Editor;
President Trump incited insurrection and should be immediately impeached, convicted, removed from the oval and forever barred from public office. I hope the Republican members of Congress who have enabled his antidemocratic behavior for four long, critical years realize just how much damage they have done to this country.
David Craswell, Walnut Creek
Editor;
This was a coup attempt, fueled by a failed businessman and carried out by self-proclaimed patriots who have been sold a bill of goods and refuse to listen to reason. It was pure treason in its rawest form. I cannot believe that they filmed themselves doing it. I do believe that this man and his minions are directly responsible for the deaths of five Americans. It is not too late to impeach him.
Dwight Adler, San Ramon
Editor;
President Trump stated during his campaign that he alone was in a position to “fix” the nation’s problems. In the following months it was clear to anyone who cared enough to look that he was ill prepared for a leadership role of any kind, much less the presidency. Without question, he caused the storming of the Capitol on Wednesday – through his unending stream of falsehoods, invective and conspiracy claims, and his direct and indirect incitement of a doggedly dedicated group of followers. He could have stopped it but instead he threw gasoline on the problem and struck the match. And people died because of him.
He should be held responsible and accountable for Wednesday’s events.
Howard Buxton, Berkeley
Wow! Law enforcement from the FBI to the street cop has such a soft spot for white people carrying flags of the confederacy, anti-semitic and racist slogans, and even a scaffold with a noose. How do you get a scaffold with a noose to the Capitol grounds? Amazing! Imagine. Imagine! the outcome if that mob had been primarily people of color! Trump voters got everything they voted for. God help us! We have slipped back in time a hundred years.
Judging from the number of withdrawn facebook comments and profiles the MAGATs may have finally realized their brand of patriotism may not be accepted by thinking Americans and gone undercover. This may be either good or bad because they are no longer plotting out in the open. One thing is clear – we’re dealing with a different breed of animal here.
Deplorables are not patriots.
And the lefts brand of patriotism? Where was the outcry when rioters looted and burned down businesses across the country (we’re all paying for that). And the historical statues that were destroyed? I think this is the far rights way of saying paybacks a bitch. The far right and the far left are equally pathetic.
Maurice can you please explain how desecrating the capitol and killing a police officer is payback to the “far left?” Your logic is stupefying.
From Maurice, Jan 6 on this website, regarding the Capitol debacle: “And you wonder why so many people ignore politics and don’t bother to vote. Who needs the aggravation.”
Dude, your best buds trashed our temple of democracy, so yeah, we’re aggravated. So, who is causing YOUR obvious aggravation? People casting votes? Yeah, a whole lot of them disagree with you.
Democracy is not the fascist’s friend.
What is the nature of this brain disease? What is the nature of this brain-numbed worship of a certifiably narcissistic sociopath, a con man extraordinaire who has failed at every business venture, yet imbues his worshippers with unbridled outrage and audacity at the mere sight of his orange visage. Is this new to science? Does color play a role?
There are historical comparisons where millions aligned themselves with the hollow promises of failed men. The people who followed them called themselves “patriots” too, and believed that their leader would make their country great again. In the end of course he told them to fight to the end while he took the easy way out and left them with a smoking ruin. The strange part of it is that this country sent its best young men to defeat those failed leaders. And appears to have forgotten all about it.
Those farm boys and sales clerks volunteered. They followed their values. It WAS a remarkable time of sacrifice. Now we suffer this national humiliation.
Amazon employees protested its cloud services support for Parler. Amazon just dropped Parler, basically citing a morals clause concerning violence. For those keeping score, violence is still considered an unacceptable response to losing an election, at least from a legal standpoint. While I don’t know what Chief Red Bull in the Bearskin hat is going to do once he leaves jail, I suspect he is going to be making special appearances somewhere. He has fans.
Apparently the patriots pissed off their pilot after they escaped from Washington:
“There have been numerous videos posted of unruly behavior on Washington flights, including one American Airlines flight to Phoenix in which the pilot threatened to divert to “the middle of Kansas and dump people off.”
…… I’m still looking for that Kansas one,….
My opinion, based on observation, is that the violent MAGAmaniacs are largely comprised of disenfranchised “tea party patriots.” Everything we are seeing today is the natural progression of their movement. They have become completely irrational and prone to magical thinking. While most are protesting from behind the safety of their internet gateway, an ever-growing group of radicalized individuals have taken things too far and must be prosecuted as domestic terrorists. There’s no turning back – the time to deal with the TPP infestation was 10 to 12 years ago.
I have a few of these folks in my family. They are of the armchair variety, thankfully, but cannot be reasoned with. It’s a mental illness.
Hey, GF, yes, we fear you may be right. We wrote about this many years ago when we encountered the pioneer elements of the movement and encountered a wall of suspicion and hard silence – followed by some phone calls from people we suspect were government types trying to pick our brains. Since then we’ve encountered the Internet Patriots you mention most every day and they have some picturesque punishments they would like to see doled out to journalist-types. We understand your point about their inability or unwillingness to see reason. Hope those family dinners take a better turn soon.
Their magical thinking is magnified by the dark money. Lots of money fueling this. Very scary times. Free speech has been turned on its head by Fox, Facebook, etc
“That was a heavily trained group of militia terrorists that attacked us,” said the officer, who has been with the department for more than a decade. “They had radios, we found them, they had two-way communicators and earpieces. They had bear spray. They had flash bangs … They were prepared. They strategically put two IEDs, pipe bombs, in two different locations. These guys were military trained. A lot of them were former military.” – Capitol Policeman
I’m hearing from the people telling us stuff we don’t want to hear, you know, news people, that those Michiganders who wanted to kidnap their governor are from a militia group that gave Timothy McVeigh such good ideas about mayhem in the 1990’s. It’s chilling to realize how far we haven’t come in policing these terrorists.
President will visit Alamo TX tomorrow. No, not THE Alamo, but the town of Alamo. Rally at Four Seasons Landscaping has not yet been announced.
Ok, just announced. It’s been moved to the Four Seasons Manscaping booth just past the RV Resort and between Willie’s BBQ and the DQ in central Alamo. You can’t miss it! Just look for the red hats. See y’all there!
Helloooooo! Helloooo! Is anybody here? An acting Sec’y of D-fence perhaps? An Attorney General who is NOT a hologram? Who’s running the place? Oh, hi Jared. No, I wasn’t looking for you. I need Saul. Get me Saul! I need a CRIMINAL lawyer.
There is no doubt an element of symmetry in what humans experience as beauty. Yet, despite that, we who believe in the rule of law are prevented from recommending a symmetrical response to a Dear Leader who would have us drawn and quartered simply for opposing him…We are left instead with something called “de-platforming”. Dear leader has been temporarily de-platformed. The rule of law truly sucks, but we must stand by it or we become the mob.
Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. – Samuel Johnson
We’ve got a lot of deprogramming to do.
As this site has noted in several maligned commentaries this national illness has been growing for some time. Many of the people responsible are police officers, judges, members of congress. Look to yourselves America….. look to yourselves. You lined up to salute a wannabe strongmanand at least one of you died for him. Think about that.
I don’t know — the my pillow guy guy seems credible.
Is it beginning to sink in yet MAGATs?