Morning has Broken.
It’s a new day.
For Trump, another bad day.
A New York judge today will proceed with preparations for his trial in April on 34 felonies for “falsifying business records in the first degree.” This case is being handled by the district attorney Alvin Bragg.
He also has to post bond today in order to appeal a $464 million judgment against him in a case brought by the attorney general of New York Leticia James.
He’s also facing two indictments brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith of the Department of Justice for his mishandling of classified documents, and for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
There is also a case brought by the State of Georgia for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election there. The prosecutor there is pushing for a summer trial.
The wheels of Justice grind slowly, but they do not stop.
Trump is growing more desperate as he learns he cannot stop these legal proceedings against him.
He may call for more action to "take our country back.”
January 6, 2021: Part I
2024: Part II.
What might it look like?
That is not known, but it could happen.
The seeds of political violence have already been planted well enough, both during Trump’s term in office, and after, and it continues today, and will do so tomorrow.
What fuels this violence is Trump’s tongue… his words, language.
Take his use of the word “vermin.”
Here they are:
We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections,
In a substack article entitled:
Vermin": Trump Crosses Fully into Nazi Territory, Robert P. Jones writes this:
His characterization of immigrants as dangerous, deranged, and diseased is setting the stage for what likely future Trump administration appointees such as Stephen Miller have promised will be “the most spectacular migration crackdown” and “the largest deportation operation this country’s ever seen” should Trump be re-elected.
Trump’s calls to “root out…vermin” who present a sinister threat from within the ranks of Americans intentionally dehumanize, in the eyes of his followers, all those who oppose him. The word “vermin” is a peculiar and deliberate word choice in political speech. Its appearance on Trump’s lips is no accident.
He also makes this point concerning Hitler's use of the word "vermin" in his book Mein Kampf,
Mein Kampf uses the term “vermin” three times and “rats” four times. Here is a sample: “The time seemed to have arrived for proceeding against the whole Jewish gang of public pests…. Now that the German worker had rediscovered the road to nationhood, it ought to have been the duty of any Government which had the care of the people in its keeping, to take this opportunity of mercilessly rooting out everything that was opposed to the national spirit. While the flower of the nation's manhood was dying at the front, there was time enough at home at least to exterminate this vermin.”
Such language leads to real and sustained violence.
We were first given a glimpse of it on January 6, 2021, and it continued with assaults on all kinds of people today.
A New York Times article dated February 18 2024 titled MAGA’s Violent Threats Are Warping Life in America, cited numerous threats against various legal professionals who are involved in the process to hold him accountable or and politicians who are simply speaking in opposition. Other big media figures are also on the attack list.
Considering human nature, it seems possible, likely, that this violence will increase in the months leading up to the November 2024 election.
In Hitlers' Germany, there was opposition to him, some were young, fierce righteous Germans who rose up and did their duty to conscience and country.
Consider Sophie Scholl:
She was born on May 9, 1921, and was executed on February 22, 1943, at the age of 21. Along with her brother Hans Scholl and other members of the White Rose resistance group, Sophie distributed anti-Nazi leaflets at the University of Munich, calling for active opposition to Hitler’s regime. Their actions led to their arrest, trial, and eventual execution by guillotine for high treason. Sophie Scholl’s bravery and defiance against the Nazi regime have made her an enduring symbol of resistance and courage.
As courageous as these hero-souls were, they could not overcome the overwhelming power of the German state.
Enough of the powers-that-be supported Hitler, and enough of the rural folk voted for him, given him the means to carry out his deeds.
Their vicious violence grew in strength to the point of millions and millions of innocent human beings being murdered.
Each of them with a name, each of them with a story, each of them with dreams and visions, sorrows and fears.
Each of them facing death in unnatural and violent ways.
The story does not end there. It ended with men like my own father, with heavy arms in strong arms, fighting the enemy head on.
The Nazi war machine was overwhelmingly crushed to rubble by the allied powers.
The United States defeated them in 1945.
Today the United States will defeat its remnants that remain among Trump and his capos and supporters across this country.
The chaos and violence that may be unleashed will be met by a slow but steady force that cannot be outdone.
People that have the authority of the state or the federal government behind them are not ordinary people you bump into at your local Starbucks.
Consider all those in jail today because of the violence of January 6.
Stewart Rhodes received an 18 year prison sentence. Peter Schwartz received a 14 year prison sentence. Thomas Webster receive 10 years. Jessica Watkins, 8 1/2 years. Patrick McCaughey, 7 1/2 years. Kyle Young 7 years. Albuquerque, Cosper Head, 7 1/2 years. Guy Reffitt, and Thomas Robertson more than 7 years. Julie Khater more than 6 years. Robert Palmer more than 5 years.
Others as well, those closely associated with Trump who are also tangled up in the legal industrial complex, people who worked with him and spoke to him on the phone. People who had meetings with him.
Some of them have also been indicted, convicted, and sentenced to jail.
Peter Navarro is one of them. He spoke at the eclipse on January 6. Bannon too will someday soon head to the pen.
More than anything, the likely chaos that will emerge now will come from within him and from his capos.
They are the authors of anything vile, noxious, and violent that emerges. We have already felt its energy for way too long. Many of us are fatigued by it. Fed up by it. Tired of reading and hearing about it.
But also energized in writing about it and speaking out against it.
The sheer weight of this hubris might be too much for them to bear.
It isn’t that way with us.
Their fuel, when it mixes with ours, is not a good combustion, at least not for them.
The force generated by his existence will be too much to hold back.
With all these G forces coming down on his head, will he survive politically to election day 2024?
It's hard to tell. If he has a medical emergency that ends up claiming his life, that would not be good at all.
I hope that does not happen. He like all of us deserves to die naturally and not prematurely.
He must face the bar of justice to its bitter end.
In the days, weeks, and months ahead, look for matters to get more volatile and explosive.
With each passing court case, with each new trial scheduled, when the Supreme Court denies his claim of immunity, with each Republican who rejects him, or each insurance company that “laughs” at him, with each slight, insult, and push back, the volatility, and explosiveness, will increase in size and matters will become more and more ugly and finally unsustainable.
What that looks like remains unknown.
I know people like to rant about Trump, but many refuse to see the similarities elsewhere and that is discouraging! Remember, Clinton called her opponents deplorable, Maxine Watters called on people to, “burn this city down!” Many more lives and businesses were destroyed by the “peaceful” protests than the January 6th “insurrection”
We all need to call this nonsense and division out wherever we see, regardless of any political leanings we may have.
It’s just hypocrisy not to!