For the past week, I’ve been waking up far too early in the morning, every morning, wondering if I still had a country. Each day begins with, “What did he do NOW?” And the answers to that are always horrifying. But since the attempted coup on Jan. 6, the better question is: How does he still have his JOB? How can you incite a mob to overthrow the country at 11 a.m. and still be in charge of said country at 11:01 a.m.?
There is this growing sentiment: “Oh, he will agree to a peaceful transition …” “It’s a waste of time, I mean, we only have a few days.” “Impeachment will only bring more division, and we need unity.” The only phrase missing here is: “Boys will be boys.”
You want to know why we go for impeachment and removal?
Because trying to overthrow the government is treason. Treason.
Using the tried and true gaslight tactics found in “Mein Kaumpf” is a clear and present danger.
The man is unhinged. He willfully has destroyed so many and so much and his feet need to finally be held to the fire he so gleefully started.
“Well, he didn’t exactly tell them to be violent …” No, because he’s not stupid. He’s holds a Ph.D. in manipulation. If there’s one thing he knows, it’s his crowd. He knows their tastes, their look, and most importantly, he knows their buttons. And there is no one in the world who knows how to push buttons better than the guy who installed them. He built it up, like a show. He used his sons, his daughter, his slimy lawyer as opening acts to build and build the rage.
[image_caption]M.S. Lennon[/image_caption]
He was Manson to all the Squeaky Fromme patriots.
When the violence started, he was safe, in his happy place, watching it all on TV.
He let it go on for HOURS. He watched the destruction, and didn’t act. He knew his own vice president was about to be attacked, and did nothing. Why?
He was hoping it was going to work.
That’s the truth of it all. He was hoping it was going to work. Just as he had hoped he could strong-arm the electorate of Georgia. As he had strong-armed Ukraine. As he had lied about the truth of the pandemic. The Georgia tapes, the Ukraine tapes, the Woodward tapes. He keeps going unchecked and it continues to spiral over and over again, and always in a downward direction. Malignant narcissism is like a wild animal. It’s at its most dangerous when exposed and cornered.
Make no mistake. Donald J. Trump was absolutely, 100% responsible for the destruction and death at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Telling us to “move on” is akin to telling your daughter who’s been assaulted, “Well, boys will be boys, and besides … graduation is just around the corner.”
M.S. Lennon is a writer from St. Paul.
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Your piece astutely captures the inferences that others wish to omit from the analysis, and is very nicely expressed.
In the category of absurd contrasts, when I read that he couldn’t respond to the dire requests for help because he was “glued to the TV,” my immediate image was of his arriving home from his rally and immediately jumping into his pajamas to watch with a bowl of Cap’n Crunch.
You have just described Trump’s official presidential portrait.
I don’t think the White House would display his booking photo, so we’ll have to go with yours.
“What did he do NOW?” 4+ years of it, enough already and then some, now the in-laws don’t want to talk to me because they have been proved fools, 4+ years ago we warned them they were fools and there was no sense in having the conversation! Of course they objected, in the end can’t have rationale conversations with irrational people.
Show us all in the speech transcript what the President said that encouraged the rally goers to break into the Capitol. You can’t. The House of Representatives couldn’t either, although they didn’t bother to try. Opinions are not facts, nor are they necessarily the truth.
Is this a serious take? Can you really be this obtuse?
Trump gave a speech full of lies about the election being stolen and implored the crowd to fight. Then that crowd marched down the street and commenced a terrorist attack on the capitol.
So your tv’s been broken for the past 4 years, you don’t get radio coverage in your cave, and you don’t know how to read? How else to explain you and 74 MILLION people continuously being taken in by this Master Manipulator?! Or let’s turn it back on you: explaiN–if you can–why 82 MILLION of us see the despicableness and criminality of Trump so clearly, and have all along, but you don’t. I believe the answer must fall into the muddied area of “our lives suck, they didn’t turn out the way we wanted/hoped, all is lost, we’re desperate and unhappy, we barely graduated high school…and this billionaire (NOT) says he’s gonna save us all…that only he can fix it…and so we believe him because…what other options do we have, besides winning the lottery???” JUST WOW…. Talk about skimming the surface and never going deep:( Talk about totally abdicating and allowing the entire country to go under while clinging to a lying, cruel, sadistic, destructive psychopath who in reality cares NOT AT ALL about a single other person EVER. How have we arrived at this truly weak and insane point?????
“Show us all in the transcript. . . ”
Here are a few excerpts chosen more or less at random from the Fidel Castro-worthy tsunami of lies spewed by T*** for over an hour on January 6, 2021:
“We took them by surprise and this year, they rigged an election. They rigged it like they’ve never rigged an election before. By the way, last night, they didn’t do a bad job either, if you notice. I’m honest. I just, again, I want to thank you. It’s just a great honor to have this kind of crowd and to be before you. Hundreds of thousands of American patriots are committed to the honesty of our elections and the integrity of our glorious Republic. All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical left Democrats, which is what they’re doing and stolen by the fake news media. That’s what they’ve done and what they’re doing. We will never give up. We will never concede, it doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.”
“But this year using the pretext of the China virus and the scam of mail-in ballots, Democrats attempted the most brazen and outrageous election theft. There’s never been anything like this. It’s a pure theft in American history, everybody knows it. That election, our election was over at 10:00 in the evening. We’re leading Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia by hundreds of thousands of votes, and then late in the evening or early in the morning, boom, these explosions of and bullshit, and all of a sudden. All of a sudden it started to happen.”
“Over 8000 ballots in Pennsylvania were cast by people whose names and dates of birth match individuals who died in 2020 and prior to the election. Think of that. Dead people! Lots of dead people, thousands. And some dead people actually requested an application. That bothers me even more. Not only are they voting, they want an application to vote. One of them was 29 years ago died. It’s incredible.”
“Mike Pence has to agree to send it back. And many people in Congress want it sent back, and take of what you’re doing. Let’s say you don’t do it. Somebody says, “Well, we have to obey the constitution.” And you are, because you’re protecting our country and you’re protecting the constitution, so you are.”
“And we fight. We fight like Hell and if you don’t fight like Hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
“So we’re going to, we’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, I love Pennsylvania Avenue, and we’re going to the Capitol and we’re going to try and give… The Democrats are hopeless. They’re never voting for anything, not even one vote. But we’re going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones, because the strong ones don’t need any of our help, we’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”
https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-speech-save-america-rally-transcript-january-6
So, you’re right in a way. T*** did not use the precise words: “Break into the Capitol and take Mike Pence and other legislators hostage or kill them”. But a person who shouts “Fire” in a crowded theater doesn’t tell anyone to hurt or kill others in so many words even though he/she knows the likely result is to cause a stampede for the exits where people are going to get hurt or killed. That’s the meaning of “incite”: “to move to action : stir up : spur on : urge on” .
And then there’s the prequel: “It will be wild”. Sure, not said on the same day, but part of the narrative nevertheless.
What the heck do his defenders think “It will be wild” is SUPPOSED to mean?
And don’t forget that he’s “leading” them down Penn Ave to “fight like Hell” at the precise time the Congress is assembled in joint session to irrevocably confirm the “lie” that Biden won, thus meaning these (imagined) patriots very soon “aren’t going to have a country anymore”.
Nope, no way to conclude Trumpolini incited a violent insurrection from this transcript!
“He was hoping it was going to work”
Yes, this hits the nail on the head, and explains everything that occurred. Occam’s razor ends the discussion.
Impeachment is actually not adequate at this point, Trumpolini needs to be held criminally liable, along with the authoritarian white nationalists that stormed the Capitol at his behest, seeking to halt the lawful transfer of power under the Constitution, willfully deluded by Trumpolini’s Big Lie.
So long as the impeachment is in progress he cannot pardon anyone related to the subject of the impeachment.
1. Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution reads, in part, “The President […] shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment”:
Since POTUS is involved in impeachment, no pardons pertaining to the impeachment are valid.
Is President Trump eligible for a pension?
No. Exception:
For those wondering if it’s worth impeaching him this time, it means he:
1) loses his 200k+ pension for the rest of his life
2) loses his 1 million dollar/year travel allowance
3) loses lifetime full secret service detail
4) loses his ability to run in 2024
5 U.S. Code § 8312 – Conviction of certain offenses
(C)
section 2381 (treason), 2382 (misprision of treason), 2383 (rebellion or insurrection), 2384 (seditious conspiracy), 2385 (advocating overthrow of government), 2387 (activities affecting armed forces generally), 2388 (activities affecting armed forces during war), 2389 (recruiting for service against United States), or 2390 (enlistment to serve against United States), of chapter 115 (relating to treason, sedition, and subversive activities) of title 18;