Rachel Maddow: The thing that rattles my molars the most

[Soph0571]

“One last piece of this that I think is worth underscoring, cause this is this the thing that rattles my molars the most out of the revelations from this crisis today and it is from The New York Times, it’s about Barr’s installing of this team of overseers in d.c. for sensitive cases that relate to the president. Over the past two weeks, the outside prosecutors have begun grilling line prosecutors in the Washington office about various cases — some public, some not — including investigative steps, prosecutorial actions and why they took them, according to the people. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal deliberations … And how do we get our legal system back when these guys are done with it? How do we get those cases back if they’re improperly touched?”

How can democracy exist when the executive actively seeks to destroy the fundamentals of the rule of law. November cannot come soon enough...

[Pachamama]

1. .."some public, some not"...

What is “some not”?



This......

[BlancheSplanchnik]

2. Well, that rattled my molars, too!

I trust Rachel’s explanations. This is scary.

[czarjak]

3. Mighty convenient for a crook.

[Dennis Donovan]

4. Thank you for posting this. Rachel's been ringing the klaxon about the degradation of DoJ

As much as people here (and elsewhere) want to bitch about the generic "MSM", remember the the Media is our final bulwark against autocracy. Support them whenever you can. We lost McClatchy recently. Let's not lose any more.

BTW, here's what happens to journalists in autocracies:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/he-showed-me-a-lawless-border-town-then-masked-gunmen-killed-him-in-front-of-his-family/2020/02/14/53693762-4eb5-11ea-967b-e074d302c7d4_story.html


Friends and relatives of Leo Veras, a Brazilian journalist, accompany his coffin to the Ponta Porã cemetery Thursday. (Marciano Candia/AP)

By Terrence McCoy

Feb. 14, 2020 at 5:16 p.m. EST

RIO DE JANEIRO — What do you say about a death as horrific as this? What do you say about a man who was murdered by two masked intruders inside his home, in front of his family, while they ate dinner? What do you say, except: His name was Leo, and he was a journalist, and I knew him.

In the parlance of foreign correspondence, Leo Veras, 52, was my fixer. A beat reporter in the lawless border town of Ponta Porã — where Brazil’s most powerful gangs wage war for control of smuggling routes — he helped me report a recent story on the illegal pesticides trade. He arranged interviews with cops, ­politicians and crooks. He introduced me to his wife and two young children. He shared every meal with me. He made me laugh. He made me promise I wouldn’t leave the hotel without him. He kept me safe.

Dogged, resourceful, glad-handing, chain-smoking, ebullient — he was all of those things, a mishmash of qualities somehow reduced to a few shattering words in the Thursday morning news story: “Journalist Leo Veras shot dead in his own house.”

One more dead journalist in a world where truth-seeking is under attack and its practitioners are increasingly viewed as enemies rather than participants in democracy. Hundreds of journalists across the world are in jail, and dozens more were killed last year, with many of the murders going unsolved, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

</snip>

[jayschool2013]

8. Thank you NT

[DeeDeeNY]

5. Very scary!

[paleotn]

6. And it's not just the current pResident...

We now have 30 to 40% of the populace that really doesn't want it back. They like dictators. They like being able to openly hate those they hate. They like imposing their views on the rest of the country, by force if necessary. It's fun for them and they won't easily give it up.

We have an entire political party dedicated to arbitrary justice and might or wealth makes right. That's been a thing among some Republicans since Nixon. That group has now co-opted the entire party and can do their fascist thing publicly. In fact, their voters encourage it. If they're not un-American enough, their voters will turn on them. All in the name of being "real" Amurkins. It's surreal.

The nation hasn't faced an existential threat like this since the Civil War and most in the 30 - 40% above are STILL fighting that 154 years later. Even after IQ45, these wounds won't heal anytime soon and may yet be fatal. Sorry, but I'm very pessimistic on this rather cold, Saturday morning.

[Thomas Hurt]

7. Totalitarian political officers installed to make sure the cover up is complete or that

the investigations turn out with the appropriate consequences for Dear Leader.

[Ruby the Liberal]

9. This is terrifying

So grateful for her staying on top of this. I wish it was only my molars rattling.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

10. If we get

Dems in the presidency get the house and Senate,why not do a signing statement that negates everything that trump did to harm our country during his tenure,with the Patriot act,that abomination can be used ruthlessly by Dems too ya know. As next election nears there won't be a Patriot act,a citizens United,and many other things that harm our government left standing and if things are changed correctly we won't have Ogliarchic tyrants messing up our democracy again or at least for a very long time.