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Lafayette Square

Suppose He Had Led His People to the Capitol on January 6…

January 12, 2022
by Peter Feinman
The Trumpican Image of their Leader (Dave Weigel, Washington Post)

The story of the attempt to steal the election and overthrow the Constitution continues to surprise. While the focus has been on the intention of state legislators to send alternate Elector slates overriding the will of the people, it turns out that alternate slates were surreptitiously sent in 2020 perhaps at the initiative of a rogue insurrectionist at the Department of Justice. More to come.

One seemingly obvious question that has not received much attention is why the Hitman did not lead his people to the Capitol. He exhorted them all to walk there himself included and fight like hell for their country. But instead of doing so, he then retired home to watch with the great glee the events to unfold without him. Only when the failure to reverse the vote became obvious did he rouse himself to tell the people he loved to go home in peace. We do not know the various iterations of his speech but perhaps sooner rather than later we will.

So why didn’t he march with his people?

LEADERSHIP

One reason which comes to mind is that he physically was unable. We should at least give credence to the idea that Tubby Wubby could not have walked to the Capitol. Going in a golf cart would have seemed unmanly.

William Wallace watching the battle on TV

Speaking of being manly, what would Mel Gibson aka William Wallace have done. This figure is much beloved by Trumpicans for his manly display of leadership. In the movie Braveheart, Wallace is shown charging full speed ahead with his people to confront the English. He does not simply walk to the Capitol, he races to his destiny. One might have expected the would-be Wallace to have done the same. If the movie-figure had said, “No, you go ahead. I am going to stay back and watch from here. It’s more fun this way,” would he be regarded as heroic?

Maximus riding away from the Capitol as fast as his horse will carry him

One can make a similar case for the fictional Maximus in Gladiator, another popular manly figure. In the opening battle, Maximus forcefully leads his forces into battle. He stridently charges forth on his horse into the fray. The fictional figure later literally goes into the proverbial arena and displays the right stuff that is so much a part of American manly vigorous lore.

The Alpha-Male wannabe’s greatest victory (Patrick Semansky/AP Photo)

Bone Spur Boy is no Wallace. Macho Macho Boy is no Maximus. The alpha-male wannabee is no match for these manly heroic figures. His great victory occurred when he dominated Lafayette Square … after the Square had been cleared of all people who might protest his heroic display of masculinity.

The Big Lie

Trumpbo would rather watch on TV than fight.

In case we have forgotten, we just now have had an example of how the seventh-grade-smart-aleck-dumb-aleck operates. His natural venue is the professional political arena where he can be mean, nasty, and insulting to his heart’s content. The perfect weapon for the immature child is Twitter. Sure enough, when a Senator from South Dakota dared to speak the truth about the 2020 election, the Loser went ballistic. Notice how childish his responses were. Notice how he vented like a crybaby teenager. Notice how unmanly he was. After closing in one year without the cacophony of baby talk from someone with the emotional maturity of a three year-old, we were reminded of just how childish he is. It makes one dread when he becomes a candidate and we are forced to endure such behavior on an ongoing basis.

WHAT IF HE HAD LED?

Now suppose, hypothetically he had been physically capable of walking to the Capitol.

Now suppose, hypothetically he had been capable of being a leader.

Then what?

What do you do if you are the Capitol Police and you see the President of the United States, his Secret Service detail, and a crowd walking towards you?

Would you have even have tried to stop the President of the United States?

My guess is at that moment a negotiation would have occurred.

What are you doing here?

We are here to stop the steal. Let us in.

You can come in Mr. President along with X number of followers. Go through the security screeners and you and your group will be escorted to the Visitor Gallery. The rest will have to remain outside. We can’t allow people to just wander around the building.

What would the Commander in Chief had done at that point? What would his followers do? Both the ones allowed to entire after being checked for weapons and those who had to remain outside?

What would have happened if he and his group had been escorted to the Visitor Gallery? Would they have been content to impotently watch as Joe Biden was certified as the winner? Would rowdy individuals have been asked to leave? What would the would-be Hitman have done?

We will never know the answers to these questions. Nonetheless, they serve a purpose. They demonstrate how poorly thought out the slapdash insurrection was. It should be no surprise that January 6 was not well-planned. We know from his serial business failures that organization, planning, management, and thinking things through are not his strong point. We know from his failure with COVID, that he was just as inept and incompetent as President as he had been in business. Therefore, it is quite reasonable to expect that the planning for January 6 was equally inept.

THE HYDRA INSURRECTION

The Hydra Insurrection
(https://steemit.com)

As we are learning the Hydra Insurrection was proceeding on many fronts. At first everyone was focused on the inanities of Pillowhead, Séance Sydney, and Ridiculous Rudy with the absurd legal challenges they raised. They had a perfect batting average. And the effort have backfired. Voting machine companies and election workers named have responded with lawsuits.

Then we became aware of the infamous attempt to find 11,780 votes in Georgia. Criminal charges are likely in a few months against the Hitman and his confederates. And it may have helped the two Democratic Senate candidates win thereby giving the Democrats the majority.

Then we became aware of the pressure on the Vice President in a six-point plan to disqualify Electors for Biden and/or accept alternate Electors. Criminal charges are likely this year against the originator of this illegal ploy.

Yesterday we become aware of at least five examples of illegal submission of alternate Electors.

Today we became aware of the discussion with the Hitman over resignation, the 25th Amendment, and impeachment due to the ongoing attack on the Capitol.

More to come.

Presumably the Hitman was aware of all these machinations. Presumably he expected/hoped the Vice President would act accordingly to certify the Loser as a winner. The unruly crowd disrupting the proceedings to intimidate the voters and the Vice President would have been icing on the cake.

There was a lot going on. The failure of January 6, 2020, has been studied closely to make sure there is no need for in 2025 or if there is, the attempt will be better organized and planned including control of both Congress and the election infrastructure. It’s amazing how many Democrats will be cheering on Governor Brutus to save the country by slaying the Hitman (who, to be fair, is no Caesar!).

Which one is Governor Brutus? (Vincenzo Camuccini The Death of Julius Caesar detail)

TrumpVirus, Lafayette Square, and Portland Statues, Monuments, and Memorials

July 21, 2020
by Peter Feinman
This is not a drill. The jack-booted thugs have landed. Repeat. This is not a drill. (http://www.quickmeme.com)

With all the talk about toppling statues and defacing monuments and memorials, it is time to start thinking about the new ones which should be erected. Typically, wartime leaders build just such markers to their greatness and their triumphs. Our wartime thinks he deserves to be on Mount Rushmore. However that possibility does not seem likely. Instead We the People should consider the statues, monuments, and memorials appropriate to his leadership.

TRUMPVIRUS

The first topic for consideration is the TrumpVirus. Here is an area where our wartime leader rates himself a “10” and would not do anything different. He often proclaims how we are the envy of the world for our handling of the virus. Surely that appreciation can be expressed physically with commensurate statues, monuments, and memorials.

Statue

The obvious statue which comes to mind is the image of our heroic wartime leader brandishing his most powerful weapons in the fight against the TrumpVirus. I am referring, of course, to Little Donne Disinfectant wielding the one thing the coronavirus fears above all else – disinfectant! The statue should be of our wartime leader holding a bottle of disinfectant while the coronavirus slithers away in horror.

Think of Nero. Nearly 2000 years later and he is still remembered for fiddling while Rome burned…EVEN WITHOUT A STATUE! Think of how long Little Donnee Disinfectant will be remembered with a statue in his honor.

Funding for the statue should be easy. How much would Clorox play so the bottle of disinfectant isn’t Clorox? Similarly, how much would Lysol pay so it isn’t Lysol? The major issue to be decided is the size of the statue. Should it be a life size statue or one larger than life? And if larger than life then how much larger? Statue of Liberty large? Washington Monument large? Trump Tower large?  The size is open to debate.

The statue also should be bathed in a heavenly aura. This glow will represent the divine assistance Our Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, each time he invoked heavenly help to effect a miracle cure. After all, it is hardly unusual for divine right-kings and son of God rulers to pray for divine assistance in the midst of or prior to a battle.

Monument

Commentators frequently note that the death toll from the TrumpVirus exceeds that of multiple American wars combined. Plus the number is still rising and will continue to rise in the indefinite future. Therefore building a monument comparable to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial with 58,318 names may be impracticable. Who knows how many hundreds of thousands of people will end up dead due to the TrumpVirus.

Perhaps instead of one national monument dedicated to all who died of the TrumpVirus, there should be multiple monuments throughout the communities and states of the country. Once upon a time, the coronavirus was comparatively contained. But now it has metastasized and is everywhere. So any single monument to reflect the experience of the TrumpVirus would have to be conceptual.

Or perhaps it could be digital. Instead of a stone monument to the deceased perhaps a digital monument could be built. It would show the increased number of deaths over time with a suitable caption or voiceover. Some of the cable shows already have done something like this. For example, the map might start with 15 dots becoming zero and then gradually increase to fill in the whole country. Think of the vaunted Red Wave the wartime general always is talking about. We saw it in action in 2018.  We are seeing it in action in 2020 as Trumpican Senate candidates exult in the boost to their own reelections derived from the wartime President’s superb handling of the coronavirus. The digital projection could show the same red wave color spreading as the deaths of Americans sweep the country each time the wartime leader says the coronavirus is contained and under control.

LAFAYETTE SQUARE

Lafayette Square is indelibly etched into the American national consciousness as the site of the greatest military victory by a sitting President ever. Of course, American Presidents prior to becoming President had great victories as generals. Of course, American Presidents presided over great victories led by others. But what President himself has personally had such a stirring victory as the one by this wartime leader? Plus it was not against the coronavirus or even foreigners, but against Americans themselves. The closest parallel may be George Washington’s leadership in the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania [where decades earlier he had launched his military career in the French and Indian War].

I predict that Lafayette Square will become a great tourist draw. Tourists will flock to the site where America’s wartime leader dominated the square as no leader had before him and none will since. They will reenact the strenuous march to victory following his footsteps painted on the ground. They will approach the history sign erected to mark this heroic victory. And then convulsed in laughter they will take a selfie next to the cardboard cutout of the wartime President proudly holding a Bible upside down thrust to the heavens. Truly it will be a site to behold.

PORTLAND

But our wartime leader did not stop with dominating a mere square. It was just the start of a more ambitious effort to take back the country. He would seize the Democratic-governed areas one-by-one if he had too before all bowed down before him and knuckled to his will. It would be like Cornwallis taking back the colonies one-by-one in the South. To mix war metaphors, Portland may be our Fort Sumter, the place where America’s Third Civil War, became a true battlefront.

Remember how often we have been warned about jack-booted thugs and their black helicopters. Think of the National Rifle Association (NRA) running a four-page ad in the center of its American Rifleman magazine in 1993. It showed goose-stepping, jackbooted legs under the question, “What’s the First Step to a Police State?” The NRA followed up in 1995 with a reference to federal agents as “jackbooted government thugs” in a fund-raising letter.

Now we know all the rantings and ravings of the vast rightwing conspiracy are true. Now we know all the warnings about the Government are true. Now we know that the incessant call for the American people to arm themselves against the Government are true. Our wartime President has made his move against Portland. Other cities are to follow. We could not celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Boston Massacre this year due to the coronavirus. But now we have an opportunity to relive it. The wartime President will crush the Patriots until only the Loyalists to him remain. Isn’t that worthy of a statue?

So let’s not just topple statues, monuments, and memorials. Let’s think about the new ones to create in recognition of our wartime President. He has triumphed over the TrumpVirus, dominated Lafayette Square, and is seizing the cities that defy him. Truly he is worthy of being on Mount Rushmore if only there was room for him.

The Battle of Lafayette Square: The Greatest Victory in American History

June 4, 2020
by Peter Feinman
Prequel to "The Mouth that Roared: The Battle of Lafayette Square" (Amazon)

There have been many famous battles in American history, ones of great significance not just to this country but to the world.

Saratoga

The Alamo

Gettysburg

D-Day.

These battles reverberated through American history. They helped define who we are as a country and a people.

But I suggest when the future histories of this country are written, one battle above all others will stand out: the battle when America’s greatest warrior took our country back in the Battle of Lafayette Square.

Think of the situation Little Donnee Waney faced. There he was hunkered and bunkered deep in the bowels of the earth. He was trapped in an area no American sees except in movies like White House Down. Outside surrounding the real White House were heavily armed terrorists. There were terrorists by the thousands, terrorists by the tens of thousands, terrorists by the hundreds of thousands. Bonespur Boy had promised he would fight for real Americans. Now the moment of truth had arrived.

Showing no fear, the immature child playing imaginary games where he makes up the rules, rose up out of the earth to vanquish the forces of chaos armed to the teeth prepared to destroy him. Never before in American history had anyone seen such a courageous act as when this President confidently strode across Lafayette Square eyes fixed on his destination – a photo-op in front of a historic church where he would brandish a Bible upside down and destroy those who would destroy him.

Songs will be song.

Stories will be written.

Tales will be told.

Movies will be made.

“The Mouth That Roared.” Coming to a theater near you now that the coronavirus crisis is over and we can sit in theaters once again.

His exploits have complicated the design of the Unpresidential Library. In my original vision, at the entrance to the library would be a statue of him bent over with Stormy Daniels swatting with a copy of Forbes Magazine with him on the cover. The statue would say “I’m kissing my ass. I’m kissing my ass. I’m kissing my ass.” Then the statue changed to one of Little Donnee Disinfectant holding a bottle of disinfectant. Clorox and Lysol would pay big money to ensure their product wasn’t the one the very stable genius was holding. Now, I am thinking the entrance to the Unpresidential Library should have a statue of our Lord and Saviour, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, holding the Bible as the minions of Satan were swept from the land in a confrontation worthy of Armageddon itself. One small step at Lafayette Square, one giant step towards taking back the country.

SHOCK AND AWE BY THE MILITARY

The military reacted in shock and awe at this display of courage and heroism at the Battle of Lafayette Square. They were stunned by this raw display of power. They thought they were just going out to inspect the troops following the inspection of the bunker. They had no idea they were about the witness the greatest act of sheer bravado in the history of the country. They could be seen trembling in awe at what they had witnessed.

Former Marine general and secretary of defense James Mattis was privileged to witness something he had never seen before not even in a dream James Mattis Denounces President Trump, Describes Him as a Threat to the Constitution.

When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens—much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.

He recognized that this President was trying to do something no President previously had tried to accomplish.

Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us.

Mattis even went so far as to call for another witch hunt into the Constitutional violations perpetrated by the divider in-chief, unique in the history of this country.

We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.

So moved was Bill Barr that the Attorney General promised to investigate as soon as he completed the exoneration of America’s greatest warrior president from the Russian collusion and Ukranian extortion charges and indicted Obama and Biden.

Mattis even acknowledged that America’s greatest President was one for the ages. He was on par with Abraham Lincoln having devoted his life to the exact same values:

we must remember Lincoln’s “better angels,” and listen to them, as we work to unite. Only by adopting a new path—which means, in truth, returning to the original path of our founding ideals—will we again be a country admired and respected at home and abroad.

These are the very words which have guided our heroic President and genius history scholar all his life. These are the values he comments on endlessly when he is not insulting, mocking, and demeaning people as scum. They are the values that have led him to this great victory. It seems like only yesterday, when Little Donnee Disinfectant was the laughingstock of the world. But now after his televised victory at the Battle of Lafayette Square, he stands tall with Trumpicans. Surely another Red Wave reminiscent of 2018 will sweep Trumpicans to victory in the House, the Senate, and the White House. All the polls show it.

It seems like only yesterday (it was June 2!), when I wrote

And what makes you think the generals will obey a command from the Commander in-chief to send troops into American states to suppress American people?….The American military is not the Department of Justice. The generals are more likely to be loyal to the Constitution than the individual who happens to be President. If Bonespur Boy tries to intimidate the military into playing his game of domination, he may be in for a surprise. Generals are not Trumpican Senators who have sold their soul and will roll over like obedient dogs at whatever whistle he blows, command he issues, or photo-op he desires. Borg to Hong Kong: Resistance Is Futile (Not in America)

Little did I know what was coming!

TRUMPICAN SCOTT JENNINGS INADVERTENTLY SHOWS BIDEN HOW TO WIN

CNN contributor Scott Jennings probably still is a Republican although he toes the Trumpican line. He is an adult who lives in the real world. He ventures off the Fox Reservation to appear on FakeNews outlets. He works very hard at not degenerating to the level of Kellyanne Conway but he has not followed the example of George Conway, George Will, or Rick Wilson in asserting a Republican identity instead of a Trumpican one. As might be expected, Jennings offered a trumpican perspective on the Battle of Lafayette Square. But in so doing he detailed exactly how Joe Biden could leverage that victory into a defining moment for his own presidential campaign. Obviously that was not Jennings’s intent and it is quite possible Biden will let this opportunity slip away.

Jenning wrote a piece for CNN entitled Trump’s law and order message strikes a chord. He stated:

If it takes a deployment of the US military to do it, because governors and mayors cannot get control of the situation in their jurisdictions, I think the President will find public support for it.

The military may not support it, but Trumpicans will. Jennings admitted his befuddlement with the actions at Lafayette Square and then commented on what Joe Biden could now do to seize the moment.

I was not sure what to make of his march to St. John’s Church across Lafayette Square as I watched it unfold live on Monday. I wish he could have taken one step further and stepped into the church and opened the Bible he held. I wish he had invited faith and civil rights leaders to go there with him. And I wish he would have sat in the front row for a church service aimed at praying for peace, calm and unity.

Churches and Bibles are not props; they are tools for the faithful to spread the Word of God and to unify people around God’s teachings. And churches, perhaps more than any other place, can be powerful places from which to broadcast expressions of sympathy and calm.

Are you listening Joe? The advice of this political operative is to go into the church and have a unity memorial service. There are four former Presidents who are preaching for unity, Democratic and Republican presidents. Invite them to the service. Have them open the Bible and read the passages that helped them through there moments of trauma and despair. Do that for yourself as well. Invite the ex-military generals too who have spoken out against turning cities into battlegrounds. Have the service Jennings says should have been held in the first place.

Listen to what others have said and what you have said.

Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde the Episcopal bishop of Washington who oversees the St. John’s Episcopal Church, said:

[Trump just used a Bible and a church of my diocese as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our church stands for.

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said:

We need our President, and all who hold office, to be moral leaders who help us to be a people and nation living these values. For the sake of George Floyd, for all who have wrongly suffered, and for the sake of us all, we need leaders to help us to be “one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.”

You, Joe Biden said:

The country is crying out for leadership, leadership that can unite us.

You have been given the opportunity to provide that leadership. Have the memorial service for unity that should have been held at St. John’s Episcopal Church at Lafayette Square. Transform the battlefield to a City on Hill. Seize the moment.

P.S. And don’t forget to say “thank you” to Jennings for showing you the way.