By Frank Gormlie
It’s difficult writing anything today after watching 16 hours of TV yesterday, trying to be a witness to the fully-anticipated attempt at a coup by Trump and his supporters – one of the darkest days in American history.
But the main thing that comes to mind is that Trump and those who instigated the attempt at a fascist coup yesterday on the citadel of liberty, the Capitol, need to be held accountable for what they did.
Read no further if you’re bothered by the term “fascist” here as I’m not going to spend time trying to justify the use of the word to describe Trump and his cohorts.
And plenty of pundits and politicians have already called what happened Wednesday, January 6th – a day of infamy – a “coup” and “insurrection.” Why, newly-elected President Joe Biden used those terms just today. He also called the mob that stormed the Capitol, “domestic terrorists.”
The terrorists, the insurrectionists, the mob, the fascist crowd – packed with Proud Boys, Qanon supporters, white nationalists, Klan supporters – have to be held accountable. They tried to take over our government and disrupt the business of Congress – making the final certification of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ election. The very ideal of democracy – sealing the people’s will into law. The individuals responsible need to be ID’ed and brought to justice.
Many crossed state-lines and traveled specifically to Washington DC to take part in the “riot” that Trump had been calling for these past two weeks.
Tragically for her family, that’s what OBcean Ashli Babbitt did. Babbitt ended up on the front lines of the mob and was shot while trying to storm the Speaker’s Lobby – Nancy Pelosi’s office.
What do we say to the Trump “stop the steal” people who live and rally in our city? DC wasn’t the only place of violence Wednesday; LA and Sacramento saw clashes.
Those who incited the coup, those who spoke at the rally in front of the White House just a few hours before the storming of the Capitol, those who instigated the crowd also need to be held accountable. Rudi Giuliani, Trump’s sons for starters.
Then there’s the members of Congress – the 139 Republican House members who still voted – after their House had been taken over and desecrated by the insurrectionists – to object to the counting of Arizona and Pennsylvania electors. And 6 to 7 Senators. That’s incredible – and unacceptable to democracy. These people are still harboring their baseless claims of massive voter fraud – which feeds directly into Trump’s narrative.
Their narrative is Trump’s narrative – the very same he spewed to his fascist crowd – who then stormed Congress and tried to take-over or block the counting of the electors. They were successful for 5 hours. These people should also be held accountable for giving the fascist crowd a rationale to riot. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz for starters.
The massive failure of security at the Capitol was so fundamental that even Joe Biden addressed it today. It was incredible – and everyone knows that if that had been a demonstration of Black Lives Matter storming the Capitol there would have been such a difference and many more lives lost.
It comes down to White privilege. The fascist crowd was predominantly White and their privilege allowed them to fairly easily scale the Inauguration scaffolding and bust into the building – that is, somewhere down the line, the Capitol police and others in leadership gave the marchers a pass because of their skin. Either there was sympathies with the aim of the crowd among that leadership that allowed the Capitol to be totally unprepared for the onslaught – again, which was absolutely predictable and openly planned – or there was horrible underestimation of what the crowd would and could do, or simple criminal negligence. Whatever, the Capitol Sergeant-at-Arms needs to go – which Chuck Schumer has called for. There will be an investigation into all of this as members of Congress are outraged.
Security was a total failure and it’s clear that Trump did not allow Federal resources to be deployed when they were needed; DHS, the National Guard, the FBI. Trump instigated the riotous mob – why should he then put it down? He did finally unleash his agencies, but by then, it was too late.
Then there’s the chief instigator – Donald Trump himself.
As of this writing, over a 100 members of the House and over a dozen Senators have called for Trumps removal or resignation. Staff members of the White House are resigning. One cabinet secretary has resigned so far.
Now, there’s open discussion of employing the 25th Amendment which allows for the Vice-President and a majority of the Cabinet to move to remove the president.
In the meantime, Trump is still in the White House (he’s very busy – he’s awarding the Medal of Freedom to 3 golfers today) and still has his hands on the mantle of executive power. Many Republicans now have turned on him. Four years later and within 2 weeks of his departure. What courage!
With his remaining two weeks, Trump could do plenty of damage. What if he called for another “rally” during the Inauguration? What if he tried to spark a war with Iran?
This has to end. Whatever it takes. Mass resignations more than Ivanka’s chief of staff; Impeachment – doubtful. 25th? Maybe. Resignation? Doubtful. Sequestered to Mari logo?
Congress has to act. They are a co-equal partner of government. If they fail to act – or if the Cabinet fails to act – hold onto what’s left of the rails for the next two weeks.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes! Trump must go as soon as possible. Remove Trump now.
This headline looks like something from a leftwing newspaper out of the 1970s. But, it’s not.
Where is our Lieutenant Stephen Maryk when we need him? t-rump is our Captain Queeg and he needs to be removed immediately. This is amazingly similar to “The Caine Mutiny.” He should be walked out of the White House just like any other employee fired for malfeasance with an escort to be sure he touches nothing. Maybe allow him to take a banker’s box of personal mementos that probably only consist of pictures of himself.
A moment of reckoning. The digital footprint for the individuals planning and executing this riot will not be hard to obtain if the authorities want to. Those who fanned the flames through words and votes are equally easy to identify. It will be interesting to see how truly committed the ol’ US of A is to justice and democracy.
Right on, right on, right on! Very good to hear from you Marc! How the hell are you?
Doing great. Watching intently from 40 miles the other side of the border… of Alaska that is. I’m still West Coast. :)
Having worked in network security for federal elections I feel for Christopher Krebs, Brad Raffensberger, Gabriel Sterling and all the other officials trying to protect the integrity of their work. Regardless of party affiliation it is non-partisan work. Modern tech along with a hand auditable paper trail makes voter fraud pretty tough. Interesting to see folks like Arizona Rep Gosar claim his own state’s ballots had problems with fraud. He won by the same margin he had in previous elections and is on the same ballot. So one part of the paper was fraudulent and the other wasn’t? It’s no wonder these arguments go nowhere when it moves from sound bite to a court of law.
It’s amazing how things can change so quickly. The Trump Cult is now greatly diminished . Republicans will no longer have to suck up to Trump . Democrats will be in control of The U.S. Senate soon . We cannot blow it this time. It is indeed a time for healing .
Just want everyone to know that we’ve been threatened in an unpublished comment to one of our older posts. “al”
The poster said:
“you and the media and big tech think you have won but now youre gonna pay in other ways and i wont rule out violence,because thats the only thing you cowards understand.were gonna spend the next four years sabotaging and punishing you society wrecking pieces of shit.better sleep with one eye open because loud mouthed journalist hacks weill be prime targets.you are a vile bunch of lying rats.mostly hook nosed race traitors pandering to minorities because you are terrified of them,so you betray your own kin.hoping for brownie points when they takeover,sort of like how the jews that helped the nazis kill their own in auschwitz.you are no diffrent.”
and in a second unpublished comment, they said, “die in pain muthr fukr.”
Its so weird…actually, I’m sort of trying not to laugh b/c its just such dumb rhetoric, yet I realize its serious to those who are targeted. I just can’t understand the satisfaction one gets from sending something like this? Since its anonymous there’s no 5 mins of fame… go figure :/
Wow, this hater must be really busy. If they are threatening the small, local OB Rag like this, imagine how many other emails they have to write to all the other “media and big tech.” Perhaps they got to The Rag after already writing many others and were jus tired, which would explain the lack of capital letters and punctuation, No wait, some third grader wrote this, that would explain it. Probably too many video games.
I hope you reported or forwarded this to someone. This shit needs to stop now.
Bobbitt was not an obeachan. She moved to ob three years ago from lakeside. She was known to harass homeless people at the wall
Am thinking the South should have just been let go. These people need their own country, province, reservation, homeland, game park, zoo whatever. Suppose the insurrections play out. America will be broken up. There will be a number of successor states. I. Conservatardia:Herein the morlocks, orks, and troglydytes will drag their knuckles as low as they want, pound their Bibles, huff their coal dust, fondle their guns, dance in the acid rain, cut taxes for their Texasses, while shouts of freedumb will ring. II. Libertarianastan: a state for those who do not believe in states… There will be no government, no police force, no publicly funded roads, not even a military. The only thing these folks agree on is that gold is the standard of value and that each man is an island unto himself and his home is his castle. Concertina wire, attack dogs, and machine guns nests are common around the overly large houses. The drug trade is rampant as anything goes. Gambling houses and big corporations are the de facto powers that rule in this territory. III.Kekistan for the hard core followers of Donald Trump… This is a state dedicated to white power with a strong heirarchy, authoritarian rule, a population characterized by a social dominance orientation, and a well-developed caste system. Slavery is making a come back and superior military families are granted titles and land ownerships. Clans and outlaw bands of brigands control large territories. Justice is primitive brutal swift, and bigoted administered at the end of the noose, the muzzle of a gun, a guillotine, or a drowning in any suitable body of water. Then there are the liberal states. Dumbocratia: This is ruled by the establishment Democrats. It is required that leaders be grey overweight and banal and the women frumpy and petulant. All decisions are made by committee and implemented by schlerotic bureaucracies. Employment is high in the civil service in which many deputy assistant peaons have such positions as federally funded assistant public laundrymat attendant and licenser for trolleyes, go-carts, food vendors, and ricksaws. PCSurdia: Dually headquartered in San Francisco and Berkely, this socialist command economy is ruled according to the tenants of cultural marxism and moral relatativism. There is no freedom of speech nor association.l Folks who are too aggressive, ungenerous (but able bodied), or merely reluctant to use the proper pronouns for the fifth gender (the tricyclic ambisexuals) are sent to reconditioning and proper programming at the most appropriate reeducation camp at public expense. Ecotopia-Eruditia-Cascadia This is the land of the cultural elite. Public funding is provided for science, medicine, education, the arts, humanities, and classical music. Those who have developed intellectual property beyond the level of a PhD are given the honorary public title of fellow and granted tenured employment indefinitely as long as they wish it. Expenditures are funded through FAAMNNG etc taxes and ulitity telecom and some energy dividends are distributed to citizens as is done in PCSurdia.
Very clever, Mr. Harris, clever and funny. Nicely done.