and Our Country –
 https://agentsofreason.com/of-tribes-truth-and-our-country/ .

This was followed the same week by a sobering reminder of what I saw on the ground in trips to the Middle East – Countries that had lost the ability to talk among themselves,

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The Week That Was

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A Few Less Obvious Reflections on the Past Week

Well, THAT was Quite a Week – We Were Deluged with News

We cannot say the past week was a boring one. A hastily schedule but powerfully executed January 6 Insurrection hearing. Important battlefield changes in Ukraine. A series of disastrous Supreme Court decisions. An historic NATO summit. And more, in every sector .

Today is the Fourth of July. We have much to think about, America. Somethings to celebrate, some things to regret. Let’s briefly observe some of the important side notes to some of these sagas.

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Mid Term Elections Unlike Any in Our History

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America Will Take a Big Leap to the Next Peak – or Into the Abyss

 This Will be One for the History Books – and the Rest of Our Lives

How many times have we have heard – or said – “This is the most important election…”? Yeah, they all seem to feel that way, and at the time, each met that criterion. Surely the presidential election of 2016 did. Elect Donald Trump? That would be a disaster. Thanks to the anachronism of the Electoral College, we blew it. The rest is,

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The Select Committee on the January 6 Insurrection

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One hearing Down, five to Go. How it is Going, What Stands Out

 

Some Very Quick Observations

The next hearing is this Monday morning- Today – 10 AM ET.

About everyone who has the means to do so has been writing about the hearings. That is mostly a good thing, but I don’t want to add to the long list. Besides, a lot of us watched it live (more on that shortly).

Therefore, some very short observations on the way forward and where we are.

First, the Historical Analogies –

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A Special Post – Watch the JAN 6 Committee Hearings – Starting Tonight

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Watergate Hearings Shaped Politics for a Generation – These Hearings are Even More Important

The House Select Committee examining the events of and leading up to the January 6 attempt to overthrow the government begins public hearings today. This after over 1,000 interviews and 140,000 documents reviewed.

They seem clearly focused on the importance of ensuring the public gets a complete and coherent presentation of what happened and who is responsible. Time will tell, but it seems they have done good work and know what needs to be done. The rest is up to us.

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The Gun Thing is Not Complicated

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It’s Surely Not Easy – But It Actually Is Uncomplicated – and Doable

 

 America and Guns

It has been my great privilege of living all over this country, have travelled through almost all of it, and have lived and traveled around the world. As will surprise no one, I can say definitively, there is no other country, certainly no other advanced country, with so demented a relationship with guns as the good old US of A.

I have spent time in other countries in which guns have a long history intermixed with society – France and Switzerland come to mind foremost.

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