Breakfast of Champions.
Responsibility in America is fading, and Glenn Beck’s cries of Nazism and fascism have nothing to do with the real thing, nor are they making America — or her people — better.
Yesterday
Kurt Vonnegut died three years ago yesterday. In 1973, when I was but eleven, he published “Breakfast of Champions.” It is, as Vonnegut wrote, “a tale of two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was dying fast.” It overwhelmed The New York Times. In “Is Kurt Vonnegut Kidding Us?,” the Times wrote,
“He makes pornography seem like any old plumbing, violence like lovemaking, innocence like evil, and guilt like child’s play.
“Mr. Vonnegut takes care of most of what is absurd and downright evil in American civilization–everything from Vietnam to sex, from war to massage parlors.”
The Times said Vonnegut “skewer[ed] everything that is absurd and evil in the rest of civilization–from Nazis to paranoia, from genocide to people bogged down in their various bad chemistries.”
It became one of his all-time best-selling books.
But in a sense, neither “Breakfast of Champions,” nor Vonnegut, have much of anything to do with this piece, except they told tales of “everything that is absurd and evil in the rest of civilization…” So, actually, in a sense, they have everything to do with this piece.
Yesterday deserves to not be forgotten. And then there’s that “those who forget the past…” cliché, too.
Today
There was a war of cognitive dissonance in my head Saturday night. I was home watching Stanley Kramer’s Oscar-winning 1961 drama, “Judgment At Nuremberg” on TCM. My boyfriend sent me a text, saying, “Glenn Beck is being utterly ridiculous on Fox!” And then, “I highly suggest you watch. He’s convincing students why liberals are bad.”
So there I was. Switching back and forth between, “Judgment At Nuremberg” and “Glenn Beck.” Consider the irony. A show about the evils of Nazis and fascism, and a show about the evils of, well, “Nazis” and “fascism.”
“Judgment At Nuremberg” should be required viewing for every student, certainly the ones Beck was brain-washing, but really, every American. There are several themes repeated throughout the film: “Everyone was doing it, we had no choice,” “We did not know,” “No one will take responsibility,” and “Everyone is to blame, so no one is.”
There are many parallels between Stanley Kramer’s work of fiction based on fact, and Glenn Beck’s work of fiction based on fact. And there is this one compelling difference: Kramer may have worked in the entertainment industry, but he was trying to teach America a truthful and honest lesson. Beck (the $32 million-dollar man,) admits he is an entertainer, and Beck has never taught anyone in America anything about truth or honesty.
(Don’t believe me? Let’s put Beck’s work to the truth meter. Actually, the “Poltifact Truth-O-Meter.” Of the fourteen statements non-partisan Politifact fact-checked, only one was rated “true.” The rest were rated varying degrees of “false,” up to and including two rated “Pants on Fire.”)
It’s no coincidence “Judgment At Nuremberg” was on Saturday night. Sunday was National Holocaust Remembrance Day. Civil rights activist and author David Mixner had a few words to say yesterday:
Nor should we forget that our country was among those that turned a number of Jewish refugees away from our shores and sent them back to Europe to face certain death. Or the fact that we were aware of the camps and did nothing to stop them from being built and becoming factories of death. That our military opposed diverting resources from the war for bombing the rail lines leading to the camps. Of course, one of the great moral dilemmas of the war was the debate about the morality of bombing the camps themselves, killing those inside, in an effort to save other lives. In our remembrance of this dark horror, we should always examine the key question that is posed in the United States Holocaust Museum, “What did we know and when did we know it?”
“What did we know and when did we know it?” It sounds like the questions asked during Watergate. And after we realized there were no W.M.D.s in Iraq.
The New York Times’ Frank Rich on Sunday, in “No One Is to Blame for Anything,” was asking the same question, and coming up with the same answers we heard in “Judgment At Nuremberg.” “Everyone was doing it, we had no choice,” “We did not know,” “No one will take responsibility,” and “Everyone is to blame, so no one is.”
Rich takes on the big banks, Alan Greenspan, the Vatican, (as Maureen Dowd did,) Tiger Woods, the Bush administration, and, to a degree, Barack Obama.
“I was right 70 percent of the time, but I was wrong 30 percent of the time,†said Alan Greenspan as he testified last week on Capitol Hill. Greenspan — a k a the Oracle during his 18-year-plus tenure as Fed chairman — could not have more vividly illustrated how and why geniuses of his stature were out to lunch while Wall Street imploded.”
“As he has previously said in defending his inability to spot the colossal bubble, “Everybody missed it — academia, the Federal Reserve, all regulators.â€
(But as I have said before, “No one could have predicted” is always false. Someone reputable, always, already has.)
Rich writes,
“Such is our current state of national fecklessness that the gold medal for prompt contrition by anyone on the public stage belongs, by default, to David Letterman.”
He continues:
“Former Bush propagandists will never lack for work in this climate. It’s remarkable how often apologists for Wall Street’s self-inflicted calamity mirror the apologists for Washington’s self-inflicted calamity of Iraq. In the case of that catastrophic war, its perpetrators and enablers almost always give the same alibi: “Everyone†was misled by the same “bad intelligence†about Saddam Hussein’s W.M.D. Hence, no one is to blame and no one could have prevented the rush to war.
“That, of course, is no more true than Greenspan’s claim that “everyone†was ignorant of the potentially catastrophic dangers in the securitization of subprime mortgages.”
“No top player in the Bush administration has taken responsibility for his or her role in selling faulty intelligence products without exerting proper due diligence. There have been few unequivocal mea culpas from those who failed in their oversight roles during the housing bubble either — whether Greenspan, the Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson or Timothy Geithner in his pre-Obama incarnation leading the New York Fed.”
Indeed.
Rich chose the Titanic as a metaphor for his piece, but he got the “why” wrong.
“If the captain of the Titanic followed the Greenspan model, he could claim he was on course at least 70 percent of the time too.”
The problem the Titanic had wasn’t that they were off course. They were on course. The problem was that they weren’t reading to the messages people were sending them. Same as Greenspan and the big banks. And Bush.
Rich should have used “Judgment At Nuremberg.” For many reasons, including that the Vatican plays a role in both yesterday’s and today’s atrocities. (And lest anyone accuse me of equating the Holocaust with the problems of today, let me firmly, and unlike the Vatican, answer that in no way am I.)
Tomorrow
Rich reminds us of Obama’s Inaugural call for “a new era of responsibility.â€
But responsibility is a word no one likes. It’s a word no one wants to understand. Ironically, it’s the very lack of responsibility that has led us to this disaster we call America in the twenty-first century.
I look around and all I see and hear these days is an appalling lack of responsibility. Glenn Beck’s irresponsible lies. The banking and insurance industry’s profit over people problem that has thrown this country and its people into devastation. Politicians’ greed and corruption. The past few weeks, the past few months, hell — the past decade is strewn with a total lack of accountability or responsibility.
But it’s that appalling lack of responsibility that comes in large part because we had a president who did things like tell us to go shopping after 9/11. Because we have a Church, as Maureen Dowd wrote yesterday, and as the Pope wrote decades before, that is more concerned with the “good of the universal church†than the children it should have protected. Because we have politicians who lie and cheat on their spouses and vote in the interests of corporations instead of constituents. And because we have a Supreme Court that just made that even easier.
No one, it seems, wants to act responsibly or be responsible. No one, it seems, wants to do the right thing.
Too few are willing to play by the rules. Too few are willing to take a stand. Too few are willing to open their eyes, dig for the truth, and realize that they have a responsibility that extends beyond their nose, beyond their front door, beyond their own self-interest.
Yes, perhaps I’m talking about the Republicans. But I’m also talking about the Democrats who are waiting — stalling — (until after the November elections?) to take on repealing DADT, dragging their feet on ENDA and the UAFA. Forget about even talking about repealing DOMA.
But it doesn’t end there. I’m also talking about you and me. I’m talking about playing by the rules and about taking on more responsibility that we might think is necessary — or fair. Because someone has to.
So why should the “average man or woman” take responsibility for what’s outside their front door? Why should we follow the rules, be good role models, help our neighbors, not run red lights, not lie, not cheat on our spouses — or our taxes?
Simple. Because it’s the right thing to do.
Because we’re better than our leaders.
We have to be. There’s really little choice left.
Of “Breakfast of Champions,” The Times wrote that Vonnegut,
“…wheels out all the latest fashionable complaints about America–her racism, her gift for destroying language, her technological greed and selfishness–and makes them seem fresh, funny, outrageous, hateful, and lovable, all at the same time.”
It would seem yesterday’s “fresh, funny, outrageous, hateful, and lovable” complaints about America have gotten far worse, and seem far less fresh, funny, outrageous, or lovable. Just more hateful.
It’s our responsibility to cure the causes of these complaints. And it’s our responsibility to fight those who perpetuate them, like Glenn Beck.
Responsibility. It’s the Breakfast of Champions.
Enjoy this piece?
… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.
NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.
Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.
 |
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon late Tuesday afternoon issued an indefinite postponement of the court date in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Donald Trump on Espionage Act charges, in the indictment commonly referred to as the classified documents case.
Claiming it would be “imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions before the Court,” along with other matters, Judge Cannon, a Trump appointee, wrote: “the Court finds that the ends of justice served by this continuance…outweigh the best interest of the public and Defendants in a speedy trial.”
Politico’s Kyle Cheney reports, “It may be months before we know the new schedule.” Trial had been slated to begin May 20.
“With 13 days before her trial was supposed to kick off, Judge Cannon finally says what has been obvious to every legal journalist I know: She’s not just canceling the existing trial date; she’s also not picking a replacement,” MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin reports.
READ MORE: Johnson Demands All Trump Prosecutions Cease, Vows to Use Congress ‘In Every Possible Way’
The 37 count indictment was brought after Trump removed well over 1000 items, including hundreds of classified documents, out of the White House, retained then refused to return them, allegedly violating several statutes under the Espionage Act.
“Trump mishandled classified documents that included information about the secretive U.S. nuclear program and potential domestic vulnerabilities in the event of an attack,” according t0 the federal indictment, Reuters reported last year.
The trial now is not expected to conclude before the November presidential election this year.
“This is news but it’s hardly unexpected,” declared professor of law, former U.S. Attorney, and MSNBC contributor Joyce Vance wrote. “Judge Cannon seems desperate to avoid trying this case. This isn’t justice. defendants aren’t the only ones with speedy trial act rights, we the people have them too.”
“After the election,” professor of law and former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter commented, “if Trump wins Jack Smith gets fired, the case gets dismissed, and Judge Cannon is ready for SCOTUS.”
READ MORE: Trump Threatens to Violate Gag Order and Go to Jail: ‘I’ll Do That Sacrifice Any Day’
Attorney and author Luppe B. Luppen noted, “Judge Cannon’s rationale for indefinitely postponing Trump’s classified documents trial is that a large number of pretrial motions remain unresolved—a state of affairs she has literally engineered by failing to resolve them.”
Professor of law and noted election law expert Rick Hasen asked: “Is it too cynical to believe that Judge Cannon timed the announcement of the postponement of a Trump classified documents trial to take away from the salacious sex details from Stormy Daniels’ testimony today?”
National security attorney Brad Moss served up a “silver lining to Cannon not setting a new trial date: she isn’t blocking the DC or Georgia election cases from resuming in the late summer/early fall, pending SCOTUS ruling on immunity.”
Foreign policy, national security, and political affairs analyst David Rothkopf added, “Justice delayed is justice denied. Both the defendant and the public have the right to a trial ‘without unnecessary delay.’ (Sixth Amendment.) When does Jack Smith seek a remedy for the problem Judge Cannon clearly represents? Tick freaking tock.”
READ MORE: Judge Hands Trump ‘Incarceration’ Threat as Experts Say Next Time He’ll Toss Him in Jail
Last month Donald Trump falsely told reporters Justice Juan Merchan had blocked him from attending his youngest son’s high school graduation, refusing to give him the day off from his required attendance at his New York criminal court case.
Justice Merchan had actually told Trump he would take the request under advisement, but Trump quickly ran to reporters painting the judge as heartless.
On April 15 Trump said, “it looks like the judge will not let me go to the graduation of my son who’s worked very, very hard and he is a great student.”
“It looks like the judge isn’t going to allow me to escape this scam. It’s a scam trial,” Trump alleged.
The Associated Press reported, “Trump then furthered his criticism of the judge on his Truth Social platform, writing in one post both that he ‘will likely not be allowed to attend’ and that ‘the Judge, Juan Merchan, is preventing me from proudly attending my son’s Graduation.’ He wrote in another post less than two hours later that he is ‘being prohibited from attending.'”
READ MORE: Johnson Demands All Trump Prosecutions Cease, Vows to Use Congress ‘In Every Possible Way’
None of that was accurate.
Last week Judge Merchan granted Trump the day off from court to attend his son’s high school graduation.
But The Lincoln Project and others on Tuesday posted the announcement for “Minnesota’s 2024 Lincoln Reagan Dinner With Special Guest DONALD J. TRUMP” on Friday, May 17, 2024.
Trump, as The New Republic notes, will be the headline speaker at the event in Saint Paul, Minnesota, which starts at 5:00 PM.
The fundraiser offers supporters the opportunity to spend $100,000, which grants them “10 VIP Dinner Seats | 10 VIP Reception Passes | 3 Photo Opportunities with President Trump.”
Or, for example, for $50,000, a supporter can get a “Chairman’s Host Table – 10 VIP Dinner Seats | 10 VIP Reception Passes | 1 Photo Opportunity with President Trump.”
Trump plans to attend a fundraiser on the day of Barron’s graduation.
Wonder what Judge Merchan thinks when he sees this. pic.twitter.com/d74ms3FhP1
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) May 7, 2024
KARE reports “the visit is expected to be the former president’s first trip to Minnesota of the 2024 election cycle.”
READ MORE: ‘I’m Not Talking About That Meeting’: Noem Implies She May Have Met With Kim Jong Un
Trump has strong motivation to head to Minnesota.
Over the weekend, as NBC News reports, “Top officials for former President Donald Trump’s campaign believe they can flip Democratic strongholds Minnesota and Virginia into his column in November, they told donors behind closed doors at a Republican National Committee retreat Saturday.”
Barron Trump’s graduation from Oxbridge Academy in Palm Beach, Florida reportedly will be the same day, May 17. Depending on timing, It’s possible Trump could fly from Florida to Minnesota to get to the fundraiser by 5 PM.
Watch Trump’s remarks from April 15 below or at this link.
In a clear attack on the executive branch, the judicial system, states’ rights, and the rule in law in America, Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson vowed on Tuesday to use all the powers of Congress at his disposal to end all four current criminal prosecutions of ex-president Donald Trump.
Johnson’s remarks late Tuesday morning came at the exact same time Stormy Daniels was giving sworn testimony about her alleged sexual relationship with Trump in a Manhattan Superior Court case. The presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee is on trial for 34 felonies related to falsification of business records when he allegedly paid hush money to the adult film star then covered up those payments in what prosecutors say was election interference.
“President Trump has done nothing wrong here and he continues to be the target of endless lawfare,” Speaker Johnson told reporters Tuesday during an official House news conference (video below). “It has to stop. And you’re gonna see the United States Congress address this in every possible way that we can, because we need accountability. Ultimately, at the end of the day, it’s bigger than President Trump. It’s about the people’s faith in our system of justice. And we’re gonna get down to the bottom of it. All these cases need to be dropped, because they are a threat to our system.”
Johnson’s remarks also come as he faces an ouster threat from far-right MAGA Republican Christian nationalist Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Speaker, who repeatedly has said he speaks to Trump frequently, spent the weekend at the ex-president’s Florida resort and residence, Mar-a-Lago. He also traveled there just weeks ago as Greene’s threats were heating up. Trump and Johnson held a joint press conference on “election integrity,” an image some say was a show of strength and support from the leader of his party.
READ MORE: Trump Threatens to Violate Gag Order and Go to Jail: ‘I’ll Do That Sacrifice Any Day’
Johnson’s job is being protected by Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and the vast majority of the Democratic caucus, who have promised to protect him should Greene call up her motion to vacate.
Claiming Republicans are “trying to keep steadying hands on the wheel here and keep the legislative branch moving and operating in the best interest of the people,” Johnson also alleged: “one of the things that is also in jeopardy right now is our judicial branch. And it’s our system of government itself. And I don’t think we can say often enough here how much of that has been abused under this administration, and with local prosecutors, state prosecutors, and at the federal level, who are using lawfare. They’re using our judicial system to go after political opponents.”
The Speaker continued his targeting, declaring Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s “case should never have been brought.”
“If there’s ever been an example of lawfare. Everybody can look at that and see, the trial is being orchestrated by Democrats, supporters of President Biden who are trying to make a name for themselves. I mean, they’re they’re pretty open about that. They used it in their campaign flips. We’ve got a Democrat District Attorney, a Biden donor judge, whose daughter is a Democratic political consultant and has clients that use the case in their solicitation emails to raise money.”
Justice Juan Merchan, CNN reported last month, made a $15 donation to the Biden campaign, amid a total of $35 total in 2020.
Johnson also called Justice Merchan “a well known Democrat” who “is pursuing an indefensible gag order on President Trump,” and “trying to override President Trump’s constitutional right to defend himself against the constant smears of his political opponents.”
READ MORE: ‘I’m Not Talking About That Meeting’: Noem Implies She May Have Met With Kim Jong Un
Pointing to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Donald Trump in the Espionage Act case, often called the “classified documents” case, Johnson called it “the weaponization of our justice system.”
He called all the cases against the ex-president “a clear attempt to keep Donald Trump in the courtroom and off the campaign trail. That’s what this is. It’s an election interference. It is borderline criminal conspiracy and the American people see right through it.”
Watch a short clip of Johnson’s remarks below or at this link.
Johnson: President Trump has done nothing wrong… it has to stop and you’re going to see the Congress address this in every possible way because we need accountability. All these cases need to be dropped because they are a threat to our entire system pic.twitter.com/Vvg6pQRU52
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 7, 2024
READ MORE: ‘Israel Aid, Ukraine Aid, Kitchenaid’: Dem Mocks GOP’s ‘Hands Off Our Appliances’ Week
Marjorie Taylor Greene Delivers Demands to Johnson as Her Three-Person Posse Weakens
Johnson Demands All Trump Prosecutions Cease, Vows to Use Congress ‘In Every Possible Way’
Trump Battled to Go to Son’s Graduation – So Why Is He Speaking at a Fundraiser That Day?
‘This Isn’t Justice’: Legal Experts Blast Cannon for Postponing Trump Case Indefinitely
‘This Isn’t Justice’: Legal Experts Blast Cannon for Postponing Trump Case Indefinitely
Trump Battled to Go to Son’s Graduation – So Why Is He Speaking at a Fundraiser That Day?
Johnson Demands All Trump Prosecutions Cease, Vows to Use Congress ‘In Every Possible Way’
Marjorie Taylor Greene Delivers Demands to Johnson as Her Three-Person Posse Weakens
Trump Threatens to Violate Gag Order and Go to Jail: ‘I’ll Do That Sacrifice Any Day’
News1 day agoJudge Hands Trump ‘Incarceration’ Threat as Experts Say Next Time He’ll Toss Him in Jail
News1 day ago‘I’m Not Talking About That Meeting’: Noem Implies She May Have Met With Kim Jong Un
OPINION1 day agoTrump Threatens to Violate Gag Order and Go to Jail: ‘I’ll Do That Sacrifice Any Day’
OPINION1 day ago‘Israel Aid, Ukraine Aid, Kitchenaid’: Dem Mocks GOP’s ‘Hands Off Our Appliances’ Week
News9 hours agoMarjorie Taylor Greene Delivers Demands to Johnson as Her Three-Person Posse Weakens
OPINION6 hours agoJohnson Demands All Trump Prosecutions Cease, Vows to Use Congress ‘In Every Possible Way’
News4 hours agoTrump Battled to Go to Son’s Graduation – So Why Is He Speaking at a Fundraiser That Day?
News1 hour ago‘This Isn’t Justice’: Legal Experts Blast Cannon for Postponing Trump Case Indefinitely