Can the insurrectionists shift the blame to Trump?


Trevor Aaronson writes about those people who in the past have been inspired by Trump’s rhetoric to commit or plot to commit violent acts, and then tried to use Trump’s incitements as a defense when they were on trial. Judges didn’t seem to buy it.

James R. Pratt, a defense lawyer in Kansas, represented a man who was inspired to violence by Trump in 2016. Patrick Stein conspired with a couple of friends, as well as a pushy FBI informant, in a plot to bomb Somalis who lived in their community. “Number one, the cockroaches got to go, period,” Stein said of the Somalis. Stein had believed Trump’s rhetoric from the 2016 presidential campaign: that the Obama administration was allowing Muslims, and possibly terrorists, into the country without background checks.
[Read more…]

California’s covid-19 vaccination plan

In addition to Trump botching the response to the pandemic by dismissing its seriousness and deliberately undercutting common-sense precautionary measures like wearing masks, the vaccination process has also been rocky, leading to a much slower rollout than anticipated, while leaving the public confused as to when and where they will be able to get the vaccine and how they will be told.

My local newspaper the Monterey Herald lays out California’s plan for vaccinating people that I suspect is similar to what other states are planning so I am posting it for the benefit of those who are curious as to when they might be getting the vaccine.
[Read more…]

Trump’s allies abandon him

Thanks to Tabby Lavalamp, I leaned that the PGA tour has canceled its plans to have its 2022 championship tournament at Trump’s Bedminster golf course.

As he faces a lonely end to his presidency, Donald Trump learned Sunday evening that, in the wake of last week’s riot at the U.S. Capitol, he has lost one of the relationships he values most: his partnership with the Professional Golfers’ Association.

While the embattled president has been hunkered down to try and preserve his political career, the PGA of America, the proprietors of one of golf’s four major championship tournaments, announced that it plans to move its 2022 PGA Championship away from Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J
…

Holding the tournament at Trump Bedminster, Richerson said, would be “detrimental” to the PGA of America’s brand and put the organization’s ability to function “at risk.”.
…

As of Sunday, the 2022 PGA Championship was the only upcoming tournament listed on the Trump Organization’s website, so the PGA of America’s decision appears to sever his last remaining ties to the golfing establishment, effectively exiling him and his courses from the prestigious and lucrative world of professional golf.

[Read more…]

The UK’s rapidly rising covid-19 cases

While much attention has focused on the wild events US, we should not forget that the UK is having a major resurgence of covid-19 cases that has put a major strain on the health services and led to a strict lockdown though some health experts are arguing that it should be even more strict. Prime minister Boris Johnson has seen his support plummet because of his handling of the pandemic.

Jonathan Pie vents his fury at the vacillations and indecision and mixed messages of Johnson.

Follow up to the Soho Karen story

The young woman who tackled a teenage boy to the ground in the lobby of a hotel in Soho after falsely accusing him of stealing her phone has been arrested in California.

[22-year old Miya] Ponsetto was first contacted by authorities during a traffic stop near her home in Piru, Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said. Authorities say she refused to stop after initial contact and refused to get out of her vehicle once she pulled up to her home, and had to be forcibly removed from her car and arrested.

Ponsetto will remain at a Ventura County detention facility, according to the sheriff’s deputies, where she is being held without bail. She will stay in custody pending an extradition hearing.

Before her arrest, she gave an interview with Gayle King of CBS News. She did not help her case.

Later in the interview she seemed to back off on her half-hearted apology to the teen and suggested that he may have been responsible after all.

Her lawyer is going to have a hell of a time defending her if she does not stop taking to the media.

Getting close to Trump is bad for your professional reputation

Many of the people who stormed the Capitol building on Wednesday did not bother to hide their identities, no doubt thinking that having Trump’s support provided them with immunity. They are finding out that that was a mistake and already employers are firing those who have been identified.

Navistar, a direct marketing company in Maryland, announced that an employee had been terminated after he was photographed wearing his company ID badge inside the breached Capitol building.
…

A Texas attorney named Paul Davis is no longer employed at his company, Goosehead Insurance, after social media posts appeared to show him talking about his participation in Wednesday’s events. In one video, Davis says, “we’re all trying to get into the Capitol to stop this.”

[Read more…]

And now on to the next rampage

As if the events on Wednesday were not bad enough, there are reports that Trump supporters are planning a nationwide wave of actions on Sunday, January 17th. This was one of reasons that Twitter gave for banning Trump’s personal account.

Twitter said it feared Trump’s most recent tweets were being interpreted as supporting the rioters and that plans for future armed protests had already been proliferating both on and off the platform, including a proposed attack on the U.S. Capitol and state capitol buildings on Jan. 17.

[Read more…]

Trump’s reckless attacks led to this sorry state

Back in 2016, CBS News’s Lesley Stahl asked Trump why he was relentlessly attacking the media and accusing them of being liars and spreaders of fake news. He cynically replied that he wanted to preemptively discredit them in the eyes of his followers so that when they reported anything negative about him, they would not be believed. He steadily ramped up the attacks on the media at every chance he could, even referring to them as enemies of the people and scum. And you have to admit that his strategy worked. His cult following refused to believe anything bad that the media said about him. His enemies became their enemies.

On Wednesday we saw where this could lead when the mob attacked journalists and destroyed their equipment while they were covering the rampage.


[Read more…]