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.)

THE 'JAN6' INSURRECTION INVESTIGATIONS: DONALD TRUMP'S PLAN TO TAKE OVER THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT BEGAN WITH THE POSTAL SERVICE'S DESTRUCTION OF MAIL SORTING MACHINES AND THE PICK UP AND DESTRUCTION OF HUNDREDS OF LETTEDROP-OFF BOXES...FOLLOWED BY THE INSURRECTION ATTEMPT OF JANUARY 6, 2021...AND HERE WE ARE

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

Donald Trump's multi-component conspiracy plan to hold onto power had many pieces that depended on key Trump-appointed role players, heading key government agencies, who were to enact new policies, or directly act, to obstruct and terminate the lawful transfer of power to a possibly new political administration outcome of the 2020 presidential election. If visibly legal means to stop the electoral process didn't work, then the plan was to have an insurrection grab of power by a pre-organized mob that would invade the halls of Congress and stop the January 6, 2021, Congressional formal 'certification' of the Electoral College Ballots.

The Jan6 insurrection plan seems to have been copied from one of Trump's rare book readings, and political heroes, Mein Kampf, written by Adolph Hitler during his 1923-24 imprisonment in Germany for treason and sedition attempt to overthrow Germany's democratic Weimar Republic.

Trump's attempt to take over the election process was (and remains) a well-imagined and dangerous plan whose structure and players remain in place because of the due process legal protections in the American Constitution. Memories of Weimar?

The continuation of the Trump presidency (in one form or another) depended on the success of several components and multiple players playing their part in a plan that depended on the coordination among many agencies and a bag load of key co-conspirators and emergency appointees. 

The Trump Plan was to compromise key government agencies such as the Dept of Homeland Security (DOJ and Secret Service head and agents), and other agencies - following a template of presidential replacement of department heads who would initiate agency changes although legitimate would nevertheless obstruct or call into question voting access and ballot certification across the country. As designed, the plan appeared to be within the legal powers of Trump's presidential authority. 

Trump's plan depended on cooperation (collusion) from compromised federal and state agencies and actors ...including Homeland Security, DOJ, Secret Service, and Congress itself; and also depending on the 'cooperation' (collusion) of state governors, attorneys general, legislators, etc. 

A key target in that plan was and remains the US Postal Service. Trump planned to defund the postal service in order to obstruct and slow down the November voting and election process by impairing the US Postal Service's capability to handle the flow and volume of postal items on election day. The plan apparently began with the May 16, 2020, appointment of Trump donor, Louis DeJoy. DeJoy began removing and destroying mail sorting machines and hundreds of postal drop-off boxes which Trump openly touted as his favored postal service measure designed to eventually lead to eliminating mail-in voting in as many states as possible. This program was apparently halted just before the election, but it was seen as too late by many...plus it was resumed after the election so that the slowdown to the election process will continue in magnified form for 2024.

Especially critical to the Plan were the quickly installed new heads of DHS, DOJ, the Secret Service,(and SS agents themselves), and other Trump appointees who (with some few exceptions) then were to play their assigned roles in a pre-planned 'strategy' of obstruction and delay of the Electoral College Count on January 6, 2021. 

The Jan6 House Select Investigation Committee is revealing more and more about Trump's plan to continue his presidency beyond January 20, 2021, through a multi-component conspiracy. 

Trump's role in the Plan was a key one....which was to incite a January 6 mob to 'invade' the Capitol building and stop the formal count of the Electoral College ballots after which Trump was to step up to declare a national emergency and with endorsement from his congressional loyalists he would continue as President...for...let's say, for an extended period of time to be determined., although starting out 'pro-tem'.

If the mob failed to 'remove' (incapacitate or kill ..." by hanging") VP Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, then compromised secret service agents were to move ('kidnap', accidently kill?) Pence to an isolated, emergency (secret) location so then Trump's congressional proxies (eg McConnell, Gohmert, Gaetz, Grassley, Graham, etc) would/could legitimately stop the electoral ballot count, declare the ballots questionable and call for a re-election. Then Trump would hold an emergency televised appearance from the White House (where he anxiously cheered on the insurrection mob) to declare martial law...leading to the suspension of the electoral process.  

Trump would then announce from the White House, that evening, a plan worked out (beforehand?) with his congressional loyalists (and the Supreme Court?) to continue in office pro-tem perhaps in increments of 3 months...but once the plan was in operation, there would be every opportunity, certainly, the purpose, to make permanent the emergency suspension of the transfer of power.  

But the Proud Boys failed to achieve their part, the insurrection, and the Secret Service failed to get Pence into 'that' car, so the Electoral College count was formalized, and the transfer of the presidency occurred.  

This left a big (and dangerous) problem for the insurrectionists: EVIDENCE OF THE INSURRECTION PLAN HAD TO BE ERASED, AND EVIDENCE OF THE ERASURE ITSELF HAD TO BE COVERED UP IN HOPES THAT IT WOULD ALL DIE AWAY AFTER BIDEN TOOK OVER. (

IMO, this hope that 'it would all fade away and be forgotten, was a very reasonable assumption knowing the tendency of the media to forget everything after a standard news cycle - in this case not more than several weeks and certainly not six months, nor the year that it took for DHS to inform Congress that the Secret Service text messages around Jan 6, 2021, had been erased ('legitimately') during a transparent, though irregular, Jan 5-7, wipe of DHS computers and Secret Service agents' personal cell phones. This was carried out. But even though not 'uncovered' until more than a year later, The Jan6 Investigation Committee is energetically examining the intricate workings of Trump's Plan to illegally continue in office..

The Trump Insurrection Plan has sneaky-thinking, 'idea-men' Steve Bannon and Roger Stone written all over it. But it seems that Bannon, Stone, and the other co-conspirators didn't figure on the Jan6 Investigation Committee being enacted, being serious, being impartial...having integrity., and above all being loyal to the nation rather than to an individual. 

But Trump loyalists and insurrection planners then quickly reacted with another plan to neutralize the Jan6 House Select Investigation Committee - by attempting to seed the Jan6 Committee with pro-Trump members such as Jordan, Gaetz, etc. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quickly saw through that and took steps to select her own bi-partisan panel. who have carefully unstrung the ball of threads Trump and his u..and viola the curtains on the insurrection plan are being drawn aside with increasing speed...revealing a rotten core of insurrectionists and ungloving the fine handiwork of Bannon, Stone, and Trump himself (and others).