By Donald A. Collins | 18 September 2021
Church and State

This time Woodward (and Bob Costa) didn’t have “Deep Throat”, just a lot of eye witnesses with guts to finally tell the truth even as key GOP leaders wouldn’t.
Was President Trump going nuclear, as he proclaimed 11/3/20 election fraud and urged his followers to create a January 6th Capitol insurrection?
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, didn’t know for sure but unlike our faulty intelligence at the time those 9/11 terrorists prepared their assault on the NY Trade Towers, he wasn’t going to not act.
Trump may have tried a coup to take another term as President for which he should be tried, but now he wants Milley tried for treason which shows how upside down the GOP has gotten thanks to The Donald.
You recall that we have no January 6th Commission approved as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked empaneling a Commission, something that had been routinely approved after the Nixon Watergate scandal and after the 9/11 attack on the Trade Towers.
Now we can surely understand why McConnell was nervous about finding out the January 6th facts about a President who had already been impeached twice.
Trump’s record of dodging what for most pols would be lethal election bullets has been extraordinary, beginning even before his election with his comments about women all the way to his call for an insurrection on January 6th.
You can read about his “Women’s call” here.
And you may wish to read his speech calling for a Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021 here.
Does anyone know if there is a name for that deadened-voice thing Trump does at the end of a sentence in a speech, the one that makes him think he sounds statesmanlike? You can find it here, even in the first minute or two. https://t.co/JjohNAojqU
— Gene Weingarten (@geneweingarten) June 24, 2021
So maybe now we will have a full investigation of General Milley, learning about his mind set as he sorted through the unthinkable mind set of a power crazed potential despot.
Meantime, however, President Biden expressed his full confidence in Milley which you can read here.
President Biden says he has "great confidence" in Gen. Mark Milley's leadership after being asked about assertions leveled in a new book about Milley's actions in the aftermath of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol https://t.co/14Asl1qLSk
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 16, 2021
Democrats turned out in an off year impeachment election on Tuesday September 14th in huge numbers to retain Governor Newsom in California, which could be a sign that more voters are finally realizing the continuing dangerous offshoots of the Trump legacy.
I have ordered a copy of “Peril”, the Woodward-Costa book, to read for myself the case against or for General Milley, but certainly previous exposes of Trump, a driven and vicious power seeker, suggest that nothing is off the table when his perceived personal interests are on the line.
Is that madness or just a Neo-Nazi mindset?
The Washington Post reported on the largely partisan response, but Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s noted that Milley’s precautionary calls were clearly warranted.
One commentator I heard suggested Woodward would hype the Trump war threat case to sell books.
I await the chance to read Peril, but such a cynical comment seems to diminish Milley’s professionalism in using his authority to explore and forestall any dangerous consequences from a person many identified, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as manic about losing on November 3rd.
Meanwhile, the CNN coverage of 9/14 is quite comprehensive; read it here.
Keep this in mind while Republicans excoriate Biden for the Afghanistan withdrawal:
“Right after Trump lost the election, Milley discovered the President had signed a military order to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by January 15, 2021.” https://t.co/0cAhFM4lz6
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) September 14, 2021
Doesn’t the January 6th insurrection speak volumes about Trump’s possible willingness to pull off a coup, even as his doxy VP decided, after getting solid advice from former Republican VP Dan Quale, that no rules allowed Pence any latitude in acknowledging the Electoral College results.
That alone is another indication of Trump’s mental state in the final days of his Presidency.
His behavior since leaving office in continuing efforts to undermine our democracy with false election fraud claims should soon awaken even the most venial GOP leaders that this may not be a winning GOP midterm election strategy.
The accumulation of Trump’s dangerous, disruptive behavior surely must be penetrating the consciousness of many on the fence GOP voters as the midterms approach. They may like the alleged political power Trump offers, but many will likely realize his presence on a Presidential ballot would be better filled by a Trump clone.
Is my contention correct that Trump’s political power is now set for a rapid and permanent decline? Will Woodward and Costa’s book have the same impact as the one on Nixon. No, but surely it has caused discomfort, as it should, on those who keep kissing Trump’s ring at Mar-a-Lago.
As I have stated before, our democracy has not been so threatened since the Civil War.

"From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013": https://t.co/lkC2t3E1A9
"Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?": https://t.co/tl3zSD7whn
"We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?": https://t.co/TA4j7cp1tE pic.twitter.com/mH1PSnoh17— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) July 1, 2021
Why Milley checked nuclear procedures, called China in final days of Trump presidency
President Joe Biden stands behind General Milley
Trump and GOP accuse Gen. Milley of treason. Reporter urges them to read the book
“I’m Not Into Coups” Claims Our Fascist Former President
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