On wednesday, january 6th 2021 the american president exhorted thousands of his rabid trumpalumpas, qimbeciles, q balls, screw balls, furballs, fascists, racists, haters, wingnuts, lugnuts, maganuts, cronuts, and other assorted pond scum to storm the capitol building because he had convinced them that he was robbed of his victory in the election. Having primed the pump of violence in a constant stream of victim tweets, he addressed the assembled herd of brutish bullies (from behind a bullet proof shield) and gave them their marching orders. Fight, fight, fight! Assuming his “christ on the cross in a cashmere coat” stance the president commanded his throng of quislings to march on the capitol and carry their trump banners, confederate flags and assorted Q crap on high like the proud boys and girls they are. They also took guns and other weapons, because you just can’t be too careful when you are in the midst of an unruly crowd. And finally they carried a very bad attitude, anger and resentment against the government.
Despite the fact that this rally had been widely broadcast on social media and assorted right wing forms of communication, the highly motivated throng was met with a measly bunch of capitol police, which in the words of one commentator, are really more like campus cops than policemen, armed with billy clubs and pea shooters. They put up a game defense for about twenty minutes then skedaddled up the capitol steps with the crazed mob nipping at their heels. In dc there are about 2000 different law enforcement agencies, metro police, atf, fbi, homeland security, dc national guard, yada yada yada…yet, mind bogglingly they were in absentia…how come that? Am I the only one who smells a rat here? Surely, as these men and women in law enforcement watched their screens or read news accounts and witnessed their own capitol building being ransacked, they must have asked their commanders why they were not allowed to assist…who had ordered them to stand down. We will find out, but for now it remains a mystery. I heard one explanation, which to me sounds a bit disingenuous; that the supporting forces were held back because they were criticized for their over-reaction during the black lives matter protests. If that had been their motivation for inaction it sure as hell didn’t have the desired effect…quite the opposite, it reinforced the image of an america which works like hell to protect itself from the imagined misdeeds of peaceful protesters who happen to have more melanin than others while it sits on its hands as pale faced traitors ravage the heart of our democracy. It was racism writ large.
The past four years have been debilitating, mentally and emotionally, but they have also shown the american people how incredibly fragile our democracy is, and that sitting idly by is just not enough to sustain it. There are far too many who are lured by the blood lust emanating from the people who are sent to washington to represent us. I have often asked myself how I might react should a fascist regime come into power. Would I be a brave resistance fighter or would I simply go along to get along. I always convinced myself that I would man the ramparts and die for the cause of freedom. Until january 20 we have a wannabe fascist in the white house capable of anything until jan.20, but I disappointingly did not man the ramparts, march and protest. Instead, I stayed home, and I wrote letters urging people to vote regardless of their party, I made phone calls and volunteered at polling places and I voted (twice, just kidding). But in the end, the work of millions of americans, in the streets, behind their desks, knocking on doors, calling strangers, rallying their compatriots to defend their democracy worked. It takes all of us doing what we can, even geezers like mje. The proto-fascist president was soundly defeated and his complicit political party lost its majority in the senate. However, now the lunatic fringe who were beguiled by a con man who told them that all they needed to do was to rally behind him, to follow his example of racism and misogyny, and of course to keep sending him money and they would surely take control. Well, they tried, and they failed, this time. But they have not gone away, they are just waiting….
Now we are in the midst of a second impeachment of trump (he wanted to be a president for the history books and he got it) this time for inciting treason. Treason for god’s sake! If that is not something that both dems and repubs can agree is a terrible, awful, no good very bad thing, then we might as well throw in the damp towel of democracy. It’s not like he was just paying off porn stars, or blabbing classified information to the russians (in the oval office!!), or trying to pin the son of his opponent with some cockeyed crime (which had already been investigated and dismissed) or grifting off of the american people through his hotels and golf courses, or having his son in law try to set up an un-traceable back door communication channel with the ruskies and then putting him and the president’s incompetent spoiled daughter into government posts, or appointing equally incompetent cronies to cabinet posts (who then used inside information they received in classified briefings to make a lot of dough). No he is being impeached for treason, sedition, inciting a violent overthrow of our government. That is hard cheese man. And in the olden days it would have been a hanging offense.
But thanks to the first amendment, americans have a right to free speech unless it is hate speech that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, their religion, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, etc. For example, rep. steve king of iowa, said mexicans have “calves like cantaloups” because they’re hauling drugs and illegal immigrants across the border or when trump said he was open to the idea of closing mosques and creating a database of all muslims in the us referring to them as “a problem” and a “sickness.” Those are bad. One section of the first amendment states that publicly threatening or inciting violence against a person or group, carries a maximum penalty of 3 years in prison and/or a fine of $11,000 for individuals or $55,000 for companies. Hmmmmm….trump’s speech on jan 6 sure sounded a lot like that to me or am I just a liberal snowflake who doesn’t understand innocent macho lingo.
But there’s more, and kids I’ve saved the best for last…sedition, but because of the pesky free speech that is protected by the first amendment, prosecutions are rare. Nevertheless, sedition is still a crime in the us under 18 U.S.C.A.
I was just gobsmacked by the lawyer for one of the insurrectionists who said that trump should pardon all of them because “they came to the capitol by the invitation of the president.” That sounds like a great final line in a prosecutor’s summation.
Oh, yeah and almost half a million americans have died of COVID so far….but don’t bother telling trump, he’s got bigger fish to fry, like staying out of prison.
my jaundiced eye 