It Has Been Awhile Since I Wrote Anything

Last Tuesday the State of Virginia did what it has done for the last several election cycles and voted in a Governor from the opposite party on the recently elected President.  The Washington Press Corp created a tsunami of stories about how this was a referendum on President Biden.  It wasn't really.  The politics of the race has little to do with the Biden agenda.  But the Washington Press Corp sees their jobs as trying to find fault with whoever is in power.  Then the House of Representatives passed an historic infrastructure bill that was a huge win for the President and the press corp focused on 6 progressive Democrats who voted against it in protest.  That came after they knew enough Republicans had voted for it.  But then why would these journalists do any research or deep exploration.  They had a story to sell.  The Democrats in disarray.  

On the same day as the election Republicans from the QAnon/Trump wing of the party gathered on Dealey Plaza in Dallas.  Why?  They were expecting John F. Kennedy Jr. to show up, declare Donald Trump the real President, and arrest most of the federal government.  This group has quite a hold on the GOP and we see it in the way people are campaigning for the next election.  But this was blip on the radar.  JFK Jr. has been dead for 22 years and yet the GOP is apparently holding out hope he will come back and usher in a new Trump era.  This is on top of the nonsense coming out of the mouths of the Pillow Guy and Giuliani and the Fox News, OAN, Newsmax propaganda wing.  

While Democrats may be having arguments with each other over how far the government should go to help those suffering and to create a nation that mirrors most Democratic Republics in the world, the GOP is arguing with Big Bird.  Sesame Street got back into the vaccine game as they did in the late sixties and early seventies to help children feel at ease with getting the Covid vaccine.  A member of the United States Senate, Ted Cruz, tweeted out to Big Bird that the beloved muppet was engaged in propaganda.  Meanwhile there are other high ranking elected officials announcing they will be running campaigns to restore masculinity to America.  I wish I knew what that meant.  Did we lose masculinity?  How are we defining it?  

Not to be outdone, one Republican member of Congress posted  on his personal and government twitter feed of a cartoon video of him killing another Representative.  Still others are calling for the release of violent mob members who stormed the Capital in and attempt to overthrow the government.  

But still the media is hyperfocused on the Democrats and President Biden, who have done more to rebuild our country and create a pathway out of the pandemic.  But instead of looking at the disgusting mess the GOP has or the accomplishments of the Dems there is a steady diet of low approval numbers, distrust among caucus members and of course personal attacks on the President.  This is what I call Storm the Castle journalism.  It is the lazy nonsense that somehow the media is supposed be the loyal opposition to those in power.  They aren't, the media should report facts and do deep analysis of them.  Not with the idea of getting at the power but in a way to give the American people the eyes to look into the government they hired.  If the media was doing their job they would cover the Dealey Plaza nonsense from the perspective that this kind of ginned up anger coupled with politics has always led to violence.  They should be asking Republicans what they are doing about their fellow party leaders fantasizing in public about killing another member or why some members think January 6th never happened and the violent mob members who were arrested should be set free.  

Yes it is important to hold the country's leadership's proverbial feet to the fire.  But when during a long speech the President closed his eyes of less than 10 seconds you don't have to play the video and asked if he fell asleep.  All the while ignoring what is becoming a huge threat to democratic principles with the Trump wing of the GOP.  This is serious, and as people fail to get access to quality journalism the very core of who we are as a nation suffers.  The Washington Press Corp has to stop seeing themselves as playing characters in a drama about government and start seeing themselves as a megaphone to let the American learn what is going on.  January 6th, the Dallas gathering and of course the constant din coming from the former President about all part of a bigger story than if President Biden nodded off during a droning speech or the progressives did exactly what they said they would.  We need you more than ever, so start doing your job. 

What I Learned From YouTube...

In the last 20 months or so the world has been remarkably chaotic.  The US Presidential election and the Covid 19 pandemic and subsequent politicizing of it, as well as the wars around the world there was a lot of news and little good.  In the before times I would spend a couple hours each evening watching news and/or opinion shows.  But by April of 2020 the anxiety it produced was too much.  At the time we also had lockdowns so sports shut down for a while (I actually spent time watching marble racing and NASCAR drivers doing E-racing) but the savior was YouTube.  While Dianne and I did catch up on some movies we missed and a few released to streaming services YouTube became a bit of a savior.  In part because there were show length programs but also a few minute videos that could serve as a slight bit of entertainment without an investment of lots of time.  This came in handy while working at home, after a particularly bad or tense meeting or phone call it was great to walk into the other room and be mindless for 5-7 minutes of escape and get back.  What I found was a world of wonderful things I was surprisingly ignorant of and wanted to know.  So here are a few.  

The first thing you learn about YouTube is just how long 5 seconds is...you know or you don't.

Herons:  Our pond near the house is home to a number of herons at various times.  I love those majestic birds and so does Dianne.  It is always cool to watch them pull small fish out of the pond to eat.  Well there is a whole category on YouTube of Herons eating and small fish are just an appetizer.  I had no idea that that they eat fish up to 20% of their body weight.  But also rats, gophers, chipmunks, baby ducks, (sometimes not so baby baby ducks) snakes, frogs, alligator babies, and all kinds of other things.  They are skilled hunters on water or land and will snatch animals out of their underground lairs.  It is amazing.  Watching them swallow a large rodent is remarkable and could be the stuff of art or nightmares.  

Cows:  There is a man in southwest Scotland named Graeme Parker known as the Hoof GP who travels the area in Scotland and England visiting farms and trimming cow hoofs.  I didn't know that was a thing.  His videos are remarkably educational about the care of the animals he trims and sometimes attempts to heal of damage or disease of the hoofs.  While I guess it makes sense that cows, especially on large farms where cows are kept indoors a lot, that cows aren't going to naturally keep their hoof horn trimmed and cleaned properly but it was amazing to me how much you can learn from him.  His love of the job, the countryside, the act of farming and the animals comes out strong and he hit 1 million subscribers today after about 5 years of posting.  

Sovereign Citizens:  I can't post a link for these guys because I don't want to give them traffic.  There are people, in the US and other Western Democracies, that declare themselves sovereign and the law of the land doesn't apply to them.  They use misinterpretations of court cases and historical documents to declare themselves not under the authority of the legal system.  They have even in some cases created their own language and declare their legal names are not theirs.  It is amazing what these people believe and they spend a great deal of time taunting legal authority from police and sheriff personnel to judges and DAs when they are finally arrested and brought to trial.  In some cases they pretend to have legal documents from their friends claiming they have legal authority.  Often they pretend to be lawyers saying that they don't have to be admitted to the bar to practice on behalf of someone else.  FYI:  Judges don't put up with that.  

1st Amendment Auditors:  Closely related to the sovereign citizen movement are so-called first amendment auditors.  These are people who seem to chosen a vocation of trying to provoke people by filming in public from what they would say is a public property.  Filming in public is legal in many places but they do it in a way to provoke fear.  Like filming outside a corrections facility or government office or filming inside a courthouse or other municipal building.  When approached by police they often are rude and insulting and sometimes belligerent.  While testing the 1st amendment could be an admirable thing most of these YouTube heroes don't understand the limits of the amendment and often run afoul of the law by crossing the line.  Their intent is to provoke in the hopes of suing.  

YouTube Itself:  Ann Reardon is an Australian food scientist and dessert making with a popular YouTube channel called How to Cook That.  She will teach on the channel how to make funky cakes and such but what I was interested in was her debunking videos.  She spends a great deal of time debunking wild viral videos about cooking.  Many of these videos show fantastic results from simple things you can do.  The heavily edited videos, for example showing adding Skittles to popcorn as it pops will make rainbow popcorn, will not work and while entertaining to watch can even be dangerous.  People have been seriously hurt following some of the video ideas.  Reardon shows how these are made by massive operations that post same or similar videos across several platforms and accounts to gain revenue.  While YouTube has rules against some of this behavior the click bait generated has gain them awards from YouTube.  This often leads to real individual content providers with innovative and instructive videos are often pushed off the platform as the algorithms promote the fake stuff over them.  

These are a few of the things that caught my attention over the course of the last 20 months or so.  I am sure there are much more.  What is great for me is learning there are things I knew almost nothing about and finding out more has been a delight.  I will never trim a cow's hoof nor likely create a content rich YouTube channel but I love learning about the inner workings of those things.  It is amazing the vast amount of stuff I don't know and rarely encounter.  So I am glad to have stumbled into what at first was a mindless endeavor to be truly educated and perhaps the connections will take me to new places.  

Masks are Back and We can do This.

So many Americans didn't listen to the warnings.  They didn't follow the simple rules and suggestions and they didn't get vaccinated.  And now, after a few weeks of thinking there was a clear vision of a horizon and not just a light at the end of the tunnel, we are back in the dark.  Cases are rising again and the unvaccinated are filling hospitals in several states.  We are back to seeing tired medical professionals pleading for people to take the virus and its new variants seriously and stories of people saying good-bye to loved ones as they struggle for enough breath to express their regrets for not listening.  And of course we are now back to wearing a mask.  For me, I never really stopped wearing one but didn't all the time.  But now there is one always on my desk at work, in my car and several hanging near my keys.  They are part of a regular routine and frankly I am back to forgetting I have it on.  But with masks comes the amateur epidemiologists with their quips about masks.  My favorite is that the virus is so small that a cloth mask is as much of defense to it as a chain link fence is to a mosquito.  But here is the thing.  While it is true that a cloth mask has a weave that would allow singular virus particles to come through, they would be unlikely to survive for long, be taken into the respiratory system of another, nor survive the trip into someone's body to attack the cells needed to duplicate.  And frankly an exhaled virus particle would have to be pretty damn lucky to make it through one face mask, float through the air, land on someone else's face mask, make it through that and take root in the system of that person.  What the mask does stop is the variety of fluids we exhale when we talk, breath, sigh, sneeze, cough or burp.  Each carrying thousands if not millions of those virus particles that are more likely to remain atomized and inhaled carrying a lot more virus to survive the first lines of defense in our system.  The mask holds them in place.  Going back to the  chain link analogy, the virus is less like a mosquito, which will fly around to find a suitable host to bite, it is more like a tick that is opportunistic.  The chain link fence will not stop an individual tick, but will stop a deer, rabbit, fox or neighbors dog who is carrying hundreds of ticks that could be deposited in your yard ready for your animal or you to collect it as you go out.  Stopping the spreading of large amounts of virus or ticks makes it less likely to contract them.  It really is simple. 

But in this day and age simple facts like this are lost on the those who follow politicians who spew nonsense for political gain.  Members of the Republican party in leadership positions are not only not mandating or even suggesting masking as a way to try to quell the massive spreading of the new variants, but are making it illegal (or attempting to) for communities and businesses to impose masking.  They are also downplaying vaccines with the help of their right wing noise machine amplifiers, all of whom have been vaccinated.  They seem to be attempting to fund raise off of the people of this country who refuse to believe the reality of pandemic because it is too big for them to think it just happens like this.  Even today people think it is overblown, still use the word PLANdemic and suggest nonsense about how they are safe because of their immune system.  It appears certain members of the right wing want their vote, their money and their eyes and ears on their shows more than they want reality and science to help us get through this tragedy.  In recent weeks we have heard stories of some of the people the GOP is exploiting who caught Covid and from their hospital and even death beds explain they were wrong.  Trying to maybe see the errors of their ways and help others who fell for the carnival barkers of death.  Yet even today, as some states are reaching capacity in hospitals again, their governors are punishing school systems and employers for trying to mitigate the spread of Covid.

Listen, for many of us the last 18 months have been a nightmare, we want it to be over.  I know I want to sit in a crowded bar and listen to music and dance with my wife and look like a fool.  I want to go to the theater or see a movie with full Dolby sound on a IMAX screen.  I want to hug my friends.  I want to travel and feel safe.  I want to be free.  But we won't wish it away and the solution is simple.  Get the vaccine, wear a mask in places the virus is rampant, remember to stay distant and to protect children and others who can't get the vaccine.  And listen to the experts, directly.  Not the spin of a news industry who gutted their science teams to the point they mix up Hydrogen and Helium in a story.  Not the politicians who, trust me, do not have your best interests top of mind, not radio hosts who look for anything to make the other political party look bad while ignoring their own party short-falls, or celebrities, sports figures or your Uncle who sends you those grainy pictures with the subject line WE FOUND BIGFOOT (yes all in caps).  You didn't Uncle Bob that is a fir tree.  

We as a nation and a world can do this.  We can defeat this disease or at least make it less of a killer.  I know this because I am typing this on a device small enough to fit in my briefcase yet more powerful than the devices used to send people to the moon (yes Uncle Bob we did send people to the moon).  I know this because there are thousands of people around the world who have dedicated their lives to not simply responding when a virus like this shows up but trying to predict how it might and create the proper mitigation.   I know this because humanity survives.  So mask up again, think of it as another way to show your brand, get vaccinated if you haven't.  Get the booster if it seems necessary.  Pressure those in power to respond based on science and not politics.  And vote, every time you can, for those who will put you above their own personal interests.  You are worthy of that. 

 

Reality is Broken

What we know to be true can sometimes be a matter of perspective.  Earlier this month, Peter Sagal, host of NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, was tweeting about the death and funeral of his mother, of blessed memory.  He mentioned one of the officiants, Rabbi Lila Kagedan, as the first Orthodox woman Rabbi.  The statement is true for many.  But I have met the first Orthodox Woman Rabbi and it wasn't Rabbi Kagedan, but Rabba Sara Hurwitz.  Can they both be the first?  Well, maybe.  You see while Rabba Hurwitz was ordained in 2009 and Rabbi Kagedan in 2015 time is not the only factor.  While Rabbah Hurwitz is seen as the first ordained, some see Rabbi Kagedan as the first with the title and full responsibility of a Rabbi in an Orthodox congregation.  So when that happens, when outside interpretation comes into the conversation that is not only legitimate and understandable, a fact can evolve (or devolve) into an opinion.  This debate will be something talked about in the future.  Both women are trailblazers and in the decades to come will likely be seen as changing Judaism. 

And that is partially the problem in a world where facts and opinions are intertwined and sometimes misunderstood.  But there are objective facts in the world and they must be seen as such and we as a society should share that understanding, but we don't.  David Brooks, recently writing in the New York Times, about the destruction of truth. In the article he focuses on the fact that for some a knowable truth is actively ignored by some for their own emotional convenience.  He writes,  "But Donald Trump doesn’t get away with lies because his followers flunked Epistemology 101. He gets away with his lies because he tells stories of dispossession that feel true to many of them."  This is exactly what Steven Colbert referred to Truthiness almost a decade ago. Brooks goes on the attempt to both-side this argument but in United States today there is one side leading the way to break down the foundation of shared facts.  The phrase alternative facts has become part of the language because a conservative spokesperson didn't like being challenged on the lies of a President.  Let us remember, anything alternative to an established fact is a lie.

Those lies abound in today's political discourse.  Be it the January 6th attack on the Capitol or the medical data surrounding a global pandemic right wing politicians are simply lying about things we clearly have evidence of and when challenged they have the gall to say things like "this is how I see it" or worse "I am just speaking my truth".  No they are simply lying and frankly destroying any possibility of discourse.  Since many are backed by far reaching so-called news organizations, who will repeat the lies as if they are facts many Americans, who like Brooks notes, want to believe the stories being told and repeat them.  Social media amplifies these voices of the misinformed and there is little one can do to change their minds.  (But it can be fun trying sometimes).  If someone states something outrageous and you ask for proof the response is often "Do your own research" or "I won't do your homework".  

The fantasies of so many have become mainstream and thus it creates a universe where provable facts are disputed openly, even in the halls of Congress.  When people think their vision is as legitimate as any other regardless of evidence there is no talking to them.  As a significant number of people claim that President Biden is not the real President despite the functioning government under his leadership, showing them information to prove it doesn't help.  While these people always existed, this is the first time in my life that leaders in the country fed and continue to feed this nonsense.  Next week a handful of books are being released that members of the last administration had reservations in private about the actions and lies of the President, but publicly repeated the lies about the election.  People in positions of authority and had the ability to stop the continued and dangerous rhetoric were nervous about, but for reasons beyond comprehension, continued to feed the anger of people who believed they were disenfranchised and responded violently.  They now are trying to both play hero in print and also pretend it wasn't that bad.  

But this is not about conservative and liberal ideology.  There are people on the left who perpetuate their own set of fantasies.  However, there are few leaders and people in power that blatantly make statements that are in opposition to reality. We can talk about misinformed opinions, that is ubiquitous, but they are not being elevated to positions of leadership over those who are just stating facts that GOP leadership doesn't like.  

When Congress people say things they must know are false, I often think of a line from Dire Straits' song Industrial Disease:  

Now, I go down to Speaker's Corner, I'm thunderstruck

They got free speech tourists, police in trucks

Two men say they're Jesus, one of them must be wrong

'

Indeed one of them must be wrong.  The attack on the Capitol was not like a tourist visit, yes it was violent, yes they had weapons and yes they meant to stop the legal transition of power.  Yes, Covid 19 is dangerous, yest the vaccines will help mitigate the disease's impact on individuals and the public.  Yes, the Earth is not a flat disk floating in space with the sun moving around it (or whatever I don't get the Physics of Flat Earthers)   When we can't fully agree on these fundamental facts we can't debate the real important things.  Like what kind of tax cuts will better help the economy, what laws should be passed to make voting both safe and easy, what industries should the government help support in the energy sector of the economy?  The isn't a functioning partner to have a debate.  There are people, who for whatever reason live in a fantasy world of comfort and are recruiting allies to prop it up.  That truly breaks reality.  Frankly, I don't know if there will be enough metaphysical duct tape to ever repair it.

 

A Day That Should Live in Infamy

On January 6, 2021 the then President of the United States called for his supporters who had not accepted the results of 2020 election to come to Washington D.C. to protest the perfunctory duty of Congress and the Vice-President to count the Electoral votes from each state.  At a rally a series of speakers ginned up the crowd to a fever pitch and then the out-going President told them to go to the Capitol and he would be with them, to make their voices heard.  He told them to fight like hell.  And they did.  Trump supporters stormed the Capitol Building, with weapons of all kinds, attacking police and chanting for the death of members of Congress.  They violently entered the building breaking police barriers and beating law enforcement officers causing hundreds of injuries to them.  We all saw it either live or in hours of video.  The intent was simply to stop the transition of power in the Federal executive.  It was an insurrection, the should be not debate.  But there is. 

This week, the Republican party has decided that this didn't actually happen.  Liz Cheney was ousted from her leadership position in the GOP because she won't go along with the continued lying of former President about the election.  She also voted for impeachment after Trump's inciting the attackers of democracy on January 6th.  Cheney has been a classic conservative and voted with the former President nearly 100% of the time.  Her conservative credentials are not at all in question. However she is replaced by a member who has been less conservative, less a Trump supporter in her Congressional votes, but promotes the lie of the President about the election.  A lie that includes saying that the people who stormed the Capitol building were patriots.  

To put a finer point on that, there was a Congressional hearing this week on January 6th.  Elected members of Congress, while taking their time to question the people in-charge of security for the day, said completely insane lies.  Representative Andrew Clyde said, "Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes taking videos and pictures," Clyde said. "You know, if you didn't know the TV footage was a video from January the sixth, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit."  Even the footage that may have shown that included people wearing Nazi slogans and carrying Confederate flags.  He and many in the party seem to be ignoring the video of attacks, some of which was released this week, showing the desire of the anti-American/pro-Trump attackers calling for the death to police and reports of them calling out for the death of elected officials and the use of the N-word.  

On Friday, Congress agreed to a commission to investigate the events leading to and during the attack on the Capital.  The GOP leadership is not happy with this bipartisan group looking into the events of the day because so many will have to speak, under oath, after having changed their tune to support the former President who continues to control so many members of party.  So many want to link it to anti-police protests in 2020 that led to vandalism and rioting in general.  While that is something that needs to be understood.  Attacking the heart of democracy is different and the question of whether elected officials and the then Executive branch members were involved.  We need to know what happened, why, and if there is future danger of it happening again.

The Republican party has given up its leadership to the former President who continues to call out anyone who doesn't bend the knee to his fantasy vision of the world.  They have given up on policy and conservative values over it.  Liz Cheney was replaced by a woman who has a lower Club for Growth (a conservative political action committee) than Democratic squad member Ilan Omar.  If the Republican party continues to walk down this road they will simply become the cult they look like and not the loyal opposition to Democrats.  Cults have a way of destroying themselves.  The GOP has already starting do it.  If they are able to push January 6th into a memory whole they will succeed.  That could be the beginning of the end of our Republic.  

Dr. Seuss is Not Being Canceled

 When is the last time you saw a minstrel show?  Think hard.  Not a movie with a minstrel show in it, in context.  Not a documentary on minstrel shows.  A full live action show where white folks dressed up in costumes, portrayed Africans, often in slave motifs, making stereotypical gestures and language.  My guess is you haven't and frankly that is understandable.  While black-face continues to pop up now and again and has been part of British TV very recently, though not full accepted, the idea that a theater would put on a minstrel show today is beyond ridiculous.  Have they been cancelled?  In the 19th century they were all the rage in entertainment and comedy, but today the very notion makes us cringe.  Certain types of entertainment have a time and frankly then they don't.  

So this week, after years of concern, Seuss Enterprises has made the decision not to continue publication of some of works of Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss.  In a statement they wrote:

Today, on Dr. Seuss’s Birthday, Dr. Seuss Enterprises celebrates reading and also our mission of supporting all children and families with messages of hope, inspiration, inclusion, and friendship.

We are committed to action.  To that end, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, working with a panel of experts, including educators, reviewed our catalog of titles and made the decision last year to cease publication and licensing of the following titles:  And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!, and The Cat’s Quizzer.  These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.

Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’s catalog represents and supports all communities and families.

Of course this has the right wing noise machine and their audiences losing their minds.  Many voices on the right and a few on the left started screaming about book banning, cancel culture and even book burning. Watching elected officials suggest that some how this is government overreach when the government wasn't involved at all.   I don't understand how if someone who owns the rights of a piece of art, who chooses not to share it any longer is a ban.  Dr. Seuss Enterprises has taken this seriously and made a wise decision to put on the shelf a historical expression based on how the culture saw people.  Seuss was a product of his time, and over time changed the way he saw his own work.  As the noise continues and we hear how much these hypocrites say they learned so much from Dr. Seuss the only thing I can think of that they learned was how to be like Sylvester McMonkey McBean and con the crowd.  It wasn't that long ago that the same voices were calling Seuss works left wing propaganda as people read The Lorax as part of educating on environmentalism.  So they were ready to cancel Seuss then I guess.  

But that is par of the course for these people.  We have watched these propagandists call for boycotts of Starbucks, Keruig, Target, and many others over social issues.  There are even members of Congress wanting to host a hearing on cancel culture.  The big worry is the private internet companies like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have deplatformed voices promoting the lie of election fraud that drove the attack on Capital on January 6th.  The idea is again that somehow this private company doesn't have the right to decide what they promote.  Funny story however about these people.  The recent Conservative Political Action Conference where many of the people crying about the cancel culture had a theme:  UnCancel America.  One of the speakers they were  promoting was a rapper and internet bigot Young Pharaoh as a speaker until it was pointed out that he is a raging anti-Semite and Qanon conspiracy supporter.  So they canceled him.  Literally.  Apparently protecting your brand is important to CPAC but shouldn't be to Seuss Enterprises.  

The fact is there have always been changes on what is culturally appropriate.  What worked in mid-20th century for entertainment meets a very different audience in early 21st.   We have a long history of what we are comfort with in public and what we find offensive.  That history has almost often been driven by conservative advocates. While we hear about what some call political correctness today, the actual calls for using government to impose restrictions or force certain requirements have come from conservatives.  We can see this historically in two children's books about rabbits getting married.  In the play Alabama Story a state politician wanted to fire a librarian who didn't remove a book with a black and a white rabbit getting married in the Jim Crowe era.  This play, based on a true story, showed how what some are calling cancel culture today might actually work.  In the satirical book A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, the author imagines the then Vice-President Pence's rabbit, the star of an earlier book, was gay and getting married.  Many of the same commentators worried about the action of Seuss Enterprises were ready to trash this book and it has been on the list of the most banned books from schools and public libraries since it was published.  Of course we bought a copy.  

I am not a fan of censorship, I have fought book banning by government agencies for decades.  But that is not what is happening here.  We know our history is full of many images and ideas that are hurtful to people who didn't have a voice when they were created.  Our cultural myopia allowed for these hurtful expressions to thrive in public spaces and now we question whether they should still be promoted.  They won't go away.  We know this because in Germany promoting or showing Nazi imagery is illegal, yet all German school children learn of the horrors of that era.  We also know about minstrel shows and many understand why black face is wrong, even if we don't produce or encourage either.  We don't want the government banning things and that is not what is happening with these Dr. Seuss books.  However we don't want to promote hurtful things.  So in the words of a wise but complicated man "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not”  Dr. Seuss Enterprises has decided to take the words of their namesake to heart.  We should be thanking them and we don't need those books they will no longer publish when we can learn so much from his later works.  However I caution them, in the story of the Sneetches,  McBean is the bad guy. 

He Couldn't Be Arsed

So this morning I woke to see Senator Ted Cruz of Texas heading to Cancun for a mini-vacation with his family as millions of Texans were without power and water after the failure of the power grid because of a serious winter storm. That was enough to be angry but what was amazing was the number of people in the right wing noise machine and their followers who made excuses for him leaving his state while there was an emergency. I couldn't help myself, as I thought about people burning their furniture to keep their children warm. I couldn't help but remind people that elected officials are public servants. So I started to list things on twitter about what exactly Senator Cruz could do. I was surprised that when late in the day I saw hundreds of people had retweeted and liked my little rage on line. It was kind of simple to come up with a few things to state.

1. A US Senator has contacts both within his state and the federal government. He can be on the ground to learn where there is more need and can help direct the agencies doing the work on behalf of the government to offer material support. While this could be done on the beach, it is much easier to learn about what is going on in Texas while in Texas.

2. He can show up at a shelter or food distribution center which would bring the media. He could do the photo op, but in doing so he brings attention to the severity of the problem. He could even choose to go to a grossly under served area to bring eyes to see that. Again he could then make calls to his connections to help bring what is needed to those places.

3. He could offer condolences directly to people who are hurting. This seems like an empty gesture by some but there is a reason that elected officials meeting with disaster victims is important. It brings hope. Listening to people interviewed on TV about the sense of abandonment is one of the worst parts of this tragic situation. A person coming to offer hope would go a long way.

4. When elected officials show up they bring attention and value to the victims. Too often people are devalued as statistics in these cases. We know from studies that when someone seen as having a valued social role takes an interest in those that may not, the value rubs off. Often subconsciously. Just showing interest in the plight of people will enhance the response.

5. He could stand in front of a power plant and discredit the lies of the state officials who are trying deflect the blame to renewable energy. The fact is that the main reason the storm was able to do so much long lasting damage is that the energy grid in Texas is independent of the national grids. That was to avoid regulations that would....have guarded against what happened. So now, while the fact is that the main cause of the problem is the failure of the gas and coal fired plants, the government is lying to its people that it is because of frozen wind turbines. True story, federal regulations would have helped to avoid that as well. Cruz could easily have become a hero and called for his state to reconnect to the federal grid and upgrade its infrastructure. He didn't.

6. Lastly, the idea of running off to a resort with your family as the people who elected you are suffering is just not a good look. How do I know this? When he got caught Cruz blamed his children for wanting to get away since the storm had closed school and he was there to help his wife fly with the kids. That lie not only shows how much of a useless politician he is but that he is so hell bent on power he is willing to throw his wife and children under the bus to keep it. He originally was going to return on Saturday, but changed his flight to today. All because he knows what he did was wrong, but will he apologize? No, my guess by Sunday it will somehow be Nancy Pelosi's fault.

There is no way to justify what has happened here. An elected official, who will soon seek the leadership of his party, when his state faced a crisis, he ran away. Unlike other members of Congress who are on the ground, talking with Texans, volunteering where they can and seeking out those who have no one, Cruz tried to live in luxury in another country to ride it out. While one member of Congress who had no power for days, was using his contacts to help people get to shelters and access to simple drinking water, Cruz was sipping expensive wine. As another member of Congress was trying to coordinate food deliveries so people didn't have to stand in the cold only to find empty shelves at the grocery, Cruz was enjoying a fine dining meal.

Let's face it. We know politicians are not going to be fitting pipes and pulling electrical cable. Most can't and wouldn't know how. But there is a lot they can do to make a dire situation a little less so. Cruz chose to let others handle it and take his family away from it all. As they say in Britain, he couldn't be arsed to help. So when he runs for President again, let's remember, that when the going gets tough, Cruz gets going, as far away from the problem as he can. We have seen this movie before, it didn't scream for a sequel.

58 Steps

In 2007 the Kenyan national elections were called into question.  The country was engulfed with violence.  Over 1300 people were killed, including members of the government, in what was both protests of government corruption, tribal conflict and economic strife.  At one point women and children were locked in a church and it was set on fire.  The UN finally brokered a deal for a coalition government to end the violence.  The world court charged many of the leaders of various factions include those who would later lead the country.  While the cases fell apart over time they are being revived as of late last year as local investigations have started up again due to threats to families of some of the victims from 2007.  Those that the world court indicted were not the ones who beat people in the streets, who chased people from their homes, or lit the fires to burn people out, but the world saw them as inciting that violence.  That violence still haunts the Kenyan people as elections come around once again, this is because those who incited the violence were never brought to justice. 

In the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump we have seen the results of what happens even here in the United States when a corrupt leader lies to his supporters for months leading up to and immediately after the election.  Trump was constantly inciting people being told that their votes didn't matter because the Democrats and some Republicans stole it from them.  He leveled accusations by himself and through surrogates and lawyers at anyone who didn't perpetuate his lie.  When members of his own administration said the election was done without fraud, they were fired.  When elections officials in states Trump needed to win did not violate the law he attacked them publicly.  And when his own Vice-President,  a loyal supporter, did the only thing he could within the Constitution, he called him a traitor.  Each one of these things led to death threats to the people involved and their families.  So when Trump called for a gathering on January 6th, the day of the Congressional certification of the Electoral College... When he timed the rally to end at the start of count in the Congress...  And when he called for the people who had been in Washington DC calling for the death of elected officials to go to the Capital, the only thing it could lead to was violence.  And it did.

Hundreds of Trump supporters invited to protest a fairly routine act on the part of the Congress attacked the central symbol of our Republic, the building where our voices are to be heard through our representatives.  A physical representation of Democracy.  They came with murder in their eyes.  They beat police officers, some carrying Back the Blue banners.  They smashed windows and doors.  They erected a gallows and called for Vice President Pence to be hanged on it.  They carried things to use as weapons and seemed intent on hurting or killing members of Congress.  At one point, they were 58 steps away from succeeding.  And if you ask them why they did it, they would tell you that they were there at the orders of President Donald Trump.

So today, as the trial in Senate comes to a conclusion, a trial where there are Republican Senators who swore an oath to be impartial, scribble on paper during presentations, leave the room or simply don't show up, or even have strategy meetings with Trump's defense attorneys there is no hope for justice.  Their minds are made up.  They will put their own political ambitions and one-sided loyalty over what is good for the country.  They aren't even being coy about it.  That is the problem.  Right now there are still two Americas.  One looks to a conman who tried to overturn a legal fair election because they are afraid of his base and will sell out any part of the country just to not feel his wrath and one that wants to get past the last 4 years and start to operate once again as the standard of Democratic principles, morals and ideals.  So tomorrow, when Donald J Trump is acquitted by a large number of Republicans who never cared about evidence will you rally to his side or will you take a step back and think.  Think about what history will say about the time an out-going President tried to use angry, ignorant supporters to physically stop a democratic process.  Enraging them with constantly lying and demonizing even his own Vice-President?  Your choice.  Choose Wisely.  Because if this insurrection goes unpunished, I fear what might come next. 

Sorry Not Sorry

Marjorie Taylor Greene may live in a penthouse in the city-center of Crazytown, but she threw a party, the travel time for most of the caucus would not be very far.  The problem with the GOP right now is not one person and it will come to light in the upcoming impeachment trial of the former President.  But I wanted to focus on Rep Greene's apology.  Like so many before her it was a non-apology apology where she clearly said she was sorry that she was being held to account for her previous actions and statements, but pivoted to blame others for them, including the media.  The clear intent of the statement she made on the House floor was to save her career.  We know this because the next day she was just as defiant and continues to say she has little to apologize for since her attempt failed.

And this is where we are as a culture.  So many times apologies are meaningless, often crafted by public relation advisors and risk assessment lawyers, they are designed to stop criticism without admitting wrong doing.  Think of people who are caught saying or doing anything that is social unacceptable or criminal who are in the public eye.  There are so many ways that they try to absolve themselves of blame while trying to keep their brand intact.  

Sometimes they even deflect to blame others for their own failures as one particular member of the House did when caught in a serious corruption charge.  He told reporters that his wife took care of his campaign finances so he would have us believe his wife paid for the strip clubs he went to with those funds.  Side note:  He was pardoned by the former President. 

Worst than that is the "I am sorry you took it that way, I didn't mean it".  This often comes from someone who says something highly insensitive and is called out.  Think of a politician who uses antisemitic imagery in an attack ad against his or her opponent or a sports figure caught using a racial slur on a hot microphone.  These are but a few small examples of how this works.  It is coupled with the "I didn't know" defense that suggests something that everyone is aware of the person is ignorant of understanding.  

Then, of course, is the "whataboutism" that we have seen all along in the recent political climate.  An apology that includes others who have done similar things that were not punished is the response we often get from toddlers but we have seen it as grown people use this all the time.  Sometimes it is supporters of the person of the person speaking for them.  Think how many times you heard about Black Lives Matter and Antifa in response to the Capitol riot arrests.  Another side note:  There were thousands of arrests made at the unrest, riots and looting this summer.  I don't recall any of those people who were moved to a new jail to get organic food.  

Saying you are sorry should mean something.  Not the least of which is that you will try your best never to do what you are caught doing again.  It should also include an attempt to fully and without question undo the wrong that was done.  But saying sorry has become a panacea in our culture.  How many times do you see someone tell a child to say they are sorry for an action?  Are all those children really sorry or are we asking them to lie to get beyond their wrong doing?  How many times do we see someone say, "If they just would apologize we could get past this?"  But that is not what will truly get us to a better situation.  Too often those apologizes are hollow and that there is more to owning one's wrong doing than a few words to sooth the masses.  Contrition requires real action, and at time consequences for the action is the best way to move forward.  If someone is not truly sorry and not on their own making the situation better,  it is appropriate to provide appropriate consequences. 

Removing Rep Greene from committees is a good step and it is sad that the entire House had to vote on it because her caucus couldn't do that themselves.  This will limit her power in Congress however she doesn't really see that as much of a punishment. She said after the vote that it would be a waste of her time to serve.  I think anyone who cheers the notion of killing the Speaker of the House shouldn't be allowed to serve in Federal government and I hope the good people of Northwest Georgia see that.  Not likely however.  But while she has become a celebrity of sorts, she also is more infamous than famous.  

Which brings me to another person, someone who hasn't really apologized but I suspect might in the next few days.  Former President Trump.  There are so many excuses, responses, opinions about the trial after his impeachment.  The bottom line is that the former President called for people to come to Washington in the day the election was readout in Congress.  He lied to them continuously for two months, even after recounts and court cases showed that the election was free and fair.  He spoke to the rally to gin them up and told them to go to the Capitol to fight.  He must be held responsible and there are few mechanisms for doing so.  So my guess is that he will do a non-apology apology and be acquitted in the Senate who have no stomach to hold him accountable.  All for political reasons.  And we will go on.  

An apology should be sincere, it should change the person apologizing more than the receiver of the apology.  It should focus on not only admitting the problem created but should ameliorate it.  Otherwise it is empty words.  We should strive to hold ourselves and others to such an apology.  Being sincerely sorry for something is difficult.  Many hate to be wrong, including me.  I have failed many times.  But the thing is we all have a chance to be better.  It starts with seeing it in ourselves.  

Q Grew in a Field Watered By GOP Lies

I my entire voting life I have never felt a place in the Republican party.  My vision of government is radically different from that of party on virtually every issue, including but not limited to foreign policy on the national level, fiscal and social policy throughout government.  That is not to say that there are a couple times I voted for a Republican for a local or state office because they were in-fact the best candidate.  But the role of the both parties is an important part of how our government works for all Americans.  Debate creates better ideas as compromise leads to a stronger and more successful government.  But for at least the last three decades one party has created an alternative universe of what more recently has been called alternative facts. 

One cannot fully trace back the origin of when the Republicans started to live in a fantasy world.  Maybe the rise of right wing radio that at first bent the truth to fit policy desires.  Maybe when a flawed Democratic Governor won the White House and there was a rich vein of gold to exploit so throwing in some pyrite would go unnoticed.  I don't know.  But by the time President Obama was elected the blurring of right wing punditry lies and the elected officials became virtually the same and thus people who would normally be shunned in the halls of power, Jim Hoft, Jerome Corsi, and Alex Jones were quoted and supported by those running for or had been elected to office.  Then the Tea Party came along and they helped elevated candidates who did not know how government worked.  Repeated slogans over ideas and voted against anything the Democrats were for.  Both small town and national voices across the radio, TV and internet were promoting nonsense not even close to facts and more and more reality became a thing debated on cable news.  Then came Trump. 

Donald Trump was a known charlatan and buffoon among his peers and neighbors in New York City.  A cartoon character of a businessman whose TV show drew viewers for its absurd storylines and later celebrity contestants.  His transformation to cartoon was complete but he had ambition to be bigger.  So to get more publicity he set off on a quest to prove the lie that President Obama was born in Kenya.  He even spoke of all the evidence he had collected in Hawaii and that "you won't believe it".  Smart people didn't believe him, but enough did that it became a get way to get more and more followers to his show and social media.  He was given air time on cable channels and there was a grown swell for him to run for President.  He did, and while at first wasn't embraced by the GOP, they had for so long created an electorate that thought much like Trump.  That misinformed opinion was equal in value to someone speaking facts.  That the media were the enemy of good Americans and that believed what he was saying because well, that part is unclear. 

Trump got elected and every fear of his supporters was realized when critics came together from both inside and outside of the Republican establishment and the Democrats began several investigations into his campaign and choices for cabinet.  So the ground was ready for what came next.  Q!

The QAnon conspiracy developed in the well fertilized ground created by the GOP over a long period of time.  Distrust of government, elected officials, the FBI, were all messages that were loud and clear from at least the 80s.  Trump elevated those ideas to 11 when he was running.  The hatred he showed for Hillary Clinton fed the first big lie about Seth Rich, a murdered staffer for then nominee Clinton.  Killed in a botched robbery the story was he was murdered by the DNC because he leaked the emails that Wikileaks obtained.  That he was going to testify.  This was promoted by the mainstream and lunatic fringe of the right wing world including prominent cable pundits and elected officials.  Like the birther conspiracy about Obama, this was easily dismissed with rational thought, but it was a horse many would ride to the point the family wanted to take legal action.  But this was now a standard in right wing circle.  So when Trump got elected he was able to basically take it anywhere he wanted.  He immediately started his Presidency by having his staff lie to the American people about crowd size and within a few days of taking office created the phrase alternative facts.  So when Q came along with crazy stories of pedophilia and child sacrifice, a secret government program to root out the deep state and arrest many leading political and media figures who were seen as opposed to Trump, and talk of an almost religious style awakening in the country many people believed it and knew their guy in the Oval Office had their backs.  President Trump played footsie with Q as he had done with others like White Nationalists and Militia groups.  Until he lost the election, and then his rhetoric got more directive.  Calling for some kind of intervention between the election and the new President taking office.  We all have seen the results of Q and the nonsense.  The attack on Comet Pizza thought to be a center for pedophilia.  A violent stand off at Hoover Dam looking for where some secret base was.  Attacks on the media and celebrities both online and direct threats.  The culmination was the attack on the Capitol that included calls for death to leading Democrats and Vice-President Pence.  All because the religious leader of Q lost the election and told them it was stolen and it was up to them to make it right. 

It would be tragic if this were all that it was, Trump had long sense disassociated himself from reality so him being the central figure of this conspiracy is not on brand.  But we are finding that the GOP has embraced the worst of the Q which recently included calling for the death of members of Congress including the speaker.  At least two members of Congress elected in November are unapologetic adherence to QAnon and their history of crazy talk including calling Sandy Hook and Parkland School Shootings false flags. The focus is the newly elected member of the House of Representatives Margery Taylor Greene who is deeply rooted in the Q conspiracy.  More and more videos of her saying things that go way beyond the pale, including harassing teenagers after a school shooting including telling them she carries a gun. The GOP doesn't seem to care just how toxic she is.  In fact the House leadership put her on the Education Committee. Even more so it is hard to find a member of the party that would call her out.  When asked on ThisWeek on ABC, "Marjorie Taylor Greene has voiced support for executing Nancy Pelosi. Is she fit to serve?"  Governor Asa Hutchinson answered "I'm not gonna answer that question as to whether she's fit to serve, because she believes in something that everybody else does not accept."

The Republican party is calling for Democrats and the President to act in the spirit of unity as they approach the date of the former President's impeachment trial for his part in the attack on the Capitol.  But they embracing the very people that fed the hysteria and lies that led to the most violent of the insurrectionists.  The party needs to purge itself of this terrible break from reality that has grown into a function of the party.  It is difficult to take the party seriously when they say things like Gov. Hutchinson said.  And we shouldn't. 

The Big LIe

Last Wednesday, President Donald Trump was impeached for the second time.  He was impeached for inciting an insurrection that encouraged hundreds of people to come to Washington DC and disrupt the counting of the Electoral Votes by Congress.  An action, that while allows for some protestation on the part of members, has been a simple function for decades and there was no real path for any protest or rally to change the outcome.  The President lost the election.  It was free and it was fair and the months of saying it was rigged, that states violated their laws, that some how there was something wrong with how everything was conducted and that he simply won was a lie.  A big lie.  A lie that would drill into the brains of the most extreme radicals in our country and inflame conspiracy theorists.  So on January 6, 2021, as the Congress began the process of doing their Constitutional obligation, members of the rally that the President called to Washington, that he told to fight, who he enraged with rhetoric of stolen elections.  

Hundreds of people attacked the woefully unsupported Capitol police and stormed into the building, a temple to democracy, through broken windows and doors.  They were looking to harm members of Congress, they built a gallows with the intent of hanging the Vice-President, who wouldn't violate his oath of office for President Trump.  Five people are dead as a result this attempted coup including two police officers.  One beaten by the crowd who died as a result, another who died by suicide.  

There is also disturbing evidence that some Republican members helped the domestic terrorists, hell bent on overthrowing the election, during the siege.  There is an investigation that some Trump supporting members of Congress even gave tours to those plotting the attack.  One is even may have used social media to direct those in the Capitol to find Speaker Pelosi and others who were targeted for possible assassination.

This coming Wednesday, Joseph Biden will become the President.  The lie that some how the election was a fraud and rigged however continues to be perpetuated by a large number of people, including members of Congress.  Some polls suggest up to 75% of Republicans think that election was stolen.  The big lie has penetrated the minds of many and among those are the most extreme people on the right.  Tens of thousands of armed troops will lock down Washington DC this week.  A place that usually has a lot of security but still felt like an American city that allowed for free movement.  Not today.  Our country is broken and the President broke it and many in the GOP took the broken piece and ran them through a meat grinder.  The pieces will be what President-elect Biden will inherit.  But now, after lying to the American people, after years of enabling Trump's attack on the American system and norms, after some members may have helped the terrorists who attacked the Capitol, there are calls for unity.  This is not time for that.  It is time to hold those accountable for what has happened to this country.  It is time to remember that elections have consequences.  It is time to build back better and if that hurts some GOP feelings, well I remember hearing a phrase about that.  Now what was it???????? 

    

We Will Remember Today

Today, January 6th, 2021 the President of the United State and a number of elected Republicans encouraged a group of terrorist to storm the Capitol Building to stop the counting of the Electoral Votes. This counting and securing the fact of Donald Trump loss was the reason.   Lying about the potential change in outcome, the President told the crowd of angry and ignorant people to go down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol.  It is being reported that the Defense Department, that would have to deploy the District of Columbia's National Guard denied the mayor of DC's request for those troops.  This was the final act of a desperate wanna-be dictator and was helped by members of Congress who after egging on the crowd were later forced to hide under their desks and in offices and closets.  

I wish this was surprising.  It isn't.  It was 100% predictable.  In fact for months people joked about it.  The President of the United States has for five years created a cult-like group of supporters who are willing to believe this President even when reality stands in the way.  When Trump said more than 4 years ago said that he could shoot someone on 5th avenue and not lose support.  Today he loaded the gun and pointed it at Congress.  So I ask, will there still be people supporting him now.  Apparently yes.  All over social media and in some of the right wing noise machine, they are justifying the attack on very democratic principles that rule our country.  And in the halls of Congress.  The coup enablers who started the day strutting for the terrorist and with the intention of dragging out the eventual certification of Joe Biden as President.  

I wish this was just a gang of members of the lunatic fringe.  This has become baked into the Republican party thanks to their desire to stay in the President's favor.  It has to be purged and it can only be done from the inside.   The people who are continuing to bring the objections to the Electoral votes should be treated as pariahs both inside the halls of Congress and when interviewed by the media.  And when they run for President in 4 years, because this is what it is about, this should hang around their necks and the violence we saw today should be played for them and they should be asked if they feel responsible.  

I feel bad for the country tonight, there is a lot to think about with what happened today.  We will have to spend more time thinking about it.  But tonight we have to keep in mind that today there was an attempt to overthrow the country's government from the Oval Office.  It didn't work.  Tonight our country is broken and we know who broke it.  It is time to hold those who did accountable.  

This Is Not America

This week Congress will hear and acknowledge the results of Electoral College vote which gave Joseph Biden 307 Electoral votes, more than the 270 required to be President.  Each state has certified these results and this proforma action is just another layer in our antiquated system we have to elect the President.  Most of the time we don't even hear about it.  But this year there plans to be drama.  Several Republicans will challenge the Electors from a few of the swing states.  However, this is not a protest as has been in the past.  Nor is it a defense of the Constitution.  It is an act of desperate members of the party who want to inherit the misinformed Trump supporters who still believe Trump will be President for 4 more years.  Some are positioning themselves to be the front runner for 2024.  In a cynical attempt to do so they are putting our democratic principles at risk and in some cases inciting violence.  

Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley are leading the way.  Both Cruz and Hawley have ambitions for the Oval Office and so they are courting the far right that helped get Trump elected.  They have been outspoken in that they will join any members from the House to reject Electors.  But this won't do anything.  There is no way that both chambers will vote to throw out any and that is all that can happen.  Cruz knows this.  He is now asking for a 10 day delay to audit elections that have already been recounted, audited, etc. etc. etc.  Biden has now had so many victories just in the state of Georgia that people have taken to calling him Sherman.  These actions erode the trust in our systems, give our enemies a talking point when we call for more democratic actions in other nations and continues to feed an unhinged populace that seem ready to attack anyone who doesn't praise/worship Donald Trump.  But they are not the most dangerous though I truly fear the long term effects of this ridiculous endeavor. 

Louie Gohmert, a member of the House from Texas had tried to sue the Vice-President to throw out Electors from several states.  A federal judge dismissed this as the nonsense that it is.  On Newsmax this week Gohmert responded,  “But bottom line is, the court is saying, ‘We’re not going to touch this. You have no remedy’—basically, in effect, the ruling would be that you gotta go the streets and be as violent as Antifa and BLM.”  So the right wing myth of those groups is that they are uberviolent so it appears that Gohmert, a lawyer, a former judge, a member of the US House of Representatives, is calling for an overthrow of the legally elected President and Vice-President.  This is beyond unacceptable.  This truly is a call to sedition.  Coupled with the fact that organizations are already planning on being in Washington DC on January 6th when the joint session of Congress will accept the Electors this is dangerous and I dare say maybe illegal.  If nothing else the FBI should have a long sit down with the representative to explain, in detail what he is saying because perhaps he really is too dimwitted to understand.  I hope that the House sanctions him and any other member who has supported violence over reality. 

But the worst of the bunch is the President himself.  He has called for citizens to gather on January 6th and he too is close to calling for violence.  One of the lawyers taking up the cause has even called for the Vice President, Mike Pence, to be executed over not being more forceful in trying to steal the election.  The President continues to make outrageously false statements inciting anger among his base that now are openly calling for Civil War.  My guess is that in the next few days there will be violent clashes in the streets and we can lay that all at the feet of a party, led by a man who demands loyalty but never does anything to earn it, who a disagreement is akin to attempted assassination.  Donald Trump sees the world only in how it can benefit him and he is willing to tear down everything as he is ushered out the door.  And that is not surprising.  He has always been like that.  He cares little for others unless he sees some way they can give him what he wants.  What has been surprising is the number of people who are willing to sell their souls to him when he wouldn't lift a finger to help them.  And do so at the risk of destroying the republic.  

Donald Trump has always been a danger and in four years he has managed to set our country back quite a bit, but the institutions still help.  However his wake looks even more disturbing as people are willing to call out for armed insurrection to protect Trump's fragile ego and position themselves to be the new leader of the groups they are radicalizing.   This is not who our country should be, and if it is then it is time to purge those who are making it such.  The coming week is going to be a difficult one I imagine.  The Senate elections in Georgia which can go either way.  The joint session and the final step in Biden becoming President and of course the very real threats of violence that are being spread on social media could come to a head in either place.  If you vote Republican and love this country I beg you to stop electing people like Gohmert, Hawley and Cruz.  There are better people who will take up conservative causes without feeling they are worth sacrificing American ones.  Speak out.  I rant on here to a deaf audience in part because I am a nobody liberal without power.  I can call out Mike Braun, my Senator who is joining Cruz but there is nothing I can think that would have ever gotten me to vote for him so he doesn't care about me.  But if you are a Republican, you might be able to make a difference.  Remember to country over party.  To put democracy over authoritarianism.  You don't have follow the carnival barkers who feast on the anger of the crowd.  Be Better.  Help heal the country.  It is your United States as well.  Don't let the greedy, the cynical and the conmen take that away.