Oh, Just Shut Up and Play YMCA

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - George Orwell - "1984"

That line has been plastered all over the internet lately, illustrating that Orwell's cautionary tale about totalitarian government seems like a story on "60 Minutes." For you very young folks out there, "60 Minutes" was a news program on a TV network called CBS that often engaged in lengthy investigations of the government, big business and politicians in general. You know, it's that show on Sundays that now, thanks to the new owners, consists of profiles of Beyonce and Timothy Chalamet.

And on the subject of television, I was a News Director for an ABC affiliate station in Amarillo, Texas on January 6, 2021. I was in my office working on a script and had the office monitor off so I could concentrate, when my Assignment Editor came in and said, and I quote, "Holy shit, Rog. They are attacking the capitol!"

Now, this was and is, a no-nonsense woman and former newspaper reporter herself, not given to exaggeration. Sure enough, I came out, looked at the screen in the newsroom, and got everyone together to plan what our local angle on this event was going to be. Call our local congressman, if we can get him, talk to the local party chairs, a political science professor at the university, anyone who might help us understand what this means. That's because what we saw was a full-blown riot.

This is what we all witnessed live as presented to the January 6th Congressional Committee.

Cops were beaten, windows broken to get in, the building evacuated as rioters walked into the two chambers and began reading things and destroying things they had no right to. We saw people break into congressional offices and destroy documents and steal items. Feces were smeared on the walls of our Capitol and many went hunting for Vice-President Pence to, they claim, hang him for leading the certification of the 2020 election.

Many were arrested and tried for their actions, and some went to jail. Members of Congress from both parties condemned what they saw that day. I mean, some had run for their lives like Republican Josh Hawley...

We all saw it. We saw it with our own eyeballs. We saw the Trump flags, the confederate flags, the mayhem, the cops calling for help or screaming in agony. I've only been in a couple of riots, both of them overseas, but it just isn't hard to figure out what was going on. And then, the bamboozle began.

First of course, was the specious argument that they were justified because the election was stolen, a sham. Of course, no one has any proof of that though many tried. All those cases were laughably dismissed.

Then came the view of the execrable and, seemingly lipless, Tucker Carlson, commentator and fish stick heir, that they were actually just peaceful tourists enjoying the sights. He had obtained footage of the riot after things had settled down and the rioters were wandering the building.

The President even tried to lay it all on the incoming President Joe Biden...

“THE BIDEN FBI PLACED 274 AGENTS INTO THE CROWD ON JANUARY 6,” he wrote on Truth Social. “If this is so, which it is, a lot of very good people will be owed big apologies. What a SCAM – DO SOMETHING!!! President DJT”

This post ignores one salient and crucial fact. Joe Biden wasn't President yet. That's how silly it became. And now this from a gormless nimrod Representative from South Carolina, Ralph Norman...

NORMAN: Look, January 6th was an issue that was made up in the first place.

REPORTER: Made up, sir?

NORMAN: That was a staged thing from day one.

REPORTER: The riot was staged?

NORMAN: When you had police officers letting people in the building, when you had people that’s not being prosecuted– Ray, I forget his name. There’s no excuse for that.

REPORTER: Your colleagues, though, your Republican colleagues, ran for their life and barricaded themselves in their chamber. You think they were acting?

NORMAN: No, there was a riot there but it was a self-made riot by members who hate Trump. It was made up, in my opinion.

And Ralph, the earth is round and we landed on the moon.

For the record, the stats on this "made up" riot...

• Over $2.7 million in damages to the Capitol building.
• 174 police officers were injured.
• The largest criminal investigation in U.S. history, leading to hundreds of arrests and federal convictions.

All of those arrested had their day in court, and to the credit of some, many admitted what they did. But now, the government department that quaintly still has the word "Justice" in its name has scrubbed its website of any mention of the rioters' charges. Yep, any mention of what these people did on that day is now considered "partisan propaganda." No, really, those are the exact words...

“We are proud to reverse the DOJ’s weaponization under the Biden administration. We will do everything in our power to make whole those who were persecuted for political purposes. This includes stripping DOJ’s website of partisan propaganda,” the DOJ Rapid Response X account declared Friday.

By the way, "weaponization" means lawsuits or investigations of people you like, not those you don't. Looking at you, James Comey.

I think you know where this is going. At the end of 2022, a contract employee of the Internal Revenue Service leaked the tax records of 405,000 individuals and companies to the press. No, it wasn't just Trump. The man, Charles Littlejohn was tried and convicted for the leak. He is serving 5 years in the big house for it. The returns were from 2015-2020, covering the President's first term. In Trump's case, here were a couple of findings...

• Foreign Accounts: The filings revealed that Trump held bank accounts in foreign countries, including China, the UK, and Ireland during his time in business.
• Audit Failures: Congressional reports accompanying the release indicated the IRS failed to conduct mandatory audits on Trump’s presidential tax filings during the first two years of his term. 
• Massive Losses: His returns showed large carry-forward losses
• Low Tax Payments: Trump reported negative income in four of the six years and paid $750 or less in federal income taxes during three of those years. He paid zero federal income tax in 2020.

Considering that in the early to mid-1990's, Trump was not only not a billionaire, his income was negative. He simply had no money. "The Apprentice" helped him recover, along with the at least 622 products in his Trump Store since the start of his second term, totaling $43,000. In 2024 alone, the store brought in $8.8 million.

Add the crypto business, new resorts planned in countries we do business with in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, India, and more, 25 in all, along with now suspected insider trading and Trump family contracts with the Defense Department, and things are looking good. Oh, and don't forget a $400 billion jet from another country we do business with.

So, how to reward those who stood with you when you lost in 2020?

Unlike various candidates for federal judgeships, federal attorney positions, along with prospective cabinet choices, we aren't afraid to say he simply lost. They all are, to a man and woman, and the results are laughable to behold.

How about this then, I'll sue the IRS for, oh, $10 billion, though I was worth nowhere near that much. Granted, other rich guys were part of that leak, like Kenneth Griffin. The Citadel CEO sued the IRS under the Internal Revenue Privacy Statutes. This case was resolved in 2024 with the IRS issuing a formal, written apology to Griffin and the thousands of other affected Americans. To repeat, an apology.

But, rather than having an agency he oversees pay him an outrageous sum, he had his acting Attorney General, whom he also oversees, settle for $1.776 billion for a fund from which he will pay those he thinks have been wronged by the "dumocrats," you know, spelled without a B. Because, as the President explained, most people don't know that dumb has a B on the end. OK, I knew it, but did you? Come on, admit it.

So, the fear is that we have come full circle on the January 6th uprising. Now, they are patriots done wrong by Biden and deserve compensation. Yeah, these guys.

Will Comey, Fani Willis, Letitia James, John Brennan or anyone else the Trump DOJ has gone after see any reparations? They'll probably get some right after the descendants of slavery do. That would be, oh, what was that Johnny Mathis song my mom loved? Oh, yeah. The 12th of Never.

I only hope that because I'm a member of what one aide to former President George W. Bush called, "The reality-based community."

Oh, you thought that we all were? OK, Boomer.