My good friend and fellow author, Lucian K. Truscott IV, now has a substack blog. He never puts up stuff - no matter how wild it might sound - that isn't well-sourced.
Here's what he said tonight:
It's being reported that freshman Congresswoman Laura Boebert, the one who tweeted Nancy Pelosi's location during the assault, was photographed leading people on a tour of the Capitol on January 5. The people she was showing around the Capitol were photographed in the Capitol during the insurrection the next day.
Just so you know, members of Congress don't usually take terrorists on reconnaissance tours before they engage in seditious assaults. At least they didn't before Glock-carrying lunatics were elected.
I think this and other facts that will be coming out are why so many more Republican rats are jumping off the Trump train - this wasn't a spontaneous riot gone bad, it was a planned insurrection with people on the inside aiding and abetting it. And McConnell et al are trying to avoid the s***bomb that's exploding in their midst. I think they're 4 years too late for that, at least as far as history is concerned.
I wonder why Congressman Gohmert, who refused to be screened, was not arrested at gunpoint, as other Americans would have been. And the same goes for Congresswoman Boebert, if TCinLA's comment is correct. Insurrectionists and their supporters must be rooted out of Congress and law enforcement throughout the country. With little evidence, we did that to alleged Communists after WW Two. Today we have the evidence and we must act.
Thank you TCinLA. Excellent investigative journalism on the part of your friend. Ears to the ground. Knew there was a fox in the henhouse. It’s all starting to come out. Swear Biden and Harris in at an undisclosed location? What say you? ❤️🤍💙
Good comment and, assuming it to be true, it another sign that this so-far failed insurrection was planned and orchestrated, in part, by elected Republican officials. I do wish that Mr. Truscott would cite his source.
Lucian's been writing on these things for years. He doesn't cite his source for the same reason I don't name my friend who I describe here as "having spent his military career adjacent to or in the top levels of the Imperial Bureaucracy." It's also the same reason why investigative journalists never reveal sources. I can tell you that in all the time I have known Lucian, he's not been wrong.
It's well within the standards of ethical journalism to protect one's sources if their lives or livelihoods would be jeopardized by revealing their identities. The difference between "an anonymous source close to the White House reports.." (something I remember from numerous Watergate stories) and "Some say..." (which I can only hear in Bill O'Reilly's voice but Mx. Some may well be Fox News' most prolific source) is significant, and wider than it may look at first.
Ten members of Congress have today requested the Sergeant at Arms of both House and Senate to investigate Republican members who conducted "tours for constituents" before the attack, and effort is being organized to expel those who aided and abetted treason.
Boebert is associated with "Q". She doesn't come out and claim she necessarily follows Q and is attached to them like Marjorie Green, but there are tons of QAnon folks she represents on the Western Slope of Colorado. No doubt they financially supported her campaign to get elected, and may well still be supporting her for the causes. She is also associated with other white supremacist groups. She's a pretty face put out in front - but she's in way over her head.
I'm disgusted she was elected as our rep for the Western Slope. Unfortunately she was a "sexier" version than the democratic nominee for the last election (Diane Mitsch Bush - who could intelligently talk policy and was very well-versed in government issues both state and federal). Since moving back to the Western Slope I have been horrified to find out there is so much support for QAnon and other white supremacy hate groups and their ideals. So, it's time for us to evaluate WHY these people's beliefs are where they are - listen to what they want and find a way to address issues in a logical way. (much easier said than done) There are reasons why they have fallen under these extreme groups. No worse than a cult or even an inner city gang.
I have a dear friend for over 40 years who fell under Trump’s spell. I have some very successful neighbors who posted Trump signs in their windows. I think many of these people had a belief that Trump would be in their economic interest tax wise etc and they chose to close their ears to his vulgar style and his lies. I always saw him as a thug who was only out for himself with never an interest or an hour of public service in his life. He has developed a taste for power though and I’ve heard a rumor that his supporters are having their own inauguration. Watching congress on msnbc and just heard your rep from Colorado give a fiery speech.
I have been wondering about the list art of persuasion. Our leaders don’t lead, they pander to what people want to hear. Persuade us to reach higher, to cooperate, to have forebearance. To be kind and decent.
Waaayyyy over her head. I really hope she won’t last. Of course, if she’s expelled or just quits (“You mean, I have to work and follow rules?!?”), Repubs will probably just put Scott Tipton back in her seat, but at least he wasn’t quite as crazy and embarrassing as Boebert.
No, I'm thinking about Boebert. But, for sure, Marjorie Green is exactly as you describe her to be. Two plus how many have been elected to Congress? That spells big trouble for our future.
Yes she’s Q Anon, but you were probably thinking of the one from Florida. This one only made it to the news since January 6. It’s Lauren Boebert btw. She’s a freshman from Colorado
Somebody may have posted this... Snopes rated photo of Boebert as "miscaptioned." That was extremist tour in December in Colorado. I'm sure there's enough stuff on her still.
This happened in Idaho, Washington and Oregon last week too. Just like terrorist surveying NYC before 911. They are more prepared than we think possible.
Oh yes, she’s got a few things that she was arrested for, and her husband was busted for indecent exposure a number of years ago. Nothing major, but they weren’t outstanding citizens in their community. My best friend lives in Colorado, and she was very controversial...
Over the past five years, every bad thing I have come across has turned out to be true. I really wish I could say this isn't true, but damn.... And again, as I said elsewhere, my friend Lucian Truscott is well-sourced (and this fits very closely to things HRC has said in tonight's post):
I got a call tonight from a friend with good connections in the intelligence community. He says McConnell learned something over the last 24 hours that really got his attention and caused him to realize that the Republican Party is in danger of going down if they don’t jettison Trump right now and do as much to distance themselves from him as they are able.
Apparently, the briefing given to members of Congress had some details about the attack on the Capitol that were “chilling and horrific” according to one member who received the briefing. The Wednesday attack on the Capitol, and the plans insurrectionists are making for Inauguration day were described as being made by “an organized group that has a plan.” Members of the Oversight Committee who were present for a second intelligence briefing today issued a statement concluding: “Based on today's briefing, we have grave concerns about ongoing and violent threats to our democracy. It is clear that more must be done to preempt, penetrate, and prevent deadly and seditious assaults by domestic violent extremists in the days ahead."
There are rumblings in the intelligence community that planning for the insurrection on Wednesday reached into the White House to aides of Trump who were reporting to the president. Trump’s Tweet on December 19 apparently tipped off the intelligence community that Trump was in on the planning for the insurrection: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump tweeted in just one of several of his tweets promoting the day. “Be there, will be wild!”
It will be wild. He knew. He fucking knew.
There are other rumblings in the intelligence community that the Department of Defense was told by the White House to “stand down” on January 6, and not to authorize federalizing the Washington D.C. National Guard. That is apparently why it took so long for Democratic leaders to get through to the Secretary of the Army. In the end, the Secretary of the Army and Vice President Pence got together and made the decision to call out the D.C. National Guard. Pence himself was inside the Capitol building while it was under assault and had an up-close and personal stake in things. It’s worth noting that the president is the only official with the authority to federalize the National Guard. This means that Pence and the Secretary of the Army went around Trump in order to call out the Guard and rid the Capitol of the insurrectionists. Technically, they broke the law.
McConnell has heard enough that he has concluded Trump was either fully informed about what was going to happen on Wednesday, or he was in on the planning himself. When it comes out, and it’s expected that it will come out, if the Republican Party is still standing with Trump, they won’t be able to survive it. So McConnell is signaling to his fellow lickspittles that it’s time to throw Trump under the bus and move out of the way. Trump is going down. He will be impeached, and if he doesn’t resign, he will be found guilty by the Senate.
McConnell is saving the Republican Party not democracy. Also factored into his equation is having so many big donors abandoning the Republicans. ... follow the money.
Exactly! I just finished "The American Abyss" an essay in The New York Times. It describes Mitch McConnell as a "Gamer". He is part of the group of Republicans who quoting the essay "Rather than contradict Trump from the beginning, they allowed his electoral fiction to flourish. They had different reasons for doing so. One group of Republicans is concerned above all with gaming the system to maintain power, taking full advantage of constitutional obscurities, gerrymandering and dark money to win elections with a minority of motivated voters. They have no interest in the collapse of the peculiar form of representation that allows their minority party disproportionate control of government.". Yup, that's Mitch in a nutshell.
My boss when I was a lobbyist just called to say it is over for tRump because big corporations are pulling campaign funds en masse from any legislator siding with tRump. That is why McConnell changed his stripes so quickly and completely, which is proof, as HCR has been telling us, that the USA is more oligarchy than democracy. In this case, corporate manipulation is for the greater good, but they caused the greater bad we continue to live through. Right after the Fairness Doctrine is reinstated, next must come major campaign finance reform. Which means adding judges to the Supreme Court, and bringing Washington DC and Puerto Rico into statehood. We have much work to do during Reconstruction II.
Now that I am old enough and experienced enough to see it, both the love of money and the love of *power* are the root of all evil (in society and in politics, the leadership of society)
I do agree with you. I have first hand experience with people like this. Especially in the work place with leadership and ladder climbers. It has helped me to just really try to pull way back and live a quiet, simple life.
I’ve been thinking about your message ever since it showed up in my mailbox. I think we share something related to what you said about the quiet and simple life. Just FYI I am a loner and a recluse. No one can tell because I’m not lacking in social skills, on the contrary. I spend lots of time by myself, despite my marriage. Inner peace helps clear the mind and allows one to listen to the heart. Really necy in a Type A crazy society like ours.
Have you ever read Susan Cain's work on introverted personality types? She has a great website 'Quiet Revolution' and TedTalks worth watching. Her best seller 'Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking' is really good.
It's been fascinating for me to study people's reactions to the Covid restrictions. I haven't been bothered at all by them. My stress and anxiety has diminished 10-fold not having to go to a workplace full of people -- even though I have a quiet, private office there.
Cynthia it’s not the access to money. It’s not being wealthy. It’s the *love* of money and power, the addiction to them, that’s what produces humans like DT and Moscow Mitch. We know DT gets his orders from Moscow. My wife is convinced Mitch does too.
Totally. Lets not forget what republicans have been willing to do and put up with over the last 4-5 years and even longer. The list of disgust is very long even before Trump came along. Now all of a sudden McConnell is ready to impeach? Whatever is going on out of sight from us must be pretty extreme.
Little typo there: It's HCR (Heather Cox Richardson) not HRC (Hillary Rodham Clinton): an easy typo but one to beware of in this thread! I am not surprised that Trump was briefed. I'm not surprised that Boebert was complicit (and should be investigated). I am not surprised that Murderous Mitch, who has happily enabled the utter breakdown of Democracy until this.very.minute. has decided that Trumpism and Trumpistas are bad for the Gormless Obstructionist Party because Walmart et al (and more to come apparently) are threatening to pull their money from the chute that goes from the Walton family and other corporate execs straight up the arses of the likes of McConnell, Graham, and Cruz. But if the Republicans actually go through with this, I will be surprised. I am not holding my breath. I also don't trust the Waltons: they are the ultimate capitalist shills who have used their billions to manipulate the US economy, oppress working people, and finance the corruption that keeps them from being accountable for their actions. They won't persevere in "punishing" the coup-plotting "Republicans."
Yes on the Waltons for sure. NYC officially negated all their contracts with trump, $17,000,000 gone (annually). My favorite is Deutsch Bank! His piggy bank is gone.
Deutsche Bank, DT's piggy bank as Cynthia says, is formerly the bank of choice for the Hitler Administration and government. See the early chapters of the book Dark Towers for executive summary. Most people don't realize that the numbers tattooed on Jewish incarcerated persons were IBM numbers, the govt. was using computer software to keep track of all those people, and in those days, paper records and paper filing system would have been overloaded by the sheer numbers. Corporations are immoral. At the core, they don't care about anything except profits, no matter what the PR says. Even the PR is meant to protect bsns success, to protect the corporation's ass(ets), because if you send money to anarchist Republican seditionists, it will depress your business overall within the society.
I figured this was planned by Trump— he’s done everything in his power to weaken intelligence and consolidate his own power. He is our home grown version of Hitler.
By the way, I just enjoyed the Wikipedia article on Mr. Truscott and you say you are also an author. If you can do so without breaking a desired anonymity, could you recommend a set of works that may or may not include yours?
TCinLA, please tell me you are not attempting anonymity. I got curious last month, went looking for your books and have a couple in my Amazon cart now. I'm no master mind. If I can find you, anyone can.
TC you are not “just the messenger here,” you are my kind of messenger, someone with an unerring ability to ferret out the truth and bring it to the light of day, usually with incisive and wickedly brilliant commentary and languaging as well. With all due respect to Mr. Truscott, you are the person who introduced him to us. Thank you for bringing him into our discussion.
I'm wondering if Senator McConnell's shift in stance has anything to do with news that's starting to trickle out that members of Congress were giving tours of the Capitol the day before the insurrection. If law enforcement can draw a line between sitting representatives and attackers whose actions on the 6th were premeditated, we won't be talking about whether the police let them in anymore but whether Republicans in Congress invited the attack.
With all due respect to the effort of putting together this report some loose threads bother me.
For one placing President Trump at the center of any sophisticated planning as insidious as the coup attempt is a giant amplification of his ability to plan anything in advance. Trump is a reactor person who like most entertainers has learned to replace planned execution with adroit adjustment.
Besides the mob appears to have had a bunch of evil goals like lynching Pence but no clear plans for any action other than invading the Capitol. Once inside the Lynch Group ran all over the place screaming but with no clear plan.
The speculation of the rules of procedure for the National Guard does not follow the description of what occurred with he National Guard. The DC Guard had already been activated but were assigned to traffic duty until the fumblers ordered them to the Capitol in late Afternoon.
But the role of the DOD and HLS is apparently what occurs when inexperienced and not especially qualified Presidential Loyalists are handling the reins. It took nearly three hours for the DC Mayor to even get a response for her noon request for more troops.
A small contingent of National Guard was authorized to replace DC cops directing traffic on Jan.6, to free up the police for other needs. That is all. When Capitol Police and terrified law-makers tried to get serious back-up from the Guard during the attack, there were delays. Trump refused to take their calls, he was too busy watching the riot on TV and enjoying it. He never did authorize the call-up. Governor Larry Hogan has said publicly that he wanted to send the Maryland Guard, and it took 2 hours before he got any kind of approval from the Dept of Defense. I heard on NPR that Capitol Police Chief Sund said - and 5 other people on the call backed him up to reporters - that when he spoke to the relevant defense dept official in charge of deploying the Guard, the man started talking about how the optics would not be good. The DC police official on the call then said, "Are you denying an emergency request for help?" The reply was "no, but there needs to be planning, and we have to consider the optics" - in other words, delay, even after the attackers were inside the Capitol.
Put all this delay together with the installation of more Trump loyalists into multiple defense dept positions during these recent months after election, and the refusal of the defense dept to allow Biden transition staff full access to the defense dept. It raises some questions.
Not only is the insurrection timeline revealing shocking details, but the spin doctors are busy at work trying to reframe the attack on the Capitol - an insurrection - as a First Amendment protest!
Hi Lena, thank you so much for this news. I for one refuse to read articles that are about disinformation. Even refused to read DT’s words or listen to him speak. DT is very much like Hitler in the sense that he wants all the attention and wants to use up all the oxygen in the room. He is a cult leader, and his sycophants and spin doctors are serving his interests, not our interests not the country’s interests. I never listened to McEnany, not once. I prefer to focus on what’s really happening and what really matters, not the people who are trying to divert my attention to their lies and bullshit.
Leaders know that framing and reframing are tools to be deployed. This is a common and effective tactic to regroup and gain traction to motivate action.
I agree that DT does not have the competency to be a direct part of the planning. However, it does not seem a coincidence that DT, DTjr, Guilliani and other speakers at the rally talked about fighting and combat. They were following the social media about the plans for the insurgency and may also have been briefed by the FBI. They knew what they were egging on.
Right. When DT tweeted to come to DC on Jan.6, "will be WILD", he knew what was afoot. In addition, it was all based on his repeated lies about the election having been stolen from him.
It fits a normal estimation of the organizational competencies and capacities of Trump and his Orcs......chaos yes! Determined, structured and incisive action most definitly not. Trump would be "in the loup" but he is a "man of words and thin air" and always needs others to assume the mantle of action.....badly as is normal for essentially leaderless mobs.
Facilitated is probably most accurate, but that is leading it. Action and inaction. the placement of sympathizers within the organizational structure at the key points.
Interesting that we haven't heard or very little from Wray, nor the Intel heads. I think the NSA and FBI went to Barr to inform of the plot, and instead of taking action, he resigned, cowardly.
Think about succession that day. All 3 of succession at the same place. Pompeo would have become VP if Pence, Pelosi, and President pro temp of Senate are killed BUT also, if they are hostages, then Barr would sign off making Pompeo the VP. Pompeo orders election fraud/ recount/refuse Electoral votes and declares DT winner.
Yeah, I'm with you Cynthia. Too bad I'm not savvy enough to have a 2nd profile here on HCR's Substack pages. I would name this person something like "Completely Stable Genius."
"Charge of the Light Brigade", Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1854) creatively rewriting another imperial folly. The following lines were " Into the valley of death rode the 600" .
Wednesday, Jan. 6: Some Republicans got a wake up call about trump’s lethality.
Friday, Jan. 8: “Loyalists to President Donald Trump were re-elected Friday to lead the Republican Party for the next two years, ensuring the outgoing president’s grip on the GOP even as his presidency comes to a chaotic end.”
Something just came to me upon reading your comment that describes the trumpian republicans perfectly for me. "Lusty Lickspittles." Sounds like something found in an old English slang dictionary.
Substack needs to have a means of clicking on one person so you can find all their comments. It would help us find our own comments in this avalanche, this snow storm, sometimes continuing a particular thread is impossible because you can’t find your own post
Yesterday in a comment, or perhaps it was earlier than yesterday, TC in LA posted and used the word “spalpeen” for DT’s children. It came across as an insult, but of course if you’re talking about these people you have to find a dirty word to describe them, they are so unclean
Yes. spalpeen: a poor Irish migratory farm worker, often viewed as a rascal or mischievous and cunning person, a good-for-nothing person, late 18th Century -
It's likely he won't resign. It's not in his mental makeup to do so. Even if given the reasoning that resigning can get him pardoned by Pence, as he has previously shown, he might not do it to his own detriment. Again, it's because his mental illness doesn't allow him to.
TCinLA, You say Lucian Truscott is a friend of yours. I looked at some of his recent substack posts and see information that I have glimpsed other places but he provides more thoroughly. I'd like to see his credentials as I'm inclined to believe him but know that we have to be very careful about verifying information that we read. I'm not discrediting him in the least - just wanting to know where he gets his information.
I just subscribed to his Substack page. You can ask him yourself where he gets his info, he just emailed me privately when I posted Comments under his latest article. I like him. He invited the Hemings family into the Jefferson clan. That takes moral fiber. He despises Trump, I can tell.
Aaahh. Now I see why the name sounds familiar. His grandfather ran the U.S. 5th Army in Italy, so that's one place I've seen the name, and he is responsible for bringing the Hemings family into the Jefferson family fold, since the Truscotts are associated with the Jeffersons. I have tremendous respect for this man.
Lucian Truscott would be related to the Hemings family as well. Jefferson's first wife (maiden name Randolph) had a father or grandfather (sea captain) who had fathered Sally Heming's mother. So Sally and Jefferson's first wife were related by this man. One historian suspects that Sally may have reminded Jefferson of his first wife....hence the attraction. Sally was summoned to Paris to be servant to Jefferson's daughter when He was ambassador to France. There are records Jefferson kept, for example, of the fabric that was purchased to be made into stylish dresses for Sally and it's believe she too was educated along with Jefferson's daughter. I think Jefferson and Sally were exclusive to each other but dna may prove that to be incorrect :)
[this information gleaned from memory after reading The Hemingses of Monticello
TC, just a personal note from me to you, I want to thank you so much for being a part of this discussion. Your input is so valuable to me. For both personal reasons and reasons of principle, I refuse to join FB and Twitter, so all my news comes from generally available sources and my 2 Substack subscriptions, Heather and Greg Olear. Since Greg has a small following, although imo based on the quality it should be comparable to HCR, I spend all my social commentary time here.
I live on the outer banks of NC. This is Trump land. Yesterday I'm looking for NPR on the radio. I don't normally listen to radio so I don't know where it is. Scanning around I find a station that I think is it because of the tone and the cadence. After listening for a minute it is obvious that I have found, Fox radio. I knew it existed of course but not really. The commentator is saying that the events in the capitol were conducted "by well meaning citizens who were going in to listen to the proceedings. There were some hooligans with them yes but the intent was to listen and hold lawmakers accountable." Literally this is what they said to the Trumpers, in Trump land.
I agree with what is being said by all of you that it is ultimately about the money. Mcconnell's about face is just plain embarrassing. That he can be that bald faced, two faced, illegitimate is stunning. And, it is all good that the Republicans actions within the attack are exposed but I see how this is going to reported out by Fox. And, Fox isn't even the worst is it? The money has bought this. It has bought elected officials too but this constant brain washing of the populace is its real investment. Work like Heather's doesn't ever come near these folks. They don't evaluate what they are hearing or if they do they have several sources of similar disinformation.
I have friends I'm afraid to talk to because they are Foxers and I don't want to get into a fight. They are not stupid people and function otherwise normally in life but have consumed this disinformation for so long that the layers of it in their belief systems are too deep to wade through in anything less than weeks. There is no test for truth in our system. Any Rush Limbaugh can start up and gain a following calling it news regardless of content.
Do we need to draw some kind of a line between what gets to be called News and what is free-speech protected entertainment?
Recently I have been reading some stuff you all may not agree with or be exposed to much having to do with the basis of how people live. There are two widely separated groups it turns out that resonate with this problem. Those that like black and white talk, like structure, like authority (taking it and giving it) and don't like complicated explanations or things that go on past a couple of sentences. They like tweets. And those that read further, figure things out on their own, seek to understand causation and are willing to be unsure if not enough is known. I'm simplifying a complex subject but Yep this is a description of Young souls and Mature souls of which we have a nearly equal number in our population. The understanding that we need to accept is that Young souls will not and cannot be expected to change their basic mode of operation. I also have family that live in and around Boston. So I experience the mindset of that area as well. These two could not be more different. Both are intelligent. Both are capable in the living of their lives but you cannot talk to both groups the same way and be understood.
Somehow Democrats are going to have to come up with a way to talk to my neighbors down here and come up with a way to change the dynamic of Fox news (and the others i'm just using them as the flagship example). As a physician I had to learn to talk to people differently. I had to assess the person in front of me and figure out how to make them understand. Not all doctors can do this. Democrats need to not just talk to them selves and they need to not bring New England rhetoric to NC. And, it is going to be a long haul because the hole is deep.
If this doesn't happen, and or if the Republican party doesn't reform its news, (which would mean that the money behind it changes agenda, somehow, I'm not expecting) then the best we can hope for is the pendulum swing. My friends in Boston, some of them, think this is the best we can hope for, that Biden will pull the country this way enough so that when it swings again there? What? That political philosophy or goal just doesn't track for me. Someone needs to step back far enough to find a path forward not just side to side. Personally, I hate tweets, that's how out of step I am. Birds tweet, Danger Danger, Good Food, Good Food. They aren't having a conversation. Ah well.
Those are very good points. From some of the commenters here, I know education and the restoration of the Fairness Doctrine are a couple of ideas to address this. Hopefully the FD, if restored, could be applied to social media. The dumbing down and the brainwashing from sources like Fox (etc) are hugely influential. Then getting to the roots of where and why QAnon and other such groups come from and flourish. And then there are the evangelical Christian groups that teach crusade-like movements and that yearn for a return to a Theocracy. And then there is the 2nd Amendment “righters” in America who believe that they have a right to have automatic rifles and as many of them as they can get, and to be able to carry them wherever they want. This USA sense of individual rights is a thread of this problem. Many parts to this crisis that we are in at the present moment which are all coalescing and being brought to light.
I get it. It is disturbing that we are unable to talk to each other. That Boston is trying to communicate with NC. That Detroit is trying to convince Topeka, Kansas. Once, it seems, we all spoke a common language about freedom and responsibility, but we have lost the words that have linked our common destiny. Unfortunately these shared views have been hijacked and exacerbated by dogmatic ideologues, charlatans, and the purposeful overturning of the Fairness Doctrine. Without "fairness" and truth, I fear we are on a road to nowhere.
Jan it's a lovely vision that once we were all unified, but even during WW2 there were US Nazi sympathizers who tried to eff up what the FDR administration was doing. Racism and the oppression of women, LGBTQ people, and BIPOC are watchwords in US history. There has never really been unity, but there has been suppression of ideas that were not in the "mainstream"--which includes things like equality, humanism, and tolerance. What I think is different now is that the insurrectionists are trying to hold back the tide of "new normality" that is actively seeking an end to oppression, intolerance, and violence against non-white, non-male, non-cis people. So they are out of the mainstream. But they have old white people in Congress to enable and support them.
Totally agree. There have always been strong differences of opinion in America. And FDR has never been forgiven by some. But I think there was a foundation supporting shared beliefs. I think this is also what frighters HCR. We may have lost our common agreement, even if it was that "democracy is good", even if it was believed only "some days." I think our common beliefs held the country together through major disagreements and violent abruptions. Personally, I think the election of Obama led many people to question the "new normal" you are addressing. And then we come back to HCR book, "How the South Won the Civil War." Though we have had disagreements and upheaval but still found common beliefs, we are in a new era that we must recover from if we are to remain a democracy.
Plausible deniability is the ability of people, typically senior officials in a formal or informal chain of command, to deny knowledge of or responsibility for any damnable actions committed by others in an organizational hierarchy because of a lack or absence of evidence that can confirm their participation, even if they were personally involved in or at least willfully ignorant of the actions. If illegal or otherwise-disreputable and unpopular activities become public, high-ranking officials may deny any awareness of such acts to insulate themselves and shift the blame onto the agents who carried out the acts, as they are confident that their doubters will be unable to prove otherwise. The lack of evidence to the contrary ostensibly makes the denial plausible (credible), but sometimes, it makes the denial only unactionable.
The term typically implies forethought, such as intentionally setting up the conditions for the plausible avoidance of responsibility for one's future actions or knowledge. In some organizations, legal doctrines such as command responsibility exist to hold major parties responsible for the actions of subordinates who are involved in heinous acts and nullify any legal protection that their denial of involvement would carry.
In politics and espionage, deniability refers to the ability of a powerful player or intelligence agency to pass the buck and to avoid blowback by secretly arranging for an action to be taken on its behalf by a third party that is ostensibly unconnected with the major player. In political campaigns, plausible deniability enables candidates to stay clean and denounce third-party advertisements that use unethical approaches or potentially-libelous innuendo.
Although plausible deniability has existed throughout history, the term was coined by the CIA in the early 1960s to describe the withholding of information from senior officials to protect them from repercussions if illegal or unpopular activities became public knowledge
Ted, your analysis of plausible deniability is spot on. And it does require foresight, planning, and coordination. For much of the speech of public figures and media "commentators" the evasions are much simpler. Do you remember (over a decade ago) when Fox talking heads all started to preface various fact-free screeds with "People say..." creating a specious sense that they were just reporting. There's a straight line to members of Congress saying "We have to violate the Constitution because there are lots of allegations...." when (of course) they were the ones spreading the allegations. Long before he became president, Trump was expert at saying "Could it be [whatever]? I don't know, but it looks/sounds like...." "People are angry. And they should be, because [pick a lie]..." allows the speaker to wriggle out of responsibility for broadcasting the lie. And we all know the power of the the familiarity effect and group support: if you hear something often enough, you are more likely to accept it as true, especially if lots of different people--especially people in your personal or mediated social circle--are repeating the same things.
It was perfect. "Perfect" like his phone call with Volodomir Zelensky. This is just a continuation of the big lie that has been swallowed hook line and sinker by people who should know better. tRump has only been perfect at stealing our Republic from us. And he has actually done a poor job at that.
Well said, Patrick. I lived in SC for 20+ years and understand very well what you describe and know it to be true. I moved back to my home town in MA approx. 10 years ago but have maintained close friendships from SC via social media since. I now have friends that, like you, I am afraid to have conversations with. And I completely agree with your assessment that we need to step back far enough to see the bigger picture and find a true path forward out of this mess, otherwise when the pendulum swings again it could swing violently.
I agree that Democrats need to come up with some strategies to counteract Fox and other right learning information sources. Certainly Fox is all about $$$. It would be wonderful if some of their sponsors would pull away from them. I often listen to Tom Hartman, a progressive radio commentator. He has talked up this issue of progressive radio stations vs. conservative radio stations in rural “red” areas. Basically—there are no progressive, liberal leaning radio stations. From your post-it seems NPR was hard to find. I don’t know know what the ultimate strategy should be...but I do believe in less social media and more humane “listening” to each other (which appears you are doing). I heard there is a group-Braver Angels” trying to get people to listen to each other. Thank you for your post.
I attended a Braver Angels zoom and was impressed at their intentions of talking with people with different views. It is a long hard process. They went on retreats for a weekend or some time period (pre-COVID). I think, what I am struck with is that this is not just different ideas and perspectives in what we are dealing with. We are dealing with people who do not even understand that their ideology does not fit within a democratic republic framework. They are attracted to an authoritarian "daddy" and trust him to make all the decisions and they clap. They do not listen nor think how this impacts the whole of the country. I stayed silent the entire time and at the end they suddenly noticed me and wanted to know what I thought. I told them the truth and that I do not believe that supporting an authoritarian leader who is narcissistic, rude, cruel, racist and lies through his teeth can be a leader. They loved my honesty and wanted me back. Why, i don't want to spend time with people who follow FOX propaganda. I don't even have a desire to listen to people who think that is real. They have written me multiple times asking me to come back. I have to say, it makes me really uncomfortable. I know they are good people, but this is about right and wrong thinking and ideology. From the first rally and speech I heard DJT conduct, I felt he was a fascist and did not want anything to do with him. While I applaud what they are trying to do, the beliefs of Trumplicans is in direct opposition to our democratic principles.
I may see it all through a glass darkly, but the stakes are much higher than just benign personal choices for a religion vs pro-choice stances...
I love that that term is welcomed by the gardeners here!!
Most of my life has been devoted to helping "deep gardening" of young people's minds and souls, educationally and therapeutically, to have better lives in order to create a better world. When this crass, authoritarian "regime" entered our ensconced itself fully, I admittedly experiences a wee bit of what depression must feel like as my idealism was crushed by this constant drama machine of lies and deception. My entire life's work seemed to have been wasted in one fell swoop by this corral of "Lusty Lickspittles" who suddenly became role models for our children and our vulnerable, misled masses. I spent a short time disgusted and nauseated and then some deep within rose up and said, c'mon, time to get to work. And HOPE arose and I was off to the races (protests, writing calling, getting people to step up and vote).
Are we not amazing creatures? That something deep within can just rise up from some well within, when you think you are done and can not do another thing, and it says, I don't think so! Get your boots on—life needs your voice and energy. We ain't done with you yet! So here we are, finding out what Life wants from us, and it is much better than what we have witnessed for five years.
This morning a friend sent me "Gratitude: The Short Film by Louie Schwartzberg" which is really worth a watch. I want to wake up every day with such gratitude for Life. I hope it inspires you in how precious Life is despite all this Shakespearean drama we have been thrust into for five plus years. Take a little break from it all and enjoy!
I am reminded of Colin Woodard's book, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America. The forces of our conflicting ideals had their roots in our beginnings.
I agree - also hate tweets - why is it necessary to encapsulate your entire thought into 144? words? Seriously. Are people so completely time constrained that speaking face to face or even on the phone is too much for them? Frankly, I believe most just love the drama and want THEIR words "out there". They want to feel important. I apologize if I've hurt anyone's feelings here - maybe its my age, but I'm sick of hearing so many twits that really dont have anything important to say. AND that does not apply to those of us here.
A tactic of the Demagogue is us simple answers to complex problems.
A tactic of the Demagogue is appeal to emotion not rational thought. The message is the arousal of emotion. Shorter messages never ask or any reflection of idea not audit of a plan.
Shorter messages do both and at the speed of light.
Yes, and when I was in sales years ago, it was always helpful if I was able to figure out who I was talking to. The client (engineer) who wanted details of the product or the (millwright) more or fewer product advantages. same with any of us I guess if we are trying to ‘sell’ something. The Frameworks Institute is worth looking into, I believe.
The framing and language of values are important. George Lakoff has written about what he calls the Conservative Moral Hierarchy: God above Man, Man above Nature, The Disciplined (Strong) above the Undisciplined (Weak), The Rich above the Poor, Employers above Employees, Adults above Children, Western culture above other cultures, America above other countries, Men above Women, Whites above Nonwhites, Christians above non-Christians, Straights above Gays. This article lays out some of the concepts. https://georgelakoff.com/2017/07/01/two-questions-about-trump-and-republicans-that-stump-progressives/
Agree, agree, agree! But those who need to be made to understand do not react to anything longer than 150 words. It's not an attention deficit; they just don't listen when ideas get a bit complicated. They must be reached with brevity.
Yup. They cheered as the Crusaders passed through town on the way to free Jerusalem in the 14th Century, they lined up at the Coluseum to buy tickets to see whomever was being thrown to the lions back in the Roman Empire's heyday, they sent their sons off to fight the government in order to preserve slavery right here. There must always be many more of us than of them if democracy is to survive. But they won't go away.
Fair enough. As a teacher, I had to work with the different ways my students' brains operated. What do you think of the senate election results in Georgia?
Chiming is as a Georgian here...I desperately WANT to believe that the Senate victories were not flukes and are part of a broader evolution of attitudes here. If Georgia isn't a solidly "blue" state, then maybe it can be resolutely "purple", he asks? Aside from a few solidly "blue" pockets here & there, Republicans still overwhelmingly wield most of the power at the local levels here (my county went 71% to 28% for Trump). Interesting that as the GA legislature resumes its session this week, one of the first things they've said they plan on addressing is election "reform". The implication given was that because of the massive turnout they needed to "reform" the process. What might that mean? Okay, maybe there is some concern for election fraud in the face of a massive turnout and a wish to make absolutely certain it is certifiably fair and legal (which I thought we kinda did...). But, given this state's lengthy and deplorable history of voter suppression, one could also posit that the GOP here is also saying, "Oooooh...WAY too many people voted this time...can't have THAT!...the bigger the turnout the more the certainty we will lose...etc." It's hard to know what it means. What we DID see in Georgia is that if people (young people and people of colour especially) get out and vote, change happens. I pray we can keep this spirit alive here!
Hi Joan, I think the pro democracy results of the runoff elections in Georgia are a prelude to more excellent public servants being elected in other currently red states!
I agree that they feel under threat. Identifying that threat with immigrants, gays, those that 'aren't like them', intellectuals, seems a reasonable reaction to job loss to over seas exportation or just loss to progress. I don't agree with it but I can follow the progression. I think this was then picked up by early folks like Rush Limbaugh who sort of fell into an audience and then some big behind the scenes money (likely the Koch brothers) saw an opportunity. That opportunity was not only to begin the subversion of beliefs of a major group but also the distraction from corporate power and the concentration of wealth. It is so ironic that this worked with a group who's initial fear came from 'fear of not having enough' and the results are that more was taken from them while they still champion the cause.
Choosing Alamo, TX, for his venue today seems a bit like Guilliani and company going to the Four Seasons Landscape Company. Yes, the famous Alamo is in San Antonio and one should note that the Mexicans won that battle.
It also bears remembering that on the 6th, " [Trump] was turned off by what he considered the “low-class” spectacle of people in ragtag costumes rummaging through the Capitol." (This coming from the guy who doesn't own a properly tailored white tie "costume".)
Excuse me for being a little crude, but when I see DTs long pointed red ties, I just see someone advertising his virility like a neon sign advertising and pointing to services available. Yes, he has a costume.
Yes, it is quite disgusting. Perhaps it is more obvious to a woman. All women know what it is like to be undressed and raped by lecherous eyes. Ties should not go below the middle of the waistband or belt.
I'll just call it that for now because I don't quite have the spoons tonight to explain why calling it "mental illness" would be overly simplistic as well as overly broad. He surely is unable to act or think rationally even about what is truly his own self-interest, much less to carry out the duties of the president. And that should be enough. What he is incapacitated by is, to an extent, incidental.
Mental illness, though, has been thoroughly weaponized and used against women, queer folk, survivors of violence and abuse, and anyone who cannot find a secure place in a culture that requires inhumane levels of "productivity" from the vast majority of its members; so much so that to simply say this president is mentally ill would be cast far too wide a net and potentially ensnare many others who are perfectly fit to serve in office despite carrying a pocketful of diagnoses from the DSM-V.
These days, so many have been diagnosed with one "mental disorder" or another that it is not unlike using a politician's history of smoking pot to disqualify them from office. It just does not mean what many have thought for so long that it meant.
But that he is incapacitated in the sense of unable to act rationally seems glaringly obvious to me.
Yes, yes, thank you for your clarification. Mental illness has been weaponized. I had not seen it like that before. Oh, it is so important not to paint with a broad brush and important to use words as carefully as we can. Otherwise we're not only inaccurate, we mislead. I'm not saying this very well, but I think I get your point, and really resonates for me. Thank you.
I don’t believe he is acting from “mental illness” in the way people generally interpret that. I think he knows exactly what he’s doing. He is planning and attempting to overthrow our government in order to retain power.
His mental illness is that he is a full-blown, pathological lying narcissistic megalomaniac. If he did not have that personality disorder, or the megalomania, oh, and then there are his learning disabilities, oh, and his fake hair, fake tan, fake university, fake family foundation, fake friends, he might have been a rather clever chap.
Something like 38 well respected psychiatrists and psychologists warned about this four years ago. I don't know the technical difference, if there is one, between 'mental illness' and the 'personality disorder' (malignant narcissism) that they all agreed Trump has. Maybe it's possible to make a specific differentiation for public understanding?
I don't remember discussions about Jefferey Dahlmer being 'mentally ill', per se, but he was very much described as a psychopath; same with Charles Manson. There are people without conscience who are still very capable of operating in the world, obviously.
I think many of the laws and rules may need to be re-written after this disaster.
Without consulting my DSM-5 I will say that tRump may not have an organic (physiological) cause of his mental illness, like Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia or many cases of Depression have. But he does have a "personality disorder" which is a mental illness. It develops as a coping response to adverse conditions (in his case, perhaps, his sickly neglectful mother when he was only 2; a demanding, nasty father with unrealistic expectations; no sanctions for his own cruelty, dominance and misbehavior, and an undiagnosed reading disorder). Unlike with physiological psychiatric disorders, there are no magic pills to treat personality disorders, especially "malignant" and "narcisistic" ones. The manipulation and verbal abuse and cons make it difficult to treat them. I have seen a few cases that may have an underlying condition like Aspergers Syndrome (NOT to say folks with high end autism are disordered - Thomas Jefferson, Einstein and Bill Gate probably had or have it and excelled). It is usually the maladaptation early on that bends the psyche to grow into this sad mental and emotional state.
Evil has no necessary overlap with brain malfunctions. Let's not confuse the two. Some people who do evil are tall, too. There is no causal relationship.
Diagnosis is a tool for determining treatment. We are better served in defining the problem and how to fix it by describing what is observable, rather than using shortcut labels, as reader Claudia Dayton commented in this thread.
Hubris names it. And when Rand Corp. does its update for the CIA, trump will be the prime example:
"It is undoubtedly also of great significance to McConnell that the actions of Trump and his supporters in Congress have led major donors to close their wallets." That's about the only thing that would turn McConnell's head. "Follow the money" - always!!
Mike Pompeo being shut out made my day! That pompous, arrogant - words fail - Maybe Dr. King was right; maybe the arc of the universe IS bending toward justice, at last. I know it's a long process, and we have become so accustomed to instant gratification in our culture. I guess we needed a reminder that that's not how reality works. I know I needed the reminder. I don't want to be like the toddler-in-chief!! 😎
How nice of the Republican leaders to spin 540 degrees and start putting all the blame for this insurrection on Trump, after actively assisting him in achieving this end for over 4 years. Now that their monster has left their control, they are willing to do and say anything to prevent investigations of elected Republican lawmakers, their staff, and their supporters, both state and federal. Please, throw those lower-class, mostly penniless, duped rioters in prison, just don't look too closely at MY dirty underwear! It's a rather low metaphor, but the entire Republican apparatus needs a through and searching colonoscopy.
They need to put the metal detectors at the entrances to the building, with narrow pathways so they can't walk around, and give police clear instructions that they can arrest any congressmember, including senators too, who try to go around
In the military there are Red Lines which if when violated the MPs will face plant violators including 4 stars. They point guns at those individuals stopping the violators. Louis Gohmert should have been face planted.
until Wednesday, January 20, 2021 at 12:00:00 noon (Washington DC, District of Columbia time)
The white nationalist type groups have been preparing for war for decades. The continuous dog whistles from DT has built their hopes that Civil War II to assert white privilege and patriarchy is near at hand. I think history will put January 6, 2021, as the date it began. The question is will it be contained in the next few weeks or will it become open violent anarchy and "war". With attacks planned for the US Capitol again and ALL the state capitols we need to hope there is a decisive and effective response. I'm feeling more worried than hopeful tonight.
Yes I think we should all be worried and pray a lot— I was heartened by finally hearing the FBI press conference yesterday. Maybe some of the militia guys will realize the consequences of their action could result in 20 years behind bars.
This is scary indeed. Personally I was hoping the Jan. 6 assault on the capitol was more just dumbasses running wild than a wide ranging conspiracy. It now appears there’s much more conspiracy at work. And, that’s bad news.
The failure of this coup was more a matter of luck than anything else. If events had unfolded a little differently we could now be taking about the hostages taken and government officials murdered.
I’m sure lenforcement will be better prepared going forward, but so will the Trump insurrectionists.
The attacks on all our state capitols and DC will be horrid. But I take heart after the horrid, terrifyng attack(s) on our Michigan Capitol, and the foiled plot to kidnap and murder Governor Whitmer. The Michigan State Police, working with the FBI, were able to foil that horrid plot decisively through careful investigative work and cooperation. Now that we know it is the Whitehouse inciting these despicable crimes, and it was the Whitehouse that prevented the Secretary of the Army from federalizing the National Guard, and perhaps Republican legislator(s) who aided and abetted the domestic terrorists who intended to kidnap and kill Pence and Pelosi, I am sure he FBI, State Police and Military (can't depend on "Homeland Security") are working overtime to prevent insurrections by arresting the insurgents now. Civil War II is not over, but the tide has turned against the racist trumpists.
Apparently many of the militia types are backing off, just as Heather predicted, now that they see consequences and a strong response. There are memes circulating on the right that the whole idea of massing in capitols this weekend is a leftist trap, so don't go. (Sorry about lack of link, I read this on apple news last night.)
I sure appreciate all of this information. I wonder what happened to this representative Gohmert who walked around the metal detector? I certainly hope the police stopped him. Why the hell does he think he’s above the law? Law-enforcement definitely should not be messing around now.
At most federal buildings the highest, most senior level people and appointees get a pass on security. So do building security staff entering the building before their shift. Many complaints dismissed in the past, that hopefully will get taken seriously in the future.
This is true at state level also, and in addition to legislators, others with recognized badges are often waved around - I know this because it happened to me when I was visiting. I just "looked official" (irrelevant state ID).
Quite frankly, he may well be above the law in this regard. It depends upon the rules, usually very loose and forgiving, that Congress has imposed on itself. If anyone knows what rule law enforcement used to install the metal detectors, and to whom it applies, I'd love to know.
We have Qanon and other traitors actually serving in Congress now. The security measures need to be taken seriously. Immediately. I am in the military. I know what security is and it should be respected. The events of last week demonstrate that. No exceptions. If he or anyone else tries to walk around again, he should be immediately apprehended.
Update: With her members still fuming that Republicans refused to wear masks while they were sheltering in place, Pelosi announced that anyone not wearing a mask on the House floor will be fined $500 for their first offense and $2,500 for their second.
I’m sorry, but some of these legislators have gotten too big for their britches. If they refuse to go through security and/or wear a mask at all times, they should not be allowed in. Plus be fined. If they are not able to go to the capital floor and perform their duties, their constituents will respond accordingly.
What would happen if they refused to go through airport security? The same thing should happen at the entrance to the capitol. This is serious.
And on a sidenote, I believe all the terrorists charged from last week should be sent to Guantánamo Bay awaiting trial. No bail. And of course be assigned to the no-fly list. As all the terrorists are.
I am very curious to. If the laws are loose and forgiving, they need to be immediately changed to tight and non-forgiving. After last week, it is obvious things need to change. We are no longer safe in our own house.
Great gathering of fact threads that only an Historian could weave into coherence.
The need to get rid of the dark money PAC's is obvious. The Corporations halting the contributions to the GOP does not affect the Corporate Executives ability to organize financial support to their client Legislators.
But I am mostly taken with the incredibly inept handling of the FBI warnings of January 5 that a bunch of administration officials played volley ball with until late Afternoon when the rioters were already getting tired. I think this emphasizes the Trump style of appointing "acting," key officials on the basis of personal loyalty not ability. If the fumbling was to delay action the principals were treasonous.
Nothing inept in ignoring FBI warnings - the administration purposely ignored them so that their plan to kidnap and perhaps kill Pence & Pelosi was completed. Our Michigan thugs practiced at our Capitol, then answered tRump's call.
Why is no one talking about how much power the corporations have in funding the various political groups through their donations. It is both amazing and frightening how much power the corporate donors have to influence politics and our daily lives.
Many, many of us have been complaining about the Citizens United decision, allowing unlimited, anonymous corporate money into the electoral process, for years now.
Those corporations made this bed, and now, they are scrambling to unmake it, beginning with letting McConnel know they are withdrawing their $$$$$$$$$$$ from any legislator who supports tRump. Don't think for a second he (or they) just grew a conscience. He just did the math. Oligarchy dictates our "democracy."
But this is deliciously blatant right now. We see McConnell only budge when he sees money squeezed from their future coffers. No conscience of the right thing to do for America. Just upset at the money squeeze. !@#$%^ him. I hope he is toast.
Absolutely. The truth has been there all along. As if it were not clear enough before now. There is no doubt it is the corporate money that has captured his attention. This turn has 0% to do with helping the people of this country. He needs the money so that republicans can stay in power to obstruct and shrink the government. Period. If he needs to turn on a dime to keep the money rolling in he will do it. 0 integrity.
It is not enough for Republicans to denounce the violence which took place in our Capitol building last Wednesday. Despite this, some are still heard questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election and taking pride in what they consider some positive aspects of the Trump administration. Saying “enough is enough” as Lindsey Graham has done is not enough. What these people must get through their heads, and I include Florida’s two Senators, its governor and most of its Representatives in the House, is that they were the ‘enablers’ who made it possible for Donald Trump’s madness to besmirch American democracy and all for which it stands. No matter how deeply they are appalled by Wednesday’s violence, they must share in the responsibility for it. Their “enabling,” in exchange for the support of the far right, made it possible. Shame on them. The beginning of their redemption will be the impeachment vote in the House, but without a prompt confimation of that in the Senate, including the votes of the "enablers" like Mitch McConnell, Republicans are just full of hot air.
I guess I have reached a point where I listen to a variety of podcasts, read the news letter and a portion of the responses, listen to the evening news from at least two sources (before my dear wife threatens justifiable homicide) and then resolve to stay calm. Wait for the days to pass, and pray for my fellow citizens that violence does not take place.
This morning my skepticism in the motivations of Liz Cheney and Mitch McConnell came to the fore. Cheney is the daughter of the person who I believe most responsible for the fabricated war in Iraq. And I found her politics to be self-serving and uninformed. Her decision to crush the spirit of her sister for politics, made her irredeemable to me. Like her father. For those with little to do but get through the day, read Jane Mayer’s “Dark Side”.
McConnell has had his head spinning moment since the lights went out in Georgia. He is 77 and out of power. His entire career has been for his personal benefit. His state of Kentucky ranks poorly in all measures of daily life for the majority of its citizens. Yet his personal fortunes have flourished beyond belief. So, what ever his motivation in the last few days I think it most to be self preservation.
Quietly in the past few days I think we see what will be part of the solution to heal our country. It is not without conflicted motives, but I think corporate America, including the Uber wealthy, understand that if we go much further with insanity, they will loose. Bigly. We will all loose. We can’t go on denying truth in the physical world. The pandemic is real and will not be the last. The bottom 75% of families (? 90 %) are working to the point of exhaustion every day, but not seeing any progress as to hopes and dreams, which are meager. The young just coming into adult hood look with disdain at the two generations older, asking “what were (are) you thinking!”. Sadly we do not have an answer.
Whatever personal God you believe in will not rescue us. Hypothetically, if god created matter(Big Bang) and matter eventually created cellular life, and evolution brought us to this space and time, then we better get serious about what is important.
30 years ago I knew a woman who went out once a month with some fellas in Baltimore to practice not just semi automatic but even more lethal fire arms. I was told bazookas. Bazookas! I just thought it was weird thinking of her with her perfectly coiffed and lacquered hair and long pointy nails firing off bazookas in the Virginia woods. Later I learned that she was sure there was going to be a race war someday and she was going to be ready. Then more recently I saw those slick NRA propaganda videos and started getting scared. I’d been living away from the USA for 25 years and hadn’t realized how far along far right wing militias had come.I don’t doubt that they have supporters in Congress. On Jan 6, my fears were verified. My family thought I was an alarmist nut. Maybe a little less so now but I can tell they still aren’t listening and believe that nothing like this could ever happen. I mean the ugly part. I hope they are right but I know they are not. We have allowed way too many weapons into our general society.
We have always had many weapons in our general society. What we also had, now lacking, is a culture of personal responsibility and a moral grounding in “right and wrong”. Yes, guns have been misused throughout our history, but those events were minimal compared to the number of guns out there. My mother survived Hitler during WWII. We were raised with a loaded rifle in the entryway closet and simply told not to touch it. It was never fired except for target practice and I was taught to shoot it at age 9. My brother was 7. Our mother instilled in us a great respect for our Constitution and the Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment.
Agreed. I grew up with three generations of hunting rifles and we all learned early in about guns. But they were hunting rifles. Weapons of the sort that are known as semi automatic or assault weapons in the hands of the wrong people are dangerous and destabilizing
What’s more I wore my NRA badge proudly as a ten year old. My father also taught me that the Civil War was states rights and not slavery. His library was the complete collection of the Cunil War Times and statues of Robert E Lee. I’m grateful to have grasped the truth later in in life.
From the start, I have identified 45 as a totalitarian fascist. It gives me pleasure that, since 6th January, others have begun to see his reckless self-aggrandizement, not to mention his megalomania and push to establish an authoritarian nazi state. That some members of the GOP are beginning to see that now is satisfying, but not enough! Too many are still either blinded by his lies or too interested in their lust for power to be willing to allow for ethical lenses in their vision of what he represents.
Whatever information the FBI has given members of Congress must be detrimental enough to make some Republicans lean towards impeachment.
"Cheney’s statement suggests that part of what is driving the Republican willingness to entertain impeachment is that there will be more coming out about January 6 and Republicans want to dump Trump rather than be associated with him. She wrote: 'Much more will become clear in coming days and weeks, but what we know now is enough. The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President. The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.'"
The sooner this information is made public, the better, but it probably won't do so until after the Biden-Harris inauguration in order to protect intelligence and to capture the seditionists red-handed.
We might never know what documents are, right now, being quietly carried out of the Capitol by complicit Republicans to be burned in Georgetown fireplaces.
My good friend and fellow author, Lucian K. Truscott IV, now has a substack blog. He never puts up stuff - no matter how wild it might sound - that isn't well-sourced.
Here's what he said tonight:
It's being reported that freshman Congresswoman Laura Boebert, the one who tweeted Nancy Pelosi's location during the assault, was photographed leading people on a tour of the Capitol on January 5. The people she was showing around the Capitol were photographed in the Capitol during the insurrection the next day.
Just so you know, members of Congress don't usually take terrorists on reconnaissance tours before they engage in seditious assaults. At least they didn't before Glock-carrying lunatics were elected.
I think this and other facts that will be coming out are why so many more Republican rats are jumping off the Trump train - this wasn't a spontaneous riot gone bad, it was a planned insurrection with people on the inside aiding and abetting it. And McConnell et al are trying to avoid the s***bomb that's exploding in their midst. I think they're 4 years too late for that, at least as far as history is concerned.
I wonder why Congressman Gohmert, who refused to be screened, was not arrested at gunpoint, as other Americans would have been. And the same goes for Congresswoman Boebert, if TCinLA's comment is correct. Insurrectionists and their supporters must be rooted out of Congress and law enforcement throughout the country. With little evidence, we did that to alleged Communists after WW Two. Today we have the evidence and we must act.
Thank you TCinLA. Excellent investigative journalism on the part of your friend. Ears to the ground. Knew there was a fox in the henhouse. It’s all starting to come out. Swear Biden and Harris in at an undisclosed location? What say you? ❤️🤍💙
Good comment and, assuming it to be true, it another sign that this so-far failed insurrection was planned and orchestrated, in part, by elected Republican officials. I do wish that Mr. Truscott would cite his source.
Lucian's been writing on these things for years. He doesn't cite his source for the same reason I don't name my friend who I describe here as "having spent his military career adjacent to or in the top levels of the Imperial Bureaucracy." It's also the same reason why investigative journalists never reveal sources. I can tell you that in all the time I have known Lucian, he's not been wrong.
are you saying that you prefer NOT to post a link to your friend's Substack? and that I should not either?
I don’t get this? What did I miss?
TCinLA has not answered my question. Someone wanted a link to his friend's article that I started to post, when I saw his comment above about sources.
I don't have an answer yet, though the writer is easy to find.
I dont think TCinLA minds if you post the link, I think TC said Lucian doesn’t name his sources. Does that make sense?
It's well within the standards of ethical journalism to protect one's sources if their lives or livelihoods would be jeopardized by revealing their identities. The difference between "an anonymous source close to the White House reports.." (something I remember from numerous Watergate stories) and "Some say..." (which I can only hear in Bill O'Reilly's voice but Mx. Some may well be Fox News' most prolific source) is significant, and wider than it may look at first.
As I read this elsewhere--same info without LB being named--it sounds accurate.
Ten members of Congress have today requested the Sergeant at Arms of both House and Senate to investigate Republican members who conducted "tours for constituents" before the attack, and effort is being organized to expel those who aided and abetted treason.
This is now in mainstream media, too.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/12/mikie-sherrill-capitol-hill-attack-458655
Inside job. They “cased the joint” with her help. Holy smokes!
I’ll remember Laura Boebart’s name— is she the Q anon rep?
Boebert is associated with "Q". She doesn't come out and claim she necessarily follows Q and is attached to them like Marjorie Green, but there are tons of QAnon folks she represents on the Western Slope of Colorado. No doubt they financially supported her campaign to get elected, and may well still be supporting her for the causes. She is also associated with other white supremacist groups. She's a pretty face put out in front - but she's in way over her head.
I guess I’m glad I don’t live on the western slope of colorado
I'm disgusted she was elected as our rep for the Western Slope. Unfortunately she was a "sexier" version than the democratic nominee for the last election (Diane Mitsch Bush - who could intelligently talk policy and was very well-versed in government issues both state and federal). Since moving back to the Western Slope I have been horrified to find out there is so much support for QAnon and other white supremacy hate groups and their ideals. So, it's time for us to evaluate WHY these people's beliefs are where they are - listen to what they want and find a way to address issues in a logical way. (much easier said than done) There are reasons why they have fallen under these extreme groups. No worse than a cult or even an inner city gang.
I have a dear friend for over 40 years who fell under Trump’s spell. I have some very successful neighbors who posted Trump signs in their windows. I think many of these people had a belief that Trump would be in their economic interest tax wise etc and they chose to close their ears to his vulgar style and his lies. I always saw him as a thug who was only out for himself with never an interest or an hour of public service in his life. He has developed a taste for power though and I’ve heard a rumor that his supporters are having their own inauguration. Watching congress on msnbc and just heard your rep from Colorado give a fiery speech.
We have such a warped sense of what leadership is in this country.
I have been wondering about the list art of persuasion. Our leaders don’t lead, they pander to what people want to hear. Persuade us to reach higher, to cooperate, to have forebearance. To be kind and decent.
Some insight about how she won here: https://coloradosun.com/2020/11/04/lauren-boebert-how-she-won-colorado/
Thank you— the belief shin Q is beyond the pale— but obviously when the president endorses it people buy in
Waaayyyy over her head. I really hope she won’t last. Of course, if she’s expelled or just quits (“You mean, I have to work and follow rules?!?”), Repubs will probably just put Scott Tipton back in her seat, but at least he wasn’t quite as crazy and embarrassing as Boebert.
I think you may be thinking of Marjorie Green, Boebart is a real nutjob, and I have no doubt she’ll get her walking papers soon.
No, I'm thinking about Boebert. But, for sure, Marjorie Green is exactly as you describe her to be. Two plus how many have been elected to Congress? That spells big trouble for our future.
They terrify me. At least the skeletons are tumbling out of her closet so I believe her future is behind her. Marjorie may be more difficult to erase.
She really is despicable.
Me too... what a smart-ass little punk. I thought things couldn’t be worse, then I thought ‘Matt Gaetz’! Argh
Get her bed ready in Buena Vista women’s prison.
Petitions being circulated all over the State to pressure Congress to expel her.
That’s fabulous! All digits creossed!
Yes she’s Q Anon, but you were probably thinking of the one from Florida. This one only made it to the news since January 6. It’s Lauren Boebert btw. She’s a freshman from Colorado
"Lauren" Boebert. I think she is a "Q." Have not fact checked the "Q" aspect of her though.
If she’s not, she pretends to be to win popular support in Colorado.
One of them.
Buh bye Boebert, next seat will be in a prison cell, congrats on your 20 year term!
Zowie.
Somebody may have posted this... Snopes rated photo of Boebert as "miscaptioned." That was extremist tour in December in Colorado. I'm sure there's enough stuff on her still.
This happened in Idaho, Washington and Oregon last week too. Just like terrorist surveying NYC before 911. They are more prepared than we think possible.
That is part of what I think is yet to come out in revelations about this attempted putsch.
Oh yes, she’s got a few things that she was arrested for, and her husband was busted for indecent exposure a number of years ago. Nothing major, but they weren’t outstanding citizens in their community. My best friend lives in Colorado, and she was very controversial...
She owns a bar in Rifle, CO THEY ENCOURAGE patrons to open carry.
My buddy from college is from Rifle. He is an attorney now in Denver. Says she is a right wing nut.
All the staff at her restaurant open carry, as well.
WHAT?!
This also what Ammon Bundy did at the Idaho state capitol last week saying on public forums, “ to get acquainted with the building”
Over the past five years, every bad thing I have come across has turned out to be true. I really wish I could say this isn't true, but damn.... And again, as I said elsewhere, my friend Lucian Truscott is well-sourced (and this fits very closely to things HRC has said in tonight's post):
I got a call tonight from a friend with good connections in the intelligence community. He says McConnell learned something over the last 24 hours that really got his attention and caused him to realize that the Republican Party is in danger of going down if they don’t jettison Trump right now and do as much to distance themselves from him as they are able.
Apparently, the briefing given to members of Congress had some details about the attack on the Capitol that were “chilling and horrific” according to one member who received the briefing. The Wednesday attack on the Capitol, and the plans insurrectionists are making for Inauguration day were described as being made by “an organized group that has a plan.” Members of the Oversight Committee who were present for a second intelligence briefing today issued a statement concluding: “Based on today's briefing, we have grave concerns about ongoing and violent threats to our democracy. It is clear that more must be done to preempt, penetrate, and prevent deadly and seditious assaults by domestic violent extremists in the days ahead."
There are rumblings in the intelligence community that planning for the insurrection on Wednesday reached into the White House to aides of Trump who were reporting to the president. Trump’s Tweet on December 19 apparently tipped off the intelligence community that Trump was in on the planning for the insurrection: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump tweeted in just one of several of his tweets promoting the day. “Be there, will be wild!”
It will be wild. He knew. He fucking knew.
There are other rumblings in the intelligence community that the Department of Defense was told by the White House to “stand down” on January 6, and not to authorize federalizing the Washington D.C. National Guard. That is apparently why it took so long for Democratic leaders to get through to the Secretary of the Army. In the end, the Secretary of the Army and Vice President Pence got together and made the decision to call out the D.C. National Guard. Pence himself was inside the Capitol building while it was under assault and had an up-close and personal stake in things. It’s worth noting that the president is the only official with the authority to federalize the National Guard. This means that Pence and the Secretary of the Army went around Trump in order to call out the Guard and rid the Capitol of the insurrectionists. Technically, they broke the law.
McConnell has heard enough that he has concluded Trump was either fully informed about what was going to happen on Wednesday, or he was in on the planning himself. When it comes out, and it’s expected that it will come out, if the Republican Party is still standing with Trump, they won’t be able to survive it. So McConnell is signaling to his fellow lickspittles that it’s time to throw Trump under the bus and move out of the way. Trump is going down. He will be impeached, and if he doesn’t resign, he will be found guilty by the Senate.
https://luciantruscott.substack.com/
McConnell is saving the Republican Party not democracy. Also factored into his equation is having so many big donors abandoning the Republicans. ... follow the money.
Exactly! I just finished "The American Abyss" an essay in The New York Times. It describes Mitch McConnell as a "Gamer". He is part of the group of Republicans who quoting the essay "Rather than contradict Trump from the beginning, they allowed his electoral fiction to flourish. They had different reasons for doing so. One group of Republicans is concerned above all with gaming the system to maintain power, taking full advantage of constitutional obscurities, gerrymandering and dark money to win elections with a minority of motivated voters. They have no interest in the collapse of the peculiar form of representation that allows their minority party disproportionate control of government.". Yup, that's Mitch in a nutshell.
I read that article. Sobering is an understatement.
No kidding!
Oh this is wickedly hideous. This is damning.
Yes, it was
This article explains much. A worthwhile read.
I was intrigued also by what Snyder called the "breakers".
Yes, that was intriguing
Always follow the money.
My boss when I was a lobbyist just called to say it is over for tRump because big corporations are pulling campaign funds en masse from any legislator siding with tRump. That is why McConnell changed his stripes so quickly and completely, which is proof, as HCR has been telling us, that the USA is more oligarchy than democracy. In this case, corporate manipulation is for the greater good, but they caused the greater bad we continue to live through. Right after the Fairness Doctrine is reinstated, next must come major campaign finance reform. Which means adding judges to the Supreme Court, and bringing Washington DC and Puerto Rico into statehood. We have much work to do during Reconstruction II.
It's ALWAYS about the Money!!! Money is Power!!!The LUST of Money IS the Root of All Evil!!!!
Now that I am old enough and experienced enough to see it, both the love of money and the love of *power* are the root of all evil (in society and in politics, the leadership of society)
I do agree with you. I have first hand experience with people like this. Especially in the work place with leadership and ladder climbers. It has helped me to just really try to pull way back and live a quiet, simple life.
I’ve been thinking about your message ever since it showed up in my mailbox. I think we share something related to what you said about the quiet and simple life. Just FYI I am a loner and a recluse. No one can tell because I’m not lacking in social skills, on the contrary. I spend lots of time by myself, despite my marriage. Inner peace helps clear the mind and allows one to listen to the heart. Really necy in a Type A crazy society like ours.
Have you ever read Susan Cain's work on introverted personality types? She has a great website 'Quiet Revolution' and TedTalks worth watching. Her best seller 'Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking' is really good.
It's been fascinating for me to study people's reactions to the Covid restrictions. I haven't been bothered at all by them. My stress and anxiety has diminished 10-fold not having to go to a workplace full of people -- even though I have a quiet, private office there.
I guess that’s proof of my purity! I don’t have 2 nickels to run together!
Cynthia it’s not the access to money. It’s not being wealthy. It’s the *love* of money and power, the addiction to them, that’s what produces humans like DT and Moscow Mitch. We know DT gets his orders from Moscow. My wife is convinced Mitch does too.
Totally. Lets not forget what republicans have been willing to do and put up with over the last 4-5 years and even longer. The list of disgust is very long even before Trump came along. Now all of a sudden McConnell is ready to impeach? Whatever is going on out of sight from us must be pretty extreme.
Always... his insatiable appetite for power is disturbing.
Absolutely
Little typo there: It's HCR (Heather Cox Richardson) not HRC (Hillary Rodham Clinton): an easy typo but one to beware of in this thread! I am not surprised that Trump was briefed. I'm not surprised that Boebert was complicit (and should be investigated). I am not surprised that Murderous Mitch, who has happily enabled the utter breakdown of Democracy until this.very.minute. has decided that Trumpism and Trumpistas are bad for the Gormless Obstructionist Party because Walmart et al (and more to come apparently) are threatening to pull their money from the chute that goes from the Walton family and other corporate execs straight up the arses of the likes of McConnell, Graham, and Cruz. But if the Republicans actually go through with this, I will be surprised. I am not holding my breath. I also don't trust the Waltons: they are the ultimate capitalist shills who have used their billions to manipulate the US economy, oppress working people, and finance the corruption that keeps them from being accountable for their actions. They won't persevere in "punishing" the coup-plotting "Republicans."
Yes on the Waltons for sure. NYC officially negated all their contracts with trump, $17,000,000 gone (annually). My favorite is Deutsch Bank! His piggy bank is gone.
And Signature Bank, even his PERSOANAL Accounts! haha bye bye DT!
Home Depot just dropped him like a hot potato 🥔!
"His piggy bank is gone." Lovely Cynthia!!
Deutsche Bank, DT's piggy bank as Cynthia says, is formerly the bank of choice for the Hitler Administration and government. See the early chapters of the book Dark Towers for executive summary. Most people don't realize that the numbers tattooed on Jewish incarcerated persons were IBM numbers, the govt. was using computer software to keep track of all those people, and in those days, paper records and paper filing system would have been overloaded by the sheer numbers. Corporations are immoral. At the core, they don't care about anything except profits, no matter what the PR says. Even the PR is meant to protect bsns success, to protect the corporation's ass(ets), because if you send money to anarchist Republican seditionists, it will depress your business overall within the society.
I figured this was planned by Trump— he’s done everything in his power to weaken intelligence and consolidate his own power. He is our home grown version of Hitler.
TC, this makes total sense, all of it, but especially McConnell's "surprising" support for impeachment. Thanks ever so.
Thanks TC - as ever, you hit the nail squarely on its head.
Not me - my friend Mr. Truscott. I'm just the messenger here.
By the way, I just enjoyed the Wikipedia article on Mr. Truscott and you say you are also an author. If you can do so without breaking a desired anonymity, could you recommend a set of works that may or may not include yours?
TCinLA, please tell me you are not attempting anonymity. I got curious last month, went looking for your books and have a couple in my Amazon cart now. I'm no master mind. If I can find you, anyone can.
I would love to read any of your books! Please?
TC Boyle?
Thank you for passing the message.
TC you are not “just the messenger here,” you are my kind of messenger, someone with an unerring ability to ferret out the truth and bring it to the light of day, usually with incisive and wickedly brilliant commentary and languaging as well. With all due respect to Mr. Truscott, you are the person who introduced him to us. Thank you for bringing him into our discussion.
I'm wondering if Senator McConnell's shift in stance has anything to do with news that's starting to trickle out that members of Congress were giving tours of the Capitol the day before the insurrection. If law enforcement can draw a line between sitting representatives and attackers whose actions on the 6th were premeditated, we won't be talking about whether the police let them in anymore but whether Republicans in Congress invited the attack.
https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/12/mikie-sherrill-pro-trump-rioters-got-tour-congress-members/6648386002/
Yes, I believe so... and I think there’s a lot more that happened that we don’t know about yet.
With all due respect to the effort of putting together this report some loose threads bother me.
For one placing President Trump at the center of any sophisticated planning as insidious as the coup attempt is a giant amplification of his ability to plan anything in advance. Trump is a reactor person who like most entertainers has learned to replace planned execution with adroit adjustment.
Besides the mob appears to have had a bunch of evil goals like lynching Pence but no clear plans for any action other than invading the Capitol. Once inside the Lynch Group ran all over the place screaming but with no clear plan.
The speculation of the rules of procedure for the National Guard does not follow the description of what occurred with he National Guard. The DC Guard had already been activated but were assigned to traffic duty until the fumblers ordered them to the Capitol in late Afternoon.
But the role of the DOD and HLS is apparently what occurs when inexperienced and not especially qualified Presidential Loyalists are handling the reins. It took nearly three hours for the DC Mayor to even get a response for her noon request for more troops.
A small contingent of National Guard was authorized to replace DC cops directing traffic on Jan.6, to free up the police for other needs. That is all. When Capitol Police and terrified law-makers tried to get serious back-up from the Guard during the attack, there were delays. Trump refused to take their calls, he was too busy watching the riot on TV and enjoying it. He never did authorize the call-up. Governor Larry Hogan has said publicly that he wanted to send the Maryland Guard, and it took 2 hours before he got any kind of approval from the Dept of Defense. I heard on NPR that Capitol Police Chief Sund said - and 5 other people on the call backed him up to reporters - that when he spoke to the relevant defense dept official in charge of deploying the Guard, the man started talking about how the optics would not be good. The DC police official on the call then said, "Are you denying an emergency request for help?" The reply was "no, but there needs to be planning, and we have to consider the optics" - in other words, delay, even after the attackers were inside the Capitol.
Put all this delay together with the installation of more Trump loyalists into multiple defense dept positions during these recent months after election, and the refusal of the defense dept to allow Biden transition staff full access to the defense dept. It raises some questions.
Not only is the insurrection timeline revealing shocking details, but the spin doctors are busy at work trying to reframe the attack on the Capitol - an insurrection - as a First Amendment protest!
https://billmoyers.com/story/insurrection-timeline-first-the-coup-and-then-the-cover-up/
Hi Lena, thank you so much for this news. I for one refuse to read articles that are about disinformation. Even refused to read DT’s words or listen to him speak. DT is very much like Hitler in the sense that he wants all the attention and wants to use up all the oxygen in the room. He is a cult leader, and his sycophants and spin doctors are serving his interests, not our interests not the country’s interests. I never listened to McEnany, not once. I prefer to focus on what’s really happening and what really matters, not the people who are trying to divert my attention to their lies and bullshit.
Leaders know that framing and reframing are tools to be deployed. This is a common and effective tactic to regroup and gain traction to motivate action.
Thanks for this link.
I agree that DT does not have the competency to be a direct part of the planning. However, it does not seem a coincidence that DT, DTjr, Guilliani and other speakers at the rally talked about fighting and combat. They were following the social media about the plans for the insurgency and may also have been briefed by the FBI. They knew what they were egging on.
Right. When DT tweeted to come to DC on Jan.6, "will be WILD", he knew what was afoot. In addition, it was all based on his repeated lies about the election having been stolen from him.
It fits a normal estimation of the organizational competencies and capacities of Trump and his Orcs......chaos yes! Determined, structured and incisive action most definitly not. Trump would be "in the loup" but he is a "man of words and thin air" and always needs others to assume the mantle of action.....badly as is normal for essentially leaderless mobs.
But he’d love for us to think that he helped orchestrate this.
Facilitated is probably most accurate, but that is leading it. Action and inaction. the placement of sympathizers within the organizational structure at the key points.
Interesting that we haven't heard or very little from Wray, nor the Intel heads. I think the NSA and FBI went to Barr to inform of the plot, and instead of taking action, he resigned, cowardly.
Think about succession that day. All 3 of succession at the same place. Pompeo would have become VP if Pence, Pelosi, and President pro temp of Senate are killed BUT also, if they are hostages, then Barr would sign off making Pompeo the VP. Pompeo orders election fraud/ recount/refuse Electoral votes and declares DT winner.
So here is Completely Stable Genius responding:
"Yes, of course Cynthia, the whole thing was my idea! Everyone knows that."
Yeah, I'm with you Cynthia. Too bad I'm not savvy enough to have a 2nd profile here on HCR's Substack pages. I would name this person something like "Completely Stable Genius."
"Ours is not to reason why, but to do and die" - This was a Nazi slogan.
Language of the 3rd Reich-Viktor Klemperor
"Charge of the Light Brigade", Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1854) creatively rewriting another imperial folly. The following lines were " Into the valley of death rode the 600" .
They didn't come back!
"Do not obey in advance" (Tim Snyder)
This teaches power how much they actually have. Jan 6th has taught DT what he has to leverage.
Wednesday, Jan. 6: Some Republicans got a wake up call about trump’s lethality.
Friday, Jan. 8: “Loyalists to President Donald Trump were re-elected Friday to lead the Republican Party for the next two years, ensuring the outgoing president’s grip on the GOP even as his presidency comes to a chaotic end.”
A split in the party? How does that work?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-08/trump-retains-grip-on-party-as-mcdaniel-re-elected-to-run-rnc
Hey, Ellie. I saw this the other day and thought, pardon the expression, WTF? Thanks for re-posting!
Something just came to me upon reading your comment that describes the trumpian republicans perfectly for me. "Lusty Lickspittles." Sounds like something found in an old English slang dictionary.
Sorry to veer off topic, but "Lusty Lickspittles" sounds like a great drag name!
What was the word that someone used this week referring to trumps kids?! Something like spaleen?
Spalpeen?
Thanks! When I try to find certain comments or back track... even when I try to follow the sub-threads I feel like Lucy in the chocolate factory!
Substack needs to have a means of clicking on one person so you can find all their comments. It would help us find our own comments in this avalanche, this snow storm, sometimes continuing a particular thread is impossible because you can’t find your own post
What did I miss? I dont get it? Spalpeen?
Yesterday in a comment, or perhaps it was earlier than yesterday, TC in LA posted and used the word “spalpeen” for DT’s children. It came across as an insult, but of course if you’re talking about these people you have to find a dirty word to describe them, they are so unclean
And I think it was TC that came up with Drumpfster Fire, if memory serves, I could be wrong
Nice wordsmithing TC! Now combine shit show, inside dumpfster Fires on an insurrection T**P Train!
Yes. spalpeen: a poor Irish migratory farm worker, often viewed as a rascal or mischievous and cunning person, a good-for-nothing person, late 18th Century -
Yes spalpeen. That was TC in LA too.
ur funny!
I think a Linguist will write a book, The Language of the Tr**ps
That linguist will have to consult with TC or use TC as his Managing Editor.
Love it!
Hey, I believe yesterday someone described his kids as ‘spaleen’ or close to that.. does anyone remember that word?
What's the phrase? From your lips to God's ears...
It's likely he won't resign. It's not in his mental makeup to do so. Even if given the reasoning that resigning can get him pardoned by Pence, as he has previously shown, he might not do it to his own detriment. Again, it's because his mental illness doesn't allow him to.
Its broke time. Trial time. Jail Time.
No dictator wants to die broke and alone and in prison. That is why DT is fighting so hard.
Why Republicans do not drop his ass?
Because they are scared now for their LIVES by the extremists DT created!
Thank you for sharing this, TC. Just subscribed.
So did I...
TCinLA, You say Lucian Truscott is a friend of yours. I looked at some of his recent substack posts and see information that I have glimpsed other places but he provides more thoroughly. I'd like to see his credentials as I'm inclined to believe him but know that we have to be very careful about verifying information that we read. I'm not discrediting him in the least - just wanting to know where he gets his information.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian_K._Truscott_IV
I just subscribed to his Substack page. You can ask him yourself where he gets his info, he just emailed me privately when I posted Comments under his latest article. I like him. He invited the Hemings family into the Jefferson clan. That takes moral fiber. He despises Trump, I can tell.
Lucian Truscott IV check him out - screenwriter, fiction writer, journalist - at it for 50+ years
Aaahh. Now I see why the name sounds familiar. His grandfather ran the U.S. 5th Army in Italy, so that's one place I've seen the name, and he is responsible for bringing the Hemings family into the Jefferson family fold, since the Truscotts are associated with the Jeffersons. I have tremendous respect for this man.
Lucian Truscott would be related to the Hemings family as well. Jefferson's first wife (maiden name Randolph) had a father or grandfather (sea captain) who had fathered Sally Heming's mother. So Sally and Jefferson's first wife were related by this man. One historian suspects that Sally may have reminded Jefferson of his first wife....hence the attraction. Sally was summoned to Paris to be servant to Jefferson's daughter when He was ambassador to France. There are records Jefferson kept, for example, of the fabric that was purchased to be made into stylish dresses for Sally and it's believe she too was educated along with Jefferson's daughter. I think Jefferson and Sally were exclusive to each other but dna may prove that to be incorrect :)
[this information gleaned from memory after reading The Hemingses of Monticello
by Annette Gordon-Reed]
TC, just a personal note from me to you, I want to thank you so much for being a part of this discussion. Your input is so valuable to me. For both personal reasons and reasons of principle, I refuse to join FB and Twitter, so all my news comes from generally available sources and my 2 Substack subscriptions, Heather and Greg Olear. Since Greg has a small following, although imo based on the quality it should be comparable to HCR, I spend all my social commentary time here.
. . . and of course I will check out Lucian.
Agree. He totally, 100% f'ing knew.
I live on the outer banks of NC. This is Trump land. Yesterday I'm looking for NPR on the radio. I don't normally listen to radio so I don't know where it is. Scanning around I find a station that I think is it because of the tone and the cadence. After listening for a minute it is obvious that I have found, Fox radio. I knew it existed of course but not really. The commentator is saying that the events in the capitol were conducted "by well meaning citizens who were going in to listen to the proceedings. There were some hooligans with them yes but the intent was to listen and hold lawmakers accountable." Literally this is what they said to the Trumpers, in Trump land.
I agree with what is being said by all of you that it is ultimately about the money. Mcconnell's about face is just plain embarrassing. That he can be that bald faced, two faced, illegitimate is stunning. And, it is all good that the Republicans actions within the attack are exposed but I see how this is going to reported out by Fox. And, Fox isn't even the worst is it? The money has bought this. It has bought elected officials too but this constant brain washing of the populace is its real investment. Work like Heather's doesn't ever come near these folks. They don't evaluate what they are hearing or if they do they have several sources of similar disinformation.
I have friends I'm afraid to talk to because they are Foxers and I don't want to get into a fight. They are not stupid people and function otherwise normally in life but have consumed this disinformation for so long that the layers of it in their belief systems are too deep to wade through in anything less than weeks. There is no test for truth in our system. Any Rush Limbaugh can start up and gain a following calling it news regardless of content.
Do we need to draw some kind of a line between what gets to be called News and what is free-speech protected entertainment?
Recently I have been reading some stuff you all may not agree with or be exposed to much having to do with the basis of how people live. There are two widely separated groups it turns out that resonate with this problem. Those that like black and white talk, like structure, like authority (taking it and giving it) and don't like complicated explanations or things that go on past a couple of sentences. They like tweets. And those that read further, figure things out on their own, seek to understand causation and are willing to be unsure if not enough is known. I'm simplifying a complex subject but Yep this is a description of Young souls and Mature souls of which we have a nearly equal number in our population. The understanding that we need to accept is that Young souls will not and cannot be expected to change their basic mode of operation. I also have family that live in and around Boston. So I experience the mindset of that area as well. These two could not be more different. Both are intelligent. Both are capable in the living of their lives but you cannot talk to both groups the same way and be understood.
Somehow Democrats are going to have to come up with a way to talk to my neighbors down here and come up with a way to change the dynamic of Fox news (and the others i'm just using them as the flagship example). As a physician I had to learn to talk to people differently. I had to assess the person in front of me and figure out how to make them understand. Not all doctors can do this. Democrats need to not just talk to them selves and they need to not bring New England rhetoric to NC. And, it is going to be a long haul because the hole is deep.
If this doesn't happen, and or if the Republican party doesn't reform its news, (which would mean that the money behind it changes agenda, somehow, I'm not expecting) then the best we can hope for is the pendulum swing. My friends in Boston, some of them, think this is the best we can hope for, that Biden will pull the country this way enough so that when it swings again there? What? That political philosophy or goal just doesn't track for me. Someone needs to step back far enough to find a path forward not just side to side. Personally, I hate tweets, that's how out of step I am. Birds tweet, Danger Danger, Good Food, Good Food. They aren't having a conversation. Ah well.
Those are very good points. From some of the commenters here, I know education and the restoration of the Fairness Doctrine are a couple of ideas to address this. Hopefully the FD, if restored, could be applied to social media. The dumbing down and the brainwashing from sources like Fox (etc) are hugely influential. Then getting to the roots of where and why QAnon and other such groups come from and flourish. And then there are the evangelical Christian groups that teach crusade-like movements and that yearn for a return to a Theocracy. And then there is the 2nd Amendment “righters” in America who believe that they have a right to have automatic rifles and as many of them as they can get, and to be able to carry them wherever they want. This USA sense of individual rights is a thread of this problem. Many parts to this crisis that we are in at the present moment which are all coalescing and being brought to light.
I agree with you, Pamsy!
I get it. It is disturbing that we are unable to talk to each other. That Boston is trying to communicate with NC. That Detroit is trying to convince Topeka, Kansas. Once, it seems, we all spoke a common language about freedom and responsibility, but we have lost the words that have linked our common destiny. Unfortunately these shared views have been hijacked and exacerbated by dogmatic ideologues, charlatans, and the purposeful overturning of the Fairness Doctrine. Without "fairness" and truth, I fear we are on a road to nowhere.
Jan it's a lovely vision that once we were all unified, but even during WW2 there were US Nazi sympathizers who tried to eff up what the FDR administration was doing. Racism and the oppression of women, LGBTQ people, and BIPOC are watchwords in US history. There has never really been unity, but there has been suppression of ideas that were not in the "mainstream"--which includes things like equality, humanism, and tolerance. What I think is different now is that the insurrectionists are trying to hold back the tide of "new normality" that is actively seeking an end to oppression, intolerance, and violence against non-white, non-male, non-cis people. So they are out of the mainstream. But they have old white people in Congress to enable and support them.
Yes— I think you have the crux of the problem there. The (hopefully) death rattle of the dying patriarchy.
Totally agree. There have always been strong differences of opinion in America. And FDR has never been forgiven by some. But I think there was a foundation supporting shared beliefs. I think this is also what frighters HCR. We may have lost our common agreement, even if it was that "democracy is good", even if it was believed only "some days." I think our common beliefs held the country together through major disagreements and violent abruptions. Personally, I think the election of Obama led many people to question the "new normal" you are addressing. And then we come back to HCR book, "How the South Won the Civil War." Though we have had disagreements and upheaval but still found common beliefs, we are in a new era that we must recover from if we are to remain a democracy.
The birds actually have a very complex system of communication with the sounds they make. Much smarter than some of those who do other tweeting
Yes, thank you I believe you are correct.
Plausible Deniability
Plausible deniability is the ability of people, typically senior officials in a formal or informal chain of command, to deny knowledge of or responsibility for any damnable actions committed by others in an organizational hierarchy because of a lack or absence of evidence that can confirm their participation, even if they were personally involved in or at least willfully ignorant of the actions. If illegal or otherwise-disreputable and unpopular activities become public, high-ranking officials may deny any awareness of such acts to insulate themselves and shift the blame onto the agents who carried out the acts, as they are confident that their doubters will be unable to prove otherwise. The lack of evidence to the contrary ostensibly makes the denial plausible (credible), but sometimes, it makes the denial only unactionable.
The term typically implies forethought, such as intentionally setting up the conditions for the plausible avoidance of responsibility for one's future actions or knowledge. In some organizations, legal doctrines such as command responsibility exist to hold major parties responsible for the actions of subordinates who are involved in heinous acts and nullify any legal protection that their denial of involvement would carry.
In politics and espionage, deniability refers to the ability of a powerful player or intelligence agency to pass the buck and to avoid blowback by secretly arranging for an action to be taken on its behalf by a third party that is ostensibly unconnected with the major player. In political campaigns, plausible deniability enables candidates to stay clean and denounce third-party advertisements that use unethical approaches or potentially-libelous innuendo.
Although plausible deniability has existed throughout history, the term was coined by the CIA in the early 1960s to describe the withholding of information from senior officials to protect them from repercussions if illegal or unpopular activities became public knowledge
Ted, your analysis of plausible deniability is spot on. And it does require foresight, planning, and coordination. For much of the speech of public figures and media "commentators" the evasions are much simpler. Do you remember (over a decade ago) when Fox talking heads all started to preface various fact-free screeds with "People say..." creating a specious sense that they were just reporting. There's a straight line to members of Congress saying "We have to violate the Constitution because there are lots of allegations...." when (of course) they were the ones spreading the allegations. Long before he became president, Trump was expert at saying "Could it be [whatever]? I don't know, but it looks/sounds like...." "People are angry. And they should be, because [pick a lie]..." allows the speaker to wriggle out of responsibility for broadcasting the lie. And we all know the power of the the familiarity effect and group support: if you hear something often enough, you are more likely to accept it as true, especially if lots of different people--especially people in your personal or mediated social circle--are repeating the same things.
"People have analyzed the speech I gave and it was perfect" -DT yesterday
It was perfect. "Perfect" like his phone call with Volodomir Zelensky. This is just a continuation of the big lie that has been swallowed hook line and sinker by people who should know better. tRump has only been perfect at stealing our Republic from us. And he has actually done a poor job at that.
Well said, Patrick. I lived in SC for 20+ years and understand very well what you describe and know it to be true. I moved back to my home town in MA approx. 10 years ago but have maintained close friendships from SC via social media since. I now have friends that, like you, I am afraid to have conversations with. And I completely agree with your assessment that we need to step back far enough to see the bigger picture and find a true path forward out of this mess, otherwise when the pendulum swings again it could swing violently.
I agree that Democrats need to come up with some strategies to counteract Fox and other right learning information sources. Certainly Fox is all about $$$. It would be wonderful if some of their sponsors would pull away from them. I often listen to Tom Hartman, a progressive radio commentator. He has talked up this issue of progressive radio stations vs. conservative radio stations in rural “red” areas. Basically—there are no progressive, liberal leaning radio stations. From your post-it seems NPR was hard to find. I don’t know know what the ultimate strategy should be...but I do believe in less social media and more humane “listening” to each other (which appears you are doing). I heard there is a group-Braver Angels” trying to get people to listen to each other. Thank you for your post.
I attended a Braver Angels zoom and was impressed at their intentions of talking with people with different views. It is a long hard process. They went on retreats for a weekend or some time period (pre-COVID). I think, what I am struck with is that this is not just different ideas and perspectives in what we are dealing with. We are dealing with people who do not even understand that their ideology does not fit within a democratic republic framework. They are attracted to an authoritarian "daddy" and trust him to make all the decisions and they clap. They do not listen nor think how this impacts the whole of the country. I stayed silent the entire time and at the end they suddenly noticed me and wanted to know what I thought. I told them the truth and that I do not believe that supporting an authoritarian leader who is narcissistic, rude, cruel, racist and lies through his teeth can be a leader. They loved my honesty and wanted me back. Why, i don't want to spend time with people who follow FOX propaganda. I don't even have a desire to listen to people who think that is real. They have written me multiple times asking me to come back. I have to say, it makes me really uncomfortable. I know they are good people, but this is about right and wrong thinking and ideology. From the first rally and speech I heard DJT conduct, I felt he was a fascist and did not want anything to do with him. While I applaud what they are trying to do, the beliefs of Trumplicans is in direct opposition to our democratic principles.
I may see it all through a glass darkly, but the stakes are much higher than just benign personal choices for a religion vs pro-choice stances...
Hat tip for your bravery in doing deep gardening.
I love that that term is welcomed by the gardeners here!!
Most of my life has been devoted to helping "deep gardening" of young people's minds and souls, educationally and therapeutically, to have better lives in order to create a better world. When this crass, authoritarian "regime" entered our ensconced itself fully, I admittedly experiences a wee bit of what depression must feel like as my idealism was crushed by this constant drama machine of lies and deception. My entire life's work seemed to have been wasted in one fell swoop by this corral of "Lusty Lickspittles" who suddenly became role models for our children and our vulnerable, misled masses. I spent a short time disgusted and nauseated and then some deep within rose up and said, c'mon, time to get to work. And HOPE arose and I was off to the races (protests, writing calling, getting people to step up and vote).
Are we not amazing creatures? That something deep within can just rise up from some well within, when you think you are done and can not do another thing, and it says, I don't think so! Get your boots on—life needs your voice and energy. We ain't done with you yet! So here we are, finding out what Life wants from us, and it is much better than what we have witnessed for five years.
This morning a friend sent me "Gratitude: The Short Film by Louie Schwartzberg" which is really worth a watch. I want to wake up every day with such gratitude for Life. I hope it inspires you in how precious Life is despite all this Shakespearean drama we have been thrust into for five plus years. Take a little break from it all and enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpkEvBtyL7M
I believe this is why Shepard Smith is now at CNBC evening news. He is trusted by that audience, so he will bring some, not all back to reality.
I am reminded of Colin Woodard's book, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America. The forces of our conflicting ideals had their roots in our beginnings.
I agree - also hate tweets - why is it necessary to encapsulate your entire thought into 144? words? Seriously. Are people so completely time constrained that speaking face to face or even on the phone is too much for them? Frankly, I believe most just love the drama and want THEIR words "out there". They want to feel important. I apologize if I've hurt anyone's feelings here - maybe its my age, but I'm sick of hearing so many twits that really dont have anything important to say. AND that does not apply to those of us here.
A tactic of the Demagogue is us simple answers to complex problems.
A tactic of the Demagogue is appeal to emotion not rational thought. The message is the arousal of emotion. Shorter messages never ask or any reflection of idea not audit of a plan.
Shorter messages do both and at the speed of light.
All true, Ted!
sorry for the typos! Wish there was an edit! But that is also a point to be made. Speed over reflection.
Yes, and when I was in sales years ago, it was always helpful if I was able to figure out who I was talking to. The client (engineer) who wanted details of the product or the (millwright) more or fewer product advantages. same with any of us I guess if we are trying to ‘sell’ something. The Frameworks Institute is worth looking into, I believe.
Thanks again Heather.
Will check that out!
The framing and language of values are important. George Lakoff has written about what he calls the Conservative Moral Hierarchy: God above Man, Man above Nature, The Disciplined (Strong) above the Undisciplined (Weak), The Rich above the Poor, Employers above Employees, Adults above Children, Western culture above other cultures, America above other countries, Men above Women, Whites above Nonwhites, Christians above non-Christians, Straights above Gays. This article lays out some of the concepts. https://georgelakoff.com/2017/07/01/two-questions-about-trump-and-republicans-that-stump-progressives/
Thanks for posting this link. I’ve been trying to understand the conservative mindset and this shines a bright light on some major concepts.
I should have said that Mr. Lakoff is a progressive trying to explain the conservative mindset.
Ick.
WTF? that sounds totally f'ing nuts? Dang! and its so true...erghhhhhh excuse me why I go throw up! These people make me sick!
Agree, agree, agree! But those who need to be made to understand do not react to anything longer than 150 words. It's not an attention deficit; they just don't listen when ideas get a bit complicated. They must be reached with brevity.
yep. Brainwashed they are.
Yup. They cheered as the Crusaders passed through town on the way to free Jerusalem in the 14th Century, they lined up at the Coluseum to buy tickets to see whomever was being thrown to the lions back in the Roman Empire's heyday, they sent their sons off to fight the government in order to preserve slavery right here. There must always be many more of us than of them if democracy is to survive. But they won't go away.
Fair enough. As a teacher, I had to work with the different ways my students' brains operated. What do you think of the senate election results in Georgia?
Chiming is as a Georgian here...I desperately WANT to believe that the Senate victories were not flukes and are part of a broader evolution of attitudes here. If Georgia isn't a solidly "blue" state, then maybe it can be resolutely "purple", he asks? Aside from a few solidly "blue" pockets here & there, Republicans still overwhelmingly wield most of the power at the local levels here (my county went 71% to 28% for Trump). Interesting that as the GA legislature resumes its session this week, one of the first things they've said they plan on addressing is election "reform". The implication given was that because of the massive turnout they needed to "reform" the process. What might that mean? Okay, maybe there is some concern for election fraud in the face of a massive turnout and a wish to make absolutely certain it is certifiably fair and legal (which I thought we kinda did...). But, given this state's lengthy and deplorable history of voter suppression, one could also posit that the GOP here is also saying, "Oooooh...WAY too many people voted this time...can't have THAT!...the bigger the turnout the more the certainty we will lose...etc." It's hard to know what it means. What we DID see in Georgia is that if people (young people and people of colour especially) get out and vote, change happens. I pray we can keep this spirit alive here!
Hi Joan, I think the pro democracy results of the runoff elections in Georgia are a prelude to more excellent public servants being elected in other currently red states!
Well said!
I agree that they feel under threat. Identifying that threat with immigrants, gays, those that 'aren't like them', intellectuals, seems a reasonable reaction to job loss to over seas exportation or just loss to progress. I don't agree with it but I can follow the progression. I think this was then picked up by early folks like Rush Limbaugh who sort of fell into an audience and then some big behind the scenes money (likely the Koch brothers) saw an opportunity. That opportunity was not only to begin the subversion of beliefs of a major group but also the distraction from corporate power and the concentration of wealth. It is so ironic that this worked with a group who's initial fear came from 'fear of not having enough' and the results are that more was taken from them while they still champion the cause.
Choosing Alamo, TX, for his venue today seems a bit like Guilliani and company going to the Four Seasons Landscape Company. Yes, the famous Alamo is in San Antonio and one should note that the Mexicans won that battle.
It's also worth remembering that the Texans fighting at the Alamo were objecting to Mexico's abolition of slavery.
Oh!
It also bears remembering that on the 6th, " [Trump] was turned off by what he considered the “low-class” spectacle of people in ragtag costumes rummaging through the Capitol." (This coming from the guy who doesn't own a properly tailored white tie "costume".)
https://www.washingtonpost.com
Excuse me for being a little crude, but when I see DTs long pointed red ties, I just see someone advertising his virility like a neon sign advertising and pointing to services available. Yes, he has a costume.
That is disgusting Cathy but unfortunately I think you are dead on target. [Red tie]
Yes, it is quite disgusting. Perhaps it is more obvious to a woman. All women know what it is like to be undressed and raped by lecherous eyes. Ties should not go below the middle of the waistband or belt.
Gross!
My thoughts exactly! After seeing him yesterday, I tweeted about Trump choosing yet another upscale venue for his performance.
hahahahahaha
Good one!
Trump is clearly incapacitated by his own hubris.
I'll just call it that for now because I don't quite have the spoons tonight to explain why calling it "mental illness" would be overly simplistic as well as overly broad. He surely is unable to act or think rationally even about what is truly his own self-interest, much less to carry out the duties of the president. And that should be enough. What he is incapacitated by is, to an extent, incidental.
Mental illness, though, has been thoroughly weaponized and used against women, queer folk, survivors of violence and abuse, and anyone who cannot find a secure place in a culture that requires inhumane levels of "productivity" from the vast majority of its members; so much so that to simply say this president is mentally ill would be cast far too wide a net and potentially ensnare many others who are perfectly fit to serve in office despite carrying a pocketful of diagnoses from the DSM-V.
These days, so many have been diagnosed with one "mental disorder" or another that it is not unlike using a politician's history of smoking pot to disqualify them from office. It just does not mean what many have thought for so long that it meant.
But that he is incapacitated in the sense of unable to act rationally seems glaringly obvious to me.
Yes, yes, thank you for your clarification. Mental illness has been weaponized. I had not seen it like that before. Oh, it is so important not to paint with a broad brush and important to use words as carefully as we can. Otherwise we're not only inaccurate, we mislead. I'm not saying this very well, but I think I get your point, and really resonates for me. Thank you.
I don’t believe he is acting from “mental illness” in the way people generally interpret that. I think he knows exactly what he’s doing. He is planning and attempting to overthrow our government in order to retain power.
His mental illness is that he is a full-blown, pathological lying narcissistic megalomaniac. If he did not have that personality disorder, or the megalomania, oh, and then there are his learning disabilities, oh, and his fake hair, fake tan, fake university, fake family foundation, fake friends, he might have been a rather clever chap.
Something like 38 well respected psychiatrists and psychologists warned about this four years ago. I don't know the technical difference, if there is one, between 'mental illness' and the 'personality disorder' (malignant narcissism) that they all agreed Trump has. Maybe it's possible to make a specific differentiation for public understanding?
I don't remember discussions about Jefferey Dahlmer being 'mentally ill', per se, but he was very much described as a psychopath; same with Charles Manson. There are people without conscience who are still very capable of operating in the world, obviously.
I think many of the laws and rules may need to be re-written after this disaster.
Without consulting my DSM-5 I will say that tRump may not have an organic (physiological) cause of his mental illness, like Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia or many cases of Depression have. But he does have a "personality disorder" which is a mental illness. It develops as a coping response to adverse conditions (in his case, perhaps, his sickly neglectful mother when he was only 2; a demanding, nasty father with unrealistic expectations; no sanctions for his own cruelty, dominance and misbehavior, and an undiagnosed reading disorder). Unlike with physiological psychiatric disorders, there are no magic pills to treat personality disorders, especially "malignant" and "narcisistic" ones. The manipulation and verbal abuse and cons make it difficult to treat them. I have seen a few cases that may have an underlying condition like Aspergers Syndrome (NOT to say folks with high end autism are disordered - Thomas Jefferson, Einstein and Bill Gate probably had or have it and excelled). It is usually the maladaptation early on that bends the psyche to grow into this sad mental and emotional state.
Evil has no necessary overlap with brain malfunctions. Let's not confuse the two. Some people who do evil are tall, too. There is no causal relationship.
And some even have small hands that want big power.
I thought the same thing. I believe a full mental evaluation should be performed before anyone takes office.
I find it best to go with what is observable without labels.
Diagnosis is a tool for determining treatment. We are better served in defining the problem and how to fix it by describing what is observable, rather than using shortcut labels, as reader Claudia Dayton commented in this thread.
Hubris names it. And when Rand Corp. does its update for the CIA, trump will be the prime example:
Beware the Hubris-Nemesis Complex
A Concept for Leadership Analysis
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monograph_reports/2005/MR461.pdf
"It is undoubtedly also of great significance to McConnell that the actions of Trump and his supporters in Congress have led major donors to close their wallets." That's about the only thing that would turn McConnell's head. "Follow the money" - always!!
Mike Pompeo being shut out made my day! That pompous, arrogant - words fail - Maybe Dr. King was right; maybe the arc of the universe IS bending toward justice, at last. I know it's a long process, and we have become so accustomed to instant gratification in our culture. I guess we needed a reminder that that's not how reality works. I know I needed the reminder. I don't want to be like the toddler-in-chief!! 😎
A friend of mine who is a graduate of West Point reminded me Pompeo graduated first in his class!
That's embarrassing for West Point.
Well, just because someone is "intelligent" doesnt mean they arent pompous asses.
Maybe he was as big a suck-up there as he was in the Trump administration?
How nice of the Republican leaders to spin 540 degrees and start putting all the blame for this insurrection on Trump, after actively assisting him in achieving this end for over 4 years. Now that their monster has left their control, they are willing to do and say anything to prevent investigations of elected Republican lawmakers, their staff, and their supporters, both state and federal. Please, throw those lower-class, mostly penniless, duped rioters in prison, just don't look too closely at MY dirty underwear! It's a rather low metaphor, but the entire Republican apparatus needs a through and searching colonoscopy.
Well said, Dan. And no anesthesia for aforementioned colonoscopy. We want them aware of every uncomfortable moment.
They need to put the metal detectors at the entrances to the building, with narrow pathways so they can't walk around, and give police clear instructions that they can arrest any congressmember, including senators too, who try to go around
In the military there are Red Lines which if when violated the MPs will face plant violators including 4 stars. They point guns at those individuals stopping the violators. Louis Gohmert should have been face planted.
Faceplanted, handcuffed, and frogmarched right the hell off the grounds.
I agree
7 days, 8 hours, 8 minutes, 30 seconds
until Wednesday, January 20, 2021 at 12:00:00 noon (Washington DC, District of Columbia time)
The white nationalist type groups have been preparing for war for decades. The continuous dog whistles from DT has built their hopes that Civil War II to assert white privilege and patriarchy is near at hand. I think history will put January 6, 2021, as the date it began. The question is will it be contained in the next few weeks or will it become open violent anarchy and "war". With attacks planned for the US Capitol again and ALL the state capitols we need to hope there is a decisive and effective response. I'm feeling more worried than hopeful tonight.
Yes I think we should all be worried and pray a lot— I was heartened by finally hearing the FBI press conference yesterday. Maybe some of the militia guys will realize the consequences of their action could result in 20 years behind bars.
This is scary indeed. Personally I was hoping the Jan. 6 assault on the capitol was more just dumbasses running wild than a wide ranging conspiracy. It now appears there’s much more conspiracy at work. And, that’s bad news.
The failure of this coup was more a matter of luck than anything else. If events had unfolded a little differently we could now be taking about the hostages taken and government officials murdered.
I’m sure lenforcement will be better prepared going forward, but so will the Trump insurrectionists.
The attacks on all our state capitols and DC will be horrid. But I take heart after the horrid, terrifyng attack(s) on our Michigan Capitol, and the foiled plot to kidnap and murder Governor Whitmer. The Michigan State Police, working with the FBI, were able to foil that horrid plot decisively through careful investigative work and cooperation. Now that we know it is the Whitehouse inciting these despicable crimes, and it was the Whitehouse that prevented the Secretary of the Army from federalizing the National Guard, and perhaps Republican legislator(s) who aided and abetted the domestic terrorists who intended to kidnap and kill Pence and Pelosi, I am sure he FBI, State Police and Military (can't depend on "Homeland Security") are working overtime to prevent insurrections by arresting the insurgents now. Civil War II is not over, but the tide has turned against the racist trumpists.
Apparently many of the militia types are backing off, just as Heather predicted, now that they see consequences and a strong response. There are memes circulating on the right that the whole idea of massing in capitols this weekend is a leftist trap, so don't go. (Sorry about lack of link, I read this on apple news last night.)
I sure appreciate all of this information. I wonder what happened to this representative Gohmert who walked around the metal detector? I certainly hope the police stopped him. Why the hell does he think he’s above the law? Law-enforcement definitely should not be messing around now.
At most federal buildings the highest, most senior level people and appointees get a pass on security. So do building security staff entering the building before their shift. Many complaints dismissed in the past, that hopefully will get taken seriously in the future.
This is true at state level also, and in addition to legislators, others with recognized badges are often waved around - I know this because it happened to me when I was visiting. I just "looked official" (irrelevant state ID).
Well, then what is the point to installing metal detectors?
That's the same argument made those of us who do have go through security.
The idea is that they are recognized as having a right to be there - which, as we now know, might not be adequate security.
Quite frankly, he may well be above the law in this regard. It depends upon the rules, usually very loose and forgiving, that Congress has imposed on itself. If anyone knows what rule law enforcement used to install the metal detectors, and to whom it applies, I'd love to know.
We have Qanon and other traitors actually serving in Congress now. The security measures need to be taken seriously. Immediately. I am in the military. I know what security is and it should be respected. The events of last week demonstrate that. No exceptions. If he or anyone else tries to walk around again, he should be immediately apprehended.
I think I heard something like $1000 fine.
Correction: The $1000 fine is for not wearing masks.
Update: With her members still fuming that Republicans refused to wear masks while they were sheltering in place, Pelosi announced that anyone not wearing a mask on the House floor will be fined $500 for their first offense and $2,500 for their second.
I’m sorry, but some of these legislators have gotten too big for their britches. If they refuse to go through security and/or wear a mask at all times, they should not be allowed in. Plus be fined. If they are not able to go to the capital floor and perform their duties, their constituents will respond accordingly.
What would happen if they refused to go through airport security? The same thing should happen at the entrance to the capitol. This is serious.
And on a sidenote, I believe all the terrorists charged from last week should be sent to Guantánamo Bay awaiting trial. No bail. And of course be assigned to the no-fly list. As all the terrorists are.
I am very curious to. If the laws are loose and forgiving, they need to be immediately changed to tight and non-forgiving. After last week, it is obvious things need to change. We are no longer safe in our own house.
Me too, Dan.
Haven't heard, but it's probably only the bad guys who have to comply. If you say you're above the law, then you're allowed to go around.
He’s just still trying to stir the pot and get press. Taking advantage of the trauma. What a Dick! No decorum, no class, Zero statesmanship!
IT is a symbol of strongman / Authoritarian/ Fascist
1.Come to power as a criminal or as a suspected criminal
2.Glorify criminality. Legitimize it. Encourage it. Look the other way.
3.The Law Maker become the law breaker.
- Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Great gathering of fact threads that only an Historian could weave into coherence.
The need to get rid of the dark money PAC's is obvious. The Corporations halting the contributions to the GOP does not affect the Corporate Executives ability to organize financial support to their client Legislators.
But I am mostly taken with the incredibly inept handling of the FBI warnings of January 5 that a bunch of administration officials played volley ball with until late Afternoon when the rioters were already getting tired. I think this emphasizes the Trump style of appointing "acting," key officials on the basis of personal loyalty not ability. If the fumbling was to delay action the principals were treasonous.
Another Trump failure of Governance.
And where is Christopher Wray? I'm a bit concerned that he's tied up in somebody's basement.
I wonder about him, too.
Nothing inept in ignoring FBI warnings - the administration purposely ignored them so that their plan to kidnap and perhaps kill Pence & Pelosi was completed. Our Michigan thugs practiced at our Capitol, then answered tRump's call.
Its both foot dragging and just plain ignorance. Bill Moyer assembled and excellent time line:
https://billmoyers.com/story/insurrection-timeline-first-the-coup-and-then-the-cover-up-updated/
Why is no one talking about how much power the corporations have in funding the various political groups through their donations. It is both amazing and frightening how much power the corporate donors have to influence politics and our daily lives.
Many, many of us have been complaining about the Citizens United decision, allowing unlimited, anonymous corporate money into the electoral process, for years now.
Perhaps what makes it blatant is that money is being withheld instead of being donated.
Yes! This is a bit more obvious now.
Those corporations made this bed, and now, they are scrambling to unmake it, beginning with letting McConnel know they are withdrawing their $$$$$$$$$$$ from any legislator who supports tRump. Don't think for a second he (or they) just grew a conscience. He just did the math. Oligarchy dictates our "democracy."
Always have!!!! Sickening!!!🤔😣
But this is deliciously blatant right now. We see McConnell only budge when he sees money squeezed from their future coffers. No conscience of the right thing to do for America. Just upset at the money squeeze. !@#$%^ him. I hope he is toast.
Absolutely. The truth has been there all along. As if it were not clear enough before now. There is no doubt it is the corporate money that has captured his attention. This turn has 0% to do with helping the people of this country. He needs the money so that republicans can stay in power to obstruct and shrink the government. Period. If he needs to turn on a dime to keep the money rolling in he will do it. 0 integrity.
It is not enough for Republicans to denounce the violence which took place in our Capitol building last Wednesday. Despite this, some are still heard questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election and taking pride in what they consider some positive aspects of the Trump administration. Saying “enough is enough” as Lindsey Graham has done is not enough. What these people must get through their heads, and I include Florida’s two Senators, its governor and most of its Representatives in the House, is that they were the ‘enablers’ who made it possible for Donald Trump’s madness to besmirch American democracy and all for which it stands. No matter how deeply they are appalled by Wednesday’s violence, they must share in the responsibility for it. Their “enabling,” in exchange for the support of the far right, made it possible. Shame on them. The beginning of their redemption will be the impeachment vote in the House, but without a prompt confimation of that in the Senate, including the votes of the "enablers" like Mitch McConnell, Republicans are just full of hot air.
I guess I have reached a point where I listen to a variety of podcasts, read the news letter and a portion of the responses, listen to the evening news from at least two sources (before my dear wife threatens justifiable homicide) and then resolve to stay calm. Wait for the days to pass, and pray for my fellow citizens that violence does not take place.
This morning my skepticism in the motivations of Liz Cheney and Mitch McConnell came to the fore. Cheney is the daughter of the person who I believe most responsible for the fabricated war in Iraq. And I found her politics to be self-serving and uninformed. Her decision to crush the spirit of her sister for politics, made her irredeemable to me. Like her father. For those with little to do but get through the day, read Jane Mayer’s “Dark Side”.
McConnell has had his head spinning moment since the lights went out in Georgia. He is 77 and out of power. His entire career has been for his personal benefit. His state of Kentucky ranks poorly in all measures of daily life for the majority of its citizens. Yet his personal fortunes have flourished beyond belief. So, what ever his motivation in the last few days I think it most to be self preservation.
Quietly in the past few days I think we see what will be part of the solution to heal our country. It is not without conflicted motives, but I think corporate America, including the Uber wealthy, understand that if we go much further with insanity, they will loose. Bigly. We will all loose. We can’t go on denying truth in the physical world. The pandemic is real and will not be the last. The bottom 75% of families (? 90 %) are working to the point of exhaustion every day, but not seeing any progress as to hopes and dreams, which are meager. The young just coming into adult hood look with disdain at the two generations older, asking “what were (are) you thinking!”. Sadly we do not have an answer.
Whatever personal God you believe in will not rescue us. Hypothetically, if god created matter(Big Bang) and matter eventually created cellular life, and evolution brought us to this space and time, then we better get serious about what is important.
Pray as if it were up to G-d, work as if it were up to you. The first part is optional.
Oh, that’s good. I might borrow😊
30 years ago I knew a woman who went out once a month with some fellas in Baltimore to practice not just semi automatic but even more lethal fire arms. I was told bazookas. Bazookas! I just thought it was weird thinking of her with her perfectly coiffed and lacquered hair and long pointy nails firing off bazookas in the Virginia woods. Later I learned that she was sure there was going to be a race war someday and she was going to be ready. Then more recently I saw those slick NRA propaganda videos and started getting scared. I’d been living away from the USA for 25 years and hadn’t realized how far along far right wing militias had come.I don’t doubt that they have supporters in Congress. On Jan 6, my fears were verified. My family thought I was an alarmist nut. Maybe a little less so now but I can tell they still aren’t listening and believe that nothing like this could ever happen. I mean the ugly part. I hope they are right but I know they are not. We have allowed way too many weapons into our general society.
We have always had many weapons in our general society. What we also had, now lacking, is a culture of personal responsibility and a moral grounding in “right and wrong”. Yes, guns have been misused throughout our history, but those events were minimal compared to the number of guns out there. My mother survived Hitler during WWII. We were raised with a loaded rifle in the entryway closet and simply told not to touch it. It was never fired except for target practice and I was taught to shoot it at age 9. My brother was 7. Our mother instilled in us a great respect for our Constitution and the Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment.
Agreed. I grew up with three generations of hunting rifles and we all learned early in about guns. But they were hunting rifles. Weapons of the sort that are known as semi automatic or assault weapons in the hands of the wrong people are dangerous and destabilizing
What’s more I wore my NRA badge proudly as a ten year old. My father also taught me that the Civil War was states rights and not slavery. His library was the complete collection of the Cunil War Times and statues of Robert E Lee. I’m grateful to have grasped the truth later in in life.
And just in the year of 2020, 40 million new gun Sales. That is startling number of units in one year or any industry.
From the start, I have identified 45 as a totalitarian fascist. It gives me pleasure that, since 6th January, others have begun to see his reckless self-aggrandizement, not to mention his megalomania and push to establish an authoritarian nazi state. That some members of the GOP are beginning to see that now is satisfying, but not enough! Too many are still either blinded by his lies or too interested in their lust for power to be willing to allow for ethical lenses in their vision of what he represents.
Whatever information the FBI has given members of Congress must be detrimental enough to make some Republicans lean towards impeachment.
"Cheney’s statement suggests that part of what is driving the Republican willingness to entertain impeachment is that there will be more coming out about January 6 and Republicans want to dump Trump rather than be associated with him. She wrote: 'Much more will become clear in coming days and weeks, but what we know now is enough. The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President. The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.'"
The sooner this information is made public, the better, but it probably won't do so until after the Biden-Harris inauguration in order to protect intelligence and to capture the seditionists red-handed.
May the Force be with us all!
We might never know what documents are, right now, being quietly carried out of the Capitol by complicit Republicans to be burned in Georgetown fireplaces.