January 7, 2021

New Orleans  Insurrection, riot, mob, anarchists, terrorists, as the Senate chaplain reminded, words have meaning, and those were words hurled like rocks from Senators and Representatives. For a change they weren’t hummed at our heads, but at Trump and his base that has so many of them cowering in fear and spinelessness. What a scene!

I was talking to a friend on the phone, and he asked if I had the television on. Heck no, I was working. What he described was the picture that is now in every newspaper of men with guns drawn pointed at a door with broken glass, as they tried to secure the Senate chambers.         Let’s look at the silver lining in this thunderstorm for just a second, if you will allow me. There won’t be a campaign run by the Republicans over the next four years or more that doesn’t feature footage of this mayhem of Trumpsters with their Trump 2020 flags and MAGA hats.

I’m talking not just about Trump, whose so-called “brand” is now a dumpster fire and total rubbish, but all of his enablers as well and any of those offering them cover. There is a list of the six senators and eighty odd representatives in the paper.         Say their names! Find any ol’ shaggy dog willing to run against them, and make them pay the way an old school democracy works, in an election.

There are hundreds of stories about this mess, the bottom line of which was that a 3AM the next morning Joe Biden was officially certified by Congress as the next president of the United States. Earlier the same day, Jon Ossoff, was declared the upset winner over incumbent Republican Senator David Perdue, insuring with his running partner Rev. Raphael Warnock, that the Democrats will control the Senate, which is good news. I’ve read a good percentage of these articles, so won’t pretend to repeat what’s now widely known, but I’ve got some questions.

• How big was the crowd? Nowhere can I find an estimate in any report.
• How was it possible to overwhelm the 2000 Capitol police? I’ve seen pictures of them all over the steps of the Capitol as they stood ready to guard against Black Lives Matter peaceful protestors. I’ve dealt with them on actions in and around the Capitol before.         Were they asleep at the switch because they thought these were just old white guys or what?
• How could there have only been 56 arrests? A half-dozen were on gun charges, but the papers reported most of them were for curfew violations which didn’t start until 6PM, way after stuff went down. There were pictures showing marauders calming leaving the Capitol and walking past the police, like they had been on tour. Take my word for this, it would not have been this way, if this had been for our team.
• Who were these folks, besides sheep led to the slaughter by Trump? I’ve only seen one article by an AP reporter that recognized Kluxers, Proud Boys, anti-Semitic groups that are widely known, local and national affiliated separatists, white supremacists, and folks involved in the violence in Charlottesville over the Lee statute. This was a gathering of evil clans. It’s important to know who we’re dealing with so that we can name the folks in DC and in state capitols who are ready for civil war under Trump leadership

A lot of politicians are going to be spouting platitudes about democracy and rule of law who have been flamethrowers and bannermen for Trump. We have to call out this hypocrisy. How could the Republican House minority leader Kevin McCarthy and the whip, Steve Scalise from Louisiana have signed on to this, when they are supposed to be leaders in Congress. How can Louisiana’s Senator John Kennedy both be one of only six senators who wanted to overturn the election, and also try to claim later in the day he was horrified by the turmoil?

Trump’s on his way out and on his way down. For the rest, we need to take names and make sure there is full accountability.