Of the many things there are to fear these days, I think this tops my list:

[Atticus]

that the decent people in power will allow themselves to be intimidated by Trump's calls for "protests"---read violent insurrections---if he is prosecuted and decide that "for the good of the country" we must "look forward" and "move on" WITHOUT prosecuting the orange bag o' pus.

Trump MUST be prosecuted and any violent repeat of the January 6th tactics---or worse---should be met with whatever it takes to confine and arrest the Trump thugs involved---every damn one of them. We should not just "tread on" these traitorous criminals; we should STOMP on them.

I am concerned that those who will be called upon to deal with the situations Trump has called for if we DARE prosecute him will not recognize the "protestors" as Trump's militias; his "army"; his "brownshirts".

In my view and, I believe, in the view of many, allowing Trump to go free, unprosecuted, will effectively end the two and a half centuries of our "democratic experiment" and my generation will have failed its children and grandchildren.

[Vinca]

1. So true. You don't get a wrist slap and a "bad boy" for an attempted coup.

[Walleye]

2. I don't think intimidation by violence will work to keep Trump from prosecution

What I worry about is the previously reasonable Republicans who have lost their minds. They are the ones that are going to destroy the rule of law, not the militia

[MyOwnPeace]

11. Correct!

Look at how their 'speech' has changed in one year. On January 6/7, RepubliQan leaders stood there and said that TFG was responsible - and now the won't even talk to the Committee looking into the Insurrection.

The belief that "they can get away with it" began by granting a pardon to Richard Nixon after Watergate.

[Walleye]

15. It turns out the Republicans are soft on crime

[MyOwnPeace]

19. HA!

Think back to how Bush I used the "Willie Horton" thing to make Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis look 'soft on crime.'

Shameful then - and the hypocrisy now just screams - and they can't even hear it......

[Walleye]

20. Yes, and whoever thought we would have to look to Liz Cheney to save us from her party

[DFW]

73. Nixon saw the writing on the wall

He resigned so that he would be succeeded by another Republican who could, would, and DID pardon him. Trump’s ego wouldn’t permit him to let Pence take his place, and now he’s playing damage control, since Biden wouldn’t pardon him for littering, let alone treason.

[wnylib]

71. Or a combination of both.

There will be violence, whether Trump is indicted or not. He believes that he can take the country through a combination of rigged elections and violence.

I believe that he might have foreign backing in doing that.

Rough times ahead. We will win in the end, but there will be a showdown struggle.

[samplegirl]

3. I don't want my grandkids

to ask me some day why we put up with trumps malevolence.

[magicarpet]

4. .... pardon the traitors and insurrectionists if the Orange Pus-bag gets back into the Oval Office.

[pandr32]

43. Let's hope most of them learned not to trust him

He didn't pardon them before Biden was sworn in and the law has come for them. If they did it again they could expect the same.

[sop]

5. Trump is already out on the stump, promising pardons for all his seditious conspirators, saying

those now investigating him will be locked up, threatening violence and mayhem when he's prosecuted. It's all so Hitlerian. Somebody, please make it stop.

[Joinfortmill]

12. Yes and as the Prez says, it's not hyperbole.

[jaxexpat]

42. I'm sorry. Did you just suggest that the former president is preaching sedition?

"Sedition" is no longer a word used in polite company to describe anything. It's just too harsh.

[YorkRd]

6. The comebacks of William Barr and John Bolton are proof of this bad policy

[bringthePaine]

7. pure and simple: failure to fully prosecute equals capitulation

[Icanthinkformyself]

8. 'Moving on'

is what the North did after the Civil War, allowing the losers to write their version of the history. Hence, we have the War of Northern Aggression, racists white women were 'Southern Belles', the 'happy slave', and a slave owning society called 'genteel', as if the violence done to POC every second was just patty cake games. It's not just making sure tfg is prosecuted. It's making sure his personally cult, the Republican Party, doesn't get to write the history of their attempted coup. Make no mistake, it is the entire party apparatus that was put into gear before and after J6. No 'moving on' this time.

[Joinfortmill]

14. Amen

[Joinfortmill]

9. The Weimar Republic revisited. Just saying.

[DBoon]

61. Hitler got off easy the first time

there was no second time as a result

[Katinfl]

10. A successful coup is always preceded by an unsuccessful coup.

[MyOwnPeace]

16. Haunting statement.....

hope we don't find it to be true this time......

[wnylib]

72. Well, I'm thinking of Churchill's speech

about fighting them on land, on beaches, etc. And "We shall never give up."

[Mr. Ected]

13. Frankly, if Trump is somehow let off the hook by "the decent people"

I could easily be convinced to do a little protesting myself.

And by a little I mean a LOT.

Am I alone in this?

[Joinfortmill]

17. You are not.

[Atticus]

22. 👍👍👍👍👍 nt

[Traildogbob]

26. A whole lot

Of us Vets will be by your side. The oath stands. ESPECIALLY threats from “within, on our soil.

[BunnyMcGee]

32. Yes

[DeeNice]

54. I'd love to see a repeat of January 17, 2017.

Millions of people all over the world, out in the streets, peacefully protesting the fact of tdfg’s presidency.

[Scrivener7]

18. And I think the more time we give him - and them - without ramifications, the

more chance he has to gin up the violence.

[gab13by13]

35. Yeah but we can't prove that DOJ isn't doing anything

to indict the Big Fish. We should wait until Kornacki time when the DOJ shuts down and then our last resort is to GOTV for a rigged election. I don't know about you but if we can't see the problem we will never solve it. Day 46 since DOJ received the Mark Meadows criminal referral, the average time for DOJ to make a decision is 9 days, it took 22 days for Steve Bannon who is continuing on with the Big Lie every day on his pod casts. The only people who have been arrested are people who were involved in the riot part of the coup attempt.

"The only thing worse than the death and evil that Hitler brought upon the world, is that decent men and women stood back and allowed it to happen."
Winston Churchill.

[Scrivener7]

38. Yes. You KNOW they are going to pull that "the election is too close and we can't

do anything!" crap.

This is not the time for a gentlemanly "this is how things have always been done" approach. Those in a position to do anything about this slow moving coup do not seem to understand that it is actually happening. Time is of the essence. To the excuse "there is so much work to do, it's bigger than anything before, that takes time!" we need to respond, "Yes exactly. It IS bigger. So hire more help! Get it done or WE are done!"

[ShazzieB]

64. Speak for yourself, please.

*I* don't know any such thing.

[Scrivener7]

65. *Sigh*

[NCjack]

21. Atticus, the gutless politicians have the goal of being career politicians.

How do propose to make that very difficult to achieve?

I see two actions: 1) a law to force fair redistricting, and 2) term limits.

We could do fair redistricting first, and if that does not screen out most of the gutless, we could go for term limits.

[Lonestarblue]

23. What I worry about more is state and local unscrupulous Republicans.

The Guardian has an article this morning about how a local elections board in a Georgia county has removed all Democrats from the board (not the only county to do so). What this means is that only Republicans, most of whom believe the big lie, will now oversee their local elections. They are the ones who will oversee and certify the final vote counts. They are the ones who can throw out provisional ballots. They are the ones who can simply “lose” enough ballots from different precincts to overturn an election or to reduce Democratic votes. Even in a Republican county, that matters because a few hundred votes less for state offices and US senators from many counties adds to a loss for Democrats. Now multiply that scenario across multiple Republican states. They are perfecting their ability to steal elections, and we can do very little to stop them.

Whether Trump runs again is immaterial. If he does, Republicans will overturn enough votes in the seven key states to give him a win. If he does not, another equally corrupt man will take his place, and the same will happen. Imagine a Youngkin type (or Youngkin himself) who is far more articulate and smoother than Trump in his lies being the nominee. That is a huge danger because Republicans have one goal, and that is ultimate power to turn the country into an authoritarian state permanently controlled by Republicans.

Those are my biggest fears, and I hope I’m totally wrong about how unscrupulous and dirty local Republicans are in their determination to win.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/30/georgia-county-purges-democrats-from-election-board-and-cancels-sunday-voting

[Bettie]

68. They also have access to who is registered D or R

SO, they hand out provisional ballots to all D's and then declare them invalid because "fraud".

And yes, I do believe they are that corrupt.

[wnylib]

74. Unfortunately, you are not wrong.

Trump has been the leader of the coup, but it will proceed with or without him. It is what Republicans have wanted for a long time. He brought it all to the forefront.

I honestly suspect that the Republicans who oppose Trump do it only because they want to be in charge of the totalitarian state after the coup instead of Trump.

[The Jungle 1]

24. If good people speak up the fascists will lose.

History is full of defeated fascists.

[Scrivener7]

40. No. It needs more than that. Our officials need to enforce the law when they break it,

And justice cannot be delayed.

WE good people do speak up. But we are in a new era. In the internet era, our voices can easily be drowned out by the moneyed interests who support our enemies.

[The Jungle 1]

57. Don't despair

I truly believe justice will be served this time. I think this justice will reach high levels.
The mistake after the treasonous civil war was that lee and davis were not hung.
However our officials need to be reminded.
I am good with justice being slow walked until the end of August. Keep it in the news day after day.

[Scrivener7]

60. I hope so much that you are right.

[Mr. Steve]

25. Agreed

Let the penalties fit the crimes.

[Jarqui]

27. Trump could not have done what he did without enablers

Trump was a disorderly puppet for the GOP.
He continues as a distraction so we don't notice the enablers.

I want to see those who enabled Trump held to account.

The GOP are ruthless and unprincipled.
They'll just replace Trump with DeSantis or someone like him and carry on.

All the laws at the state level to deny people access to vote - those are not Trump's fault.
All the dark money financing Jan 6 and corrupting candidates - those are not Trump's fault.

They're distracting Americans with Trump, anti-vaccines, anti-masks, wedges issues they don't truly give a shit about like abortion, banning books, etc, etc ... while they steal the democracy of the United States.

That what I want stopped far more than Trump getting prosecuted (though I'd love to see him led off the jail in cuffs).

This effort can't wait to start until the week before Nov 2022 elections.
It has to get momentum now.

[wnylib]

75. Every word of your post is on the mark.

[Paladin]

28. This is what happens when you are lenient with dangerous movements.

The trump swine expect easy treatment, because we've given them easy treatment for so long. I hope it isn't too late to reclaim what remains of this once-proud democracy.

[Ponietz]

29. There is no reason to postpone confrontation

It was inevitable. Nice that we tried bipartisanship for a year—going the extra mile with these traitors. Now the rule of law must prevail. The adage ‘justice delayed is justice denied’ applies here.

[c-rational]

30. Agreed Atticus. When I heard TDFG speaking and calling for protests in NYC, Washington

etc., he is using the same dog whistle as he has always done. This must end PROPERLY, and I for one do not care if his prison suit is orange or striped.

[Martin Eden]

36. I fear that good people interested in public service will be intimidated away from it

Family always comes first, but no matter how much a person wants to serve the public it's just not worth serious threats to one's family.

If that keeps happening, rightwing thugs will enable fascism from the ground up while the Trumpist Party installs apparatchiks from the top down if they retake the White House.

[Bluethroughu]

39. This couldn't be said any more clear.

Thank you Atticus.


Lock up trump and his traitor army. They threaten our Democracy and have acted on the planned overthrow.

Just because the whole bunch of losers failed doesn't mean they get a second chance to try!

[piddyprints]

41. Well, then,

if they allow themselves to be intimidated instead of doing what is clearly the right thing, they aren't decent people.

I agree that he and his cult MUST be prosecuted. My fear is that there are not enough decent people in the right positions.

[Baked Potato]

44. I want to see multiple perp-walks. There has to be consequences.

There has to be a reckoning. There has to be jail time.

[Scrivener7]

46. Yes. My new motto: handcuffs or it didn't happen.

[Baked Potato]

47. Agreed! Nt

[dalton99a]

45. Silence is consent.

[mjvpi]

48. 🆘❌💯‼️ Hearings in prime time should make the picture clear. We need the Fourth Estate......

…….to do their job as this occurs. They need the make clear that what TrumpCo did after he lost is not normal. No bothsiderisms work in the analysis. This is unprecedented and clearly illegal.

The conspiracy to commit election fraud (clearly illegal) in order to tigger parts of the 12th amendment (legal but goofy when actual events occur) is in evidence in black and white. We have 80 people who signed their names to fraudulent documents. Who organized them? A huge number of people knew about it and did nothing. The Bill "Should Be Behind” Barrs type who saw what was going on and quit rather than start an immediate prosecution definitely should be held to account ,as well. I’d bet the ranch that there are many people in the House and Senate knew of the plot before hand and did nothing. The Republicans in Congress had to have been briefed beforehand so that they would be ready to do their parts if Pence did his. Those people never went to Justice or went public beforehand so one must consider them co conspirators. Mike Pence didn’t go along with it, but he never exposed the plot to the Justice Department or the public. He obviously knew beforehand. People who knew before hand and did nothing should be forced out of government. The numbers are staggering. They should all be referred for prosecution. Conspiracies are hard to prove, but once you know what it was, we all watched it try to unfold on live TV.

Our Democracy needs the Forth Estate. As hearings start and people refuse to cooperate, Hillary Clinton took all questions for 11 hrs straight should be the constant comparison.

[llashram]

49. yep

[BMW2020RT]

50. I am not feeling fearful.

However, I am not confident he will be held accountable in any meaningful way.

[not fooled]

51. Brooks Brothers Riot

it worked then, it works now.

[Loge23]

52. We're already there.

Let's face it, Joe Biden's victory - as encouraging as it was - does not change the situation we face in this country.
We're looking at fascist control of the House and possibly Senate and they already control the Supreme Court.
And yes, "fascist". The GOP is nothing more than a cult of white supremist nationalists now, regardless of how they paint themselves - and that is most definitely fascism.
The USA (or former USA) must recognize these people for what they are.
The whole movement has been centered around a fraud - a failed "businessman", alleged criminal, and serial liar. His brand is racism, pure and simple. In 2022, it is astonishing that we live in a country that has tolerated this nonsense, but here we are.
Last night, the fraud rang the bell of confrontation. He is taking a last gasp chance on rallying his cult around him as he faces, finally, some measure of accountability for his actions.
His "army" as it is, is composed of several layers of idiots - all of whom are connected by an undercurrent of racism and xenophobia:
-the boomers who buy into his myth as a successful businessman. These folks are too addled to cause much serious damage apart from their stupidity;
-younger people who buy into the rage he projects. They really don't have a clue as to what's going on, but they thrive on the rage.
-The most scary - the members of law enforcement, civil service, and military members. These are the ones to worry about. They're armed and dangerous. They're also dangerous because of their incredibly misplaced sense of loyalty - not to any oath that have taken - but to a fraud, a conman who has snookered them into supporting a serial lair, a draft-dodger who never could have served honorably, and man who has skirted the law for his entire career. Now that's scary. How screwed up are these people?

[Grasswire2]

53. the "strategy of "Look forward, not back" has brought us to this crisis point.

If the hammer had been dropped on GOP every time they committed crimes and excesses, they might fear consequences for their extra-constitutional actions.

Instead, too many on our side stumble, mumble, bumble along hoping for bipartisanship, for comity, for gentleman's agreements. This has gone on for decades now.

The people are begging for some action. The emotional toll on the American people is significant, as traitors are allowed to walk free and continue to spew sedition -- and as more people are infected with the disease that propaganda of a cult brings to their brains.

Chaos is the goal, says Yale holocaust historian Timothy Snyder. By presenting outrage after outrage deployed as spectacle, Trump is exhausting the people of the land.

Wouldn't it have been possible to interrupt this momentum by charging Trump with the crimes that Mueller documented with evidence?

It's exhausting us all. Would have been better to fight this fight in the last century, in fact.

[SunImp]

58. 1+

[calimary]

55. THIS is what we should ALL be calling our reps about.

Senate AND House, House AND Senate.

And I’d call the local offices, too.

[Irish_Dem]

56. Yes the goal is to get all charges dropped.

There is not really an appetite for prosecuting a former president. And the fear of civil war is real.

[Hortensis]

59. Why would you fear that more than a civil war? Or more than

a successful Republican takeover of our government without him?

Would the thought of tRump in a cell really make being afraid to be caught even looking at a police officer more acceptable? How about the desperation and poverty of a failed state?

Those are what I fear.

What's happening is far bigger than tRump. He's a product of it. It started long before him, driven by other RW power blocs, most of whom want and need him gone so they can take over. Our nation is at serious at risk of spiraling down into decades of failed governments, civil warring, and serial takeovers and revolutions by competing factions, or eventual iron control by just one.

And again, tRump's not only not the only person working to destabilize our nation so they can take over, he's in their way.

[slightlv]

62. If they do any kind of organized protest event

that erupts into a shooting or other violence event, such as happened at the capitol, I want to see our cops or whichever law enforcement that is at the scene answer the violence with the appropriate violence back at them post haste. Shoot them; immediately slap handcuffs and bring them down, drag them out of the melee, and throw them into waiting law enforcement vehicles, e.g. None of this letting them go home on them own and then spend months and years hunting them down later!

[mjvpi]

63. 🆘❌💯‼️ Hearings in prime time should make the picture clear. We need the Fourth Estate......

…….to do their job as this occurs. They need the make clear that what TrumpCo did after he lost is not normal. No bothsiderisms work in the analysis. This is unprecedented and clearly illegal.

The conspiracy to commit election fraud (clearly illegal) in order to tigger parts of the 12th amendment (legal but goofy when actual events occur) is in evidence in black and white. We have 80 people who signed their names to fraudulent documents. Who organized them? A huge number of people knew about it and did nothing. The Bill "Should Be Behind” Barrs type who saw what was going on and quit rather than start an immediate prosecution definitely should be held to account ,as well. I’d bet the ranch that there are many people in the House and Senate knew of the plot before hand and did nothing. The Republicans in Congress had to have been briefed beforehand so that they would be ready to do their parts if Pence did his. Those people never went to Justice or went public beforehand so one must consider them co conspirators. Mike Pence didn’t go along with it, but he never exposed the plot to the Justice Department or the public. He obviously knew beforehand. People who knew before hand and did nothing should be forced out of government. The numbers are staggering. They should all be referred for prosecution. Conspiracies are hard to prove, but once you know what it was, we all watched it try to unfold on live TV.

Our Democracy needs the Forth Estate. As hearings start and people refuse to cooperate, Hillary Clinton took all questions for 11 hrs straight should be the constant comparison.

[monkeyman1]

66. End it Quickly, have Iran come & get him !! he won't last long !

[StopTheRight2024]

69. Orange man bad!!!!

Orange man bad!!!!!

[Meowmee]

70. He needs to be convicted and jailed. Bankrupted etc.

I have no hope it will happen though.