We have all heard Rick Wilson’s encapsulation of the net effect of Donald Trump on his surroundings, “everything Trump touches dies” and nowadays that is literally true. You read where the Capitol Police confirmed the death of Howard Liebengood, a USCP officer who responded to the attempted insurrection at the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob and killed himself three days later. This is another one of those stories where the “why” is the whole story.

Then there’s the story of a Georgia man, whose last name is Georgia, who was arrested at the insurrection and killed himself at home. Daily Mail:

A Georgia man arrested at the violent Capitol Hill siege in Washington DC last week has died, police confirmed Monday.

Christopher Stanton Georgia, 53, shot himself dead at his home in Alpharetta on Saturday. He was found with a gunshot wound to the chest and died by suicide, The Fulton County Medical Examiner said. […]

According to documents from the Superior Court of DC, Georgia had been charged with attempting to ‘enter certain property, that is, the United States Capitol Grounds, against the will of the United States Capitol Police.’ […]

At around 7:15pm last Wednesday, on the night of the riots, Georgia was reportedly among a group outside in violation of the District’s 6pm curfew that had been put in place earlier that day to stem the chaos wreaked by the pro-Trump mob.

When officers gave the group several warnings to disperse, Georgia and his group reportedly refused, according to the documents. They were then placed under arrest as a result.

Unlawful entry is a misdemeanor charge that carries a maximum penalty of up to 180 days in jail and fines of up to $1,000.

I can’t speculate on the motivations of a man I’ve never met, but I’m sure it’s safe to say that he didn’t kill himself over the potential jail sentence or fine. The Daily Mail ran a photo of his home and it’s palatial by any reasonable standards, so it’s not like he couldn’t afford a good lawyer to handle a misdemeanor. There is something else going on here — but what?

And then there’s the case of Ashli Babbitt, who to all intents and purposes committed suicide as well. She was crawling through a window into the floor of the House, draped in a Trump flag, when a policeman on the other side shot her. Without sounding callous, what did she expect? You join up with an armed mob and start destroying the Capitol and you don’t think that you might not live to tell the tale? Trust me when I tell you that the last Trump rally I attended (where I was on the anti-Trump side of the street, obviously) I never wandered more than several yards from my car, because if the tear gas canisters started falling, I wanted to be able to escape, fast. I got tear gassed at a demonstration in college. There is no way in hell I would join an armed mob, and destroy government property, not for any reason. So why did this woman? Intelligencer:

“I actually saw it first on video when I was on the phone with multiple hospitals trying to find her,” said Kayla Joyce, 29, who said she is the mutual live-in girlfriend of Babbitt and her husband, Aaron. “We found out through the news. Through live television.” […]

“I blame Trump. How could you not? I mean he is their figure, their president,” Joyce said. “Why else would they do that unless their leader tells them to do that?”

Joyce pleaded that the image of Babbitt being presented online and in the press wasn’t the real her: “She wasn’t a terrorist. She wouldn’t have put herself in harm’s way for any bad reason. If I could get into her head and pick her brain, I would.” Joyce added that Babbitt’s death shouldn’t be celebrated by anyone. “It shouldn’t be construed that because she had an opinion that she deserved it. It’s just gross what they are saying.”

Babbitt’s opinion is not what got her killed. Her action in storming the Capitol with an armed mob, who smashed glass, stole computers and furniture, and smeared human feces on the marble floors is what got her killed.

Joyce said she didn’t follow Babbitt on Twitter, where Babbitt’s devotion to Trump and conspiracy theories went beyond backyard political debates; she tweeted far-right talking points and openly backed QAnon conspiracies, including the belief that high-ranking government officials were running an elaborate pedophilia ring. Her photos show that she attended a pro-Trump boat rally, called President-elect Joe Biden a “kid raper,” and believed COVID-19 is a hoax. The day before she stormed the Capitol, she tweeted that it would be a day to remember, as QAnon prophecy foretold. “Nothing will stop us,” she tweeted on January 5. “They can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours….dark to light!”

I guess she was just your garden variety QAnon fanatic. “The Storm” is a time of massive political arrests and executions, of military-backed Armageddon. I guess that these people value participation in this madness over basic human safety. Clearly Babbit was deluded, but what about the two men who committed suicide? I have no clue. I would love some answers to this. This is a death cult. All it’s lacking is the kool-aide and truth be known, it would not surprise me if the word went out post January 20 to get some kool-aide. It is that nuts.

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19 COMMENTS

  1. Kool ade, how funny but yet so true and sad… If you compare jim jones to trump you are getting real warm in your analogy…. The man can be compared stalin. hitler. lon pol. and a few others. thank you Sgt M.G.Flynn USMC

    • I did some research on Jonestown at some point, and it’s not an inaccurate comparison.

      We sometimes laugh off Jim Jones as a wackadoo…and he was…but we forget that he was narcissistic, greedy, racist and opportunistic.

      The entire scam of the Temple was to identify at-risk, isolated, lonely welfare recipients, and then to use Jones’s charisma and charm to get them into the church. Over time, they’d make these individuals more and more reliant on the church and the social circle therein. Eventually, they’d con them into signing over power of attorney so that the member’s income could be collected by the church. Once this happened, they were shuffled abroad to live in abject poverty while Jones lived off their welfare checks.

      Doesn’t this scheme sound like something Trump would conceive? Get a bunch of people to love you, get them to give you all of their income, then shove them aside.

      And then, there was the massacre. We often call this a mass suicide, but that is not an accurate description. Many members…most perhaps…did not want to kill themselves. They were forced by Jones and his guard. About 80% of the residents were Black…Jones purposefully preyed on African Americans. This makes the murder of some 900 mostly black, largely minor Americans at Jonestown one of the worst acts of racial terror in U.S. history.

    • I had a neighbor who was bark at the moon insane. She was also the kindest, most generous people I ever knew. I had another one who made a habit of sweeping the leaves and ice off the sidewalk of my apartment who was also good people. Neither of them would have been involved with THIS BS.

      So it follows that you’ve got to have a certain misanthropy and/or racism to be a diehard Trumper. Not JUST unstable…I’m talking somewhere between mean to downright evil.

  2. I think it comes down to one simple thing behind those suicides: everything they knew was wrong. Shattering of illusions is a major part of adult life, as we all know. But some illusions are so central to people’s worldviews that when THOSE break, the people holding them can get broken themselves. Doesn’t matter what kind of stuff you have when that happens (see Howard Hughes). The pain just goes soul-deep, way beyond the reach of any scalpel. And some folks can’t live with that.

    • It is possible that Mr. Georgia came down off his adrenaline high and the news of the deaths actually got to him. Was he capable of feeling guilt?
      Then again, successful business people sometimes kill themselves for reasons inscrutable to others.

  3. When the debate starts, I’d LOVE to see someone on our side who is out of you know whats to during their speech (and having had a page set up a big bowl with them) say something like: To my colleague on the other side of the aisle, think about what our colleague Mr. Schiff said in his closing argument at the conclusion of Senate proceedings earlier this year. Think of what’s happened since, as everything he predicted has come true. And think about how you felt, with a mob incited by this President and even some of the Members present stormed this building and this very chamber, intending to not just vandalize but for some take hostages of Representatives and Senators, and even kidnap and execute not just members of Congress but the Vice-President. Yet some of you are STILL thinking of opposing this entirely justified Article of Impeachment and helping ensure that Trump never again is eligible to hold any Office of Trust or Profit under the United States. If you are THAT committed to Trump and his sedition, the incitement of a mob of thousands of riotous supporters that put your own lives at risk then at the back of the chamber I’ve left you a gift. A packet of orange flavored Kool-Aid.” The reaction on the other side would be priceless, but boy would it make a point that would be a lasting one! Especially with those corporate donors who have been all of a sudden deciding maybe they should back off funding the GOP for a while. Something like this would stick, and be remembered in future campaigns and maybe make those GOP mega donors cut off the spigot to those who want to go down in flames with Trump for good! And same for anyone running in the future who wants to reclaim part of Trump’s mantle.

  4. I think that Mr. Georgia came home and got shamed by a lot of family and friends. You know peoples’ kids were trippin’ out over this. They’re probably getting shit from their friends, he probably ruined a few lives by being involved in the riot.

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