Saturday, August 14, 2021

The Ghost of January 6th 2021

 Some dates to remember: November 3 2020. Election Day. a Red-Letter Day if ever there was. It began early, with voting in person being mostly stronger than anticipated, but with a lot of mail-in ballots. In Arizona, if you are registered to vote and made a request for it, you got a mail-in ballot automatically. You fill your ballot out, marking the candidates and issues you want with a black or blue pen. Felt tips are permitted. It's thick paper and won't bleed through. Live in-person voting carried on all day, but slowly. Around 10 pm  Eastern time, it looked to be very close, at least in the Electoral College. (in the national popular vote, it wasn't even close, with Biden eventually pulling a 7 million vote lead. ) By midnight, Trump started declaring himself the winner in states he clearly hadn't won. By 2 AM it was clear that, if Arizona and Georgia did not go for Trump, that he would not in fact be re-elected.

Slowdowns in vote counting, some of it deliberate to account for fatigue in the counting staff, caused delays. Crowds of demonstrators, some spontaneous, some organized, started to show up at the places where counting was being done. People started throwing threats around. There were shouting matches, and in a couple of cases, punches were thrown, and people shoved around. It would not be until three and a half days later (November 7) that the major news organizations all decided to "call" the election for Joe Biden.  Trump maintained that he won and that the election had been stolen and it was in reality a Trump landslide. It was not. Trump, true to his character, lied. He lied, and paid others to lie for him, and used his strangely potent political influence to induce others to lie. As November rolled slowly into December, Trump's road crew toured around, insisting to everyone who would listen that they were winning, and that shortly they would bring an unbeatable case against "The Enemy." This was the dark side of their selling job. convincing people that not only were their political opponents wrong, but that they were The Enemy, who must be Destroyed. Some saw this as empty rhetoric, but I personally believe they meant just that. That those who oppose Dear Leader Trump must be taken out and shot. Combine this with the evil stew put forth on the internet by the man later identified as codemonkeyZ, under the rubric "QAnon", a bunch of conspiracy theory crap designed to be the Unified Field Theory of Conspiracies. Between all this horse shit a bunch of well-meaning but very seriously misguided folks got together and listened to their new masters tell them to go to Washington DC. To be there by January 6th. That it would be "Wild". And that they should be prepared to fight to the finish. The problem was, there is no legal means by which Trump could have reversed the outcome of the November 3rd (4th,5th, 6th, 7th) elections. The fact that he "Hereby declare that I won (State x) " on the TV news channel meant exactly nothing. Although muted, the voice of the people had been heard. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. had been elected by 306 electoral votes, and won the Popular Vote by some 7 million votes. Make no mistake about it, Biden won. Time marched on. December 14th, the first of the Important Dates, came. Trump challenges to election results happened. Trump demanded recounts in several states. Recounts were held in some. Results were not materially altered by the recounts. Trump sued in court 63 times, and lost all but 1 case, in which his lawyers successfully got Trump count watchers moved from 20ft away to 6 ft away. Tempus fugited. The new year dawned. The new congress was sworn in on January 3rd, 2021. In the background, the pandemic continued to burn. Trump continued to tweet out inflammatory and derogatory statements. At times, flaming anyone who didn't toe the mark that the election was rigged. That it was stolen. His lieutenants in this, Rudy Giuliani, Lin Wood and Sidney Powell went over the top, lying like the dickens everywhere except in court, and sometimes crossing that line. "My Pillow" Impresario Mike Lindell went on every TV newscast that would have him, trumpeting that Trump would Prevail. Chatter among far right groups, including but not limited to the Proud Boys, Three-Percenters and Oathkeepers started reaching people's ears, with warnings about an impending action. (side note: do some research. you'll find out those three groups mean business. They are dangerous, and they are learning from their mistakes. You can expect next time to see much more and better planning, better communications security and possibly even some rehearsals.  )

Now to January Sixth, 2021:

The Morning broke clear and cold in DC. At the Ellipse, across from the White House, crews had erected a stage, sound and video equipment. So, President Trump. You lost the election, so why are you having an election rally now, after the votes have been counted, recounted and audited and found to be clean? You're having a rally now, after you've lost. There can only be one reason for such a rally. There was only one reason. To gather a crowd of his most fervent supporters, whip them into a frenzy, and then sic them on the Capitol, with the goal of overturning the election result. If the electoral votes were not certified on the 6th, Trump believed (wrongly) that the election would then revert to the state legislatures, where, he believed he would be elected (given the current composition of the various state legislatures, were it strictly up to them, Trump would have won. ) But Trump needed Mike Pence to monkeywrench the proceedings by refusing to certify the election, and this thing Pence just would not do. (a careful reading of the law tells me Pence could not in fact do as Trump wished. ) However, Trump did not know this at the time. He was carrying out his plan as laid down in meetings before the event. Meetings that certain members of the House of Representatives attended. You know the usual suspects. We all know who they are. and what they did will in time become clear to any who have eyes to read or ears to listen with, and a brain to think with. But, will they ? Will YOU?  

I most sincerely hope so. 


DLC.

1 comment:

  1. Fear Not. your host will be re-visiting this topic in the future, as more comes out of the committee hearings. I shall send out notes that an update or further article has been posted.

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