31 Comments
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Darlalivesinvenice's avatar

You are the only person to have mentioned the requirement that the communication be archived. Thank you for your accurate journalism

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Joan's avatar

THIS all day - every day. I still want to know about the secret conversation with Putin without an interpreter or aide in 2018. This avoidance of accountability and secrecy seems to be not only fashionable but required.

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Brenda Yocom's avatar

Ms Joan, it has been known for decades that Putin is fluent in English. The whole interpreter thing is a gimmick so that Putin has more time to consider his answer, plus make little aside comments.

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Larry McGinnity's avatar

(The clown-car Signalgate "What chats?" scabdal notwithstabding, this is still relevant: ) With the anticipated thousands [million+?] of heroic protestors on April 5th (actually any and all days!) here's an updated partial list of those fighting back every day [as of 3-25-25). I'm also adding courageous law firms who haven't caved. Besides upstanding lawyers, and law-abiding honorable (present and former) judges (including James Boasberg, chief judge, D.C. District Ct.), here's a growing list of Profiles in Courage men, women, and advocacy groups who refuse to be cowed or kneel to the force of Trump/Musk/MAGA/Fox "News" intimidation:

I'll begin (again) with Missouri's own indomitable Jess[ica] (à la John Lewis's "get in good trouble") Piper/"The View from Rural Missouri," then, in no particular order, Heather Cox Richardson/"Letters from an American," Joyce Vance/"Civil Discourse," Bernie Sanders, AOC, Gov. Tim walz, Sarah Inama, Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Jasmine Crockett, Ruth Ben-Ghait, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell, Chris Hayes, Ali Velshi, Stephanie Miller, Gov. Janet Mills, Gov. Beshear, Gov. JB.Pritzker,J im Acosta, Jen Rubin And the Contrarians, Dan Rather, Robert Reich, Jay Kou, Steve Brodner, Rachel Cohen, Brian TylerCohen, Jessica Craven, Scott Dworkin, Anne Applebaum, Lucian Truscott IV, Chris Murphy, Jeff Merkley, Elizabeth Warren, Tammy Duckworth, Adam Schiff, Elyssa Slotkin, Delia Ramirez,Tim Snyder, Robert B. Hubbell, Ben Meiseilas, Rich wilson, Ron Filpkowski, Jeremy Seahill, Thom Hartmann, Jonathan Bernstein, Simon Rosenberg, Marianne Williamson, Mark Fiore, Jamie Raskin, Rebecca Solnit, Steve Schmidt, Josh Marshall, Paul Krugman, Andy Borowitz, Jeff Danziger, Ann Telnaes,­͏ ­͏Will Bunch, Jim Hightower, Dan Pfeifer, Dean Obeidallah, Liz Cheney, Adam Kimzinger, Cassidy Hutchinson--

American Bar Association, Indivisible. FiftyFifty one, MoveOn, DemCast, Blue Missouri, Third Act, Democracy Forward, Public Citizen, Democracy Index, DemocracyLabs, Hands Off, Marc Elias/Democracy Docket, Public Citizen, League of Women Voters Lambda Legal, CREW, CODEPINK, ACLU, The 19th/Errin Haines et al. And, as Joyce Vance says, "We're in this together"--or via Jess Piper, from rural Missouri: "Solidarity." FIGHT BACK! WE ARE NOT ALONE! (Latest addition h/t , Robert B. Hubbell: Law firms, see below). All suggestions are welcome.

* Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling have resisted Trump, fighting back with the help of other courageous firms like Williams & Connolly. Per The ABA Journal,

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, representing fired inspectors general. (Law.com)

Hogan Lovells, seeking to block executive orders to end federal funding for gender-affirming medical care. (Law.com)

Jenner & Block, also seeking to block the orders on cuts to medical research funding. (Law.com, Reuters)

Ropes & Gray, also seeking to block cuts to medical research funding. (Law.com)

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, representing the Amica Center for Immigrants Rights and others seeking to block funding cuts for immigrant legal services. (Law.com)

Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer.

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Margareta Sjö's avatar

Hi,

I’m so pleased to hear about your resistance!!! Keep your spirits high, warm and inspired ❣️❣️❣️

In fact every day on Substack is such a relief and thrilling to read/listen to, It’s like getting a sincere warm hug from all my darling heroes! Everyone of you is inspiring, joyful, learning, entertaining and all other synonyms you can find out. Not to mention all the names of Mr trump

I’m ever so happy I found you (thanks to Robert Reich in the Guardian)

Warm greetings from the bottom of my heart in south of Sweden💙

Margareta

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Larry McGinnity's avatar

Thank you for the kind words from Sweden. The Guardian is a treasure here. We are not alone--wherever we may be. (BTW I continue to update the list daily.L

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Brenda Yocom's avatar

Mr McGinnity, Representative Don Bacon from Nebraska, is a retired USAF General, who, when interviewed by PBS, indicated he is not going to let go of this debacle. He said it is the most dangerous, incompetent behavior by DOD and National Security in his lifetime. Let's hope he follows through, especially because he is a Republican.

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Larry McGinnity's avatar

Tnx for the info, Keep me posted. For a Republican to say that today is courageous--with all the crazies about.

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Larry McGinnity's avatar

PS If he continues to fight back I'll add him with Liz Cheney et al. Let me know. Thanks.

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Strong & Free 🍁's avatar

Honestly, as a non-American it is mind blowing that every single one of these people, including Trump is still in power! I know the GOP is corrupt and won’t hold them accountable but with enough public

Pressure, protests, more town halls, endless phone calls some of them have to have an ounce of integrity and do something? The entire world is in danger because of this idiocy and siding with Putin.

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Beth Witrogen's avatar

It's mind blowing to us Americans who didn't vote for this shitshow. Thank you for your support!! Keep your eyes on US because you can see better from the outside looking in. We are incarcerated here and people don't even realize it. Like the frog in a slow boil ...

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Strong & Free 🍁's avatar

The day Trump was elected I was on vacation and a ton of MAGA Americans were there. I was in my room crying because I knew what was coming. I had to go outside to a bunch of Trump shirts and MAGA caps and almost threw up. The rest of the world can see this but a good portion of America can’t. It’s heart breaking and scary.

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Beth Witrogen's avatar

I'm so sorry ... we are kindred. We need our global allies more than ever. I do believe they understand that we are being held hostage here and under siege. This is the moment of reckoning.

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Patricia's avatar

I felt the same way and to this very date still find myself crying and it is so painful to watch our country being destroyed by these crooks and not one republican in Congress having an ounce of integrity to stand up for our democracy.

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Beth Witrogen's avatar

I feel the same -- and it helps to know we are kindred spirits, there are more of us than we realize.

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Brenda Yocom's avatar

Ms Witrogen, my PBS station shows Deitsche Welle ( Germany's world news), France 24 (France's world news), BBC America ( British world news), NHK (Japan's world news), and PBS News Hour, which each of the other countries' world news is on 30 minutes and give the view outside the US of our difficulties. PBS News Hour, while not the lion it used to be, does not spew the lies and propaganda of Fox and Sinclair owned stations. Sinclair is the younger, smoother brother of Fox. An independent study of all media, including T.V., radio, podcasts, and ALL social media showed a WHOPPING 82% of it's RIGHT WING, very right wing. No wonder so many people believe Trump.....

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Beth Witrogen's avatar

Thank you Brenda -- there ARE news sources but too many people may be too lazy or too loyal ... I didn't know those statistics. So appreciate your comment and your caring. Thank you so much.

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Sharon C Storm's avatar

We have to keep getting louder in our calls for all of them on that Signal chat to step down. This is treasonous behavior! If the Democrats had done something of that ilk, they would never let up. That needs to be us now. We don’t have corporate media on our side, so we need to make as much noise as possible so they can’t block us out.

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Elena's avatar

It’s not just they are hopeless incompetent people but also evil, they are very much aware of what they are doing using Signal. As you accurately point, in doing so they are trying to evade any kind of accountability.

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Seitzinator's avatar

🎯

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JP4M's avatar

Thank you so much, Tristan Snell.

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Ginny Plihcik's avatar

Thank you!

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WelpThisIsTheBadPlace's avatar

We absolutely cannot stop talking about this. I want this to make to Benghazi look like a picnic. I cannot think of the last time I was this angry. https://open.substack.com/pub/welpthisisthebadplace/p/when-you-tweet-out-the-war-plans?r=5bjyhb&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

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Skteach's avatar

The view of their faces as the senator confronts them says it all they got caught and they know it. I’ve seen that look before when my students get caught in a lie.

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San's avatar

Hopefully this scandal will motivate our Democratic leaders. Please!!!!!

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Brenda Yocom's avatar

Tristan, this is what happens when you put a drunk in charge of DOD! Hegseth & Co are incompetent and liars to boot. Hegseth denied, dissembled, then, when Jeffrey Goldberg revealed the hard copy minus sensitive information that might identify military personnel on active duty, his comment was, " So what? " So what? So what? So, you used a disappearing, group chat, on personal cellphones, that could have been hacked by Iran, Putin, China, and would not remain available for presidential archives!! Hegseth should have to blow into a breathalyzer every ten minutes. A DRUNK CANNOT BE HEAD OF DOD!! All involved should be prosecuted for treason and/or espionage!

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Randy S. Eisenberg's avatar

I read this book a while ago, it’s not for everyone but everyone should know what happened sixty years ago, behind the headlines. (Apart from the three TV networks- 4 if PBS counts) - that’s all we had. And each other. Apologies if you’ve seen this elsewhere, it just seems kinda important about now. If just one person out of a hundred understands what happened and gleaned takeaways that might be relevant, it’s time and redundancy well worth it.

https://www.abebooks.com/Light-Burning-Dreams-Triumphs-Tragedies-Second/31753965803/bd

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nomadRuss's avatar

I have created a petition to restore integrity to the Office of Secretary of Defense, a critical role in these times of global turmoil. Please take a look and sign if you agree!

https://chng.it/JX55dCg7f9

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Stop the BS247's avatar

Why would the White House Secretary of Staff be present?

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Greg S.'s avatar

Congress won’t act on this. Mainstream media will waffle and rush to bury this.

UNLESS WE ACT!!

Call, write, text your representatives regardless of party and demand that they do their jobs. Investigate, actually do the job of congressional oversight. Don’t stop the pressure

Call, write or text the media. Demand the investigative journalism that has been lacking for years as media bent the knee and/or cowardly looked away

We’ve got the votes, we contribute to campaigns, we buy the products advertised on the fluffed up news casts and we subscribe to the whitewashed print media

THAT’S OUR POWER AND WE NEED TO APPLY IT TIL IT HURTS!!

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Strong & Free 🍁's avatar

I think this is a great plan if democracy hasn’t fallen by then and the fact that millions aren’t protesting in the streets has me very worried it won't last that long.

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