Director’s DVD Commentary: This is an off-schedule post because if I wait for next Monday, who knows what fresh horrors will have taken place in the meantime? Plus, I have to get this out of me or I'll have an aneurism.
I was working at my job from our little home office yesterday when my nephew texted me.
After that, I split time between going back and trying to
work, and running into the living room to see what was happening next.
(Pretty much pegged that Antifa prediction, huh? More on
that in a sec.)
Our conversation went on:
As you can see, my immediate reactions matched up with pundits
and Twitterers all over the country.
How was it so easy for them to break in? While I’m
sympathetic to a police force being vastly out-manned, they’ve known for months
that the MAGAts were planning on demonstrating, already bragging about how much
hell they were going to raise. And then, after hearing Trump’s rile-em-up
speech, they should have had every man on the force plus the National Guard
already in place. It didn’t take a seer to see that this was going to turn
ugly.
And you couldn’t help notice the difference between how
the police handled these guys versus the BLM protests. They waded into the BLM
crowds with clubs swinging and tear gas popping. Anyone in the way got mowed
over… women, senior citizens, everyone.
They practically ushered the MAGAts right up to the
Capitol.
It was surreal watching all this on TV. I can say, I had
quite a visceral reaction, mostly rage. Watching them go through the halls and
offices reminded me of what I’m told having your house robbed feels like… a
violation. Seeing a picture of one of those morons sitting in the Senate
President’s chair made me sick, as did the shot of that man with his feet up on
Nancy Pelosi’s desk. The inmates were truly overrunning the asylum. It looked
like something out of Animal House.
“Is this
Pelosi’s office?”
The guy with the Buffalo horns looked like he was about
to administer the fraternity oath to the pledges.
Outside, people strolled around like they were on the
lawn for a Jimmy Buffet concert, like they didn’t have a care in the world.
And these people are supposed to be the Uber-Patriots?
The ones who promote originalist interpretations of the Constitution? (Except
for when it doesn’t suit their needs.)
Add Trump to that lot. I don’t know how he could think
that the Constitution gave his Vice President the power to overturn an entire
election, just because he didn’t like the result. I mean seriously? If that
were even remotely true, then why even have elections? Just ask the sitting
Vice President to decide. Jesus tap-dancing Christ!
This siege has very deep roots and has been building for
years. I put the blame right at the source… Fox “News” OAN, Rush Limbaugh and
his ilk, and Newt Gingrich.
All have been instrumental in not only pushing stories
that were patently untrue and making the Democrats out to be the “enemy,” sub-humans
who want to take everything away from God-fearing, White, “real” Americans.
People who only want to lay around and take handouts from hardworking
conservatives. They invented the zero-sum politics under which we now labor.
Now, they’ve been telling their cult that those evil
Democrats have stolen what was rightly theirs. “They cheated! They rigged it! They took everything away from YOU!” And
every word of it was a verifiable lie, designed for a single purpose.
When you repeatedly broadcast a message like that to an
audience that’s half ego and half testosterone, with a 3rd-grader’s
knowledge of civics, what the hell do you expect? Lively debate? Violence was
inevitable.
The whole event is a national embarrassment. With the
world watching what should have been a shining moment, setting the stage for the
peaceful transfer of power, the president urged a mob to take action, which
they seemed delighted to do.
Of course, it’s not like they needed the presidential
urging. These people came prepared. They brought a supply of zip ties and built
a gallows out front. Think that wasn’t planned? What do you think they were
planning? Believe me, those zip ties weren’t for trash bags, filled by policing
up the grounds when they were done. They planned to take people from inside and
hang them, either with a phony-baloney “trial” or not.
I’m looking forward to when the feds start using facial
recognition to identify and arrest these “pat-rioters.” I heard they’ve already
been appealing to the public to help identify the people caught on camera.
By evening, I saw the first attempts to blame others. I
saw a tweet going around saying that Antifa and BLM activists were identified
in the crowd.
BLM in the crowd? Seriously? Did you see that crowd?
Finding Black faces in there would be like a real-life Where’s Waldo exercise. Who
the fuck are they kidding?
They also claimed that some facial recognition company
identified Antifa activists. But according to our friends at No More Mr. Nice Blog, such a company
exists on paper only. They have no business, no testing, no licenses to
operate. And Snopes has a good debunking of the whole issue. So in
other words, it’s total bullshit, thrown out there to deflect blame.
You know, if you’re going to make a statement like
invading the Capitol Building, you’ve got to own it. No alibis now. This entire
episode has to be hung around MAGA. They planned it, they bragged about it, they
brought supplies, and they executed it. There is no “Some Other Guy,” in play
here. They have to own it.
It’s our job to make sure they do.
Final note: Congratulations to Senators-elect Warnock and Ossoff. Their election will make a world of difference in the next 2 years, even if it’s only for managing the Senate and operating the committees. And I think Biden should give Stacy Abrams any title she wants, including “Queen.”
Director’s DVD Commentary: For the first time ever, I figured I’d try to do a “Dry January.” Starting Monday, 1/4 of course. You don’t start a Dry January on a Friday during a holiday weekend. Boy, do I ever wish they made it “Dry February instead!” With all that's happened this week...
6 comments:
Agree with everything especially Stacey Abrams and Leslie Neilson.😉
Whispers... Lloyd Bridges.
Both were brilliant in one of my all-time favorite movies.
I don’t know how he could think that the Constitution gave his Vice President the power to overturn an entire election, just because he didn’t like the result.
If that were true, of course, Biden could have stopped Trump from taking office four years ago. Not that Trump would probably think of that.
I’m looking forward to when the feds start using facial recognition to identify and arrest these “pat-rioters.”
I think it's actually a common police practice, in highly-volatile situations, to avoid making arrests on the spot if they know there's photo and video evidence by which they can identify people and arrest them later when it's safer to do so. And some participants in the attack on the Capitol have already been identified and fired from their jobs. They're not getting away with this.
One can hope something will finally get done about the culture of wingnut-coddling which has entrenched itself in police departments generally. Some of the most powerful people in the country could have ended up dead if that mob had gotten its hands on them, and they know it. They've had a real scare thrown into them, and scared people with power tend to take action.
Everybody seemed to expect that 2021 would be less crazy than 2020. So far, I'm not favorably impressed.
I understand having an outmanned force just try to get through the day, but there's no excuse for them having been outmanned in the first place. Leaders refused National Guard help for days and then hours, and where there were numbers of police, they treated these people with kid gloves, most unlike they treated BLM protesters who were merely marching with signs.
The police force in DC made an blatant and obvious display of who they want to beat with sticks and who gets a pass.
I read your comments on Margaret's blog but came over here so I could answer you. I totally agree with this blog post and most of your comments on her blog about Hogan. I, too, don't agree with his decision about the rail line but I wish you'd rethink your disapproval of giving money to the "outlier red counties." As a lifelong resident of one of those counties, I can tell you there is both need and resentment in the fact that we never get our fair share of tax dollars. The focus of most Maryland leadership on Baltimore is what has caused a growing divide in the state and why I am trapped in red Second Amendment sanctuary unlike the far more balanced county I was born into. The partisanship from all angles has to stop. The concerns of rural outliers need to be addressed (and, I'm obviously not speaking about bat-shit crazy racist stuff, I'm talking about infrastructure, jobs and a feeling that those in power actually see those of us out here in the boonies and respect our needs and opinions.) We don't have to agree on everything but we all need to find middle ground and try to understand where our fellow citizens are coming from. Bottom line is most of us are all seeking the same things: safety, health and happiness. The big job is figuring out how we can communicate our similarities to unite ourselves instead of focusing on our differences.
First, thanks for visiting. I hope you return.
Now, please allow me to clarify... I have nothing against seeing to the needs of rural Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore. My issue here is more about cutting a much needed expansion of mass transit just to build more/widen roads.
Baltimore has a vastly inferior mass transit system. Unless you're going northwest to southeast and back, or north to south and back, you're spit out of luck. The purple line would have added a much needed east/west route. This was already in the books with millions already spent on development, which Hogan just shit-canned.
Expanding mass transit has the double benefit of not only addressing the choking traffic around town, but climate change as well. The climate change hammer is going to drop sooner than people expect, so I think it's in our interests to address it immediately. The more people we get out of cars, idling in traffic, the better. (And I say this as a regular Metro/subway rider for over 20 years, up until the 'Rona has me WFH.)
Hogan, to me, is just another Republican who is in lock-step with the fossil fuel industry. That's where we disagree. That said, I can't fault him on his handling of the pandemic. It was as good as anyone could realistically hope for. (Which is not saying much.) And I appreciate that he's not a zealot or religious wingnut, like so many other GOP governors. He's just a businessman doing businessman things.
I don't believe this has to be an either/or situation. He should be able to address the needs of the whole state, especially given the high tax rate under which we currently labor.
As for the national dialogue, I'll be happy to turn down the heat when they do. When they stop characterizing Democrats as baby-killing, handout-seeking, snowflake Commie Socialists who are the enemies of the decency and the American Way, I'll stop considering them redneck, hypocritical religious wingnut, woman-suppressing, voter-suppressing, racist, gun-obsessed, gay-hating, deluded, head-in-the-sand, xenophobic fucktards.
I'm tired of the Democrats being the "responsible" party who every 4-8 years has to clean up after a Republican administration who's left the economy, the deficit, and the nation in tatters. If they want to keep throwing bombs, I'll help throw them back. That's probably not what Jesus would do, but hell, I'm an godless heathen.
Thanks again for stopping by and commenting. See you on Margaret's blog.
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