More than impeachment, Trump needs to be tried criminally for treason…

It seems to me Donald Trump needs to be prosecuted for inciting an insurrection against the government of the United States and/or treason.

It might be impeachment is not the way to go — well yes, he has been impeached (twice now), but prosecution via the impeachment process may not be the best route (impeachment is just the charge), even if that train has already left the station. There is no getting around the fact that impeachment is a political process and will be seen as that.

(There is an argument that the impeachment process does not apply to someone already out of office. That has not been tested, as far as I know. But maybe that is a good reason to charge Trump as a private citizen.)

And I don’t like the idea of setting a precedent that one political party could gang up on the other and charge their adversaries with high crimes and misdemeanors (well more than it might have been already done in the past). We would really look like the proverbial banana republic if we began doing that.

But there is tremendous evidence from what is already public that Trump tried to subvert the democratic and constitutional process of our federal government. He laid the groundwork for what turned into a violent and deadly assault on the capitol, in which his own vice president, who did the right thing and followed the law and got the opprobrium of his master (Trump) for it, was threatened with cries of “hang Pence”!

While in normal circumstances I would tend to agree with Sen. Rand Paul that exhorting his followers to “fight like hell” was just normal political rhetoric, not to be taken literally or as meaning in a physical sense, it was apparent Trump was playing with fire. He saw the anger, he even helped create the anger of his most ardent followers, and in a last ditch effort to retain the presendency he continued to lie to them and claim the election was stolen. I mean there are legal steps one takes to contest an election, and he took them and lost.

If Mr. Trump had simply got carried away with his rhetoric and then saw on nationwide television what it had wrought, he should have made a televised statement or rushed down to the capitol grounds himself (with appropriate security of course) and called for loyal citizens to stop the assault (despite proclaiming he would go with them, he stayed in the White House after a long harangue to the crowd). He did not tell them to stop. No, in fact, it is reported that he was filled with glee, inside the cocoon of the White House, at the sight of the mob storming the capitol with lawmakers running for their lives (and in some cases family members with them I understand). He could not figure out why those around him did not share his glee. Now if that all is just a misinterpretation, so be it — but I heard someone suggest there are witnesses to Trump’s behavior while watching the mob and that they should be called as witnesses for the prosecution.

I am not particularly concerned about Trump running for president again. If he could even mount a credible campaign, it would seem all is lost anyway and there never was hope.

The ignorant, willfully ignorant, tried to take over the country and were thrown back. I think there is hope now.

I don’t see this as a war between right and left in politics. I see it as a movement to return to reason in government and some moderation.

What did the mob think it was going to do? Establish Trump as a Hitler- or Mussolini-type dictator?

I don’t know the law in all of this. But Trump’s actions in total sure seem like treason to me.

p.s.

If Trump has good enough legal representation perhaps he can beat the rap. But at least it would be an airing of the issue in a legally-balanced way (I’m talking more trial outside the impechment process) that would allow reasonable people to ponder and decide, regardless of its outcome.

Hey! when’s it my turn for a Covid vaccination?

I’m jealous. My sister already has an appointment to get her Covid-19 vaccine shot. And a good friend of mine already had hers. In the first instance, my sister is eight years older than I (79), retired, and real healthy, I might add. In the second, my friend is 65 and retired, and healthy. I on the other hand am 71 and work full-time as a long-distance truck driver, And, yes, I’m healthy. I’m constantly going to areas that are Covid hot spots. My sister thinks that I am probably fairly safe in that I spend most of my time inside my truck (certainly not all of it).

And these days I find that I spend very little time inside warehouses, due to Covid restrictions — hey I hate the cause of the restrictions but I am all for the result, that is I never wanted to needlessly stand around in those places in the first place. In some places I don’t even have to check in on foot. I do it by phone, and sometimes they even bring my load papers to me. Nothing wrong with that. It seems to work. Seems like we get things done more efficiently. From what I can see it works for all parties concerned: shippers, receivers, loaders, truck drivers. Too bad it takes a devastating world-wide pandemic to discover this. Maybe there are problems with this I do not know about. But like I say, it works for me.

I can see there are some folks who should probably be first in line for Covid shots, such as medical and first reponder personnel, folks in care facilites and so on.

But it sure seems to me we truck drivers who constantly have to go into Covid hot spots and deliver the goods society depends upon should be up there in the priority. I mean I’d like to see everyone eligible, with no priorities — but I suppose with the supply and logistics involved that is not possible.

And then there is the fact that some, many I guess, people don’t want to get the vaccine, for concern or fear that it will cause unwanted side effects. There seems to be a strong anti-vaxxer movement in the United States. But I think a lot of folks who would not normally fall into that category are hesitant on this one, which perhaps, unintentionally, gives credence to the anti-vaxxers, that is to say those who may be hesitant this time around may be so because of the extra-fast rollout (the warp speed) of the Covid vaccines (too little time for safe testing?).

And there is the fact that most vaccines have their failures that many of us either did not realize or remember, especially if we were not affected. To avoid the risk of spreading false news (inaccurate news) I won’t go into all those failures (you can research that) except to say I only learned from a story on NPR that there was a devastating polio vaccination round back in the early 1950s that actually caused children to contract polio, even though as a result of the polio vaccination program as a whole the disease was all but erradicated.

So in some rare cases, vaccines can cause you to actually contract the disease you are trying to prevent or they can have bad side effects. Still, I think the anti-vaxxer movement is based on bull shit and mischief and superstition or anti-scientific beliefs.

But, yeah, I have had some small reservations about the Covid vaccine. Even so, I seem to want to get it as soon as I can now. My friend already had hers several weeks ago I think, and my sister has hers upcoming. If they are still ok by the time it’s my turn I’ll feel better (that does not sound right, does it?).

And about those who don’t want it. Well maybe that is their right. But it is hard to get to herd immunity, as I understand it, if too many people opt out of being vaccinated. As long as the virus can find a host it can survive — that’s my understanding — and it will continue to circulate and pose a threat. And remember, the vaccines may not protect one forever, so we don’t want that virus to still be out there. Or, we want to make it weak enough that maybe we only have to get a Covid shot each year, as we should for the flu.

Ok, I’m in over my head here. But that is my understanding.

I think our new president, Joe Biden, is taking the it-is-a-war approach (fighting Covid-19), therefore all the resources of the federal government need to come into play. I wholeheartedly agree with that and am dumbfounded that such was not the case from the begining. I guess we can blame the conservative movement for that — always calling for a diminished role of the government (except when it lines their own pockets).

But I would use the war-time production procedures to mandate increased production of the vaccine, and I would utilize all resources for its distribution and administration — private and public. The private sector would be paid for their efforts of course — so why would it complain? Remember (or not) during World War II cars and washing machines and other civilian products were not produced, instead production was geared toward the military effort. We may need something similiar in this. The quicker we get serious, the quicker it will be over and we can go back to the good old days.

Military logistics could be deployed more than they are already, I would think. I’ll compliment that last guy in the presidency for one thing: drawing down the troops in the Middle East. Yes, bring them home and get the Army and Navy and Marines and Air Force and Coast Guard (the Space Patrol?) working on it. Set up the tents for mass immunizations. Get the convoys rolling to distribute the vaccine (to augment the private sector push). This is war.

And get those stimulus checks in the mail and keep them coming. A whole lot of folks are out of work due to (quite necessary) Covid restrictions.

The so-called conservatives will cry about mounting federal debt, yet they never shed a tear when they themsevles supported ever-mounting debt to fund things that come back to feather their own nests.

And after we survive the Covid War, we will have to pay the piper, but a strong economy will give us the dollars for that. While spending more than one takes in is not considered sound economics — and certainly on a personal level it is not — it has seemed to work on our federal level in my lifetime, so much so that conservatives have been in the lead on expanding the so-called federal debt.

We all know instinctively it is not how much money is spent but who gets it.

I have, as often is the case, strayed from my original subject or point in this. But Libertarians in principle may be the only ones who are not hypocritical on indebtedness but their ideas seem to be every man for himself, which to me seems like the law of the jungle, not modern civilized society.

Just waiting for my turn to get my Covid-19 vaccination.

Oh, those so much simpler days, back in the early 1950s, when my first-grade classmates and I walked two-by-two, hand-in-hand, across town, led by our teacher, to get our polio shots at another school site. Wow! those needles looked gigantic! I preferred the sugar cubes we were given when I was older.

P.S.

Our local prisoners are getting Covid shots. Well due to crowded conditions they need them. I’m not going to get arrested just to get in front of the line.

Maybe a return to normalcy will calm the masses…

It seems to me the Biden-Harris administration promises a return to order and reality in government at the federal level.

Key will be a successful restart in rolling out the Covid-19 vaccine. Until we can get enough folks vaccinated to reach some form of herd immunity, it’s hard to see how we move on.

And key to that will be a return to modern knowledge-based thinking rather than some Middle Ages type approach where science is ignored or reviled.

I think President Biden will put country before his own vanity. He will be more concerned about the need to take measures necessary to combat the virus rather than that of telling lies to convince folks everything is ok when it’s not.

There will be progressive policies that will irritate the right or those who fear a loss of status quo. But if the virus is contained life will get back to normal and perhaps the anti progressives will go back to their comfortable routines and jobs and prosper and find themselves rather content.

I would hope the new administration would go after those who inflict violence with equal vigor, that is, be they deemed leftist or right-wing on the political spectrum.

I keep hearing complaints from pro-Trumpers that riots and looting in the name of Black Lives Matter has not met the same condemnation in the mainstream media as that from right-wing groups and there has been a lack of sufficient response from local and state law enforcement against BLM-inspired rioting and looting.

Two things jump out at me: one, the amount of rioting and looting has not been on the scale of that of the 1960s and, two, it is primarily black people being subject to shoot first ask questions later on the part of mostly white police.

One caller to a well- known far-right talk radio show claimed the deadly right-wing attack on the nation’s capitol was a minor incident compared to damage done by BLM. Really? I ask.

Violence no matter who perpetrates it is of deep and equal concern. But I think we all know that much of the pro-Trump or radical right movement is fueled by racism, pure and simple. It’s a lot about status quo preservation or loss.

Whatever, I hope moderation on both the right and left prevails.

There will always be agitators ready to take advantage but it could be harder for them with a largely contented public.

Of all the places for a worker not to wear a Covid mask, a clinic?

Of all the places one might go to find people not wearing masks a clinic would not seem to be a likely spot.

But sure enough yesterday afternoon (as I am writing this now) I went to a clinic, and the workers there, all two, were not wearing masks — that’s strange. I mean I had an outpatient medical procedure a week or more ago at the local hospital and everyone there, hospital personnel and patients and visitors, were wearing masks — it’s of course required. I have to wear one to go into the supermarket and most any establishment these days. And it goes without saying this is all because of Covid-19.

Now I need to add an important detail here. This place where the personnel were not wearing masks was a drug testing facility — not your general medical clinic. I am a truck driver, and I came up on the random test list. I had just returned to my home terminal and was set to take a day off when a company representative, ok, the owner’s son, informed me I came up on what you might call the lottery. I’m told they have no control over who gets chosen — it’s a random pick by a computer. I think it’s done quarterly. One unlucky driver came up all four quarters I was told — what are the odds of that? But this is not the point.

The point is that after I got there and was signing a form in close proximity to the worker I noticed that he was not wearing a mask. I was wearing a bandana as a mask (I have other more substantial ones I wear sometimes). I also realized another employee or worker there was not wearing one either. I asked the person dealing with me why he was not wearing a mask. He said he did not need to because he had already gone through a bout with Covid. I suggested no, masks are still required of everyone (I don’t know the actual authority on this I admit; I mean there are state regulations and local ones and advisories and so on). He gave a flip response to that — something about monkeys flying out someone’s behind (no I did not understand it either). I did not spend much time in real close proximity to him.

I was at this place for longer than I had hoped. You see after returning to my home terminal I as one might expect relieved myself at our stellar restroom facilities on the fuel island (a little above outhouse or porta potty quality, not much — hey it works, better than the bushes). That of course was before I was informed about the trip to the clinic. I had to drink a lot of water to get things going. But while waiting for nature to kick in the clinic worker did put on a face shield in mocking fashion and proceeded to announce that the medical people and politicians did not know what they were talking about in all this face-mask requiring and sometimes don’t follow the rules themselves.

I was not too happy with all of this and initially had thought of just leaving. But I had to consider that if I left without taking the drug test it is equivalent to testing positive for drugs. I don’t want to lose the license for my livelihood.

Probably the thing is here I live in the hinterlands. Trump country. I really wanted to write something without mentioning that name, but it seems you can’t shake him. No this was not directly Trump’s fault. But the denial of science or disrespect for those who study science and medicine is part of Trumpism.

And what is the matter with following prudent guidelines? This is a national and world crisis. At least the real professionals are smart enough and reasonable enough to admit they do not have all the answers. They are just using the knowledge they have gained from their studies and experience.

An oncologist I used to see had something to say for those at a lesser level in knowledge. Once when I said something to him he asked: “who told you that?”. I said a doctor at a clinic. My oncologist rather haughtily replied: “let me tell you something, if he knew anything he would not be working there” (at the clinic). Well, that’s a bit harsh and not completely fair, but one does have to consier the source when deciding what is correct and what is not.

Now I don’t wear a mask 24-7 or everywhere I go but I do wear it where required or especially within indoor settings. I’m sure that due to circumstances I might be caught not wearing one when I should be. Hey, even Dr. Fauchi got caught on that one. Remember the photo of him sitting in the stands at a ball game with two others (when you could still go see a game) that was published for all to see? And of course California governor Gavin Newsom advised or ordered everyone to wear masks and social distance and not dine out and then got caught dining with friends at an expensive restaurant.

But again, I try to be prudent. I am smart enough to know I do not know. I find that a lot of others who have no particular credentials nonetheless would lead you to believe they are wiser and know it all.

And if I get covid anytime soon, I’m going to have a talk with those representing that clinic.

Trump and Trumpism needs to be expelled…

Donald Trump and Trumpism needs to be expelled from our politics.

I had been kind of wavering on whether the second impeachment is worth it, but not now. Anything that can be done to quell the threat of Trump and Trumpism, anything legal, needs to be done now. In the interest of democracy we must officially repudiate Trump, even though he has but days left in office.

I think criminal charges against him would be warranted too, even though he might be able to defend himself with the lie that his false claims that the election was stolen from him and his exhortations for his supporters to “be strong” and “go wild” were never meant to incite a rebellion.

But all one has to do is look at the record, the videos. Those quotes I gave are not out of context, and they’re only the tip of the iceberg.

Even if he did not actively plan the deadly armed assault on the capitol last week, he aided and abetted it. At the least he is guilty of gross negligence, but that to me seems too light to be an accurate description or charge.

With ongoing threats against the nation’s capitol and those of each state and more U.S. armed forces now deployed in Washington D.C. than in the Middle East, we are facing what one would think is an insurgency of a fascist coalition under the false banner of conservatism and even sometimes God.

The attack on the capitol was real and evidence is that it was not just spontaneous, not just citizens getting carried away.

It will be interesting and informative to learn the backgrounds of those the FBI and other investigators arrest.

I know the Trump loyalists might have us believe that something they call “antifa” ran a false flag operation to blame Trump and Co. I would not be surprised if various left wing factions at least took advantage of the situation, but by words and deeds this was and is the work of for lack of a better term the far right. Fascism, a loose ideology that pushes preserving a status quo for a certain group by means of force with non-democratic leadership, is the only term I can come up with. Actually, right now it looks more like anarchy.

I have two hopes: one, that the extent of this threatening force is exaggerated, and two, that a new silent majority, this time made up of objective, clear-minded, at least slightly progressive citizens who support the rule of law, have awoken, and that our democracy will be preserved by President-elect Joe Biden.

After what happened on Jan. 6, 2021 at the nation’s capitol, Trump and Trumpism should be committed to the ashes of history, figuratively, I mean.

But even so, we would need to heed the warning. It could happen here. It almost did. And, shudder, maybe it is.

I mean did the Trumpers plan to destroy the elected bodies of government and elevate Trump the defeated president to der Reich Fuhrer?

Let’s move past extremism, but arrest those who commit or threaten violence…

I say the best path forward now to get around Trumpian extremists is to ignore, and arrest, if necessary.

That is to say arrest extremists who break into meetings of public bodies or do other acts of violence.

But we need to move on and get the work of the country done, fighting the pandemic being the priority.

Trump would not have been so powerful had we not let him suck the oxygen out of public discourse.

Yes, hard to ignore someone who is president of the United States. But he has only a week left and his power has I think been effectively neutralized.

It would be good to be able to get rid of him via the 25th Amendment. And did I that Vice President Mike Pence hinted at his approval of that route suggesting Trump is unstable? Not sure. (Update, 1-13-21: apparently Pence did not favor that route).

Impeachment at this late date might be useful. (Update, 1-13-21: he has been impeached a second time. Conviction by the senate is uncertain). Certainly Trump needs to be accountable for stirring up an insurrection, a storming of the capitol that resulted in deaths and destruction. Even if the impeachment proceedings go on after Joe Biden assumes the presidency, impeachment might be useful and even necessary.

But the focus should be away from extremists on whatever side, right or left or something we will just label facism or anarchy, and toward a sober look at the issues minus the ignorance and threats and violence.

I read that a group of vigilante type folks stormed a meeting of a local public body where I live. They uttered threats of hanging. This should be an arrestable offense. When people threaten our elected representatives, they actually threaten all of us.

Even if you or I did not vote for an official who is threatened, if we allow this, everyone, including those we do support, is threatened. And I am including un-elected officials too. They work under the authority of the people.

I don’t know the details of the local case. But as far as I know, nobody was arrested. But seems like they should have been. Everyone should have a chance to speak their mind, except threats of violence are out of order.

I repeat: let’s ignore but arrest when necessary, not for speech, but for threats and violence .

So who is in charge of America now?

So who is in charge of the United States at this moment? Who is the leader? Is Mike Pence the defacto president? The actual president, Donald Trump, has I believe lost all power, all legitimacy, after sparking a rampage that thretened to topple our government — a rioter was killed and today we learn that a policeman died as the result of injuries sustained — there were reportedly other deaths associated with the event.

The resassurring outcome was that our full congress, house and senate, withstood the pressure and completed what it set out to do, carrying out its function to certify the presidental election. Joe Biden was officially declared the winner (even though we knew this since November). A mob sent by the loser of the election, Trump, could not extort a different outcome from our elected lawmakers.

Those lawmakers who objected to the Electoral College tabulation had their say, as provided by law, and they lost. It never appeared that they had a basis for objection in the first place — as is repeated so often but has to be stressed, they never had any evidence, just heresay. In some cases votes had been counted and recounted and recounted. If you look at the numbers and realize that the election is conducted in 50 states, each having their own rules — kind of hard to rig on that scale. I am concerned about voting by computerized machines, but all that has been scrutinized and not everyone is on the same computer system. With all the judges that had been selected by the Republican administration you’d think one of them could have let one of the numerous challenges proceed, but there was no there there. Not even the right-wing and Republican leaning Supreme Court could see anything worth looking at.

Wednesday’s joint seesion of congress was supposed to be a mere formality, albeit important for a democracy.

Instead of being a proforma event, it was a defining moment in Trump’s four-year rampage against our form of governrnment and the rule of law. He incited a rebellion against our government.

There is a rumor floating around — probably one I should not even mention and thereby in my own humble way give it any credence — that the riot or issurection was what is called a false flag thing, that is it was actually sparked by infiltrators from antifa or some anti-Trump group in order to make the Trumpistas look bad. I see it like this: even if there had been some infiltrators, all the people who stormed the capitol building and tore things up, and they did, are guilty of treason, of trying to tear down our very democracy.

The line is drawn when you go from holding signs and yelling — yelling is permissable; it’s free speech — to physically going after people and tearing things up and trying to physically force your will on an elected body of lawmakers carrying our their duties.

If I had gone to Washington to demostrate my displeasure of Trump and some Trumpista wanting to make me look bad befriended me and said, “hell yeah buddy, let’s go in there and get-em”, I would not follow.

And you know, people have seemed to have forgottrn that the best way to exert your will in this democracy is to vote and in between elections make your feelings known by letter, e-mail, calls, in-person events with your legislators and so on.

Now I agree that most any one of us as a mere individual has little to no influence. But there are hundreds, thousands, millions of others like us who agree with us, and when all those emails and such come flowing in and seem to deliver a message you can bet those who want to stay in office listen.

But with public apathy, the power of persuasion is ceded to the big donors and lobbyists.

This past presidential election saw the biggest voter turnout in a hundred years it has been reported. That’s good. The people had their say. And the losers can come back and fight another day, except one, I hope.

When you try to tear up the rule book you don’t deserve to play in the game.

I don’t know if the 25th Amendment will or can be enacted with such little time before Joe Biden takes over, removing Trump from office and replacing him temporarily with Pence. I have read that impeachment, being considered now, could actually be completed after Trump leaves office, and the main purpose would be to convict him so he could not run ever again.

Right now it seems that although Trump is in charge officially, well, whose going to listen to him? Maybe that is the fitting punishment for him.

We are vulnerable to enemy attack in a way, and I assume Trump is still in charge of the nuclear football, but I also assume that military officers know that they are only obligated to follow lawful orders and that maybe like in the time of Nixon we have people behind the scenes agreeing to keep the renegade president at bay.

I personally would prefer that under whatever manner available — including Trump’s voluntary exit from office — that Pence be designated the place holder until Jan. 20.

Pence showed he was worth his salt after all the other day by standing up to Trump. He was loyal to Trump right up until Trump tried to pressure him into destroying our government by unconstitutionally overridding the will of the people and our governing bodies.

As for all that talk about Trump running again in 2024: I’d put my money on Pence. I would not vote for him, though.

Even for this less than two weeks, Trump should step down, Pence take over, and then Biden pick up the pieces…

Donald Trump needs to step down — now! Vice President Mike Pence should take over in the less than two weeks till the new presidential term begins (Jan. 20). Joe Biden can then pick up the pieces with a fresh start.

It’s too dangerous to have a mad man at the helm of the most powerful nation on earth, and although faltering, still the leader of democracy (well I hope so).

So even though technically it went into the next day (from Wednesday to Thursday) both houses of congress were able to do their job and certifiy the Electoral College results to make it official that Joe Biden is indeed the president-elect of the United States, but not before a huge mob of misguided folks and out and out thugs stormed the capitol building, disrupting the proceedings, and forcing lawmakers to be hurried off to safety.

This attempt to take over the government and turn our nation into mob rule was directed by the sitting president who gave the mob its final marching orders Wednesday morning. It’s all on tape and you can listen and/or read the words — he clearly told them to do it. And, he he had actually days before called on people to show up and “go wild”. This from a duly-elected president of the United States of America.

One woman was killed in the event. I do not yet know all the details, but the last I read she was a protester or rioter or whatever you might say, and may have been shot by the capitol police, who were unable to stop the mob nonetheless.

I do not necessarilly blame the Capitol Police force, that is its officers, but their management — I mean this mob action was telegraphed long in advance — even if it did probably catch most of us by surprise. But you would think professionals in law enforcement would have known better or took prudent precautions. But of course there are different jurisdictions involved, and when the president himself urges folks to “go wild”, you know he’s not going to call in security.

There were several other deaths associated with the riot, which were initially listed as medical emergencies.

The 25th Amedment would allow Mike Pence, who at least showed himself to be a cooler head, to take over as temporary president. It would take him and cabinet members to enact that. President Trump should step aside on his own. What he did was just plain crimimal.

While I do not think he actually believes that the election was rigged or votes stolen and knows full well that he just lost, even if he did, the honorable thing to do would be to recognize defeat and resign for the good of the nation. He serves no purpose now. He was elected legitimately back in 2016 but he has lost all that legitimacy now. Even though it is now less than two weeks until his term officially ends he is too dangerous to continue to be president — after yesterday’s fiasco who knows what he would be capable of doing. Our nation should never be without a leader.

While I do not share the political beliefs of Mike Pence, I believe he showed himself to be an honorable man these past 24 hours as he presided over the joint session of congress in his official capacity in the certification process as directed by the Constitution and law. He did this and condemend the rioters, breaking with Trump who criticized him. It was Mr. Pence’s finest hour (so far).

I do not know if criminal charges can be brought against President Trump. He deserves them for sure. But starting a precedent of bringing criminal charges against a president would make us resemble those third world nations, which we surly did for a few dark hours on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. Harking back to President Franklin Roosevelt’s words about the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, many writers have called this our new “day that will live in infamy”. And we were in essence attacked by our own president.

There needs to be consequences for actions such as Trump took.

And can I say this? I will. I am tired of ignorant and racist yahoos encouraged by right-wing radio running our our politics. It would be just as bad if left-wing radicals had reign, but at this time it is the right-wing mob who darn near took over. I noticed that along with the American flag some were carrying the stars and bars of the old confederacy. What’s up with that anyway? I’ll tell you what: ignorance, racism, and intolerance.

As already noted, at least one woman was killed, and some others died from medical emergencies, it was reported. Trump and all the right-wing hate mongers– especially on our air waves —  and the Republicans in congress who objected to the vote certification, have blood on their hands.

What is really sickening to me is the mindset of those lawmakers who objected to the Electorial College vote (when their candidate did not win but not when theirs did) and knew full well there was no evidence of wrong doing, but simply wanted to pander to a misinformed base to set themselves up for re-election or a presidential run.

We’ve had a lot of public disorder associated with the Black Lives Matter movement too, but of course that was often met with the force of police and even troops. Trump had soldiers shield him from peaceful demonstrators awhile back while he held the Bible for a photo op. He also sent out plain clothes officers like secret police to take people into custody without warrants. Yes, there was violence and looting associated with BLM and where that happened force was necessary, and sometimes in some places it was not used.

But a white mob can storm the capitol with little resistance. Think about it. What if that had been BLM?

Maybe now the more thoughtful folks associated with conservatism or out-of-the mainstream ideology will realize that disorder to further your wants and desires is not the way to go in a democracy.

And I want to say something about the conservative editorialists, I will call them. I don’t subscribe to National Review (founded by the late, erudite. William F. Buckley, Jr.) but I scan its content from time to time. Before 2016 it had the guts to condemn Trump but when it saw he was likely to win, it lost its guts. Editorial or opinion writers for the Wall Street Journal took the position that although Trump was a little bit outlandish at times, you just had to overlook that in favor of policies that favor business and the moneyed class and seem to appeal to others down the line who have been convinced that what’s good for big business is always good for them. But now that they have seen the disaster, four years too late, they have changed their opinion.

You can talk your right-wing ideology and should be able to. But one should know that words have consequences. On Wednesday they did.

p.s.

I did not watch, but I understand Trump did release a less than one-minute video in which he called for law and order but gave his love to the rioters. He still claimed he won the election.

And just to remind everyone, the official results of the Nov. 3 election:

Electoral College: Joe Biden, 306; Donald Trump 232

Popular vote: Biden, 81,281,888; Trump, 74,223,251

 

Time for the 25th Amendment Mike Pence…

This would be a good time for Vice President Mike Pence to allow provisions of the 25th Amendment to be implemented with him temporarily taking over as president from Donald Trump who earlier today (Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021) incited a riot in Washington D.C. which culminated in a mob storming the capitol building as both houses of congress were carrying out the certification of Electoral College votes. Some of the invading mob was armed. One person, reportedly not a lawmaker, was shot, according to reports.

**** It is reported that a woman shot inside the capitol during the riot or insurrection has died. No more details at this time.***

This is the first time anything like this has happened in the more than 200-year history of this democracy.

It was an insurrection clearly directed by the president of the United States who was soundly defeated in the election last November, but who maintains he won and that the election was rigged. However neither he nor anyone else has been able to come up with evidence of such — more like it happened because I say it happened or I heard it happened or the other side is so evil that they were able to erase their tracks even with all the recounts and observers and the thousands or millions involved. No court, including the Supreme Court, has seen fit to take up the numerous challenges because plaintiffs were unable to come up with logical reason or even suspicion, except pure hearsay.

Reportedly the capitol building has been cleared now late in the day and members of congress might be able to get back to their work.

We’ve had riots and plenty of civil unrest in my lifetime (71 years) but never has it come to this. We look like a third-world country — rule of a strongman backed up by mobs. Sometimes in those countries there are military coups where officers take over civilian control. In this case it seems the president, aided an abetted by craven officeholders who no doubt see through the lies and realize the illegalities of Trump but nonetheless hope to somehow ride his coattails or be seen as his successors in government.

It is being hoped that some of those cowardly Republicans will change their minds now and quit with their stunt of objecting to Electoral College votes. If there were real reasons to object I myself might support them. There appears to be none. If there were they would have had plenty of time to display all the supposed evidence which they for some strange reason can’t come up with.

It goes without saying that the president himself should have gone on nationwide television once he saw that protesters had taken him literally (what other way could have they?) and stormed the capitol — as I wrote, some even armed — and went after lawwmakers and broke windows and caused other damage.

Trump tried to be a dictator. He was to be feared. But who is to be feared more is a mob.

Mob rule is not democracy.

It’s going to take awhile for America to live today down, much less the last four years. And we don’t know if the chaos is over yet.

And what were the authorties in Washington thinking? Trump had been rallying his base for weeks or months on this and finally this morning — actually sending them on their way to the capitol (of course he stayed behind, coward that he is). Part of the blame no doubt goes to the fact that security was needed on various levels with different jurisdictions. One could see Trump would not care to dispatch troops in this case even though he called upon the army to back him up against peaceful protesters who opposed him, sometime back.

It’s really time we went back to a safer and more secure, if somewhat dull, form of Joe Biden bipartisan cooperation. It is much safer for democracy.

I would say for the past 25 years or more politics has been driven too much by right-wing agitators, primarily on radio, who I believe are driven by ratings from a demographic that seems to listen to a lot of am radio in order to hear what they want to hear. To be sure such goes on for the left side of politics, they just have not been as successful. Lefties tend to read more maybe and have other things to do perhaps.

Maybe it’s just me, but my notion is that a lot of Trump supporters are more into angry rhetoric and resentment than well-meaning and rational public policy. I think many of them may have been asleep in or skipped their civics classes too. Besides, demanding that things always go your way in a democracy is a sure way to kill it.

You get the same result on the right or left: you get leaders like Hitler on the right or those in the old Soviet Union or today’s China or even North Korea on the left. What you don’t get is freedom.

Let’s all flock to the peaceful middle ground folks!

Out and out insurrection in Washington D.C.

So in my original post today I understated the threat. There has now been a move to out and out insurrection by a mob at the nation’s capitol building, chasing lawmakers into hiding.

The mob was egged on by President Trump, who has reportedly since called for calm in a twtter post.

Military troops are being deployed as I understand it to come to the aid of a woefully unprepared Capitol Police force. Why it was unprepared after so much warning is unknown and unfathomable.

I plan to write more soon. My original post follows (events of the past few hours outdated some of it) :

So probably the day will end with congress having finally certified Joe Biden’s win in the November election and there being no legal way for the man who threatens to refuse to leave the office of the presidency to keep up his resistance (not that there ever was). Also Democrats seem likely to wrest control of the senate today as the last votes in the Georgia election for both of their senators are counted. They already won one seat last night, and seemed poised to win the second, thus giving the incoming president power to do something.

(I’m talking 1-6-21; I’ve noticed that depending upon how my blog is accessed it may or may not have a dateline on it.)

But I have not seen so much drama and suspense in our federal government since the days of Watergate when it was rumored that President Richard Nixon might declare martial law in order to keep from being booted out of office, but as we know, it all ended with him giving up. But President Trump is signaling that he’ll never give up.

Actually it is reported that he has admitted privately that the game is lost, but apparently he sees some advantage in keeping up the charade of being the actual winner in public.

And speaking of games I was amused at a highly cynical opinion piece in the Wall Street journal mocking Trump for complaining that the election was rigged, stating basically that all politics is crooked or unfair, and here is the line I liked: “Mr. Trump plays checkers. The game is chess”. The gist of the piece is that Trump squandered all of his advantages. I cannot stand Trump, personally, and I don’t like or did not like his policies (most anyway), but I concur with the notion that he had a lot of advantages and threw them away.

Albeit in a milder way, I see Trump as what I would call Hitleresque. He has or had an uncanny ability to stir up and use hatred in his quest for power and glory but does not have the ability at the long game as a real tactician. You recall from history that Hitler made the blunder of trying to fight a two-front war (the old USSR on the east and the Western powers of the free world on the West). Among the many blunders of Trump are that he failed to make compromises with his opposition and win over more folks on the fence while he was in a position of unbelievable strength, thus consolidating his power.

Of course the biggest problem Trump faced was himself. The fact is Trump is or was all in it for himself, not his political party (whose loyalty he never actually swore to), and not the American people.

Today he has put his ever-loyal lap dog vice president Mike Pence in the impossible position of keeping up his allegiance to the president by trying to do something not in his power (according to legal experts), rejecting Electoral College votes, or being cast as a traitor to his boss by simply doing his job as set out in the Constitution and law. The word is Pence knows his limits, thank heaven for that.

I should not be so hard on Pence. The vice presidency is usually a thankless job, with the number-two player having little to no power, well except to break ties in the senate, and that might be big in the coming months — for Kamala Harris.

But back to the drama and suspense: a joint session of congress is set to certify the Electoral College vote in which Biden is the clear winner as Nazi-like protestors threaten to make problems in Washington D.C. And, a group of what I would call renegade Republicans have vowed to object to the vote count without any clear evidence of irregularities or fraud in the voting (not that I have read, have you?), only unclear heresay.

As far as I see all the proper steps and then some, what with all the recounts and rejected court filings, have been taken in the presidential election of 2020. It’s over — all but the theatrics.

One headline I read said that democracy depends upon the losing side accepting defeat. I think that pretty well sums it up.