by John Walters
Get Out!
Even the Wall Street Journal—the Rupert Murdoch-owned WSJ—is attempting, way too late, to wipe its hands of the pathetic loser that has always been Donald J. Trump. From its editorial board:
“This goes beyond merely refusing to concede defeat. In our view it crosses a constitutional line that Mr. Trump hasn’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.”
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.
“These are Nazis. It’s that plain and simple”. Where have I heard this before – oh wait, from ME right HERE for the last 4 freakin years! Over these years, I have often felt like one of those characters in the TV show(s) who can “see” when a a being passing as human is really a demon (in this case, NAZI) when others can’t & doesn’t understand why! It was SO BLATANT! Of course, the terroist-insurrectionists of Wed helped SPELL IT OUT FOR THE SLOW LEARNERS when they so “helpfully” wore “Camp Auschwitz” & “6MWE” t-shirts.
One can ALMOST feel sorry for these loser-thugs as they’ve been lied to & manipulated for the last 4 years by The Sociopath & his NAZI collaborators. They were so empowered by Trump & his ass-licking Lt (Guilliani) mere minutes before that they actually believed they had the RIGHT to trespass & DESTROY government property in the effort to overturn the Presidential election – in this case, the actual building that represents our FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. These hopped-up idiots are too stupid to remember the EXECUTIVE ORDER their Fuehrer passed just this past summer calling for a mandatory 10 YEARS for anyone caught defacing/destroying said property. “Isn’t that RICH? SEND IN THE CLOWNS!” (Top THAT jdubs, for a musical reference).
Speaking of “rich” ( in a head-snapping change of topics), I have to say that yesterday afternoon after my dog DDD doubled in ONE DAY, I felt like Travolta struttin’ down the street swinging a can of whoop-ass. 🙂 “Ah, ah ah, ah, stayin alive, stayin alive, ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin aliiiiiiiiiiive” 🙂 Eat my dust, TSLA & Bitcoin! If only for one crazy day. 🙂
And just so you don’t think I’ll be getting a big head & all – also this week, my one remaining Chinese stock was DELISTED by the NYSE after a “we will do it, NO, we’ve change our minds, then wait, we’re gonna do it after all!” freakin roller coaster! Not counting my spin-off holdings, it’s my smallest position, so if I actually lose it all, it won’t have an impact but several years ago when I bought the measly 20 shares of CHL, I never dreamed it would one day be considered a threat to America. Um, what? I just wanted some dividends & a Chinese telecom (with a BILLION customers) seemed a safe bet! How much you wanna bet Ivanka’s CHINESE partner companies aren’t on the “bad list”….
Relevant to the Beer Hall Putsch comparison — a poll yesterday showed that 45% of Republicans approved of the storming of the Capitol. That reflects a strong undercurrent of fear/hatred/anger, or whatever, that won’t vanish.
Apparently Republican support for the Capitol Coup has now plummeted. https://twitter.com/ryanstruyk/status/1347674222194253825?s=20. Tough week for the MAGA crowd all around.
This is a good insight into the various types of red-hatters who were at the Capitol on Tuesday https://www.gq.com/story/man-predicted-capitol-coup-interview
Trump’s so small he can’t see anything bigger than himself. That’s why he writes his name on buildings…….
My take on this is this: It’s White Supremacist America vs. Everyone Else. That’s all any of this is. There’s a bunch of people who believe their ancestors came to this country and settled it and that they then imported thousands of African slaves to facilitate growth. And when that president from Illinois emancipated them, well, those slaves were supposed to know their place, keep their damn mouths shut, and just be happy we weren’t lynching them or sending them back to Africa. This is how these people honestly feel. Democracy is cool, sure, as long as we all remember that white people are in charge. The second people of color organize and become a political force to be reckoned with (thanks, Obama), then the Constitution and the rule of law no longer matters.
I’m a long time reader (lurker) of Medium Happy. I’ve never felt I had much to add to you and your loyal followers. What I witnessed on Wednesday when a bunch of cosplayers (mixed in with it appeared to be serious some white supremacists) try to take down the Capitol, I thought I’d add my two cents.
Thank you Jdub for all that you do!
Anthony H.