- Esrati - https://esrati.com -

The invasion of the Capitol

Had another countries soldiers marched up the steps of the Capitol, forced their way through police lines, broken windows and entered the Capitol, you can bet that: The National Guard would have been there, and both they and the Capitol Police would have been shooting them dead as fast as possible.

But, that’s an act of war you say? What we had was a group of Americans protesting – and invading the Capitol. Had they been black, they would have been shot or at least arrested and zip tied en masse. But, they were white, and Trump supporters. A president who has already been impeached once, who has chosen to ignore the outcomes of the popular vote, contest the Electoral College and follow the the established decorum of conceding his loss, and even after every single court case failed- including ones held in front of judges he appointed, he egged them on and as much as ordered his troops into battle.

First hint to “revolutionaries”- if your leader isn’t in the front of your march, leading by example, time to consider a new leader.

There are 5 people dead. A minuscule number compared to the 360,000 who have died from the Coronavirus, where Trump did nothing resembling what a leader would do to address a contagion-driven pandemic. But, apparently death tolls don’t matter as long as the stock market and your 401K are fine-  That’s the new standard.

The problem we’re facing right now is where do we go from here?

While some are whining about the banning of Trump from Facebook and Twitter as attacks on free speech, the real worry should be what our nuclear enemies are thinking when the Speaker of the House is concerned enough to call the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and ask if they’ve secured our launch codes so Trump doesn’t decide to take the planet out with a bang. Why not? He’s managed to break every other rule, norm, standard of decorum in his last 4 years- what makes you think he wouldn’t do something that stupid in his last days as il Presidente?

The Vice President refused to pick up a call from the speaker of the house? What was he doing that was more important? Considering a soldier can be shot for abandoning his post when pulling guard duty [1], isn’t it the Vice Presidents duty to serve when the president may be incapacitated or flat out nuts?

These are not the behaviors of people who should be entrusted with leading our country. Trump clearly crossed the line when first urging protestors to march on the Capitol, and his delay in “calling off the dogs” resulted in an invasion of our Capitol. Remember when you were a kid playing capture the flag? Well, taking the Capitol is sort of the same thing. Considering sensitive materials may have been stolen, the business of government was halted, and people died- this is not something to joke about. The real question is why were not more of the insurrectionists shot or arrested on the spot? The people in charge of security- should all be facing charges and in jail now. Not later. Not in their homes, after resigning from their long careers as government employees. And, telling the protesters “We love you” is sending a message to do it again. Nope, we don’t love you. And if we don’t respond with force- we’re just asking for a repeat. This time, with real bloodshed.

The Cabinet and Vice President, who don’t seem to even understand the dangerous situation we are now in, are also unfit for office. Unless they want this to keep happening, the moves should be strong, immediate and clear- the same elections that chose Joe Biden to be President, were the elections that put you in power. If you side with Ted Cruz and Jim Jordan who believe the elections weren’t legit, or the rest that believed there was some kind of “steal”- the proper thing to do is to resign and then march on Washington. You cannot serve both masters. The Constitution, which you swore an oath to protect actually says you can’t.

14th Amendment Section 3.

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.

Source: 14th Amendment | U.S. Constitution | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute [2]

In other words, if you want to incite the storming of the Capitol, you aren’t allowed to have a key to the Capitol.

When the criminal president can still pardon folks (including all his friends plus some war criminals) hand out Medals of Freedom, make executive orders after one of your guards has given his life to protect your hallowed halls, we have a problem. He didn’t even order the flag to be lowered to half-staff across the country in respect for the dead Capitol guard.

And while we love to look for precedent- and tie ourselves up in knots over procedure- the common sense thing to do is overrule all the dissenters- and move to install Biden and Harris early. No interim needed. Our country’s survival is more important. These are unprecedented actions by a sitting president, cabinet, Vice President, Senate Majority Leader- and none have shown they have the gumption to follow the law.

That seven representatives requested Biden to stop the impeachment  actions “in the spirit of healing” shows a total lack of connection to reality.

In the spirit of healing and fidelity to our Constitution, we ask that you formally request that Speaker Nancy Pelosi discontinue her efforts to impeach President Donald J. Trump a second time. A second impeachment, only days before President Trump will leave office, is as unnecessary as it is inflammatory. This impeachment would undermine your priority of unifying Americans, and would be a further distraction to our nation at a time when millions of our fellow citizens are hurting because of the pandemic and the economic fallout. We respectfully urge you to encourage Speaker Pelosi to set aside this partisan effort immediately.

We don’t need to wait for the next wave of insurrectionists- we need to cut them off at the pass because the next time, they’ll probably bring lots of guns and even more desperation.

Right here in Dayton, barricades are going up around the Federal building- for the same reason.

Trump should still be impeached- and denied any of the trappings of an ex-president, including pension, security. medical care, budget for travel [3]– and tried for treason. Pence, the same. Failure to carry out the duties of his office at time of crisis has nullified his service.

Everything in Trump’s last four years has been building up to starting a second American Civil War. But, while the first one was nominally about states rights and the economics of slavery, this one is about the legitimacy of our democracy.

Democracy only works when there is trust in the system, trust in those elected, trust in the judiciary, and trust in the fourth estate to keep checks and balances in place. Trump has been working to undermine all of our institutions- in his name- not in the name of freedom, democracy or the American Way.

How much damage he and his disciples can do in the last 10 days is in the hands of those we’ve entrusted to support the Constitution. They have no choice but to impeach, to try, to arrest if need be, the leader of the insurrection and his minions- including those 147 members of Congress who were duly elected- but chose to oppose those results [4].

Pray for our country, our democracy and those who will be asked to defend the Capitol when the next wave comes.

 

If you enjoyed reading true breaking news, instead of broken news from the major media in Dayton, make sure you subscribe to this site for an email every time I post. If you wish to support this blog and independent journalism in Dayton, consider donating [5]. All of the effort that goes into writing posts and creating videos comes directly out of my pocket, so any amount helps! Please also subscribe to the Youtube channel for notifications of every video we launch – including the livestreams.
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments