The crimes of Donald J. Trump

 The impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump for inciting the deadly, riotous insurrection of the Capitol January 6 begins February 9 in the Senate. The single charge “Incitement of Insurrection" accuses Trump of having "willfully made statements that encouraged—and foreseeably resulted in—imminent lawless action at the Capitol". As a result of incitement by Trump, "a mob unlawfully breached the Capitol" and "engaged in violent, deadly, destructive, and seditious acts".

But that is not Trump’s gravest crime nor the one he’s being tried upon. That higher crime is conspiracy to overturn the election which removed him from office. Tho unsuccessful, it threatened to end the American Experiment of representative democracy we have promulgated for 244 years as the beacon for all 194 other countries to emulate.

Never in 58 previous elections had an incumbent president or contender so conspired to nullify millions of voters of their constitutional duty and say in determining our democratically elected leader. Trump not only conspired to prevent his removal from office, he acted upon it both individually and in concert with others, including over 140 members of Congress.

He governed his entire term in preparation to delegitimize the election should he lose. It began with his charge of massive voter fraud in the 2016 election that denied him the popular vote victory when he actually lost by 2.9 million votes.

It escalated with the re-election campaign when he charged that the only way he could lose was by Democratic Party voter fraud. The real voter fraud was Trump’s determination to prevent mail in voting necessitated by pandemic and likely to oust him from office.

The conspiracy exploded Election Night. Trump declared victory, setting the stage to promote the Big Lie that the inevitable avalanche of big city Democratic votes sweeping him out proved his charge of ‘stolen election’.

Trump maintained his insurrection against America’s most hallowed foundation of a peaceful transfer of power for ten weeks. It culminated, almost inevitably, in the deadly attack on the Capitol to stop the Electoral College certification vote January 6.

Think of the conspiracy to overturn the election as a declaration of war. The Capitol insurrection was the violent battle to sustain the conspiracy. Tho conspiracy the greater crime, Trump will only have to defend the lessor crime of ‘incitement of insurrection’. In the cruelest of ironies, eight of his co-conspirators in the Senate will vote to acquit, allowing Trump to run again against American representative government.

The crimes of Trump may not pay….but most likely nor will they punish.

New day, new era, new hope

The aphorism ‘Hope Dies Last’ was sorely tested these past 4 years. We had to prevail, not just in an election, but in an attempted coup when the election failed to remove the authoritarian incumbent bent on overturning the result.

Trump is finished as a major political force. He’s lost the kryptonite of the presidency. He’s lost his social media megaphone calling his minions out in a frenzy of treason. He’s a broken old man whose brand is toxic. He will spend millions of dollars and thousands of hours fending off civil lawsuits and possible criminal charges on financial crimes, sexual assault, election fraud; possibly even sedition.

The GOP is done with him when the Senate Majority Leader says Trump incited the insurrection with lies, and may vote to impeach so he never runs for office again. From the grave TR might tell Trump that a 3rd party didn’t work in 1912 and won’t in 2024 to return a former prez to power.

While millions of true believers will follow him to his eventual oblivion, millions more have already dumped Trump. That includes family members, friends and colleagues who danced around his deadly flame of racism, deceit, xenophobia, authoritarianism.

What attracted them in the first place I’ll never know. It would take a psychiatrist, make that a team of shrinks, to sort that out. One summed it up this way when caught up with his evil pitch in 2015: “He’s saying things no other politician is”. “Yes”, I thought without verbalizing, “So did Hitler”.

But this is a not a day to dwell on the hopeless, but on hope. We’ve a leader who appears to have the antidote, not just to ignored pandemic, but to the malaise of our damaged but not broken body politic.

Wife Mary and I will watch an inauguration that survived a deadly assault on the Congressional certification vote. We’ll be Zooming with her friends from college 50 years ago. The Pina coladas are in the fridge for a toast. Hope is here to stay.

"So help me God".

Within minutes, if not seconds of saying those words today, which inaugurated Joe Biden as President of the U.S. and Commander in Chief of the armed forces, some innocent civilian around the world will die by unnecessary US military action. As the life is snatched from that unsuspecting man, woman or child simply trying to live out the Iraqi or Afghan or Pakistani or Syrian or Somalian dream, President Biden will have exercised the most awesome power that comes with that solemn oath: his License To Kill.

We don't spend $780 billion a year on weapons of civilian destruction for nothing. The Military-Industrial Complex demands they be used, frequently if possible, to maintain their endless replenishment and the profits that follow. These folks will lobby and propagandize and bully and cajole the American public endlessly until the guy at the helm gives the order to fire, or passively allows the overt and covert operations already in place to continue their murder and mayhem.

We know that many thousands of innocents have been needlessly killed in the presidencies of Bush the Son, Obama and Trump since perpetual war was instituted following 911.

The Military-Industrial Complex still calls the shots in U.S. foreign policy, literally as well as figuratively. We must oppose this leviathan with our words and our votes. We must hold the President accountable for all the needless militarism and deaths and destruction our gargantuan military visits upon the world. The planes and drones spewing murder from the skies must be grounded. New wars must not be started.

Let us work to stop this madness. So help us God.

Biden saddled with Trump’s trifecta of nuclear agreement withdrawals

The last 4 years has been a disaster for war saving nuclear agreements between the U.S. and Russia. Trump blew up two and derailed negotiations to extend the third and last between the world’s two nuclear giants.

In October, 2018, Trump withdrew from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) which banned the two nations’ land based short and intermediate range nuclear ballistic missiles. Fear of Chinese exploitation of U.S. -Russian denuclearization was a major reason.

Last May Trump withdrew from the Open Skies Treaty which allowed unrestricted flights by both countries to monitor their nuclear activities. Reason? Trump simply doesn’t believe sane nuclear agreements supports Trump’s ultra nationalism.

On the way out the White House door, Trump has sabotaged efforts to renew New START, the last major U.S. –Russian nuke treaty, signed Feb. 5, 2010. This ten year agreement expires in 18 days. It’s designed to further reduce strategic offences arms between two nations that still have 1,500 nukes pointed at each other.

Three strikes at nuclear deterrence and Trump grabs some bench. Next up is clean up hitter Joe Biden. Swing for the fences on nuclear disarmament, Joe. The Doomsday Clock is approaching three outs in the ninth.

Pompeo trashing U.S. foreign policy on way out the door

Trump may have trashed the Capitol, but he’s leaving it to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to trash U.S. foreign policy in the last 2 weeks of Pompeo’s disastrous three year term as Secretary of State.

Just as his boss Trump is dismantling U.S. domestic tranquility

ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration, Pompeo appears determined to disrupt U.S. foreign policy, sabotaging Biden’s goal of re-establishing U.S. decency on the world stage.

Pompeo, an evangelical Christian who believes in the Rapture, continues to ratchet up war with Iran. His support for withdrawing from the Iran Nuclear Agreement in 2019 and life crippling sanctions, nearly led to war with Iran throughout his tenure.

He kicked of 2020 by assassinating the highest Iranian military figure…then bragging about it. That lunacy got a hundred or so U.S. troops injured from Iranian retaliation against U.S. troops in Iraq. In his last two weeks he’s still trumpeting the unsubstantiated charge that Iran is harboring al-Qaeda, further trying to hamstring Biden’s certain efforts to resume détente with Iran after Pompeo is thankfully gone.

Pompeo’s support for Saudi Arabia’s grisly war against hapless neighbor Yemen has enabled the slaughter of hundreds of thousands. But heading for the exit Pompeo adds insult to injury, placing Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Uncle Sam’s Terror List instead of Uncle himself.

Oh yes, Pompeo’s not satisfied with 61 years of economic and political sanctions designed to overthrow the hated Cuban communist government. With 8 days to go Pompeo put Cuba back on the U.S. Terror List. Why? Cuba aids Venezuela defending itself from Pompeo’s illegal, immoral and senseless regime change operation there.

Mike Pompeo’s parting words to America may as well be: ‘See you at the Rapture, but only if you believe’.

Pence's enabling of Trump sedition should not be forgotten.

  Pence's enabling of Trump sedition should not be forgotten.

Mike Pence could have lost his life in Trump's inspired insurrection at the Capitol to overturn the election. Tho lying low, he supported efforts to overturn the election beginning Nov. 7, after the media and all decent folks called Biden's election. He maintained that support till January 6, the day of the insurrection when he meekly offered he couldn't legally help Trump stop the vote. That feeble effort to do the right thing put a Trump target on Pence's back. Eight long days later he finally conceded the election to his successor Kamala Harris.

Mike Pence's conduct during the 2 month Trump insurrection was likely designed to maintain his viability among Trump supporters for his expected for 2024 presidential run.

For his enabling of Trump's insurrection against American democracy Pence should be shunned from the public stage by all Americans of political non violence and good will.