About Insanity

 

Obviously, the Republican Party has “drunk the poison Kool-Aid” laced with treasonous Trumpism. In its death throes the party is foisting its “alternative facts” delusions on the rest of Americans.

Some of us refuse to drink the poison, including the NAACP. Thank God, or the space people, someone, anyone for maintaining their sanity in defense against Trump-induced insanity.

Here’s the story:

We're suing to hold Trump accountable for 'treasonous acts', NAACP chief says, Kenya Evelyn, The Guardian, 26 Feb 2021.

"Derrick Johnson accuses president of ‘operating under a white supremacist doctrine’ in suit filed using 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act"

"NAACP president Derrick Johnson in 2019. The NAACP is representing Mississippi congressman Bennie Thompson in the suit but confirmed they expect more members to join."

“Civil rights group the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has argued thats its suing of Donald Trump using the Ku Klux Klan Act – a historic law enacted to combat white supremacy – is in order to hold the former president accountable to Black voters that his Republican administration sought to invalidate.”

“The lawsuit alleges Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani sought to undermine the will of American voters by orchestrating a “series of events that unfolded [with] the Save America rally and the storming of the Capitol” on 6 January in events that shocked the world.”

“We could not stand by and not pursue a course of action to hold those accountable for their treasonous acts,” Derrick Johnson, president, told the Guardian in an interview, noting the act was designed for “the very incident the world witnessed on 6 January”.

“Opponents have argued the twice-impeached Trump and his associates are still subject to civil and criminal penalties, including the Republican minority leader, Mitch McConnell,who blamed Trump for the insurrection in a speech on the Senate floor shortly after voting to acquit him at his impeachment trial.”

“Accusing 43 Republicans senators who acquitted Trump of putting “partisanship over the constitution”, Johnson notes that in the past some civil judgements have still bankrupted hate groups or forced them and enablers to shut down.”

“Passed in 1871, the KKK Act originally sought to prevent violence and intimidation that members of Congress were subjected to carrying out their constitutional duties throughout the south during the Reconstruction era.” -more-

Jimmy Buffett live 2010 - Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.avi - 1977

Not US!

 

Opus, Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed
Please forgive us for using your Opus art, but it seemed so apropos. 

Thinking about the USA today reminds me that sometimes when I look in the mirror the person looking back is not me.

Go here for more...

Fatal - If Left Untreated

 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) reminds me of Naegleria Fowleri ameba, the rare “bugs” that infect victims by entering up the nose to the brain and destroy the brain tissue. In her case, it appears she is trying to become a “novel” variety – the Naegleria Fowleri ameba QAnon conspiracy kind – and infect the brains of her Republican Congressional colleagues.

Her Naegleria Fowleri ameba QAnon conspiracy brain eating bug has threatened to put a bullet in Speaker Pelosi; posted support for executing prominent Democrats in Facebook comments and videos; supported the mob takeover of the Capitol; and proudly supports Mr. Trump’s treason.

Now, this from CNN: “In a video that surfaced Wednesday, Greene is seen harassing Parkland shooting survivor and gun control activist David Hogg outside the Capitol. In the video from March 2019, she calls Hogg a "coward" and said he was "paid to do this," repeating a malicious lie that Hogg's activism was paid for by billionaire philanthropist and Democratic donor George Soros. Survivors of the Parkland shooting and victims' families have called for Greene to resign.”

Maybe, someday, a Republican leader will figure out that Taylor Greene's brain eating ameba will be fatal if left untreated.

.@Fred_Guttenberg slams @RepMTG 👇

"She is a depraved person who ran for Congress on a lie. She called Parkland a lie, Sandy Hook a lie, Las Vegas a lie, and 9/11 a lie. She has no business being in Congress."

Tell Congress to vote to #ExpelGreene here: https://t.co/yXSswl9EfZ pic.twitter.com/WT0zOihi2w

— Democratic Coalition (@TheDemCoalition) January 28, 2021

Treason Most Heinous

 

An angry mob confronted the police as it tried to gain entry into the Capitol, 2 p.m.Credit...Ashley Gilbertson/VII, for The New York Times.

The Capitol Hill insurrection of 6 Jan 2021 was a traitorous act orchestrated and incited by Donald Trump to overthrow our Democratic Republic. Trump’s actions were a heinous treachery, exponentially exceeding the treason of the most hated of all American traitors, Benedict Arnold. 

Donald J. Trump, while President of the United States, incited insurrectionists into the Capitol building for the purpose of overturning the American voters’ will in favor of his desire to continue in power as President. Further, his followers were intent on capturing and murdering members of Congress as well as Vice President Pence. 

They failed — only by mere seconds — the narrowest of margins. 

In the process of following Mr. Trump’s direction, they sacked the Capitol building; murdered one police officer; injured multiple others; and killed at least three of their own rioters.

In comparison, Arnold’s treachery simply involved surrendering West Point, NY, to the British. He too, failed by the narrowest of margins.

Still, to put it into historical perspective, General George Washington called Arnold's treason, “Treason of the blackest dye”, because during the Revolutionary War, “…holding West Point meant preventing the British from controlling the Hudson River and dividing the colonies in two.” George Washington called the fortified site “the most important Post in America.” Loss of West Point could have spelled loss of the revolution.

The consequences of Trump’s treason have yet to play out. His supporters have “drunk the cool aid” and lost all sense of reality. They are adrift in a gaslighted, twisted, “alternative universe” of doublespeak and doublethink, where right is wrong and wrong is right. 

Over the past years they have slowly stewed, like the proverbial frog in the frying pan, in an endless blizzard of lies and fringe-wing propaganda plus a concoction of religious insanity, which they call "Christian", but is in fact totally opposite of the teachings of Jesus Christ. 

For them Trump has become a divine instrument, the voice of God, if not God himself.

Yes, treason most heinous, inflicted on our nation by a man masquerading as president, has wounded us most grievously, if not fatally. Convalescence will require a colossal effort on our part, through a multitude of disciplines, if we are to recover.

41 minutes of fear: A video timeline from inside the Capitol siege

Becoming

 

Photo Credit: Mike Theiler / Reuters / The Atlantic

"Just above and behind him (the insurrectionist with the Confederate flag) is a painting of Charles Sumner, the ardent abolitionist senator from Massachusetts, (and) a portrait of John C. Calhoun, partially obscured by the rebel flag, senator from South Carolina and vice president under both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, who wrote in 1837:

'I hold that in the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding States between the two, is, instead of an evil, a good—a positive good.'”

Please go here for Clint Smith's story in The Atlantic about the portraits, the capitol, the rebel flag and the Trump insurrection connection.

America, we have a challenge we must now confront. 

The Trump initiated Capitol Hill Insurrection has forced us to choose to become the USA we pretend to be or remain the white racist society we deny we are.

Only the days ahead will reveal our choice.

What happens after the Capitol attacks? | Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), 13 Jan 2021

Congress must vote to impeach and remove Donald Trump.

This isn't a complicated vote. It's a matter of right or wrong.

You're either with the People or you're with that mob.

The Civil War Never ended... Hatreds and Fears

Tears of Gratitude

 

Officer Eugene Goodman alone between rioters and open Senate door.
Photo Credit: New York Times

Officer Eugene Goodman was and remains the right man in the right spot at the right time. He is a hero not just because he chose not to use deadly force, but because he courageously stood alone before a mob of Trumpist-rioters, then risked bodily harm and/or death while summoning-up his intelligence and experience to distract them away from the US Senate chamber’s open door.

Officer Goodman gave others precious seconds to close that open door and remove senators from harm’s way.

“Above and Beyond”... Officer Goodman; you are my hero. Your service in defense of our Constitution brings tears of gratitude to my eyes.  

Hero Officer Led Mob Away To Save Lives During Capitol Riot

TODAY, 11 Jan 2021

Not Soap Enough?

 

Ms. Powell with soap.

Lawsuits for defamation have been threat enough to incent FOX News, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs and Fox News hosts Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro, plus, “fellow right-wing cable channels OANN and Newsmax,” to debunk their false voting machine claims.

Interestingly, even Fox News host, Tucker Carlson, “…criticized Powell on air for failing to provide any evidence to back her claim.”

Still, I’m guessing, of course, but there is probably not enough soap in the world to cleanse away the garbage sown by Ms. Powell and other Trumpists and amplified by right-wing media mega horns.

Yet, some soap in Ms. Powell’s mouth is a good start.

Here's another mouth cleansing... but for a billion times more innocent reason....

Lifebuoy yuck! Ralphie, soap, A Christmas Story - 1983