Who held authority to activate “10,000 people, soldiers, National Guards” against the January 6, 2021, assault on America’s Capitol, Congress, and Constitution? Who was Commander-in-Chief of America’s Armed Forces, the person “in charge of security” that tragic day? Drumroll, ta-da—Nikki Pelosi!
Do you really want his man’s finger on the Nuclear Trigger?
Think about it!
On Truth Social, January 17, Donald Trump posted:
“A PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES MUST HAVE FULL IMMUNITY, WITHOUT WHICH IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR HIM/HER TO PROPERLY FUNCTION. ANY MISTAKE, EVEN IF WELL INTENDED, WOULD BE MET WITH ALMOST CERTAIN INDICTMENT BY THE OPPOSING PARTY AT TERM END. EVEN EVENTS THAT “CROSS THE LINE” MUST FALL UNDER TOTAL IMMUNITY, OR IT WILL BE YEARS OF TRAUMA TRYING TO DETERMINE GOOD FROM BAD. THERE MUST BE CERTAINTY. EXAMPLE: YOU CAN’T STOP POLICE FROM DOING THE JOB OF STRONG & EFFECTIVE CRIME PREVENTION BECAUSE YOU WANT TO GUARD AGAINST THE OCCASIONAL “ROGUE COP” OR “BAD APPLE.” SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO LIVE WITH IT. ALL PRESIDENTS MUST HAVE COMPLETE & TOTAL PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY, OR THE AUTHORITY & DECISIVENESS OF A PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WILL BE STRIPPED & GONE FOREVER. HOPEFULLY THIS WILL BE AN EASY DECISION. GOD BLESS THE SUPREME COURT!”
“Immunity,” from civil or criminal prosecution presupposes allegation or proof of breaking the law! Over two-and-a-half centuries, from George Washington to Barack Obama and Joe Bidden, American Presidents “PROPERLY FUNCTION(ED)” without thought of “FULL IMMUNITY.” Because the notion of a President breaking the law remained out of the question—until now!
Regarding Donald’s worry around a President facing prosecution for malfeasance after leaving office, of 45 erstwhile U.S. Chief Executives none has been charged nor indicted—until now.
In effect, Donald’s plea for “FULL IMMUNITY” is a confession he has broken and would break the law!
For anyone who anticipates or fears an impending Trump Presidential juggernaut, Chris Hayes points out that of the 115,000 Iowans who caucused on January 15, 2024, 56,620 or 49%, 5% of the state’s registered Republicans, voted for Donald Trump.
Hate and love have one thing in common: The more I give, the more I have.
In the runup to the 2020 election, Donald Trump asserted that if Joe Biden became President America would experience a “stock market collapses the likes of which you’ve never had.”
When Biden’s administration saw the Dow catapulted from just over 30,000 to a record 37,557, Joe felt prompted to comment, on X, “Good one, Donald.”
Donald Trump says immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” As always, the erstwhile President is mute regarding facts to support his allegation.
Whose blood is being poisoned, by whom? My guess—who knows?—Trump views the blood being poisoned flowing from Eastern Europe: Britan, Ireland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, the Rus’? Iberian, Italian, Greek, and Balkan blood probably would not pass muster. Mexican, Central and South American, African, Middle and Far Eastern, and Asian immigrants, three-quarters of Earth’s population, conspire to poison America’s blood.
Donald’s paternal grandparents, his mother, and two of three wives are immigrants. Trumps were German. Mom, Mary Anne (née MacLeod), Scottish. Wives number one, Ivana Marie (née Zelnickovia) and three “Malania” (Melanija née Knavs) are Czech and Slovenian immigrants. Do immigrant mothers’ blood poison Donald Jr.’s, Ivonka’s, Eric’s, and Barron’s Trump blood?
The proposition that any race or nationality is inferior or superior to others is antithetical to America’s fundamental principles and creed, the heart of human-caused suffering. To assert that any human is “vermin,” that they poison “the blood of our country,” is stereotyping, prejudice, and bigotry at its very worst!
From Jamestown to L.A., Plymouth Rock to Seattle, American is a nation of immigrants. What became of,
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The retched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
Emma Lazarus’s sonnet, “New Colossus,”
on a plaque inside the Statue of Liberty
As a hardcore Liberal, and given the vagaries of human existence, I resist calling things “wrong . . . an injurious, unjust, or unfair act.” (Merriam-Webster)
This said, when Americans live in tents and scrounge of food, while illegal immigrants are housed and fed at taxpayers’ expense, something in our laws and regulations is fundamentally, terribly wrong!
The Supreme Court will decide if “executive privilege” protects Donald Trump from prosecution for his actions as President of the United States. If such an exemption were affirmed, any President would seem exempt from censure for raping children on the White House lawn!
The notion of the law precluding prosecution of the President for alleged illegal acts calls to mind Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist: “If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, “the law is a ass—a idiot!”
Trump’s lawyer argues that Donald should not be on trial while he is campaigning for election as President of the United States. Under this reasoning, by announcing her or his candidacy for the office of President, any indicted person could forestall and potentially preclude prosecution.
“A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance
when the need for illusion is great.”
Saul Bellow
My Really Good Essays and Poems 