Slash and Burn
Put down this insurgency before it is too late
Some indigenous peoples and subsistence farmers use a method called ‘slash and burn’ for agriculture. Farmers basically follow four steps — cut down non-productive vegetation, let it dry, burn it, then eventually reuse the land which becomes more fertile from the ashes. While it can contribute to negative results, if done properly and with precision it can create farming opportunities where otherwise there are none without harming the environment. It turns land that is all but impossible to survive upon into a lush producer of consumable food. Nevertheless, the phrase ‘slash and burn’ in the common vernacular has come to mean “extremely destructive in an indiscriminate way.” But the process, that has been employed for some 12,000 years, is neither inherently indiscriminate nor destructive. The pejorative connotation simply mirrors the visual appearance of the effort. In other words, the representation of hacking away vegetation followed by the plumes of smoke sort of validates the pejorative sense and use of the phrase.
So why am I talking about a traditional agricultural method whose moniker has come to carry a connotation that somewhat unfairly depicts the method? Because it perfectly describes what needs to be done to root out and destroy the dangerous, evil infection festering in America.
The Republican party has ignited a civil war. It is not ‘imminent’ or ‘possible,’ it is happening. Most of its members supported Trump’s attempted soft coup, political action committees dump huge amounts of money into the campaigns of these traitors, propagandist networks peddle the party-line lies, and members of the general public regularly engage in violent behavior — either threatening or actual — on the party’s behalf, including — most vividly — the January 6 assault on the Capitol. Indeed, politicians themselves have called for violence or for the overthrow of the government.
On violence:
Mike Huckabee: If these tactics end up working to keep Trump from winning or even running in 2024, it is going to be the last American election that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets.
Matt Gaetz: Mr. President, I cannot stand these people that are destroying our country. They are opening our borders. They are weaponizing our federal law enforcement against patriotic Americans who love this nation as we should. But we know that only through force do we make any change in a corrupt town like Washington, D.C. And so to all my friends here in Iowa, when you see them come for this man, know that they are coming for our movement and they are coming for all of us.
Kari Lake: If you want to get to President Trump, you’re going to have to go through me, and you’re going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me, And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA. That’s not a threat, that’s a public service announcement.
On overthrowing the government:
Jack Posobiec: Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely. We didn’t get all the way there on Jan. 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it.
Marjorie Taylor Greene on January 6: I want to tell you something. If Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, we would’ve been armed.
Roger Stone: I really do suspect it will still be up in the air. When that happens, the key thing to do is claim victory… Possession is nine tenths of the law. No, we won. Fuck you. Sorry. Over. We won. You’re wrong. Fuck you… I said fuck the voting, let’s get right to the violence… We’ll have to start smashing pumpkins if you know what I mean.
These are just a few of many examples. Some politicians have tacitly admitted that they will do whatever they can to overturn the coming election. Reporter Kristen Welker asked Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina if he will accept the results of the 2024 election regardless of who wins.
Scott: I’m not going to answer your hypothetical question… At the end of the day, the 47th president of the United States will be President Donald Trump.
On another show, Welker asked Florida Senator Marco Rubio the same question.
Rubio: No matter what happens? No, if it’s an unfair election.
When not saying in specific words that they plan to overthrow the election or at least reject the results, others have engaged in obstruction of justice on behalf of criminal defendant Donald Trump. A number of Republican representatives and wannabes showed up in New York City to violate the gag order imposed on Trump for his repeated efforts to demean the court, threaten judicial staff, and intimidate witnesses and jurors. U.S. Representative and Turley-esque legal scholar Byron Donalds of Florida, Representative and grenade distributor Cory Mills of Florida, potential bribe participant/witness North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, former GOP presidential candidate and fraudster Vivek Ramaswamy, Porn-App Bible-thumping Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, alleged sex trafficker Representative Matt Gaetz, and many others stood outside the courthouse making various statements about all the things Trump cannot as a defendant. These conspirators actually dressed in the same-colored suits and ties.
Others joined the fray, such as IVF expert Tommy Tuberville, Senator from Alabama, who actually confessed that their purpose was to violate the gag order on Trump’s behalf. On Newsmax, America’s stupidest senator said:
Hopefully we’ll have more and more senators and congressmen go up every day and represent him. And be able to go out and overcome this gag order. That’s one of the reasons we went, to be able to speak our piece for President Trump.
Representative Andy Ogles from the great (Klan) state of Tennessee even proposed a bill called the “Let Trump Speak Act.” The unseriousness of the bill, and the truth about its underlying purpose, came out in his comments about it:
And so enough is enough. Trump should be acquitted. He should be back on the campaign trail and that’s it. They’re trying to keep Trump off of the campaign trail and keeping him tied up in court.
Somewhat more behind the scenes, Republicans have adopted other tactics to obstruct justice. Representative Jim Jordan, the blind wrestling coach, has repeatedly attempted to undermine the prosecution of Trump in Georgia for his efforts to defraud the election there. Jordan has sent subpoenas for information from the ongoing criminal investigation and prosecution, has threatened to rescind funding either to Georgia or Fulton County as a retaliatory tactic for the prosecution, has launched bogus investigations into District Attorney Fani Willis, and has threatened to hold Willis in contempt — despite his own persistent contempt of Congress of which he is a member. Jordan conducted all this abuse under the color of authority of his office. Willis responded with a strong statement:
Jim Jordan has time after time after time attacked my office with no legitimate purpose. Anyone who knows Jim Jordan’s history knows that he only has the purpose of trying to interfere in a criminal investigation. He has now turned his tricks to he’s going to looking at grant programs, which I invite him to do, and we have complied with his subpoenas. But yet, he continues his attacks to try to interfere in a criminal investigation.
Here’s the thing. Strong statements mean nothing. Statements alone are mere preaching to the choir. Republican voters will never see or hear them, or only encounter twisted versions of them on propaganda channels like Fox or Newsmax, where Sean Hannity or Laura Ingraham or whatever other mouth-breather routinely bellyaches about the unfairness of Trump facing a much more amiable criminal procedure than any other criminal defendant ever.
Independents and those exasperated with politics will probably never see or hear these statements either, though their votes are in many ways more critical than others. Thus, mere statements do little to nothing.
It is for this very reason that Republicans do not solely rely on them. Instead, they engage in what any rational person would call ‘clown show’ antics. They show up outside a court house in which a jury is hearing evidence of Trump’s numerous criminal acts, dressed like the Nazis’ division of lawyers and accountants. They attend once decorous events wearing red MAGA hats, gaudy outfits, and enough flair for a TGIF happy hour, while acting like drunk Moms for Liberty members at a PTA meeting in Florida. They fly American flags upside-down to illustrate their contempt for their own office, and their loyalty to the insurrection, then cowardly blame the wife when called out.
These acts are petulant, churlish behavior to be sure. But such tantrums speak to the base. They speak to loyalists who think people like Tuberville or Greene are even just a little bit smart, or that Mike Johnson is truly religious, or that Lauren Boebert knows that carpetbagging isn’t a sex act in a Beetlejuice theater. These acts are directed to members of the sunburned public who are angry and overwhelmed with hate, and especially to those prone to violence. Such a demographic does not concern itself with statements — few of them would bother to or could read them anyway. What they desperately want is for their lives to have meaning — meaning seen through distorted lenses where love, compassion, and even family matters little to them. These are people who just ‘want to be somebody,’ to have a moment of undeserved fame on the world stage. They are a more dangerous, violence-fueled version of teens engaging in ridiculous stunts to go viral on TikTok. Their philosophy is the same that drives many mass shooters; indeed, many of them became mass shooters. Many more will. Politicians and pundits act up because they know their theatrics will reach these people on trash platforms like Truth Social, Newsmax, Fox, or in batshit crazy Facebook or Telegram private rooms. Or if truly successful, their toxic spittle will reach true stardom like Great Replacement theorist and propagandist-in-chief Tucker Carlson’s has, now featured as it is on Russian TV networks.
They know that America’s institutions have shied away from confronting this kind of extremism, evidently under the misguided belief that it is protected under the First Amendment, and they are thus fanning the flames with impunity. If people get killed, so what. They have not shown a modicum of concern for anyone’s well-being for decades, beginning when their forefathers eviscerated the middle class under Reaganomics and manifesting since in the abortion or gun debates, their penchant for encouraging child labor, their suppression of certain voters, their encouragement of violence against immigrants, and any number of other atrocities of the present.
Leverage Power or Let the Country Fall
There is a solution to this, but it requires a courage no purportedly patriotic politician or person of power has yet to show in any meaningful way. Defeating extremists demands coercive force. This is not a call to arms. It is not an incitement of violence parallel to the right wing’s Gravy Seals brigades. It is not a suggestion to plant an IED near the Capitol. It is not a demand to engage in a mirror-image political acme cartoon. The answer is not to be the Beavis to the right wing’s Butthead. No. It is a call to leverage power to send a powerful message to the provocateurs using the institutions designed to address these matters, institutions only as vibrant as the people constituting them. It is a plea to make an unequivocal declaration to these insurrectionists that their actions will incur severe consequences. If we are to be a cohort of brave patriots, the next greatest generation, people in power must take bold steps to quell this infantile, but dangerous, rebellion. Here are some proposals to start:
1- Charge Jim Jordan with Obstruction of Justice in Georgia. There is sufficient evidence just in the public record to do so, and probably more in the shadows. Worry not about defenses like the Speech or Debate Clause. Those issues are a matter of law to be adjudicated in court, and probably losers. Let Jordan defend his actions on the public record, under oath, where obfuscation and lies are not tolerated but punished. Allow him to testify under oath that he is not truly trying to interfere in the criminal investigation of a fellow politician for no just — or legal — reason.
2- Charge the Heritage Foundation and the contributors to Project 2025 with Seditious Conspiracy. There is a serious — and substantial — legal argument for this that I will make in a detailed forthcoming piece. Put their intentions on display before the public and let them supply the reasons for why this effort does not constitute a plan to overthrow the government. Let them justify why this ‘guide’ (which is accompanied by plenty of constituent action) is not treason. Force them to show how it is sufficiently extricated from the violence of January 6 and elsewhere.
3- Charge Clarence Thomas with Bribery. Make him explain how his conduct does not exhibit the acceptance of benefits in exchange for official acts. Moreover, let the Supreme Court justices themselves reveal their true colors. Let’s see if they come to his defense and reveal their own corruption, or if they scurry away like the cowards most of them most likely are, or if they stand up for the principles supposedly underlying the Court. Make them prove that this so-called ‘Code of Ethics’ they recently penned is more than the shit-stained toilet tissue most believe that it is.
4- Charge Senators Ron Johnson and Lindsey Graham with Conspiracy related to their participation in the attempted soft coup attempt. A special grand jury already recommended criminally charging Graham. And the trickling of evidence into the public record strongly suggests Johnson’s culpability. Certainly more lies outside the public’s view.
5- Charge with Bribery Trump and the oil industry executives who attended the Mar-a-Lago event where they brought their own ‘executive orders’ for Trump to sign on day one should he be re-elected. In exchange, Trump sought $1 billion in party donations, including to his own campaign.
6- Sue Fox News and Newsmax in New York State under New York’s General Business Laws (GBS) that prohibit fraud. Both have clearly lied to their consumers as indicated in the voluminous evidence that emerged from the Dominion lawsuit. Many pay for their products, such as their mobile applications, on the basis that they are receiving objective reporting. The framework of the GBS means prosecutors need only show either an intent to defraud, or an actual fraud without the intent based on engaging in objectively fraudulent conduct.
Many will argue that some of these cases will be weak. This is doubtful. Nonetheless, a weak case is not a frivolous one, and supposed weakness rarely stops the prosecution of much weaker defendants. There is evidence to support criminal charges in all six proposals outlined above. Moreover, filing them will make a stark point — nefarious actions have significant ramifications. Republicans and right-wingers have no issue with flagrantly violating any rule, yet those resisting them are squeamish about doing anything that might have even remotely negative ‘optics,’ even if fully justified morally, legally, or both. This is utter nonsense, flagrant cowardice, and obviously unsustainable.
Police have no problem rounding up and arresting hundreds of protestors at non-violent events or those with only miniscule pockets of it — except on January 6, oddly, a ‘protest’ that was replete with violence. On the day of that conflagration, it appears that less than 20 people were arrested. Regardless, among the mass arrests by police at many or most protest events, the vast majority of cases are frequently dismissed for lack of evidence or cause. Nevertheless, police do it all over again at the next event with seemingly no fear of reprisal or any dithering over optics. Yet, when the literal form, function, and survival of the American system is under attack, it seems no police or prosecutors anywhere have the guts to take on even relatively strong cases, ostensibly out of fear of looking ‘too political’ or of the backlash from rightwing goblins. Well, I have news for you. Every criminal case is political, and rightwing goblins will whine about something no matter what (cue gas stoves). Politics is not nor should be the primary consideration. The only matter of importance is whether there is evidence that suggests a crime was committed. And in all six proposals, we have a mountain of it. Muster the courage to put the criminal justice and judicial systems into the action they were designed for in the first place. It is time to engage in a slash and burn. Cut out the useless material, let it dry, burn it, and rebuild from the fertile ashes.
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Robert Vanwey was Senior Technical Analyst for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice, who specialized in investigating public corruption, technology and financial crime. He also has a Juris Doctor and Master degree in history.
Be sure to check out Just Say We Won, the detailed narrative of Trump’s attempted soft coup to overthrow the United States of America, and According to Trump, Joe Biden can Kill You, a careful analysis of Trump’s immunity arguments made before the Supreme Court.
