1. Social Media and Merchandising Lure Recruits to Right Wing Extremist Groups 
In this article in last Friday’s Washington Post, senior reporter Mark Fisher writes about how extremists are using pop culture to lure recruits into their ranks.  Using gaming platforms and other social media which appeals to young people, right wing extremist groups have developed a strategy, explains Fisher, that seems to be delivering good results. “The far-right groups that blossomed during Donald Trump’s presidency — including white supremacists, self-styled militias and purveyors of anti-government conspiracy theories — have created enduring communities by soft-pedaling their political goals and focusing on entertaining potential recruits with the tools of pop culture”.  In many, if not most, instances, the recruits are seeking a sense of belonging, and might not even realize, at first, the nature of the cause into which they are being lured.  And, if there were any doubts, the words of the founder is one of the white supremacist organizations are revealing: “The only thing I’m grateful for these days is that Trump allowed us to reach a much broader population and to use a gentler way of bringing people into the fold. For years, I was pretty demoralized by the number of people turning out to our Columbus Day demonstrations. Then Trump comes along and gets tens of thousands of people and a certain percentage of them look further into our ideas.”

2. By embracing “The Big Lie”, elected Republicans are more than merely guilty for threatening our democracy.  
In this op-ed from yesterday’s Washington Post,  Michael Gerson, former chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush, issues a stark indictment of the Republican party. “The GOP is increasingly defined not by its shared beliefs, but by its shared delusions. To be a loyal Republican, one must be either a sucker or a liar. And because this defining falsehood is so obviously and laughably false, we can safely assume that most Republican leaders who embrace it fall into the second category. Knowingly repeating a lie — an act of immorality — is now the evidence of Republican fidelity.”  Gerson distinguishes between various types of lies, analyzes why the motivation behind the lie matters, and looks at the culpability of who supports the lie. For example, former President Clinton was roundly criticized by, among others, leaders of his own party, as compared to Trump, whose is fellow party members bolster and repeat his lies.  And, the motivation of the liar matters: “A founding lie” explains Gerson in referring to Trump’s lie about a stolen election, “is intended to remove followers from the messy world of facts and evidence. It is designed to replace critical judgment with personal loyalty. It is supposed to encourage distrust of every source of social authority opposed to the leader’s shifting will.” And, according to Gerson, those elected Republicans who are lying “with open eyes” out of fear of losing their jobs, are not only guilty, but are a disgrace.

Has the GOP lost touch with reality and if so, what can be done about it?
In this op-ed in today’s Washington Post, Max Boot writes that the promulgation of lies and false narratives by the Republican Party reflects the Party’s untethering from reality and creates a serious threat of sliding into authoritarianism. “The Republican Party” writes Boot, “is increasingly catering to people who live in an alternative universe of false narratives spread by media outlets such as Fox News and Newsmax and on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Google/YouTube. He analyzes the recent “red meat” lie which was spread by various right-wing media outlets, eventually retracted by some of them after the damage was already done. The lie was that President Biden is going to reduce red meat consumption by 90 percent, and mandate that every American is limited to just four pounds of red meat a year.  The story, was a bogus attempt to paint the Democrats as radical extremists who will fight climate change by taking away all individual liberties. Boot does suggest a remedy to limit the impact of these lies which, even when later retracted, undermine our democracy.  He suggests that Congress  force internet platforms to make available to its users “middleware”  which would provide a filter helping users determine veracity of the information presented.   While this won’t solve the entire of the problem, Boot advocates that “it is an important step to fight back against the falsehoods that threaten our democracy.”

TOMORROW’s PROGRAM: The timeliness of tomorrow’s program, anti-Asian racism in America, could not be more perfect, nor could the speakers we have invited to discuss the issue.  Last week the Senate passed the hate crimes bill (with the ONLY “no” vote in the Senate being that of Josh Hawley), which will improve the capacity to investigate and pursue hate crimes with alacrity.  Congresswoman and Chair of the Asian Pacific Congressional Caucus, Judy Chu, has played a key role in moving Washington forward on this critical issue.  Stewart Kwoh has been a legal activist fighting for equality and justice for Asian Americans for decades.  In this morning’s LA Times, this article, written by Kwoh in collaboration with Connie Rice and Connie Chung Joe, the authors argue that while the new law is a positive move forward, “[p]reventing violent crimes requires addressing hate at its roots. The wave of anti-Asian attacks — and the fear, pain and anger it has triggered — illustrates the corrosive effects of systemic racism and a culture of white supremacy that brands people of color as ‘the other.’ Law enforcement is not equipped to change that culture….[I]nvestments need to be made in community-based safety programs and anti-hate initiatives. Education must incorporate the rich and complex role of communities of color in the American story. And multiracial collaboration must be strengthened.”  They write about “bystander intervention training” and “chaperone services” programs which Kwoh’s organization has initiated across the country. Tomorrow night Stewart Kwoh and Congresswoman Chu will elaborate on defining the historical problems Asian-Americans have endured and will share ideas about how to tackle this complex problem of racism and violence. We are re-sending additional links (see below) for those who want more background on the history of anti-Asian racism.   Register here

Additional Articles of Note this Week:
1. Extremism and White Supremacy in the ranks of the GOP
In one of the many columns penned by the prolific Jennifer Rubin this week in the Washington Post, in this op-ed  Rubin describes the GOP as a “radicalized, nativist group that now repudiates (or pretends to repudiate) the results of the election.”  Her scathing indictment of the party goes far beyond the obvious nativists such as Ted Cruz who has consistently embraced and promoted the “big lie” and wholeheartedly supports the True Texas Project, which Rubin describes as “a rump tea party group” and which is so divisive that many in the GOP have distanced themselves from it. But the problem is bigger than Cruz and than a single organization, and that problem is the (current) GOP itself, writes Rubin.  “Fifty U.S. senators and 212 House members belong to a group [to wit:the GOP] that mouthed Russian propaganda; that tried to disenfranchise millions of voters, focusing on major metropolitan areas with large Black populations; that still reveres the former president and tries to play down the Jan. 6 insurrection; that frequents a cable TV news network that spouts replacement theory and other white supremacists themes; that insists Washington, D.C., is not “well-rounded” but Wyoming is; that attacks women of color nominated for top government posts…”  She concludes her indictment of the GOP saying that it is within that party that the greatest dangers to our democracy lie.

2. Arizona is in its 4th recount of ballots from November’s election, and the auditors doing the recount are proponents of Trump’s “Big Lie”
Despite three recounts since December 2020, there has been no evidence of fraud or error in the counting of Arizona’s presidential ballots cast in November. Nevertheless, as is reported in this article, Arizona Republican electeds have insisted on yet another recount, this time by hand; they have hired a pro-Trump so-called audit team from Florida (the “Cyber Ninjas”) to conduct the recount and to inspect the voter machines and all of the so-called observers of the process are anything but impartial, it is reported in this article.  The Cyber Ninja company, as well as those providing “oversight” have publicly embraced “the big lie” and have claimed, without offering any evidence, that Trump actually won Arizona by 200,000 votes. The courts are now involved, and the move has wreaked havoc within the state.  While the GOP elected officials in state and local government largely support the Trump-backed initiative, it seems that much of the citizenry of Arizona does not support the effort.  “Critics in both parties charge that an effort that began as a way to placate angry Trump voters has become a political embarrassment and another blow to the once-inviolable democratic norm that losers and winners alike honor the results of elections.” 

Dear Friends:

Since yesterday’s program with Larry Diamond, Rick Hasen, and Pam Fessler (you can listen to the excellent program here), we have received many requests to provide some follow-up information pertaining to various subjects covered.  Below is a list of the organizations which work on voting rights issues which were mentioned by Larry Diamond towards the end of the program.  We are also providing a link to the study/article entitled, “The Miracle and Tragedy of the 2020 Election” written by Stanford Law’s  Nathaniel Persily and MIT’s Charles Stewart which was cited by Diamond  and published in the Journal of Democracy.  Persily and Stewart acknowledge the miraculous adaptation of election processes by election administrators in light of the challenges posed by the pandemic;  but, they also write about the tragedy that despite the safe, secure and fair election which took place against so many unprecedented odds, the myth of “a rigged election” and voter fraud not only led to the January 6 insurrection, but on a more fundamental and widespread basis, has been deeply damaging to our democracy.  This in-depth scholarly article not only analyzes the 2020 election and its aftermath, but, also suggests a path forward to begin the process of repairing the damage. 

While there are surely others, here is a list of the organizations mentioned by Larry Diamond:
Represent US (represent.us)
United America (uniteamerica.org)

Fair Vote (fairvote.org)
Issue One (Issueone.org)
Common Cause (commoncause.org)
Brennan Center for Justice (Brennancenter.org)
Lawyers Committee (lawyerscommittee.org)
League of Women Voters (lwv.org)

In anticipation of next week’s program on anti-Asian hate in America:
 1.  Today,  the Senate passed an anti-Asian hate crimes bill by a 94-1 vote with Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo) being the only nay vote.  The bill will create a position in the Justice Department which strengthens state and local hate crime reporting.  Read more here.
 

2.  In the April 11th New Yorker, there was a selection of articles about the Asian-American experience and the on-going and growing wave of anti-Asian violence in America.  Included were articles not only about the Atlanta shootings of six Asian American women last month, but also historical articles about the history of racism, violence and exclusion of Japanese, Chinese and other Americans of Asian descent.  One of the articles analyzes how the pandemic, combined with a rise in anti-immigrant discourse, has triggered an increase in what novelist Ed Park calls “an increase in everyday bigotry”.  The issue features many articles with varying perspectives which, when taken together, can shed light on how certain deeply ingrained biases create a major challenge for America as we confront this scourge of anti-Asian hate crimes.  

3.  In today’s New Yorker, Michael Luo writes about the Forgotten History of the Campaign to Purge Chinese from America. The article details the mistreatment of Chinese immigrants who came to America in the 19th Century; ultimately, in 1882, Congress enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act which banned Chinese laborers from the entering the US and prohibited Chinese immigrants already here from becoming citizens.  Luo suggests that once one has reviewed the history of Asian immigrants to America, one should not be “perplexed” by the current surge in anti-Asian racism. 

Dear Friends:

If you were unable to watch tonight’s fascinating program with Larry Diamond and  Rick Hasen in conversation with Pam Fessler on the topic of American elections you can find it at this link later tonight. 

                                                                   
In anticipation of next week’s program on the topic of the growing threat of violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, here are several recent articles which have discussed the subject:

1.  This Wall Street Journal article, describes a recent meeting between President Biden and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, of which next week’s guest, Congresswoman Judy Chu is chair. Among the key topics discussed was the pending Senate bill seeking to expedite Justice Department processing of pandemic-era hate crimes.  Also on the agenda was a discussion about the Caucus’ request that Biden increase Asian American and Pacific Islander representation in his Administration.

2.  In the April 11th New Yorker, there was a selection of articles about the Asian-American experience and the on-going and growing wave of anti-Asian violence in America.  Included were articles not only about the Atlanta shootings of six Asian American women last month, but also historical articles about the history of racism, violence and exclusion of Japanese, Chinese and other Americans of Asian descent.  One of the articles analyzes how the pandemic, combined with a rise in anti-immigrant discourse, has triggered an increase in what novelist Ed Park calls “an increase in everyday bigotry”.  The issue features many articles with varying perspectives which, when taken together, can shed light on how certain deeply ingrained biases create a major challenge for America as we confront this scourge of anti-Asian hate crimes.  
 

Dear Friends:

Information about tomorrow’s program: 

Rick Hasen is one of our country’s leading authorities on election law and campaign finance law. Hasen’s popular election law blog contains interesting facts and analysis about all things related to US elections.  Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute whose expertise in the domain of “democracy studies” has made him a foremost authority on the subject of comparative analyses of democracies globally. Below is a book review written by Diamond about the adverse impact of social media and the internet on our democracy.   Pam Fessler serves on NPR’s national desk where she is the resident expert on election related issues. She is the author of the well-received study of America’s response to leprosy in the only leprosy colony in the continental US–Carville’s Cure: Leprosy, Stigma, and the Fight for Justice.

Dear Friends:

Dear Friends:

Dear Friends:

IMPORTANT  OP-EDS & ARTICLES THIS WEEK

 IN COMMEMORATION: HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY (RE-SEND)

This weekend, Bret Stephens dedicated his NY Times op-ed to Buba Weisz Sajovitz one of the 2,000 survivors of Auschwitz who are still alive today.  Stephens tells Buba’s painful, yet ultimately triumphant, story as a way of commemorating Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day which will be observed this Wednesday, April 7.  Of the 1.3 million people, mostly Jews, transported to Auschwitz, 1.1 million of them were murdered, mostly in the gas chambers.  Both Buba, who is currently 95 and her husband, Luis, currently 99 and who survived Mathausen, live in Mexico and have a remarkable story.  This op-ed reminds us of the critical importance of memory and the power of resilience and dignity.   We join Bret Stephens in celebrating Buba and Luis and other survivors who have courageously recounted and documented their life stories so that we never forget the dangers of hate, racism, anti-Semitism, and authoritarianism.

 Corporate Reactions to Georgia’s Voter Suppression Laws and GOP Response
This article by Charles P. Pierce published yesterday in Esquire, offers analysis of the long history of the GOP’s efforts to suppress voting rights. Pierce asserts that “All voter-suppression is based on the feeling of entitlement to rule, and the Republicans are addicted to that more than they are addicted to anything else.”  Referencing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s attack on MLB and other corporate giants who have roundly criticized Georgia’s new voter suppression laws, Pierce notes that now that “some of their [GOP] erstwhile allies in the country’s power elites are getting nervous about how far the party has gone, and the Republicans don’t have the faintest idea how to deal with that.”  Yesterday, in McConnell’s public outcry against these corporations, he ironically said: “It’s jaw-dropping to see powerful American institutions not just permit themselves to be bullied, but join in the bullying themselves.”  The Republican’s reaction is to play the beleaguered victim-martyr which “is beset on all sides by powerful legions of women, gay people, and poor people.”


Dramatic Parallels between FDR’s New Deal Era and Biden’s agenda
In his column in today’s Washington Post, Greg Sargent  interviews Eric Rauchway, a historian who has written a good new book called “Why the New Deal Matters.”.  The crux of the interview is the comparison of the context of FDR presidency to the current  Biden presidency.  While Roosevelt was challenged to lead the country out of the Depression through programs like the WPA and other New Deal initiatives, Biden is challenged with leading the country out of the COVID pandemic with programs like the $2 trillion COVID rescue package and the proposed $2 trillion infrastructure plan.  Like President Roosevelt, President Biden is challenged with major deep divisions within the American electorate and also like FDR, Biden is concerned about the threats of authoritarianism and fascism.    In fact, Rauchway asserts that  “The New Deal was really Roosevelt’s program for defusing extremism. For a long time, a lot of folks on the left saw the New Deal as preventing communism from arising. Roosevelt really wasn’t that fussed about communism. Roosevelt was very worried about fascism. He was very worried that something like that could happen in the United States.”  As a final note, Rauchway remarks that, similar to how FDR ultimately rejected the Southern Democrats and Jim Crow, today’s analogy is to the efforts around the country to suppress voting rights.  Rauchway concludes: “Democrats need to pay attention to the ways they can ensure that all Americans can cast ballots — drawing inspiration, if they like, from the New Deal.”  

Why Trump and MAGA supporters will continue to tear down Anthony Fauci, despite the obvious facts. 
In this op-ed in today’s Washington Post, Michael Gerson explains why the MAGA adherents, led by Trump and his team, must continue to villify Dr. Anthony Fauci.  Gerson writes: “If Fauci has been right about Covid, then playing down the disease, mocking masks, modeling superspreader events, denying death tolls, encouraging anti-mandate militias and recommending quack cures were not particularly helpful. If Fauci has been right, they presided over a deadly debacle… Fauci is practicing epidemiology. His critics are practicing idiocy. Both are very good at their chosen work.”

Dear Friends:
 

IMPORTANT  OP-EDS & ARTICLES THIS WEEK

1. IN COMMEMORATION: HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY
This weekend, Bret Stephens dedicated his NY Times op-ed to Buba Weisz Sajovitz one of the 2,000 survivors of Auschwitz who are still alive today.  Stephens tells Buba’s painful, yet ultimately triumphant, story as a way of commemorating Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Memorial Day which will be observed this Wednesday, April 7.  Of the 1.3 million people, mostly Jews, transported to Auschwitz, 1.1 million of them were murdered, mostly in the gas chambers.  Both Buba, who is currently 95 and her husband, Luis, currently 99 and who survived Mathausen, live in Mexico and have a remarkable story.  This op-ed reminds us of the critical importance of memory and the power of resilience and dignity.   We join Bret Stephens in celebrating Buba and Luis and other survivors who have courageously recounted and documented their life stories so that we never forget the dangers of hate, racism, anti-Semitism, and authoritarianism.

2. Legislating from the Bench:  How Courts are carrying the GOP agenda
In this recent op-ed in the NY Times, Ian Millhiser, a senior correspondent at Vox and author of the book “The Agenda: How a Republican Supreme Court Is Reshaping America”, Millhiser explains that despite the fact that the Republicans do not appear to have a legislative agenda, it would be erroneous to conclude that the Republicans do not have a policy agenda.  In fact, writes Millhiser, they have an aggressive agenda to, among other things, roll back voting rights, decrease government’s regulatory power, and empower religious conservatives.   But, as Millhiser writes, “It’s just that the Republican Party doesn’t plan to pass its agenda through either one of the elected branches. Its agenda lives in the judiciary — and especially in the Supreme Court.” But “legislating from the bench”, the party does not have to take responsibility for unpopular policies; further, the federal judges serve for life and therefore can easily create policies from the bench without worrying about the public’s support. 

3. The Anatomy of a Republican Congressman who was targeted and defeated by QAnon 
In this article from Sunday’s NY Times, politics reporter Jeremy Peters writes an in-depth analysis about former Congressman Denver Riggleman (R.-Va) and how he was “primaried” and lost his seat for taking on QAnon and the right.  Mr. Riggleman’s political troubles began when he was a freshman congressman and officiated at the wedding of a gay couple.  He began to get death threats and was attacked as a traitor after he called out QAnon for its false contentions that a satanic network of child molesters runs the Democratic party.  RIggleman, a former Air Force intelligence officer and former employee of the National Security Agency,  and who was endorsed by Trump in his original run for the open seat back in 2018, now finds himself amongst a small handful of mostly former Republican legislators who are willing to speak up despite the consequences that have suffered and will continue to suffer for doing so.   Riggleman now dedicates himself to working with a group of experts who are shining a light on the “social disease of disinformation.”

Dear Friends:
If you weren’t able to join us for tonight’s outstanding conversation with Jennifer Kavanagh of RAND and Jennifer Rubin of the WaPo, moderated by KCRW’s Warren Olney, after 10 pm tonight, you can watch the entire program at this link.

And, if you would like to view more about RAND’s Truth Decay Project, you can do so at the Project Truth Decay website and you can read the report entitled “Truth Decay: An Initial Exploration of the Diminishing Role of Facts and Analysis in American Public Life.”  

TODAY’S OP-EDS

1. Praise for the depth and scope of Biden’s infrastructure plan
In his op-ed column in today’s Washington Post, Greg Sargent claims that the ambitious, bold and far-reaching plan unveiled today by President Biden brings to mind the vast public works projects following WWII and could succeed in defeating Trumpism. Sargent writes: 
“Biden’s plan envisions an ambitious overhaul of the U.S. economy, rebuilding roads, bridges, sewer systems and electric grids. It would expand digital infrastructure such as rural broadband and retrofit the future decarbonized economy, incentivizing renewable energy and electric cars, packaged as industrial policy to stay competitive with China.”  The plan, according to Sargent, is creating a powerful center-left coalition of Democrats, which, in different times, certainly would have included centrist Republicans as well.  “While Trumpists fantasize about a monolithic, rampaging left pushing the country over the edge” opines Sargent, “we’re seeing center and left working hard to secure ambitious public investments to solve vast public problems…If this can in some measure succeed, which is hardly assured, it could weaken the hold of that deranged anti-leftism on the imagination of so many.”

2. Rubin’s take on Biden’s infrastructure plan 
In one of her three op-ed columns in today’s Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin writes about Biden’s infrastructure plan and about the “drumbeat” of criticism mostly coming from corporate interests which (predictably) oppose increasing corporate taxes to pay for infrastructure development.  Among other points, Rubin notes that infrastructure development should not be seen as simply an expense; “We are not burning $2 trillion; we are using it to generate far more benefits, both tangible (jobs) and intangible (e.g., improved aesthetics and quality of life in terms of shorter commutes and the like).”  

3.  Biden’s remarkable early judicial nominees
In another of Rubin’s columns today, she writes about the remarkable diversity of Biden’s initial 11 judicial nominees. Of the 11 nominees, 3 are Black women, 4 are Asian Americans and one is the very first Muslim American ever to serve on a District Court.  Not only do these nominees reflect Biden’s Administration’s commitment to diversity in terms of gender and ethnicity, but they also reflect an unusual and welcome diversity in terms of the legal backgrounds.  The list of nominees includes former public defenders, former prosecutors, sitting judges and attorneys at large law firms; a remarkable balance not often observed. 

Dear Friends:

Tonight’s program featuring David Brooks with Patt Morrison was illuminating and impressive in its depth and breadth; from gun control to the filibuster, to culture wars, to January 6, to the economy, to the future of the Republican party, and more.  You can watch the entire very impressive program at this link (it should be posted by 10 pm Pacific tonight). 

Next Wednesday, we will be joined by illustrious Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin and Jennifer Kavanagh, Director of RAND’s “Countering Truth Decay” initiative, which is comprised of a portfolio of projects exploring the diminishing reliance on facts and analysis in U.S.   Rubin and Kavanagh will be in conversation with Warren Olney on the topic of Truth Decay and the Future of American Democracy.  To prepare for next week’s program you can look at Rand’s Project Truth Decay website and read the report entitled “Truth Decay: An Initial Exploration of the Diminishing Role of Facts and Analysis in American Public Life.” 

ARTICLES/COLUMNS OF NOTE THIS WEEK

1. QAnon targeting Asians and Jews
This story, “QAnon  now pushes alarming conspiracy myths targeting China and Jewish people” appeared on the front page of today’s Los Angeles Times.  The article reports that QANON is rebranding and shifting its narrative into talk of a “new world order” blending “anti-Chinese and anti-Jewish tropes with fears of vaccines and a global plot to take over the world.”    According to the Times,  since the election, “the anti-Asian sentiment has shifted to anxiety about worldwide dominance, specifically a communist overthrow of governments backed by Jewish people who control wealth. President Biden is seen as a pawn of these elites.”  According to the article, Southern California is a hotbed of QAnon organizing, and QAnon’s “new world order” theory is already playing a role in the efforts to recall Governor Newsom, as QAnon has portrayed Newsom as Hitler and as a puppet of the Chinese Communist Party who is in pursuit of global power.

2. Atlanta murders: were they hate crimes?

The horrific Atlanta murders of 8 women, 6 of whom were of Asian descent, have not yet been determined to be hate crimes and in this op-ed from Sunday’s NY Times, Bret Stephens criticizes the news media for seemingly conclusively reporting them as such.  While it is a fact that anti-Asian hate crimes have increased by 150% over the past two years, Stephens writes that until evidence confirming the assumption is found (and he advocates for further investigation), the news media has conflated the hate crime increase with the murders last week “for the sake of a compelling narrative”.  So far, the perpetrator claims that his motive in the murders was a sex addiction which is in conflict with his evangelical beliefs.  According to The Associated Press, “All three businesses where people were fatally shot Tuesday have detailed recent reviews on an online site that leads users to places that provide sexual services.”  Stephens concludes with this:  “Like so much else in public discourse today, it’s another capital-T ideological Truth in search of lower-case-t factual truths to validate its predetermined, overstretched hypotheses. That it has the laudable goal of “raising awareness” and “combating hate” does not relieve journalists of the responsibility to report facts scrupulously, not play to fears in the service of a higher good.”

3. Trump attorney Powell’s unusual defense to Dominion defamation suit
Last year, Trump attorney Sidney Powell claimed that Dominion Voting Systems, the manufacturer of election equipment, was involved in a conspiracy to steal the election.   Dominion sued Powell (and others) for defamation. Yesterday NBC reported that in Powell’s defense, her attorney’s argued that she could not be liable to Dominion since “no reasonable person would have believed” her.  NBC reported that Powell’s lawyers claimed in court that “Powell’s statements were so absurd they couldn’t be taken seriously.”  

4. (re-send) Senator Johnson and the future of the GOP  
In this opinion column in yesterday’s Washington Post, Greg Sargent advocates for the defeat Senator Ron Johnson (R.-Wisconsin).  For those who haven’t followed Johnson’s on-going disinformation campaign, in his most recent incendiary comments, Johnson suggested that he “never felt threatened” by the January 6 rioters, because they were “people that love this country.” But, he said, if they had been “tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned.”  He also continued to assert, despite significant direct evidence to the contrary, that Trump supporters would not have done what the January 6 rioters did.  Johnson has taken the lead in promoting Trump’s lies and revisionist accounts of the events which transpired on January 6.  Sargent writes that the GOP must de-radicalize and “needs to stop obscuring the fundamental truth about the Capitol riot, which is that Trump just did incite an effort to violently overthrow U.S. democracy, after trying to subvert the election through illicit means in order to remain in power illegitimately.  All these tendencies need to be thoroughly repudiated. Defeating Johnson might help start us down a path toward doing that.”

Dear Friends:
 

RECENT COLUMNS/REPORT OF NOTE

1.  Russia, Iran, Hizbollah, Cuba & Venezuela all interfered in the 2020 election
Last week certain de-classified sections of this report entitled, Foreign Threats to the US 2020 Election, were released by the Director of National Intelligence.  The report concludes that Russia spread misinformation about Joe Biden during the presidential election with the intent to influence the election’s outcome.  The report concluded that not only did Russia engage in an “influence operation” which both undermined public confidence in our electoral process and exacerbated sociopolitical divisions in the US, but several other countries also engaged in such “influence campaigns”.  The report concluded that Iran’s “influence campaign” was aimed at sowing division and undercutting Trump’s chances for re-election, as were efforts by Hizbollah, Cuba and Venezuela.

2. Georgia’s Voter Suppression Bills
In this article ,”The High Cost of Georgia’s Restrictive Voting Bills”, to be published in the March 29th New Yorker, Jelani Cobb analyzes the Georgia voting bills which were recently passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature; the bills have one goal to diminish (Democratic) voter turnout and “undo the state of affairs that led to Democrats winning the Presidential race in November and both Senate runoff races in January.” The irony, notes Cobb, is that the Georgia capitol is in the Congressional District which Congressman John Lewis represented until his recent death; Lewis played a critical role in leading the fight for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  The bill’s supporters falsely claim the bills are needed to eliminate election fraud.  But, their premise is based upon the “big lie”; as was proven, the election was fraud-free. Cobb writes about the New Georgia Project which is seeking to enlist Georgia-based Fortune 500 companies, like Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, and Home Depot, in opposing the specious and undemocratic bills.  It looks like the New Georgia Project intends to create an economic fall-out for those supporting the proposed disenfranchisement.

3. Senator Johnson and the future of the GOP  
In this opinion column in yesterday’s Washington Post, Greg Sargent advocates for the defeat Senator Ron Johnson (R.-Wisconsin).  For those who haven’t followed Johnson’s on-going disinformation campaign, in his most recent incendiary comments, Johnson suggested that he “never felt threatened” by the January 6 rioters, because they were “people that love this country.” But, he said, if they had been “tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned.”  He also continued to assert, despite significant direct evidence to the contrary, that Trump supporters would not have done what the January 6 rioters did.  Johnson has taken the lead in promoting Trump’s lies and revisionist accounts of the events which transpired on January 6.  Sargent writes that the GOP must de-radicalize and “needs to stop obscuring the fundamental truth about the Capitol riot, which is that Trump just did incite an effort to violently overthrow U.S. democracy, after trying to subvert the election through illicit means in order to remain in power illegitimately.  All these tendencies need to be thoroughly repudiated. Defeating Johnson might help start us down a path toward doing that.”

Dear Friends:
 In the event you were not able to join us for Madeleine Brand’s fascinating interview of Wolf Blitzer, you can watch it starting tomorrow morning at this link.

Join us next week to hear political and cultural commentator and New York Times Op-Ed columnist David Brooks in conversation with Patt Morrison.  register here  

TODAY’S COLUMNS of NOTE:
1. GOP Descent into Authoritarianism
In this column by Max Boot in today’s Washington Post, Boot contends that while the GOP’s embrace of authoritarianism has been growing since 2016, in recent months that embrace has accelerated and intensified. “Trump’s unprecedented assault on our democracy has not shaken his support with the base:..Republicans realize that Trump remains unpopular with the country as a whole. (His approval rating among registered voters is only 37 percent.) But instead of renouncing Trump, they are renouncing democracy.”  The most egregious case in point are the efforts in 43 states wherein Republican lawmakers are proposing laws to severely limit voting rights.  With respect to those efforts to suppress voting rights, Boot concludes: “It is hard to imagine a more damning indictment of the party once led by freedom fighters such as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.”
2. Smear Campaign against nominee Kristen Clarke
In this scathing op-ed in today’s Washington Post,  Jennifer Rubin reveals the facts behind yet another Republican smear campaign against a woman of color, in this instance, against Kristen Clarke, President Biden’s nominee to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.  In the case of Clarke, the campaign to discredit her goes back decades to an event which occurred when she was President of the Black Student Union at Harvard University; despite the clear facts which Rubin investigated and uncovers in this column, right wing groups have taken words out of context and have baselessly accused Clarke of believing in Black supremacy.   

Dear Friends:

RECENT ARTICLES of NOTE:
1. Prosecution of Trump
Will Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance successfully prosecute Donald Trump?  In this column in today’s New Yorker, chief Washington correspondent and author of “Dark Money“, Jane Mayer, writes about the importance to our democracy of pursuing Trump’s fraudulent business conduct.  She analyzes Vance’s case against Trump, its strengths and weaknesses.  Mayer warns that failing to pursue Trump’s violations emboldens him and others, and threatens to create a culture of lawlessness and impunity. 
2.  Domestic Terror Laws
A propos of last week’s program on domestic terrorism, in this recent opinion column in the Wall Street Journal, former FBI special agent and legal attaché Thomas J. Baker argues, consistent with the testimony last week of FBI Director Christopher Wray, that existing laws are adequate to pursue domestic terrorists. The proposals which were introduced as a direct result of the events of January 6, are, according to Baker, wholly unnecessary, and threaten to abrogate civil liberties guaranteed in the Constitution.  He writes, “A menu of federal criminal laws already on the books can be and have been invoked to fight domestic terrorism without compromising the First Amendment. The Bill of Rights can’t get lost in an urge to ‘do something’ that will make some advocates feel better. As former FBI Director William H. Webster frequently reminded us agents: ‘We must do the job the American people expect of us, but in the manner that the Constitution demands of us.'”
3. Politicization of the Humanitarian Crisis at the Border
In this 1 1/2 minute news clip, Jacob Soboroff, recent America at a Crossroads guest speaker, NBC news journalist who broke the 2017 story on Trump’s policy of separation of families at the border (and wrote a book called Separated: An American Tragedy about it) , speaks with NBC’s Nicole Wallace about the travesty of how some in the GOP are currently using the children at the border as political pawns in their efforts to discredit President Biden. According to Soboroff, for whom this issue of children at the border has become a key focus of his reporting, some are looking for solutions to the humanitarian crisis at the border while others are simply looking for an opportunity for a press conference.

Dear Friends

If you missed tonight’s extraordinary program with Brian Jenkins and Javed Ali, moderated by Larry Mantle you will find a recording at this link by tomorrow morning.

During the program tonight these articles were mentioned by our speakers:  https://international.ucla.edu/media/files/Rapoport-Four-Waves-of-Modern-Terrorism.pdf, https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column_article/the-5th-wave-of-rebel-terrorism, https://www.rand.org/blog/2021/01/the-battle-of-capitol-hill.html

Further, while we sent the following out previously, now that you have heard tonight’s speakers, we thought you might want to access these again:
1. Here is a link to Brian Jenkin’s congressional testimony which he gave last month regarding homeland security, domestic terrorism, and the January 6th uprising.  
2. In this opinion column in The Cipher Brief (a digital, security-based conversation platform that connects the private sector with the world`s leading security experts), Javed Ali co-writes about what the Biden Administration should be doing to tackle domestic terrorism.

TODAY’S ARTICLES of NOTE:
Voter Suppression:
Greg Sargent writes in yesterday’s Washington Post that Georgia’s efforts to suppress votes is extremely serious and alarming; Georgia’s sweeping and draconian voting reforms are, according to Sargent, a blatant effort to reduce the electoral impact of Georgia’s African American voters.  And, Georgia’s efforts are being replicated around the country.  Sargent writes, “the GOP has largely abandoned winning majorities, instead recommitting to anti-democratic tactics and exacerbating its anti-majoritarian structural advantages.”  These efforts represent the major obstacle to “a more just and egalitarian political system.”

California’s Ethnic Studies Curriculum
In this op-ed in yesterday’s NY Times, Bret Stephens explains why he opposes even the revised version of the proposed California Ethnic Studies Curriculum.  There have been several drafts of the proposed Curriculum; the prior drafts met with muscular criticism from the Jewish community inasmuch as there was little or no recognition of anti-Semitism in the curriculum, despite the growing prevalence of anti-Semitism. Stephen’s bottom line conclusion is this: “Public education is supposed to create a sense of common citizenship while cultivating the habits of independent thinking. This is a curriculum that magnifies differences, encourages tribal loyalties and advances ideological groupthink.”   

Dear Friends

If you missed tonight’s extraordinary program with Brian Jenkins and Javed Ali, moderated by Larry Mantle you will find a recording at this link by tomorrow morning.

During the program tonight these articles were mentioned by our speakers:  https://international.ucla.edu/media/files/Rapoport-Four-Waves-of-Modern-Terrorism.pdf, https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column_article/the-5th-wave-of-rebel-terrorism, https://www.rand.org/blog/2021/01/the-battle-of-capitol-hill.html

Further, while we sent the following out previously, now that you have heard tonight’s speakers, we thought you might want to access these again:
1. Here is a link to Brian Jenkin’s congressional testimony which he gave last month regarding homeland security, domestic terrorism, and the January 6th uprising.  
2. In this opinion column in The Cipher Brief (a digital, security-based conversation platform that connects the private sector with the world`s leading security experts), Javed Ali co-writes about what the Biden Administration should be doing to tackle domestic terrorism.

TODAY’S ARTICLES of NOTE:
Voter Suppression:
Greg Sargent writes in yesterday’s Washington Post that Georgia’s efforts to suppress votes is extremely serious and alarming; Georgia’s sweeping and draconian voting reforms are, according to Sargent, a blatant effort to reduce the electoral impact of Georgia’s African American voters.  And, Georgia’s efforts are being replicated around the country.  Sargent writes, “the GOP has largely abandoned winning majorities, instead recommitting to anti-democratic tactics and exacerbating its anti-majoritarian structural advantages.”  These efforts represent the major obstacle to “a more just and egalitarian political system.”

California’s Ethnic Studies Curriculum
In this op-ed in yesterday’s NY Times, Bret Stephens explains why he opposes even the revised version of the proposed California Ethnic Studies Curriculum.  There have been several drafts of the proposed Curriculum; the prior drafts met with muscular criticism from the Jewish community inasmuch as there was little or no recognition of anti-Semitism in the curriculum, despite the growing prevalence of anti-Semitism. Stephen’s bottom line conclusion is this: “Public education is supposed to create a sense of common citizenship while cultivating the habits of independent thinking. This is a curriculum that magnifies differences, encourages tribal loyalties and advances ideological groupthink.”   

Dear Friends

Here is the ZOOM link for tomorrow’s program with Amb. McFaul and Max Boot
 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86922012620
 

Tomorrow’s Speakers:
There is simply no better team to talk about US policy with Russia and China than tomorrow’s team. 

Michael Anthony McFaul served as the United States Ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014 and is currently a Professor of International Studies at Stanford, where he also is the Director of the Institute for International Studies and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Prior to his nomination to the ambassadorial position, McFaul worked for the U.S. National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and senior director of Russian and Eurasian affairs.

Max Boot is Russian-American author, consultant, editorialist, lecturer, and military historian. He is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a columnist at The Washington Post. Register here
 

In preparation for tomorrow’s program, in this article written by Michael McFaul and published in January 2021’s Foreign Affairs, McFaul analyzes the Biden Administration’s challenge of developing “a new, comprehensive Russia strategy that strikes the right balance between containing Moscow and engaging it in narrow areas of shared interest. To get there, the Biden administration will need to shed myths and misperceptions that for years have hampered U.S. analysis of Moscow and to replace them with an accurate assessment of what sort of threat Putin’s Russia really poses and how the United States can effectively counter it.”

Here is Max Boot’s most recent column on foreign policy issues which was published 2 weeks ago in the Washington Post in which he writes about Biden’s challenges vis a vis US policy in the Middle East.

COLUMNS AND ARTICLES OF NOTE THIS WEEK
This week’s opinion pages were replete with commentary, some scathing, about last weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).  Here are a few of those columns and postings:
1. In this Washington Post column by Jennifer Rubin, she contends that the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this past weekend confirmed that conservatism has devolved into a valueless, policy-less, vengeful, and meaningless “receptacle of resentment, cult worship and racism.”  Rubin likened the golden statue of Trump to the “golden calf” through which its “worshippers” are in pursuit of the “lost cause of White Christian domination … [and] the lost cause of a mythical stolen election.”

2. The CPAC gathering this past weekend similarly inspired Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson to write this op-edin which he questions how Christian Evangelicals, who comprise the largest single group within the new GOP coalition, justify their embrace of “Trumpism”, which, according to Gerson, directly contradicts the teachings of Christ.   The Republican party, according to Gerson, has been “swiftly repositioned as an instrument of white grievance. It refuses to condemn racists within its congressional ranks. Its main national legislative agenda seems to be the suppression of minority voting. Trumpism is defined by the belief that real Americans are beset by internal threats from migrants, Muslims, multiculturalists, Black Lives Matter activists, antifa militants and various thugs, gangbangers and whiners…The whole Trump movement, and now most of the Republican Party, is premised on the social sanctification of pre-cognitive fears and disgust.”  Quoting from Matthew 25, Gerson points out the hypocrisy of evangelical embrace of Trump: “Those who follow their pre-cognitive disgust and refuse to treat the hungry, the stranger, the sick and imprisoned as they would Christ are told: “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”  
   
   3.  In yesterday’s entry in her blog, Letters from an American, Boston College History Professor Heather Cox Richardson comments on yesterday’s The Bulwark column by Bill Kristol in which Kristol, a noted Conservative, sounds the alarm bell about our democracy being on a dangerous precipice. “After all,” writes Kristol “we did just fail to have a traditionally peaceful transfer of power. One of our two major parties—having failed in a coup attempt—now claims that the current administration is illegitimately elected, the result of massive, coordinated fraud. The logical extension of this position would seem to be that the American constitutional order deserving of our allegiance no longer exists. So we are at the edge of crisis, having repulsed one attempted authoritarian power grab and bracing for another.”  In this column Kristol was explaining and defending his previous week’s Bulwark column in which he suggested that Conservatives should consider supporting the Biden wing of the Democratic party as a means of preserving our democracy.  Cox Richardson bolsters Kristol’s suggestion noting that the danger of the current crisis is that ” we seem largely to have normalized that the former president of the United States refused to accept his loss in the 2020 election and enlisted a mob to try to overturn the results. Along with his supporters, he continues to insist that he won that election and that President Joe Biden is an illegitimate usurper.”  The continued embrace of Trump’s “big lie” coupled with the pervasive attempts by Republicans in many states to suppress minority voting rights, Cox Richardson writes, spells danger for our democracy.

Dear Friends

If you missed tonight’s outstanding panel discussion on the threat of domestic terrorism and white supremacy, by tomorrow morning you can watch it in its entirety at this link.

Here are the links again to the organizations related to tonight’s panelists.
www.integrityfirstforamerica.org to learn more about IFA’s work, to support their work and to sign up for case updates.
www.adl.org  and https://www.adl.org/who-we-are/our-organization/advocacy-centers/center-on-extremism
And, here are links to some of the ADL reports that were mentioned by Joanna Mendelson

• Extremists Face Arrests, Uncertain Future Following Jan 6 Insurrection
• Murder and Extremism in the United States in 2020
• ADL’s PROTECT plan to fight domestic terrorism
• HEAT Map

NEXT WEEK’s PROGRAM:

There is simply no better team to talk about US policy with Russia and China than Amb. Michael McFaul and Max Boot. 
Michael Anthony McFaul served as the United States Ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014 and is currently the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor in International Studies in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University, where he is the Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He is also a Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a contributing columnist at The Washington Post. Prior to his nomination to the ambassadorial position, McFaul worked for the U.S. National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and senior director of Russian and Eurasian affairs. Ambassador McFaul will be interviewed by the incomparable Max Boot, Russian-American author, consultant, editorialist, lecturer, and military historian. Boot worked for The Christian Science Monitor and The Wall Street Journal. He is now Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a columnist at The Washington Post. Register here

COLUMNS AND ARTICLES OF NOTE
1. At Tuesday’s Senate hearing on the January 6 insurrection, Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis) read excerpts from a piece “”I Saw Provocateurs at the Capitol Riot on Jan. 6” into the Senate record which described the rioters as “jovial” and “friendly” who had gathered for something like a picnic.  The only ones, according to Johnson, who were not “jovial” were “fake Trump protesters” whom Johnson would have us believe were the ones that planned the insurrection, just posing as Trump supporters.  Yes, these were ideas espoused and supported by this sitting US Senator this week at a Senate hearing.   In this op-ed published in today’s Washington Post, columnist Alexandra Petri uses scathing literary style to express the ridiculous nature of Johnson’s wild conspiracy theory. 

2.  This Forbes poll published today,  found that Biden’s approval rating is at an impressive 58%,whereas Donald Trump’s unfavorable rating is 60%.  And, who, according to the Forbes poll are the least popular national figures? That distinction goes to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy who is down by 20 points and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell whose favorability rating is 17% and unfavorability rating is 61%.  Senator Ted Cruz’s ratings also fell by 30%.  Ratings for Democrat Leaders Schumer and Pelosi also declined, but to a much lesser extent.  

Dear Friends
 

Here is the zoom link for tomorrow’s program on domestic terrorism, extremism and white supremacy
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82815205044

THIS WEEK’S PROGRAM COULDN’T BE MORE TIMELY
Today’s Senate hearings on Capitol Security on January 6 continued to shine a bright light on the deadly problem of domestic extremism in our midst; last week President Biden proclaimed, “White supremacists…the most dangerous people in America…That is the greatest threat to terror in America: domestic terror.”  Tomorrow’s program deals with this precise issue.  We have assembled this outstanding panel of experts who will be in conversation moderated by Patt Morrison: attorney Roberta Kaplan of Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP, in partnership with Integrity First for America (IFA), is lead counsel representing plaintiffs in their case against 24 white supremacists, neo-Nazis and hate groups for the violent events of Charlottesville in August 2017.  According to IFA, this lawsuit, supported and propounded by Integrity First for America, is the only current legal effort taking on the broad leadership of the white supremacist movement. It provides a model for bringing these extremists to justice — and a tangible way to take action against the violent white supremacy poisoning this country with the goal of holding the leaders and hate groups at the center of this movement fully accountable.  Visit www.integrityfirstforamerica.org to learn more about IFA’s work and sign up for case updates.

Joanna Mendelson is a critical part of ADL’s national team at the ADL Center on Extremism, which combats extremism, terrorism and all forms of hate in the “real” world and online. She is a certified subject matter expert on domestic terrorism-related activity and has provided testimony in numerous criminal cases; she has trained more than 12,000 federal, state and local law enforcement officers, judges and public officials nationwide on the subject. SAC Voviette Morgan assumed the position of Special Agent in Charge of the Intelligence Division at FBI Los Angeles in which position SAC Morgan is responsible for driving the complete integration of intelligence and operations within FBI Los Angeles. Register here

 Relevant to tonight’s program:
1.  This op-ed published last month in the JTA  co-authored by tomorrow’s panelist Roberta Kaplan links the violent events Charlottesville to those who attacked the Capitol on January 6.
2.  This article, entitled “Capitol Attack Could Fuel Extremist Recruitment for Years, Experts Warn” appeared in the January 16 NY Times and analyzes the growth of the extremist movements involved in both Charlottesville and the Capitol Insurrection. 
 

 TODAY’S COLUMNS OF NOTE:  HAS WOKE CULTURE GONE TOO FAR?
1.  This week is the Jewish holiday of Purim which makes Bret Stephen’s column in today’s NY Times about cancel culture and “woke” culture especially timely.  He recalls an incident in which Bon Appetit was attacked for the title associated with an article about hamentashen (the triangular cookie traditionally eaten on Purim); the tongue and cheek title suggested that the cookies were not tasty.  After being challenged on social media (years after the article appeared), Bon Appetit’s editor made this statement: “The original version of this article included language that was insensitive toward Jewish food traditions and does not align with our brand’s standards.”   Bon Appetit has implemented an “Archive Repair Project” which Stephens describes as a self abasing scouring and cleansing of recipes and titles “told through a white American lens.”  While the hamenstashen example seems entertaining and even funny, Stephens notes that it is emblematic of a very serious and pervasive problem on university campuses and in editorial board rooms of “woke” culture going overboard. Stephens concludes, “In the game of Woke, the goal posts can be moved at any moment, the penalties will apply retroactively and claims of fairness will always lose out to the perpetual right to claim offense.”

2. Apropos of domestic terrorism and attorney general nominee Justice Merrick Garland, Dana Milbank’s column in yesterday’s Washington Post highlights the commitment shown by Justice Garland to define “domestic terrorism” and to hold perpetrators accountable for their actions.  While Senator Hawley, whom Milbank calls a “seditionist” for abetting the January 6 insurrection, tried to downplay the actions of those who attacked the Capitol and to equate the Portland protestors to those who attacked the Capitol, Garland responded that “using violence to disrupt democratic processes (as occurred in the Capitol) is domestic terrorism, while attacking a courthouse at night (as occurred in Portland) is not. Both are criminal, but one is a core attack on our democratic institutions.”

Dear Friends

If you missed the remarkable hour with the extraordinary former Secretary of the Defense William Cohen in conversation with Warren Olney, you can view the recording here; it will be posted by tomorrow morning. 

NEXT WEEK’S PROGRAM COULDN’T BE MORE TIMELY
Yesterday at his very first post-inaugural Town Hall, President Biden proclaimed, “White supremacists…the most dangerous people in America…That is the greatest threat to terror in America: domestic terror.”  Next week’s program, on Wednesday, February 24 at 5 pm PST, deals with this precise issue.  We have assembled this outstanding panel of experts who will be in conversation moderated by Patt Morrison: attorney Roberta Kaplan of Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP, in partnership with Integrity First for America, is lead counsel representing plaintiffs in their case against 24 white supremacists, neo-Nazis and hate groups for the violent events of Charlottesville in August 2017.  Joanna Mendelson is a critical part of ADL’s national team at the ADL Center on Extremism, which combats extremism, terrorism and all forms of hate in the “real” world and online. She is a certified subject matter expert on domestic terrorism-related activity and has provided testimony in numerous criminal cases; she has trained more than 12,000 federal, state and local law enforcement officers, judges and public officials nationwide on the subject.  SAC Voviette Morgan assumed the position of Special Agent in Charge of the Intelligence Division at FBI Los Angeles in which position SAC Morgan is responsible for driving the complete integration of intelligence and operations within FBI Los Angeles. Register here

FRIEDMAN & RUBIN: TODAY’S COLUMNS OF NOTE:

1. In his column in today’s New York Times, Tom Friedman emphatically contends that our country will be stymied in its pursuits until we have two functional parties, both of which embrace diversity and a “shared association” looking to a better future. HIghly critical of the GOP for having continued in a cult-like fashion to stick with a leader who actively attempted to undermine our democracy is, in Friedman’s words, “an acute national problem — a cancer, in fact. And like any cancer, the required treatment is going to be painful for the patient.”  He advocates three specific initial remedies “getting rid of the filibuster in the Senate, granting the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico statehood (they each have more U.S. citizens than Wyoming) and passing a new Voting Rights Act that forbids voter suppression. While that may sound hyper-partisan, it’s the necessary, but not sufficient, remedy for America to regain its political health.”

2.  In Jennifer Rubin’s column in today’s Washington Post Rubin explains why we need a 1/6 Commission.  Not only must we “put purveyors of [the] Big Lie in the same category as 9/11 Truthers“, explains Rubin, but a 1/6 Commission would also put the matter of white supremacy and domestic extremism/terrorism squarely before the American people as the lethal threat which it is.  “We certainly need more attention and resources devoted to protecting Americans against what is now far and away the most lethal terrorist threat. The impeachment trial was just the start of the Jan. 6 probe. Now the hard work begins.”

Dear Friends,
 

For those who were unable to attend tonight’s program with the incomparable Max Boot on the subject of American Foreign Policy, you can watch it in its entirety at this link starting tomorrow morning.  

Next Wednesday, February 10 at 5 pm PST join us as we welcome, once again, noted political analyst and frequent commentator on several networks,  William Kristol, will be in conversation with Larry Mantle on the topic: “Is the Future ‘Grand’ for the Grand Old Party?” (Register here)

Aside from Mr. Kristol’s work as an analyst, writer and commentator, he is also the founder and director of Defending Democracy Together and founder and chairman of the board for the Republican Accountability Project; both of these organizations were created to defeat and discredit  “Trump” republicans. In this article published in OpenSecret.org there is a full description of the various organizations started by responsible current and former republicans who seek to defeat the “party of Trump”.   Kristol worked as an executive branch staffer during the administrations of both former Republican Presidents George H. W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.  

ARTICLES OF NOTE:
1. This article published yesterday in AXIOS is a continuation article in a series called “Off the Rails” in which Jonathan Swan and Zachary Basu took us inside the final 2 months of the Trump presidency–from November 2 until the January 6 insurrection.  In this particular article, the writers take us into a a meeting on an evening in December in which Trump’s attorney, conspiracy advocate Sidney Powell joined by Michael Flynn instigated a major confrontation with White House staff.  Powell, Flynn and their team accused White House counsel, Pat Cippilone, and White House senior adviser, Eric Herschmann, of being quitters and essentially disloyal for not declaring Trump the winner of the election; also under attack were the Department of Justice, the FBI and the entire judicial system which, according to Powell, cannot be trusted. The Powell theory was that “because foreign enemies had stolen the election, all bets were off and Trump could use the full force of the United States government” to gain control of the White House.  The President expressed his support for the Powell approach over the vociferous objection of his top tier staff.  The meeting, as described by Swan and Basu, was crazy, as tempers raged and chaos prevailed; the fact that radical conspiracists were in the Oval Office fighting with senior White House officials, in Trump’s presence is, by itself, remarkable.  This article should shock every reader.  You can  🎧 Listen to Jonathan Swan on Axios’ new investigative podcast series, called “How it happened: Trump’s last stand.” Read the rest of the “Off the Rails” episodes here.

2. In this opinion column in today’s (February 3) Washington Post, Greg Sargent takes on the issue of political violence, and the lack of unequivocal GOP condemnation of those who incite it.  The dilemma about what the GOP legislators are going to do about Taylor Greene and Trump are, in Sargent’s view ” fundamentally about whether Republicans will unambiguously stand for the proposition that the temptation to resort to political violence is wholly intolerable in a democracy and has no place whatsoever in their party.” However, Sargent predicts that the GOP legislators will take whatever steps are necessary to obscure the true nature of the problem presented by both Trump and Taylor Greene. In fact, those Republicans who are condemning Greene, are doing so for her assertions related to 9/11 or her contentions that Parkland shootings and the wildfires were staged events, not about the bigger issue–namely, that she “also endorsed the killingof numerous high-profile Democrats.”  In the end, Sargent notes that Greene will likely face consequences by the GOP; but, the bigger instigator of political violence will not. He writes, “It is often said that Republicans can’t condemn Greene because she’s allied with Trump… What binds them, exactly?  Among other things, it’s that both genuinely believe the Trump movement should be fully prepared to resort to political violence against their political opponents.”

Re-Circulating In Case You Missed It:
1.  A couple of hours ago, Bill Kristol, who will be our guest on February 10 at 5 pm PST,  posted this on twitter which is a short video produced by the Republican Accountability Project .  In the short video, the finger for the Capitol Insurrection is pointed squarely at Trump; through the Republican Accountability Project Republicans & conservatives are fighting against disinformation and are advocating for accountability for those who tried to overturn the election.

2. And, for those who do not watch Bill Maher’s Real Time on a regular basis, you might have missed this 7 minute tribute to former Congressman Henry Waxman, who was a guest of America at a Crossroads some months ago.  While the segment is replete with Maher’s special brand of irreverence and (some would say) over-the-top, raunchy humor, Maher makes a very serious point.  His point? Lasting societal change is made not by those who invade the capitol building or commit violent or other destructive actions.  Rather, Maher says, change comes by virtue of hard-working committed public servants like Congressman Waxman who brought the tobacco industry to its heels, drafted the Affordable Care Act, brought about monumental nursing home reform, and did so much more.  At the end of the video, Congressman Waxman accepts the “Baldy Award” for his service to the American people.