Netflix has a great documentary called THE SEVENTIES (8 part series). One episode is entirely devoted to THE UNITED STATES v NIXON. It’s a study in treachery and paranoia on Nixon’s part but as Dean notes, it’s still not even close to what Drumpf is doing. Nixon was far smarter than Drumpf, and in spite of Nixon’s dark side, he did a lot of good for the country. In fact, Noam Chomsky calls Nixon “the last liberal president”.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/noam-chomsky-nixon-was-our-last-liberal-president_us_5b2a637ee4b0e7cbe4ce3937
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It’s also worth remembering that Nixon ordered the IRS to audit people on that enemies list, to try and dig up anything that could be prosecuted. Not exactly the same, but pretty close.
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If what trump wanted the DoJ to do, with regard to Clinton and Comey, isn’t an impeachable offense… then nothing is. Too bad the WH lawyer got in the way. trump thinks the government is his plaything. That the Executive Branch works for him and not the country.
He failed civics 101
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There was a question that has been bothering me since last year. What power does president have to order investigations of new candidates? Whitaker scares me not because of Mueler investigation which will likely be protected. Rather, over the next 200 days of his temporary appointment, he could start finding and leaking dirt on all 2020 Dem contenders that will have to announce shortly to allow time to run a campaign.
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Although that characterization drives me a little crazy: Yes, he implemented a bunch of liberal policies (mostly pushed by the Democratic Congressional majority), but he was operating in what was still a liberal political environment, and he really didn’t care about domestic policy anyway, so he saw those moves purely as a way to build political capital. Happy he did what he did, but he wasn’t exactly moved by a burning desire to do good.
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“No comparison! No comparison! You’re the comparison!”
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That was the day the shitheel came down the escalator.
Yeah, there’s crazy and then there’s complete wackadoodle with no room for anything else. Nixon was garden variety, plain vanilla pathologically paranoid.
Trump is a walking psychiatrist’s manual.
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Yup, Hunter Thompson explained that dichotomy. Nixon would let him ride in the limo with him so they could talk pro football, which was Nixon’s greatest passion. His second greatest was foreign policy, and he would sign liberal legislation to earn chits so he would have a free hand in it. He didn’t care about anything else, except power for its own sake, of course.
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Actually, it’s a fairly accurate statement of what Trump wanted to do. He wanted (and still wants) to use the DOJ as his personal instrument. And he appears to be entirely incapable of understanding that this is Not The Way It Works.
That’s why he’s so furious with Sessions, and Mueller, and Comey, and the 9th Circuit, and anyone else in the justice system who still behaves as if they worked for the people and not for a jumped-up wannabe dictator. Which, thank goodness, is still the vast majority of the people who work in the system.
Gonna have to disagree, Mr. Dean. Fat Nixon is bull-in-a-china-shop stupid and destructive, but Original Nixon was evil genius. I mean, prolonging the Vietnam War to get himself elected, come on. Fat Nixon didn’t actually kill anyone, as far as we know, while dutifully following the orders of his puppet master, Putin. Similar level of transparent stupidity and incompetence with Fat Nixon’s moves on his own enemy list compared to Original Nixon.
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Nixon had a law degree. Trump’s does not believe that such a thing as law actually exists–except as something to break, get around or transgress in every possible way.
Then, too, there were attempts to smear enemies with anything they could find. Lewis Fielding could tell us a thing or two about that. His file cabinet is in the Smithsonian, even though they didn’t find what they wanted in it.
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Would be nice if tump could hear this directly from Dick. Oh wait …
With Nixon it was just him being him, and directing his cronies… It was limited to a fairly small circle of people.
In the case of Trump it’s an entire deeply corrupt family, wrapped around a few decades of domestic and international “business” (which apparently includes money laundering, fraud, serious tax evasion & fraud, and being tight with both US and Russian mafias).
Although a bit on the harsh side, this Twitter thread sums it all up pretty well.
I wonder if “The Gallows” is about to make a comeback?
Indeed, something we should be vigilant against when Rick Scott runs for Pres in a few years.
And…Original Nixon wasn’t a puppet for a foreign adversary, even he had more sense and love of country than that.
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To be fair, his idol VLAD gets away with it - why shouldn’t he?
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I so miss Daniel Schorr.
Wow, I’m going to stand corrected…sort of. Nixon may not have been a puppet, but he did commit some treasonous activity with a foreign adversary prior to an election in '68.
I have just learned of Ann Chennault, thank you Rachel Maddow, and that’s some shit there. So Reaganesque, with his asking the Iranians to keep the hostages until after election. So W Bush allowing the Arabs flee on Sept 12.
Damn, made me wonder what the ever living fuck is it with Republicans. Not that I haven’t wondered that on many occasions, but nothing puts it in perspective like the arc of history.
I’ll be bummed if many of trump’s secrets won’t be revealed for 50 years as I won’t be here then.
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