This nation cannot survive if governed by traitors

Sarah Kendzior, referencing an article in Reuters, tweeted:

On Nov 10, 80% of Americans believed Biden won and only 3% believed Trump won. Trump refused to concede and because our officials pretended that a coup was not happening, and did not act forcefully, voters began to wonder if Trump really did win.

Jared Yates Sexton tweeted:

An attempted coup should’ve triggered one press conference and investigation after another. It should’ve been a moment of clarity where we knuckled down and dealt with this societal crisis. That it happened and that it’s resulted in thunderous silence should concern everyone.

Andrea Chalupa tweeted:

We should boycott the companies that donate to seditious enablers like Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Kevin McCarthy, and Lindsey Graham.

One can scroll down to see a tweet that lists the top 20 donors, compiled by Open Secret. Another tweet linked to Color of Change asking people to call execs and tell them to stop funding the sedition caucus at the Capitol. They list execs in KPMG, Ernst & Young, Disney, and Walmart. You might also boycott them. Joan McCarter of Daily Kos reported that many corporations are moving to defund the sedition caucus. The companies include Facebook, Google, BlackRock, Marriott, American Experess, and Dow Chemical. Others, like Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, and Hallmark, have stopped all political donations until they can review everyone. Democrats are putting a bit of weight behind the effort by preparing to freeze out lobbyists for any group that doesn’t at least speak out publicly. There is a danger here of a company alienating the nasty guy’s base. They might do more than boycott. I add: This is good to see. But I’m troubled by corporate donating to politics and lobbying in general. Hunter of Kos reported Ali Alexander, the organizer for Stop the Steal (a name that declares rebellion), helpfully named three of his Congressional accomplices – Reps. Paul Gosar, Mo Brooks, and Andy Biggs. There are others, such as Pete Sessions, who offered encouragement. Hunter added:

The metric that should be used for expulsion should be a simple one. • If a member of Congress advocated for overturning a U.S. election based on fraudulent claims, that member should be expelled. • If a member of Congress promoted known-false conspiracy theories designed to discredit the U.S. election that were used to justify the violent insurrection against Congress, that member must be removed. That really is not a hard measure of who should be a lawmaker and who should not. It requires no ideological litmus test. There is no "conservative" or "liberal" label that needs to be applied. Fomenting insurrection by using your office to promote hoaxes discrediting U.S. democracy itself is not an edge case. … This will not be easy, because the Republican House and Senate are full of co-conspirators to this attempt to overturn democracy in favor of one-party rule. … But it needs to be done. This nation cannot survive if governed by seditionists and traitors. Democracy is already dead if the public can, without consequence, be manipulated into believing whatever hoax their leaders find it most advantageous to push.

Aysha Qamar of Kos reported that several of the seditionists that came to DC were surprised, when they returned to the airport, that they were on the no-fly list. Some were on the list because of their rude and uncooperative behavior on the flight to DC. Some were on the list because they were wanted for arrest. I heard on this evening’s news that the FBI would like all riot participants to be on the no-fly list. I see the need. They’ve already shown they are violent. We don’t want that violence while a plane is in the air. Amanda Guinzburg tweeted:

The #NoFlyList is great. The fact that those people can still go buy an assault rifle after getting kicked off the plane for trying to overthrow the government...not so great.

Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported of the GOP members involved none have expressed regret. Instead, they are now hypocritically calling for unity. Eleveld wrote:

But as truth teller and former Trump National Security Council member Fiona Hill notes in a Politico essay about Trump's coup, all Trump's supporters still believe the "Big Lie" that Trump won the election because neither Trump nor his GOP conspirators have told them otherwise. "Unless the Big Lie is thoroughly refuted, we can expect more attempts to subvert the constitutional order from Trump’s supporters," writes Hill, who has been studying authoritarian regimes for three decades. "If we are to restore democratic norms and make sure this does not happen again, these congressional Republicans will have to take personal responsibility for their actions in support of Trump’s coup attempt. They must tell the truth to their constituents about the election and what the president tried to do."

You want unity? Tell the truth. Leah McElrath quoted a tweet from Shimon Prokupecz:

- 10 to 15 Capitol police officers now under investigation. -two Capitol officers suspended.

She added:

Is it soaking in that all of this has been planned for a long time and funded at the highest levels yet? A literal insurrection targeting the VP and Speaker for possible execution to be live-streamed to the world? How likely do you think it is that Trump was not aware of this?

Laura Clawson of Kos reported that as the insurrection was going on several people came to the nasty guy to ask him to put a stop to it. But the nasty guy was watching the action on TV and wouldn’t be pulled away. Clawson gave the reason:

No matter how transfixing that live TV was, Trump was watching terrorism and violence, and didn’t want to put a stop to it. … Because doing the thing that was right and necessary was not in line with his goal: a successful coup.

In addition to inciting the rioters, he also refused to stop the damage. Ben Franklin offered several tweets:

The fact that trump steered his followers into committing federal crimes for which they are now being arrested and charged should be a wake up call that he does not give a s--- about any of them and will gladly let them suffer and die if it helps him.

And:

They're arresting lots of ordinary white people right now, everyone can see the airport videos. What I'm saying is that the main ringleaders, many of whom are professional MAGA activists, probably aren't going to be touched. And that's a sign something is very wrong. I'll take it back if they grab Ali, or Baked Alaska, or Nick Fuentes. Their literal job is to animate the mobs, they are being paid to do this, and I think they also enjoy legal immunity for doing it.

Rep. Ilhan Omar tweeted (a couple days ago):

In the last four days, there has been zero federal law enforcement briefings on the failed attempt coup. And zero briefings to Members of Congress. This whole situation is maddening.

Franklin responded:

People have not yet fully unwrapped the fact that the FBI and capitol police had many advanced warning of J6 and did nothing - the authorities are helping the terrorist movement and will not protect us. We have been betrayed by the security apparatus and the FBI grabbing low level goons is just an exercise in creating plausible deniability to keep the charade going.

And a thread:

Giving Pence 24 hours to exercise the 25th amendment is nothing more than a stalling tactic to avoid moving forward on impeachment. You should have serious questions why any action on impeachment is being dragged out, as this enables and emboldens Trump et al. People will make any excuse for the foot dragging on taking action but it's actually inexcusable under the circumstances, this is not the behavior of a functioning opposition party and you need to start asking questions about what's really going on. … Periodic reminder that the Democratic establishment controls a massive network of sock puppet accounts and professional trolls whose job it is to make excuses for the failure to hold Trump accountable and they've been out in full force for the last week.

Related:

This keeps getting pushed back further and further and people are being fooled into thinking there's a reason.

Finally:

I believe that almost everything that has happened over the last four years has been an exercise in quelling dissent with false narratives and fake saviors, the last of which has been the idea that the election will fix everything and that "the nightmare is over" on J20.

Hunter of Kos reported that after the insurrection was cleared and the members returned to EC certification a few GOP members still voted against certification. They knew they should not do that, but they had concerns about the safety of their families. Wrote Hunter:

That, too, is a signal of just how dangerous the American fascist movement and Donald Trump have become. If lawmakers are altering votes based on the threats Trump and his allies pose to their own families—and in light of a genuine coup attempt looking to murder those disloyal to Trump, their concerns are valid—then we are already in a period in which our government's actions are being controlled, at least in part, by terrorists.

Laura Clawson of Kos reported that the FBI is warning of far-right violence in the coming days. Another gathering in DC on January 16th that could be violent if there are attempts to remove the nasty guy. Another report says that groups are planning breaking into state capitols (especially Lansing and St. Paul) in addition to the US Capitol on January 17th. Clawson concluded:

Maybe now law enforcement is taking the threat seriously? It sure would be nice if they’d show us they were taking the attack that already happened seriously and would give some form of formal public briefing about it both as part of reckoning with what already happened and preparing for—and, gosh, maybe trying to prevent—the violence that’s currently being planned.

David Neiwert of Kos wrote that the success of the insurrection on January 6 was successful enough (they got into the Capitol) that far-right groups are buoyed by the idea their violence works. They believe they might actually achieve their goal. One more likely target: DC on inauguration day. The violence has only begun. Clawson discussed another possibility of violence. Perhaps 4,000 armed insurrectionists surround the Capitol (now behind a fence) to prevent any Democrats from going in. The date has not been disclosed. Another event wants to be the “largest armed protest ever to take place on American soil.” Clawson concluded:

Recognizing Trump’s role in this is critical—if the leader of the insurrection is allowed to stay at the head of the government without penalty, then of course his followers will have reason to think they can get away with literal mass murder.

This evening NPR carried live debate of the House whether to ask the vice nasty to invoke the 25th Amendment. I did listen to some of the discussion of NPR staff before going to the House floor. They said before last week the Capitol had metal detectors at entrances, but members could bypass them. Now the House has detectors at its entrances because a few GOP House members have talked about carrying guns. Walter Einenkel of Kos reported the Michigan Capitol Commission has banned the open carry of guns inside the building. Several months ago, when an armed group came into the Senate chamber, the Commission looked at the issue and decided not to act. This time they did, though they said they don’t have enough money or infrastructure to do much. They didn’t ban concealed guns and didn’t ban guns outside on Capitol grounds. Of course, the GOP leadership said the Commission doesn’t have the authority for declaring the ban and the Attorney General, a Democrat, said the do. Hunter reported that Cumulus Media, a conservative broadcaster, has declared their hosts will say that Joe Biden won the election and they will no longer allow guests to say otherwise. Hosts and guests used to say the nasty guy won. But since that’s the central claim that led to violence at the Capitol those affected by the violence have a good shot of suing the network for incitement. That’s good to hear. Alas, other conservative networks, such as Fox News haven’t shown signs of doing the same. Meteor Blades, in his night owl column for Kos, quoted Jake Johnson of Common Dreams discussing a proposed new domestic terror law. Johnson said we have the laws we need. But they aren’t being applied to white men while they’re unfairly applied to those who aren’t white men. Any new law would be treated the same way. Reasons will be found to not apply the law to fascist networks and the new harsher tools will be used against peaceful Black Lives Matter protests. So don’t pass it (yeah, I know, lawmakers like to be seen Doing Something!). In another night owl column, Blades quoted Hannah Giorgis at The Atlantic who wrote about statehood for DC. The insurrection showed why statehood is important. DC needs a way to defend itself in the same manner other states can. The district has to rely on the military to send in the National Guard and this time the military didn’t. DC had to wait for the Guard to come from Maryland and Virginia. Sam Sanders is a black man who hosts the NPR show It’s Been a Minute. He was on Morning Edition today. The webpage with the audio has a news story of Sander’s discussion rather than a transcript. Sanders has hears several people over the last week respond to the insurrection by saying “This isn’t America!” or “This isn’t who we are!” But it is. Those slogans are part of the lie. The symbols of the insurrection included a Confederate Flag and a noose. There were t-shirts saying “Civil War.” This is just the latest battle over race. That lie has been perpetrated through NPR and the rest of the major news sites. The lie is demanded by audiences. He gets lots of emails from people spouting the various excuses white people use. From the article:

The lie is all around us. So when weeks like the one we just experienced happen, some yell the lie even louder, to our detriment. What would happen if we decided to be more honest about race the next time our nation found itself at a racial flashpoint? What might be lost? What might be gained? It's hard to know, because I've never seen us, collectively, do it before. But I know that history only yells louder each time we refuse to listen. And no lie, no matter how often it's told, can keep the truth at bay.

In another post Qamar reported that the rioters included lawyers, CEOs, and off-duty police officers from at least six states. As these off-duty officers encountered on-duty black Capitol police the rioters said, “We’re doing this for you.” Which the Capitol police didn’t buy. Sarah Turnnidge of Huffington Post reported that 2020 tied with 2016 as being the hottest recorded. The heat in 2016 was partly attributed to an El Niño event, which results in a warmer sea surface. But towards the end of 2020 there was the start of a La Niña, which has a cooling effect. Globally, temps were 1.25 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial times. To avoid the most devastating outcomes of climate change we should cap the rise at 1.5C. The last six years were the hottest on record. Yeah, this post is a long one. Because things have been put into my browser tabs faster than I can write about them and because I read a lot of interesting posts yesterday but didn’t write I had a lot of tabs to write about today. I started this afternoon. As you can see above. I have more I didn’t get to. And I haven’t looked at last week’s Gaslit Nation, which came out the morning of the insurrection. Another one is out tomorrow. I may have to stop mentioning every fascinating detail and focus instead on larger issues. I’m not sure I can actually do that.