Well...

(courtesy of the trailer for Satan's Sadists)

Anybody really surprised by yesterday?  

What really makes me sick is watching the people who did everything they could to cause this now thinking they can backpedal by going on Twitter and saying, "Violence is bad, mm-kay?" They're like kids who were playing with matches and burned down the barn and are now going, "What?  Not me, I hate matches, I've never liked fire!"   Too bad, Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Marsha Blackburn, Rudy Guiliani, Cindy Shitface-Smith, Kevin McCarthy, Ivanka Trump and her ugly-ass mouth, Don Jr., Jim Jordan, Ronna McDaniel, Kellyanne Conway, and all the other hypocritical scum who spent four years throwing gasoline around and feeding idiots lies and conspiracies to make them exploitably stupid and frightened, and then wanna cry about it.   You plant and tend and water seeds, motherfucker, and you DO NOT get to cry when a crop comes up.  Nope... you sit down and EAT.  Eat 'til you're sick, eat 'til you BUST, because it's YOUR crop.

Ted Cruz, especially... I really, really can't put into words how disgusting I find Ted Cruz.  What a spineless ratbag.  Who in the HELL allows anyone to call their wife ugly and their father an assassin... and not only does nothing, but ends up fighting to be that guy's chief bootlicker?  Imagine how that schumck's wife feels, watching that.  It's hard to find anyone on this planet less worthy of respect than Ted Cruz.  I would say Trump, but Trump at least has the excuse of being pathetically mentally ill.  Trump's a worse person, but he's sick.  Cruz isn't crazy... he's just a coward and completely without principles.  I've never been a big fan of Texas, having spent a lot of time there, but, shit, dude, I gotta wonder about a state that keeps electing someone like that.  Can't have much pride, letting that leaky sack of dungliquor represent ya.  But I know that's not all Texans.  He's hanging on by a thread, and I hope that thread snaps the next chance they get. Fuckin' hell, that guy.

Anyway, I know it's less than two weeks left, but Trump still should be impeached and removed for psychological reasons and criminal behavior and sedition.  He oughtta be out of there by sundown, for reasons of national security AND because he needs to be disgraced.  This cult of his is poison and needs to be made pariah.   Never was funny, far less so now.

When it comes to shithole states like Texas, don't forget Florida, with Gaetz and monkey it up DeSantis. Meanwhile the only thing this thing proved is the only good Trump Terrorist is a dead Trump Terrorist. May she be the first of many.

Trump: “If You Don’t Fight Like Hell, You’re Not Going To Have A Country Anymore”

https://www.newsandguts.com/trump-if-you-dont-fight-like-hell-youre-not-going-to-have-a-country-anymore/?fbclid=IwAR0YqHzLAYgzKvzZSI8K8NDbZoDf88pu_Svx5dwEW5kBGRVWFWOHRNCaYCM

***********

Also Trump: "I'll go with you". Liar.

Rudy: "Let's have trial by combat."

The Trump Administration Officials Who Resigned Over Capitol Violence

Several officials announced that they were stepping down after a mob of the president’s supporters disrupted the process of certifying the election results on Wednesday.

https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-resignations.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20210108&instance_id=25780&nl=the-morning&regi_id=57249491&segment_id=48723&te=1&user_id=003b223a2f944c5ae2f41b9b0936a70e

*************

What's amusing to me about this is... well, nothing, really, there's not much amusing about a coup attempt, but this comes closest:  the Trump cultists have been yammering nonstop since the election of "we're gonna start a Civil War, we're gonna storm the Capitol and drench the Tree of Liberty" and yadda-yadda-yadda-look-how-big-my-dick-is here's-a-picture-of-me-with-guns-that-anybody-can-buy-but-they're-special-when-I'm-holding-them-cuz-I-play-a-lot-of-Call Of Duty.  Whatever.  You go to Gab, you go to Parler, you look in the YouTube comments under Tim Pool or one of his endless wannabe's, and it's ALL THEY GODDAMN TALK ABOUT.

Then when some of 'em actually DO some of that shit, what's their first reaction?

"Couldn't have been us, Antifa did it, it was Antifa posing as us, that crafty Antifa!"

Ya gotta laugh.  Really, ya gotta.

Y'know, it really is true: the Nazi playbook and the GOP playbook overlap.



Over a period of months I have been documenting in this thread - https://pensacoladiscussion.forumotion.com/t30796-a-really-short-diary-re-white-supremacist-infiltration-of-minneapolis-protests -- so many concrete examples of right-wingers posing as "Antifa" that I call the post my "ammo dump."  

And the second the right-wingers actually DO some of the violent stupid Q-bert shit that they cannot flippin' shut up about, and they see that the nation doesn't view them as the heroes they were sure they'd be greeted as... they go to a tactic straight out of a Family Circus comic.



I mean, okay, I can kind of understand.  Gaze upon these wond'rous examples of humanity:



I know y'all are desperate not to have to claim Buffalo Boy (aka "The QAnon Shaman" -- that's what he calls himself, there's YouTube Video of him and whooooo-baby just back the psych-meds truck up to his house and somebody get the funnel 'cuz boy is gaaaawwwwn on the cult-crazy, whacked right outta his skull, dad, he ain't never comin' back) or that whatever-that-is holding the orange flag, that "What If Baby Huey was a dwarf" or whatsit.  I can understand why that fella joined up.  He's got a lot to compensate for.  He's one of those fellas you look at and think, "Jesus, THAT'S the product of the strongest-swimming sperm in the load?!  What kind of babies would the also-rans have made?   Balloon animals?  A marine sponge?  A squash?  Would they have even been viable?"  I know someplace that boy's got a mama and every time she looks at her offspring and sighs to god, "C'mon, lord, ya gotta be kiddin' me."   And not even pictured is "Big O" (who's 60 and still thinks people wanna see his chest) and "Elizabeth from Knoxville"  (I'd pay a quarter and duck into a tent to get a look at her parents... and I'd probably have to).

I mean, nobody's eager to admit that those folks are who they're in bed with. But most of those folks are long-time Trump cultists who have been on the radar forever. It was like right-winger-celebrity-day in the Capitol. Hell, even Tim "Baked Alaska" Gionet was there, and that Nazi sonofabitch has been a star in the Trump scene since Charlottesville.  That crowd was full of known Proud Boys, Groypers, Kek dimwits, etc.  They're all Pro-fa, not Antifa.  The "it was the BOOGEYMAN, the BOOGEYMAN did it!" shit ain't gonna work this time, kids, sorry.  You shit the bed and you were sleeping alone.

Oh, and in case anyone (like our resident Nazi apologist, who's probably the brother of that dude with the orange flag) doubts that Trump's base overlaps pretty widely with neo-Nazis, witness a lot of the gear on display.




I know, I know, somewhere the Oak Ridge Boys are missing a roadie, but... look at the tee-shirt.  "CAMP AUSCHWITZ."  On the back it reads "STAFF."  Real edgelord shit.  They think that's funny.

Then this guy:




That shirt is sold by the Proud Boys, in their colors.  "6MWE" is a popular phrase among 'em, and they also wave it on flags.  Know what it means?

"SIX MILLION WASN'T ENOUGH."

Y'all are pretty smart folks, I don't think I have to explain what that refers to.

That's what was in our Capitol a few days ago.  Invited in by The Don himself, and encouraged by a whole lot of people who, hilariously, are on Twitter trying to decry it all as an outrage when they spent a lot of time and energy encouraging it, just thinking it wouldn't really happen.

Like I've said a few times already, we're gonna have dozens of Tim McVeighs in the next few years, and it'll be because of Donald Trump and the right-wing media who decided that lying to idiots to keep them angry and afraid was profitable.  And it's still profitable so I doubt they're gonna stop.  They don't care who gets hurt -- that's all over there, among the rabble, while the money, that's right heeeere and will help ensure we never have to mix with that rabble.

Already the right-wingers are all over Parler thinking what they did in the Capitol was cool and planning to do it all again on the 19th and 20th, but with their nifty guns this time.   I hope that doesn't happen, but if it does, I hope the National Guard that's there to meet 'em uses live rounds, because some of these people just gotta go.  If they're hell-bent on killing their fellow Americans, and they're not gonna have it any other way, then I'd rather they were the ones who went, instead.  Hopefully it won't come to that, but these people are drunk out of their minds on a bunch of absolute bullshit... and you can never disprove anything to a cultist who wants to believe it.  So... we'll see what happens.  Hopefully it's bluster that'll blow out.  But I know it all won't, and for the next decade or so we're going to have domestic terror cells of right-wingers, causing mayhem.  Maybe longer if Republicans get elected again, because now that the GOP has figured out that their base will accept a dictatorship, that's going to be what they aim for.  Settling for less is never the way of sociopaths... and the Republican party has become the sociopath party at this point.  They've been getting radicalized since Limbaugh started his career, and it's only snowballed and gotten worse.  It'll be up to them to stop doing it... but as long as it makes money, I wouldn't bet on 'em doing that.

At least the Trumpet is skipping the inauguration (but who knows, he might be lying about that too). I don't have any expectations for Biden to do anything but stomp on his crank if his staff ever lets him off his leash but at least he's not Trump; it's a crying shame the election came down to two zero-choices like Biden or Trump. Hopefully at least some of the rioters will be caught and prosecuted, that was the most disgusting display of stupidity I've ever seen.

gatorfan wrote:At least the Trumpet is skipping the inauguration (but who knows, he might be lying about that too). I don't have any expectations for Biden to do anything but stomp on his crank if his staff ever lets him off his leash but at least he's not Trump; it's a crying shame the election came down to two zero-choices like Biden or Trump. Hopefully at least some of the rioters will be caught and prosecuted, that was the most disgusting display of stupidity I've ever seen.

I think Biden's being underestimated. He's sharper and got a lot more on the ball than people think. But, we shall see. The image problem will plague him, regardless... this is a very image-based country. People make up their mind what a person is and then they stick to it, and it can't be disproven for 'em, most of the time. If it wasn't, Trump wouldn't have survived as long as he did, because what he is is far more pathetic than what a lot of people thought he was. Anyway, yeah, he won't go to the inauguration. It'd be too hard for him, like a toddler watching somebody else get presents at a birthday party. Trump can't stand anyone else getting attention... and that's all he sees things like inaugurations as being, just celebrations. Trump really doesn't understand much beyond "celebrity," I think.

Anyway, here's some more stuff on the mob that invaded the Capitol. They're a classy bunch...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/rioters-stormed-nations-capitol-132405951.html

“We wanted to show these politicians that it’s us who’s in charge, not them,” said a construction worker from Indianapolis, who is 40 and identified himself only as Aaron. He declined to give his last name, saying, “I’m not that dumb.”

Yeah, there's no way Feds won't be able to figure out who he is if he doesn't give his last name! Oh, Aaron, you're like a new puppy.

Really, all Feds are gonna have to do is call up cellphone location stats for that location during that time, and they'll have most of those people's info automatically. Just eliminate the people who were authorized to be there fom the list, round up the rest. These folks ain't ready to go against the Feds, they don't know half the tricks.

“Yeah look at all this fancy furniture they have,” said a man in a winter parka and red hat, standing on the west side of the Capitol and peering through the glass at empty desks, computer screens and ergonomic chairs. Several people banged on the windows with their fists, including one man who shouted, “Put the coffee on!” One man hit his head, not seeing the outer layer of glass was there, it was so clean.

Afterwards he began licking the window because he could see an apple on the other side of it...

Aaron, the construction worker from Indianapolis, and his two friends had heard people talking about going to Pelosi’s office. So once inside they decided to instead find Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office. Both are Democrats.

“We wanted to have a few words” with Schumer, he said. “He’s probably the most corrupt guy up here. You don’t hear too much about him. But he’s slimy. You can just see it.”

But they could not find Schumer’s office. He said they asked a Capitol Police officer, who tried to direct them. But they appeared to have gotten nowhere near the minority’s leader’s office. They ended up smoking a few cigarettes inside the building — “We can smoke in our house,” Aaron said — and one of his friends, who would not give his name, joked that he had gone to the bathroom and not flushed.

Just like he does at home.

A woman in a coat sat on the couch in a small room with a blue carpet and watched as a man ripped a scroll with Chinese lettering hanging on the wall.

“We don’t want Chinese bullshit,” the woman said.

I don't think I'm gonna even bother saying anything else about a troglodyte who can't appreciate Chinese culture.

Nearby, six men sat at a large wooden desk. A lamp with a white shade was knocked over and broken. Someone was smoking pot. “This is the pot room!” a young man said.

Like rock 'n' roll and sex and all the other things they've fought hard against, some conservatives have started liking pot, apparently. Once they're defeated they start loving the stuff their mamas and daddies tried to squash.

In the Crypt, people walked around taking photographs of the statues and themselves with their phones. One man had a selfie stick, like a tourist in a foreign land. A woman in baggy jeans and a blue puffer jacket was shouting chants into a megaphone, while a man in a black T-shirt that read “Not Today Liberal” ran around the central columns in what looked like a frenetic victory lap.

The mind of a puppy.

Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Thursday that the FBI and the Transportation Security Administration should add the names of anyone who had entered the Capitol building during the mob attack to the federal no-fly list.

“We already saw reports of ‘unruly mobs’ in air on the way to Washington, D.C.,” Thompson said in a statement. “It does not take much imagination to envision how they might act out on their way out of D.C. if allowed to fly unfettered.”

I'm all for it. Make their lives as difficult as can be from here on out. They earned it.

As authorities try to identify those in the mob, some will be less hard to pin down than others. The group included some well-known figures from the conspiratorial right, including Jake Angeli, who has pushed the false QAnon claims that Trump was elected to save the U.S. from deep-state bureaucrats and prominent Democrats who worship Satan and abuse children. He was pictured sitting in Congress in a viking helmet and furs. Angeli, who is known as the “Q Shaman,” has been a fixture in the pro-Trump protests in Arizona since the election, and there are indications that he and other right-wing activists had planned to spark a confrontation with authorities before Wednesday’s rally.

There were also leaders from the Proud Boys, a far-right group whose participants have espoused misogynistic and anti-immigrant views, such as Nick Ochs, a failed Hawaii state legislature candidate and member of a collective called “Murder the Media.” Chris Hood and members of his National Socialist Club, a neo-Nazi group, posted photos on Telegram from outside the Capitol on Wednesday. And the Three Percenters, a far-right armed group, were seen gathered in Washington’s Freedom Plaza on Tuesday night, most wearing helmets and Kevlar vests adorned with the group’s symbol, a Roman numeral three.

“Yeah, we stopped the vote!” screamed a man in a navy-blue zippered jacket, as he emerged, hands held high, from a tall yellow wooden door, as people outside whooped and cheered. “Murder the media” was scrawled in black marker across the other part of the double door.

But you didn't stop the vote after all...

Many said they would not have tried to go in, but they sympathized with those who had.

“I’m not going in there, but, yeah, I’m kind of OK with it,” said Lisa Todd, 56, a high school teacher from Raleigh, North Carolina. She was standing with three friends, all fellow teachers.

Well, smart enough to have a sense of self-preservation, at least.

Others expressed some regret.

Storming the Capitol was “probably not the best thing to do,” said Eric Dark, 43, a truck driver from Braman, Oklahoma, who was tear-gassed when he got to the top of the steps to the building but never made it inside.

That tear-gas did him a favor. What amazes me is how many of these people are in their 40's and 50's. How does anybody reach that age and not be cynical enough to not see through the bullshit these folks are buying? That's sad.

He had been standing with Brian Hobbs, mayor of Newkirk, Oklahoma, near the top of the steps on the western side of the building around 4:30 p.m. when officers in riot gear started moving to clear out the thousands of people who had gathered.

It could have been a lot worse, he said.

“We had enough people; we could have tore that building down brick by brick,” he said.

And may be on the 19th and 20th, if Parler's not just the usual bullshit, because they're planning to hit DC and local state capitols, bringing weapons. I predict a lot of really stupid ugliness. I really hope I'm wrong.

Okay, this KILLED me!  

REPUBLICAN ATTORNEYS GENERAL DARK MONEY GROUP ORGANIZED PROTEST PRECEDING CAPITOL MOB ATTACK

POSTED ON
JANUARY 7, 2021

JAMIE COREY
jamie@documented.net

The Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), a 501(c)(4) arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), helped organize the protest preceding the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol that took place on January 6, 2021.

As a 501(c)(4), RLDF is not required to reveal its donors. RLDF has received at least $175,000 from the Koch-backed Freedom Partners. Other RLDF donors include Judicial Crisis Network, the Rule of Law Project, and the Edison Electric Institute.

RAGA is a 527 political organization that helps elect Republican attorneys general and can accept unlimited contributions from wealthy individuals and corporations. As previously reported by Documented, RAGA received significant funding from numerous corporations in 2020, including Koch Industries ($375k), Comcast Corporation ($200k), Walmart ($140k), Home Depot ($125k), Amazon ($100k), TikTok ($75k), 1-800 Contacts ($51k), Chevron ($50k), The National Rifle Association ($50k), Monsanto ($50k), Facebook ($50k), Fox Corporation ($50k), Uber ($50k), Coca Cola ($50k), Exxon ($50k), and Google ($25k).

RLDF appeared in a list of groups “Participating in the March to Save America” alongside entities including Stop the Steal, Turning Point Action, Tea Party Patriots and others.




RLDF also sent out a robocall detailing where and when the protest would take place.

Documented · Rule Of Law Defense Fund Robocall

“I’m calling for the Rule of Law Defense Fund with an important message,” the robocall stated. “The march to save America is tomorrow in Washington D.C. at the Ellipse in President’s Park between E St. and Constitution Avenue on the south side of the White House, with doors opening at 7:00 a.m. At 1:00 p.m., we will march to the Capitol building and call on congress to stop the steal. We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue to fight to protect the integrity of our elections. For more information, visit MarchtoSaveAmerica.com. This call is paid for and authorized by the Rule of Law Defense Fund, 202-796-5838.”

RLDF’s role in organizing the protests, which turned into a violent mob attack inside the Capitol, is ironic given its 2020 election campaign warning of “lawless liberal mobs” burning down buildings and committing violence. The campaign, dubbed “Lawless Liberals”, came in the aftermath of the largely peaceful protests following the murder of George Floyd by police and the shooting of Jacob Blake.

“The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA)’s five-month Lawless Liberals video campaign repeatedly warned Americans about the dangerous reality of lawless liberals run amok in cities across the country,” RAGA said in a statement.

Republican attorneys general have been heavily involved in efforts to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election. Shortly after Joe Biden was declared the winner, Republican attorneys general filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court that sought to reject some mailed ballots in the state of Pennsylvania. Republican attorney general Ken Paxton–who has been embroiled in bribery, abuse of office and other criminal allegations–filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court regarding four battleground states and alleging unconstitutional changes to their voting laws before the 2020 election. Prior to the protests, Paxton appeared on Fox News and said he hoped to be at both rallies.

RAGA and Republican attorneys general issued statements denouncing the violence. “The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) and the Republican attorneys general (AGs) stand together to condemn the violence, destruction, and rampant lawlessness occurring at the U.S. Capitol today. These actions are an affront to the rule of law, our Constitution, and our American political discourse.”

RLDF, which helped organize the protest, has not made a statement at the time this report was published.

Note: A previous version of this report stated the MarchtoSaveAmerica.com website had been down. The website is now live again.

https://documented.net/2021/01/republican-attorneys-general-dark-money-group-organized-protest-preceding-capitol-mob-attack/?fbclid=IwAR0dleFAoWzk-12k57oLONTnaAtu5JpNOjk5RbQ3agmITcVLH1DrXI9kYUw

************

Eric Alterman on Holding Trump Enablers Accountable
BY ERIC ALTERMAN | JANUARY 8, 2021




Sen. Josh Hawley greeting protesters in the east side of the Capitol before riots began. (Photo by Francis Chung, E&E Daily, Twitter)

I’ve been forced to write about Donald Trump an awful lot during the past five years and the problem I always face when writing in a limited space, like this one, is which of his countless horrific qualities to focus on. The same thing happens when I need to address the consequences of the policies of his administration. There are so many terrible ones, so many victims and so many enablers. I always found myself asking, “Who deserves a thousand words today?”

Not today. I don’t dispute the genuine horror, outrage and sadness genuinely patriotic people feel at seeing the desecration of one of the most potent symbols of American democracy. I share those feelings. But another part of me is glad about it. Finally, Trumpism has clarified itself. It’s not about “economic insecurity.” It’s not about globalization. It’s not about being “forgotten,” “disdained by elites,” or “fear of the future.” It’s just about hatred: hatred of anyone and anything who is not a white, Christian, right-wing, American-born American. Any other attempt to defend or explain Trump’s appeal is a lie and a dangerous one at that because it’s a lie that perpetuates all the other lies that have allowed him and his minions to conduct a rampage against America and all that it stands for; the same rampage that finally found its physical manifestation in the insurrectional riot we saw on Wednesday.

What made all this possible? Obviously, there is Trump himself. His entire life, beginning with his real estate career, his TV celebrity, his presidential campaign and then of course, his presidency, had been built on a foundation of easily disprovable falsehood. And somehow, it worked. Trump apparently told the right kind of lies; the kinds of lies that were in the interests of the powerful people allied with him to pretend to believe. As for his victims, who cared? If they had any power in the first place, they would not have been victims. As far as Trump was concerned, lying worked. It pumped up his ego and got him what he wanted. After all, he got elected president of the United States without having any appreciable qualifications. It’s not much of a mystery as to why he kept it up.

The more compelling question for our future is who were the people who bought into his lies, pretended to believe (or at least excuse) them and benefitted as a result? These, after all, are the people who betrayed their country and will still be around when Trump is either serving time or living in exile. Second, of course, was the structure of enablement his lies enjoyed. The Trump administration was one big bribe. The rich got their massive tax cuts and extremely relaxed enforcement of financial crimes. Evangelicals got their Federalist Society–appointed judges and extreme Zionism put into practice. Racists, Nazis and nationalists got their attacks on everyone who did not look and “think” like them. (These people came cheap.) Cops got to beat up and sometimes murder people with impunity. Corporations were free to pollute their communities and disempower their workers. The right-wing press got to give their “middle finger” as National Review editor Rich Lowry named it, at the rest of us and the mainstream media got ratings, subscriptions and stock prices they could not have imagined five years earlier. Remember CBS CEO Les Moonves speaking about Trump’s candidacy, before Moonves lost his job following numerous claims of sexual misconduct? He may have been speaking for the entire industry when he said: “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS,”

All this added up to an irresistible bargain for all of them to embrace Trump’s lies and pass them along to the voters, viewers, stockholders, churchgoers, whomever. The net result was the creation of an entire world of unreality in which nearly half the country lived and most of the rest of it agreed to indulge. Trump-supporting Kentucky Republican, Thomas Massie, sounds like he’s making complete sense when he says, “Trump has a 94 percent approval rating among my Republican electorate—I’ve actually polled it twice,” Massie said. “Those are people that vote in the primaries in Kentucky’s Fourth District … I’m going to have a lot of explaining to do.” The poor fellow…

Almost all the mainstream media commentators expressed profound shock at the sight of Trump’s most devoted followers attacking Congress on Wednesday. It played out as a “Drunk History” parody version of the Bolsheviks’ 1917 storming of the Tsar’s winter palace. Didn’t these people know a wink when they saw one? Didn’t they understand, as Selena Zito lectured the rest of us back in September, 2016 (in the Atlantic, no less,) that while, “the press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally?” Apparently, not. These people have been fed a diet of literally nothing but political lies for decades now in the fantasy “propaganda loop” that right-wing billionaires like Rupert Murdoch, Sheldon Adelson, the Koch brothers and Rebekah Mercer have created for them. Donald Trump was just the Frankenstein monster that (we now see) pushed things a little too far. But give credit where it’s due. Trump’s 30,000 or so presidential lies were built on a mountain of lies that came before him, thanks to Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, both George Bushes (but especially the second one) and all of the politicians and pundits who embraced and enabled them.

Viewed from a certain perspective, one is almost tempted to feel sorry for these clowns — or “very special” people as Trump called them — in the Viking hats and the “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirts. They had become, what Hannah Arendt called, “the ideal subject of a totalitarian state”; that is, the person “for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (that is, the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (that is, the standards of thought) no longer exist.” Too bad, however, that — just like with Covid deniers — their purposeful ignorance combined with their maniacal aggressiveness is endangering the rest of us to the point of that (My God!) even Mitch McConnell recognized as a potential “death spiral” for democracy and said enough was finally enough.

The obvious question for which there is just as obviously no clear answer yet is, “Are we too far gone to save ourselves?” As posed by the punditocracy, it takes some form of, “How much of the Republican Party will remain in thrall to this guy that we now all suddenly discovered is a dangerous lunatic?” This question is always followed by references to rhetorical flamethrowers, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and the total of 179 lawmakers who, even after what they saw on Wednesday, still refused to recognize the rightful president-elect of the United States. (This is coupled with a running count of which rats are jumping from their sinking ship. ) But the Congressional Republican Party is just the head of an extremely pugnacious and poisonous snake. The reptilian structure it grows out of has strangled so many of institutions that make democracy possible and infected so many of the people who shape and influence it, one has a hard time imagining where we will find the resources to nurse the body politic back even to a semblance of good health.

One thing is for certain, however: we have no choice but to try. There is no “moving on” or “looking to the future” without first facing the truth. And that means legally holding responsible everyone who helped to create the criminal syndicate that took over our government and morally, everyone who supported it. They were not just “playing politics,” this time around. They were toying with treason. And that’s just how they need to be treated if we are to restore a semblance of functional democracy to our system and personal honor to our politics.

https://billmoyers.com/story/hold-all-trump-allies-accountable/

**********

Michael Moore:

THE 7 CRITICAL TRUTHS:

1. This attack on the Capitol was an Inside Job in which some Republican members of Congress and their staffs assisted the mob in getting into and through the Capitol building.

2. Various elements of law enforcement also assisted in the attack, as did rogue cops and current and ex-military from around the country. Current members of the NYPD and the Seattle police force have been identified in footage as part of the mob. Reports say they’ve also identified active duty troops partipating in the attack - plus a police chief and a sheriff - as members of the mob. The guy inside the House chamber carrying the large number of police-grade handcuff zip-ties is a retired Lt. Colonel.

3. Trump was the ringleader and the inciter - and when cries of help were made to him to send in the National Guard to protect the Capitol and our elected representatives, Trump refused.

4. This attack was a dry run for more violent attacks the terrorists are planning to launch before the Inauguration.

5. Why did members of Congress tell their staffs to stay home on Wednesday “for their own safety?” Everyone knew there would be trouble. Yet, stunningly, 1,900 Capitol Police were told to stay home on Wednesday. Only 400 reported to work. It was designed for them to be overrun.

6. Of the very few terrorists who have now been arrested, not one of them has been charged with domestic terrorism. “Trespassing” is the most common charge.

7. White supremacists were everywhere in the mob. Some wore T-shirts proclaiming, “6 Million Was Not Enough.” Our military and police departments across the country have been infiltrated by white supremacists and hard-core racists. Defunding them will defang them. Everyone knows had that mob been Black, they’d all be dead. We need to start over with a whole new concept of criminal justice, and new anti-racist peacekeeping officers.

**************

The horror of the Confederate flag in the US Capitol

Historians have noted that not even during the Civil War did this violent symbol of white power and oppression penetrate the halls of our Capitol.

By Josh DelaneyUpdated January 7, 2021, 4:56 p.m.


A member of the mob of Trump supporters who rampaged throughout the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., Wednesday carried the Confederate flag inside the building.

As white supremacists stormed our nation’s Capitol on Wednesday, the text messages and e-mails were coming so quickly that it was just easier to copy and paste a form response to nervous friends, family, and loved ones: “I’m home safe. Thank you for checking on me. This is horrifying.”

Like the rest of America, I watched the chaos unfold on TV. Although I was about a mile away from the Capitol building, I feared for the safety of my colleagues and friends who were in the complex, as well as the thousands of staff — especially the Black and brown support workers — who dutifully keep the sprawling Capitol complex humming every day.

We never pass without a smile and sometimes a gentle nod that signals, “I see you, brother, I see you, sister.” This exchange is spiritually familiar to every Black Hill staffer who is accustomed to going long stretches without seeing another Black face in their workday. I feared for them on Wednesday.

I’ve had the honor of working in the Senate for Senator Elizabeth Warren for over six years. I’m proud to be on her team. I’m proud to be Black in this space and in these halls of power. It carries a profound sense of duty and responsibility to my community. One that I carry close to my chest, because that’s how we work.

One of the core philosophies of being a Hill staffer is to do the work quietly, in the wings of history. We are not in the spotlight. We support our bosses, whom the people elected, and help advance their priorities for the country and, in my case, for Massachusetts.

The action is on the House and Senate floor. We are the supporting players, and most of us prefer it that way. But seeing staff fleeing a violent mob, hiding in barricaded offices, calling and texting loved ones to say “I love you,” just in case — the tragedy had moved to the wings. It was almost too much to watch.

The image that shook me was the Confederate flag being carried confidently and brazenly through the halls of Congress. Historians have noted that not even during the Civil War did this violent symbol of white power and oppression penetrate the halls of our Capitol. And yet, a white mob had successfully and violently ushered this hate into the bowels of Congress. The chilling contrast between these images and the images of violence used against mostly peaceful protesters for Black lives last summer was profound.

Growing up in Georgia, I saw that flag several times a week in front of homes, restaurants, and stores as a symbol of hate that carried a simple message: You are not welcomed here.

But this was the first time I’d seen that message on display at my place of work. I’ve walked the halls of Congress so often that I probably take for granted how my very presence in the building is a miracle — the result of years of hard-fought civil rights victories and justice work. And consequently, a threat to racists and white nationalists who wish to take us back to whenever they perceived America was “great.”

I spent most of the afternoon letting friends know I was OK and safe, but this photo made me realize, no, I’m not. And the rioters in that mob did not intend for me or my colleagues to feel safe.

My native state of Georgia proved this week what our civil rights giants, including fellow Georgians the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Representative John Lewis, told us: Progress is not inevitable, but it’s possible with lots of hard work. And this week’s historic and momentous elections of the Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to represent Georgia in the Senate allow me to carry a well of hope that it’s darkest before dawn.

But Jan. 6 was an ugly day for our democracy and for our nation. It was also traumatic for the countless public servants who proudly serve without recognition or glory to keep our country moving forward.

We are resilient. We will heal from this trauma together. We will get back to the quiet, important work of the nation. We will keep marching forward. But for now, it’s OK to acknowledge that no, we are not OK.

Josh Delaney is deputy legislative director for Senator Elizabeth Warren.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/01/07/opinion/horror-confederate-flag-us-capitol/?fbclid=IwAR0U_uZjFEcUKwozZWU1_han9UD18EcrqOty59pBBFyLMy5EZ5pHfJMqBR8

**************

This is what the inside of my head feels like lately...

Wow.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9149861/amp/Left-wing-activist-arrested-relation-siege-Capitol-Building.html

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/utah-man-charged-federal-court-following-events-united-states-capitol

Well, I just won a bet.

A Reporter’s Footage from Inside the Capitol Siege

By The New Yorker

January 17, 2021

https://www.newyorker.com/news/video-dept/a-reporters-footage-from-inside-the-capitol-siege?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_011721&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5be9d0392ddf9c72dc199b8e&cndid=14244234&hasha=003b223a2f944c5ae2f41b9b0936a70e&hashb=e8ef8b715ef722fd34d715795b2133060844801b&hashc=052a80c2324606422e710a53abc71ece0c9f4358962ed7b3939f34e71d434571&esrc=bounceX&mbid=mbid%3DCRMNYR012019&utm_term=TNY_Daily

Floridatexan wrote:Michael Moore:

5. Why did members of Congress tell their staffs to stay home on Wednesday “for their own safety?” Everyone knew there would be trouble. Yet, stunningly, 1,900 Capitol Police were told to stay home on Wednesday. Only 400 reported to work. It was designed for them to be overrun.

I would like to see hard proof of what Moore is alleging in this Item 5.

"Nobody can tell me that if it was a group of Black Lives Matter protesters that they wouldn't have been treated differently than the thugs who stormed the Capitol," Biden said Thursday. "We all know that is true. And it is unacceptable – totally unacceptable."  
                                       President Elect Joe Biden


https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/07/capitol-police-security-breakdown-prompts-call-chiefs-resignation/6579012002/


https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/capitol-rioters-planned-for-weeks-in-plain-sight-the-police-werent-ready/


https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/01/10/another-capitol-police-death-officer-dies-by-suicide-after-responding-to-pro-trump-riot/?sh=32e165a470dd


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-capitol-police/failure-at-the-top-after-us-capitol-stormed-security-chiefs-out-idUSKBN29C2AP


https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/08/coup-j08.html


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/07/capitol-police-failure-trump-mob


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-capitol-police-chief-shares-thoughts-why-officers-appeared-let-n1253273



Nancy knows how to handle the situation.

Defense officials fear inside attack at inauguration, will vet National Guard troops, AP reports

WASHINGTON — U.S. defense officials say they are worried about an insider attack or other threat from service members involved in securing President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.

That concern is prompting the FBI to vet all 25,000 National Guard troops coming into Washington for the event.

The massive undertaking reflects the extraordinary security concerns that have gripped Washington following the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by pro-Trump rioters.


https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/election-2020/defense-officials-fear-inside-attack-at-inauguration-will-vet-national-guard-troops-ap-reports

RealLindaL wrote:

Floridatexan wrote:Michael Moore:

5. Why did members of Congress tell their staffs to stay home on Wednesday “for their own safety?” Everyone knew there would be trouble. Yet, stunningly, 1,900 Capitol Police were told to stay home on Wednesday. Only 400 reported to work. It was designed for them to be overrun.

I would like to see hard proof of what Moore is alleging in this Item 5.

I found this, but I have an ad blocker. I read enough to know that capitol police who expected to be on duty January 6 were sent home or told not to report. Don't know about staffers.

https://www.businessinsider.com/capitol-police-officer-says-cops-sent-home-ahead-of-march-2021-1

I'm skeptical of rumors, since they're bound to crop up around an event like this. Sounds a bit extreme, but pretty scary if they're true.

What I do fear we're going to have to deal with is what amounts to an ISIS in our borders, because this right-wing extremism is radicalized and unhinged by all the bullshit they've been fed on social media and from their "news" outlets, which aren't news at all -- they're political church.

These people are believing a hell of a lot of extremely crazy stuff, and they've been conned into being very frightened and very angry about it and feel like they're under threat. Anything done to try to crack down on the spread of disinformation -- like shutting off their websites -- just fuels their fears. It's a delicate tightrope to walk.

Honestly, I don't think these idiots are going to stop until they assassinate a bunch of people... and then when they do the public will really get alarmed enough to crack down on them hard and not care about the "optics." And that'll be bad, but there may not be many other options. There are people out there who've been fed bullshit by Trump and Trump-supporting media, no longer have the tools in their toolbox to reject it, and think it's their "duty" to act violently on it. And, because we rightfully value free speech and free expression in this country, we're going to have a hard time stopping a lot of this... because it's a question of how-much-rope. It's like those idiots who want to carry AR-15s around in WalMart... yeah, maybe they're 2A advocates, and maybe they're saying they're 2A advocates until they get to a good position to start shooting people. You have to trust them... and nobody carrying such a weapon into such a place is very trustworthy to begin with. Their judgement's bad from the getty.

So, is somebody just spouting horseshit on Parler and that's all they're gonna do... or is that what they want everyone to think and then they'll show up and start killing people?

I've got a co-worker who's most definitely become radicalized. She's a Republican and dumb as a fucking rock (she's like Gracie Allen, except it's not an act -- Gracie Allen was a genius pretending to be stupid. My co-worker actually is that stupid), and she's a trial to put up with, due to nonstop paranoia, etc. She basically means well, but, good lord she's difficult. Anyway, her brother is a hardcore right-wing evangelical nutjob -- he's got a dozen home-schooled kids (they're trying to save Christianity by out-breeding everyone else) and is so extremist that he home-churches, too, because he can't find a church around here conservative enough for him. In freakin' Mississippi. This dude actually considers the ASPCA to be a "liberal organization" that "wants to take mah guns or stop me from feedin' mah dog to mah kids if society breaks down." I'm pretty sure that if society breaks down far enough where you're eating your pets, the ASPCA ain't gonna be a thing anymore. But, he gets mad at his sister for contributing to 'em.

Anyhow, the other day she was violently arguing with him on the phone because she "liked" something on Facebook, and his wife (who's supposed to be home-schooling those kids but lets 'em run feral because she's too busy living on Facebook) "reported" her to him, so he called her up to tell her what she's allowed and not allowed to "like." She's pushing 60 but still doesn't think she can "usurp authority" over her brother 'cuz he's male. Weird.

Strangest thing was, it sounded like he found what she "liked" to be too extreme for him. Which I can't imagine. But she was saying "I don't care, I'll never accept what's-his-name!" and "I'm not arguing politics with you, I don't know where you get your information but I've seen the FACTS!" and "I'm not telling you you have to take up arms against your government!"

Anyway, sounds like he was trying to get her to draw back from some really cultish activity... and I'm pretty sure he'd be IN that cult. Very odd. Some people were concerned that she might get radicalized and shoot the place up, but I think she's pretty harmless... she's not gonna hurt anybody but herself, and that only by believing a bunch of hogwash that makes her terrified and miserable. Which she's always been, anyway. I've never seen people leading as lousy lives as the right-wingers at work. NEVER happy, always angry at imaginary stuff, always paranoid of each other.

Anyhow, that was odd. I'm not surprised at all because I'm always having to talk her down from panicking over whatever urban legend comes through her e-mail or whatever, but it's just an example of how far this mental-virus is spreading.