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Letters: Did That Really Just Happen?

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Dear Editor;

Today I watched a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former National Security Advisor plead the 5th when asked if he supported the peaceful transfer of presidential power.

For a second I thought I was watching an episode of Homeland.

Sincerely,

David Cooke/ Concord

39 COMMENTS

  1. Truly amazing, but what do expect from a guy who was seen in a photo having dinner with Putin. In some countries these traitors would be put up against a wall…

  2. I hear you, Mr. Cooke. And I never thought that after the lessons learned from the contemptible and horrible episode of the 1950s McCarthy hearings, that a political party in power would ever be able to repeat it. I would take the 5th just not to be involved. I read one of the latest bombshells as they call it is that Trump physically assaulted a secret service agent and grabbed the steering wheel of the car to direct it toward the Capitol. Many will remember this, but not the follow up where the actual agents involved said it was pure fiction and never happened. Such is propaganda and they scored their points. Something has gone very wrong with the Democratic party, and while we slip into recession, experience rising inflation, crime, massive illegal immigration, and so on, the party I belong to seems single-mindedly focused on character assassination to attack the other party. We need to toss out the scoundrels and get new leadership in the Democratic party, and I don’t mean the socialist AOC/Sanders clowns.

    • You would take the 5th not to get involved? Pretty much says it all right there…and I’ll remind everyone that Flynn did take a military oath which he pledges to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…guess he forgot about that…

      • At the time of the McCarthy hearings, Albert Einstein, a socialist, advised others to not even take the 5th, but instead go full non-compliance like Gandhi in India against such an authoritarian. Recall McCarthy was wildly popular at the start of his investigations given the cold war environment, accusing hundreds of being subversive. He claimed one army dentist was a communist, and when he took the 5th amendment to not explain his political views, McCarthy then went after General Zwicker who was his superior saying he was unfit to wear the uniform. Zwicker was a highly decorated war hero, and for the public to hear McCarthy call Zwicker unAmerican was the beginning of the end of his nonsense. A few years later those that so passionately supported McCarthy, would later deny they did.

        • Irrelevant. More smoke!

          McCarthy was a right-wing demagogue with a drinking problem, and Roy Cohn (Trump’s proto lawyer) was his cudgel.

          • David – correct, and as most of us know, Roy Cohn was Trump’s mentor, which explains a lot…

    • Wow. Where to begin?

      More “look over here look over here,” throw out the truth and “look over here.” The witness prefaced her comments about the presidential carjacking as information provided to her by someone in a position to know. Secondhand information – not to be entirely trusted, most of us get it.

      More important to those able to consider information in a thoughtful way were the presidents actions on the critical day – where it appears that the mob he was expecting showed up armed and ready to party and he recognized them as “his people” and ordered the metal detectors turned off to allow them in. Whoopsie.

      Hopefully most of us realize that this isn’t about the Big Liar’s assault on his security detail or the presidential wallpaper, this is about his assault on democracy and his thinking he could sit in the White House and run it like Tony Soprano. This isn’t about six dollar gas or caravans of “invaders” lining up at the southern border and waiting for a chance to rape and pillage America – such as it is. So we hear the same accusations and trigger words – “socialist,” “AOC/Sanders,” etc… yawn.

      Most of us are tired of the attempt to misdirect our attention and recognize credible testimony when we hear it. And unlike another MAGA assertion that no one is watching the J6 hearings, we’re watching and given the Fifth, Flip and Pardon rate we’re seeing now the right is beginning to eat its own.

      My subdued belief and hope is that some well known conspirators will be going to jail and their names aren’t AOC or Sanders.

    • One need only hear the GOP elephants squeal to know that this sworn testimony from someone who was “in the room” is credible and damning. Time to bury your head in the sand, again.

      • Hearsay testimony is inadmissible at trial, but current January 6th Congressional Committee will not be the body that renders final adjudication of any prospective criminal charges. Also keep note that hearsay rule has multiple exceptions wherein subject statement is in fact admitted into evidence for substance/weight purposes.
        From my perspective, it is unlikely the proverbial needle will be moved, as the polar extremes of the current political landscape have already formed their respective intractable positions. The likelihood of a civilized discussion is greatly diminished when there is little or no agreement on the foundational facts.

        • To state the obvious, the committee is PUBLICLY telling a fact-based narrative of the criminal plotting it has uncovered with its investigation. There is no cross examination during that process due to a tactical error by the sedition party. Undoubtedly, the credibility of the witnesses was examined by the committee beforehand, but I don’t think anyone would confuse this with a courtroom. This is just the theory of the case. Perhaps the DOJ is listening…Certainly some GOPers are on edge, checking wind direction.

          I want to believe that the public hearings are having an impact, but is it a meaningful impact??

          I don’t know anymore.

          As the song goes,

          Ah, but I was so much older then
          I’m younger than that now

          • David: You are not a Dyan fan. The song you chose is about Dyan’s realization that he does not know as much as he thought he did when he was younger, and that he was too militant and sure of himself, which completely conflicts with your authoritative judgements of what is fact and not and how those you disagree with are the party of sedition. Dyan’s message completely contradicts your message.

          • “I am the worst of the worst in the eyes of current Democrats”
            Dude, unless you are some party functionary that I have never heard of, in a conspiracy to overthrow 240 years of peaceful transitions of governmental power, you are a bystander of NO CONSEQUENCE. Your own tribulations are for you to sort out. McCarthy? Clinton? Seriously? On this day, in this century, I urge you to denounce the failed coup attempt that happened, and is happening, on our watch in year 246.

          • No. Just no. You like listening to cute Byrds music and threw that phrase in without understanding the real meaning. There is a very good reason I am not allowing you to have a “do-over” on this, and you can see it in your Great Replacement reference below. The Democrats have culturally moved into the position of assigning evil intent to be behind any mistakes or disagreements over policy by conservatives. Case in point, I am strongly against illegal immigration and the, I believe, two million illegals who have been invited into the country under Biden. I have spent a bit of time in Oakland and San Francisco, seen people living on cardboard and under tarps, drugged out, desperate, and miserable. Our resources should be going to fix that issue, and not to invite in a flood of illegals who consume our tax money and compete down the wages of lower income workers here who are actual citizens. But if I say so, I am accused of racism and believing in the Great Replacement theory because the majority of the illegals are of a certain ethnicity. My compassion is tagged as racism in a breathtakingly dishonest lack of intellectual charity. So, same to you. You totally screwed up with your reference to Dylan, scrambling to read through it later and come up with an angle to not look like a poser. You failed.

          • You got me! But, I was not pretending, so “poser” is laughingly unfair. I liked the Byrds. I liked Dylan, pre-Pastor, but other than Turn, Turn, Turn, I couldn’t recite much of the Byrd’s music…I just liked it. Your animosity extends far beyond any uninformed music reference of mine. It is petty.

          • Nothing wrong with liking the Byrds, many of us did, including me, along with Buffalo Springfield, and yes, Bob Dylan…but how did this thread turn into a discussion of 60s music? 🙂

          • We were just wondering that very thing. If we didn’t like music so much, and if this wasn’t the Fourth of July weekend (full of freedom and all that) we would have thrown a flag!

          • It is common in conservative forums to say progressives are hypocrisy and satire blind. Spinning David’s use of Dylan as a character flaw is used as a metaphor in how he condemns the character of those not wanting open borders. It was intended as satire. I purposely exaggerated his misuse of the quote to make it look like it is a character issue. That was the whole point! Geez. The exaggeration was to point out how he comfortably and freely labels others as racist, a character flaw. More than half the population, maybe 150 million people, are upset about the border situation, and the mismatch between his claiming half the population are racists to my minor dig about “posing” is purposely extreme. Try to keep up. And I really like the Byrds. Geez.

          • “It is common in conservative forums to”… flail. Flail away, LV. We see what the eye sees.

          • Yes, David, I am the worst of the worst in the eyes of current Democrats. Though historically a Democrat happily voting for Bill Clinton, I went to the dark side in the past few years, disgusted by how the party is evolving, and now read and listen to the arguments and material by both sides. An open mind is not allowed in what used to be a respectable party. Thank you for your confirmation.

  3. Aaron Sorkin called ALL of this – right down to Ginni Thomas – in 2012. It’s not like some of us didn’t see this coming.

    • It’s true. Let’s face it: these people – who are not the sharpest tools in the shed – have been signaling their intentions for years. Many have said they want to “start over” and to build a new country after some necessary bloodletting. Some of them are in Congress and many are police or military ex military. This country would be wise to keep its eyes open because these people are CRAZY.

  4. One thing I find interesting is how Trumpers see themselves as the true patriots, yet they seem to have no use for the Constitution, nor does Trump. There seems to be a disconnect, you can’t be a patriot if you don’t believe in the Constitution…

    • I think the terror on the right all comes down to the “Great Replacement” notion, the sense of losing one’s cultural and political legacy. The ugly truth of white nationalism is now revealed, and you can see what really matters to that side. It is continued dominance at all costs. Democracy was praised and faux-revered until it no longer worked in their favor. That is my working theory in any event.

  5. It’s funny to watch TFG do his best James Cagney impression. Is it too much to expect that he will be arrested and imprisoned? I don’t know – but one can hope.

  6. Look for more. More testimony. More subpoenas. More arrests and search warrants. Getting to the truth is a process — and we have a way to go before we get there. But we will. Not watching? Don’t care? Conservatives are running for cover like cockroaches when the lights go on. We’re watching.

  7. “I just need to find 11,780 votes which is one more than we have.”
    C’mon, I’m the Belle of the Ball. Everyone knows this. Gimme a break.
    Idiocy speaks!

  8. We’re in the “incipient conflict” stage of the CIAs own handbook on insurrection. The only difference is we’re looking at it right here at home instead of in other countries.

  9. I wonder what percent of the population really believes we are in an insurrection or revolution. I just finished a nice memoir of someone who lived through the Iranian revolution and was directly related to the previous (before the Shah) royal family. I know people who went through revolution in yet another country. I try to compare those events to January 6 which mostly consisted of a bunch of disorganized mostly middle-aged white guys armed with flags. I just see no connection. I watched two clips attached to news stories of the famed January 6 hearings which claimed authority to explore a coup attempt, and quite in contrast the first was about deceptive fund raising and the second from someone claiming third or fourth hand information that somehow Trump tried to grab a steering wheel while sitting in the back of an enormous SUV. Anyone here really think that is physically even possible? This just sounds so nuts to me. To tie in the essay above, this generation is very different than the one involved in WWII. Perhaps I have been desensitized by the continuous nonsense of everyone playing woke drama of being offended and hypersensitive to any slight or opinions that they don’t agree with. In another discussion here, I’m told someone who shot at the police and went 60 mph through residential neighborhoods is the victim.

  10. Oops!…He did it again.

    Oops, I did it again
    I played with your heart, got lost in the game
    Oh baby, baby
    Oops, you think I’m in love
    That I’m sent from above
    I’m not that innocent

    Still waiting for charges. Any charges.
    Flimflam? Seditious conspiracy? Witness tampering? Anything?

  11. Contrary to statements from our friends to our right we have been watching developments in Washington and the lines are finally being drawn between what we suspected was happening behind the scenes and what was actually happening. With very few exceptions I’ve never seen a bigger collection of grifters, hustlers, hucksters, cranks and ne’er do wells in my life. The fact that the Orange Blob of Chicken Fat who brought them all together was elected by millions of my fellow Americans makes me cry. It’s hard to believe anyone can be that deliberately stupid — but that’s where we are.

  12. Can’t wait to exercise my rights and return the ChristoFascists vying for power in our country from whence they came. Game on.

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