#96: Demanding Due Process

“It might be helpful for you to know that you are not alone. And that in the long, twilight struggle which lies ahead of us, there is the possibility of hope.”

“The Long Twilight Struggle.” Babylon 5, created and written by J. Michael Straczynski, Season 2, Episode 20, 1995.

Here’s what I’ve recently found interesting:

• Why fighting to protect due process matters;
• The surprisingly broad coalition joining the due process fight;
• Why Democrats should start talking seriously about impeachment;
• MAGA investors made a bad bet with Trump;
• Robert E. Lee was a traitor;
• The Nerd Reich wants Greenland;
• No, Donald Trump did not write The Art of the Deal;
• The millions whom Marco Rubio is sentencing to die;
• Baseball’s leaders don’t deserve Jackie Robinson; and
• Let’s not allow Trump to rewrite the history of the January 6, 2021, insurrection he instigated.

Here we go. I’m glad you’re here.

#1

• The United States Declaration of Independence (Link to National Archives)
• Trump told us the horrifying reason why Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not back in the U.S. (Chris Geidner, Law Dork, Link to Article)

I am relieved to learn that fighting for due process remains something a majority of the American people support.

We need to be clear that the Trump Regime’s decision to render Kilmar Abrego Garcia and over 270 other people to an El Salvador torture gulag without due process is a Constitutional emergency. No individual has the power to decide who is and who is not a criminal under our system of government if “innocent until proven guilty” has any meaning.

As attorney Asha Rangappa noted on the BlueSky:

Fighting for due process is in our national DNA. It dates back to the Declaration of Independence, where Thomas Jefferson and his co-writers included a list of grievances about King George III to justify the decision to rebel. The 16th-19th grievances are sadly all too relevant today:

Some enterprising Member of the House of Representatives may want to hit copy and paste while preparing their impeachment resolution.

The Trump Regime has embraced a Constitutional Crisis and has even mocked the Supreme Court because the real plan doesn’t end with undocumented immigrants. This is just the test case. The one that was supposed to work because of how awful the Regime wants us to believe those sent to El Salvador are. Who is going to defend terrorists?

But, as usual, the Trump Regime was sloppy. They sent someone to El Salvador who a Court had ordered could not be sent there. While they are claiming that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist, they have provided no proof of that claim.

It turns out, thankfully, that most Americans do not like to hear that a person was sent to a foreign torture gulag because of an “administrative error.” They also do not appreciate it when the president ignores a Supreme Court decision.

But the Trump Regime cannot stand down because their ultimate plan requires that Abrego Garcia stay in El Salvador. As Law Dork’s Chris Geidner writes:

Why do they not bring Abrego Garcia back?

That would, ultimately, destroy the plan.

The Trump administration wants to create a Schrodinger’s box — quite literally, the CECOT prison is that box — where anyone can be sent under an agreement between the U.S. government and El Savador’s government but at which point the U.S. government can claim to no longer have any authority because people within that box are in the custody of a foreign sovereign.

If they can get Abrego Garcia out of the box, the plan does not work.

The door that the George W. Bush Administration opened in the War on Terror has been blown off its hinges—as is typical when government officials are not held accountable for their illegal actions. The precedents created by black site renditions, CIA torture, and Guantanamo Bay existed for Stephen Miller and the Trump Regime to expand upon.

If the Trump Regime can keep Abrego Garcia and the other Venezuelans sent to El Salvador in that gulag, that precedent can be expanded upon to get troublesome U.S. citizens out of the way.

It’s a red line. It may be the red line because the right to due process is required for freedom. That’s why the founding generation included it in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

I was initially worried that too many people would not understand this dynamic. Those fears appear to have been misplaced, as a new coalition has been created to fight back, and more Democrats have found their opposition spines in the process.

#2

• Sen. Chris Van Hollen argues Trump administration’s actions in Abrego Garcia case ‘threaten everybody’s rights’ (Kaanita Iyer, CNN, Link to Article)
• Welcome to the Resistance, Bret Stephens (Dave Karpf, The Future, Now and Then, Link to Article)
• We Radicalized David Brooks (Melissa Ryan, Ctrl, Alt, Right, Delete, Link to Article)
• How a Judge Tells a President to F**k Off (Allison Gill, Breakdown, Link to Article)

It was great to see Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) take a risk and go to El Salvador and insist on meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia to ensure he was still alive.

Resisting an autocrat and defending Constitutional rights requires taking risks, and our political leaders should set an example by demonstrating such courage.

I am glad that Van Hollen has received so much credit for taking a stand on due process. He appeared on all five Sunday news programs today and did an excellent job with his messaging.

As Van Hollen told CNN today:

“I don’t think it’s ever wrong to fight for the constitutional rights of one person, because if we give up on one person’s rights, we threaten everybody’s rights,” Van Hollen said, adding, “Anyone who is not prepared to stand up and fight for the Constitution doesn’t deserve to lead.”

I hope other Democratic leaders see what can happen—support and media coverage—when they oppose the Trump Regime.

It turns out that the political coalition to defend this concept is broad. Really broad. Like, we are welcoming some unexpected people to the cause. As Dave Karpf explains:

There has been a marked shift within the Republic of Letters. David Brooks is calling for a “National Civic Uprising.” Bill Kristol is asking “where does the ‘Abolish ICE' movement go to get its apology?” And now even Bret Stephens (Bret Stephens!) is saying that Trump is trying to turn the United States into “a nation of toadies.”

Heck, even Joe Rogan is a member of the due process defenders. And the brazen defiance of the Trump Regime led a Reagan-appointed judge to use uncharacteristically blunt language in response.

Like Melissa Ryan, I’ve had to double-check some of these articles—like David Brooks’—because they seemed too good to be true.

Many of the people reading this newsletter have been working to protest the Trump Regime. So I wanted to close this section with what Ryan had to say about how important all of that work has been to what we witnessed this week. As she explains:

The Trump Regime’s continued escalation is terrifying. They’ve made it clear that they’re willing to do whatever it takes to destroy America from within and sell our nation for parts. And that they’re willing to harass, sue, and lock up anyone who tries to get in their way. But every week the defiance grows. More people and institutions join the fight, and defying the regime becomes a little less scary each time someone else stands up and says no more.

But the win doesn’t belong to the elites. It belongs to everyone who has put pressure on them, from calls to Congress and town meetings to protests, rallies, economic boycotts, and other forms of direct action. You created the space for all of this to happen. You’ve let them know that you are a force to be reckoned with. You’ve inspired people who previously thought they could probably ride out another four years of Trump to change course and fight. Keep going.

The work matters. Let’s continue fighting for our Constitution.

#3

• Some Democrats in Congress are starting to talk about impeachment. They’re right. (Andy Craig, MSNBC, Link to Article)

One of the powers political leaders have is to influence public opinion. They can take actions that will eventually change minds.

So, while impeaching Trump and removing him from office isn’t going to happen tomorrow, Democrats should start the conversation and force Republicans to defend an increasingly unpopular—and tyrannical—Trump Regime. As Andy Craig explains:

It is a severe failure of imagination to think his public support is some static fact of nature, or that the present crisis will not continue to escalate. As America slides into open authoritarianism and economic ruin, we can’t afford an opposition that, as MSNBC’s Chris Hayes recently told Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, is doing nothing more than “the kinds of things you’d be doing if Mitt Romney were president.”

As the government flings itself apart, we will keep coming back to the grim reality. Trump can’t be restrained, or reasoned with, or babysat for the next four years. The only way to bring power back under the rule of law is to remove a lawless man from power.

Members of Congress don’t swear an oath to defend the Constitution only if it tests well in a focus group, or with pundits and consultants. Nor does Republican opposition justify inaction. Refusing to do the right thing because you expect others won’t join is just another form of complying in advance.

Removing Trump from office is the Constitutional remedy. If this is a crisis—and it is—then Democrats must be willing to initiate this conversation.

It would signal to voters that they are willing to fight to defend our system of government. It would give people something around which to rally. It would force Republicans to defend the anti-Constitutional actions of the Trump-Musk Regime.

These are not normal times. Democrats must embrace every tool at their disposal, especially the ones included by the framers for this purpose in the Constitution.

#4

• I Hope MAGA Investors Enjoy the Crisis They Caused (Ryan Cooper, The American Prospect, Link to Article)
• Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All (Jane Mayer, The New Yorker, Link to Article)

One of the most famous tweets of all time describes conservative voters’ attempt to punish people they don’t like backfiring on themselves: “‘I never thought leopards would eat MY face,’ sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.” It’s a cliché at this point to cite this, but the tweet is only becoming more relevant as Donald Trump has unleashed the biggest leopard of all on a core source of his support: the financial industry. His deranged trade war with the entire planet is cratering markets around the world and may unleash a global financial crisis.

I realize not everyone is as online as I am, so I am glad Ryan Cooper opened his story by explaining the dynamic of MAGA supporters being harmed by the president they supported.

Just a few months ago, Wall Street and tech leaders were giddy over the economic growth the United States was about to experience. Cooper recalls some of this misplaced optimism:

A great many Trump-supporting financiers and business leaders thought they were ushering in the usual Republican regime of low taxes and lax regulation. Markets soared on the news of his election, reaching a peak in January. “I am quite optimistic that this administration is going to run a very, very pro-growth agenda,” said David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs. “I feel liberated,” a “top banker” told the Financial Times. “We can say ‘retard’ and ‘pussy’ without the fear of getting cancelled … it’s a new dawn.” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon even supported Trump’s tariff ideas outright. “Get over it,” he said at Davos in January.

Since then, with Trump plainly mentally unbalanced and Elon Musk tearing up the government structures that underpin American capitalism, markets had fallen by about 15 percent as of early April. And now, Wall Street is getting perhaps the most wholly gratuitous market crash in history—touched off not by a business failure or bank run, but by the dumbest president in history dropping a neutron bomb on the global trading system for no reason.

Our economic elite are not as smart as they believe. And now the leopards are coming for their faces.

When asked about the Trump-Musk Regime’s economic insanity, many members of Congress, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, have pointed to Trump supposedly being a great deal maker and the author of The Art of the Deal.

Of course, Trump didn’t write that book. Tony Schwartz did. In this 2016 New Yorker profile by Jane Mayer, Schwartz explains his regret for his part in creating the myth of Donald Trump, the competent businessman.

“I put lipstick on a pig,” he said. “I feel a deep sense of remorse that I contributed to presenting Trump in a way that brought him wider attention and made him more appealing than he is.” He went on, “I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead to the end of civilization.”

If he were writing “The Art of the Deal” today, Schwartz said, it would be a very different book with a very different title.

Yeah, he tried to warn us in 2016. As did so many people.

So let’s not allow Republicans like the Speaker to use the Art of the Deal as justification for Trump harming the United States economy. They know the truth.

#5

• The Myth of the Kindly General Lee (Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, Link to Article)

Earlier this month, we celebrated the anniversary of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House.

This traitor has been the beneficiary of a concerted effort to rehabilitate his image and justify his decision to betray his oath and kill United States soldiers.

Not holding Confederate leaders responsible for their treason has harmed our country. Allowing Robert E. Lee to be cleansed of his racism and support of slavery must not be allowed to continue. As Serwer writes in an all-too-relevant 2017 article:

To describe this man as an American hero requires ignoring the immense suffering for which he was personally responsible, both on and off the battlefield. It requires ignoring his participation in the industry of human bondage, his betrayal of his country in defense of that institution, the battlefields scattered with the lifeless bodies of men who followed his orders and those they killed, his hostility toward the rights of the freedmen and his indifference to his own students waging a campaign of terror against the newly emancipated. It requires reducing the sum of human virtue to a sense of decorum and the ability to convey gravitas in a gray uniform.

Robert E. Lee is one of the most significant traitors our nation has produced. We must not allow a propaganda campaign to rewrite that horrible history.

#6

• Greenland ‘Freedom City’? Rich donors push Trump for a tech hub up north (Rachael Levy and Alexandra Ulmer, Reuters, Link to Article)
• The Nerd Reich podcast, episode 1: The Network State (Gil Duran, The Nerd Reich, Link to Article)

I’ve written about Gil Duran’s coverage of our techbroligarch’s plans to replace democratic government with Network States based on cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence, and their own authoritarian power.

Many analysts have wondered why the Trump-Musk Regime has been so focused on taking over Greenland, including threats to invade a NATO ally. Rachel Levy and Alexandra Ulmer may have uncovered a big part of the puzzle:

As the Trump administration intensifies efforts to acquire Greenland from Denmark — or take it by force — some Silicon Valley tech investors are promoting the frozen island as a site for a so-called freedom city, a libertarian utopia with minimal corporate regulation, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The discussions are in early stages, but the idea has been taken seriously by Trump's pick for Denmark ambassador, Ken Howery, who is expected to be confirmed by Congress in the coming months and lead Greenland-acquisition negotiations, the people said. Howery, whose involvement with the idea hasn't been previously reported, once co-founded a venture-capital firm with tech billionaire Peter Thiel, a leading advocate for such low-regulation cities. Howery is also a longtime friend of Elon Musk, a top Trump advisor.

Freedom cities are just another name for a Network State. Better branding, even if the result is still dystopian.

I want to share Gil Duran’s new podcast for those of you who want to learn more about what Musk, Thiel, and other tech leaders are seeking to do. The first episode includes a deep dive into the Network State and why our techbroligarchs are so excited about getting rid of regulations and government oversight. After all, as Thiel once wrote, “democracy is no longer compatible with freedom.”

That’s what we are up against.

#7

• Count the Dead by the Millions (Tim Dickinson, Rolling Stone, Link to Article)
• Marco Rubio Lied (Daniel W. Drezner, Drezner’s World, Link to Article)

The United States Senate confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio by a 99-0 vote. That’s right: every Democrat supported their colleague in the hopes he’d be an adult in the room.

Instead, Rubio has been central to many of the Trump Regime’s most harmful actions. He lied about why Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk was seized from the streets of Medford, Massachusetts, last month. He sat silently while President Trump and Vice President Vance attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. He has championed the end of U.S. foreign aid programs.

That last choice is going to have deadly consequences around the world. As Tim Dickinson writes:

A new study models the impact of the implosion of U.S.-funded disease treatment and prevention in the developing world — and suggests that Elon Musk and Marco Rubio will go down as among history’s greatest monsters if funding and effective administration are not restored.

In short: Tens of millions will die, millions of them children.

<snip>

The findings shock the conscience. Cessation of U.S. aid will lead to people in poor countries dying, in genocidal proportions, of preventable and treatable diseases. That includes more than 15 million additional deaths from HIV/AIDS, more than 2 million additional casualties from tuberculosis, and nearly 8 million additional children dead of other maladies.

The numbers are stunning. This is how many people around the world will remember the United States. There was no reason to make these cuts so chaotic, even if we decided as a nation that these programs were no longer worthy of our support.

Marco Rubio oversees the decisions leading to these death tolls while proclaiming to be a devout Christian. I hope Democrats learn the lesson that anyone willing to serve Donald Trump cannot be trusted in office.

#8

• When Baseball Forgot Its Courage: MLB's DEI Capitulation (Parker Molloy, The Present Age, Link to Article)

The past week has been difficult for this baseball fan. In many years, that difficulty can be traced to a poor start by the Chicago Cubs. But this year, the problem is more significant.

Parker Molloy is also a Cubs fan. But she shares my disappointment about how Major League Baseball has capitulated to the Trump Regime about diversity and inclusion initiatives while pretending to care about what Jackie Robinson meant to the game.

Yes, the sport that loves to pat itself on the back every April 15th for Robinson’s breaking of the league’s color barrier couldn't even bring itself to mention the color barrier in its press release this year (they did mention it on some other pages on the MLB site, however). The same MLB that sells #42 jerseys, that produces emotional video packages about Robinson's courage, that uses his legacy to bolster its image as a progressive force in American culture, now can't find the courage to use the words “diversity” or “inclusion” in its official communications.

<snip>

The real irony is that Jackie Robinson himself was never one to stay silent in the face of injustice. He used his platform to speak out, despite the personal and professional risks. In 1972, just before his death, Robinson wrote in his autobiography: “I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world.” That's the kind of courage that made him not just a baseball pioneer, but an American hero.

Baseball should be better than this. It's supposed to be where we gather together, across all our differences, to share something beautiful. The game deserves leaders who understand that acknowledging our painful past isn't “DEI” — it's just honesty. And honesty is supposed to be one of baseball's core values, right alongside courage and integrity.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred and baseball’s owners are cowards. They want credit for Jackie Robinson’s courage without doing the work necessary to honor his legacy.

#9

The Reality of the January 6, 2021, Insurrection

On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump instigated a violent insurrection against the United States government. Here’s a video from the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol that one can review if their memory fades.

People were hurt and police officers died protecting the Capitol. Vice President Pence and other elected officials just barely escaped danger. Our national streak of peaceful transfers of power ended.

It was not, as Trump claims, a “day of love.” And we must resist his efforts to rewrite the history of that dark day.

The Possibility of Hope

We are not alone—and here’s what’s bringing me hope in the long, twilight struggle.

• Senator Chris Van Hollen for going to El Salvador and defending due process in the media.
• I believe the rallies we are seeing nationwide are making a huge difference and providing space for our elected officials to increase their opposition to the Trump Regime.
• Harvard University for telling the Trump Regime that they will not assist in the destruction of our higher education institutions.
• All of the fired federal employees who are preparing to run for office. Let’s help them as they take a stand in the fight to protect our democracy.

Post-Game Comments

Today’s Thought from my Readwise collection:

“We’ve seen this movie before across different contexts and continents. The script is familiar, the plot mostly predictable. But we don’t yet know how it ends – especially in a country with America’s democratic traditions, constitutional safeguards, and decentralized power structures.

And so, when friends ask me “what do we do,” I tell them: Look to those who’ve been there before. Democracy isn’t saved through grand gestures, but through thousands of small acts of courage. Through showing up, speaking up, and refusing to turn away from what is happening before our eyes. Through recognizing that the authoritarian playbook works precisely because each small tactic seems too minor to resist.

We’ve seen this movie before. But we’re not just a passive audience—we’re also actors. And we still have the power to change the ending.”—Natalia Antelava, Coda Story, Sunday Read: How Democracies Die - The Script for a Three-Act Play

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Craig Cheslog (@craigcheslog.com)

GenXer against fascism. Talking politics, women’s soccer, WNBA, Manchester United men and women, USWNT, USMNT, Green Bay Packers, Boston Celtics, Chicago Cubs, and Taylor Swift. (he/him/his) My newsletter: https://thelongtwilightstruggle.com/.

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