A writer must “know and have an ever-present consciousness that this world is a world of fools and rogues… tormented with envy, consumed with vanity; selfish, false, cruel, cursed with illusions… He should free himself of all doctrines, theories, etiquettes, politics…” —Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?). “The nobility of the writer's occupation lies in resisting oppression, thus in accepting isolation” —Albert Camus (1913-1960). “What are you gonna do” —Bertha Brown (1895-1987).
WASHINGTON "Protesters breached the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon as both the House and Senate were meeting inside after President Trump urged demonstrators to march there and pressure Congress to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s win.
"Hundreds of people protesting Mr. Trump’s loss in the November election could be seen walking through the building’s famous Statuary Hall after pushing aside barricades and shoving police out of the way, waving Trump and American flags and cheering from the balconies of the Capitol building. Thousands of protesters surrounded the Capitol on all sides, and some climbed up the outside walls.
"The police presence appeared to be minimal, though there were some police in riot gear on the east side of the Capitol by the Senate entrance.
"Protesters chanted 'Take the building!' and 'Stop the steal!'—a popular refrain as Mr. Trump’s supporters challenged the results of the November presidential election... (Wall Street Journal).
Demands that President Donald Trump be fully held to account for inciting the fascist mob that rampaged through the U.S. Capitol Building proliferated Wednesday as all hell broke loose in Washington, D.C., with members of Congress and journalists forced to seek shelter as the lame-duck incumbent's supporters shattered windows and clashed with law enforcement.
"Arrest the president," tweeted New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie. "I'm not joking. He incited a riot to try to sack the Congress and install himself in office. Our laws mean nothing if he can continue to live a free man."
Progressive activist Kai Newkirk echoed Bouie, declaring that "Trump must be impeached, removed from office immediately, and arrested."
"Enough," said Newkirk. "The Constitutionally-mandated course of our presidential election has been disrupted by a violent insurgency directly incited by a sitting president."
The breach of the Capitol Building by Trump supporters came after the president delivered a characteristically deranged speech near the White House, falsely claiming that the election was stolen and vowing to "never concede."
Following the president's remarks, his backers proceeded to march en masse to the Capitol and eventually stormed the building. After his fans began wreaking havoc, Trump tweeted, "Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!"
At one point, Capitol police drew their guns as the president's supporters attempted to break into the House chamber.
"Donald Trump is responsible for the coup that is unfolding at the Capitol," said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). "He is a fascist and a direct threat to our country."
The mob of Trump supporters forced Congress to pause the process of officially certifying President-elect Joe Biden's victory as the Capitol was locked down and lawmakers were ordered to seek shelter.
"Trump called on his supporters to march to U.S. Capitol," tweeted Ari Berman of Mother Jones. "He shouldn't just be impeached or removed from office. He should be in jail."
Impeachment is the only way to stop what he did in Washington on Wednesday.
January 6 2021 10:38 PM
On Wednesday, Congress met to count and certify Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory over President Donald Trump, normally a pro forma act. About one hour before the House and Senate met in a joint session that was already bound to be unprecedented due to dozens of Republicans’ stated intention to object to the certification of the results, Trump spoke to a crowd of thousands of supporters and instructed them to march to the U.S. Capitol to attempt to ensure that the 2020 election was overturned. “We’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue,” Trump said as he prepared to exit the stage, after more-than-an-hour-long remarks in which he said the election had been stolen and called for it to be overturned. “And we’re going to the Capitol. And we’re going to try and give … our Republicans—the weak ones because the strong ones don’t need any of our help—we’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”
The crowd listened. The mob marched from the Ellipse in front of the White House grounds to the U.S. Capitol building on the other end of the National Mall. They then clashed with Capitol Police, stormed the U.S. Capitol building, and paused the vote count that was meant to end Trump’s presidency in two weeks. Members of Congress were then reportedly asked to put on gas masks and evacuate, as Capitol Police confronted the violent mob. Members of the crowd literally broke down doors to storm and take over the Capitol building and the congressional chambers. There were multiple armed standoffs. At least one woman was shot and is reportedly in critical condition. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called a 6 p.m curfew for the city, and the White House reported that the National Guard was being called up to restore order. A Confederate flag was seen flying outside of the Senate chamber. A suspected explosive device was reportedly found at Republican National Committee headquarters.
This was a violent, criminal attack on American democracy. And the president, via his continued encouragement and provocation of this mob, is responsible for it. There is only one way to hold him accountable: Congress must impeach and remove him from office immediately. The president has repeatedly said he would never go along with a peaceful transition of power. He confirmed that position on Wednesday and then invoked a violent mob to ensure the vote count stopped. There is no reason to expect he will go quietly on his own by Jan. 20. He must be removed from office before he has a chance to do any more damage.
Some members of Congress seem to understand this fact. Rep. Ilhan Omar said on Wednesday afternoon that she was drawing up Articles of Impeachment following the NAACP’s calls for impeachment. Rep. Cori Bush stated that she would seek expulsion from Congress of any members who continue to enable the president’s incitement of domestic terror.
These are more than reasonable courses of action. Those who think Trump can’t do much more damage in the 14 days he has remaining need only look at Wednesday’s events. Prior to the assault on the Capitol, Trump demanded that Mike Pence unilaterally overturn the election when he presided over the joint session and threatened Pence if he didn’t. “We will never concede,” he told the audience. His personal attorney Rudy Giuliani had previously primed them to be prepared for “trial by combat,” while his son Donald Trump Jr. said of congressional Republicans “we’re coming for you and we’re going to have a good time doing it.”
As Trump’s mob was assaulting the Capitol and forcing his own vice president’s evacuation, the president tweeted an attack on Pence: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!” As things escalated, he put out a pair of mealy-mouthed tweets calling for respect of law and order. Finally, after President-elect Joe Biden called on him to “step up” and address the nation to call off his “mob” that was participating in “insurrection,” Trump put out a deranged video statement reiterating to his insurrectionist supporters that the election had been “stolen from us,” closing it by saying “we love you” and “you’re very special.” The implication remains the same—he is implying that they have been mistreated even as he meekly asked them to “go home in peace.”
Twitter took the unprecedented step of blocking responses to this video message, adding a label saying “this Tweet can’t be replied to, Retweeted, or liked due to a risk of violence.” At this point, it is clear that is what Trump is continuing to provoke. He realizes nobody is coming to save him to overturn the election and the bevy of legal woes that await him when he is out of office, so he is inspiring destruction of U.S. institutions by his devoted followers.
There’s only one reasonable course of action for elected officials now. Once authorities have restored order, America’s legislative leaders should return to the Capitol and finish the vote count. They should do it without any further stunt objections based on lies about voter fraud that have only served to stoke this violence. Once that is done, there should be a snap impeachment vote in both chambers. (Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s office did not immediately respond to a question about whether there would be any such votes.) It is possible—and perhaps likely—that this impeachment will fail, as the last one did. But it will send a clear message to Trump as he leaves office: If you continue to stoke insurrection, there will be consequences.
Also, there is a slim chance it succeeds. Prior to Wednesday’s chaos, outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave an at-times powerful speech to his Republican colleagues calling for them to respect the will of the voters and the rule of law. “If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral,” he correctly stated. He knows his own political party is under attack from a president who spent at least as much as his speech on Wednesday going after “the weak Republicans”—including McConnell and Pence—as he did Democrats.
The GOP is Trump’s target now. They should unshackle themselves from this maniac who is going to attack them as weaklings and cowards no matter what they do, and join Democrats in impeaching the president. It is the only reasonable response to what happened at the Capitol today.
"...By spreading conspiracy theories about election fraud, numerous Republican senators, including Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, created the conditions for political violence in the United States, and specifically electoral-related violence.
"Academics have documented that contentious political rhetoric fuels the risk of election-related violence. Elections are high-stakes; they represent a transfer of political power. When government officials demean and discredit democratic institutions as a simmering political conflict is underway, contested elections can trigger political violence and mob rule.
"So what did happen? The shocking events of Jan. 6 were political violence of the sort that too often mars elections in young or unstable democracies.
"Bangladeshi elections suffer from perennial mob violence and political insurrections due to years of government violence and opposition anger. Its 2015 and 2018 elections looked more like war zones than democratic transitions.
"In Cameroon, armed dissidents perpetrated violence in the 2020 election, targeting government buildings, opposition figures and innocent bystanders alike. Their aim was to delegitimize the vote in response to sectarian violence and government overreach.
"The United States’ electoral violence differs in cause and context from that seen in Bangladesh and Cameroon, but the action was similar. The U.S. didn’t have a coup, but this Trump-encouraged insurrection is likely to send the country down a politically and socially turbulent road" (The Conversation).
"...The nonpartisan Coup D’état Project at the Cline Center of the University of Illinois, which analyzes and categorizes political violence, determined that the storming of the Capitol 'was an attempted coup d’état: an organized, illegal attempt to intervene in the presidential transition by displacing the power of the Congress to certify the election.' Its statement about the coup warns that 'coups and attempted coups are among the most politically consequential forms of destabilizing events tracked by the Cline Center.'" -Heather Cox Richardson
WASHINGTON "Protesters breached the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon as both the House and Senate were meeting inside after President Trump urged demonstrators to march there and pressure Congress to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s win.
ReplyDelete"Hundreds of people protesting Mr. Trump’s loss in the November election could be seen walking through the building’s famous Statuary Hall after pushing aside barricades and shoving police out of the way, waving Trump and American flags and cheering from the balconies of the Capitol building. Thousands of protesters surrounded the Capitol on all sides, and some climbed up the outside walls.
"The police presence appeared to be minimal, though there were some police in riot gear on the east side of the Capitol by the Senate entrance.
"Protesters chanted 'Take the building!' and 'Stop the steal!'—a popular refrain as Mr. Trump’s supporters challenged the results of the November presidential election... (Wall Street Journal).
From Common Dreams, January 6, 2021
ReplyDeleteDemands that President Donald Trump be fully held to account for inciting the fascist mob that rampaged through the U.S. Capitol Building proliferated Wednesday as all hell broke loose in Washington, D.C., with members of Congress and journalists forced to seek shelter as the lame-duck incumbent's supporters shattered windows and clashed with law enforcement.
"Arrest the president," tweeted New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie. "I'm not joking. He incited a riot to try to sack the Congress and install himself in office. Our laws mean nothing if he can continue to live a free man."
Progressive activist Kai Newkirk echoed Bouie, declaring that "Trump must be impeached, removed from office immediately, and arrested."
"Enough," said Newkirk. "The Constitutionally-mandated course of our presidential election has been disrupted by a violent insurgency directly incited by a sitting president."
The breach of the Capitol Building by Trump supporters came after the president delivered a characteristically deranged speech near the White House, falsely claiming that the election was stolen and vowing to "never concede."
Following the president's remarks, his backers proceeded to march en masse to the Capitol and eventually stormed the building. After his fans began wreaking havoc, Trump tweeted, "Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!"
At one point, Capitol police drew their guns as the president's supporters attempted to break into the House chamber.
"Donald Trump is responsible for the coup that is unfolding at the Capitol," said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). "He is a fascist and a direct threat to our country."
The mob of Trump supporters forced Congress to pause the process of officially certifying President-elect Joe Biden's victory as the Capitol was locked down and lawmakers were ordered to seek shelter.
"Trump called on his supporters to march to U.S. Capitol," tweeted Ari Berman of Mother Jones. "He shouldn't just be impeached or removed from office. He should be in jail."
Remove Trump Now
ReplyDeleteImpeachment is the only way to stop what he did in Washington on Wednesday.
January 6 2021 10:38 PM
On Wednesday, Congress met to count and certify Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory over President Donald Trump, normally a pro forma act. About one hour before the House and Senate met in a joint session that was already bound to be unprecedented due to dozens of Republicans’ stated intention to object to the certification of the results, Trump spoke to a crowd of thousands of supporters and instructed them to march to the U.S. Capitol to attempt to ensure that the 2020 election was overturned. “We’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue,” Trump said as he prepared to exit the stage, after more-than-an-hour-long remarks in which he said the election had been stolen and called for it to be overturned. “And we’re going to the Capitol. And we’re going to try and give … our Republicans—the weak ones because the strong ones don’t need any of our help—we’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”
The crowd listened. The mob marched from the Ellipse in front of the White House grounds to the U.S. Capitol building on the other end of the National Mall. They then clashed with Capitol Police, stormed the U.S. Capitol building, and paused the vote count that was meant to end Trump’s presidency in two weeks. Members of Congress were then reportedly asked to put on gas masks and evacuate, as Capitol Police confronted the violent mob. Members of the crowd literally broke down doors to storm and take over the Capitol building and the congressional chambers. There were multiple armed standoffs. At least one woman was shot and is reportedly in critical condition. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called a 6 p.m curfew for the city, and the White House reported that the National Guard was being called up to restore order. A Confederate flag was seen flying outside of the Senate chamber. A suspected explosive device was reportedly found at Republican National Committee headquarters.
Continued from Slate:
ReplyDeleteThis was a violent, criminal attack on American democracy. And the president, via his continued encouragement and provocation of this mob, is responsible for it. There is only one way to hold him accountable: Congress must impeach and remove him from office immediately. The president has repeatedly said he would never go along with a peaceful transition of power. He confirmed that position on Wednesday and then invoked a violent mob to ensure the vote count stopped. There is no reason to expect he will go quietly on his own by Jan. 20. He must be removed from office before he has a chance to do any more damage.
Some members of Congress seem to understand this fact. Rep. Ilhan Omar said on Wednesday afternoon that she was drawing up Articles of Impeachment following the NAACP’s calls for impeachment. Rep. Cori Bush stated that she would seek expulsion from Congress of any members who continue to enable the president’s incitement of domestic terror.
These are more than reasonable courses of action. Those who think Trump can’t do much more damage in the 14 days he has remaining need only look at Wednesday’s events. Prior to the assault on the Capitol, Trump demanded that Mike Pence unilaterally overturn the election when he presided over the joint session and threatened Pence if he didn’t. “We will never concede,” he told the audience. His personal attorney Rudy Giuliani had previously primed them to be prepared for “trial by combat,” while his son Donald Trump Jr. said of congressional Republicans “we’re coming for you and we’re going to have a good time doing it.”
As Trump’s mob was assaulting the Capitol and forcing his own vice president’s evacuation, the president tweeted an attack on Pence: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!” As things escalated, he put out a pair of mealy-mouthed tweets calling for respect of law and order. Finally, after President-elect Joe Biden called on him to “step up” and address the nation to call off his “mob” that was participating in “insurrection,” Trump put out a deranged video statement reiterating to his insurrectionist supporters that the election had been “stolen from us,” closing it by saying “we love you” and “you’re very special.” The implication remains the same—he is implying that they have been mistreated even as he meekly asked them to “go home in peace.”
Here is what he said:
ReplyDeleteTwitter took the unprecedented step of blocking responses to this video message, adding a label saying “this Tweet can’t be replied to, Retweeted, or liked due to a risk of violence.” At this point, it is clear that is what Trump is continuing to provoke. He realizes nobody is coming to save him to overturn the election and the bevy of legal woes that await him when he is out of office, so he is inspiring destruction of U.S. institutions by his devoted followers.
There’s only one reasonable course of action for elected officials now. Once authorities have restored order, America’s legislative leaders should return to the Capitol and finish the vote count. They should do it without any further stunt objections based on lies about voter fraud that have only served to stoke this violence. Once that is done, there should be a snap impeachment vote in both chambers. (Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s office did not immediately respond to a question about whether there would be any such votes.) It is possible—and perhaps likely—that this impeachment will fail, as the last one did. But it will send a clear message to Trump as he leaves office: If you continue to stoke insurrection, there will be consequences.
Also, there is a slim chance it succeeds. Prior to Wednesday’s chaos, outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave an at-times powerful speech to his Republican colleagues calling for them to respect the will of the voters and the rule of law. “If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral,” he correctly stated. He knows his own political party is under attack from a president who spent at least as much as his speech on Wednesday going after “the weak Republicans”—including McConnell and Pence—as he did Democrats.
The GOP is Trump’s target now. They should unshackle themselves from this maniac who is going to attack them as weaklings and cowards no matter what they do, and join Democrats in impeaching the president. It is the only reasonable response to what happened at the Capitol today.
Slate, January 6, 2021
"...By spreading conspiracy theories about election fraud, numerous Republican senators, including Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, created the conditions for political violence in the United States, and specifically electoral-related violence.
ReplyDelete"Academics have documented that contentious political rhetoric fuels the risk of election-related violence. Elections are high-stakes; they represent a transfer of political power. When government officials demean and discredit democratic institutions as a simmering political conflict is underway, contested elections can trigger political violence and mob rule.
"So what did happen? The shocking events of Jan. 6 were political violence of the sort that too often mars elections in young or unstable democracies.
"Bangladeshi elections suffer from perennial mob violence and political insurrections due to years of government violence and opposition anger. Its 2015 and 2018 elections looked more like war zones than democratic transitions.
"In Cameroon, armed dissidents perpetrated violence in the 2020 election, targeting government buildings, opposition figures and innocent bystanders alike. Their aim was to delegitimize the vote in response to sectarian violence and government overreach.
"The United States’ electoral violence differs in cause and context from that seen in Bangladesh and Cameroon, but the action was similar. The U.S. didn’t have a coup, but this Trump-encouraged insurrection is likely to send the country down a politically and socially turbulent road" (The Conversation).
"...The nonpartisan Coup D’état Project at the Cline Center of the University of Illinois, which analyzes and categorizes political violence, determined that the storming of the Capitol 'was an attempted coup d’état: an organized, illegal attempt to intervene in the presidential transition by displacing the power of the Congress to certify the election.' Its statement about the coup warns that 'coups and attempted coups are among the most politically consequential forms of destabilizing events tracked by the Cline Center.'" -Heather Cox Richardson
ReplyDelete