A reminder to myself that this didn’t just start 2 months ago in January
I predicted the January 6 riots in the following post in Dec of 2020, one month before the January 6th ‘Rally’ had even been called. To me it was obvious what had been going on for 6 months leading up to this post, and I wanted to try and get people to realize our nation was at a tipping point. After January 6th and up to the impeachment trial, I tried to get people to realize the danger to our democracy as they began flocking back to Trump’s defense even before the impeachment concluded in the senate. It shames me that I gave up trying several months later for lack of engagement or interest.
I don’t plan on stopping this time round. I do believe the tagline on my blog, “No matter how many times a lie is spoken, the truth is still the truth if one man is willing to speak it”. We need to remember, Donald 2.0 is still the same Donald we saw before, but this time round he has purged anyone who would dare cross him or give him sane counsel. He may seem crazier, but he still practices the same playbook as before, just in the open now.
I heard a Trump supporter on Fox deriding Biden and Harris at Trump’s inauguration saying, “If they really believed that Trump was such a THREAT to democracy that they shouldn’t have handed over power to him willingly”. Obviously, the irony there is that it is because they believe so fully in our democracy that they would not cast it aside just to keep Trump away from it. They may have been right, but it gives me confidence to know we didn’t sacrifice the values to stoop to his level. We just can’t give up this time round.
My Post from Facebook, December 5th, 2020:
“Michael T. Flynn followed the lead of Roger Stone to become the second of Trump’s close confidants to support the idea of the president declaring MARTIAL LAW in his efforts to overturn this election. This is too much, this has to stop. I’m an independent voter who didn’t vote for Biden or Trump, but what is occurring in our nation today needs to be called out regardless of affiliation.
I would like to continue to keep quiet and just snicker at the “clown” in the White House (as I have thought of him over the past four years) whimpering his final days away as president. But, unfortunately I’m concerned this is no longer just the ramblings of a sore loser and his sideshow of performers, but the very possibly the cunning planning of a very egocentric and narcissistic man who cares only for holding onto power at all cost.
Our President’s actions, in terms of his efforts to divide and destabilize our nation over the last months chillingly parallels what history has taught us of Hitler’s efforts in the early 1930’s during his rise to power. Hitler used fear of the Communist and hatred of the Jews in his propaganda to turn them into scapegoats. Trump demonizes Democrats and anyone else who dares to disagree with him in the same way. Hitler promised a beaten and divided Germany that he would restore it to it’s “former glory”, while Trump’s MAGA message follows suit in much the same way promising to bring America back to it’s ” former greatness”. Trump’s spokesmen in Giuliani, Ellis, Sidney Powell, Flynn and Roger Stone may very well be remembered by history along with the likes of Himmler and Göring for their efforts in helping to promote Trump’s insane agenda. Few in 1932 would have thought it possible for Hitler to do what he and his followers accomplished following his election to chancellor in 1933. Likewise, I don’t think anyone believed Trump and his “lawyers” could have have taken us to the precipice that our nation is fast approaching.
Trump is setting the stage: having failed in the courts he is now working to coerce State Legislatures. With his inevitable failure there the logical conclusion to this will be a direct appeal to his populist masses to overturn the government in the name of defending his presidency. These are the same masses who have been indoctrinated to believe that in today’s world only Trump can be trusted to speak the truth.
Trump speaks to his followers in absolutes often saying “everyone knows” that what he says is right. You either believe him, or you are knowingly ignoring his “evidence” and part of the plot against him. Dissenting opinions or conclusions are not allowed, there is no gray area or point of discussion. Trump builds continuously onto a foundation of fears in his followers that if this election is not overturned our nation will digress into socialism and anarchy, and the end of the rule of law. He boldly declares no Republican presidential or senatorial candidate will ever be elected again if this election is not overturned.
Against this backdrop he presents himself as the untiring, greatest president ever (in his words) who is now doing the “most important work” in his tenure as president. Just as Hitler’s followers held him as almost God-like, so Trump has convinced His followers that he is God’s chosen leader. His cult-like followers believe in him and, as we saw with Michigan’s governor, they are willing to commit violence as a result of the passions he stirs up in them.
When you hear Trump use phrases like “enemy of the people” being directed at public officials ( i.e. the Republican gov. and Sec. of State in Ga), alarm bells of dictatorship should be going off in your heads. When Trump’s lawyers are calling for federal officials to be “drawn and quartered” or taken out and shot at dawn, you should take them seriously. These same officials are being publicly accused by Trump and his lawyers of committing “treason”, a crime that is punishable by death. You may laugh, but Trump’s followers listen. People will be hurt, people could lose their lives.
I ask that you force yourself to listen to his “evidence” – I have. Watch Giuliani’s “hearings” with any of the State Legislatures; where no actual proof of fraud is ever shown, just speculation and presupposed conclusions based on faulty logic. Watch as absurd accusations that are lies at face value , or incompetence at best, are presented as “facts”. I assure you Trump’s supporters are listening and they are believing without question.
Then, read the court findings. See that the litany of complaints of fraud are never included in any of Giuliani’s case filings in State after State. Read the scathing rulings by judges at both state and federal levels, including those appointed by Republicans and even Trump himself. Look at the testimony of state election officials, Republican and Democrat alike, who unanimously refute Trump’s claims of widespread fraud. Then consider Trump’s own administration officials both heading cyber security and now the attorney general, who have contradicted Trump’s narrative of fraud. Consider federal investigators and law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, CIA, DOJ and NSA have found no evidence of widespread fraud or interference from foreign governments leading up to our during the election. And finally consider the State counterparts, whose law enforcement agencies have not found any evidence of fraud.
For Trump’s logic to hold this conspiracy would have to include ALL these areas listed above along with thousands of poll workers, canvassers, and volunteers across multiple states. And I did not even touch on the lunacy of foreign influence from China, Cuba, North Korea, and other nations being preached by his supporters. His logic assumes that in all these areas there is not one among the thousands involved willing to be a whistle blower and come forward in what would be the greatest crime in American history in impact and scope.
Finally, ask yourself: Can I in my right mind believe Trump’s claims? What do I think Trump is willing to try (up to declaring MARTIAL LAW)? And what do I think his enthusiastic followers, easily over 25% of Americans, would be willing to do given that they wholeheartedly DO believe his conspiracy theory and warnings of the end of everything we hold dear in the USA?
I hope I’m wrong. If Trump is right I hope he will finally provide compelling proof in court beyond what has been offered thus far in over 40 cases. If he is right, I hope some law enforcement investigation that has not been made public will confirm at least something to add some shred of legitimacy to his claims. Or, if he is lying but is willing to finally hand over power on January 23rd, I hope no one in the interim decides to start shooting or bombing, driven to action by his constant stream of inflammatory statements.
But if I’m not wrong, and there is a chance that his intentions are to hold power at all cost? If you agree that is not only possible but likely, then regardless of your leanings, Republican, Democrat, or independent the one option we don’t have now is to stay silent. We must stand together and say with a loud voice that reasonably minded Americans of conscience will not tolerate this to continue. Otherwise, our silence becomes complicity, and we will follow the historical example how the good people of Germany handed their country over to the the most evil men in history.”
How sad that I almost miss the clowns he surrounded himself with back then, in comparison to the cronies and toadies in the Administration today they seem almost harmless in contrast.
The Informed Citizen 