Missing from the Republican Convention

I am among the missing. 

I took a break from politics for the evening. 

I didn't watch the Republican convention or see Trump's speech. Lifelong Republican leaders missed the convention, too. 

Former President George W. Bush is alive and well. He wasn't there. He would have gotten booed. People who voted for him,  donated money to him, and knocked on doors for him now consider him persona non grata. 

Former Vice President Richard Cheney is around and healthy-enough to give speeches. He hasn't changed his politics. He, too, is unwelcome among Republicans. 

Trump's own Vice President Mike Pence was not there. At the crucial moment he refused to discard duly-elected electors in favor of ones signed fraudulently. Pence realized it would have been flagrantly dishonest and unconstitutional. He wasn't welcome at the convention. 

Dan Quayle, a Republican Vice President for four years under George H.W. Bush, wasn't there. He advised Mike Pence that what Trump was urging him to do was flat out illegal and unconstitutional. He wasn't welcome.

Liz Cheney, the former number three Republican in the House, wasn't there. She is a good Republican in every way but one. She said it was immoral and unconstitutional for Trump to overthrow an election. She was unwelcome.

Mitt Romney, the former presidential candidate for Republicans wasn't there. He is the straightest of straight-arrows, a conservative Republican to his core. He said it was immoral and unconstitutional for Trump to plot to overthrow an election. He wasn't welcome.

Paul Ryan, the former Speaker of the House, the former running mate of Mitt Romney, and at one point understood to be the future for the GOP, was not there either. He said Trump was unfit and dangerous.  

Former cabinet officials and chiefs of staff are alive, well, and fully able to speak. They served under Trump and say he is unfit and dangerous. They weren't at the convention. These include his former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, his former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, his former Chief of Staff John Kelly, and his former National Security Advisor John Bolton. They weren't at the convention.

If you were a Republican in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, and even 2016, your party has left you. To be a Republican in good standing one can be out of step with GOP policy on Ukraine, you can support unions, you can even support a woman's right to an abortion. The one thing one cannot be "wrong" on if one is a Republican in the public eye and one is challenged, is support for Trump.

If you still have respect for George Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney, why are you still a Republican?

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Wyden Town Hall disruption. Medford police stood by.

     "I think these were bad tactics. I don't think that they changed very many minds. In one sense it was a victory because it forced Wyden to cancel the Town Hall."
           Benjamin Ben-Baruch, protester

The protesters proved they could destroy a public event.

They should have been arrested and removed. 

The Medford police failed to maintain order.

Shouting protester

Today's post is a follow-up on yesterday's special report. I described the takeover of Senator Ron Wyden's Town Meeting by pro-Palestine protesters. About a dozen people stood up as Wyden began to talk. They began shouting and reading scripts promoting Palestine and condemning Israel and Wyden. Wyden tried to talk and hear from the audience of about 100 people, to no avail. The protesters kept shouting. 

The big thing that happened was that the Town Hall was called off. People saw something undeniable: Pro-Palestine protesters who were willing to be aggressively rude and selfish got their way. They have veto power over public discourse. 

A second thing that happened was that people saw that a strong police presence in the room was not effective. It certainly looked like disturbing the peace and trespassing to me. The meeting had a purpose and rules regarding who drew the lucky ticket to speak. The protesters ignored those rules and took over. I saw audience members standing and confronting protesters, shouting at them to sit down. My sense is that the meeting could start to see fights and people injured. Several of the protesters carried cameras, perhaps anticipating an arrest. None came. The authority figures in the room chose to shut down the Town Hall, thereby avoiding a conflict, rather than restore order by removing people who disturbed it.

There is a legal problem with removing the protesters. Were we seeing freedom of speech, or people preventing it? Was this disturbing the peace? Trespassing? Were fragile people at risk of being injured if fights broke out?

After the meeting I heard complaints from attendees. The protesters weren't trying to persuade the audience. They were trying to disrupt. 

Ben-Baruch

I spoke with two protesters after the meeting. Ben Ben-Baruch said he questioned the tactics but not the cause. He recognized that the tactic angered and frustrated the audience.

Ryan Navickas justified the disruption of the protest as a drop in the bucket compared with the "genocide" being carried out by Israel. 

Navickas

My own view: The protesters should have been allowed to disrupt things for maybe five minutes, then arrested and removed.

The democratic process is under attack in America. Failure to maintain order around political speech does not advance freedom and democracy. It undermines it. The anarchists and hooligans who joined in the George Floyd/BLM protests in the long summer of 2020 hijacked peaceful protests. Portland police and prosecutors should have identified illegal acts and arrested, prosecuted, and jailed the people they saw doing those acts. The January 6 protesters inside the Capitol were attacking police officers, vandalizing, and threatening Members of Congress. Those are crimes.

My sense is that the Wyden-event protesters should have been removed by law enforcement. A peaceful public meeting was being disturbed by people who became trespassers when they failed to follow the meeting rules; reason enough. The meeting was becoming unsafe amid the confrontations; another reason. The processes of democratic government would have been preserved. Moreover, local law enforcement would have demonstrated that they can maintain order to protect democracy. That did not happen. That is a bad look.

What would be a good look?

     --- Senator Wyden completing his Town Hall.

    ---  The mayor of Medford or its police chief explaining the actions of the Medford police in restoring order, saying that the police acted because we follow the law to protect democracy and the safety of our citizens.

    --- The protesters, following release from custody, saying they were willing get arrested to make the point that they disagreed with American policy with Israel.

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Protesters disrupt Ron Wyden Town Hall

Special report:

Pro-Palestinian protesters take over and shout down U.S. Senator Ron Wyden's Jackson County Town Hall.

47 seconds: scene from the event

Shouting "From the river to the sea, Palestine must be free" a dozen protesters disrupted and ended the Wyden's Town Hall. After the meeting Wyden said that he has done over a thousand Town Hall events in Oregon and this is the first time one had ever been ended early due to audience disruption.

Multiple protesters stood up from the audience and began walking around, shouting words from a script. Because multiple people were shouting simultaneously, but not in unison, the shouting was nearly unintelligible. It was loud and and disruptive. They ignored calls to stop. 

There was significant police presence, but they made no effort to stop the disruption.

33 seconds: no ability to restore order

Wyden attempted to be heard when he urged the protesters to stop. He said, "I would like everyone in Jackson County to be heard." It was to no avail. Audience members were standing and confronting the protesters and tension was escalating. Shoving and fights between the audience and the protesters appeared imminent. Wyden said the Town Hall was called off and people should exit.

This disruption was new to Wyden, but it ws a tactic used by the Tea Party protests in 2009, shortly after the election of Barack Obama. Democratic officeholders had their public meetings in 2009 disrupted by organized shouting. It was new at the time and it drew comparisons to the "Brooks Brothers Riot" that intimidated vote-counters in Florida.

I heard widespread grumbling and irritation from the audience members. Protesters after the meeting told me they felt entirely justified since genocide was taking place in Israel and that a disrupted meeting is a small price to pay to get attention for a cause they consider righteous. Protesters told me they did not expect to persuade the audience. They frustrated and angered the audience. Their purpose was to send the message to Wyden that they can make his life miserable.

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Trump's would-be assassin was a Republican

Thomas Matthew Crooks registered to vote as a Republican.

He was raised in a Republican home with Trump signs in the front yard. He lived in a Republican-majority neighborhood.

It contradicts the MAGA narrative.

Crooks

Trump's MAGA allies immediately accused Democrats for the assassination attempt. Donald Trump Junior said that Trump was attacked by "the radical left."  U.S. Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia said President Biden "sent the orders" to kill Trump. U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said, “They tried to impeach him. They are trying to imprison him. Now, they have tried to assassinate him.” Vice President nominee J.D. Vance said, Biden's comments about Trump's threat to democracy "led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination."

An overarching theme in the MAGA and GOP narrative is that "we" good Americans are under attack by Democrats. They consider themselves to be fighting in self-defense against powerful a consortium of Blacks, women, immigrants, Hispanics Muslims, gays, trans people, prosecutors, courts, and college-educated elites. Trump -- a latter-day Christ -- takes the blows and suffers on their behalf.

A sentence shows up repeatedly: "They're not after me, they're after you, and I just happen to be standing in the way."

The idea is a recurring theme of Trump's speeches and merchandise.

Poster available for just $10

Crooks appears to have negligible record of political involvement. He registered as a Republican after turning 18. His high school classmates told reporters for the Philadelphia Inquirer that he was a conservative. Max Smith, a classmate in an American history class, said, "He definitely was conservative. It makes me wonder why he would carry out an assassination attempt on the conservative candidate."

Crooks lived with his parents. Neighbors say the house posted Trump signs. Crooks was a member of a gun club. Police found a dozen or so guns at the Crooks' home. When Crooks' parents tried to find him on the day of the shooting, their first inquiry was to the gun club.

He was young. His political views, if any, were apparently minimal, but insofar as he was partisan, he was a Republican. I cite this to blunt the blame and retribution narrative being voiced in social media and on stage at the GOP convention. The "payback" meme is widespread in social media. Southern Oregon Republicans have become thoroughly MAGA. I got a taste of this payback meme sent my way by a prominent local Republican Trump supporter. 

MOTHERFUCKERS like Peter Sage and [name removed] publish hate daily against Republicans, and now some son of a bitch in Pennsylvania tried to assassinate Trump today. You all are lucky that the assassin failed to kill Trump, because if he had, then it would be "open season" on liberal politicians. You motherfuckers want another civil war? You're pushing for it . . . . I've owned guns for 40 years. . . . I haven't shot anybody yet, but that could change if I have to protect my life.

There is a phenomenon that takes place in the aftermath of mass shootings. Vulnerable groups worry that the shooter's identity would bring specific blame onto them. As information about the assassin emerged, a succession of groups could breathe a sigh of relief. The shooter wasn't an immigrant, or here illegally, or Black, or Hispanic, or Muslim, or liberal, or from a college town, or a representative of some environmental or reproductive rights or gun-opposition group, or apparently gay or trans. Whew!

Trump's assassin was a White, male, gun-loving Republican. 

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Harlan Crow and Clarence Thomas

Gifts to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas look bad. Very bad.

But he isn't being influenced by the gifts.

Thomas' opinions are set in stone.

I wrote on Saturday that the lavish gifts enjoyed by Justice Thomas look corrupt. Supreme Court justices should avoid the appearance of bribery and undue influence by people with an interest in the Court's decisions. It is a sacrifice for them, but it is the price they should pay in exchange for the great power the country has given them. If you want the job of "impartial judge" then wear a robe, not the jersey of one of the contestants.

Conde Cox shares a perspective. He writes that Justice Thomas's judicial decisions are fixed and beyond influence by Crow or anyone else. Cox has been a member of the U.S. Supreme Court bar since 1995 and has attended dozens of oral arguments in person.  For many years he has been rated a Thomson-Reuters "Super Lawyer" in the field of business bankruptcy. He carries out his nationally-recognized practice from Ashland, Oregon.

Cox

Guest Post by Conde Cox

My view, having sat several times in the ”bar members section” in the USSC courtroom while Justice Thomas sat on the dais in front of me and above me, is that he is a very principled person and that he does not care whether his actions or statements will be viewed by others as creating an appearance of impropriety. I suppose the attitude he exudes has developed over many years of sitting on the bench with life tenure, with many of those years spent laboring in the former conservative minority of the Court. He is no dummy. He is highly literate and laser-focused on what he believes to be right. He is just very opinionated and wears a lifetime appointment badge to justify it.

 

His acceptance of ‘gratuities’ and favors from his conservative friends does not appear to me to be a matter of bribery or a ‘quid pro quo.’ Such an improper exchange would be unnecessary with Justice Thomas, because he is completely committed to the entirety, without compromise, of the right wing agendas developed and supported by people like Harlan Crow and the Koch brothers. I would guess that he and they would simply view his trips on Crow’s jet and visits to the Bohemian Grove to be something any friend would do with his other like-minded friends.

In short, having observed Justice Thomas up close and personal for over 20 years from the courtroom, and having read all of his written opinions issued as a Justice, since 1991, (and all of the other Justices’ opinions as well, issued since about 1980), I have gained respect for Justice Thomas’s intellect and his never-give-up principled nature. He has been in single-minded pursuit of a hard-core right wing agenda. I disagree with him on almost every political issue that you might care to name.
I say this even though his politics are downright offensive to a political progressive like me.

 

I will also note that Justice Thomas, for many years, while he was in the former conservative minority on the Supreme Court, almost never said a single word or asked a single question during oral arguments in any of the cases pending before the Court. By contrast, in very recent years, as the conservatives have now obtained a majority of the Court members, thanks to the combined efforts of the Bushes and Trump, Justice Thomas actually speaks up. He asks hard questions of counsel during virtually every oral argument for every case.  

Painting at Harlan Crow's Adirondacks resort

Most rich guys (like Harlan Crow) find it hugely satisfying to spend time and share their luxury with like-minded people who wield great power. This wasn't an attempt to change a judicial decision. It wasn't necessary and it wasn't possible. Thomas is beyond being influenced.

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Assassination conspiracies. Who done it?

What really happened in the assassination attempt?

A lone gunman? Some people consider that hopelessly naive. 

Maybe Trump wasn't shot. Maybe it was a gel pack of fake blood.

People are suspicious. They notice anomalies. They have a narrative; they want events to fit. 

Maybe Biden ordered the assassination attempt. Biden has immunity so he took advantage of the Supreme Court decision. Ordering Seal Team Six to do it would be too public, so his people secretly used a local, bullied, young man, an amateur who botched it. But just wait. Some time before the election Biden will get serious and use a pro.

Maybe Biden starved the Secret Service of assets assigned to protect Trump, knowing something like this would eventually happen. 

Maybe Biden did this indirectly by encouraging violence, hoping some anti-Trump person would step up. After all, he used the word "bull's eye" in saying that he is focusing his campaign on Trump's behavior. 

Maybe it was planned by Trump-haters inside the Secret Service. Trump made enemies and deep-state moles are everywhere. They didn't adequately secure the building roof and maybe that was an accidentally-on-purpose mistake. Agency incompetence is the cover story.

Fake event

Maybe it was all fake. It was planned and carried out by Trump's campaign. Trump's campaign is the chief beneficiary of the attempt. Trump's career was in the staged reality TV business, and this is just another iteration of it. The presumed assassination was too perfect in timing, too perfect in the minor wound, too perfect in Trump's actions after he was swarmed by the Secret Service. It was staged. He heard gunshots which were his cue, he grabbed his ear and set off the gel pack with fake blood, then ducked out of sight. Notice that Trump asked for time to retrieve his shoes rather than immediately exit the area. Strange. He must not have been in fear of his life. The shoe gambit gave Trump time to do the rehearsed raised-fist photograph and emerge the wounded hero. The shooter was a registered Republican, who is now dead and silenced, as planned. Crooks is the patsy making a noisy diversion killing a couple of random people to give drama and credibility to the staged event.

Maybe it was a CIA or FBI operation. They do assassinations. Trump has been highly critical of the FBI. Many believe that rogue agents within the CIA had JFK killed. But this time the FBI botched the assassination because Crooks missed his shots. Notice how clever they were to set up the Secret Service, not themselves, to get the blame.

Maybe it was the Ukrainians or the Poles.  An assassination is the kind of thing we would expect Putin to do. Russians fall out of windows. But Putin wants Trump to win, not die. If Trump wins, Ukraine will collapse and Poland will be next, so they are the ones with motive. Maybe Ukraine or Polish agents turned Crooks, but he was an amateur assassin and missed his shot.

Personally, I don't believe any of these conspiracy theories. 

I have a simpler explanation. Angry, frustrated young men have easy access to high powered firearms. Sometimes these young men choose to commit suicide by going out in a blaze of rage or a desire for attention. We have school shootings, supermarket shootings, workplace shootings, and political-event shootings. No need to overthink this. 

I don't think it was a fake blood gel pack, although the nicked ear that Trump slapped is sure convenient and suspicious once you remember that Trump was a reality TV star whose people set up staged events designed to look spontaneous.

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Trump the hero, defiant and undefeated

Donald Trump survives an assassination attempt.

A photographer is there to take this photo.

The assassination attempt, the wound, and this photo augment and confirm the Trump brand. Trump the hero. Trump the martyr. Trump defiant in the face of his enemies. Trump the survivor who never surrenders. Trump the winner. Trump-the-Christ-figure who survives death.

His fist is high. He is defiant. He rose from the stage chanting "fight," "fight", "fight." Trump is an action hero. It forms a contrast to slow, geriatric, stumbling, tongue-tied "Mr. Magoo" Biden.

It isn't fair. It was just luck. The shot nearly killed him. It didn't. The wound was just enough to make a little blood, the American flag was just behind Trump, and Trump was injured just enough to be angry, not incapacitated.

The event confirms the archetypes that provide a template for how voters make a shortcut decision about the presidential contenders. One's own candidate is the Hero, if possible. One's opponent is either a Knave (strong but evil) or a Fool (weak and incompetent.) This assassination event created indelible images of Trump as the wronged-but-unbowed Hero. It is right there in the photo. Trump was lucky and strong. The contrast highlights the ambiguity voters feel about Biden's fitness and capacity. 

Biden did the right thing, immediately: he said that he disapproved of the violence and said he prayed for Trump. 

Donald Trump Junior, did the cynical thing, also immediately, by issuing a statement implying that Democratic enemies are responsible for the attack: 

I just spoke to my father on the phone and he is in great spirits. He will never stop fighting to save America, no matter what the radical left throws at him.

Democrats hoped to make the election a referendum on Trump, not Biden. As Democrats would have it, Biden would be the experienced and respected Hero; Trump would be the election-overthrowing, lying, con-man, woman-abusing felon and therefore Knave.  Forget that now. 

Now it is the battered but defiant Hero upon whom fortune shines, versus the old man who could not have gotten up from the stage. Again, it isn't fair. It is circumstance. But Democrats must face that.

If Democrats don't change the script with something dramatic I expect a landslide win for Trump in November. But Democrats could change the script. Trump is still a Knave. The question is whether and how Democrats push reset.

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