No one should have been surprised when that crowd at Trump’s 'pep rally'---the Proud Boys, the Qanons, White Supremacists and others who are not smart enough to come out of the rain---took him at his word and stormed our Capital. It was all planned in plain sight online and instead of trying to smother the flames he threw gas on them with Rudy Juiliani at his side calling what they were about to do, "Combat Justice." They took over the Capital on the day when our government was supposed to certify the results of the Electoral College’s vote. If you were watching the beginning of that certification process you saw Mitch McConnell actually grow a pair of balls right in front of the camera. Now, that did surprise me. But it was too little, too late after all the blow jobs he’d given The Donald over the past four years. If you don’t like my crude language, I’m sorry. Expect some more. On a day that will go down in history as the day a sitting president tried to orchestra an insurrection it’s perfectly acceptable for a chorus of ordinary people who don’t usually talk in fluent Marine slang to shout out, “What the fuck is going on?!"
Even when the president finally did make a public statement to call off his 'mad dogs' he was insincere, like someone was making him do it. In addition to telling his out-of-control supporters to go home he also said, “We love you!” and “you’re special people!” To the very people who were still inside the Capital breaking windows, shooting bullets in the walls, forcing doors open and they managed to get to the floor of both chambers of congress where they went through desks and stole stuff including papers containing sensitive material that could put our country at risk. They stole things from offices, too, and hoisted them in the air like trophies for their photo-ops. These are the same people that Mitt Romney and others are calling “lawless insurrectionists” and Trump was calling 'patriots'. While watching all this all unfold, I’ve never wanted a bag of cookies more than I did then. There’s never any damn comfort foods in the house in January and I plan to fix that before inauguration day.
Congress did their job during the wee hours of January 7th, they certified Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the victors of our last election. They will be our next President and Vice-President and nothing Trump can do will stop that. His plan to incite so much violence in D.C. that he could declare Martial Law and postpone the inauguration indefinitely didn’t work. This time. What will he do over the next eleven days? Instagram, Twitter and Facebook have all suspended his accounts which will make whatever he does a tad harder. It’s surreal that we have a president walking around with the nuclear codes but he can’t be trusted with social media accounts.
Five members in my husband’s family are rabid
fans of Trump. The day before this all went on they started a Facebook thread about how the
election certification needed to be postponed to investigate election fraud. I try
really hard not to engage them but that day I commented: “Trump has filed 60 lawsuits contesting
election processes, vote counting, and the vote certification process in
multiple states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania,
Wisconsin and the Supreme Court. They have all been thrown out. The only one
screwing with the integrity of the election is Trump. Did you see the letter 10
former Secretaries of Defense signed and sent to Trump over the weekend
condemning him for entering into dangerous territory for our democracy with his
not adhering to a peaceful transfer of power and for suggesting he'll use the
military to stop Biden's win? He lost and needs quit listening to the dark
web's conspiracy theories which are based on zero evidence.” As was predictable I was called, brain-washed, delusional, stupid and a person I never met called me a "bitter old bitch" based on what I wrote above in this paragraph. Trump has taught his disciples the Art of Insults well.
After the violence in D.C. these same family
members were on Facebook again blaming Antifa for all that went down at the Capital.
Antifa is like the imaginary twin my brother had in his teens who Jerry tried
to blame all his missteps on. At least my brother had a double exposure
photograph from Kodak to give creditable to twin Jim’s existence. He carried it
around in his wallet for a long time. It was a mirror image of him sitting on
the opposite ends of our couch and at least one girl bought the lie for why she
got stood up for a date Jerry didn’t keep. But I digress.
The FBI is activity trying to identify those Trump fans who did damage in the Capital. The ringleaders won't be hard to find because they've been posting their plans to storm the Capital for several weeks and posting selfies while they were "going wild" inside the People's House. And if found guilty they can thank their president for the time they'll spend in federal prison because back when confederate statues were being destroyed Trump signed an executive order to give those caught doing damage to Federal property minimum sentences of ten years. I just hope law enforcement won't bring formal charges until after the 21th so Trump can't use his pardon power on those who left a disgusting and long-lasting stain on our country. ©
I was worried he would grant them all pardons if they were charged too soon. The Economist shot down the idea of invoking the 25th amendment because it was for cases where president was incapacitated, not for one where the fellow should never have been elected in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI've seen reports that Trump hasn't been doing any of his duties as President---like listen to daily briefings or anything for the country since election and that derelict of duties could invoke the 25th amendment. Legal scholars will probably be debating this for years. Trump says he'll never resign but it would be the least messy outcome to keep him getting impeached. Impeachment will keep him from running for office again and that should appeal to Republicans who fear him.
DeleteSo you're a bitter old bitch? My goodness, I am shocked. Not.
ReplyDeleteI think you nailed it with all that you said in this post and can only wonder where this country will go from here. I watched the attempted coup and couldn't stop thinking about how these “special people” could benefit from an old-time frontal lobotomy. They all suffer from delusions.
It's amazing that such a huge mass of people could be brainwashing to believe the lies that come out of Trump's mouth and from far-right conspiracy sites like Breitbart News. They are lucky they didn't get shot down like the dogs they are while breaking into the Capital. My in-laws, yesterday, were obsessing about the woman/rioter who got shot while trying to break down a door. "They shot her through a door." "That's not right!" Someone needs to be charged with murder." She's becoming their hero.
DeleteWhen you have a country where almost half of its citizens are this willfully stupid and dangerous, we will not last. Pure and simple.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know if it’s some sort of species spin off of a lesser intelligent more emotionally extreme people or what, but I suspect there is an evolutionary change occurring. I am serious about this thought.
All great powerful countries fall eventually and others will rise. We are simply on the way down. But I also suspect this cancer to be spreading a bit in Europe, as I’ve seen reports of it. One of the saving graces in Europe is that they don’t have the religious fanaticism we do here. And they don’t have Fox News or Newsmax or Rush Limbaugh types...well at least not as much so far.
We will know for sure within 6 months if there is a shred of hope or not. Given what we all know and see, I suspect not.
Blaming Antifa is simply another way the delusional refuse to face the truth. They are simply incapable of reasoning thought. And that evolutionary change is growing.
I totally agree with you and espeically your six months timeline. What a mess!
DeleteIt's truly scary, isn't it. The delusional dismiss anything that don't fit the conspiracy theory they are entrenched in. Our only hope is for them to die off. In the end they will be responsible for us losing some of the freedoms we enjoy now.
I hope the incoming secretary of education gives some though on how to make the next generation less gullible and how to use logic and tell facts from fiction.
You are preaching to a member of the choir here. I don’t think facts or logic will change the conspiracy and grievance ridden minds of your in-laws or others of their ilk. Severe consequences might but rather likelihood of the majority of them experiencing any are remote unless they do something to lose their job or break a serious law. How did we get to this point of mass delusion? It feels somewhat like Germany in the 1930s.
ReplyDeleteThe mass delusion is something SO hard to understand. My in-laws who are on the Trump Train are people I've known and liked for nearly 50 years. We socialized a lot, never had a cross word or engaged in political talk in all those years. Since Trump came along they are confrontational and insulting to anyone who tries to challenge anything they post. I'm at a point now where I know I never want to be in the same room with them again...funerals, weddings, showers. It does feel like Germany in the 1930s.
DeleteAs you know from reading my own post on this, I agree fully. It is the rise of ignorance, made legitimate by one of their own ascending to the highest office in the land. The indifference of the republicans, fueled by their self-serving quest for re-election and packing all the courts with conservative judges, allowed this to occur. It is a case of Frankenstein's monster.
ReplyDeleteYour post was spot on. I'm not sure we'll see our country come back from this. We've lost our moral authority and that vacuum will effect fledgling Democracies all over the world. There is so much blame to go around and at the top of the list are the Republicans in the Senate who put self interests above the country. Mitt Romney should not have been lone voice in the party these past four years to speak out against Trump's antics and shameless behavior.
DeleteWednesday made me actually sick to my stomach. My stomach was rolling and for a time I had to quit watching. Stunned completely at the actions of those idiots. It was like watching a bad movie but not being able to walk out. My only hope is that I still think we out number them and am ever so grateful that Trump has been silenced. I pray for the day I don't even hear his name. Also pray for Biden for he has been given a colossal mess to clean up. We need to help where we can.
ReplyDeleteSame here. I was so stunned but I couldn't quit watching and now we are learning it could have been so much worse if those bombs had gone on or those scumbags who were looking for congress people to handcuff and hang had actually gotten a hold of anyone. They had hoped to get Pence and Nancy.
DeleteWell said. And what a hot mess. I was driving back from the U.P. Wednesday and listening to this fiasco without video, which I suppose was a blessing. But it was just unbelievable from start to finish. The ongoing releases of video and photos from this mess are just shocking. And how anyone can be so delusional as to blame it on Antifa is just laughable. I, too, fear for our country and can only hope Biden & Harris can get things back on track enough for more people to see it's a better way. As for the election being "stolen", when 60+ lawsuits are thrown out of court, I'm not sure how you reach these crazies. Now they're all pissed that Twitter shut him down and crying censorship. B.S. Private companies can do whatever they want. Citizens United also allowed them to fund this madness, so they can't have it both ways. Finally, I laughed out loud at your description of Mitch growing a pair on TV. I'm not sure he wasn't just doing it out of fear TBH. Who knows? I hesitate to give him any credit for anything at this point, and his wife jumping ship along with DeVos before they could be asked to support the 25th is just lame. Ok. End rant.
ReplyDeleteIt's almost impossible to take it all in, as more and more details come out. I saw the video this morning of hundreds of people in inside the Capital chanting Hang Pence and they had a noose set up outside to do it. How Pence can be look at that without throw up is beyond me. They were after to hang all the people who stand in line to be president.
DeleteThe cabinet members who jumped ship were only looking out for themselves, instead of staying to try to be gourd rails against doing more outrageous damage and to be there to hand over important transfer of power Biden's cabinet members.
Well, you know what I think already from my Blog Rants. I fear the worst is yet to come, mid to late January is going to be dreadful for a whole lot of reasons that are completely out of control now.
ReplyDeleteIt's like we're waiting for the other shoe to drop because those brain-washed Trump people are not going to go away over night.
DeleteBeyond words. It's going to take at least four years to get back on even ground. If we do recover. I'm angry and embarrassed ... like most of us. I pledge to be a more active citizen in the future.
ReplyDeleteI like your pledge. It's going to take more of us to be dedicated to stand up to the crazy conspiracy stuff and not try to brush it off like it's meaningless.
DeleteI don't believe that half the country supports overthrowing the election for Trump. A lot of people did not vote at all and of those that did vote for Trump, I believe a lot of them believe that Biden won fairly. It is the loud, obnoxious, violent mob that gets the attention.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Biden/Harris and their team of experienced government officials along with the Democratic-led house and senate will be able to make a difference.
Trump needs to be held accountable for this attack on the Capitol.
I saw a poll today that I just can't believe is accurate, that 45% of Republicans approve of what was done at the Capital. If that really is true, we're domed.
DeleteI agree with what you're saying about why Biden/Harris won. People want to get back to having experienced people in charge who respects the rule of law and doesn't prompt daily drama.
I am sitting over here, a long way away from the US and cannot stop watching the disaster unfolding. They show interviews with Trumpists on TV and I simply cannot fathom how dumb some people are. Is this the way of the world? Can populists rise up and lie and cheat and con millions into believing them?
ReplyDeleteWe too have a right wing press and Brexit is just beginning to bite. Our populist PM is having to own what he started but, like in the US, his cohorts are looking round for someone to blame.
I despair.
Apparently there are really dump people in the world who can easily be conned. If I hadn't seen it up close with people I actually know I wouldn't have believed it could happen and in such a short time. Populism is growing world-wide and I don't get the goals of the movement. They feel oppressed but by what? Change? Fear of people of color from other cultures? In their quest for more "freedom" their actions are going to bring about less freedom for everyone.
DeleteConsider this: Numerous individuals carried Confederate flags for the first time in the nation’s history into the Capitol buildings. That didn't happen even during the Civil War. And Trump calls them "patriots." My ass.
ReplyDeleteOnly five members of your husband family are trump followers. A lot more in my family is. A cousin down the road called me socialist and that I need to move to Venezuela. But strange thing is she use a lot more socialist program then I do.
ReplyDeleteI hope Trump just leaves to Russia, I think this will move country into healing phase, although it going to ages for it to heal. If he doesn't leave he need to be charge with treason.
Anyhow I been enjoying my day.
Coffee is on and stay safe
I actually do have more than five family members who are Trump supporters but only five are rabid about it and prolific Facebook posters. They'll said the same to about being a socialist and moving to Venezuela. Must be they are all reading the same "news" outlets. LOL
DeleteWouldn't that be nice if he'd move to Russia!
The next 10 days will see many on edge wondering what's next
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of antifa as the "imaginary twin" who gets the blame. Well said and written. I took my frustration to FB with some of the same results as you -- and I hurt someone's feelings. Well, gee. I'm sorry about that. (And my words were strong) But if someone voted for this maniac twice, I don't have a lot of respect for that political choice and it did disgust me. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me concept. My stress test was canceled due to prior auth problems so I got home in time to see the opening of the confirmation and then all the action and I just kept shaking my head (after sending out about a dozen emails saying "turn on the TV -- any channel") I watched the BBC coverage of that and the DT speech after which they said in their very proper voices "was obviously written by someone else." (It looked like a hostage video.) I'm terribly concerned, not only about the next week but also what happens when these folks go back underground to plot and plan again. That, and their returning to their communities with what I suspect are more than a load of Covid germs.
ReplyDeleteYa, take about a super spreader event! They not only will be spreading the virus but also their hate for our Democracy and the orderly transfer of power.
DeleteThis morning on Facebook I've been shocked reading some of the supportive comments that Pro-Trump threads are getting. Poor Trump is being censored. "The congress brought the violence on themselves because they took Trump's win away from him." These people are not going to get their heads out of the butts anytime soon.
Critical thinking is in short supply and I fear our Democracy is teetering on collapse. But, I also believe when Democracy works and things go wrong, it is Democrcy itself that wields the power, not the politically driven officials who seem to be focused on maintaining their own power over representing the needs of the people they serve. Let’s hope Democracy wins this battle. I need to have some hope right now.
ReplyDeleteCritical thinking in mass has been in short supply since Trump started running for president. I don't know how we can turn this around. His supporters even today are not focused on the destruction and hate that happened at the Capital, they are focused on Poor Trump who was censored from social media and how he was right...that we're turning into a socialist country.
DeleteWatching and reading, horrified, from Canada.
ReplyDeleteHugs to you, Jean
Deb
Thank you. We need all the hugs we can get down here.
DeleteI struggle with HOW so many thugs got past the Capitol security. They've got to be the most secure buildings in the USA. This had to have had massive planning. From the inside.
ReplyDeleteIt did have massive planning...online in plain sight, especially on Facebook and the Parler app that just got shut down by Apple and Amazon that has all the right wing conservatives yelling about censorship. And the day of the insurrection it went on for hours with people begging Trump to allow the Maryland and other state national guards to go in but he wouldn't give them permission right away because he liked what he was seeing.
DeleteThere had to be few insiders working in high positions as well, especially the high in command capital guard guy who said "They didn't see it coming" when Trump as been calling for his supporters to come to D.C. to "stop the steal" on January 6th...and they did. They new the size of the crowd that Trump spoke to and called them to go to the Capital. His family and Rudy all rallied crowd up as well as Trump himself. Rudy even used the words "go get combat justice" for crying out loud.
I predict there will be a commission appointed to study this hold thing and it will take a year before all the charges are filed by those who hold some blame.
Trump also shut down the department of Homeland Security that was tracking potential domestic terrorist groups like those who stormed the Capital. That was after the White Supremacist groups demonstrated in Charlotte NC. That never should have been allowed to happen yet his Republican ass kissers didn't say a word.
I am truly not a vindictive person, but the only thought that has gotten me through this week is this: So these insurrectionists were interviewed saying things like "I was prepared to die a violent death for my country." But the reality is that they will be jailed for what they did, and I'm guessing they will be slightly less cocky when they begin to live in jail among some folks who might have a different take on the Confederate flags these bozos carried so proudly into the Capitol.
ReplyDeleteI don't have an ounce of sympathy for them or anything that might happen to them. Many have already lost their jobs and I hope they will lose their freedom. There are groups circulating the worst of them on social media and hopefully they'll be identified.
DeleteWell said. We need to continue to condemn this type of behavior and hold everyone who helped, endorsed or participated accountable. I am shocked at the cult followers of this administration.
ReplyDeleteThe more that comes out the more scary those people become. They fully intent to start a civil war to defend Trump. Some were so open about what they planned to do in D.C. on places like GoFundMe and dating sites that they handed the FBI all they need to make arrests.
DeleteI'm glad corporations are stepping up. Places processing political donation will no longer to so for Trump and others calling the election a fraud. And of course, social media shutting them down (but others will take their place in time).
We are in deep trouble and it's not going to go away easily. Even with all the violence of last week people I know personally who are Trump supporters still are making excuses and their outrage is aimed at Twitter for closing his account and not one word of sympathy or sorrow about what happened at the Capital.
We're in deep do-do as a nation which isn't going away anytime soon. There is no reasoning with our Lame Duck President's supporters for the simple reason they are incapable of critical thinking -- sad and dangerous, but true.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with you on everything. I'm still stunned, though, at how single-minded and stupid some of those in congress are in the wake of what they just all lived through.
DeleteI was stuck in an infusion chair in an open room--socially distanced, all wearing masks--with five or six others being infused on January 6. I couldn't go anywhere. As soon as someone called out that the "patriots" had broken through barriers, "Antifa" was literally the next word out of their mouths. A more moderate theory among the immoderate in the infusion room that day, from my infusion nurse when talking to another patient, was that "Of course, Trump incited them, but what could else could he do when the election was stolen and no one would do anything?" Other patients all chimed in, all in an area in which you would think most people were educated, and I appeared to be the only person there who held a different view. When they started, I pointed to my Ruth Bader Ginsburg mask and spoke up. I said I had a different point of view. Didn't stop them a bit. I have a soft voice, and the conversation just rolled right over me. Then I had a three-hour drive alone to come home, as my husband can't travel that far right now, listening to news on Sirius the whole way home. I was shaken to my core, not only by what was happening, but by hearing what was said in that infusion room that day. There were a lot of coulda/shouldas, but I have little energy and I've learned to employ it fighting for change--donations, protests, calls to legislators, GOTV postcard campaigns, etc.--rather than wasting my precious energy on those who are not willing to listen.
ReplyDeleteWow, I go to an infusion center every year and can't imagine how awful it would be to trapped in the situation you were in with people like you're describing. My blood pressure would have been through the roof. Even after all this time the Trump supporters still justify in their minds why the violence at the Capital wasn't as bad as it was "the media over hyped it" or it was the mythical antifa. I agree with your method of trying to bring change, we can't stop now! What a terrible day that was!
Delete