Feb 17, 2022·edited Feb 17, 2022Liked by Robert B. Hubbell
Thank you so much for the concluding paragraphs of today’s Newsletter reminding us that we face neither the end of the world nor the end of democracy should Republicans and even DJT return to control of Congress or the White House. Would it be bad? Certainly, but the sun will come up the next day and resistance to authoritarianism and poor governing philosophies will continue. I have been a progressive and social justice advocate and activist for over 55 years. I have seen both progress and setback, wins and losses, but as Robert reminds us often this has been and continues to be a multi-generational effort to form that “more perfect” Union to which we aspire. Whichever party seats a majority in Congress or takes the White House in 2022 and 2024 there are many challenges and much work yet to accomplish. I hope no one will give up the fight whether progressives win or lose in 2022 and 2024.
I keep this quote by Mahatma Gandhi on my home office wall and read it often to encourage myself, “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
As Robert points out so clearly, Deutsche Bank has long been the primary lender to Donald Trump's businesses even though now claiming to have ended that relationship going forward. Mazars has also served for many years as his primary external accounting firm. You should note that I have not described them as his "audit" firm. I have seen several reports in the media about Mazars breaking its ties with Trump as his audit firm. This is incorrect. Mazars has never claimed to provide audited financial statements for Trump firms. Auditing financial statements require a much higher standard of testing accuracy of financial information and provide a much higher standard of assurance of accuracy than simply providing accounting services.
This is a very important distinction. Why? Deutsche Bank has provided literally hundreds of millions of dollars of loans on the strength of "unaudited" financial information. This is gross dereliction of their responsibilities as a commercial lender. It should be noted that Deutsche Bank has repeatedly been severely criticized by the U.S. Federal Reserve for a large number of egregious compliance violations. The most recent of these was in the spring of 2021.
Before NY State Attorney General Letitia James is finished with her investigation and perhaps ultimately prosecution of Trump and his businesses, civilly or criminally, it is quite possible the Federal Reserve will be reviewing the compliance failures of Deutsche Bank with regard to its lending practices and controls. Should that be the case , it is not unlikely that the terms of current outstanding loans might be changed or even that such loans could be called due depending upon the terms of the governing loan agreements.
It is quite likely that Deutsche Banks apparently reckless lending standards of extending such large commercial loans on the basis of unaudited and now apparently grossly inaccurate financial statements will be highly criticized by both regulators and investors. This is likely to compound their existing compliance challenges and criticisms. Welcome Deutsche Bank to the circle of troubled Trump associated entities.
We must always put out positive messages. The Republicans are great at this. They say fight for freedom (book bans, anti vaxxers,anti mask). Dems need to do the same. When Republicans run ask if they participated in Jan 6, not say they should not run. Let them bury themselves with the answers or lack thereof
Bravo to you, Robert, for doing the actual hard work of keeping your eye on the bouncing ball of Trumpism, in far more newsletters than most of us have written in our own lifetimes. My take is that any attempt by the Far Right to establish a "Handmaid's Tale"-style regime in this country, replete with the precursive assassinations as described in the book by Margaret Atwood, will find itself facing a campaign of resistance that will make La Brea Tar Pits look like a 5-star resort. We could lose the next two election cycles, and see our Constitution subverted, as with those of Russia and Hungary, but there is the American spirit-which cannot be quashed.
Once again, thank. You, Robert, for your clear-eyed and unflinching view of where we are. But let’s not just test your powers of prognostication. Let’s make sure that Republicans do not gain access to the levers of power until and unless a new conservative party—one that is actually dedicated to the law-abiding, democratic values to which Republicans pretend—comes on to the field to contest elections. And then let’s beat them fair and square.
Thank you Robert for your admonition....and invitation I promise two things: 1) to make the point whenever I have the opportunity, that words have power, so stop talking about the end of democracy and decide how you are going to join the fight that has been ongoing since our founding - to preserve and grow our democracy no matter the current party in power. It's the best form of government for the good of the most people. 2) To determine what, besides words, is mine to do as part of that fight. (I tried to find a more "peaceful" word than fight, but as I looked about I found a definition "to put forth a determined effort" and that sounds right to me.)
Democracy will survive even a Republican trifecta. To paraphrase MLK, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it trends toward democracy. There may be some painful years ahead, but take heart in the fact that young people are overwhelmingly identifying as Democrats.
Robert, Responding to your “Concluding Thoughts,” I would note, regardless of future election outcomes, that I never would utter the phrase the “end of democracy.” Still, given that any significant voter protection legislation before 22 is virtually dead, I will continue realistically to anticipate unprecedented challenges, if for no other reason than to be well-armed.
Starting with 22, were the Republicans to retake both the House and the Senate, I would agree with Canadian Political Scientist Thomas Homer-Dixon, who stated, and here I partially am paraphrasing, that the Republicans would have seized “the dynamic of the political conversation” in the country, leaving but a small window to protect the key mechanisms of democracy in the U.S. Further down the road in 24, were Republicans both to retain control of Congress and also to win the Presidency, I would expect a fatal ( or near fatal) weakening of America’s civic institutions. Nonetheless, I would take heart from the massive resistance that surely would arise in defiance of any attempt by leadership to consolidate itself into a situation wherein its powers, much less the rule of law, would be subordinated to an individual.
Robert, thank you for your humor and your hope. I smiled throughout today’s newsletter. Democracy is an ideal, and may never be achieved totally. Your final summation puts paid to the doomsayers. Thugs are thugs. The HUAC/McCarthy years are within living memory, and one of those actors, Roy Cohn, prepped T_____p. No one gets everything they want, but there are enough of us to raise hell when the “Law and Order” party goes off the rails. That is why in UK, there is such a thing as “the loyal opposition.” We could learn a thing or two from Parliament!
Thank you for your positive outlook on the chance that Republicans may win in the next two election cycles. It might help us to get our Party in order and to bring in some new blood. We need more younger people representing our Party. When there are more younger people with new ideas running for office, perhaps a larger portion of the younger population will become involved and vote.
Robert, could not agree more with your concluding thoughts. I would like to share a video that I have viewed with our local groups, TurnoutIL and Indivisible Evanston (actually the presenter was live on FB at our Zoom IE meeting last month).
Knowing you, you probably already know about her, but if you don’t she is someone you might want to have on your podcast. I’m attaching the video we showed and discussed at our meeting this past Monday.
The Anat Shender-Osorio video is 23 minutes long. Though we will be showing it at our meeting, we encourage you to watch it in advance. It moves pretty fast, and you'll get more from seeing it more than once. It begins at the 9:20 mark on this video: https://youtu.be/-VXUphvganE?t=555 (If you see this and want to hear more, you can check out Anat's podcast, Words to Win By)
Also, if I can get a “two-fer” on one comment I also would like you to check out, if you haven’t already, two other incredible organizations that are doing amazing work educating and registering voters (also employing folks with living wages to do the work).
I know rationally that the advice in your closing is probably reasonable and sound. But considering the deleterious effects the Right has sewn on our country and society in general, and on our democratic processes and institutions in particular, over the past years while being BOTH "in" and "out" of power makes the emotional acceptance of defending democracy from a minority position of weakness beyond the Democrat's already weak one while "in" almost impossible to swallow with any equanimity whatsoever for some of us. And by "us" I mean simply citizens of any political stripe (I'm a mostly non-ideological nonpartisan with no political affiliation) who have watched the bloodletting on norms and respect for the rule of law and have no confidence that the Republican party will refrain from going even farther and faster down this road if re-enabled with control of Congress and possibly the Whitehouse.
You are an optimist. I get it. Me, not so much, having had the validity of Murphy's Law often proven to me through bitter experience. Of course, that's not always the case. But when one finds oneself traversing terrain densely populated with bears, one should bring enough gun to adequately defend oneself. And then if only a skunk shows up, count oneself lucky.
The path the D's are currently treading is one which increases the probability of them getting skunked the next couple of go-rounds. Forgive me if I can't help but feel that it will be more than just a foul odor that ensues if this turns out to be the case.
As you write, it has been more than two years since we all heard the audio of tfg attempting to shake down Brad Raffensberger for those extra votes he needed. Why, why this long wait? I listened to former Senator Claire McCaskill last night express what I want to know too: we need an explanation for why the late start (on the major players) and why did the J6 committee have more information (apparently) than the DOJ up to this point. The DOJ was irritated that the J6 committee wouldn’t turn over its transcripts when it wanted.. hadn’t DOJ been pursuing its own investigation? Yeah, yeah, they have to get it “right.” But there is so much that we saw and heard with our own eyes and too much time in between. It is wearying, innervating, deflating to include a balloon word. We are a country whose democracy depends on the rule of law and so far, it’s twisting in the wind. Please make me wrong. I had great hope with Merrick Garland and now I perceive him as weak. I (have) had high hopes on the Fani Willis investigation and yet… we wait. Jack Smith, however, reminds me of a Medieval mace thrower, so maybe he will be the bringer of justice.
Thank you so much for the concluding paragraphs of today’s Newsletter reminding us that we face neither the end of the world nor the end of democracy should Republicans and even DJT return to control of Congress or the White House. Would it be bad? Certainly, but the sun will come up the next day and resistance to authoritarianism and poor governing philosophies will continue. I have been a progressive and social justice advocate and activist for over 55 years. I have seen both progress and setback, wins and losses, but as Robert reminds us often this has been and continues to be a multi-generational effort to form that “more perfect” Union to which we aspire. Whichever party seats a majority in Congress or takes the White House in 2022 and 2024 there are many challenges and much work yet to accomplish. I hope no one will give up the fight whether progressives win or lose in 2022 and 2024.
I keep this quote by Mahatma Gandhi on my home office wall and read it often to encourage myself, “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
As Robert points out so clearly, Deutsche Bank has long been the primary lender to Donald Trump's businesses even though now claiming to have ended that relationship going forward. Mazars has also served for many years as his primary external accounting firm. You should note that I have not described them as his "audit" firm. I have seen several reports in the media about Mazars breaking its ties with Trump as his audit firm. This is incorrect. Mazars has never claimed to provide audited financial statements for Trump firms. Auditing financial statements require a much higher standard of testing accuracy of financial information and provide a much higher standard of assurance of accuracy than simply providing accounting services.
This is a very important distinction. Why? Deutsche Bank has provided literally hundreds of millions of dollars of loans on the strength of "unaudited" financial information. This is gross dereliction of their responsibilities as a commercial lender. It should be noted that Deutsche Bank has repeatedly been severely criticized by the U.S. Federal Reserve for a large number of egregious compliance violations. The most recent of these was in the spring of 2021.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-28/fed-admonishes-deutsche-bank-for-ongoing-compliance-failures
Before NY State Attorney General Letitia James is finished with her investigation and perhaps ultimately prosecution of Trump and his businesses, civilly or criminally, it is quite possible the Federal Reserve will be reviewing the compliance failures of Deutsche Bank with regard to its lending practices and controls. Should that be the case , it is not unlikely that the terms of current outstanding loans might be changed or even that such loans could be called due depending upon the terms of the governing loan agreements.
It is quite likely that Deutsche Banks apparently reckless lending standards of extending such large commercial loans on the basis of unaudited and now apparently grossly inaccurate financial statements will be highly criticized by both regulators and investors. This is likely to compound their existing compliance challenges and criticisms. Welcome Deutsche Bank to the circle of troubled Trump associated entities.
Right on! Democracy, like truth, can’t be swept away. Thanks again, Robert!
We must always put out positive messages. The Republicans are great at this. They say fight for freedom (book bans, anti vaxxers,anti mask). Dems need to do the same. When Republicans run ask if they participated in Jan 6, not say they should not run. Let them bury themselves with the answers or lack thereof
Bravo to you, Robert, for doing the actual hard work of keeping your eye on the bouncing ball of Trumpism, in far more newsletters than most of us have written in our own lifetimes. My take is that any attempt by the Far Right to establish a "Handmaid's Tale"-style regime in this country, replete with the precursive assassinations as described in the book by Margaret Atwood, will find itself facing a campaign of resistance that will make La Brea Tar Pits look like a 5-star resort. We could lose the next two election cycles, and see our Constitution subverted, as with those of Russia and Hungary, but there is the American spirit-which cannot be quashed.
Once again, thank. You, Robert, for your clear-eyed and unflinching view of where we are. But let’s not just test your powers of prognostication. Let’s make sure that Republicans do not gain access to the levers of power until and unless a new conservative party—one that is actually dedicated to the law-abiding, democratic values to which Republicans pretend—comes on to the field to contest elections. And then let’s beat them fair and square.
Dear Robert, Thanks again so much for your level headed determination.
Thank you Robert for your admonition....and invitation I promise two things: 1) to make the point whenever I have the opportunity, that words have power, so stop talking about the end of democracy and decide how you are going to join the fight that has been ongoing since our founding - to preserve and grow our democracy no matter the current party in power. It's the best form of government for the good of the most people. 2) To determine what, besides words, is mine to do as part of that fight. (I tried to find a more "peaceful" word than fight, but as I looked about I found a definition "to put forth a determined effort" and that sounds right to me.)
Democracy will survive even a Republican trifecta. To paraphrase MLK, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it trends toward democracy. There may be some painful years ahead, but take heart in the fact that young people are overwhelmingly identifying as Democrats.
Thanks for all you do, Robert. The only way our majority party loses an election is if we don't show up.
Robert, Responding to your “Concluding Thoughts,” I would note, regardless of future election outcomes, that I never would utter the phrase the “end of democracy.” Still, given that any significant voter protection legislation before 22 is virtually dead, I will continue realistically to anticipate unprecedented challenges, if for no other reason than to be well-armed.
Starting with 22, were the Republicans to retake both the House and the Senate, I would agree with Canadian Political Scientist Thomas Homer-Dixon, who stated, and here I partially am paraphrasing, that the Republicans would have seized “the dynamic of the political conversation” in the country, leaving but a small window to protect the key mechanisms of democracy in the U.S. Further down the road in 24, were Republicans both to retain control of Congress and also to win the Presidency, I would expect a fatal ( or near fatal) weakening of America’s civic institutions. Nonetheless, I would take heart from the massive resistance that surely would arise in defiance of any attempt by leadership to consolidate itself into a situation wherein its powers, much less the rule of law, would be subordinated to an individual.
Robert, thank you for your humor and your hope. I smiled throughout today’s newsletter. Democracy is an ideal, and may never be achieved totally. Your final summation puts paid to the doomsayers. Thugs are thugs. The HUAC/McCarthy years are within living memory, and one of those actors, Roy Cohn, prepped T_____p. No one gets everything they want, but there are enough of us to raise hell when the “Law and Order” party goes off the rails. That is why in UK, there is such a thing as “the loyal opposition.” We could learn a thing or two from Parliament!
Thank you for your positive outlook on the chance that Republicans may win in the next two election cycles. It might help us to get our Party in order and to bring in some new blood. We need more younger people representing our Party. When there are more younger people with new ideas running for office, perhaps a larger portion of the younger population will become involved and vote.
Virginia
Robert, could not agree more with your concluding thoughts. I would like to share a video that I have viewed with our local groups, TurnoutIL and Indivisible Evanston (actually the presenter was live on FB at our Zoom IE meeting last month).
Knowing you, you probably already know about her, but if you don’t she is someone you might want to have on your podcast. I’m attaching the video we showed and discussed at our meeting this past Monday.
The Anat Shender-Osorio video is 23 minutes long. Though we will be showing it at our meeting, we encourage you to watch it in advance. It moves pretty fast, and you'll get more from seeing it more than once. It begins at the 9:20 mark on this video: https://youtu.be/-VXUphvganE?t=555 (If you see this and want to hear more, you can check out Anat's podcast, Words to Win By)
Also, if I can get a “two-fer” on one comment I also would like you to check out, if you haven’t already, two other incredible organizations that are doing amazing work educating and registering voters (also employing folks with living wages to do the work).
Mi Vecino Florida: mivecinoflorida.com
BLOC Black Leaders Organizing Communities: https://www.blocbybloc.org
Their leader Angela Lang is nothing short of amazing (look her up).
Thanks for all you do. You, and your staff also, are nothing short of amazing. 😊😍
Steve S
I know rationally that the advice in your closing is probably reasonable and sound. But considering the deleterious effects the Right has sewn on our country and society in general, and on our democratic processes and institutions in particular, over the past years while being BOTH "in" and "out" of power makes the emotional acceptance of defending democracy from a minority position of weakness beyond the Democrat's already weak one while "in" almost impossible to swallow with any equanimity whatsoever for some of us. And by "us" I mean simply citizens of any political stripe (I'm a mostly non-ideological nonpartisan with no political affiliation) who have watched the bloodletting on norms and respect for the rule of law and have no confidence that the Republican party will refrain from going even farther and faster down this road if re-enabled with control of Congress and possibly the Whitehouse.
You are an optimist. I get it. Me, not so much, having had the validity of Murphy's Law often proven to me through bitter experience. Of course, that's not always the case. But when one finds oneself traversing terrain densely populated with bears, one should bring enough gun to adequately defend oneself. And then if only a skunk shows up, count oneself lucky.
The path the D's are currently treading is one which increases the probability of them getting skunked the next couple of go-rounds. Forgive me if I can't help but feel that it will be more than just a foul odor that ensues if this turns out to be the case.
As you write, it has been more than two years since we all heard the audio of tfg attempting to shake down Brad Raffensberger for those extra votes he needed. Why, why this long wait? I listened to former Senator Claire McCaskill last night express what I want to know too: we need an explanation for why the late start (on the major players) and why did the J6 committee have more information (apparently) than the DOJ up to this point. The DOJ was irritated that the J6 committee wouldn’t turn over its transcripts when it wanted.. hadn’t DOJ been pursuing its own investigation? Yeah, yeah, they have to get it “right.” But there is so much that we saw and heard with our own eyes and too much time in between. It is wearying, innervating, deflating to include a balloon word. We are a country whose democracy depends on the rule of law and so far, it’s twisting in the wind. Please make me wrong. I had great hope with Merrick Garland and now I perceive him as weak. I (have) had high hopes on the Fani Willis investigation and yet… we wait. Jack Smith, however, reminds me of a Medieval mace thrower, so maybe he will be the bringer of justice.