“Ours is not a system of justice where foot soldiers go to jail and the masterminds and ringleaders get a free pass.”.- Jamie Raskin, yesterday at January 6th Committee hearing
In a once in a century move, the January 6 committee has referred Donald Trump to the Justice Department to face criminal charges, accusing the brash and bombastic traitor of fomenting an insurrection and conspiring against the government over his attempt to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election, and the bloody attack on the U.S. Capitol. Let's recall here that traumatic event was among the most detestable in American history and marked the first time domestic terrorists savaged the Capitol and the second time it was attacked since the British did it during the War of 1812.
In the words of Committee member Jamie Raskin of Maryland:
“The committee believes that more than sufficient evidence exists for a criminal referral of former President Trump for assisting or aiding and comforting those at the Capitol who engaged in a violent attack on the United States.
The committee has developed significant evidence that President Trump intended to disrupt the peaceful transition of power under our Constitution. The president has an affirmative and primary constitutional duty to act to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Nothing could be a greater betrayal of this duty than to assist in insurrection against the constitutional order.”
That this judgment is valid and beyond question was manifested in the very deeds and words of Trump on the day and leading up to the assault. See e,g,
The committee rightly accused Trump of breaching four federal criminal statutes, including those relating to obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, assisting an insurrection and conspiring to defraud the United States. It also said Trump may have committed seditious conspiracy – the same charge which a jury found two members of the rightwing Oath Keepers militia group guilty of last month.
In his opening remarks, the Democratic chair, Bennie Thompson, said Trump broke voters’ trust by mounting a campaign to stay in office, despite overwhelming evidence that he had lost. In his words:
“To cast a vote in the United States is an act of faith and hope. When we drop that ballot in the ballot box, we expect the people named on the ballot are going to uphold that end of the deal,” he said. “Donald Trump broke that faith. He lost the 2020 election and knew it. But he chose to try to stay in office through a multiparty scheme to overturn the results and blocked the transfer of power.”
This act, however, also has defiled and undermined our entire electoral system - now casting a pall over it any time the cult party of Trump loses a state, national or federal election. Already certification of results in Pennsylvania has been delayed owing to the sore loser Reepos there filing complaints.
Then in Arizona we have loser Kari Lake making waves and howling like a Banshee and vowing to push back against the "evil bastards" that "stole the election from her."
by Meaghan Ellis | December 18, 2022 - 8:27am | permalink
This is the way it's going to be going forward thanks to Trump and his demolition of our system in which democratic process depends on the losers to concede their losses and move on.
A major architect of that scheme was John Eastman, a lawyer for the orange cockroach who the committee said laid much of the groundwork for the strategy to overturn Biden’s election win. According to their evidence, Eastman helped Trump pressure Vice-President Mike Pence to disrupt the certification of electoral votes, even though the lawyer knew doing so would be illegal. See:
The lawmaker referred Eastman on conspiracy charges, as well as for his alleged attempt to disrupt an official proceeding.
The lawmakers also referred four Republican House representatives to the chamber’s ethics committee. The group includes Kevin McCarthy the Trump boot licker who is expected to run for Speaker of the House when the Trump cult takes control of the chamber next year.
Also named is firebrand bomb thrower Jim Jordan, another staunch Trump boot and butt licker - who has openly vowed (under his Judiciary Committee) to investigate the investigators as well as Hunter Biden.
Also referred was Andy Biggs, a congress critter from Georgia with a face like a drugged Capuchin monkey, who insisted the insurrectionist traitors were just "tourists strolling around" the Capitol. This as the imp hid inside behind a locked door with Capitol security - trembling and crying while the mob screamed for Mike Pence's head. He is also said to have strategized with the orange fungus on his plot to stay in office. Also named was Scott Perry, who had his phone seized by the FBI earlier this year.
All of these noisome reprobates ought to be indicted as accomplices to sedition and insurrection by the DOJ and if they attempt to blow off subpoenas, put them in stir for twenty years at least, preferably at Supermax here in Colorado.
Attorney general, Merrick Garland, last month appointed veteran prosecutor Jack Smith to determine whether to charge Trump over the insurrection and his efforts to disrupt the peaceful transition of power. And as I already posted Smith is superbly chosen based on his experience, i.e. in prosecuting war crimes, e.g.
Smith is also handling the inquiry into whether Trump unlawfully retained government secrets after leaving the White House in January 2021. His decisions in those cases will have huge ramifications for the future of Trump and may be the best chance to prevent the traitor from attempting another run for the White House again in 2024. We cannot have those who tried to undermine and overthrow our government coming back and seizing power!
Finally, it is critical the current congress pass the update to the 1887 Electoral Count Act, which requires Congress to convene for a joint session after a presidential election, on Jan. 6, to count and ratify the electoral votes certified by the 50 states and District of Columbia. After the fiasco with Trump in 2020, and the extent to which he attempted to retake the presidency by lies, bogus B.S. and exploiting ambiguities in the act- the update is crucial.
Thus the bill update will make it clear that Congress’s role in ratifying states’ Electoral College votes is ministerial only and that the vice president’s role is merely to count the votes publicly. It also would dramatically raise the threshold to sustain an objection to a state’s electors. As Sen. Chris Murphy noted:
“It’s
essential to cutting down the chances of the wrong president being put in the
White House in 2025,”
While the committee report will provide the most comprehensive account of what transpired in the worst attack on the Capitol in 200 years, it will not include all the most damning evidence, such as: depositions, cell phone and text records, emails, staff notes and analyses by outside organizations. The reason? When the House turns over control to the Reeps in January they will block any further materials getting out and can do so for up to twenty years, if it ever does.
And recall the Republicans blocked the creation of an independent, nonpartisan commission which would have had to disclose all its underlying evidence.. This is what we expected from a treasonous cult and we will now have them to deal with in the House for the next 2 years, at least.
See Also:
by Jaime O’Neill | December 20, 2022 - 7:54am | permalink
Excerpt:
The gravitas with which the committee conducted itself stood in contrast to the daily cable wars and partisan battles conducted on social media. The committee reasserted the dignity with which important public matters should be hammered out. For all the efforts of Breitbart, Bannon, the Fox foggers, and the like, those committed men and women maintained focus, kept their eyes on the prize, and dispelled the miasma of cynicism and bad faith that has led so many Americans to lose faith in their government and, in fact, most all of the institutions needed for a functioning society, from education, to policing, to belief in the rule of law.
No one can accuse me of being overly optimistic about how things are ever likely to turn out, but at this moment, in the season during which all three major religions celebrate their faith, I have faith that in a most elegant use of the tools that govern us and protect us from tyranny of an errant minority, we were given the most necessary justice that can be had.
And:
by Robert Reich | December 20, 2022 - 7:40am | permalink
And:
by Maya Boddie | December 20, 2022 - 7:18am | permalink
Excerpt:
During the House's final Jan. 6 hearing Monday, the committee found that leading up to the insurrection, Department of Defense officials worried that Donald Trump would impose an ‘illegal order’ on U.S. troops to support his plan to incite a riot, HuffPost reports.
“The select committee recognizes that some at the department had genuine concerns, counseling caution, that President Trump might give an illegal order to use the military in support of his efforts to overturn the election,” the committee stated in the 161-page executive summary of the report.
And:
by Steven Day | December 20, 2022 - 6:26am | permalink
Excerpt:
You can learn a lot about the people who make up a political party by identifying their heroes. So, who are the heroes of today’s Republicans? If your first thought was Ronald Reagan, you’re showing your age. Reagan was the answer of an earlier time, when we had a different, although not wholly dissimilar, Republican Party. Saint Ronnie, as he was sometimes called back then, was the patron saint of the GOP. Their answer to every question.
And:
by David Badash | December 16, 2022 - 8:50am | permalink
No comments:
Post a Comment