waiting for people to realize USA just lost a 30-year war, not an election. Trump is a trojan horse who rode in on weaponized disinformation that started in 1994 with Fox News; now every act Trump takes will kill or hurt Americans. We are being attacked back for Iraq Afghan Vietnam war crimes.

weblogging

Nonstop hate rallies, in person and on shows like The Five on Fox, brought out a population of brainwashed persons in the 2024 election. They were bombarded with lies 24-7. For now, all the rest of us can do is watch, and hope the Trump voters snap out of their trance soon. To me, persons who agreed to go along with the hate that the Trump campaign broadcast are dangerous to be around.

My day at the Russian Embassy in Geneve Suisse 1966

By Kay Ebeling

I was jumping up and down outside the locked gates trying to get the Russians to let me in. At age 17, I wanted to convince the Soviets to stop being enemies and make peace with USA.

Sudden Memory while gazing at Lake Tahoe: 

Visitors' Guide Lake Geneva

I got to live in Geneva Switzerland for six months in 1966. The trip was a high school graduation present, sort of, to fly off and stay with a relative in Europe, but it was not really a present. Every summer since seventh grade, my parents sent me to stay with someone and often that someone did not want me there, my dad probably paid them to “watch” me. So I’d be off on my own in these strange cities. 

With my high school French language skills and a pocket full of travelers checks, I wandered around Geneva Switzerland by myself the summer of 1966, and when I realized there were huge embassies for different countries there, I went “Wow.”

The woman who I was staying with in Geneva left every morning for her job in a real estate investment firm (part of Investors Overseas Services IOS Bernie Cornfeld, whole 'nother story) so I literally had nothing to do but go up to the pool on the Avenue de Bude building rooftop, and for me, being from Southern California, a rooftop pool was not that big a kick.

So I’d wander around.

One day I took a bus to the Russian Embassy. I was seventeen in a foreign country, got on a bus, and rode out to the Russian Embassy which was a massive compound outside the city limits. This was 1966, they were the evil Communists sworn enemies of USA. 

I got off the bus at this windy stop with the lake across the highway, loud traffic whizzing by. I was faced with at least a 20 foot high metal fence that was supposed to have a gate but there was no way I could find  it opened. There was a way to push a button and call in a message, but they did not answer me.

So there I was with my straggle of unkempt hair and chubby body jumping up and down outside the Russian Embassy, the beautiful Lake Geneva on the other side of a busy highway, shouting, “Let me in let me in, I just want to talk Peace. I just want to make Peace!”

That really happened. 

No one ever came to the gate or answered me and I caught the next bus into the city.

Then in 1968 at age 20 I was working full time for the Peace and Freedom Party in L.A.; read about that here:

I was a teenage anti Vietnam war activist

Memoir by Kay Ebeling, featuring Nancy Pelosi and the Black Panthers

***

-Weblogged by Kay Ebeling, cogitating  

Russian Consulate General in Geneva website has photos but not jpegs...  https://russian-e-visa.com/consulate/russian-consulate-general-in-geneva-switzerland/ 

Cut paragraph: 

No one told me why I was being sent away every summer and I didn't see it as strange, because when you grow up in dysfunction, it's all you know, so you don’t realize it's dysfunction. You don't question it, it just is.

My online book/ series "USA sided with pedophile priests, and soon after, the nation fell" please read it as I write it- what happened when I produced a blog about the crimes and got a shocking reaction from rightwingers favoring the church, trashing the victims; I write as one of 100K survivors who is also a journalist:, adding more all the time: https://cityofangelslady.blogspot.com/2024/09/prologue.html?zx=b03c077329b123a2

my take

Disinformation is a weapon, and for 30 years USA has been under attack- Fox News showed up in 1994 broadcasting anti American messaging and Americans loved it, which gave the propagandists free reign. They created Newsmax and other online networks plus hundreds of hate radio stations, many in Spanish. In 1995, to amp up the attack, they sent in Melania by way of Jeffrey Epstein to seduce Trump, with her self-snatching nude photo- she sat him in front of Fox News and the great brainwashing began. Whoever ran the disinformation campaign against USA for 30 years is who won the 2024 election. I've written hundreds of posts about the information war that USA just lost by just letting enemies of USA attack freely here on this blog. Search this blog and read for yourself.

encroaching catastrophe

I sensed coming catastrophe when I moved to South Lake Tahoe. I thought it was going to be from the climate crisis, because since the 1970s I've known about global warming and paid attention since then as the predictions came true. I came to this mountain top town in 2015 after it became clear that Earth had passed a turning point re climate. I got myself into a HUD senior housing building buried in the trees in a town at high elevation with lots of water. I feel, well felt, safe here.

I knew for decades we’d have the floods and fires we're having now.

I didn't predict the political havoc we are about to endure.

So I'm prepared, more or less.

I think even fascists won’t throw broke old people out of housing that was built for broke old people

It kinda scares me that this is a HUD building, as Housing and Urban  Development is an executive agency that is run directly by the President, and so Donald Trump could with a scribble of his name at the bottom of an Executive Order eliminate Housing and Urban Development.  

In preparation I am paying every credit card I have down to nothing, Because whatever I need to do in the near future, I'll need my credit cards.  

when I write a blog post, I go to X and FB and find similar chats to post a link to it, spread info. Today when I searched on X, every post that came up on Rachel Maddow was vile hateful smarmy lies, no place I’d want to add my name… then Facebook just plain took down my link to my own blog post here. Hmm. It's only been one week.

Transcript Rachel Maddow 11.11.24 Veterans Day Trump criminal cabinet appointments including VA

Not able to edit this transcript so I'm just copy pasting it here, last night's very informative and kinda scary broadcast of Maddow. May be doing this more as you can still read the uncleaned transcript fine 

Maddow: When Trump was President of the United States um his Secretary of the Interior got embroiled in a corruption Scandal and

0:07

was referred to the US Department of Justice for potential criminal prosecution the last time Donald Trump

0:14

was President his secretary of Transportation also got embroiled in a corruption Scandal and was referred to

0:21

the Department of Justice for potential criminal prosecution the last time Donald Trump was President his Secretary

0:28

of Labor got embroiled in a disgusting Scandal involving convicted pedophile

0:33

Jeffrey Epstein a federal judge ruled that Trump's labor secretary had broken

0:38

the law in that Scandal and so the labor secretary was referred to the office of professional responsibility at the

0:44

justice department he ended up resigning in uh he ended up resigning in

0:51

disgrace uh Donald Trump Secretary of Energy resigned in a corruption and

0:56

ethic Scandal Donald Trump's head of the EPA resigned resed in a corruption and ethics Scandal Donald Trump's Health and

1:03

Human Services secretary resigned in a corruption and ethics Scandal and I mean any one of these

1:11

cases is like a a Teapot Dome sized Scandal right used to be if you had one

1:17

cabinet official involved in a big ethics and or corruption Scandal that forced them out of the job or LED them

1:24

to you know to being referred for for criminal prosecution even if he just had one that would be enough to Brand your

1:31

whole presidency a disgraced and Scandal ridden

1:37

mistake I mean Warren G Harding what is remembered about the Warren G Harding

1:43

presidency I mean maybe you got three things you could remember a died in office B had an affair C Teapot Dome

1:51

scandal corruption Scandal which resulted in a cabinet official being criminally charged I mean literally a

1:58

century after that one Scandal involving one cabinet official that's basically

2:03

all we remember about that guy's presidency because admit it when I just said Warren G Harding had an affair you

2:08

went he did you didn't even know that we only remember that one Scandal because

2:14

it led to a cabinet official getting in trouble one cabinet official getting in

2:19

trouble in that kind of a corruption Scandal used to be enough to Mar your presidency and brand it alone for a

2:28

century the first Donald Trump presidential term had so many cabinet

2:33

officials forced out of office in disgrace and referred to the justice department to face criminal charges it's

2:41

actually hard to remember them all and of course just one of the

2:46

scandals of the Trump Administration is that despite an unprecedented number of

2:51

cabinet officials being referred to the justice department for potential prosecution the supposedly independent

2:57

department of justice under Donald Trump decided to bring charges to actually bring criminal charges against precisely

3:04

none of them which is yet another of the Trump scandals from his first term but

3:09

still I I will also mention that one of the the more memorable disasters ethical disasters along these lines from the

3:16

first Trump term uh was his Secretary of Veterans Affairs and this one might be the most memorable because it happened

3:23

right at the end I remember uh the headline about it on our show blog our the headline about it was December 10th

3:30

2020 this is after Trump lost reelection to Joe Biden but before the January 6th

3:35

attack on Congress before the inauguration is December 10th 2020 and this was the headline yet another Trump

3:41

cabinet secretary caught up in Scandal as Donald Trump's presidency comes to an ignominious end it's apparently not too

3:48

late for one more cabinet controversy and that last one it was the

3:53

the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and he too like so many of his colleagues in the Trump cabinet he was referred to the

4:00

justice department for potential prosecution an investigation happened into claims that he had tried to

4:07

discredit a veteran who said she had been sexually assaulted at a VA facility

4:13

the VA Inspector General investigator those allegations found evidence that he seemed to have broken the law they

4:19

referred him to doj to be prosecuted and of course the Trump justice department

4:24

did not prosecute him they didn't prosecute any of these guys but one of the things that was

4:30

really memorable about his scandal is that more than 20 different veterans groups rose up in outrage against that

4:38

guy and these were desperate veterans groups the very different takes on the world everybody from the American Legion

4:44

to Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America to the Veterans of Foreign Wars they all demanded that this Trump VA

4:50

secretary resign or be fired even a really really conservative prot Trump

4:55

veterans group just railed against this guy for that Scandal that he was

5:01

embroiled it was just just a disaster mean it was a sign that even right up to the very bitter and ultimately very

5:08

violent end of Trump's term in office things were just bad it was it

5:14

was a bad presidential term it is not normal to have a half dozen members of the cabinet referred for Pro for

5:21

potential criminal prosecution for for crimes they allegedly committed while they were serving in the

5:26

cabinet it's not normal I mean that's the kind of thing that gets gets you listed repeatedly as the worst or among

5:34

the worst ever presidents in US history when presidential historians and Scholars are surveyed about these things

5:39

right this is why Trump is considered by experts in the field to be if not the

5:45

worst then certainly one of the worst Presidents in the history of the United

5:50

States I'm sorry Warren G Harding it just it just it just wasn't

5:56

good today is Veterans Day happy veterans day Veterans Day is a celebratory day it's not to be confused

6:02

with Memorial Day which is a very somber occasion Memorial Day we remember service members who gave their lives for

6:09

our country Veterans Day is a happy day it is a celebration of our nation's

6:14

veterans a time to say thank you and to just pay them some attention pay some attention to their service and their

6:20

pride in their service basically as a country it's Veterans Day is a day to lift up our service members and our

6:27

veterans and I therefore try not to do bummer veterans news on Veterans

6:33

Day but today the news is that Donald Trump for his second presidential term

6:41

has brought back that guy that last cabinet official with the last Scandal

6:46

the guy who was referred for criminal prosecution right at the end of Trump's first term in office after a

6:52

scandal-ridden tenure at the VA and this time Trump has brought that guy back to

6:59

lead Trump transition efforts for the entire military for the entire defense

7:06

department former VA secretary who was referred to the justice department for criminal prosecution at the end of his

7:12

term to lead Trump's Pentagon transition efforts at a time when the United States

7:17

of America is looking to the US military for assurances that they won't deploy

7:23

against American civilians the way Trump has threatened he will order them to do

7:29

the guy who's in charge with Staffing up the defense department leadership for the military making sure we've got all

7:35

the best most ethical people there it's the guy who left office last time under Trump while his quote

7:42

possible criminal conduct was under investigation by federal prosecutors Good

7:50

Times there's been a a flurry of announcements and news about Trump

7:55

Staffing up for his second term in the past 24 hours he really is bringing back that guy to choose the staff and

8:01

Leadership of the US defense department uh it's just been reported by

8:06

the New York Times that Florida Republican senator Marco Rubio uh who once memorably cast aspersions on the

8:14

size of Donald Trump's genital in a presidential debate uh the New York Times is first to report that Senator

8:19

Marco Rubio will be Donald Trump's choice for Secretary of State uh NBC News has actually just confirmed that

8:26

news as well just in the last couple of moments it is on the front page uh of the New York Times as we speak Marco

8:31

Rubio the expected Choice by Donald Trump to be his secretary of state uh we

8:38

did learn for sure this evening that Trump is choosing for his National Security adviser another Republican member of Congress Congressman Mike

8:45

Waltz of Florida after Congressman Waltz helped in the effort to try to overthrow the US

8:51

government and keep Trump in power after he lost re-election in 2020 you might remember this was an amazing Florida

8:58

story you might remember remember a very unusual apology being published by

9:04

Congressman Walt's Hometown paper the Orlando Sentinel it was an apology to their readers for having endorsed Mike

9:12

Waltz for reelection they apologized for having endorsed him after he tried to

9:17

help Trump overthrow the government Mike Waltz has also distinguished himself by claiming that

9:23

Trump was not responsible for January 6th he also has proposed that airport

9:30

should be renamed Trump airport so clearly Congressman Mike Waltz has checked all the boxes that he

9:37

needs to to be National Security adviser in a second Trump presidential term

9:43

today we also learned that Tom homman will be in a job that Trump is apparently calling

9:48

bordar remember when Republicans used to maintain with a straight face that it was a huge Scandal it was evidence of

9:55

Communism to call anybody the Zar of anything in the US government well Tom

10:01

homman will be Trump's bordar Tom homman is the architect of the policy um that had the US government

10:09

deliberately and systematically taking little kids away from their parents and not giving them

10:15

back he also spent this interregnum period while Trump's been out of office barnstorming the country bragging about

10:22

how he's going to be the man who will mercilessly come after immigrants if and when Trump gets back into power

10:30

is there a way to carry out Mass deportation without separating families of course there

10:37

is families can be deported together they ain't seen sh yet wait till 2025

10:42

Trump comes back in January I'll be on his heals coming back and I will run the biggest deportation operations this

10:48

country's ever seen I'm sick and tired hearing about the family separation and know I'm still being sued over that so come get me I don't give a sh right I

10:55

don't give a what anybody says Trump comes back I come back [Applause]

11:06

and I will run the biggest deportation operation this country's ever

11:12

seen that last appearance there uh it's worth pointing out was Tom Holman again

11:18

just appointed to be Trump's borders are for the second term that was him speaking this year at an event called if

11:23

you look what happened under the attacks in 911 again all coming out of the same

11:28

group of people that has done a very good job at hiding under the religion of

11:34

Judaism they use Judaism as a cover for what they're really doing I'm sure they

11:39

helped engineer the takedown of Hitler things that I see it just makes

11:45

me shake my head after what they've programmed as people going to learn a lot about World War II and Hitler and

11:50

the Nazis they're going to learn about Hitler was actually fighting the same people that we're trying to take down

11:57

today people are people are going to learn and Hitler was fighting the same

12:03

people that we're trying to take down today these people who are using Judaism

12:08

as a cover for what they're really doing and look at 911 look at Judaism in

12:13

911 what this is the company that Tom homman

12:19

has been keeping and the kinds of places where he's been making appearances over the

12:26

past few years while Trump has been out of office that's where Tom home and has been promising mass deportations and

12:32

camps to hold millions of people in this country now Trump today has announced

12:37

that he is in fact bringing Tom homman into the government to head up Mass deportations Trump has also put in

12:43

charge of policy planning for the transition the other architect of the family separation policy the policy of

12:49

taking kids away from their families and not giving them back um the whole second

12:54

term Trump plan to build mass camps in the United States for the military to

13:01

hold millions of people inside our own borders that idea was developed by Steven Miller we learned today he will

13:07

be Deputy Chief of policy in the Trump White House and according to the New York Times he will be in charge of all

13:13

policy matters for the transition and we know what his priorities are he will be setting policy priorities for what the

13:19

Trump Administration will do on day one so anybody who's telling you this is going to be at all moderate or normal in

13:26

terms of what they're going to do that person is living on a nice planet that I would like to visit sometime but it is

13:32

not our planet here any expectation that the most

13:37

extreme things Trump talked about during the campaign and during his time out of office those were just talk and and

13:43

normal people will come into his administration to do normal things that wishful thinking has not

13:50

survived this first Monday since the election it is better to be clear about

13:57

these things and to see them coming than to be denial or to be surprised by them when they come

14:02

around it is what it is and to that end I think there's there's one other thing that is worth watching here worth

14:08

putting up a a flag on this uh just in terms of thinking about you know not

14:14

just policy choices not just Personnel choices but the preservation of our system of government

14:20

because a president honestly can appoint pretty much anyone he wants any position right it's it is it is ridiculous that

14:27

Trump and his first term in office had tons of cabinet officials who were involved in corruption scandals and even

14:33

referred for criminal prosecution it is insane that he gave his son-in-law a White House job and then gave him a

14:38

security clearance even though he failed the background check and then that same son-in-law walked away from the White

14:44

House at the end with $2 billion from Saudi Arabia in his pocket it's all crazy but legally a president can put

14:51

anyone he wants in the White House basically he is free to make terrible decisions along those lines and we have

14:57

seen him do it before he is free to make the worst possible decisions about who to bring into the

15:03

White House that's what the American people voted for congratulations that is what we will get also with the advice

15:09

and consent of the Senate he can put anyone he wants into high positions in the government RIT

15:17

large but on that point you you may have seen that Trump put out a statement

15:22

online insisting that even though he's not in control yet even though the Democrats right now control the White

15:29

House President Joe Biden is still president even though the Democrats right now have a majority in the

15:34

Senate still Trump insisting this weekend that the Democrat should not be

15:40

allowed to confirm anyone including any Biden appointed judges over these next

15:45

two and a half months before Trump is actually sworn in as president and as an assertion that's nuts right you're not

15:51

president now my guy and Republicans don't control the Senate right now so you and Republicans have no control you

15:57

have no say over whether or not Biden and the Democrats choose to pass more

16:03

you know confirmations before you you take power you don't you don't get a say in that you're not in power

16:08

yet and to be clear after Biden won the presidential election in 2020 and Democrats won the Senate at the same

16:15

time when the Republicans were on their way out of power and they knew it they

16:20

had a gazillion confirmations they confirmed at least 32 people in that time period after the

16:26

2020 election everything from the surface trans Transportation board to the state department to the Federal Reserve to the doj to the Tennessee

16:33

Valley Authority that they confirmed more than 30 people to jobs like that after Biden and the Democrats won the

16:40

2020 election but before Trump and the Republicans had left town and handed over

16:46

power just in that time period the Republicans after the 2020 election but before Biden's

16:52

inauguration republicans in Congress when they weren't helping Trump with his effort to overthrow the government by force and stay in power thanks to an

16:59

angry armed mob attacking Congress uh when they weren't busy with that they were busy confirming Trump judges after

17:07

the election after Trump lost election in 2020 but before Biden was sworn in Republicans in the Senate confirmed

17:13

appeals court judges and district court judges tons of federal judges including Eileen Canon remember her who then

17:19

proceeded in South Florida to throw out what otherwise looked like an open and shut criminal case about Trump illegally

17:25

hoarding and mishandling classified documents which he hid in his bathroom among other places at maral

17:33

Lago they confirmed tons of people after they lost the election in 2020 before

17:39

the Democrats came into power at the end of January 2025 the idea that it would be somehow

17:46

improper now for the Democrats to do the same thing for the Democrats to spend this next two and a half months

17:52

confirming Biden nominees including judges say that there's something wrong with that or Republicans should stop

17:58

that or the republ Republicans can stop that it's just an absurd suggestion Republicans confirmed people at great

18:05

speed after they lost power in 2020 Democrats will do so presumably with equivalent speed right now after they

18:12

lost this election the White House at least said they would do so today in a statement brushing Trump back telling

18:20

him to back off his threats to try to stop these confirmations even before he is back in power

18:28

here's here's the thing that I really want to point to here along with that absurd Bluster from Trump where he's

18:35

trying to pretend he's already in power right telling Democrats to behave as if Trump's already president and

18:40

Republicans already control the Senate which they don't aside from that which is pushing it big

18:45

guy Trump also said one other thing about confirming people for positions in the government he said he wants the new

18:52

Senate once they're sworn in in January to go into recess he wants them to recess to to

19:01

leave town so that there's no Senate in session to confirm his

19:06

nominees for the new Administration now on the surface level you might think this makes no sense Republicans are

19:11

going to control the Senate when they're back in January it's not like Trump era Republicans are known for their independence and their willingness to

19:18

Buck Trump's wishes right whoever Trump wants to appoint to his government no matter how crazy the Republicans in the

19:23

Senate are going to approve everyone he asks for what do you think they're going to be offended right some like Tom

19:29

homman oh he's been spending time with the Jews did 911 guy yeah you think that

19:35

Republicans in the Senate are going to have a problem with that really I mean he's gonna have a

19:41

republican controlled Senate they will confirm his his appointees no matter who they are so why is Trump now telling the

19:49

Senate to go into recess to shut themselves down so they can't vote to

19:55

confirm his appointees why is he doing that he's doing that so

20:01

the Senate won't have to vote to confirm his appointees if the Senate isn't

20:07

recess he can make recess appointments he can just install people in their

20:12

positions without the Senate ever voting for them even though the Senate would definitely vote for them if they took a

20:18

vote he's telling the United States Senate to shut itself down so he can operate

20:24

independently and on his own even though they don't have any intention of stopping him he doesn't even want to

20:30

give them a say I draw your attention to this

20:35

because of all the discussion we have had as a country about Trump's you know dictator on day one promises his you

20:42

know authoritarian values and promises and threats one of the things that hasn't been talked about very much is

20:50

that we have a three-part system of government right co-equal branches of

20:55

government the Judiciary the legislature and the executive we have a three-part system of government but what's the

21:01

first rule of authoritarianism it's that there's one guy in charge right it's that there can

21:07

be no other source of authority in the government other than the dear leader so

21:12

if there has to be a congress well it certainly certainly shouldn't be a congress with any power it shouldn't be

21:18

a Congress that has any role in governing and frankly same thing for the

21:24

courts right this is something that I've been trying to raise Flags about in advance

21:30

and so I can you know sometimes you can just feel something is getting traction or not getting traction like can tell

21:35

this is not getting traction but I'm just going to keep saying it because this is what's coming we're already

21:40

seeing it watch for moves early on to consolidate power for him not just

21:47

within the executive branch which they are obviously doing right it's whole thing about firing all the civil servants firing all the carear

21:53

government employees what's that about doing it's about consolidating the executive branch so there's no source of

21:59

authority and no directive force in the executive branch at all other than the president himself that is about

22:05

consolidating the power of the executive branch but also look to him to

22:11

disempower to hollow out to neuter to sideline the other two branches of

22:18

government the legislature meaning the Congress and the Judiciary Trump does not fear being constrained by this

22:26

iteration of Congress right especially if the Republicans take the the house as well Trump doesn't fear being all that

22:32

constrained by courts not with John Roberts as Chief Justice on this Supreme Court he does not fear being constrained

22:40

by those parts of our government in anything he wants to do he's got them both on choke chains Frank

22:45

Frankly but it is important to any would be authoritarian to not just have The

22:53

Obedience of other portions of the government he needs to have their subservience to it must be that other

23:01

portions of the government cannot matter only he can matter there can't be three

23:06

coequal branches of government there can be one man who is the government and everything else is subservient to him

23:14

and on this point amid everything else we are learning about this transition and oh boy there is more to learn about it we're going to talk about it this

23:20

hour but amid everything else we are learning about this transition stick a flag in the fact that he is demanding that the US Senate shut itself down for

23:27

him even though it's going to be controlled by Republicans there is no rational reason why he should not want the United

23:34

States Senate to confirm his appointees unless he doesn't want the Senate to have that kind of job he doesn't want

23:41

the senate or the Congress to have any job frankly let SE right the state that's me authoritarian governance means

23:49

only one person matters and the rest of the government is just

23:55

decoration we are watching for that from him about the courts we are already seeing it from him

24:01

exceptions for instance in 2019 the pretty hard-right Republican senator from Wisconsin Ron Johnson he teamed up

24:08

with a group of Democrats including Progressive Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren to co-sponsor a

24:15

legitimately bipartisan bill that was called the presidential transition enhancement act the main purpose of it

24:21

was to try to smooth out the process of transitioning from one president to the next but also to handle possible

24:26

conflicts of interest while new president- elect is Staffing up among other things the bill required

24:33

candidates to devise an Ethics plan quote an agreement that the eligible candidate will Implement and enforce an

24:39

Ethics plan to guide the conduct of the transition that bipartisan sort of good

24:46

government Reform Bill uh passed the Senate by unanimous consent not a single Senator opposed it uh the bill then

24:52

passed the House of Representatives on a Voice vote again no opposition and in March of 2020 on super Tuesday in fact

24:59

um Donald Trump signed it into law and despite what you're thinking which is what Donald Trump signed an

25:06

Ethics law uh it wasn't that much of a surprise at the time right Republicans were involved in crafting the legislation it

25:13

was a unanimous Passage through the the house and the Senate also Trump's own team uh said that there were things

25:20

about the transition process that they did not like either which they thought this bill would fix so Trump signed it bipartisan reform

25:29

of the presidential transition act inspired in part by the concerns of the Trump Team Crafted in part by prot Trump

25:34

far-right members of Congress signed by Trump in 2020 well now it's transition

25:40

time again it's time to put it all in place and so now naturally here's the

25:45

lead from The New York Times quote president-elect Donald J Trump has

25:51

not yet submitted a legally required ethics pledge stating he will avoid conflicts of interests and other ethical

25:56

concerns while in office raising concerns that his refusal to do so will hamper the smooth transition to

26:03

power and yes this is the very same ethics pledge from the bipartisan bill

26:09

that Trump himself signed into law he's not signing it he's apparently ignoring all the requirements of that law

26:15

including according to the New York Times blowing through the September 1st deadline to sign the transition

26:21

agreement with the general Services Administration why is that important well that provides for a variety of

26:26

services to be made available to the president El including $7 million in funding for the cost of the transition

26:32

that provision also puts a quote $5,000 cap on individual donations to the

26:37

transition and requires the public disclosure of all its donors by refusing to sign that agreement Trump effectively

26:44

faces No Limit on contributions and does not need to name his donors publicly and

26:51

here's the best part money raised by the transition is not regulated by any other government

26:56

agency so not to bottom line this too bluntly but what this means is that Trump in the transition appears to be

27:03

setting himself up to take unlimited funds from anywhere he doesn't have to disclose where it's from and he can use

27:11

that money for any purpose with no oversight what could possibly go wrong

27:17

would you like to pay a bribe to the president-elect do you know where the mail slot is that's marked transition

27:25

office joining us now is Ken beninger a politics reporter for the New York Times he broke this story Mr benzinger I

27:31

really appreciate you making time to be here thank you thank you Rachel I want to ask you

27:37

about the ethics and potential corruption concerns here but I also want to ask you about whether this holdup

27:42

means that there isn't a transition happening meaning that the the literal

27:47

transition to a new government in which the president-elect and his team get into the agencies and start learning

27:54

what's there and what needs to be done start seeing where their desks are and their filing cabinets none of that can happen in addition to

28:01

some of these concerns about money right yeah that's right until the proper

28:06

Agreements are signed and until the ethics plan is submitted uh the B Administration is legally prohibited

28:13

from opening any of its doors opening its files even providing national security briefings to the Trump

28:19

transition so it's like a total wall they can't give them anything the Biden Administration would be in violation of

28:25

the law and they're not going to uh break that law at least so far far they said they haven't and what that means is that that the Trump transition has seen

28:31

nothing they have the kind of things you normally have in a transition having people getting access to uh different uh

28:37

agencies um sharing of files of getting people in so they can in the next 70 days prepare to take over the federal

28:44

government is simply totally not happening and it's because of the Trump transition's refusal to sign the two

28:50

agreements it was required to do in September and October and uh provide the ethics plan that conforms to federal law

28:58

is it your sense and this may be a question that's unanswerable but is it your sense from your reporting that they

29:04

intend to sign those pledges so that the transition can go ahead or is it your

29:09

sense that they do not intend to sign those pledges and they in fact just don't intend to have a transition they

29:16

just intend to show up um on the 20th 20th of January so one thing is is my sense and

29:23

the other is what they say and what they they've been saying to me and others is that of course are going to sign all the

29:28

necessary agreements and they're going to get it done they first told me that in early October that they were going to

29:34

do it and of course it's now more than a month um since I had the conversation and they haven't signed anything people

29:40

inside the federal government are telling me that they really have made no progress in terms of getting them to

29:45

sign anything now the the uh fact of the matter is that the one agreement with the general Services Administration that

29:51

you mentioned um probably could uh never get signed and it wouldn't hinder the transition as much as the other one

29:58

which is crucial that's with the white house that's the one that sets the guidelines for for providing access to

30:04

all the agencies which sets up the national security briefings that allows the real transition to happen and if

30:10

that's not signed we're looking at a situation where Trump and all of his appointees and all the people that he

30:16

wants to work in his new Administration would have to walk into you know 400 plus federal agencies completely cold on

30:22

January 20th with no prior preparation people who follow these kind of things that worries them a lot because um they

30:29

believe at the moment where any Administration or anytime the US government is it's most vulnerable is in

30:35

these transition moments that if there was ever a risk of a foreign attack or foreign cyber Espionage or anything like

30:41

that it's going to happen in those transition moments and we're looking at a situation where the Trump uh the new

30:46

incoming Trump Administration would have zero preparation they'd be coming in completely cold the metaphor I think of

30:52

as sort of like taking the final exam without ever having gone to class

30:58

I'm trying not to use words like final even in metaphors these days um but it seems like an appropriate use um in this

31:05

context Ken benzinger the purpose of Memorial was to memorialize and and tell the stories of the oppression and the

31:12

Bloodshed of the Stalin era it was one of the most important repositories of information about the brutal past of the

31:19

Soviet Union Memorial the organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in

31:25

2022 but stories about the Russian government doing bad things even doing bad things decades ago those are not

31:31

stories that Vladimir Putin likes and of course one of the Hallmarks of authoritarian rule is that there can't

31:37

be sources of information that compete with the dictator so three years ago Putin's

31:44

government shut Memorial down uh they first labeled Memorial a foreign agent

31:50

um which then was just a quick hop step and a jump to the Kremlin just ordering the group to be liquidated altogether

31:56

another branch of Memorial focused on present day human rights they were accused of supporting terrorism they got

32:03

shut down as well Putin's government also shut down the anti-corruption movement led by opposition leader Alexa

32:10

Naval how did he shut down naval's organization by labeling it an extremist organization which is the same label the

32:16

Russian government gives to Isis and Al-Qaeda one key signifier of

32:22

authoritarian drift is leaders giving themselves wide powers to shut down

32:28

Society groups and media outlets and the easiest way of course to do that is to declare some kind of Emergency the

32:34

second easiest way to do that is to label groups you don't like as terrorists or as part of some nefarious

32:41

outside influence well today with 70 days to go until Donald Trump is sworn in for a

32:47

second term as president this is probably not a great time for the United States Congress to be considering a bill

32:55

that would willingly hand over to the executive branch new wide latitude to unilaterally

33:01

declare non-governmental organizations and media Outlets to be

33:06

terroristic and yet that appears to be the plan in the House of Representatives Republican leaders tomorrow are expected

33:13

to FastTrack a bill that would allow the Secretary of the Treasury whoever Trump appoints to that role um to essentially

33:20

shut down any non-profit organization in the country that he or she declares to be a terrorist supporting organization

33:29

the ACLU has joined more than 120 different human rights charitable and journalism organizations in urging

33:35

lawmakers to vote against this bill I have to tell you back in April incredibly an earlier version of this

33:40

bill got overwhelming support from almost every Republican and Democrat in the House of

33:47

Representatives now with a trump Administration on the horizon this bill presumably looks very different to

33:53

members of Congress who have their eyes open one Democrat who didn't opposed this bill the last time around now tells

34:00

the intercept that he will likely vote against it this time again this is expected to be voted

34:06

on in the house tomorrow even if the bill does pass the house there's no reason to expect that the Senate will

34:11

take it up as long as the Senate is controlled by democrats Democrats obviously have a lot of other priorities

34:16

in the last days before Trump takes office but if you're worried about Trump's stated desire to go after those

34:23

he considers to be his enemies and you're looking for ways the legislative tracking a bill expected to bring it up

34:28

tomorrow which would allow the Trump Administration to essentially shut down any nonprofit organization in the

34:34

country by declaring that nonprofit to be a quote terrorist supporting

34:40

organization joining us now is Ezra L from indivisible which is one of the groups trying to Marshall opposition to

34:45

the bill Ezra as a former Congressional staffer a co-founder of the indivisible movement in 2016 you know indivisible

34:51

from their successful organizing against the Trump Administration the first time around including their heroic and

34:57

ultimately successful organizing to save Obamacare today with a second Trump term on the horizon Ezra was on Capitol Hill

35:04

meeting with lawmakers he's actively involved in writing a new indivisible guide a new instruction manual for

35:10

indivisuals uh specific brand of of practical Grassroots locally based

35:15

opposition uh this time to the second Trump Administration um Ezra it's really

35:20

nice to see you thanks very much for being here tonight great to talk Rachel so indivisible is one of the

35:27

groups along with the ACLU and more than a hundred other civil society groups that are calling on Congress to reject

35:33

this bill what seems important about it to you look I do not know why on the

35:38

first day that Congress comes back into session after Donald Trump wins the

35:43

election that you would have Democrats in Congress voting to give him more power to go after his enemies that is

35:51

Bonkers to me and I think it's a real test to see if Democrats in this new

35:57

Trump era are willing to fight back in terms of the indivisible

36:02

approach to organizing um I have to we have to go back in time now Ezra and I want I want to ask you to sort of

36:10

nutshell the indivisible philosophy to that kind of practical locally based

36:15

Grassroots organizing that I described in the intro um how you developed it in in 2017 in the wake of trump being

36:21

elected the first time and whether or not that that basic ethos still guides what you're doing today

36:28

look Trump wants to think that he's all powerful and he wants you and everybody else to think he's all powerful but I

36:35

I'm sorry Rachel for the time being at least we still live in a Federated

36:40

National Democratic Republic and in that democratical Republic yes we've got Congress and we've got 50 state

36:47

republics where there are 19,000 Villages and cities and towns and unincorporated areas where 335 million

36:54

Americans live and vote for hundreds of thousands of elected officials every single drop of political power in this

37:00

country flows from the people every single drop of it and it doesn't flow up to Donald Trump it flows through the

37:06

local level and the state level and the national level but it's geographically based so the key Insight in the

37:13

indivisible guide didn't come from us it came from years and years of organizing on the left and the right we saw the Tea

37:20

Party do this what they recommended folks do was focus on their local area where they live get folks together

37:28

organize them and then focus on your elected officials whether they're City elected officials County elected

37:34

officials State elected officials or federal elected officials and in this moment where you've got Donald Trump and

37:39

what looks like a republican Trifecta coming after us using a slim election

37:45

margin to justify a deeply unpopular policy agenda in this moment what we

37:51

have the power to do is to organize locally and tell our elected officials

37:57

just say no fight back do not give this guy power that he does not have that's

38:05

what we did in 2017 and 2018 to as you said to save Obamacare and also to build

38:10

the largest midterm margins in the history of the Republic in 2018 and take back the

38:16

house Ezra um obviously the election results um this time around didn't land

38:23

with the same shock value as they did in 2016 uh after Trump had been elected once I think everybody implicitly knew

38:30

that it could at least theoretically happen again but I wanted to ask what you're hearing from indivisible members

38:36

um and what you're also hearing from people who may be interested in joining indivisible groups around the country you haven't put out any sort of official

38:43

call I know for people to form new indivisible groups or to collectively start organizing in any way but I'm

38:48

wondering what you're hearing just in this first week in terms of people's enthusiasm for doing the kind of work

38:53

you're talking about yeah so Rachel it's it's been week and if folks will recall

38:59

we put out the uh original indivisible guide it was in mid December and I've heard a lot of talk of oh gosh it's been

39:06

a few hours it's been a few days where are the massive crowds where is the resistance here's what I've seen talking

39:12

to folks around the country I joined Statewide indivisible groups in Georgia this weekend and they did a little poll

39:18

they asked their members how are you feeling right now what are you going through and folks are feeling everything they're feeling angry they're feeling

39:24

scared but the number one response from the Georgia indivisible group 70%

39:31

determined we saw 11,000 of our members join us the day after the election and

39:36

then we joined with move on and Working Families party and others to hold a nationwide call the next day 1,000

39:43

people joined we haven't yet put out a new guide it's going to be coming out on Wednesday but the number one thing we're

39:49

going to be calling on folks to do is gathering your community so if you're interested in that go to indivisible.org

39:54

come check it out and reach out to a few friends and family members and start talking about what you're going to do in

40:00

this moment to fight back as Rel co-founder of indivisible online at indivisible.org uh thanks for

40:08

being here and keeping us posted uh we'll be talking to you in an ongoing way in weeks ahead as I'm sure of it

40:13

thank you so much looking forward Rachel

40:26

thanks

40:56

e

Watch the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OHN1pAG2rA

that's a pirate video on YouTube where I lift these transcripts so easily 

weblogged by Kay Ebeling, continuing