Christopher Bakes
Trial Attorney | Keynote Speaker
United States Naval Justice School Speaking engagements by appointment.
Sacramento, California, United States
Aug 2nd, 2026
Rashida Tlaib just texted me. I texted her back. (Image.)
Why do I bother?
Here’s why.
We de-Nazified Germany.
We didn’t de-Russsify Russia.
We now need to de-Nazify again. Russia next.
But first, the de-Nazification.
This time it’s the Democratic Party that has to be de-Nazified.
We need to deNazify it. We can start with Rashida Tlaib. I’ve let her know in my text.
For those of us Democrats who still read JFK’s Inaugural address for inspiration, or who at age 11 walked precincts for RFK in parochial school uniform knowing he was – among many things – dedicated to the safety of Israel, and who as students were taught by those who liberated concentration camps and some who were locked in them, we behold the new Nazis now are knocking on the Democratic Party’s door. It is all I can do not to throw up.
Democrats Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Zohran Mamdani, Ocasio-Cortez, join Republicans Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor-Greene, and J.D. Vance as the new predators in our midst.
Make no mistake. Put any one of them in a German-occupied city during wartime, and each would end up collaborating or volunteering for camp duty.
In our time. In our day. On our watch. These grotesques are violating our parents’ and grandparents’ generations vow: Never again.
Do not let American and Allied blood spilled on the Normandy Beaches and across Europe be stomped on by these new edition collaborators.
They may technically be American, but they are traitors to the core – of our national values and history. They are anti-patriots.
Be loud, be bold, be outspoken.
Use every opportunity. Make them know who you are so that they won’t dare state their hate in front of you.
Never again.
Tell them. Shout it.
Author’s note: Tlaib boasts in her text that she is a “Palestinian-American.” Here is an image of another Palestinian at a high level meeting with someone history tells us he deeply revered. (Berlin, 1941.)
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Comment from :
I can understand your viewpoint, and the worry behind it. However, I respectfully ask that you look up, follow, and support, Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Palestinian-American who is working hard as an advocate for peace between Israel and Gaza, with the elimination of Hamas and its toxic, nihilistic, jihadi project that has brought nothing but death and destruction to the Palestinians, the urgent priority.
Dr Helen M Harrison : I applaud such voices, and speaking against the prevailing wind is an act of courage.
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And from two weeks earlier, Mr Bakes’ tribute to Senator Lindsay Graham :
Lindsay Graham, RIP.
The great Reaganesque hawk and Baby Boomer Lindsay Graham is my contemporary, professionally and philosophically.
We both were US armed forces JAG officers (he USAF, me USN), and we both took a scalpel to any claim that the abominable despots of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea were anything other than authoritarian world-class criminals. The Axis of our day.
I am shocked at his passing.
As a Democrat, I continue my Party affiliation in honor of JFK and RFK, and in particular John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural address, January 1961. I have no illusions about what a farcical “big tent” the Party has become for all kinds of disordered political pathologies – the Party’s recent robust defense of the grotesque Graham Platner being just the most recent example of its moral fall.
I hope that elements of the Left will be suitably respectful as this great public servant passes from this realm to the next.
Rest in Peace, Senator Graham.
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And from last year, a great piece that is even more important now :
Trump/Vance vs Democracy and Zelensky.
If you did not watch the horrific public abuse of President Zelinsky by Mr Trump today in the Oval Office, don’t speak again in support of Mr Trump until you do.
I am waiting for the moment when today’s tyrannical and unhinged Trump speaks to Putin as he did today to President Zelinsky.
A great American shame.
America is destination for all those “yearning to breathe free,” to quote the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, gifted to America by the French in the year 1886. We as a nation have opposed Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo. Our defense umbrella protects friends and allies.
Russia in its various costumes – Stalinist or Putinist – has repeatedly tricked the Free World, including several American Presidents. But two Presidents – Reagan and Kennedy – were not tricked, and dealt with Russia with strength and soaring rhetoric that is – or should be – etched onto our national soul.
Mr. Reagan’s speech at Normandy on June 4, 1984, 50th anniversary of the landing is particularly instructive:
“The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge — and pray God we have not lost it — that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest … The strength of America’s allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe’s democracies. We were with you then; we are with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny,” – Ronald Reagan at Pointe du Hoc, France on June 6, 1984.”
Russia today – dictatorial and murderous – represents the last bit of unfinished D-Day business. We the western Allies got rid of one dictator, but left the other one standing, even though both of them – Hitler and Stalin — had co-started the war D-Day was launched to end.
Ridding Europe of occupation and tyranny was our promise then and it should remain our promise today. Be Reagan. Be Kennedy.
In 1968 as a junior Democrat and political activist, I walked precincts for Robert F. Kennedy (Sr.), start of my political sensibilities. Along the way since then, I’ve seen both triumph and tragedy afflict our national soul. Should we abandon Ukraine, it will be by any measure a national tragedy and one from which we may never recover.
Feel free to pass along my words to any you believe may benefit from a reminder of what America means to the Free World. No copyright claimed.
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Christopher Bakes is a partner who practices in the offices of Lewis Brisbois on both coasts – Los Angeles, New York, Sacramento, and San Francisco. Admitted to practice in California, New York and the District of Columbia, he is a member of Lewis Brisbois’ Complex Business & Commercial Litigation Practice. Mr. Bakes is recognized nationally for the breadth and depth of his practice, the high profile of his cases, matters and transactions, and the results he has obtained in a range of industries, from tech and entertainment to construction and real estate.
Tlaib did actually condemn the putinaZi invasion in 2022.
She has a vile analogue in the UK Labour Party who is even worse : Diane Abbott. Starmer kicked her out, but astonishingly Burnham has let the evil skank back in.
From the DT :
Diane Abbott accused of spreading ‘pro-Putin propaganda’
PM faces backlash for reinstating Left-winger who called Ukraine’s defence a ‘Nato campaign against Russia’
Andy Burnham is facing a Labour Party backlash for reinstating Diane Abbott after the veteran Left-winger was accused of spreading “pro-Putin propaganda”.
Ms Abbott was reinstated by Mr Burnham on Thursday, having received a formal warning after serving a second suspension for past comments referring to Jewish people.
However, senior Labour figures have expressed concern that she has repeatedly spoken out in recent months to criticise British military backing for Ukraine in its fight against Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion.
Some have accused their party’s longest-serving MP of “spreading pro-Putin propaganda”, telling Mr Burnham that she should no longer have an active role in public life.
Ms Abbott, 72, has called Ukraine’s defence of its territory and Western backing for it “a Nato campaign against Russia”.
Last weekend, she described warnings of a future Russian invasion of Western countries as “outlandish” and claimed that support for Ukraine put the UK at increased risk.
Writing in the Morning Star, a Left-wing newspaper, Ms Abbott said: “The reason there is such a hue and cry about military spending now is not because Russian forces are in Ukraine; that happened well over four years ago.
“No, the reason for the outlandish claims about an imminent Russian invasion is simply because Trump demanded more military spending from Nato members…
“None of this is making us any safer. On the contrary. Russia is a major military power, but Nato is engaged in a war which is now striking deep into Russian territory, provoking widespread calls for retaliation against Nato countries.”
I commented as follows:
The Morning Star is not a “left wing paper”, it is a communist propaganda outlet that has remained loyal to Russia throughout Putin’s switch to fascism, proving once again the horseshoe of politics : far left/far right are one and the same when it comes to Russia.
When Abbott was hanging out with JeremIRA CorbLenin, he was known as “agent Cob” to the KGB and probably still is with its successor the FSB.
“Democrats Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Zohran Mamdani, Ocasio-Cortez, join Republicans Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor-Greene, and J.D. Vance as the new predators in our midst.”
And unfortunately, VanZkov, correctly described as a “skunk” by DW. Phillips, has access to power.
8/2/26: Putin’s Hostages – Bring Them Home, Week 134: Keeping the Vigil
“Russia today – dictatorial and murderous – represents the last bit of unfinished D-Day business. We the western Allies got rid of one dictator, but left the other one standing, even though both of them – Hitler and Stalin — had co-started the war D-Day was launched to end.
Ridding Europe of occupation and tyranny was our promise then and it should remain our promise today. Be Reagan. Be Kennedy.”
Absolutely right.
Amen to that.
PutinaZiism has to die. Along with the Putin Wing of the GOP.
Putler understands that communism and fascism are just two sides of the same totalitarian/nazi coin and so he draws his support in the west exclusively from the far right and far left.
It wasn’t always the case though: in Germany Schroeder was (supposedly) a social democrat and Merkel (supposedly) a conservative. In reality they were putler-rimming Nazis.
De-Nazification should be started in the White House.
denazification is needed in russia & israel