Trump’s Traitors Need to Be Exposed and Marginalized
January 6, 2021 should be remembered as a historical nadir for our country, on the scale of Pearl Harbor and the terrorist attacks of 9/11. A national mobilization and patriotic response is mandated, lest such behavior become normalized.
As the Union-Tribune front page editorial said, Wednesday was “the day American Democracy died. Now the revival is up to all of us.”
A mob of several thousand people were allowed to breach security barriers around the Capitol Building, disrupt the processes of democracy, and trash one of the nation’s historical landmarks.
https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1346989618239926273?s=20
FBI agents defused bombs set near the Republican and Democratic National Committee offices. Authorities also seized a truck parked near the entrance to a Metro station, contained rifles and shotguns, a great deal of ammunition, and other unspecified material.
What started in Charlottesville with "you will not replace us" ended (I hope) yesterday, as the white power crowd tried to up the ante (or as lefties like to say, heighten the contradictions) and failed.
Black Lives Matter supporters, those opposing the nomination of Brent Kavenaugh to the Supreme Court, and supporters of DACA who have merely tried to mount the steps of the legislative chamber have been arrested and removed by force in recent years.
https://twitter.com/BuddJenn/status/1347216269682987008?s=20
A bunch of white people who telegraphed their intentions via social media in advance met minimal opposition from law enforcement. Among those roaming the Capitol were people equipped with the necessary materials to seize members of Congress. A gallows was constructed nearby, giving credence to online conversations suggesting that mock trials and executions were on the agenda.
Furthermore, they were encouraged by the President of the United States, who chose to amplify easily disproved conspiracy theories because he couldn’t accept the reality of losing an election by more than seven million votes.
Via Raw Story:
CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta reports that Trump is "traumatized" and "out of his mind" over failing to overturn the election results.
"I talked to a source, a GOP source close to the president who speaks with him regularly, and I take no pleasure in reporting this, but this source tells me that he believes the president is out of his mind. The quote used by this source is 'he is out of his mind,'" Acosta reported. "And the source says the president is so traumatized by his loss in the election it is all he can talk about, it is all he can think about, it's all-consuming for him. And in this source's opinion he is out of his mind."
Maggie Haberman of The New York Times also had terrifying news from the White House.
The president, a senior adviser says, has 'lost it.' He has been almost impossible to talk to throughout the day today, and has been watching the coverage of the Capitol," Haberman reported.
In the wake of national revulsion over this mob attack, the president’s ideological supporters are trying to rewrite history, saying the violence and mayhem was the work of imagined forces that are somehow more evil than Trumpers wearing “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirts.
https://twitter.com/sbg1/status/1347183745317658626?s=20
There are millions of hours of video showing the faces of this motley crew and not one person has yet to be identified as somehow being associated with “antifa.” Meanwhile, those who rummaged through the offices of House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi are openly bragging about their actions and being profiled in news accounts.
https://twitter.com/nathanTbernard/status/1346959100794474498?s=20
Others, like Congressman Darrell Issa are trying to frame what happened as a ”both sides do it” event. Issa, by the way, was one of the spineless GOP Congresscritters who voted to overturn the wishes of the Arizona electorate in the vote to affirm the electoral college results based on the same conspiracy theories bandied about by the President and his co-conspirators.
Consequences.
Members of Congress, assorted media outlets, and even the National Association of Manufacturers have all urged for the president to either be impeached or removed from office under the provisions of the 25th amendment.
https://twitter.com/hugolowell/status/1347220205152448513?s=20
Neither will happen. Congress has declared itself adjourned until the inauguration. Senate Majority leader McConnell absolutely will not take any further actions to bring the feuding factions of his party into the same room.
There are not enough confirmed cabinet secretaries to make the mechanisms of the constitutional remedy possible. And many of the executive staff in the White House, starting with Chief of Staff Mark Meadows are jumping ship.
The various social media companies have all decided to block the untruths and incitements coming from Trump’s accounts (at least for now), while useful in preventing further faux publicity, amounts to closing the barn door after the livestock has escaped.
The Never Trump former GOP loyalists over at Project Lincoln have announced a “brutal corporate pressure campaign targeting Companies, Trade Associations, CEO’s, Directors and senior leadership of organizations that serve as the financiers of the Authoritarian movement that attacked the US Capitol.” While I have no intention of supporting them financially, I still welcome this effort.
https://twitter.com/madrid_mike/status/1347003943918788610?s=20
Law enforcement authorities, even if they quietly sympathize with yesterday’s mobsters, can see the handwriting on the wall; expect more arrests. After all, Democrats now control the congress and executive branches of government, and there are budgets to be considered.
This makes me yearn for some old fashioned fiscal discipline on the local level, the kind that Republicans once stood for. Cops wanting money need to start by acknowledging they work for taxpayers --all of us-- and if they can’t clean house of white nationalists, maybe their appropriations would be better spent elsewhere.
Every single politician who has repeated or abetted those who repeat the conspiracy laden lies undermining our national interests should be held to account. And we can start locally. Let’s make sure people know that supporting sedition is part of their brand.
Former Mayor Kevin Faulconer thinks he might run for governor. It’s not enough for him to say --as I’m sure he does-- that the violence in DC was deplorable. He’s got to --one by one-- also denounce those lies and conspiracy theories that form the basis of his political party’s ideological outlook.
https://twitter.com/evaposner/status/1346919086815539202?s=20
In San Diego County, the seditious right has built up a large following through (now banned) Facebook groups associated with Defend East San Diego.
https://twitter.com/Wendy4SD/status/1347011304196751367?s=20
https://twitter.com/KenStoneMedia/status/1347065431702425601?s=20
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Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com