Pro-Trump mob storms Capitol in day of violence, disrupting electoral count. New York Times
We’re not asking you to shoot them like you shoot us, we’re asking you to NOT shoot us like you don’t shoot them…Davontae Harris @wichkid|More than an athlete |Illinois State Grad |Wichitakid.com
If any doubt what the phrase “banality of evil” means, watch @HawleyMO slither through life. Tweet by stuart stevens @stuartpstevensI worked in 5 R. presidential campaigns. This is my account of how the R Party became Trump. Not a book i thought I’d write but a book I felt I had to write.bit.ly/itwasallalie
Let me start by saying that I’m eighty years old and I’m glad I stuck around long enough to see this. For anybody interested in politics, this is a horror show; a fascinating horror show that I wouldn’t have wanted to miss, however. I expected that somewhere around 1,000 to 2,000 people would show up for the Trump protests and sort of shuffle around, maybe get thuggishly violent around the edges, wave their flags, and go home, still pissed. I didn’t expect President Trump to show up to egg them on. I didn’t expect them to meet an almost total lack of resistance as they waltzed into the capital (although I should have expected the intrusion and lack of resistance after what happened in Michigan in April). I didn’t expect the…the…? what? what do you call someone who tries a coup that is so badly bungled? Insurrectionists? This certainly didn’t rise to the level of an insurrection, not even a coup, really. In the end, just a small group of thugs breaking windows, trashing offices – really trashing offices in some cases- and taking selfies.
It’s Thursday now, and I still trying to get a sembalance of sense out of this but all I have are random thoughts.
Eighteen of these buffoons were arrested, although I’m sure there will be more, still, only eighteen people were arrested and they actually entered the Capitol and ransacked it. One old lady was even helped down the stairs by helpful Capitol Police officers. If you don’t understand White Privilege, the way these white lawbreakers were treated is a perfect display of White Privilege in action.
Congress was clearly shaken – Majority Leader McConnel was visibly shaking as he gave a short speech once order was reestablished – and most of them were not in a mood to continue pretending they thought the Arizonan or Pennsylvanian Electoral votes were problematic. Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley being notable exceptions (both of whom clerked for Chief Justices early in their careers so they clearly should know better).
Now that Joe Biden’s win has been confirmed by Congress and Trump says he agrees to a transfer of power, all shouldn,t be forgiven. I hope the fallout from the failed coup will include a lot of jail time for the perpetrators and censure, at least, for the members of Congress that encouraged them. I think this has been Trump’s Waterloo and he will be removed from office, or effectively neutralized, before Biden and Harris’ Inauguration on January 20th but, the longer it takes, the less likely anything will happen. No matter what, this will be a wild ride and I’m glad I’m around to see it.
I’ll leave with two things, a Tweet from Bill McKibben and a video I saw last night but would have lost if Aston Pereira hadn’t sent it to me.
I can’t quite figure out how to say this, but 24 hours later it feels like there’s something potentially healthy about what happened yesterday. The festering wound is out in the open now. The pus reeks, but at least it’s open to the air. It’s harder to gaslight people in daytime.
OK, just as a further aside, Where TF were the cops? The Capitol is normally ringed with way more security than was in evidence yesterday, hey. As the TV said at one point, dealing with these bozos [bozos whose beliefs constitute close to half of the country’s] would be “delicate”…unlike if they were women or people of color; lawn forcement knows exactly what to do with them, and is always ready to.
Almost every day, we are given a new example of how we are racist.
So agree with Bill McKibben. It’s taken any veneer off this cheap piece of furniture known as the 45th administration.
More can be said and I look forward to talking with more about this all. Appreciate your attitude of living long enough to be around this…making lemonade.