It DID Happen Here

/ diotimasladder

“I never thought I’d see it happen in my lifetime…not here, not in this country.“

—Pretty much every talking head on TV yesterday

I’m not surprised about the attempted coup yesterday, as it’s what I and many others have been fearing since Trump was elected. To call him a tyrant or fascist at this point seems, well, boring. Of course he’s a fascist. We’ve known this for so long. But still—still—STILL—we have Republican politicians getting on record to “condemn violence” even while they continue to perpetuate the Trumpian myths that led us to this place to begin with. They’re afraid of losing. They don’t know they’ve already lost. That’s sad as hell, but again, not surprising.

Where do we go from here? Impeachment? 25th? All that seems utterly beside the point now, because the truth is, Trump deserves to go to prison. The problem is, he gets away with everything, no matter what. I have no reason to think he’ll suffer any consequences for what he’s done. I hope I’m wrong.

It’s been interesting comparing the various news stations’ reactions. I don’t want to get too far into this, but I bring this up because I was concerned when a commentator on PBS said that Trump told the crowd at the rally to “Walk down to the capitol” and “take back this country.” I worry we’re being led to believe that Trump actually formed of a complete, grammatical, incriminating sentence. That didn’t sound quite right, so I looked it up. The relevant section begins around 2:51:52:

“We’re going to walk down … and I’ll be there with you … we’re going to walk down to the capitol and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them … because you”ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong…”

The problem is, Trump is slithery with language. It’s not stupidity, it’s calculated slithery-ness. Being litigious himself, he’s constantly wary of getting into legal trouble, and I think he’s trained himself to speak ambiguously so no one can pin him down. So, what about now? I have no doubt that he incited a riot. But can he be charged for it? Can the charge stick, I mean, legally?

If anyone can shed some light on this, please let me know. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

30 thoughts on “It DID Happen Here”

  3. Dear Tina,

    Thank you for your very timely post. Needless to say, we live in interesting times indeed, but often for the wrong reasons. What a day it was to unfold with sedition and insurrection!

    Instead of “Flattening the Curve”, the USA is now “Steepening the Curve”, so much so that the MAGA tagline “Make America Great Again” should be changed to MASA: “Make America Sick Again”!

    Here’s my little poem or ditty:

    I can’t bear the POTUS
    Much more than the VIRUS
    For he has been lying
    Even to the dying
    About his true FOCUS

    In a nutshell:
    The POTUS’ FOCUS is a hocus-pocus.

    Regarding the POTUS’ Twitter and Facebook accounts, some would even argue that they should have been suspended or terminated a long time ago for continually unleashing falsehood, misinformation and mass distrust. Fortunately, he has not (yet) been given free access to software or button(s) with which to launch weapon(s) of mass destruction.

    In any case, those who are fair-minded and discerning are not easily swayed by his constant thrashing around and beating in the bush. Speaking of whether “the president really is a very stable genius”, SoundEagle’s adage is that Trump is a fool’s idea of a genius. In addition, the POTUS has long slid from being a “Law and Order” President to a “Flaw and Border” President.

    Speaking of critical thinking and many other complex behavioural, sociocultural and political issues, I have recently published a very detailed post entitled “Misquotation Pandemic and Disinformation Polemic: Mind Pollution by Viral Falsity” at https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2020/12/19/misquotation-pandemic-and-disinformation-polemic-mind-pollution-by-viral-falsity/

    I would be delighted if you could kindly submit your comment to my said article, as I am very keen and curious to know what you think or make of it regarding the increasingly pressing issues that many of us are facing.

    By the way, I would like to wish you a very happy New Year. May you find 2021 very much to your liking and highly conducive to your writing, reading, thinking and blogging!

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    • I agree they should’ve shut down his Twitter account a lot sooner if they were gonna do it. Not much point now. That being said, I think people just need to stop getting their news from social media. But I’m afraid the cat’s out of the bag on that one.

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  4. “The problem is, Trump is slithery with language.”

    So very, very. From what various talking heads have said, there’s a pretty clear legal case. The real question is political will. Biden seems to be leaning away (even now) from prosecuting, but an awful lot of people (including me) are shouting for blood. I don’t think we can heal until we make it clear this does not stand. (Biden worries about it being divisive. As if it could get more polarized. There can be no fellowship with those who refuse to abide by the rules and standards.)

    It’s our turn to be yelling, “Lock’m up!!”

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    • Yes! Exactly! Lock him up! He incited a riot. It was an attempt to overthrow the government, and this isn’t some bullshit conspiracy theory. We all know what happened and we shouldn’t allow it. I will be pissed if Biden backs down. I suspect the longer we wait, the more time republicans have to make false comparisons with the black lives movement (saw that all over the comments section on breitbart).

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      • Yeah, there’s a concerted effort to claim this was a false flag operation, but the idiots don’t seem to realize how much footage there is of them. Many have been recognized from various right-wing venues. That guy with the horns, for instance, is apparently quite well-known. (I’ve heard that some have already lost their jobs because of their participation.)

        A lot of the footage the fools posted themselves. Then the light bulb went on and they took down what amounts to self-incriminating evidence, but there are a number of organizations that deliberately keep and eye on, and record, this stuff. I think we’re going to see some big efforts on law enforcement’s part due to the very black eye they received over this (a number have resigned already)

        One thing seems to be finally coming clear even to some of his supporters. At this point, not just a big whiny baby loser, but without question, without qualification, the worst President this country has ever had.

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  5. Until this week, I thought Trump’s fight to overturn the election was a grift to raise money. Well, this week’s events sure as hell set me straight. Apparently Pence and the cabinet don’t have the courage to invoke the 25th amendment. (The protest resignations, at this point, are nothing but cowardly theater.) And it sounds like Trump is considering pardoning himself. The courts will have to decide if that’s constitutional.

    Our best hope for ever seeing him behind bars will probably have to come from state prosecutors, which I think is happening in New York. But it means he’d likely be prosecuted for something unconnected with this week’s events.

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    • “Cowardly theater” is a good way of putting it. Cowardice is what makes Trump possible. Can you believe we’re talking about the courts deciding whether its constitutional for a president to pardon himself? If Biden does nothing about this, I think we can expect to see a second season of this cowardly theater, and it might not have a happy ending.

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      • I think Biden would do best to leave it to the career prosecutors. Any whiff of political involvement would just bog his administration down for months on end. The problem, as you noted, is Trump is very good at avoiding responsibility. He’s been doing it his entire life. Still, it’s hard to imagine if people are scrutinizing him and his businesses, something won’t be found. It reminds me of the historical fact that the only thing Al Capone was ever convicted of was tax evasion, but in the end if was enough.

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    • Dear Mike,

      Let me clarify. You mentioned in your first comment here: “Until this week, I thought Trump’s fight to overturn the election was a grift to raise money. Well, this week’s events sure as hell set me straight.”

      As far as I know, the POTUS has managed to raise 250 million dollars so far.

      Liked by 1 person

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      • Thanks SE. I did hear he’d raised a lot. And I used to think that was the real goal. Until that recording of the phone call to Georgia came out, his public pressure on Pence, and inciting the mob to attack the capital. The clown really was hoping he could override the election. We can only be grateful that he’s far too stupid and deranged to stage a real coup.

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  7. Hi Tina, happy new year!
    At his press conference on Jan. 7, Biden first strongly condemned Trump. Interesting is the section starting at about minute 12, where he says that the Attorney General is not his (Biden’s) Attorney General, but that he is answerable to the law (“Your loyalty is not to me, its to the law”). He then announces the nomination of Merrick Garland to the office.
    I think he will give Garland a free hand to go against Trump. He will insist that the law requires it and that he will not interfere politically here. In the speech, he talks about the office of Attorney General having been politicized under Trump. I think the purpose of that speech was to position the forces of the law against Trump. It is a preparatory move. So he himself is going to try to counter the division of the American society, while at the same time his Attorney General is going to take action against those who need to be taken action against.
    At least, that’s what I hope. We will see.
    I saw the speech here: https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/das-sagt-joe-biden-zur-situation-in-washington-a-b40d0f99-3cad-42b0-8272-4b9d6de151a4
    Sorry, that is a German site, I am sure the speech is also available from other places.
    Best wishes
    Andreas

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    • Very insightful, as usual. Thank you so much for pointing this out.

      Biden is boring as hell, so I tend to tune him out after a few minutes…I watched part of this, but somehow it didn’t register for me. I think your take on what Biden said is really interesting and I think you’re probably right about this being a preparation. I hope he does go after Trump, but I hope he knows what he’s doing in waiting. We will see. I worry old school nice boy politics isn’t gonna cut it. Maybe I’m just in a vindictive mood, but I worry the Republicans will spin this into one of their bullshit stories. I’m already hearing vague mutterings about how this attempted coup is the same as leftist riots. I worry once this kind of crap takes off, Biden will back down out of deference to his campaign promise to unite the country. Anyway, I doubt Republicans will see Garland or any of Biden’s nominations as independent, no matter what. But again, we’ll see. What do you think of Biden’s move? Do you think it’ll work?

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  8. Hey Tina,

    I have no idea if Trump will be convicted, or even prosecuted. I kind of doubt it.

    The thing I think needs to be said is that the cowardice and spin we’ve been seeing is NOT the elite being spineless. It’s a purge that intensified in 2015 but going back to the 1970s where voters, the “good guys,” have consistently punished politicians for honorable behavior. The RNC tried HARD to prevent Trump winning the nomination in 2015 and the elites that stood up to Trump have either been eliminated by vindictive voters or caved to the desires of their constituents. In the last four years dozens of prominent Republicans stood up to Trump – most have been eliminated or replaced by their constituents. We, not the distant elites, are the problem.

    Thank God unelected officials were able to stand up to four years of voter assaults and “peoples’ champion” coup attempts. I’m just not sure that’s sustainable in a democracy because, eventually, either the people get what they deserve or educated elites like Wyrd, Mike, you and I figure out some way to disenfranchise the downwardly mobile, suffering types and it’s no longer a democracy. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-won-places-that-are-thriving-trump-won-ones-that-are-hurting/ar-BB1b1NCn

    As for the right saying that left wing riots were just as bad, I don’t know and I don’t think it matters. The fact CHAZ existed for so long makes the argument inevitable. I personally think that a state level coup attempt is pretty trivial next to a federal coup attempt, but I’m a lefty and biased. Even more fundamentally, deciding who is more at fault according to some imaginary moral standard is just not going to be persuasive.

    I’m currently reading Gibbons’ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and he often mentions populations, formerly of the Roman Republic, that were “servile and decadent, frightened by freedom and calling out for a master.” Welcome to the Sulla and Marius show, 21st century edition.

    The only way I see out of this problem, the only way I see us keeping a democracy in the face of such a deeply corrupted and degraded voting public is to provide the suffering, the hopeless and the cancerous some kind of frontier where they can start over and find some excuse to respect themselves. Where this frontier is, or if it even exists, I don’t know. You tell me.

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    • I actually think Republican politicians—such as Jordan, the douchebag from Ohio, who keeps stoking the insanity (I pick on him because something about that guy instantly makes my blood boil)—can make a difference if they stop being cowards and own up to the facts. McCain made a huge difference in giving the thumbs down to repealing Obamacare…of course, he had nothing to lose at that point.

      I agree the problem lies with us, the people, but it’s politicians too. I think it’s a feedback loop, one that’s become insane and dangerous. Those with power need to break the loop and they need to do it yesterday. There are many, many people who are easily influenced by their rhetoric, not just die-hard Trump supporters, but also mainstream Republicans. I think more than before they’re listening to the politicians, even if they consider them “the swamp”, because they’re ordinary people who aren’t quite sure what to think of what’s happening. Unfortunately, it might already be too late.

      As for comparing riots on both sides, I think it makes a huge difference that one side was championed by the president and his minions. Plus the fact that law enforcement sat on their hands and let it happen—that was the scariest thing for me in watching that whole shit storm unfold. When I think of a coup, I think of military tanks rolling down the street. For some reason I didn’t think of security guards, which is pretty stupid of me because it makes sense now, looking back.

      Providing the hopeless with a way out and helping them find some excuse to respect themselves would help. But it’s not just the hopeless who voted for Trump. This is the reason why I think it’s so important for mainstream Republican politicians to put the smackdown on Trump and what he stands for, to be loud and unequivocal right now. A lot of people who voted for Trump think he’s an asshole, but good for the country. They need the wool removed from their eyes, and that can only maybe happen when representatives on their side stop lying and jump off the Trump train en masse…regardless of whether they are assured a soft landing.

      Yeah, I know, fat chance.

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      • I would love to see that courage and train jumping. I just think it would result in the voters purging everyone with courage over the course of the next election cycles. Just look how quickly the working man turned on Fox News when it dared tell the truth. I don’t know. I hope I’m wrong.

        So I think there’s a pretty big misconception about “Nazis” that we need to wake up to. Totalitarian movements – and Trump is straight out of the totalitarian playbook – tend to be thought of in terms of omnipotent elites controlling the helpless masses with brainwashing. This is PAINFULLY WRONG.

        I’m too young to have known any people who actually took part in the movement, but I have read their letters and books. I also, in my early 20s, dated a slightly older woman who grew up in the Soviet Union. These people, legitimately and materially, benefited from living under Hitler and Brezhnev. They liked it not because they were wicked or stupid, but because totalitarian domination is a real, concrete improvement for the lives of people who are marginalized, downwardly mobile and metaphysically homeless.

        1. The totalitarian movement always rescues the superfluous person from existential questions. In a democratic country, a superfluous person struggles to find meaning. In a totalitarian country, it’s easy. Merely by existing he or she embodies the inevitable progress of society toward a racial/egalitarian paradise.

        2. The totalitarian movement always rescues the mediocre from the tyranny of merit. When people are promoted or killed based on the dimensions of their noses (Nazi Germany) or by their zip code (Khmer Rouge) or by the poverty of their ancestors (USSR) then the superfluous person not only enjoys vastly better prospects of advancing, he or she gets to watch those people who were better at life being shamed and killed.

        3. The totalitarian movement always functions as revenge against the pity and compassion of educated elites. This is for some reason really hard for educated middle class people to understand (maybe I need to get better at explaining it), but pity and “forgiveness” are, to struggling people, incredibly toxic and emasculating. It is difficult to explain how much I hated being pitied when I was superfluous and my neighbors, very often, hated it even more than I did. There is much more honor in being hated than pitied, which is one reason Trump people are so happy to embrace the deplorable label. Totalitarians relieve this suffering by ritually humiliating all that is respectable, nuanced and intelligent. Making the bourgeoisie doctors and data scientists and historians bow to the authority of a drooling idiot as he suggests they inject their lungs with Lysol is emblematic of this cathartic revenge and it is not, in any way, restricted to the Trumpers.

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        • From what I hear, some of the Republicans who voted to impeach are getting death threats. But I guess that’s why it’s called courage. That said, Trump did lose, so there’s that. And then there’s Georgia. But I think there will be some purging, especially with Democrats in charge now.

          As for elites brainwashing the masses, I would agree that that’s not exactly what’s going on. And if that’s brainwashing, then liberals are also brainwashed. I’m serious. I mean it. Equally brainwashed, though by different means and with different messages. But I don’t want to get into criticizing liberals…that’s what I prefer to do in normal times.

          But I do think Republican politicians had a chance to send the right message to moderate Republicans, (not Trumpers, of course). I think they all needed to be united to make that message, and they might’ve already blown it. Now I’m guessing they’ll just sink back into “the swamp” where no one cares what they say.

          I think what you’re describing are the Trumpers, the ones storming the capitol, not the ones who voted for Trump, necessarily. The ones I’m thinking of are run-of-the-mill Republicans who would’ve voted for any Republican over any Democrat, period. They’re the ones I see as making a difference.

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          • You are certainly right about a section of Trump voters.

            I’m actually going to write an article about the guy with the beard who posed in Nancy Pelosi’s chair. Specifically, I’m going to write an article about his hands.

            That man, in his normal life, clearly sticks his hands into harsh environments over and over again. Maybe its UV burns from a welding rod, maybe it’s chemicals at a factory, maybe it’s just getting sunburned every day for decades. Regardless, those are the hands of someone we’d normally consider a “working man” in the traditional sense.

            In my social circles, pretty much everybody whose hands look like his was happy to see the Capitol invaded.

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