The news grabbing the headlines today is the congressional fight over the creation of a bipartisan independent commission to investigate the events surrounding the January 6 insurrection. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) made demands of the Democrats that he evidently expected Democrats to refuse, enabling him to object to the commission by claiming it was partisan. But the Democrats agreed to his conditions, forcing him to object in such a way that it was clear he is simply covering for the former president and, likely, for himself, because he does not want to have to testify to what he observed or participated in in the days around that event (including, for example, the hostile phone call with Trump when McCarthy was inside the besieged Capitol).
This afternoon, I called the local offices of my representatives Senators Cornyn and Cruz to voice my support for a Congressional investigation of January 6. Surprisingly, I spoke with a person both times. Yes, I realize that neither will vote in favor.
One would think this would have been a nonpartisan vote; but because it was partisan, I applaud these 35 House Republicans who broke with their party to vote in favor of the January 6th Commission:
Here’s what is on my mind this day and every day since January 6th. And it remains the reason I supported “comeuppance” and “opening a can of whoop ass” to get in the mix in yesterday’s comments. As in the form of a commission.
The question I want answered and do not want to fade away is WHY DID IT TAKE 2 HOURS OR MORE for the National Guard to respond to a violent domestic insurrection in OUR country being televised in real time and being seared into our brains?
You know, there’s this security blanket in America that when a disaster is happening, help is on the way. “The cavalry is coming, on horseback, swords drawn!” Whether it’s planes crashing into Two Towers or a hurricane crashing into our coastlines, help is on the way immediately and many times before, during, and long after the event.
Except not this time. What I will never forget watching and thinking on January 6th is “where are the troops? WTF? Why is the guard being held back in Maryland? Is this real? Why are they still rioting after two hours? Why are there no arrests happening now? WHERE ARE THE TROOPS? And WHAT IS THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF DOING?
And then the ultimate insult. “You’re special. Go home in peace. We love you.”
The cowardice in the house today and sure to follow in the Senate exists to now protect a myth that used to be a reality to citizens in America. “Help is on the way.” Not so much.
It’s the end of May. For me, I thought that would be the first question answered after January 6th.
I have listened to every single one of her video chats of the past year (go to her YouTube channel). Tonight I was catching up with this one as I was walking my dog. I stopped to type a note on my phone about “steering wheel.” Then I stopped again, and again, to type more notes. This was the single most remarkable of her talks.
Toward the end, Heather talked about the status of voting rights and the HR1/S1 For The People Act. She commented that if it does not pass, “we’re done,” the Republicans “will have locked up a one party system…”
Then Heather said, “Here’s what you can do…what I’ve been telling you people all along is right. That you need to make your voices heard…You can’t just sit back and say, ‘what’s gonna happen next.’ We need to go out and make whatever happens happen…Reach out to other voters, participate in campaigns, run for office…Or simply make phone calls, write letters to the editor…This is our hands on deck moment. Because if they are permitted to do this, I don’t see a way back, at least in my lifetime.”
Some HCR Substackers are already experienced activists writing postcards, letters, text banking, making phone calls. Come share your expertise to grow the skills of others.
Some HCR Substackers ask, “What can I do?” “What should I say?” Leave a Reply here that you want to learn what you can do and what you can say for an effective message.
Some HCR Substackers have already left a Reply and got busy, or lost in the email inbox, or…If you don’t find your email, just leave another Reply here for follow up.
HCR Substacker comments are full of great discussion. Now is the time to walk the talk. Heather has sounded the clarion call: “This is our hands on deck moment!”
I'd like to see a concerted campaign to sue Republican Members of Congress and Senators who vote against establishing a Congressional Investigation into the January 6 insurrection as aiders and abetting of that attempted coup d' etat. Venue would be in federal district Court in Washington DC, seeking a declaratory judgment that the defendants have allied themselves with the insurrectionists by failing to perform their duties under the Constitution and in violation of their statutorily-required Oath "...to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same." (5 U.S.C. 3331). The Fourteenth Amendment, in its section 3, disqualifies from federal office anyone who participates in an insurrection or rebellion, or who lend aid and comfort thereto. A refusal to investigate the assault, to which those Members of Congress were present to witness that assault, and could be called to testify about what they experienced and observed, constitutes willful indifference. There is no privilege to avoid compelling their testimony. They are not charged with crimes, but they, and each of them, were present to bear witness to criminal acts done by others, and the violence that was done at the Capitol. They were in the Capitol to vote on whether to accept the votes of the Electoral College and count those votes; several of them lodged objections to Congress accepting several of those state's Electoral College vote counts, for no other reason that their preferred candidate, Donald J. Trump, came up short in those vote counts, and lost the election. They know that no fewer than 60 courts entertained Trump's objections to those state vote counts, and he lost every one of them. Asserting a belief that the election was tainted by fraud would call into question their own election or reelection to office.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy spoke directly to Trump, a conversation he related to other members of the Republican Party's delegation in the House of Representatives. He therefore has personal knowledge of Trump's refusal to call for assistance. He has a personal interest in withholding his sworn testimony that is inconsistent with fulfilling his Oath to protect and defend the Constitution. By refusing to vote to authorize a formal inquiry, Congressman McCarthy allied himself with Trump and the insurrectionists.
Mitch McConnell gave a speech on the floor of the Senate in which he directly implicated Trump in the insurrection. Now he turns a blind eye toward what happened on the spurious grounds that the bill approved by the House of Representatives does not investigate mass protests that occurred in various cities over the murder in police custody of George Floyd. That sort of 'whataboutism' is legally and constitutionally irrelevant to the House bill.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's speech attesting to the factual truth of Trump's conniving in the insurrection, and his subsequent volte-face, establish McConnell's tolerance of treason and insurrection, by his own admission. He and those who support him in his refusal to render an honest accounting establish McConnell's willingness to ignore his sworn duty to protect and defend the Constitution against its domestic enemies, all to feather his own nest and gain an unconstitutional advantage to himself and his party. That personal acknowledgment of the truth, and McConnell's subsequent refusal to act on that knowledge makes him an aider and comforter of insurrection, therefore disqualifying him from office.
So there we have it. Conspiracy. Complicity. Duty, and it's denial. A pathetic attempt to rewrite history by partisan fiat. Hoping that the American people are too stupid or lethargic to notice or object. The Fourteenth Amendment gives us a remedy, and we damn well ought to use it. We cannot afford to be Tom Lehrer's 'Folk Song Army', having all the good songs celebrating progressive politics, to and fail use the one remedy that, if pursued diligently, could disqualify them from office. If you may recall, in Lehrer's song, the Fascists won all the battles. The Cancel-Culture isn't going to win this battle, but insistence on a robust patriotism just might do the job. Duty. We do our duty to our country, our citizens, and ourselves, without fear or favor. Obligation. We affirm the that we subscribe to our Oath voluntarily, and without ulterior motive or mental reservation. That eliminates all of those miscreants, excepting Liz Cheney and those thirty-four Republican Members of the House of Representatives who voted to create this commission of inquiry. That is Duty Fulfilled. That's the job, regardless of repercussions.
A coterie of Democratic Members of Congress and Senators could be the aggrieved plaintiffs, after all, because Congress is deadlocked. The counter to that is that Democrats could eliminate the 60 vote minimum needed for the Senate to act. Such a political defense would be inadmissible on a suit over the Republicans refusal to do their sworn Constitutional duty and their supine acceptance and tolerance for riot and insurrection. Changing the rules to avoid impasse and deadlock is not incumbent on the Democrats who voted to launch an investigation. The Oath embodies specific duties that must be performed, and loyalties to our constitutional form of government and its Constitution. Faced with armed insurrection, refusal to act, coupled with denial of the consequences, constitutes a tacit complicity and a conspiracy against our Constitution.
Tim Ryan became King for a Day today. He certainly expressed every emotion that we normal people have felt for over 4 years. I hope to someday see him wield a lot of power in Congress.
Mitch speaks with a forked tongue. After the Jan. 6th event, he faced the Senate and the cameras telling us that Fake45 incited everything that took place. He made it sound like he was glad The Don would be held responsible but lo and behold, he has protected this schmuck. It all has to do with greed, power, dark money, and lots and lots more power. I envision the Grim Reaper leaning back in his easy chair and cackling like a witch.
Then there’s Qevin, the main butt kisser. He really wants to be Speaker some day. I say let’s place him in one of the circles of Hell in Dante’s Inferno. Well actually, mostly all of the Repubs could fit into every category.
Everyday, it’s a shitshow. I am so ready for some sort of normalcy, something to really cheer about. I guess the best news we have had is that children are slowly but surely reuniting with their families.
The video clip of Ryan was very satisfying to see, just happened to catch it earlier tonight when I flipped on the news briefly after I got home from work. We live in interesting times, indeed.
"Representative Tim Ryan (D-OH) spoke for those of us who are gobsmacked that anyone could say we do not need to investigate the most profound attack on our democracy in our history."
"...After years of weaponizing investigations—Benghazi, Secretary of State Clinton’s emails, Hunter Biden—the Republicans are facing an investigation, based in reality, that likely will reflect badly on them. They want no part of it.". This quote is going in an email to my Congressman who did NOT support the formation of a 1/6 commission.
Imagine that you're a House member and endured firsthand the trauma of the attack on the Capitol. And that the attackers hunted and wanted to kill your brother, the vice president. Of course you're going to want a commission to investigate this outrage. Well, not if your Rep. Greg Pence, who voted with 194 other Republicans to oppose the commission.
It isn’t quite June 2 yet when my subscription ends so I am still here evaluating my information intake for mornings. My first cup of coffee is just for me. I don’t start reading till the second cup and commenting requires a third. I dilute my half-caf so caffeine OD isn’t an issue.
I have discovered that HCR does have a certain way to push my buttons. She writes so well and connects so many dots that I just read along as if I can hear her thoughts and understand something behind the lines. That is the quality I like in reading regardless of the content and it is not common. And yet there is the moment when she will throw in an apparent zinger and then just leave it there like fishing bait hanging just above the surface of the water.
I have taken to only scanning the comments and I feel a little guilty about that because I know their authors are well thought and rich individuals with opinions that are worth at least what mine are but there are a great many by the time of my second cup and what I am really looking for is how HCR’s other readers have reacted to the zinger. What I find is that they didn’t.
It is also a thing now that when the many kind people respond to a comment I make it is couched in the context created by my cancer. There is a correlation actually within me and my emotional make up but from inside here it feels like the political realities we face create similar emotions and a similar background for the future. It is not that political discourse makes my experience of early cancer more difficult or that I need to focus on my personal health particularly since really this, part of cancer is just about going through the motions learning the stats, the options, and riding the events. It isn’t hard but it has given me a perspective where I recognize the energetic synergy.
I live in a very loving relationship in a very beautiful place. My children are well into their lives and successful. My parents are both gone now but both are clearly felt in spirit and my understanding of life after death is such that it generates more curiosity than fear. In short all is very groovy except the cancer itself. Like truth with a capital T this has a certain feel to it.
That feeling is the same one I feel reading HCR this morning. Our country is quite prosperous. Though we have challenges in many areas like civil rights, election reform, international relations, climate and so on I feel that we are generally up to the tasks at hand and president Biden’s performance confirms this feeling. It is all good, like my life, interesting and beautiful and challenging except there is the cancer.
Today’s zinger was this sentence. “The bill now goes to the Senate, where Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has announced he will not support it.” This sentence tells so much and the fact that the rest of the letter goes on with no more mention of what this means is the cancer we are all living with. That the minority leader of the senate can just say “I don’t like it” and that is basically it, game over. All the rest is posturing for the cameras. That this fact doesn’t take over the new cycle and catapult the failure of the senate to govern as the intolerable national cancer that it is, is well, just intolerable to me.
And, that isn’t because I have my own cancer. Dealing with my cancer has a clear path. It is that I feel that dealing with this national cancer does also. We are just not following it. Instead we are hoping it is really not malignant or that it will just go away if,,, something less than radical surgery (filibuster reform). But it won’t. Even if he died the next version of him would step up.
We can’t heal as a nation until this dysfunction in the senate is fixed. As many have commented before, perhaps Biden’s long game as the statesman will win the day. And, perhaps Face Book and conspiracy theorists and the misinformed minority of white power will wake up. Yeah. Maybe. But, we all know that if I treated my cancer like that the results would be statistically predictable. Perhaps there would be a miracle and I do believe in miracles as outlier events that need close study but I don’t expect them to happen.
BTW Yesterday's zinger was "But it seems hard for him (Biden) to get media attention as the Republicans continue to make more dramatic news." Right, Chr--st!
Thank you for this clear and beautifully pithy overview of today's episode of the Republican soap opera: "Grand Ole Prevaricators." It just gets better and better -- I lie (please note the sarcasm).
Not only do we need a commission to decipher the nitty gritty of what went down before, during, and after 6th January, we need to know when these blatant aggressors will cease to play the roles of wide-eyed innocents with such aplomb.
The longer they are left to their own devices, the longer justice is delayed, and the more it plays into the white supremacists' game of justice denied. These blood-thirsty, Constitution-denying thugs who assume GOP ringleader roles committed blatant treasonous acts that must be distilled into categories of guilt and responsibility. Who had access? Who knew how? How did they know where to go? Why were the Capitol police so ill-informed of the dangers?
How much longer must we wait to know the answers? The Capitol is the people's house. How much longer must we, the people, wait to have the violent squatter brigade's head honchos identified, tried, and brought to justice?
This isn't the first time Tim Ryan has read the riot act to Republicans. His 2004 speech on the war is one for the history books (link below). He's announced his plans to replace Rob Portman in the Senate. Being a blue-collar Democrat in now red Ohio bodes well for his campaign. His speech yesterday is the tough kind of talk most low information voters will respect.
This: “A number of Republicans have said they believe that “Antifa” was behind the riot; if they really thought that were the case, wouldn’t they want an investigation?”
Here's the text of the email to my Trump sycophant U.S. Representative. Dear Representative Moolenaar, I was not surprised to see that your name was not on the list of Republican Representatives who supported the formation of January 6th Commission. In Dr. Heather Cox Richardson,5/19/2021 Letters from An American, she wrote "After years of weaponizing investigations—Benghazi, Secretary of State Clinton’s emails, Hunter Biden—the Republicans are facing an investigation, based in reality, that likely will reflect badly on them. They want no part of it." Yesterday, Representative Ryan from Ohio expressed a similar sentiment. Again, you continue to disappoint. You would rather work to force people to return to minimum wage jobs during a pandemic than get to the bottom of what happened on that deplorable day.
Organization under “criminal” investigation, January 6th Commission vote and continuing voter suppression and recount fiascos. What they all have in common is how far Republicans have fallen and how they will stop at nothing to remain in power. The 2022 elections seem more susceptible to manipulation allowing the minority to regain control and move the country farther to the right. We cannot allow this to happen, the consequences are far too great. The counter to this is an legitimate accountability of the crimes by the formers and their supporters and enablers. The failure to do this will be disastrous.
This afternoon, I called the local offices of my representatives Senators Cornyn and Cruz to voice my support for a Congressional investigation of January 6. Surprisingly, I spoke with a person both times. Yes, I realize that neither will vote in favor.
The nation deserves a full investigation.
One would think this would have been a nonpartisan vote; but because it was partisan, I applaud these 35 House Republicans who broke with their party to vote in favor of the January 6th Commission:
* French Hill of Arkansas
* Steve Womack of Arkansas
* David Valadao of California
* Carlos Gimenez of Florida
* Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida
* Mike Simpson of Idaho
* Adam Kinzinger of Illinois
* Rodney Davis of Illinois
* Trey Hollingsworth of Indiana
* Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa
* Fred Upton of Michigan
* Peter Meijer of Michigan
* Michael Guest of Mississippi
* Don Bacon of Nebraska
* Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska
* Chris Smith of New Jersey
* Andrew Garbarino of New York
* Chris Jacobs of New York
* John Katko of New York
* Tom Reed of New York
* Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio
* David Joyce of Ohio
* Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma
* Cliff Bentz of Oregon
* Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania
* Tom Rice of South Carolina
* Dusty Johnson of South Dakota
* Tony Gonzales of Texas
* Van Taylor of Texas
* Blake Moore of Utah
* John Curtis of Utah
* Dan Newhouse of Washington
* Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington
* David McKinley of West Virginia
* Liz Cheney of Wyoming
Here’s what is on my mind this day and every day since January 6th. And it remains the reason I supported “comeuppance” and “opening a can of whoop ass” to get in the mix in yesterday’s comments. As in the form of a commission.
The question I want answered and do not want to fade away is WHY DID IT TAKE 2 HOURS OR MORE for the National Guard to respond to a violent domestic insurrection in OUR country being televised in real time and being seared into our brains?
You know, there’s this security blanket in America that when a disaster is happening, help is on the way. “The cavalry is coming, on horseback, swords drawn!” Whether it’s planes crashing into Two Towers or a hurricane crashing into our coastlines, help is on the way immediately and many times before, during, and long after the event.
Except not this time. What I will never forget watching and thinking on January 6th is “where are the troops? WTF? Why is the guard being held back in Maryland? Is this real? Why are they still rioting after two hours? Why are there no arrests happening now? WHERE ARE THE TROOPS? And WHAT IS THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF DOING?
And then the ultimate insult. “You’re special. Go home in peace. We love you.”
The cowardice in the house today and sure to follow in the Senate exists to now protect a myth that used to be a reality to citizens in America. “Help is on the way.” Not so much.
It’s the end of May. For me, I thought that would be the first question answered after January 6th.
“Where were the troops?”
People.
If you haven’t already listened to Heather’s video chat from yesterday (5/19/2021), treat yourself to one hour:
https://fb.watch/5BT42eFyxW/
I have listened to every single one of her video chats of the past year (go to her YouTube channel). Tonight I was catching up with this one as I was walking my dog. I stopped to type a note on my phone about “steering wheel.” Then I stopped again, and again, to type more notes. This was the single most remarkable of her talks.
Toward the end, Heather talked about the status of voting rights and the HR1/S1 For The People Act. She commented that if it does not pass, “we’re done,” the Republicans “will have locked up a one party system…”
Then Heather said, “Here’s what you can do…what I’ve been telling you people all along is right. That you need to make your voices heard…You can’t just sit back and say, ‘what’s gonna happen next.’ We need to go out and make whatever happens happen…Reach out to other voters, participate in campaigns, run for office…Or simply make phone calls, write letters to the editor…This is our hands on deck moment. Because if they are permitted to do this, I don’t see a way back, at least in my lifetime.”
Some HCR Substackers are already experienced activists writing postcards, letters, text banking, making phone calls. Come share your expertise to grow the skills of others.
Some HCR Substackers ask, “What can I do?” “What should I say?” Leave a Reply here that you want to learn what you can do and what you can say for an effective message.
Some HCR Substackers have already left a Reply and got busy, or lost in the email inbox, or…If you don’t find your email, just leave another Reply here for follow up.
HCR Substacker comments are full of great discussion. Now is the time to walk the talk. Heather has sounded the clarion call: “This is our hands on deck moment!”
I'd like to see a concerted campaign to sue Republican Members of Congress and Senators who vote against establishing a Congressional Investigation into the January 6 insurrection as aiders and abetting of that attempted coup d' etat. Venue would be in federal district Court in Washington DC, seeking a declaratory judgment that the defendants have allied themselves with the insurrectionists by failing to perform their duties under the Constitution and in violation of their statutorily-required Oath "...to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same." (5 U.S.C. 3331). The Fourteenth Amendment, in its section 3, disqualifies from federal office anyone who participates in an insurrection or rebellion, or who lend aid and comfort thereto. A refusal to investigate the assault, to which those Members of Congress were present to witness that assault, and could be called to testify about what they experienced and observed, constitutes willful indifference. There is no privilege to avoid compelling their testimony. They are not charged with crimes, but they, and each of them, were present to bear witness to criminal acts done by others, and the violence that was done at the Capitol. They were in the Capitol to vote on whether to accept the votes of the Electoral College and count those votes; several of them lodged objections to Congress accepting several of those state's Electoral College vote counts, for no other reason that their preferred candidate, Donald J. Trump, came up short in those vote counts, and lost the election. They know that no fewer than 60 courts entertained Trump's objections to those state vote counts, and he lost every one of them. Asserting a belief that the election was tainted by fraud would call into question their own election or reelection to office.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy spoke directly to Trump, a conversation he related to other members of the Republican Party's delegation in the House of Representatives. He therefore has personal knowledge of Trump's refusal to call for assistance. He has a personal interest in withholding his sworn testimony that is inconsistent with fulfilling his Oath to protect and defend the Constitution. By refusing to vote to authorize a formal inquiry, Congressman McCarthy allied himself with Trump and the insurrectionists.
Mitch McConnell gave a speech on the floor of the Senate in which he directly implicated Trump in the insurrection. Now he turns a blind eye toward what happened on the spurious grounds that the bill approved by the House of Representatives does not investigate mass protests that occurred in various cities over the murder in police custody of George Floyd. That sort of 'whataboutism' is legally and constitutionally irrelevant to the House bill.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's speech attesting to the factual truth of Trump's conniving in the insurrection, and his subsequent volte-face, establish McConnell's tolerance of treason and insurrection, by his own admission. He and those who support him in his refusal to render an honest accounting establish McConnell's willingness to ignore his sworn duty to protect and defend the Constitution against its domestic enemies, all to feather his own nest and gain an unconstitutional advantage to himself and his party. That personal acknowledgment of the truth, and McConnell's subsequent refusal to act on that knowledge makes him an aider and comforter of insurrection, therefore disqualifying him from office.
So there we have it. Conspiracy. Complicity. Duty, and it's denial. A pathetic attempt to rewrite history by partisan fiat. Hoping that the American people are too stupid or lethargic to notice or object. The Fourteenth Amendment gives us a remedy, and we damn well ought to use it. We cannot afford to be Tom Lehrer's 'Folk Song Army', having all the good songs celebrating progressive politics, to and fail use the one remedy that, if pursued diligently, could disqualify them from office. If you may recall, in Lehrer's song, the Fascists won all the battles. The Cancel-Culture isn't going to win this battle, but insistence on a robust patriotism just might do the job. Duty. We do our duty to our country, our citizens, and ourselves, without fear or favor. Obligation. We affirm the that we subscribe to our Oath voluntarily, and without ulterior motive or mental reservation. That eliminates all of those miscreants, excepting Liz Cheney and those thirty-four Republican Members of the House of Representatives who voted to create this commission of inquiry. That is Duty Fulfilled. That's the job, regardless of repercussions.
A coterie of Democratic Members of Congress and Senators could be the aggrieved plaintiffs, after all, because Congress is deadlocked. The counter to that is that Democrats could eliminate the 60 vote minimum needed for the Senate to act. Such a political defense would be inadmissible on a suit over the Republicans refusal to do their sworn Constitutional duty and their supine acceptance and tolerance for riot and insurrection. Changing the rules to avoid impasse and deadlock is not incumbent on the Democrats who voted to launch an investigation. The Oath embodies specific duties that must be performed, and loyalties to our constitutional form of government and its Constitution. Faced with armed insurrection, refusal to act, coupled with denial of the consequences, constitutes a tacit complicity and a conspiracy against our Constitution.
Tim Ryan became King for a Day today. He certainly expressed every emotion that we normal people have felt for over 4 years. I hope to someday see him wield a lot of power in Congress.
Mitch speaks with a forked tongue. After the Jan. 6th event, he faced the Senate and the cameras telling us that Fake45 incited everything that took place. He made it sound like he was glad The Don would be held responsible but lo and behold, he has protected this schmuck. It all has to do with greed, power, dark money, and lots and lots more power. I envision the Grim Reaper leaning back in his easy chair and cackling like a witch.
Then there’s Qevin, the main butt kisser. He really wants to be Speaker some day. I say let’s place him in one of the circles of Hell in Dante’s Inferno. Well actually, mostly all of the Repubs could fit into every category.
Everyday, it’s a shitshow. I am so ready for some sort of normalcy, something to really cheer about. I guess the best news we have had is that children are slowly but surely reuniting with their families.
The video clip of Ryan was very satisfying to see, just happened to catch it earlier tonight when I flipped on the news briefly after I got home from work. We live in interesting times, indeed.
"Representative Tim Ryan (D-OH) spoke for those of us who are gobsmacked that anyone could say we do not need to investigate the most profound attack on our democracy in our history."
"...After years of weaponizing investigations—Benghazi, Secretary of State Clinton’s emails, Hunter Biden—the Republicans are facing an investigation, based in reality, that likely will reflect badly on them. They want no part of it.". This quote is going in an email to my Congressman who did NOT support the formation of a 1/6 commission.
Imagine that you're a House member and endured firsthand the trauma of the attack on the Capitol. And that the attackers hunted and wanted to kill your brother, the vice president. Of course you're going to want a commission to investigate this outrage. Well, not if your Rep. Greg Pence, who voted with 194 other Republicans to oppose the commission.
We know the commission will die in the Senate, thanks to the filibuster. But there are alternatives, which congressional scholar Norm Ornstein discussed with Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent. Step right up, Merrick Garland! https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/19/other-options-jan-6-commission-ornstein/
It isn’t quite June 2 yet when my subscription ends so I am still here evaluating my information intake for mornings. My first cup of coffee is just for me. I don’t start reading till the second cup and commenting requires a third. I dilute my half-caf so caffeine OD isn’t an issue.
I have discovered that HCR does have a certain way to push my buttons. She writes so well and connects so many dots that I just read along as if I can hear her thoughts and understand something behind the lines. That is the quality I like in reading regardless of the content and it is not common. And yet there is the moment when she will throw in an apparent zinger and then just leave it there like fishing bait hanging just above the surface of the water.
I have taken to only scanning the comments and I feel a little guilty about that because I know their authors are well thought and rich individuals with opinions that are worth at least what mine are but there are a great many by the time of my second cup and what I am really looking for is how HCR’s other readers have reacted to the zinger. What I find is that they didn’t.
It is also a thing now that when the many kind people respond to a comment I make it is couched in the context created by my cancer. There is a correlation actually within me and my emotional make up but from inside here it feels like the political realities we face create similar emotions and a similar background for the future. It is not that political discourse makes my experience of early cancer more difficult or that I need to focus on my personal health particularly since really this, part of cancer is just about going through the motions learning the stats, the options, and riding the events. It isn’t hard but it has given me a perspective where I recognize the energetic synergy.
I live in a very loving relationship in a very beautiful place. My children are well into their lives and successful. My parents are both gone now but both are clearly felt in spirit and my understanding of life after death is such that it generates more curiosity than fear. In short all is very groovy except the cancer itself. Like truth with a capital T this has a certain feel to it.
That feeling is the same one I feel reading HCR this morning. Our country is quite prosperous. Though we have challenges in many areas like civil rights, election reform, international relations, climate and so on I feel that we are generally up to the tasks at hand and president Biden’s performance confirms this feeling. It is all good, like my life, interesting and beautiful and challenging except there is the cancer.
Today’s zinger was this sentence. “The bill now goes to the Senate, where Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has announced he will not support it.” This sentence tells so much and the fact that the rest of the letter goes on with no more mention of what this means is the cancer we are all living with. That the minority leader of the senate can just say “I don’t like it” and that is basically it, game over. All the rest is posturing for the cameras. That this fact doesn’t take over the new cycle and catapult the failure of the senate to govern as the intolerable national cancer that it is, is well, just intolerable to me.
And, that isn’t because I have my own cancer. Dealing with my cancer has a clear path. It is that I feel that dealing with this national cancer does also. We are just not following it. Instead we are hoping it is really not malignant or that it will just go away if,,, something less than radical surgery (filibuster reform). But it won’t. Even if he died the next version of him would step up.
We can’t heal as a nation until this dysfunction in the senate is fixed. As many have commented before, perhaps Biden’s long game as the statesman will win the day. And, perhaps Face Book and conspiracy theorists and the misinformed minority of white power will wake up. Yeah. Maybe. But, we all know that if I treated my cancer like that the results would be statistically predictable. Perhaps there would be a miracle and I do believe in miracles as outlier events that need close study but I don’t expect them to happen.
BTW Yesterday's zinger was "But it seems hard for him (Biden) to get media attention as the Republicans continue to make more dramatic news." Right, Chr--st!
Dear Prof. HCR,
Thank you for this clear and beautifully pithy overview of today's episode of the Republican soap opera: "Grand Ole Prevaricators." It just gets better and better -- I lie (please note the sarcasm).
Not only do we need a commission to decipher the nitty gritty of what went down before, during, and after 6th January, we need to know when these blatant aggressors will cease to play the roles of wide-eyed innocents with such aplomb.
The longer they are left to their own devices, the longer justice is delayed, and the more it plays into the white supremacists' game of justice denied. These blood-thirsty, Constitution-denying thugs who assume GOP ringleader roles committed blatant treasonous acts that must be distilled into categories of guilt and responsibility. Who had access? Who knew how? How did they know where to go? Why were the Capitol police so ill-informed of the dangers?
How much longer must we wait to know the answers? The Capitol is the people's house. How much longer must we, the people, wait to have the violent squatter brigade's head honchos identified, tried, and brought to justice?
This isn't the first time Tim Ryan has read the riot act to Republicans. His 2004 speech on the war is one for the history books (link below). He's announced his plans to replace Rob Portman in the Senate. Being a blue-collar Democrat in now red Ohio bodes well for his campaign. His speech yesterday is the tough kind of talk most low information voters will respect.
https://youtu.be/DVaxkG0yZCA
Thank you for keeping me sane, Professor Richardson. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your thorough and accurate reflection of real events.
This: “A number of Republicans have said they believe that “Antifa” was behind the riot; if they really thought that were the case, wouldn’t they want an investigation?”
Of course they don’t want the truth to come out.
Here's the text of the email to my Trump sycophant U.S. Representative. Dear Representative Moolenaar, I was not surprised to see that your name was not on the list of Republican Representatives who supported the formation of January 6th Commission. In Dr. Heather Cox Richardson,5/19/2021 Letters from An American, she wrote "After years of weaponizing investigations—Benghazi, Secretary of State Clinton’s emails, Hunter Biden—the Republicans are facing an investigation, based in reality, that likely will reflect badly on them. They want no part of it." Yesterday, Representative Ryan from Ohio expressed a similar sentiment. Again, you continue to disappoint. You would rather work to force people to return to minimum wage jobs during a pandemic than get to the bottom of what happened on that deplorable day.
Interesting confluence of events. Trump
Organization under “criminal” investigation, January 6th Commission vote and continuing voter suppression and recount fiascos. What they all have in common is how far Republicans have fallen and how they will stop at nothing to remain in power. The 2022 elections seem more susceptible to manipulation allowing the minority to regain control and move the country farther to the right. We cannot allow this to happen, the consequences are far too great. The counter to this is an legitimate accountability of the crimes by the formers and their supporters and enablers. The failure to do this will be disastrous.