Jan 6th is on-going corroding US democracy; what Trump waiting for during 187 minutes answered
Friends and readers,
We resume our daily lives and approach the anniversary of the fearfully dangerous day, Jan 6, 2021. From Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer, a PBS Frontline show and documentary American Insurrection in collaboration with ProPublica and recent documents gathered by the Jan 6th Investigative commission, especially Bernie Kerik (pardoned by Trump for other criminal activities), the answer to two questions.
A panel from the commission to investigate Jan 6th
1) what did Trump expect to happen during the three hours he watched on TV and made video after video to the "army" he had sent to stop the certification of the election of Joe Biden?
They were waiting and hoping to provoke a left-center protest, groups of people in reaction coming to the capital on behalf of the gov't election. If that had happened, Trump was to call out the National Guard to support the insurrection, stop the certification and either declare martial law or prevent any further attempt to place Joe Biden in power. They planned among other things to "seize" the evidence, the ballots, confiscate or just hide them away. In the days proceeding the insurrection, though mass media did not report this, as thousands of tweets poured into twitter announcing the coming riot people were going to, many political leaders, among them Mayor Bowser, were urging left-center people, and democrats to stay home, to stay away from the capitol. They wanted to get others to provoke them into violence against these others. Read what Bunch said:
in the maybe two-week run-up before January 6th, when a lot of people - although apparently not the FBI for some reason, but a lot of normal people - knew that this was going to be a potentially violent day and that, you know, we knew that busloads of these people were descending on the Capitol, and the word got out on the left that they’re trying - they want to provoke violence. You know, they want to provoke clashes between left-wing counterprotesters, whether they were, quote, “antifa,” unquote, or just normal resistant folks - they wanted to set up these clashes.
And so, on social media, you actually saw this hashtag, like you said; #DontTakeTheBait became a popular hashtag at the end of December and early January. And you had public officials join in. You know, Muriel Bowser, the mayor of D.C., and other officials went public telling people who were not Trump supporters, “You don’t want to be anywhere near the Capitol on January 6th. Please stay away.” And I think the city even kept some of its workers home. And there was a real effort to just let the Trump people do their thing in the city
2) when this didn't happen, why did the National Guard remain inactive and not come to the aid of the congress -- and police? If Trump had the power to call the National Guard, others had the power also, once Trump gave any okay. But they were reluctant to press for this. Why? The answer is they were afraid that Trump allies in the Pentagon and Trumpists in the military groups, that the Guard would either protect the insurrectionists or if they stopped the Trumpists, it would look on TV like a coup, and this would play into the hands of Trump and the people around him in the White House, Justice Department and other places. Again Will Bunch:
we now know that Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint Chiefs, and other top people in the Defense Department were horrified at the idea that the Trump allies within the Pentagon could use the National Guard in service of a coup, basically, in service of Trump. And as a result, I mean, that really was the reluctance to call out the National Guard. You know, D.C. officials were baffled, because they wanted to use the Guard to fight against the Trumpists, the insurrectionists. But in the Pentagon, the worry was that if the Guard got involved and took over the Capitol, that that would end up looking more like a coup. And so, that explains why the National Guard didn’t get involved for three or four hours, until the incident was basically over at that point.
You can listen and watch this on the interview at DemocracyNow.org
On top of this there was a plan that the congressmen in the House while this outside violence would happen were going to challenge the results in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. Peter Navarro described what was planned on TV and was asked did he realize this was a coup. He responded it was not. He did not say what it was.
So there you have it.
****************************************
There are some other important stories about context: that while at first after the insurrection, it seemed this coup would collapse, instead central people have remained stubbornly determined to overturn this democratic election and put in place by whatever means necessary, with whatever lies necessary, a dictatorship with Trump at its head. The GOP continues to be purged; they continue to pass laws restricting voting, and replace unbiased people to count and certify and validate with partisan GOP people prepared to throw out thousand more votes than they have done before. They characterize themselves as patriots but here is what they are: Michael Harriot in the Guardian a few days ago: how the Trump movement & GOP and their donor-supporters are undermining democracy and US society as it presently fragilely works Fintan O'Toole wrote about the same growing group of people in the Atlantic: civil
war prophecies.
It is very important to realize that these people know they are using lies to take over the US gov't. They know that elections are not fraudulent and what is being set up in 17 states thus far is not to prevent fraud, but to stop fair and free elections. The reason they use phrases like "let's go, Brandon" is it doesn't matter what they say. What matters is what they are determined to do, legally or illegally and with violence. The mainstream GOP joining them are very wealthy and somewhat wealthy people who want to pay as few taxes as possible, have all the privileges from money so they need no safety net -- and the hell with all other people who cannot afford even to go to the doctor without the ACA. They want erasure of history so that they are not recognized for who and what they are. Their present is the result of the past. And they want to control the future.
Last point for tonight: what is driving these people to hate-filled racism against any immigrants, any one who is not white, Christian, living a narrowly conceived nuclear family life: poverty, the vast impoverishment of the US citizenry across the US, that huge numbers of people live with huge debts; that they are continually thwarted from having any good job opportunities as the monopolies take over, offer only menial positions. Corporations have long ago shipped the well-paying working class jobs to countries outside the US where they can pay a pittance of what they pay here. The deep sickness at the core and across the US is the stranglehold monopoly capitalism has on these people's lives. So many have come back from these horrific wars wounded mentally and physically for the rest of their lives, or have died. Biden did end the war finally in Afghanistan. He is no longing dropping drones on people.
They are turning to the wrong people -- but this has happened before, in Germany and Italy in the 1930s. They are also turning to rabid reactionary religious leaders. This too has happened before. For all of the 20th century and 21st century thus far mainstream media is against any social helps for people -- owned as it is by the wealthy in the form of corporation and private wealth.
People who voted for Biden are dissatisfied bcause he is not passing his Build Back Better Bill. They want improvement in their lives and through mild forms of socialism using the tax and other systems set up by FDR and other presidents and congresses since. He is trying to do this lawfully but decades of courts, and congresses and gerrymandering have made the congress a representative of a small minority of the US.
There is no mystery here, and there is a solution. First all must be allowed to vote and enough and more than enough people see the GOP for the evil force it now is, and are rightly frightened. The majority of US people are for Biden, the BBB plan, for gun control, money put in schools, into children, for community college for all &c&
Miss Drake
We resume our daily lives and approach the anniversary of the fearfully dangerous day, Jan 6, 2021. From Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer, a PBS Frontline show and documentary American Insurrection in collaboration with ProPublica and recent documents gathered by the Jan 6th Investigative commission, especially Bernie Kerik (pardoned by Trump for other criminal activities), the answer to two questions.
A panel from the commission to investigate Jan 6th
1) what did Trump expect to happen during the three hours he watched on TV and made video after video to the "army" he had sent to stop the certification of the election of Joe Biden?
They were waiting and hoping to provoke a left-center protest, groups of people in reaction coming to the capital on behalf of the gov't election. If that had happened, Trump was to call out the National Guard to support the insurrection, stop the certification and either declare martial law or prevent any further attempt to place Joe Biden in power. They planned among other things to "seize" the evidence, the ballots, confiscate or just hide them away. In the days proceeding the insurrection, though mass media did not report this, as thousands of tweets poured into twitter announcing the coming riot people were going to, many political leaders, among them Mayor Bowser, were urging left-center people, and democrats to stay home, to stay away from the capitol. They wanted to get others to provoke them into violence against these others. Read what Bunch said:
in the maybe two-week run-up before January 6th, when a lot of people - although apparently not the FBI for some reason, but a lot of normal people - knew that this was going to be a potentially violent day and that, you know, we knew that busloads of these people were descending on the Capitol, and the word got out on the left that they’re trying - they want to provoke violence. You know, they want to provoke clashes between left-wing counterprotesters, whether they were, quote, “antifa,” unquote, or just normal resistant folks - they wanted to set up these clashes.
And so, on social media, you actually saw this hashtag, like you said; #DontTakeTheBait became a popular hashtag at the end of December and early January. And you had public officials join in. You know, Muriel Bowser, the mayor of D.C., and other officials went public telling people who were not Trump supporters, “You don’t want to be anywhere near the Capitol on January 6th. Please stay away.” And I think the city even kept some of its workers home. And there was a real effort to just let the Trump people do their thing in the city
2) when this didn't happen, why did the National Guard remain inactive and not come to the aid of the congress -- and police? If Trump had the power to call the National Guard, others had the power also, once Trump gave any okay. But they were reluctant to press for this. Why? The answer is they were afraid that Trump allies in the Pentagon and Trumpists in the military groups, that the Guard would either protect the insurrectionists or if they stopped the Trumpists, it would look on TV like a coup, and this would play into the hands of Trump and the people around him in the White House, Justice Department and other places. Again Will Bunch:
we now know that Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint Chiefs, and other top people in the Defense Department were horrified at the idea that the Trump allies within the Pentagon could use the National Guard in service of a coup, basically, in service of Trump. And as a result, I mean, that really was the reluctance to call out the National Guard. You know, D.C. officials were baffled, because they wanted to use the Guard to fight against the Trumpists, the insurrectionists. But in the Pentagon, the worry was that if the Guard got involved and took over the Capitol, that that would end up looking more like a coup. And so, that explains why the National Guard didn’t get involved for three or four hours, until the incident was basically over at that point.
You can listen and watch this on the interview at DemocracyNow.org
On top of this there was a plan that the congressmen in the House while this outside violence would happen were going to challenge the results in Michigan, Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. Peter Navarro described what was planned on TV and was asked did he realize this was a coup. He responded it was not. He did not say what it was.
So there you have it.
****************************************
There are some other important stories about context: that while at first after the insurrection, it seemed this coup would collapse, instead central people have remained stubbornly determined to overturn this democratic election and put in place by whatever means necessary, with whatever lies necessary, a dictatorship with Trump at its head. The GOP continues to be purged; they continue to pass laws restricting voting, and replace unbiased people to count and certify and validate with partisan GOP people prepared to throw out thousand more votes than they have done before. They characterize themselves as patriots but here is what they are: Michael Harriot in the Guardian a few days ago: how the Trump movement & GOP and their donor-supporters are undermining democracy and US society as it presently fragilely works Fintan O'Toole wrote about the same growing group of people in the Atlantic: civil
war prophecies.
It is very important to realize that these people know they are using lies to take over the US gov't. They know that elections are not fraudulent and what is being set up in 17 states thus far is not to prevent fraud, but to stop fair and free elections. The reason they use phrases like "let's go, Brandon" is it doesn't matter what they say. What matters is what they are determined to do, legally or illegally and with violence. The mainstream GOP joining them are very wealthy and somewhat wealthy people who want to pay as few taxes as possible, have all the privileges from money so they need no safety net -- and the hell with all other people who cannot afford even to go to the doctor without the ACA. They want erasure of history so that they are not recognized for who and what they are. Their present is the result of the past. And they want to control the future.
Last point for tonight: what is driving these people to hate-filled racism against any immigrants, any one who is not white, Christian, living a narrowly conceived nuclear family life: poverty, the vast impoverishment of the US citizenry across the US, that huge numbers of people live with huge debts; that they are continually thwarted from having any good job opportunities as the monopolies take over, offer only menial positions. Corporations have long ago shipped the well-paying working class jobs to countries outside the US where they can pay a pittance of what they pay here. The deep sickness at the core and across the US is the stranglehold monopoly capitalism has on these people's lives. So many have come back from these horrific wars wounded mentally and physically for the rest of their lives, or have died. Biden did end the war finally in Afghanistan. He is no longing dropping drones on people.
They are turning to the wrong people -- but this has happened before, in Germany and Italy in the 1930s. They are also turning to rabid reactionary religious leaders. This too has happened before. For all of the 20th century and 21st century thus far mainstream media is against any social helps for people -- owned as it is by the wealthy in the form of corporation and private wealth.
People who voted for Biden are dissatisfied bcause he is not passing his Build Back Better Bill. They want improvement in their lives and through mild forms of socialism using the tax and other systems set up by FDR and other presidents and congresses since. He is trying to do this lawfully but decades of courts, and congresses and gerrymandering have made the congress a representative of a small minority of the US.
There is no mystery here, and there is a solution. First all must be allowed to vote and enough and more than enough people see the GOP for the evil force it now is, and are rightly frightened. The majority of US people are for Biden, the BBB plan, for gun control, money put in schools, into children, for community college for all &c&
Miss Drake