Donald Trump and his reflecting cesspool desecrated our beautiful national monuments

Trump’s slimy, swampy eyesore in Washington, D.C.
And the Reflecting Pool isn’t looking too good either.

Echo opinion by Renée Graham published in the Boston Globe.

Donald Trump's reflecting cesspool is a metaphor for his ugly administration.

Since his return to the White House last year, Donald Trump has spent an absurd amount of time trying to remake (I would say "uglify") Washington, D.C., in his own (hideous) image.

As of late last week, tarps still covered part of the Kennedy Center’s façade. On June 13, Trump’s name was removed from the building as ordered by Christopher R. Cooper, a federal judge. Cooper wanted to know why those tarps, which block much of John F. Kennedy’s name, have remained on the performing arts center dedicated as a memorial to the assassinated president.

Where the White House’s East Wing stood for more than a century before Trump had it demolished last year for his 90,000 square foot ballroom/bunker, there’s a massive hole and construction site. Its price tag has skyrocketed from 💲300 million, which the White House once claimed would be fully funded by multibillion-dollar corporations, to nearly 💲600 million, much of it, to no one’s surprise, at taxpayers’ expense.

Trump’s latest authoritarian design debacle is the slimy, swampy eyesore that was once the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. It now serves as a reflection of Trump’s slimy, swampy eyesore of a presidency.

Perhaps bored with his and Israel’s ill-conceived war against Iran, Trump announced in April that he had ordered a renovation of the iconic Reflecting Pool in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration on the Fourth of July. 

Trump created a myth, saying the pool was “filthy” and that its bottom would be painted something he called “American flag blue.”

Trump said the project would cost between 💲1.5 million and 💲2 million and would be completed “long before July Fourth.”

And just like the now four-month-old war against Iran that Trump initially said would be over “in four or five weeks,” the pool renovation has become another drawn-out mess of Trump’s own making.

Instead of blue, the pool is a sickly green from the proliferation of algae, which is not a new problem in D.C., but one to which Trump seemed oblivious. That blue painted lining began peeling not long after it was applied, with chunks of it floating in the water.

At least three duck carcasses were recently discovered — one in the pool and two nearby. City Wildlife, an animal rescue and rehabilitation group in Washington, told The Washington Post that toxic algae blooms or chemicals in the blue paint could harm wildlife.

Trump has blamed vandals for cutting a gash in the pool’s lining — that he initially said was 200 feet long and has since inflated to 350 feet — on the bottom of the pool. 

On Thursday, a National Park Service official said that earlier this month, the liner at the pool’s bottom was cut with a knife or razor. The incident was allegedly reported to the US Park Police on June 9, but Trump never mentioned that report.

Then there’s the no-bid contract awarded to a Trump donor’s company to install a water purification system in the pool. The White House claims that Trump was not involved in hiring that firm, owned by John J. Cafaro, a Palm Beach neighbor of Trump’s, who the president once called “a fantastic man.”

Now the National Guard is on patrol at the Reflecting Pool, which has also been surrounded by a fence, to avert any nefarious activities like visitors dipping a finger in the murky water. Six people have reportedly been arrested, and Jeanine Pirro, US attorney for the District of Columbia, said suspected vandals will “face the criminal justice system” in the nation’s capital.

After Pirro’s comments, Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who only found his spine after he decided not to run for reelection, said, “Yet they’re releasing people who pled guilty to assaulting police officers.” Tillis was referring to Trump’s mass pardons of those convicted of crimes committed during the deadly January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol.

“What freaking parallel universe did I just wake up in❓” Tillis asked.

That universe is no longer parallel but is in control of the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court. It’s a place created by Republicans like Tillis, who’ve done nothing as Trump breaks everything he touches and does so without a shred of accountability.

It’s unlikely the Reflecting Pool will be repaired in time for Fourth of July events. And that’s fine. Let that gross green swamp remain exactly as it is, a physical representation of the man who once promised to “drain the swamp” in Washington, but instead created one on the National Mall, and within the White House itself.

Maine Write P.S.- And Maine Senator Susan Collins does nothing!

Donald Trump and maga Republicans enabling fear and anger to justify dictator behavior- Impeach Trump Again!

"If a Democratic president did any of these things, Republican outrage would be biblical," Jonah Goldberg.  

Trump, more than ever,mixes anger, fear and insults to stir supporters.

Trump exaggerates D.C. crime rate to justify federal troops

The Trump quest for power is unparalleled in our country’s history. There is no state of emergency that requires the federalization of the police force in D.C. 

Trump is using the wrongminded decision to fill cities with Democratic mayors with National Guard troops is his display that says he controls the streets. It' part of his campaign to terrorize cities and people who do not back him. But Americans do not have to buy the terror he is selling.

Jonah Goldberg reports, in the last month, the president sent troops -- now armed -- into the District of Columbia ostensibly to combat an ill-defined crime "emergency." Because of the District's special constitutional status, he has the authority to do so. But he's already talking about taking the show on the road to Chicago, Baltimore and New York, all cities that just happen to be run by Democrats.

The D.C. gambit -- following an earlier scheme in Los Angeles -- is partly intended to force Democrats to talk about crime (which they are very bad at). But it also seems intended to normalize using the army on American soil, at the whim of the president, an idea directly contrary to the law and constitutional order.

The Trump administration has acquired a 10% stake of Intel and wants more such "deals." It raided the home of a prominent critic, John Bolton, without much explanation. 

Annoyed by commentary from former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the president threatened to re-open a criminal investigation in which Christie was already cleared of wrongdoing. Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for releasing data he did not like, and fired the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency allegedly for a preliminary finding that contradicted his claims of military success (this on the heels of earlier Pentagon purges).

Trump successfully ordered a pliant Texas Republican governor and legislature -- elected officials who do not answer to the federal government -- to redraw state maps to produce more Republican friendly districts. He has declared he will lead an effort to dictate how elections are conducted -- a function he has no legal or constitutional authority over -- on the grounds that the states are merely "agents" of the federal government.

Since taking office, Trump has lawlessly defied Congress' explicit instruction to force the sale or termination of the Chinese spyware social media app, TikTok. The White House recently opened a TikTok account.

Democrats raised alarms about this hardly exhaustive list. They are obviously correct about the GOP's staggering hypocrisy. If a Democratic president did any of these things, Republican outrage would be biblical.

But the issue is bigger than that.

Echo published in the Culpeper Star news:

For my entire adult life, when conservatives raised concerns about the government intruding on constitutional rules and norms, Democrats (and the media) almost invariably responded with contemptuous eye-rolling and mockery. This is one of the reasons the new right no longer cares much about those rules and norms. They've convinced themselves that the left only cares about such things when they constrain Republicans. Contempt breeds more contempt. Norms for thee, unrestrained power for me is a surefire way to destroy all norms.

I'm not saying that what Trump is doing isn't worse than what Democrats did -- or wanted to do, but failed. But in our politics, the ratchet effect always leads to ever greater violations, in part because each side wildly exaggerates the other's transgressions.

Point out that Trump is weaponizing the justice system or profiting off government, the reply is "they did it first." There's some truth there. But when Democrats did such things, Republicans shrieked it was wrong. Now one team's wrongness is justification for even more wrongness.  (Maine Writer- IMO, this statement by Goldberg is over stated.....I do not believe Republicans should be able to get away with this kind of rationalization❗)

Partisanship is not new. But partisans used to respect the rules as a way to ensure they were followed when their team was out of power. That's what has been lost: the idea that the rules should apply to your team, too.


Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch: thedispatch.com.

Donald Trump and maga Republicans are not preventing antisemitism: "Watch what they do not what they say"

"Hate begets hate, and antisemitism breeds hate against other groups -- threatening all of our communities", Letter to Senator Mitch McConnell and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, dated November 14, 2022, from Tennessee 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen.

Donald Trump- A letter from Rabbi Zemel to Temple Micah

Dear Friends,  I sent this  following letter to the editor of the Washington Post (several years ago)— thus far not published. So, I thought that I would share it with you.

Shalom, from  Rabbi Daniel G. Zemel

To the Editor: Donald Trump’s statement on American Jews and Israel are abhorrent. 

“Jews ✡️have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel — before it is too late!”, said Trump.

Is this some kind of threat❓ Is the former president unable to distinguish between support for Israel and support for himself❓

I write this letter because we must continually resist Trump's denigration of the public square.

Trump's statement is repulsive, as is his limited understanding of Jews and Judaism, which appears to be based on two things:

1. His friendship with the anti-Zionist former Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. If Zionism has anything at all to do with the unity of the Jewish people, the former prime minister does not qualify as a Zionist.

2. His obsessive antisemitic connection of Jews with money as evidenced by this 2015, statement to Republican Jewish donors: “You’re not gonna support me because I don’t want your money. You want to control your politicians, that’s fine.”

In this moment, as we condemn Trump’s antisemitic rants, we must also condemn the once respectable Zionist Organization of America, and its president, Morton Klein, with its announced presentation of the Theodor Herzl Medallion to Trump on November 13. 

Previous recipients include Winston Churchill and David Ben Gurion. The name of Theodor Herzl, founder of political Zionism, has never been so dishonored.

I cannot be a Jew of silence.

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Rabbi Daniel G. Zemel, Temple Micah in  Washington, DC

"Embedded in the very meaning of Judaism is an expression of social justice and action, and what it means to be human", Rabbi Zemel.

Everything Donald Trump touches is a bust. He makes everything about himself!

Everything Donald Trump gets involved in is a bust for the American people- It's always all about him

Echo opinion letter published in the Milwaukee Journal

Reporters and headline writers, and the entire USA Today Network, are feeding Donald Trump's narcissistic ego and doing our nation a great disservice when referencing what happened in Washington on June 14, as "Donald Trump's parade." "Wisconsin Republicans cheer Trump's military parade but do not plan to attend" June 12.


The U.S. Army has been planning a celebration of its 250th anniversary for years, under more than one president.

In fact, the anniversary dates from the Continental Congress authorizing an army for the United States of America as a whole. True, Trump has been trying to make it "All About Me" as he does just about anything happening in the world.

But, by calling it "Donald Trump's parade" you are ceding the ground, aiding and abetting his well known narcissism.

Next you will be making it impossible to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence without making that "Trump's declaration."

The better approach is to report on the 250 anniversary of the army of the United States, and leave Trump entirely out of the story, except perhaps for brief mention that he was there to watch.

Also note that the 250th anniversary of American independence is an eight year rolling celebration which has been notably absent from most press coverage, with rather limited official observance.

A few towns in Massachusetts celebrated the 250th anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord, but hardly anyone anywhere else did, including in Washington, D.C.

This is our celebration of the origins of our common country and all the contributions people of every race, creed, color and national origin made to bring it about.

And yes, there were Americans of African descent among the Minute Men, there were Irish Catholics willing to rise against the British Empire, there were Jews devoting their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to the cause, and there were Oneida, Stockbridge, Tuscarora, among other nations playing vital roles throughout the war. Also there were women serving in the army, although they had to do so under disguise.

From Charlie Rosenberg, in Milwaukee

Donald Trump campaigned about mass deportations but instead he is guilty or mass firing thousands of hard working Americans! #WWWTP?

Angered by Trump's Actions an echo opinion letter published in Agoura Hills, California, Thousand Oaks Acorn news.

This opinion letter is written because the writer cannot allow recent events in Washington D.C. and the world pass without making a comment of complaint.

It's unbelievable, but the current resident in the White House continues to destroy our government, but our federal departments of thousands of employees overnight, place someone media claims to be an alcoholic in charge of the Department of Defense, fire most of the general staff members and turn a billonaire major campaign donor loose with a group of college kids to obtain our secret and pesonal information, without any authority to do so.

Now, Trump has ambushed one of our European allies in the White House, President Zelenskyy, by verbally attacking him, threatens insults and belittles the leaders of the Ukraine in front of the world, including in front of Russian media, despite the White House saying the journalist was not authorized to be in the press pool. 💥😡

All this while Trump and VP (former Marine corporal) JD Vance used tag-team tactics to inslut our international leader President Zelenskyy.Now, the Republican Party is pushing to leave the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), comething Trump wanted to do in his first term in the White House. This has been the Russian dream for 80 years, come true.

European countries have finally woken up to the fact that under the current regime in Washington D.C., the U.S. is no longer the leader of the free world.  

For 80 years, NATO has kept the peace in Europe until 2024, when Russia invaded the Ukraine. No sane American president would put people in charge of important federal positions who are incompetent and not investigated by security or intelligence departments, and eliminate almost all the senior staff in all the government.

Sadly, the Armed Services have been crippled by losing all the best senior leaders. Can you imagine how lucrative this is for China and Russia to move against our allies in Asia and Europe, or for that matter, anywhere in the world?

Thie same group in Washington is about to start a trade war with the world and attack our hard earned Social Security and Medicare.

I am beginning to believe that Putin must have something on Trump.

From Michael Penilla in Newbury Park, California

Thank you to Vietnam veterans- Welcome home!

If you know someone who served, thank them for it.

(Maine Writer-  My husband is a Navy veteran who served with Mobile Construction Battalion 71 (MCB71) in Chu Lai, Vietnam. Thank you!)  In my opinion, Vietnam veterans need to hear what they did not receive after surviving their tour- "Welcome Home!"

We can debate whether Vietnam was folly and a fool's errand, and in doing so, diminish the impact it had upon those who served in good faith.

Richard L'Heureux MCB 71 Chu Lai, Vietnam

We can pretend that teenagers sent a half a world away to fight for a country they never heard of, who struggled for their very lives in jungles and rice paddies, didn't return as three-dimensional ghosts.

‘Remembrance is vital for our society’: Honoring 40 years of the Vietnam wall. Echo report published in The Repository newspaper by Thuan Le Elston:

A co-founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund describes how it has played a pivotal role in the cultural shift America has made in separating the war from the warrior.

How do you feel about the Vietnam wall now?

I first saw the Vietnam Veterans Memorial three decades ago, on my first trip to Washington, D.C. 

As a war refugee whose family escaped the fall of Saigon in 1975 when I was 8, I wanted to see and touch the wall, but I can't say I had been looking forward to it.

The people whose names are engraved onto the granite wall died fighting a conflict over my birthplace, even as their fellow Americans protested to end the war and bring them home. My father and uncles fought in the same war, to save Vietnam from communism. We failed, we fled, and now we're U.S. citizens.

What a heavy mental trip. 

As soon as I stepped onto the descending path leading to the shiny black wall on the National Mall and saw the U.S. military veterans and their families among the tourists, I fought the feeling that everyone was staring at me. Irrationally or not, I felt guilty. I also saw my reflection in the wall among all those names and I mourned – a mourning for all the dead as well as the living, just as the memorial's designer, Maya Lin, had intended.

Since my first trip there, I've married and moved my family to Northern Virginia. My father-in-law, Bob Elston Sr., was an Army first lieutenant posted in South Vietnam in 1968, when he learned his first son had been born in New Jersey. That son, Bob Jr., ended up marrying a Vietnamese American: me.

We've been to the wall many times with our kids as well as visiting family and friends. I now find comfort and purpose whenever I walk the beautiful wall – the most popular memorial on the National Mall, attracting more than 5 million people each year – and see our reflections among the names.

Richard L'Heureux, a Maine native, Vietnam Veteran in the Lewiston Maine Veterans Memorial Park

As Robert Doubek, a co-founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF), tells me, "Remembrance is vital for our society because freedom does not come for free."

I spoke with Doubek, an Air Force veteran, about how he got involved with the memorial and what he wants you to know about the wall. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

My tour in Vietnam lasted one year, ending on Thanksgiving Day 1969. As a U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, I had the unusual assignment of interrogating North Vietnamese prisoners of war for information about U.S. prisoners of war in North Vietnam, the effectiveness of U.S. airstrikes and infiltration down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. 

I reality, the majority of prisoners were 19-year-old rice farmers with only six years of education who could provide little that was useful.

As an interrogator, I was authorized to wear civilian clothes, so I wasn’t identifiable as a Vietnam War veteran when I arrived home. I was then based in Texas, where people were still basically favorable toward the military. But when I came to Washington, D.C., for law school in 1971, I seldom mentioned that I had served in Vietnam. The dominant attitude among the young professionals there was that anyone who did military service – especially in Vietnam – had to be stupid.

How did you get involved in the memorial project, and how long did it take to complete?

I graduated law school in 1974, but found work as a lawyer to be unfulfilling. I began to hear that many Vietnam War veterans were having trouble readjusting to civilian life, so I thought I might volunteer my legal skills to help some of them. 

Consequently, I was invited to a meeting in April 1979, called to generate publicity for the needs of the veterans, such as treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. At the meeting one veteran, Jan Scruggs, stood up and asked, “What about a memorial?” The general response was that Vietnam veterans needed more benefits, not a memorial. I, however, thought it was a good idea, so I advised him that he needed to form a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation to carry out such a project. He asked me to do the legal work to set up the corporation and to be one of the founding directors. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund was incorporated on April 27, 1979.

After working as a volunteer for six months, I became so fascinated by the prospect of creating a national memorial from scratch that I left my legal career to become the first VVMF employee – the executive director. Formal groundbreaking took place on March 26, 1982, and the memorial was dedicated on Nov. 11, 1982.

Ukrainians are justifiably proud about President Volodymyr Zelensky

President Zelensky gets standing ovation after speech to Congress:

Full transcript in The New York Times.

"Your money is not charity,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told Congress on Wednesday, "but rather an investment in “global security and democracy". 

Echo opinion published in the Los Angeles Times: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showed American politicians what patriotism looks like.

By Paul Thornton the Los Angeles Times letter editor:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech to Congress on Wednesday (December 21, 2022) didn’t please everyone. 

A few cynics weren’t thrilled that he showed up to the White House and on Capitol Hill looking like, well, a commander in chief fighting a war. (Hello? Zelensky had just left the front lines of the Ukraine, handing out medals to the country's brave defenders!) 

I’ll tell you who Zelensky’s speech pleased: our readers. 

In fact, several readers wrote letters comparing him favorably to Winston Churchill and other wartime heroes. A handful made unfavorable comparisons — but only of certain American politicians to Zelensky. Perhaps that helps explains the quibbles over the Ukrainian president’s fashion choices.

Presudent Zelensky had been with the Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines of the waar, just one day before leaving for Washington D.C. to speak to the U.S. Congress.

To the editor: The president of Ukraine showed the world what a true hero looks like. This short, slightly chubby comedian is truly a man among men.

What isn’t widely known is that although he could justifiably declare that he will stay in power indefinitely, he isn’t doing that.

Zelensky models to us all courage, perseverance and humility. 

If all our leaders in the U.S. would emulate these qualities, the ideals of the American dream could come to fruition.

We can be proud that this brave man is keeping his eye on the star, and with the help of the U.S. and other allies, he is sure to achieve his objective.

From Barbara H. Bergen, in Los Angeles

And this....To the editor: As I listened to Zelensky’s speech, my first thought was what could have happened in Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal if President Ashraf Ghani had stayed and united his country, as Zelensky did, instead of fleeing.

Had he stood with his citizens, worked to implement a peaceful transition and showed the world Afghanistan was strong, Afghanistan could now have a totally different outcome where women could go to school and have stronger employment.
Zelensky inspired; Ghani fled.

From  Debbie Cassettari, in Chino Hills, California

To the editor: Yes, Zelensky was able to address a joint session of Congress with an impassioned and insightful speech, and in a foreign language for him.

Yes, he has been able to represent his country to the world, with dignity and gravitas, despite his youth and diplomatic inexperience.

And yes, he has been able to inspire and guide Ukraine through the most difficult circumstances imaginable.

But let’s not forget the very first days of the war. Intelligence services warned of a quick and decisive Russian victory. No one would have criticized Zelensky for seeking safety and setting up a government in exile, considering the danger and his responsibilities to his wife and young children.

Yet in the face of a massive Russian army, assassination squads and mercenaries, he chose to stay in Kyiv, exhibiting extraordinary courage.

Ukrainian courage!

To all the evil Republicans who still adhere to the Trump-Putin axis and celebrate the “brave patriots” who overwhelmed an outnumbered U.S. Capitol Police force to invade and defile the heart of our democracy on January 6, 2021, I suggest you consider the Ukrainian president to learn the meaning of true bravery and patriotism.

One thing is for sure: You will hear no claims of heel spurs from Volodymyr Zelensky.

From Joel Jaffe, Beverly Hills, California



..

Former Guy inciting insurrection and sedition

Trump and the Capitol Insurrection: What could a trial look like? |By Rob Miraldi, echo opinion published in the New Jersey Herald.

Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve seen a riot at the U.S. Capitol and the failed impeachment of the 45th former president of the United States. But today we begin the trial of Donald John Trump for inciting a mob of thousands of insurrectionists to overrun, ransack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 

Former Guy incited a mob of thousands of insurrectionists!

This hypothetical trial begins in federal court in Washington, D.C.

Federal trials are not televised but our broadcast team is able to give you a virtual account of what is taking place as the former president goes on trial. With a jury now in place, the government’s lead prosecutor will present his opening statement. Wait, he is about to begin. Let’s go listen.

* * *
Good morning members of the jury. The people of Washington, D.C., indeed the citizens of America, thank you for serving here on this momentous but sad day. The people of the United States have been forced to confront and charge our 45th president with inciting thousands of citizens to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6.

It was the first time since 1814, that the revered U.S. Capitol was invaded. And it was certainly the first time such invaders were inspired, nay, asked (!) by the President to resort to violence to get their political way which, in short, was to stop the U.S. Congress from certifying that the defendant, Donald Trump, had lost the election of 2020, a fact he simply could not concede.

I’m sorry to say: the result of his exhortation caused the death of four people that day. I am sorry to say that two capitol police officers, who faced the brunt of the violence, committed suicide and that 140 people were injured, some seriously. And I’m sorry to say that $30 million in damage was done to the historic Capitol.

As much as anything, I’m sorry to say that because of Donald Trump’s inciting language — on January 6 and for many weeks before — democracy was left in tatters, the American people shocked and angered, and the world repulsed. Today we begin to lay out the case against the former president — and seek justice, as the law not only permits, but urges.

18 U.S. Code 373: Solicitation to commit a crime of violence. We will show Trump violated that law. You cannot “solicit, command, induce, or persuade” other persons to “use or threaten use of physical force against property or other persons.” It is the law.

We will show that the former president had one goal: to stop Congress from doing its solemn duty of certifying the election of Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the 46th president. Remember, Jan. 6 was the day the certification was to take place. In fact, the president moved up the date of his “rally” to coincide with the certification.

His first hope was that Vice President Mike Pence, even though it wasn’t in his power, would deny certification. When Pence refused, he called out his supporters, imploring them to storm the building and “fight like hell.” “Trial by combat,” his attorney Rudolph Giuliani called it. Once in the hallowed halls, the rioters could halt the certification. It was a coup attempt, fueled by a call to violence by the former president. A clear violation of federal law.

And we might as well get to the ex-president’s defense. He will invoke the 45 words of the Constitution’s First Amendment. He will say he’s free to attack the election as a fraud and a massive steal. And he is correct. That is his right.

But what he doesn’t have the right to do is cross over from protected speech to illegal conduct. To move from speech to action that led directly to the attack on the capitol. Free speech does not mean you can incite people to commit violence, a principle long established in law.

The defense will repeatedly cite the name Brandenburg because that’s the 1969 Supreme Court case when the court tersely ruled on incitement to violence. Incitement is not criminal, the court said, unless the government can prove the speaker intended to cause violence; that there was a likelihood that such violence would occur; and that the violence was imminent.

We will offer witnesses, documents and videos that prove all three of those elements.  The President’s track record is nothing to be proud of. When he speaks in a city, violence often follows. Leading up the Jan. 6 conflagration, he said it would be a “wild” day and told aides the night before that 10,000 troops might not be enough to stop a melee. He knew what was coming. He was giddy the day of the riot, shocking even his closest aides as he sat by for hours doing nothing to help the capitol police.

We understand an incitement to violence prosecution will fail if the violence advocated is for some distant date. But the President spoke at noon, and the violence began an hour later. Oh yes, violence was imminent. And when he finally did address the rioters at 4:17 p.m., he ended saying, “We love you.” 

As for likelihood that it would occur: we must look at the relationship between a speaker and those he exhorts to violence.  These people — many of whom have been arrested— consistently say the president called them to Washington from all over the U.S.  To say they were “chummed up,” like fish being fed bait, is an understatement. They will testify.

Remember, this is a charismatic person who has a special relationship with the followers he calls “the base.” His claimed Mexicans crossing the border were “rapists” and that white nationalists at Charlottesville, Virginia, were “good people.” Those claims endeared him to that base. They were ready to follow him anywhere. This is the president who had said for months, despite legal loss after legal loss, that the election was stolen. The former president lit the fuse to use the base to block a legal election.

The First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution is a beautiful thing, my fellow citizens; most of all it’s meant to protect important as well as trivial political speech. 

But it was never meant to allow any person to stand at the gates of the Capitol and urge people to injure police officers and hunt down elected officials as we sadly saw on January 6.

Remember, this is a man who said publicly he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York city and get away with it. We need to make sure he does not get away with inciting and causing the death of four people on January 6.

* * *
We are back in the broadcast booth now. That was a powerful opening statement; the prosecutor held back little. 

We are here with Clay Calvert, an esteemed First Amendment scholar at the University of Florida. Professor, your thoughts?

“In my mind, there’s little doubt from a lay person’s point of view that Donald Trump stirred the pot and is the cause of the Jan. 6 insurrection and riot. But that is more impeachable than it is criminal. I am trying to assess here if his words meet the test of Brandenburg.

“Trump knew his audience and their state of mind. He knew trouble could ensue. But he dances around by never explicitly using words such as assault, harm or injure. But he doesn’t need the explicit terminology. The more the audience is riled, the less need to use explicit terms of violence.

It is a worthy case to make. Let’s hope that fear of prosecution will guard against future unlawful conduct.”

Rob Miraldi’s writings on the First Amendment have won numerous state and national awards. He teaches journalism at SUNY Paltz. 

https://www.njherald.com/story/opinion/columnists/2021/03/12/trump-and-capitol-riot-what-could-trial-look-like-opinion/6944952002/

Eishenhower the President and General has a big D.C. memorial but few noticed and even fewer seem to like it

The Topeka-Capital-Journal, a Kansas newspaper coverage about the lackluster unveiling of the memorial dedicated to President and General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Dedication of the official memorial to General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower occurred on Sept. 17, 2020. Frankly, relatively little media attention was devoted to what should have been this historically important event. This report describes an ambiguous response to the unveiling of this memorial and the apparant lackluster ceremony. I wonder if a French delegation was invited to  attend?

 
Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, honoring the legacy of the World War II Supreme Allied Commander and nation's 34th President,

Too bad about the lack of coverage.  No surprise there. We’re preoccupied with public health, public demonstrations and violence, and the intense, nasty bitterness of the ongoing presidential campaigns.

The memorial is mammoth in concept and scale, occupying four acres of downtown Washington D.C., now transformed into a park. Two giant columns flank the site. One is devoted to Ike’s service as Supreme Allied Commander during World War II in Europe, the other to his accomplishments as the 34th President of the United States.

Designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry, the Eisenhower Memorial encapsulates Eisenhower’s legacy in a four-acre urban park at the base of Capitol Hill along Independence Avenue SW.
Gehry’s unique vision is a grand new civic space in the heart of DC. It features a one-of-a-kind stainless-steel tapestry depicting beaches of D-Day.

The park, in Washington D.C., includes additional columns, statues and a giant stainless steel woven tapestry. Frank Gehry is the architect, a celebrity transcending his profession, in constant demand by people seeking immortal institutional designs or at least greater comfort through luxurious dwellings in this life.

Congress commissioned the Eisenhower memorial in 1999, but the project consumed over two decades to complete. Disputes over design, location and other particulars caused extensive delays. Ike’s two granddaughters were initially extremely unhappy with the project. His grandson David Eisenhower, reportedly unhappy also, is politely supportive of the finished product.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower was crucial to the extraordinarily complex, costly long-term effort to liberate occupied Europe and destroy the Nazi regime in Germany. The mammoth D-Day invasion of France on June 6, 1944, encapsulated the myriad challenges of the war overall.

Eisenhower demonstrated great executive ability in supervising an unprecedented logistical challenge, and his remarkable interpersonal skills welded and held together the most diverse military alliance in history. Related to this, Ike was able to establish overall command. This unity eluded even the American military alone in the Pacific theatre, where Army General Douglas MacArthur relentlessly pursued one strategic vision, while U.S. Navy admirals took an alternative approach.

Planners proposed extensive bombing of transport routes and supply depots in France as necessary to the enormous effort to prepare the way for invasion. Such air action would bring an estimated minimum of 60,000 civilian casualties and perhaps many more.

For that reason, American and British air commanders resisted widespread destruction and argued for a much more limited bombing effort. Ike was able to turn to General Charles de Gaulle, temperamental leader of the Free French forces, who unreservedly supported widespread bombing as essential.

Simultaneously, Eisenhower was aware of the terrible human costs of war, borne primarily by the enlisted ranks. He constantly stressed the role of the combat soldier and regularly visited troops. Classic photographs include his visit with young American paratroopers about to depart early on D-Day.

Eisenhower took a similar approach to national leadership, after securing the Republican Party’s presidential nomination and the White House, with a landslide victory in the 1952 election. As president, he met regularly with Congressional leaders.

For six of eight years in office, Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. Lyndon Johnson led the Senate majority and Sam Rayburn was Speaker of the House. Ike disliked both, but regularly invited them to the White House for consultation and socializing, at the end of the business day. 

Over time, the partisan political lines became blurred.

When Eisenhower died, newly inaugurated President Richard M. Nixon rightly compared him to George Washington as “first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”

Eisenhower preferred public modesty. Gehry’s monument unfortunately neglects that dimension, by design.

Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of “After the Cold War” (NYU Press and Macmillan). Contact acyr@carthage.edu.