1350 Words
INTRODUCTION
Here’s what happened in America on January 6th, 2021:
“After refusing to concede the 2020 U.S. presidential election and perpetuating false and disproven claims of widespread voter fraud, then-President Donald Trump summoned a mob of protestors to the Capitol as the electoral votes were being counted on January 6, 2021. During the House Committee's subsequent investigation, people gave sworn testimony that Trump knew he lost the election. [2] The Committee subpoenaed his testimony, identifying him as "the center of the first and only effort by any U.S. President to overturn an election and obstruct the peaceful transition of power".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_Select_Committee_on_the_January_6_Attack
In December of 2022, the January 6th Committee voted unanimously to refer the insurrection matter to the U.S. Department of Justice for prosecution. The recommended charges for Trump and lawyer John Eastman were:
Obstruction of an official proceeding,
Conspiracy to defraud the United States,
Conspiracy to make a false statement, and
Attempts to incite or to assist or to aid or comfort an insurrection.
This blog contains my opinions on former president Trump, on current president Biden, and on major influences and trends affecting the electorate which will determine the our next president.
FYI, I am a moderate Republican and I watched months of the almost daily activities of the January 6th Committee. What I learned from watching the Committee’s work motivated me to devote my citizen self to research the how and the why that the January 6th insurrection did occur. I am trained in research and I created a website and blog to educate voters about politics for making well-informed votes—instead of votes based on their political ignorance and the disinformation promoted by political operatives.
HERE ARE SOME KEY EVENTS ALONG THE TREACHEROUS PATH TO THE NOVEMBER 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Most of these key events are much more fully described in my 50+ blogs, which can be found at: votersgettingcontrol.blogspot.com
1. Michael Dean Cohen, an attorney who worked for former president Donald Trump from 2006 to 2018, became one of the most important witnesses to the January 6th Committee investigation of Trump’s insurrection attempt. Michael Dean Cohen accepted a plea agreement and cooperated with the January 6th Committee. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Cohen_(lawyer)
Everything Michael Dean Cohen has testified to has been fully consistent with other credible witnesses [including Trump’s vice president Mike Pence who has testified against Trump]. Additionally, what Michael Dean Cohen has testified to and commented on is backed up by dozens and dozens of staff members from the Trump administration; and, there are dozens of authoritative books documenting the substance of Michael Dean Cohen’s testimony.
2. Former President Donald Trump, as reported by many witnesses, knew he had lost the 2020 election. The January 6th Committee learned from their witnesses that Trump knew that Biden had won.
3. Even before the 2020 election, Trump, during the televised Republican Presidential Debates, began suggesting to Americans that election fraud was likely in the upcoming election. This amounted to his preparing Americans to believe his future falsehoods.
3. The January 6th Committee learned most, but not all, of the extensive and coordinated effort by Trump to overturn the election.
4. It’s a well established fact that the 2020 election was 99% fraud free and that any irregularities were so small that they could not have produced a significant change in the outcome.
5. The January 6th Committee’s research found that Trump had recruited many lawyers and politicians to assist him in trying to overturn the 2020 election. Many of these persons are well known public figures, such as lawyer Rudy Guiliani.
From THE AMERICAN PROSPECT website, a lengthy article spells out how dozens of lawyers, along with others assisted Trump in at least five states to replace valid electoral ballots with false ones naming Trump the winner in the 2020 election. By this time, there have been many indictments, and increasing numbers of convictions.
Indicted: Attorneys Kenneth Chesebro, Jim Tropis; Mike Roman; Rudy Giuliani.
The American Prospect article also reports that: “Meanwhile, Republicans remain uniformly unbothered by the unprecedented, multipronged assaults on our democracy, and by Trump’s personal role. And they’ve continued to push false narratives about the former president being politically targeted, along with a need to protect against allegedly widespread voter fraud.”
https://prospect.org/justice/2024-06-07-trump-allies-charged-fake-elector-scheme/
6. In Congress, the Republican Party majority has consistently voted to thwart attempts at holding responsible those who have attempted to overturn the 2020 election. Fortunately for America, the January 6th Committee did the work necessary to gather evidence of Trump’s insurrection attempts. The Committee then made referrals to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate election interference crimes.
The DOJ decides who gets indicted, admissions of guilt, and/or conducts trials, and hands out sentences. As this process has proceeded step by step, the Republican congressmen and women (with a few exceptions) have denounced the DOJ and floated claims that Democrats are “weaponizing” the Department of Justice.
It has been absolutely
stunning that the Republicans in Congress and the Republican Party apparatus
itself have continued to attack our Department of Justice. Repeatedly republican politicians have been spreading disinformation.
It’s hard to understand why educated elected Republican politicians would dispute the obvious conspiracy theories of former president Trump. More than a few election integrity deniers have lost lawsuits and paid dearly for defamation lies.
But now, national news commentators have been referring to Trump’s falsehoods as being a cult. And some have said that the Republican Party itself is a cult. And this is not merely a new trend, it turns out.
Google this: “what commentators have called the republican party a cult” . This will bring up articles by people who really know stuff: Congressman Adam Kinzinger, Senator Bob Corker, commentator George Will, Adam Schiff, and others.
7. Since the January 6th, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, here are the numbers of indictments and convictions: Sourced from: https://www.newsweek.com/full-list-capitol-rioters-jailed-sentences-january-6-1826075 Newsweek last updated this information 9-12-2023.
More than 1146 people, coming from all 50 states, have been charged with offenses. 623 people have received sentences. 657 people have plead guilty to federal charges.
3 360 have been sentenced to prison and often
fined as well. Of those charged, seven have been Oath Keepers members and seven
Proud Boys members. Several of the leaders of the insurrection have been sentenced
to over 15 years in prison.
8. After my studying dozens and dozens of excellent books, along with reading many professional analyses of voting behavior, I am convinced that average voters don’t’ know enough about what the following words mean: conservative versus liberal, Republican Party versus Democratic Party; and what these labels say about politicians and specifics of their policies.
· While most adults do know whether they are Democratic or Republican, they don’t give evidence they learned how to vote for their own self-interests. For example, lots of voters strongly like Trump but Trump is by far most likely to give tax cuts to the rich. Recently, as the election nears, more super rich persons and corporations are contributing to Trump.
· Perhaps 30% of voters know whether they are conservative or liberal.Probably only 5% to 10% of voters might know what Republicans versus Democrats attempt to do with taxation and the federal budget.
N Nationwide, all the voters tend to be very average, so they will tend to balance out to about a 5% difference between the total democratic and republican vote.
· Finally, all the causative factors which
determine outcomes don’t lend themselves to prediction at a higher level of
accuracy than the statistical error of measurement. Therefore none of the polls are very useful.
SOME GOOD NEWS TRENDS
1. Compared to a year ago, most online and TV news organizations are not quoting Trump’s massive lies as “news.” Commentators are not afraid to fact check Trump and cite him for misinformation or even labeling his statements as lies.
Even Fox News is milder in their misinformation. This is likely due to their having been successfully sued for $787 million by Dominion Voting Systems over “spurious claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential race.” https://www.npr.org/2023/04/18/1170339114/fox-news-settles-blockbuster-defamation-lawsuit-with-dominion-voting-systems
2. The Biden administration Department of Justice has methodically and successfully administered the rule of law. It cannot be doubted that the most flagrant misbehavior during the January 6th insurrection has been responded to effectively by the DOJ.
3. Although Trump’s popularity has survived his incompetence, a survey of 154 scholars ranks his presidential qualities as dead last. President Biden ranks 14th greatest. President Barack Obama, whom Trump always badmouths, ranks seventh greatest. Biden is above average. Trump is in last place.
Since Trump’s recent conviction for 34 felonies related to election fraud, the voter surveys show voters are don't like and are definitely tired of his all his problems.
More republican politicians are becoming outspoken about Trump’s alarming unsuitability for the office of president.
Trump is not a patriot. He’s not a conservative. What he believes in changes day by day. His interactions politically have been shown to be chaotic. His cabinet officers have said he has a very limited attention span and he is a wrecking ball in government (see Woodward, 2018 & 2020), (Bolton, 2022).
Since Trump’s 34 felony convictions and the major news outlets calling out Trump’s increasingly obvious lying, I’m less worried he’ll be elected.
If my opinions change, then I’ll add an update blog.
Any references not found above are on the page BIBLIOGRAPHY / WORKS CITED in the VotersGettingControl.blogspot.com/ blog.
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