The Hit Shows of Summer Are Nearly Over
The Hit Shows of Summer Are Nearly Over
Today will showcase the final public hearing of The Committee for awhile. So far - compared to what we knew within a month of the insurrection - we’ve learned:
In the final three weeks before January 6th, Trump was getting multiple messages from legal counsel and others that he’d lost, there was insufficient evidence of fraudulent voting, there were no legal means to overturn the election and that he should end his quest.
Some advisors were telling him to declare he’d won before the votes were counted, that he should declare martial law (chilling!) and on January 6th he should go to the Capitol, avoid going to the Capitol, and go to the Capitol AND the Supreme Court.
The violent nationalist groups involved had weapons and other materials stashed nearby and were planning a weeks-long siege of Washington DC at multiple locations. At least two Trump associates were in close contact with the groups. And Trump tried to get security measures loosened to permit his supporters to be armed near him, certain they wouldn’t use the arms to hurt him. So he wanted the protesters headed to the Capitol to be armed.
There’s not many alternate conclusions one can draw from that.He pressured people in several states to seat fraudulent slates of alternate electors who’d reject the legally cast votes of the majority in those states. Or to create more votes out of thin air.
At times, Trump’s anger mirrored that of an angry drunk.
A Supreme Court justice’s spouse was egging him on and the Supreme Court justice was voting to block access to evidence from Trump.
The Secret Service deleted a bunch of texts between 21 agents that occurred on or near Insurrection Day. The inspector general who discovered that failed to notify Congress. This violates the Public Records Act and raises the suspicion that the Secret Service is aiding Trump’s cover-up efforts. And Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was burning documents in a White House fireplace.
More than a few GOP lawmakers who’ve been defending Trump or spreading lies and conspiracy theories about the protesters, denying the threat, actually were displaying fear of the protesters on January 6th. Some will be profiled in this final hearing.
Members of the conservative media, some lawmakers and Trump’s oldest son were imploring him to renounce the protesters and/or to send in reinforcements to stop the insurrection.
From Spring of 2020 through today, the attempts to steal the 2020 election can only be traced to one person: Donald Trump.
Liz Cheney has sacrificed her political career to fight the election-thief-in-chief and should be commended for that. She’s trailing her primary opponent by a very large margin.
Though Trump supporters remain in large numbers, the committee’s work has begun eroding that support, based on polling.
Testimony from White House counsel Cippollone plus Trump’s lack of a response to quell the violence will be the other features of this final summer hearing. Several members of the cabinet and other White House staff quit because of Trump’s refusal to act.
Testimony about a December 20, 2020 White House meeting also had suspicious connections to Russia
Though some raised fears that Attorney General Garland would suspend the simultaneous DOJ investigation (and potential prosecution) due to the approaching elections, the AG made clear there was no reason to do that.
Surprisingly, Trump just contacted Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos trying to get Wisconsin’s 2020 vote overturned. Vos told him that would be illegal.
"I think we all know Donald Trump is Donald Trump," Vos told WISN. "There's very little we can do to control or predict what he will do."
Aldous Huxley would likely say the ‘doors of perception have lost all their hinges.’
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of senators has negotiated a series of reforms designed to prevent a repeat of Trump’s attempts to steal the election. They’d revise the Electoral Count Act of 1887, to clarify how Congress will count presidential electors in future elections. Observers are heartened as the reforms look well done. Yet it remains to be seen whether the bill will gain the 60 votes necessary to be passed. If the Republican members of that committee stay on board, they’re only 1 or 2 votes away. That’s the best news du jour.
MEANWHILE, back in Uvalde, Texas, it’s now clear that multiple police agancies failed to do their job, though they outnumbered the murderer by more than 350 to 1.
In my opinion, the two who initially tried to engage the shooter should be retained and all the others fired.
The majority of the country were quick to note that all those ‘good guys with a gun’ failed to take him out. This week saw a mass shooting at an Indiana mall, where a guy with a gun did take down the shooter, so gun zealots quickly went back to their old mantra. To them, this is a game. A deadly, costly game.
My first thought was the Uvalde city council ought to hire the Indiana hero to run their police department.
The Austin paper that released the video of the Uvalde police in the hallway, made two edits. They blurred the face of the one child in it - who survived - and - as the video noted - they removed the sounds of children screaming. Lawrence O’Donnell wasn’t the only one who got choked up describing that.
And the cops in the hallways failed to respond even while the children were screaming.
The question remains: why did so many cops fail to act? To me the obvious answer is they knew what an AR-15 can do, rupturing organs beyond any hope of repair. They were afraid of the AR-15. Which is another reason it should be banned nationwide.
This isn’t a game. This is not the original intent of the Constitution’s authors at all.