Those of you who have been readers of Politics and Other Stuff over the past nearly six years know that the banner of this blog includes a beautiful picture of the United States Capitol on a sunny day. Even though I have written many posts about state and local government and politics I chose the Capitol for the banner picture because I believe that the building symbolically represents American “small-d” democracy.
Many of us may not have seen coming what happened at the nation’s Capitol, but when you think about it, the insurrection was just the natural conclusion of what we have lived through for the past four years. The hate, criminality, and disrespect for the rule of law shown and encouraged by Donald J. Trump and his followers have come home to roost.
We have had someone (actually, many someones) in the White House for the last four years operating with sinister motives designed either to enrich themselves financially or politically, or to serve the purposes of such people as Vladimir Putin. Last week made it clear that they really thought it could go on forever.
Watching Trumpkins scurrying from the sinking Trump ship over the past few days has been amusing. Amusing, that is, until you think about all the damage and all the hate that those people aided and abetted for four years.
It’s also interesting to watch other enablers suddenly start preaching from a Democratic hymnal. Trump supporter Rupert Murdock’s Wall Street Journal described the desecration of the Capitol as follows:
In concise summary, on Wednesday the leader of the executive branch incited a crowd to march on the legislative branch. The express goal was to demand that Congress and Vice President Mike Pence reject electors from enough states to deny Mr. Biden an Electoral College victory. When some in the crowd turned violent and occupied the Capitol, the President caviled and declined for far too long to call them off. When he did speak, he hedged his plea with election complaint.
This was an assault on the constitutional process of transferring power after an election. It was also an assault on the legislature from an executive sworn to uphold the laws of the United States. This goes beyond merely refusing to concede defeat. In our view it crosses a constitutional line that Mr. Trump hasn’t previously crossed. It is impeachable.
This is how enabler Chris Christie explained things with reference to Trump: “His conduct over the last eight weeks has been injurious to the country and incredibly harmful to the party.”
What we saw last week was a series of seditious acts by Trump, his two oldest sons, the ever-disgusting Rudy Guiliani and assorted other minions. At their “rally” on January 6 they incited rioting. Here is a handy reference from 18 U.S.C. Section 2383 for those following from home: “Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
The performances of Trump and company were acts of sedition. They should all be prosecuted for the death and destruction they encouraged and led as they egged on their followers to march on the Capitol and fight. “Trial by combat” is how Guiliani phrased it. So much for Trump’s “law and order” claims.
After the disaster some Republicans had an Epiphany – how ironic that it occurred on the Feast of the Epiphany. Too little, too late. It’s the extreme example of the Pottery Barn rule: “you break it, you own it.”
Calls for Trump’s resignation for his role in inciting a riot and insurrection, or to invoke the 25th Amendment, or even for his second impeachment are likely to end in nothing conclusive being done. As tempting as it is to see him impeached again, which would remove him from a future run for office, prohibiting him from running for office again would only facilitate slimy characters such as Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley in their quest to become the next Republican Trump.
The sedition extends much further into the Republican Party. The 140 House members led by their leader, Kevin McCarthy, and the 13 senators who challenged the legitimate, fact based, judicial and administrative system tested results of the election all need to be singled out for their behavior which egged on the terrorists who stormed the Capitol.
Locally we can include Congressman Chris Jacobs in the Hall of Shame. It is hard to top the Buffalo News’ characterization of Jacobs as a “coward” and a “liar.” He should resign, like the other Congressmen Chris’s who previously represented that district. That’s unlikely, and reapportionment of congressional seats in 2022 will, in any case, remove the district and place Jacobs in a district where voters will not take kindly to someone who continues to sympathize with Donald Trump and who describes the rioters as “protesters.”
Drilling down further, we recently observed the example of the Republican Town Chairman of Aurora, Earl Jann, telling us that he is recruiting town candidates who are “opposed to multiculturalism, including identity politics and socialism/communism as we believe these policies are responsible for dividing our country.” No Earl, “multiculturalism,” as you describe it, did not divide the country. Our divisions have unfortunately existed for a long time in this country but it took your party’s leader, Donald J. Trump, to legitimize and make it acceptable to promote and exploit those divisions.
What happened to America on January 6, 2021 will be burned into the nation’s consciousness for a long time to come. The images we all watched for hours on that day of the terrorist attack on the Capitol will not be shuffled into the dustbin of history. The Trump-led and Republican-supported insurrection against American democracy will and should haunt its enablers forever.
Politics and Other Stuff 
Tom,
I’m trying to understand what’s important to you and what point you’re trying to make. To me, it’s obfuscated by your pivots, what-about-isms, and speaking points from I don’t know where. (What is radical socialism? )
Let’s look at big picture brushstroke outcomes, based on information from the current administration’s own reports:
Labor Dept.- manufacturing jobs at lowest yet
Agriculture Dept.- highest rate of farm bankruptcy in recent history driven by tariffs
Voting in States- most secure election yet with multiple recounts and no evidence of fraud, except for 1 vote in PA…a son was submitting his dead Mom’s vote for Trump. Validated by dozens of courts all the way to SCOTUS.
COVID vaccine – credit for putting money into the process. Points taken away for ignoring intelligence late 2019 that a pandemic is imminent, eliminating the pandemic team, politicizing masks, promoting treatments that don’t work, allowing the deaths of half a million Americans to date, not having a competent plan to get vaccines into arms. Let that sink in.
Portland? That is a false equivalency.
They were not an attack on democracy with the intent to hang the Vice-president.
And yes, Russia, China, and don’t forget the UAE and the Koreans are all hacking our systems. What’s been the cybersecurity strategy? There is none.
How about domestic terrorism? ISIS is a sound bite. More Americans have died at the hands of domestic terrorists than any foreign groups.
I am not going to get into a back and forth here as the way I read your response, it’s limited to rhetorical personal attacks rather than a thoughtful, fact-based discussion about how politics can solve critical issues.
We need leadership for farms to get working, retraining for a new economy as manufacturing is not coming back (face it), the pandemic solved, fiscal responsibility (the worst national debt ever), investment in education, lowered health care costs including support for mental health services, a plan to deal with domestic terrorism, and more.
We also need working across the aisle to account for differing viewpoints and come to some sort of agreement to move forward.
And yes, we need tax dollars to pay for these initiatives and deal with the deficit. That is not socialism, that capitalistic reality.
So have a nice day, and Go Bills!
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Christina,
1) CDC predicts another 500,000+ will die due to the pandemic. Will Biden/Harris be to blame for those deaths? You would not even have a vaccine if it was not for Trump putting together a public/private partnership to get a vaccine and we got a vaccine within 6 months which is like putting a man on the moon. New vaccines and Clinical Trials takes years not months.
2) A Russian Cyber War infiltrating our government computers. You mean like the way the Russians and the Chinese and others infiltrated an illegal server in Bill and Hillary Clintons basement which Obama new about and was wiped clean with Bleach bit or do you mean the Chinese spies that have embedded themselves in Feinstein’s, Boxers, Swalwell’s office and had access to all the information that flowed through their offices including defense and intelligence. As our intelligence community said, Russia is an annoyance but China is threat. It was Trump that asked our intelligence community to investigate Chinese infiltration and subversion in the US public and private sector. The democrats would do it because the democratic party has been wholely compromised, bought and sold by the Communist Chinese.
3) Are you referring to the attack on our democracy by feminists marching for abortion or Antifa/BLM rioting (arson, vandalism, violent assaults, murders including murdered police) in Portland, Seattle, Chicago, NYC, Baltimore, Ferguson, Atlanta, etc or are you referring to the attack on our constitutional republic by the democratic party rigging elections, changing election laws without changing the state constitution, fake ballots, multiple rescannings of ballots, refusal of observing ballot tallying, voting machines that were connected to the internet and sent data to Communist China.
4) You mean those lost manufacturing jobs that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and Joe Biden said would never come back to the US except it was Trump’s tariffs that starting the re-alignment of global supply chains out of china with some companies returning to the US…and Trump bring manufacturing jobs related to our national security back to the US when it became public knowledge the extent of sole sourcing our pharmaceutical industry to China had made the US to Communist Chinese bio-warfare which is how and why this pandemic was released by China. All that was because of Trump not Clinton, not Bush, not Obama, not Biden. If you think the tariffs failed then you dont understand economics or business or global supply chains.
5) Lets get honor back in the white house and the country, you mean like all those celebrities and athletes threatening to burn down the white house, raising a fist or kneeling or staying in the locker room when our national anthem is played. Oh Pahleez! Look in the mirror for thy name is hypocrit.
6) Biden is feeble and senile and he will re-regulate the economy and increase taxes which will kill the economy. The economic recovery we have been having and will continue to have are due to Trump de-regulation and tax cuts. Everyone knows Biden and the Democrats are corrupt radical socialists.
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Thanks for this analysis. Regardless of what micro successes Trump apologists parrot from their single news source, this administration is the worst presidency in our history with abject failure on all policies.
The underlying goal has been self- enrichment and a power grab with no regard for “America first”.
Top failures that are HUGE?
1. Over 400,000+ dead in the pandemic.
2. Russian cyber war infiltrating our government’s computers.
3. An attack on our own democracy.
4. An economy in shambles with losses of manufacturing jobs, mistimed tax cut for only the top %, failed tariff strategy.
What has Trump done that’s positive?
Raised awareness of civics and helped the book publishing industry.
Now, let’s get honor, fact-based, stable and competent leadership back into the White House. The US will no longer be a global joke under Biden.
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I remember watching Kyrie Irving trying to explain why he believes the earth is flat. I have that same feeling now, I don’t know what to even call it. I guess I’d say ok, if that’s how you feel, and move on.
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This article is probably the most preposterous article to date. Lets talk complicity.
1) Setting up autonomous zones in Portland and Seattle are anarchists, treasonous, traitorous groups involved a coup d’etat. Refusing and violently rebelling against municipal, state and Federal govt I would say is a coup and it is these people who are acting against the interests of the US and it was their actions that were the precursor to what happened in DC.
2) Lets talk about cancel culture, woke culture, Antifa, Black Lives Matters, Social Justice Warriors, harassing senior citizens, harassing the disabled, harassing people eating at restaurants, harassing drivers by blocking traffic and pulling drivers out of cars to violently assault them or kill them. Here in Rochester a white husband and wife whose business had been closed for months due to Chinese Bat Flu Stew finally open their business only to be beaten with 2x4s and clubs. I would say that is criminality and disrespect for the rule of law. Lets not forget it did not end there. Antifa and Black Lives Matters barricaded the police in their precinct, set fire to it attempting to burn the police alive.
2a) You speak of encouragement by Donald Trump. Ok. How about the encouragement of the entire democratic party to refuse acknowledgement of riots, arson, violence, treason, murder and describing it as peaceful protests and the pursuit of civil rights. How about the democratic mayors who refused to allow the police to enforce the law and end the civil disobedience, the democratic district attorney’s who refused to prosecute even when people were arrested and democratic governors who refused to call in the national guard. What about democratic party members and leaders taking up donations to pay for bail for anyone arrested while rioting. Is that not encouragement?
3) Oh you want criminality of politicians then how about a democratic party / Hillary Clinton financed fake dossier on Russian collusion that allowed a fake impeachment proceeding with fake evidence to proceed for 3 years while democrats Feinstein and Swalwell had Chinese spies working in their office. How about to corrupt business dealings with China by Feinstein, Swalwell, Biden (Joe and Hunter), Schumer, Pelosi and most of the democratic party compromised bought and sold by China and given access to civilian and defense research (ie espionage). I would say that is criminality. Were they not enriching themselves and their family members with backdoor bribes and business deals for themselves and their family members?
4) Trump serving the interests of Putin is delusional and a blatant deflection of the truth. First Russia is rapidly depopulating. It does not have the children to staff an army for war and soon it will depopulate to the point where it wont have the expertise to maintain its military technology. All the intelligence agencies say that China who has infiltrated the democratic party, the democrat biased news media, the democrat dominated educational system, used its power influence and censor entertainment media and sports media…as well as infiltrate our civilian and defense research centers. It is either intentional deflection of the truth away from democrats or in is a serious case of ideological based delusional insanity.
5) Trumpkins scurrying to resign. OMG this is bordering on a psychological disorder. Trump’s term ends in 2 weeks. It is not unusual for people to resign and seek other employment at the end of a presidential term especially if there is a change in political parties where they know the opposing party will want to place someone else in that position….and knowing this they probably resigned 1 or 2 weeks early to avoid being linked to any controversy. There is absolutely nothing unusual about a politician resigning in DC any more than an employee resigning from the British Monarchy. It just brings attention because they are high visibility positions.
6) Does anyone honestly think this is the first time that the democrats have stolen an election through fraud and corruption and manipulating the political process? If you do then you are naïve? Yes, if a politician believes the election was corrupted and unfair then they deserve the right to explore every means possible to expose the corruption and right the wrong. Whether one likes Trump or not the Democrats have so corrupted the election process that no one believes Biden is a legitimate president. Every state in the union needs election reform, vote id/voter verification laws, etc.
7) The democratic party has turned into an open borders mass immigration corporatocracy. Lets face the truth why the democratic party hates Trump and why they crucified him.
7a) Trump challenged China through trade tariffs, protected Taiwan, aided India in defending its Himalayan Territory from China, partnered with Indo-Pacific nations to keep the Malacca Straits and South China Sea open seas from Chinese over fishing and naval hegemony, also partnered with Japan and the Indo Pacific nations to respond to Chinese claims on the Senkaku Islands and the militarization of Shoals in the South China Sea and lastly Trump stood up to ban Hawaei from using their 5G wifi to spy on any nation that buys their equipment and Trump passed the laws to delist Chinese Companies from US stock exchanges if they do not obey US financial disclosure and transparency regulations. Let us also not forget that Trump was using tariffs and national security to reshore american businesses either to the US or to other countries friendly to the US. In 4 years Trump was succeeding in shifting supply chains out of China or building redundancy into the supply chains to bypass China in the event China chose to freeze exports. The democrats receive A LOT OF MONEY from Communist China lining their pockets and Trump defending our national assets, our national freedoms and our national security threatened the back door deals democrats were getting from communist chinese.
7b) Trump also wanted to regulate Big Tech and Social Media which are huge donors to the democratic party and huge partners in using their algorithms to censure information and news content to favor democrats.
7c) Trump wanted Teachers to return to the classroom and teach which democrats and teachers unions refused. Trump wanted to expand school vouchers and school choice which would have directly threatened a major political donor and a major democratic constituency. Govt education workers and Teachers unions.
7d) China made land claims in Central Asia and in Russia’s Far Eastern Territory all but asking for their return to China to which Russia responded to China that any incursion into Central Asia or Russian Territory will be responded with nuclear weapons. Based on aggressive actions by China towards Russia, Russia began improving relations with Japan and India. Both Japan and India were working very hard to normalize relations between the US and Russia which would have pulled Russia away from their China alliance. This would have been a major re-alignment in global power partners and alliances. Now that Trump has lost Russia is re-affirming its alliances to China because they (Russia) think Biden is weak and senile. The Taiwanese also think Biden is weak and senile. Taiwan was confident of US support as the Peoples Liberation Army sent sorties (fighter aircraft and bombers) from mainland China over Taiwanese airspace. The Taiwanese, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore were not confident in Obama and they are not confident in senile feeble Biden. If war comes to Asia and Taiwan or Vladivostok or the South China Sea are lost to China then you can bet it will be from those who voted for Biden and the democrats.
Congratulations. You got rid of Trump and you turned our country over to foreign billionaires, globalists and global corporations and foreign nations who are not friendly to the US. They now control the US because they bought and paid for the democrats who are currently in power…and yes…the democrats will sell their soul to them as long as the devil pays them enough money.
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JFK predicted Trump’s complicity:
“Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.”
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