HEROES WHO PREVENTED TRUMP'S ATTEMPTED COUP

 The Lahaina Apocalypse is up to 96 deaths. 

• Read this NBC summary.  
• Watch Jeremy Greenberg, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, describe disaster assistance to Maui Wildfire victims.
• Short aerial video of the devastation.
• And a longer one.

By now 75% of Americans at least suspect Donald Trump of having attempted a coup to remain as president.  Only a third of Republicans actually believe Trump was right.  A small percentage of Independents and fewer Democrats likewise side with him.  Thus, only 25% of voters will stick with Trump into the 2024 presidential election year.

What prevented The Donald from succeeding?  The list is a healthy indicator of the power of Democracy:

• Leading the list are the 10 living former U.S. defense secretaries who on 3 January 2021 published in The Washington Post a forceful public letter declaring the U.S. presidential election is over, and the contention of Trump that he was cheated has no merit.
• They are:  Dick Cheney, James Mattis, Mark Esper, Leon Panetta, Donald Rumsfeld, William Cohen, Chuck Hagel, Robert Gates, William Perry and Ashton Carter.
• They said:

Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived.

• 
  The effort was initiated by former ambassador and defense official Eric Edelman in consultation with former Vice President Dick Cheney and others.
• It took only two days working with The Washington Post to get all ten secretaries to sign on.
• Said former DoD secretary Cohen shortly after this letter was published:

...this “highly unusual” step was warranted given the “unconstitutional path” Trump has taken the country. 

It was really our attempt to call out to the American people. We believe all of them are patriotic. They’ve been led down a path by President Trump, which is an unconstitutional path. And so we felt it was incumbent on us as having served in the Defense Department to say: Please all of you in the Defense Department, you’ve taken an oath to serve this country, this Constitution, not any given individual.

• 
  The gravity of what was happening was alarming, and this letter provided Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley the support for defying Trump.
• Once the Department of Defense refused to cooperate with the then president, the coup was essentially beaten back.  Overthrow of any government doesn't happen when the military is not involved and opposes.
• But Trump and his cohorts foolishly continued on with their scheme.

• 
  Recall, then, that all the above ensued from January 3.  Came 6 January 2021.
• Earlier, even on Christmas Day, Vice President Mike Pence was requested personally by Trump to reject the electoral votes on January 6.  Pence wavered.  He was then told that fake electoral votes are fogging up the actual results, and as he couldn't pass on this responsibility to the Democrat-controlled House, he should then let the state legislators make this final decision.  If it had gone that far, Trump would have won.
• 
  On January 6 Trump knew that Pence would not cooperate, so as a final desperate attempt, convinced his crowd at the Ellipse (here is the timeline) to march to the Capitol.  Of course, his allies had arranged with the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to show their ire at that site.  They were uniformed and armed.
• Stupidly enough, Trump had intended to join them, but the Secret Service somehow prevented him from going.
• 
  The latest Department of Justice indictment of Trump will unveil the details, but Mike Pence became the next hero by bringing the Senate back into session (this photo shows that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also was there at the podium), which at 3:41AM on January 7 confirmed Biden as the 2020 presidential election winner.
• 
  Other heroes on 6 January 2021 were the 100 or so law enforcement officials who protected the U.S. Congress from the onslaught.  It took almost a year, but they were hailed as heroes with Congressional Gold Medals.

• 

  There are more heroes.
• Business leaders led by Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld met in a video conference three days after the 2020 election to already cope with what was sounding like defiant loser Donald Trump planning a coup.  Participating were 45 CEOs, representing one-third of Fortunes's 100 largest companies.  Sonnenfeld was known as the CEO Whisperer, and previously had been asked by Trump to run Trump University.  These individuals and their industrial equivalents worked behind the scenes to protect Democracy.  You haven't read much about their activities.
• Federal and state officials like Cassidy Hutchinson, who worked in the Oval Office, Rusty Bowers of Arizona and Brad Raffensperger of Georgia.

• 
  The villains who participated in this coup attempt?
• All those named or to be identified in the DOJ indictment of Trump about January 6, including other Trump lawyers and top advisors.  Read this article.
• Team normal, from the Attorney General's office, like William Bar, Jeffrey Rosen and Richard Donoghue and old-timer staff, who pushed back, and therefore, will be exonerated.
• Rudy's team, like Giuliani, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro will suffer for their involvement.
• A growing list of GOP lawmakers, including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, Scott Perry and Louie Gohmert.
• Those fake electors from 7 states. 

I might finally add that on 6 September 2022, these same 10 DoD secretaries, plus five former chairs of the Joint Chiefs of Staff published a second open letter to solidify civil-military relations, rejecting Trumpism.  The Trump indictment for this coup attempt will unfold over the next year.

Day 11 of my African Blood Lily.

-