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What Would Nellis Say?

Disgusting
 

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Disgusting

By Rick Stiller

Disgusting seems the only word that accurately describes Trump’s first day in office. Certainly, many other descriptors might suffice, but most are not fit to print, so let’s go with disgusting.

 

On his first day back in the Oval Office, he made a very public display of granting nearly 1600 pardons for convicted rioters who obeyed his commands to attack the Capitol on January 6th, 2021, in a cataclysmic siege to overturn the free and fair election he lost. He also ordered the Department of Justice to remove all references to the riot and their investigations on official websites, demoted or sacked many who were involved in those cases, and toss out more than 300 ongoing inquiries into insurrectionists who had yet to be tried.

 

On January 6th, Senators, Congressmen, and staff who were gathered to ratify the votes were forced to flee for cover and protection when armed assailants stormed the building, hunting for Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!” 

 

In the process, hundreds of Capitol police officers were attacked with pipes, batons, baseball bats, flagpoles, tasers, and caustic chemical sprays, sending 140 to the hospital with serious injuries during the melee, and four who committed suicide in the days after the violence. One of our most sacred symbols of democracy suffered millions of dollars in damages, and to demonstrate their contempt for our democratic process, the insurgents defecated and smeared feces all over the building.

 

All of this unfolded over five or six hours as Donald Trump sat in his dining room watching the mayhem and violence on television. Despite aids and family members pleading with him to make a statement to call off his troops, he did nothing.

 

The world wondered…why? 

 

After signing these orders today, it seems possible, perhaps probable, that the insurrection was not just another incident. It was the point. The Trump-inspired violence was the culmination of years of carnival show hype to convince his audience to accept the idea that the “deep state” had to be destroyed for the good of the country…and he was the only one who could fix it.

 

The riot was the grand finale in his coup to overthrow our democratic system by eviscerating the legislative branch after packing the federal courts with hundreds of carefully vetted Leonard Leo - Federalist Society-approved radically loyal justices, including three on the Supreme Court, to justify the legality of his scheme and immunize him from reprisal.

 

Republican officials, who harp on supporting “law & order” and the men and women in uniform who protect us, condemned the violence during the first days after the attack. But fear is Trump’s favorite political weapon, and he wields it with surgical precision. So, within the next few weeks, many of the formerly outraged and defiant Republicans rushed to Moron-Logo to bend a knee and kiss the ring in cowering deference to the ringmaster who precipitated the carnage. 

 

Hitler’s Brown Shirts intimidated, attacked, and murdered his opponents with impunity, which provided a template for Trump’s first order of business. When combined with his promise of presidential immunity for violence committed in his name, the pardons will provide him with an enormous legion of dedicated and grateful, well-armed vigilantes to enforce his vengeful edicts without hesitation or fear of prosecution.

 

While he has made no secret of his intention to use our military against any organized protests or dissension and to seal the borders, round up “undocumented” migrants from schools, churches, and workplaces, construct and guard concentration camps, and deport them to countries many have never seen. Having a fanatical personal militia will allow him to ignore laws and regulations that limit his ability to skirt military conventions and deploy these violent criminals against his enemies.

 

Not since President Lincoln granted amnesty to Confederate soldiers, with the requirement that they pledge allegiance to the United States of America, have so many traitors convicted of participating in a violent attempt to overthrow the government been freed without penalty or restrictions…including the one in the White House.

 

While Trump’s first order of business was to rewrite history, erasing the stench and stain of his attempted coup to seize power, he signed piles of executive orders discarding major accomplishments from the Biden administration that help regular people…with challenges to reducing the cost of pharmaceuticals, protecting the wilderness from the pollution and desecration of drilling and mining, Constitutionally mandated birthright citizenship, our participation in the Paris Climate Accord (again) and the World Health Organization, and so many others…this is an eye-popping exclamation point in his complete contempt for the most basic needs of the citizens of our country. 

 

And it is our country - a democracy for every citizen, paid for with the blood, sweat, and tears of the many, not just the aristocratic few who made fortunes on the sacrifices of real patriots. The white male fake Christian bigots he is ushering into positions of power will not serve with honor, distinction, or dedication to the institutional foundations our forefathers wrote into the Constitution. Their loyalty is to Trump and institutionalizing white nationalism first, last, and always.

 

Millions of voters ignored his adjudication as a sexual predator, being convicted of 34 felonies, bankrupting every business he ever started, displaying callous incompetence and indifference in dealing with the pandemic that left thousands of corpses packed into refrigerator trucks on the streets of every city in the country, raising the deficit by more than 25% (more than any other president), and leaving the economy in the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Those voters rallied behind his hateful lies to re-elect him to a second term enthusiastically.

 

Which prompts the questions – 

 

Who does he intend to use his personal military legion against? Tyrants do not build an armed militia unless they intend to use it.

 

If this was his first day, how much destruction can he accomplish in the 1460 days remaining in his term? 

 

And how far does he have to go? How extreme does the desecration of our democracy have to suffer before real patriots rise up to challenge his contempt for everything our America stands for?

 

Stand up! Speak up! And make a difference before there is nothing left to defend!

Rick Stiller 2024

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