Don't Get Me Started with Linda Sharp

The Audacity of NOPE

We did it.  In Survivor-speak, we Outplayed, Outwitted, Outlasted the abomination that has been the past four years under the hideous orange stain of the Trump badministration.

For four years - actually more as we had to endure the time between election and inauguration - in which we existed in a horrid miasma of grief, neglect, outrage, shock, and indignation.  It has been exhausting.  Such a constant onslaught of jawdropping that we now suffer from collective TMJ.

The contrast between what we had for eight years with President Obama - decency, humility, compassion, empathy, sympathy, intelligence - and what we were forced to witness under Orange Julius Caesar - grift, abuses, immorality, nepotism, anti-intellectualism, open hatred, proud racism, a disdain for science, and a complete and obvious contempt for the American people.

But something happened on the way to this day.  We rallied.  We opened our eyes widely.  We acknowledged how we got to such a dark place.  And we committed to ourselves, to one another, to this grand experiment called the United States of America - we committed to the audacity of NOPE.

We would not stand for four more years of Trumpism.  We would not allow four more years of degradation, of abuses, of criminality.  We would not stand by and watch as hundreds of thousands more of our fellow citizens died from a pandemic, died from governmental neglect.

We said NOPE.  We spread NOPE.  We voted NOPE.  We won and sent a resounding NOPE to every grifting dirtbag who had flourished under the open encouragement of the Chief Grifter.  We said NOPE to the flag waving, boat parading, screaming, screeching howler monkeys in our citizenry who had their enclosures flung open so they could freely fling their shitful racism and white supremacist insecurities for four long years.

We said NOPE to more discrimination.  We said NOPE to cronyism.  We said NOPE to failure heaped upon failure.  We said NOPE to using government position purely for personal aggrandizement.  We said NOPE to every pointedly abusive executive order, every "Acting" official who did not earn their position through anything but blind ambition and a willingness to turn their soul over to every baser instinct they had.   They abandoned any sense of humanity they owned to worship at the altar of an animated herpes sore on the body politic.

We said NOPE to ignoring so many in our society.  We said NOPE to the wholesale targeting of group after group of our fellow citizens who want only the freedoms and protections afforded to everyone else.  We said NOPE to the ongoing destruction of this planet.  We said NOPE to the darkest of futures for our children and their children.

We embraced again the audacity of HOPE by fervently expressing this audacity of NOPE.

As I sit here watching the opening formalities of the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, I am filled with optimism, joy, relief, hope, and patriotism.  That last one is so very important.  The word 'patriot' has been bastardized so badly for so long now by MAGAts, Qanon lovers, militia LARPers, and every horrid supporter of the carnage dealt by Trump.

Patriot describes US.  It was patriotism - true patriotism - that was ignited and galvanized to bring this day about.  Patriotism, a deep love of country, a profound belief in how we can recover, what we have to offer the world, what we can become.  Patriotism is about protecting the ideal, about bettering the ideal.  It is about carrying the best of our founding forward while acknowledging it did not include so many and bringing them, finally and fully, under the protections and intent of our Constitution.  It is about course correction, inclusion, redefining itself for NOW and for the future.  It is not about clinging to a past that served YOU and abused others.

So much is changing in this moment.  Can you feel it?

As I type, we now have our first woman Vice President.  What a profound moment for all women.  Men, what you are seeing in so many of your female friends, your wives, your girlfriends, your coworkers is recognition.  We are seeing ourselves in a new space.  A space that has for hundreds of years been off limits, then kept out of our reach.  Adding to that that VP Harris is a woman of color?  I cannot even begin to comprehend the emotion felt by every person of color watching.  I thrill to think of every child watching her, seeing themselves, daring to hope for their own futures, futures in which they, too, can be anything they aspire to be.

Milestones.  We are reaching them today, and we will speed past them, advancing to the next and the next and the next.

President Biden has already surrounded himself with experience, intellect, science.  But he has also surrounded himself with the rainbow of humanity - not only in color, but in gender, in sexual orientation. 

Yesterday, when it was announced that Pennsylvania's Dr. Rachel Levine had been nominated to the position of Assistant Health Secretary, for me, it was a very personal moment.  A transgender woman proudly brought into the national spotlight, not as a token, but as a proficient, skilled, educated, intelligent, dedicated public servant.

My son is transgender.  It is a fact we have not hidden, a fact of which we are proud.  He is the best human being I know.  Not because he is transgender.  But because he has to exist in a world where being transgender places a target on his back, yet he perseveres in doing the boldest act possible - HE LIVES.  He lives proudly, openly.  He lives like you and me - doing everything you and I do on the daily.  He grocery shops, he watches Netflix, he works, he goes to school, he takes his dog for walks, he loves his friends, he mentors younger people, HE LIVES.

Dr. Rachel Levine has been nominated by President Biden (that feels so good to type) not because she is transgender, but despite her being transgender.  Her status in that regard was not a job qualification, but neither was it a job hindrance.  And to every ignorant bigot who has used the past 24 hours to type the ugliest things out onto the internet?  Piss off.  Every single one of you.  Take your hate, your fears, your bigotry and piss the fuck off.

You have zero idea about Dr. Levine, just as you have zero idea about my son.  But I will give you one thing to know for certain - they are better PEOPLE than you will ever hope to be.  Because they have the audacity to say NOPE to you and your notions of them, your targeting of them, and your complete ignorance of how like you they are.  They want nothing more than to live their lives in peace.  

President Biden's cabinet and all offices will be filled with people like Dr. Levine.  People for whom public service is a calling not an opportunity to grift.  People who have studied and experienced and made strides in all areas.  People who will endeavor to make OUR lives better, not just THEIR lives better.

I am overwhelmed as I sit here listening to the calming words, the gentle tone of a man who has served his country for over three decades.  Listening to a man who has been tested by tragedy, tempered by grief, and who has been forged like steel in the fires of both.  He is the man, the HUMAN BEING, for this moment.

I sit here feeling that once again we have a chance.  A chance to course correct, to lead, to innovate, to grow, to defeat a pandemic, to protect our planet, to rededicate ourselves to our better angels, to LIVE.

We have this chance, this moment, this elation, this soaring in our hearts and souls because we did what this nation has done in the past.  We took our horror, our incredulity, our anger, our grief and came together, we rose to the occasion, and we looked our adversary dead in the eye and said NOPE.

Onward...

 

Ignorantia Juris Non Excusat

Dearest Trump loyalists -

Yes, yes, I know - there I go again not only with big words, but words in another language.  So sorry.  I will dumb it down for you.

ignorantia juris non excusat - Latin - translated, is basically the old maxim ignorance of the law is no excuse.

To put it even plainer, your abject, mind blowing stupidity is not a defense for what you did last week in the violent, bloody, murderous insurrection you plotted, planned, and carried out at the Capitol.

I have watched as you wail in airports, denied boarding because of your terroristic activities.  I have seen the videos of you screaming "You're treating me like a Black person!" as officers subdue you in luggage claim.  I have read your Insta, Parler, Facebook, and Twitter posts bragging of your attendance and overflowing with your pride as you attacked and stormed into the building chanting "Hang Mike Pence!" and "Where's Nancy?"  And I have watched as one by one, you are visited in your hometowns and are taken into custody - your mugshots clearly showing your shock and mouthbreathing ignorance.

I must admit, if I could, I would inject it straight into my veins.  If it were music, it would be my current favorite song.  If watching your comeuppance were a food, I'd be beached like a whale in my living room by now.

You brought this on yourselves.  That you all - across the board - try to use ignorance as a defense?  Well, my sweet summer children, you've never lived through a winter like the one that has arrived for your sorry asses. 

Not knowing the words 'insurrection' or 'sedition' does not mean you didn't carry them out.  Not liking the word 'terrorist' applied to yourself does not mean you aren't one.  Trying to blow it off with "We were just doing what Trump asked" does not acquit you from the lawbreaking, the trespass, the vandalism, the theft, and the murder that subsequently took place at your hands.

For years we have watched you, lamenting your egregious behavior, your hate, your racism, your bigotry, your lack of any critical thinking skills or rational thought.  We have been stymied at how so many would be drawn like moths to the dank, orange flame of a proven conman like Donald Trump.  But then, you don't get to be a proven conman without proving you are a conman over and over and over. 

Your embrace of your stupidity and his elevation of it as some noble, holy trait?  Face it, you liked the 6th grade vocabulary words, the 6th grade bully tactics, and the feeling of being in the cool gang.  

But you were never in the cool gang.  You were all just amassed around the dumpster behind the school.  You are shit that voted for an outhouse.  You are the mental sewage supporting the landfill that is Trump.  And now, many, many, many of you are wanted criminals, insurrectionists, terrorists.  And Donald J. Trump is not coming to rescue you from your stupid choices.

But then, I do appreciate your stupidity in some ways.  I always have.  Between the dumbest man to ever occupy the Oval, and you, his horde of dullardly foot soldiers, your stupidity has always been our greatest blessing.  You're not tech savvy, so you're easy to trace.  In fact, 95+% of your Parler antics, threats, plans, and dick grabbing were downloaded with ease by our side before the site came down.  And because the great minds that built Parler were literally using trial software in some areas, even as you attempted to scrub your accounts, nothing was actually deleted.  And now it will live forever in the hands of the FBI.

Your yam hued president's lack of any intellectual curiosity has helped, too.  He still has zero idea how our system of government actually works.  Thankfully, most of those he installed around him don't either.  Baby Zeus help us had any of them been even remotely intelligent at being nefarious.  Instead we benefited by having chucklefucks like Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan bleating for him on FOX, shoe polish leaking attorneys like Guiliani and COVID fart inhaling Ellis leading his 60 failed lawsuits, and vapid, power whores like Jared and Ivanka playing pretend on the world stage.

Yes, yes, yes - their stupidity is also to blame for why we are almost a year into a pandemic and have lost 387,623 lives, but hey, you don't believe it in, so why should you care, right?  That very hoax-anti-mask arrogance and ignorance are why you are proving so easy to identify from last Wednesday.  Your smiling, screaming, COVID spewing faces are right there in every camera shot and video.  Say cheese!

My God, your stupidity is wonderful.  The FBI thanks you for your service.

It is staggering to those of us with rational thought and critical thinking to watch as you all planned, booked hotels, bought costumes, tactical gear, flags, weapons, etc, attacked the Capitol, smeared your shit on the walls, stole items, injured 60 police officers - killing 1, then walked back to your hotels, had a drink and shared stories of your great adventure, checked out the next day, grabbed a McMuffin, and headed home like you had just been on a mini vacation to Cabo.  It never entered your barely functioning frontal lobes that what you did was illegal, treasonous, an act of insurrection against the United States of America.  YOU. ATTEMPTED. A COUP.

Your shock at being labeled terrorists would be amusing were it not so damned pathetic.  And serious.

I've seen one of you try to play it off with "I just got caught up in the moment."  Yes, that would be YOU, LARPing as Spiderman in the chamber.  Another says "It was the single worst personal decision of my life"  Uh, fuck yes, it was. 

Your remorse is meaningless.  Your "mob mentality" does not dilute your participation.  Your white skin will not buy you a pass out of this crime.  As the saying goes, play stupid games...

And your ignorance of the consequences of what you did is no defense.  But I am sure your lawyers are telling you that - if you can find a lawyer who is willing to chance their practice going toe-up for representing you.  

To all the MAGAts, Q adherents, Trump loyalists, Proud Boys, Boogaloo Bois, militia cosplayers, and LARPers - and let's be honest, there really is no distinction between any of you now (aside from the Proud Boys who enjoy writing on one another's bare asses with Sharpies.) - you are just a morphous blob of philistinism, a garbage sack of sciolism - sorry, big words again...

STUPID.  They mean STUPID.

Where was I?  Oh yes, to all of you wallowing in your victimhood, plotting your next act of insurrection, wailing about your first amendment being stomped on (it has not been - seriously, open a fucking book), and collaborating on what you'll write on Bubba's asscheeks next, listen up - if you were there, you will be found.  By photo, video, and cell phones pinging all day throughout the Capitol system.  Already, relatives are turning you in, workplaces are kicking your asses to the curbs, and your ability to travel is being reduced to Greyhound.  So if you are not smart enough to know that showing up at a State house, or again at the Capitol is not a good idea?  Well, good luck to you.  You are about to FAFO - fuck around and find out.

Your latest missives in the land of Chans and Gab show that you have simply moved the mental goalposts further on down the line to avoid facing the fact that you are all complete knobs who have been used like a cum rag in a Deadwood brothel.  (Crude?  Yes.  But if you all proved anything last week, it's that you are not delicate flowers, and care not one whit for decorum or decency.) You ALL whine about spouses, kids, friends, extended family cutting you off because of your newfound Q-ist religion.  Perhaps get a clue.  Or buy a vowel, Vanna.  An 'i' to go before the Q and grab some knowledge.  They are not the problem.  It's not them, it's YOU.  You don't secretly know things, your eyes have not been opened.  No, Trump has not been secretly re-inaugurated already.  No, we are not operating under martial law.  No, those mass arrests you have been waiting for for four years are not going to happen.  No, Trump is not the braintrust behind cracking a huge, global child murdering sex cult.  And no, JFK Jr is not appearing anytime soon.  He's DEAD.  Like the majority of your brain cells.  D-E-A-D. 

What is going to happen is simple.  Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in on January 20th - regardless of how much shit fills your pants - and your life will begin to improve, like it or not.  

Well, maybe not those of you whose doors will be knocked on by the authorities for participating in an attack on your own country.

Ignorantia Juris Non Excusat.

Enjoy prison.  Idiots.

Deplorable Was Far Too Kind

It has been four days since the jaw dropping scenes filled our televisions, since horrific photos made our online feeds hard to keep up with, since every single thing we have worried about for five years came to pass.  An armed insurrection, terrorists called to DC by Trump, incited and directed by him at his rally, and resolute in their belief they were doing his will, stormed the Capitol, out for blood.

Four days and it still has not fully sunk in how perilously close not only the line of succession came to being murdered, but the Senate and Congresspeople, their staffs, journalists inside, janitors just making their hourly wage, and Capitol police officers, too.  We watched it all, yet it still seems like a bad dream.

The reality is that we were, and are, all wide awake.  And more are finally opening their eyes to what we have warned for so long - Trump never should have been elevated to office - any office - and that he has always been a clear and present danger to everything this country is supposed to be about. 

From the moment he slithered down his tacky gold escalator in 2015, we warned you.  Anyone paying even cursory attention as far back as the 80s knew what a complete and utter failure of a human being he has always been.  A conman, a charlatan, a bankrupt - both financially and morally - a gold plated grifter who excelled at one thing only - selling the sizzle of a nonexistent steak.

Yet with those first words about Mexican immigrants, “They are not our friend, believe me.  They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists." the most disgraceful excuses for citizens in this country sniffed the air, smelled the imaginary steak, and came crawling, hungry for more.  Mmmmmmmm, they loved what the crock was cooking.

Like so many, I remember being sickened, but also believing that wholesale racism and bigotry would never make it past the first turn in the race to the nomination.  Surely, the RNC would take steps to put out that fire before it could burn them all down.  Yet on he went.  Gathering bigger crowds by saying even more reprehensible things, grabbing a bigger paintbrush to cover an entire demographic - Mexicans, Muslims, women, LGBTQIA, Democrats, immigrants, etc - with his incendiary rhetoric. 

And the fire grew.

And decent society still felt sure he would be stopped.  That someone in the GOP would put the brakes on it.  Sure, those running against him mumbled words about him as a liar, a cheat, that if he was elected we would get what we deserved, even calling out the size of his dick on national TV (Rubio, Cruz, Graham).  Yet he thrived because the coarser his dialogue became, the more the retrograde elements of our society felt emboldened to crawl out of their hidey holes and join in the fun of race baiting, openly hating, taunting, bringing their dive bar-KKK-white nationalist behavior out in the open.

One by one, he took those things Republicans profess to hold so dear - the military, POWs, Gold Star families, family values - and bent them over to ream them out on the rally stage.  And the crowds went wild every time.  It was a surreal type of outrage porn and his followers emotionally masturbated with him.  "Lock her up!" "Fake news!" "The media is the enemy!" "The elections are rigged if I lose!" - all words of foreplay for what happened on January 6, 2021. 

Yet we still hung tough in the belief that he would be stopped.  That there could not possibly be enough people in this country to vote him into office.  

Hillary stepped forward and called his supporters out - referring to them as a "basket of deplorables."  And oh, how the pearl clutching and shirt rending ensued.  How dare she?  This only emboldened Trump more as he pretended to pull closer into his sick embrace the rubes who feigned outrage at the insult, yet also wore it as a badge of pride.  HE loved them.  HE understood them.  HE had their backs.  

Again, anyone who had followed this man's adult life knew full well he would not cross the street to pee on any of them if were they on fire.  They were, and still are, the type of people he reviles - poor, losers, trailer parks inhabitants, not enough teeth, not pretty enough, not macho enough, not rich enough.  But they are also the easiest to manipulate and use.  In that I will give Trump credit.  He's a consummate carnival barker and excels at the shiny object diversion.

When the Entertainment Tonight tape emerged, we all thought, "NOW.  Now people will see what he really is, how little family values he has, what a vulgar cretin he has always been, how unfit for the Presidency he is."

I still sit stunned by the response to that scandal.  The crowd of "family values" pulled him closer to their foul bosom, to their lusting metaphorical "pussies" - wearing shirts begging for him to grab them by their literals ones, excusing his words away as "locker room talk", buying any and all excuses for him so he could continue his assault on all that is still decent and right in this country.  He literally skated right through, untouchable.

I know I am not alone in going into election night 2016 still believing this country would never let it happen. 

And then it happened.   Between back room dealings, collusion, and political machinations, he was elected.  Yet as much as Russia still hangs over that election, there were millions and millions of his deplorable darlings who helped.  Millions of our fellow citizens who went to the ballot box and said with their votes, "FUCK THE USA."

Since that night, things have gone from bad to badder, from worse to worst, from breathtaking to breathending.  Every norm that has guided us for centuries, laughed at.  Every guardrail on the office of the Presidency knocked down.  Every ugly utterance excused away.  Every hideous action applauded.  Muslims banned.  Immigrants targeted.  Children ripped from their parents forever.  Protections stripped away.  Quid pro quos attempted with foreign countries.  Obvious obsequience to dictators like Putin and Jong-Un.  And a pandemic that has killed 381,536 people so far, completely botched in response and finally ignored as if it is not blazing still through this country.

Through it all Trump has been enabled by Republican Senators, Congresspeople, state and local officials, talk radio malcontents, FOX and OANN.  Call his wife ugly and his father a murderer of JFK?  No matter, Cruz has been there right alongside, propping him up, making excuses for the inexcusable, selling the lies to the rubes.  Continually ridicule him as Liddle Marco?  Pfft.  Rubio just throws up another meaningless Bible verse on Twitter and returns to his actual religion - staying in power.  Gaetz and Jordan and Nunes and Johnson and Meadows and Hawley and Davis - all like piglets fighting one another for the prime orange power teat.

They are all complicit and responsible for January 6, 2021.  They spread the lies about election fraud.  They stoked the fires of insurrection.  They encouraged the sedition.  They courted the deplorables for Trump as much as for their own ambitions over the POTUS prize in 2024.  Good luck with that, guys.  

They were all deplorable in the run-up.  And 87 people lost their lives to this heinous cult in the first three years of his term.  But it is so obvious now that deplorable was not nearly adequate or strong enough for anyone who climbed aboard the Trump Train.  Treasonous.  Seditious.  Insurrectionist. Soulless.  

Perhaps that last one is the most accurate.  They are all soulless.  

I have been outraged at the people buying them excuses - that the horde was brainwashed, mentally ill, misinformed, caught up in the moment.  Miss me with that white-people-bullshit-excuse machine.  Where were these soft embraces and excuses during the summer as the military was deployed against people actually protesting over something real - RACIAL INJUSTICE, SYSTEMIC RACISM in our policing, the blatant murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Aubrey, and on and on?  Where were the convenient white people excuses to protect my son from the rubber bullets and tear gas used against him?

As nonexistent as the police and military protections at the Capitol on Wednesday.  

Like you, I have seen the many videos and photos showing the complete lack of respect for the historic building - feet up on desks, looting, shit on the walls, vandalism.  I have felt my stomach turn at the photos of the functioning gallows erected outside the Capitol and the chants of "Hang Mike Pence!" as they breached the entrances.  The terrorists in tactical gear, carrying pipes, crowbars, sledgehammers, brandishing zip cuffs.  Yes, I have seen and been enraged at the police inside who obviously encouraged the mob - those heathens who put the RIOT in patriot - but there are also officers who were viciously attacked and tried their best to thwart the insurrection despite being completely outnumbered by a salivating, soulless mob.

LOOK.  Watch the video, take in the picture of the scene from above as they beat that officer with pipes, flagpoles, kicked him repeatedly.  I guess the new motto is Blue Lives Mattered?  Sure as shit doesn't look like they matter anymore.

Yo @tedcruz @vp @senatemajldr You helped this happen. This is video showing the #DCRIOTS #maga terrorists dragging a police officer out of the building. Hitting him with a baton, flagpole, and crutch. pic.twitter.com/aWrNtCX7VO pic.twitter.com/4ScWcmn7HT

— sprujitsu (@sprujitsu) January 10, 2021

The officer that died during the attack, Brian Sicknick?  Beaten in the head with a fire extinguisher.  Blue Lives Matter, my ass.  Oh, and MAGAts?  Your Coral Caligula has still not reached out to that officer's family.  You know who has?  Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi - two of the people whose blood you were looking to release.  (And this morning another officer death was reported.  Off duty that day and a suicide - remains to be seen what/if there is a connection.)

And now, as glass still litters the Capitol, as janitors still work to sop up the piss you left in hallways, the shit you smeared on walls, and disinfect because of the COVID you spewed everywhere (looking at you, "Baked Alaska" - you traveled to DC COVID positive), GOPer lawmakers like Cruz and Jordan are appealing for "healing and unity."  Begging that impeachment not be taken up tomorrow because it will further divide the country.  EXCUSE ME, BITCHES?  That treasonous horse has left the building and is miles down the road.  Set free by you and your Fiddling Nero hero.

What remains is to root out the soulless legislators who assisted in this attack, to smash their own words in the run-up back into their smarmy faces.  To hold accountable every insurrectionist that can be identified from that day.  (Thankfully you people are so stone stupid you have provided much of the evidence the FBI is using to find you.  Oh, and brilliant work with your anti-mask stance. BRILL-IANT.  Seriously, chef's kiss to you all.)

It cannot matter that the treason weasel in the Oval only has 10 days left.  10 days is more than enough to keep his violent horde ginned up and ready to attack again - they have already been openly planning this for the 17th, for Inauguration day, and for State houses around the country.  10 days means more lies, more fomenting of terror, more inexcusable pardons handed out, and more opportunity to cause chaos on a scale we surely have not yet envisioned.

The 25th amendment? If not now, when?  If not for this maniac, who?  Trump openly incited a mob to go after Pence, endangering his life - that is not hyperbole.  Trump did not call Pence during the attack to ask about his safety.  Trump has still not spoken a word to him since the attack.  Yet Pence sits back, more concerned with his political future and ambitions than he is in protecting this nation, taking a stand, ridding this country of this seditious, murderous, vengeance minded mobster.  Shameful.

Video of the mob chanting “hang Mike Pence.” pic.twitter.com/K4EcKK2rab

— American Times Film (@ExportedFromMI) January 9, 2021

But again, Pence is as soulless as the rest.  Angling.  Angling is what they do.  What looks best for me?  What gives me the best chance to stay in the cushy confines of government?  What allows me the chance to run for POTUS in 2024?  

As for the soulless horde?  Before Parler, their terrorist-plotting playground was shutdown this morning, they were openly planning, encouraging one another, and throwing down the most heinous threats.  Yes, Google and Apple pulled the app from their stores Friday night and Saturday morning, and Amazon shut down their hosting, but that does not make them inert.  Their financial backers will find hosting (probably with a .ru suffix) soon enough.  The dark web continues to be a moshpit of their plans for bloodletting.  And Trump is more enraged at being thrown off social media than he is about the attack or threat of a second impeachment.

He has ten days to go to any microphone and make the next week and a half into his personal Festivus.  And he will.  A narcissistic psychopath knows one thing only - self preservation.  He is experiencing the type of psychic wound that is intolerable to his pathology and we must all pay for the indignity.

We are not out of the woods just because they were unsuccessful in their coup attempt last week.  There are 74 million of them who are deplorable enough, damaged enough, dullardly enough to continue on. 

Four years ago I sat here and typed the title What Will It Take? - a piece in which I laid out his transgressions, his verifiable evil and criminality.  A piece in which I asked them what would it take to get them to open their eyes, find their hearts, look into their souls.  Sadly, they sold their souls long ago for an orange conman who could not care less what happens to them as long as nothing happens to him.  They are now coming for the soul of this nation.  We cannot let it happen.  Fuck their feelings.

Deplorable was far too kind.

The Unbearable Whiteness Of Seeing

It has been roughly 24 hours since we witnessed an assault on the highest halls of our democracy.  24 hours to process what happened.  24 hours to read eyewitness media accounts.  24 hours to see fully via video and photos what happened inside the Capitol.  24 hours to digest the sedition, the insurrection, the sordid lust for power displayed by those who had, only hours earlier, been cowering under desks.

24 hours to think about the worst of what we all saw take place.  24 hours of watching blatant, undeniable racial inequality - 24 hours of the unbearable whiteness of seeing.

The terrorists that swarmed our nation's Capitol building were, as is the norm in MAGAritaville, overwhelmingly white.  Yes, there are brown and Black outliers filled with self loathing that love the attention they receive at the rallies and in the ranks.  Stupid as they are, they still have no idea that they are in fact the tokens used to justify the bigotry, hate, and racism of the mass.  See!  We have a Black person here!  They are the epitome of the "I have a Black friend" shield used by all racists.

Watching the Capitol police not only move the barricades, but practically usher these insurrectionists in was galling.  Then as photos emerged of police inside actually posing for selfies with them?  Guiding them along like docents?  Then finally bidding them adieu, holding the doors open for them?  Jesus, they did everything but give them a complimentary bag of swag and thank them for their visit.

So first the cops let them in, and then, at the end, they just got to leave. pic.twitter.com/QifyIV3ZZY

— Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) January 6, 2021

As of this morning, four people are dead as a result of this attack.  One shot in the neck, three others who had medical "emergencies" (read: heart attacks, etc).  Four people who were in complete control of their actions, willingly assaulted the Capitol, chose their fates.  I have no pity for them.  None.  And do not try to defend the dead woman based on her military service.  Being a vet and being a terrorist asshole are NOT mutually exclusive.  And being a vet is not some magical acquittal of her criminal behavior.  

And not for nothing, but four people - there's some bloodstained irony there.  When four people died in the attack in Benghazi, GOPers held hearing after hearing, they still scream this word over and over.  Hillary sat for questioning for eleven hours.  Trey Gowdy was apoplectic.  Four people died yesterday in Trumpghazi.  Will we see the same righteous indignation, fervor, and demand for transparency?  Don't hold your breath. 

I have combed through the hundreds of pictures and the violation is breathtaking.  The destruction of property, the trespass into offices, the broken windows and doors, files scattered everywhere.  And in these pictures, proud, ignorant, privileged WHITE PEOPLE, secure in the knowledge that their Caucasian cloaking device will keep them from all harm, from any serious repercussions.  White privilege on full, disgusting, obvious display.

The ransacked office of the Senate Parliamentarian: pic.twitter.com/E7PsSgoAEX

— Ali Zaslav (@alizaslav) January 7, 2021

After a summer of largely peaceful protests across this country, and in the nation's capital; a summer that saw protesters gassed, shot at, tased, maimed, arrested en masse, swept up and away in unmarked vehicles by unidentified stormtroopers; a summer in which my own child learned the sting of tear gas, the pain of rubber bullets; a summer in which Black people were again demonized, castigated, violated, murdered by law enforcement; a summer in which the National Guard filled the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, protesters were tear gassed so the Fat Fuhrer could hold a bible upside down in front of a church - after a summer full of seeing what the police and military response can be, we watched yesterday as they were completely complicit in the assault and destruction that took place.

(A small aside here for those who still do not get it.  The protests and marches and emotion you saw all summer were, and are, because there are so many of us who have finally woken up to our privilege and how it must be used to combat the horrid, systemic racism that is woven throughout our policing system.  Black life after Black life carelessly taken and forgotten.  This summer was about finally acknowledging that we have allowed, for far too long, these people to be less dead, because the reality is they are viewed as less alive to begin with.  Less worthy of consideration, jurisprudence, proper policing, protections.  And still viewed as less of a human being because of their skin color.  IT. MUST. STOP.)

The Capitol police number 2,300.  With an annual budget of $460,000,000, they are the most well funded police department in the country.  And this assault was not a secret.  It had been openly planned via Facebook groups, Parler, all manner of Chan for the past two months.  They had apparel printed up with the date, for Christ's sake. The orange stain encouraged them all to come to DC, tweeting on December 20th, “Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”

He was mighty white right about that - it was wild.  It was also lawless, terroristic, the stuff of banana republics, and a glaring indictment of the white nationalism that oozes from his supporters.  

Again, watching them crawl like roaches up the walls, scatter inside and violate the most sacred of spaces in our legislature, I am not alone in sitting on my couch and repeatedly saying out loud that if they were black, brown, or wearing any sort of headpiece they would have never made it up the stairs.  No Black man would have made it into Pelosi's office to kick his filthy feet up on her assistant's desk, steal her mail, leave a quarter, and then make it back outside - completely untouched - to brag openly to the media. 

 

Whiteness did that.  Both in the MAGA sweatshirts and caps and in the police force inside the walls.  We have known for a very long time that our police departments across the country have been infiltrated by white supremacists - report after report has both warned and verified this - but seeing it play out on such a grand scale?  I wanted to throw up.

Then watching white lawmakers, who had just come out of hiding in safe spaces all day, take to the floor of the House and the Senate to continue their bloviating, bullshitting, and flat out lying - warming to their theme that what took place was not at the hands of Trump loyalists, but that the mythical, magical, all powerful, soup can wielding antifa had planned, infiltrated, and been responsible for what took place?  Sorry, Gaetz, Hawley, Johnson, Cruz, et al - these terrorists belong to you.  You built it, you own it.  The destruction, the violation, the blood, the deaths - all of it.  You will never be President.  Get that through your self serving, self interested heads.  Your whiteness will not protect you from being forever stained by what you fomented, what you cheered, what you proudly did.  (And all of the cabinet members and people who worked in the White House in various positions who are jumping off the Trumptanic and resigning - Mulvaney, Chao, Pottinger, Grisham, Matthews?  Too little, too late, cowards.  Profiles in chickenshit, not courage.)

Just as Donald J. Trump's whiteness will not protect him from the consequences he has eluded his entire, worthless life.  Articles of Impeachment have been drawn up again and are circling Congress as of this morning.  They should quickly be followed by the 25th amendment being invoked to remove him immediately - Senator Schumer has called for this.  What he fomented, encouraged, and loved while it was happening - "We love you.  You're special people." - cannot be allowed to drift into the ether like every other transgression, crime, trespass, and violation he has committed. 

Just as every terrorist that can be identified must be held accountable for their part in yesterday's attack.  Their whiteness cannot be a "Get Out Of Responsibility Free" card.  It can no longer buy a free pass for aggression, violence, destruction, hell, for speeding. 

This is white privilege in all its rancid glory.  Go terrorize, destroy, vandalize, threaten, then stroll out past police and head back to your hotel for a drink to wind down.  WHITE PRIVILEGE AND CONCEIT.

Pretty chill vibe here in this hotel lobby, as Trump supporters decompress from today’s events. All are violating local mask rules, despite multiple massive signs about the mask rule. pic.twitter.com/R98rwGDgaD

— William Turton (@WilliamTurton) January 7, 2021

White supremacy is what we saw writ large yesterday.  It stormed the Capitol, it held open the doors, it coddled the participants, it stood for selfies, and it politely ushered them out, even helping them down the stairs.  Black people would have been opened up in a hail of continued gunfire.  Their blood would have cascaded down those steps.  They would not have made it in to put MAGA hats on statues, to grandstand in the well of the Senate, to hang from the gallery, to terrorize the legislators gathered to do their Constitutionally mandated job.  

There must be accountability for every single person who contributed to this desecration, this attack.  No hiding.  Not behind titles, fame, money, power, OR skin color.  

In two weeks a new day will dawn.  We will have reason, sanity, experience, probity, and decency in control of the Senate, the House, and in the Oval.  But we will still have COVID (370,151 dead as of this morning - set a new record for deaths yesterday: 3,963), we will still have 74 million citizens completely untethered from reality and happily, violently so, and we will still have unprecedented injustice, inequality, and rampant white supremacy oozing throughout this country, our legislators, our military, and our police forces.

It can no longer be ignored or poo poo'd away.  Yesterday stripped off the last vestiges of denial.  It was captured for history in photo, video, word, and deed.  And we all saw it.

I am white.  My skin does not make me better, more worthy of consideration or patience, and it should never make me free from consequences.  We all must come to terms with the unbearable whiteness of seeing the truth.  Only then can we hope to fully attack and dismantle it, and root it out of the people charged with our protection and justice.

This Is Not Who We Are ... This is Who THEY Are

Anyone paying even a modicum of attention the past five years was not surprised by what came to pass, is still coming to pass, in our nation's capital today.  This has been the endgame all along.  Concentration of power, destabilization of our government, obliteration of our norms.

And the onslaught, the raging, rushing, never ceasing river of lies that have facilitated it all.  Lie after lie stacked like kindling.  Criminal activity and venality poured on top like lighter fluid.  All just waiting for the match that would set it all ablaze.

That match came today in the form of the world's biggest loser, liar, and wannabe mob boss, Donald Trump.  Standing in front of his assembled throng of low IQ, no IQ supporters, he finished his victimy screed with the order to march to the Capitol Building.

So they did.  And as the news cameras shared it all live, as pictures and video filled social media, we watched as the Capitol was breached, as glass doors and windows were broken, as these insurrectionists swarmed and entered.  As the House and Senate were in separate areas debating the first of many planned, theatrical objections, Mike Pence was quickly swept away by Secret Service.  The certification of the electoral votes was stopped, lawmakers were told to get on the floor, to grab the gas masks under their seats. Then they were taken to secure locations along with the press.

As the afternoon has dragged on, it has been stomach turning to see what has been transpiring.  The wholesale violation of this nation's highest halls of legislature.  Hundreds of rioters crawling like roaches through the halls, into offices, and finally into the chambers of the House and the Senate.  

For people who like to crow about law and order, rule of law, and call themselves patriots, this was nothing short of them creating their own Benghazi.  On a much larger scale.  That blood was shed?  No one was shocked.

It is at times like this that pundits, lawmakers, and journalists like to invoke the "this is not who we are" sentiment.  I have done it myself.  It is a cry for sanity, for probity, for rational thought to return and for calmer heads to prevail.  It means to speak to whatever is happening being an aberration, something so far from our norms that those perpetrating it can somehow be forgiven for the momentary lapse.

No.  Not this time.

Here's the reality.  This is not who WE are.  Decent society.  The part of society that actually understands law, laws, order, social justice, peaceful protest.  The part of society that understands it doesn't always go our way: see 11/2016.  The part of society that would never crash the halls of the Capitol, taking selfies at the dais where Pence just stood, looting, violating the offices of our leaders, pawing through the hastily left papers, emails on computers.  

No, this is not who WE are.  But this is exactly who THEY are.

Trump and his supporters are the absolute worst of society, the dregs, the hypocrites, the idiots who have no idea what the Constitution they swear to hold so dear even contains, much less what the words mean.  They are vile, vulgar creatures who think the louder they are, the righter they are.  They are incredibly stupid.  That has been, and is, to our advantage.

Think about it.  From Trump, a man who is the personification of the word puerile, to the dullardly lackeys he installed, to the completely inexperienced-at-anything children he placed in positions of power, to the cowardly, dullardly supporters we are watching tonight - they are stupid from the top to the bottom.  And we are lucky.  Smarter people with these kinds of ill intentions; savvy folks with an eye towards grift and graft; intelligent operatives looking to undermine?  We would be far and away more fucked than we are on this day.

Their sedition is out in the open.  Their violations thinly covered, easily revealed.  Their leader unable to stay off Twitter - hell, 13 year old girls have more restraint.  And their followers?  Well, just look at the pride with which they took pictures and posted them all over social media today as they tore down the American flag on the outside of Congress to replace it with a Trump flag. 

Small aside on that one.  Seriously, watching them scale a scaffold and tear it down was bad enough, but then the man threw it to the ground.  These are the same people who still want Colin Kaepernick lynched for kneeling during the National Anthem.  Make it make sense.  You can't because they are stupid and you are not.

Their shiny, happy, mouthbreathing faces gladly facing front, and smiling for the cameras as they carried items they looted, as they stood in the well of the Senate, as they lounged in Nancy Pelosi's office.  They will be caught.  And there is not room for forgiveness here.  They must be arrested, charged, convicted, and imprisoned.  These are the threat to our society, not the mom who thought it was ok to vote in Texas (with a felony) and is in jail for five years, and not the teen who stole a backpack, was stuffed into Riker's and ultimately killed himself.

These cretins are criminals, their gathering a mob, their actions those of terrorists.  This is who they are.

There are still those who attempt some apology type tour for these people - that they have been lied to, fed so much disinformation, are gullible.  FUCK THAT WITH A PORCUPINE STRAPPED TO A JACKHAMMER.  They are not victims of a skilled hypnotist.  They are willing followers of a filthy carnie.  They are ugly, vile, venal thugs who revel in their behavior, who lust for our horrified reactions.  They chose Trump.  They gravitated to his odious messages during the 2016 campaign.  They flocked because of what he gave permission to - their racism, their bigotry, their anti-intellectualism, their baser instincts.  And they forever must be treated as the pariahs they are.  They deserve no safe quarter, no place to hide, no redemption tours when they are voted out of office.

As I sit here typing, the news is reporting that the woman we all saw being rolled away drenched her in her own blood, shot at the Capitol, has died.  More details are still forthcoming (she was a pro-Trump insurgent who crashed in through the broken windows, ignoring Secret Service warnings to stop), but anyone who saw it live knew it was bad.  That much blood on the outside means there is precious little left on the inside.  And that blood is on Trump, on his henchmen, on his paid liars like McEneny and Conway and Sanders, on his adult children who say anything necessary to stay in the will.  That blood is on Cruz and Hawley and every other politician who saw this certification as a way to position themselves for their own presidential run in 2024.  Their opportunism has consequences.

But they don't care.  None of them.  They care as much about the dead woman today as they have cared about the now 368,756 people dead from COVID.  They don't care about the insurrectionists who will end up in prison for their terrorist attack today.  Trump won't speak on their behalf in court.  Ivanka won't bring them cookies in prison. 

This is who they are. 

And we knew, we have known all along.  Hell, Hillary knew when she called them "deplorable."  That descriptor is quaint in comparison to their behavior over the past four years.  We knew, we said it out loud, we warned about what would transpire under Trump and we were called hysterical, sore losers, snowflakes.  And we were told to fuck our feelings. A lot.

What happened today was telegraphed right down the line.  For weeks these Proud Boys and incels and MAGAts have been all over social media planning this.  We are not surprised, we are sickened to see it come to pass.  With every tweet that called them to travel to DC, with every rally that fomented violence and fed them a full trough of lies, we knew today would not pass without incident.  This was on an American flight last night on its way to DC.

And so it begins.

On a plane from TX —> DC flight attendants are struggling to control a plane full of Trump supporters as they display a pro-Trump projection and harass others passengers bound for DC.

[DM to license]#dc #trump #trumprally #protest #thisisamerica #sos pic.twitter.com/BlTCbD8ntl

— Maranie R. Staab (@MaranieRae) January 6, 2021

WE KNEW.  That the security was so lax?  My husband compared it to a 9/11 level security hole that must be addressed immediately.  Anyone who has ever been to the Capitol knows how secure it typically is - metal detectors must be walked through, bags searched.  Watching these terrorists simply saunter in unchallenged demands rapid investigation and resolution - this did not happen without acquiescence on the part of some level of security.

President Elect Joe Biden addressed the nation calling for calm, but also calling this exactly what it is - sedition and insurrection.  I can only imagine his thoughts watching the place he called "home" for his entire career, be overrun in this manner.  As he left the podium, he responded to a shouted question with "Enough is enough is enough!"  Anger.  Good.  

Trump, who one can easily envision masturbating to the unfolding scenes of chaos, Confederate and Trump flags paraded through the halls, and a bumblefuck supporter kicked back in Pelosi's office, was finally convinced by staff to release a statement.  It came in the form of a minute long video he posted to Twitter.  A message that was immediately flagged by Twitter for the bullshit it was and for the violence it encouraged.  He began by whining about the election being stolen.  That he won in a landslide.  No, no he did not.  Get that shit through your soft heads, MAGAts, he lost in a landslide.  All your boat armadas, truck parades, and super spreader rallies spoke only to your blazing stupidity, not your numbers.  We outnumber you, we always have.  Your beloved racism and hatred will not win the day, will not win today - and Joe Biden will be sworn in on January 20th.

Trump finished with the most bile inducing words to his useful idiots - "we love you, you're very special."  Wow, just wow.  Those words turned to "fine people on both sides" and said "Hold my keg."

There were not special people in DC today.  There were criminals.  There were malcontents, and malingerers, and MAGAts.  There were domestic terrorists.  And Donald J Trump loves them.  Because they are all that stand between him and finally facing consequences in his girdled, lifted, Adderalled, grifting life.  They are all that separate him from his vision of himself and finally having to face the truth - HE IS A LOSER.

Today did hold three moments of hope.  Reverend Warnock, the son of a woman who picked cotton, is being sent to the Senate.  Georgia's first Black Senator.  Jon Ossoff is being sent to the Senate.  The youngest Senator, at 33, since ... wait for it ... Joe Biden.  Georgia turned blue.  With 50 Senators and Kamala Harris as the tie breaker, meaningful changes will finally begin.  And Merrick Garland will be Biden's Attorney General.  Beautiful.

Oh, and Mitch McConnell got kicked to the curb.  Note - anyone who wants to call him a hero for his speech today before all hell broke loose?  Save it.  That he mumbled some correct words about the process does not erase the years he has facilitated the steps taken to get us to what happened today.  He is part and parcel of all of it.  THAT is his legacy.

The days ahead will not be better, if anything, there is serious reason to believe they will be worse.  Far too many interviewed today threatened a return to the Capitol only next time with weapons.  They are angry, aggressive, armed toddlers who have been denied another helping of rancid Goldfish crackers, and we must be vigilant.  No one should have to die simply because they are too stupid, too lazy, too willfully ignorant to embrace facts.  But to think it won't happen is to indulge in fantasy.

We have seen who they are, and they have have but one choice before them.  Open their eyes and see what is possible, that their lives will actually be bettered in the four years to come, or continue to churn and squirm in place, feeding on their victimhood complex, following that decomposing gourd to his/their graves.  They may choose to join humanity or choose to rot in reviled obscurity.

We will persevere.  We will move forward.  We are finally, fully awake and will not waste this opportunity that is now in our hands.  From the environment to equal rights to voter rights to finally addressing policing and discrimination and immigration and on and on - we have a chance to make real differences.  And we will.  The United States of America has always been an experiment, a high ideal, an imperfect union.  Under Trump we have fallen so very far, but we are ready for the challenge of picking this nation up, dusting her off, and moving forward.

Because that is who WE are.