Watching "Good Night And Good Luck" on CNN!

Last night, my wife and I watched the Broadway play "Good Night And Good Luck" which stars, and was written and produced by George Clooney. The play is about the impact the McCarthy Committee Hearings had on America as US Senator Joseph McCarthy ran amuck in the senate claiming America was being infiltrated by thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of commmunist party members and communist spies. I have writen on this blog in the past about a book by Lately Thomas, "When Even Angels Wept: A Story Without A Hero", which is about Senator McCarthy and terribly destructive impact he and his minions had on literally thousands of innocent victims of their effort to destroy anyone whose ideas they opposed. I have been blessed to know four people who were victims of Senator McCarthy who, to one degree or another, had their lives destroyed by the senator. None of the four people I knew ever wavered in their opposition to the senator, and all of them worked on a daily basis for the remainder of their lives to defend the US Constitution and Constitutional Rights. Clooney's play is now the only Broadway play ever to have a performance televised in its entirety. The play, and everything about the life and crimes of Joseph McCarthy, are a warning about just how fragile democracy is, even in what until January 29, 2025, was the most democratic country in the world. There is no difference in the morally degenerative nature of Senator McCarthy, his minions at the time, and TRAITOR Trump, and his minions today. America and American Democracy are under attack and that attack is directed, fomented, and led from the White House. That is why George Clooney, his business partners on Broadway, and the management team at CNN chose to take the unprecedented step of televising a full length Broadway play to America and the world wherever CNN is available. In today's world, nealry all of satellite based television is available worldwide except in a few of the most repressive countries. Without a doubt, it must have had an incredibly large viewership last night. In a stunning proof of just how dangerous TRAITOR Trump and his Criminal Syndicate are, just last night as the play was being televised and small demonstrations against his crimes were taking place in Los Angeles, he ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to go to California to quell the demonstrations over the public objections of California Governor Gavin Newome who stated that his administration and the police agencies in the areas of the demonstrations did not need the National Guard mobilization and that it would make matters worse. There can be no doubt that it did. This action by TRAITOR Trump is an escalation of the action he attempted to take in his previous illegal occupation of the White House against peacful demonstrators in Washington when he tried to order that those demonstrators be tear gassed despite their clearly peaceful intentions. These are the most dangerous times in America since at least the end of World War II, and they are dangerous solely because of TRAITOR Trump and his minions. Every American citizen should be standing up and voicing public opposition to TRAITOR Trump, his actions, his minions, and his continued occupation of the White House. But simply impeaching and removing him would not be the best answer since J. D. Vance, the Vice President of record, is just as criminal, just as evil, just as dangerous as TRAITOR Trump. If impeachment is to occur, it must be simultaneous impeachments of every person in the constitutional chain of command and succession until that chain of succession reaches a person who has not shown loyalty to TRAITOR Trump. The only person in the chain of succession at this time who can even be remotely believed to be capable of assuming leadership of the country without risk of further crimes is US Senator Chuck Grassley, the President Pro Tempore of the US Senate, who is second in line to the presidency. That means that only simultaneous impeachment of both TRAITOR Trump and J. D. Vance can hope to put an end to the ongoing attacks on democracy. It needs to happen today, might not be likely to happen until it is far too late, and the ultimate price could be the loss of Democracy in America if the other elected representatives in congress don't take the necessary actions as soon as possible. God Help Us All!

"When Even Angels Wept A Story Without A Hero" by Lately Thomas--Book Review

Thomas, Lately 1973 When Even Angels Wept A Story Without A Hero (New York--William Morrow & Co. 1973)

Several months ago, as the Republican primary season was beginning to heat up and Kentucky's Right Wing Radical Republican Senator Rand Paul announced his candidacy for the presidency I began to read every word I could find on the late Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy who is forever linked to his effort to destroy what he believed or claimed was a communist scourge in America.  Instead of destroying communism, McCarthy destroyed the lives of literally thousands of good, decent, patriotic Americans who were not remotely communists.  I have mentioned in this blog before that in my lifetime I have met and learned from four of the people whose lives were greatly damaged by McCarthy.  I saw a similar willingness on the part of Rand Paul to ignore individual constitutional rights on a mission of pure self interest.  What I did not see at the time I began my reading about Joseph McCarthy was that a far greater danger than Rand Paul was lurking on the American horizon, the TRAITOR Donald Trump.  However, my reading about McCarthy was made just as timely and just as important to American Democracy by the sudden ascendancy of TRAITOR Trump on the political scene.

In the same time frame, I began reading as much of the body of dystopian literature as I could consume since I saw a likelihood for politicians like Rand Paul and the TRAITOR Donald Trump to attempt to destroy freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and most other constitutional freedoms which has happened nearly on a daily basis since the TRAITOR Donald Trump managed to consort with Vladimir Putin in order to steal the American election and the White House.  I have written several blog posts here based on that foresight and the body of dystopian literature.  I have read and written about the work of George Orwell and I have also written about the history of the Holocaust and European Resistance to the Nazi's and Russians.   

As a part of this multifaceted study of literature, I read "When Even Angels Wept A Story Without  A Hero" by Lately Thomas.  The book is a bit long in the tooth having been published in 1973.  But there is not a more timely book for every American to read than this one in light of the ongoing attempts by TRAITOR Trump to destroy freedom of the press and individual constitutional freedoms in America. I actually finished the book a few weeks ago but did not have the time to write about it sooner.  In the interim, TRAITOR Trump has unceremoniously, injudiciously, and self-destructively fired FBI Director James Comey and Director Comey has now testified before the US Senate about the circumstances leading to his firing.  Comey's testimony has contributed significantly to the case against TRAITOR Trump in his association with Vladimir Putin in the hijacking of the presidential election.  More will come of all this in the next few weeks.  It is also significant that the top federal criminal prosecutor, Deputy Solicitor General  Michael Dreeben, has joined the staff of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller in the ongoing investigation of the Russian conspiracy which has led to the seizure of the White House by TRAITOR Trump and his criminal syndicate.  There is no better time for American citizens to read and study Lately Thomas' book about Joseph McCarthy, who until this year was the greatest political criminal the USA had ever seen.

Lately Thomas takes an interesting position about Joseph McCarthy and his actions. Thomas concludes and states in his introduction to the book that Joseph McCarthy was "a pirate".

"...Joseph McCarthy was a pirate, and one does not, one cannot, pass valid moral judgments on pirates...The distinction which sets the freebooter apart from the violent revolutionary, for example, or from the man who wages a war for some purpose other than plunder, appears in McCarthy, [and in TRAITOR Trump] the essence of this distinction being that the pirate is not amenable to moral laws because he recognizes none. By the very act of becoming a pirate he has forced the moral code, which is binding on other men, to walk the plank.  A man cannot be held morally answerable to laws of which he is incognizant; hence the pirate, entertaining no scruples, whatsoever, is freed of their encumbrance...Whether we are aware of the fact or not, we do not pass moral judgments upon pirates, either the best or the worst of them...because intuitively we grasp that their ways of standards and conduct lie outside the confines of conventional morality.  Ways deplorable, doubtless, antisocial, and even horrible, yet, when regarded impersonally and from behind a buffer of distance, often fascinating.  Moral conformity is not the pirates concern.  For him, rapine is no more reprehensible than is preaching to a parson or lending money at interest to a banker.  We may, if we are strong enough, hold the pirate accountable under statute law; we may even stretch his neck; but morally he will not be answerable to us."  "When Even Angels Wept A Story Without A Hero" pp. 1-2

Contained in that quotation from Thomas' book are several truths which were valid assessments of Senator Joseph McCarthy when the book was written; and those truths are equally valid  assessments of the TRAITOR Donald Trump and the political disaster which he and his criminal syndicate are bringing about in America today.  The TRAITOR Donald Trump is just as much a pirate as Joseph McCarthy and has "forced the moral code...to walk the plank".  His past actions over the last fifty to sixty-five years show a consistent pattern of disrespect for everyone, everything, and every social restriction which society has attempted to place upon him. This recent article discusses his antisocial and violent behaviors even as a child.  It has been necessary for more than 3,500 innocent victims of TRAITOR Trump's business crimes to sue him in order to seek payment of just debts.  According to the article cited in the preceding link, these criminal behaviors are continuing today even as this career criminal and his criminal syndicate illegally occupy the White House.  In many ways, Lately Thomas' book might well have been written about the TRAITOR Donald Trump.

"When Even Angels Wept..." reads at times like a Shakespearean tragedy.  Joseph McCarthy was a poor Irish Catholic Wisconsin farm boy who grew up poor and rose to great power before his gargantuan psychological and moral flaws hamstrung him and brought him down just as permanently as that single unwashed tendon brought an end to Achilles.  McCarthy attended high school as an older student and finished in what was affirmed to be record time while supporting himself by selling eggs to grocers in Milwaukee.  He sailed through law school at Marquette University, was elected to a local judgeship, and joined the Marines when WWII broke out.  However, the record shows, as detailed by Thomas, that while in the Marines, McCarthy deftly finagled his way out of combat situations, managed to describe a common accident as a medal worthy combat wound, and set himself up to run for the US Senate from Wisconsin.  He was living the life of a pirate every day of his life and when he got to Washington that life became magnified, aggrandized, and blown out of all proportion to his actual qualifications and achievements.  Joseph McCarthy was a self-serving freebooter who went about gaining the chairmanship of a relatively minor committee in the senate.  Then he managed, by his criminal interference in the lives of the innocent, to turn that committee into the most publicly notorious arm of the federal government. In just a handful of years, McCarthy destroyed the lives of thousands of innocent victims in order to paint himself as a leader who was worthy of public office. 

However, the book reveals that McCarthy's vast, self-destructive psychological flaws led to his demise along with his alcoholism which was simultaneously destroying his health.  Joseph McCarthy died a premature death at 49 after having been brought into check by his senate colleagues who censured him due to his freebooter ways in the conduct of his investigations.  He was brought up short at the end of his chain much like an ill tempered dog.  There is a great deal to be learned by the average reader and voter by reading any available literature about the life of McCarthy and this book is a great place to start.  Read it with a jaundiced eye due to the somewhat overly positive portrayal which is provided by Lately Thomas at times.  Read it with an eye to the current ongoing political disaster in Washington.  Read it with the intent to find tools to be used in the political resistance necessary to protect our democracy and constitutional rights. 

UNCONSTITUTIONAL ATTACKS ON A FREE PRESS

"...the sure way to destroy freedom of speech and the free expression of ideas and views is to attach to that freedom the penalty of abuse and vilification...It is only from a diversity of views freely expressed and strongly advocated that sound policy is distilled. He who contributes to the destruction of this process is either a fool or an enemy of his country." Owen Lattimore in Senate testimony before the McCarthy Committee in 1950.

The quote above was delivered by Owen Lattimore during his testimony before a US Senate committee after he was labeled by the late Senator Joseph McCarthy as the number one communist operative in the federal government at the beginning of McCarthy's Communist Witch Hunt.  Although Lattimore had never been employed in the government, he had, at times, been a consultant since he was recognized as the leading expert on China in the world.  Lattimore was eventually indicted by a federal grand jury and eventually had all his charges dismissed as baseless.  He went on to write what is considered to be the best first person book about the McCarthy disaster, "Ordeal By Slander".  For several years, Lattimore teetered on the edge of having his life and career destroyed by McCarthy as actually happened to many other patriotic and innocent Americans.  Lattimore's quote above fits just as well today for TRAITOR Donald Trump as it originally fit Joseph McCarthy.  

On January 21, 2017, at CIA Headquarters, in a speech which has been negatively reviewed by nearly every writer who has said a word about it, TRAITOR Trump stated "As you know, I have a running war with the media. They are among the most dishonest human beings on Earth." Never has any legitimate occupant of the White House, not even Richard Nixon, taken the bizarre step of declaring a war with the legitimate press of the country.  Let me state for the record that I do not now, nor do I ever expect to, consider the TRAITOR Donald Trump to be a legitimate occupant of the White House, With the assistance and under the direction of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he illegally seized an American election.  Now he is engaged in a plan to destroy constitutional freedoms which is based on Adolph Hitler's seizure of total power in Germany.  His "war with the media" is a key part of that plan and is being carried out on a daily basis by both TRAITOR Trump and his criminal minions.  

At least six members of the media were arrested on felony rioting charges during the Women's March On Washington as the first salvo in this felonious effort to restrict constitutional rights to a free press.  All these journalists were doing their job at the time they were arrested. They were covering the biggest news story of the day.  It was a story which had the power to negatively affect public perception of TRAITOR Trump and that is the primary reason for their arrest.  The other reason was to intimidate all other legitimate members of the media and prevent them from doing their job by bringing the truth to the American public on a daily basis.  

At least seven journalists have been arrested during their coverage of the Dakota Pipeline Protest on the Standing Rock Reservation.  Their arrests have also been perpetrated for the same reasons, to prevent their doing their jobs and to further intimidate the other members of the media community nationwide.  Once again, these arrests are part of a structured plan to destroy constitutional freedoms as originally carried out by Adolph Hitler in Germany.  

"When Adolf Hitler took power in 1933, the Nazis controlled less than three percent of Germany’s 4,700 papers.

The elimination of the German multi-party political system not only brought about the demise of hundreds of newspapers produced by outlawed political parties; it also allowed the state to seize the printing plants and equipment of the Communist and Social Democratic Parties, which were often turned over directly to the Nazi Party. In the following months, the Nazis established control or exerted influence over independent press organs." The Holocaust Encyclopedia. Downloaded February 26, 2017, at 4:49pm

I do not necessarily believe that TRAITOR Trump will attempt to literally seize control of all the organs of the media, primarily because very few people are working and assisting TRAITOR Trump who would be capable of competently running a newspaper.  But I do not doubt that he would  be willing to seize organs of the press if he believed the American citizenry would allow it.  He has a well established record of denying access to otherwise public events to members of the media which insist on telling the truth in their reporting.  As early as June 14, 2016, CNN Media reported a list of media organs which had been denied access to TRAITOR Trump's events over the previous year.  Just two days ago, on February 24, 2017, the Washington Post and several other media outlets were denied access to what was billed as an open press conference.  TRAITOR Trump has also announced in the same time frame that he will not attend the White House Correspondents Association Dinner as every legitimate president has for the past thirty or more years. He is obviously unwilling to face interactions with members of the press he has abused and denied access over the past several months. He also does not wish to be questioned about his failure to release his taxes, his inability to assemble an honest and qualified cabinet, and he unconstitutional attacks on Muslims and immigrants.

The US Constitution states that " Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." These actions by TRAITOR Trump which attempt to prevent the legitimate media from doing their constitutionally guaranteed job are part of a structured plan to deny, impair, and obstruct all the freedoms listed in the Bill of Rights.  The so-called Muslim Ban, which has been declared unconstitutional by several federal district courts and is highly likely to be considered unconstitutional by the Supreme Court even in its newly reconfigured text which is alleged to now remove Iraq from the list of seven countries in what appears to be an attempt to look less discriminatory.  

George W. Bush, the last Republican to legitimately be elected President, spoke out in an interview on February 27, 2017, in words that addressed TRAITOR Trump's recent actions without naming and directly confronting him as Mr. Bush should have.  

“I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy,” Bush said. “We need an independent media to hold people like me to account.  Power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive and it's important for the media to call to account people who abuse power, whether it be here or elsewhere,” he added. Bush noted that during his presidency, he sought to persuade people like Russian President Vladimir Putin to respect a free press." Washington Post February 27, 2017--Downloaded on March 1, 2017, at 1:52pm.

Former President Bush should be thanked for speaking out which is an uncommon act for former presidents during the early days of a new administration.  But he actually said far less than he should have and failed to directly name TRAITOR Trump.  It is now time for all the former living presidents to jointly and publicly stand up and speak from their collective bully pulpit to address these attacks against civil liberties and freedom of the press coming from the illegitimate administration in the White House.   As Bush said, "Power can be very addictive" and a megalomaniac such as TRAITOR Trump is the worst person on earth to be imbued with power.  He is mentally unstable and unfit to successfully manage even relatively innocuous levels of power.  With the help of Vladimir Putin, he has managed to seize a great deal of power and his misuse of it can only increase over time if he is not confronted and held responsible for his crimes, past, present, and future.  Just as Professor Owen Lattimore said in 1950, "...he is a fool or an enemy of his country".  I would declare that he is both.