In recent news, the hope for an actual Congressional Commission to investigate the January 6th Capitol Coup is basically dead.
More to the point, 147 Republican politicians (over 50% of the party) voted in favor of a coup and are still in Congress. ...Why are Democrats attempting to be "bipartisan" with people who have conspired and committed the highest crimes possible against the state? The Constitution clearly states the punishment for treason is death.
Now, because we have allowed these 147 Republican politicians to continue making our laws with zero punishment, OF COURSE they aren't going to support a "bipartisan" commission to sincerely investigate the fact that their party--in all 3 branches of government--helped organize a coup.
As I have kept saying, if Democrats refuse to hold treasonous members of the government accountable for their role in organizing and inciting the Capitol Coup, then the Democrats are helping Republicans cover up their crimes and are just as complicit in the whole affair.
Any sane person could have told you that trying to get the Republican party on board to investigate their own coup attempt--when a majority of the party supported it and continues to support insurrectionary tactics to hold on to power--would be doomed to fail:
"Back in February, when the idea of a bipartisan commission to study the events of January 6 first arose, it was the opinion around this shebeen that the whole idea was as doomed as Caesar in the Senate, because the Republicans’ complicity in those events would make the “bipartisan” element of any proposed bipartisan commission at best a burlesque, and at worst a tragedy."
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a36165473/january-6-reckoning-republicans/
Worse than the January 6th Commission being shot down is the fact that barely any investigation has been done thus far in Congress, despite the fact that a non-treasonous majority now controls both the House and Senate:
"In the meantime, none of the Democrat-led House panels investigating aspects of the insurrection has made demonstrable headway in documenting contributing factors and assigning blame for the abundant failures that allowed the Capitol to be overrun. None, aside from the House Appropriations Committee, has held hearings with any current or former law enforcement or military officials responsible for coordinating security in D.C. ahead of the pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” rally that set off the riot on Jan. 6 and for then reinforcing the Capitol once it was overrun.
Last week, one influential Republican decried the approach taken thus far.
“We’ve skipped a step,” Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), the House Administration Committee’s ranking minority-party member, complained Thursday as the panel spoke to Capitol Police Inspector General Michael Bolton in the panel’s first public hearing into the events surrounding the insurrection. “This committee has not heard from anybody involved in the decision-making process.”
Other House panels tasked to investigate the riot have not held hearings with any government officials at all, relying instead on the testimony of outside academics and advocates."
Despite the Senate being split 50-50 along party lines, it is apparently actually doing investigations, while the House (which contains a clear Democratic party majority) isn't doing much:
"The halting start in the House is perhaps more glaring when compared to the pace of activity in the courts and in other corners of the Capitol.
On Friday, the Justice Department announced it had secured its first guilty plea in cases brought over the Capitol breach, from a founding member of the far-right Oath Keepers group who also agreed to cooperate with investigators against others. Prosecutors have charged more than 400 people in connection with the attack.
In the Senate, a two-panel investigation has already held public hearings with leading police, National Guard and Justice Department officials, and the sergeants at arms responsible for riot-response plans. The Senate Rules and Homeland Security committees are expected to release a report of their findings and conclusions by next month.
That joint probe continues to function harmoniously despite simmering tension between leading Democrats and Republicans over scheduling additional witness testimony, particularly from relevant political and military officials who were at the Pentagon on Jan. 6."
In case you need a refresher on what happened during the Capitol Coup and just how severe it was, see the posts below. Insurrectionists were directed by the President. Insurrectionists were minutes away from murdering politicians. Insurrectionists murdered a police officer and severely injured countless more. Multiple Republican politicians have been observed as giving "reconnaissance tours" to individuals the day before the insurrection and multiple Republican politicians worked directly with riot-organizers to give them insider information. Then, hours after the insurrection ended, a majority of Republican politicians voted in favor of the coup by voting to overturn the results of the election.
https://authenticamericandream.blogspot.com/2021/01/trumps-insurrection-was-inside-job.html
And. These. Politicians. Faced. No. Punishment. They are still making our laws. The Democrat party is acting like their hands are tied and are trying to negotiate with literal terrorists for a "compromise" that works for both of them. Meanwhile the Republican party is planning their next coup attempt--since they faced zero repercussions and have openly embraced the strategy of insurrection.
The ineptitude of the Democrat party is mind-boggling.
***
It has been obvious from the beginning that the Capitol Coup was an inside job.
This was fully confirmed in early March when Trump State Department employee Federico G. Klein (who held a Top Secret security clearance!) was arrested for his participation in the coup. I have been meaning to write an article on Klein's arrest, given the extreme significance of his involvement in the coup and also the fact that investigations were at one point proceeding rapidly enough to arrest him, but I have not had an opportunity.
Now, Pelosi has already given in to pressure from Republicans and is willing to back their plan for a "balanced" commission--where half of the investigators were coup participants. Republicans even want to change the main scope of the January 6th Commission so that it doesn't even primarily focus on the January 6th Coup! Apparently Pelosi hasn't agreed to change the scope of the investigation yet, but what hope do we have that this Commission will amount to anything when she is already willing to let A PARTY WHICH OPENLY CONTINUES TO SUPPORT THE CAPITOL COUP AND FUTURE INSURRECTION investigate themselves???
What we need is an actual Crimes Commission to investigate every single last member of Congress who gave aid and comfort to terrorists during the Capitol Coup, and lock them up. Anything less than a Crimes Commission where POLITICIANS WHO COMMITTED TREASON face legal punishment (not merely expulsion from Congress, but life in prison/execution) means that the Democratic party is actively helping the Republican party cover up their crimes and setting the stage for their next coup.
"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is renewing her push for a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, floating a new proposal to Republicans that would evenly split the panel’s membership between the two parties.
Pelosi first proposed a commission in February that would have had four Republicans and seven Democrats to “conduct an investigation of the relevant facts and circumstances relating to the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol.” Republicans rejected it as inadequate.
[...]
It’s unclear if the two sides will ever agree. Some Republicans allied with Trump have downplayed the severity of the insurrection and think the probe should look more broadly at unrest in the country. It’s a symptom not just of the partisan tensions that run high in Congress, but of a legislative branch reeling from the Trump era, with lawmakers unable to find common ground, or a common set of facts, even after a violent assault on their institution.
[...]
The Republicans said the investigation should focus not just on what led to the Jan. 6 insurrection but also on violence in the summer of 2020 during protests over police brutality — a touchstone among GOP voters and an idea that Democrats say is a distraction from the real causes of the violent attack.
On Tuesday, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he’d had no discussions with Pelosi. He said the commission needed to have a partisan balance but also the scope of the investigation needed to be broader than just the insurrection.
“We’ve also had a number of violent disturbances around the country last year, and I think we ought to look at this in a broader scope and with a totally balanced 9/11 style commission,” McConnell told reporters.
[...]McCarthy’s office said in a statement that “hopefully the Speaker has addressed our basic concerns of equal representation and subpoena authority” for Republicans on the panel.
Pelosi has said repeatedly that she will not concede to the Republican demands on the scope.
“It’s not about examining Black Lives Matter,” Pelosi said last week. “It’s about what happened on Jan. 6 and how we can prevent it from happening again.”"
https://wtop.com/congress/2021/04/pelosi-floats-new-proposal-for-bipartisan-jan-6-commission/
***
Some in the mainstream media are at least willing to state the obvious about the ongoing Republican party sabotage of the government:
"We Can't Be Held Hostage to a Political Party That Has Lost Its Mind
We need to reckon with January 6 whether or not Republicans are prepared to participate.
[...]
Our politics can never truly move forward on anything until there is a final and complete reckoning of the only organized mob coup d’etat in the country’s history. The longer that reckoning is delayed, the harder it’s going to be for the country and its politicians to recover public confidence in the government’s institutions, without which self-government itself is a limping, spavined farce. If the Democratic congressional majorities have to go it alone, then they should. If Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice needs to be the venue for that reckoning, then so be it. It’s too important to be hostage to a party that has lost its mind, and that’s funding its operation on the public’s mania."
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a36165473/january-6-reckoning-republicans/
Remember when mainstream news outlets would publish tons of stories and generate tons of outrage over things as insignificant as every Trump Tweet? Now we a much more juicy and insane story--a government being held hostage by a party which just attempted to overthrow the government in a bloody coup. A party which remains openly supportive of insurrection.
Why aren't more media outlets shouting the obvious statements in the quoted paragraph above? Perhaps it's because we would be forced to confront the fact that democracy has always just been tyranny of the majority and is fundamentally incapable of securing liberty and justice for all. It is fundamentally incapable of fairly governing a nation, incapable of promoting the general welfare, incapable of even implementing the most basic of so-called "rights" and bureaucratic procedures explicitly stated in the Constitution.
Don't believe me? If slavery and Jim Crow weren't enough to convince you--ONE OF THE TWO MAJOR POLITICAL PARTIES ORGANIZED A BLOODY COUP. 147 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS VOTED IN FAVOR OF A COUP, FACED NO PUNISHMENT, AND ARE STILL IN CONGRESS MAKING OUR LAWS. TERRORISTS ARE MAKING OUR LAWS. DEMOCRATS ARE ALLOWING TERRORISTS TO HOLD OUR NATION HOSTAGE AND MAKE OUR LAWS.
And the voters love it. Republican voters and politicians are still head-over-heels for Trump and it isn't changing any time soon.
"Three months after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Republican Party still won’t fully renounce it. In Congress, Republicans are opposing an investigation of the attack unless other incidents are included. On Friday, sponsors of a conference at former President Donald Trump’s Miami resort proudly displayed photos of the crowd that had gathered before the attack. On Saturday, Republican donors cheered as Trump boasted about the Jan. 6 crowd and complained that his allies should have fought harder to prevent the certification of his defeat.
In recent weeks, numerous Republican lawmakers have belittled the attack, defended the mob that precipitated it (Sen. Ron Johnson called them “people that love this country”), voted against a resolution condemning it, or accused liberals of overreacting to it. In February, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, speakers blamed a “rigged election” for provoking the rioters. But the sickness goes deeper. The Republican base is thoroughly infected with sympathies for the insurrection.
In polls taken shortly after Jan. 6, roughly 15 percent of Republicans openly endorsed the rebellion. They did so even when survey questions explicitly called it an “attack,” “storming,” and “taking over” the Capitol. But other questions found broader support. Twenty-three percent of Republicans agreed that “in America today … it can be acceptable for people to use force or violence to try to achieve political goals.” Forty-two percent, when asked about the people who “took over” the Capitol, said they were “mostly peaceful.” Forty-five percent rejected the notion that “those who participated in the storming of the Capitol” were “criminals.” Instead, this half of the Republican base chose an alternative description of the invaders: “They went too far, but they had a point.” Fifty-one percent of Republicans said the party’s leaders “did not go far enough” on Jan. 6 to overturn the election. Only 27 percent called the attack terrorism, and only 19 percent called it a coup attempt.
These sentiments don’t seem to have waned. Since January, the share of Republicans who insist that President Joe Biden did not “legitimately win the election,” nearly 80 percent of the GOP, has hardly budged. Nearly two-thirds of Republicans say Trump won the election, and nearly 30 percent say they’ll “never accept” Biden as president. Two weeks ago, by a two-to-one ratio, Republicans reaffirmed their view that the election was “stolen” from Trump. Last week, 70 percent said there had been enough fraud to change the election’s outcome."
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/04/republican-party-sympathize-capitol-insurrection.html
Right now, the Arizona state Republican party is trying to recount the votes in the 2020 election. This action is purely symbolic, in order to demonstrate their continued commitment to the Republican party's embrace of coup attempts. Even if Arizona were to turn red, Biden would still win. Besides, the courts have already settled all election-related challenges brought by Trumpists. (Additionally, by suggesting the results of the election were illegitimate, these politicians are suggesting their seats are illegitimate, since they were voted in via the results of the election...)
Recall that Arizona Republicans were at the epicenter of organizing the Capitol Coup. The Arizona Proud Boys were the group who spearheaded the breach of the Capitol itself, and Arizona Representatives Gosar and Biggs worked directly with Ali Alexander to organize details of the coup, including its timing.
"The state senate-ordered election audit started last Friday and is being carried out by a Florida-based security company called Cyber Ninjas, which has no election experience.
Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan is overseeing the election audit, despite spreading a bizarre conspiracy theory that a company tied to long-dead Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez rigged voting machines against former President Donald Trump in November (Cyber Ninjas did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes).
[...]
There are also concerns about the privacy of ballots, with Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Daniel Martin saying he was "not yet persuaded" privacy was being protected during a hearing Tuesday involving a lawsuit from the state Democratic Party seeking to block the audit.
[...]
Ballots are only being counted from Maricopa County—by far the most populated county in the state, and home to Phoenix and its sprawling suburbs. They're also only looking at the results in the presidential election and the U.S. Senate race, both of which were won by Democrats.
The recount is being driven by Trump's false claims that widespread voter fraud cost him winning a second term as president. But a recount of around 8,000 ballots after Election Day in Arizona found no evidence to back up Trump's claim, nor did recounts in other states. Still, Trump said he's monitoring the recount in Arizona and predicts "the results will be startling!""
Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy is now actively defending Trump for his role in inciting the insurrection, even though on the day of the insurrection itself he pleaded with Trump to call it off and subsequently blamed Trump for inciting it.
"McCarthy initially said Trump “bears responsibility” for the riot and admitted the then-president was too slow to respond.
“He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding,” McCarthy said a week after the insurrection.
But on Sunday, he changed his tune completely, telling Fox News that Trump promised to help stop the violent attack on the Capitol carried out by his supporters.
“And that’s what he did,” McCarthy said. “He put a video out later.”
Trump waited hours to release the video, eventually telling the rioters “we love you” as he asked them to go home.
On Sunday, McCarthy wouldn’t answer a question about a report claiming his conversation with Trump during the riot didn’t go nearly as well as he indicated.
Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) said McCarthy told her that when he asked Trump to stop the attack, the then-president replied: “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”"
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kevin-mccarthy-coward-fox-news-trump_n_6086641de4b09cce6c133b95
Day after day, the Republican party reaffirms their commitment to the Capitol Coup and the strategy of organizing insurrections and coups to hold on to power at all costs. And, meanwhile, the Democratic party is trying to negotiate with terrorists who tried to murder them! These are not "good faith" negotiations. The Democrat party is trying to work with terrorists and trying to help them cover up their crimes, thereby enabling them to organize insurrections and coups in the future. This is the opposite of "bipartisanship" and good faith...
***
Given the fact that the Republican party is openly insurrectionary and will attempt a coup again in the future, given the fact that the Democratic party is legalizing all the Trump administration and Republican party's crimes by refusing to hold them accountable, given the fact that 147 Congress members who voted in favor of a coup faced no consequences and continue making our laws, given the fact that White Supremacist police and non-police can murder us while we lay in bed and get away with it, and much, much more, LEFTISTS AND "NON-WHITE" AMERICANS NEED TO BEGIN ARMING THEMSELVES IMMEDIATELY.
When one of the major political parties is openly insurrectionary and came within minutes of seizing the government on their latest coup attempt, we are not safe. When the other major political party refuses to hold these criminals responsible and thereby ensures they will repeat their tactics in the future, we are not safe. When police can murder citizens in their bed with no consequences, we are not safe.
The stated goal of far-right groups like QAnon were a complete Soviet-style purge of all left-wing Americans once Trump gave the signal to begin "The Storm". The stated goal of many White Supremacist groups has for decades been the "Day of the Rope" where all "non-whites" and "whites" who stand in the way are murdered. That is not fear mongering or exaggeration, that's genuinely what millions of people desire--and they came close to setting it in motion.
And even without those doomsday scenarios, tyrannical police can just murder us and get away with it unless faced with massive sustained ideological protests and unideological rage-induced rioting that cannot be quelled unless something is done. Meanwhile, the Democrat party welcomes the "sacrifice" of our lives without bothering to do anything to fix the corrupt cancer that is killing our nation!!! How many more of us will be condemned as blood sacrifices by our politicians until they bother to pass laws throwing out the rotten system that enables these sorts of things? For the love of god, these politicians were within a literal minute of being murdered by insurrectionists who were directly aided by their colleagues and even that is not an enough of an impetus for them to do something--anything--to set our nation on a better course?
Attorney General Garland recently announced a probe into the Minneapolis police force and Louisville police force (who killed Breonna Taylor) but how many times have we heard similar things, only to get no substantial results?
...And reforming the Minneapolis police won't do anything to address the corruption in places like Chicago, where police recently murdered unarmed 13-year-old Adam Toledo. The prosecutor for the case even lied and said he was holding a gun, despite the video of the incident clearly showing he did not have one! Breonna Taylor was murdered over a year ago and her killers may never even face a murder trial. How many other victims never received justice?
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison: "I would not call today's verdict justice, however—because justice implies restoration. But it is accountability."
— ABC News (@ABC) April 20, 2021
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1384623239260000258
Chauvin's guilty verdict and Garland's Minneapolis probe are only the first steps out of 10,000 more that need to be done before actual justice can result. Right-wing media is already painting Chauvin as a martyr and the victim of an unfair judicial system. (Wtf, more unfair than being executed without trial for the alleged crime of using a counterfeit 20 dollar bill?)
If we act like the battle is now over, like victory has been achieved, and then tune out, our complacency will merely pave the way for the next Chauvin to face no consequences.
***
Turning our attention back to the danger of insurrectionary far-right militias for a moment, left-wing Americans are dramatically outgunned compared to right-wingers in the US. Worse, "non-white" Americans are even more dramatically outgunned compared to "whites". We need to begin arming ourselves (legally), training, and organizing community solidarity groups so we can defend ourselves and our communities against tyranny now and in the future.
Surprisingly, some politicians appear to be heading in the correct direction, but are far from reaching a satisfactory position. Breaking curfew to hold up cardboard signs means nothing when police can murder us for no reason and when police give aid and comfort to rightists who go out to hunt protestors (e.g. Rittenhouse) and even allow heavily-armed far-right militias to set up weapons overlooking left-wing protestors. What good are cardboard signs after the damage has already been done, just to rinse and repeat every time we let something like this happen?
"Rep. Maxine Waters on Saturday night called for protesters to "stay on the street" and "get more confrontational" if former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is acquitted in the killing of George Floyd.
[...]
"We've got to stay in the street and demand justice," Waters said to reporters, according to video posted on social media.
"We're looking for a guilty verdict and we're looking to see if all of the talk that took place and has been taking place after they saw what happened to George Floyd. If nothing does not happen, then we know that we got to not only stay in the street, but we have got to fight for justice," she added.
Asked what protesters should do if there is no guilty verdict, Waters said protests should continue. "We got to stay on the street. And we've got to get more active, we've got to get more confrontational. We've got to make sure that they know that we mean business," she said.
Asked about the curfew put in place, Waters said, "I don't think anything about curfew. Curfew means I want you all to stop talking. I want you to stop meeting. I want you to stop gathering. I don't agree with that.""
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/19/politics/maxine-waters-derek-chauvin-trial/index.html
Cell phone video from a 17-year-old community member was critical in convicting Chauvin. But that didn't stop Floyd from being murdered. If the community had armed patrols (who carried weapons in compliance with the law), could Floyd still be alive? During the Counterculture era, the Black Panthers and other groups created (100% legal) armed community patrols in response to police tyranny, causing safety to rise as police thought twice about murdering citizens. Recall--by law you are allowed to use lethal force to protect someone else's life from being unlawfully taken!
***
It's been 4 months since the Capitol Coup. That means Republicans and far-right militias have already had 4 months to examine what went wrong and to plan their next moves. The clock is ticking down until they attempt something again, because the Republican party has continued to reaffirm its support for insurrectionary tactics and the Democratic party has refused to uphold the laws to hold them accountable for their crimes. We have to prepare to defend ourselves and our communities from the tyranny that will inevitably unfold in the future.
Although it might seem like life has somewhat gone back to normal now the media has calmed down from their Trump mania now that Biden is in office, things haven't "gone back to normal" when 147 law makers who are still serving in Congress voted to overthrow the government. Things can't just "go back to normal" when one of the major political parties in our nation is openly supportive of insurrection and coups to hold on to power, and when the other major political party refuses to hold them accountable for their treason.
We can't allow ourselves to be placated by Chauvin's guilty verdict when Breonna Taylor, Adam Toledo, and thousands of others may never get justice--and when thousands of more victims will inevitably be created in the future, since no changes have been made to address the root of all the injustice. We must (legally) arm ourselves, train, and prepare to defend ourselves and our communities from continued far-right terrorism.
It seems like every lifetime, we have to go through this same cycle...
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