Finally Friday Reads: Close to the Edge

Posted: January 15, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: just because | Tags: | 33 Comments

Good Day Sky Dancers!

Just five more days until Trump is tossed out of the White House. I’m so worried about the Inauguration plans I can hardly express it.   The more we find out about the planned insurrection and the actual participation of MAGA Congressional Sewer Rats in aiding and abetting what could’ve been a mass murder site, the more I’m convinced it should be in a bunker or something akin to that.  I’m also hoping they’ve made sure that all the remaining police and military present have been carefully checked since so many MAGA Sewer Rats have those backgrounds.

The crazy ass High School Drop Out/Gun Toting/ We don’t need no stinking metal detectors  Maga Congressional Sewer Rat from Rifle, Colorado tweeted Nancy Pelosi’s whereabouts during the  Trumpist Insurrection Riot.  Deplorable doesn’t even begin to get close to describing her.  Her name should be right up there with all the seditionists if this and more she’s suspected of is proven to be true in a court.   This little MAGA sewer rat decided to apologize today.  Too late you crazy little seditionist you!  We will know soon!

Via TPM: “Boebert Offers ‘Thousand Apologies’ After Assuming Dem Accused Her Of Aiding Rioters”.

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), a gun-rights hardliner who has vowed to carry her firearm around the Capitol, on Thursday backtracked on her accusation that Rep. Patrick Maloney (D-NY) had tied her to the deadly insurrection at the Capitol by President Donald Trump’s supporters.

…

In the interview, Maloney discussed a fellow Democrat’s account of seeing one lawmaker give a “tour” of the Capitol with the insurrectionists the day before the siege. Then Maloney expressed alarm over “some of our new colleagues” who “believe in conspiracy theories and who want to carry guns into the House chamber.”

“This conduct is beyond the pale and it extends to some of this interaction with the very people who attacked the Capitol,” he said.

Right before a House vote on Tuesday night, Boebert refused to hand over her bag to the Capitol police after she set off the newly installed metal detectors at the entrance of the House chamber. However, she wasn’t alone: Several of her GOP colleagues also set off the alarm or refused to go through the detector altogether and walked around it to enter the chamber.

As BB showed us yesterday, we’re just beginning to see what the folks tried to do and it still looks like they had inside help.

From the link to WAPO in the above tweet:

The violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 came perilously close to Vice President Pence, who was not evacuated from the Senate chamber for about 14 minutes after the Capitol Police reported an initial attempted breach of the complex — enough time for the marauders to rush inside the building and approach his location, according to law enforcement officials and video footage from that day.

Secret Service officers eventually spirited Pence to a room off the Senate floor with his wife and daughter after rioters began to pour into the Capitol, many loudly denouncing the vice president as a traitor as they marched through the first floor below the Senate chamber.

About one minute after Pence was hustled out of the chamber, a group charged up the stairs to a second-floor landing in the Senate, chasing a Capitol Police officer who drew them away from the Senate.

Pence and his family had just ducked into a hideaway less than 100 feet from that landing, according to three people familiar with his whereabouts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. If the pro-Trump mob had arrived seconds earlier, the attackers would have been in eyesight of the vice president as he was rushed across a reception hall into the office.

The proximity of the Jan. 6 mob to the vice president and the delay in evacuating him from the chamber — which have not been previously reported — raise questions about why the Secret Service did not move him earlier and underscore the jeopardy that top government leaders faced during the siege.

…

One man who made his way into the Senate chamber reached Pence’s chair on the Senate dais. Shirtless, wearing face paint and a furry coyote-tail hat and carrying a six-foot-long spear, Jacob A. Chansley of Arizona left a note on the vice president’s desk that read in part, “it’s only a matter of time, justice is coming,” according to court filings.

Chansley — who has been charged with two felonies, including threatening congressional officials — told investigators he was glad to reach Pence’s desk because he believes the vice president is a child-trafficking traitor, but said he did not mean the note as a threat.

…

At 2:13 p.m., Pence suddenly left the Senate floor and was moved to the nearby office, according to C-SPAN footage and a Post reporter on the scene.

But the rioters were not far behind. They chased Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up a flight of stairs, arriving on the landing at 2:14 p.m., video footage shows — seconds after the vice president had been whisked inside the office.

Federal prosecutors said in a court filing on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s mob that laid siege on the U.S. Capitol last week intended “to capture and assassinate elected officials.”

Prosecutors made the assessment in a court filing that requested QAnon conspiracy theorist Jacob Chansley, an Arizona man who stormed the U.S. Capitol last week outfitted in horns, fur and face paint, be “detained pending trial” on Friday.

“Strong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States government,” government prosecutors wrote.
The allegations, written by Justice Department lawyers in Arizona, come as the government have begun describing in more alarming terms what transpired.
U.S. Attorney Michael Bailey and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen Brook in Arizona warned in the filing first reported by Reuters, that Chansley had expressed interest in returning to Washington, D.C. for President-Elect Biden’s inauguration and “has the ability to do so if the Court releases him.”

This was reported at CNN.

“Strong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States government,” the prosecutors wrote in an 18-page memo demanding the insurrectionist’s detention.

The filing indicates that after posing for a photo at the Senate dais last Wednesday, Chansley left a note for Vice President Mike Pence, who had been swept away to safety amid the attack, warning the vice president that “it’s only a matter of time, justice is coming.”

Prosecutors suggested that the violent Capitol riot was part of an ongoing attempt to overthrow the federal government, saying,  “the insurrection is still in progress” as law enforcement prepares for potential attempts at further violence ahead of Biden’s inauguration next week.

The prosecutors’ assessment comes as lawmakers on Thursday reported plans to purchase body armor and alter their routines amid death threats in the wake of the  attack which left five people, including a Capitol police officer dead.

The court filing arrives as it grows increasingly clear that law enforcement and federal authorities had also failed to properly secure the Capitol complex and issue warnings amid clear threats of violence, ahead of the  Jan. 6 session to reaffirm Joe Biden as the nation’s next president.

In other news, a judge has ordered that the costumed whackadoo will be fed his ‘organic’ foods diet.   It didn’t stop the NY Post from labelling him a rioter so where’s your law and order president and right wing press now?

The bottom line on all of this is that the Feds are getting closer to actual charges of sedition. This can only help the impeachment trial coming to the Senate.  This is from Politico.

Federal prosecutors on Thursday for the first time described last week’s assault on the U.S. Capitol as a “violent insurrection that attempted to overthrow the United States Government” — and one they consider to still be underway.

The language was included in a filing in federal district court in Arizona, intended to deny bail to Jacob Anthony Chansley, a man they describe as “an active participant in” and “the most prominent symbol of” the insurrection.

…

While prosecutors are recommending that Chansley be detained pending trial, the court’s pretrial services agency recommended that he be released with conditions on his movements to reduce the chance that he would pose a threat as he awaits his day in court. But the government said evidence it has uncovered made that recommendation imprudent.

“Media and FBI reports have detailed carefully-planned insurrection attempts scheduled throughout the country in the coming weeks at every state capital, including the Arizona’s capitol,” prosecutors said. “As he admitted, and as corroborated by the items in his car, Chansley expected to go there after his FBI interview (if he had not been arrested).”

The government also described releasing Chansley as particularly risky because of his association with Qanon, which it called a “dangerous anti-government conspiracy” that has treated him as a leader, helped him travel “off-the-grid” and “fundraise rapidly through unconventional means.” Prosecutors also note he is a “repeated drug user” who is “unable to appreciate reality.”

A federal magistrate judge in Phoenix is scheduled to hold a bail hearing for Chansley on Friday afternoon.

Well, FurrySex cosplayers, flag poles, and Q Anon seem to bring a deadly mix of crazy .

For many years here I am the one that  provides our tribute to Dr. King on his birthday.  It’s strange how on this day that he stands as someone who a lot of change while he did not need guns, seriously weird costumes and cult like slogans and hats. He never provided any messages of hate.  He was arrested but never led a violent march or protest.  The violence was done to him and those who joined him.  The Trumpist Insurrection states as a clear opposite and I doubt they’ll change much of anything in the long run.

Here’s some thoughts in a Chicago Tribune by Eboo Patel on the legacy of Dr King in yet another horrible time of white nationalism in our country. “Commentary: What Martin Luther King Jr. taught us about embracing our enemies”.

What might we learn from how King dealt with such mobs in his own time? It is reasonable to believe that King would support holding people accountable for crimes committed, but King also held a higher hope for at least some of those who were part of the mob. Namely, that they might be changed, and then included in the beloved community of American democracy.

It was toward the end of the Montgomery bus boycott, after enduring a year of death threats, false arrests and firebombings from white mobs, that King spoke of “the glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of our civilization.”

It was precisely when others had shown themselves at their worst that it was most important for righteous people to “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.”

He continued, “This is the time for reconciliation. This is the time for redemption. This is the time to build the beloved community.”

Let us be clear about how remarkable this is. Some of the people he was advocating for had attempted to burn down King’s home, seriously endangering his wife and their new baby. And still King believed they could change, and be included in the beloved community of American democracy.

I’m not sure that some of these folks will ever join a beloved community.  However, a recent poll has shown that an overwhelming number of Americans believe the Capitol Hill insurrection was wrong and violent while a majority believe Trump should be blocked from further public office and blame him for the riots.   However, a majority of Republicans blame Biden of all people.  Republicans are sadly out of touch with any notion of “beloved community”.  This shocked me (last link via The Hill).

While 59 percent of voters who were aware of Wednesday’s events at the Capitol said they viewed them as more violent than peaceful, 58 percent of Republicans said the opposite, believing the actions of protesters were largely peaceful.

Republicans believe their own eyes lie to them evidently.  The level of delusion in these folks is just incredible and any one that follows me on Facebook followed me trying to reason with one of them I knew from High School believing that the events unfolding would change some hearts and minds.

I just got the usual propaganda about the big lie than a whole lot of Clinton Derangement Syndrome.  I’m still not sure we’re safe on our own streets as long as the folks stay ignorant and mean.   And wow, did he throw some mean shit at me before I blocked his ass.

I don’t care what he said about me or anything else because obviously a highly disturbed individual but look at the KKK during MLK’s time and now during ours.  Look at NAZI sympathizers during MLK’s life and now during ours.  Have any of them ever shown an interest of becoming anything but an angry aggrieved mob of wipipo let alone a “beloved community”?  They’re as mean and ugly and violent as ever.

So, I’m going to go try to get back to my actual job of teaching economics if my nerves and dancing  stomach allow. There’s an ongoing Presser going on in DC with both Federal and local leadership. I placed the CNN breaking news tweet/link above but here ‘s a few more.

Well, we’re close to a lot of things including the Trump Presidency.  I just hope we can get out of this without going over the edge and down.  At least we still have each other.  I love you all!  Hang in there!

What’s on your blogging and reading list today?

Friday Reads: After the “Storm”

Posted: January 8, 2021 | Author: | Filed under: 2020 Elections | Tags: | 49 Comments

Good Day Sky Dancers!

There have been good and bad days in the history of this country. I’ve seen and remember quite a few now that I’m old and because I grew up in the TV age.  I remember when both Kennedys and Martin Luther King were assassinated. I remember the moonwalk.  I remember 9/11 and watching the live bombing of Baghdad.

You remember where you were on those days even if you were as young as my nursery school age sister who remembers when mother and our cleaning lady Mildred were watching the black and white TV showing the unfolding news in Dallas.  I’ll never forget watching the water rise after Hurricane Katrina and the faces of people trapped there. The last time Mildred and my mom were watching the TV with those same faces were those final days of Nixon. That was the year before I moved out to a dorm with my own TV.

I have the same kind of feelings today that I have about those no good, horrible, very bad days.  This is not a “I remember the moonwalk” kind’ve day which is what I had expected to experience the night of the 2016 election.  This is one of those days when you realize that we’ve lost something or someone precious and wonderful.  It’s a day that feels like some unknown innocence in you has made a hole in you letting you know that it was there and now it’s gone.

I’ve always rather laughed at the folks wrapped up in that Confederate Flag stuff.  I had a lot of thoughts about them over the years.  While none were postivie, none ever came close to thinking they’d storm Capitol Hill for a rich, orange, fat trust fund baby selling lies and false promises who as President, would tell them to do so.    Most of us knew some “thing”  was likely to happen.  It just  “the thing” that actually happened was worse than I imagined.

So, now we’re in the fallout and the aftermath has begun.  The how, the who, and the what-of-it–along with the blame game–is afoot.

This is from The Washington Post: “Pentagon placed limits on D.C. Guard ahead of pro-Trump protests due to narrow mission”.

The Pentagon placed tight limits on the D.C. National Guard ahead of pro-Trump protests this week, trying to ensure the use of military force remained constrained, as the Guard carried out a narrow, unarmed mission requested by the city’s mayor to help handle traffic ahead of planned protests.

In memos issued Monday and Tuesday in response to a request from the D.C. mayor, the Pentagon prohibited the District’s guardsmen from receiving ammunition or riot gear, interacting with protesters unless necessary for self-defense, sharing equipment with local law enforcement, or using Guard surveillance and air assets without the defense secretary’s explicit sign-off, according to officials familiar with the orders. The limits were established because the Guard hadn’t been asked to assist with crowd or riot control.

The D.C. Guard was also told it would be allowed to deploy a quick-reaction force only as a measure of last resort, the officials said.

Then the mission abruptly changed — and the Pentagon is now facing criticism from governors and local officials who say it moved too slowly to send National Guard troops to respond, a charge that its leaders denied Thursday.

The Capitol Police, the law enforcement force that reports to Congress and protects the House and Senate, hadn’t requested help from the Guard ahead of Wednesday’s events. But early Wednesday afternoon, its chief made an urgent plea for backup from 200 troops during a call with top Pentagon and city officials, according to officials familiar with the call.

On the call, Capitol Police Chief Steven A. Sund was asked whether he wanted help from the National Guard. “There was a pause,” one of the D.C. officials said. And Sund said yes. “Then there was another pause, and an official from the secretary of the Army said that wasn’t going to be possible.”

Also from WAPO and David Ignatius is this headline: “What went wrong with the protection of the U.S. Capitol.”

Some mistakes are obvious: The FBI underestimated the number of protesters, predicting a maximum of 20,000, which turned out to be less than half the number who showed up. The Capitol Police didn’t stand their ground at the perimeter or at the Capitol itself. The mayor was slow to request additional troops from the D.C. National Guard. The acting attorney general was similarly tardy in ordering elite FBI units into the Capitol. And the Pentagon brass worried more about avoiding politicization of the military than about stopping an insurrection.

In a seeming acknowledgment of the inadequate response, Capitol Police Chief Steven A. Sund announced Thursday night that he was resigning. The Associated Press reported that the Capitol Police had turned down offers of additional support from the National Guard and the FBI before the disastrous invasion of the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon.

But as we look for who to blame in this catastrophe, let’s focus on the real culprits: President Trump, who incited the rioters and urged them toward the Capitol; the 13 Republican senators and 138 House members who challenged President-elect Joe Biden’s victory and egged on the insurgents; and the smug, self-appointed patriots who trashed the people’s house. Trump should face legal action for fomenting this riot. The members who risked the lives of their colleagues by encouraging the fanatics should be censured. The insurgents who ransacked the Capitol should be arrested and prosecuted.

There seems to be some movement towards arresting the Trump Rioters/Looters/Murderers/Mob/Insurrectionists but it’s going at a slower snail’s pace than would ever happen at a peaceful protest gathering something related to either recognizing the unequal treatment of Black Americans by the Justice System or some other march for justice.  The beatings and the arrests would have happened before folks were moving anywhere.

This is from CNN’s Nicole Chavez: ‘Rioters breached US Capitol security on Wednesday. This was the police response when it was Black protesters on DC streets last year”.

As hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol, breaking windows and wreaking havoc, politicians and activists were among the many who drew comparisons between the police response on Wednesday to that of last year’s Black Lives Matter protests.

The death of George Floyd — a Black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck — in May of 2020 prompted hundreds of protests nationwide over the summer. In many cities, including the nation’s capital, police met protesters with tear gas, violence and arrests.

However, Wednesday’s protests, many pointed out, were different. The Black Lives Matter Global Network, one of the most well-known organizations fighting for the well-being of Black people, described Wednesday’s riots as a “coup.”

The group said it was “one more example of the hypocrisy in our country’s law enforcement response to protest.”

“When Black people protest for our lives, we are all too often met by National Guard troops or police equipped with assault rifles, shields, tear gas and battle helmets,” the group said in a statement. “Make no mistake, if the protesters were Black, we would have been tear gassed, battered, and perhaps shot.”

White privilege was in full display as the kinds of folks the FBI and Right Wing Watch groups have been telling us for years.  The usual suspects that shoot up mosques, terrorize women at Planned Parenthood, and attack Black Lives Matter Protestors showed up to stage an insurrection. Remember when the FBI told us and the Republicans were incensed by their report?

This is from the NYT.  “These Are the Rioters Who Stormed the Nation’s Capitol.  The mob that rampaged the halls of Congress included infamous white supremacists and conspiracy theorists.” It’s reported by  Sabrina Tavernise and Matthew Rosenberg.  As I carefully place the the three pictures of those horrible assassination scenes in this post I can only wonder at the work of the secret service and others to get today’s national leaders to safety.  We could’ve lost any number of them this week.

There were infamous white nationalists and noted conspiracy theorists who have spread dark visions of pedophile Satanists running the country. Others were more anonymous, people who had journeyed from Indiana and South Carolina to heed President Trump’s call to show their support. One person, a West Virginia lawmaker, had only been elected to office in November.

All of them converged on Wednesday on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, where hundreds of rioters crashed through barricades, climbed through windows and walked through doors, wandering around the hallways with a sense of gleeful desecration, because, for a few breathtaking hours, they believed that they had displaced the very elites they said they hated.

“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.”

But a good deal of them were dumb enough to post their faces to their social media and friends.  They should be hunted down, charged with every possible infraction, and dumped in a prison to spend eternity cleaning the johns.  One Capitol Police officer lost his life.  The one woman shot by Capitol Police was deep into the hate and lies of QAnon.

And now, we have the intrigue …

Something else indeed.

So, once again in the annals of our history we delve in to “untoward here”.  It is also very clear that it’s the usual suspects.  Our history is full of a lot of white people that follow down the path of strictly white, nationalistic populism and wrap it up with a flag on a cross.  We should be prepared to act.  This may indeed be our time to get the laws into place to undo these long standing national sins of racism, indigenous genocide, kleptocracy, misogyny, and basic hatred of any ‘other’.

We’ve got a new decade and an old struggle with new purpose.

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?