Tag: donald-trump

5 years since 1.6.2021. America suffers from political Amnesia

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 1.7.2026 UPDATED

Straight out of the 1930’s Nazi Germany playbook
Wall Street Journal – 1.7.2021
Wall Street Journal 1.7.2026

It is nearly five years since Donald Trump led the insurrection and tried to violently overturn the November 2020 election.

The place Trump belongs. Prison

As rebellion flared up in the nation’s capitol America failed its biggest test. Putting this criminal insurrectionist back in the White House a year ago. He should be in prison.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_6_United_States_Capitol_attack

The American sheep like people continue to suffer from Amnesia and are all too willing to let this abhorrent event fade into the historic background.

On this New Year’s Day I went into the PBS FRONTLINE archives. Resting there for all who care to view is the graphic documentary originally broadcast on January 26, 2021. Reasonable people thought this criminal would land in jail. Wrong.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/trumps-american-carnage/

As rebellion flared up in the nation’s capitol America failed its biggest test.

There is one Hero amongst the somnolent lazy American public. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Smith_(lawyer)

Excerpted from The New York Times 12.31.2025

Jack Smith, the former special counsel, defended his decision to twice indict President Trump, accusing him of “exploiting” violence on Jan. 6, 2021, to overthrow the 2020 presidential election, according to a transcribed interview released by House Republicans Wednesday.

Mr. Smith, a former prosecutor vilified by Mr. Trump as a partisan, spent much of the eight-hour, closed-door session on Dec. 17 before the House Judiciary Committee rebutting a range of Republican claims, including the accusation that he had improperly obtained metadata on phone calls involving Trump-allied lawmakers.

“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power,” Mr. Smith said, according to the transcript.

Bloviating mindless January 6th insurrectionists were pardoned by Donald Trump the first day he returned to office 1.20.2025

In the interview, Mr. Smith sought to undermine the narrative that the president was an innocent figure persecuted by partisans who weaponized federal law enforcement, a core belief among many Trump supporters.

“We will not accept this (Trump) intimidation.” Zohran Mamdani

SAN FRANCISCO VIA NEW YORK CITY

Lee Heidhues 7.1.2025

The Felon Trump is at it, again.

Spreading racist bigoted anti-immigrant slurs. The incendiary appeal to the worst in people has served the Felon Trump well for 10 years.

The latest target of his obscene vitriol is the just officially declared Democrat nominee for the Mayoralty of the Felon Trump’s hometown.

Nominee Zohran Mondami is having none of it.

Excerpted from The New York Times 7.1.2025

“The president of the United States just threatened to have me arrested,” Zohran Mamdani said in a response on social media, adding that Mr. Trump’s statements “don’t just represent an attack on our democracy but an attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: If you speak up, they will come for you.”

He continued, “We will not accept this intimidation.”

President Trump on Tuesday floated an outlandish claim that Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for New York mayor, was an illegal immigrant and threatened to arrest him if he blocked immigration arrests in New York City.

Mr. Mamdani was born in Uganda and has lived in New York City since 1998, when he was 7 years old. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2018. If elected, Mr. Mamdani would also be the first Muslim to become mayor of New York City. There is no credible evidence to suggest Mr. Mamdani is not, or shouldn’t be, a U.S. citizen.

Mr. Trump’s attack on the mayoral candidate echoed language he has long used to lend credibility to falsehoods. “A lot of people are saying he’s here illegally,” he said of Mr. Mamdani. “We’re going to look at everything.”

When a journalist raised the possibility that Mr. Mamdani “will not allow” ICE to make immigration arrests, Mr. Trump replied, “Well then we’ll have to arrest him.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has so far declined to endorse Mr. Mamdani, rallied behind him after Mr. Trump’s attacks.

“I don’t care if you’re the President of the United States,” Ms. Hochul wrote on social media. “If you threaten to unlawfully go after one of our neighbors, you’re picking a fight with 20 million New Yorkers — starting with me.”

“It’s up to you. New York. New York”

Bishop Budde eyebrow-raising sermon infuriates felon Trump

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 1.23.2025

CORONATION OF THE AMERICAN NAZI REGIME – JANUARY 20, 2025

An ongoing series to expose The Felon Trump assault on all institutions.

Today it’s the Episcopal Church. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episcopal_Church_(United_States)

Excerpted from La Croix International 1.23.2025

“Mean,” “so-called bishop,” “radical left hardline Trump hater.” Such vehemence is not unusual in President Donald Trump’s rhetoric, but he usually reserves his attacks for the political world. However, his attacks were for Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, D.C., whom the new U.S. president harshly criticized January 22, the day after the National Prayer Service held as part of his inauguration.

Bishop Mariann Budd – Episcopal Bishop Washington, DC

Trump’s outrage

Mariann Budde, 65, drew the president’s anger after a sermon in which she encouraged Donald Trump, “in the name of our God,” to show “mercy” toward “the millions of people who are afraid.” “There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives,” she pleaded before the president and his wife Melania, seated in the front row alongside Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife.

And just as Trump had declared a state of emergency along the Mexican border, Budde also urged the president to be compassionate toward immigrants, of whom, she said, “the vast majority (…) are not criminals.”

Bishop Budde speaks at White House protest for Peace in Gaza – December 2023

Further reading: Trump lashes out at Episcopal bishop who called for ‘mercy’

Visibly annoyed by these remarks, Trump harshly criticized her on his Truth Social platform. “The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard-line Trump hater (…),” he wrote, accusing the bishop of dragging “her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone and not compelling or smart… She and her church owe the public an apology!”

Mariann Edgar Budde, born in 1959 and ordained a priest before being elected bishop of Washington in 2011, is the ninth bishop of the Episcopal diocese of the U.S. capital and the first woman to hold the position in this church, a member of the Anglican Communion. The Anglican Church belongs to the “historical” Protestant tradition, in contrast to evangelical Protestantism.

Established after the American Revolution during the separation from the Church of England, the Episcopal Church stands out for its inclusivity. It was among the first to bless same-sex unions and strongly advocates for LGBT equality.

Previous statements

This is not the first time the Episcopal bishop of Washington has addressed Trump, directly or indirectly. In 2020, after Black Lives Matter protesters were forcefully dispersed by police on the steps of St. John’s Episcopal Church—known as the “Church of the Presidents” in the federal capital—the billionaire posed hours later in front of the building, Bible in hand, drawing the ire of most American religious leaders. Budde said she was “outraged” and “horrified” by this publicity stunt.

Felon US President Donald Trump holds up a Bible outside of St John’s Episcopal church across Lafayette Park in Washington, DC on June 1, 2020. – Felon Trump was due to make a televised address to the nation on Monday after days of anti-racism protests against police brutality that have erupted into violence.
(Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

https://international.la-croix.com/world/who-is-mariann-budde-the-episcopal-bishop-who-drew-trumps-ire

“I’ll cut the apple in two. I’ll pray it isn’t True.” Nazi Trump Justice

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 1.22.2025

Some people are studying their history

As a regular feature of http://www.leesperspective.com I will hi-light Felon President Trump’s dismantling of the American system as we have come to know it.

The Civil Rights Division is the first bite of the Department of Justice apple.

“I’ll cut the apple in two. I’ll pray it isn’t True.” Apple of Sodom, Marilyn Manson

What it feels like in Nazi Trump America – ‘Apple of Sodom’ Marilyn Manson

CORONATION OF THE AMERICAN NAZI REGIME – JANUARY 20, 2025

TRUMP CONVICTED – 5.31.2024

Excerpted from The Washington Post 1.22.2025

“It’s beyond unusual — it’s unprecedented. We’ve never seen this before at this scale with any transfer of power, regardless of the ideology of any incoming president or administration,” said Damon Hewitt,president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “This should make Americans both angry and deeply worried. This is more than just a changing course of philosophy — this is exactly what most people [in the civil rights community] feared: a Justice Department that was created to protect civil rights literally abdicating its duty and responsibility to protect Americans from all forms of discrimination.”

Felon President Trump dismantles the Justice Department.

The Justice Department has ordered the civil rights division to halt much of its investigative activity dating from the Biden administration and not pursue new indictments, cases or settlements, according to a memo sent to the temporary head of the division that was obtained by The Washington Post.

Trump said on the campaign trail that police at times must be “extraordinarily rough” to stamp out urban mayhem and endorsed more aggressive tactics from police, including the use of stop-and-frisk to search suspects.

The letter instructs Kathleen Wolfe — designated by the Trump administration as supervisor of the division — to ensure that civil rights attorneys do not file “any new complaints, motions to intervene, agreed-upon remands, amicus briefs, or statements of interest.”

https://wapo.st/3WtIasi

The Third Reich of Dreams. Coming to our neighborhood

The Third Reich of Dreams. How Dreams Change Under Authoritarianism

SAN FRANCISCO RICHMOND DISTRICT

Lee Heidhues 11.20.2024

After 22 percent of my neighbors (179 allegedly intelligent people) in our precinct voted for Trump I have been thinking hard about what the future will bring on January 20, 2025.

Trump was President in 2019 when I posted a story about “The Third Reich of Dreams: How Dreams Change Under Authoritarianism.” Well, terrifyingly here we are again. In America and in my very own neighborhood in a City which likes to think itself “Progressive” and “Tolerant.” I have learned it’s not true.

Street camera for surveillance. Omnipresent in San Francisco 2024

I need not look far. I am surrounded by neighbors with surveillance cameras and high intensity security lights. These insidious tools monitor the comings and goings of everyone and at night pollute the sky. What are these people fearful of in our quiet neighborhood? The families of raccoons who forage in their trash cans?

Perhaps this is why the classic book “The Third Reich of Dreams: The Nightmares of a Nation” published in 1966 and long out of print is being republished next April.

A warning shot about the dangers of rampant paranoia. Only this time it’s not Nazi Germany. It’s right here on my block.

Excerpted from The New York Review of Books 12.5.2024

Born in 1907 in Forst, Germany, a town near the Polish border, Charlotte Beradt was a young journalist who reported on women’s issues and other aspects of German social and political life for the weekly journal Die Weltbühne.In 1933 Beradt, a committed communist and a Jew, found herself suddenly unemployed. As the Nazi movement grew, she began having nightmares every night.

She wondered whether other people were having similar dreams. She started to ask people about their dreams, discreetly: “I asked the dressmaker, the neighbor, an aunt, a milkman, a friend, almost always without revealing my purpose.” She did this because “dreams like this should be preserved for posterity,” and she wrote down hundreds before fleeing to New York in 1939. There she worked as a hairdresser for fellow émigrés, sometimes spending time with her friend Hannah Arendt.

In 1966 she finally brought her collection together, arranging the dreams by theme, offering her own light commentary, and bolstering each short chapter with epigraphs from the likes of Kafka and Brecht and Arendt herself. She gave the resulting slim volume a memorable title: The Third Reich of Dreams. The book had some modest success but never penetrated the American consciousness like the work of Arendt, perhaps because Beradt offers us not a complex hermeneutics of totalitarianism but rather a quite straightforward picture of the psychological effects of propaganda and manipulation upon a populace.

The Third Reich of Dreams: The Nightmares of a Nation

by Charlotte Beradt, translated from the German by Damion Searls, with a foreword by Dunya Mikhail

Princeton University Press, 124 pp., $24.95 (to be published in April 2025)

A message to Donald Trump. Your Election Denier gets 9 years in jail

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 10.3.2024

Where is the Judge who will mete out a sentence to convicted criminal, liar and election denier Donald Trump???

When will the election deniers learn that doing Trump’s dirty work for him is a fools mission which will result in jail time?

Colorado Judge Matthew Barrett sentences former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters to nine years in prison

Excerpted from Colorado Public Radio 10.3.2024

Tina Peters is headed to prison.

The former Mesa County Clerk was sentenced to nine years of incarceration, most of which will be served in the Colorado Department of Corrections.

Convicted election denier Tina Peters in happier days

Peters was found guilty of three felony counts of attempting to influence a public servant and one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation. She was also convicted of first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty, and failure to comply with an order from the Secretary of State, all misdemeanors.

Her sentencing was handed down in a packed courtroom Thursday that included supporters of Peters, several uniformed sheriff’s deputies and local elected officials. Interested parties also gathered just outside the courtroom, streaming the proceedings on their phones from feet away. 

Peters was found guilty by a jury of Mesa County residents in August on seven counts, including four felonies after she helped facilitate unauthorized access to county voting equipment that she was supposed to safeguard. 

The Election Official Who Tried to Prove “Stop the Steal”
How a group of conspiracy theorists enlisted a county clerk in Colorado to find evidence that the 2020 vote was rigged. The New Yorker – September 7, 2022 https://www.newyorker.com/news/american-chronicles/the-election-official-who-tried-to-prove-stop-the-steal

During Thursday’s hearing, the prosecution argued that Peters should face the maximum penalty for each charge and said Peters should serve time in prison, noting her lack of contrition even after she was found guilty. 

“I don’t think anybody in this room would make a straight-faced argument that Mrs. Peters has demonstrated any respect for the law,” 21st Judicial District Attorney Dan Rubinstein said.  

https://www.cpr.org/2024/10/03/tina-peters-former-mesa-county-clerk-prison/