Tag: Civil Disobedience

What Would MLK Think?

Closing Thought–18Jan21

Today is MLK birthday holiday.

Many have wondered what if he were alive he would think about the division of today and the riot around the Capitol.

First of all MLK was a devout follower of the theory of non-violence in the vein of Gandhi….so he would not condone the events of 06 January in any shape.

This year, America commemorates Martin Luther King Jr.’s life amid a chaotic and shameful time for democracy. Less than two weeks ago, insurrectionists stormed the United States Capitol after they were encouraged to “take back” the country by the sitting US president, holding fast to the false claim of election fraud.

MLK should be a prophet to those that want to protest….

  1. “In spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace.”
  2. “We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself. We will try to persuade with our words, but if our words fail, we will try to persuade with our acts.”
  3. “Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.”
  4. “Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.”
  5. “Nonviolence is absolute commitment to the way of love. Love is not emotional bash; it is not empty sentimentalism. It is the active outpouring of one’s whole being into the being of another.”
  6. “World peace through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable. All other methods have failed. Thus we must begin anew. Nonviolence is a good starting point.”
  7. “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”
  8. “I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action.”
  9. “I am convinced that even violent temperaments can be channeled through nonviolent discipline, if they can act constructively and express through an effective channel their very legitimate anger.”
  10. “In the nonviolent army, there is room for everyone who wants to join up. There is no color distinction. There is no examination, no pledge, except that, as a soldier in the armies of violence is expected to inspect his carbine and keep it clean, nonviolent soldiers are called upon to examine their greatest weapons: their heart, their conscience, their courage and sense of justice.”

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During moments of social and political turmoil, we often ask ourselves, what would King do?

Unfortunately, the same forces that motivated the insurrectionists have tried their hardest to water down and whitewash King’s message and legacy. White supremacist ideology motivated the Capitol attack, and it’s this same power that has, in recent years, attempted to mischaracterize King’s words to fit their agenda.

Vice President Mike Pence, for example, has likened Donald Trump to King in an effort to defend Trump’s border wall. “One of my favorite quotes from Dr. King was, ‘Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy,’” Pence said on Face the Nation ahead of MLK Day in 2019. “You think of how he changed America. He inspired us to change through the legislative process, to become a more perfect union.’”

https://www.vox.com/2021/1/18/22233296/martin-luther-king-jr-whitewashed-legacy-and-message

“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate…Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

 

Another Pointless Putsch?

A Putsch?

An attempt to violently overthrow a government.

It appeared to me…I know that some will not agree with my assertion…..this was what occurred in DC on the 6th of January 2021.

It is not the first time such an event has happened….

The mos famous “Putsch” was when Hitler and the Nazis tried to take the Bavarian government in 1923 with the Beerhall Putsch.

For those unfamiliar with history…..

From November 8 to November 9, 1923, Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and his followers staged the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, a failed takeover of the government in Bavaria, a state in southern Germany. Since 1921, Hitler had led the Nazi Party, a fledgling political group that promoted German pride and anti-Semitism and was unhappy with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the peace settlement that ended World War I (1914-18) and required many concessions and reparations from Germany. In the aftermath of the failed “putsch,” or coup d’état, Hitler was convicted of treason and sentenced to five years in prison. He spent less than a year behind bars, during which time he dictated “Mein Kampf,” his political autobiography. The putsch and Hitler’s subsequent trial turned him into a national figure. After prison, he worked to rebuild the Nazi Party and gain power via legal political methods.

That would not be the first nor the last attempt to subvert a government.

The melée in Washington looked like the early stages of what in the Latin American context would be described as an attempted “self-coup” or autogolpe. That’s defined as an interruption of the constitutional and democratic order by means of the closure of congress and suspension of the constitution, typically followed by rule by decree and the perpetuation in power of an autocratic ruler. Variations on this script have been played out in Peru (1992), Russia (1993) and Guatemala (1993).

Reaching further back into history, examples of ambitious politicians disrupting established institutions to retain power can be found in the coup of the 18th Brumaire by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (the nephew of Napoléon Bonaparte) in France (1851), Oliver Cromwell’s dissolution of the Rump Parliament in 1653 and the rebellion of the Gracchi brothers in Rome (133-121 BCE.

https://theconversation.com/the-u-s-capitol-raid-was-a-failed-self-coup-previously-seen-in-dying-regimes-152917

In my younger days being a so-called “radical” there are reasons that I might  have joined these people in DC.

If those people stormed the Capitol because their government had abandoned them for nearly a year while an unprecedented pandemic ravaged the country.

If they stormed the Capitol because the government shut down their jobs and asked them to stay home but didn’t provide stimulus to replace their lost income, didn’t provide rent relief, mortgage relief, debt relief during an unprecedented pandemic.

If they stormed the Capitol because they were recently evicted or on the edge of eviction or their children were going hungry because the government abandoned them during an unprecedented pandemic.

If they stormed the Capitol because they couldn’t afford healthcare in the midst of a health crisis. Because they saw family, friends, coworkers die needlessly because the government abandoned them during an unprecedented pandemic. I would have supported them.

If the people who stormed the Capitol were part of the anti-war movement, disgusted that our military is still in Afghanistan, the longest war in American history, and still in Iraq, a war predicated on lies and misinformation that has killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and displaced over a million.

None of that was the reason for the situation.

The truly bizarre thing about this whole fiasco. The devotion to Trump would be more understandable if he had made the average Americans life materially better while he was in office. But he didn’t.

They stormed the Capitol for a lie, to fight for a president that is a fraud, while all of the real problems this country faces remain unresolved.

All in all it was a pointless exercise in stupidity.

“Pointless?

I am not convinced that it was a pointless exercise…..as many of the other so-called “putsch” it set up the climate for change to come….and I believe that is what this act accomplished.

Now we wait for the stupidity that will surround the swearing in ceremony on 20 January.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

06Jan21–If Only……

Just a few thoughts about the breaching of the Capitol building….after this I will attempt to stay away from this subject unless there is major events breaking.

I was a radical in my younger days….I went to protests and even was arrested….but in my wildest radicalized days I never considered the actions that were perpetrated on this day.

There a few things to consider…..things that would have made me attempt such an afront to the American republic….

If the people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, and eventually overtook the Capitol, quite easily by the way, with police literally opening gates for them, snapping some selfies, and participating in a few friendly shoving matches before ceding the building completely.

If those people stormed the Capitol because their government had abandoned them for nearly a year while an unprecedented pandemic ravaged the country.

If they stormed the Capitol because the government shut down their jobs and asked them to stay home but didn’t provide stimulus to replace their lost income, didn’t provide rent relief, mortgage relief, debt relief during an unprecedented pandemic.

If they stormed the Capitol because they were recently evicted or on the edge of eviction or their children were going hungry because the government abandoned them during an unprecedented pandemic.

If they stormed the Capitol because they couldn’t afford healthcare in the midst of a health crisis. Because they saw family, friends, coworkers die needlessly because the government abandoned them during an unprecedented pandemic. I would have supported them.

If the people who stormed the Capitol were black and indigenous and fed up with the state violence and oppression and systemic racism they endure every day.

If they stormed the Capitol demanding justice, equality, and reparations for how they and their families and their ancestors have been brutally treated since before this country was a country. I would have supported them.

If the people who stormed the Capitol were environmental activists demanding the government finally act on climate change. Something the government has known was a real crisis for decades and has done nothing to combat.

If they stormed the Capitol because the oceans are warming, the forests are on fire, the coral reefs are bleaching, insects are disappearing, birds are falling out of the sky, and much more disaster will follow if the government doesn’t act now. I would have supported them.

If the people who stormed the Capitol were part of the anti-war movement, disgusted that our military is still in Afghanistan, the longest war in American history, and still in Iraq, a war predicated on lies and misinformation that has killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and displaced over a million.

If they stormed the Capitol because our military is supporting with weapons and logistics the Saudi-led genocide in Yemen which has been deemed the World’s worst humanitarian crisis by the UN, where an estimated 24 million people – close to 80 percent of the population – need assistance and protection.

If they stormed the Capitol for any of those reasons, I would have supported them.

The Pointless Putsch

Even in the most radicalized days of the 60s and 70s….this was NEVER considered (I am sure that there were some wishful thinking back in those days)

I have seen nothing that has happened to warrant such destruction…..I have heard words that were the driving force behind the breach of the Capitol building…..

This was a dark day for Americans….those responsible should be held accountability for their culpability for the violence.  ALL OF THEM!

Is there a possibility that there could be something that can be done about this domestic terrorism?

Yep and it is entitled as the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2019….maybe it is time for this to come out of committee and do something about this violence….

Text of bill–S.894–Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act…….https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/894/text

Let’s Make It So!

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Let The Prosecutions Begin!

Thanx to social media the FBI has starting arresting some of the morons that breached the police line at the Capitol building last Wednesday.

Two of the most high-profile participants in this week’s DC riots have been arrested:

  • Richard Barnett, who was pictured sitting in Nancy Pelosi’s office during the melee, was taken into custody in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Friday, reports CNN. The 60-year-old is charged with entering and remaining in restricted building grounds without authority, violent entry, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and theft of public property. Barnett spoke publicly after his stunt and admitted taking a personalized envelope from Pelosi’s desk. However, he left a quarter behind and says he didn’t steal it.
  • West Virginia state lawmaker Derrick Evans, who live-streamed himself in the throng, also was charged Friday with illegally entering the Capitol, per West Virginia Metro News. A petition is in the works calling the newly sworn-in Evans to resign, notes NBC News. However, Evans’ attorney says his client “committed no criminal act that day” and will not step down.

The moron with the headdress was arrested and  as well as the idiot that stole Pelosi’s lectern….

You’ve seen the photograph: A guy wearing a Trump beanie smiles and waves in the US Capitol while holding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s lectern. That man, identified as 36-year-old Adam Johnson of Parrish, Fla., was arrested Friday night and is being held on a federal warrant, NBC News reports. Johnson, who is married to a physician and is reportedly a stay-at-home father of five, was booked into Pinellas County jail on charges of unlawfully entering a restricted building, theft of government property, and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, per WLFA, in connection to Wednesday’s violent events at the Capitol. He was quickly identified by residents who saw the viral photo. One of them was Allan Mestal, who tells WFLA that he called the FBI.

“Couldn’t believe it, the fact that I recognize somebody from our hometown, I was floored,” he says. In since-deleted social media posts, Johnson said he was in Washington DC ahead of the riots and spoke out against Black Lives Matter, per the Bradenton Herald. Johnson is among dozens who have been arrested or charged in connection to the events at the Capitol. On Saturday, federal agents arrested Jacob Anthony Chansley—AKA Jacob Angeli, AKA the QAnon Shaman—the New York Post reports. Chansley was seen in the Capitol “dressed in horns, a bearskin headdress, red, white, and blue face paint, shirtless, and tan pants,” according to a Justice Department statement. He is accused of unlawful entry into a restricted building and violent entry and disorderly conduct.

Even lawyers were part of this fiasco…..this one is from Atlanta…..

McCall Calhoun, an attorney from Americus, was among the hundreds in a pro-Trump riot who forced their way into the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, 2021.

When hundreds of pro-Trump protesters stunned and horrified the nation by forcing their way into the United States Capitol Wednesday, self-described “Anti-Communist Counter-Revolutionary” McCall Calhoun was among the first through the doors.

“The Deep State cannot stop us,” he wrote on Parler, a social media network popular with Trump supporters, “They learned that today when we stormed the Capitol and took it. The word is we’re all coming back armed for war.”

Calhoun, a practicing attorney in Americus for 30 years, admitted his participation in the riot in an exclusive interview with the AJC in which he described the mob as patriotic and heroic.

https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-attorney-among-those-who-broke-into-the-us-capitol/MF3IWF57WRGHBO2G2GTSZII374/

This tool needs to be disbarred then fully prosecuted.

Let the good times roll!

There should be more arrests coming….and make an example out of the idiots that have been caught.

As the FBI starts arresting the slimy slugs…..what about those behind the scenes that made this day possible?

Like the state AGs that made phone calls….

An arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association, a national group representing the top law enforcement officers in their states, sent out robocalls encouraging people to march to the U.S. Capitol the day before the building was stormed by a pro-Trump mob.

“At 1 p.m., we will march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal,” said the voice on the recording, which was obtained by NBC News.

The calls, which did not advocate violence or suggest the building should be breached, was sent out by the Rule of Law Defense Fund, a fundraising arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association. The groups share funding, staff and office space in Washington, D.C.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/republican-ags-group-sent-robocalls-urging-march-capitol-n1253581

More info here…..https://documented.net/2021/01/republican-attorneys-general-dark-money-group-organized-protest-preceding-capitol-mob-attack/

What about the state legislators that attended the riot?

Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate and state Sen. Amanda Chase is facing calls to resign after attending the pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Chase addressed a crowd at the event but said she departed “just in time” before a mob began to riot and force its way into the U.S. Capitol.

Chase is one of more than a dozen state lawmakers from across the country who were in the nation’s capital Wednesday, including newly elected West Virginia state Del. Derrick Evans, a Republican who is now facing charges after a video he live-streamed showed him entering the Capitol building.

Republican lawmakers from at least eight other states — Michigan, Missouri, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Alaska, Arizona and Illinois — were present ahead of the riot or said they departed as the mob began to storm. Two outgoing state representatives — Rep. Anthony Kern of Arizona and Rep. Vernon Jones of Georgia, who announced earlier that day he had become a Republican — were in attendance. Another Virginia lawmaker, Del. Dave LaRock, was also at the rally.

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/09/955128569/more-than-a-dozen-gop-state-lawmakers-attended-rally-that-gave-way-to-riots

These people need to censured and a loss of benefits for contributing to the chaos…..then criminal charges for aiding and abetting.

What would you say if a Supreme Court justice wife was heavily involved in the riot?

Guess what?

Clarence Thomas’ wife was ass deep in the conspiracy to comment violence…..

It has been reported from numerous sources that Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, sponsored 80 busloads of “protesters” to Wednesday’s insurrection at the Capitol. Let’s say each bus held 30 people. That’s over 2,000 individuals. This is in addition to promulgating the lies about Donald Trump’s “stolen election” through her social media up to and including the morning of Wednesday’s insurrection. What’s the likelihood that any one of those 2,400 individuals participated in the seditious attempt at overthrowing our government? Of course, Mrs. Thomas has since deleted the relevant social media posts, but they were already captured.

(Daily Kos)

These people are traitors to the country and no penalty is too great for the lot of them.

There is one twist to this…..Pres. Trump……

A former assistant U.S. attorney raised the unnerving possibility that Donald Trump could pardon his supporters who violently stormed the Capitol on Wednesday.

Five people were dead at the end of the attack, including a police officer.

The chance of a Trump pardon — including for himself — is particularly jarring in this case because the president been accused of inciting the violence.

“If he pardons people who directly attacked our democratic process, committing crimes while they were doing it, how much more egregious, unjust, unfair, inappropriate does a presidential pardon get?” former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner said Friday on NBC 4 in Washington.

“It doesn’t get any more democracy-damaging than not being able to hold those folks accountable,” added Kirschner, who spent 30 years prosecuting crimes in the District of Columbia.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/glenn-kirschner-trump-pardon-capitol-rioters_n_5ffa923fc5b63642b6fc839d

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Should We Be Concerned?

By now we all have seen the fiasco around and in the Capitol building on 06 January and the reports from the different news sources….but is it possible that there is not much to be concerned with?

This is an op-ed that shows little concern for the actions of some…..

Let’s be clear about what took place at the Capitol Building last night. This was a mob assault on the institutions of democracy. The ragtag army of Capitol breachers may have looked ridiculous, decked out in Trump-wear and face paint and antlers. But what they did was not ridiculous, it was serious. They illegally entered the democratic citadel of the United States, a beacon of democracy to many people around the world, with the express intention of blocking the peaceful transition of power voted for by their fellow citizens. They committed a violent incursion against the practice and the ideal of democracy.

Don’t exaggerate the threat of the Capitol rioters

I do not know if totally agree with this opinion.

What do you think?

Should we be concerned or not?

I say yes!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

How Could This Happen?

That seems to be the larger question surrounding the police line breach by pro-Trump protesters in and around the Capitol building.

We can blame the president and his sycophants for egging the protests on….but what about the breach of the police line?

The US Capitol was stormed by a pro-President Trump mob Wednesday in the first mass breach of the building since British soldiers burned it in 1814—and a lot of people are asking how it was able to happen. The Capitol Police force is being accused of failing to anticipate the breach, though former Boston police commissioner Ed Davis blames “a lack of political will to control an attempted insurrection,” USA Today reports. “What happened here is a colossal failure, and I believe it’s a colossal political failure, not on the part of the police,” he says. “They were outnumbered and overrun.” The mob stormed the building, forcing lawmakers into hiding, after Trump spoke at a nearby rally and urged supporters to march to the Capitol. At least 14 police officers were injured in the violence. More:

  • Former chief is mystified. Kim Dine, chief of the Capitol Police from 2012 to 2016, says he was surprised to see that people were allowed to gather on the Capitol steps before they pushed forward and overwhelmed police—and that they weren’t arrested as soon as they entered the building. “It’s like watching a real-life horror movie. I mean, we train and plan and budget every day, basically, to have this not happen, Dine tells the Washington Post. “How it happened, I can’t figure that out.” A video that went viral appears to show officers actually opening a barricade to allow protesters to move closer to the building.
  • There was plenty of warning. While some law enforcement experts say it is difficult to tell when a protest could become a riot, there was plenty of warning that violence was likely on Wednesday, with Trump himself declaring that the day would be “wild,” the New York Times reports. For weeks ahead of the date, members of online “Stop the Steal” groups discussed tactics, weapons, and referred to “occupying” the Capitol.
  • How it began. Politico reports that while most Trump supporters had gathered for Trump’s speech at the Ellipse, small groups started gathering near the Capitol from around 9am, though fences kept them at a distance from the building. The crowd grew to tens of thousands after Trump’s speech and hundreds, then thousands, pressed forward after supporters broke down metal barricades.
  • A “stunning failure.” Ryan Cooper at the Week calls the breach a “stunning failure” and notes that there is “no doubt whatsoever that if, say, the Black Panthers tried something like this, dozens of people would now be dead, and hundreds injured.” “This crowd probably didn’t think they would get anywhere near as far as they did, but they will keep pushing until someone stops them,” he writes. “In this case, the Capitol Police have proved they are not ready to defend the legislature of the American people.”

The larger question…..why did the police stand down during the rush of protesters?

Politico reported that a current Metro D.C. officer in a public Facebook post claimed that off-duty police officers and military members were among the rioters and that they used their badges and I.D. cards to help compromise security. “If these people can storm the Capitol building with no regard to punishment, you have to wonder how much they abuse their powers when they put on their uniforms,” the cop wrote.

In an interview in New York magazine, 49-year-old Trump supporter Darinna Thompson from Pennsylvania, noted the congenial attitude police took towards fascist insurrectionists inside the Capitol, telling her interviewer, “…you should go in there, it’s beautiful. I thanked them for their hospitality; most of them are on our side, the Capitol Police.”

A reporter for the New York Times who was inside the Capitol at the time it was breached questioned a cop as to why they weren’t attempting to expel the protesters. The cop replied, “We’ve just got to let them do their thing now.”

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/08/coup-j08.html

Reality says that this response to the protesters….is unequal to the responses to BLM protests……where were the massive amount of troops/police or the combat gear or the tanks and armored vehicles?

Yes, I feel that an in-depth investigation is needed.

Let the resignations begin.

Three top security officials at the Capitol have resigned following widespread criticism of the lack of preparedness blamed for Wednesday’s breach. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund has resigned effective Jan. 16, meaning he will be gone before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, Politico reports. Michael Stenger, the Senate sergeant-at-arms, has been forced out by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “Today I requested and received the resignation of Michael Stenger, the Senate Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper, effective immediately,” McConnell said in a statement Thursday night, per the Hill. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier Thursday that he planned to fire Stenger if the sergeant-at-arms was still in his post when he becomes majority leader on Jan. 20.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving had also submitted his resignation. Lawmakers criticized the lack of planning but praised rank-and-file officers. “The Capitol Police I was around did an amazing job under difficult circumstances,” Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley told CNN. “My concern wasn’t with how valiant the Capitol Police were. It was that an hour before the debate started, I looked at the throngs of people surrounding different sections of the Capitol and said, we don’t have enough security.” GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said the response should have involved warning shots and lethal force when the building was breached. “How could they fail so miserably? We’re 20 years from 9/11,” he said, per Politico. “Yesterday they could have blown the building up. They could have killed us all. They could have destroyed the government.”

Any people involved including police and service members need to to charged and prosecuted….and if a stand down order was issued that person needs to lose the job and prosecuted for aiding and abetting the commission of a crime and if convicted should be imprisoned for the duration of the sentence.

I have nothing but contempt for the police and their lack of response during the protests.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Idiot Right Assigns Blame

I had written that I was waiting for the Lunatic Right to offer some condemnation of the morons that overran the Capitol in the protests in favor of Trump and his lies about the election.

I did not really think they would offer any condemnation….and that they would assign blame for the violence in the police line breach on 06 January……and now they are talking and they are blaming the usual suspects….

In the wake of Wednesday’s violence in Washington, a new narrative has emerged on the right about what happened. It boils down to this: Don’t blame us, blame the far-left activists of antifa. The accusation is that members of the latter group infiltrated pro-Trump protests and turned them violent. Coverage:

  • House floor: The allegation gained wide traction Wednesday night when GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz declared on the House floor, “Some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters. They were masquerading as Trump supporters, and in fact were members of the violent terrorist group antifa.” Vox notes that Gaetz’s assertion was met with audible boos in the chamber.
  • The source: Gaetz mentioned an article in the right-leaning Washington Timesthat quotes a retired military officer. The unnamed officer says facial-recognition software identified at least two of the protesters who entered the Senate as antifa members. Gaetz acknowledged he didn’t know if the report was true, but he found it “compelling.”
  • Others: “This has all the hallmarks of Antifa provocation,” tweeted GOP Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona. Republican colleague Mo Brooks seconded the claim while speaking to Lou Dobbs of Fox, per NBC News. There “could be any other number of groups, anarchists, or what have you, that could have taken advantage of this opportunity to … vandalize the United States Capitol,” he added. Sarah Palin also blamed “antifa folks.”
  • Networks: Newsmax and One America News Network picked up the theme in coverage of the violence, per Axios. Newsmax host Greg Kelly, for example, condemned the unrest, while adding, “These people don’t look like Trump supporters. Trump supporters don’t do these things,” per the Washington Post.
  • Fox hosts: “I’d like to know who the agitators were,” said Sean Hannity, per the Post. “Those who truly support President Trump … do not support those that commit acts of violence.” Fox’s Brian Kilmeade also expressed skepticism that Trump supporters were solely to blame. Laura Ingraham: “I have never seen Trump rally attendees wearing helmets, black helmets, brown helmets, black backpacks—the uniforms you saw in some of these crowd shots.” Tucker Carlson: “We may never know the truth here,” he said. “I keep seeing all kinds of accounts of who they were and what their motives might have been.”
  • On the other hand: The Postnotes that many Trump supporters openly boasted of breaching the Capitol, even livestreaming it. The take of Jerusalem Demsas of Vox: “(A)t present, there is no evidence that there are members of antifa who were a part of this crowd. However, there is ample evidence that prominent Trump supporters and members of QAnon were present during the illegal takeover of the building.”

First, Tucker Carlson is an rabid idiot.

Trump supporters do not do things like this?

Where has that fool been for 4 years?

Antifa?

Really….all those MAGA hats and Trump flags….kinda tells a different story.

Typical excuses for a Trump supporter……

And you really think this type of silliness will soon be over?

NOT ON YOUR LIFE!

The crap has not really hit the fan yet….but fear not….IT WILL!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

All About The Fiasco In DC

Most every American has heard about the fiasco surrounding the electoral college certification of Biden as the winner of the 2020 election for president of the United States.

The stunning display of insurrection was the first time the US Capitol had been overrun since the British attacked and burned the building in August of 1814, during the War of 1812, according to Samuel Holliday, director of scholarship and operations with the US Capitol Historical Society.
 
The shocking scene was met with less police force than many of the Black Lives Matter protests that rolled across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police officers last year. While federal police attacked peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square outside the White House over the summer, clearing the way for Trump to take a photo in front of a nearby church at the time, protesters on Wednesday were able to overrun Capitol police and infiltrate the country’s legislative chambers.
 
This looked like a coup….or attempted coup at least….it appeared to be a fascist attempt….contrary to popular lies it was not the antifa……

The fascist insurrection in Washington DC—which resulted in the storming of the US Congress, the panicked dispersal of terrified senators and members of the House, the delay of the official validation of Joseph Biden’s Electoral College majority, and even the occupation of the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi—is a turning point in the political history of the United States.

The hoary glorifications of the invincibility and timelessness of American democracy have been totally exposed and discredited as a hollow political myth. The popular phrase “It Can’t Happen Here,” taken from the title of Sinclair Lewis’ justly famous fictional account of the rise of American fascism, has been decisively overtaken by events. Not only can a fascist coup happen here. It has happened here, on the afternoon of January 6, 2021.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/01/07/pers-j07.html

I posted earlier that I had not heard very much from the Right wing morons about the protest or a condemnation of all the vandalism and violence.

The civil disobedience many protesters to the Capitol building (number is not known for sure) …….once the breach of the police line protecting vandalism and violence led the way…..about 60 protesters were arrested and at least 4 people died….one woman was ht dead.

Five of the arrests were related to guns and two were for illegal possession of other weapons, including metal knuckles and a blackjack-like weapon.

A breakdown……https://www.yahoo.com/gma/capitol-breached-protesters-193200906.html

Just how was the police line breached for the protesters to enter the Capitol building?

The US Capitol was stormed by a pro-President Trump mob Wednesday in the first mass breach of the building since British soldiers burned it in 1814—and a lot of people are asking how it was able to happen. The Capitol Police force is being accused of failing to anticipate the breach, though former Boston police commissioner Ed Davis blames “a lack of political will to control an attempted insurrection,” USA Today reports. “What happened here is a colossal failure, and I believe it’s a colossal political failure, not on the part of the police,” he says. “They were outnumbered and overrun.” The mob stormed the building, forcing lawmakers into hiding, after Trump spoke at a nearby rally and urged supporters to march to the Capitol. At least 14 police officers were injured in the violence. More:

  • Former chief is mystified. Kim Dine, chief of the Capitol Police from 2012 to 2016, says he was surprised to see that people were allowed to gather on the Capitol steps before they pushed forward and overwhelmed police—and that they weren’t arrested as soon as they entered the building. “It’s like watching a real-life horror movie. I mean, we train and plan and budget every day, basically, to have this not happen, Dine tells the Washington Post. “How it happened, I can’t figure that out.” A video that went viral appears to show officers actually opening a barricade to allow protesters to move closer to the building.
  • Lawmakers promise an investigation. Lawmakers say there will be an investigation of the apparent lack of preparedness, the AP reports. Democratic Rep. Val Demings, a former police chief, said it was “painfully obvious” that Capitol Police were understaffed and didn’t have a clear plan for dealing with thousands of protesters descending on the building. “I certainly thought that we would have had a stronger show of force, that there would have been steps taken in the very beginning to make sure that there was a designated area for the protesters in a safe distance from the Capitol,” Demings said.
  • Firings could be imminent. Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, the House appropriator in charge of funding the Capitol Police, said Wednesday that “it’s pretty clear that there are going to be a number of people who are going to be without employment very, very soon.” He said the breach was an “embarrassment” due to “the lack of professional planning and dealing with what we knew was going to occur” and “you can bet your ass we’re going to get the bottom of it,” per Politico.
  • There was plenty of warning. While some law enforcement experts say it is difficult to tell when a protest could become a riot, there was plenty of warning that violence was likely on Wednesday, with Trump himself declaring that the day would be “wild,” the New York Times reports. For weeks ahead of the date, members of online “Stop the Steal” groups discussed tactics, weapons, and referred to “occupying” the Capitol.
  • How it began. Politico reports that while most Trump supporters had gathered for Trump’s speech at the Ellipse, small groups started gathering near the Capitol from around 9am, though fences kept them at a distance from the building. The crowd grew to tens of thousands after Trump’s speech and hundreds, then thousands, pressed forward after supporters broke down metal barricades.
  • A “stunning failure.” Ryan Cooper at the Week calls the breach a “stunning failure” and notes that there is “no doubt whatsoever that if, say, the Black Panthers tried something like this, dozens of people would now be dead, and hundreds injured.” “This crowd probably didn’t think they would get anywhere near as far as they did, but they will keep pushing until someone stops them,” he writes. “In this case, the Capitol Police have proved they are not ready to defend the legislature of the American people.”

One of the rabid Trumpites that was part of the ordeal was a newly elected lawmaker from west Virginia…..

A newly elected West Virginia lawmaker was part of the mob that stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday—and some of his colleagues don’t want him to return to the state Capitol. In a video that he later deleted from Facebook, Del. Derrick Evans livestreamed himself among a group of people forcing their way into the building, NPR reports. In a Facebook post, he claimed he was “simply there as an independent member of the media to film history,” though he hasn’t worked as a journalist and his video showed that he was an enthusiastic participant in the Capitol invasion, urging others to move forward and chanting “Trump! Trump! Trump!” Once inside, Evans chanted “Our House!” and told other crowd members not to vandalize anything.

On Sunday, Evans tweeted that he would attend a “Stop the Steal” protest “because this is the 1st time @realDonaldTrump has asked me to do anything.” West Virginia State House Speaker Roger Hanshaw said Wednesday he was in the process of gathering information about the incident, and Evans will have to “answer to his constituents and colleagues regarding his involvement in what has occurred today,” the Gazette-Mail reports. He added that those involved in storming the Capitol should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” “What occurred today is unpatriotic, un-American and I condemn it in the strongest terms possible,” he said. Almost 20,000 people have signed a petition calling for Evans’ removal from the House of Delegates, and Democratic leaders have called for his immediate resignation.

This person should NOT be allowed to take his seat….he committed sedition and violated his oath of office….he should be arrested and prosecuted and banned from ever holding office again……let’s not forget  a mandatory 2 year prison term…..no time off for good behavior and a regular prison not some white collar country club.

This group are the ones that support the violence by police against protesters and yet they attacked and killed at least one police officer….

A US Capitol Police officer has died following Wednesday’s insurrectionist violence by Trump supporters in Washington, DC, officials announced.

Officer Brian D. Sicknick died Thursday night after being injured while on-duty during Wednesday’s attempted coup, a Capitol Police spokesperson announced.

Police said earlier on Thursday that the mob “actively attacked” officers using metal pipes and chemical irritants such as tear gas. More than 50 Capitol and DC police officers were injured in the riot, and several were hospitalized with serious injuries, authorities said.

Sicknick was injured while “physically engaging” with rioters, then returned to his division, where he collapsed, police said. He was taken to a hospital, where he later died.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/davidmack/capitol-police-officer-dead

One final note…..bombs were found it the Capitol building…..

DC Police said two pipe bombs and a cooler of Molotov cocktails were found near the US Capitol Building while Trump supporters began to riot in the area, eventually breaking into the building. 

Police Chief Robert Contee III announced the findings during the late Wednesday news conference that involved DC Mayor Muriel Bowser.

The pipe bombs were found outside of the local DNC and RNC offices, respectively. The pipe bombs were found inside a car, where a long gun was also discovered.

DC police responded to the US Capitol Building after multiple calls to its dispatch units and at the request of US Capitol Police. They assisted in clearing pro-Trump rioters from the area after the building was overrun and in removing the pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails.

Chief Contee said that a plain-clothes US Capitol Police officer is the one who shot and killed a woman inside the US Capitol Building.

(wusa9.com)

My closing thought…..when black people protest the police show up in combat gear and tanks….for a bunch of mostly whites they use little personnel and treat them with kid gloves.

So much for equal justice, huh?

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The Paris Commune

No not the one in 1871….but rather the one that was formed shortly after the storming of the Bastille…..that date was 10 August 1792…

In case you are confused….this is the Paris Commune of 1871……

The Paris Commune was a popular-led democratic government that ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. Inspired by the Marxist politics and revolutionary goals of the International Workingmen’s Organization (also known as the First International), workers of Paris united to overthrow the existing French regime which had failed to protect the city from Prussian siege, and formed the first truly democratic government in the city and in all of France. The elected council of the Commune passed socialist policies and oversaw city functions for just over two months, until the French army retook the city for the French government, slaughtering tens of thousands of working-class Parisians in order to do so.

https://www.thoughtco.com/paris-commune-4147849

As you would suspect…yes I have written about the Paris Commune of 1871 here on IST……..https://lobotero.com/2011/03/28/birth-of-the-paris-commune/

Now for the first and some say the most important of these “Communes”…..and the subject of today’s post……

The Paris Commune was the municipal government of Paris during the French Revolution. It was formed during the insurrection of July 1789. The Commune played an important role in the life of the capital. Not only did it provide civic functions like tax collection, services and public works, the Paris Commune was also a democratic assembly where the ordinary people of Paris were represented. This gave the Commune a great deal of sway.

Membership of the Commune council reflected the political will of the people of Paris – moderate from July 1789, radical from August 1792. In its first three years the Commune was dominated by the urban bourgeoisie and liberal-moderates like Jean-Sylvain Bailly. But after the journée of August 10th 1792, control of the Commune was seized by radical Jacobins like Georges Danton, Camille Desmoulins and Jacques Hébert.

From this point, the Commune became directly representative of the Paris sections and sans culottes. The actions of this radical Commune challenged the authority of the national government and shaped the violence of 1792-94.

The Paris Commune

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Managing Civil Unrest

HELL NO! 

We won’t go!  (those were the days)

These days of yore…have many protests for various topics…racism, environment, education, police brutality….on and on…..and even an antiwar protest from time to time….

Personally I think that this president is handling it all horribly……but there has been social unrest that had to be dealt with by almost every presidential tenure…….starting with our very first president…..the deified George Washington.

But let’s look at the handling of these types of unrest through our history……

The current civil unrest in this country involves violent Marxist and left-wing rioters assaulting and sometimes killing police, vandalizing businesses, defacing and destroying statues and places of worship, threatening and harming innocent citizens, and paralyzing cities like Chicago, Portland, and Seattle, while far-left mayors, governors, and district attorneys do nothing but watch (and sometimes applaud), and place ludicrous restrictions on law enforcement’s ability to restore order. The forces of political rebellion — that, and not the murder of George Floyd, is at the heart of the unrest — seek to overthrow America’s capitalist democratic republic and replace it with their vision of a Marxist/socialist paradise.

…

Violent civil unrest and political rebellion are not unprecedented in the United States. In 1794, citizens in western Pennsylvania engaged in widespread violence to protest the imposition of taxes on whiskey. But as James Thomas Flexner noted in Washington: The Indispensable Man, the protest against the whiskey tax swiftly transformed into “active class warfare.” The western Pennsylvania frontiersmen targeted the wealthier inhabitants who operated commercial stills and could afford to pay the tax. “An insurrection developed,” Flexner explained, “the still of any man who paid the tax was wrecked, government representatives were seared with hot irons, mail bags were taken at gunpoint and citizens persecuted . . .”

Government ceased to function in western Pennsylvania and the rebels formed “Democratic Societies” that encouraged like-minded citizens to join the rebellion. “There was talk,” Flexner wrote, “of establishing a separate trans-Alleghenian nation, or of marching on Philadelphia to force on the federal government measures dictated by the frontier.”

https://www.realclearhistory.com/2020/07/30/how_presidents_have_managed_civil_unrest_500668.html

Most civil unrest was handled without the massive responses…..but apparently those days are gone…..but are they gone forever?

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