Official atrocities on your dime and mine

            Colorado fired John Eastman right around the time America fired Donald Trump.

            Trump's employers gave him notice in November. In Eastman's case, it was, "Hit the road" in January.

            Actually, it was the University of Colorado that told Eastman his services were no longer needed.

            This after the part-time CU lecturer and full-time conspiracist sounded the bullhorn of insurrection and the Big Lie at the Jan. 6 riot fest.

            What Colorado taxpayers didn't know at the time was the extent to which the crank attorney provided the schematic which led Trump to say he could nullify the election.

            I'm one of those taxpayers. To think that my tax dollars helped pay Eastman's plane fare to Washington.

            To think that Trump used my tax dollars during the period from election to certification to illegally extend that which 81 million voters said must end: his con-man presidency.

            Now to think that a considerable number of Americans want the con to continue.

            University of Colorado officials were alarmed that Eastman was among several exhorting the mob that wrecked the Capitol.

            We can only imagine their reaction to hearing that Eastman drew up for Trump the schematic for nullifying the vote. He said Vice President Mike Pence could refuse to certify the election and throw it to the House of Representatives.

            Did he bill the White House for that service? That would be you and me.

            Oh, Lord -- the bills Trump ran up as the most corrupt president in American history, twice impeached. The digits continue to pile up as he fights our right to know his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

            We already know a lot thanks to reporting like that provided by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in their book "Peril."

            Among the book's many stunning revelations is that after Pence told him he couldn't stop certification, Trump issued a statement "speaking on the vice president's behalf" that Pence was in "total agreement" that he had that authority.

            Again, official lies on your dime and mine.

            In effect, says Costa, a soon-to-be-ousted president had seized control of a constitutional office, the vice presidency, to advance his Big Lie and build up the hopes of the goons who stormed the Capitol. The goons who chanted, "Hang Mike Pence."

            Trump never denounced these actions. He spent Jan. 6 watching the chaos on television and feeling proud of his incitement, telling rioters by video, "We love you."

            In the video he said he had "directed all federal agencies" to restore order. Not true, say Woodward and Costa. Others, most prominently Pence, took those necessary steps.

            House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who at the time (not today) would denounce Trump's role in these events, was frantic in telling Trump by phone, "You've got to tell them to stop."

            Trump's response: "Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are."

            Let's face it. Trump never was interested in governing – serving the people, protecting the commonwealth. He is interested in serving his own interests.

            Last week, Dr. Deborah Birx, Trump's yes-person on his coronavirus response, told congressional investigators Trump failed to take steps that would have saved the lives of tens of thousands.

            The virus did not take a break for Trump to assemble a War Room to take back the presidency. The virus didn't take a break for Trump to lobby officials in Georgia and Michigan and Arizona to help him do that.

            The virus continued to do its job without charge. It was Trump who apparently saw his only job in his final days on our payroll, to be figuring out how to make 81 million votes go away.

            Longtime newspaperman John Young lives in Colorado. Email: jyoungcolumn@gmail.com.