#january 6 insurrection anniversary

[mysharona1987]

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The New Yorker

* * * * *

“Trying to steal history.”

January 9, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

On Monday, President Biden delivered a stirring and spirited speech at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. In June 2015, members of the congregation at the church invited a stranger to join them for services. The stranger killed nine members of the church in the worst church-related shooting (to that point)—a mass killing that was racially motivated. President Obama delivered a eulogy for Pastor Clementa Pinckney of Mother Emmanuel AME Church that included his rendition of Amazing Grace a cappella.

[The video is here, Joe Biden speaks at Charleston church (start at the 26:00 minute mark), and the full text of the speech is here: Remarks by President Biden at a Political Event | Charleston, SC.]

Against the backdrop of the 2015 racially motivated mass shooting, President Biden addressed Trump's use of the “lost cause” of white supremacy to bolster his hate-fueled campaign. Biden said, in part,

On June 17th, 2015, the [nine] beautiful souls and five survivors invited a stranger into this church to pray with them. The word of God was pierced by bullets in hate and rage, propelled by not just gunpowder but by a poison — a poison that’s for too long haunted this nation. What is that poison? White supremacy. Oh, it is; it’s a poison. Throughout our history, it’s ripped this nation apart. This has no place in America. Not today, tomorrow, or ever. Now — now we’re living in an era of a second lost cause. Once again, there are some in this country trying — trying to turn a loss into a lie — a lie, which if allowed to live, will once again bring terrible damage to this country. This time, the lie is about the 2020 election, the election which you made your voices heard and your power known.

Biden tied the lost cause of white supremacy to Trump's 2020 loss, identifying both of as existential threats to the nation. He then pivoted to Trump's insurrection on January 6 and Trump's threat to continue that assault on democracy if he is elected to a second term in 2024.

Biden said, Just two days ago, we marked the third anniversary of one of the darkest days in American history: January the 6th. The day in which insurrectionists stormed the United States Capitol, trying for the first time in American history to stop the peaceful transfer of power in the country. We all saw with our own eyes the truth of what happened. That violent mob was whipped up by lies from a defeated former President . . . . We saw something on January 6th we’d never seen before, even during the Civil War. Insurrectionists waving Confederate flags inside the halls of Congress built by enslaved Americans. A mob attacked and called Black officers, Black veterans defending the nation those vile of racist names. And yet, an extreme movement of America, the MAGA Republicans, led by a defeated President, is trying to steal history now. They tried to steal an election. Now they’re trying to steal history, telling us that violent mob was, and I quote, “a peaceful protest.” The lies that led to January 6th are part of a broader attack on the truth America today that we all have seen before. The same movement that, throughout the mob at the United States Capitol, isn’t just trying to rewrite history of January 6th, they’re trying to determine to erase history and your future: banning books; denying your right to vote and have it counted; destroying diversity, equality, inclusion all across America; harboring hate and replacing hope with anger and resentment and a dangerous view of America.

Powerful words delivered with passion and dignity befitting the hallowed ground and the proximity to January 6. As Trump's speeches are becoming more unhinged and hateful, Biden’s are becoming more forceful and direct in challenging Trump. If you can spare twenty minutes, watch the video linked above, beginning at the 26:00-minute mark. Your confidence will be renewed.

But I can’t leave this story without commenting on the media coverage. Biden delivered a truly inspirational and important speech on race and democracy. For sixty seconds during Biden’s speech, a protestor stood up and demanded that Biden call for a cease-fire in Israel. Biden handled the protestor with skill and grace. As the protestor was escorted from the church, Biden said,

It's alright. I understand their passion. I’ve been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza.

That sixty-second incident of an otherwise historic speech dominated virtually every headline describing the speech. See, e.g., NYTimes, Protesters Calling for Gaza Cease-Fire Interrupt Biden Speech; The Hill, Biden address in Charleston church interrupted by protesters; and NPR, Protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza interrupted Biden's campaign speech.

The bias against Biden is just unbelievable. I wonder if the headline writers or journalists who wrote the articles even bothered to read or listen to the substance of Biden’s speech. I doubt it. Shame on them!

Meanwhile, Trump hopes the economy crashes before he is re-elected.

As Biden continued to call for the preservation of democracy and mourned the tragedies of January 6 and the AME shootings, Trump was telling an interviewer he hoped the economy would crash during Biden’s remaining time in office. See The Hill, Trump says he hopes economy crashes in next 12 months: ‘I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover’.

Trump said,

We have an economy that’s so fragile, and the only reason it’s running now is it’s running off the fumes of what we did. It’s just running off the fumes. And when there’s a crash — I hope it’s going to be during this next 12 months because I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover. The one president I just don’t want to be, Herbert Hoover.

Ha! Trump remembered as Herbert Hoover? He should be so lucky! He will be remembered as Benedict Arnold, Aaron Burr, Jefferson Davis, and Aldrich Ames—combined!

And, in case you think I am resorting to hyperbole, Trump refused to sign a traditional pledge in Illinois in which presidential candidates pledge not to overthrow the US government. See The Guardian, Donald Trump did not sign Illinois pledge not to overthrow government. Trump signed the pledge in 2016 and 2020, but not in 2024. Hmm . . . it’s almost like he’s planning ahead to overthrow the US government!

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[shiveringsoldier]

I still have trauma from the Capitol Hill insurrection. The past couple of January 6 anniversaries have been difficult for me, and I’m worried that tomorrow and all subsequent anniversaries will likewise be difficult, but I also wonder if that worry puts me at risk for it becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy

[abigail-writingstuff]

The Morning Briefing: Biden to Celebrate Dem J6 High Holy Day With White Supremacy Fairy Tale

In just a few short years, January 6 has become the holiest day on the Democrat calendar. While Christians have long celebrated the Feast of the Epiphany on Jan. 6, Democrats venerate it as the excuse they've been using since 2021 to eliminate political opposition through incarceration, legal harassment, and a general shredding of the United States Constitution. 

Now that we've entered an election year, the commie puppet masters who run what's left of Joe Biden's brain are adjusting the uppers/downers cocktail so they can send him out in public and turn up his hate-filled rhetoric volume to 11. 

Lincoln writes about the plan for this year's J6 unhinged festivities: 

Yes, with the anniversary of JANUARY 6 coming up on Saturday and with Joe Biden apparently planning to run for reelection (as far as he knows), the campaign is coming out swinging on Saturday and Monday. Biden is set to deliver speeches on JANUARY 6 and white supremacy. Not the economy, not the wars overseas, not finding a way forward from the vicious hate and the rise of anti-Semitism. Not even a pretty little lie about the border. Nope, we're headed right back to Mega-Mecha-Mooga-MAGA white supremacists. (They're robots in disguise.)

Roll Call reports the Biden campaign announced on Tuesday that its strategy for the new year would be to focus on Trump as a dictator. Biden will be at Valley Forge on Saturday to gin up hysteria for JANUARY 6. 

In recent months, I've noticed that many of the Democrats' flying monkeys in the mainstream media have toned down the J6 "insurrection" talk and are using the word "riots" a lot more. The majority of the legal haranguing of former President Trump that they're doing requires that they keep the insurrection lie alive, however, so look for it to make a comeback. 

In reality, what happened at the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, fit the Dems' pet "mostly peaceful protest" description far more than their actual riots. 

Because Biden can't run on his disastrous record, the Democrats will have to lean more heavily than ever before on their habit of demonizing Republicans. They'll insist that it's only BECAUSE TRUMP that they're being so harsh, but demonization has been a part of their political arsenal for as long as I've been old enough to vote. George W. Bush was Hitler before Trump was Hitler. Mitt Romney gave a woman cancer. This year it's the "dictator" stuff. 

It isn't just politicians who they smear, it's anyone who might vote Republican. I don't know if the Democrats keep records of such things, but I would like to know how many election year grannies I've pushed off of cliffs at this point. 

This year's shiny object to distract voters from the Biden disaster will be WHITE SUPREMACY. 

While there no doubt is a scattering of white supremacists throughout the land, Sir Sniffsalot will spend the year saying that anyone who is even thinking of voting Republican has a collection of Klan hoods at home. This will be the case even if someone other than Trump is the nominee. Again, they can't let any undecided or independent voters' eyes wander anywhere near Biden's record. 

Remember kids: the real internal threat to the country is white supremacy-fueled domestic terrorism. The various criminal elements who have access to our southern border? NOTHING TO SEE HERE... MOVE ALONG. 

I hope they keep Biden squinting at teleprompters and barking "MAGA Republicans" like a trained seal with a saliva problem. He's going to scare people all right, just not the ones they're hoping he will. 

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

On Friday morning, lawmakers gathered on the East front steps of the US Capitol to honor the police officers who died or were injured during the Capitol riot two years ago to the day.

Just one Republican appeared to show up to the ceremony: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.

"I wanted to be here," Fitzpatrick told Insider after the ceremony, saying he didn't know if he was the only member of his party on the steps. All members-elect were invited.

The 10 am ceremony seemed to overlap with a scheduled 10:15 am conference call for Republicans to discuss the latest round of negotiations in Republican leader Kevin McCarthy's quest to become Speaker of the House. However, the ceremony had largely concluded by 10:18am.

Fitzpatrick pointed to the call as the reason other Republicans, including leadership, were not in attendance. "I couldn't even see who was there, but I do know there was a call regarding this whole Speakership thing," he told reporters.

Voting has been ongoing since Tuesday, and as of Friday morning, McCarthy had lost 11 consecutive ballots.

During the ceremony, members of Congress honored the four officers who lost their lives as the result of the riot: Capitol Police Officers Brian Sicknick and Howard Leibengood, and DC Metropolitan Police Officers Gunther Hashida, Kyle DeFreytag, and Jeffrey Smith, ringing a bell each time their names were called. Sicknick suffered violent attacks during the riot, while the four other officers died by suicide in the days and months afterward.

The lawmakers then observed a 140-second member of silence to commemorate 140 other officers who were seriously injured during the riot.

"Many more will forever be scarred by the bloodthirsty violence of the insurrectionist mob," said Jeffries during the ceremony. "We stand here today with our democracy intact because of those officers."

Fitzpatrick also told reporters that the day has a particular resonance for him. On January 6, 2020 — a year before the assault — he lost his brother, former Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, to cancer.

"I lost my brother on this day the year before. The insurrection happened on the one year anniversary," he said. "There's just a lot, a lot of emotions. It's a terrible day that we can never let happen again."

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil’s failed coup is the poison flower of the Trump-Bolsonaro symbiosis

The striking similarities between events at the Capitol and Brasília stem from links fostered by the former presidents and their families

In the days following the 6 January 2021 storming of the US Capitol, a Brazilian professor and expert on disinformation, David Nemer, gave an interview predicting the same thing would happen in Brazil two years later.

Sunday’s insurrection in Brasília came just two days after the second anniversary of the Capitol attack. Nemer said his prediction was not the work of a seer, but was based on analysis of the close and growing symbiosis of the hard right in the US and Brazil – a bond that was built up around the Trump and Bolsonaro families and their entourages.

“The reason why I was saying that was because the same sort of narrative that was flowing around social media in the US, it was also flowing in WhatsApp and Telegram groups that I’d monitor and that I researched [in Brazil],” said Nemer, a media studies professor at the University of Virginia. For example, Bolsonaro and his supporters started planting the idea that Brazilian voting machines were rigged two years before Brazil’s presidential election.

The bonds have been maintained by family members. Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro have provided unstinting mutual political support, which each has used to rebuff accusations of being isolated on the world stage. Even before leaving office, Bolsonaro decamped to Florida and is now in Kissimmee, Orlando, close to Trump’s bastion at Mar-a-Lago. The former Brazilian president makes frequent appearances outside his temporary base, the holiday home of a retired Brazilian martial arts fighter, to greet adoring supporters in a mix of Brazil soccer jerseys, which Bolsonaristas adopted as their own, and pro-Trump Maga gear.

Continue reading.

[mariacallous]

Today marks two years since Americans turned on their televisions to watch something that many thought was impossible—a violent mob attacking the Capitol of the United States with the intention of disrupting the Electoral College vote count. Those days were followed by the creation of a House Select Committee and ten drama filled hearings that began on June 9, 2022 and ended December 19, 2022.

Many expected that the hearings would change public opinion, but on the second anniversary of the January 6 violent invasion of the U.S. Capitol, sentiment remains mostly divided along party lines and has barely budged since the first anniversary of this event. Americans remain split on the issue of whether former president Donald Trump committed crimes related to this event and whether he should be charged, and the dramatic testimony delivered at the public hearings of the Select Committee changed few minds.

During the past year, Quinnipiac University conducted a series of polls probing sentiment about January 6. Concerning the former president’s responsibility for events at the Capitol, here are the results from the beginning, middle, and end of 2022.

TABLE 1: HOW MUCH RESPONSIBILITY DOES DONALD TRUMP BEAR FOR JANUARY 6?

Opinion about the seriousness of the January 6 events was also stable. In January 2022, 50% of Americans thought that these events represented an attack on democracy that should never be forgotten, compared to 44% who believed that the country was making too much of these events and that it was time to move on. In December, Americans remained divided on this issue, 54% to 41%.

In July, the NPR/PBS/Marist survey posed the question differently but got similar results. Presented with three different assessments of January 6, 50% of respondents said that it was an insurrection that threatened democracy, 19% regarded it as constitutionally protected political protest, and 25% deemed it unfortunate but believed that it was time to move on.

Public opinion about the seriousness of Donald Trump’s actions related to January 6 showed a similar pattern of division and stability. In June 2022, according to Quinnipiac, 46% of Americans believed that Trump had committed a crime, but 47% disagreed. In July, after several more explosive public hearings, 48% thought that he had committed a crime, compared to 44% who didn’t. By December, sentiment remained unchanged, 47% to 43%.

In late August, a Monmouth University survey found that 41% wanted Trump to be charged with January 6 crimes, 34% did not, and 25% were unsure. There is no evidence that this balance shifted in the final months of 2022. If the Justice Department follows up on the January 6 committee’s criminal referral by charging the former president, the public response is likely to mirror this division.

Beyond the up-or-down legal issues, broader assessments of the former president’s actions on January 6 revealed some cracks in the wall of partisanship that surrounds these events. For example, a CNN survey in July found that 20% of Republicans believed that Trump’s statements had encouraged political violence and that 55% of Republicans did not think that Trump had done everything in his power to stop the violence once it erupted. Fifty-two percent of Republicans felt that Mike Pence had done more than Donald Trump on this fateful day to serve the national interest.

Some days of violence, such as the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor and the September 11 attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, become symbols of national unity and resolve. The evidence so far suggests that January 6 will not join their ranks. It is more likely that to future generations, the day the U.S. Capitol was stormed will serve as a reminder of the deep political divisions that characterized the current era of American politics.

[mightyflamethrower]

They are rubbing our noses in their filth

What is the latest miscarriage of justice in America? Were more protesters inside the Capitol stripped of their citizenship by branding them insurrectionists? Was Donald Trump raided again? Was another acquaintance SWAT teamed at 5 AM in front of CNN for a parking ticket?

The abuse of power by DC is ubiquitous. The constant barrage of injustice by the federal government and its homely cheerleaders in the press is meant to fatigue those of us with a conscience. The perversion of police authority to enforce political policy is a reminder that they are in power and their power is unchecked.

Under their command, America has become Rome but without the beautiful architecture and literature. I pity the future archaeologist who uncovers Gender Queer and has to endure the sketches depicting child sex. He will think it a secret piece of pornography for elitist perverts instead of the schoolbook it has become, replacing Alice and Jerry.

The false investigations, and fake indictments of Donald Trump are ridiculous and aimed at showing his supporters and his distractors alike that no one can escape them. Cooperate, comrade, or die.

The deep state stole the 2020 election right from under us. Biden was chosen because everyone in DC knew he was dumb and corrupt, which made him the perfect figurehead for a government out of control. Our DC overlords made no attempt to mask their election theft because they wanted to extinguish dissent. Like the Borg in some Star Trek series, their message is resistance is futile.

Biden stayed in the basement cutting deals while the vote rigging took place elsewhere. A press that set up cameras in the lobby to document every visitor to Trump Tower after the 2016 election has never bothered to check the records at Wilmington Airport to see whose private jets landed in Delaware to pay tribute to the next president.

President Trump never really was in charge. Obama led the resistance — an act of sedition — that thwarted Trump at every turn. McConnell and the rest of the gullible guinea pigs in DC who call themselves conservatives aided and abetted Obama. Trump’s inability to govern properly is one of the reasons some commentators want to abandon him. It is like telling a rape victim she should have fought harder.

We now live in a country where burning down cities, ambushing little old ladies, and looting high-priced stores is honored but singing a song that says that is wrong will get you banned from TV.

This regime has no shame.

Those stories about the discovery of a bag of cocaine in the White House were not an accidental leak of the truth. The leak was psyops meant to destroy the morale of their enemy, which is the American people.

The discovery was meant to show that Biden and his crooks will do anything they want and get away with it, and they do. Law enforcement did nothing — and what will Republicans do about it? Cry?

Biden’s crew ignores congressional subpoenas without consequence, just as Eric Holder did when he was Obama’s AG. In January, Speaker McCarthy promised to make the videos of the January 6 protest public. Six months later, the videos remain under lock and key — right next to Epstein’s client list. We can guess at some of the names on the list just by looking at the celebrities who hit Trump hardest. The deep state is better at blackmail than the Mafia.

But this is nothing new. Under Obama, the deep state openly did his political bidding, including spying on Donald Trump, who had dared question whether Obama was born in America. Where did he get that idea? From Obama who in 1991 claimed he was born in Kenya. The press now wants you to believe that an unnamed PR writer made a mistake, which Obama failed to correct — for 17 years.

The FBI works for the government, not the people. The FBI decides who gets away with selling out the nation and who gets framed for a nonexistent insurrection.

A day after the 240th anniversary of the birth of America, Jimmy Comey — Obama’s FBI director — announced that even though she sent 33,000 emails to a Chinese email account, Missus Clinton would not be prosecuted. They had her dead to rights — and Comey let her live.

He told the press, “Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before bringing charges. There are obvious considerations, like the strength of the evidence, especially regarding intent. Responsible decisions also consider the context of a person’s actions, and how similar situations have been handled in the past.

“In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of: clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here.

“To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now.”

Shorter Comey: She did it and we don’t care.

The fix was in and they were blatant about it with Bill Clinton openly meeting with Comey’s boss — AG Loretta Lynch — on the tarmac at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix in 110-degree heat. They wanted the world to see that the fix was in.

Four years later, the FBI had so much evidence on Biden’s corruption that even broad bottomed Billy Barr could not sit on all of it. When the story leaked, the intelligence community immediately labeled it Russian disinformation and paid Facebook and Twitter to censor the story.

No one had to tell the Secret Service to ignore this cocaine story. They may be Civil Service but they are not idiots.

Meanwhile, Hunter Biden lives high off the hog because a lawyer friend is generous enough to pay all his bills. What a nice guy, huh?

And when I say high, I really mean it.

The New York Post reported, “Hunter Biden’s so-called ‘sugar brother,’ lawyer Kevin Morris, was spotted smoking from a bong outside his Los Angeles home Thursday as the first son — a recovering drug addict — paid him a visit.

“Morris, a successful Hollywood-based lawyer and major Democrat Party supporter, had no shame as he stood on the balcony of his posh Pacific Palisades digs to expertly inhale from the glass water pipe, according to photos obtained by The Post.

“Donning a purple patterned short-sleeved shirt, Morris carried out the smoke session in full view of the public street outside his house.”

Pot may be legal in California but this shows Hunter is far from clean and sober. Law enforcement will not investigate Hunter’s obvious continued drug abuse and it ignores his acceptance of bribes on behalf of his father.

The New York Post reported, “First son Hunter Biden’s novice artwork has raked in at least $1.3 million — with buyers including a Democratic donor friend who his dad named to a prestigious commission, a report said Monday.

“Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, a Los Angeles real-estate investor and philanthropist, bought one of Hunter’s works, according to Business Insider, which cited sales records kept by his art dealer, the Georges Bergès Gallery of Manhattan.

“Naftali was appointed by President Biden to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad in July 2022 — about eight months after Hunter’s first art show, which took place in Hollywood. It is unclear when Naftali bought her Hunter artwork or how much she paid for it.”

As long as President Trump is out of office, it is felonious business as usual in Corruption City. There is no incentive for the crooked Republicans in Congress to help Trump, which explains why John Fetterman is in the Senate and not Dr. Oz.

But that is not the narrative fake conservatives feed us.

Over at Paul Ryan’s Express — a clever name for Fox News — Newt Gingrich is saying the dam is going to break and the bribery scandals are going to bring Biden down.

Sure they are, right after Republicans repeal Obamacare. But the Bud Light of cable news believes false hope will appease and entice enough conservatives so it can go back to beating MSNBC and CNN in the fake ratings war.

While Democrats and RINOs get away with murder and mayhem, Donald Trump faces trial after trial by kangaroo courts in New York and elsewhere. If found innocent, it will not matter as Democrats set him up for show trial after show trial.

The abuse of the judiciary begins on October 2 with a fake civil fraud trial in New York followed by another E. Jean Carroll civil defamation trial beginning on January 15 in New York, followed by a third trial in Manhattan beginning on March 25, followed by the Mar-a-Lago trial on May 20 with Democrats rigging two more sets of indictments.

This is all meant to prevent his campaigning for the nation’s highest office, which he has won twice now only to be denied his second term by a Congress unwilling to send results back to the states and a judiciary unwilling to examine evidence of election irregularities. This tells me we have been living in a totalitarian state longer than we realize.

Don Surber

[introducingtay]

I see so many liberals and leftists basking in how incompetent the GOP seems right now but I am very afraid that that may not actually be the case ! it honestly looks so very very planned to go this way ! the fact these votes are almost always whipped before the first Monday in January? Republicans having a tendency to stick to the party line above all else to get what they want, and suddenly that changes? via pro-Trump holdouts against a Trumpie Speaker candidate? the sudden 14 flipped votes after McCarthy made extreme concessions that open a gateway for Trumpies to defund the DOJ and FBI investigations? the final few holding out even after that with the only potential concession left being Freedom Caucus members wanting seats on unnamed (to the public) committees? when some of them have been referred to the House Ethics committee for their participation in Jan 6? adjourning til 10pm? meaning, if this was a plot and ploy, this would all reach endgame on the second anniversary of the insurrection? it's sus! IT'S SUS!!!!!!!

[arpov-blog-blog]

..."If you believe the polls, Biden is not just losing but is in arguably the worst position of any incumbent seeking reelection in the modern era. To turn it around, the president and his campaign team must recapture the “resistance” zeitgeist of 2017, link Trump to the violent extremists in his coterie, lay out exactly what dangers he poses to the United States, and advance a coherent vision of what Democrats plan to do with their power if Biden is reelected.

For the two years following Trump’s election in 2016, Democrats were unified in an almost unprecedented fashion. Despite all the social media dunking on “the resistance,” the reality is that, for a time, even rank-and-file Democrats who rarely turn out for anything but elections were enlisted in a whole-party effort to thwart the Trump administration’s designs. The Trump administration did everything it could to boost this mobilization effort, with a seemingly never-ending string of outrages and policy assaults throughout 2017, including the so-called Muslim ban in January, the firing of FBI Director James Comey, the ham-fisted and doomed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Trump’s juvenile nuclear brinkmanship with Kim Jong-un, and more.

That fighting spirit and cross-coalition camaraderie will be hard but not impossible to recapture. To do so, potential defectors from Biden, as well as first-time voters for whom this is all ancient history, need not be bludgeoned with the past but rather asked to viscerally inhabit the consequences of a Trump victory. That also means facing a cold reality: Jan. 6 won’t cut it. The insurrection’s political utility for Democrats has been exhausted. While convictions of Trump in the Jack Smith–led trial could conceivably change some minds, no amount of rehashing the day’s events or Trump’s role in them is going to meaningfully move the political needle.

Biden’s speech on the anniversary of Jan. 6 was a good example of rhetoric that the president and his allies need to leave behind. It was mostly a greatest-hits album of things that Biden has hit Trump with a thousand times: about not just the insurrection, but calling fallen veterans “losers and suckers” and promising to suspend the Constitution. He talked about how Trump won’t accept the results of the 2024 election. And all of these things are true, but they are priced in. Is there anyone out there who thinks Trump will give a gracious concession speech on election night and call for unity like a normal person?

Voters need to hear less about Jan. 6 and more about how Trump plans to deform the government he hopes to once again lead. People need to be scared by new threats Trump guarantees and by ways that American lives will be made materially worse by a second Trump term. I’m thinking about something like a two-minute prime-time ad that narrates the second Trump administration from a year or two in the future. What is it that we think he will do with his first year in office?

If we believe the far right’s Project 2025, there are plenty of horrifying answers to choose from. The first is the broad-daylight scheme to use the Insurrection Act to put down any post-election protest and dissent across the United States and to deploy the U.S. military to the cities Trump routinely disparages as crime-ridden hellholes. Biden mentioned it briefly in his Jan. 6 address, but this authoritarian impulse needs to be front and center. The First Amendment right to peaceably assemble and protest will be erased. The Biden campaign also needs not just to highlight Trump’s worsening rhetoric about how he will “root out” people on the left who “live like vermin within the confines of our country” but to treat it like a promise—and convince Democrats that cherished rights are at stake.

And there’s one cherished, already decimated right that Biden must repeatedly tie inextricably to Trump: the right to abortion and contraception. As Jill Filipovic wrote in Slate this week, the president needs to make Trump’s reelection synonymous with the ongoing threat to destroy what remains of reproductive rights in the United States. Since Trump-appointed Supreme Court justices struck down Roe v. Wade, Republicans have simultaneously pursued a national abortion ban and used the federal government to crack down on the availability of abortion drugs, to harass and intimidate officials in states where abortion is still legal, and to make all forms of contraception more difficult to obtain and pay for. One needn’t reach too deep to imagine what this reproductive dystopia would look like; it’s already there in places like Texas and Florida. Liberal and moderate voters need to be convinced that it will come for them too. And since the Dobbs decision came down in the summer of 2022, Democrats have routed the GOP every time abortion has been directly at stake, in ballot initiatives and constitutional referendums and judicial races.

It’s not just the reproductive tyranny that Biden needs to tie to Trump but also the right’s attacks on vulnerable people and schools: the war against trans lives; the hysterical, book-banning onslaught against public educators; the desire to coldly look on (if not cheer) as migrants drown in rivers. Democrats crushed Republicans in school board elections across the country this past November when these culture war issues were front and center, and during his presidency, pushing back against cruelty to migrants was one of the most successful aspects of anti-Trump politics."

[mysharona1987]

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The "Golden Escalator" moment in Waco. ::  March 27, 2023

Robert B. Hubbell

         Trump began his 2016 campaign by descending on a golden escalator into a gaggle of reporters penned in the basement of Trump Tower. That tawdry entrance—and the alarming speech that followed—were portents of the chaos and havoc that followed in the ensuing sixteen months. Trump's advisers have since admitted that he began his 2016 campaign to boost his failing brand and eroding finances. He had no intention of winning and every intention of fleecing the American public—intentions that were widely understood by the media and the public. To our everlasting regret, we underestimated Trump until it was too late.

         Of course, two impeachments and a failed insurrection later, we will not make that mistake again. But neither should we succumb to the mythology about Trump that developed later in his campaign and during the early portion of his tenure—that he is invincible, untouchable, or somehow above the laws of politics and physics. He is not, and we do ourselves a disservice if we fall victim to that carnival-barker mythology. Trump's core base makes him a perennial threat, but he is a terrible candidate. He is, in fact, the worst candidate who will ever seek the office of the presidency—and that is saying a lot.

         Note well: I am not saying we should dismiss the threat posed by Trump. I am saying we should be smart and realistic about what that threat is so that we are better prepared to defeat his 2024 presidential bid.

         Trump held the 2024 equivalent of his "golden escalator ride" over the weekend in Waco, Texas. As widely noted, he did so during the 30th anniversary of the months-long confrontation in Waco between the Branch Davidians and federal law enforcement that resulted in the deaths of 86 people, including 28 children. Trump had no reason to hold the first major rally of his presidential campaign in Waco except to invoke memories of armed resistance against the FBI, ATF, and Texas National Guard.

         For those who doubt that Trump is willing to attempt a second coup and insurrection, the selection of Waco for his first major rally could not be clearer. And if you missed the clue in the location, Trump reinforced the point by playing his "song"—"Justice for All"—recorded with convicted January 6th defendants currently serving prison time. Per the Los Angeles Times,

With a hand over his heart, Trump stood at attention when his rally opened with a song called "Justice for All," performed by a choir of people imprisoned for their roles in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

         Widely available video shows that a substantial crowd of several thousand supporters attended the rally—but others noted that supporters started leaving early as Trump droned on about personal grievances not relevant to many of his supporters.

         And that is the major takeaway from the 2023 "golden escalator" speech compared to the 2016 version. In his 2016 campaign kick-off, Trump spoke about the grievance culture of disaffected Republicans. In 2023, he spoke about his grievances—the perceived political prosecutions, the 2020 election, and Joe Biden's accomplishments that overshadow the miserable failures of Trump's presidency.

         When Trump veered away from whining about personal grievances, every utterance was a lie. The media is now forewarned and forearmed, and "fact-checking" articles abound. I recommend you keep a few near at hand to forward to your (least) favorite Trump-loving uncle / brother / cousin / bowling buddy. See, e.g., CNN, Fact check: Trump repeats false claims during rally in Waco, Texas.

         Per CNN, Trump lied about:

The 2020 election;

The trade deficit with China under Biden vs Trump;

The existence, amount, and source of trade tariff payments under Trump vs prior presidents;

Construction of the border wall;

Inflation under Biden compared to prior presidents;

The amount of military equipment left in Afghanistan;

The amount of aid to Ukraine during the Obama administration;

His opposition to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline;

Michael Bloomberg's 2020 campaign;

Blah, blah, blah.

         You get the point. Trump is incapable of stating facts. Never accept any (allegedly) factual statement from Trump without doing independent research.

         But apart from the lies, Trump also repeated alarming statements about what he would do if reelected. He called for the arrest and imprisonment of journalists and editors who published portions of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health draft opinion. Trump repeated claims that he won the 2020 election. He said 2024 would be the "final battle," saying, "Either the deep state destroys America, or we destroy the deep state."

         All of this is cause for worry—to a point. Trump is the clear frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination. Indeed, stumbles by DeSantis in his first exposure beyond the borders of Florida highlighted his flaws as a candidate—elevating Trump in the process, at least in the GOP. See Intelligencer, GOP Insiders Say Everything's Coming Up Trump. Indeed, Trump is feeling so confident that he will drive DeSantis out of the race that he is telling consultants and vendors that if they work for DeSantis now, they will be banned from working for Trump in the future.

         But, before you surrender to despair, we must recognize that Trump is weak and vulnerable—and about to become even more so. Rupert Murdoch has apparently turned against Trump— if the most recent front-page headline in the New York Post is any indication. On a front page adorned with Trump holding a baseball bat, the headline reads, "BAT HIT CRAZY / Deranged Trump Threatens Violence Against Bragg."  

         The NYPost editorial board addressed Trump's supporters directly, telling them to ignore Trump's call to "Take back our nation," as follows:

If you actually "rose up" and were arrested, Trump would abandon you, just as he has every ally who wasn't useful to him anymore. What did he do for those locked up for months over Jan. 6?

Do you want a leader who will fight for you? Then you have to pick someone who can actually get elected. Republicans can't throw away their shot in 2024.

         While the NYPost is not widely read among Trump supporters outside of New York, it shares an owner (Rupert Murdoch) with Fox News. That common ownership does not bode well for Trump, given that Fox was the media outlet singularly responsible for Trump's election in 2016.

         And, of course, Trump has yet to be indicted. When that happens (and it will), the GOP will have a gravely wounded frontrunner, a has-been flash in the pan (DeSantis), and a bunch of candidates currently registering at 1% in polling.

         The above is a long way of saying that if Trump's 2024 golden escalator equivalent in Waco is any indication, we have reason to be hopeful. We understand the threat we face, and Joe Biden has a list of solid accomplishments under his belt. He has outmaneuvered the GOP on Medicare and Social Security cuts and is drawing a line in the sand over the debt ceiling. Six months ago, gasoline prices were touted as the single factor that would end Biden's presidency. Today, it is inflation (allegedly). Next month, it will be something else. The point is that although Biden has problems, none end with a ten-year prison term.

         So, what do I think after Trump's "golden escalator" moment in Waco? I think we have every reason to be hopeful and no reason to be complacent.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

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LIVE: Top Psychiatrist SOUNDS ALARM on Trump’s Dictator FANTASY | The We...

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Pretty much sums it up ..

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<b>Trump</b> avoids mention of US Capitol attack on 6 January anniversary - The Guardian

New Post has been published on https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/07/trump-campaign-iowa-january-6&ct=ga&cd=CAIyGjUzM2UwMTY5ZmFhZTIwMGQ6Y29tOmVuOlVT&usg=AOvVaw3lEuhq0Rc_nhF6MvPxFz29

Trump avoids mention of US Capitol attack on 6 January anniversary - The Guardian

Three years after insurrection, Trump was in Newton, Iowa, currying support before the 15 January Republican caucus.