Donald Trump didn’t just conspire to overturn the election. He ripped off his own supporters while doing it.
Treason, it turns out, is a lucrative endeavor.
Attacking the establishment can line one’s pockets.
This has been a central insight of rightwing media — and not just of rightwing media. There’s a capitalist incentive to frame oneself as a brave dissenter against the existing power structure.
That’s not the only reason our public discourse is so divisive, incoherent, violent and useless. But it doesn’t help.
Paying for a coup
The J6 committee has shown how Trump was told repeatedly that there had been no fraud in the 2020 election. Nonetheless, he continued insisting in public that the election had been stolen.
His deliberate lies directly inspired rioters to storm the capital in an attempted coup. Trump didn’t just call for violence, though.
He also called for funds.
Trump claimed he needed money to mount a legal attack on election fraud — even though, again, he had been told there was no fraud. He said the money would go to an election defense […]
I would predict that Merrick Garland will move after AG James of New York moves, or after prosecutors in Georgia move. He will do this to avoid being perceived as totally irrelevant by the public at large.To be even more cynical, he may move earlier to short circuit other prosecutions, but he may not have the ability to effect the other jurisdictions. Remember, that this is the man Obama thought appropriate for the Supreme Court. Trump has not been prosecuted because the swamp protects its own.