Russian people must see the horrific evil Putin war crimes

Russians should confront the horrors in Ukraine. 

#EvilPutin can’t mislead his people forever.

Opinion letter published in The Chicago Tribune:

Soldiers of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. photo by Yuri Biryukov

After the end of World War II, some German civilians were forced to confront the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis in their names, sometimes by visiting the death camps and, sometimes, by burying corpses and digging up mass graves*.

Similarly, the Russian people must be made to confront what is being done in Ukraine in their name. Unfortunately, it is not practical to transport Russian citizens to Ukraine to see the extent of the atrocities and the lies about them that they are being fed, but it seems unlikely that even a totalitarian like Putin can keep what most of the world knows from his people.

I would think that his biggest problem will come from the survivors of the Ukraine assault in the Russian military and from the families of those who did not survive. The former is likely to include tens of thousands of young men who have suffered moral injuries from what they have seen and done in Ukraine. The latter are, also numerous and they will want answers that will not be forthcoming. Neither group is likely to be silent in the absence of coercion and anger may make them reckless about what they say. Putin may imprison them, but he can’t take back what people have heard from them.

In an environment of shrinking resources and a context of defeat or a (daunting and) costly stalemate in Ukraine, I wonder if keeping these people from credibly contradicting his lies will stretch Putin’s capability for oppression to the breaking point. One can hope ... (IMO we must hope and pray....)

— Curt Fredrikson, Mokena  Illinois

The Wehrmacht were the unified forces of Nazi Germany

* Eisenhower’s Foresight: Protecting the Truth of the Holocaust

General Eisenhower foresaw a day when the horrors of the Holocaust might be denied. He invited the media to document the scene. He compelled Germans living in the surrounding towns and any soldier not fighting at the front to witness the atrocities for themselves.

Beware of history relived - January 6 and the Beer Hall Putsch

Opinion echo Column: We can’t let ongoing election lies become political white noise. A Jan. 6 defendant’s words show why.

By Rex Huppke published in The Chicago Tribune

Daniel “D.J.” Rodriguez, one of the hundreds charged in the Jan. 6 domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol, broke down in tears while speaking to FBI agents: “I’m so stupid. I thought I was going to be awesome. I thought I was a good guy.”

Pro-Trump protesters gather in front of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. Trump supporters gathered in the nation's capital to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election. A pro-Trump mob later stormed the Capitol, breaking windows and clashing with police officers. Five people died as a result. (Brent Stirton/Getty Images)

But, of course, Rodriguez was neither awesome nor a good guy. 

Rather, he was just a dupe. Yet, as simple as the con may be, we ignore it at our own peril. (Maine Writer- history redux:  Beer Hall Putsch!*)

Like many who have embraced former guy Donald Trump’s ongoing lie that the 2020, presidential election was stolen, Rodriguez embodied the old saying, “There’s a sucker born every minute, and two to take him.”

Now the California man stands charged with, among other things, tasing U.S. Capitol police Officer Michael Fanone, who was beaten and suffered a heart attack during the insurrection. Rodriguez is facing the possibility of decades in prison and nobody should feel sorry for him.

But it’s worth reading the nearly 200-page transcript of Rodriguez’s March 31, interview with FBI agents to see the shameless mental havoc wreaked by people like Trump and every Republican politician and pundit pimping, or even playing footsie with, a profoundly false election narrative.

Most recognize that, (truth!)but those who continue spreading it are unconcerned with collateral damage to people or democracy, and those rolling their eyes, and letting it become political white noise are missing the urgency and tragedy of the matter.

The transcript of Rodriguez’s interview with federal agents was filed Friday by his attorneys as part of a motion to suppress the interview, alleging the man was not properly Mirandized. 

Rodriguez was arrested earlier this year after he was identified by online sleuths at Huffington Post, an example of the so-called sedition hunters who have scoured photos and videos from the Jan. 6 attack and traced the identities of many insurrectionists.

In the interview, Rodriguez explains why he left his home in California and traveled to Washington for the “Stop the Steal Rally.”

“Trump called us,” he said. “Trump called us to D.C.”

He later said: “My story is just that we thought that we were going to save America, and we were wrong.”

It’s a con transparent as a freshly cleaned window. And it’s dangerous.

Rodriguez revealed he had been told by conspiracy sites such as Inforwars — which he had followed for years — that a civil war was about to happen. Trump and other prominent Facebook conspiracists had fully convinced him the election was stolen.

He told the agents “we felt that they stole the election. We thought they — we felt that they stole this country, that it’s gone, it’s wiped out. America’s over. It’s destroyed now.”

“I thought that Trump was going to stay president and they were going to find all this crooked stuff and … we thought that we did something good,” Rodriguez said. “It was rumored that Nancy Pelosi got her laptop stolen and that they found all this evidence on it and it was a secret plan. … And then we could just bust everything and find the truth and it’ll be all exposed and we’ll see that she’s corrupt or some kind of evidence. And we thought we were being a — we were part of a bigger thing. We thought we were being used as a part of a plan to save the country, to save America, save the Constitution, and the election, the integrity.”

There are moments in the interview when you almost feel Rodriguez’s mind wrestling with the poison that consumed it: “We just thought that — damn, dude. I don’t know. I understand what it ― it’s very stupid and ignorant, and I see that it’s a big joke, that we thought that we were going to save this country, we were doing the right thing and stuff. I get it.”

You see similar statements in the transcripts of other law enforcement interviews with Jan. 6 attackers and you hear similar words in court hearings. Again, I have no sympathy for these people. They tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power and directly attacked the heart of our democracy. Throw the book at them.

But beyond the crimes of these individuals, it’s important to pay close attention to these cases and see the insidious mental games an entire political party is playing with a huge swath of American voters.

Rodriguez, like most who attacked the U.S. Capitol, was convinced — by Trump, by the things he heard in right-wing media, by the like-minded people he associated with online — that an election was stolen and America was on the brink of a new civil war. He was willing to risk his life to that end and in doing so felt he was part of something bigger than himself.

It’s clear from the interview that it gave him meaning and purpose. You need only scan social media a few moments to see how these lies do the same for so many. And, on Fox (fake!) News, and on Infowars, and in the Facebook feeds of conspiracy profiteers, and in the words and tweets of many gutless elected Republicans, you see those lies still tossed out like chum.

It’s unconscionable what these people are doing to Americans they know will be susceptible to such lies. Their words are turning citizen against citizen, and warping minds for nothing but money and power.

Trump sent out a statement showing his continued delusion and scorched earth approach to making a buck: “If we don’t solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented) Republicans will not be voting in ‘22 or ‘24.”

Days later, his Super PAC sent a note to supporters quoting that statement. It added: “The truth is, we need $45 from EACH Patriot reading this email if we are going to have the necessary resources to solve the election fraud of 2020.”

There’s a sucker born every minute. (Maine Writer- Beer Hall Putsch warning!)

*The putsch brought Hitler to the attention of the German nation for the first time and generated front-page headlines in newspapers around the world. His arrest was followed by a 24-day trial, which was widely publicized and gave him a platform to express his nationalist sentiments to the nation.

Combat antisemitism with determination

 

Opinion letter echo published in The Chicago Tribune:

We at the Illinois Holocaust Museum are appalled by the recent rise in antisemitic incidents across the world. 

Jews and synagogues have been violently attacked in Skokie, New York, Los Angeles and London, among other places. 

Confronting Hate Tool Kit here

According to the Anti-Defamation League, in the week following the start of renewed violence in the Middle East, 193 potential antisemitic acts occurred, a 50% increase from the week before. These hateful acts diminish and endanger us all. Social media platforms have been a corrosive force, allowing prejudices and untruths to spread, with repulsive ideologies finding a receptive audience. 

Between May 7, and May 14, ADL notes that 17,000 tweets communicated in some form that “Hitler was right.” The easy spread of this horrific rhetoric is devastating not only to Holocaust survivors who lost their families to the genocide, but also to all people who recognize the horror of Nazism and the Nazis’ murders of millions. With antisemitic incidents happening with dramatic frequency, it seems important to remind people of the role we can play. Those looking to make a difference can attend a vigil like the one held in Skokie recently, visit our museum and learn more about the dangers of silence and unchecked hatred, or explore our online resources, including our Confronting Hate Toolkit.

We also invite our elected officials and community and religious leaders to use their voices to condemn antisemitism and all forms of hatred and bigotry. As the late John Lewis so wisely said: “Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society.” — Susan Abrams, CEO, Illinois Holocaust Museum, Skokie

https://illinois-holocaust-museum.myshopify.com/collections/race-and-social-justice

Congressman John Lewis a funeral, a history, an inspiration and a warning #goodtrouble

An American Saint!  Representative John Lewis: (1940-2020)

Chicago Tribune Echo Mary Schmich column: John Lewis’ funeral was a few hours of hope, away from the Trumpanista doomsday world.

Before he died, Rep. John Lewis revisited he 

Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site where Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965, when police attacked Civil Rights Movement demonstrators with horses, billy clubs, and tear gas.

ATLANTA_GA- For a few hours in the middle of the day Thursday, July 30, 2020, during the funeral of Congressman John Lewis, it was possible to hope again.

Inside Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, America's Freedom Church, where the civil rights legend the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was once the pastor, three former American presidents stepped forward, near the flag-draped casket, to praise the U.S. congressman from Georgia. One Republican (George Bush) and two Democrats (Bill Clinton and Barack Obama).

“We live in a better and nobler country today,” said the Republican, George W. Bush, “because of John Lewis.”

“John Lewis,” said Bill Clinton, a Democrat, “was a walking rebuke to people who thought, ‘Well, we ain’t there yet, we’ve been working a long time, isn’t it time to bag it?’ He kept moving.”

One after another, the speakers in the sanctuary lauded Lewis: the Black child raised on a farm in the segregated South, the young man who in his youth was beaten and jailed in his nonviolent fight for equal rights, the congressman known for his kindness and his conscience.

Watching the scene inside the church, it was possible to believe that, yes, yes, yes, struggle can bring justice, opponents can reconcile, time can force change and heal wounds.




Outside the church it was a less rosy story.


As I watched the funeral online, I toggled back and forth between Ebenezer and the day’s news.


Coronavirus numbers were rising. So were jobless claims.


Out in the Twitter swamp, Donald Trump, the current president, who is trailing in the polls, was floating the wackadoodle idea of postponing the November presidential election, an unconstitutional notion, popular among dictators, that even prominent Republicans rejected.


And not far from Ebenezer, Herman Cain, former presidential candidate and another Black man who rose to success from poverty in the segregated South, had just died, after a struggle with COVID-19. His death may or may not be connected to his appearance at a Trump rally where, like most other Trump supporters, he didn’t wear a face mask. Either way, his death was another loss in a catastrophically managed plague.


Eventually, I toggled away from the daily doomsday report and back to the church, where hope was still rising.


“John Lewis,” said former President Barack Obama, recalling Lewis’ youth, “was getting something inside his head, an idea he couldn’t shake, took hold of him, that nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience were the means to change laws, but also change hearts and change minds and change nations and change the world.”

Yes. Yes. Here in the church, it was obvious. Change for the good could still come.

Lewis’s death couldn’t have been timed better. It’s as if in this moment when the country seems in more dire chaos than we’ve seen in a long time, his death arrives to show us his life in sharp focus and to sharpen our understanding that this isn’t the first time Americans have struggled for equality.

The history lesson on his life came most vividly alive in the speech — or better to call it a sermon — of James Lawson.

Half a century ago, Lawson, who’s 91, trained Lewis and so many more in the art of nonviolent protest, or, as he instructed the mourners, “satyagraha,” a Sanskrit term borrowed from Mahatma Gandhi.

“We do not need bipartisan politics if we’re going to celebrate the life of John Lewis,” he told the mourners in a rousing voice. “We need the Constitution to come alive. We hold these truths to be self-evident. We need the president and the Congress to work unfalteringly for every boy and every girl so that every baby born on these shores will have access to the tree of life. That’s the only way to honor John Robert Lewis. That’s the only way.”

A funeral is a spectacle. It’s theater and words, and it’s fleeting. 

By now, the mourners at John Lewis’ funeral — whether they were inside the church or watching on a screen — have returned to the world of doomsday news and Twitter, where hope is harder to muster.

But Lewis’ homegoing was more than a spectacle. It was a call to action, a battle cry for the next generation.

Obama warned that the causes Lewis fought for — voting rights, equal opportunity — were in jeopardy. The best way to honor him, Obama said, would be to pass the voting rights act recently named in his honor.

And the homegoing of John Lewis was more than a history lesson. 

It made the point that history propels the future. In the name of John Lewis, keep moving. #goodtrouble! Praise God, may the Honorable John Lewis Rest In Peace. 

Dr. Martin Luther King:  I Have A Dream speech link here.

mschmich@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @MarySchmich

How many lawyers does Donald Trump need to stay out of prison

A beefed up White House legal team now includes 17 new lawyers for a total of 35 who are defending Donald Trump during the Russia investigation. (quotes from The Chicago Tribune)

This is a realistic spin on the the cliche "how many does it take?" jokes. Frankly, this humerus pun, by the hilarious cynic Andy Borowitz, published in The New Yorker, is a reality comment on Donald Trump's vulnerability to prosecution in the Mueller investigation, and the investigation about his clandestine connections to Russia.

How many lawyers does it take to keep Donald Trump and his family out of prison!

Study: Most Innocent People Need to Hire Thirty-Five Lawyers at Some Point

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Most people who are innocent of any crimes will still need to hire thirty-five lawyers at some point, a new study shows.

According to the study, commissioned by the University of Minnesota Law School, thirty-five is the “bare minimum” number of lawyers that an innocent person should have on retainer in the event that he or she becomes the subject of an entirely unjustified criminal investigation.

“We found that many innocent people are going through life without taking the basic precaution of hiring thirty-five lawyers,” Professor Davis Logsdon, who supervised the study, said. “They are flirting with disaster.”

“An innocent person who has absolutely nothing to hide should do everything in his or her power to avoid answering questions from investigators,” he said. “Thirty-five lawyers can really help you do that.”

Additionally, Logsdon noted, hiring nearly three dozen lawyers is invaluable because of the powerful statement it makes. “Nothing says ‘I’m innocent’ like hiring thirty-five lawyers,” he said.

Although some innocent people may balk at the unwieldy number of lawyers that the study recommends, Logsdon emphasized that thirty-five lawyers provide necessary protection against unforeseen legal complications. “If, for example, one of your lawyers goes to prison, you will still have thirty-four,” he said.

Logsdon acknowledged that, although every innocent person should definitely hire thirty-five lawyers, such legal help does not come cheap. “Legal bills for thirty-five lawyers can be very expensive, unless you’re a person who doesn’t pay his bills,” he said.