Thursday, January 7, 2021

"This god-awful display today"


 
    I had planned to run an old column today about the man who oversees the model railroad at the Museum of Science and Industry.
     But events interceded.
     And while I'm not someone who feels the need to wedge myself into every big story, the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol Wednesday seemed to demand comment. 

     Marathon political theater not being my thing, I had no plans to watch Wednesday’s certification of the presidential election in Congress. Toward what end? The Trumps-in-training, hoping to catch the fancy of his followers, and the votes and dollars that go with it, lining up to lie to them from the floor of Congress for up to 24 hours. Then Joe Biden still gets sworn in Jan. 20.
     Pass.
     But there was lunch to think about. So I headed downstairs, where my boys, in their mid-20s and still interested in absorbing the details of any picturesque train wreck, were watching CNN. There was Mitch McConnell, majority leader of the U.S. Senate. While I had seen his startled mouth-popping, wattle-waggling grouper mug a thousand times, I couldn’t remember actually hearing him speak. I found a spot on the sofa.
     “We’re debating a step that has never been taken in American history,” he began gravely. “Whether Congress should overrule the voters and overturn a presidential election. I served 36 years in the Senate. This will be the most important vote I ever cast.”
     To my amazement, he said the right thing. Time to put on our big boy pants, using a tone approaching contempt when he mentioned “sweeping conspiracy theories.” McConnell outlined the emptiness of the election fraud claims.
     “Nothing before us proves illegality anywhere near the massive scale that would have tipped the entire election, nor can public doubt alone justify a radical break when the doubt itself was incited without any evidence.”
     I applauded. That’s the Democratic superpower — we can find value, even in those we generally oppose.
     I couldn’t have said it better myself. Mitch McConnell, Republican, Trump supporter, American hero.

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17 comments:

  1. The first thing I thought of today was Trump watching TV and loving every minute of what was going on in his name. He's a giant puppeteer controlling these fools who actually think the election will be reversed if they make enough noise and do enough damage.

    Obviously Trump is an ignorant, stupid man who has done untold damage over the past four years. I am now officially terrified. I have little imagination and can't guess what's in store for us over the next 13 days, but I'm pretty sure there's something. I thought he would lay low and just slither away to Mar A Lago, but I don't think that'll happen. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think so.

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  2. Moscow Mitch has never been a hero & never will be!
    He was just bowing to the reality that drumpf's actions cost him the job as majority leader.
    Now he can't stifle Biden's appointments or shut down laws passed by the House & needing Senate approval.

    As for drumpf, he will die from the stress of being known as the Biggest Sore Loser, withing two years!

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  3. I actually cried at the sight of this insurrection, even though I had anticipated it since the clown's announcement of the January 6th speech. A beer hall putsch similar the rise of Nazi Germany. The Hitler parallels have been obvious since Stephen Miller's pronouncement that the President is not to be questioned and deserves blind loyalty.
    That his supporters are either blind to the truth or aware but wholly supportive is what makes this one of the saddest days in our history.

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  4. The question that has come up over and over again since the fateful day descending the escalator demands now to be answered. Does Donald Trump believe the outrageous things he says? These waning days of his presidency indicate that he does indeed believe what he says is true, perhaps not literally, but metaphysically, just as a psychotic might think he's God while realizing that the physical world, illusory as it may be, must still be dealt with as if he were a mere mortal. It remains to be seen if removing Trump under the 25th Amendment would solve the problem or compound it. God only knows what's going through Trump's mind right now. One almost feels sorry for him.

    john

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    1. Almost feel sorry for him? I wouldn't feel the least bit sorry if I had to step over his paralyzed, bleeding body at the base of his Trump Tower escalator.

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  5. "This is the natural result of the lawless, sneering, what-about-Hunter-Biden mass pathology that began with the Tea Party, was cheered by Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones and Sean Hannity, growing in the dark, wandering until it found its messiah in the form of a reality show real estate fraud, logorrheic liar and living embodiment of the corrosion of self-regard, Donald Trump."

    It goes back farther. At least to the red-baiting days of Nixon's first Congressional campaign. And let's not forget how Roger Stone personifies a through-line from Nixon's CREEP era to Trump.

    This is a deep, dark undercurrent of American society. And it leads me to being somewhat less than optimistic regarding our future.

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  6. Seeing a video of some truly pathetic woman, wiping her eyes after being tear-gassed, being led away from the Capitol... and her interpretation to why she was rebuffed after storming a blocked door? "Because it's a revolution."

    How goddamn sad that these idiots think their poorly thought out "what happens after the bluster" moment may result in actual, real harm, even while crying out as a victim.

    The stupid, it burns.

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  7. After the election I told a good friend not to celebrate. I related the ways the Constitution could be twisted to undo Biden's victory. My concerns were brushed aside. Eventually he conceded that I had been right. Last night he was more sure of my wisdom but thinks it is close to the end. I disagree. The nutcases are everywhere and still suffering from the same delusion. It is time for the Conservatives to fully denounce Drumpf, own up to the thousands of lies, admit that the mainstream media is not lame, and start to respect their political differences with Liberals in words and deeds. The Republcan members of Congress should be standing shoulder to shoulder on the Capitol steps disavowing yesterdays riot. Right Now. I'm not counting on it. The tepid response last night hasn't assuaged my fears that there is more to come. Insane or evil, The Cowardly Liar will not stop on his own.

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  8. JP you are correct — the stupids are still out there. They ridiculed Mitt Romney as a traitor on his flight home.

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  9. This is a fine column, but the pathology began well before the Tea Party. I've long been amazed at how many elections in this freaking country come down to being essentially 50/50. How is that possible, when reality has a clear liberal bias? Non-rich Republicans and pissed-off blue collar folks have been voting against their own interests since at least 1980. Lawlessness became an official feature of Republican administrations with Nixon, if not before.

    It was refreshing to hear Moscow Mitch and Lady G actually saying the right things yesterday. Their chickens had finally come home to roost in such a spectacular fashion that even they had to respond. Still, they were hardly profiles in courage. Somebody noted on Twitter that we saw what it would take for them to ever stand up to Trump -- it was the fact that he will no longer be president in 2 weeks. I certainly hope that they will now be excoriated by the true believers as RINOs and the Republican party will be torn asunder from within. I'm not holding my breath.

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    1. It actually started just before Goldwater’s run in 1964. Read “Before the Storm” by Rick Perlstein. It connects the dots.

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    2. What, me read a book? (Joke loosely based on your avatar.) Thanks, Les, I'll look into it.

      Also, not that anybody will be reading this, I'm going to refine my above reference to MM and LG deciding when to make their (brief) stand in support of reality. Another factor, obscured somewhat by the maelstrom Wednesday, was that the Senate races were decided. There are no more voters who need to be bamboozled in the near future, as there still were in Georgia ever since November. I assume that the runoff played a large part in MM's calculation to coddle Trump's base with regard to the presidential election which he's known all along was legitimate.

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  10. I think this is the end. Less than two more weeks but there are plenty of conservatives calling out the Clown. I never watch Fox but I thought I would check it out last night to see what they thought about their "Boy" now. They weren't too pleased. I think he hit rock bottom. I think everyone who reads this blog had the Clown figured out over 5 years ago, but once the enablers turned, he's done. I think we'll be "ok" through the transition. Some of those people walking through the Capitol certainly didn't look very bright....like lost zombies looking to be led.

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  11. Trump’s main legacy is his ripping open the scab that hid the diseases festering under the surface.

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  12. There's a famous old quote, mistakenly attributed to both Sinclair Lewis and Huey Long: "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." But nobody never figured on that flag being the banner of a sick and fanatical personality cult instead of Old Glory, or the cross being the twisted cross of the neo-Nazis, instead of the standard Christian one. We have just lived through yet another day of infamy, folks...one that will leave its mark (and its stain) on our future history for a long, long time.

    I became more and more angry as the hours in front of the TV screen ticked by. Does it make me a fascist, too, if I fervently hoped that one of those demented clowns popped off a couple of rounds, thus giving the police a reason to mow them down and turn the Capitol steps red with right-wing blood? Or was I merely just another old anti-fascist geezer, who's been antifa for half-a-century?

    But, no...none of that was going to happen. This is America, where dozens of domestic terrorist sheeple are still alive to howl at the moon, bellow support for their Dear Leader, and terrorize another day. Mainly because they were wearing America's best and most bullet-proof body armor. It's called...white skin.

    Then I watched the pundits and the pontificators, until the wee small hours of the morning, and stayed awake until the election was finally certified for Joe. By then, my anger had turned to heartache and sadness. Everyone knew this was coming. Were you shocked? Perhaps. Surprised? You shouldn't have been. Hell, no.

    Is there still time for another impeachment trial, and a boot out the door? Better still, can we force the Biggest Loser to endure the ultimate disgrace and humiliation of being the first POTUS to be canned for being as crazy as a shithouse rat? Which we always knew he was. Why did we wait so long?

    Instead of throwing the switch, we waited for the train wreck. The wheels came off the rails. Millions got sick. Hundreds of thousands are dead, or about to die. Our economy is a shambles. Our politics are a total shitshow. Our Great Divide is now a Grand Canyon. America has become the pitiful, helpless, diseased giant. The hulking, pathetic, miserable wretch, shuffling down the street, that nobody wants around.

    Thanks for everything, Sniffy. They're coming to take you away. At last.

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