by John Walters
I posted some thoughts yesterday if you’re interested…
January Jitters
Have you ever been on a flight where the pilot came on the intercom to announce, “We are heading into some severe turbulence for the next 45 minutes. There’s no way to avoid it?”
I have. Buckle up, America.
It’s about to be, potentially, a perilous week. Two movie scenes came to mind as I thought about the week ahead. The first comes from The Godfather II.
You can go right to 2:35 here, through 3:05.
I do wonder, if it comes to it in the coming days or weeks, if National Guardsmen and cops will put their lives on the line in defense of our country… against men who look like them, who also come from this country, and with whom they might even share political views.
You may have heard VP Mike Pence brag that during the Trump administration America did not get involved in any new wars. What a dope. Right now if you are a National Guardsman or cop the greatest threat you face to your life is from an armed American, most probably a white male. Who started that war, Mike?
The second scene comes from Bridge On The River Kwai, and I thought of it as I read that the FBI is investigating whether has charged a woman for stealing Nancy Pelosi’s lap top during the storming with intent to sell it to Russia. I mean, how deranged have these Trumpers become that they believe it’s in America’s best interests to sell our national security to Russia? And so I thought of the moment of epiphany Sir Alec Guinness experiences moments before he dies. “What have I done?”
If you remember the film, the final scene has the POW doc looking down at the scene below him and simply muttering one word: “Madness.”
That’s where we’re at.
Brady To Brees
The most memorable moment of the NFL divisional playoffs occurred after the fourth and final game of the weekend. A pair of fortysomethings, two of the most prolific to ever play, meet on the field. One, who is retiring, is with his family. The other, who is not and has a game in Green Bay next weekend, tosses a TD pass to the other’s son.
The NFL could not frame a better ad if it spent a year trying.
Look Out, You Rock ‘n Rollers
Came across this old video of David Bowie discussing Lou Reed last night. You don’t like to go to this well too often, but he was assuredly a prince among men. Good-natured, thoughtful, charming, witty, hyper-intelligent. And that accent is so rich. Love it all (except the smoking). Stick around until the very end—or fast forward to it—as Bowie gets off a very funny line.
And here’s Bowie and Reed performing “Dirty Boulevard” together on the occasion of Bowie’s 50th birthday. Enjoy.
Give me your hungry, your tired your poor I’ll piss on ’em
that’s what the Statue of Bigotry says
Your poor huddled masses, let’s club ’em to death
and get it over with and just dump ’em on the boulevard
Pardon The Insurrection
The president is reportedly selling pardons and will issue as many as 100 of them tomorrow (my thought: small price to pay for the eviction). I do wonder if he’ll pardon anyone involved in the insurrection and whether that wold later serve as incriminating evidence against him when the event is fully investigated.
MLK: “I have a dream…“
DJT: “I have a scheme…“
Look, we all know Mr. Biden and Mrs. Harris have been preaching unity and healing and getting the vaccine out, and that’s all well and good. But what is also imperative is that every single person involved in the insurrection, from Donald Trump to Ted Cruz to Josh Hawley to Lauren Boebert and others, all must be held accountable. All must stand trial. You don’t just get to get away with this simply because no major figures were killed. Am I nuts here or do you agree?
From Michelle Goldberg in the NYT:
Making Trump face consequences for trying to overturn the election will not, by itself, stop the disorder he’s instigated. But it may be a precondition for making the country governable. “The time to stop tyrants and despots is when you first see them breaking from the demands of law,” said Raskin. Trump, he said, “has been indulged and protected for so long by some of his colleagues that he brought us to the brink of hell in the Capitol of the United States.”
By the way, in the past six months the Trump administration has executed 13 death row inmates. By that we mean federal executions. That’s more than took place in the previous six decades. That seems frightful until you look at the hundreds of thousands of Americans who’ve somewhat needlessly died of COVID-19 in the same time period. Yes, Americans were going to die of COVID-19. But probably 1/10th the number should have.
It got us to thinking about how Alex Azar resigned over the weekend as Secretary of Health and Human Services and pointed to the insurrection as having “tarnished the president’s legacy.” Oh, yes. That. Because the pandemic and the putting kids in cages and the 20,000 or so lies had not tarnished his legacy. His entire legacy is giant smudge.
The Washington Post video you posted yesterday is really something, and great journalism. But the information they have access to is probably not even 100% of what is out there, in terms of cell phone video and GPS data, Capitol surveillance video, eyewitness accounts, etc. This includes whatever led up to Jan. 6, including possible prior knowledge by members of Congress or people within the White House. Surely either Congress or the executive branch will launch a full Warren Commission-style inquiry, especially because the events of that day led to the impeachment of the president within a week.
It still boggles my mind that a mostly unarmed, mostly unorganized group of amateurs was able to get into the Capitol and within yards of a joint session of Congress, even though law enforcement knew a protest and potential violence was going to happen that day. It just seems impossible. And what will happen on Jan. 20?