Yesterday the NYTimes published an annotated video documenting in extreme detail the events of January 6, 2021, where thousands of insurrectionists attempted to stop the Electoral College certification in an effort to overthrow the US government and install FG as dictator.  It failed spectacularly, but, since one of our major political parties is trying to sweep this effort under the rug and continuing to pay homage to the criminal who incited the entire attack.  This is a must watch for the entire 40 minutes.  Send this link to everyone, especially those peddling the lie that this was “nothing”, because it most certainly not nothing.

UPDATE: Politico is reporting that the DHS is taking the August reinstatement conspiracy theory seriously in terms of stepping up efforts to follow discussions of extremists on social media, concerned about potential violence caused by disinformation pouring our of right wing media and lunatics like the Pillow Guy and other nonsense peddlers.  This story is coming from those who are familiar with a private briefing by DHS to members of Congress.

ORIGINAL POST: Seth Abramson, a defense attorney and author, has been after Trump for years.  His latest work is digging into how Trumpland planned and directed the insurrection on January 6, but he also has posited the only theory I’ve heard that makes any sense about one of Trump’s most outlandish lies, and that is how he’s going to be reinstated to the presidency in August.  Now, you know, and I know that there is simply no mechanism to restore someone to the presidency, even if an election was stolen, which this one most certainly was not.  Once the Congress certifies the Electoral College vote from the states and the new president is inaugurated, it’s over, game, set, and match period, end of story.  No one outside of the line of succession to the presidency can become president unless he/she is elected in the next national election.

So what the hell is Trump and his loudmouths doing?  Why is he repeatedly asserting he will be reinstated?  Abramson says that is all a dodge to avoid indictment in NY.  Abramson says that Trump believes that with his rallies starting back up and his incessant repeating of The Big Lie, he can keep his insurrectionist based whipped up and the threat of violence would be so great that prosecutors wouldn’t dare indict him for fear of major social unrest.  This is the only thing that makes any sense to me, that Trump believes he can keep the grift going long enough to run and win the presidency again in 2024, which will hold back the prosecutorial wolves from the door another 4 years.

https://twitter.com/sethabramson/status/1400470960587816961?lang=en

Sounds crazy, right?  Of course it’s crazy and I don’t think the NY AG or NY DA give a good goddam about Trump’s fantasies.  If they can nail him, they will, and they most certainly owe it to all of us Americans who suffered through over 4 years of the Trump Shitshow to protect our democracy by prosecuting that son of a bitch.  I do think Abramson is onto Trump, and having written about him for years, most certainly knows him well enough to have an informed opinion.  Besides that, NOTHING else makes the slightest bit of sense.

Wendy Davis and others have sued Trumpists for their dangerous conduct last October when they disrupted Biden campaign rallies and harassed a campaign bus as it attempted to travel on public roads.  One suit is against 7 people who drove their flag festooned trucks dangerously close to the bus and even attempted to run it off the road.  The suit was filed in federal court and claims the Trumpists violated the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act that made it a federal offense to obstruct, intimidate, or harass to stop political activities.  The defendants were identified through their own social media posts including live video.  Two of the defendants were also identified at the US Capitol during the January 6 insurrection.  Here’s a good recap of the attack on the campaign bus:

A second suit was filed against the San Marcos Department of Public Safety and the San Marcos Marshal’s Department for failing to respond to desperate 911 calls begging for assistance.  You’ll recall during the time that a Trump Train of trucks chased and harassed the Biden campaign bus the entire time they were touring South Texas and police were nowhere to be found.

This kind of behavior by political conservatives has been going on for years; I remember Nick Lampson being harassed years ago by thugs at his announcement event when he ran for Tom DeLay’s old seat.   That was nothing compared to today where intolerance and hate are raised to an art form after 5 years of Trump’s influence on his party.  Add that to the continuous stream of bile flowing out of social media, Fox Noise, OAN, and other propaganda sources and the result can be literally explosive.  When the police stand aside during these events the result can be deadly.

The real tragedy here is that we have to depend on the federal courts in many of these cases since local and state courts in Red States can no longer be trusted to enforce laws against political allies.  Hopefully the federal courts will give the plaintiffs a fair hearing.

So let’s be crystal clear about this issue.  Ashli Babbit, brainwashed by bullshit from Trump and his sycophants, was part of the mob that unlawfully stormed the US Capitol to stop the Electoral College count, violently confronting police who were defending the buildings, the politicians, and staff who worked there.  She was part of the lead group of extremists who was attempting to smash there way into the Speakers’ lobby where US Representatives and their staff were trying to escape.  These extremists smashed the doors to the lobby, and when the windows were broken, Babbit was the first one to attempt jumping through  to pursue those representatives.  A security officer just behind the smashed door fire one shot, killing Babbit.  Babbit was violently breaking the law, endangering herself and everyone around her.  She was killed for that, because the security personnel had one job, and that was to protect the Congress and the Vice President.  Unfortunate, certainly, but she bears 100% responsibility for the consequences of her violent criminality.

There are several videos of the incident and all of them show Babbitt being shot while breaching the door of the Speaker’s Lobby her actions were unquestionably criminal and endangering federal officials.  Shortly after the shooting, though, The Noise Machine cranked up, and has been slowly building momentum to recast Babbitt as a “martyr”.  I even ran across a right-winger on social media last week who said that Babbitt was “executed” for “doing nothing”.  There’s a lot of words for what Babbitt did that day, but “nothing” isn’t one of them.  Trump co-conspirator, Paul Gosar, has gone out of his way to defend Babbitt, even saying last week that officers were “lying in wait” to kill her.  Setting aside the fact that he and other Teabagging Q Republicans should be brought up on insurrection charges, Gosar is playing with fire by repeating Fox  Noise-OAN bullshit, and it’s all part of the orchestrated effort by Republicans to downplay the actual insurrection and felony violence committed by Babbitt and thousands of others that day.

It’s important that everyone else relain clear-headed and focused on bring all these people, including the Inciter-in-Chief to justice.

Far right wing Republican, Mike Nearman, a state representative in Oregon was expelled last night in a 59-1 vote for recklessly endangering the lives of representatives in special session by opening a locked side door allowing armed insurrectionists in the building last December protesting COVID-19 restrictions.  Nearman is a nut tied to all kinds of goofy conspiracy theories including signing on to our own nut, Ken Paxton’s, idiotic lawsuit to overturn the Oregon presidential vote.  Republicans had been slow walking the “investigation” of Nearman’s misconduct when a video emerged of him plotting with the insurectionists the week before the attack to let them into a locked door, and that is precisely what he did.  The evidence was so plain that even Republicans couldn’t ignore it and then unanimously voted him off the island.

There’s no question that Nearman is a bad guy.  He’s also facing criminal charges for his actions and one can only hope the judge in that case throws the book at him.  THIS is how you treat elected officials who support insurrection and lawlessness.  The same standard needs to be applied to those in DC who aided, abetted, and encouraged the attack on the US Capitol on January 6.  The morons who attacked the Capitol that day were too goddammed stupid to have done that on their own.  Insiders, and by that I mean elected officials and their staffs, helped them with the goal of delaying  or even stopping the certification of the Electoral College vote.  Elected officials, including the Vice President, could have easily been killed by said morons.  Those officials also must have the book thrown at them including jail time.  That’s how you put a stop to this nonsense.

Facebook announced today that Trump was banned from Facebook for two years from the January 6th insurrection to overturn the results of the election in his favor.  He will be considered for reinstatement at that time if the danger for violence has subsided.  That’s bullshit.  Everyday since January 6 Trump has publicly made statements perpetuating The Big Lie, amplifying the lies from his surrogates and the entire Republican Party.  The appropriate decision would have been to ban him for life from the platform because he’ll never change.  Alternatively, I would be OK with the two years AFTER he repudiates his lie and stops telling it as well as all of his sycophants stop repeating the lie.  Two years from THAT action would be appropriate.

I’m not holding my breath, though.