The Man Who Would be Dictator Part 6: Know Your Crowd Then Demand to Lead the Charge

 According to Donald Trump he barely knew who Cassidy Hutchinson was back in the first month of 2021. Despite this lack of familiarity Trump also wrote on social media she had desperately wanted to join him and Mark Meadows in exile down at Mar A Lago after the coup of January 6th failed. He added she was very upset about not being able to continue on with his team.

That's the ticket. Pull out the old, Ms. Hutchinson is the woman scorned who is out for revenge ploy. Unfortunately all that detailed information tends to undermine the whole, "I barely knew who she was," tale--as do the J6 Committe's photographs of her standing in close proximity to El Don in the tent behind the stage he delivered his speech on that terrible day..

Of course Don Trump has never been known for telling the truth, so we can probably write his ramblings off as just more Trumpian bullshit he made up on the fly.

Parts of Ms. Hutchinson's testimony are now being questioned and even denied by some. However no one has challenged major portions of it. First, no one who was there, has said Mr. Trump wasn't told many in the mob were armed with a wide variety of deadly weapons. Just as no one has said she was wrong when she testified his reaction to the news was, "I don't care, they aren't here to hurt me." Or when she said he demanded the metal detectors to be removed so the armed insurrectionists could join the crowd on the ellipse. Nor has anyone disputed Trump later approved the rioter's chant of, "Hang Mike Pence." 

In addition no one has denied Mr. Trump was obsessed with leading the mob to the capitol building and perhaps into the house chamber itself. You know, like some sort of mutant Robert E. Lee personally charging up the long slope at Gettysburg in front of Pickett's division. If he had, White House Counsel, Pat Cipollone had predicted Trump and everyone else connected with that day would end up charged with multiple felonies. 

Finally, even though her hearsay story of a physical altercation between Trump and a member of his Secret Service detail has been disputed, no one has claimed Hutchinson was lying when she testified Trump became so enraged that afternoon he heaved his lunch against a wall in the oval office dining room. (According to her, not an unheard of occurrence.) 

Ah yes, quite presidential. It's so reassuring that the man with access to the nuclear codes had the emotional stability and temperament of a three year old brat.

While some of Ms. Hutchinson's testimony speaks directly to Trump's knowledge of what was going on in the crowd and his ultimate goals for January 6th, there is still a question about the alleged urgency of her appearance. On the surface it seems there was no need for what amounted to an emergency session held at the spur of the moment.

Was it because the committee didn't want the public to shift its entire focus to the Supreme Court's recent decision on Roe v. Wade? Or, is there something else going on that we don't know about? Maybe co-chair Liz Cheney hinted at that something else when she pointed out a number of witnesses have been contacted by unidentified parties. There have been messages left of the type usually reserved for mob members who are contemplating turning state's evidence. "The boss knows you're talking, " they say. "He knows you will remain loyal." Others are darker, "He reads transcripts and will know what you're saying." 

Let's face it, Cassidy Hutchinson just turned 26 years old. How much pressure can she handle over a long period of time? How long would it be before someone out there made her an offer she couldn't refuse? 

She was, after all, testifying against a man who wanted to lead armed insurrectionists into the capitol to overturn a legal election he knew he lost, not to mention the evil sycophants who were there with him. Hey, they might be stupid fuckers, but that doesn't mean they aren't dangerous. In fact sometimes, as we saw on January 6th, 2021, it downright guarantees it.

6-30-22 

The Man Who Would be Dictator Part 5: Never Forget the Italian Satellites

 Now we're talking.

No more cajoling, conning, and bullying two bit state officials. No more terrorizing common vote counters. By the middle and end of December of 2020 Donald Trump was ready to move on to none other than the United States Department of Justice and a full blown, federally sanctioned, election coup.

After all, unlike locally elected yahoos, the president could actually fire these fuckers if they didn't do what he wanted. And what he wanted was them to come up with something, anything, that would put the DOJ's official stamp on his accusations of voter fraud, or theft, or electronic chicanery. Even if no trace of evidence was found, in the documented words of Donald Trump to Assistant Acting Attorney General, Richard Donoghue, "Just say the election was corrupt, and leave the rest to me and the republicans in congress."

Both Donoghue and his boss, Acting Attorney General, Jeffrey Rosen were, let's say, not in the mood to do so.

The Big Orange Guy had another card to play though. Deep in the bowels of the DOJ dwelled a man named Jeffrey Clark who had ambitions of his own. He wanted to run the place and he was willing to do whatever it took to do so. 

Clark had already been called on the carpet after it was found he was meeting with White House staff and the president without going through the proper chain of command. He continued to do so on the sly even after being admonished. He drafted a letter to the governor of Georgia. It claimed the DOJ had found enough evidence of malfeasance during the election a special session of the Georgia legislature should be called. Their aim should be to reverse the results there. The plan was he, along with Rosen and Donoghue would all sign it. 

The contents of the letter were prima facie bullshit. Rosen and Donoghue refused to sign it. Clark called the president, then walked into Rosen's office to announce he was the new Acting Attorney General. He asked Rosen if he would stay on as his assistant. Jeff Rosen immediately called Trump's Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows and demanded a meeting with the president. After Meadows set it up Mr. Rosen began making other calls to assistant AGs all over the place.

Clark had good reason to think his skullduggery would work. By that afternoon who ever types up the White House call log was already referring to him as the Acting Attorney General. The title didn't last long.

The way the oval office gathering was described brings to mind a surreal version of the Apprentice, Trump's old TV show. Clark was there as was Rosen, Donoghue, and third in line at the DOJ, Steve Engel among others. The gist of the meeting was, why shouldn't the president fire Jeff Rosen and replace him with Jeff Clark. 

Rosen went right to the heart of the matter.. Clark wasn't qualified to head the DOJ. He had no experience in trial law and criminal investigations. He had never even been in front of a jury. On top of that if Clark was named the Acting AG every assistant AG there would quit on the spot, including Donoghue and Engel. In Engel's words, Clark would be running a graveyard.

None of that might have mattered to Donald Trump because he desperately needed that letter to go out. Engel finally carried the day when he told the president if Clark became Acting AG the big story wouldn't be about the letter, it would be that the president had to gut the entire senior staff of the DOJ to find someone to send it. The warning struck a chord. Better than anyone, Don Trump knows perception outweighs reality..

Clark was done and the letter was never sent.

However, as Mac Davis once said in a movie, "Wait, then comes the weird part." After the attempted one man mutiny failed, Rosen got a call from Meadows. He wanted the Acting Attorney General to check out a YouTube video that purportedly showed evidence of yet another conspiracy to steal the election. Rosen referred the video to Donoghue who took a look at it. 

According to the video the CIA, MI6, and other intelligence agencies worked with someone at the U.S. embassy in Rome to upload special software into Italian satellites. This software was used to change Trump votes into Biden votes in machines across the land on election night and in the days after.

Meadows told Rosen, none other than Rudy Giuliani wanted to speak with him about the plot. Mr. Meadows was told, in no uncertain terms, to go waste someone else's time. So he did. Meadows chased down the Acting U.S. Secretary of Defense, Christopher Miller, who presumably had more important things to do. To no one's surprise Miller found there was nothing to the accusations except deranged fantasies.

The findings of Chris Miller might have debunked the vote switch conspiracy, however, the next day, after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, a strange new rumor began drifting out of northeastern Oklahoma. Those Italian satellites couldn't change ballots, it said, but they did emit some sort of brain damaging Gamma waves that caused the justices to rule the way they did. There was no other explanation for their cruel and unusual behavior. 

Hey, as the QAnon people everywhere say, prove it didn't happen.

Yes, these are weird times. The question remains, how did we get here? Tragically, most of us know the answer to that, but we'd rather not admit it, at least not out loud.

sic vita est.

6-27-22

The Man Who Would be Dictator Part 4: When All Else Fails Call in the Muscle

After the testimony yesterday by six victims of Donald Trump's thuggery, many of the talking heads who analyze these sordid affairs compared the former president to a mafia boss. Rudy Giuliani was his capo, they said, John Eastman, his consigliere, and groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys were the hit men. Some, however went another way. Rather than seeing Don Corleone and his gang, they saw Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

Maybe it was a combination of both. Two toxic entities swirling together to make one uniquely evil brew known as Trumpism. 

Ah, theories, everyone has one, or more. Just ask Rudy Giuliani. In a moment of rare candor he told Arizona Speaker of the House, Rusty Bowers, "We have plenty of theories, but no evidence." This came after Giuliani had repeatedly promised Bowers the campaign would provide the speaker with tons of proof that massive voter fraud happened in his state. 

Bowers, a life long republican who swore he supported Trump during the election and voted for him, had actually seemed open to an investigation when Giuliani first broached the subject. In Bower's words, "Give me a list of names of everyone who voted illegally and we will investigate." Giuliani's promises began then. They continued right up until January 6th. In the end he couldn't provide a single name, but insisted the Speaker act on his promise to do so.

When it became apparent Bowers wouldn't cooperate without proof someone let the dogs loose. Protestors showed up at his home accosting not just him and his family, but their neighbors as well. A panel truck with loud speakers circled his block, loudly accusing him of things like pedophilia. At the time, his daughter lay inside the place dying of cancer.

When it came to Georgia, Trump, perhaps losing confidence in Giuliani and the legal mumbo jumbo of Eastman took a more hands on approach. He initially talked to the lead supervisor of the state's recount. His message was brief. She had the most important job in the nation. If she proved the Georgia count was false she would be, "praised and praised." He ended with telling her he would appreciate anything she could do for him. A plan to send her and her staff personally autographed MAGA swag was nixed by someone in the White House.

Shortly after came the infamous hour plus phone call to Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger. On the tape Trump cajoles, reasons, pleads, threatens, and bursts into momentary fits of rage. He tells Raffensperger he knows he won Georgia by 100,000 votes--by Jan 6th that margin of victory in his mind had grown to 400,000--and he is adamant he has video proof of voter fraud. The criminal who they caught on security cameras is Ruby Freeman. Donald Trump, President of the United States of America describes Ms. Freeman as, "a professional vote scammer."

She is, in fact, the owner of a small specialty clothing store. She had volunteered to count votes on election night with her daughter, Shaye Moss who worked for the Georgia election board. Earlier, Giuliani, had told a group of Georgia state senators the film showed Freeman and Moss pulling suitcases of ballots from under tables then running them through counting machines three and four times. Giuliani rambled on about some heroin and then claimed the tape showed that Freeman, ominously, gave Moss a USB drive.

When questioned about the, "USB drive," Ms. Moss explained her mother had given her a ginger mint. And, as anyone who has played power ball knows, sometimes the scanner doesn't pick up the number the first, or second time the form is run through the machine. 

According to Raffensperger, if anyone had been counting Biden votes multiple times the total of votes would have outnumbered the number of paper ballots. That wasn't the case. 

For Shaye Moss and her mom life became a living hell. Vile and racist texts and phone messages followed them everywhere. One text cruelly told her, "You're lucky this is 2020, not 1920." At one point a crowd of Trump supporters showed up at Ms. Moss' grandmother's house. They demanded to search the place so they could execute a, "citizen's arrest."  

Welcome to Kristallnacht territory. 

Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman have lived in abject fear ever since Donald Trump and his cohorts blamed them for his poor performance in Georgia. According to both they avoid going out, even to church and grocery store. Just before January 6th FBI agents warned Ms. Freeman to move out of her house for her own safety until after the inauguration on the 20th. She was so terrified she stayed gone for two months.

Interwoven in all this testimony of violence, intimidation, and depravity, was the plot to name alternate sets of electors for battleground states. They would be hand picked Trump zealots who would take the place of the real electors selected by the voters. 

When told of the plan, Rusty Bowers testified his mind immediately flashed to the title of Jimmy Breslin's novel, "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight." His reaction to it was so incredulous--You're asking me to do something that has no precedent in the history of the United States--the Trump team by passed him completely. 

The chosen electors were so jittery some of them actually sent the Trump campaign a letter demanding it pay for their legal expenses if they were charged with crimes, or sued. In the end though, they, "certified," Donald Trump as the President. 

Copies of their fake certifications were sent to the national archives. The originals came into the possession of an aide to Wisconsin republican Senator Ron Johnson. The aide called a Pence aide either on the 6th, or right before. He asked if Sen. Johnson could personally deliver the paperwork to the Vice President. He was told no.

Johnson is currently doing the Oshkosh two step feaster than it has ever been danced before. He denies knowing anything about the fake certificates and claims he had no idea his aide had them, or had made the offer. 

Yes, those were terrible days and nights. Tragically and some might say amazingly the man behind it all is still running around free. He has and is still conning huge numbers of desperately frightened and hateful Americans with The Great Conspiracy. That he is doing so at the expense of American democracy is not only unfathomable, but to many of us intolerable. Hell, even the Germans had the good sense to chuck Herr Hitler into the slammer for a while after he tried to pull off the Beer Hall Putsch. Their big mistake was they let the son of a bitch out.  

The truth is Donald Trump and his trailer park fascist followers are a clear and present danger to the United States of America. We all saw it clearer than ever yesterday. 

6-22-22

The Man Who Would be Dictator Part 3: Find a Lawyer With Even Less Respect for the Constitution Than You

 It began badly. The January 6th congressional committee swore in two witnesses last Thursday. One was former Mike Pence legal counsel Greg Jacob, the other was retired federal judge and conservative constitutional expert, Michael Luttig. When Luttig was first questioned by committee chair, Bennie Thompson, his brain appeared to lock up much like James Stockdale's did decades ago. That excruciating episode occurred during what was supposed to be a vice presidential debate. In Stockdale's case it proved to be the single most awkward and embarrassing moment to ever air on national TV.

Things did not immediately improve. When Luttig was asked a second question the cameras showed him with his chin down on the knot of his tie with his eyes closed. There was a painfully long pause during which the retired judge didn't move. The initial reaction here was, My God, he has died.

Judge Luttig awoke from the momentary coma and responded with halting words, as if he was writing each one down before speaking them. From then on he looked to recover and although he chose what to say with aching deliberation sometimes, he did say it and by the end of the session his condemnation of Donald Trump and his chief legal advisor, John Eastman was brutal.

And who, might you ask is this John Eastman who figured so prominently in the proceedings? Dr. Eastman, is a law professor at the University of Chicago. He became Trump's chief of voodoo constitutional law through a simple process of elimination. Toward the end, outside of the notorious sot, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman was the only legal mind who would tell the then President what he wanted to hear--that there was still a viable path to overturn the results of the 2020 election. 

There were a couple of problems though. First, that path was utterly insane and illegal--although neither of those impediments have ever worried Donald J. Trump. Second, it hinged on one man and one man alone, Vice President Mike Pence. Eastman had posited the Vice President could intervene in the certification of the election, one of two ways. He could throw out the electors of several battle ground states then replace them with alternative ones, a bunch of hand picked rabid Trump supporters. Or he could send the election results back to those states to hopefully have the outcomes reversed by local GOP controlled legislatures. In either event the vice president would have to personally nullify the will of millions of voters.

Pence consulted with Jacob, who was on his staff, Luttig, who wasn't and others about the constitutionality of such a move. They all said it was grossly illegal. The answers were unanimous right down to former VP Dan Quayle who was also asked for an opinion. 

They weren't the only ones. Everyone at the White House including Eastman felt, at best, if Pence pulled such a maneuver, the Supreme Court would rule against it. When one Trump staffer was asked about it, he put it bluntly, "We thought he was nuts."

Nuts, or not, Eastman and Trump began a relentless campaign to pressure Pence into tossing out historical precedent and the constitution so El Don could hang onto power. Their hope being if Pence did so, the Supremes would consider it an election issue and not a constitutional one and so refuse to hear it. And, even if they did it would take weeks, throwing the whole process into chaos and uncharted legal waters. 

Trump's pressure on Pence, both in public speeches and during phone calls culminated on the morning of January 6th. Panic and anger had set in. Pence remained determined not to budge. During the last phone call between the two men the President of the United States called his vice president a wimp, and a pussy. He told him he couldn't make tough decisions and he should have never selected him as the running mate four years before. The witnesses to these words included Ivanka Trump.  

Trump's anger was such he rewrote his speech to the mob, He accused the vice president of being an accomplice to the plot against him and America itself. Later, even as the shit was hitting the fan at the capitol building, El Don was still tweeting that if wasn't for Mike Pence's lack of balls the rioters and he would get what they wanted. Video evidence presented by the committee showed the crowd's reaction to the message. The words violent and ugly are far too mild of a description.

By then the vice president's Secret Service head was trying to get him into a car so he could escape the mob. Jacob testified that while the rest of the party piled into the waiting vehicles the VP refused. Jacob told the committee he heard Pence tell his head of security, "I know you and trust you, but I don't know who is behind the wheel of the car." Hey, as they say, it ain't paranoia if they really are out to get you.

Yes, Thursday's hearing might have started out awkward and painfully slow, but it ended with the riveting picture of a man standing his ground against the most powerful and spoiled bully in the world. Not to mention his crazy ass lawyer who concocted a nonsensical excuse in order to justify an electoral coup d' etat.  

6-19-22

The Man Who Would be Dictator Part 2: Being Detached From Reality Helps

 Today's January 6th committee hearing didn't prove, although they laid the groundwork for it, that Donald J. Trump incited the 2021 capitol insurrection. They didn't even prove he fully understood he lost the 2020 election. However, what they did prove, through devastating testimony, is the former President of the United States was and is bat shit crazy. 

No, really. After he lost the 2020 election Don Trump became as delusional as Adolf Hitler during those last days in his Berlin bunker. That would be when Herr Hitler was ordering attacks by divisions which no longer existed. Think not? His then AG, Bill Barr, put it this way, the former president had, he testified, "become detached from reality."

The madness began on election night. Mr. Trump ignored the advice of his campaign manager, Bill Stepien and others who told him not to declare victory because, you know, all the votes hadn't been counted yet. Instead, he listened to Rudy Giuliani, who by all accounts was drunk, and made the announcement early in the morning the next day. During that announcement he repeated what he had said earlier in the campaign, The only way he could lose was if the election was rigged. 

Within a scant few weeks everyone who told him he had indeed lost, was fired, resigned, or exiled from his inner circle. Those who told him the increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories weren't true, or unprovable were labeled as Republicans In Name Only and declared disloyal. It became quickly obvious El Don had no need for pros and realists. To get his ear you not only had to be a servile toady, but also a purveyor of the wildest bullshit imaginable.

Tragically there were plenty of those people around. There were also way too many in the republican party who believed the hallucinations of an unraveling Big Orange Guy. GOP voters were stunned by the loss. After all, everyone they knew voted for Donald Trump. Campaign signs were everywhere in their neighborhoods and thousands of people showed up at his rallies. In short they counted only what they could see, not what was on voter registration rolls. 

You throw in the rising tide of abject racism and xenophobia and to millions, Trump's paranoid nonsense became an easy buy in. It explained everything.

As court after court rejected Trump's law suits it became clearer by the day there was only one option left for their leader and themselves. Gather in Washington on January 6th and stop the democratic process by force. Fuck the constitution and reality. The American way of life--at least their version of it was at stake.

Donlad J. Trump may, or may not have incited the insurrection per se, but his lunacy set the stage for it and he, no doubt, approved of the mob's behavior. And now we know, in a perfect example of Trumpian philosophy and strategy, he may walk away from the consequences of his words and actions while letting his loyal minions pay for it.  

sic vita est 

6-13-22

Donald Trump: The Man Who Would be Dictator

 You might be able to say many things about Representatives Bennie Thompson, D-MS and Liz Cheney, R-WY, but you can never accuse them of being subtle. For those of us who have watched endless hours of congressional panels and inquiries sink into arcane and mind numbing details last night's Jan. 6th committee presentation was like sticking your finger into a live electrical socket. 

That's right. There wasn't any pussy footing around yesterday. Donald J. Trump, they both said right up front, attempted to pull off a violent coup in order to overturn the results of a fair and legal election so he could retain power. Both promised the committee would prove it and there would be no ifs, ands, or buts about it.  

For two hours the committee laid out evidence that proved the Jan. 6th insurrection wasn't some exuberant, peaceful, demonstration that spun out of control, but rather a well planned attempt to at least delay the certification of the presidential election, or at worst stop it entirely. And it was all engineered by Donald Trump simply because he couldn't stand the idea of becoming, a loser.

Furthermore recorded witness testimony proved Mr. Trump knew he had lost the election as early as mid November--his own voting data people, among others told him. Ignoring the truth he floated the strategy of claiming mass voter fraud to invalidate his loss. His attorney general, Bill Barr told him, in his words, "The idea is bullshit." That statement, like Ivanka Trump's, that she believed Barr rather than her father, was on tape. There can be no denying, or quibbling about either one.

Live witness testimony to the brute violence that bloody day utterly disproved the current republican mythology that the demonstration wasn't any worse that what happens in Black Lives Matter actions. Or that that the entire deadly affair was instigated by BLM and Antifa provocateurs.

A British film maker putting together a documentary about the Proud Boys was with them. He testified 200 to 300 of the group left the rally to move to the capitol before Trump made his inflammatory speech. During that time they scouted the building for weak spots in it's perimeter and took up advance positions to wait for the crowd they knew was coming. When it did arrive they served as storm troopers leading the assault.

Indeed, it became clear last night from December, 2020 on Mr. Trump had, on several fronts, tried to find a way to invalidate the election. His pleas to different courts were rejected. Mike Pence, to his shock, grew a backbone and refused to budge on the nonsensical notion the Vice President could, by himself, overturn a presidential election. By the 19th of that month the then president realized he had only one option to stop the inevitable from happening. On that day he tweeted his invitation to supporters to join him in Washington on the 6th. He promised them, "it will be wild." 

In truth, Don Trump knew the 6th was his last real shot at retaining power. It is why, on that day, despite numerous panicked requests from aides and supporters who were caught up in the assault, he refused to contact anyone who might be able to intervene, or personally tell the mob to stand down. It was why he told some who were with him that the attackers might be right as they chanted, "Hang Mike Pence."

This avalanche of  damning evidence isn't even close to being over. A second hearing will be held Monday, followed by others. Even without them, though, Donald John Trump has been proven to be the first American president to attempt an overthrow of the government of the United States--that he is, in fact, the man who would be dictator.

6-10-22

   

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The Profoundly Evil Side of American Exceptionalism

 There are two things we know for sure. First, in the ten days since the mass shooting of 10 year olds and their teachers in Uvalde, TX, republicans have blamed the nightmare on everything, but the easy availability of guns. Second, when Michael Louis opened fire in Tulsa yesterday it was the 20th mass shooting in the United States since the Uvalde massacre. According to NPR and other sources it was the 233rd of a year that is barely six months gone.

Yes, tracking mass shootings in this country is like trying to keep up with Donald Trump's lies. They come so fast and there are so many the public and media can barely process them all. Before you have a chance to dwell on the depravity of one, another happens, then another, and another.

And still, the GOP is collectively like some terrible spoiled brat. You try to reason with it and it sticks its fingers in its ears and begins to scream gibberish so it won't have to hear you.

Mike Louis bought a .40 caliber semi automatic hand gun at a pawn shop three, or so days before his rampage. The purchase was not only legal, but thanks to the Oklahoma legislature and Governor, Kevin Stitt, Big Mike could legally carry that weapon, concealed, without a license, or any training wherever he wanted to within the state. 

Less than three hours before the mayhem began Louis also bought an AR-15 style rifle from a local gun store. Hey, they're all the rage. No well armed lunatic in America would be caught without one. That buy was also perfectly legal. The truth is up until Michael Louis pulled the trigger the first time he hadn't committed any crime at all.

In fact even if he had bought the weapons earlier and given his relatives and friends cause for concern it wouldn't have mattered. Oklahoma has a law that prevents just such people from calling the authorities so they can temporarily disarm a potential shooter before the act and have him mentally evaluated. The statute is called the anti-red flag law and is meant to protect the second amendment rights of those who are--well--seriously fucking nuts.

No other industrialized nation in the world has mass shootings at the rate we do. None of them even come close. This barbarity is American exceptionalism at its most profoundly evil. It is killing babies, teachers, grocery shoppers, and now doctors in their offices. It is killing us as a nation. There are no excuses to justify it, or to explain it away. We must do something now.to get the guns off the streets.

Read this post quickly. It is going to be out of date within what seems like minutes these days.   That's because as sure as dawn comes tomorrow the next mass shooting is right around the corner. The availability of guns and one political party's refusal to even think about solving the issue guarantees it.

sadly, sic vita est

6-2-22