The Former Guy belongs in prison! Think Nuremberg

Echo opinion published in The Capital Gazette, an Annapolis Maryland newspaper written by Richard Striner:

Former Guy Donald Trump, the seditionist, is still on the loose instead of being in jail where he belongs. 

In fact, the Justice Department should have indicted Trump months ago, for the felonious acts that he committed. But no charges are pending. Must we content ourselves with the small satisfaction of watching New York go after him for being a mere tax cheat?

Perhaps, but it’s a sad commentary on the shocking vulnerability of American democracy.

Look at the illegal things that Trump did: he told election officials in Georgia to “find” enough votes to put him over; he tried to use appropriated funds to bribe foreign officials; he used his office to enrich himself; he made federal workers break the Hatch Act; he broke campaign finance laws; and he obstructed justice. His attorney general, William Barr, found a mendacious way to get him off on that particular charge, but Barr’s action deserves to be reversed.

And then, after committing these despicable acts, Trump tried to overturn our democracy. He desecrated the foundations of our national heritage. And he is still doing it.

Former FBI Director James Comey said that Trump is like a mob boss. If the Justice Department will not take action, the crimes that Trump committed are precedents. Is that really what our prosecutors want?

Even U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that Trump’s disgraceful incitement of the January 6 insurrection — his brazen attempt to overturn a democratic election — should be handled by the courts. How about it, prosecutors? (Attorney General Merrick Garland!)

Granted, any capable prosecutor wants to build an airtight case — one that can stand up against the legal hitches that can let the guilty go free. But look at all the massive crimes that Trump committed. Are we really to believe it is impossible to make a good case against a monstrous offender like this one?

The stakes are even higher since Trump, like many of the people who used to be classified as “criminally insane,” is patently ... insane. A sociopath, he creates an alternative reality, which is to say he is delusional. And this is dangerous because his delusions are spreading. An appalling number of people believe his lies.

According to polls, roughly 80 per cent of Republicans believe that Trump won the 2020 election, notwithstanding the fact that all the legal challenges to the election results collapsed in court due to sheer lack of evidence. But that doesn’t seem to matter to these people. Nothing does.

A “fanatic” was once defined as a person who will not believe any evidence and whose evidence cannot be believed. By this standard, a majority of registered Republicans are now fanatics. Trump bit them, and they went mad.

It’s interesting to wonder what Ronald Reagan would think about the cult that has taken over his party. In his “Evil Empire” speech, he accused the Soviets of reserving unto themselves “the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat,” in order to perpetrate their system of tyranny. That’s exactly what Trump and his minions are doing to the Republican Party, but their agenda of course is not communism. It’s fascism.

Never before in American history has anything like this happened. For four hallucinatory years, the White House was in the hands of a creature whose appetites will never achieve satisfaction short of dictatorial rule. The key to his method is to spew brazen lies that flip reality inside out ; he accuses his victims of doing to him what he is obviously doing to them. The hellish satisfaction of this is what he lives for.

It isn’t just the fact that the things that he says are untrue; it’s the fact that almost everything he says is the reverse of the truth, and his expressions on his face as he undermines rationality — expressions that vary from belligerent snarls (his face convulses) to sleazy smirks (the satisfaction of a thug) — say it all.

Trump’s henchmen carry out all the orders that he gives them — they parrot every lie — for the most despicable of reasons: lust for power.

They are stalking our political landscape, having taken over a once-normal party. The enablers of Trump would be willing participants in an openly fascist state — they have shown that beyond any doubt — so we might as well call them what they are: out-and-out fascists.

https://www.newstalk.com/podcasts/highlights-from-moncrieff/the-history-of-the-nuremberg-trials

It is easy to imagine people like Sen. Ron Johnson, and Reps. Matt Gaetz, Marjory Taylor Greene, Louie Gohmert, Paul Gosar, and Kevin McCarthy standing in the docks at some future Nuremberg tribunal. If Trump should ever achieve dictatorial power, they would promptly carry out his orders — no matter how obscene. They are capable of anything.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was quite right to see a “Reichstag moment” in the brazen attempt to overturn a democratic presidential election last year — but the “moment” now stretches far over the horizon as the Trumpists consolidate power in the Republican Party and punish courageous Republicans like Rep. Liz Cheney who speak out against their betrayal of America.

What we urgently need is to pull the rug from under this fascist movement by putting Donald Trump behind bars. 

Hitler was jailed after leading the “Beer Hall Putsch,” but then he wangled his way out of jail. The rest of the story we know.

Could it happen here?

Richard Striner is a historian and the author of “Summoned to Glory: The Audacious Life of Abraham Lincoln.”

Trump is the root of the national emergency- Lock Him Up!

It’s difficult understanding why all the Trump people, and Trump himself, have not been taken to court. We’ve been told and shown for months, how Trump people lied in their attacking of the building, injuring 140-plus workers, terrifying thousands.

Why do we wait? We’re hearing often about various law firms spending months being certain about ultimately hostile actions of Trump’s “army.”

"Former President Donald Trump the seditionist is still on the loose instead of being in jail where he belongs. The Justice Department should have indicted him months ago...."  Richer Striner in The Capital Gazette.

Echo opinion letter published in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, a newspaper in Montana. 

Why, therefore, isn’t Trump in jail? Didn’t we think, and for some time, see, that it wouldn’t take this long? He is, for starters, the  defendant in 29 lawsuits. Many investors did criminal investigations in addition to those attorneys, obtaining the Trump tax returns. 

At the very least, there’s often mention of his own understanding that prison awaits him.

Richer Striner asks the question, disturbing many of us — plus millions all over the country: “Why is Trump, the seditionist, still on the loose, instead of in jail where he belongs? The Justice Department should have indicted him months ago! Look at the massive crimes Trump committed. What he’s doing to his Republican Party, is fascism!”

Bill Kennedy: “Our then supposed National Leader presided over, aided and abetted, the worst violent attack on...our government in more than 150 years, thus recommending Trump as President is quality of both Treason and Sedition!”

Jamelle Bouie: “As with the entire effort to overturn the result of the election, Trump’s behavior was as clumsy as it was in earnest.”

 Trump to Justice Department: “Just say the election was corrupt, and leave the rest to me.”

Trump being — as he was — an absurd figure, doesn’t mean we should treat his drives and desires as non-threatening; True when in office, and true now!

This Democrat in Montana, as I deal with Republican friends and strangers — will still delight in Trump’s knowingly eventual demise.

From Dan Lourie in Bozeman, Montana

Oklahoma newspaper echoes "Annapolis strong!"

They put out a newspaper.

Echo opinion by Kent Bush, column published in the Shawnee News Star, in Oklahoma

Hours after seeing at least five of their co-workers shot to death and several more badly injured in their newsroom, members of the Annapolis Capital Gazette in Maryland worked with journalists from sister papers to produce a newspaper for their readers.

That’s their calling. It isn’t what they do. It is who they are.

I have tremendous respect for the Capital Gazette staff and their dedication to their craft and their calling.

When the president calls them “the enemy of the people,” he shows his ignorance. Journalists are the people. They work with and for the people. Every morning when they head into the office, making their communities better places to live is the goal.

Of course, the president doesn’t like the media because many of their stories point out his ties to Russia, list his campaign staffers who have been indicted or are already being sentenced or demonstrate how he is using his office for his own benefit.

Donald Trump dodged a figurative bullet in Thursday’s shooting in Annapolis. Although the shooter seemed to have been a Trump supporter based on a few older tweets, Trump’s animosity toward the press didn’t seem to add to the man’s motive. The shooter had a history with the Capital Gazette. He was obviously not well mentally. After all, he mutilated his own fingertips so he couldn’t be easily identified after committing his crime.

But Trump knows that he came very close to having literal blood on his hands. You could hear the concern from his White House spokesperson after the shooting.

Lindsay Walters said, “There is no room for violence, and we stick by that. Violence is never tolerated in any form, no matter whom it is against.”

What does “no matter whom it is against” mean? They don’t even stand for mass murders in a newsroom? Why would you have to say no matter whom it is against? If those are your thoughts, I would hate to hear your prayers.

I’ve faced multiple threats in my career in journalism. Some were more credible than others. Many of us have. The problem is, as seems to be the case with the shooter in Annapolis, a person doesn’t have to be credible to be dangerous.

When this happened, police across the country spent extra resources to make sure that this act of violence didn’t create copycats who would follow suit. I asked for extra patrol at our location, as well.

There was no active threat against our newspaper, but I knew when friends and family members saw what happened today, they would be worried. Mothers called to make sure their sons were safe and paying attention. Friends sent texts to check in.

I wanted them to be able to reassure their loved ones that we were being cautious. We have to be cautious because we have a president who is trying to turn our country and our communities against us.

Do I believe it is working? Walking past a Sunday School class in my own church last Sunday morning, I heard a man teaching his class that they are in a culture war. He said they didn’t have to support President Trump, but he does. Then he admonished his class not to believe what “they read in the papers” about the president.

I would say the propaganda is finding fertile ground.

Trump and his staff know they got lucky Thursday. He has spent three years demonizing the press for political gain. He put a bullseye on all of our backs.

When initial reports came in, his words had to echo in his ears, knowing that his irresponsible and reckless words could have helped influence a mass murderer.

This has to stop.

The president’s staff, members of Congress and others who have influence must convince this president that he has to end his dangerous rhetoric before he ends up with blood on his hands.

Words matter.

Trump’s words put real people at risk, people who are doing their jobs. No president since Richard Nixon has had this relationship with the media.

I’m not sure that’s a comparison any president wants.