“MAGA Is a Dis-Ease on This Country”: A Hopi indian protestor, Jacob Johns was shot. Upon the apprehension of his assailant, Ryan Martinez, it was notable that he appeared quite unbothered. The affidavit reveals his unsettling inquisition to law enforcement, “with a smirk on his face,” about the hypothetical freedoms of an attempted murder suspect. This reaction, lacking apparent concern or regret, painted a grim picture of the suspect’s attitude toward the grave situation. The social connotations of Martinez’s MAGA hat become a flashpoint, provoking discussions about the intersection of political expression and subsequent violent actions. His social media footprint, filled with controversial political content, becomes part of the broader discussion regarding the convergence of acceptable political discourse and public safety.
“You Can’t Have This Visceral Hatred Spewing Out of Every Time You Give a Speech”: Sen. Joe Manchin issues a chilling warning about a second Trump term. He has explicitly condemned Trump, saying that “he will destroy democracy in America” if given another term. Explaining his opposition to Trump, Manchin has said that “you can’t have this visceral hatred spewing out of every time you give a speech, denigrating Americans. And the only good American is the one that likes you and supports you; the only fair election is the one you win; the law pertains to everybody but you.”
A Colorado lawsuit, brought by watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington on behalf of a group of Republican and independent voters, sought to disqualify Trump from Colorado’s 2024 ballot under the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection clause.” The plaintiffs argued that Trump is ineligible to hold office again under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which disqualifies anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the Constitution. The judge, Sarah Wallace, warns about how dangerous Trump is: “Trump has consistently endorsed violence and intimidation as not only legitimate means of political expression, but as necessary, even virtuous. Trump was aware that his supporters were willing to engage in political violence and that they would respond to his calls for them to do so.” Trump played a role in this insurrection “through incitement” of the crowd during his infamous speech at the White House Ellipse. She gave examples such as Trump telling his supporters some 20 times before the January 6 attack to “fight.” And he goaded his supporters into action with lines like, “You will have an illegitimate president … We can’t let that happen.” Judge Wallace found that, though Trump engaged in a violent insurrection on Jan 6, 2021, she could not disqualify him from the Colorado ballot. Now nearly three years after that insurrection, today’s Trump is even more desperate; he understands that the most effective way to remain out of prison (given he’s facing 91 felony charges in four jurisdictions) is to win in 2024.
Retired Federal Judge J. Michael Luttig believes that the United States will “never recover” from the damage caused by former President Donald Trump and his allies. He stated that the efforts of Trump and his cohorts to deny the 2020 presidential election results have severely impacted Americans’ confidence in their democracy, elections, Constitution, and rule of law. I doubt that the nation will be able to fully recover from this assault on its democracy, and its global reputation as a beacon of democracy has been tarnished. “The Republicans, led by the former president, instigated a war on American democracy on January 6th, 2021, and now, today, three years later, we know that they are determined to prosecute that war to its catastrophic end, thus, the former president and his allies have continued to deny the 2020 presidential election for three years, maintaining that that election was stolen from the former president, notwithstanding that there is no evidence whatsoever of that, and that, indeed, President Joe Biden won that election fair and square. America will never recover from this assault on its democracy. Hopefully, with time and in the not-too-distant future, America will come to its senses and move on and beyond this tragic period in our history, but we will never recover as a nation from these past three years, nor will we ever be viewed in the same way by the world prior to January 6th. We were the beacon, if you will, of democracy around the world. No longer, I think, will that be the case.”
An elephant or other large entity, such as a former president, having been rejected by the voting masses, isolated in his Florida castle, living alone and apart from the herd, and having savage or destructive tendencies toward all who have ever slighted him.
