Trump and his enablers must face consequences

After five years of daily, hourly, and at times minutes of Twitter ranting, Donald Trump dominated the news cycle with hate, lies and narcissism. Watching his tiny mouth pucker, twist and sneer as he told over 35,000 lies was like an endless five-year barefoot walk on hot, sharp gravel.

In spite of everything Donald Trump and his party tried to do to derail an orderly transfer of power, Joseph R. Biden Jr. was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. Kamala Harris became the first woman elected as Vice President.

The ceremony was unlike any other in our history. Friend and foe shared the day.

Participants and spectators alike were mostly social distanced and wore masks. Sadly, soldiers were occupying the Capitol, the perimeter and city, sleeping on cold marble floors, for the first time since the Civil War.

Following the January 6 breaching by Donald Trump’s murderous insurrectionists, tall riot fencing had been erected around the Capitol perimeter. The entire area plus other parts of the city had been heavily fortified and were under curfew.

Still refusing to admit defeat, Little Donnie Trump childishly refused to attend the ceremony, which marked the first time an outgoing president has skipped an inauguration in more than 150 years.

Vice President Mike Pence attended after having been in Georgia a few weeks ago supporting Trump’s claim that the “election was rigged” and “stolen.” Apparently, he had a change of mind. Or most likely, he sees himself as the 2024 heir apparent.

As Donald Trump took his final Air Force One flight from Washington at taxpayer expense, he left behind for Biden a nation divided; a Capitol building in shambles and five people dead in the aftermath of the riot; over 400,000 dead from COVID-19, a deadly virus he continued to ignore, and so much more.

Trump refused to provide an airplane for Biden’s trip from Delaware to Washington, usually a government courtesy. Biden chartered a plane.

Biden inherited almost 75 million rabid, angry Trump voters, as well as a riotous Army of Feral Humans — wearing horns and skins; with painted faces; carrying spears, guns and more — still on the loose.

In his final speech, a defiant Trump, before a sparse crowd of hastily recruited faithfuls at Joint Base Andrews, not surprisingly spouted little but lies. He took credit for creating the world’s greatest economy, the Covid-19 vaccine and everything except sliced bread.

“And again, I want to just, in leaving, I want to thank our Vice President Mike Pence and Karen,” Trump told his audience. An amazing moment of hypocrisy given that he verbally attacked Pence for failure to overturn the Electoral College certified results and damned near caused his assassination just days before.

He never mentioned Joe Biden and blamed “The China Virus” for disrupting his economic record: “What we started, had we not been hit by the pandemic, we would have had numbers that would never have been seen. Already our numbers are the best ever,” he again falsely claimed.

He was correct in a few respects: Over 400,000 deaths and hundreds more daily from the “China Virus,” hundreds of thousands left jobless due to his disdain for health professionals’ pleas that people social distance and wear masks. Virtually every facet of society has been touched by his ignorance and disdain for science.

Twelve National Guardsmen, among the 25,000 Guardsmen detailed to protect the nation’s Capitol and Biden’s inauguration, were found to have ties to organizations that advocate overthrowing our government. Those troops sleeping on the floors of the building are five times the number of troops in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq combined.

In a nearly 20-minute video released on his last full day as president, Trump said he was proud to depart the White House having done “what we came here to do.”

What the hell did he/they come here to do?

If he/they came to destroy our Democracy, it was a failure. Judges, some of whom he appointed, ruled against every lawsuit he and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani filed to negate a fair election.

Because during his January 6 rally, he publicly incited a mob to storm the Capitol to overturn his loss to Biden, he managed to make history, again, by becoming the first Oval Office Occupant to be impeached twice.

Never have so many been so guilty of aiding and abetting a creature clearly, from day one, unfit for any public office.

This entire scenario lies smoldering and stinking around Mitch McConnell’s feet. “This mob was fed lies,” Republican Senate Minority Leader McConnell said Tuesday. “They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.”

Yes, Mitch, you put Party over your constitutional oath of office and allowed a madman to go on an unchecked year-long rampage of rage when you denied The People the fight to impeach this creature. You mused in an understatement, “He doesn’t know a lot about the issues.”
Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz eagerly grabbed the spotlight from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and led the charge to overturn the mandate of The People. Both deserve ejection from office.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in 2016, “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed. And we will deserve it.” He should resign, too.

Let’s never forget or forgive Rudy Giuliani, who stood on that platform near the Capitol on Jan. 6 and declared to the crowd, “If we’re wrong, we will be made fools of. But if we’re right, a lot of them will go to jail. So let’s have trial by combat.” Rudy, like his crowd, simply ignored the fact that no fraud was found, that the election was certified as proper and legal.

Trump bragged, “Four years ago, I came to Washington as the only true outsider ever to win the presidency.” Even this is just plain bullshit.

His idol, Andrew Jackson, comes to mind. Jackson, the seventh president, was a racist slaveholder, bent upon the genocide of the Native American race. Trump has displayed hints that he, if in office then, might likely have had similar thoughts.

On January 13, a week after the failed insurrection, the House voted to impeach Trump for the second time.

It’s far overdue. If Mitch McConnell, when he was Senate majority leader, had allowed the will of The People to be acted upon, an inestimable number of lives may have been saved. Our Nation may have been a bit safer. Who knows?

Those Republicans who enabled or stood idly aside for the last four years deserve “a reckoning.” Mike Pence should be remembered forever as an active aider and enabler of this coup attempt.

Twitter and Facebook share a huge part of blame for enabling Trump’s vicious rants to be broadcast. (Both social media giants have since banned him.) The only good side is that his words can be used against him during his trial.

Fox News deserves to lose its license, along with Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and others. Disgustingly, Fox News fired Chris Stirewalt, the veteran politics editor who was an onscreen face of the network’s election night projection that Biden had defeated Trump in Arizona, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The projection had reportedly left Trump livid.

Just goes to show you, reporting the Truth can set you free.

We cannot allow Donald John Trump and his thugs to walk away unpunished.