TWGB: The Criminalization of Politics?

 

One of the themes of today's 1/6 Committee hearing was "Roasting your Insurrectionist Co-Workers" because they brought the receipts that when Trump intimated to Richard Donoghue that he just wanted the DOJ to declare that the 2020 election was corrupt and he and his Republican congress people would take it from there, they really committed to "taking it from there" whether there was any proof of voter fraud or not. Those same pontificating lying "just concerned about the accuracy of the vote" people turned around and asked for pardons. 

Rep. Kinzinger, bless his normal-person heart, thinks the only reason he can think of for requesting pardons is consciousness of guilt. But there are Republicans who exist in the world who will tell you that is not the only reason. No, you have to go deeper--they say: like Mo Brooks who wore armor to the 1/6 rally at which he spoke, who sent a letter requesting pardons because the socialist leftist Dems were surely going to be out to get them.  How dare they violate the ability of folks to just hang out, and talk about--

Trying to fucking Ocean's Eleven a whole ass fucking Presidential election! Because I'm sorry, but things like criminal conspiracy aren't just basic right to assemble once you are assembling to dissemble to tell people there was voter fraud when there wasn't, to reinstall a presidential candidate that didn't win! Your Constitutional rights are totally valid up and until reasonable cause exists to think you literally engaged in acts already determined to be illegal as fuck. After which you get due process--we can happily assume you are innocent and should have a vigorous defense, but sweetums, you better have a better defense than "No fair judging!" Because you will be subject also to a rigorous examination of the facts.

Pardon Me for Being Petty

 

Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and "multiple other Republican congressmen" sought pardons from then-President Donald Trump after January 6, House January 6 committee vice chair Liz Cheney says https://t.co/URqBKmLY5T

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 10, 2022

This is just a very brief and indulgent post where I point out that for some reason, multiple human barnacles attached themselves to the rotting luxury yacht Donald Trump as if he would be the safest port in a storm, or some such nautical thing. I dunno. I'm a landlubber. Anyhow. They stuck their necks out to get this man a second term and wanted pardons because? Because they necessarily broke the law to try and keep him in office?

Well, maybe? But the funny thing about Trump is you have to understand that every day was opposite day. He wasn't out to make America Great. He didn't really build the wall (he let that be a scam for his good friend Steve Bannon, who really needs to serve time for that). He didn't really set out to drain the swamp--he just fed red meat to the gators. So some of the swampiest and most grifting folks, like Ryan Zinke or Scott Pruitt, would just go on to be more grifting elsewhere. Take Ronny Jackson--someone, anyone, he shouldn't be driving. People associated with Trump are corrupt because that is who he attracts. So maybe people surrounding Trump aren't asking for pardons because of something they did concerning 1/6.

No! My word! It's just that unlike any other president in history, he had people like Roger Stone and Jared Kushner fronting access and making the prices legible for the folks who want to play. So I wouldn't necessarily assume pardons were a sign of assisting in the coup attempt. No. I just would think they were signs that someone wanted to get washed while the washing was accessible. 

I take it as a given that Trump held his "friends" more to account being an autocrat than Democrats ever would have, and that files exist. Buttons to be pushed. Maybe this is why so many were willing to immure themselves for him. It's a goddamn unpatriotic shame. Was it really leverage?

I feel like it's irresponsible not to speculate. 

Trying to Understand Cullman

 

The rally in Cullman, Alabama, in the midst of a state of emergency due to COVID-19 (things are pretty dire), was exceptionally well-attended, despite the weather. This is definitely Trump country. It isn't vaccination country.  They're pretty solidly Republican.  They went pretty soundly for Trump--although Biden voters exist in that county. Cullman was settled by German immigrants just post Civil War and is considered by some to be a sundown town. As in--people with direct experience of it. 

Their local ABC affiliate is in the Sinclair Broadcast Group. The Cullman Tribune looks fine. This is one of those areas where ivermectin might be more available than hospital beds, but these folks aren't stupid--there are good schools in Cullman. I can't help but note, though, that this crowd was stroppy two times during the show put on by the Trump travelling political players:

The first time was when Mo Brooks, Senate candidate, I guess, suggested that Trump stalwarts move past the stolen 2020 elections to concentrate on 2022. (Ignoring whatever Mike Lindell was on about, which is pretty easy to do.)

Did he think these people were stupid? If you admit that the 2020 election was stolen and don't address that--how are they supposed to accept the 2022 election as anything but bullshit? Where are their assurances? What the hell? It's as if you were just saying 2020 was stolen to make noise but just hoped you would get voted for later! (The folks of Cullman could see through that devious fuckery, that much I can tell you.)

The second time was when Trump recommended that the crowd get vaccinated.  Was Trump seriously going to act as an agent of Bill Gates and make sure everyone gets a microchip, or what? And what about the vaccine injury, and the other twaddle these folks have drank deep of at wells no more or less polluted than the Joseph Flynn (brother of Mike Flynn) Twitter feed, where he eschews the vax for ivermectin. How in the world is Trump not aware of this incredible predatory bullshit?

So despite boring the good people of Cullman, who braved rain, which is a very real thing, and COVID-19, which could be a hoax (it isn't), with tales of listening to crying men and 5 year old children in forming his foreign policy, and also lying his ass off in other ways too good too be fact-checked, Trump came really close to these folks wondering what he really was about--because that kayfabe is what makes the wrestling match work. Does Trump want another January 6 or what? Are they supposed to spread the Wu Flu to spite Biden or what? 

I'd love to think they have questions. But as they stood check and jowl where there's about 15% Covid infectivity, I worry more about their lives than their minds. Because I think they have been lied to a lot and they deserve better than anyone dying for this one trick pony and other assorted dogs show. 

Mo Problems

 

TIL that Mo Brooks was wearing body armor when giving his very peaceful Ellipse speech at the very peaceful 1/6 rally https://t.co/ng6g2pdMBq

— Jim Newell (@jim_newell) July 28, 2021

From the story: 

Then, to prove his point about preparation, he revealed a new detail to me: that because of a tip he’d received about potential violence, he’d been wearing body armor at the very same Ellipse speech in which he encouraged rally attendees to “start taking down names and kicking ass.” 

“I was warned on Monday that there might be risks associated with the next few days,” he said. “And as a consequence of those warnings, I did not go to my condo. Instead, I slept on the floor of my office. And when I gave my speech at the Ellipse, I was wearing body armor. 

“That’s why I was wearing that nice little windbreaker,” he told me with a grin. “To cover up the body armor."

That's certainly a very interesting tip that Rep. Brooks got, right? Where did it come from?  Did he think it might be a good idea to share those thoughts with anyone, you know, before it all went down? Did he, realizing that the crowd might include some radicalized and potentially violent individuals, think for a minute about possibly toning the down his speech?

Given that there is no Constitutional remedy for folks who are just fighting mad and want a do-over after a legitimate election is over, did he give any thought at all to whether any of this was a good idea, or as to whether continuing to lie those those people was fair to them?  

And did he give a good goddamn about whether anyone else besides his own self might get hurt that day?

His little admission about body armor doesn't make him sound like he was properly prepared to me--it makes it sound like he understood a little more directly what was going down and did not care for any neck but his own. 

I'm sure some of these questions will come up in the lawsuit, aren't you? 

Rep. Brooks Quotes Hitler. Approves?

Rep. Mo Brooks inexplicably reads anti-Semitic passage from Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Seems like he tried to call Democrats nazis, but what he actually does is position Trump/GOP as nazis, Dems as Jews in his horrific analogy. Needs to be a MUCH bigger story. pic.twitter.com/oMNlnBjDR0

— Adam Best (@adamcbest) March 26, 2019

I guess quoting "Mein Kampf" approvingly sounded alright in Brooks' head at the time for some reason, but I would really like to know exactly what kind of disinformation campaign ever let this soft-headed person think for even one instant that the voice of the Nazis was the one you should trust, and the strategy of demonizing the press or leftists was actually a non-Hitlerian strategy.