The central cause of Jan. 6 was one man

On Thursday there was one more (perhaps final) presentation by the House January 6 Committee. Brandi Buchman of Daily Kos posted both a liveblog of the proceedings and a recap. The liveblog is in reverse order. Scroll to the bottom and read each entry on the way up. The main point of the day, as written by Buchman and posted 15 minutes in:

Cheney: "The central cause of Jan. 6 was one man: Donald Trump, who many others followed. None of this would have happened without him. He was personally and substantially involved in all of it." Trump's premeditated plan to declare election stolen BEFORE election day, before results; over 2 mos he sought out those who help him invent/spread lies about fraud knowing there was no real evidence to support claims and admitted to looking for phantom evidence.

Everything else Buchman posted is details supporting that point. That included the Secret Service knowing ahead of time that violence was likely and apparently not acting on that information to such things as warn the vice nasty (that isn’t clear). Another detail is the nasty guy knew he had lost the election. That means he wasn’t duped by others. He set it all in motion, they followed. The day’s proceedings concluded with a unanimous vote to subpoena the nasty guy to come before the committed to testify under oath. Many pundits say he won’t show. Since the committee will be dissolved at the end of the year (and the nasty guy hopes a Republican majority in the House will then protect him) all he has to do is run out the clock. Mick Mulvaney, acting Chief of Staff for the nasty guy (and one of the instigators of the January 6 attack) tweeted:

We are an hour into the hearing...what exactly have we seen that is new? Yes, there is new footage, but it's all on points that have been established before.

That prompted Ann Telnaes to tweet a cartoon in response. A man is at a podium with the White House logo behind him. He says, “Sure we’re crooks. So what??” Ian Reifowitz of Kos reported a couple weeks ago that a lot of Republicans are repeating the phrase that the US is “a republic, not a democracy.” A frequent use is as a response to statements like, “Trumpism is a threat to democracy!” The phrase is used to justify their attempts to dismantle American democracy. The phrase isn’t new. The Republican National Convention used it in 1964 when it nominated Barry Goldwater. The history of the phrase is in an essay by Bernard Dobski of the Heritage Foundation (no, I’m not linking to it, though Reifowitz does). Reifowitz wrote:

Dobski believes that being a republic rather than a democracy “offers protections from the instability, rashness, impetuosity, and social and political tyranny of democratic politics.” I mean, sheesh, the popular vote would have given us President Hillary Clinton. What the hell do the people know about picking a president, anyway?

I’ll provide a translation: “Instability” and “rashness” and all the others are code words for oppressed people wanting an end to the oppression and a say in how their lives are run. A republic will keep white men on top of the social hierarchy and make changing it to lessen the oppression of other kinds of people much more difficult. Reifowitz provided many examples of conservative politicians using that phrase recently. He concluded:

There are flaws in our democracy. But the difference between Democrats and these ultra-MAGA Trump Republicans is that the former want to fix those flaws and make our democracy stronger, so that all Americans have a truly equal voice in our politics, while the latter want to exploit these flaws to consolidate power through undemocratic machinations. Too many on the other side don't think we should be a democracy in the first place. And if enough of those extremists win elections this fall, they’ll be in a position to turn their nightmarish dream into our reality.

Gabe Ortiz of Kos reported on another wrinkle in the stunt where Gov. Ron DeathSantis tricked legal immigrants to board a plane in Texas and were flown to Martha’s Vineyard. Sheriff Javier Salazar of Bexar County, Texas has filed forms that can be used to obtain visas for those immigrants. This particular type of visa is reserved for those who were a crime victim or a witness to a crime. Yes, that is saying the stunt was a crime – unlawful restraint and being transported under false pretenses. Lawsuits pending. Susan Church of NBC News said:

The irony of DeSantis’ cruel trick that was played on these individuals is not only are many of them now eligible for a green card through this process, but they’ve been shipped into a jurisdiction where they probably can't even be removed while that application is pending.

While Salazar’s certification happened swiftly, it could be a few years before the green card is approved. I leave on a fall trip on Tuesday. I may or may not post about my Sunday movie. I’m pretty sure I won’t post on Monday evening. Anything for a week after that will be a travelogue post.