February 26, 2018: Trump Calls Police at Parkland "Cowards," Says They "Choked."

 

2/26/18: It seems possible at times that the President of the United States is possessed of normal human emotions. Then something happens to remind you that he doesn’t. In the aftermath of the bloody massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Trump appears totally clueless. 

Initially, he said he was for raising the age to buy a rifle to 21. Then he backed away. He told Republican lawmakers they were afraid of the N.R.A. (which is absolutely true). Then he met with N.R.A. lobbyists and said he had a great time. He said armed teachers would do better protecting schools because they cared for students more than police. Teachers could shoot it out with intruders and put an end to school shootings with ease. 

N.R.A. leaders loved it! More guns in more hands in more places! 

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“I think, I really believe I’d run in there, even if I didn’t have a weapon.” 

President Trump, hypothetical hero

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Trump felt compelled to label the armed school resource officer who failed to rush into the building and confront the shooter at Stoneman Douglas “a coward.” The president said the man “choked.” 

Trump also faulted several Broward County deputies who remained outside as the shooting unfolded. (The carnage was all over in less than seven minutes.) They “weren’t exactly Medal of Honor winners,” he grumbled. “The way they performed was frankly disgusting. The way they performed was really a disgrace.” 

Then again, there was no doubt in his mind what would have happened if he had been there that day. Today, during a talk at the White House with state governors, Trump draped himself in the mantel of hero. “You don’t know until you test it, but I think, I really believe I’d run in there, even if I didn’t have a weapon, and I think most of the people in this room would have done that too.”  

Yes, despite bad feet – which kept him from running into rice paddies in Vietnam – Trump would have rushed in, unarmed, to save the day.

February 10, 2021: Second Day of Impeachment Trial - Storming the Maternity Wing?

 

2/10/21: On the second day of the impeachment trial, Stacey Plaskett, the delegate representing the U.S. Virgin Islands, explains that she was a staffer on Capitol Hill on 9/11. 

Almost every day, I remember that 44 Americans gave their lives to stop the plane that was headed to this Capitol building. I thank them every day for saving my life and the life of so many others. Those Americans sacrificed their lives for love of country, honor, duty, all the things that America means. The Capitol stands because of people like that.

Trump lawyers put up lame defense.

 

A film clip is shown of Sen. Romney running down a hall after Officer Eugene Goodman warns him the mob is coming from the other direction. A second shows VP Pence, his wife, and daughter, being led down a back stairway. Plaskett reminds senators that the vice president was never ushered out of the building entirely. 

Ms. Plaskett also plays audio of terrified staff members from Ms. Pelosi’s office, who were barricaded in a room during the rampage. “We need the Capitol Police to come into the hallway,” said one, whispering into a phone in hopes that the rioters outside would not hear. Plaskett’s presentation includes sounds of rioters pounding on the door of the room where aides have taken refuge. 

“Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!” the crowd can be heard chanting. Outside the Capitol, Plaskett notes, a gallows has been set up, with rioters howling, “Bring out Pence!” 

One rioter tapes a video saying, “He’s a total treasonous pig.”

 

The attackers, she tells Senate jurors, were searching for Ms. Pelosi. Plaskett points out that one intruder photographed sitting at a desk in her office was carrying a 950,000-volt stun gun walking stick. “Where are you, Nancy?” some of the rioters called out. “We’re looking for you!” 

“Again, that is a mob that was sent by the president of the United States to stop the certification of an election,” Ms. Plaskett tells the jurors.

 

The vice president, the speaker of the House — the first and second in line to the presidency — were performing their constitutional duties presiding over the election certification and they were put in danger because President Trump put his own desires, his own need for power, over his duty to the Constitution and our democratic process.

 

“President Trump,” she added, “put a target on their backs and his mob broke into the Capitol to hunt them down.”

 

It’s a shocking presentation.

 

“Today’s presentation was powerful and emotional reliving a terrorist attack on our nation’s capital,” Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, admits. “But there was very little said about how specific conduct of the president’s satisfies the legal standard” of convicting him of high crimes and misdemeanors.

 

We already know. Cruz is going to be a coward. His mind is made up. He’s going to vote to acquit, because he has a career in politics that he cares more about than democracy or the U.S. Constitution.

 

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“Everyone I spoke with understood that storming the maternity wing was not part of the plan.” 

Sen. Amy Klobuchar

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Trump’s lawyers insist that he never intended to stir up violence, even if it sounded exactly like he did. When he told supporters on January 6 to “fight like hell,” and used the word “fight” twenty times in his final big speech as president, that was NOT inciting a mob. They put together an 11-minute montage of Democratic politicians and left-leaning celebrities like Madonna, telling people to “fight” for various reasons. (This blogger is not aware of any time that Madonna told fans to fight for anything and they then went out and rioted and injured 140 police officers.) 

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, having been included in the montage, responds on Twitter: “My first political fight was to guarantee new moms and their babies a 48-hour hospital stay. Everyone I spoke with understood that storming the maternity wing was not part of the plan. Context matters, huh?” 

One of Trump’s defense lawyers actually insists, “no thinking person would take his words seriously.”

February 6, 2022: Pence Upheld the Constitution - Trump Wanted to Tear It to Shreds

2/6/22: On any given day, the most colossal idiot could find Democrats willing to bash Republicans, Democrats ready to smash Republicans, and everyone else hating on Whigs. So, it’s always wise to tune out 95% of the noise in politics. 

On Sunday, however, a number of conservative voices were raised against former-President Trump in warning against what has become of the not-so-Grand Old Party.

 

On Meet the Press, Marc Short, former chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence, offered his thoughts regarding the fable of the “stolen election.”

 

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“Bad advisers, who were basically snake oil salesmen.” 

Marc Short, former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence

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Asked to comment on the idea that Pence could have overturned the vote and gifted Trump a second term, Short told NBC’s Chuck Todd, “I think unfortunately the president had many bad advisers, who were basically snake oil salesmen giving him really random and novel ideas as to what the vice president could do. But our office…researched that and recognized that was never an option.”

 

For Trump cultists let’s explain:

 

1.     Short says the Orange God was getting bad advice from “snake oil salesmen.” That is: con-men.

 

2.     The Orange God believed them.

 

3.     You believed the Orange God, who believed the con-men.

 

4.     Either the Orange God was so profoundly  flawed as a human being that he was an easy mark for “snake oil salesmen;”

 

5.     Or, much more likely: he is and always was himself a “snake oil salesman,” and like attracted like.

 

6.     Four or five, it’s the same. For those of you still members of the cult, it’s time to admit you got sucked in by “snake oil salesmen.”

 

* 

“January 6 was a riot that was incited by Donald Trump.” 

Short wasn’t alone in sounding the alarm. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie appeared on ABC’s “This Week” and took a crack at Mr. Trump. Responding to the claim that Pence could have overturned the results of the election, Gov. Christie refused to pull his punches.

 

“Let’s face it. Let’s call it what it is,” he told host Martha Raddatz. “January 6 was a riot that was incited by Donald Trump in an effort to intimidate Mike Pence and the Congress into doing exactly what he said in his own words last week: Overturn the election.” 

 

“[Trump is] trying to do a clean-up on aisle one here,” Christie added. “But it’s not going to change. He actually told the truth by accident. He wanted the election to be overturned.” 

 

* 

“An assault on the first branch of government.” 

On CBS , former Trump National Security Advisor Gen. H.R. McMaster was featured as guest. 

That’s Trump’s own choice for the job, and not to be confused with other Trump choices for top jobs, who variously came to view him as a fucking moron, a threat to the U.S. Constitution, the most flawed person ever, a man who put self-interest above national security interests, and now the man who hoped to advance the most un-American idea ever, so he could get a second term in office. 

Asked to respond to comments by the Republican National Committee and his former boss, the Orange God of Mar-a-Lago, McMaster pointedly disagreed with any defense of the Jan. 6 rioters. 

Those rioters weren’t patriots, as Trump insisted.

 

They weren’t engaged in “legitimate political discourse” as the RNC claimed in its recent statement. 

What happened on January 6, Gen. McMaster said, “was illegitimate political discourse because it was an assault on the first branch of government. I think it’s really important for us to come together now,” he added. “I really think it is possible to improve the transparency and the security of our elections while ensuring that every eligible voter gets to vote.” 

He thought about it a moment, then added, “It is pretty clear that we are emerging from a number of traumas of the past couple of years.”

 

Those traumas were: Donald J. Trump. 

– and – 

More Donald J. Trump.

 

* 

“Mr. Trump’s disgraceful behavior after the election.” 

IT COULD BE we are seeing the first signs of a rise among decent Republican and sensible conservative voices to take on the Orange God of Mar-a-Lago and try to return sanity to his bizarre cult. The Wall Street Journal, for example, backed the Vice President completely, saying, “Mr. Pence stands out as a rare Republican these days willing to stand up to Mr. Trump’s disgraceful behavior after the election. Too many in the GOP seem to have lost their constitutional moorings in thrall to one man.” 

Even Brian Kilmeade, in a broadcast of Fox Nation, said it was time for Trump to quit claiming he won the election in Arizona, in 2020. Kilmeade, who had kissed the Orange God’s ass so many times, he left a permanent imprint, must have been getting the word from on high. It would seem the Fox Empire has decided it might be time to cut ties with the lunatic. Kilmeade insisted, no one cared anymore about the last election. The OG’s constant whining about how the election was stolen was “cringe-worthy.” As for Trump’s claim that he had triumphed in Arizona, the Fox host got it partly right – and glaringly wrong at the end:

 

Nobody cares about 2020. Nobody. And everything that he said and the challenges that he made should have been done before the election. And they did a recount in Arizona, and the recount showed no difference almost, and he came out and said it showed that they won Arizona. That’s an outright lie, and please stop wasting our time with that, because he’s capable of doing so much more.

 

If you read Kilmeade’s comment one way, he’s saying Trump could change focus and offer his supporters “so much more.” 

What Kilmeade still hesitates to say – because he’s fundamentally a coward – is that what “more” Trump could offer, if he were elected president again was more outright lying and more and more serious threats to our system of government.

 

None of this is even the least difficult to comprehend. When asked if he agreed with Pence, Sen. Marco Rubio was clear. “Vice presidents can’t simply decide not to certify an election.” 

Trump said they could. 

Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming concurred, explaining on “Fox News Sunday,” that Mr. Pence “did his constitutional duty that day. It’s not the Congress that elects the president, it’s the American people.” 

Pence upheld the Constitution. 

Trump wanted to tear it into little pieces – and if we give him another crack in the Oval Office, he will try again. (See: 2/11/22.) 

 

FUN WITH – STUPIDITY: Republican senators reacted badly to news that President Biden planned to pick an African American woman to fill the soon-to-be open seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Sen. Ted Cruz said that Biden was really saying to the majority of Americans, “I don’t care about you.” 

Whereas the majority of Americans – and we know Cruz means white folks – could only console themselves by gazing wistfully at Neil Gorsuch’s face. Or Bret Kavanaugh. Or Amy Coney Barrett.

Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Cruz also called Biden’s announcement an “insult to Black women,” which made pretty close to zero-point-zero sense. 

Not to be outdone, Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana quipped that he hoped Biden would pick someone who knows “a law book from a J Crew catalogue.” Because, I guess, Sen. Kennedy believes most black women can’t?