On a flight yesterday, I watched a documentary that was a biography of Roy Cohn. It is called “Where Is My Roy Cohn?,” a phrase uttered by Trump when he was disgusted by his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who apparently had some scruples about destroying the Justice Department on behalf of the man who appointed him.
The biography is short. The story is compelling. It portrays a man who had absolutely no scruples, no ethical core, no moral values. He was willing to lie, cheat, steal, twist words, anything to win. Winning was everything. He was a closeted homosexual who gleefully collaborated with his mentor Senator Joseph McCarthy to find and expose other homosexuals. He died of AIDS, but never admitted that he had the disease (he preferred to call it “cancer of the liver”).
The loathsome Cohn was Trump’s attorney and his mentor. He defended the Trump Organization against federal charges that the Trumps excluded blacks from their federally-financed housing projects. He helped to prosecute the Rosenbergs and assure that they got the death penalty. He was the chief lawyer for the Mafia and helped many of its leaders avoid long prison sentences. He was disbarred for stealing from his clients.
It is contemporary history. If you can find it online, watch it. It explains a lot about the world we live in now.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The documentary about Roy Cohn, Trump and Joe McCarthy’s henchman, “portrays a man who had absolutely no scruples, no ethical core, no moral values. He was willing to lie, cheat, steal, twist words, anything to win. Winning was everything.” We’ve gone from an amoral despicable man to an entirely amoral despicable Republican party, attempting to define the ethos of United States. The election of Trump was a triumph of that effort. 2020 is crucial test of whether we can turn back– no turn forward– toward human decency and empathy in ways that undercut the appeal of selfish anything-goes morality.
and every bit of the quotation about Trump’s past could be written in the present tense
Thank you for this, Diane. I am familiar with Cohn having read his biography and from the news. What a dispicable low life.
I didn’t realize until a few years ago that he had been Trump’s buddy. Eeeuuuwww!!! It figures.
Roy Cohn taught Trump never to apologize, never admit wrongdoing. Fight. When he took charge of the Trump Organization’s efforts to resist punishment by the federal government for excluding black tenants from Trump properties, he advised them to sue the federal government for $100 million! The feds folded and agreed to a settlement.
Just a lesson in general:
Bullies are only as powerful as we victims allow them to be. Act like a doormat, and you are almost guaranteed to be bullied. It’s a lesson for the American people. Acting like a doormat can also be, for pragmatic purposes, equivocated with being indifferent to politics or apolitical. Don’t get involved, and some bully will sooner than later come knocking on your door . . . or knocking it down to invade your home and life destructively.
When it comes to bullies, hit me once and its the bully’s fault. Hit me again, and it’s my fault.
Another of these lowlife creeps: Lee Atwater
Surprised that anyone on here remembers Lee Atwater. Also we shouldn’t forget Elliot Abrams and all the other neo-cons that are still causing trouble as in Honduras (School of the Americas Watch) and led us into Iraq war. Atwater was also friends with Paul Manafort. Some on this list might hate me for saying this, but Trump (despite his asinine language) is nothing compared to Reagan and Bush. Most of the problems with our rise in inequality can be traced to Reagan and Bush’s attack of Iraq make them top dogs in hell from my perspective.
Other interesting films to watch: Angels in America (or the play) which has a character based on Roy Cohn; Vice (Dick Cheney – pure evil), Kill the Messenger (drugs from Central America to LA); and Salvador what we did there is also criminal.
Angels in America!!! Love this!!!
yep, quite the circle of pals, Trump had. Cohn, Epstein
https://www.snopes.com/news/2016/06/23/donald-trump-rape-lawsuit/
https://www.gq.com/story/donald-trump-jeffrey-epstein
Democratic National Committee: During the run-up to the coming election, I suggest you air over and over and over Trump talking–making crude, sexualized comments about his own daughter on the Howard Stern show, telling everyone what a terrific guy Epstein is and how he likes his women “on the younger side,” making fun of the disabled, showing off his Sharpie map, making fun of Gold Star parents and disabled reporters. Don being Don. You might argue that this stuff is too disgusting to air. But it’s important that people be reminded, again and again, who this man is.
Isn’t William Barr Trump’s Roy Cohn? Barr’s lack of integrity in service to his President makes Sessions look like Abe Lincoln.
I saw the documentary a few weeks back. Even though I knew EVERYTHING that Cohn did that was reported in the media, it was still shocking to see what a mean, despicable lowlife he was — and proud of it, too. He RELISHED being the prick he was. In the end, he paid the ultimate price for his shameless hypocrisy. Unfortunately for Trump, he isn’t as smart as Roy Cohn. Trump WILL be brought down — first by the voters, and then by the law.
A reader pointed out that Stephen Miller is the new Roy Cohn.
Others say it is Bill Barr
Miller is Trump’s Goebbels.
I listened to a PBS piece about Roy Cohn’s influence on Trump and it is not an understatement when I say that Roy Cohn was Trump’s hero, and the role model he works hard to emulate every single moment of his waking day.
And Trump probably dreams about Roy Cohn when he is sleeping more then he dreams about grabbing p***y.
Evidently Sony bought the rights to the film and it is available for rent or purchase with Amazon and other marketers. https://www.yidio.com/movie/wheres-my-roy-cohn/204831?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Search&utm_campaign=630&t_source=64&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3tzKmd7e5gIVSb7ACh0osg5nEAMYASAAEgJ56PD_BwE
McCarthy, Cohen, Barr, Miller, Trump…….phew. These demons from a Hieronymus Bosch depiction of hell have caused so much hurt, damage and injury to totally innocent people. It’s mind boggling.
The striking thing about the figure of Cohn is that he was rejected by a society which realized who he was when McCarthy went after the army. Five years after the end of World War II, that was hubris that came with a fall.
Today, trump can go after anybody he wants and his base will at least claim he is no worse than Hillary or Obama. What amazes me is that republicans do not go after him in the primaries with a more reputable voice. Surely he is vulnerable among at least half the people who voted in the last cycle, not to mention the people who stayed home. Or do we now have a body politic made up solely of people for whom Cohn-like behavior is as good as a political leader gets? Surely we can hold our political leaders to a level of behavior higher than that.
This phenomenon has made me question my previous belief that the democrats acted correctly in refusing to convict Clinton of lying to Congress over the Lewinsky affair. He should have been thrown out. Trump’s behavior relative to the congressional investigation is obviously obstruction, but the republicans will certainly be to ignore all charges. We need to strengthen laws that eliminate corruption in politics. We need laws that prohibit anyone from personally benefiting from the status of being a public figure. Lawyer to congressman to lobbyist has to be stopped. Citizens United must be shown to be the judicial activism it is and thrown out, making big money explain itself. Personal impropriety must be punished politically, if not judicially.
We have to clean up our government. Otherwise, the low expectations of a cynical electorate will continually give us trump after trump.
We get the president we deserve.
“We get the president we deserve”
Really, even if we didn’t vote for Donald Trump who won the Electoral College and lost the popular vote by 2.7 million votes?
The U.S. is the only democracy (Constitutional Republic) in the world with an abomination like the Electoral College that allows the loser to win.
The only people that get the president they deserve are the people that voted for that walking piece of clap (slang definition) trap. The rest of us are his victims and we do not deserve that.
Say it, again and again:
Trump is a loser!
He hates to hear that.
That’s why he demanded foreign help in 2020. He doesn’t think he can win fair and square.
Speaking of Roy Cohn, the PBS Documentary Series American Experience will be airing its season premiere this Monday, January 6th, 9 PM-11 PM CST, with a show on Joseph McCarthy. It looks like a must-watch &, surely, there should be lots of Roy Cohn.