Saturday, December 18, 2021

While America frets over January 6, an even greater domestic terrorist threat answers to no one but itself

Thomas Jefferson

This former practicing attorney can imagine America's Founding Fathers would have dealt quickly and lethally with the January 6 Capitol rioters and their treasonous leaders, Donald Trump, Mark Meadows, Rudi Giuliani, Steve Bannon, et. al. 

I think a fitting response would have been for the rioters who entered the Capitol all were shot dead by the Capitol Police and for President Donald Trump and his co-conspirators and instigators to be in Guantanamo being waterboarded with other terrorists without due process of law.

From American historian Heather Cox Richardson's December 17, 2021 letter:

Tonight CNN broke the story that members of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol think they know who wrote one of the eye-popping texts to Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows. 

The text was the one sent the day after the election, before all the states had called the election, suggesting that Republicans should not wait for results in three states but should simply appoint their own electors. Then the whole mess would be thrown to the Supreme Court. Trump had frequently said that the Supreme Court, to which he had named three justices—including one at the very end of October, when the election was already underway—would decide in favor of him in the case of a contested election. 

The text suggested that the Republicans should throw out the foundation of our democracy—the principle that we have a say in our government—and should simply decide on their own who had been elected.

CNN has confirmed from a number of sources that the phone number on that text belonged to former Texas governor and Trump energy secretary Rick Perry. Perry’s spokesperson says Perry denies that he wrote the text. The spokesperson could not explain why that phone number was registered to Perry’s name and email address. 

The momentum behind the January 6th committee appears to be picking up. This morning, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told Spectrum News that the attack on the Capitol on January 6 “was a horrendous event and I think that what they’re seeking to find out is something the public needs to know.” 

McConnell arranged Trump’s second impeachment to guarantee an acquittal, and he tried to scuttle an investigation of the insurrection. His wife, Elaine Chao, was transportation secretary in the Trump administration and resigned her position on January 7, 2021, saying that she “simply cannot set aside” how troubled she was “as supporters of the President stormed the Capitol building following a rally he addressed.”

The committee has been effective, interviewing hundreds of witnesses without leaks, issuing a broad range of subpoenas, and referring uncooperative witnesses to the Department of Justice for contempt of Congress. That efficiency is possible because the committee is not constantly fighting the sort of grandstanding and construction of false counternarratives we saw Republicans engaging in during the impeachment hearings. 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) tried to keep that sort of disinformation in play by putting far-right Representatives Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Jim Banks (R-IN) on the committee, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) rejected them and put Representatives Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) on the committee instead. 

Now it turns out that Jordan was part of the insurrection McCarthy wanted him to investigate: Jordan texted Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on November 5, offering a plan for how Vice President Mike Pence could toss out Biden’s electors and throw the election to Trump.

Trump’s longtime associate Roger Stone appeared today before the January 6th committee but invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination for every question. Today, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia filed a status report informing the court that four defendants who pleaded guilty in the Oath Keepers conspiracy case concerning the January 6 insurrection are still cooperating with the investigation. The Oath Keepers provided security for Stone in Washington at the time of the insurrection. Stone has asked supporters for donations to his “legal defense fund.”

However, I think there is an even graver threat to America.

During his first campaign, Republican candidate Donald Trump told the American religious right, if they elected him, he would put their ilk on the U.S. Supreme Court. They convinced themselves Trump, who was about as ungodly in the Biblical sense as a man could be, was sent to them by God and they voted for him. 

Trump was elected and filled three vacancies on the Supreme Court with justices of their religious persuasion. Those justices serve for life. If they live their expected live spans, they will be on the Supreme Court long after Donald Trump goes to meet his Maker. 

There are two other conservative justices, who were appointed by past Republican presidents. By 5-4, they can turn America into something Thomas Jefferson, John Handcock, Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, George Washington, etc. would not have stood still for.

A friend frequently reports dreams. Yesterday, he sent an email about a dream he had two days ago and a dream he had yesterday.

1. A manual row boat was on the Potomac River, On it were senate and house republicans and democrats(McConnell, Rand Paul, Manchin, AOC, Pelosi). Something kept trying to rock the boat to capsize or sink it. Eventually that something was revealed to be the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court was eventually keelhauled multiple times, they didn't seem to enjoy it but I sure did.

2. A GIANT dozer with blade was backing up and going forward, trying to knockdown the Statue of Liberty. Eventually with enough smacks,  it came down. More smacks and it was pushed off into the bay. On most job sites, an assigned operator will have a placard identifying his/her machine that is being used. The placard read: United States Supreme Court. 

Perhaps President Joe Biden should take his cue from President Andrew Jackson?

From an article I found online today:

The 2008 documentary, Andrew Jackson: Good, Evil and the Presidency, which aired on PBS, depicted Jackson as the United States’ first imperial president. One of Jackson’s most infamous presidential actions was his enforcement of Native American removal that resulted in the Trail of Tears and the deaths of approximately 4,000 Cherokees. The Trail of Tears occurred despite the Supreme Court ruling in Worcester v. Georgia (1832) that favored the rights of Native Americans. In response to the ruling, Jackson allegedly said, “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.” Although this statement, which has been repeatedly attributed to Jackson, is likely apocryphal, neither Jackson nor the state of Georgia enforced the ruling. Whether Jackson uttered the famous phrase or not, both Jackson’s contemporary critics and modern historians, such as Daniel Walker Howe, who have studied his presidency have depicted him as a powerful executive who pushed the constitutional boundaries of presidential power. 

Beyond the Worcester case, Jackson instigated an additional crisis by portraying the Bank of the United States (BUS) as an enemy of the common man during his re-election campaign in 1832. After being re-elected, Jackson continued his war on the BUS by unilaterally removing funds from the bank and placing them in state banks. For assuming power over Congress, he became the only president who has received congressional censure

sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com

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