The Hard Truth Is That Donald Trump Got Away With A Violent Insurrection

It makes me remember Hue during the Tet Offensive: “We had to destroy the city in order to save it,”

5 Likes

I assure you, it is not a coincidence.

4 Likes

The are the ones who own the land where wind is killing the birds too.

4 Likes

I remember and understand all of that. (It was a kinda big story. Hard to forget.) I was replying only to what I took @eldonlazar to be implying, that Trump should have been arrested and jailed as soon as DoJ learned he had documents/materials that should have been deposited with the National Archives when he left the WH.

2 Likes

How soon they forget.

4 Likes

I’m gonna lay my old cranky spine bones down and try to sleep.
G’nite me peeps

10 Likes

Also, “trees cause pollution.”

5 Likes

I hope you didn’t pull a Hegseth and forget/fail to wash your hands.

3 Likes

Speaking of rural and school districts the folks in KY defeated a ballot measure to allow tax money to go to private schools. It was defeated in all of KY’s 120 counties. That really surprised me.

6 Likes

I may be a little more forgiving with the docs at MAL. Trump isn’t/wasn’t the only person that had classified info in the homes. But again the it became criminal went he sent some back, refused to send the rest back, and actively hide them from one of his own attorneys.

4 Likes

Sorry, wrong again. I’ve been aware of him since he was Stephen Harper’s favourite weasel.

Of course Trump’s retention of the docs at MAL was criminal! And Jack Smith should and would have had any easy conviction (barring the quirks of juries) if not for Cannon. Trump’s packers didn’t mistakenly send all those docs to MAL. Or if they did (which I don’t believe), Trump nevertheless went to great lengths to try to hold onto them, obstructing justice along the way, big time.

I guess I’m very sensitive to people who, in their justified outrage over Trump, are willing to throw the Constitutional protections of criminal suspects and defendants out the window. My daughter (as I guess I’ve said lots of time here – I am proud of her) is a criminal appeals attorney and has also been a criminal defense attorney, and her work reminds me all the time of the importance of those protections (not always assured if you’re poor and/or a POC). The apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

1 Like

See I keep coming back to Biden and Pence, they both had classified docs at their homes. But in DonOLD’s case, and looking at all the boxes of docs, I think that he did take them all/some to MAL before leaving office.

We can see how much he hoards when he was in his office in Trump Tower. And I see a resemblance to Gollum.

4 Likes

I like the way, with the piles of supposed work papers in the background and some under his arm, the foreground contains numerous pictures of Trump, as if he is Narcissus gazing at his own reflection. Trump on a magazine cover (“Time to get TOUGH” – or is that some kind of booklet?), a poster, maybe a mock-up a magazine cover in the center, and stacks of magazines in the far right corner. And then all those framed photos on the window ledge, looking upon Trump as he “works.” Trump + beloved family? Maybe some. But most are probably Trump + important people (like Rudy Giuliani? – hah!). And what is Trump doing with his phone? Tweeting? Oh, and that row of Sharpies on the desk to his right.

3 Likes

I agree. Their job was to defend the constitutional order, and the people who live in it and by it, that is, us, from malignant corrupt anti-democratic enemies, and they failed. Now what? I’m a depressive person, but I’m not depressed or despairing so much as angry. Feels like righteous anger, although that’s a dangerous judgment to make of one’s own anger. I don’t know how/where to direct it. I’m looking.

3 Likes

I swear that I saw a interview, so video footage, of him rummaging through all that crap to show the interviewer how important he was. To me this crap in his office is a reflection of how his mind works.
And this is coming from someone who is a borderline hoarder.

6 Likes

Turns out that in a lot of smaller communities, a lot of the town’s social life revolves around the local schools. And folks know: lose the school, lose the town.

6 Likes

Esp. since “Immigration Czar” is not an actual office. Presumably, he will get a legitimate appointment. Interesting question, though: can ICE deputies/police/agents (whatever they’re called) arrest just anyone anywhere? Even, say, the mayor of Denver? On what authority? On the basis of what law or laws?

Meanwhile, here in MA, ICE has arrested three “child rapists” who came here illegally. (Note: Biden is still president.) Much made of this at Fox and in local news. One of these stories is local. The young man, a recent high school grad, undocumented, who was arrested in Berkshire County, was charged last Feb. with raping a 14-year-old girl in a car in Oct. – he allegedly forced her to give him oral sex. (A bunch of teens had gathered in a spot teens use for outdoor parties.) He was released on bail (after a “dangerousness hearing,” at which some of his hs teachers testified as to his good character), has continued to live with his relatives here, and has been working in construction jobs. A hearing in his case was scheduled for the end of Nov., but ICE has made moot his trial on the rape charges.

1 Like

Yes!

2 Likes

Not sure what to cite in replying to your lament. (Laments are a good thing. In cultures with rich lament traditions, people – usually women – vie in their laments.)

I’d take us back to Biden’s inauguration. Strange in so many ways. At the Capitol, recently the site of a violent insurrection. COVID still, so masks and distancing. None of the usual glam and glitter, but instead, visible security measures. Not to mention that Biden’s predecessor wasn’t there and was still contesting the election results.

Within a few weeks, Trump’s second impeachment trial was underway. Failure on that front, but still: the nation had elected Biden to return us to decency and “normalcy.” Trump would surely fade away as a real force even as the Jan. 6 Committee was created. When Garland took the reins of DOJ in March, we still expected Trump would fade. The Jan. 6 insurrectionists – the violent people at the Capitol – would be brought to justice by the DOJ.

On Feb. 22, 2021, Biden oversees the candlelight vigil, commemorating those who died from Covid.

The Dem Congress and Biden pass momentous legislation in 2021 and 2022.

Meanwhile, the Jan. 6 Committee did not immediately produce evidence for the public to absorb. Between June and December of 2022 it held the televised hearings we remember so well. The Committee did not readily share its non-public findings with DOJ. DOJ, it appears, wanted their help because it had been doing more investigating than just going after the more than 1,000 people at the bottom of the food chain, the rioters on Jan. 6. On Nov. 18, 2022 Garland appointed Jack Smith. His decision to appoint a special prosecutor, much less this specific person, would not have been made overnight. (For all we know, Smith wasn’t his first choice!) Nor would he have gone this route solely or chiefly on the basis of the Jan. 6 Committee’s public hearings. The DOJ had been investigating, and Smith would soon be returning indictments against Trump.

It’s just so very hard for us to wrap our heads around what we all lived through. The Biden administration’s momentous legislative successes while it held bare majorities in the House and Senate (remember the endless Manchin and Sinema nonsense? Pelosi’s genius?). The ongoing House Jan. 6 Committee’s investigation and the DOJ’s work. That somehow, esp. when the Repubs took the House but had all that Kevin McCarthy nonsense, MTG, Boebert, Daetz, Trump held on as a force. It didn’t help that Biden seemed to be losing his edge, even as he led NATO into supporting Ukraine. (Remember, Ukraine?) And more recently, Gaza.

So much I have left out. Just trying to remember what it felt like when.

6 Likes