The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces: Trumplement Issue 170B, August 13, 2023 (V4 #14B)
The Trumplement: Another week that was, but only one of many yet to come
We have seen white men betray the flag and fight to kill the Union; but in all that long, dreary war we never saw a traitor in a black skin.—President James A. Garfield
“(T)he American people deserve to know that President Trump and his advisers didn’t just ask me to pause. They asked me to reject votes, return votes, essentially to overturn the election.”—Mike Pence
So over and over
(Over and over)
Oh, I'll be a fool to you—from “Personality,” Lloyd Price, written by Lloyd Price and Harold Logan
“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”—Section 3, 14th Amendment to the US Constitution
Trump says, ‘I’m coming after you.’ We should take him at his word, Colbert I. King, Washington Post, 8/11/23: “Trump’s rhetoric cultivates anger and resentment. It is rhetoric that mercilessly attacks and seeks to intimidate, whether it’s directed at prosecutors, witnesses and judges, or is aimed at poisoning a jury pool. Political speech? It’s the same cynical calculation that stoked the angry mob to storm the Capitol.”
How to De-Program Fox-Watchers on the Trump Indictment: The simple reality, dear Trump-lover, is that you’ve been suckered and now might be a good time to change the channel…Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 8/7/23: “Fraud almost always involves speech: it’s hard to defraud somebody out of something without talking to or at them. But that doesn’t even remotely make it protected by the First Amendment’s free speech provision. Our prisons are filled with people who defrauded others purely with their words.”
How Can We Ban Trump & His Cultists from Public Office? Trump cultists are already calling for death to people who oppose his efforts to capture the White House in 2024: It’s time for the 14th Amendment...Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 8/8/23: “Donald Trump conceived and led an insurrection against the United States and must be banned from public office, per the 14th Amendment.”
The GOP Picks Donald Trump Over Democracy: Brushing off election charges and attacking the justice system are the real indictments of today’s Republican Party, Molly Jong-Fast, Vanity Fair, 8/8/23: “Instead of running against Trump, you have GOP candidates running with Trump against democracy and the rule of law. Though “defending our guy” may appeal now to GOP primary voters, the question is whether that reasoning will sway voters who don’t see Trump as a religious figure.”
This is a chaos
through which I stumble,
till I reach the void
and down I tumble.
—from “Rhythms (Section I),” Charles Reznikoff
The Other “Perfect” Call, Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo, 8/11/23: “That call alone should be more than enough to send Trump to prison for years. In its own way it’s worse than almost everything else noted in the federal indictments. It is so stunning that I’m writing this post just to step us back and refocus our attention on just how stunning it is.”
Trump’s “Ghost Voters”: Spooked Iowa Caucus-Goers May Come to Haunt Republicans: They appear to be for Trump. But they are afraid to say out loud what they really believe: The embattled former president is a loser. And, come Election Day, they may vanish in the mist, Mark MacKinnon, Vanity Fair, 8/10/23: “Iowa will be everything. If Trump wins, it will be over. If he loses, it’s a whole new ball game. Iowa, famously, can change dramatically within weeks or even days of the election. And folks, there are still five months until Iowa!”
Collapse of Hunter Biden plea deal could complicate president’s campaign: President Biden’s son may face trial at a time when Democrats want to highlight Trump’s legal troubles, Matt Viser, Washington Post, 8/11/23
‘No Republican party’ in US today, says anti-Trump conservative judge: J Michael Luttig, who advised Mike Pence not to try to overturn 2020 election, says former president has destroyed GOP, Martin Pengelly, The Guardian, 8/9/23: “A political party is a collection and assemblage of individuals who share a set of beliefs and principles and policy views about the United States of America. Today, there is no such shared set of beliefs and values and principles or even policy views as within the Republican party for America.”
Is Trump Following the Same Well-Worn Path Blazed by Past Terrorist Leaders? No former president in American history has encouraged such violence or tried to inspire stochastic terrorism. Outside of the Confederacy, no politician has worked so hard to tear America apart...Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 8/10/23
He's Lucky to Be An American: Better That Than Tied to A Stake, Michael Moore, Newsletter, 8/6/23: “That Trump will be tried for his coup attempt is not a violation of his rights. It is a fulfillment of his rights. It is the grace of the American republic. In other systems, when your coup attempt fails, what follows is not a trial.”(Timothy Snyder)
America is not our politics, Steve Schmidt, The Warning, 8/9/23: “Think about it. Donald Trump couldn’t sell out a football stadium, let alone 60 or more. Taylor Swift can.”
Georgia DA summons former lawmaker and journalist in Trump election inquiry: Fani Willis’s office will have former lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan and journalist George Chidi testify before a grand jury, Maya Yang, The Guardian, 8/12/23: “In recent weeks, Willis’s office has considered several potential statutes under which to charge the former president and affiliated operatives, including solicitation to commit election fraud and conspiracy to commit election fraud…”
Are Christians really trying to remove Jesus because he was too liberal? The Best of the Rest of the News, Thom Hartmann, Hartmann Report, 8/12/23: “Trump is the ultimate traitor to American values and exactly the man who Alexander Hamilton and James Madison warned us about in The Federalist Papers. America’s biggest challenge now isn’t to imprison Trump; it’s to purge our government and the GOP of the people who were enthusiastic about going along with his fascist takeover of our republic.”
University of Pennsylvania Law Review will publish an article written by Law Professor William Baude of the University of Chicago and Professor Michael Stokes Paulsen of the University of St. Thomas arguing that Donald Trump, under the 14th Amendment, is disqualified from public office. The pair’s conclusion, which has already been endorsed by Yale Law Professor Steven Calabresi, a co-founder of the Federalist Society, is that there’s ample evidence in the public record to prevent Trump from even showing up on ballots, and that officials responsible for those ballots — from secretaries of state to county election officials — must keep him off the ballot in every state.
We can have the Constitution...Or we can have Trump, Timothy Snyder, Thinking About, 8/12/23: “One of the odd features about our political life is our capacity to look away from the obvious when the obvious might be “controversial.” We talk a good deal about the Constitution, and almost everyone in political life claims to venerate it — but who reads it? You just have to get as far as the Fourteenth Amendment to see that Trump cannot be president…. I worry that we will find some excuse not to draw the obvious conclusion about Trump…”
Building The Barricade
We were afraid, building the barricade
under fire.
The barkeeper, the jeweler’s lover, the barber,
all of us cowards.
The servant-girl fell to the ground
hauling a pavement stone, and we were very afraid,
all of us cowards–
the streetsweeper, the stallholder, the pensioner.
The pharmacist fell to the ground,
dragging the toilet door,
and we were even more afraid, the smuggler-woman,
the dressmaker, the street driver,
all of us cowards.
The boy from the reform school fell
dragging a sandbag,
so we were really afraid.
Although no one forced us,
we did build the barricade
under fire.
—Anna Swir, Translated from the Polish by Boris Dralyuk
That was another week that was. Take care, everyone. Don’t give up hope, but don’t stop working to maintain a working democracy. It’s our turn.
Best to all — David