Tag: Donald Trump

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At Large Letter From An Editor

Sweet Dreams

Eurythmics’ Annie Lennox (Photo: Library of Congress)

Did you see the video of President Trump singing the Eurythmics’ 1980’s hit, “Sweet Dreams”? He’s really pretty good, to be honest. Except honesty has nothing to do with it. The video — all of it, including the imitation of Trump’s voice — was created by a Google artificial intelligence program, an algorithm trained on Trump’s voice and speech patterns and tasked with creating this bizarre cover song.

The video was only online for a couple of days, but it’s just another example of what we’re all going to be facing in the coming years: The fact that most human creative endeavors can be replicated by artificial intelligence, including novels, screenplays, television scripts, videos of politicians or celebrities (or any of us), pornography, political propaganda, advertising jingles, emails, phone calls, “documentaries,” and even the news. It’s going to be a huge influence in our lives, and it has an enormous potential for creating mischief via disinformation and the manipulation of “reality.”

That’s why seven companies — Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection AI, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI — met with President Biden last Friday to announce a voluntary commitment to standards in the areas of safety and security. The companies agreed to:

  • Security test their AI products, and share information about their products with the government and other organizations attempting to manage the risks of AI.
  • Implement watermarks or other means of identifying AI-generated content.
  • Deploy AI tools to tackle society’s challenges, including curing disease and combating climate change.
  • Conduct research on the risks of bias and invasion of privacy from the spread of AI.


Again, these were voluntary agreements, and it bears noting that these seven companies are fierce competitors and unlikely to share anything that costs them a competitive edge. The regulation of artificial intelligence will soon require more than a loose, voluntary agreement to uphold ethical standards.

The U.S. isn’t alone in trying to regulate the burgeoning AI industry. Governments around the globe — friendly, and not so friendly — are doing the same. Learning the secrets of AI is the new global arms race. Using AI disinformation to control or influence human behavior is a potential weapon with terrifying prospects.

It’s also a tool that corporations are already using. I got an email this week urging me to buy an AI program that would generate promotional emails for my company. All I had to do was give the program the details about what I wanted to promote and the AI algorithm would do the rest, cranking out “lively and engaging” emails sure to win over my customers. I don’t have a company, but if I did, the barely unspoken implication was that this program could eliminate a salary.

It’s part of what’s driving the strike by screen actors and writers against the major film and television studios: The next episode of your favorite TV show could be “written” by an AI program, thereby eliminating a salary. Will the public care — or even know — if, say, the latest episode of Law & Order was generated by AI? Will Zuckerberg figure out how to use AI to coerce you into giving Meta even more of your personal information? (Does it even Meta at this point? Sorry.) You can be sure we’ll find out the answer to those questions fairly soon.

And we’ve barely even begun to see how AI can be utilized in the dirty business of politics. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ campaign used an AI-generated voice of Donald Trump in an ad that ran in Iowa last week. Trump himself never spoke the words used in the ad, but if you weren’t aware of that, you might be inclined to believe he did. Which is, of course, the point: to fool us, to make the fake seem real. It’s coming. It’s here. Stay woke, y’all.

Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree
I travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody’s looking for something …

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Opinion The Last Word

Scandal Shmandal

Gary Hart (Photo: Laurence Agron | Dreamstime.com)

Who remembers Gary Hart? If you’ve had as many as 50 birthdays, you almost certainly remember the former Colorado senator and two-time candidate for the United States presidency. If you remember Hart’s name, you likely remember another: Donna Rice. You see, Gary Hart had a girlfriend. And (sit down for this) Gary Hart was married at the time.

I’ll share a brief slice of American-scandal history for those of you who may not remember Hart and friend. Only 47 years old in 1984, Hart sought the Democratic nomination in an election that would send Ronald Reagan back to the White House for a second term. Hart seemed Kennedy-esque: lots of dark hair, a solid jawline, sparkling pearly whites. It wasn’t until the next presidential campaign, though, that we learned just how Kennedy-esque Gary Hart truly was.

In the spring of 1987, thanks to journalists doing what we do, America learned that Hart had carried on an extramarital affair with Rice, a woman he claimed was nothing more than a “campaign aide.” But when a photo of the two in each others’ arms appeared on the cover of the National Enquirer, that was the end of the next Kennedy and any hopes he had of occupying the Oval Office.

I’ve thought of Gary Hart often the last few years, every time the name Donald Trump makes news. It’s been 36 years and nine presidential elections since that tabloid cover ruined Hart’s political rise. But what the hell has happened to presidential scandal? Gary Hart was nationally ridiculed for an extramarital affair and Donald Trump has already served a term as U.S. president.

The notion of Trump being excluded from a campaign for the highest office in the land over a mistress seems as laughably silly as a desert coyote coming back to life after repeatedly blowing himself up as he hunts a roadrunner. But that’s the America — that’s the office of U.S. president — we have before us, here in 2023.

How does Donna Rice on your candidate’s resume compare with being twice impeached in your first try at the presidency? How does shagging someone who doesn’t wear a wedding ring you placed on her finger compare with federal charges of absconding with enough classified documents to stuff your bathroom? How does ruining your marriage compare with being the cheerleader for an insurrection mob during your last month as president?

It’s astounding. Rewind to those innocent, clearly naïve days of 1987, and candidate Trump would have been ruined by an association with the likes of Stormy Daniels … his “Donna Rice.” Here in 2023? That association is merely one of three likely indictments candidate Trump will face as he leads (is that the right word?) the Republican party into the election year of 2024.

Jimmy Carter — as decent a man as has ever occupied the White House, if not a great president — essentially turned over the presidency in a 1979 speech when he dared mention an American “crisis of confidence.” Short on confidence? Swagger? Not us hearty Yanks. Let me ask you: What kind of confidence in America do supporters of Donald Trump show when they ignore one scandal after another, each larger in impact than the one before? This is the best we can do? Two impeachments and three indictments. Not to mention, ahem, three wives. (Psst … Donald Trump had a girlfriend, too.)

I was 18 in 1987, and plenty naïve. Even at that age, I wondered if a man might actually be able to lead even if he failed as a husband. My foundational thought was that a man could not lead if he didn’t care fully for the office of president and the country that office represented. He might make mistakes (as Carter did) and he might be short on qualifications (as Reagan was), but an American president would never make us feel scandalous as a country. That was my innocent thinking at its worst. I know Gary Hart would appreciate.

Frank Murtaugh is the managing editor of Memphis magazine. He writes the columns “From My Seat” and “Tiger Blue” for the Flyer.

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At Large Opinion

FDT!

He could hear it coming up from behind him, maybe a block away, the basso thump of hip-hop. As the car pulled level on his left, he didn’t look, just stood at the light, waiting for the change. Damn, it was loud.

“Fuck Donald Trump, Fuck Donald Trump, Fuck Donald Trump” — loud enough to melt asphalt, loud enough to rattle window glass. Was he hearing that right? Yes, he was. He turned and looked at the driver, a Black guy in a black beret who looked back at him. He stuck up his thumb and nodded. The Black guy laughed and pulled off, nodding, “Fuck Donald Trump” fading in the afternoon glare. A Black guy, a white guy, a bonding moment. America the beautiful.

At home, he googled “hip hop song Fuck Donald Trump” and found it on Wiki: “‘FDT’ (‘Fuck Donald Trump’) is a protest song by YG featuring Nipsey Hussle, and is the second single from the album Still Brazy. The song is a criticism of the policies of the Republican candidate in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.”

A criticism? No kidding.

The white guy was semi-retired, a former editor who still wrote a column for a local rag. The incident at the light at Belvedere and Peabody stayed with him, the sequence of his reactions — his irritation at the throbbing beat, his nervousness when the car pulled up and stopped, the aha moment when he got the lyrics, felt sympatico, turned, and smiled. Maybe the dude was hoping to piss him off? If so, it backfired. Or maybe he was conducting a survey, taking the pulse of Memphis. He got one old white guy to give a thumbs-up to “Fuck Donald Trump,” if so. Or maybe he just hates Donald Trump and doesn’t care what anybody thinks.

Who knows? Didn’t really matter. The editor had been reading a lot of crime fiction by Elmore Leonard, the “Dickens of Detroit,” who wrote about loan sharks, bad cops, hustlers, strippers, blackmailers, bookies, debt collectors, and other assorted American lowlifes in such novels as Get Shorty, Maximum Bob, Road Dogs, Hombre, Out of Sight, and Killshot. The guy knew how people talked, how to tell a story with dialogue without a lot of writerly “hooptedoodle.” That’s what Leonard called it in an interview. “Just try to keep it moving without showing off,” he said.

Other Leonardisms: “Never open a book with weather; never use a word other than ‘said’ to carry dialogue; avoid detailed descriptions of characters; try to leave out the parts that readers skip.” In other words, cut to the action and the dialogue, which Leonard did, and which is why so many of his books got made into movies.

He really only had one plot: A bunch of money exists somewhere and various characters fight to get it, overcoming conscience if they have any, cutting straight to the chase if not. Death steps in, takes out a character now and then, disappears, returns. Life is a hustle. There are no heroes or villains, just some people you might like better than others.

How would Leonard have written about the encounter at at that Midtown corner? Hard to say, but for one thing, his character wouldn’t have been an editor; he’d have been a sleazeball bail bondsman or some such and would have gotten into the car, fired up a joint, and ridden off into a novel called FDT.

And now that he thought about it, there has never been a more perfect Elmore Leonard character than Donald Trump, a man with the soul of motel furniture: the orange makeup, the absurd comb-over, the sleazy grifts, shady lawyers, porn stars, foreign nationals, crappy steaks, real estate cons, the fake university, the phony charity — all pieces of an amoral, lifelong quest for money and power. And imagine what Leonard could have done with Rudy Giuliani, Roger Stone, Ivanka and Jared, Melania Trump, Walt Nauta. Subplots galore! The dialogue? Done and done. FDT writes itself.

“He could hear it coming up from behind him, maybe a block away, the basso thump of hip-hop. As the car pulled level on his left, he didn’t look, just stood at the light, waiting for the change. Damn, it was loud. He turned finally and gazed into the car, the driver motioning for him to get in. ‘What the hell does Rudy want?’ he thought.”

Categories
At Large Opinion

It’s Limbo Time!

Photo: Natalya Erofeeva | Dreamstime.com

The excitement began last Thursday with a post by former President Donald Trump on his Truth Social network: “These Thugs and Radical Left Monsters have just INDICATED the 45th President of the United States …” he wrote. Yes, Trump was very angry that he had been “indicated,” but the misspelling went mostly unnoticed, except by snarky liberals who were unaware that outrage doesn’t need no damn proofreader.

Trump went on in his usual grammar-free, random all-caps style: “THIS IS AN ATTACK ON OUR COUNTRY THE LIKES OF WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!” he wrote. Which was true, since previous attacks on our country have involved bombs, airplanes, armies, other nations, and such. But this was not an attack on our country. It was an indictment of one American citizen, which happens around 90,000 times a week in the U.S. judicial system. Still, Trump had a point of sorts: This was at least an indictment, the likes of which have never been seen before — one issued to a former U.S. president.

Those who’ve lived in this country for the past seven years have experienced a political maelstrom unlike any in our history, one involving a president — now-former president — who utters one lie after another, ignores all political and ethical protocols, and has no apparent respect for the rule of law. Trump used all of these tools during the final months of his presidency, culminating on January 6, 2021, when his planned attempt to overturn the national presidential election mercifully came up short.

Now that he’s facing real-life repercussions, the evidence is pretty clear to anyone not in the Trump cult that the former president will not hesitate for a nanosecond to do whatever it takes in order to keep himself out of jail. It’s who he is. It’s who he always has been.

The forthcoming New York case is likely just the preview before the main feature hits the screen. The charges (unreleased as I write this) in this first indictment are not expected to rise to a level that would put Trump behind bars, unless there is an egregious felony charge that no one saw coming. His punishment, if he is found guilty, will probably involve a fine, probation, and/or suspension of his business license. (There could also be a mug shot that will break the internet for a couple of days.)

But this is worth remembering: A defendant in a criminal case has to appear in court every day during his trial. With a possible 34 counts to argue, this trial could go on for weeks, meaning Trump would have to stay in New York City and sit in a courtroom for several hours every weekday. No social media, no Mar-a-Lago schmoozing, no television, no golf, no distractions. Just hour after hour of sitting still, watching other people talk about him, unable to interrupt. That scenario will be pure hell on earth for a twitchy narcissist like Trump.

But, unfortunately for millions of schadenfreude lovers, that’s not going to happen for weeks, if not months. Trump’s lawyers have those 34 charges to appeal, and they will — all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary. Trump attorney Joe Tacopina has said that his client does not intend to take a plea deal, and that his team planned “substantial legal challenges,” including motions to dismiss or appeals on all or most charges.

The same scenario will play out in any subsequent indictments of Trump, whether they be in Atlanta, New York, or Washington, D.C. Trump’s legal tactics have remained the same for 40 years: delay, appeal, obfuscate — anything to throw gravel in the gears of the legal system. The day when Trump will have to sit down and face a jury of his theoretical peers isn’t coming any time soon. In fact, we can expect that Trump’s various legal entanglements will be ongoing during the 2024 primary season and ensuing presidential campaign.

This isn’t comforting news for any American longing for a return to normalcy. The lunacy, crudeness, and threats of violence from Trump and his die-hard supporters will be with us for the foreseeable future. The 65 percent of Americans who just want this all to go away will have to remain strong and steadfast. Maybe it will help to remember the former president’s own words: “THIS IS AN ATTACK ON OUR COUNTRY THE LIKES OF WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!”

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News News Blog News Feature

Pot-Smoking Millington January 6th Insurrectionist Gets Five Years in Prison

Credit: U.S. Department of Justice

A Millington man forced his way into the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021, assaulted police, stole a book, tried to steal an oil painting, smoked a joint in the Rotunda, sobbed during his trial, begged a judge for mercy, and got five years in prison last week. 

Ronald Sandlin, 35, of Millington was sentenced in Washington D.C. to 63 months in prison and three years of supervised release last week on a number of charges, all related to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th. Those charges include conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers.

Sandlin, a business owner, had two co-conspirators, Nathaniel DeGrave and Josiah Colt. Together, they planned to interfere with the peaceful transition of presidential power, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), beginning in December 2020. 

Sandlin sought GoFundMe donations to organize a caravan to Washington.

On December 31st, 2020, Sandlin posted to Facebook that he was organizing a caravan to travel to Washington and sought donations with a GoFundMe page. The same day, the three conspirators began a private chat on Facebook to plan for a January 6th assault on the Capitol. In the chat, they discussed “shipping guns” to Sandlin’s residence in Tennessee, where they planned to meet prior to their trip. 

On January 4th, 2021, before heading to Washington, Sandlin posted to Facebook a picture of Colt lying on a bed holding a firearm, with the caption, “My fellow patriot sleeping ready for the boogaloo Jan 6.” The DOJ Sandlin understood at the time that the term “boogaloo” referred to civil war. 

“My fellow patriot sleeping ready for the boogaloo Jan 6.”

Ronald Sandlin

On January 6th, after watching live television coverage of the “Stop the Steal” rally near the Ellipse, at a nearby restaurant, Sandlin live-streamed a video in which he called on “other patriots” to “take the Capitol.” In the video, Sandlin stated four times that “freedom is paid for with blood.” 

Sandlin, DeGrave, and Colt then traveled together to the Capitol wearing protective gear, including gas/face masks, helmets, and shin guards. Sandlin was armed with a knife, while DeGrave carried bear spray. 

On the Capitol grounds, the men scaled dismantled bike barricades and got past law enforcement officers, pushing through the crowd to get closer to the Capitol building. Sandlin repeatedly yelled things such as “we’re not here to spectate anymore,” “the time to talk is over,” and “if you’re not breaching the building, move out of the way.”

“If you’re not breaching the building, move out of the way.”

Ronald Sandlin

The three men entered the Capitol through the Upper West Terrace door, at about 2:35 p.m. Inside, Sandlin and DeGrave pushed against officers guarding an exterior door to the Capitol Rotunda, slowly forcing the door open and letting a mob stream inside. Sandlin shouted at the officers, “you’re going to die, get out of the way,” before grabbing an officer’s helmet.

The three men then went together up a set of stairs and to a hallway outside the Senate chamber. Sandlin incited others in the mob to prevent U.S. Capitol Police officers from locking the doors to the Senate Gallery, shouting “grab the door.” He began shoving officers in an attempt to keep the doors open. As he did this, his hand made contact with the side of an officer’s head. The trio and dozens of other rioters then gained access to the Senate Gallery, where Sandlin recorded a selfie-style video with his phone, exclaiming: “We took it. We did it.”

Sandlin smoked a cannabis joint in the Rotunda of the Capitol.

U.S. Department of Justice

After leaving the Senate Gallery, Sandlin smoked a cannabis joint in the Rotunda of the Capitol. He also stole a book from a desk in a Senate-side office, which he later described to Colt as a “souvenir.” He also picked up an oil painting from the Capitol and slung it over his shoulder before others in the mob took it off his shoulder. He exited the Capitol at about 3:16 p.m.

Shortly after the riot, Sandlin deleted photographs and messages regarding the events of January 6th from his group chats with Colt, DeGrave, and others.

Sandlin wrote he was “ashamed” and “embarrassed,” calling the January 6th insurrection “a national tragedy.”

8 News Now, Las Vegas

Sandlin and his co-conspirators were arrested in Las Vegas a few weeks after January 6th. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Sandlin sobbed during his hearing and begged, “Your honor, have mercy on me. Please.”

“I want to start off by apologizing to the officers I assaulted January 6,” Sandlin said in a statement provided to the judge, according to Las Vegas’ 8 News Now. “I have to live with my abhorrent actions for the rest of my life and I pray that my sentencing gives you and your families peace and resolution.”

Sandlin wrote he was “ashamed” and “embarrassed,” calling the January 6th insurrection “a national tragedy.”

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At Large Opinion

Same Old Game

Over the past couple weeks, we’ve seen a fresh incarnation of a game we’ve all become familiar with during the last seven years. It’s called “Will You Denounce This?” The game begins when Donald Trump says or does something that used to be thought of as outrageous. The media then jump into action by asking any Republican they can get in front of a microphone to denounce Trump. As in:

Reporter: “Senator Leghorn, Donald Trump said this week that the United States should bomb Puerto Rico to keep Democrats from making it the 51st state. Puerto Rico is an American territory and Puerto Ricans are American citizens. Will you denounce Trump’s statement that the United States should bomb American citizens?”

Leghorn: “Well, President Trump says a lot of things, and I don’t think anything is gained from addressing these ‘gotcha’ questions from the media.”

Reporter: “But Mr. Trump is saying we should bomb one of our own territories, which could kill thousands of American citizens. Surely you don’t condone such a thing.”

Leghorn: “Look, I work for the American people, and the American people are concerned about high taxes, inflation, drag queens, and Hunter Biden’s laptop. The kind of questions you’re asking are irrelevant, premature, and based on speculation.”

Reporter [incredulous voice]: “So you won’t denounce the bombing and killing of American citizens by American armed forces?”

Leghorn: “Well, of course I don’t personally approve of bombing Puerto Rico, but the president is privy to information we don’t have, and he has a right to express his opinion.”

Reporter: “So, if Mr. Trump gets the GOP nomination in 2024, will you support him?”

Leghorn: “It’s a long way to 2024 so I don’t want to play that game, but, as a Republican, I will of course support our nominee. Also, Hunter Biden’s laptop.”

So yeah, that wasn’t exactly what happened recently, but Trump did roll out three doozies. First, he vowed that when he became president again, he would pardon anyone involved in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Then, he had dinner with musician Kanye West, who just last week on Alex Jones’ InfoWars, expressed his admiration for Adolf Hitler and his disdain for Jews. Having this guy to dinner was not a great look for Trump. But “Ye” upped the ante and brought Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist, anti-Semite, and avowed Nazi boot-licker who makes Ye look progressive.

When word got out about the dinner, the media began a fresh round of “Will You Denounce This?” And they actually found a few Republicans willing to say that Trump was wrong to host these assholes for dinner, including Mike Pence, Chris Christie, and Mitt Romney. Progress, right?

Not exactly. Before the ruckus ensuing from his dinner could die down, Trump posted the following on his Truth Social network: “With the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? … A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”

No one knows for sure what provoked this latest Trump outburst. Perhaps the weirdness of those Hunter Biden penis pictures coming out via a Twitter story? Surely we don’t need to terminate the Constitution for that, do we? I mean, unless that thing was really huge.

It’s tempting to dismiss all this as the ranting of a delusional fool, but bear in mind that this is a man who could still become the GOP nominee — and that most Republicans are still afraid to stand up to a guy who pledges to release convicted January 6th rioters, has dinner with two Hitler-lovers, calls for the overturning of the 2020 election, and says we should terminate the U.S. Constitution.

There’s an adage that you should never play chess with a pigeon because they knock over all the pieces, shit on the board, and then strut around like they won. If the Republicans don’t pick a new king soon, they’re going to need another board. This game is getting old.

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News News Blog News Feature

January 6er Gets Plea Deal: Prison Time, $700 for a Door He Busted, and More

(Credit: Department of Justice)

A 21-year-old January 6th insurrectionist took a federal plea deal, got eight charges reduced to one, agreed to pay $700 for a Republican conference room door he helped to break and other fees, and faces years in federal prison.  

Nicholas James Brockhoff, 21, of Covington, Kentucky, was arrested in Counce, Tennessee (near Pickwick Lake in West Tennessee), in May 2021. In January 2021, he joined thousands of other rioters to breach the U.S. Capitol in hopes of stopping Congress from certifying results in the 2020 presidential election. 

Brockhoff pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to one charge of assaulting law enforcement officers with a dangerous weapon, a fire extinguisher. Before he signed a plea deal last week, he faced eight charges, including another charge of using a deadly weapon (the fire extinguisher), obstructing law enforcement, entering restricted grounds, disrupting government business, engaging in violence on the Capitol grounds, demonstrating, and more. 

(Credit: Department of Justice)

A Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation found that Brockhoff travelled over 500 miles and eight hours by car from Kentucky to Washington, D.C., to join the “mob that had gathered on the west side of the U.S. Capitol.” At around 2:32 p.m., he threw an object at law enforcement officials. 

Later, he “assaulted” law enforcement officials “when he discharged the contents of fire extinguishers, which are deadly or dangerous weapons when used as Brockhoff did.” He sprayed police at least two times from two locations, according to the DOJ. In doing so, “he caused law enforcement to disperse, which interfered with their ability to conduct crowd control and prevented them from seeing, avoiding, or deflecting projectiles and weapons intended to injure them.”

(Credit: Department of Justice)

On his way inside the building, Brockhoff found a D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) helmet on the ground. He put it on his head, reads the report, “and wore it as a trophy.” Through a broken window, Brockhoff entered the Senate Conference room. 

(Credit: Department of Justice)

Once inside, Brockhoff and others left the room and went into hallway. They found a door labeled “ST6M,” a Republican conference room. He and others kicked the door, and at one point Brockhoff instructed another to kick the door “farther to the right.” They kicked a hole in the door, and Brockhoff reached his hand inside and opened the door from the inside. Once inside, he tore open a box, and “riffled through the papers in the office.” 

Outside the building, Brockhoff, still wearing the police helmet, is confronted by MPD officers who ask him, “You’re going to come out with an MPD helmet?” To which, Brockhoff replies, “I found it on the ground.” 

Later, officers asked Brockhoff his name, and he gives his first and last name. They ask if he’s injured, to which he replies, a “little bit.” They ask if he injured himself climbing through a window, to which Brockhoff replies, “glass, glass, glass, yeah.” The injuries on his hands can be seen in police footage from body-worn cameras. 

(Credit: Department of Justice)

Much of the government’s identifying evidence on Brockhoff came from Capitol surveillance footage and police cameras. In nearly all of them, he is identified by his blue jacket with a green hood and his black backpack with a yellow tag. 

(Credit: Department of Justice)

As part of his plea deal, Brockhoff will face only one count of use of a deadly weapon. For this, the DOJ will ask the court for a reduced sentence. He could face nearly four to five years in prison. However, he faces a statuary maximum of 20 years. But the court will decide how much prison time he will get.

His plea deal also includes paying $700 for the damage he helped to inflict on the Republican conference room door. He’ll also pay $2,000 in restitution to the Architect of the Capitol to aid in the more than $2.7 million worth of damage caused to the building that day. He will also pay an unknown sum in restitution to the victims of violence on January 6th. 

Brockhoff is slated to be sentenced in March. 

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee, the FBI’s Memphis Field Office, and Hardin County Sheriff’s Department helped investigate the case.         

Categories
At Large Opinion

Rough Water Ahead

Hutchinsphoto | Dreamstime.com

On Sunday, former President Donald Trump attacked American Jews on his Truth Social platform. His message: Jews in the United States need to “get their act together” and show more appreciation for the state of Israel and Donald Trump “before it is too late.”

That concluding sentence caused a lot of blowback from Jewish groups, who saw Trump’s post as a veiled threat and a thinly disguised message to his MAGA and white supremacist base that Jews were a problem. It was remarks like these that got Trump banned from Twitter and led to his forming Truth Social, where his audience is relatively minuscule but where he can post whatever lies and racist tropes that arise in his addled brain without constraint.

Speaking of addled brains: Earlier in the week, wealthy rapper and confirmed lunatic, Kanye West, offered his own anti-Semitic post on Twitter, stating he was going to “go death con 3 [sic] on JEWISH PEOPLE.” He later posted that George Floyd was not murdered but died of a Fentanyl overdose (a racist trope that was disproved at trial). West was banned from Twitter and restricted on Instagram for his remarks, but he immediately announced that he was going to buy the troubled wanna-be-Twitter social medium, Parler.

Meanwhile, the world’s richest man, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, was nearing a final deal to take over Twitter, the most influential social medium for news and opinion in the world. Musk’s recent remarks on the war in Ukraine make it clear he is a Putin enabler, which could be a problem. Musk has also stated that when he takes over Twitter he will “reduce content moderation” and will allow “all speech that stops short of violating the law,” meaning Trump, Kanye, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and other racists currently banned from Twitter would be reinstated and allowed to spew whatever garbage they want, as long as it’s “legal.” And meaning that Truth Social, Parler, and Twitter would all be owned by egocentric billionaires. Good times.

This is nothing new, of course. American mass media has long been dominated by wealthy men who used their influential mass-media platforms to further their own ambitions and political views. In the early 20th century, William Randolph Hearst owned 30 influential newspapers that featured lurid stories on crime, corruption, politics, and sex. Hearst controlled the editorial positions and political news in his papers and is considered to have almost single-handedly influenced the United States to declare war on Spain and invade Cuba in 1898.

Little has changed. Consider Rupert Murdoch (Fox News, Wall Street Journal), Michael Bloomberg (Forbes, Business Week), Jeff Bezos (Washington Post, Amazon), and Mark Zuckerberg (Meta, Facebook, Instagram). Throw in Musk and Twitter, and that’s a lot of influence and power in the hands of five* self-interested billionaires.

Republicans, the majority of whom are now election deniers and Trump enablers, are naturally quite happy about the possibility of these three social mediums being owned by their kind of people. The official GOP House Judiciary Committee tweeted last week: “Kanye. Elon. Trump.” Not subtle, and even more disturbing when you consider that the anti-Semitic garbage Trump and Kanye posted garnered no criticism from any Republican of note.

We are three weeks out from a midterm election that no one seems to have a handle on. The polls are all over the place, with most indicating the Democrats will hold the Senate and lose the House. Still, no one knows, and accurate polling has never been more difficult. When was the last time you answered a call from an unknown number to take a poll? Democrats can take hope from this summer’s landslide pro-choice vote in deep-red Kansas, which the polls missed by double-digit percentage points. Republicans can take hope from the fact that a hypocritical, prevaricating moron like Herschel Walker is polling competitively in the Georgia Senate race, a staggering indictment of the electorate.

In addition to the election drama, Trump is facing multiple indictments in state and federal courts, with the DOJ hovering, waiting for the election to be over before making any moves in the Mar-a-Lago documents case. What we’ve learned after six years of Trump-induced chaos is that democracy is a fragile thing, and that rough water is likely still ahead. Buckle up.

*Editor’s note: In an earlier version of this story, Warren Buffett was listed as one of the billionaire newspaper owners. Buffett divested his newspaper holdings in 2020.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Uncritical Political Discourse

The GQP values party over country. (Photo: Darren Halstead | Unsplash)

Tuesday primary elections are a routine occasion of frustration for many Americans. August 16, 2022, continued this trend. Central questions included ideas about the amount of power still wielded by Donald Trump, whether the accomplishments of the Biden administration have been promoted enough, and whether election results can be trusted.

Many pundits point to Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman defeating Rep. Liz Cheney as more proof that Trump is in control of the Republican Party. Ten Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to impeach Donald Trump for inciting the January 6th Capitol insurrection; four retired rather than face reelection, four lost to Trump-backed opponents, and two advanced to the general election.

This requires a critical analysis. Let’s look at a few elements.

Results from a 2019 CivicScience survey help to articulate the complicated mess that uncritical analysis creates. The survey revealed troubling information about how bias and prejudice problematize political decision-making.

For example, 56 percent of respondents said that schools in America shouldn’t teach Arabic numerals (which, as every schoolchild should know, are the numerals we all use every day and throughout American education, i.e., 1, 2, 3, 4 … ). While they do not claim that this indicates a stunning level of both ignorance and commitment to purblind prejudice, that should be quite obvious.

We’ve all seen the uproar over critical race theory, which at its core is simply a commitment to teach pupils the truth about American history. The truth is what students need. They can decide for themselves what they believe to be good, great, bad, or evil. But Fox News and Republicans call for a ban on such teaching.

Some of this obdurate, willing ignorance is rooted in a kind of tribalism. This can be an uncritical acceptance of dogmatic positioning and dishonesty in the name of loyalty to group, but has no authentic place in a democracy. If I go along with my tribe (e.g., progressives, conservatives) uncritically, I am both lazy and cowardly.

I’m lazy when I don’t fact-check my “leaders.”

I’m cowardly when I do fact-check them, find their errors, and fail to alter my position accordingly.

A lazy and cowardly democracy is no democracy at all.

Continued loyalty to Donald Trump presents a departure from democratic norms and an embrace of fascism. He introduces falsehoods and repeats lies of others when it seems to serve him.

The acceptance of QAnon conspiracy theory — demonstrably false by any due-diligence, reasonable standard — into the Republican party has created a GQP that values allegiance to party over country. Facts and truth have taken a sideline; hence, we see a deeper movement toward authoritarianism.

Trump’s Tuesday victories undermine the pillars of democracy. He undermines choosing and replacing elected officials in free and fair elections. His supporters discourage active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life. The GQP attacks human rights and equality under the law.

It is an extremely important time for people to think, act, and vote. The people have the power and can reclaim guarantees for free and fair elections and affirmations for equality and human rights. Everyone needs to commit and prepare to safeguard democratic institutions and values before they’re gone.

Wim Laven, Ph.D., syndicated by PeaceVoice, teaches courses in political science and conflict resolution.

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At Large Opinion

Playing Chicken

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

I’m not as old as Donald Trump, but I’m no spring chicken, either. In fact, I’m probably an October chicken, prone to all the maladies of we elder fowl. One of these maladies — very common among my friends, I’m told — is waking up and worrying about stuff in the middle of the night. And I’m not talking about the big issues — politics, climate change, mortality. No. My life is easy. I work a little, I mess around in the yard, I exercise, I see my kids and grandkids when I can. Still, there are nights when I’ll lie there and fret about pointless stuff — when to clean the gutters or do we have enough guacamole for Friday night or should I get up to pee or can I make it till morning? (I can’t.) This phenomenon is so common that I can now say to myself at, say, 1 a.m., “Hey, this is just the midnight worries. It won’t mean anything in the morning. Go to sleep, idiot.” Sometimes, that works. Sometimes, I pop a melatonin.

So, I find myself wondering how former President Donald J. Trump is sleeping these days. A week ago Monday, he was deposed in New York by the U.S. attorney who is investigating potential tax crimes by the Trump Organization. His former CFO, Allen Weisselberg, has already testified extensively as to the company’s financial practices (aka, shenanigans), basically flipping on his old boss. In his own testimony, Trump pleaded the Fifth Amendment 440 times. That seems like not a good sign, and the kind of thing that might keep you up at night. But Trump’s week was just getting started.

Down in Florida, at Trump’s hotel/home, Mar-a-Lago, federal agents were going through boxes of material the former president had had delivered to his home from the White House upon his departure from office in January 2021. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) had determined that among the materials that Trump took were classified documents. After some negotiations with NARA, Trump allowed some of the material to be returned, and his lawyers signed a release stating that there were no more classified documents in his possession. After examining the documents they’d received, NARA determined that was likely untrue and turned over the dispute to the Department of Justice in June. After an investigation, the DOJ became convinced that more classified information was being stored at Mar-a-Lago and conducted a raid, which uncovered lots more classified and top secret information. Oops.

Trump initially claimed the FBI was planting evidence, which indicates that he knew some of the material in his home was likely to get him in trouble. Then he bleated on Truth Social that in January 2021 he’d issued a blanket statement that “declassified” all the material taken from the White House. One assumes this would include what the FBI “planted,” though I’m not sure how that would work.

But, of course, this is not how government records and archival material are declassified. Paperwork must be filed. And further, a president does not have the right to declassify nuclear material or material relating to spies or undercover operatives. The Washington Post reported that nuclear-related documents were found in Florida. Newsweek.com reported that the material seized by the FBI also contained the CIA’s “NOC list,” which identifies the agency’s covert operatives around the world. No other media organization has reported this, but if Newsweek’s reporting is correct, we’ve moved into Julius and Ethel Rosenberg territory.

And we haven’t even gotten to the revelations that could emerge about Trump in the DOJ’s January 6th investigation, or the ongoing grand jury investigation into Trump’s possible election tampering in Georgia. Tennessee’s GOP toadies like Marsha Blackburn, Bill Hagerty, and David Kustoff rushed to categorize all of this Trump bad news as a Joe Biden-led assault on a potential presidential rival. But they are fools, panderers, and liars. The truth is, with any luck, we may finally be seeing the end of Donald Trump’s lifelong extra-legal dalliances, the dozens of crimes he’s skated around using high-priced lawyers and well-connected friends. These latest charges are much more serious than paying off a porn star or setting up a fake university or selling cheap steaks — or even laundering Russian mob money in real estate deals. Donald Trump is dancing on the edge of a very high cliff without a net. Sweet dreams, old man.