WARNING!
If you are convinced that anything that reflects negatively on President Trump is “fake news”, you will not like this article. You may as well exit this site and go drink your Kool-Aid.
If President Trump’s typical demeanor and behavior annoys you, you may want to remove fragile objects from your immediate vicinity. What follows may enrage you.
If you’re still with me and safely situated, scroll down.
January 2, 2021 — The Call
Unless you have been caught up in in serious personal concerns or have been living under a rock, you have heard about President Trump’s phone call to Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger.
This is the original series of audio extracts released by the Washington Post.[1] It says a lot in only four minutes and thirty-one seconds [4:31].
These few extracts from a call that lasted more than an hour demonstrate, once again, that the President speaks like and uses the “persuasive techniques” of a mob boss.
- He says that “people are really angry” about the situation. It’s clear that HE is really angry. I’m sure his cult members are really angry too. Members of his mob are feigning anger, but they’re hiding fear … of the boss and his cult.
- He says that “there’s nothing wrong” with changing the vote count that the state has already certified. They can say they’ve just “recalculated”. To Boss Trump, the Constitution is just a piece of paper.
- He recites a series of conspiracy theories that “people are saying”. Most of those “people” probably exist only in his head. The rest are simply repeating nonsense from within the cult or from the internet conspiracy echo chamber.
- He tells Brad Raffensperger and Ryan Germany that what they’re doing is criminal. What they’re doing is following the rules laid out in the law, the Constitution of the State of Georgia, and the Constitution of the United States.
- He threatens them with retribution; not from him, but from his warped perception of the law in a country that he considers to be his own private property by virtue of his office.
- He lets them know exactly what he wants Raffensperger and his team to “find” … 11,780 votes … one more than the margin between President-elect Biden and himself.[2]
- He accuses them of intentionally betraying him … and, by extension, the country.
- When Raffensperger and Germany point out that the conspiracies he is repeating are incorrect, he says that he “knows” that they’re wrong … using a condescending tone that implies that they are either liars or fools.
- Finally, he makes it about himself by talking about the terrible thing they’ve done to “the President”.[3]
NBC was able to obtain and verify a recording of the complete call. It’s one hour, two minutes, and twenty-one seconds [1:02:21] long. Before I post that recording, here is a twenty-eight minute and thirty-eight second [28:38] video clip wherein Georgia’s Voting Systems Manager, Gabriel Sterling, refutes President Trump’s allegations one-by-one.[4]
OK, time for the main event. Here’s the one hour, two minute, and twenty-one second [1:02:21] recording of the conversation between President Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger. After ignoring 18 calls from the White House during the past few months, Secretary Raffensperger decided that he’d better answer this one. He and General Counsel Germany decided they needed to record it to protect the State of Georgia and themselves. Much of what the President said may be in violation of Georgia law.
If you would rather read a transcript of the call, click on this link. Otherwise, make yourself comfortable and click on the video.
A Few Loose Ends
Perhaps you’re wondering why President Trump was so focused on Fulton County. It may have something to do with the concentration of Biden voters in the largest city in Fulton County … Atlanta.
It may have something to do with the President’s obvious racism. Blacks exceed Whites by 11.7% in Fulton County. If you add the Hispanic, Asia-Pacific, and Indigenous Americans, White people in Fulton County are outnumbered by non-White people by more than 28.9% The President … and many others in the current Republican establishment don’t believe in the 15th Amendment.[5]
In attacking Brad Raffensperger, Ryan Germany, Gabriel Sterling, and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, President Trump is attacking members of his own party. Raffensperger has publicly stated that he voted for Trump. Is it any wonder that the Republican Party is in disarray?
Today is January 6, 2021. Today, is the day that Congress began counting the votes from the Electoral College. In the past, this has been essentially a Constitutionally defined ritual. This year, a coalition of Trumpist Representatives and Senators planned to object to the counts from some states. The objections were not expected to be upheld. They were grandstanding to impress the members of President Trump’s cult.
The President had encouraged his followers to come to Washington … saying “it will be wild”. He gave a brief speech and encouraged them to “take it to the Capitol”. As I prepare to publish this article, I am looking at live shots of the Capitol Building under siege. Some of the mob have broken into the building. At least one person has been shot. The members of both chambers of Congress have been evacuated through tunnels designed for that purpose. The Capitol Police and the National Guard are preparing to clear the building room by room and to arrest those who broke into the Capitol and their ringleaders.
The “American Carnage” that President Donald John Trump spoke of in his 2017 Inaugural Address has come to its fullest manifestation.
This speech, given live about 15 minutes ago, is Boss Trump’s idea of how to tell the mob he created to leave peacefully.
He has not turned us into a “Banana Republic” yet, but he is still working on it … and he has 14 days left. Nobody died today, but one person was injured. (At 5:48 PM, shortly after I published this article, I heard a report that she had, in fact, died.) It is time for the sycophants in the House and Senate to stop their posturing and bickering. The President forgot his oath of office within minutes after reciting it. It is time for the members of Congress to remember that they pledged to uphold the Constitution; not the President and not their own greedy and power hungry desires. Had they done their jobs today … without the self-aggrandizing objections based on the conspiracy delusions of Boss Trump and his cult … this fiasco might have been avoided. An autocrat cannot survive without the help of wannabe autocrats supporting him.
Lock him up?
Well … it is probably too late to impeach him. His behavior on January 2nd seems to have violated several laws of the state of Georgia … and the evidence is recorded. They may have to negotiate with the state of New York. Maybe they’ll flip a coin to decide who gets the first crack at indicting ex-President Trump for violations of the law in their state.
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Footnotes
[1]
Ryan Germany answers a some of President Trump’s questions. He is Brad Raffensperger’s general counsel.
[2]
One vote? Isn’t that a bit obvious? Is this his idea of how to prove just how powerful he is … or, is he just too stupid to disguise his crime? I vote for the latter,
[3]
Referring to oneself in the third person is a sure sign of delusions of grandeur … exactly what you’d expect from a mob boss.
[4]
This clip also demonstrates why I nominate Georgia’s sign language translator for the title of “Best State Sign Language Translator in the United States”.
[5]
The 15th Amendment to the Constitution guarantees all U.S. citizens the right to vote regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. President Trump and his clown car full of lawyers have focused their claims of voter fraud on cities with large populations of black voters … like Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Des Moines.
My Less Than Humble Opinion 