Covid Journal, January 11, 2021
Donald Trump: Epilogue … or Prologue?
We all knew – or should have known – this was not going to end well.
Donald Trump is a dangerous man that should never have been made President.
That said, I’m still struggling with what happened last Wednesday.
I’m bothered, disturbed and fear that society as we know it almost fell into the hands of churling mob, stoked by Donald Trump.
I fear that what happened on Wednesday, January 6, 2021 will be seen one day in our future as a prologue, not an epilogue to a horrible, despicable presidency.
January 6, 2021 will be remembered as a day, no, series of moments when the world almost lost out to a horde of morons and failures at Cormac McCarthy cosplay. Donald Trump was, is and will continue to be the ringleader of this insanity.
Let’s be clear: one of the world’s greatest democracies was almost overthrown in an attempted coup.
As the winds calmed, Donald Trump even tried to blurt out a pale, pathetic apology.
Sadly, many people are going to fall for it.
But what if this mob was successful with preventing the American Congress from confirming Joe Biden as the next president of the United States? Would there be a similar apology or a two-week period of head-cracking and arbitrary arrests that would have resulted in a ‘fake’ investigation of the voting numbers? Would Trump have declared the 2020 Presidential election null and void?
Would ANY of the Trump advisors and supporters have resigned their roles had things gone ‘their way‘?
Let’s not forget that people went to the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday with the sole intention of intimidation and rioting. What happened may have been a cover for some other groups with much more sinister intentions to take hostages and, quite likely, assassinate them. These people had zip ties, handcuffs, tasers, weapons, pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails, maps of the building interior, and more (including a gallows with a noose set up outside) – and they came incredibly close to the elected officials that they were searching for in the building.
Regardless of what happened and regardless of who failed to slow them down, had they not been stopped, the world might have had to deal with a very different situation over the last few days. We might have witnessed live assassinations carried in broad daylight by ‘patriots’.
What happens next will set a course that defied predictability.
Whatever happens, Trump’s supporters will find a way to make him a martyr as opposed to villifying him.
This reality is horrifying.
The Tech Response
Most tech companies, including Shopify, Twitter, Facebook, Apple and Google have shut down the Trump machine.
However, they are all FOUR YEARS too late.
They have profited enormously from this madness and will have to accept what will come as Donald Trump and his followers are exposed as a treasonous, idiotic maniacs.
From the start, Facebook has been a bit of a privacy nightmare and by its actions, has encouraged other companies to accept this as the norm. I read Zuckerberg’s statement a few days ago about the choice of putting Trump’s account on hold, but Pandora’s Box was opened long ago. Are they going to shut down Proud Boys, Canada Proud, Ontario Proud, variations of ‘Odin’, the Three Percenters and many other pages and their supporters? I’m all for it, but it’ll be met with a LOT of resistance.
What can we do to shut down other hate groups? Will they just slither away and find other platforms to carry on with their ignorance?
The Public Response
Nancy Pelosi has put an ultimatum to Mike Pence: invoke the 25th Amendment or risk putting ALL Republicans to eternal shame for letting Donald Trump get off scott free.
I think Pence will accept this ultimatum if he’s going to save the Republican party.
In the long run, this is where the ‘prologue’ part comes in because what happens over the next 10-12 days will echo for another decade with the animals that stormed Washington, DC and who are trying to pivot the blame to ‘antifa’ or left-wing conspiracies.
It’s vital that action be taken before Biden’s inauguration and that Pence is the one who makes the choice.
Other scenarios will likely paint Donald Trump as a martyr, the very last thing the world needs.
What should the GLOBAL response be? Many times in my lifetime, countries acted in concert together through organizations like NATO and the UN – organizations that Trump and his followers belittle for the very reason that they fear them – to eliminate global threats.
The United States of America is a global threat so long as Donald Trump and supporters are in charge.
How do we react to that? Why are we not having this conversation?
The Media Response
What about some of the media companies that met Trump’s drivel with a blank stare or worse, a cheer of support? Folks like Rupert Murdoch need their day in court for having made this monster.
Stephen Colbert sums this up nicely and lashes out at those who have been complicit, stupid or ignorant of the bile that has poisoned the well of democracy:
Global media companies have a choice to make: support Trump or support freedom.
There is NO in betweeen.
It’s now your job to ask questions about how and why this happened and – more importantly – it’s your DUTY to rally international organizations and sane, stable countries of the world to act in concert against a Trump-lead America.
At least one shop has it right:
We are not Germany in 1933. But we may be Munich, 1923. On 8 November of that year, a couple of thousand Nazis staged a failed putsch to topple the Weimar Republic. Ten years later the same insurrectionists seized power in Germany – through electoral means.
My Response & Summary
What happened last week still has me feelling dizzy.
I never would have believed that I would be witnessing the early days of America’s Second Civil War.