Monday Reads: Two Days until the Tumor is gone, but what about the Cancer?

Nick Anderson / Hearst papers

Good Day Sky Dancers!

I feel like we’re in this place of being close to the road to normalcy, competency, and the end of lies and malignancy in the White House. On the other hand, we face this angry white nationalist insurgency which is trying everything it can to remain relevant.  State and Federal buildings–where the peoples’ business takes place–have a heavy military presence.

In the District, National Guard have undergone a sweeping background check to ensure none of the guard present have a background that shows any form of radicalization.   They’re calling this a layered scrub because it involves all kinds of federal agencies as well as the military.  This is via WAPO.

Maj. Gen. William J. Walker, commanding general of the D.C. National Guard, said in an interview with Defense One that the screening represented an “extra layer” of security for this deployment, on top of the continuous monitoring that the U.S. military does of its service members.

“For this deployment everybody is screened additionally, but it’s more of a reassurance, because we do everything we can do [to] know our Guardsmen, our soldiers and airmen,” Walker said.

Army Secretary Ryan D. McCarthy, who is overseeing the D.C. Guard and the military’s preparations for the inauguration, said in an interview with the Associated Press that so far the vetting process hasn’t flagged any issues with the troops coming to help protect the inauguration.

We’re also seeing these things: “FBI moves on alleged members of extremist groups Oath Keepers, Three Percenters”.  This is also from WAPO.

There was evidently something burning in one of the tunnels.  Fortunately, this was the fire from a homeless encampment and not something worse.

I’m also seeing signs that these militia morons maybe trying to mount false flag attacks at state capitols.  I imagine these cosplayers are going to get played up as some ANTIFA leftists but tell me, have you ever seen a liberal or progressive activists in militia attire loaded down with semi automatic long guns?

These pictures are from the Michigan State Capitol.  Go to the Deadpool thread and you’ll see close up pix of 1776 badges.  Not even the leftwing activists of the’60s and ’70s wore paramilitary outfits. This is clearly to provide the Fox nasties like Sean Hannity and worse with pix that he can mislabel.  Is this the start of a Reich stag

State troopers swing billy clubs to break up a civil rights voting march in Selma, Ala., March 7, 1965. John Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (in the foreground) is being beaten by a state trooper. Lewis, a future U.S. Congressman sustained a fractured skull. (unknown/AP)
This is a peaceful protest turned into a Police Riot.

Trump Allies definitely helped with the Capitol Hill Riot via (AP).

Members of President Donald Trump’s failed presidential campaign played key roles in orchestrating the Washington rally that spawned a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol, according to an Associated Press review of records, undercutting claims the event was the brainchild of the president’s grassroots supporters.

A pro-Trump nonprofit group called Women for America First hosted the “Save America Rally” on Jan. 6 at the Ellipse, an oval-shaped, federally owned patch of land near the White House. But an attachment to the National Park Service public gathering permit granted to the group lists more than half a dozen people in staff positions for the event who just weeks earlier had been paid thousands of dollars by Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign. Other staff scheduled to be “on site” during the demonstration have close ties to the White House.

Since the siege, several of them have scrambled to distance themselves from the rally.

The riot at the Capitol, incited by Trump’s comments before and during his speech at the Ellipse, has led to a reckoning unprecedented in American history. The president told the crowd to march to the Capitol and that “you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”

In tribute to John Lewis: Renew the Voting Rights Act this year!!!

And today is a Federal Holiday. We’re celebrating the legacy of Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. while fending off insurrectionists that are basically the sons of the NeoConfederacy.  Trump is readying 100s of pardons and it will not be for any one that actually deserves it.  They we all be paying for them or get them because they’ve committed crimes that Trump likes or has commited himself.  Trump has destroyed the rule of law and the American sense of Justice.  This is reported by CNN.

Initially, two major batches had been ready to roll out, one at the end of last week and one on Tuesday. Now, officials expect the last batch to be the only one — unless Trump decides at the last minute to grant pardons to controversial allies, members of his family or himself.

The final batch of clemency actions is expected to include a mix of criminal justice reform-minded pardons and more controversial ones secured or doled out to political allies.

The pardons are one of several items Trump must complete before his presidency ends in days. White House officials also still have executive orders prepared, and the President is still hopeful to declassify information related to the Russia probe before he leaves office. But with a waning number of administration officials still in jobs, the likelihood that any of it gets done seemed to be shrinking.

The January 6 riots that led to Trump’s second impeachment have complicated his desire to pardon himself, his kids and personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. At this point, aides do not think he will do so, but caution only Trump knows what he will do with his last bit of presidential power before he is officially out of office at noon on January 20.

This is a peaceful protest with police presence. A young boy greets police officers in riot gear during a march in Maryland. (LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS)

Noon on Wednesday is the time and day we should be rid of this monster.  I expect a period of insurgency starts on that day  However, we also have these things to look forward too.

U.S. president-elect Joe Biden has indicated plans to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office, sources tell CBC News..

You can read more about this at the NYT.

Via WAPO:  Facebook, Google to face tougher regulation under Biden anda Democratic-controlled Senate.

Even before he won the White House, Joe Biden had been unsparing in his criticism of Silicon Valley, practically pleading with Facebook in June to stop President Trump from publishing “wild claims.”

“Anything less,” the Biden campaign said in an open letter, “will render Facebook a tool of misinformation that corrodes our democracy.”

Seven months later, rioters descended on the U.S. Capitol, stormed the House and the Senate, and sought to overturn Biden’s victory — mounting a deadly, failed insurrection that illustrated the corrosive power of Trump’s false online screeds.

The aftermath of that attack now sets the stage for a political reckoning between Washington and Silicon Valley, as long-simmering frustrations with Facebook, Google, Twitter and their digital peers threaten to unleash the most aggressive regulatory assault against the tech industry in its history. On the eve of his inauguration, Biden and Democratic leaders in Congress are pledging to take aim at the country’s largest social media platforms out of concern that they imperil the very fabric of American democracy — and the billions of people who use these digital services every day.

DC cop assaulted in Capitol riots, shocking images show. These are violent insurrectionists and this is a violence-filled riot where Police are being harmed and killed.

And the MLK holiday is generally seen as a day where we should provide service to our community. I’m planning on filling up my neighborhood fridge as much as I can and then will be delivering what children’s books I can find remaining in my house to the nearest little library. I wish I could set up a huge foundation but I’m just a little old semi retired prof.

Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day might have a different meaning for many this year.

There will be no events at the MLK Memorial in Washington, D.C. because the National Mall is closed.

Also, America bid farewell to civil rights activists and King’s friend John Lewis in 2020.

MLK Day, celebrated each year on the third Monday in January, became a national celebration on January 20, 1986.

It was signed into law by then President Ronald Reagan.

On August 23, 1994, President Bill Clinton signed the Martin Luther King Junior Federal Holiday and Service Act.

Events celebrating Dr. King’s achievements are still being held all across the country.

The day is designated to encourage all Americans to volunteer to improve their communities.

Dr. King is widely know for his “I have a dream speech” where he rallied for better race relations.

King also led several marches advocating for the civil and economic rights of African Americans.

Dr. King would have been 92 years old on January 15.

He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968.

Ask yourselves, what kind of country do we want?  Want kind of vision of American do you have?

My vision was formed early watching the treatment of protestors in the South during King’s movement to get Voting Rights and economic and social justice.  Even as a small child I was horrified by the footage of police officers sending dogs after the peaceful marchers.  I also remember that famous picture of the National Guard shooting and killing war protestors at Kent State.  What we saw last week  was a riot has nothing to do with protesting anything but the ability to be hateful and selfish.

I really hope the Capitol Riot has an impact on young children and a small voice in them screams this is not what we want to be when we grow up. This is basically what my thoughts  were as I saw police officers turn powerful fire hoses on kids my age.  It is also what I thought when I saw Ruby Bridges try to get to the first day of school in New Orleans in 1960.  I was hoping my first day at kindergarten was not going to look like that.  The ugly hateful faces on all those white people and a girl my age surrounded by federal officers for protection just to go to school!!

In a matter of minutes, Senator Kamala Harris will become Kamala Harris and then on Wednesday she will become Vice President Kamala Harris.  Lawrence interviewed Ruby Bridges about this iconic painting last night.  You can watch it here.

Ruby Bridges was six years old when she was the first Black student at her New Orleans elementary school. She tells Lawrence O’Donnell that the inauguration of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has renewed hope and faith in the U.S. “There’s so much more work to be done, but we have to also be able to look at the strives that we make and this is truly one for all women and especially for Black women.”

Hang on there. We’ve made it through trouble before.  We can plow through this deep shit again together.

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?  “How long must we sing this song?”