A kerfuffle in Grand Rapids, Mich., in recent days revealed a grim truth
about America�s institutions in these troubled times: Too many of them lack
the courage to stand up to the threat to democracy that is Donald Trump,
thereby contributing to the alarming staying power of the once and perhaps
future president.

We already know about the failure of the main institutional players in this
constitutional crisis: those atop the Republican Party. �Political parties
are democracy�s gatekeepers,� Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt wrote in
their 2018 bestseller, �How Democracies Die,� which documented how the
once-Grand Old Party abandoned that role to enable the rise of the
demagogic would-be authoritarian.
Stipple-style portrait illustration of Jackie Calmes

Republican �leaders� at all levels recognized in 2016 the danger Trump
represented, and yet, fearing his and his followers� vitriol, mostly kept
mum rather than form a united, vocal front against his nomination.
Traditional Republicans who joined the Trump administration naively
rationalized that they�d be good influences on the erratic president, only
to learn who was boss. Trump critics turned into sycophants (here�s looking
at you, Lindsey Graham), even after the disgrace of Jan. 6. When Congress
fulfilled its institutional duty and impeached Trump, Republican senators
acquitted him. The criminal justice system indicted the ex-president
multiple times, but Republican judges and Supreme Court justices are
forcing trial delays.
DUSSELDORF, GERMANY - FEBRUARY 12: A parade float shows an effigy of Donald
Trump holding a pair of scissors in his hand with a cut-up US flag in the
shape of a swastika at the annual Rose Monday Carnival parade on February
12, 2024 in Dusseldorf, Germany. The Mainz and Dusseldorf Rose Monday
parades are known for their biting political satire. Cities in western
Germany are celebrating the traditional Rhineland Carnival this week,
culminating in today's Rose Monday parades. (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty
Images)

Opinion
Calmes: Trump 1.0 made some world leaders laugh. Trump 2.0 terrifies them

April 11, 2024

Meanwhile, many in corporate America � for all their talk of civic
responsibility � stifled their evident horror at various Trump antics in
return for tax cuts and fewer federal regulations. Former Treasury
Secretary Larry Summers issued a challenge early in Trump�s tenure: �If
CEOs who employ hundreds of thousands of people are not in a position to
speak truth to power, who is going to be?� Yes, who?

The mainstream media was cowed in covering Trump, at least initially, by
its fealty to fairness, and still sometimes lapses into both-sides-ism,
normalizing Trump�s abnormal behavior. And countless organizations,
foundations and civic groups have stayed silent or inert, lest they offend
donors or the vindictive and potentially reempowered Trump.

And that brings us to the recent brouhaha at one such organization, the
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, for a real-time window into
institutional spinelessness in the age of Trump.
President Trump holds a Bible outside St. John's Church near the White
House on Monday.

Opinion
Calmes: Would you buy a $60 Bible from this man?

March 29, 2024

One of the foundation�s best-known trustees � Pulitzer Prize-winner David
Hume Kennerly, Ford�s White House photographer and then his friend �
resigned on Tuesday after its executive committee refused three times to
consider giving its annual Gerald R. Ford Medal for Distinguished Public
Service to former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, herself a board member, the
daughter of Ford�s White House chief of staff, Dick Cheney, and, as the
nation knows, Trump�s foremost Republican antagonist.

Politico disclosed Kennerly�s five-page scorcher of a letter to the
foundation�s executive committee and board, in which he revealed that the
members lacked the �kind of guts� that Ford had shown as a World War II
combat veteran and politician � refusing to honor Cheney for fear of
enraging Trump, who might threaten the foundation�s tax-exempt status or
otherwise take retribution should he become president again.

How ironic. These are the leaders of a foundation dedicated to a president
who lost election in 1976 at least in part for an action he believed was in
the country�s best interest: pardoning Richard M. Nixon for his Watergate
crimes, soon after succeeding Nixon when the disgraced president resigned.
Fifty years later, they withhold a tribute from Cheney, who lost her House
leadership post and then her congressional seat thanks to MAGA Republicans,
because she too took a principled stand for the good of the country �
against Trump.
Ukrainians and their supporters carry a huge Ukrainian flag during a rally
at the National Mall near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, marking two
years since Russia's full scale war and invasion of Ukraine, Saturday, Feb.
24, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Opinion
Calmes: One Trump puppet stands between Ukraine and the aid it needs

March 17, 2024

�You aren�t alone,� Kennerly wryly wrote to the foundation invertebrates.
�Many foundations, organizations, corporations, and other entities are
caught up in this tidal wave of timidity and fear that�s sweeping this
country. � This is the kind of acquiescent behavior that leads to
authoritarianism. President Ford most likely would have come out even
tougher and said that it leads directly to fascism.�

�Those of you who rejected Liz join many �good Republicans� now aiding and
abetting our 45th president by ignoring the genuine menace he presents to
our country,� the letter continues.

Kennerly closed: �If the foundation that bears the name of Gerald R. Ford
won�t stand up to this real threat to our democracy, who will?�

Depressingly, that question echoes the one Summers posed to corporate
America seven years ago, and which has been put to many other institutions
since. We�re still waiting for the answer.

The Ford Presidential Foundation�s executive director, Gleaves Whitney,
told Politico that because Cheney had not ruled out running for president
this year, the nonprofit foundation could have risked losing its tax-exempt
status by honoring her and making what �might be construed as a political
statement.�

That�s ridiculous. Cheney is not running now, and she�s all but ruled out
doing so as a third-party or independent candidate. But there is no
reconsidering for the Ford folks: Their 2024 public-service award will go
to Mitch Daniels, a former Indiana governor and President George W. Bush�s
budget director.

More to the point, Daniels is a once-prominent Republican who�s hardly been
known as a Trump critic all these years. A safe choice, in other words.

As Cheney wrote not long after the Trump mob�s attack on the Capitol on
Jan. 6, 2021, �History is watching. Our children are watching.� Alas,
they�re not seeing much Cheney-like courage from the nation�s institutions
and Republican leaders.

It�s up to voters to stand up to Trump. Again.

On 7/14/2024 11:55 AM, Kurt wrote:
> the threat to democracy that is Donald Trump,

You will pay dearly for your treason, you exterminbale, verminous shitbag.

On 7/14/2024 11:55 AM, Kurt wrote:
> Would you buy a $60 Bible from this man?

Would it burn a hole through your filthy demonic hands like Holy water?

There wasn't one handy.

Swill
NP: Styx - Midnight Ride

On 7/15/2024 12:49 AM, Governor Swill wrote:
> There wasn't one handy.

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.... but the stupid bitch missed.

Swill

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Oh poor me I got shot at ...

Swill
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Cheer up, maybe someone else will try.

Swill

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> No. I am a patriotic American who wants the country and its people to
thrive. Getting rid of Trump permanently
> is an important step to getting there.

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That constitutes a DEATH THREAT against a former President, Rudey:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/871
18 U.S. Code § 871 - Threats against President and successors to the
Presidency
U.S. Code
Notes
prev | next
(a)Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail
or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any
letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any
threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon
the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice
President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office
of President of the United States, or the Vice President-elect, or
knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the
President, President-elect, Vice President or other officer next in the
order of succession to the office of President, or Vice President-elect,
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years,
or both.
(b)The terms “President-elect” and “Vice President-elect” as used in
this section shall mean such persons as are the apparent successful
candidates for the offices of President and Vice President,
respectively, as ascertained from the results of the general elections
held to determine the electors of President and Vice President in
accordance with title 3, United States Code, sections 1 and 2. The
phrase “other officer next in the order of succession to the office of
President” as used in this section shall mean the person next in the
order of succession to act as President in accordance with title 3,
United States Code, sections 19 and 20.
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 740; June 1, 1955, ch. 115, § 1, 69
Stat. 80; Pub. L. 87–829, § 1, Oct. 15, 1962, 76 Stat. 956; Pub. L.
97–297, § 2, Oct. 12, 1982, 96 Stat. 1318; Pub. L. 103–322, title
XXXIII, § 330016(1)(H), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)

9-65.200 - Threats Against the President and Successors to the
Presidency; Threats Against Former Presidents; and Certain Other Secret
Service Protectees
The Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division has
supervisory authority over 18 U.S.C. §§ 871 and 879 cases. As great
caution must be taken in matters relating to the security of the persons
protected by 18 U.S.C. § 871, United States Attorneys are encouraged to
consult with the Counterterrorism Section (CTS) of the National Security
Division when they have doubts on the prosecutive merit of a case. For
the same reason, dismissal of complaints under 18 U.S.C. § 871, when the
defendant is in custody under the Mental Incompetency Statutes (18
U.S.C. §§ 4244, 4246), requires approval from CTS. In other cases,
United States Attorneys must consult prior to dismissing a count
involving, or entering into any sentence commitment or other case
settlement involving a § 871 charge.

https://www.secretservice.gov/newsroom/releases/2024/01/phoenix-man-arrested-making-online-death-threats-against-president-and

PHOENIX –David Michael Hanson, 41, of Phoenix, was arrested on Wednesday
for making online threats against the President and Vice-President.
Hanson was charged by Federal criminal complaint on Tuesday with five
counts of Threats Against the President and Successors to the Presidency
and five counts of Interstate Communication of Threats.

The complaint alleges that in November and December of 2023, while
living in Arizona, Hanson used a social media platform to post threats
to murder the President and Vice President of the United States. On
November 19, 2023, Hanson posted online a series of threatening
statements including one that stated, “#joeAndKamala I’m asking you to
resign on Monday your alternative is death brutally murdered.” After the
U.S. Secret Service spoke to Hanson and warned him that it was a Federal
crime to post such threats, on December 23, 2023, Hanson posted another
series of similar threats aimed at the President and Vice-President.