I am angry at my friend Mike, at LTGEN (ret) Trey Obering, at another good friend Chirs (Godfather of my oldest daughter), and golf buddies mentioned below for enabling "Tweety Fat Bastard" Donald Trump to overthrow an elected Government 6 Jan 2021.
Trump's speech during a Congressional meeting to install President-elect Biden put police in danger, caused a protestor shooting, and incited a "righteous coup" in his cult-like, insane followers. It's all on TV now.
6 January 2021. Trump started the seditionist action against the capital and he has to stop it - today. Will Trump have the courage to stop the violence at and in the Capital Building BY PUBLICLY COMING ON TV?
Trump came on TV and said more bad stuff! Trump is inciting insurrection agants an elected President!
Trump / Barr Lafayette Square assault on a BLM peaceful protest, and Trump's Bible thumping fake Christian symbolism, to Trump incitement to storm the Capital and threaten Congress on 6 Jan 2021 as Trump lies about "winning" the election we have sedition! What will Cruz and Hawley say now? Did these GOP objections on 6 Jan 2021 fan the flames of sedition and violence?
Gaslighting magician, Trump, tries to change the 2020 election result by merely saying "I won!" again, and again, and again, daily until the result is changed . . . the election never will be changed.
Trump had his personal interest in mind above the country to the end!
Trump did not abide by his Oath of Office.
News media is threatened by Trumpsters because of Trump!
Trump's message to the violent protestors to home was sad, disingenuous, unacceptable, and un-American and treasonous!
Trump tried his hypnotic spell for an hour on a recorded phone call . . . and it was more fuel to the fire!
‘I just want to find 11,780 votes’: In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor
By Amy Gardner Jan. 3, 2021 at 7:12 p.m. EST
"President Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to “find” enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary one-hour phone call Saturday that legal scholars described as a flagrant abuse of power and a potential criminal act. [TRUMP IS INCREDIBLY ARROGANT TRYING TO BULLY GA. INTO CHANGING VOTES! HOW CAN A CANDIDATE DEMAND ADDING VOTES SO HE CAN WIN?]
The Washington Post obtained a recording of the conversation in which Trump alternately berated Raffensperger, tried to flatter him, begged him to act and threatened him with vague criminal consequences if the secretary of state refused to pursue his false claims, at one point warning that Raffensperger was taking “a big risk.”
Throughout the call, Raffensperger and his office’s general counsel rejected Trump’s assertions, explaining that the president is relying on debunked conspiracy theories and that President-elect Joe Biden’s 11,779-vote victory in Georgia was fair and accurate."
Really? There is nothing wrong with voter fraud?! We all know Trump won?
American Republicans have perverted our Democracy and we no longer understand “Patriotism” is loyalty to our country, and our Constitution, not loyalty at any cost to Donald Trump, a Mussolini-acting fool gaslighting America in the worst way.
If a hand-full of Republicans led by Ted Cruz in the Senate, and ~130 House Republicans truly believe there was enough voter fraud to change election results, then they should not take their seats until the doubt is resolved.
The Republicans who won their seats have to stand down from taking office until their "voter fraud" story ends one way or the other.
Voter fraud can mean these same Republicans are subject to this fraud they say exists for electing the President. Their election has to be fraudulent too, in their argument.
Nihilism Is Destroying Our Democracy
Enthusiastic enablers of Trump have unmoored themselves from the values that make possible a government by and for the people.
January 5, 2021
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/system-collapses-without-virtue/617548/
"The Trump administration is a case study in what happens when someone devoid of morals or any sense of civic responsibility assumes the presidency."
More.
"Trump has failed to meet even this minimal expectation. The articles of impeachment against him prominently noted that he had breached his oath in abusing his power. His inability to live up to the presumption of civic virtue has confounded the courts, which again and again have struggled with whether to defer to the arguments of a president who, not to put too fine a point on it, just lies all the time. The difficulty faced by the judiciary in untangling Trump’s bad faith underlines how foundational the notion of presidential good faith is, and how disorienting that foundation’s collapse can be.
But the damage Trump has done is also the responsibility of the Republican Party, which has both enabled Trump’s abuses and, perversely, been inspired by his example. His selfishness demonstrated how much politicians could get away with if they cast aside concerns for anything other than their own ambition. Hawley and Cruz have taken that lesson the furthest."
They fail compliance to their Oath of Office! They fail to serve the country for the sake of their self-interest, selfish political goals.
"Members of Congress also swear an oath, which has developed over the years into a promise to “support and defend the Constitution” and to “well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office”—reflecting the idea that senators and representatives must commit themselves to some measure of civic responsibility, just like the president. Hawley and Cruz’s gambit is made possible by ignoring those promises to the public."
If God is dead, nothing matters. If America's Democracy is tossed in the garbage, no government matters.
"There is an obvious irony [I call it political whoring! It is opportunism! Hawley, Cruz and the other GOP seditionists are going to confuse many Americans about the 2020 Presidential election to the detriment of the UNITED STATES! Loyalty to Trump over country is wrong! Disputing a fair, free, and honest election with NOT ONE CASE OF VOTER FRAUD PROVEN BY ANY OF DONALD TRUMP LAWSUITS IN COURTS OF LAW makes no sense. Biden was elected, get over it! It is sick and sad to give up all moral authority for the sake of the office these people hold. This act of sedition goes against all their prior fake morality and fake ethics.] in someone like Hawley, who has built his career on decrying the cultural corruption and moral emptiness of his Democratic opponents, embracing this sort of nihilism. Hawley has previously argued that the country needs to return to the virtuous roots of the early republic. His evident disdain for the basic principles of democracy means that nobody should have to take his arguments on that score seriously. But his hypocrisy is useful, because it’s a reminder that paeans to the wisdom of the American founding tend to leave a lot out. The civic virtue of the Framers was, after all, the virtue of white men."
The Democrat candidate Joe Biden won. But America is in a "Death Spiral" because of Trumpism.
Engaging With Trump’s Die-Hard Supporters Isn’t Productive
The loyalists who still cling to conspiracy theories should be deprived of the attention they seek.
December 21, 2020 Tom Nichols, Author of Our Own Worst Enemy
"President-elect Joe Biden made national unity a centerpiece of his campaign, and no patriotic American who wants to repair the damage of the Donald Trump years can argue with such a noble call. The election is over, and we can now undertake the tasks Trump neglected, including fighting the coronavirus pandemic and restoring our alliances. But millions of Americans are not ready to declare that bygones are bygones and engage the loyal Trump supporters they might still find among their neighbors, friends, or families."
My friend Will Roland said he stands tall for Trump and no matter the voting for President-elect, no matter no evidence of mass voter fraud has been found, Biden is not Will's President. Will supports Trump over his country, claiming he is a "Patriot."
Will is NOT my kind of Patriot, and I am surely not most people's idea of a good Patriot, because he is not supporting the United States, rather Will is supporting a divided nation overall all that is good in a United country.
But the author goes on to say it is OK to not engage with "Trumpsters" too. I am not sure I can agree. How to d clsoe the divide and keep our country together this way? Cultists? Agree, forget talking to them.
"Nonetheless, ordinary people worn out by the dramas and lies of the past four years have a right to refuse to take Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters seriously. To reject further debate with people whose views are completely incoherent is not only understandable, but sensible."
Agree! I have to ignore Will, and avoid the man who literally threatened me with a "walk in the woods" and his concealed carry card. I fear if Will gets excited and angry about Trump and Biden on the golf course we play at in Bedford, MA, he might lose it, and hit me with his golf club. Alternatively, I could defend myself and hurt Will. Neither scenarios is a good way.
The author makes an incredible point here. Do not argue with Trump cult members as NOTHING phases them, NOTHING!
". . . I am talking about the people who are giving Trump their full-throated support to the very end, even as he mulls a military coup; the people who buy weird paintings of Trump crossing the Delaware, or who believe that Trump is an agent of Jesus Christ, or who think that Trump is fighting a blood-drinking ring of pedophiles. These supporters have gone far beyond political loyalty and have succumbed to a kind of mass delusion. It is not possible to engage them. Indeed, to argue with them is to legitimize their beliefs, which itself is unhealthy for our democracy."
This is an epiphany for me to recognize that to argue with these people, like Will, and his new friend Hal, MERELY LEGITIMIZES THEIR UNSUPPORTABLE BELIEFS AND IDEAS.
The notes I write below are the result of a text conversation that went terribly wrong as each fact and truth I offered was twisted and used against me, to include being called an "elitist" by Will several times.
"If we’ve learned one thing about “Trumpism,” it is that there is no such thing as “Trumpism.” No content anchors it; no program or policy comes from it. No motivating ideology stands behind it, unless we think of general grievance and a hatred of cultural and intellectual elites as an “idea.” And when views are incoherent and beliefs are rooted in fantasies, compromise is impossible. Further engagement is not only unwarranted, but it can also become counterproductive."
Wow! There's a solid logic in staying away from Trumpists.
"This is why I see no point in a “national conversation” or in “reaching out,” or other euphemisms for attempts to better understand the movement that formed around Trump. We already understand: Trump tapped into traditions of ethnic and regional grievances and social resentments that are present in every democracy and wedded them to bizarre theories and conspiracies.
Perhaps most important, much of our own sense of well-being will be lost if we continue to engage with people who believe that millions of votes were falsified from coast to coast, that the military should move into the swing states and hold new elections, or even that thousands of Chinese troops were bombed into submission on the border of Maine.
Ordinary people should tune out the noise. No one needs to think one more minute about why a woman from New York would speed along in her car while ranting into her phone about stolen elections when she ought to have been watching the road. And the media have a particular obligation to end their fascination with these Trump voters. We don’t need yet another pilgrimage to diners and gas stations to hear from people whose only sources of information are cable-news hosts plumping fantasies about Venezuelan voting machines. We need not ruminate on the evangelical writer who thinks we must pray for the crackpot lawyer Sidney Powell. And journalists should stop providing media oxygen to would-be heroes such as the Texas mayor who said that if Trump called on him to take up arms, he’d engage in civil war."
Our best recourse is to ignore the cultists and await serious dialogue.
The rebellious, sedtionist Republicans can take all the time they want, but they should not take their seats in Congress until they are sure they were properly elected 3 Nov 2020.
In todays volatile politics, too few of us want to talk about policies like taxes, drug laws, police / policing issues, social issues, deficits, economic disparity, immigration, voter rights (rather talk about voter fraud that can’t be proven), racism, unfair capitalism . . .
We slip too quickly into name calling, conspiracies, lies, BS, and hate / anger.
Unbridled nationalism led to two world wars, and worse. America can escape the fate of extreme nationalist countries by putting Trumpishm behind us.
To “Trumpsters,” say “No thanks.” to golf or any discussion. They are delusional and dangerous. The state of dialogue is too damaged to continue.
We blew a modest friendship by talking politics. I discovered two true cultists, and am shocked.
I got frustrated by the conspiracy talk, unproven allegations, and irresponsible ideas and irrational compliments of Trump and nasty, stupid words about Biden.
Primarily I hate that they want to take away my ability to argue the facts and truth. I am supposed to believe what they say because they say it, or Trump, or Tucker said it despite no proof.
I’m frustrated. EXASPERATED. I’m sad. I’m disappointed.
I see Will as a seditionist if he says the election was stolen. But Will is more a cultist, he is part of Trump's mass hysteria.
Like Trump, like all the law suits, like all the GOP members shouting voter fraud and stolen election, Will and Hal have no evidence of voter fraud, but they will say the election was stolen.
Here's a surprise! It turns out the only proven evidence mass voter fraud is in a tape of a telephone call by Trump 4 Jan or so, after multiple vote recounts and an audit of the vote process, and checking the voting machines, where Trump, the "Dear Leader" of the Trump cult, despite knowing the facts and truth of his loss in GA, demanded the GA Secretary of State "find" enough votes to help him win GA, to "recalculate" to help Trump win GA!
That Trump call makes Trump a felon by Georgia law!
By my way of thinking, anyone NOT accepting Biden as the President elect today, and the President on 20 Jan. 2021 is treasonous. I served in the Air Force for 22 years and still hold my Oath true to support my country.
As many as 60 court cases failed in every way to PROVE voter fraud, so the election was not stolen, and Biden is OUR President.
It is Sedition to say otherwise after 20 Jan 2021.
I am disappointed Will and Hal cast out documented evidence defeating their arguments so easily, without sensible logic, and they did not think or research answers.
Hal offered Bible verses, tried to make peace after bad texts, but never offered to recognize or support any of the facts or truth I gave him about ANTIFA or Planned Parenthood, for example. Hal never acknowledged Trump's immoral character.
Rather, Hall sent me a very poorly written article, an idiotic article, comparing ANTIFA to ISIS! WTF! Hal said ANTIFA is a terrorist group; this BS started when Will said ANTIFA is a terrorist group because Trump said it, and despite Trump’s 2020 Department of Homeland Security report not even mentioning ANTIFA! The 2020 Trump-appointed-DHS report said White Nationalist are most dangerous domestic threat to American security.
These guys made me angry as they tossed glib one-liners like Biden is demented (he stutters); they made comments a high school kid would make, unsupported by real facts, accepting biased conspiracy-like BS.
Will gets his “truth” from Tucker Carlson. That explains a lot about why Will is following so many conspiracies and lies. Tucker made nasty comments he had no standing, or need to make about Dr. Biden who has a PhD using “doctor.” It’s a common practice! Tucker is nasty just to be nasty; he’s a very nasty, ugly man.
Will actually uses Tucker Carlson’s advice and opinions for his thinking despite Tucker’s White Nationalism. Tucker undermined the vaccine distribution in racist snd non-science ways.
An example of how Trump does "good works" for Will and Hal is represented by the GOP passing a $2T tax cut, Trump refused to sign it demanding a $2,000 check for each American, but when the chips were on the line Trump did not fight for the ~$2,000 check in Dec 2020.
Will says Trump is a successful business man, but Trump's father gave him ~$413M in various ways over many years. How much is Trump worth after he pays his debts?
Trump has said he would pay legal fees of criminals who assault people during his rallies.
Trump is a serial adulterer, a simple, public fact.
Trump said he would have sex with Ivanka if she wasn’t his daughter on the Ellen Show as he sat next to Ivanka.
It was a Trump supporting pharmacist that tried a trick us to make vaccine look bad - took out of freezer to die, THEN HE PUT IT BACK! He was arrested! The guy claimed the vaccine wouldn't work? BS! I hope the “former hospital pharmacist” goes to jail for his destruction of 570 doses of the covid-19 vaccine in Wisconsin.
It looks like VP Mike Pence has refused to play Trump's voter fraud “sedition game” on 6 Jan 2021. Time will tell what he really does. Today is 5 Jan 2021.
Random notes:
Will Rowland and Hal enabled an assault on my country by their unreasoned support for Trump.
Hawley and 139 other GOP members sign up to sedition for 6 Jan 2021 foolishness, treachery.
Trump told an 8 year old he’d date her when she was 18.
Trump said his first daughter had nice tits as a baby.
Trump said he can do anything on a woman because he is a celebrity.
Trump’s election fraud endeavor was treasonous and he actually incited violence.
Biden stutters so Trump cult said he had dementia, like when Hillary had some speech and shaking problems = palsy. They aren’t doctors, and there are many examples of Trump’s “speech impediments” and trying to drink water and trying to walk on angled platforms.
Trump’s bone spurs likely were fake, used to avoid military service, and Trump did so because volunteering to be a soldier was dumb, it paid too little.
Trump “marching” to a church facade as peaceful Americans protesting are gassed, holding up a Bible and not reading from it or honestly using it . . . blasphemy.
Buy in on BS that all media except Fox lies.
Trump disrespected every military member, and it’s heroes many times, and disrespected generals.
Did Trump handle covid-19 as a good leader? No fucking way! ~400,000 Americans died! The count was accurate, the virus was real, masks help, social distancing worked, testing was essential, contact tracing too!
Was it helpful to say media is enemy of the people? How? Some mistakes are made all the time by all media! It’s BS to say all journalists are liars. Stupid! CNN may have a bias, may have had a reporter or two improperly report, but it is not all fake news. Fox is biased, so what? It is intellectually dishonest to conclude every story, every report from a particular media is a lie. Even RT reports truth occasionally. Every news outlet has a bias of sorts, buy that does not make the journalists working there liars. This is even true of Fox News.
You charged me of supporting abortions because I support Planned Parenthood. First it is not true that I support abortions, and, second, I see dishonesty and ignorance in your notion abortions is a major Planned Parenthood mission. The opposite is true. Avoiding unplanned pregnancy is the most important objective of PP mission. Planned Parenthood has never broken the law, and does not promote or like abortions; the opposite is their goal. The famous edited video trying to show PP breaking the law resulted in a ~$2m fine for the crime.
It is silly to say Dems are all bad, just like it is silly to say all Republicans are bad, mean, hurt people, or damage personal property. You copy stupid, blanket, meaningless generaluzations. True patriots are not so self-centered they attack other Americans who disagree with them.
Defund the police was a bad phrase. It is intellectually dishonest to assume people do not want any police. No serious person believes it means get rid of police. You are partly right that some idiots want fewer police I think, but am not certain anyone wants that result, not really. They want better pomicing.
Trump promotes violence; any denial flies in the face of video where he suggests police hurt suspects putting them in the car, body slamming reporters, offering to pay legal fees of aggressive supporters who assault people who speak against Trump. Trump sought violence after the election, never protecting election workers or governors. Trump asks people to shoot other people! See, anyone can lie about violence. What we see on TV is real tho.
Black Lives Matter is easy to criticize, and easy to not think about. It does not exclude white lives, rather it highlights more unarmed blacks are killed than unarmed whites.
White Nationalism is real and is the #1 domestic terror threat in America according to the FBI and Homeland Security.
White Privilege is as real as “Celebrity Privilege,” (see covid-19 cures) it is just guilt that drives white people deny it. Be a black man driving a car at night and get stopped by the police . . . Be a black boy in a hoody walking in a white neighborhood to visit a white friend in that neighborhood . . .
Don’t try to represent “allegations“ against Biden as making him corrupt unless you are ready to also convict Donald Trump for the perhaps 30-40 allegations against Trump for a multitude of crimes including fraud, sexual assault, theft, tax evasion, sedition, treason, and racketeering.
Trump and his GOP enablers who said the election was stolen broke their oath of office, spit on the Constitution, showed their inner treachery against Democracy, and actually did harm to Americans, especially Trump supporters as they took their money, and misled them. Voter fraud was an attempted coup, a fraud, sedition, and treason. a. Trump’s lawyers provided NO evidence of voter fraud to the courts in ~57 attempts; b. the SCOTUS summarily tossed the voter fraud cases presented to them. c. Barr did not find voter fraud. d. The Trump appointed tech guru on American voting machines snd voting processes said the 2020 election was the most secure in American history. e. Several states Trump lost recounted votes multiple times and Biden remained the victor in all of them. f. The Dominion voting machines were never proven faulty. g. No election worker was proven corrupt. h. the Kraken approach failed and Chavez has been dead a long time.
A man who fires anyone who does not say what he tells them to say and is President is the LEADER OF CANCEL CULTURE. Do not try to deflect “cancel culture” to anyone else until you accept Trump as the King of the Cancel Culture.
Do not say Trump does not lie. To say Trump does not lie is to be a liar and a fool. Gaslight yourself, not America.
Will “defended” or deflected the statement US slavery worst ever by asking if I studied Asian slavery. WTF? He is racist, or dumb or both since you don’t make US slavery better by saying others used slaves too.
Hal once said covid no worse than flu since it didn’t kill so many. He wanted to believe it is only the death rate that matters way back in June or so. I wanted to tell him then we need to avoid high infection rates. Two things: infection rates fill hospital ICU beds, 2. COVID KILLED MANY, MANY MORE THAN FLU OF 2018 (~34k) or 2019 (~64k), do from 5 to 10 X more by Dec 2020 and it is going to go up. Hal did not join Trump in his herd immunity push that will kill ~400K Americans, but his ignorance helped Trump. Hal is Pro life? What about the people killed by this mis-guided herd immunity approach that was destined to fail and kill people.
Trump’s Wall is stupid by every measure. It slowed immigration, but for no good result. A static Wall is of no use. Comprehensive immigration reform is the solution, not a Wall. Mexico did not pay a penny for it, and government imminent domain took land away from the rightful owners.
Vets supporting Trump have no honor. Trump tried herd immunity w/o the science. Will & Hal bought in to all Trumpisms, they knew better and still proudly support his ugly agenda, sick narrative.
Would you kill Americans you see as unpatriotic?
Will & Hal wanted to tell me what to believe, maybe they saw me that way?
Was rebuilding America’s infrastructure more important than building 10 miles of Trump’s Wall?
Do you have the only voice on morality?
Is your religion the only right religion?
Does Trump tell lies? ANS: Trump has lied all his life.
Does Trump support violence? ANS: Yes.
Has Trump cheated on all his wives? Y
Did Trump declare bankruptcy for casinos and hotels 6 time? Y
Is it likely Trump overstates the value of his assets to get loans? Y
Can we agree it is not good business when you bankrupt 6 times? Y
Would it by fair for Trump to disclose his tax returns? Y
None of Trump legal suits (55+!) got an OK by the courts vis a vis voter fraud, right? Y
The SCOTUS rejected the Trump law suit that was submitted to them, right? Y
Did Trump do anything wrong while President? Y
