Should Donald Trump Be Seen (And Legally Investigated, and Potentially Punished), As a ‘Force’ (a Psych-Spectrum Case)? Does America Have Precedent in It’s Laws

 The Perched Eye blog is 14 years old,  from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the styles and directions of American politics and culture, with an occasional comment on the impact of new technologies. Our observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted.

Donald Trump might (/should) be viewed as a ‘force’ (a psych-spectrum case), not simply as just a person. But how can an unembodied ‘something’ be punished by a legal system whose underlying origin, purpose, and intent are focused on organic, living things? Can America’s legal system put a ‘force’ on trial? It seems difficult to do …as America is experiencing.

It seems we’re just now realizing that Trump and Trumpism are forces — the former a psych-spectrum ‘case,’ and the latter ‘-ism’ a belief movement intent (by real past actions) on destroying American democratic operations. 

Therefore, at the least to deter future ‘Jan 6’s (2021)’, the punishment for the ‘Jan6’ attempted overthrow of the American government is left with increasing the legal weight of the crime, i’e’, the sentence term. Hence, the DOJ's move to increase sentences for sedition appears logical and perhaps the only recourse to handling cases like Donald Trump’s seditious actions and planning to lead to Jan 6 (and obstructions thereafter.)

One can get lost in legalese ‘entanglements’, but lengthier sentences can serve to prevent future seditious acts, as well as punish the current conspirators whose intent was to overthrow the elected American government. 

(Remember Germany’s experience with Hitler, who was convicted of conspiracy and sedition to overthrow Germany’s 1920s Weimar Republic, but only served 9 months of a 5-year term, then went on to gain total power…with the aid of MAGA-like ultra-right wing thugs and para-military elements, Hitler’s Brown Shirt supporters.) Don’t doubt that America saw the same elements (pro-Hitler thugs and legitimate congresspersons) assembled here to forcibly gain total power for Trump, who openly stated his intentions to serve as many terms as he wanted, and destroy his enemies. Trump’s plans for regaining the ‘throne’ were (are/should be) scary. 

Let’s trust in the American legal process — the simplest route to prevent future ‘Jan6’s is to increase the incarceration terms for sedition. (Otherwise, we will have to wait maybe 4–5 years, or more, for the current Supreme Court to even hear the Jan6 case against Trump-the-person.

Are We Seeing a 1930s Weimar Era Deviousness in America’s Current Rightwing Political Drama? The Endgame Seems Similar: Authoritarian Dictatorship, Putsch and All

 The Perched Eye blog is 12+ years old, beginning from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the shapes and directions of American politics and culture, with occasional comments on the potential impact of new technologies. Pericles21's observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted. 

Prologue: Why does American politics under Trump since a year before his 2016 presidential election, and after he lost in 2020, continue to resemble ithe drama and craziness of Hitler's drunken-walk caryings-on through German politics of 1920-1933?. Trump's shouts  of 'foul-play' for losing the 2020 election, seem to mirror the drama of Germany in those times.

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After the unsuccessful Jan6, 2022 attempted putsch, which so far appears to be a thing of history, America’s democratic preference to let bygones be gone…, now has a breath of clean air in President Joseph Biden, who is an experienced Washington politician (Senator, 2-term Vice President, and family man). President Biden has steadied the American ship of State, though the media, right and left, quite readily have targeted his policy and even personal qualities.

Kurt von Schleicher was Hitler’s ‘fixer’ who orchestrated der Fuhrer’s decade-long rise to Chancellor (1933) after his 1924 imprisonment for sedition and attempted putsch of the Weimar Republic. Von Schleicher’s spider-webbed schemes on behalf of HItler are close to Machiavelli’s darkest political maneuverings. (But it wasn’t at all just about Hitler, the intention was to use Hitler to springboard a cabal of Germany’s industry-autocrat,..aristocrat-militarist elite into total authoritarian rule under a military head.) 

In this current era, it appears that von Scleicher has been resurrected in the Steve Bannon — William Barr duo who almost pulled off a 1933 style game play in the 2022 midterms except that the Democrat vote was even more the majority (8 million plurality) than in 2016 presidential election when Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 3 million votes. Now, Bannon-Barr have been replaced by the Department of Justice’s new head, Merrick Garland, a methodical legalist whose style appears to be an unbiased adherence to Constitutional principles. Garland’s style at times appears frustratingly slow (America’s collective psyche prefers quick action), but in the end solid evidence and near-faultless case closures have consistently advanced his legal pursuit of justice for Trump-and-compny’s political injustices..

Garland is an important bright spot in America’s recovery after the Trump presidency and attempted putsch.

Garland uses Democracy to defend Democracy, instead of a Bannonist exploitation of Democratic principles, through clever wordplay, to promote authoritarian rule (Bannon and Barr Trumpism… and ‘others’ whose roles are yet to come into view…but their shadows are appearing in the distant fog).

Bannon is still, even under the threat of long-term incarceration, playing the role of Hitler’s ‘Kurt von Schleicher’, a 1930s German aristocrat (plutocrat) whose political ‘game’ attempted to use Hitler as an intermediary to replace constitutional government with an authoritarian miliary-dictatorship.

Of course, it can be seen that Trump, like his literary-historical mentor, Hitler, even facing possible incarceration or at least heavy political condemnation and possibly social exile, should not yet be counted out. Trump’s “Brown Shirt’ street thug supporters, the MAGA crowd, are still active, and the recent November midterm elections did not remove America’s government from being in danger by a rightwing takeover…as evidenced by the Supreme Court’s increasing open association with extreme right-wing industrial-political groups.

In coming acts of American political drama, there are reasons to expect that the current Trumpist supporters such as Bannon will be trampled under the wheels of Trump disfavor … Trump is a ‘Natural’ for the role of a Neo-Hitler…even to the point of promoting the unsuccessful Jan 6 ‘putsch’.

But, as for who or what group is pulling the strings for America’s right-wing players, the picture is yet incomplete… but shadows are now coming into focus. 

Elon Musk , the mega-entrepeneur, is one candidate to be added to that potential list of hopeful autocrats who would rule America like a gang-boss. (Although, Musk is a successful entrepreneur, his time at the political right-center stage is most likely a temporary red-Herring, the exploitation of a politically buffoonish savant.)

We will see what things take shape as this play goes forth.

SHOULD DONALD TRUMP BE INCLUDED IN AMERICA'S OFFICIAL GROUP TO ATTEND QUEEN ELIZABETH’S STATE FUNERAL

The Perched Eye blog is 12+ years old,  from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the ways and directions of American politics and culture, and occasionally commenting on the potential impact of new technologies. Pericles21's observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted. 

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Whether or not Donald Trump should be included in the official American contingent to Queen Elizabeth's state funeral is the sort of dilemma that helped destroy the Weimar Republic (Germany, 1920s) and assisted the rise of Adolph Hitler, i.e., a democracy faced with an anti-democracy antagonist (Hitler, Trump) who insists on his democratic-principle ‘rights’ to speak as he wants, although his words incite anti-democracy mob acts. 

The Weimar Republic's historically-proven, correct handling of the early Hitler would have been to keep him in prison for the full 5 years of his 1924 sentence for insurrection and treason… instead of letting him use democracy’s own principles to get out of prison after only 9 months…during which state-supported time and state expense, Hitler wrote “Mein Kampf”… which was a factor largely accountable for the murders and war-killings of about 60 million humans. Once free, Hitler climbed the political ladder supported by his Brown Shirt mob (‘MAGAs), who he later ‘cast aside’ (canceled, murdered, eradicated) when they became a political embarrassment. (MAGAs are now learning that lesson!)

Donald Trump. Trump has proved himself to be an “anti-democracy factor” and has been impeached for an attempted insurrection and failed coup (the "Jan6" 1921 event). 

Whether to include Donald Trump to attend Queen Elizabeth's state funeral as part of the official American contingent, is American democracy’s dilemma. Trump's presence at Elizabeth Regina’s state funeral would appear to be a cruel jibe at the good that Elizabeth symbolizes, and a joke on America itself. 

Trump should not be invited by the current American President to attend per traditional protocol -Trump flaunted, scoffed at, ignored, tainted, and rejected that sort of polite democratic tradition long ago.  (IMO, Trump should be ‘allowed’ to sit this one out, tune into the funeral from one of his 'shady' mansions, and wait for his indictment. Maybe harsh, but 'Jan6' and ‘Weimar’ …history, dammit.)

GUESS IT'S THAT TIME FOR A REPUBLICAN PARTY REBRANDING

This blog is 12+ years old, from 2009 with President Obama's first term. The focus has been eclectic ...focusing on the ways and directions of American politics and culture, and occasionally new technologies. Pericles21's observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted.

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Political parties are in a bind when they don't have anything of substance to offer and don't have the sense, depth of real feeling, nor intellectual nuance to come up with real thoughts, real positions, or real contributions to society. Lacking these qualifications, a party such as the Republicans once more has to face the Nixonian challenge...'WTF are we gonna do to save this sinking ship?'  But, this time things seem more desperate than in Nixon's time because he and Ronald Reagan used up all the storylines, diversions, schemes, plots, canards, red herrings, and other facadic masks ...ie. they left nothing for current Republicans to scrounge from to fool the public.  

But, 'Hey, no worries...just rebrand, repaint, re-'stuff'  that smelly old sock...with anything that can be trotted out under the banner of 'New!', and pray that the public is as stupid as you think it is and that it swallows the tasteless swill that rolls down the chute from the Republican propaganda mill.

And this is where the 2022 Republican Party is now - it is neck-deep in mucky infighting, spouting slogans that carry no meaning except dog-whistle calls to violence and hate. It is awash in scandal, and an embarrassingly large number of its 'leaders' seem near to real historical charges of insurrection and sedition.

Back in 2009, this blogger commented on the empty vacuum that was the Republican Party which was drowning in its own self-destructive quicksand of empty phrases and zombie substitutions for real leaders; it was desperately reaching for a lifesaver, anything that could float and save the Party from complete irrelevance. 

And so the Republican 'brain trust' came up with idea of simply 'rebranding' itself as if it was a box of kiddy cereal that needed brighter colored packaging, larger type and more (faked) flavor stimulation. Nixon's "Southern Strategy" was the result - blame everything on America's favorite drug addiction, race.

So was 'invented' the easiest line up of substitutes for real thinking and substantive political platforms ... the Great Con Series (the Loyalty Oath (Michael Steele, RNC Chair/President) and the Tea Party....both mirroring their authoritarian precursors of 1930s Brown Shirts and the extreme authoritarian flavor of the Bolsheviks, Stalin, Mao, ...

Entering into the maelstrom of political 'midterms, one wonders what meaningless 'cons' and diversions the Republican Party will come up with this time...especially its ship has been near completely hi-jacked by such numeraries as Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Madison Cawthorn, Susan Collins (the sea anchor), and a host of other 'special' politicians...Cotton, Abbott, Cruz, etc.

SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL TRAVESTIES HIMSELF FOR TRUMP, AGAIN - BY ENGINEERING A SENATE IMPEACHMENT ACQUITTAL

Former President Donald Trump recently escaped a second Senate impeachment trial conviction (February 13, 2021) mainly due to Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell's cowardly and Machiavellian plotting motivated to curry future support from Trump and his facist, violent, neo-Nazi base. (BEWARE, McConnell, Trump has no reciprocal sense of loyalty and you will live in real fear of his transactional, fickle, chaotic, paranoid mind-set  that can impromptu-ly unleash his armed henchmen upon your soul, home and family!)

(Does an image of the Hitler's 1930's 'Brown Shirts' come to mind? It should - one of Trump's few reading materials as an adult were 'Mein Kampf'' and "My New Order (Hitler's speeches)" which Trump reportedly kept by his bedside (according to an ex-wife)!). 

So, even though Trump lost the election and voted out of office, America faces another four years of Trump's sniping attacks on our leaders and democratic systems. (Furthermore and sadly, it seems Mitch McConnell's political 'skills' and expertise lie in dark, Machiavellian obstruction.)

And, as far as the Democrats are concerned, Trump's proxy, McConnell, will continue obstructing President Biden's work to save America from the Pandemic and economic collapse ... both the result of Trump's incompetence, self-agrandizing policies and treasonous complicity with America's declared state enemies.

This blogger views Trump's continued effect on the forthcoming years with a mix of foreboding and morbid curiosity. 

Just how frequent and damaging to our democracy and with what forms will Trump's psychotic ways dump more chaos and confusion onto America?  The answer is very likely, 'often and smelly', as Trump's style is about everything.

And what about Mitch McConnell? Will McConnell receive his anticipated rewards for his lickspittle loyalty to Trump in engineering the Senate trial's 'Acquittal-by-default?', the failure to convict by lack of a quorum majority? 

One feels that McConnell will not be rewarded to the extent he expects. But McConnell will survive politically because even Trump knows his interests are best served with a live lapdog than a powerless junior senator replacing a McConnell let lapse by Trump's vindictive urges.

But, though Trump will let McConnell survive, it will be just 'survival' in mental pergatory. The next years will not be a bed of roses for McConnell. Trump must now see McConnell for the servile 'nothing' McConnell truly is. And Trump will beat on and defile McConnell with scorn like a moldy old drum because Trump now knows McConnell is his 'bitch'.

This blogger sees a self-resurrecting Trump rewarding McConnell's lickspittle boot polishing with deserved scorn, not so much for McConnell cravenly saving Trump from a Senate conviction but mostly for the minor lapses in McConnell's total loyalty and subservience in the last 5 years.

'BEWARE' Mitch McConnell ... despite your eager knee-scraping to lap up Trump's disrespect and treating you like the servile puppet you are, Trump will 'engineer' ways to belittle and besmirch you, to spite and spit on you ... just because.' Enjoy Trump's hell, Mitch.

AND... behind the Senate's failure to convict Trump of impeachable misconduct as president, Trump's treasonous self-agrandizing acts against the Republic, we must address the glaring question: 'how is it that McConnell is the most powerful senior senator in America?', although he is a prime example of America's 'leak in the dam' of our form of democracy because he 'represents' the 7th most impoverished state in the nation with one of the least-educated and small populations? 

How can McConnell play a leading role for America from the context of representing one of the most demographically and economically marginal state 'anomalies', his home state of Kentucky? From that context, it seems McConnell hasn't a clue about the needs and path forward to a modernized, multi-cultural America with new industries and more jobs.

The answer to why McConnell has disproportional influence is America's 'leak-in-the-democracy' construction - seniority and no-term-limit rules ... which are employed to insincere unpatriotic advantage by the former Confederate states, with their race-based gerrymandering and other means of voter suppression.

McConnell, as a Senator of one of America's most impoverished, uneducated and nationally supported small states, surely can't have a clue about the needs and path forward for a modernized, multi-cultural America. 

McConnell doesnt have the home-state context and personal outlook to help formulate solutions for a future America with new industries and more jobs. 

(Again, sadly, it seems McConnell's chief self-serving, self-preserving political 'skills' and expertise lie in dark, Machiavellian obstruction.)