You don't need to win the case when the raid, the indictment, the legal bills, and the public humiliation have already delivered the message to everyone else…
Prosecutors face no penalty for filing frivolous, meritless lawsuits, but their targets suffer substantially for having done nothing wrong. The prosecutors should have to pay their legal bills and offer a sincere public apology for the reputational damage they caused. This rule should also extend to malicious government "investigations" of political opponents.
Yep Justice for us, the law for the restThe only way we Lilliputans can defeat the giant is if we coalesce, but we are kept divided by factions. special interests who think their cause and only their cause has priority over others. And who knee jerk react over stupid shit like a chest tattoo.
Spot on .. we need to realize this isn’t a red vs blue issue .. it’s the working people of America against a small number of uber wealthy .. as William states so accurately they keep throwing out red meat to get people of all colors to fight within .. we must unite .. only then can we get this changed
Anti-SLAPP laws are in place to protect people from frivolous lawsuits intended to financially and otherwise intimidate people from exercising their free speech rights to criticize, primarily intended to protect against corporations attacking people complaining about fraudulent or defective activities or products. If a defendant can win an anti-SLAPP case, they can be compensated for their legal costs and possibly even punitive damages. I'm not sure if they are applicable to federal criminal or civil charges, particularly because they are only state laws - there are no federal anti-SLAPP laws. In Canada, there are similar laws that do apply to the government, but again only by province.
Anti-SLAPP laws need to be strengthened and written into federal code, and they need to apply to federal and state governments as well as private entities. They should require penalties such as court sanctions, loss of law licenses, and monetary penalties. If prosecutors fail to get an indictment on minor or frivolous cases like tRump's DOJ is pursuing, they should be suspended or fired.
In addition, I suggest the DOJ be separated from the executive branch and be subject to control by either the Congress or the Judicial branch. It is supposed to be independent, but not by law, and unscrupulous presidents can exert their control way too easily.
If Dems can ever get their act together, I suggest they should develop a "Saving Democracy Initiative", encompassing a series of laws specifically designed to provide future protections against abuse of government against its citizens, starting with reversing every action taken by the tRump administration and all of his departments. Prosecutions can come later. Protection against future abuse should be top priority. If Dems cannot pull their weight on this, we need a new national party.
I've had that same thought that the DOJ can't be independent until it is independent of the White House and able to add the weight of enforcement on the presidency to laws and judicial decisions. Possibly make the Atty. Gen. an elected post in off-year elections, creating an overlap between administrations.
Eugene Debs went to prison in 1919 for speaking against the US entering WWI. He called it a class war. As it turns out, he was correct. J.P. Morgan had loaned billions to the U.K. so they could defeat Germany. If the UK lost, so would J.P. Morgan, and the US economy would take a hit.
The thing is is it isn’t trump. He is just a tool of Ptoject 2025, although in his lucid moments he enjoys the shit out this power play. Russ Vought and the Heritage Foundation and other assorted fascist groups are behind all of this fuckery. They know trump won’t be anywhere near lucid much longer. They are busy laying the groundwork for the post-trump Reich. Having said that, trump, if he survives long enough, must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and he and his family, including Javanka, must be left penniless and destitute!
While as president Trump may unfortunately be immune to lawsuits--that is the policy, though never tested in court--I think you are right about the future, Larry. What worries me with Vance is that if this snake gets into office he may have even worse policies passed since people will be so relieved to work with someone who sounds "normal".
Personally I think the only long-term answer, and it is expecting a lot of people, is to do the "I am Spartacus" routine. If enough of us keep standing in opposition then the system won't be able to handle that many cases. Oh, there may be some show trials, but what are they going to do if millions wear armbands saying "8647"? If enough people accept it, you can turn a nation into a prison, but you can't jail everybody. And sooner or later a tipping point will be reached where the majority of people just have had enough of it. What this gang is doing to the economy is accelerating that process.
You kind of can "jail everybody". Not necessarily directly, but if enough people get imprisoned (or as in Chile or Argentina, disappeared), the rest will keep quiet. It is fine to call on people to rise up, especially if you yourself are reasonably secure, but for people on the edge, it becomes a life or death decision. Most people will choose life - theirs or their family's - over liberty. They may not be "jailed" semantically, but they can be enslaved in reality.
Larry Bushard, it was Peter Thiel, a white Christian nationalist and billionaire who has funded J.D. Vance with the help of Kevin Roberts, who wrote project 25, Russell Vought the architect of the project and who was confirmed as the head of the WH Budget office, Yarvin the thinker, along with the blessing and money of the Heritage foundation to decimate our democracy. This has been a goal of white Christian nationalists for more than two decades. Religion is at the heart of the issue and the major factor for our present circumstances. It hasn't been addressed. These are zealots, who will stop at nothing to accomplish their goal. Pete Hegseth, DeSantis, Mike Johnson to name a few.
P2025 may have proposed this kind of action, but do not dismiss Stinky's influence over it. This kind of activity is what his entire empire was founded on. He has applied this technique of bullying against his contractors and lawyers his entire career, and when he failed to win, he filed bankruptcy, 6 times. He is the absolute premium example of why our society needs proteciton against predatory monsters like President Stinky.
Trump's decades long practice of abusing the justice system because he could find corrupt attorneys and had the money to outlast the people he victimized was well-known and publicized. There should have been an aggressive move to brand him as a fraud and as a habitual abuser of courts. "Abuse of process" is a prosecutable offense. He should have been and still could be charged for this travesty. It should be the headline that doesn't go away until he does. Isn't this one major reason judicial and court organizations exist and the job of the ACLU?
Malicious prosecution is evidently a no-no, but not enough of a no-no to result in punishment. Perpetrators should be subject to fines and imprisonment. Victims should receive full restitution AND punitive damages. Our legal system reflects a notion that if you *can* do something, you *should*, hence we are awash in unethical officers of the court dedicated to lining their pockets and/or destroying innocent lives. Members of the bar make up a large proportion of lawmakers at all levels, which presumably explains the existence and perpetuation of this system. Along with campaign finance reform and trust-busting, containment of this abuse-provoking/supporting reality must be high on the list of priorities going forward.
The scariest part of Rule #1 in the dictator’s playbook isn’t that they attack the press or independent institutions... it’s how many people either cheer it on or stay quiet because they think it won’t affect them.
History shows this pattern rarely stops at the first target. Once the precedent is set, it expands.
What do you think is the most effective way to push back before it becomes normalized?
I said it last year, and again many times, we are living in an illusion, so long as people can drive a car, have a cell phone, they believe that nothing really has changed.
The frog is being boiled and it is close to being actually boiled.
Trump spilled the beans when he said that he doesn't care about inflation, Pam, Todd, all o them have stood before congress, argued, insulted and berated them, and that should have scared the shit our you. because they know that there will be no consequences, ever, and the only consequence would be if they turned against Trump.
Why want there be any consequences . you might ask. Well stupid of your to ask, because the Regime is not going anywhere, even if Trump is hauled out on a gurney with his face covered, the regime will stay in power.
Trump is only the avatar, the face of the regime, the regime is an alliance of tech bros, billionaires, millionaires and the dupes and dunces called MAGA.
The only thing that they don't control yet, is the blue states, and blue state governors and attorney generals are not using the power that they have to thwart them. and the have plenty
Start hear Christopher Armiage has produced many articles with even templates, as to how our governors and attorney's generals could do something, so far they have done nothing, or as Gov Sherril of NJ used the State Police to assistance ICE, or as Mayor Baracka of Newark, used the police to protect ICE .
QUESTION: Why can't these victims of trump's malicious filings make the administration pay their legal bills? They've had to hire lawyers to defend themselves so why can't the issue of legal bills be a part of that filing?
Just t be clear, this is nothing new. When I returned from being the first American reporter to visit North Vietnam in 1965 and reporterd that we were bombing cilvialian targets and were likely to lose the war, my passport was lifted, seven years of back rtaxes were audited, and I was blacklisted from brascast journalism by the workof the FBI. And a democrat was president. We've been here before
I had my children taken away after I took our Village to court and had my "Special Assessment" reduced from $8700 to $2400. It was in the news because my neighbor and I demanded a jury trial, and we had no lawyer. My neighbor didn't help with the trial, but he was there for us. I felt intimidated, but not enough to let them illegally tax me out of our house. If I had known how easily the State could take away children without cause, I probably wouldn't have fought the Village.
Many people lost their homes to the crooked realtors who moved to our community and managed to get on the Village Board. The homeowners could not have anticipated that they would be targeted with the pretext of building sidewalks in front of their homes. They only assessed a few blocks every two years, so they didn't have a majority of people opposing them at any one time.
I had no idea about the political connections that could be used to take what is most precious to us, our children, for fighting a crooked system, or for organizing your workplace according to the law.
The person who worked for DCFS and took my children was a precinct committeeman. I did get them back without the money for an attorney, but it was a horrible struggle, and we were all traumatized for life.
The government can do whatever it wants to ordinary people, while the wealthy can do whatever they want without consequences.
Mainstream Media(MSM) has been failing the American people for years but it's reporting like this from Substack channels that puts the Ukrainian Russian war into perspective.
Not only has Ukraine cut off logistical support to the Crimean peninsula, not only has Ukraine crippled the global gas station that Russia represents(25-40% estimates of loss of oil output and hence revenue), not only has Ukraine taken out the war machine revenue, not only is Russia sustaining enormous manpower shortages due to drone and robotic technology on the front lines, not only has the Russian Navy been rendered impotent in Black Sea but now deep strikes within Russia has led to the severance of manufacturing for maintaining its war efforts.
The SBU has an undercover system that has systematically been destroying logistical support for Putin's war effort. All this amounts to Cheeto's buddy losing the war that he said would end in a couple of days....sound familiar? MSM has failed to capture the enduring defeat that Russians are suffering and the two clowns will go down in infamy as psychopaths much like Mussolini and HItler almost 100y ago.
Rule #1 has always been the same: Control what people are allowed to know, then punish anyone who tells the truth. It’s not subtle. It’s just effective until enough people stop playing along. The post I wrote yesterday, that's complete more subscribers in a single day than anything I've ever read I think I'm at 50 and Counting. One Day.
As I read this, I'm thinking less about all these infuriating individual cases and more about the recurring lesson in history: democracies rarely disappear all at once. More often, they erode when fear convinces ordinary people that speaking up, organizing, questioning authority, or participating in public life simply isn't worth the personal cost. Our democracy will surely weakened further when people succumb to these threats and begin to censor themselves simply because disagreeing or speaking out feels risky
This warning deserves attention. Our democracy depends not only on laws and institutions, but also on you and others who believe we can and must speak out and share the truth without intimidation. That you for your wisdom, and most of all, your courage.
You hear people disparing of how things have gone to hell now. Let's get this straight. There has from the beginning been a strain in American culture, economics and politics that is straight out authoritarian and fascist. The 50s? The time when the oligarchs regimented the workers, took back control, and broke like match sticks anyone who didn't conform? The 60s? You mean the time when virtual children were sent to the far ends of the earth to die or to kill people for just wanting the right to control their own country? And don't tell me we are going to look back on Nixon and Reagan fondly? We got lazy. We watched the ruling class loot the middle class, and we called that a peaceful era. Now we are paying the price. Fight people. If you want democracy, fight.
I'd love to see the NYT, WaPo and the WSJ all on the same day make headlines that say, "trump and his regime are acting like Communist Dictators and his Cabinet and big donors are all his Oligarchs." Not capitalizing trump. Would that be foolish, dangerous or just clever but truthful? The rest of the articles should be examples comparing trump admin to putin regime. Whenever trmp needs a smackdown of someone who could defeat him or his chosen deplorable, he calls them communists. What would throwing it back AT HIM do? "Acting like" isn't slander. Maybe preface it with, "Some people are saying that trump and his regime. . ." IT WOULD HAVE TO BE COORDINATED, tho, so every media outlet would be forced to follow up on it.
Prosecutors face no penalty for filing frivolous, meritless lawsuits, but their targets suffer substantially for having done nothing wrong. The prosecutors should have to pay their legal bills and offer a sincere public apology for the reputational damage they caused. This rule should also extend to malicious government "investigations" of political opponents.
You are supposed to be able to sue for malicious prosecution, but first you have to be able to afford a lawyer.
Yep Justice for us, the law for the restThe only way we Lilliputans can defeat the giant is if we coalesce, but we are kept divided by factions. special interests who think their cause and only their cause has priority over others. And who knee jerk react over stupid shit like a chest tattoo.
Spot on .. we need to realize this isn’t a red vs blue issue .. it’s the working people of America against a small number of uber wealthy .. as William states so accurately they keep throwing out red meat to get people of all colors to fight within .. we must unite .. only then can we get this changed
Well said.
Gloria, malicious prosecution has existed for a long time. Covering Initial legal fees by now should have been on the democratic agenda yesterday.
Anti-SLAPP laws are in place to protect people from frivolous lawsuits intended to financially and otherwise intimidate people from exercising their free speech rights to criticize, primarily intended to protect against corporations attacking people complaining about fraudulent or defective activities or products. If a defendant can win an anti-SLAPP case, they can be compensated for their legal costs and possibly even punitive damages. I'm not sure if they are applicable to federal criminal or civil charges, particularly because they are only state laws - there are no federal anti-SLAPP laws. In Canada, there are similar laws that do apply to the government, but again only by province.
Anti-SLAPP laws need to be strengthened and written into federal code, and they need to apply to federal and state governments as well as private entities. They should require penalties such as court sanctions, loss of law licenses, and monetary penalties. If prosecutors fail to get an indictment on minor or frivolous cases like tRump's DOJ is pursuing, they should be suspended or fired.
In addition, I suggest the DOJ be separated from the executive branch and be subject to control by either the Congress or the Judicial branch. It is supposed to be independent, but not by law, and unscrupulous presidents can exert their control way too easily.
If Dems can ever get their act together, I suggest they should develop a "Saving Democracy Initiative", encompassing a series of laws specifically designed to provide future protections against abuse of government against its citizens, starting with reversing every action taken by the tRump administration and all of his departments. Prosecutions can come later. Protection against future abuse should be top priority. If Dems cannot pull their weight on this, we need a new national party.
"
I've had that same thought that the DOJ can't be independent until it is independent of the White House and able to add the weight of enforcement on the presidency to laws and judicial decisions. Possibly make the Atty. Gen. an elected post in off-year elections, creating an overlap between administrations.
Absolutely agree!
Eugene Debs went to prison in 1919 for speaking against the US entering WWI. He called it a class war. As it turns out, he was correct. J.P. Morgan had loaned billions to the U.K. so they could defeat Germany. If the UK lost, so would J.P. Morgan, and the US economy would take a hit.
I bet you are familiar with the work of Howard Zinn. If we don’t learn from history we become blind.
Yep, but that wasn't the only reason Gloria,
The thing is is it isn’t trump. He is just a tool of Ptoject 2025, although in his lucid moments he enjoys the shit out this power play. Russ Vought and the Heritage Foundation and other assorted fascist groups are behind all of this fuckery. They know trump won’t be anywhere near lucid much longer. They are busy laying the groundwork for the post-trump Reich. Having said that, trump, if he survives long enough, must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and he and his family, including Javanka, must be left penniless and destitute!
While as president Trump may unfortunately be immune to lawsuits--that is the policy, though never tested in court--I think you are right about the future, Larry. What worries me with Vance is that if this snake gets into office he may have even worse policies passed since people will be so relieved to work with someone who sounds "normal".
Personally I think the only long-term answer, and it is expecting a lot of people, is to do the "I am Spartacus" routine. If enough of us keep standing in opposition then the system won't be able to handle that many cases. Oh, there may be some show trials, but what are they going to do if millions wear armbands saying "8647"? If enough people accept it, you can turn a nation into a prison, but you can't jail everybody. And sooner or later a tipping point will be reached where the majority of people just have had enough of it. What this gang is doing to the economy is accelerating that process.
Great idea! Start a movement having every seamstress in the country start making "86 47" armbands! Spread the word!
You kind of can "jail everybody". Not necessarily directly, but if enough people get imprisoned (or as in Chile or Argentina, disappeared), the rest will keep quiet. It is fine to call on people to rise up, especially if you yourself are reasonably secure, but for people on the edge, it becomes a life or death decision. Most people will choose life - theirs or their family's - over liberty. They may not be "jailed" semantically, but they can be enslaved in reality.
Vance has no cult following - he has no chance against any reaonable Democrat who will take on the 1% and their axis of evils...
Larry Bushard, it was Peter Thiel, a white Christian nationalist and billionaire who has funded J.D. Vance with the help of Kevin Roberts, who wrote project 25, Russell Vought the architect of the project and who was confirmed as the head of the WH Budget office, Yarvin the thinker, along with the blessing and money of the Heritage foundation to decimate our democracy. This has been a goal of white Christian nationalists for more than two decades. Religion is at the heart of the issue and the major factor for our present circumstances. It hasn't been addressed. These are zealots, who will stop at nothing to accomplish their goal. Pete Hegseth, DeSantis, Mike Johnson to name a few.
At last!
someone who put into words what I've been seething about for the last 2 1/2 years! Thank you, Larry!
P2025 may have proposed this kind of action, but do not dismiss Stinky's influence over it. This kind of activity is what his entire empire was founded on. He has applied this technique of bullying against his contractors and lawyers his entire career, and when he failed to win, he filed bankruptcy, 6 times. He is the absolute premium example of why our society needs proteciton against predatory monsters like President Stinky.
Trump's decades long practice of abusing the justice system because he could find corrupt attorneys and had the money to outlast the people he victimized was well-known and publicized. There should have been an aggressive move to brand him as a fraud and as a habitual abuser of courts. "Abuse of process" is a prosecutable offense. He should have been and still could be charged for this travesty. It should be the headline that doesn't go away until he does. Isn't this one major reason judicial and court organizations exist and the job of the ACLU?
Malicious prosecution is evidently a no-no, but not enough of a no-no to result in punishment. Perpetrators should be subject to fines and imprisonment. Victims should receive full restitution AND punitive damages. Our legal system reflects a notion that if you *can* do something, you *should*, hence we are awash in unethical officers of the court dedicated to lining their pockets and/or destroying innocent lives. Members of the bar make up a large proportion of lawmakers at all levels, which presumably explains the existence and perpetuation of this system. Along with campaign finance reform and trust-busting, containment of this abuse-provoking/supporting reality must be high on the list of priorities going forward.
The scariest part of Rule #1 in the dictator’s playbook isn’t that they attack the press or independent institutions... it’s how many people either cheer it on or stay quiet because they think it won’t affect them.
History shows this pattern rarely stops at the first target. Once the precedent is set, it expands.
What do you think is the most effective way to push back before it becomes normalized?
Thom, again you have revealed the insidious tactics of Dear Leader and his brown shirts. Thank you!
I said it last year, and again many times, we are living in an illusion, so long as people can drive a car, have a cell phone, they believe that nothing really has changed.
The frog is being boiled and it is close to being actually boiled.
Trump spilled the beans when he said that he doesn't care about inflation, Pam, Todd, all o them have stood before congress, argued, insulted and berated them, and that should have scared the shit our you. because they know that there will be no consequences, ever, and the only consequence would be if they turned against Trump.
Why want there be any consequences . you might ask. Well stupid of your to ask, because the Regime is not going anywhere, even if Trump is hauled out on a gurney with his face covered, the regime will stay in power.
Trump is only the avatar, the face of the regime, the regime is an alliance of tech bros, billionaires, millionaires and the dupes and dunces called MAGA.
The only thing that they don't control yet, is the blue states, and blue state governors and attorney generals are not using the power that they have to thwart them. and the have plenty
Start hear Christopher Armiage has produced many articles with even templates, as to how our governors and attorney's generals could do something, so far they have done nothing, or as Gov Sherril of NJ used the State Police to assistance ICE, or as Mayor Baracka of Newark, used the police to protect ICE .
https://cmarmitage.substack.com/p/the-psychology-of-defeating-fascism
QUESTION: Why can't these victims of trump's malicious filings make the administration pay their legal bills? They've had to hire lawyers to defend themselves so why can't the issue of legal bills be a part of that filing?
Just t be clear, this is nothing new. When I returned from being the first American reporter to visit North Vietnam in 1965 and reporterd that we were bombing cilvialian targets and were likely to lose the war, my passport was lifted, seven years of back rtaxes were audited, and I was blacklisted from brascast journalism by the workof the FBI. And a democrat was president. We've been here before
I had my children taken away after I took our Village to court and had my "Special Assessment" reduced from $8700 to $2400. It was in the news because my neighbor and I demanded a jury trial, and we had no lawyer. My neighbor didn't help with the trial, but he was there for us. I felt intimidated, but not enough to let them illegally tax me out of our house. If I had known how easily the State could take away children without cause, I probably wouldn't have fought the Village.
Many people lost their homes to the crooked realtors who moved to our community and managed to get on the Village Board. The homeowners could not have anticipated that they would be targeted with the pretext of building sidewalks in front of their homes. They only assessed a few blocks every two years, so they didn't have a majority of people opposing them at any one time.
I had no idea about the political connections that could be used to take what is most precious to us, our children, for fighting a crooked system, or for organizing your workplace according to the law.
The person who worked for DCFS and took my children was a precinct committeeman. I did get them back without the money for an attorney, but it was a horrible struggle, and we were all traumatized for life.
The government can do whatever it wants to ordinary people, while the wealthy can do whatever they want without consequences.
Wow. So fucking disgusting. Glad you got them back, but so sorry.
It took six weeks. It was the worse time of my life.
MSM As Usual Lags Behind Ukrainian Victory
Mainstream Media(MSM) has been failing the American people for years but it's reporting like this from Substack channels that puts the Ukrainian Russian war into perspective.
Not only has Ukraine cut off logistical support to the Crimean peninsula, not only has Ukraine crippled the global gas station that Russia represents(25-40% estimates of loss of oil output and hence revenue), not only has Ukraine taken out the war machine revenue, not only is Russia sustaining enormous manpower shortages due to drone and robotic technology on the front lines, not only has the Russian Navy been rendered impotent in Black Sea but now deep strikes within Russia has led to the severance of manufacturing for maintaining its war efforts.
The SBU has an undercover system that has systematically been destroying logistical support for Putin's war effort. All this amounts to Cheeto's buddy losing the war that he said would end in a couple of days....sound familiar? MSM has failed to capture the enduring defeat that Russians are suffering and the two clowns will go down in infamy as psychopaths much like Mussolini and HItler almost 100y ago.
Pass it on.
https://cmarmitage.substack.com/p/the-american-reformation-my-new-book
Rule #1 has always been the same: Control what people are allowed to know, then punish anyone who tells the truth. It’s not subtle. It’s just effective until enough people stop playing along. The post I wrote yesterday, that's complete more subscribers in a single day than anything I've ever read I think I'm at 50 and Counting. One Day.
https://uncomfortable.rxansmithmedia.com/p/united-we-stand-is-a-mathematical?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=5xf1q5
As I read this, I'm thinking less about all these infuriating individual cases and more about the recurring lesson in history: democracies rarely disappear all at once. More often, they erode when fear convinces ordinary people that speaking up, organizing, questioning authority, or participating in public life simply isn't worth the personal cost. Our democracy will surely weakened further when people succumb to these threats and begin to censor themselves simply because disagreeing or speaking out feels risky
This warning deserves attention. Our democracy depends not only on laws and institutions, but also on you and others who believe we can and must speak out and share the truth without intimidation. That you for your wisdom, and most of all, your courage.
You hear people disparing of how things have gone to hell now. Let's get this straight. There has from the beginning been a strain in American culture, economics and politics that is straight out authoritarian and fascist. The 50s? The time when the oligarchs regimented the workers, took back control, and broke like match sticks anyone who didn't conform? The 60s? You mean the time when virtual children were sent to the far ends of the earth to die or to kill people for just wanting the right to control their own country? And don't tell me we are going to look back on Nixon and Reagan fondly? We got lazy. We watched the ruling class loot the middle class, and we called that a peaceful era. Now we are paying the price. Fight people. If you want democracy, fight.
I'd love to see the NYT, WaPo and the WSJ all on the same day make headlines that say, "trump and his regime are acting like Communist Dictators and his Cabinet and big donors are all his Oligarchs." Not capitalizing trump. Would that be foolish, dangerous or just clever but truthful? The rest of the articles should be examples comparing trump admin to putin regime. Whenever trmp needs a smackdown of someone who could defeat him or his chosen deplorable, he calls them communists. What would throwing it back AT HIM do? "Acting like" isn't slander. Maybe preface it with, "Some people are saying that trump and his regime. . ." IT WOULD HAVE TO BE COORDINATED, tho, so every media outlet would be forced to follow up on it.