Just when you thought you could never imagine anything worse....

[kentuck]

Your imagination gets shot all to hell.

Was this guy actually going to go down to the Capitol and join the mob in celebration of him becoming dictator of America? It appears that may have been the case. Like a Third-World strongman, he was going to stand behind the podium of the people's House and wave a sword in the air like a tin-horn dictator.

Did he actually take the fine china at the White House and fling it against the wall like monkey at the zoo flinging its poop? It appears likely that it happened. And more than once.

Did you ever imagine that?

We will all need to expand our imaginations before this is over.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

1. The sky is the limit with Trump!

[Native]

2. Oh, he had no plans to join the mob. He wanted to lead the charge!

[Claustrum]

3. For me, it was weird he wasn't there.

He would definitely go down for a photo-op (remember the photo op holding a bible by gasing people to clear the path for him?). I know he would run before the violence starts but he definitely wanted a picture with those people behind him.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

4. The idea of Trump "leading the charge" clashes with

my impression of him as a craven coward.

[brush]

9. Exactly. He would've waited safely behind until the occupation was done, then push...

himself to the front to take credit.

[Irish_Dem]

5. He would wait until Pence and Pelosi were neutralized.

Kidnapped or worse.

Then he would proclaim himself as king of the world.

[usonian]

6. The mob was awaiting their leader. who no-showed

Time will tell if the appearance was part of a script or not.

There is some insight here: (Bloomberg access may vary)
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-06-28/jan-6-hearings-show-trump-final-scene-wasn-t-according-to-script
Trump’s Final Scene Didn’t Go According to Script
The former president saw himself as the executive producer of his own presidency, and he wanted to make a more heroic exit.
Timothy L. O'Brien
June 28, 2022

Once upon a time, long before Donald Trump began fabricating narratives about his prowess and personal history, he wanted to be a movie producer. He admired old-school Hollywood producers such as Darryl F. Zanuck and Cecil B. DeMille, and considered attending film school at the University of Southern California.

Trump’s father marched him into the family real estate business instead. But Trump never lost his fascination with showmanship or his fixation with occupying center stage. What he decided to do, he later told me, was to “put show business into real estate.”

So it was not surprising that Trump would be attracted to the presidency, or that when he actually won it he would try to inject Hollywood into the White House. And when he was kicked off that stage in November 2020, he was so wounded and power-mad that he invented a new narrative: Electoral fraud had deprived him of his victory, and he was entitled to respond by launching a coup.

So let’s go inside the presidential limousine on the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, hours before Congress was scheduled to certify the election results. We can seat ourselves next to Trump thanks to Cassidy Hutchinson, a White House aide, who recounted what happened in the limo during the fifth day of testimony overseen by the bipartisan congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Trump had just told the mob that he would march with them to the Capitol to protest the certification of the election. He knew things could get ugly; he and his aides had been warned of impending violence days before. The morning of the siege, Trump was informed that many in the crowd were carrying weapons, which had been detected and confiscated. (This upset Trump: “They’re not here to hurt me,” he said, ordering the magnetometers around the Ellipse removed. “Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol.”)

Sitting in his limo after his speech, Trump directed the Secret Service to take him to the Capitol. The agents refused, citing security concerns — thereby intruding on the theatrics Trump had so carefully engineered. “I’m the f-ing president, take me up to the Capitol now,” he insisted. They refused. He flew into a rage, trying to grab the steering wheel and lunging at the throat of one agent who stopped him. (On Tuesday evening the Secret Service pushed back on Hutchinson’s account, saying that Trump was angry agents wouldn’t take him to the Capitol but that he didn’t try to grab the steering wheel or lunge at an agent.)

Trump eventually returned to the White House, where he gloated over threats to former Vice President Mike Pence and took his time telling rioters sacking the Capitol to stand down.

Trump has a long history of exploding when he doesn’t get his way, as unhinged narcissists are wont to do. But Tuesday’s hearing put that behavior on national television. Hutchinson’s testimony also exposed Trump as acting like a mob boss. Aides without legal or moral rudders acquiesced; others asked him to observe the law, which he repeatedly declined to do.

Some law-abiding rationalists in his administration tried to make the perils of what Trump was doing plain to him. Still, he plowed ahead. Hutchinson said Trump’s former White House Counsel, Pat Cipollone, told the former president that “we’re going to be charged with every crime imaginable” — including obstructing justice and defrauding the Electoral Count Act — but Trump wanted to have things his way.

He still does. Representative Liz Cheney, one of the Republicans overseeing the committee’s work, presented evidence that Trump or his minions have apparently tried to intimidate witnesses asked to testify before the committee. She offered statements from a pair of them at the end of Tuesday’s hearing.

Each of the committee’s hearings has brought the possibility of criminal charges closer and closer to Trump. Tuesday’s hearing was especially damning: He knew exactly what he was doing — and did it anyway.

But it’s unlikely that those are the things that bother him the most about what went awry with his unsuccessful coup. What really gets to him, I suspect, is that he didn’t get to stage his show exactly the way he planned.

Trump and I watched “Sunset Boulevard” on his jet together nearly 20 years ago.  Gloria Swanson plays the silent film star Norma Desmond, bemoaning the arrival of the talkies and her subsequent loss of stature. In one of the film’s iconic scenes, she says: “Those idiot producers. Those imbeciles! Haven’t they got any eyes? Have they forgotten what a star looks like? I’ll show them. I’ll be up there again, so help me!”

At that moment, Trump leaned over my shoulder. “Is this an incredible scene or what?” he whispered. “Just incredible.”

Trump doesn’t want anyone questioning his star power or impeding his storylines. Like Norma Desmond, he plans to show any doubters what he’s made of. He’ll be up there in the White House again, so help him.

The question is whether the law — or, as the case may be, a congressional committee — will stand in his way.

COOK HIS GOOSE (TURKEY) FOLKS, and all the little giblets in and around him.

GOTV https://democraticunderground.com/100216868660 GOTV

I will shorten if this pushes DU rules. Kindly advise before alerting if so.

[dmr]

7. Thanks for posting this.

It was very interesting.

[usonian]

10. Was the turkey pic superfluous/distracting? I will delete if so. I use it a lot. nt (no turkey?)

[dmr]

11. No! It made me hungry until I saw the tfg, lol

[usonian]

13. Not sure I can find the original to (you know what).

MineralMan posted a goose here.
https://democraticunderground.com/100216863627

Props to MineralMan!!

[BlueCheeseAgain]

8. Doesn't part of you wish he had?

Then at least some of his deluded followers would realize that yes, in fact, he was behind the whole thing.

[usonian]

12. Love is blind, so is hate. nt (No Trump)

[LeftinOH]

14. The Qnuts were expecting him to appear before a huge crowd of supporters,

and, with cameras rolling, declare "victory." Then there would be mass arrests of all high-level Dem politicians, of Hillary, the Obamas, Hollywood celebrities, etc.