Police-state tactics
Lech Wałęsa knows from police state tactics (via The Daily Beast):
Legendary Polish anti-Communist Lech Wałęsa has slammed Donald Trump’s Oval Office attack on Ukraine’s Volodymr Zelensky, comparing it to Soviet secret police tactics.
Wałęsa, 81, signed a letter along with 38 other Poles who had been held captive by the Communist regime, telling Trump that the Friday spectacle filled them “with horror and distaste.”
The former Polish president previously revealed that he met Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2010, and attached a photo of the two of them to the letter, which he posted on Facebook on Monday.
The letter was signed by Wałęsa and 38 former Polish political prisoners, who said “the atmosphere in the Oval Office” reminded them of “Security Service interrogations and from the courtrooms in communist courts.”
“Prosecutors and judges, commissioned by the omnipotent communist political police, also explained to us that they had all the cards in their hands, and we had none,” they write in the letter, referencing President Donald Trump’s comment that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not in a position to negotiate.
Expect more bullying and bluster at Trump’s address tonight to a joint session of Congress. I’m still hoping Democrats won’t drag poor, fired federal workers to sit as props in the chamber and endure the flood of Trumpish demagoguery. Do Democrats really expect the press will pay workers any attention during that reality show? They should instead hold a counter-programming event on the Capitol steps. Make the press split its attention.
Plus, I’m a Democrat in Congress. Do I want to be caught dead in a joint session where Trump aligns with Putin’s Russia against Ukraine and our E.U. allies? After last week’s Oval Office shouting match, how confident am I that that won’t happen?
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