I have always thought Trump's failure to take immediate action to stop the insurrection was overwhelming evidence of his complicity. It's linked to all the charges against him, but had he decided to honor his oath of office and defend the Constitution while our Capitol was being attacked the damages would have not been as great and lives and injuries could have been saved or prevented. He was aware some of the insurrectionists were armed with guns and could see they were carrying various types of other weapons. People were dying or being injured over the three hours while he did nothing except further incite the crowd to more violence and deadly harm, in his behalf.
He can be convicted on circumstantial evidence alone. His speech at the Ellipse was the fomenting of a coup. It was the catalyst that set in motion the planning that had taken place before it. His speech was classic narcissistic triangulation, where he would get others to do his dirty work for him.
[Case in Point: “State-Level Personality Cult Officials” or “State-Level Lawless Authoritarians]
After the Mid-Term 2022 elections, Ohio is without a doubt the state with the most well-developed strong hold of “state-level personality cult officials” or “lawless authoritarians.” The “Swing State of Ohio” (Obama won in 2008 and 2012) has very rapidly become a gerrymandered Republican supermajority state since the election of Trump in 2016 with most Ohioans NOT knowing it was happening! The two most “Lawless Ohio Authoritarian Proponents” (but there are others, and our current Governor Republican Mike DeWine is weak and complicit within this system and needs to go) are:
**Jim (Gym) Jordan (Ohio 4th Congressional House Rep) -- hopefully he will also be convicted for Jan 6 crimes
**Frank LaRose (Ohio 51st Secretary of State)
David Pepper has written a book on the Ohio experience entitled “Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines” (Oct 2021). Also I offer a short piece I was asked to write this past Friday as an economist involving Governor DeWine’s much needed new 2-Year Mental Health proposal for the State of Ohio:
“The US House just passed the “Mental Health Matters Act” in Sept 2022 addressing the mental health concerns of the students, families, and educators in the US including in the Ohio gerrymandered supermajority Republican legislature. ALL Congressional House Republican Reps voted AGAINST the Act (except for Congressional Rep Brian Fitzpatrick (PA)) including all those in Ohio! Now Governor Mike DeWine will be submitting his new and upcoming two-year budget proposal with many good intentioned mental health priorities in it in 2023. If passed by the OH gerrymandered Republican supermajority legislature and signed into law, DeWine’s “New Mental Health Priorities Proposal” would provide grants to establish a pipeline for school-based mental health service professionals. Additionally, it would grow the number of mental health experts at elementary and secondary schools that are based in high-need locations which is something our students, families, educators care deeply about!! Do we think it will happen based on our CONTINUED current legislative environment and our current Governor’s inability to work within this environment? I think within this Ohio legislative environment with no change, new mental health priorities are not likely to happen.”
Ruth also mentioned Pepper's book, and I am reading it now. My question for you is: Why, since the Ohio Supreme Court declared the gerrymandering illegal, couldn't the election of the hillbilly senator be challenged and declared illegal and null and void?
I'm not 100% sure, but I thought that the US supreme court declared the Ohio supreme gerrymandered maps constitutional, thereby overriding the Ohio supreme court.
Hi Erica and thank you so much for your input. I’m sorry I was late in replying but during my break I’ve been trying to run in my neighborhood in the evening and then I was just hanging out afterwards.
…….But anyway this gerrymandering map drawing never actually went to the US Supreme Court only to the Ohio Supreme Court and some Federal District Courts. The following series of events were all within the Ohio Supreme Court and Federal District Courts.
Also, since 2016 and Trump, nothing has been fairly resolved within our current “Lawless Ohio State-Level Authoritarian Rulers’ Jurisdiction”
Some gerrymandering events:
[Jan 14, 2022] Ohio Supreme Court Strikes down Ohio’s Gerrymandered US Congressional District Map. They ordered the Republican controlled Ohio General Assembly to draw a new map that complies with the Ohio Constitution. Partisan gerrymandering is a violation of the Ohio Constitution.
[March 21, 2022] Lawsuit Filed Against Ohio’s Revised Congressional Map. Revised Map “bears a striking resemblance” to the first map struck down by the Ohio Supreme Court. Revised map is still an extreme outlier that favors Republicans.
[Jul 19, 2022] Ohio Supreme Court invalidated a second proposed map because it violated the partisan gerrymandering prohibitions contained in the Ohio Constitution. The Ohio Supreme Court stated again that the opponents of the new map proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the district plan ensures a reliable Republican advantage. [Note: a “dissenting” Ohio Supreme Court Justice is Ohio Governor DeWine’s son R. Patrick DeWine]
[May 27, 2022] US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Amul R. Thapar and US Western District of Kentucky Judge Benjamin J. Beaton, BOTH appointed by former President Donald Trump, formed the majority in the Federal court’s decision to implement statehouse maps TWICE that were declared unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court.
[[[….The majority ruling said federal courts are instructed to give states maximal flexibility to craft their own solutions and that “federal district courts must wait to act until the last possible moment.”
“We must presume state actors will work together to reach homegrown solutions,” the majority wrote. “And if they fail, then it is up to the voters to punish them if they so choose.”
Between the standoff among state officials and the delay in getting the case, the court said their options were limited.
“So we chose the best of our bad options. Given the factual record before us, two reasons justified our approach. First, no map had won the approval of both the Commission and the Ohio Supreme Court. And second, Map 3 gave the State the most time to fix its own problem. That broke the tie.”
In between Map 3’s original adoption by Republicans on the redistricting commission and the state supreme court’s first rejection of them as unconstitutional, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose ordered boards of elections to load the Statehouse district maps into their systems and prepare to use them.
Republicans on the redistricting commission used the fact that elections officials were already ordered to use the maps as part of their decision to pass the maps a second time, and the federal court in April pointed to counties already using Map 3 as justification for its choosing it for implementation.
LaRose is among the four commissioners who voted for the maps both times. Others were Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Republican legislative leaders representing the Ohio House and Senate (originally Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp and Senate President Matt Huffman, then their chosen replacements on the commission, state Rep. Jeff LaRe, and state Sen. Sen. Rob McColley).
In his dissent, U.S. District Judge Marbley noted that his previous dissent warned the federal court about signaling it would adopt Map 3 on May 28 as it “set a strong, almost immovable default,” and “virtually ensure[d] that the third map will be used for an August 2 primary.”
“Following the majority’s April opinion, the Commission never attempted to craft a constitutionally compliant fifth plan. Two Commissioners, who had participated in all prior rounds of map-drawing, actually ceased their service and appointed substitutes,” Marbley wrote. “If there was any hope of the Commission fulfilling its constitutional duty, this federal panel quashed it….]]]
Thus the issue of gerrymandering is still very unsettled and Republican favored in Ohio……
The last I could ever find was that an Ohio “Constitutionally compliant fifth plan [map] was never crafted.” And I believe they used an earlier unconstitutional 4th map from the summer that Frank LaRose and other Redistricting Commission members quickly decided on……and then they went on quickly to something else clouding the issue and focusing on something new such as the “proposed Ohio Constitution Protection Amendment requiring petition-based amendments to pass with 60 percent of the vote instead of a simple majority.”
The “Lawless Ohio State-Level Authoritarians” at this moment in time and for this above issue involved Secretary of State Frank LaRose partnering with Republican State Rep. Brian Stewart of Ashville to propose an amendment to protect the Ohio State Constitution from “special interest groups.” What?? What Special Interest Groups? The only special interest groups that are wreaking havoc within the Ohio State-Level System are the “Lawless Ohio State-Level Republican Authoritarians.” See below:
[Today Dec 22, 2022] Ohio GOP must be stopped | Letters to the editor
Akron Beacon Journal
"Stop LaRose, GOP's latest power grab"
I am writing in response to Frank LaRose’s opinion piece, “Changes would not be ‘knife to’ voters’ necks." The thrust of his article is to garner support for the proposed Ohio Constitution Protection Amendment, which would raise the bar for passing an Ohio constitutional amendment from the current simple majority to 60%.
LaRose notes that other states have adopted similar requirements, and some offer no ability for their citizens to amend their constitutions via a statewide ballot. Who cares? I live in Ohio, and Ohio’s laws are what matter most to me.
LaRose states that we need to put aside our current political disputes. How rich. He mentions working with state Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Chillicothe, on getting this issue on the next statewide ballot, but he doesn’t mention a single Democrat he worked with on this measure. How telling.
If he was truly interested in setting aside current political disputes, he would have voted against Ohio’s illegally gerrymandered voting districts that were struck down (4 times!) by Ohio’s Supreme Court. From my perspective, he’s more interested in toeing the party line than he is in setting aside current political disputes.
This is nothing more than a ploy for the Republican Party to further cement its ability to keep dissenters at bay. Given that they’ve already gamed the system through severe gerrymandering, this amendment would run counter to the general interests of a large portion of Ohio’s voters. Ohio desperately needs to stop the power grab that continues to pervade the Columbus political landscape.
Mental health is especially critical because of the after effects of the pandemic. Children were effected, this impacts the future workforce, and therefore economy and innovation.
I watched the hearing today. I was glad to see the four reasons for referral to the DOJ. One thing bothers me (well, more than one...) and that is Majorie Taylor Green’s comment a few days ago that, had she and Bannon had the coup, with guns, they would have succeeded - whats to stop them? Secondly, that she will be on important committees because of her fealty to Trump and McCarthy.
Greene and Bannon want to burn the place down and start over with authoritarian rule. They are against democracy, yet we leave Greene in Congress. Being tolerant of evil is a mistake.
That hillbilly senator you mention received super PAC tech money from billionaire Peter Thiel who donated a record amount of money ($15 million) EVER for a senate candidate! And then the Supreme Court was still deciding on changing gerrymandered maps at the last minute let alone how valid they were in keeping with the Ohio Constitution. My House Congressperson was changed back to Marcy Kaptur just at the last minute before I voted on Nov 8th so there was no time to further check how valid were the maps, so we still don’t know the validity at this point either.
And, Mansur, there are still so many issues to tackle in Ohio, because of our “Lawless State-Level Authoritarians,” and be signed by Republican Gov DeWine during this “Lame Duck” session……thus we just have to keep fighting!
Hopefully, the DOJ will hit the ground running! Just can’t allow Trump to drag this out any longer!
I have always thought Trump's failure to take immediate action to stop the insurrection was overwhelming evidence of his complicity. It's linked to all the charges against him, but had he decided to honor his oath of office and defend the Constitution while our Capitol was being attacked the damages would have not been as great and lives and injuries could have been saved or prevented. He was aware some of the insurrectionists were armed with guns and could see they were carrying various types of other weapons. People were dying or being injured over the three hours while he did nothing except further incite the crowd to more violence and deadly harm, in his behalf.
He can be convicted on circumstantial evidence alone. His speech at the Ellipse was the fomenting of a coup. It was the catalyst that set in motion the planning that had taken place before it. His speech was classic narcissistic triangulation, where he would get others to do his dirty work for him.
Excellent as usual! Thank you Ruth!
[Case in Point: “State-Level Personality Cult Officials” or “State-Level Lawless Authoritarians]
After the Mid-Term 2022 elections, Ohio is without a doubt the state with the most well-developed strong hold of “state-level personality cult officials” or “lawless authoritarians.” The “Swing State of Ohio” (Obama won in 2008 and 2012) has very rapidly become a gerrymandered Republican supermajority state since the election of Trump in 2016 with most Ohioans NOT knowing it was happening! The two most “Lawless Ohio Authoritarian Proponents” (but there are others, and our current Governor Republican Mike DeWine is weak and complicit within this system and needs to go) are:
**Jim (Gym) Jordan (Ohio 4th Congressional House Rep) -- hopefully he will also be convicted for Jan 6 crimes
**Frank LaRose (Ohio 51st Secretary of State)
David Pepper has written a book on the Ohio experience entitled “Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines” (Oct 2021). Also I offer a short piece I was asked to write this past Friday as an economist involving Governor DeWine’s much needed new 2-Year Mental Health proposal for the State of Ohio:
“The US House just passed the “Mental Health Matters Act” in Sept 2022 addressing the mental health concerns of the students, families, and educators in the US including in the Ohio gerrymandered supermajority Republican legislature. ALL Congressional House Republican Reps voted AGAINST the Act (except for Congressional Rep Brian Fitzpatrick (PA)) including all those in Ohio! Now Governor Mike DeWine will be submitting his new and upcoming two-year budget proposal with many good intentioned mental health priorities in it in 2023. If passed by the OH gerrymandered Republican supermajority legislature and signed into law, DeWine’s “New Mental Health Priorities Proposal” would provide grants to establish a pipeline for school-based mental health service professionals. Additionally, it would grow the number of mental health experts at elementary and secondary schools that are based in high-need locations which is something our students, families, educators care deeply about!! Do we think it will happen based on our CONTINUED current legislative environment and our current Governor’s inability to work within this environment? I think within this Ohio legislative environment with no change, new mental health priorities are not likely to happen.”
Ruth also mentioned Pepper's book, and I am reading it now. My question for you is: Why, since the Ohio Supreme Court declared the gerrymandering illegal, couldn't the election of the hillbilly senator be challenged and declared illegal and null and void?
I'm not 100% sure, but I thought that the US supreme court declared the Ohio supreme gerrymandered maps constitutional, thereby overriding the Ohio supreme court.
Hi Erica and thank you so much for your input. I’m sorry I was late in replying but during my break I’ve been trying to run in my neighborhood in the evening and then I was just hanging out afterwards.
…….But anyway this gerrymandering map drawing never actually went to the US Supreme Court only to the Ohio Supreme Court and some Federal District Courts. The following series of events were all within the Ohio Supreme Court and Federal District Courts.
Also, since 2016 and Trump, nothing has been fairly resolved within our current “Lawless Ohio State-Level Authoritarian Rulers’ Jurisdiction”
Some gerrymandering events:
[Jan 14, 2022] Ohio Supreme Court Strikes down Ohio’s Gerrymandered US Congressional District Map. They ordered the Republican controlled Ohio General Assembly to draw a new map that complies with the Ohio Constitution. Partisan gerrymandering is a violation of the Ohio Constitution.
[March 21, 2022] Lawsuit Filed Against Ohio’s Revised Congressional Map. Revised Map “bears a striking resemblance” to the first map struck down by the Ohio Supreme Court. Revised map is still an extreme outlier that favors Republicans.
[Jul 19, 2022] Ohio Supreme Court invalidated a second proposed map because it violated the partisan gerrymandering prohibitions contained in the Ohio Constitution. The Ohio Supreme Court stated again that the opponents of the new map proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the district plan ensures a reliable Republican advantage. [Note: a “dissenting” Ohio Supreme Court Justice is Ohio Governor DeWine’s son R. Patrick DeWine]
[May 27, 2022] US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Amul R. Thapar and US Western District of Kentucky Judge Benjamin J. Beaton, BOTH appointed by former President Donald Trump, formed the majority in the Federal court’s decision to implement statehouse maps TWICE that were declared unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court.
[[[….The majority ruling said federal courts are instructed to give states maximal flexibility to craft their own solutions and that “federal district courts must wait to act until the last possible moment.”
“We must presume state actors will work together to reach homegrown solutions,” the majority wrote. “And if they fail, then it is up to the voters to punish them if they so choose.”
Between the standoff among state officials and the delay in getting the case, the court said their options were limited.
“So we chose the best of our bad options. Given the factual record before us, two reasons justified our approach. First, no map had won the approval of both the Commission and the Ohio Supreme Court. And second, Map 3 gave the State the most time to fix its own problem. That broke the tie.”
In between Map 3’s original adoption by Republicans on the redistricting commission and the state supreme court’s first rejection of them as unconstitutional, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose ordered boards of elections to load the Statehouse district maps into their systems and prepare to use them.
Republicans on the redistricting commission used the fact that elections officials were already ordered to use the maps as part of their decision to pass the maps a second time, and the federal court in April pointed to counties already using Map 3 as justification for its choosing it for implementation.
LaRose is among the four commissioners who voted for the maps both times. Others were Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Republican legislative leaders representing the Ohio House and Senate (originally Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp and Senate President Matt Huffman, then their chosen replacements on the commission, state Rep. Jeff LaRe, and state Sen. Sen. Rob McColley).
In his dissent, U.S. District Judge Marbley noted that his previous dissent warned the federal court about signaling it would adopt Map 3 on May 28 as it “set a strong, almost immovable default,” and “virtually ensure[d] that the third map will be used for an August 2 primary.”
“Following the majority’s April opinion, the Commission never attempted to craft a constitutionally compliant fifth plan. Two Commissioners, who had participated in all prior rounds of map-drawing, actually ceased their service and appointed substitutes,” Marbley wrote. “If there was any hope of the Commission fulfilling its constitutional duty, this federal panel quashed it….]]]
Thus the issue of gerrymandering is still very unsettled and Republican favored in Ohio……
That's okay. So was it the federal district courts that ruled the Ohio gerrymandered maps be used?
The last I could ever find was that an Ohio “Constitutionally compliant fifth plan [map] was never crafted.” And I believe they used an earlier unconstitutional 4th map from the summer that Frank LaRose and other Redistricting Commission members quickly decided on……and then they went on quickly to something else clouding the issue and focusing on something new such as the “proposed Ohio Constitution Protection Amendment requiring petition-based amendments to pass with 60 percent of the vote instead of a simple majority.”
The “Lawless Ohio State-Level Authoritarians” at this moment in time and for this above issue involved Secretary of State Frank LaRose partnering with Republican State Rep. Brian Stewart of Ashville to propose an amendment to protect the Ohio State Constitution from “special interest groups.” What?? What Special Interest Groups? The only special interest groups that are wreaking havoc within the Ohio State-Level System are the “Lawless Ohio State-Level Republican Authoritarians.” See below:
[Today Dec 22, 2022] Ohio GOP must be stopped | Letters to the editor
Akron Beacon Journal
"Stop LaRose, GOP's latest power grab"
I am writing in response to Frank LaRose’s opinion piece, “Changes would not be ‘knife to’ voters’ necks." The thrust of his article is to garner support for the proposed Ohio Constitution Protection Amendment, which would raise the bar for passing an Ohio constitutional amendment from the current simple majority to 60%.
LaRose notes that other states have adopted similar requirements, and some offer no ability for their citizens to amend their constitutions via a statewide ballot. Who cares? I live in Ohio, and Ohio’s laws are what matter most to me.
LaRose states that we need to put aside our current political disputes. How rich. He mentions working with state Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Chillicothe, on getting this issue on the next statewide ballot, but he doesn’t mention a single Democrat he worked with on this measure. How telling.
If he was truly interested in setting aside current political disputes, he would have voted against Ohio’s illegally gerrymandered voting districts that were struck down (4 times!) by Ohio’s Supreme Court. From my perspective, he’s more interested in toeing the party line than he is in setting aside current political disputes.
This is nothing more than a ploy for the Republican Party to further cement its ability to keep dissenters at bay. Given that they’ve already gamed the system through severe gerrymandering, this amendment would run counter to the general interests of a large portion of Ohio’s voters. Ohio desperately needs to stop the power grab that continues to pervade the Columbus political landscape.
John J. Kovach, Akron
Mental health is especially critical because of the after effects of the pandemic. Children were effected, this impacts the future workforce, and therefore economy and innovation.
Thank you for your critical work, Ruth. Its time justice is finally enforced - but I’ll only believe it when I see it.
I watched the hearing today. I was glad to see the four reasons for referral to the DOJ. One thing bothers me (well, more than one...) and that is Majorie Taylor Green’s comment a few days ago that, had she and Bannon had the coup, with guns, they would have succeeded - whats to stop them? Secondly, that she will be on important committees because of her fealty to Trump and McCarthy.
Greene and Bannon want to burn the place down and start over with authoritarian rule. They are against democracy, yet we leave Greene in Congress. Being tolerant of evil is a mistake.
I couldn't agree more, Steve.
That hillbilly senator you mention received super PAC tech money from billionaire Peter Thiel who donated a record amount of money ($15 million) EVER for a senate candidate! And then the Supreme Court was still deciding on changing gerrymandered maps at the last minute let alone how valid they were in keeping with the Ohio Constitution. My House Congressperson was changed back to Marcy Kaptur just at the last minute before I voted on Nov 8th so there was no time to further check how valid were the maps, so we still don’t know the validity at this point either.
And, Mansur, there are still so many issues to tackle in Ohio, because of our “Lawless State-Level Authoritarians,” and be signed by Republican Gov DeWine during this “Lame Duck” session……thus we just have to keep fighting!
Here's hoping that indictments are pending for spraytan superman (Donald J. Trump, Man of Steal)!
Ruth, what does full self-protection mode look like?
That's okay. So was it the federal district courts that ruled the Ohio gerrymandered maps constitutional?