Another of Trump’s sharp tools broken and tossed aside – The apparent impossibility of making Trump accountable – A fictional precursor of our ex-President – Evening statistics
Another participant in the assault on the Capitol has been convicted. Doug Jensen, a firm believer in the conspiracy theories of QAnon, was the man who chased Officer Eugene Goodman up a flight of stairs, possibly with the intent of killing him, certainly with the intent of injuring him. His sentencing is scheduled for December 16th. He faces a heavy penalty: Thomas Robertson, a former police officer found guilty of similar charges, has received 87 months in prison.
These delinquents are for the most part dull-witted, poorly-educated, readily-deluded men, and obtaining convictions for their seditious actions has been relatively easy. But how difficult it has been to obtain a conviction to the author of all of this destruction! We do not appear to be any nearer to placing Trump on trial than we were twenty months ago, when the attack on the Capital occurred. There are many lawsuits pending, to be sure, but when will one of them actually materialize?
Fani Willis, at least, has recently floated the possibility of a prison sentence for Trump’s attempt to derail the election in Georgia. I can only hope she has the resolution to pursue this goal. Imprisonment is the sole penalty that will make any impression on him. Fines, however large, are useless: he has far too much money to be injured materially by any forfeit a court judge may impose on him.
How strange that Nathaniel Hawthorne, in 1851, appeared to have anticipated a public figure such as Trump when describing Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon in The House of Seven Gables:
“The Judge, beyond all question, was a man of eminent respectability. The church acknowledged it; the state acknowledged it. It was denied by nobody. In all the very extensive sphere of those who knew him, whether in his public or private capacities, there was not an individual – except Hepzibah, and some lawless mystic, like the daguerreotypist, and, possibly, a few political opponents – who would have dreamed of seriously disputing his claim to a high and honorable place in the world’s regard. Nor (we must do him the further justice to say) did Judge Pyncheon himself, probably, entertain many or very frequent doubts, that his enviable reputation accorded with his deserts. His conscience, therefore, usually considered the surest witness to a man’s integrity, – his conscience, unless it might be for the little space of five minutes in the twenty-four hours, or, now and then, some black day in the whole year’s circle, – his conscience bore an accordant testimony with the world’s laudatory voice. And yet, strong as this evidence may seem to be, we should hesitate to peril our own conscience on the assertion, that the Judge and the consenting world were right, and that poor Hepzibah with her solitary prejudice was wrong. Hidden from mankind, – forgotten by himself, or buried so deeply under a sculptured and ornamented pile of ostentatious deeds that his daily life could take no note of it, – there may have lurked some evil and unsightly thing. Nay, we could almost venture to say, further, that a daily guilt might have been acted by him, continually renewed, and reddening forth afresh, like the miraculous blood-stain of a murder, without his necessarily and at every moment being aware of it.”
I can only conclude that men of Trump’s mentality were a more frequent a feature of American political life, and one of greater antiquity, than is commonly supposed. Today’s statistics as of 9:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 619,542,822; # of deaths worldwide: 6,538,186; # of cases U.S.: 97,876,662; # of deaths; U.S.: 1,081,475.