Comparing Trump And Jones January 4, 2024 I meant to post this from the Los Angeles Times a year ago but it’s just as relevant today: Retiring California lawmaker reflects on Jonestown and Trump When Jackie Speier was a lawmaker in Sacramento, before mass shootings became a sad and sick part of everyday life, she helped push through the first state ban on military-style assault weapons. During a scorching debate, an opponent challenged her, wondering whether she’d ever fired one of the weapons targeted for extinction. Her response was swift and sharp: “No. But have you ever been shot by an assault weapon?” She was at the Jonestown massacre in 1978 and on the floor of the House — literally — in 2021. Jones, she noted, convinced hundreds of true believers “to follow him into the jungle of Guyana. Once there, they became somewhat enslaved by him, and in the end, they didn’t commit suicide. They were murdered.” Trump, she said, “created this cult of personality that allowed him to then telegraph to his supporters to do things that were illegal, destructive, personally harmful.” Speier was in the House chamber on Jan. 6, 2021, when it was overrun by violent, jacked-up Trump supporters seeking to overturn the 2020 election. “I remember pressing my cheek to the floor and feeling how cold it was and this whole sense of resignation kind of came over me,” she said. “I thought, ‘This is it. I’m going to die here in what we think is this sanctuary of democracy’” after surviving Jonestown. BONUS Robert Reich’s 10 suggestions for 2024.