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The End Of A Sarah Palin Presidency

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Sarah Palin ended any chance she had at the presidency of the United States of America yesterday when she posted her “blood libel” video and announced to the world her better angels are obsessed with blame, self-defense, and finger-pointing instead of leadership, religious epithets instead of openness and understanding, and one-upsmanship instead of honoring timing and tradition.

Make no mistake. Palin’s absence from the media frenzy, a frenzy that started seconds after the first shot was fired in Tucson, Arizona by Jared Lee Loughner, is not to be considered hiding. It was a full-scale strategy session during which she, aside from whatever praying she claims she did, was scheming and strategizing how best to handle the avalanche of attacks from the Left she was receiving (deservedly so.)

So Queen Sarah decided she would fight back.

Palin’s highly-produced seven-minute forty-three second video, complete with American flag and fireplace, and, much to the Right’s chagrin, teleprompter reflections in her glasses, was produced in her in-home television studio. She tried oh-so-hard to appear and act presidential. But as Republican writer and former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, David Frum said yesterday, “She’s mad– that showed. She’s madder than she is sad.” Frum added, “When you apply for a job, you should dress for the job you want. She dressed for the job she has.”

Frum was speaking both metaphorically and literally. Palin saw this as her moment and tried to look presidential, but she just didn’t have it in her.

Worse, she didn’t have the words or the focus or the context or the understanding of what was required at that very moment. Palin could not grasp the essential concept that what was required at that very moment, what Americans so desperately needed was leadership and commonality, a bringing-together, not a polarizing blame-game, which she all-to-eagerly provided.

You know who did a better job than Palin? Reluctant hero Daniel Hernandez, the twenty-year old Giffords intern who on day five of his first week on the (volunteer) job ran toward the bullets that killed six people and wounded fourteen others, and helped save Gabby Giffords life. Last night, Hernandez stood in front of a crowd of twenty-six thousand, plus cameras from all the news channels, and millions of Americans, and spoke — with neither notes nor teleprompter — and said, “e plurbus unum: out of many, one.”

A concept a twenty-year old college intern grasped, that a forty-six year-old former Republican Vice Presidential candidate, former Governor, former chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, former Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, former “Miss Congeniality,” former sportscaster, and former head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Sarah Palin, could not, and has offered no evidence she ever will.

Add to that her roundly condemned use of the term “blood libel,” which I will not debate here. Political figures and pundits like Palin are not to be given a pass. We are not to say, “Maybe she didn’t know what she was really saying.” She knew, and if she didn’t she should have known, and if she didn’t know (even if she did) she should have pulled the video and immediately apologized, not ignored the criticism that came within the first few hours the video was posted. Palin has yet to offer any commentary, or any apology or explanation.

Imagine a President Palin making a gaffe, an international insult, and letting it go un-acknowledged. No apology, no effort to make amends, just insult and injury and subsequent international incident. Would she lead us into a war for lack of cultural understanding or worse, for cultural understanding?

So let’s be clear here.

Yesterday, Wednesday, January 12, 2011, Sarah Palin effectively ended her presidential career and professional political career in public service.

America yesterday saw the real Sarah Palin, and it was not a welcome sight. America saw a person unable to lead, unable to unite, unable to rise above and give voice to our better angels, unable to understand the first amendment, unable to understand cultural and religious differences, unable to apologize, unable to show compassion or (yes,) empathy. And America, maybe most distasteful to all, regardless of party, saw a person too emotionally-invested in playing a victim, rather than rising above victimhood.

America does not want a divisive president. America does not want a president who uses hate speech. America does not want a homophobic president. America does not want a victim for a president.

What would a President Palin have said last night in Tucson, Arizona? Would she have united the country, as President Obama did? Would she have quelled our fears, helped us shed our anger and divisiveness as President Obama did? Would she have shown empathy and compassion and respected the multi-cultural aspects of the memorial service, as President Obama did?

America has needed Sarah Palin to apologize for her crosshairs map. She has not. America has needed Sarah Palin to apologize for making the story always about Sarah Palin. She has not. And after she released her career-ending Jew-disparaging Christianist-enveloped American-Exceptionalism-laden first-amendment-slaying video, America needed Sarah Palin to apologize for that too. She has not.

Palin tried to “one-up” President Obama yesterday. She tried, and lost. And she lost it all.

Sam Stein writes today in the Huffington Post, “Thursday’s papers have been filled with largely unfavorable contrasts for the former Alaska governor. And at least one Democratic member of Congress has decided to declare that the Palin trajectory is now firmly in downturn mode, her brand tarnished.

“I think that the president’s message is going to prevail,” Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) told the Bill Press Show on Thursday. “In fact I think Sarah Palin may be looking at the end of her political ride. I think she may be at the end of her ride right now. If Sarah Palin would have said ‘you know what, I probably have been responsible for overblown rhetoric and I’m going to watch myself,’ that would be different. But she is completely unrepentant. And the enormity of this tragedy, I think, put a very, very clear damper on her prospects. And her reaction even dampers her political ride more.”

Unrepentant, as she thinks she has nothing for which to repent. And that’s a problem.

Political analyst Andy Ostroy today writes of Palin, “It it is precisely this sanctimonious, defiant and soulless video sermon that history will one day point to as the end of her legitimate political career.”

He adds, “this week she quite foolishly and voluntarily gave us something we can 100% blame her for. Her behavior, tone and overall message in the video was beyond comprehension. Not only does it demonstrate a pathological narcissism, but a supreme ignorance of history (the unfortunate “Blood Libel” reference); a shocking lack of empathy, sensitivity and compassion; a reprehensible use of the words”blood,” “pistols” and “shooting” to accent her points; and outrageously offensive timing in terms of releasing it on the same day as the memorial. One has to ask, just what on Earth was she thinking? Did she really expect this 8-minute diatribe to show humility and repair her image? To help heal a shocked and grieving nation?

“Over the past three years, many have suggested that Palin’s odd behavior and statements constitutes a train wreck. But in a train wreck there first needs to be the actual crash. To date, despite moments of near-derailment, Palin’s stayed on track. But with this video she has finally crashed, and crashed for good. She cannot and will not recover from this politically.”

Salon’s Steve Kornacki simply writes, “OK, so it’s not going to be Sarah Palin in ’12 …

Politico’s Jonathan Martin offers this: “At sunrise in the East on Wednesday, Sarah Palin demonstrated that she has little interest — or capacity — in moving beyond her brand of grievance-based politics. And at sundown in the West, Barack Obama reminded even his critics of his ability to rally disparate Americans around a message of reconciliation.”

“The strongest way to rise above would have been to talk about suffering, tragedy, hope, strength and recovery,” said former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer. “Instead, she followed the more conventional political route and made it about herself rather than the victims.”

“What few Republicans wanted to say for attribution — but what was manifestly clear — was that Palin had made Obama look even bigger than he was.”

Mark Green, former New York politician and former president of Air America Radio, today writes in the Huffington Post, “as of today, there has been one political ramification of note — Sarah Palin is done as a presidential candidate. After her video disparaging critics as guilty of a “blood libel,” she should be shunned and will be shunned. As John Kenneth Galbraith said of Black Monday in 1929, “the end had come but was not yet in sight.”

“Everyone in public life, given enough time, will misspeak, stumble, say something foolish. But the public and peers will hold it against them only if it betrays a larger unpleasant reality.

“So when President Obama said as a candidate that there were “57 states” or once teased the Special Olympics, he quickly corrected himself and apologized for a brain burp. Whatever one’s politics, it’s hard to deny that he’s a person of enormous intelligence who makes few such mistakes. No pattern. No betrayal. No harm.

“But when Senator Joe McCarthy tried to smear a young associate of opposing council Joseph Welch in the June, 1954 Army-McCarthy Hearings, the folksy Welch said in his now epic retort, “Have you no decency sir? At long last, have you no sense of decency?” It was later regarded as the beginning of the end for someone who was a hateful liar.”

And it’s the hateful liars that usually get their comeuppance. Green adds, “America will elect people from different parties but what Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43 and Obama all had in common was that they either ran on or in fact were unifying figures who didn’t hate others. Palin is the most divisive national political figure of my lifetime. Because she has not shown any of the experience, intellect, character or temperament to be a serious presidential contender — and because Republican leaders are not politically stupid — she has now officially been destroyed as a serious candidate not by the “lamestream” media but by herself. She’s her own worst enemy.”

And, taking the president’s lead, let’s leave it at that.

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Pam Bondi Quietly Disbands DOJ Task Force Targeting Russian Oligarchs

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Three years ago, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland created a task force dedicated to enforcing U.S. sanctions imposed on Russian oligarchs in response to Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine.

“To those bolstering the Russian regime through corruption and sanctions evasion: we will deprive you of safe haven and hold you accountable,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said as the new task force was announced. “Oligarchs be warned: we will use every tool to freeze and seize your criminal proceeds.”

“We will leave no stone unturned,” Attorney General Garland declared, “in our efforts to investigate, arrest, and prosecute those whose criminal acts enable the Russian government to continue this unjust war. Let me be clear: if you violate our laws, we will hold you accountable.”

Just one day into her new job, President Donald Trump’s newly-sworn-in U.S. Attorney General, Pam Bondi, disbanded that group, known officially as Task Force KleptoCapture. NBC News’ Ken Dilanian and Tom Winter, among others, reported the development.

READ MORE: ‘Last Thing I Want Is That Guy’: Dem Warns Against Musk ‘Trying to Control the Airspace’

In announcing the March 2022 formation of Task Force KleptoCapture, Garland explained that it would be “dedicated to enforcing the sweeping sanctions, export restrictions, and economic countermeasures that the United States has imposed, along with allies and partners, in response to Russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine.”

“Task Force KleptoCapture will ensure the full effect of these actions, which have been designed to isolate Russia from global markets and impose serious costs for this unjustified act of war, by targeting the crimes of Russian officials, government-aligned elites, and those who aid or conceal their unlawful conduct.”

Vanity Fair’s Bradley Hope, a former Wall Street Journal correspondent, reported that Attorney General Bondi, via email, announced the closure of Task Force KleptoCapture on Wednesday at 7:30 PM, along with the Kleptocracy Initiative.

“The units recovered billions in stolen assets since 2010,” Hope wrote.

“But here’s the real story,” he added. “Sources say a key objective is gaining control of a multi-billion dollar forfeiture fund – money seized from corrupt officials that was meant to be returned to victim countries.”

“Where’s that money headed? Bondi’s memo cryptically mentions ‘other law enforcement purposes.’ Multiple sources say this means funding new detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay and Texas,” Hope reported.

At Project Brazen, Hope’s website, he offers much more detail.

Hope also points to a Bloomberg Law report revealing Bondi “is scaling back enforcement of laws governing foreign lobbying transparency and bribes of foreign officials.”

READ MORE: Trump Vows to Eradicate ‘Anti-Christian Bias,’ Says ‘We Have to Bring Religion Back’

Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Foreign Agents Registration Act will be narrower under the Trump administration, which “signals a dramatic retreat from two growth areas of white collar enforcement over the past ten to 15 years.”

“For instance,” Bloomberg noted, “the foreign lobbying policy comes after the department surged FARA enforcement starting under Special Counsel Robert Mueller, leading to prosecutions of prominent political figures in both parties. Bondi became familiar with the law’s requirements when she registered in recent years as a foreign agent while lobbying for the government of Qatar.”

Bloomberg’s report also notes that the KleptoCapture Task Force, “has led efforts to confiscate yachts, planes and real estate from rich Russians sanctioned over the war in Ukraine. The US has sent Russian assets confiscated as a result of the task force’s work to the benefit of Ukraine.”

In reporting that Bondi disbanded Task Force KleptoCapture, The Guardian noted that “Trump has spoken about improving relations with Moscow. He has previously vowed to end the war in Ukraine, though he has not released a detailed plan.”

Attorney Stephen Frank, a former federal prosecutor who worked on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases, told The Guardian, “It is a radical move away from traditional FCPA cases and toward a narrow subset of drug and violent crime-related cases that have never been the focus of FCPA enforcement.”

Meanwhile, cybersecurity reporter Eric Geller reported that Bondi also “used her first day on the job to disband the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, which has been a key part of government efforts to stop adversaries from meddling in U.S. democracy.”

READ MORE: ‘Democracy Weeks Away From Disintegrating’: Democratic Senator Issues Warning — and a Plan

 

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‘Last Thing I Want Is That Guy’: Dem Warns Against Musk ‘Trying to Control the Airspace’

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U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, the Ranking Member of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, issued sharp criticism of President Donald Trump’s Director of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk, and cautioned him against “trying to control the airspace.” The Washington Democrat said she would ask the U.S. Department of Transportation to prevent Musk from participating in efforts to reform the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), while also citing concerns over an alleged conflict of interest.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday (video below), Senator Cantwell announced she was sending a letter expressing her concerns to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy.

“It’s a clear conflict of interest, and Secretary Duffy should make sure that Mr. Musk is not part of the FAA air transportation system,” said Cantwell, who also serves as an ex-officio member of the Subcommittee on Aviation Safety, Operations, and Innovation, and the Subcommittee on Space and Science.

“He has been fined for violations. He worked hard to try to get Mr. Whitaker, somebody who was approved 98 – 0, I think, out of the system, and it is a clear conflict of interest,” she noted. Senator Cantwell was referring to Michael Whitaker, the now-former head of the FAA who “clashed with Trump ally Elon Musk by proposing that his company SpaceX be fined over safety issues,” according to The Independent. The Guardian reported Whitaker had been “forced out” after Musk “called for him to quit.”

READ MORE: Trump Vows to Eradicate ‘Anti-Christian Bias,’ Says ‘We Have to Bring Religion Back’

Reuters reported Secretary Duffy “said he spoke to Musk on Tuesday about airspace reform issues and to Musk’s government reform team.”

“‘They are going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system,’ Duffy said on X.”

When she was asked, “how bad of an idea is it to have DOGE involved in FAA,” when their goal is to “cut cut cut and they’re short on controllers?” Cantwell pointed to Congress’s efforts to increase the number of air traffic controllers.

“Congress has spoken, we want 3,000 more air traffic controllers. If President Trump and the administration want to talk to Congress about ways to get even more air traffic controllers because they’ve been working six days a week, we will certainly take that conversation, and if they want to help implement NextGen faster, we will take that, and if he wants to help implement standards for both the military and other commercial airplanes to have this, what is called ADS-B in and out, which gives you more information about who’s in your airspace, we gladly welcome that, too,” Cantwell explained.

On Thursday, Trump “vowed his administration will create a ‘great computerized system’ for air traffic control that, had it been in place, could have prevented the recent midair crash involving a passenger jet and a helicopter that killed 67 people,” Politico reported. “Trump is likely referring to the NextGen program, the FAA’s multiyear effort to move from radar to a satellite-based air traffic control system that has been underway for years. However, it has beset by cost overruns and delays and is expected to be less transformational than originally promised.”

Senator Cantwell drew a line at Musk, she said, “trying to control the airspace.”

READ MORE: ‘Democracy Weeks Away From Disintegrating’: Democratic Senator Issues Warning — and a Plan

“What we don’t welcome is a man who’s regulated by this sector and who has had fines for violation of safety, which is launch issues related to protecting the flying public, at a time when you need the FAA to call the shots and say, ‘don’t launch now because there could be a conflict in the airspace,’ the last thing I want is that guy trying to control the airspace.”

Professor William J. McGee, a Senior Fellow for Aviation and Travel at the American Economic Liberties Project and an FAA-licensed dispatcher, responded: “Sen. Cantwell is right. There’s no question this is a clear conflict of interest.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Demagoguery’: Comer and Republicans Melt Down When Democrat Tries to Subpoena Musk

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Trump Vows to Eradicate ‘Anti-Christian Bias,’ Says ‘We Have to Bring Religion Back’

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In a “meandering” speech filled with off-script jokes, recycled campaign lines, and religious-themed policy announcements, President Donald Trump addressed religious and political leaders at the controversial National Prayer Breakfast at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. He pledged to “protect Christians” and announced plans to direct the U.S. Department of Justice to create a task force to “eradicate” what he called “anti-Christian bias.”

“Well, we wanna bring religion back stronger, bigger, better than ever before. It’s very important,” the President declared. “We have to have religion and it suffered greatly over the last few years, but it’s coming back.”

“We have to bring religion back. We have to bring it back much stronger. It’s one of the biggest problems that we’ve had over the last fairly long period of time. We have to bring it back.”

He promised to “protect Christians” in schools, the military, in government, workplaces, hospitals, public squares, and said, “I will always protect religious liberty,” as he continued unveiling religious policy promises.

READ MORE: ‘Democracy Weeks Away From Disintegrating’: Democratic Senator Issues Warning — and a Plan

“And that is why today,” he declared, “I’m announcing that I will be creating a brand new presidential commission on religious liberty. It’s gonna be a very big deal, which will work tirelessly to uphold this most fundamental right. Unfortunately, in recent years, we’ve seen this sacred liberty threatened like never before in American history. There’s nothing happened like the last four years what’s happened with so many things have gone bad, but religion, what they’ve done, and the persecution that they’ve executed, have been just horrible.”

“The mission of this task force will be to immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible. The IRS, the FBI, terrible, and other agencies,” Trump alleged. “In addition, the task force will work to fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers, nationwide. We’ve never had that before, but this is a very powerful document I’m signing, you’ve got it, you get it now.”

Trump praised himself for “showing up to the Prayer Breakfast,” falsely implying that his predecessors had not. He also hinted at the possibility of running for a third term—an idea some Republicans are backing with congressional legislation—and firmly asserted that the President of the United States should be a person of faith.

READ MORE: ‘Demagoguery’: Comer and Republicans Melt Down When Democrat Tries to Subpoena Musk

“We have a mandate and lets say the most consequential election in 129 years, and that’s good because I’m a believer, like you’re a believer, and we want to have a believer in this position,” Trump said.

“I really believe you can’t be happy without religion, without that belief,” he added. “Let’s bring religion back. Let’s bring God back into our lives.”

The President mentioned the tragic loss of 67 lives in a recent mid-air crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, saying their time on earth was over but they are now with God. He swiftly transitioned to talk about the assassination attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, declaring, “It was God that saved me,” and claiming his son Don’s embrace of religion had increased as a result.

Before falsely claiming, as he has countless times before, that his election allowed Americans to once again say, “Merry Christmas,” Trump said that “from the very beginning of our republic, America has always been a nation founded by people of faith and strengthened by the power of prayer and united by four simple, but very beautiful words: ‘in God we trust.’ And you all know there was a movement to get that out.”

“In God We Trust,” was officially adopted as the motto of the United States in 1956.

He also told attendees, “we get rid of woke over the last two weeks.”

The American Humanist Foundation on Thursday declared that the “National Prayer Breakfast and its ties to the Fellowship Foundation, an extreme Christian Nationalist organization, are a sham. Holding a government-run, taxpayer-funded Christian ceremony in the U.S. Capitol disrespects the secular ideals that founded this country.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: Democrats Vow to Hold the Floor ‘All Night’ to Block Trump ‘Project 2025’ Nominee

 

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