IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 8 Comments

by John Walters

Money Talks And Bullshit Walks

What happened was: Major corporations such as Airbnb, Amazon, American Express, AT&T, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Comcast, Commerce Bank, Dow Chemical, Marriott, Mastercard and Verizon all announced that they were halting donations to the GOP (should major corporations be allowed to donate to either party, I wonder? Hmmm.)

Then what happened was: Republican leaders such as Mitch McConnell and Liz Cheney suddenly found themselves to have a conscience, either saying they would vote to impeach Trump or at least, in Mitch’s case, not defending Trump.

The money spoke. Their consciences? Their consciences?!? The fuuuuuuck outta here.

Below, that’s Kenneth Langone, who has done some marvelous philanthropic work. But also a Trump backer. Amazing to me how people like this let their wallets be their conscience and fancifully ignored every last aspect of Donald Trump’s character and behavior until it was almost too late.

Randy Rainbow Coalition

Almost too easy, but still brilliantly done by our old friend.

Nobody Died In Watergate

On Sunday I tweeted that Trump would be out of a job by Friday and that Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan and Josh Hawley would be gone in a month. Those predictions may have been a little over-caffeinated, but Trump is going to be impeached today. The first president to be impeached twice. This nation had two impeachment in its first 242 years and now it’s had two in less than 13 months.

As for those senators and representatives, stay tuned. I truly believe we are at the incipient stages of a plot for treason. Congressmen and women who aided and abetted the rioters, particularly in the planning stages, should be hanged. Seriously. But at the very, very least they must be expelled from Congress and never be allowed to run for public office again.

https://twitter.com/FirenzeMike/status/1349146229129801735?s=20

Westy

All the events of the past two weeks caused us to neglect noting the death of one of our favorite Suns (favorite sons), Paul Westphal. He died of complications from cancer at age 70 last week.

I fell in love with the NBA during the 1972-73 season. The Knicks were my team and their nemesis was the Boston Celtics. Although Jo Jo White and John Havlicek were the men in green I feared most, I remembered this 6’4″ rookie who’d come in off the bench and just be a major pain in the ass for my guys Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe.

(Future NBA coaches who’d lose to Michael Jordan in the Bulls in the NBA Finals: Westphal and Jerry Sloan)

Westphal, a SoCal native who attended USC (when UCLA was THE PLACE to play hoops… would love to know why he didn’t team up with Bill Walton to play for John Wooden…. Wooden, Walton, Westphal, it just alliteratively fits), played in Boston for three seasons and won one ring there.

Then Boston traded him to Phoenix. I didn’t think much of it until the Suns made it all the way to the NBA Finals and there were all these dudes on their fun team with great tans: Westphal, the Van Arsdale twins, Alvan Adams. They were positively tanorexic. It was as if Westy had gone to Canyon Ranch and never returned.

Two years later, my family moved to Phoenix. A year after that, my parents got us two tickets to a Suns-Celtics game as a Christmas present. I went with my brother to the old Madhouse on McDowell, Veterans Memorial Coliseum, as Westphal and the Suns were playing a Boston team with a phenomenal rookie, Larry Bird.

It’s the best NBA game I’ve ever personally witnessed. Here, in the first season of the three-pointer, two future Hall of Famers dueled. Entering the fourth quarter the men in green led 107-96, which sounds like a final sore an sounded even more like one back in that era. This was just a high-scoring, exciting game with a Finals atmosphere (both teams were great that season, winning 61 and 55 games, respectively).

Larry Bird would finish with 45 points. But Westy, not to be too much outdone, paced the Suns with 34 and led them back from that 11-point deficit. The final score? Phoenix 135, Boston 134.

Yes, the Gar Heard game from three seasons earlier, these same two teams in the NBA Finals, lives in fans’ memories. But this midseason classic that I was fortunate enough to witness had a playoff fervor. Again, the best game I’ve ever attended. And Westy was the hero. He would become a terrific NBA coach and is in the Hall of Fame. And now he’s gone. He’ll always be that tanned zephyr with the flowing brown locks to me.

A female sportswriter (of great renown) once noted offhandedly that he was, in her mind, the best-looking NBA player ever. One person’s opinion. But I never forgot that she said that to me.

The other thing about Westphal? He was universally liked and loved. You have to watch this above. As “Chuck” says, “That’s a perfect example of who he was.”

I remember watching this play as it happened. It was hilarious. The Suns had already clinched top spot in the West, had already won 60 games. This was the third-to-last game of the regular season. And they still pulled this one out, in Portland, 115-114. I remember sitting on my futon couch and howling with laughter.

We Nearly Overlooked This, Too

There’s still 1:20 to play in the quarter when this young man loses track of time and tosses a full-court shot. That goes in. This is hilarious. How many kids that age can even toss the ball that far? I know I couldn’t.

Don’t you love how he turns to his coach with that “My bad, I know” reaction? Man, as someone else on Twitter noted, he should’ve flashed the double-guns, gunslinger reaction, then put them back in his holsters. But that might be too much to ask from one defining moment.

And He’s Not Even A St. Bernard

You Hate To See It

In yesterday’s New York Times, an amusing story titled “Lost Passwords Lock Millionaires Out Of Their Bitcoin Futures”

Here is the lede, by Nathaniel Popper, and it’s fabulous:

Stefan Thomas, a German-born programmer living in San Francisco, has two guesses left to figure out a password that is worth, as of this week, about $220 million.

The password will let him unlock a small hard drive, known as an IronKey, which contains the private keys to a digital wallet that holds 7,002 Bitcoin. While the price of Bitcoin dropped sharply on Monday, it is still up more than 50 percent from just a month ago, when it passed its previous all-time high of around $20,000.

The problem is that Mr. Thomas years ago lost the paper where he wrote down the password for his IronKey, which gives users 10 guesses before it seizes up and encrypts its contents forever. He has since tried eight of his most commonly used password formulations ā€” to no avail.

ā€œI would just lay in bed and think about it,ā€ Mr. Thomas said. ā€œThen I would go to the computer with some new strategy, and it wouldnā€™t work, and I would be desperate again.ā€

True story: A few years ago I bought two of these Bitcoin-related currencies. Also about that time I began, at long last, to keep a small notebook that had all of my passwords (but what if someone steals that notebook, you ask? I guess you just have to take that chance. It’s better than constantly having to create new passwords).

Just last Saturday, after not having taken a peek at either currency’s status in at least two years, I decided to check them out. One of them, Coinbase, had improved more than 700% since I bought it. The other, Bitstamp, has a new level of verification in which it asks for my social security number. Sorry, guy, no go. You can keep the money.

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 1 Comment

by John Walters

DeVonta-Plus

Though he never caught a pass after halftimeā€”a dislocated finger early in the third quarter ended his night prematurely-ā€”Heisman Trophy winner DeVonta Smith had 12 catches for 215 yards and three touchdowns for the Crimson Tide.

All in the first half. Quite a validation of that Heisman for the Slim Reaper.

(Turf enough, but not fast enough)

Alabama beats Ohio State, 52-24 (that’s the same score the Tide beat Texas A&M by) for the national championship. It’s Nick Saban’s record-breaking 7th title in the AP poll era, his sixth in Tuscaloosa. Incredible.

https://twitter.com/russbengtson/status/1348867856746819585?s=20

Meanwhile in Tuscaloosa… a super-spreader event.

Patriot


New England Patriot football coach Bill Belichick stuns me by spurning Trump’s offer of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Belichick’s statement:

“Recently, I was offered the opportunity to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which I was flattered by out of respect for what the honor represents and admiration for prior recipients. Subsequently, the tragic events of last week occurred and the decision has been made not to move forward with the award.

“Above all, I am an American citizen with great reverence for our nationā€™s values, freedom and democracy. I know I also represent my family and the New England Patriots team,” he continued. “One of the most rewarding things in my professional career took place in 2020 when, through the great leadership within our team, conversations about social justice, equality and human rights moved to the forefront and became actions. Continuing those efforts while remaining true to the people, team and county I love outweigh the benefits of any individual award.”

You may recall that Trump appeared onstage with Belichick on the final day before the 2016 election.

Was this the final blow?

All The President’s Mendacity

(And the beauty of it is that those flags also may function as bludgeoning instruments)

From The Washington Post, an outrageous story of betrayal by the commander-in-chief last Wednesday. It details how Kevin McCarthy, Lindsey Graham and even Kellyanne Conway all tried to contact Trump last Wednesday afternoon in the early stages of the riot and he ignored all of them. Grampa was having too much fun watching his program.

Of course, the MAGA you know will disbelieve the story purely on the basis of who published it. Or blame the riot on Antifa infiltrators. Anything to avoid accepting the truth.

Worth reading. Remember as all of this mayhem takes place that America daily laps the world in coronavirus deaths. Donald Trump is a monumental failure.

The Big Lie

As Jake Tapper tweeted yesterday, from 1984 by George Orwell, “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.ā€ What did Hillary call them? Deplorables? That was too kind. I prefer “Y’all Queda.”

I don’t know about you, but this has been my experience: I’ve disagreed with family and friends who’ve supported Donald Trump in the past, but we’ve all been able (mostly) to continue to get along. Last Wednesday’s insurrection, for me, was the crossing of the Rubicon. If there are people who still support Donald Trumpā€”even freakin’ Deutsche Bank has announced it will no longer do business with himā€”then those relationships are effectively over. You broke my heart, Fredo. You broke my heart.

Done. Finis.

Stand back and stand by, he said last October. And they did. And they’re planning more mayhem. It was so weird last night to listen to cable news stations nonchalantly mention the impending terrorist threats on all 50 state capitols and to realize that the people planning such terror were the loudest anti-terrorism (read: anti-Muslim) voices for the past two decades. And he person fomenting all of it was the president. Funny, that.

And yet, as Don Lemon noted on CNN last night, they’re the biggest SNOWFLAKES you’ll ever see: Viking horn guy is whining because they won’t serve organic food to him in lock up while many others wail because they’ve been put on no-fly list. That sound you hear is white privilege reckoning, for the first time, with consequences.

Also, every last Republican who still voted against ratifying the election results last week committed treason. They need to be dealt with. From Paul Krugman in The New York Times: “…the cynicism and cowardice of leading Republicans is, I would argue, the most important cause of the nightmare now enveloping our nation.”

True dat.

I mean, I could go on and find an item about a panda that plays chess or the world’s largest strudel, but between now and January 20th, what’s the point? This is no, “I like the Yankees and you like the Red Sox”-level argument. This is a battle for the future of our country. Do we want to be a nation of jack-booted thugs who render free elections non-existent and promise security in exchange for groupthink and white nationalism? Or do we want to be a democracy where open division still exists but where the individual may still think openly as he or she pleases and where disputes are settled by debate and voting?

We know what MAGA wants. This is the fight of our lives.

“I Pledge Allegiance”

To the flag (which I will use to bludgeon my opponents, including police)

And to the United States of America Donald Trump

And to the eventual fascist state,

For which white supremacy stands,

With liberty and justice for all those who think and act exactly the way I do

There are two Americas on display this week. The America we’ve always known, where we don’t always agree but where we express our differences with opinions and debate. And the America of those radicalized white terror caravans above, who seek to impose their will with guns and violence.

Another tip of the cap to Osama bin Laden: the greatest threat to America and freedom was always Americans. Someone simply had to unleash it. He did. In less than 20 years. Even he would be surprised, I think, that it happened so fast.

My hope: That Donald Trump is sent to jail and there, in a solitary cell, they put a camera on him (he’s always craved attention, right?). There is no sound and he has no access to the internet or even writing materials. The camera just remains on him as if he’s an animal in a zoo. That is how he should live out the remainder of his days.

*****

Last thing from me today (until something else comes to me): There are armed protests being planned at all 50 state capitols, which ordinarily would be seen by the President of the United States as a most grave threat to our democracy. All the president needs to do between now and then is to call a televised press conference, stand in front of the cameras, and implore every one of his followers to stand down.

Will he do it?

Being the narcissistic sociopath that he is, Trump probably will not do this. Later he will complain that his access to Twitter was cut off, denying him the ability to reach people. He’s the world’s most powerful man. He could call a presser and within half an hour all four major networks, plus every cable news channel, would televise it live.

People will die because of his silence this week. A political leader or two may be assassinated. Every death, every ounce of blood, is on Donald Trump’s tiny hands if he refuses to step up and tell his mob to stand down.

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 1 Comment

by John Walters

I scribbled some words over the weekend (Saturday Morning Musings) that you can access via the hyperlink if you’re interested and haven’t yet read.

Lock Him Up. Now.

I don’t know what anyone still needs to see. The man staged a rally right beneath the Washington Monument early Wednesday afternoon, flashed the white power symbol (above), told his brain-dead army that they cannot take this country back with “weakness”, told him he’d go down with them (of course he didn’t), and within a few hours five people were dead.

Benghazi: four dead Americans.

U.S. Capitol Riot: five dead Americans.

Didn’t they cry “Lock her up!” over Benghazi even though Hillary Clinton was not even to blame? So where are the chants of “Lock him up?”

Donald Trump has 10 more days of (legitimate) power. He should be denied every one of them. Not only as punishment but out of precaution. Is there anything in his past that does not inform you that he will try every last trick possible to remain in power? This could become very, very dangerous. And deadly, for many.

Congress and Mike Penceā€”particularly Mike Penceā€”still have a chance to thwart him. They should not squander that chance.

By the way, how must Mike Pence be feeling now? He stands by Donald Trump for four years, lets himself be appointed coronavirus czar (so he can shoulder all of the blame), then with less than two weeks to go, tells the president he can’t overturn the election for him, and Trump basically tells his followers to go lynch him. And they wanted to!

Feeling a little betrayed, Mike? Welcome to America. By the many of us have known for a long time that anyone who swears fealty to Trump eventually gets tossed under the bus. We’d have thought you’d seen that move enough times not to be surprised by it.

Love this line from David Remnick in The New Yorker:

The millions of Americans who understood this Presidency from its first day as a national emergency, a threat to domestic and global security, can be excused for finding it curious that so many are now taking the exit ramp for the road to Damascus three years and fifty weeks later. 

Arnold 1, Kevin Sorbo 0

Pay attention, please:

Heroes And Villains

Wednesday, January 6, was the day that launched 100 books, one future Peabody Award-winning PBS Frontline doc, an Adam McKay or Paul Greengrass film, a Mark Wahlberg heroic role (but on which side?), and for sure an FBI and Congressional investigative committee.

It’s simply too soon to begin to pretend we have any of the answers as to who was responsible, how sophisticated and far-reaching was this plot, who on the inside helped plan or facilitate or coordinate it, and what if anything will be done to bring them to justice. What I do know is this: As a news story, this is already bigger than Watergate. Way bigger.

Unlike 9/11 or anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes, this was an attack on America by… Americans. Americans who are so deranged that they believed that the most patriotic thing that they could do was storm the U.S. Capitol and jackboot their guy back into the presidency.

I wrote it on Saturday and I’ll repeat it again: Democracy cannot survive in a land of White Supremacy and White Supremacy cannot survive in a land of Democracy. Right now, for the first time in my life, I’m legitimately not sure how this is going to turn out.

Yes, there were plenty of villains (that we already know of): Trump and his family, Rudy, Matt Gaetz, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Jim Jordan, etc. There were also heroes, and it shouldn’t surprise that one of the cops who will be remembered as heroes for his actions inside the Capitol building is black.

That’s Officer Eugene Goodman (above, and up above), who lured the rioters away from the Senate chamber by baiting them into chasing him. Smart, and brave, cop.

Scenes From A Desecration

Notice how no video has yet emerged of Officer Brian Sicknick’s murder? He was struck in the head with a fire extinguisher. Was he inside the Capitol edifice itself? Outside? Don’t they have plenty of cameras inside the U.S. Capitol? Weren’t plenty of rioters filming everything?

So, assuming that his murder is on film, who knows about it, who has it, and who is keeping it private? And why? Let’s assume someone official has access to that footage? Are they keeping it hidden so that they could track down the murderer without him being aware of it (which is odd, because wouldn’t they crowd-source it normally)? Are they keeping it hidden out of respect to his family? Are they keeping it hidden because it would be a death-knell of sorts to Trump’s last gasp to his illegitimate claim for power? Are they keeping it hidden to keep peace (how’s that working out)?

I really don’t know. But it is unusual. In the meantime I suggest you watch this short video from Don Winslow…

and read this excellent and mostly humorous and caustic essay via Caitlin Flanagan….

…and listen to this:

Steel Curtains

The game’s opening shotgun snap to Ben Roethlisberger sailed over his head (he’s like, 6’5″) and was recovered by Cleveland in the end zone. It was 28-0, Browns, at the end of the first quarter.

Cleveland, which last won a playoff game in 1995, beat Pittsburgh, which has won two Super Bowls since then. The final score, 48-37. Due to COVID, the Browns hadn’t practiced all week and their head coach, Kevin Stefanski, was at home (presumably in his basement because that makes a better visual).

Is it the end of the line for Big Ben, star-crossed legend-cum-sexual assaulter? It sure looked that way, watching him seated alone on the bench afterward.

Oh, The Places You Won’t Go!

(Svalbard: You go Norway and I’ll go mine)

Usually about now, The New York Times publishes a FOMO/YOLO special for adventure travelers called “52 Places To Go In (Year)”. But it’s still coronavirus time, so this year’s piece is simply called “52 Places To Love” (as opposed to “Make Love”… which reminds us of an old Newlywed Game anecdote that is apocryphal but still very funny, but this is a family blog so we won’t repeat it here).

You can hit the hyperlink and see some of their picks.

SATURDAY MORNING MUSINGS

by John Walters | 4 Comments

by John Walters

“We all see it. We alllll see it.”

–This had never happened before: the flag of the Confederacy inside the U.S. Capitol. What’s next, the flag of Nazi Germany? Because that’s all these people are: Nazis.

(“Coup Klux Klan?” That’s gold, Jerry)

–As I was doing the night clean at the supermarket last night, two-plus hours of wet and arduous work, a contradiction to the five-figure sum I’d earned in the stock market the same day hours earlier, I had plenty of time to think. Many things occurred to me, but the overriding idea is that this is only the beginning of a civil war. And it will not take place on battle fields such as Antietam or Gettysburg, since the war is not over land but over ideas. It will take place wherever prominent politicians or heads of states and cities who never bowed to Trump reside. It will take place between security details and armed militias. And right now? The former side is wildly under-staffed and under-prepared and it probably doesn’t help that more than a few of them are (sympathetic to the) MAGA-dolts. We’ve seen this time and time again, from cops on Wednesday waving barrier-breakers into the Capitol to the cops in Kenosha not even thinking to stop Kyle Rittenhouse as he walks toward them with a long gun after just having shot two people to death.

–Whenever I deal with an entitled or annoying customer at the supermarket, I mutter under my breath, “The customer is always white.”

–I hope the Dept. of Justice and the FBI track down as many from the Capitol mob as possible. I hope that each one of them serves jail time and I particularly hope that every last one of them is given a black or Hispanic cell mate. Please let this happen.

–Seriously don’t know why the House hasn’t already called a special session to impeach Trump. But that’ll happen Monday. Then Moscow Mitch will drag his heels for eight days and bring it to the Senate on January 19th. That at least is his plan. Mitch don’t want the Lindsey Graham-at-the-airport treatment, people.

So Trump will serve out his term, and Mitch and MAGA will be able to blame the Democrat-led Senate for impeaching Trump post facto. It still must be done, and as Rachel Maddow pointed out last night, all Republican Senators who don’t want to be labeled as anti-Trump need to do is not show up for the vote. All it requires is 2/3 of the Senators in attendance. And the Senate will already have 51 Dems, 52 if Lisa Murkowski of Alaska defects. If just 20 GOP Senators are AWOL, then you’d only need three or four Republican Senators to vote to impeach. That seems probable, particularly if the militias do anything crazy (ya think?) between now and January 19th.

–For decadesā€”I can remember seeing them back in the ’80s in the outskirts of Phoenixā€”armed white militias have been training for this doomsday. You know what happens when you practice the piano over and over and over and never have a recital? Eventually you get bored with playing the piano. You need something to look forward to and then, at some point, you need to have the damn recital. For these white supremacists, it’s recital day. And they say they’d be happy to die for Trump. Let’s give them that chance.

–I think what particularly depressed me as I took the power hose to various saws last night is how fragile this democracy of 330 million people is. If Brad Raffensperger does not do his job, if Gabriel Sterling does not do his job, if Stacey Abrams does not become the most potent non-elected force in the deep South since MLK, if any number of appellate judges do not do their jobs, we’re stuck with Trump and Fascism. Going forward, will the police and military, both of which have more than a few white supremacists in their ranks (“a few bad apples”), do their jobs?

–What we need is a Tuskegee Airmen-type security detail for elected officials. Honestly. The biggest, baddest, blackest mother*ck*rs we can find. Arm them. Swear them in like the Secret Service. Maybe we call them “Wakanda.”

Put Wakanda in charge of security detail for President Biden, Kamala, AOC, Stacey Abrams, etc. Secretly (or not so secretly), I’ve always felt (and covering college football and the NFL only reinforced this) that a great deal of the White Male Rage toward African-American men is that these dudes know deep down that, physically, blacks are superior to whites. They just, on average, are. And that scares the bejeezus out of them. So they try to retain control of the things that will keep the black man from becoming empowered: wealth, education, guns.

Get me that Tuskegee Security Detail. Get me Wakanda.

–To think of all the courageous men who fought and/or gave their lives fighting the Nazis in World War II only to see their sons or daughters, grandsons or grandaughters, or grand-nephews and grand-nieces marching on the U.S. Capitol in defense of Nazi ideals on Wednesday. That is sickening.

Of course many of these people, or those who cheered them on, have been brainwashed into thinking that they’re fighting on the side of the red, white and blue. This is simply a matter of a lack of intelligence, an inability to separate symbols from principles. Just because you carry the flag doesn’t mean you’re always right. No, carrying the principles of America is what makes you right. And the principles involved here are democratic elections and the rule of law. Both of those these people stamped on the other day. They refuse to acknowledge it while failing to see just how closely they align with Adolf Hitler and the early stages of the Nazi Party in Germany. Or, some of them do see this with clarity and embrace it.

—White Power is either in its final throes in this democracy or this democracy is in its final throes to be subjugated by White Power. That’s the choice.

— I’m continually shocked and rocked by the “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” attitude of countless Trumpers. Many that I know personally. It’s incredible to me that no matter what the truth and evidence shows, they’ll only believe what Donald Trump (a serial liar going back five decades) tells them. The fact that a woman was screaming “AUDIT THE VOTE!” at Lindsey Graham yesterday after the REPUBLICAN Sec. of State of Georgia already did exactly that and still declared Biden the winner shows you their inability to accept facts. It’s only factual if we get our way.

On Thursday night Yale history professor Timothy Snyder appeared on Rachel Maddow’s show. He’s either a highly intelligent man or a liberal elite, depending on your sway. Snyder said something that has remained with me since. He noted that so many of the Trump supporters claim to be fighting for the freedom to do what they want and to say what they want. But they’re actually not free at all, he reminded. Why not? Because everything that they do or say is predicated on what Donald Trump tells them to do or say or think. They are willingly putting themselves under his spell. They’re not free thinkers at all. They’re sheep. But they’re just too stupid to see it.

I loathe Trump and Trumpism with the heat of a thousand blazing suns but even I readily conceded that he won the electoral vote in 2016. He may not be a legitimate human being, but he legitimately won the election. These people simply listen to Laura Ingraham or Sean Hannity or Tucker Carlson or Rush Limbaugh or NEWSMAX and these people tell them what they want to hear, absent any evidence, and they lap it up like Oliver Twist on his first bowl of porridge. So sad.

My First Rule of Trumpism is 1) Always lie if the truth will damage you.

Second Rule: 2) Never accept blame or cop to any error or crime.

Third Rule: 3) Accuse your opponent of exactly the thing that you are doing.

I spent about 30 seconds watching Fox News on Thursday evening, just to see what they were saying. And you know what they were saying? That the “liberal media” is “gas lighting” its readers/viewers. There’s your Rule No. 3.

–Go through as much footage of the storming of the U.S. Capitol or all of the attacks on state houses or a governor’s mansion this past week. You know what you will not see a single instance of? A law enforcement official putting one of these cretins in a chokehold. I wonder why that is.

–If there’s another attack on our democracy, I would encourage NFL players to take a stand by not playing their playoff games. A distraction is not what this nation requires. A call to justice is what it requires. Meanwhile, I hope plenty of NFL players, black and white, take a knee today. Why wouldn’t you?

(But this dude was the threat to democracy. Riiiiiiiight.)

–Joe Biden is scheduled to be sworn in on January 20th but this is far from over. I really think the most important thing going forward is that we get the goose-steppers and Nazis out of the ranks of the police force and military. Otherwise, the safety of our elected leaders is at great risk. Like I said, deputize a Tuskegee Airmen security detail. Deputize a Wakanda.

IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters | 5 Comments

by John Walters

Get Out!

Even the Wall Street Journalā€”the Rupert Murdoch-owned WSJā€”is attempting, way too late, to wipe its hands of the pathetic loser that has always been Donald J. Trump. From its editorial board:

ā€œThis goes beyond merely refusing to concede defeat. In our view it crosses a constitutional line that Mr. Trump hasnā€™t previously crossed. It is impeachable. If Mr. Trump wants to avoid a second impeachment, his best path would be to take personal responsibility and resign.ā€

Donald Trump must not be allowed to finish his term. It’s not about the length of days left in his term. It’s about the message it sends: that this attempted coup that he incited is somehow just a naughty boy being naughty. No.

Everyone involved must be held accountable. Trump must resign, be impeached or the 25th must be invoked (there’s video of he and his family watching the riot live and whooping it up as if it’s a Super Bowl party).

Every single Capitol stormer who can be identified (let’s begin with Jake Angeli, above) needs to be prosecuted. Deliberately deceitful senators (Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, for starters) and Congresspeople (Matt Gaetz, et al), who STILL objected to the election results minus a shard of evidence and after the riot must be called upon to resign. If not, all need to be voted out of office.

Also from that WSJ editorial: “This week has probably finished him as a serious political figure… it is best for everyone, himself included, if he goes away quietly.”

I disagree. He needs to go away noisily. And there needs to be a public display of disgrace and retribution.

Other enablers in the media, from Joe Kernen (CNBC) to Clay Travis to the monsters at Fox News (you know who they are) should be publicly shunned. Free speech, sure. If their bosses (Clay is his own) want to keep them on air, let ’em. But Americans who love democracy and liberty should shun them at every turn.

Don’t Buy This Crap

Only one day earlier this asshole was inciting the very riot he now condemns. An hour or two later, he was telling the rioters to go home but that he loved them and that the election was robbed from him. A blatant lie.

And only a few months earlier, in a presidential debate, he was saying, “Stand back and stand by.”

This is the Donald Trump we rarely see, the one we saw last night. The last time we saw it was after he was caught on tape making the “grab ’em by the pussy” remark. It’s the Trump where even he knows that he’s gone too far and that he’s going to need to behave like a good little boy for at least a few moments until the outrage and fervor subside. Then he can return to being the prick and demagogue he actually is.

Don’t buy this crap. Not for a moment.

Let us, please, remember a little history that is not even 100 years in the past:

1923: the Beer Hall Putsch takes place in Munich. It is an unsuccessful coup d’etat in Germany undertaken by the Nazi Party. From the Wikipedia page:

Approximately two thousand Nazis marched on the Feldherrnhalle, in the city centre, but were confronted by a police cordon, which resulted in the deaths of 16 Nazi Party members and four police officers.[2]

Hitler, who was wounded during the clash, escaped immediate arrest and was spirited off to safety in the countryside. After two days, he was arrested and charged with treason.[3]

1933: Adolf Hitler, the principle force behind the Beer Hall Putsch, becomes the leader of Germany. This only after an emergency decree following the Reichstag fire, which was blamed on a communist but most likely ignited by the Nazis themselves to fake a state of emergency.

Ten years. That’s all it took.

Tuesday was America’s Beer Hall Putsch and at the moment the MAGA-dolts who took part feel downright empowered. Everyone involved must be prosecuted. Everyone who sticks up for them must be shunned. These are Nazis. It’s that plain and simple.

4,100

You’d think this should be the top story. For the first time we hit 4,000 fatalities due to the coronavirus in the USA. That’s the item. We just had our worst day for the coronavirus, after yesterday’s worst day of the coronavirus.

Blue Lives Don’t Matter

The same white supremacist mob who’ve been shouting “Blue Lives Matter” for seven months were responsible for the death of Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, 42, on Wednesday. Sicknick succumbed to injuries incurred while battling protesters inside the U.S. Capitol building. This is murder of a cop. Donald Trump incited it.

White Rage On Steroids

This, from NBC News, nails the crux of the issue. It’s not about socialism or DACA or even THE WALL (although The Wall is an expression of it)

. Here it is in part:

“It’s entirely about the perceived loss of the power of whiteness,” said Bree Newsome Bass, the human rights activists known for taking down a Confederate flag at the South Carolina Statehouse in 2015. “People feel like they are losing something if whiteness no longer carries privilege and power. If there’s racial equality, they feel like they have been denied what the country was supposed to be.”

There’s White Rage, And Then There’s Rage Against The Machine

The ’90s band Rage Against The Machine, led by guitarist Tom Morello (a Harvard alum) and vocalist Zach de la Rocha, were at least 20 years ahead of their time. This morning Morello tweeted out the first line of the band’s most famous song, “Killing In The Name,” in response to the fact that some of the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Tuesday were actually off-duty cops who flashed their badges to gain entry.

I wonder how many hooligans listened to RAM and got off on the naked energy in its music without really listening to the words. Because the band totally called everything that has happened during the Trump era. Here are lyrics from their other big hit, “Bulls On Parade”:

Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes
Not need, just feed the war cannibal animal
I walk tha corner to tha rubble that used to be a library
Line up to tha mind cemetery now
What we don’t know keeps tha contracts alive an movin’
They don’t gotta burn tha books they just remove ’em
While arms warehouses fill as quick as tha cells
Rally round tha family, pockets full of shellsRally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells
They rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells
They rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells
They rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells

Bulls on parade

I first saw the video while playing pool in a bar in Amsterdam in May of 1994. I was with two buddies from Sports Illustrated and it came up on the TV. I’d never heard of Rage before and wasn’t used to that much anger and well, rage, from a vocalist (even Kurt Cobain, who’d died a month earlier, wasn’t that hostile). But the energy and power behind the music was unmistakeable. Then I began paying attention to the lyrics. This band was way ahead of its time.

On David Bowie’s 74th Birthday

You can make a solid claim that David Bowie was the smartest man ever to play the rock-and-roll. Or, more to the point, the most insightful. Or the most engaging. Here are two short videos well worth watching that demonstrate his acute wisdom.

First, on the internet (from the late 1990s)

Second, on MTV’s subtle racism. Look at him here: so handsome, so dashing, with that winning grace and style, and then he just threads the needle and puts in the hook. And that final blow, well, it lands like a hammer. We could be heroes? He was.