Mark Maynard | For all your Mark Maynard needs.

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Hell, yes, Trump should be impeachedBy Mark | January 9, 2021 The more that comes out about what happened on January 6 in Washington, DC, the more clear it s to me that Donald Trump needs to be removed from office, and I m thankful for those 200-some elected Democrats, like our own Debbie Dingell, Debbie Stabenow, Gary Peters, who have already come forward in support of that position. If we re ever to put this dark chapter of American history behind us, there needs to reckoning, and that cannot happen if Donald Trump is allowed to continue in office, and avoid responsibility for his actions. No, we need to send a strong message that ours is a country of laws, and that begins with Donald Trump. We have to ensure that he s never able to run for public office again, or benefit from his office, and the best way to do that is through impeachment. Not only would it get his out of office, but it would also allow us to know, on the record, which each of our elected officials stands on the legality of sedition. Speaking of getting people on the record as to where they stand, I just saw that Lindsay Graham has interceded on Trump s behalf, asking Biden not to push for a second impeachment. This is the same Lindsay Graham, by the way, who voted to impeach Bill Clinton for lying about having a consensual affair while president. Apparently, in his mind, oral sex is worse that inciting a riot that left five American citizens dead.If you don t think it was serious just a few whack jobs adorned in animal horns and homemade fur capes posing for selfies, I d encourage you to watch these two videos. The first shows the mob pushing their way into the Capitol from the perspective of the officers attempting to hold them back, and the second shows these same individuals chanting Hang Mike Pence as they finally break through. And, for what it s worth, it does look as though some in the group of rioters were looking to harm those elected officials who were certifying the election for Biden. As political consultant Arieh Kovler told GQ, They had a map of the tunnels [in the basement of the Capitol], and they were talking about how they re going to be able to stop Congress from leaving. They imagined that this was the day there were going to be mass executions of Congressmen. We don t yet know the extent of what was planned, we do know that pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails and several weapons were found in the possession of those in DC for the purposes of stopping the election certification. We know know that several people who broke into the Capitol, including a retired Air Force combat veteran, were carrying zip-tie handcuffs and tasers, seemingly indicating the possibility that they had intended to take hostages. This is what the pro-Trump mob did to American law enforcement officers after the President incited a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol (warning, graphic video) pic.twitter.com/4RNsZQAYbh Josh Campbell (@joshscampbell) January 9, 2021 Video of the mob chanting “hang Mike Pence.” pic.twitter.com/K4EcKK2rab American Times Film (@ExportedFromMI) January 9, 2021 This was nothing less than a coordinated attempt to stop the certification of Biden s win. And here s the President of the United States of America, right before the attack, winding them up for bottle, and encouraging them to go to the Capitol. You ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength. You have to be strong. this is what Trump told his followers just before a mob of them stormed the Capitol, resulting in at least five deaths pic.twitter.com/oRFUcTfsNn Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 8, 2021 [According to Republican Senator Ben Sasse, senior White House officials told him that the President was excited and delighted as his supporters tried to storm the Capitol after he sent them off. And there s video which seems to confirm the fact that Trump and members of his family were watching the attack, hopeful that the mob would stop the certification.] I don t have too much time right now, but I just wanted to encourage everyone who might be here on this site today to contact your elected officials, and let hem know that we demand people be held to account for what happened. Five American citizens are dead today because the President of the United States, unable to accept defeat, called his supporters to Washing to stop the certification of a free and fair election. This is sedition, and a price must be paid. Trump must be removed from office, and all of those, like Ted Cruz, Mo Brooks, and Josh Hawley, who, in hopes of advancing their own political careers, played along, lying to American people about the election having been stolen from Donald Trump, and encouraging people to fight back. As presidential historian Michael Beschloss reminded us today, the United States Constitution is clear on the matter. “No Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress” who “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the Constitution, “or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof , it says.And we re never going to be able to get beyond this as a society if we don t face it right now, and deal with it decisively. If we don t, you can be sure that more people will die Speaking of which, I d like to share one last piece of video. This comes from the family member of a Trump support who died during the attack on the Capitol. Powerful statement. Everyone should listen. Words matter. People died. The President made it happen. https://t.co/Tuc4YmveFd Mark Maynard (@MarkAMaynard) January 8, 2021 The attempted coup that we all knew was comingBy Mark | January 6, 2021 This afternoon in Washington, D.C., as members of Congress counted the electoral college ballots inside the Capitol, Donald Trump s supporters gathered outside for a stop the steal rally, where speaker after speaker told them that, at that very moment, our elected officials were conspiring on behalf of Joe Biden to rob their beloved president of a second term that he d rightfully won. At one point, the President s persona, attorney Rudy Giuliani took the stage to urge a trial by combat to overturn the 2020 election results. At another, the President himself addressed those gathered. “We will never give up, he said. We will never concede. It will never happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore.” And, with that, the mob turned upon the Capitol, scaling walls, smashing windows, and eventually forcing their way in, causing elected officials to flee, and temporarily stopping the federal certification of Joe Biden s victory. Here s some of the footage. Whoa: Trump supporters going at it with the police on the steps of the Capitol as Congress counts the Electoral College ballots inside pic.twitter.com/LiQhaa5KkQ philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) January 6, 2021 There are a lot of different ways we could go with this conversation. We could talk about the way these pro-Trump terrorists were treated compared to the peaceful protestors at Lafayette Square Park a few months ago, who were disbursed with tear gas and bullets when the President wanted to have his photo taken holding a bible in front of a church. Or how different the scene today might have played out, had those people forcing their way into the Capitol been black supporters of Barack Obama, for instance, as opposed to the white supporters of Donald Trump. Or we could talk about whether what we saw today was technically an insurrection, a coup attempt, or an act of sedition. Or we could talk, as many are today, about the fact that Colin Kaepernick was labeled anti-American by the President and others for having the audacity to take knee before a football game to protest police brutality, when these self-professed patriots were literally smashing windows to get at our elected officials, and occupying the floor of the U.S. Senate. Here, by the way, are just a few of the photos documenting what had happened. My inclination is to focus on those in Congress who helped lay the groundwork for what we saw play out today those who could have taken action earlier, but instead chose to play along those who now seem genuinely horrified by what s come to pass, but still lack the self-awareness to see that they actually helped create this situation. Specifically, I m thinking of Lindsey Graham, Liz Cheney, Mitch McConnell and Will Hurd, but there are others. All of them knew how how this would end, and yet they went along. (Graham, according to Georgia election officials, even interceded on Trump s behalf to push for legal ballots to be thrown out.) They could have spoken up and done the courageous thing when it would have made a difference. They could have joined the likes of Justin Amash and Mitt Romney, but they put their own careers ahead of the county, and chose to do nothing. And, now, they want us to believe that they re absolutely horrified at what s taking place, like we never could have conceived such an outcome. Mitch McConnell: If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral. We d never see the whole nation accept an election again. Every four years, there d be a scramble for power at any cost. https://t.co/wTKxzqAo9U pic.twitter.com/qTNeA6PeNQ CBS News (@CBSNews) January 6, 2021 Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks amid debate on Electoral College objections: Trump and I, we had a hell of a journey. I hate it being this way. … all I can say is count me out. Enough is enough. I tried to be helpful. https://t.co/GhkjZZLbSO pic.twitter.com/AhkEO1J4D7 ABC News (@ABC) January 7, 2021 .@Liz_Cheney: “there’s no question the president formed the mob. The president incited the mob. The president address the mob. He lit the flame.” pic.twitter.com/Rapoih9zJH Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) January 7, 2021 But at least they re accepting the reality of the situation, unlike Matt Gaetz, who just had the audacity to say on the floor of the House that, some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters, they were masquerading as Trump supporters and in fact were members of the violent terrorist group antifa. There s a special place in hell for him and the six Senators ( the seditious six ) today who voted against the certification of the electoral college vote (Cruz, Hawley, Hyde-Smith, Kennedy, Marshall, Tuberville). Gaetz should be censured and loss his position on every committee. https://t.co/gnONv0NFVD Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) January 7, 2021 As I mentioned Romney and Amash earlier, here are quotes today from both. While I don t agree with either on much, I respect them both immensely for standing up to Trump, knowing that it would put them at odds with their party. As for Trump, he was given an opportunity to talk to the terrorists who had stormed the Capitol, and urge them to leave. And, while he did suggest that they leave, he also talked about how the election had been stolen from him, and how much he loved those who have taken over the Capitol. “We love you. You’re very special, he said. He also posted the following online. Eventually, however, all of the major social media platforms pulled his posts. And, now, as a result of all of this, one woman is dead. A Qanon believer by the name of Ashli Babbit was shot and killed today during the siege at the Capitol. According to the Daily Beast, she was in D.C. because she wanted to be there for The Storm , the day when it was predicted that Trump would arrest and execute his demonic, child-eating political rivals. Here s a clip. On Jan. 5, a day before her death, Babbitt tweeted references to another QAnon slogan, “dark to light,” and said the United States would soon see “The Storm”—a moment much awaited by QAnon followers, in which Trump would execute his opponents in the Democratic Party.Babbit, like other QAnon followers gathered outside Congress on Wednesday, appeared to believe that the apocalyptic moment was at hand.“They can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours .dark to light!” Babbit wrote I could go on. I need to sleep, though. It s all too surreal. I never would have thought that I d see the day that the Capitol would be overrun, and I d be reading tweets from elected officials hiding in their offices. It s all so fucking insane. And I can t imagine what still lies ahead of us, as Donald Trump still has two more weeks in office. There s word tonight that high level Republicans are finally organizing to see him removed from office, whether by invoking the 25th amendment, or by way of impeachment. One hopes that happens, and happens quickly, before things escalate even further. Word is that he s beginning to lose his grip. Three White House staffers have already walked out today, and one gets the sense that a long-awaited shift against Trump is finally starting to take hold. update: Trump, while still not conceding, finally said that there would be a peaceful transition of power. How insane is it that it took this long? We all owe Stacey Abrams a huge debt of gratitude for ridding us of Mitch McConnellBy Mark | January 5, 2021 I know it s probably a bit premature, but, if The Economist s G. Elliott Morris is correct (see below), both Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff have won their Senate run-off races in Georgia today, meaning that control of the chamber will soon change hands, and that Mitch McConnell s reign of terror will finally be coming to long-awaited end. [With both Democrats winning in Georgia, the Senate would be split evenly between the two parties, with each holding 50 seats. According to the Constitution, this means that the Vice President would be called upon to cast the deciding votes in instances of deadlock. And, as Kamala Harris will be our new Vice President come January 20, that means the Democrats will have control over the chamber, making McConnell the Senate Minority Leader.] While both Warnock and Ossoff ran great races, and we Democrats benefited mightily from the fact that the Republicans running were so incredibly terrible, I stand with those who give a majority of the credit to Stacey Abrams, who, after having the 2018 gubernatorial race in Georgia in large part due to Republican voter suppression efforts, made it her mission to see that other Democrats running in the state had a fighting chance going forward. Through her organization Fair Fight, she fought voter suppression policies in Georgia, registered roughly 1 million new voters, and laid the groundwork making it possible for the state to flip from red to blue. There is no way, without her, that Biden, Warnock or Ossoff would have won in the state, and we owe her an enormous debt of gratitude. Assuming things play out like we expect them to, and Mitch McConnell is driven from power, Abrams will have the distinction of being the person most responsible, and we cannot forget that. When we see comprehensive health care reform, a new voting rights act, positive movement on global warming, or new legislation to address gun violence, it will be because of what she had done in Georgia. I know the temptation today will be to focus on how terrible Mitch McConnell is, and how happy we are to be rid of his smirking obstructionism, but it s worth pointing out, I think, that there is an equal and opposite force in the universe, and that force is Stacey Abrams. Here s hoping she s given the national platform she deserves.And, yes, I know there were other forces at play in Georgia. As Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling said today, much of this falls squarely on the shoulders of President Trump and his actions since November 3. Not only are his incessant lies about the 2020 election turning off mainstream Republican voters, who know that he lost fair and square, but his baseless allegations about elections being rigged against him and his cronies has kept many of his more delusional supporters from turning out. But I don t feel like giving Donald Trump credit for anything right now, even destroying the rotten shell of the political party he d taken over in 2016. I d much rather see hard-working, decent people like Abrams get the credit. One last thing. The big winner today is Kamala Harris, who is likely going to be the most powerful and consequential Vice President in our lifetimes (unless you count Cheney, I guess) due to the fact that she ll be deciding almost every vote in the Senate.Oh, and Biden has no excuses now. He must be bold, and take decisive action these next two years to not only right the ship, but set a clear, just, and sustainable path for the future. Not one minute should be spent coddling the would-be-authoritarians who lined up to defend and enable Donald Trump. Furthermore, no one should be spared as we move forward, investigating the truth of what happened during the Trump administration. There s far too much at stake to just put it all behind us and move on. If we don t deal with it now, and do so decisively, you can be sure that we ll pay the price for generations to come. Our democratic institutions need to be defended, and criminals must be prosecuted. And we now have the levers of power at our disposal to see that happen. In hopes of currying favor with the President and his followers, Republican members of the U.S. Senate seek to throw out the results of a free and fair election. This is sedition.By Mark | January 4, 2021 Sorry I ve been away for a while. It s not that I haven t missed you all. I have. And I ve wanted to write. I ve just been forcing myself not to. I knew, if I started spending time here again, I d eventually begin writing about Trump, and I didn t want to do that. After Biden s victory, I didn t see any justification for it. Before then, I could argue that my writing about Trump here was beneficial. By obsessively documenting every assault of the Trump administration, I told myself, I m helping to motivate people to volunteer for Democratic candidates, to get out and vote, and to contribute financially. Now that Biden has won, though, I don t really see what s to be gained by talking about our failed despot. It s much better, I ve thought, to just stay quiet, and allow him to fade away. Today, though, I felt as though I had to say something. First, just to recap All of the states have now certified their election results. In the end, Joe Biden secured 306 electoral votes to Donald Trump s 232, making him the next President of the United States. Donald Trump, of course, has tried to make the case that there was rampant voter fraud, and that he had, in fact, won the election. His attorneys brought 60 cases across the United States alleging fraud, of which 59 have already been thrown out, in many cases by judges that he himself had placed on the bench. This, of course, is not surprising, given that Trump and his team offered no actual proof of widespread voter fraud. For all their talk of fraud, they ve still demonstrated none. And in each of the states where they ve claimed fraud to have taken place have, the election results have now been certified. And this is true even in states like Georgia, where Republicans control the legislature. Donald Trump, as we now know beyond a shadow of a doubt, lost the electoral vote overwhelmingly, and the popular vote by approximately 7 million votes. This is just a fact.In spite of this, several elected Republican Senators have made it known that, on January 6, they intend to vote against certifying the 2020 election results at the federal level, joining around 140 Republican members of the House of Representatives in their attempt to overturn the results of a free and fair election. “We intend to vote on January 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not ‘regularly given’ and ‘lawfully certified’ (the statutory requisite), unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed,” the eleven Republican Senators and Senators-Elect wrote in a statement yesterday. Like everything else that Trump and his allies have attempted, this will not work. [They don t have the votes to actually stop the process from moving forward.] But that s not the point. [Ironically, it should be pointed out that many of these Senators won in elections they re claiming to have been fraudulent.]We know why these people are doing this. It s not that they believe an election was stolen, but that they want to inherit the mantle of Donald Trump, and they don t care about the ramifications. They don t care about the long term consequences of telling the American people that an election has been stolen when it hasn t. As Mitt Romney just said, “The egregious ploy to reject electors may enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic I could never have imagined seeing these things in the greatest democracy in the world. Has ambition so eclipsed principle?” [Former House Speaker Paul Ryan joined Romney in speaking out today, saying, “Under our system, voters determine the president Joe Biden s victory is entirely legitimate. ]Republican political strategist Steve Schmidt took things a little further in his Twitter feed today, where he said the following about the Republicans, like Ted Cruz, who have made it known they they intend to help Donald Trump perpetuate the lie that the election was stolen from him. [I guess the Harvard-educated Cruz, who once swore that he would never be Trump s “servile puppy dog, has had a change of heart.]2021 will be a hard year in the life of the American nation. There is a great struggle that lies before us and our disbelief at its arrival must not blind us to the lethal danger it poses to the American experiment. The poisonous bounty of Trump’s catastrophic Presidency is ready for harvest and the whole world will get to watch his seditious antics play out during a joint session of Congress on January 6th. It will play out as a farce and it will fail. Nearly 100 years on America will have it’s version of the Beer Hall Putsch. The danger lies in the act, not the outcome. We are in a dangerous moment and I’d like to try my best to explain how I see it. Before I start, there is an important matter of fact which unfortunately needs restating. Joe Biden won the Presidential election decisively. The election was free, fair and legitimate. There is no evidence of any wide spread fraud. Allegations of fraud are premeditated lies being made by a rancid assortment of Trump’s stooges and propagandists. With the exception of a few of the more addled House GOP members like Louis Gohmert, every single House Member and every US Senator that participates in denying this reality and thus the legitimacy of our election does so as a cynical act which they know for certain has no legitimate basis. Such actions are a grievous sin against America democracy and a brutal betrayal of their oaths of office and duty. They will be desecrating the blood sacrifices of 13 generations of American Patriots of all creeds and origins who died so that our children could be free. They are fighting to maintain the power of a defeated President against the sovereign will of the American people as lawfully exercised under the Constitution of the United States. They are fighting to establish a tyranny. They are deliberately poisoning Faith and Belief in American democracy. Democratic Republic’s cannot survive such a collapse. The system is rooted in the willingness of one side to cede power to another at the will of the people. There are no other systems of government except for this type that are free. The legitimacy of that system is being strangled by Trumps lies and the lies of his movement. That movement is an autocratic one with fascistic markers. It is hostile to the American Constitution, the rule of law and the highest ideas and ideals of American liberty.January 6, will be a historic day in America. The battle lines will be drawn. The Autocrats will step forward into the light. They will include a majority of the House GOP Conference. After the 6th, Kevin McCarthy will be the leader of House Autocrats, and Liz Cheney will be the Leader of House Conservatives. They will include a substantial number of GOP Senators and almost all of the known GOP Presidential aspirants. The Rubicon will be crossed on the 6th. The ruthless and amoral cynicism of Senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, James Lankford and Josh Hawley will be on appalling display. It must be opposed fiercely. It must be recognized for what it is. Another storm is gathering in the constant struggle between liberty and her enemies. Trump has unleashed the furies and has found his following. It will be a long fight. At the hour of his defeat and defenestration Trump has done his greatest damage. This is a movement that is fueled by lies, conspiracies, corruption, greed, extremism, racism, grievance, resentment, cynicism and a profound absence of love for America. It is right to feel anger and contempt towards its leaders and enablers. There is only one proposition that America’s pro-democracy coalition can offer to these people. “We win you lose.” It’s that simple. Sedition is the precise word and the right word to describe what we have been witnessing. Never before have so many American leaders betrayed their country. We will watch their eternal disgrace on live TV. The evidence of their ignominy will exist forever as will the memory of their monumental betrayal. Shame on them all.Here are the names of those Republican Senators and Senators-Elect who have signed-on to join Ted Cruz in his attempt to stop the results of our last election from being accepted. They are Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Steve Daines of Montana, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Mike Braun of Indiana, and Senators-Elect Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. Remember their names. By refusing to accept the results of our free and fair election, they are guilty of sedition, at the very least, and they should held accountable. If any of you have any question at all as to what the above mentioned Senators and Senators-Elect have agreed to support when signing on to this document, I d encourage you to listen to the following audio of President Donald Trump, recorded recently, threatening Georgia s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to, in the words of Senator Dick Durbin, deliberately change and misrepresent the legally confirmed vote totals in that state. “It’s gonna be costly to you, Trump says to Raffensperger on the call, when the Secretary of State refuses to find 11,780 votes for him. [Trump had tried to call Raffensperger 18 times before the Secretary of State took the call. He clearly knew the President was going to try to shake him down, the same way he did the President of Ukraine. Thankfully he had the presence of mind to record the entire call. As one of Raffensperger associates told Politico today, It s nice to have something like this, hard evidence, to dispute whatever he s claiming about the secretary. Lindsey Graham asked us to throw out legally cast ballots. So yeah, after that call, we decided maybe we should do this. ] This is the kind of criminal activity one sees from a mob boss. The members of the U.S. Senate named above know it. And yet they continue to go along. It is pathetic, grotesque and dangerous. And all of their political careers should end immediately. update: The snow person featured above was created by Arlo and I this morning in Riverside Park. I was going to use a photo of Donald Trump, but this made me happier. 106 members of Congress are guilty of seditionBy Mark | December 10, 2020 As you may have heard, the Supreme Court issued a one sentence order on Tuesday stating that they would not be hearing the case brought by Pennsylvania Republicans to overturn Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in their state. Trump s assault on our nation isn t over yet, though. There s still one more election-related case before America s highest court. The Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton, has filed a case alleging that Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia four battleground states that Donald Trump lost had exploited the COVID-19 pandemic when they made it possible for their citizens to vote-by-mail, and, in the process, unfairly skewed the results of the election against Donald Trump. The case, of course, is absolute bullshit, but Republicans across the country are throwing their support behind it, which is incredibly concerning for those of us who who would prefer America not to become a fascist dictatorship. Not only have 17 other red state Attorneys General signed-on, but today 106 Republican House members declared their support. Just to be clear, these Republican officials are singing-on to a case that, absent any evidence of electoral fraud, is requesting that the ballots of millions be cast aside, making it possible for the loser of a free and fair election to remain in power. I know some will push back against me use of the word sedition, but it seems like the correct word to me. Here s the dictionary definition: Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. The Attorneys General of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia have pushed back hard, encouraging the Supreme Court to throw the case out, as they did the Pennsylvania case a few days ago. These continued attacks on our fair and free election system are beyond meritless, beyond reckless they are a scheme by the President of the United States and some in the Republican party to disregard the will of the people and name their own victors, said Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. And Joshua Kaul, the Attorney General of Wisconsin, had the following to say. “Texas proposes an extraordinary intrusion into Wisconsin’s and the other defendant states’ elections, a task that the Constitution leaves to each state, he said. Wisconsin has conducted its election and its voters have chosen a winning candidate for their state. Texas’s bid to nullify that choice is devoid of a legal foundation or a factual basis.” Donald Trump, however, is positioning this as a fight to save the nation. [As Trump and his team have been unable to produce any evidence of election fraud, it seems as though they re just arguing that Biden shouldn t be allowed to take office because he s a terrible person, in spite fo the fact that an overwhelming majority of American voters elected him.][note: Just in case you missed it, the above looks like a concession on the part of Trump, acknowledging that there will be a Biden presidency.]As for why Ken Paxton filed this suit, I m inclined to agree with Republican Senator Ben Sasse, who suspects that the Attorney General of Texas may be fishing for a pardon Paxton, you see, appears to be the subject of an FBI probe right now for offenses including bribery and abuse of his office. Here s the quote from Sasse. Why Paxton filed the case is less interesting to me, however, than the fact that 106 members of the U.S. House of Representatives today signed-on in support. That, I hope you ll agree, is absolutely, fucking insane. Not only are elected representatives arguing that the results of an American election should be thrown out in states where their party s candidate did not win (in hopes that Republican legislatures in those states might appoint their own pro-Trump electors), but they re also alleging widespread fraud in an election that all of them just won. [All 106 who signed-on ran and won in 2020.] Here s the list. One hopes that every one of them is forced to pay a price in the very near future for helping Donald Trump to push forward this vile act of sedition. They have betrayed their country. And while they can’t make Trump President, these radicals are setting us on a path to the end of democracy. It’s that serious. @ChrisMurphyCT #CoupKlutzKlanhttps://t.co/5Vfq2HxLed Democratic Coalition (@TheDemCoalition) December 11, 2020 There was much more I was going to say on the subject, but then I happened across Susan Glasser s piece in today s New Yorker, which states everything better than I could ever hope to. Here s an excerpt. In the days immediately following the election, Trump said that his goal was to “STOP THE COUNT.” Then it was to “stop the steal,” or to demand recounts, or to discover evidence of fraud. During this period, one senior Republican official said there was no real harm in letting Trump have his temper tantrum; it would not affect the outcome anyway. “What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time? No one seriously thinks the results will change,” the Republican told the Washington Post. “He went golfing this weekend. It’s not like he’s plotting how to prevent Joe Biden from taking power on January 20. He’s tweeting about filing some lawsuits, those lawsuits will fail, then he’ll tweet some more about how the election was stolen, and then he’ll leave.”But, rather than merely taking a few days to come to terms with his loss, and then sulk off to Florida once the courts threw out his lawsuits, Trump has escalated and escalated, culminating on Wednesday with a single-word tweet announcing his new goal: not to win the election but to “#OVERTURN” the results. Even more strikingly, while his allies have lost fifty-plus cases since the election, Trump has convinced millions of Americans to believe that the election was rigged against him—seventy-seven per cent of Republicans now say massive fraud occurred, according to a new Quinnipiac poll out Thursday—and enlisted virtually the entire national leadership of the Republican Party in his concerted attack on the legitimacy of the results.This week, twenty-seven House Republicans asked the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate the election—the same number as House and Senate Republicans who, as the Post found in a survey, will publicly recognize Biden’s victory. Not only have both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy refused to recognize his win; they both voted against a ceremonial motion of the committee organizing the January 20th handover of power to “notify the American people” of plans to inaugurate Biden. In the immediate aftermath of the election, McConnell said that Trump “has every right to look into allegations and request recounts under the law.” Now that Trump has lost the recounts and lost the lawsuits, now that the results have been certified and Trump is openly talking about overturning them, McConnell has been silent.Somehow, that’s the part I was not entirely prepared for, even after all the Republican enabling and excuses of the past four years. The ballots that Trump and his allies are attacking, after all, are the same that elected Trump’s allies, if not Trump himself. The votes that they want thrown out were cast not only by evil Democrats in faraway cities but by their friends and, in some cases, neighbors. They were counted and recounted and certified by Republican officials in many of the places that sealed Trump’s defeat These are dangerous and crazy times, my friends. And I m afraid they are only going to get worse. In spite of the fact that no evidence of voter fraud has been offered, and state legislatures around the country have certified their vote counts, showing that Biden was the clear winner, there are still tens of millions of American citizens who apparently believe that the Supreme Court should exercise its wisdom and declare Donald Trump the winner. update: The Supreme Court did the right thing and threw out the Paxton case. (None of the three Justices Trump nominated to the court have indicated that they supported the case.) I m thankful they didn t make us wait through the weekend. It s also worth noting that, since I posted the above, quite a few people have started suggesting that we not seat the newly elected members of Congress who chose to join the suit. .@MIAttyGen @dananessel issued the following comment after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case filed by Texas to invalidate the results of the Nov. 3 general election in Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin: pic.twitter.com/xnlYTSl9z2 Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (@MIAttyGen) December 11, 2020

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