Anatomy of a Coup by Eric Blair
The prime-time broadcast of the January 6 Congressional hearings surpassed expectations- and fears. The first session easily could have devolved into an exercise of histrionics and tedious grandstanding. But instead of Kabuki theater, the American public received what could be our version of the Nuremberg trials, except that in this case, half of the Reichstag is still controlled by the Gestapo and Goebbels is still alive to craft the propaganda and disinformation on one particular cable news channel. Names of those who have no shame will be helpful, but better still will be indictments and convictions of those complicit in the cabal.
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A Smash Opening Act by Ken Zino
Opening night of the January 6 public hearings consisted of the opening arguments to a seven-part plan to be covered in subsequent hearings. Despite the understandable misgivings of one of our estimable conservative columnists, the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol got it right. The committee of seven Democrats and two Republicans will hold at least six more performances of an American tragedy this month. The chair, Rep. Bernie Thompson of Mississippi, opened with a dark warning that January 6 and the lies that led to the insurrection continue to put American Democracy at risk.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) provided the groundwork for using Trump’s own appointees, inner circle and supporters to show the hearings are not a political theatre, but rather the House panel intends to provide evidence that Donald Trump was at the center of a vast conspiracy to stop the peaceful transfer of power after Trump lost at the ballot box and then lost in the courts about false charges of election fraud (Trump lost 60 cases via his then-personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who had been a leader of the 45th president’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election results and is now disbarred in New York State). The only option left to Trumpsters was to stop counting of the votes so Trump could remain in office.
The MMO: Trump had the motive, had the means as he attempted to use the Department of Justice, the U.S. military and the states to overthrow the duly elected president, and he seized the opportunity to abuse his powers as president. The case is the murder of democracy and the shredding of the Constitution.
Opening statement to the jury: Trump, against the advice of his appointees and own Justice Department, set in motion a plan that ultimately spurred an organized mob led by the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to attack the capital to stop the count of electoral votes by using violence in Washington and fraud in the States where Biden won with false slates of pro-Trump electors.
A lot of nefarious activity was afoot in November before the election, when Trump’s own campaign officials told him he would lose. Attorney General William Barr -- Trump’s lapdog who successfully spun the Mueller Report -- would meet with Trump on November 23, December 14 and resign on December 23 because the fraud case was “bullshit.” Barr did not agree that the election was stolen and “did not want to be part of the unsupported view that the election was stolen.”
The cast of characters that will ultimately perform or support the prosecution includes thousands of witnesses comprised of senior White House officials, Trump family members, military and Homeland Security officials.
Next week: Trump’s second act in the seditious plan, using the Department of Justice and attempting to remove the acting attorney general. Act Three: Pressure on Vice President Pence to go along with the plan. Act Four: Pressure state officials. Act Five: When states balk, instruct Republicans to lie with false slates of electors. Act Six: Trump surrounded and encouraged by so-conspirators to the horror of many senior Republicans. Act 7: Do nothing on 1/6 to stop the violence and sedition despite entreaties from senior Republicans and his own family.
Curtain: Trump bows out as the Justice Department considers a superseding indictment of Trump arising from the Proud Boys and Oath Keeper legal matters. Documentary filmmaker Nick Quested was embedded within the Proud Boys and provided devastating footage and testimony. Now will Republican barons abandon the king? Stay tuned.
Curtain Call: It’s clear to me that more people, who were or are now in Congress, will be charged. There is a version of Aristotelian logic in play here. Thus far no evidence has been produced to support Trump’s defense or hypothesis that the election was stolen. Much evidence already exists against it.
The unanswered problem: We are dealing with a totalitarian state of mind existing within Trump supporters, some of whom support the violent overthrow of our governments. As for upcoming elections, we can’t dissolve these people and elect a new one as Bertolt Brecht satirically suggested in a poem written after the 1953 East German uprising against an oppressive government. However, we can pressure existing government, law enforcement and courts to protect and preserve our Constitution. Is this the sequel?