#OTD in 1973, the Senate Watergate hearings began, marking one of the most infamous events in American political history and reshaping public trust in government and media. Relive this pivotal moment in history by exploring the complete "gavel to gavel" coverage with the AAPB’s The Watergate Hearings Collection: https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-6688g8g717
That's why I said, "...should be ruled unconstitutional,..." It might not be, given the fact that the complete institutional setup was meant to protect the WASP landed gentry.
How inadequate the system.of checks and balances has proven to be could be seen by the repeatedly failed attempts to hold rogue office holders to account: #OJohnRogge, #Agnew, #Nixon, #Trump, #Alito,...the systemic failures even have a tendency to grow worse.
On Thursday, the #scotus will be hearing arguments where lawyers for the criminal defendant are arguing that all former presidents are forever immune from criminal prosecution for any official acts done in office.
Failure to respect the election of a new President, is the ultimate crime against the people, who are the basis of government. The President, by constitutional design, should have no role- official or unofficial-in the determination of the people's
vote. Immunity for the crimes here alleged would be most abhorrent to the Framers, because immunity would upset the constitutional scheme and aid a President in overriding the people's power over him.
The Framers would also have been appalled that Trump, despite having left office, seeks permanent immunity. As a Federalist wrote for the Maryland ratifying convention:
It seems, however, that the president may possibly be continued for life. He may so, provided he deserve it.
@Marijke@skykiss of course it is. Remember he follows Nixon. "Well, when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal." That is why #PresFord should never have pardoned #Nixon and why #kavanaugh is wrong. Most of us who lived through that nightmare believe it was wrong.
Last night I dreamed [energy drink brand] released a limited edition "Milk" flavor. The can had Nixon on it. Looked at the ingredients and it had pineapple in it, referencing his last White House meal.
@DrRGST@gwadej Please note that before anyone blames #Reagan, that graph started to diverge and get shaky in the early 1970s. The apotheosis of #Keynes’ #economics was 1971’s #Nixon Shock; after that a brief reactionary blip into #Friedman’s #monetarism as the decade ended.
We’ve been living with the worst of both worlds since the mid-80s as central planners try to ride herd on the #inflation of floating fiat currencies.
Like Donald #Trump, scandal followed Richard #Nixon throughout his political career.
Like Trump, Nixon positioned himself as the defender of the common person against the political elite.
Like Trump, Nixon made expansive claims of immunity.
And, like Trump, Nixon always managed to claw his way back into the political forefront.
Today in Labor History March 18, 1970: The first mass work stoppage in the 195-year history of the U.S. Postal Service began on this date in New York City. The walkout was illegal, giving President Richard Nixon the excuse to send in federal troops to sort the mail. But the strike succeeded in forcing Congress to raise wages and reorganize the postal system and marked a new militancy among postal employees.
The best #republicans could summon to make that vision a reality is a #criminal#defendant#trump. It’s been a slow decline since #nixon and only the criminal elements remain.
“There comes a point,” Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote in 1949, “where this court should not be ignorant as judges of what we know as men.”
The #SupremeCourt’s decision on Wed to schedule arguments in April to consider #Trump’s argument that he is #immune from prosecution seemed colored by the lack of that #perspective.
People who had been rooting for #SCOTUS to reject Trump’s appeal entirely, whether by denying review of or summarily affirming an appeals court ruling against #Trump, misunderstand the [this] court’s conception of its own #power & #importance. The justices seem to think that decisions of such #constitutional significance, as in broadly similar cases concerning claims of #immunity from Presidents #Nixon & #Clinton, ought to be settled by the nation’s highest court.
Politics of days past made #impeachment a way to escape conviction by law of a federal officer.
1875ish
"Grant blundered in accepting the hurried resignation of Secretary of War William W. Belknap, who was impeached on charges of accepting bribes; because he was no longer a government official, Belknap escaped conviction."
Hey, remember when the #Nixon campaign secretly reached out to N Vietnam and told them to nix a peace deal because, if Nixon wanted to run against Humphrey on the war issue?
Remember when the #Reagan campaign covertly assured Iran if they just kept holding those hostages, Reagan would give them more than Carter would?
Now we have #Trump, pressuring the GOP to shoot down US border funding and Ukraine aid, because he wants to run on those campaign items.
One more remark on yesterday's #elections in #Taiwan: I read a lot of comments from folks furious at #Biden for his statement that the #UnitedStates do not support Taiwan's #independence.
Biden's statement is perfectly consistent and in-line with long-standing US position and policy known as the #ThreeNoes:
no to independence of Taiwan
no to unilateral changes of the status quo
no to violence or annexation
If you want to be angry at someone, let that be #Nixon and #Kissinger.
New York Times columnist Tom Wicker (who had been on Richard #Nixon's secret list of political opponents in the early '70s) wrote in 1989 about what an overturn of Roe v. Wade would mean for #Republicans who see it to fruition, and the support that would accrue to #Democrats who stand up for #reproductiverights.
We may find out this fall if Wicker's prediction vis-a-vis #abortion was correct.
Today in Labor History December 29, 1970: President Nixon signed the Occupational Safety and Health Act into law. Ever since, successive administrations have whittled away at the efficacy of this agency, which was designed to protect workers. Nevertheless, a study in 2012, published in the journal “Science,” found a 9.4% reduction in workplace injuries and a 26% reduction in the cost of workplace injuries since 1970. They also found that these reductions came at no additional cost to business or consumers. A 2020 study by the “American Economic Review” found that President Obama’s press releases that named and shamed companies that were violating OSHA had the same effect on improving compliance by other companies as having 210 inspections.
In 2022, there were 5,486 fatal workplace injuries in the U.S., a 5.7 % increase from 2021, a rate of 3.7 deaths per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers.
Every time when I read ab. the ridiculous claims of Trump's "presidential immunity", I recall the day when Pres. Ford pardoned Pres. Nixon for his crimes. Ford believed that the nation had to put Nixon's criminal acts behind us.
But Nixon's authorization of a burglary of the Democratic National Committee was an attempt to interfere with the 1972 election and should have been prosecuted.
Smith acknowledges Trump's appeal on immunity ruling "suspends" the March 4 date. He's urging the high court to resolve it so the case can proceed"promptly."
#SpecialCounsel#JackSmith asked #SCOTUS to use certiorari before judgment, an unusual procedure typically used in cases involving national crises, like #Nixon’s refusal to turn over tapes.
Smith wrote, “the circumstances warrant expedited proceedings.” He added, “The public importance of the issues, the imminence of the scheduled trial date, & the need for a prompt & final resolution of respondent’s immunity claims counsel in favor of this court’s expedited review at this time.”
"Henry Kissinger died on Wednesday at his home in Connecticut, his consulting firm said in a statement. The notorious war criminal was 100. …
The infamy of Nixon's foreign-policy architect sits, eternally, beside that of history's worst mass murderers. A deeper shame attaches to the country that celebrates him."
"Washington, D.C., November 29, 2023 - Henry Kissinger’s death today brings new global attention to the long paper trail of secret documents recording his policy deliberations, conversations, and directives on many initiatives for which he became famous—détente with the USSR, the opening to China, and Middle East shuttle diplomacy, among them.
"This historical record also documents the darker side of Kissinger’s controversial tenure in power: his role in the overthrow of #democracy and the rise of #dictatorship in #Chile; disdain for #HumanRights and support for dirty, and even #genocidal, wars abroad; secret bombing campaigns in #SoutheastAsia; and involvement in the #Nixon administration’s criminal abuses, among them the secret wiretaps of his own top aides.
"To contribute to a balanced and more comprehensive evaluation of Kissinger’s legacy, the National Security Archive has compiled a small, select dossier of declassified records—memos, memcons, and 'telcons' that Kissinger wrote, said and/or read—documenting TOP SECRET deliberations, operations and policies during Kissinger’s time in the White House and Department of State.
"The revealing 'telcons'—over 30,000 pages of daily #transcripts of Kissinger’s phone conversations which he secretly recorded and had his secretaries transcribe—were taken by Kissinger as 'personal papers' when he left office in 1977 and used, selectively, to write his best-selling memoirs.
"The National Security Archive forced the U.S. government to recover these official records by preparing a lawsuit that argued that both the State Department and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) had inappropriately allowed classified U.S. government documentation to be removed from their control. Archive senior analyst William Burr filed a FOIA request for their declassification. The draft lawsuit—which was never filed—is included in this dossier, since Kissinger’s effort to remove, retain and control these highly informative and revealing historical records should be considered a critical part of his official legacy, and the full texts have been published in the Digital National Security Archive series from ProQuest.
"This special posting also centralizes links to dozens of previously published collections of documents related to Kissinger’s tenure in government that the Archive, led by the intrepid efforts of William Burr, has identified, pursued, obtained and catalogued over several decades. Together, these collections constitute an accessible, major repository of records on one of the most consequential U.S. foreign policy makers of the 20th century.
"'Henry Kissinger’s insistence on recording practically every word he said, either to the presidents he served (without their knowledge that they were being taped) or the diplomats he cajoled, remains the gift that keeps on giving to diplomatic historians,' remarked Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive.
"'Kissinger’s aides later commented that he needed to keep track of which lie he told to whom. Kissinger tried to keep those documents under his own control. His deed of gift to the Library of Congress would have kept them closed until five years from now, but the Archive brought legal action and forced the opening of secret documents that show a decidedly mixed picture of Kissinger’s legacy, and enormous catastrophic costs to the peoples of Southeast Asia and Latin America.'"
"Kissinger struck a deal with the Library of Congress that, until five years after his death, blocks researchers from seeing his papers there unless they have his written permission.
Even if you could get in, according to the Library of Congress, many of Kissinger’s most important papers are still hidden from daylight by a thicket of high-level classifications, security clearances, and need-to-know permissions.
Kissinger did not reply to two polite requests for an interview, and then, four months later, refused outright.
But against Nixon and Kissinger’s own misrepresentations and immortal stonewalling, there is a different story to be found in thousands of pages of recently declassified U.S. papers, in dusty Indian archives, and on unheard hours of the White House tapes—offering a more accurate, documented account of Nixon and Kissinger’s secret role in backing the perpetrators of one of the worst crimes of the twentieth century."
"The Bangladesh genocide, also known as the Gonohotta (Bengali: গণহত্যা Gaṇahatyā), was the ethnic cleansing of Bengali Hindus residing in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) during the Bangladesh Liberation War, perpetrated by the Pakistan Armed Forces and the Razakars.
It began on 25 March 1971, as Operation Searchlight was launched by West Pakistan (now Pakistan) to militarily subdue the Bengali population of East Pakistan.
In the nine-month-long conflict that ensued, Pakistani soldiers and local pro-Pakistan militias killed between 300,000 and 3,000,000 Bengalis and raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bengali women in a systematic campaign of mass murder and genocidal sexual violence."
"As its most important international backer, the United States had great influence over Pakistan.
But at almost every turning point in the crisis, Nixon and Kissinger failed to use that leverage to avert disaster.
Before the shooting started, they consciously decided not to warn Pakistan’s military chiefs against using violence on their own population.
They did not urge caution or impose conditions that might have discouraged the Pakistani military government from butchering its own citizenry.
They did not threaten the loss of U.S. support or even sanctions if Pakistan took the wrong course.
They allowed the army to sweep aside the results of Pakistan’s first truly free and fair democratic election, without even suggesting that the military strongmen try to work out a power-sharing deal with the Bengali leadership that had won the vote.
They did not ask that Pakistan refrain from using U.S. weaponry to slaughter civilians, even though that could have impeded the military’s rampage, and might have deterred the army.
There was no public condemnation — nor even a private threat of it — from the president, the secretary of state, or other senior officials.
Nixon and Kissinger bear responsibility for a significant complicity in the slaughter of the Bengalis.
This overlooked episode deserves to be a defining part of their historical reputations.
But although Nixon and Kissinger have hardly been neglected by history, this major incident has largely been whitewashed out of their legacy—and not by accident.
Kissinger began telling demonstrable falsehoods about the administration’s record just two weeks into the crisis, and has not stopped distorting since.
Nixon and Kissinger, in their vigorous efforts after Watergate to rehabilitate their own respectability as foreign policy wizards, have left us a farrago of distortions, half-truths, and
outright lies about their policy toward the Bengali atrocities."
Good day to remind everyone of the guy who will be feted, mourned, and deified nationally and internationally as a "Grand strategist", "Mr. Realpolitik", 'Statesman", "Great Man of History" etc., etc.,
Everyone knows about the Vietnam war, and what happened in "Indo-China", much less so around the same time what happened in South Asia from 1970-71. Remains one of the toughest books I have ever read.