Waco Whacko

Not yet held accountable, Trump continues to stick his finger into the eyes of America

This is what a mob boss looks like

Despite his 90-minute piss and moan-a-thon in Waco, Texas on March 25, former President Donald Trump behaved as though he will evade justice as he always has.  With criminal investigations gathering steam in New York, Fulton County, and in Washington, Trump used his Waco rally not to offer a vision of what he sees as the future of the country in terms of policy, but to agitate and activate his cultist supporters by assailing these investigations.

Of course, there are methods to his madness. One, he is attempting to lay the groundwork for massive protests should an indictment or two or three be handed down. Trump’s incendiary rhetoric is designed to intimidate prosecutors into not filing charges lest there would be wide-scale violence or as he characterized it on social media, “death and destruction.” Already Alvin Bragg, the New York District Attorney who appears poised to ask the Grand Jury for such an indictment, has received multiple death threats. This is a mob boss in action.

Two, his goal is to raise money off of his legal predicaments. No stranger to theatre, Trump wants to do a perp walk led in handcuffs and have a mug shot sent over every fundraising email that can be mustered. He needs whatever money he can corral to pay off (not that he will) his burgeoning legal fees.

And speaking of theatre, Trump’s performance at Waco (the site of the 1993 siege that left 75 dead) must be deemed a flop. Or in theatre parlance, Trump laid an egg.  It’s bad enough that the crowd reportedly had begun to thin out 30 minutes into the grievance-laced speech.

It’s also bad that Trump continues to lie and exaggerate. For example, he told his worshippers that he satisfied his 2016 campaign promise by completing a concrete wall along the 2,000-mile southern border and Mexico paid for it. In fact, only 40 miles of penetrable fencing was constructed in which funding had been approved in the Bush Administration.

However, his biggest miscue and where he stuck his finger into the eyes of democracy-supporting Americans and maybe his own legal defense, is when he led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance while the J6 Choir performed in the background. That choir is made up by inmates serving time for the January 6 insurrection.  And if that wasn’t enough to make you puke, Trump showed footage of those “patriots” storming the Capitol on January 6. And this wasn’t the Tucker Carlson sightseeing tour version.

In other words, he is paying homage, no honoring, the insurrectionists and explains why he didn’t lift a finger as Capitol Police and other law enforcement were being bludgeoned by pro-Trump rioters on that fateful day.

Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, who is investigating the January 6 day of infamy as well as the Mar-a-Lago documents/obstruction of justice case, always needed to nail down Trump’s state of mind as these events unfolded. He needed to prove intent: intent to incite a riot/insurrection and intent to obstruct justice. If Mr. Smith was watching footage from the Waco pity party and how Trump honored the insurrectionists, he may be able to finally check that box. 

He can thank the Waco Whacko.

The Politics of Stupid

As a partisan Democrat, I admit I relish the Republicans’ political stupidity that is on full display. They used to be smarter and more strategic. Not anymore.

When Speaker (in title only) Kevin McCarthy handed over 40,000 hours of footage from the deadly, violent and unpatriotic insurrection of January 6, 2021, to perennial liar and senior conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson of Fox “News,” they thrust the horrific event right back into the spotlight. That’s not a winner for Republicans as their leader and grand patriarch of the party Donald Trump sparked the attempted coup.

Polls have indicated the public’s anger at the attempted insurrection of January 6 was on the wane despite the excellent work of the bipartisan House Select Committee investigating January 6. The magnitude of the event had been receding in the rear-view mirror as the days and months went on.

But leave it to McCarthy who only received the title of Speaker when he sold his soul (and probably the country’s) to the far-right fringe of the Republican caucus in Congress—the majority of which denied the valid election of Joe Biden—to resurrect this day of infamy. Tucker exacerbated the problem for Republicans by cherry-picking the images to suit a bizarre and totally unbelievable narrative that the rioters were, in fact, peaceful, patriotic sightseers. Dumb move.

Here’s the rub: just about everybody had seen the events in real time and in subsequent news reports, Trump’s second impeachment and the presentation and report by the House Select Committee. People realize, except for those misguided MAGAs, that Carlson is a complete loon, and he is insulting the intelligence of Americans with his production of alternative facts. Clearly, he has made Republicans look foolish because not many of them publicly denounced this gambit so it will stick to the party like Velcro.

If that wasn’t enough, House Republicans are beginning to launch multiple probes into January 6, including examining the Select Committee’s actions from the last Congress, the security failures from that day and potentially even the treatment of January 6 defendants. 

All these efforts will keep January 6 front and center, a situation that is causing ugly divisions within the party and the donor class. It’s an unforced error as revenge has trumped common political sense, and I am delighted they are keeping the flame alive. Democrats must continue to equate Republicans to January 6.

The antics of McCarthy and Carlson will extend the January 6 shelf life.  But even after the Carlson fictional production eventually fades as a news story, January 6 may burst back to the spotlight as potential indictments of a former president may land.

Tourists, my ass!

The Case for Prosecution

As the January 6 Select Committee continues to unveil through witnesses and documents more evidence that former President Donald Trump may have committed punishable crimes, the question becomes not will he be prosecuted but should he.

To be sure, there is a cornucopia of possible crimes committed by Trump from inciting a riot, to seditious conspiracy to witness tampering and a whole bunch in between. The panel has been so effective in bringing these indiscretions and possible crimes to the surface that three in five Americans believe Trump should be prosecuted. And that is before Cassidy Hutchinson’s explosive testimony given to the Select Committee and to the viewing public on June 28.

Since I am not a lawyer, I will gladly yield the floor to the legal experts who can debate whether Trump has committed crimes that could lead to an indictment. They can argue whether or not the evidence is sufficient to prove a federal case beyond a reasonable doubt. But if the evidence exists and is compelling enough to take it to a grand jury, then yes, the Department of Justice should proceed and prosecute even though a conviction would be improbable.

In advocating against a potential prosecution of Trump, several conservative columnists have summoned up President Gerald Ford’s pardoning of disgraced Richard Nixon prior to a likely indictment as a means to heal the county. He took this action in an effort to put the Watergate episode behind us, and as a result, he damaged himself politically.

Though Nixon’s lying to cover up a botched burglary of Democratic headquarters at the Watergate was and remains a national stain, it does not even come close to the severity of conspiring to execute a coup in an attempt to overturn a lawful election. Moreover, the country was not nearly as divided it is today making it easier to heal.

Following Trump’s “fight like hell” command at his infamous rally at the Ellipse, he knowingly dispatched armed insurrectionists to the People’s House. Seven people lost their lives directly or indirectly with hundreds of police officers injured, many seriously on that fateful day. Millions of dollars of property damage resulted, and the Capitol was so violated and defaced, the riot seen all over the globe became a national embarrassment.

The healing concept offered by opponents of prosecuting Trump is intriguing, but it is one-sided. Prominent Republicans vowed to go on a revenge tour should they reclaim both chambers of Congress regardless of whether or not Trump is indicted.

They have already tipped their hand when senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham—all of whom were personally humiliated by Trump during the 2016 primaries and have become pathetic Trump sycophants—support impeachment proceedings concerning President Biden.  House Republicans promise endless investigations, and, of course, private citizen Hunter Biden, the boogeyman of the MAGA crowd, will be front and center.  Never mind their likely push to roll back hard-fought rights at the federal and state levels that may include dismantling popular entitlement programs will be on the agenda. That’s not healing.

Declining to prosecute Trump for provable crimes will not heal the country, especially if the blood-thirsty vengeful Republicans are in charge. In fact, not punishing someone who was and continues to be a stake through the heart of our democracy and the rule of law will be a tragic mistake and something our nation will not recover from for many years. Without setting an example, this blot on our history could repeat itself.

If the anti-prosecution folks are so bent on healing the country, they should have persuaded Trump to concede the election in the first place and allow a peaceful transition of power—the hallmark of our democracy.  And they should have voted to certify the election results.

What good is healing if we do not have accountability, a democracy or rule of law? 

Blue Skies?

Why Republicans shouldn’t be spiking the ball just yet.

Republicans could hardly contain their glee. The president’s approval rating is low. A bloody war is waging. Inflation and gas prices are threatening our economic stability.  There’s trouble at the border.  Covid is hanging around. The stock market has been in a free-fall. Biden’s economic agenda has been stalled. Gerrymandering has locked in Republican districts. These developments and more are pointing to a November blow-out. Even popular presidents see their party lose seats in Congress during the mid-terms.

All Republicans needed to do is hold on to the ball and run out the clock. A red tide would sweep the country. But sometimes there could be a bad snap, a fumble or an ill-advised penalty and suddenly victory, which was ostensibly certain moments earlier, could be in jeopardy.

The bombshell leak last week of the Supreme Court draft opinion that foretold the demise of the popular Roe v. Wade ruling was tantamount to a political earthquake. The most nervous person in the U.S. is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has expected to return to his majority leadership position, has been in the “let’s run out the clock camp.” Now he has seen the ball sail over the quarterback’s head.

So worried that the news of the likely overturning of the 49-year-old ruling could galvanize downtrodden Democrats—downtrodden because of the political headwinds mentioned above—that the Republican response was Trump-like focused on the identity of the leaker rather than the substance of the opinion.

GOP folks have attempted to downplay the impact by turning the subject back to inflation. In other words, change the subject and fast. But people don't like their rights taken away and will motivate them to act.

Importantly, the early indication of how SCOTUS would rule on Roe gave the Dems an extra month or so to mobilize the opposition and change their attitudes and strategies towards the mid-terms. Democrats received a new lease on life.

It’s hard to say at this point how this will play out. Democrats can wound themselves if protests at

Supreme Court justices’ residences get out of hand. Recall how Republicans turned largely peaceful protests over the murder of George Floyd into the radical left burning down cities narrative. They used this whataboutism technique in trying to explain away the riots and insurrection on January 6, 2021 and they will use it again to blunt the outrage over Roe.

Democrats stand to regain the allegiance of suburban women and independents based on overturning Roe. They could let that slip away if they don’t play their cards right.

The hope for Democrats as they scramble to do what’s necessary to protect a woman’s right to determine the well-being of their own bodies is that the fire and energy we see now will not dissipate come November. Clearly, they can use this highly emotional issue and bludgeon Republican candidates from the Senate to the state legislatures.

Potentially aiding the cause will be the onset of the bipartisan January 6 House Select Committee’s public hearings, which will occur next month. It is fairly obvious the committee will lay out methodically how President Trump not only inspired the riots of that day and did nothing to squelch them, but more significantly how he and his allies plotted to execute a coup. The public should also be reminded of which congressmen and senators voted to not certify the presidential election.

This one-two punch should give the Dems a major boost. They need to harness this energy to raise money and launch major voter registration drives and develop get out the vote strategies in all 50 states.

We won’t know the outcome until November as to which party recovered that bad snap. But right now it’s a free ball.

January 6 Denial

Immediately following the catastrophic attacks on September 11, 2001, the country rallied behind President George W. Bush. Perhaps for the final time, the U.S. was united behind a cause. Anyone who was not all-in was accused of not loving America and siding with the terrorists.

In 2004, Bush ran on and won re-election primarily on stoking fears of terrorism and relentlessly pointing back to 9/11. That fateful day continued to be invoked even during the 2008 presidential primaries when then candidate Joe Biden characterized a Republican hopeful, the former “America’s Mayor” Rudy Giuliani, as saying nothing more than a subject, a verb and 9/11.

Some 20 years later, another form of terrorism struck the U.S. but this time it was domestic terrorism.  On January 6, 2021, American democracy was attacked. The terrorists were not brown-skinned foreign Muslims who hijacked four planes and killed thousands of people including first responders. Instead, they were mostly white supremacists and violent extremists, key components of the former and defeated president Donald Trump’s base.

Thousands were frothing from the words of Trump and other incendiary speakers on the Ellipse before the U.S. Capitol was stormed, desecrated and under siege while lawmakers were attempting to carry out their constitutional duty of certifying the election that was held in November.

Perpetuating the big lie, which he continues to this day that somehow the election was stolen from him, he egged on the supposedly peaceful assembly who happened to carry police shields, bats, bear spray, flag poles and other weapons just for kicks, to march to the Capitol.

“We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” Trump said. His obvious incitement of the riot earned him a record-setting second impeachment with the most votes to convict ever. But it was not enough to meet the high bar in the Constitution.

At least five died during the riot and insurrection that ensued with hundreds injured or psychologically damaged. Our Capitol, the citadel of democracy, was defaced, shattered and turned into a public toilet. Hundreds sought out lawmakers to do God knows what. Had it not been for the bravery of the undermanned Capitol Police a whole different storyline would have been written. Democracy prevailed that day and night, but only by a hair.

But as the black eye on democracy marked its one-year anniversary, it is clear Republicans don’t seem or want to acknowledge the seriousness of the event. Over the course of the year, attempts were made to whitewash it, create conspiracy theories that the FBI or antifa were behind it, the rioters were patriots or even tourists.

Lindsey Graham who had decried Trump’s role in the riots the night of the horror show, now feels the Democrats are politicizing the event. (Remember 9/11, Lindsey, when Bush and later your buddy McCain made hay over that day.) Mitch McConnell did the same thing.

The cowardly Kevin McCarthy after assigning responsibility for the riots to Trump went down to Mar-a-Lago to beg for forgiveness in an attempt not to resurrect Trump’s career, but his own.

Equally spineless Marco Rubio claimed that the Democrats are trying to portray all Republicans as insurrectionists. Yet, he accuses Democrats of being looters.

Other than Liz Cheney (and her father), no other Republican representatives took part for a moment of silence in the Capitol to commemorate the somber day. Nor did they show up for a prayer vigil later.

Republicans are clearly in denial. They are fully aware that by being tethered to Trump and his biggest of all lies, this could have political fallout as the next cycle begins. Images of the insurrection will or should play in all political ads not to blame Republicans for January 6 but to blame their enabling of Trump, failing to convict him in the face of overwhelming evidence, supporting the big lie, denying the significance of 1/6, refusing to certify the election and attempting to suppress the vote in future elections.

January 6 was not a good look for the GOP. They know it and are doing the darndest to minimize it. Even Ted Cruz was forced to publicly and pathetically apologize to Tucker Carlson, of all people, for having a brief and rare truthful moment when he characterized January 6 as a “violent terrorist attack.”

And never mind their opposition to a bipartisan commission and their minimizing the role of the House Select committee. 

President Biden delivered a powerful speech calling out Trump for his role in the insurrection. Finally, he put the illusion of bipartisanship to rest and swung hard. It was most needed and overdue.

Republicans are still living in fear of Trump and his base. Our country was the victim of domestic terrorism, and the Trump loyalists can’t bring themselves to admit it. 

Imagine how they would have reacted if Democrats minimized or shrugged off 9/11 in the same manner.

Do You Recall the Most Famous Snowflake of All?

We have now officially hit winter and our minds drift past the holidays and imagine snowflakes on the horizon. I can’t help but thinking of how the word snowflake crept into our political discourse particularly over the past five years.

Trump supporters have consistently derided liberals as snowflakes. They use the word as a pejorative description, sort of name-calling, but I venture to guess many of them do not know the meaning of pejorative.

As Dana Schwartz wrote on GQ.com several years ago, “There is not a single political point a liberal can make on the Internet for which ‘You triggered, snowflake?’ cannot be the comeback. It’s [sic] purpose is dismissing liberalism as something effeminate, and also infantile, an outgrowth of the lessons you were taught in kindergarten. ‘Sharing is caring’? Communism. ‘Feelings are good’? Facts over feelings. ‘Everyone is special and unique’? Shut up, snowflake.”

I interpret snowflake to mean weak, insecure, feelings hurt easily by criticism, can dish it out but can’t take it, cowardly—in other words, melts like a snowflake. Using that concept, only one person stands out to be the most famous snowflake of all, and that is former president Donald Trump.

We know that Trump cannot accept criticism or enjoys being made fun of (he’s not alone in that).  But he, more than most, stews about it for unusually lengthy periods of time or he will lash out immediately when such criticism is leveled at him or if he’s a brunt of a joke. 

Remember when President Obama gave Trump the what-for during the president’s monologue ten years ago at the White House Correspondents Dinner?

“I know that he’s taken some flack lately,” Obama said of Trump who was present. “But no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than The Donald.”  Obama went on further to mock Trump’s birther efforts.

Trump sat there motionless at his table as the camera trained on him. It’s impossible to feel heat off an image on TV but this may have been the breakthrough. Trump was seething as the rest of the audience of politicians, journalists and celebrities merrily laughed at the barb.

Trump hates that stuff—being scoffed at and such. He showed it at press conferences, rallies, even overseas on official business. And don’t get me started on the criticism of his appearance. The vanity-driven narcissist does not take that well. Thin (and orange) skinned for sure, but a definite snowflake.

Then there is Trump’s cowardice. He laments at the fact henever received a Purple Heart but clearly doesn’t understand that to do so, you must have sustained a wound in combat serving in our armed forces. That could not have happened with Trump because on five occasions he successfully received draft deferments based on bone spurs that rendered him unfit for military duty.  But he still longs for that medal.

When there were demonstrators near the White House following the murder of George Floyd, Trump was reportedly taken to a bunker in the mansion. He denied that, of course; it would make him look weak, which he is. He earned the moniker “bunker boy” at the time.

On January 6, 2021, during his speech that incited the violent insurrection, he implored his faithful to march to the Capitol and fight like hell or there won’t be a country anymore. He pledged to join them but instead exited stage right and headed back to his bunker, er the White House to gleefully watch Trump flags and poles being deployed to smack police and smash windows and doors of the people’s house.

But the most important and most dangerous reason he is the king of the snowflakes is his incapability to accept defeat.  Whether or not Trump truly believes his baseless big lie about the 2020 election being “stolen” and in which two-thirds of those identified as Republican go along, this snowflake cannot admit he lost. 

It is amazing he hasn’t come to grips with defeat before given his multiple failed marriages, numerous lawsuits, embarrassing bankruptcies including casinos that dent the illusionary armor of his being a great businessman, the takedown of the sham Trump University and on and on.

But when it comes to elections where he has twice lost the popular vote, the snowflake melts in the sunlight.

The Republicans’ Descent into the Party of Hypocrisy

The Republicans call themselves the “Law and Order Party.” Yet House Republicans overwhelmingly opposed the punishment of one of former President Trump’s thugs Steve Bannon for spitting on a lawfully issued subpoena to testify before the January 6 House Select Committee.

They like to call themselves the “Party of Patriotism.” But mostly all Republican officials and a vast majority of the party’s membership deny the results of the free and fair 2020 presidential election following the demands from their cult leader Donald Trump. They not only publicly believe Trump’s Big Lie but they have continued to propagate it.

These folks don’t want the facts from the run-up of the January 6 insurrection—the largest attack on our citadel of democracy in centuries—to see the light of day lest that would affect the midterms in 2022. Note that Republicans who were elected and re-elected last November had no such concerns of “voter fraud” in their own races stemming from the same ballots!

They like to say how much they revere the American flag. Of course, many do. But they seem to have no problem that such flags and their attached poles were used as weapons during the insurrection on January 6, 2021that was incited by Trump to prevent the certification of the presidential election.

In that regard, they call themselves the party that supports the police—the Blue Line, Blue Lives Matter, etc. Yet again, when hundreds of police were attacked by lawless criminals using an array of weapons on January 6, the Republicans in both houses succeeded in preventing the establishment of a nonpartisan commission to investigate the domestic terrorism as the FBI characterized it and have tried to delegitimize the January 6 committee.  They also overwhelmingly refused to award medals to police heroes who put themselves on the line during the Capitol riot.

The GOP prides itself as the “Party of Fiscal Responsibility.” But wait, under President Trump the national debt ballooned to nearly $8 trillion, the highest in our history.

The Republicans are all about freedom and liberty. Very cool. Nonetheless, dozens of Republican controlled state legislatures have passed or are in the process of passing laws that impose major roadblocks to voting. Much of these laws are targeting Blacks and people of color thus denying or at least impeding their freedom to vote. Republicans in Congress have stymied voter protection laws. So much for freedom.

They see themselves as the “Party of Family Values.” But they balk at or mock Democratic attempts to provide child care, health care, nutritional services and economic relief to working families—all measures that would strengthen and keep families together.

Republicans consistently maintain that they are the “Pro-life Party.”  Whether it’s the GOP elected officials or their voters, they have eschewed wearing masks in public spaces and peddle misinformation about proven vaccines intended to curb serious illnesses and deaths attributed to Covid-19. They overwhelmingly support the death penalty, too.

And don’t get me started on their being the “Party of Morality.” This article would triple in size if I delved into that topic.

To be clear, some of these examples of hypocrisy began before Trump.  But Trump is the Republican Party. He has taken hypocrisy to new depths.  And the hypocrisy will continue during the Republicans’ ongoing quest for autocracy while our democracy will melt away like an Arctic glacier. 

Peril Ahead: A Review of New Woodward-Costa Book

In the seemingly endless parade of books about Donald Trump, a new entry by multiple award winning best-selling author Bob Woodward and his Washington Post colleague Robert Costa, offer a new take on the topic. Their Post cohorts Phillip Rucker and Carol Leonnig in the recently  published bestseller I Alone Can Fix It: Donald Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year focuses on Trump from the onset of the pandemic through Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Peril provides insight into the thinking of Donald Trump as well as his associates, members of his administration, military leaders and political allies. The period covers the months leading up to the election to the present (Summer 2021) but it also includes the presidential campaign and the nascent presidency of Joe Biden.

The title I Alone Can Fix It is a quote lifted from Trump’s acceptance speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention.  Peril is derived from Joe Biden’s inauguration speech where he said, “We have much to do in this winter of peril.”

Both books reflect solid sourcing from these experienced and highly regarded journalists involving tons of recorded interviews and documents to back up their words. Therefore, what you read, you can take to the bank.

While Peril devotes about half the book to Trump and the other to Biden, I found the Trump chapters more captivating and dramatic even though much of what is written is generally well known. This is no surprise given that Biden did not incite an insurrection, continues to lie about the election, has a larger than life standing within his own party, and is prone to salty temper tantrums. Moreover, the military leadership does not fear that Biden would start a war on a whim or deploy soldiers to control lawful demonstrations by the citizenry.   

Yet, if you’re looking for a book that is filled with jaw-dropping salacious reveals, Peril is not the one. Woodward and Costa, nonetheless, get behind the scenes and offer fascinating glimpses into Trump (and Biden) meetings and phone calls and delve into the relationships between the principals and their aides, congressional personalities and others, much of which had not been brought into the sunlight previously.

As with I Alone Can Fit It, Peril is pretty much chronological in structure. Presented in a somewhat choppy cadence, Woodward and Costa hop back and forth to the early stages of Biden’s campaign to the Trump campaign.  The election itself and all the mishigas and danger that ensued as a result of Trump’s denial of the results, January 6 and the run-up to the inauguration are described in appropriately vibrant fashion.

The authors effectively convey the dynamics between Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Attorney General William Barr, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley, and Senator Lindsey Graham. These accounts are presented in fascinating detail—all the colorful language included.

Trump and Graham have a beguiling dynamic. They are good friends and golf buddies who speak frequently on the phone. Despite Graham’s best efforts, he cannot move Trump away from his continuing lie that the election was stolen. He pleaded with Trump that the party needs him to move on from this in order to win back the House and Senate. Graham is blunt with Trump whereas others can’t get away with it.

“If we come back in 2022 and recapture the House and Senate, you’ll get your fair share of credit. If we fail…Trumpism, I think, will die. January 6 will be your obituary.”

Trump remains unmoved to this day.

His pique with Kevin McCarthy is also notable.

“This guy called me every single day, pretended to be my best friend, and then, he fucked me. He’s not a good guy,” Trump said in reaction to McCarthy’s talking him down about election fraud.

Likewise, the relationships between Biden and McConnell, Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Joe Manchin and Rep. Jim Clyburn are intriguing. One interesting reveal is that Clyburn, an African American, had worked with collegially with segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond in Congress.

The scurrying to prove the election was stolen that reflect the silliness of the case manifested by the bizarre performances of Trump’s lawyers is one of Peril’s highlights. The run-up to and including January 6 is also chronicled. The threat to democracy was genuine and unfolding in real time. Peril captures the essence of that threat but does not convey the wrenching terror the individual congressmen and senators experienced during those horrific hours.

Many wonder what Trump was doing while the riots were taking place. The House Select Committee will be looking into that very question in the coming weeks. But the authors indicate that Trump was alone in a private dining room in the White House watching the events play out on TV. We also learn the exact location where Speaker Nancy Pelosi had been whisked away during the siege.

Much of the reporting about Biden centers on his personality and character. It is in stark contrast with Trump’s belligerent, me-only attitude. Peril adroitly captures Biden’s self-reflection, and his memory of his son Beau who died from brain cancer is constantly with him and helps guide him in key decision-making opportunities.

Biden’s priority when he took office was to end the Covid-19 pandemic by accelerating the vaccination rate in the country. He also spent a lot of effort and perhaps political capital trying to get a relief bill through Congress. In that regard, his interactions with Manchin were intense.

The summer discussions surrounding the potential withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan that eventually took place seem prescient as we witnessed the chaos later on after Peril was printed. Opposed to the endless war in Afghanistan, Biden’s incentive was to end it now. Ultimately, the mess proved not to be his finest moment.

The detailed accounts in Peril especially the behind-the-scenes conversations make it a thrilling read. However, notably omitted were such events as Trump’s risky and showy ride-around outside the hospital where he was treated for Covid putting his secret service agents in peril, so to speak.

Trump’s phone call to pressure the Georgia Secretary of State to come up with enough votes to overturn the state’s official tally was also not included. This is surprising given that the Washington Post had broken the story.

Also, not discussed in any length was the delay by the Trump people in helping the Biden team transition. I saw only one reference to this unprecedented delay: “Cooperation on the transition was spotty at best, even obstructionist.”

Nonetheless, the reporting was meticulous in most areas, and Peril provides a concrete historical record of what transpired during 2020-21. I fear, however, there may be more peril to write about in the future.

______

Peril; Bob Woodward and Robert Costa; published by Simon & Schuster 2021; 426 pages plus reference notes and index; $30.00 U.S., $39.99 Canada; Hard Cover ISBN 978-1-9821-8291-5; ebook ISBN 978-1-9821-8293-9.

 

Authors Bob Woodward and Robert Costa

 

Landing the Bad Boy: A Review of ‘I Alone Can Fix It’

The year 2020 will be remembered for three major events: the COVID-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd that sparked protests and unrest, and the general election.

Globally the pandemic was and continues to be an insidious health crisis resulting in millions of lives lost. In addition, the U.S. confronted once again the quest for racial justice with a demand for reform in how the police interact with people of color. And the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election, the election itself and the tumultuous aftermath placed the United States at the precipice of losing its democratic traditions and democracy itself.

At the heart of these events, President Donald Trump played a key and massive role in how the country would respond to the first two crises and how he literally created the third one.  All were dangerous.

In their book, I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year, Pulitzer Prize winning reporters from the Washington Post Carol Leonnig and Phillip Rucker present a chilling and at times horrifying account of how President Trump mishandled, exacerbated or created these crises. The title is derived from a statement President-elect Trump gave at the Republican National Convention in 2016 whereby he told his faithful that nobody knows the system better than he does, and, therefore, “I alone can fix it.”

In their previous best seller in 2020, the authors used another well-known Trump phrase, “A Very Stable Genius” as their title. Should they pen additional books about this presidency, there is a plethora of Trump phrases to draw from.

Speaking of lifting phrases, I used the title of this review from a chapter title “Landing the Bad Boy” later in the book.  Referring to the drama, frayed nerves and mounting fears leading up to the 2021 inauguration and the determination to have a peaceful transition of power, one senior official was quoted in the book as saying, “We’ve got an aircraft, our landing gear is stuck, we’ve got one engine, and we’re out of fuel. We’ve got to land this bad boy.”

Keeping to a chronological format, Ms. Leonnig and Mr. Rucker present the behind-the-scenes machinations of the Trump administration as it courses through its fourth year beginning with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic through the inauguration of Joe Biden.

While many of us have witnessed Trump’s behavior and character flaws in real time through his tweets, press briefings, appearances on Fox News and other platforms and have read previous accounts of his presidency and personality in other books, I Alone Can Fix It offers a chronicle that stems not from a single person or a few persons but dozens of eyewitnesses to history being made before their very eyes (and ears).

The authors gleaned from hundreds of hours of interviews with more than 140 sources including those at the highest levels of the Trump administration. Various sources spoke on the record while others spoke candidly on the condition of anonymity as the authors note, “to share private accounts of moments that profoundly challenged or shook them, to protect future careers, or to fend off retaliation from Trump or his allies.” Some of the information stemmed from the authors' own reporting for the Washington Post as well as that of other journalists.

And as Pulitzer Prize journalists do as a matter of routine, they fact-checked and verified the accounts from their sources. There are scores of referenced notes to back up the accounts. In other words, what is portrayed in I Alone Can Fix It is extremely credible. The authors do not offer their own opinions; they present these accounts often from people with direct knowledge of the situation.

Throughout the book, Trump’s well-documented personality defects are exposed, again not by the authors themselves but by the subjects of their interviews. His ever-frequent demonstrations of victimhood, grievance, oversized ego, narcissism, inability to tell the truth, lack of empathy and revenge supplement the narrative. Trump’s transactional nature is his state of nature. He saw the COVID crisis as more of a threat to his re-election than the public health crisis it truly is. Everything, and I mean everything, was seen through the lens of his political fortunes.

The book highlights Trump’s interactions with his underlings and advisors, such as Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley. He had strained relationships with Dr. Deborah Birx, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Alex Azar among others on the pandemic front. They didn’t buy into Trump’s happy talk about the virus magically disappearing. However, the book contains praise for Trump on pushing for the accelerated manufacturing of a vaccine while there were scathing condemnations on everything else related to the president’s handling of the pandemic.

Trump’s relationship with AG William Barr was solid until Barr refused to relent on Trump’s demands to send federal troops to respond to Black Lives Matter protesters. And it worsened when Barr would not pressure certain states to review the results of their elections. Despite a fawning, disgraceful ass-kiss of a resignation letter to Trump, Barr was on the outs.

The same could be said for the four years of servitude and sychophancy by Vice President Mike Pence. His refusal to reject the certification of the Electoral College tallies led to a chilly end to their relationship. During the siege on January 6, Trump never inquired about the safety of Pence after he attacked him on Twitter during the insurrection.

The dynamics between Milley and Trump were almost a core part of the book. Milley was determined to not permit the military to be deployed to quell civil unrest and was adamant about not allowing the military to be involved in the electoral process. This back and forth between the two and the thought processes between Milley and Defense Secretary Mark Esper and other trusted individuals were among the most revealing episodes contained the book.

Milley feared that Trump would use the military to stage a coup. “They may try, but they’re not going to fucking succeed. You can’t do this without the military. You can’t do this without the CIA and the FBI. We’re the guys with the guns,” he said.

They were also concerned Trump would try to launch a war against Iran in his final days. 

The portions of I Alone Can Fix It relating to the election are particularly poignant. The drama unfolding on election night is described in vivid detail. Trump’s refusal to accept the results, promulgating “the big lie” that the election was stolen, and his futile battles in dozens of courts led by the hapless Rudy Giuliani held your attention.

And the authors’ account of the harrowing experience of the January 6 insurrection and that critical period between that assault on our Capitol and the inauguration is loaded with palpable tension and hand-trembling fear. Even though we all witnessed it and will continue to see what transpired, the book effectively conveys the horrors of the event, the incitement of the riot based on that big lie, and how close democracy in the U.SA was in peril.

 I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year is an extraordinary work for the ages. History will find that this book accurately chronicled this last nerve-wracking year of this nerve-wracking Trump presidency. 

It's a fast read and a must read.

_____

I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump’s Catastrophic Final Year; Carol Leonnig and Phillip Rucker; published by Penguin Press; 2021; 527 pages plus reference notes and index; hardcover - ISBN: 9780593298947; ebook – ISBN: 9780593298954; international edition – ISBN: 9780593300626

How Dems May Surprise in 2022

Few pundits are giving the Democrats any chance of holding the House of Representatives or clinging to the narrowest of leads in the Senate as a result of the 2022 midterms. There are significant reasons for the long odds.

One, history is not on the Democrats’ side. The party that controls the White House almost always loses seats in the midterms regardless of how the president is polling. It makes no sense, but that’s just the way it happens. Secondly, with most states controlled by Republican legislatures, gerrymandering congressional districts will give the GOP a significant boost. They know this, and they act like they are playing with house money.

Furthermore, with COVID-19 still attacking our bodies and the economy in whiplash mode depending on how the pandemic plays out between now and next November, the uncertainty will clearly be blamed on Democrats and the Biden administration. Again, it makes no sense but that’s how it goes.

And with McConnell-led Republican obstructionism in full swing and two Democratic senators who are loath to change the filibuster rules, Biden’s agenda will have hit a brick wall, so the GOP will point out the failures of this administration to accomplish anything.

Then there is the decrease in turnout by voters of the party who controls the White House.

Despite these daunting headwinds, the Democrats still have a chance of not only holding the House but gaining seats in the Senate. There is one thing that’s going to help them in this unlikely quest that no amount of fundraising or good fortune from the economy could ever do: their Republican opponents.

The Republican Party is tethered to Donald Trump and Trumpism and the Big Lie about the November 2020 election that led to a violent and deadly insurrection on January 6 in an attempt to overturn the election results.

To be sure, gerrymandering could be a potent obstacle to success, but the Republican Party has not added new voters to their flock. In fact, many have taken flight from the GOP principally because of the Big Lie that continues to be perpetrated by Trump and his acolytes and the horrors of January 6. Control of the House will be determined by suburban voters in swing districts, and they are not too thrilled with the Republican Party writ large. Voter suppression laws passed by Republicans are not helping their image either.

The more Trump dangles his interest in running again for president in 2024, the more it will help Democrats across the board. Not only is a majority of people around the country disgusted by Trump’s clear incitement of the riots at the Capitol and his failure to do anything to quell the violence as he joyfully watched the events unfold on TV, they are sickened by a Republican Party whereby a vast majority of Congressmen opposed the certification of a free and fair election.

Moreover, McConnell and the Republicans in the Senate blocked a bipartisan commission to look into the run-up of January 6, what transpired, who may have coordinated the attacks and how such an episode could be prevented in the future. They obviously don’t want the truth to come out because all roads will likely lead to Trump, at least that’s what they fear. Trump is still the top dog of the GOP until such time he is indicted as a result of the multiple investigations still underway.

In the meantime, Democrats will benefit from the fact Republican candidates will be primaried by Trump-light crazies who will do anything to receive his endorsement. The MAGA base will turn out for these clowns and send them to the general election.

Keep in mind, at no time did Trump ever break 49 percent approval during his term in office. After January 6, it plummeted to 29 percent. Republicans just don’t get it. Trump is only popular among his shrinking base and nowhere else—not independents, not suburban Republican voters and certainly not Democrats. Thus, placating Trump to head to a general election with Trump-like candidates is a perilous venture.

In Deep South Georgia, two Democratic candidates for Senate prevailed in a runoff mainly because of exceptionally high voter turnout among Democrats and independents largely seen as a rejection of  Trumpism and the former president’s antics following his defeat. Key swing districts around the country could follow that model.

Yes, Joe Biden can succeed in getting an infrastructurebill passed. The economy can rebound. COVID can finally get under control. Democrats can and should tout any successes that manage to come their way. But it will take more.

“If Democrats want to prevail in 2022, good government won’t be enough,” Arkansas Times columnist Gene Lyons penned in the Chicago Sun-Times. “They need to turn the midterm elections into a referendum on the Trump cult and GOP sycophancy toward his alarming assault on democracy.”

They also need to make Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Green, Jim Jordan, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy and many others as well as Trump himself the faces of the Republican Party during the campaign.

They should run ads depicting McCarthy’s and Lindsey Graham’s initial outrage over January 6 and then display them reversing course and verbally dropping to their knees at Mar-a-Lago.

And don't EVER let Trump and the Republicans off the hook regarding Jan. 6.

For Democrats approaching the midterms, this is golden, and they can thank the Trump Republican Party for this opportunity. Dems can do this and surprise the experts if they manage to muster the courage and play some hardball. That, too, would be a surprise.

Why We Must Not Forget January 6

 

We mark the 6-month anniversary in one of the most fateful days and arguably the most disgraceful day in U.S. history. It was a chilly, breezy and sunny day in Washington D.C. when the outgoing president Donald Trump who had been defeated just two months ago in a free and secure election, had assembled a large gathering of thousands at the Ellipse near the White House. 

He used his then Twitter account to summon his supporters on this day aided by his sycophantic megaphones at Fox News and other pseudo-journalistic outlets as well as social media for this rally that is centered on “the big lie,” which states absence of any evidence that the election had been stolen from Trump primarily because of fraudulent votes. He promised the event would be “wild,” an unusual description for merely a speech and rally.

That dangerous and disgusting lie had been disproven and debunked by some 60 courts around the county including the Supreme Court as well as state election officials who tallied the votes over again and certified the election as clean.

Were these Democratic activist judges as Republicans often describe jurists when things don’t go their way? No. Most of them were Republican appointees thanks to the shenanigans of Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and many, if not most, were Trump appointees.

Nonetheless, the lie continued and is alive today with at least half of the people who identify as Republican believing such bubkas.

At his rambling, fact-averse, grievance-laden speech, Trump, a mentally unstable man who cannot accept defeat much less failure, marveled at the expanse of the crowd that included not just his supporters but violent far right white nationalist groups and self-appointed militias.

While he never explicitly ordered the crowd to breach the Capitol where the election’s votes were being certified by both houses of Congress and presided by Vice President Mike Pence, his droning soliloquy amped up the already highly-charged masses to a dangerous froth. The match had already been lit; his speech simply added the fuel.

“Because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated…We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” What else could he mean?

We are all familiar with the carnage that ensued. Five deaths, hundreds of undermanned police injured, millions of dollars in damage to our sacred seat of democracy. The very same people who revere the police and who use the “blue lives matter” mantra constantly to counter legitimate protest for social justice especially in policing, had no problems shoving Trump flagpoles in the faces of police officers and using other weapons including chemical spray on those who were attempting to guard our house. That’s right, OUR house.

The rampage continued for hours with the chants “Hang Mike Pence”  and “Where are you Nancy?” were clearly audible in the numerous video clips that surfaced.

The riots, the insurrection was a violent attempt to prevent the certification of the ballot as laid out in our Constitution. This was not a protest of the election results. These thugs in which Federal authorities have already charged 500 and counting on various offenses, sought to forcibly stop Congress from doing its duty. In other words, it was a violent effort to overturn the election.

Democrats rushed to impeach Trump for a second time and presented a compelling case in the Senate. All Democrats agreed to convict the lame duck president; seven Republicans who paid a steep political price later did the same. By a vote of 57 to 43, a substantial margin by any measure, these Senators agreed Trump was culpable. Only the Constitution requiring 67 votes to convict thwarted that outcome.

December 7, September 11 and now January 6—Days of Infamy all—must be remembered as blights on our history and the American people. Republicans are feverishly attempting to minimize the effect of January 6 from denying the severity to minimizing its significance calling the insurrectionists tourists.  

They succeeded in stopping the formation of a bipartisan commission to look into the full scope of what happened, how it happened, why Trump did nothing to quell it after it started, how such a travesty could be prevented in the future.

They don’t want any of that. They don’t want the truth to come out, which would surely highlight their cult leader Donald Trump’s role.

The Department of Justice should be looking into Trump’s role as they would probe deeply had there been a foreign terrorist attack on our country. They’re not as far as I know.

This cowardly disgrace must be remembered no matter how many people wind up in prison. Democrats need to not allow the Republicans to sweep it under the rug. This was an attack on our soil by Americans, not foreign actors.

All the more reason we should never forget. The further the ship sails away from the dock, the smaller the lights appear on the shore.

Trump referred to this horrific event as a "love fest" by "tremendous people. Check this out:

Why We Need More Like Tim Ryan

Consider this: the Democrats control the Senate albeit by the margin of the vice president. Yet, who do we see more of on TV or read about—Majority Leader Chuck Schumer or Minority Leader Mitch McConnell?   

The Dems also control the House of Representatives by a shrinking margin, but who has dominated the recent news cycles—Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi?

The Democrats have their standard bearer in the White House in Joe Biden, but why is it the former president Donald Trump seems to get more notice, even without being on Twitter?

The media is still infatuated by everything Trump and how his acolytes obey his whims. Whether they want to or not, the Republicans continue to dominate the news, and the Democrats are having a tough time getting a message across much less news coverage. That changed for a news cycle on May 19 with Congressman Tim Ryan, a centrist pro-worker Democrat of Ohio.

The measure voted on by the House on May 19 that would establish a bipartisan commission to look into the run-up to and the ensuing events of January 6 was the backdrop.  While the FBI proceeds to nab hundreds of people who took part in the insurrection, a commission would be able to do a deep dive into the role Trump played in inciting the riots and as important, his slow-roll in stopping the violent mayhem. What was Trump doing as the riots unfolded? Why did it take him so long to tell his supporters to go home? What was the substance of the phone conversation between McCarthy and Trump?

As it turned out, only 35 Republicans in the House voted to establish the commission but it passed on the strength of unanimous Democratic support. Alas, it will die in the Senate because a commission would keep the story alive into the mid-terms and you know how McConnell can’t bear being in the minority yet again.

Prior to the vote, Rep. Tim Ryan who announced he will run for Ohio’s open Senate seat in 2022, laid into those Republicans who could not muster the courage to look into the fateful day when their workplace was attacked and rioters were looking to hang the vice president.

In a fiery speech, Mr. Ryan excoriated his Republican colleagues.

“To the other 90 percent of our friends on the other side of the aisle, holy cow! Incoherence! No idea what you’re talking about!” Ryan said. “Benghazi! You guys chased the former secretary of State (Hillary Clinton) all over the country. Spent millions of dollars! We have people scaling the Capitol, hitting the Capitol Police with lead pipes across the head, and we can’t get bipartisanship?

“If we’re gonna take on China, if we’re gonna rebuild the country, if we’re gonna reverse climate change, we need two political parties in this country that are both living in reality, and you ain’t one of them!” Ryan concluded.

The video of his speech can be found here.

It’s about time a Democrat rose up and brought the horrors of January 6 into focus. Too many stand on the sidelines and allow the GQP to seize the stage. Former Bill Clinton adviser and political pundit James Carville was right on point urging Democrats to use January 6 as a bludgeon against those Republicans who voted against impeachment of Trump and voted against conviction.

“They have to make the Republicans own that insurrection every day,” Carville told Vox last month in an interview. “They have to pound it. They have to call bookers on cable news shows. They have to get people to write op-eds. There will be all kinds of investigations and stories dripping out for god knows how long, and the Democrats should spend every day tying all of it to the Republican Party. They can’t sit back and wait for it to happen.”

McConnell saw the truth in that and included quotes from that interview in a message to his caucus urging them not to support a January 6 commission.

Clearly, the Dems must keep the pressure on.  Our democracy is at stake if the House turns over. Already 47 states are trying to make it harder to vote. And if the country simply moves on from January 6, it is sure to happen again.

Ryan’s outburst went viral with millions of views. Hopefully, he prodded other Democrats to be more aggressive in attacking the Republican stance on this issue. We need more like Tim Ryan. 

Please Leave a Message

 

Thank Goodness for Barack Obama’s “Hope and Change” slogan in 2008! Other than that, I cannot think of a consistent, punchy, winning message over the past few decades that Democrats came up with. Even Joe Biden’s “Restore the Soul of America” message was poetic, but I doubt it had any impact on the 2020 race.

To be clear, effective messaging doesn’t need to be limited to a slogan or bumper sticker.  But it seems that every time a slogan or a comment is put forth by a Democrat, Republicans pounce on it.

Look how “Defund the Police,” “Medicare for All,” and ‘Green New Deal” were used as weapons against congressional Democratic candidates in 2020. Data are inconclusive as to the impact they had on those races but anecdotally, some politicians claim they had an effect.

Look how the George Floyd murder protests, which were mostly peaceful, were allowed to be manipulated by Republicans to shift the message from needed police reform to the destruction of buildings and even cities. It was a classic case of “Whataboutism.”

The most recent example is Rep. Maxine Waters’ comments regarding the Derek Chauvin trial and what should happen (confrontation) if the verdict is not favorable. The GQP took it and ran with it, and a censure action by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had been organized though tabled.

Did the Democrats attempt to censure Marjorie Taylor Greene for her heinous comments or those Republican congressmen who have perpetuated Trump’s big lie on the 2020 election outcome? No. Or even those congressmen who spoke at Trump’s rally that incited the insurrection on January 6? Crickets.

It wasn’t that long ago when Republicans bludgeoned the Democrats for being soft on terrorism. In fact, the 2004 election cycle featured that mantra.  Is it asking a lot for Democrats to turn the tables on Republicans during the 2022 cycle by pointing out THEIR softness on domestic terrorism and white nationalism?

Even the establishment of a 9/11-style commission to look into the events surrounding January 6 can’t get any traction. Why aren’t Democrats beating the Republicans over the head with January 6? Yet, the Republicans Benghazi-ed the Democrats to death when they saw an opportunity.

We cannot ever forget what happened January 6, and we should not allow the Republicans to escape the linkage between the atrocities of that event, Donald Trump and those Republicans who voted to acquit the former president in the impeachment trial when he so clearly incited the attack.

The Democrats do not need a catchy slogan to inculcate this matter into the conversation during the 2022 cycle. Footage will do just nicely. Those horrific images of Trump flag-carrying thugs breaching our Capitol should be a staple in every Democratic ad against those Republicans who are apparently soft on insurrections. Pictures do speak louder than words.

Why Trump is More Dangerous Than Ever

 

When Donald Trump was in office, many people thought he was dangerous. He only held his self-interests as a priority, had little knowledge of the workings of government, coddled international dictators and despots and helped give rise to white nationalism.    

As he became more unglued throughout his term, his potential to perform reckless and dangerous acts if his ego was damaged or he felt aggrieved increased. 

When Joe Biden won the election and Trump was either in denial or created a fantasy to keep his following in toe, even more people including past government officials and members of Congress were authentically worried Trump would do something risky, reckless and dangerous. They even wondered if the mercurial president should be allowed to possess the nuclear codes during the interregnum.

All of our fears were borne out when he incited an insurrection of our government on January 6—the 3^rd Day of Infamy this country ever experienced. All of it was caused by the “Big Lie” in which Trump and his acolytes say the election had been stolen from him because it was rife with fraud. It simply was not true, but it served this narcissist to perpetuate such a lie to rile up his base. 

He exhorted his frothing cultists to “take back our country” and do it with “strength.”  Does anybody really believe those instructions were meant for the supporters to participate in a peaceful protest consisting of chants? If so, why didn’t Trump do anything to quell the violence?

Because he loved it.

Most of the House Republicans and 43 in the Senate didn’t think Trump incited the mob he invited weeks earlier or they did but they couldn’t acknowledge it publicly lest they incur the wrath of Trump.

No good decent public servant would tolerate such an egregious incitement to violence that killed 6 people. But more than a few of Trump’s enablers are spouting yet another lie that the rioters were antifa sympathizers posing as Trump supporters and not at all those angels who tried to run a Biden campaign bus off a highway.

Yes, Trump was dangrous while in office. He is more dangerous now.

While he has no official powers as an ex-president, he holds much power—too much, in fact.  The recent CPAC confab symbolized by the rolling out of a golden likeness of Trump shows that there is a dear leader the Republicans must cozy up to.  Trump commands the adoration of an overwhelming majority of Republicans. As insidious as January 6 was and as obvious Trump was the instigator of the violence and carnage, only 11 percent of Republicans found him responsible for it, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll.

“He may be down, but he is certainly not out of favor with the GOP,” says Tim Malloy, who conducted the poll for Quinnipiac University. “Twice impeached, vilified by Democrats in the trial, and virtually silenced by social media ... despite it all, Donald Trump keeps a solid foothold in the Republican Party.”

Furthermore, the seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump at his impeachment trial have been censured by their local or state Republican parties or are facing blowback from voters back home.

This is why Trump is dangerous even today. He has the GQP wrapped around his finger as one leading Republican after another migrates to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring worn on that very finger.

These Republicans as well as right wing media continue to foster the big lie that Trump actually won. They are terrified to stray from that lie, which will provide them another opportunity in 2024 to try to de-legitimize the election should the Republican presidential nominee lose. Add that to the active voter suppression efforts in several states to screw Black citizens and you have a formula for the end of democracy as we know it. A toast to Vladimir Putin! 

All of this will happen with Trump cheerleading from the sidelines. Don’t worry, he won’t be the nominee. He teases the country but he will not make another run. Trump will raise oodles of cash for his PAC, which he could use any way he wants. In the meantime, as he executes this charade, he freezes out would be candidates and their ability to raise money almost certainly leading to another loss.

With all their adulation of Trump, Republicans should note that with him at the helm, they lost the House, the Senate and the White House. As a visible ex-president, that streak could continue over the next two cycles.

Then there is the legal exposure Trump faces on several fronts. I firmly believe there is a better than 50 percent chance he will be indicted for possible tax and bank fraud at a minimum in Manhattan. What happens to him after that remains to be seen.

But Trump controls the Proud Boys and all the other violent white nationalist militias. Imagine if an indictment (or more) is handed down how these domestic terrorists may react. Imagine Trump telling them that this was another witch hunt and we need to re-take our country. Imagine what they will do at court houses and other government buildings.

You know he won’t peacefully accept a prison sentence. It will make January 6 seem like a block party.

That is why the danger Trump poses now is even greater than what it was before.