Summer Daze

 

The last few days in the DC area have just been beautiful, with moderate temperatures, soft breezes, and low humidity. Those who know of the usual DC summer weather can understand just how unusual this type of weather is. But we also understand that this will most likely be fleeting. Despite its fickle presentation, poets have long rhapsodized about summer.

Here is one brief verse I found: (The Poetry Foundation)

Summer

BY CARLO BETOCCHI

TRANSLATED BY GEOFFREY BROCK

And it grows, the vain

summer,

even for us with our

bright green sins:

 

behold the dry guest,

the wind,

as it stirs up quarrels

among magnolia boughs

 

and plays its serene

tune on

the prows of all the leaves —

and then is gone,

 

leaving the leaves

still there,

the tree still green, but breaking

the heart of the air.

The winds on Capitol Hill, however, have been swirling, twirling us all about as we watched the Select Committee on January 6^th hearings being televised this week.

We learned that as soon as the election results were in, determining that he was not the winner, the former president sent out appeals for money to fight the fraudulent election results. Some days, they sent several appeals on the same day; occasionally, there were 25 emails or more. He named the fund the Election Defense Fund and, according to the committee and the Guardian, the fund did not exist and all money sent there went to the Save America PAC, which was controlled by DJT. Between the election and January 6^th, the fund collected over 250 million dollars. He could then use the funds as he wished, supporting candidates who agreed to go along with his election fraud lies, or even pocket them for personal uses. Some reports have noted that agreeing to these lies was a requirement for any endorsement. So, as Committee member Zoe Lofgren of California noted, the Big Lie was followed by the Big Rip-off; others have discussed this use of funds leaves the former president open to complaints of fraud, as they solicited the funds for a use never pursued. As the Guardian noted, the fund appeals stopped after the insurrection, although the fundraising requests continue; just this week there was an appeal for signatures on a card for DJT’s 76^th birthday, after a donation, of course.

The Committee uncovered more than fraud during the hearings. Former Republican States Attorney, Mr. Pak, who was a Trump appointee, testified that after he found no fraud in the Fulton County (Atlanta) returns in Georgia, he was asked to resign, presumably so that with a more pliant AG in place, additional suspect ballots would be found. A Republican election committee member from Philadelphia testified that after he refused to go along with reopening the count, the former president condemned his actions and tweeted out his name, which resulted in both him and his family members being threatened. Republican Attorney Ben Ginsburg testified that in none of the states where recounts were being demanded was there any chance that a recount would find substantially different results. None of the swing states were closer than 10,000 votes. Ginsburg, who had worked on the Bush v Gore election dispute, noted that in the Florida of the hanging chads, differences were only a few hundred votes apart, so that election was very close and could be properly challenged. (I have long thought that the 2000 election challenge was abruptly closed and not given a fair review by the Supreme Court.)

The next hearing centered on the pressures being put on Vice President Pence to suspend the counting of the state certificates or return the counting to the state delegations to vote. Since there are more states with Republican-leaning members, a vote by states would defer the choice to the Republican candidate, thus negating the ballots from millions of voters. Members of the VP staff testified about his being taken to a hiding place within the Capitol, little realizing that at one point they were less than 40 feet from the mob. In testimony released this week, members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers claimed that if they found any of the leaders of the Congress or the VP, they would have killed them, so the chant, “Hang Mike Pence,” was not an idle threat. Testimony also noted that after the VP opened the session of Congress, and released a letter stating that he did not have the authority to change or disrupt the proceedings, the former president tweeted out a statement, condemning this decision. That tweet seemed, to many, to further inflame the invading mobs.

The most dramatic testimony of the week, for me, came from the words of a retired Federal judge, J. Michael Luttig, who stated that the former president and his allies are a clear and present danger to American democracy. He indicated he believed that if he ran again, he might try again to overthrow the government. Luttig, a well-known and respected conservative judge, honored in Republican circles, had been consulted by VP Pence about the vote certification. During his testimony, he said that the Republican Party is at a crossroads similar to the one the country faced during the Civil War and it must take steps to repair the damage that has been done. The two political parties must agree to sustain and maintain our democracy; we cannot have one side refusing to accept the results of a legal election. (In a subsequent interview with NPR, he stated further that the two parties are the guardians of our democracy and if they cannot agree on the orderly transfer of power, then these battles will continue endlessly; as long as they continue, we will not have democracy in the United States. He also stated the following in that interview: “And it’s with my fervent hope that some number of our elected leaders, at least, will hear the words that I spoke on Thursday and understand what I said, which is that they have an obligation, a high obligation, that they undertake by oath to act in the interest of America and Americans in contrast to their own personal political interests.”

Hear, hear!

Other testimony presented by the committee showed the scheme developed with the help of attorney John Eastman, to disregard the Electoral Count Act, which was known by him and others in the presidents’ orbit, including the former president, to most likely be illegal. The Washington Post also reported that the group knew that the slates of alternative electors were illegal and took efforts to keep their plans secret. Judge Carter in California, recently noted in ruling against an appeal by Eastman to keep his email correspondence secret, that the actions of Eastman and the former president were most likely illegal. (Eastman had tried to claim attorney-client privilege with the former president, but could present no contract, no billed hours, nor signed agreements to validate that claim.) The judge further noted that we cannot protect illegal acts if the attorney engages in them. The Committee further reported that Eastman asked Mayor Giuliani if he could get him on the pardon list before the administration left office, also enforcing the idea that he knew his actions would make him vulnerable to prosecution.

Attorneys from the Department of Justice (DOJ) testified that they went through extensive discussions with the former president about every scheme that claimed fraud or abnormal vote counting practices, or aberrant voting machines touted by Sidney Powell, Giuliani, and the right-wing media and demonstrated why these were not valid. The former president did not disagree, usually, he just mentioned a different opinion about another plot. Multiple aides and family members testified that DJT knew well that he lost, but he continued to try to find a scheme where he could stay in office.

So, he knew, but did not care and would unleash a para-military force on his fellow Americans to see if he could stay in power. He would callously stand by as this force hunted his VP, perhaps to catch and kill him. And the Republican Party stands by him? Why are these actions not seditious? Attorney General Garland indicated in a press conference the other day that he and his staff are closely watching the hearings. The DOJ has requested transcripts from the Select committee, which they say they will start releasing in July.

How can this one man who cares nothing about this country or the Rule of Law continue to be respected as he tells lies, cheats his followers, commits illegal acts, and flouts any oath he ever took? If Democrats had attempted to do one one-hundredth of what he and his minions have done, there would be an uproar on the right. Why has the country, as an entity, not spoken up against these actions? Such actions are not normal for our country; they should be treated as criminal and we must hold him accountable.

Enough is enough!

‘Til next week- peace!