Sadly this will never happen in the United States. The right to bear arms is the Second Amendment to the Constitution. Americans love guns more than life. There are more guns than there are people in the United States. Killing at schools and other places are a price Americans accept as part of life.
Bennie Thompson January 6 committee chairman
The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol has concluded that former President Donald Trump was ultimately responsible for the insurrection, laying out for the public and the Justice Department a trove of evidence for why he should be prosecuted for multiple crimes.
For months, the Jan. 6 committee went back-and-forth over whether it would refer former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. On Monday, the committee didn’t equivocate.
The committee referred Trump to the DOJ on at least four criminal charges, including:
It is truly sad that a president did not honor his oath.
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
§2383. Rebellion or insurrection Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
Will the Department of Justice prosecute Trump? If they do not it will mean that people of influence are not treated like the rest of us.
“I have no doubt that once the investigation proceeds and is concluded, if the evidence is as we presented it, I’m convinced the Justice Department will charge former President Trump,” chairman Bennie Thompson says on CNN.
A madman dreams of being the supreme leader of the United States. His children and grandchildren would go on to rule this country.
Donald Trump dreams of becoming president for life. No voting is necessary because he believes he is entitled to hold the presidency until the day he dies. The former President Donald Trump on Saturday evening doubled down on his calls to “terminate” the United States Constitution and restore him to power.
Like any dictator he says whatever he wants and he gets it. His admiration for Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong-un is because they have absolute power. Military parades are a sign of power and he wanted one in Washington D.C. but was told the tanks and other military hardware would tear up the streets and so he relented.
Trump’s problem is he seems to really believe that the 2020 election was rigged. He doesn’t know how it was accomplished but really doesn’t care. As a spoiled brat as a child who was given everything he wanted he just can’t accept reality.
There are plenty of adult Republicans who have told him to accept reality and move on but it is not a reality he will accept. Unfortunately there remains a large minority of Republicans who have bought his claims of victory. Kari Lake, the failed GOP candidate for governor of Arizona is the best example of someone who has bought Trump’s nonsense.
Can you imagine if Trump wins the election in 2024. What would happen four years hence? He would want to overturn the Constitution and run for a third term.
Sadly USA Today reports “Republican leaders mostly silent over Donald Trump’s call to suspend the Constitution.”
The success of Jack Smith and Merrick Garland are our best hope of saving this democracy.
The former leader of the free world lashed out on Thursday at one of the prosecutors investigating alleged misconduct.
“This case should be dismissed immediately, and the large, highly paid and ‘prestigious’ accounting firm that we relied on to do their job, but didn’t, should pay us a fortune in damages,” Trump said.
As he often does, he labeled the investigation “a total witch hunt!”
Two minutes later, he returned to Truth Social to post the quote, “Give me freedom or give me death.”
Let’s give him death if that is required to sustain the American democracy. We could put him on the gallows that was built to hang Mike Pence.
What a delightful way to end Donald Trump’s efforts.
The gallows built to hang Mike Pence
At a rally on Saturday August 3 the former president described Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin as “fierce” and “smart” before anticipating the reaction from the media. He called both leaders “fierce,” adding that Xi is “smart” to rule China with an “iron fist.”
“He rules with an iron fist, 1.5 billion people, yeah I’d say he’s smart,” he continued. “Wouldn’t you say he’s smart?”
Xi, whose authoritarian tenure has been marked by an increase in censorship and mass surveillance, has been accused by Human Rights Watch of starting a “broad and sustained offensive on human rights” since he became China’s leader in 2012.
Imagine what a second term for Trump would be like. He would be taking revenge on those who opposed him. There would be no guard rails preventing him from withdrawing from NATO. Military parades in Washington D.C. would be the order of the day.
Donald Trump dreams of absolute power and our system of government could permit him to obtain his objective.
The Mar-a-Lago search warrant identifies three federal crimes that the Justice Department is looking at as part of its investigation: violations of the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice and criminal handling of government records. The inclusion of the crimes indicates the Justice Department has probable cause to investigate those offenses as it was gathering evidence in the search. No one has been charged with a crime at this time.
In 1951, Julius and his wife Ethel Rosenberg were tried and convicted of espionage for providing the Soviet Union with classified information. They were executed in 1953. Their trial remains controversial today.
What do you suppose Donald Trump planned to do with that classified material? It is frightening to imagine what that classified information can mean to an adversary.
The politics of this situation could mean that Trump will never be tried for treason. Millions of Americans still believe that the 2020 election was stolen. The January 6, 2021 insurrection tells us that there are Americans who are willing to fight for Trump.
Can Attorney General Merrick Garland convince a majority of Americans that Donald Trump is guilty of espionage? Frankly I doubt it.
Trump should be executed but it probably won’t happen.
The worship of Donald Trump has resulted in loyal Americans willing to destroy the American democracy. Many of those supporters of Trump are still in government service. Thus the destruction of phone records and email messages before the June 6 insurrection, during the insurrection, and days following that insurrection is no surprise.
The advocacy group American Oversight sought the texts through a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act, to learn more about the attack. The group requested emails, texts and calendar invitations for former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, his former acting chief of staff Kash Patel and former Defense Department general counsel Paul Ney.
“It now appears as if multiple federal agencies may have failed to preserve records surrounding the January 6th attack on the Capitol,” Heather Sawyer, executive director at American Oversight, said in a statement. “There are still too many open questions about the role of the Pentagon, Secret Service, and others before and during the attack.”
American Oversight says on its website that it is “a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog that uses public records requests backed by litigation to fight corruption, drive accountability, and defend democracy.”
It appears that there were and probably still are people in the Federal government that are intent on protecting Donald Trump and his lieutenants from prosecution related to the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
The Department of Justice will likely bring criminal charges against those who intentionally destroyed those records. The Guardian reports the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, has been asked to investigate yet another deletion of text messages and other communications by senior officials on 6 January 2021, this time by the Pentagon.
The Los Angeles Times July 24, 2022 editorial defined some of Donald Trump’s crimes but not all. A Donald Trump trial could result in a civil war.
There is no doubt that Donald Trump is “guilty of conspiring to defraud the United States and conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding” but also plotting an insurrection, dereliction of duty and dishonoring his sworn oath when he took the office of president. He ought to be tried and convicted. Sadly millions of Americans still believe Trump won the 2020 election as evidenced on January 6, 2021 and are willing to take up arms. If found guilty, the country would experience a second civil war. His followers have demonstrated their willingness to do his bidding. There are an estimated 393 million civilian-owned firearms in the US and 20 million of them are AR-15 style rifles. Are those trying to uphold the Constitution prepared to go to war to retain this democracy?
An abridged version of this posting appears on the letters page of the July 26, 2022 Los Angeles Times.
There is only one religious holiday a national holiday in the United States. Christmas Day. If that isn’t sponsoring a religion then what is it?
Up to the age of nine I attended Philadelphia public schools. Every morning all the children attended an assembly. After reciting the Pledge of Allegiance someone at the front of the auditorium read from the Christian bible. There was a Christian song that all the children sang. The problem was that I was not a Christian. I kept my mouth shut unless someone came by my seat prompting me to sing. My solution to that was to move my lips but not sing a single word.
Happily none of that happened in Los Angeles in the 4th grade.
I remember this like it was yesterday.
Now the Supreme Court sees nothing wrong with conducting prayers on school grounds. The Supreme Court ruled on June 27 that a high school football coach had a constitutional right to pray at the 50-yard line after his team’s games, the latest step by the court in expanding the place of religion in public life. The vote was 6 to 3, with the court’s three liberal members in dissent.
Is it any wonder that some Americans have chosen to migrate to countries that respect the religious rights of all citizens?
Sofia Ali-Khan wrote an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times relating how she, a child of immigrant parents, could no longer live with the hate of minorities perpetrated by President Donald Trump. She believes that to live in the States she would have to hide her Muslim identity.
The number of Americans seeking residency in Canada has grown exponentially. No wonder. Canada is a country that welcomes people of all faiths and races.
I can’t fight the system. Perhaps it is time to follow Sofia Ali-Khan to Canada.
It is accurate to say that the United States is in a period similar to 1850-1860 — the decade that led to the Civil War. The president in 1850 was Millard Fillmore. By championing the Compromise of 1850 he can be credited with delaying an American civil war for more than a decade. The compromise admitted California as a free state, left Utah and New Mexico to decide for themselves whether to be a slave state or a free state.
The similarities today could not be more apparent. Each state can now decide whether abortions are legal. Likely same sex marriage and voting rights laws will also be determined by each state.
The words “a house divided cannot stand” come to mind. California, Oregon and Washington State see the world through a different lens. As an example it is clear that California and Texas have little in common. Texans are concerned with an invasion of illegal aliens and California accepts them as if they came to the United States legally.
Without a civil war perhaps it would be best if we all went our separate ways.
Coast Contact 