Rioters profile - What is their common denominator?

Among the unsettling revelations about the January 6th, attack on the U.S. Capitol, is the number of rioters who served in the military. 

This editorial was republished in the Times West Virginia and the subject is consistent with what Dr. Kathleen Belew presented to the Bowdoin College Conversations on Democracy.

Guest editorial echo published by Bloomberg News

Trump cult infusion

U.S. military must get serious about domestic extremism

Of the more than 300 people so far charged with crimes, at least 30 are veterans, and three are currently enlisted in either the Army Reserve or National Guard. 

Moreover, the Pentagon believes some active-duty troops also participated in the siege. In response, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered all military units to conduct a one-day “stand-down” to address extremism in the armed forces. That’s a good start, but the Pentagon shouldn’t stop there. The department should carry out a comprehensive policy review to upgrade the military’s tools for identifying extremists and their potential to commit acts of ideologically motivated violence. Doing so is crucial for the safety both of the public and of service members themselves.

The first task is assessing the scale of the problem. Last year, active-duty troops were arrested in connection with at least three far-right extremist plots, including an Army sergeant who allegedly attempted to conspire with a neo-Nazi group to stage an attack on his own unit. Racial intolerance in the ranks may also be on the rise. 

A 2019 survey found that 36% of service members reported seeing evidence of racist or white supremacist attitudes, up 14 points over the previous year.

It’s unclear whether such figures actually reflect a growing risk of violence. The military should in any case be paying attention to deep-seated bigotry among some service members — and the possible nexus between white supremacy and anti-government extremism makes it all the more urgent. The Pentagon doesn’t currently collect system-wide data on disciplinary cases involving violent extremism. Investigations into troop misconduct are handled by the respective service branches, with lower-level supervisors allowed to take action without always reporting their decisions up the chain of command.

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, which was passed over #formerguy Donald Trump’s veto, requires the Pentagon to create a new deputy inspector general charged with reviewing the military’s progress in combating racial discrimination.

Congress should broaden the office’s mandate to include responsibility for tracking violent extremist threats of all kinds. The Pentagon should also issue annual reports on the number of incidents of extremism across all service branches, including those that don’t produce criminal charges.

Beyond data collection, the military should do more to target individuals susceptible to radicalization. The Pentagon should work with the FBI to give military recruiters and unit commanders access to the bureau’s database of tattoos signifying membership in extremist organizations. Training programs similar to those used by FBI counterterrorism investigators should be expanded to help recruiters spot warning signs among potential enlistees.

The military should also amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice to make active participation in domestic extremist activity a violation of military law — a proposal introduced by Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier and endorsed by the Pentagon that was stripped from the 2021 NDAA by Senate Republicans. The Department of Veterans’ Affairs should coordinate with grassroots veterans’ organizations and law-enforcement authorities to disrupt efforts by extremist groups to recruit and radicalize former service members.

At the same time, U.S. officials should be careful not to overreach. Even as the Pentagon takes steps to root out domestic extremism, it should resist policies that trample on troops’ free speech and privacy rights. Investigations into the social-media histories of current and prospective service members should remain limited to those who display other signs of extremist proclivities, as well as troops whose jobs require top-secret security clearances.

The risk of violent domestic extremism among military personnel is concerning, but the Pentagon has the resources to manage it. 

A focused strategy to track and deter the threat would protect America’s troops and the democracy they are sworn to defend.

—Bloomberg Opinion

Predicting inescapable truth at the January 6th insurrection

Published March 30, 2021, by Tom Porter 

January 6, 2021- Trump White Supremacy insurrection and sedition

An echo Conversations on Democracy published in Bowdoin News, Brunswick ME: 

White Power and the Capitol Riots

As a scholar of the American white power movement, Kathleen Belew (Ph.D., Yale University '11), watched the dramatic events of January 6th, 2021, unfold on her television screen with a chilling sense of familiarity. 

Although unprecedented, this attack on the central seat of government reminded her of an ongoing trend in the movement.

“Manifestations of white power tend to come on the heels of a major war,” said Belew, in a lecture she gave to the Bowdoin community on March 24, 2021. 

Kathleen Belew, Ph.D. historian and author

Kathleen Belew is assistant professor of US history at the University of Chicago, where she specializes in the recent history of the US, examining the long aftermath of warfare and the place of violence in American life and culture. Her 2018 book, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America, finds that “the best predictor for surges in clan and vigilante violence in the US is not poverty, or populism, or immigration or civil rights gains: the best predictor is the aftermath of warfare.”

Belew’s talk and the ensuing discussion, moderated by Associate Professor of History and Environmental Studies Matthew Klingle, was part of a semester-long series organized in the wake of the January 6 storming of the US Capitol and efforts by former president Trump and his allies to overturn the election. "After the Insurrection: Conversations on Democracy" consists of virtual discussions with leading experts on subjects that relate to the current state of and future prospects for American democracy.

This connection between the aftermath of warfare and right-wing political violence at home is consistent across the broad sweep of American history, said Belew. Why does this happen? Is it due to the number of veterans returning home, brutalized by warfare and trained in violence? This is certainly a factor, said Belew, but there is more to the story.

“The inescapable truth,” she said, “is that all of us become more violent after warfare.” Sociologists, she added, have found this to be a phenomenon that goes across age and across gender and affects veterans and nonveterans alike. “We're currently living through the longest, most protracted aftermath we've ever seen,” argued Belew. “My undergraduates don't remember a time before the global ‘War on Terror’ and yet it is not even in what most people might list as the top five crises facing our country at any given moment.” Warfare and its consequences have simply become a normal part of American life for the current generation.






Different groups unite

Belew divided the people who forced their way into the Capitol on January 6 into three broad groups:

First, there were what she called the “garden variety President Trump faithful… the MAGA ‘stop the steal’ ralliers. A lot of those people,” she said, “were there simply to demonstrate their support for Donald Trump to exercise their right of assembly and free speech and to peaceably demonstrate.”

Second, there were the far-right conspiracy theorists who follow the “QAnon” movement. “These people have been recently radicalized,” said Belew, “most of them being only one or two years into radical activity. QAnon, as a whole, represents a somewhat new phenomenon, in many ways.”

The third strand of this crowd, she said, is one that poses a substantial threat to democratic institutions and to the nation as a whole, and that is the organized white power movement, which comprises several different groups. “We know that many of these groups preplanned their attack. We also know that they made a deliberate plan to work together. There was communication about setting aside group differences and banding together to deliberately attack the workings of democracy.”

Belew stressed that the behavior witnessed on January 6 is not new. “It’s part of a movement that’s been in our public life since the late 1970s. It's a movement that is well organized, includes people in every region of the country, and in all ways but race is quite diverse and opportunistic, willing to incorporate a broad array of people and beliefs, bringing them together through this shared sense of emergency.”

It’s also a movement that has already carried out mass casualty attacks, most notably the 1995 attack on a federal building in Oklahama City, that killed 168 people, including nineteen children. The attack was perpetrated by extremists Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh, a Gulf War veteran, but Belew said it’s wrong to attribute the atrocity to a few “bad apples” or “lone wolves". Rather, the attack was the culmination of decades of organizing. “The movement that carried it out, the white power movement, brought together a bunch of different currents of activity. It united Klansmen, neo Nazis, radical tax resistors, and later on skinheads and parts of the militia movement.” Worryingly, said Belew, this kind of collaboration within the white power movement could also be seen on January 6.

Convict the January 6th seditious rioters including the instigator

From Trump’s promise of a “wild” protest to far-right calls to “get into Capitol building” and posts of floor plan layouts- it was  sedition! - TheDailyBeast.com

Maine Writer opinion - Often, cliché's are the best way to summarize a situation. History repeating itself is one way to conceptualize the dangers still simmering, post the January 6th seditious riots at the U.S. Capitol. Just read summaries about Mein Kampf to learn more and read the following letter published in Tulsa World. In fact, the first attempt by Nazis to take over Germany failed, until it didn't.

"this violence will continue..." Dr. Setter opinion.

This opinion echo letter was published in the Oklahoma newspaper "Tulsa World", one of my favorite US newspapers! 

The January 6th (seditious!) insurrection at the Capitol was what Donald Trump wanted, and he must be held accountable!

Trump agitated his supporters by repeatedly lying about the election being stolen and warning that the fate of the nation was at stake.

He organized the rally, encouraging his supporters to come to Washington when Congress would be certifying the electors.

Trump tweeted: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” and “Be there, will be wild!”

Many of his followers planned a violent protest. 

They posted in plain sight about using force. On Jan. 1, one tweeted: “The calvary [sic] is coming, Mr. President!”

Trump responded: “A great honor!”

On Jan. 5, one posted: “If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.”

Responding comments included photographs of assault rifles and other weapons they planned to bring and comments about occupying the Capitol.

Trump did nothing to discourage this.

At the rally, after one statement about a peaceful protest, Trump sent them to the Capitol with this message: “And we fight. We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore. …and we’re going to the Capitol."

He sent no messages to stop the rioters, nor call in the National Guard.

He must resign, be removed from office, or impeached and convicted with a bipartisan vote, or this violence will continue.

Kenneth Setter, M.D., Tulsa Oklahoma

Was Dr. Birx "threatened" by Former Guy to remain silent about risks of COVID deaths?

Hundreds of thousands of COVID deaths could have been prevented!

Trump had downplayed the outbreak in its early stages.

Dr. Deborah Leah Birx is an American physician and diplomat who served as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator under #FormerGuy Donald Trump from 2020 to 2021.

Dr. Birx said that, while the initial surge in March last year (2020) caught health officials off guard, better messaging and coordination from the government could have reduced the number of #TrumpVirus deaths later.

Dr. Deborah Birx recalls 'very difficult' call with Trump, says hundreds of thousands of COVID deaths were preventable.

"I look at it this way: The first time, we have an excuse," Birx said about the initial surge of deaths. "All of the rest of them, in my mind, could have been mitigated or decreased substantially."

400,000 preventable deaths.  By Allan Smith NBC News

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator in the Trump administration, described an "uncomfortable" call with #FormerGuy Donald Trump after an interview with CNN, in August in which she discussed the threat posed by Covid-19.

"Well, I think you've heard other conversations that people have posted with the former president," Birx said as part of a CNN documentary, "Covid War: The Pandemic Doctors Speak Out," which is airing in full on Sunday evening. "I would say it was even more direct than what people have heard. It was very uncomfortable, very direct and very difficult to hear."

In the segment, which CNN released Sunday, Birx was asked whether she was threatened in the call?

"I would say it was a very uncomfortable conversation," she said.

Was Dr. Birx threatened by Trump to keep silent about the high risks of coronavirus deaths? She reported an "uncomfortable conversation" with Trump.

Within weeks of Covid-19 shutdown measures' being put in place, Trump, who would later contract the virus and be hospitalized, began pushing for cities and states to reopen. He also pitched unproven treatments for the virus and questioned the need to wear face coverings.

Birx, who has spoken out about her experience on Trump's coronavirus task force repeatedly in recent months, has taken heat for not having been more critical. 

Last March, she praised Trump for being "so attentive to the scientific literature and the details and the data" about the outbreak.

Such past commentary led to backlash over her latest remarks.

"The malicious incompetence that resulted in hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths starts at the top, with the former president and his enablers," Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., tweeted. "And who was one of his enablers? Dr. Birx, who was afraid to challenge his unscientific rhetoric and wrongfully praised him."

She was also criticized last year for traveling during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend after having warned Americans to avoid travel and gatherings with people outside their immediate households

In the segment, which CNN released, Birx was asked whether she was threatened in the call.

"I would say it was a very uncomfortable conversation," she said.

In a clip, released earlier by CNN, Birx said the Trump administration could have prevented hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 deaths had it acted more forcefully to mitigate the pandemic.

"I look at it this way: The first time, we have an excuse. There were about 100,000 deaths that came from that original surge," Birx said. "All of the rest of them, in my mind, could have been mitigated or decreased substantially."

The virus has killed more than 551,000 people in the U.S., according to NBC News' tracker. The initial spring wave was followed by surges over the summer and the winter, which proved to be the deadliest stretch.

Within weeks of Covid-19 shutdown measures' being put in place, Trump, who would later contract the virus and be hospitalized, began pushing for cities and states to reopen. He also pitched unproven treatments for the virus (snake oil, bleach and hydroxychloroquine!) and questioned the need to wear face coverings.

Birx, who has spoken out about her experience on Trump's coronavirus task force repeatedly in recent months, has taken heat for not having been more critical. Last March, she praised Trump for being "so attentive to the scientific literature and the details and the data" about the outbreak.

Such past commentary led to backlash over her latest remarks.

"The malicious incompetence that resulted in hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths starts at the top, with the former president and his enablers," Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., tweeted. "And who was one of his enablers? Dr. Birx, who was afraid to challenge his unscientific rhetoric and wrongfully praised him."

Dr. Birx was also criticized last year for traveling during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend after having warned Americans to avoid travel and gatherings with people outside their immediate households.

Untruths and pressure: Dr. Birx was one of several former Trump officials to detail dysfunction, infighting, and an aversion to the truth they said hindered the government and public response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Insurrection and the Constitution's 14th Amendment, Section 3

This echo opinion letter was published in the Lancaster.Online in Pennsylvania:

To the editor:

It is reported that the Justice Department believes the actions of some participants in the Jan. 6the insurrectionists' attack on the U.S. Capitol met the bar for sedition charges. The department is also assessing whether then-Former Guy Trump is criminally culpable.

Trump and the 14th Amendment Section 3: Don't ever return!

Trump can also be held accountable in other ways, which I believe is important, given his politically dubious and nefarious comeback at the recent Conservative Political Action (aka: CQPac) Conference in Orlando, Florida.

The second impeachment provided what was needed: an on-the-record repudiation by the U.S. House that Trump betrayed his office and a bipartisan U.S. Senate majority voting in favor of conviction (though there were not enough votes for an actual conviction).

Voters removed Trump from office in the November 2020, election. And, moreover, I believe that the 14th Amendment, Section 3, can prevent Trump’s return to office. It states that those who engaged in insurrection, or who gave aid or comfort to enemies of the United States, cannot serve in public office.

Created after the Civil War’s Confederate rebellion, its use now would be fitting, given similar actors in the January 6th, rebellion. This would also, in my view, set a precedent to prevent having a dictator and to protect democracy.

Trump’s punishment will be years of costly legal battles. This may be the new reality show that curbs a man who stated, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”

From Linda Kilcrease in West Lampeter Township, Pennsylvania

Trumpist's failed seditious response!

January 6th:  This was sedition

Echo opinion to the editor directed toward Congressman Richard Neal published in The Berkshire Eagle, in Massachusetts.

In my first communication with any congressman or senator of these United States of America, I call upon you, and other members of the Massachusetts congressional and senatorial delegations from our great state to proceed to congressional action against the seditionist acts of the #FormerGuy Donald Trump.

These seditious actions by Trump included communications to his blindly loyal cult followers, encouraging them via Twitter “to come to D.C. to protest the results of  the Trumpist's failed candidacy for a second term as the President of the United States.” To wit: Despite any evidence of any significant voter fraud, the current president refuses to accept the results that he lost. The target of the protesting was to be the congressional validation of the Electoral College results, a mostly pro-forma verification of all the states’ tallies.

He furthermore encouraged any protesters coming that “it’s going to be wild” by using that terminology in the invitation, implying and placing his imprimatur on their future actions.

Trump's invitation succeeded in bringing thousands of his supporters to the nation’s capital, where they proceeded to break into our U.S. Capitol by force, storming the building, breaking windows and doors, overwhelming our national security personnel and forcing our Congress along with their staff and any visitors to flee for their lives.

It was a shameful debacle in our nation’s history: The storming of our House of Congress by a bunch of incited hooligans unwilling to accept the democratic process of free elections. You don’t always get what want.

Furthermore, Trump, after being informed of the actions of his invited crazy supporters and their damaging consequences, refused  to end their illegal actions, and refused to issue Twitter notifications also asking them to “back off” or desist — thus again placing his imprimatur or tacit approval on their illegal actions.

Furthermore, Trump then delayed by hours the calling of the National Guard to assist the beleaguered Capital Police officers, thus endangering their lives. Unforgivable.

This act of sedition against the lawful work of our highest governing body in these United States must be addressed by the Congress of the United States before this cancerous and lethal disease spreads, and we become a lawless, third-world country.

From Robert Ericson, Lanesborough, Massachusetts

The writer is a four-year veteran of the U.S. Navy and a 35-year Department of Defense contractor.

cc:  Senator Susan Collins

Show you are smart and wear a mask! COVID19 is a contagious virus!

An echo opinion published in 

Enough! I’ve had it with the stupid “I ain't wearing no mask” crowd.

Trumpzi balloon in London

Incredulously, there is a segment of American misguided society that – even this long and deep into the still-raging modern-day plague known as COVID-19 – continues to doggedly, zealously, tenaciously and persistently remain *stuck on stupid*.

I’m talking about that segment of society that – despite knowing COVID-19 is a killer virus that’s respiratory based — continues to declare, “I ain’t wearing no mask!” in defiance of the clear evidence that doing so helps to slow spreading the disease.

Yes, that's right. We are talking about those simple-minded buffoons.

I mean, they are stupidly consistent. So, maybe I should grudgingly admire them for being consistently stupid.

Nah. I just can't do it. I just can’t get past the “stuck on stupid” part of it all.

After all, look at some recent facts that you have to consciously continue to dismiss in order to cling to your “I ain’t wearing no mask” stance these days:

Even with the rollout of the vaccines to combat COVID-19, Florida is experiencing a marked spike in new coronavirus cases; on Thursday alone, there were nearly 13,000 new cases across the state and 343 in just Sarasota and Manatee counties.

Now think about that.

If you’re one of the “I ain’t wearing no mask” blockheads out there, you have to hear and see numbers like these and actually respond: “Don't matter to me. I ain’t wearing one!”

More and more Floridians who have contracted COVID-19, and survived — but only after suffering through long periods of both illness and recovery — are sharing their harrowing stories.

And some of them – like 68-year-old John Musto, who spent five weeks in Sarasota Memorial Hospital after getting the virus – are openly begging other Floridians to wear masks to avoid going through what they did. “I want to tell everybody (to wear a mask),” Musto told Herald-Tribune reporter Angie DiMichele.
In fact, from now on, there should only be one proper reply to those who say, “I ain’t wearing no mask!” – and it should only consist of two words: “Wanna bet?”

Opinions Editor Roger Brown

The letter "S" represents Republican shame and sedition

Opinion echo published in The Post Star, newspaper in Glens Falls, New York.

Former Guy has lost his mind!

Dear Editor: How does America, a country like ours, educated and Christian, elect a man as manic as (evil!) Donald Trump?

How does a country like ours, full of good people, believe an evil man like #FormerGuy Trump — a man who mimics Adolf Hitler in countless ways?

How does a country like ours, a country of democracy, allow a maniac like (evil!) Donald Trump to convince them, intelligent people, of lies for four long years?

How does a country America, full of voters who voted legally, ever forgive the political party responsible for the attempted coup and subsequent deaths at the U.S. Capitol?

How does a country America, with supposed decent and law-abiding politicians, elect politicians who are so easily swayed by power and the pursuit of it?

How does a country like America, faced with a murderous mob of our #FormerGuy president’s own making, forgive Elise Stefanik for her complicity and cowardice?

I know I won’t.

Elise Stefanik — wear your red hat to pay homage to your false god, Donald Trump. Wear, also, the red “S” for shame and sedition.

Carol Decosse, in Peru, New York

Summary of Former Guy's lead to sedition

Echo opinion letter to the editor published in South Carolina Now, in Florence, South Carolina.

I have sat and watched (like most Americans) the Jan. 6, 2021, (seditious!) assault on the Congress of the United States. It was truly incredible but hardly surprising, as the 45th Former Guy has spent the last four years stoking the flames of division and racism!

There were many inflection points that got us to this place. There was Helsinki, where he chose to embrace a Communist Despot over his own intelligence officers. There was Charlottesville, where racist thugs clashed with peaceful protesters; and his response was there are good people on both sides. There was the “perfect” call to the President of Ukraine and the most recent “perfect” call to the Secretary of State of Georgia. These are just a few instances in which he telegraphed to the American people his true character. This is the same man who boasted that he could shoot someone in the middle of Times Square and nothing would be done to him.

He downplayed the severity of the novel coronavirus from the beginning of its discovery, saying it would magically be gone by summer. He has thrown temper tantrums and repeatedly resorted to shaming anyone who opposes him, exhibiting behaviors one would ascribe to a petulant child. He has spent the last four years enriching himself and his family … flying in the face of the Emoluments Clause.

Donald Trump lost the 2020 election! Full Stop!

He promotes conspiracy theories that are nothing more than self-serving sophistry, all the while being aided and abetted by those who hope to sit at his feet to be blessed. He has proved to be a feckless huckster; but I will, however, give credit where credit is due. He has succeeded in exposing the duality that exists in America.

Forever burnished in my mind is the image of him holding the Bible upside down in Lafayette Square, as he took back the streets of Washington, D.C., from peaceful protesters, while surrounded by a phalanx of guards. He characterized these peaceful protesters as criminals and thugs on his Twitter page and further tweeted, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

Where was this show of force on Jan. 6, as he goaded and encouraged his minions to do his bidding?

He described those who committed acts of sedition as patriots and stated that he loved them. He, along with his sycophants, have left an indelible stain on this nation. The blood of those who died on Jan. 6 rests squarely on his hands and the hands of those who refused to speak truth to power.

If you want to know how great he has made America, I encourage you to read some of the foreign newspapers. On Jan. 20, 2021,  our long national nightmare comes to an end!

Larry L. Jackson, Florence, South Carolina

Sedition rioters wore Trump hats and Trump t-shirts, and waved Trump flags.

Echo opinion letter to the Iowa newspaper "The Standard", an "official newspaper of Allamakee County. 

 

The big lie gives birth

To the Editor:  #FormerGuy Trump’s dangerous big lie - that the 2020, election was rigged, stolen and fraught with voter fraud - had deadly consequences. For weeks before and after the election, Trump repeated the big lie. Trump supporters were enraged and followed Trump’s directives to march to the U.S. Capitol January 6 (and engaged in deadly sedition!). Their evil intentions were to break into the U.S. Capitol, to stop the certification of Joe Biden as the duly elected president of the United States, and threats were made to harm Vice President Mike Pence, Democratic leaders and anyone who stood in their way.

We saw in real time, with our own eyes, the rioters that beat the Capitol Police officers. We saw the noose this mob erected. We heard them shout, “Hang Mike Pence!” With horror, we saw the mob break into the Capitol and the Trump flags hanging from the balcony. Rioters wore Trump hats and Trump t-shirts, and waved Trump flags.

Republican senators and representatives failed to debunk the big lie which led to this deadly attack on the Capitol. Now, Republicans are giving life to another big lie - the lie that Antifa and Trump imposters were the insurrectionists, the rioters, and the murderers storming the Capitol.

Recently at a senate hearing, FBI Director Wray gave sworn testimony that the attackers were violent militia groups and white supremacists. At the hearing, Republican senators again tried to blame Antifa and fake Trump supporters. Director Wray repeated his testimony that there were no fake Trump supporters and no Antifa involved in the attack on the Capitol. Wray testified that white supremacists are domestic terrorists and the major threat to the nation.

Yet, instead of condemning white supremacists, violent militias and other Trump-supporting domestic terrorists, the Republicans continue to lie and say Antifa attacked the Capitol. This is cowardly and dangerous.

Republican leaders are placing our democracy, our national security and our safety at grave risk. This lie will result in more violence, death and destruction by domestic terrorists. For the sake of our nation, it is imperative that Republicans put country before party.

Karen Pratte in Waterville, Iowa

"Vote is a kind of prayer" says Senator Raphael Warnock

Senator Raphael Warnock, "Democracy is the political enactment of a spiritual idea."
 

Mark Wingfield echo opinion published in Baptist News: 

A vote is “a kind of prayer,” Baptist pastor Raphael Warnock said in his first speech on the Senate floor as a newly elected legislator.

The March 17th speech by Senator Warnock was a blistering call to protect voting rights and a critique of Republicans in his home state of Georgia, who are promoting new legislation to limit access to the ballot — efforts sparked by Warnock’s own victory as a Democrat in January's runoff election, in a state previously considered reliably Republican.

“As a man of faith,” he added, “I believe that democracy is the political enactment of a spiritual idea — the sacred worth of all human beings, the notion that we all have within us a spark of the divine and a right to participate in the shaping of our destiny.”

He paraphrased 20th century theologian Reinhold Niebuhr to affirm: “Humanity’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but humanity’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.”

Souls to the Polls

Warnock’s Atlanta congregation, Ebenezer Baptist Church, is one of many Black congregations that traditionally participates in a get-out-the-vote effort called “Souls to the Polls,” he noted.

“I was honored on a few occasions to stand with our hero and my parishioner, John Lewis. … On more than one occasion, we boarded buses together after Sunday church services as part of our Souls to the Polls program, encouraging the Ebenezer church family and communities of faith to participate in the democratic process.”

But that effort to highlight citizenship as a spiritual duty now is under attack from Republicans in Georgia and beyond, Warnock charged. “Now, just a few months after Congressman Lewis’s death, there are those in the Georgia Legislature, some who even dare to praise his name, that are now trying to get rid of Sunday Souls to the Polls, making it a crime for people who pray together to get on a bus together in order to vote together. I think that’s wrong.”

He added: “Matter of fact, I think that a vote is a kind of prayer for the kind of world we desire for ourselves and for our children. And our prayers are stronger when we pray together.”

Warnock noted that both he and Senator John Ossoff, who is Jewish, were elected from Georgia with record voter turnout.

“But then, what happened? Some politicians did not approve of the choice made by the majority of voters in a hard-fought election in which each side got the chance to make its case to the voters,” Warnock said. “And rather than adjusting their agenda, rather than changing their message, they are busy trying to change the rules. We are witnessing right now a massive and unabashed assault on voting rights unlike anything we’ve ever seen since the Jim Crow era. This is Jim Crow in new clothes.”

Voter suppression

Since the January run-off election, 250 “voter suppression” bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the country, he said. And all use “the big lie of voter fraud as a pretext for voter suppression, the same big lie that led to a violent insurrection on this very Capitol — the day after my election.

“Within 24 hours, we elected Georgia’s first African American and Jewish senator, and, hours later, the Capitol was assaulted. We see in just a few precious hours the tension very much alive in the soul of America. And the question before all of us at every moment is: What will we do to push us in the right direction?”

In Georgia, new legislation not only would make it harder to vote, it would criminalize sharing food or water with people standing in line to vote — a kind of election-day ministry often embraced by churches.


Senator Raphael Warnock

Despite previous efforts to suppress the vote, Georgians in November and January could not be deterred, Warnock said. “Georgia citizens and citizens across our country braved the heat and the cold and the rain, some standing in line for five hours, six hours, 10 hours, just to exercise their constitutional right to vote — young people, old people, sick people, working people, already underpaid, forced to lose wages, to pay a kind of poll tax while standing in line to vote.

“And how did some politicians respond? Well, they are trying to make it a crime to give people water and a snack as they wait in lines that are obviously being made longer by their draconian actions. Think about that. Think about that. They are the ones making the lines longer, through these draconian actions. And then they want to make it a crime to bring grandma some water while she’s waiting in a line that they’re making longer.”

This, he charged, is “democracy in reverse.”

A sign of hope

There is hope, though, Warnock said, citing his own improbable election as evidence. “In a word, I am Georgia, a living example and embodiment of its history and its hope, of its pain and promise, the brutality and possibility.”

At the time of his birth, Warnock said, Georgia’s two senators were Richard B. Russell and Herman E. Talmadge, “both arch-segregationists and unabashed adversaries of the Civil Rights Movement.” Yet today, Warnock — a Black man — holds the seat formerly held by Talmadge.

“History vindicated the movement that sought to bring us closer to our ideals, to lengthen and strengthen the cords of our democracy,” he said.

Looking ahead to 2022

In the January runoff, Warnock defeated Republican Kelly Loeffler to serve out the rest of an open term, meaning he will appear on the ballot again in 2022 — much sooner than the normal six-year cycle for senators.

A report released March 9, by the Georgia Republican Party outlined a set of recommendations for reforming the state’s election processes. Those recommendation include ending no-excuse absentee ballots, barring third-party groups and state and local officials from sending absentee ballot request forms to voters and stopping automatic voter registration.

“The 2020, election revealed dramatic weaknesses in Georgia’s system for conducting elections, and as a result, public confidence in the integrity of that system has been shattered,” the report claims. “Public confidence cannot be restored by pretending that these weaknesses do not exist. A problem must first be recognized before it can be solved.”

The complaints about election integrity in Georgia largely follow the now-debunked claims of voter fraud alleged by the former guy Donald Trump, who also lost Georgia in the 2020 presidential election — a fact he has yet to acknowledge.

Former Guy: sedition and treason

By Guest  echo opinion published in the Canton Citizen
Dear Editor:

#FormerGuy- All enemies foreign and domestic = sedition

On January 6, 2021, #formerguy Trump betrayed our country by attempting a coup with 40,000, of his paramilitary militia against our government, inciting an insurrection, at the U.S. Capitol. 

Based on the big lies over the past four years, he encouraged an angry and unruly crowd of 40,000 people to march on the Capitol and confront our lawmakers, who were just ceremonially certifying the results of a fairly conducted presidential election. Surely a recipe for violence! Worse, where are the mass arrests — 40,000 people felt that they got away with a violent insurrection.

As of the writing of this letter, five people, including a Capitol Police officer, have perished as a result of this invasion. This cannot stand! I believe that social media platforms that allowed Trump and his followers to foment this attempted coup should be held accountable. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) does not defend hate speech that leads to violence.

Over the past four years, I have felt that I was living in an occupied country in which Trump and his supporters are acting like a modern fascist party inspired by the Nazi movement in Germany and other fascist movements throughout the world. What is worse is that too many Republicans went along with this out of self-aggrandizement and cowardice. Every person who believes in democratic rule should ask for President Trump’s removal by either having his cabinet invoke the 25th Amendment, or by having Congress impeach and remove him from office so that this unfit, insane madman is not in a position to rule our country ever again! Now Trump is lying that he will support an orderly transfer of power, and that he condemns the invasion that he perpetrated. 

Any reasonable person should see that Trump is still lying about this! Trump is no longer president. He must be arrested and put on trial for sedition and treason against our country!

As a person who believes in the rule of law and in democracy, I cannot have a civil discussion with people who believe in dictatorship rule by a madman. Where is the Canton Republican Town Committee on this? Do they live in a fantasy universe perpetrated by Trump’s big lie and support this insurrection? If they do, they are not capable of having a civil discussion on issues, as even Governor Charlie Baker supports removal of Trump from office as a result of the events of Wednesday, January 6.

Moreover, all of those people who participated in this invasion of our Capitol should be arrested and put on trial for insurrection. We must be wary of those of our own people who actively believe in the conspiracies of Trump. We must drive out this cancer before we lose our democratic freedoms!

Allen Karon posted in One Citizen to Another

Health care coverage is a humanitarian right- Medicare4All

Medicare for All: "Everyone deserves healthcare—pandemic or not—and Medicare for All can get us there... We need Congress to put people before profits and support Medicare for All."

Report echo published in Common Dreams

'Everyone In, Nobody Out': Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) and Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Michigan) introduce Medicare for All Act, with112 Co-Sponsors.

"A system that prioritizes profits over patients and ties coverage to employment was no match for a global pandemic and will never meet the needs of our people."

Medicare4All would have prevented hundreds of of COVID deaths:

"We need to be prepared for the next pandemic, and we can't be under the current for-profit system."

Affirming that healthcare is a basic human right and that people must come before profits, Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Debbie Dingell introduced the Medicare for All Act of 2021, on Wednesday, exactly one year after the first coronavirus cases were confirmed in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Dingell (D-Mich.) unveiled the landmark legislation at a virtual town hall Wednesday afternoon, where they highlighted the devastating effects of a virus that has killed more than 537,000 people in the United States while leaving millions more uninsured due to pandemic-related job loss and underemployment.

The bill (pdf)—backed by a record 112 House co-sponsors—guarantees healthcare to every U.S. resident as a human right. It provides comprehensive benefits including primary care, vision, dental, prescription drugs, mental health, long-term services and supports, reproductive healthcare, and other services. It eliminates copays and private insurance premiums.

In a statement introducing the bill, Jayapal noted that the country is currently experiencing the highest increase in uninsured people ever recorded.

"While this devastating pandemic is shining a bright light on our broken, for-profit healthcare system, we were already leaving nearly half of all adults under the age of 65 uninsured or underinsured before Covid-19 hit," said Jayapal. "And we were cruelly doing so while paying more per capita for healthcare than any other country in the world."

On Tuesday, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen published a report showing that around 40% of U.S. Covid-19 infections and 33% of virus deaths are attributable to a lack of adequate health insurance coverage. At the onset of the pandemic, around 87 million Americans were uninsured or underinsured.

"There is a solution to this health crisis—a popular one that guarantees healthcare to every person as a human right and finally puts people over profits and care over corporations," said Jayapal. "That solution is Medicare for All—everyone in, nobody out—and I am proud to introduce it today alongside a powerful movement across America."

In a statement introducing the bill, Jayapal noted that the country is currently experiencing the highest increase in uninsured people ever recorded.

Dingell said in a statement that "a system that prioritizes profits over patients and ties coverage to employment was no match for a global pandemic and will never meet the needs of our people."

"In the wealthiest nation on Earth, patients should not be launching GoFundMe pages to afford lifesaving healthcare for themselves or their loved ones," she asserted. "Medicare For All will build an inclusive healthcare system that won't just open the door to care for millions of our neighbors, but do it more efficiently and effectively than the one we have today."

"Now is not the time to shy away from these generational fights," stressed Dingell, "it is the time for action."

Representatives of the more than 300 local, state, and national organizations endorsing the bill agreed.

"While this devastating pandemic is shining a bright light on our broken, for-profit healthcare system, we were already leaving nearly half of all adults under the age of 65 uninsured or underinsured before Covid-19 hit," said Jayapal. "And we were cruelly doing so while paying more per capita for healthcare than any other country in the world."

On Tuesday, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen published a report showing that around 40% of U.S. Covid-19 infections and 33% of virus deaths are attributable to a lack of adequate health insurance coverage. At the onset of the pandemic, around 87 million Americans were uninsured or underinsured.

"There is a solution to this health crisis—a popular one that guarantees healthcare to every person as a human right and finally puts people over profits and care over corporations," said Jayapal. "That solution is Medicare for All—everyone in, nobody out—and I am proud to introduce it today alongside a powerful movement across America."

"Physicians cannot give patients the care they need in a fractured and profit-driven system," said Dr. Susan Rogers, a Chicago-based internal medicine physician and president of Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP), in a statement. "For too long, doctors have watched helplessly as our patients delayed or skipped needed care—even walked out of our hospital doors—because they could not afford to pay."

"We can't let Congress sit on their hands while our patients suffer and die needlessly," added Rogers. "It's time to invest in a system that is designed to improve health outcomes, not profit margins. It's time for single-payer Medicare for All."

Republicans must be accountable for misplaced Trump loyalty

Republican disheartened by GOP's loyalty to Trump over democracy opinion echo published in The Reflector newspaper in Battle Ground, Washington.  

I am truly disheartened, even scared, by the focus of those in the Republican Party who have placed loyalty to Donald Trump above loyalty to our country and our democracy.

Where is the Republican Party’s outrage over Trump’s lies, his lack of a moral compass, his pandering to radicals, his support of disinformation campaigns waged by citizens and foreign interests, and his flagrant campaign to gain political power by fomenting class warfare and pandering to fear and prejudice ?

I applaud and commend Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler and others for their vote to impeach the Former Guy Trump. I urge the Republican Party to step up and support candidates and legislators like Congresswoman Herrera Beutler, who work for solutions, not for revenge.

I am a concerned grandfather who has voted Republican for over 40 years, but not now.

From Wade Boyd 

Longview, Washington

Former Guy inciting insurrection and sedition

Trump and the Capitol Insurrection: What could a trial look like? |By Rob Miraldi, echo opinion published in the New Jersey Herald.

Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve seen a riot at the U.S. Capitol and the failed impeachment of the 45th former president of the United States. But today we begin the trial of Donald John Trump for inciting a mob of thousands of insurrectionists to overrun, ransack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 

Former Guy incited a mob of thousands of insurrectionists!

This hypothetical trial begins in federal court in Washington, D.C.

Federal trials are not televised but our broadcast team is able to give you a virtual account of what is taking place as the former president goes on trial. With a jury now in place, the government’s lead prosecutor will present his opening statement. Wait, he is about to begin. Let’s go listen.

* * *
Good morning members of the jury. The people of Washington, D.C., indeed the citizens of America, thank you for serving here on this momentous but sad day. The people of the United States have been forced to confront and charge our 45th president with inciting thousands of citizens to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6.

It was the first time since 1814, that the revered U.S. Capitol was invaded. And it was certainly the first time such invaders were inspired, nay, asked (!) by the President to resort to violence to get their political way which, in short, was to stop the U.S. Congress from certifying that the defendant, Donald Trump, had lost the election of 2020, a fact he simply could not concede.

I’m sorry to say: the result of his exhortation caused the death of four people that day. I am sorry to say that two capitol police officers, who faced the brunt of the violence, committed suicide and that 140 people were injured, some seriously. And I’m sorry to say that $30 million in damage was done to the historic Capitol.

As much as anything, I’m sorry to say that because of Donald Trump’s inciting language — on January 6 and for many weeks before — democracy was left in tatters, the American people shocked and angered, and the world repulsed. Today we begin to lay out the case against the former president — and seek justice, as the law not only permits, but urges.

18 U.S. Code 373: Solicitation to commit a crime of violence. We will show Trump violated that law. You cannot “solicit, command, induce, or persuade” other persons to “use or threaten use of physical force against property or other persons.” It is the law.

We will show that the former president had one goal: to stop Congress from doing its solemn duty of certifying the election of Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the 46th president. Remember, Jan. 6 was the day the certification was to take place. In fact, the president moved up the date of his “rally” to coincide with the certification.

His first hope was that Vice President Mike Pence, even though it wasn’t in his power, would deny certification. When Pence refused, he called out his supporters, imploring them to storm the building and “fight like hell.” “Trial by combat,” his attorney Rudolph Giuliani called it. Once in the hallowed halls, the rioters could halt the certification. It was a coup attempt, fueled by a call to violence by the former president. A clear violation of federal law.

And we might as well get to the ex-president’s defense. He will invoke the 45 words of the Constitution’s First Amendment. He will say he’s free to attack the election as a fraud and a massive steal. And he is correct. That is his right.

But what he doesn’t have the right to do is cross over from protected speech to illegal conduct. To move from speech to action that led directly to the attack on the capitol. Free speech does not mean you can incite people to commit violence, a principle long established in law.

The defense will repeatedly cite the name Brandenburg because that’s the 1969 Supreme Court case when the court tersely ruled on incitement to violence. Incitement is not criminal, the court said, unless the government can prove the speaker intended to cause violence; that there was a likelihood that such violence would occur; and that the violence was imminent.

We will offer witnesses, documents and videos that prove all three of those elements.  The President’s track record is nothing to be proud of. When he speaks in a city, violence often follows. Leading up the Jan. 6 conflagration, he said it would be a “wild” day and told aides the night before that 10,000 troops might not be enough to stop a melee. He knew what was coming. He was giddy the day of the riot, shocking even his closest aides as he sat by for hours doing nothing to help the capitol police.

We understand an incitement to violence prosecution will fail if the violence advocated is for some distant date. But the President spoke at noon, and the violence began an hour later. Oh yes, violence was imminent. And when he finally did address the rioters at 4:17 p.m., he ended saying, “We love you.” 

As for likelihood that it would occur: we must look at the relationship between a speaker and those he exhorts to violence.  These people — many of whom have been arrested— consistently say the president called them to Washington from all over the U.S.  To say they were “chummed up,” like fish being fed bait, is an understatement. They will testify.

Remember, this is a charismatic person who has a special relationship with the followers he calls “the base.” His claimed Mexicans crossing the border were “rapists” and that white nationalists at Charlottesville, Virginia, were “good people.” Those claims endeared him to that base. They were ready to follow him anywhere. This is the president who had said for months, despite legal loss after legal loss, that the election was stolen. The former president lit the fuse to use the base to block a legal election.

The First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution is a beautiful thing, my fellow citizens; most of all it’s meant to protect important as well as trivial political speech. 

But it was never meant to allow any person to stand at the gates of the Capitol and urge people to injure police officers and hunt down elected officials as we sadly saw on January 6.

Remember, this is a man who said publicly he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York city and get away with it. We need to make sure he does not get away with inciting and causing the death of four people on January 6.

* * *
We are back in the broadcast booth now. That was a powerful opening statement; the prosecutor held back little. 

We are here with Clay Calvert, an esteemed First Amendment scholar at the University of Florida. Professor, your thoughts?

“In my mind, there’s little doubt from a lay person’s point of view that Donald Trump stirred the pot and is the cause of the Jan. 6 insurrection and riot. But that is more impeachable than it is criminal. I am trying to assess here if his words meet the test of Brandenburg.

“Trump knew his audience and their state of mind. He knew trouble could ensue. But he dances around by never explicitly using words such as assault, harm or injure. But he doesn’t need the explicit terminology. The more the audience is riled, the less need to use explicit terms of violence.

It is a worthy case to make. Let’s hope that fear of prosecution will guard against future unlawful conduct.”

Rob Miraldi’s writings on the First Amendment have won numerous state and national awards. He teaches journalism at SUNY Paltz. 

https://www.njherald.com/story/opinion/columnists/2021/03/12/trump-and-capitol-riot-what-could-trial-look-like-opinion/6944952002/

Trumpists react against their own best interests

Echo opinion letter published in The News-Gazette, a Champagne, Illinois newspaper:

Trump was and he still is a total idiotQ WAS & STILL IS A TOTAL IDIOT!!

Trump supporters somehow, incredulously, react against their own best interests! 

For unknown reasons, Trumpzis are opposed to the best interests of the country and in favor of ignorance, incompetence, lying and narcissism. These right wing insurrectionists are an utter failure to address any of the compelling national issues, not to mention all the made-up controversy and fear-mongering they unexplainable support. 

(Examples- China! Socialists! Pipelines are good! Lies are truth!).

It isn’t that hard to read and follow some of the mainstream (truth!) press and get a pretty good idea of what’s really going on.

To take one memorable example, a few years ago, Trumpists were warning about “caravans of terrorists” who were going to invade through the southern border. 

But, it turned out that these were unarmed refugees facing a 1,000-mile walk to the U.S. It’s hard to imagine a bigger lie, and yet that sort of thing is standard daily fare in some (evil anti immigrant) places.

From= Samuel Beshers, Urbana Illinois

Trumpzi deplorables alert! "Trump knew he lost the election."

Echo opinion by columnist Mike Reynolds published in the Meridian Connecticut Record Journal: 

Donald Trump knew he lost the 2020 election, so in retaliation, he incited a failed sedition!

Officer Brian Sicknick, Ashli Babbitt, Kevin Greeson, Benjamin Philips and Roseanne Boyland, all lost their lives inside the U.S. Capitol building on January 6th. We know how they died. Sicknick was reported to have been bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher while defending an entrance. Babbitt was gunned down by Capitol Police as she tried to jump through the shattered window of the House chamber door. Philips succumbed to a stroke and Greeson to a heart attack during the sudden excitement. Boyland was trampled to death under a crowd of her own compatriots while rushing the door to the Senate chamber.

Passionate heroism, tragically misplaced patriotism, innocent victimization, and naïve hubris were all on display in a whirling Walpurgisnacht of chaotic violence deliberately targeted at the sacred temple of our democracy — all while the crowd cheered.

We know how they died. We know when they died. But WHY did they die?

Beyond tragic, a (cult leader!) lame duck (deplorable!) could not accept the plain fact that he had lost an election. For months, he continually told us that his victory was being stolen from him by a deep-state cabal hiding evidence of massive election fraud and the “real” results of his irrefutable victory. 

Republicans in the House and Senate cynically staged a protest vote during the House certification ceremony to appeal to ideological extremists in their constituencies. Meanwhile, that president invited over 10,000 supporters — Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Q-Anon and other violent paramilitary groups — to rally outside the White House. There, that president told them to march on the Capitol and to “show strength.”

They were ready. Some had brought firearms, clubs, pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails, and zip-tie handcuffs to kill, capture and otherwise serve his purpose. They had erected a gallows in the parking lot. They reached the Capitol, assaulted the small force of police guarding the building and smashed their way inside chanting death cries to the elected leaders in the House and Senate chambers. When they reached those chambers, though, they found them empty. Their intended quarry had escaped. They sat around, vandalized offices and wondered what to do next.

The horrible violence failed and five dead lay bleeding in the wake. The next day, Donald Trump grudgingly called for a “peaceful transition of power.”

What was it all for? Trump knew he had lost. The senators and representatives who staged the protest vote knew he had lost weeks earlier. There was nothing to gain. Nothing to prove.

Perhaps, though, there was something to avenge — and to exploit. The 10,000 would never admit it, but they were frightened. Facing a future where their hold on the few scraps of power and privilege they had left would be taken from them by people who do not look, speak, feel, believe or aspire as they did (and leave them starving for these things), maybe they panicked. Before any group of people starves, they do three things — consolidate resources, build up their army, and raid the neighbors. Frighteningly, this happens whether the threat of starvation is real or imagined.

A group who thinks they are in this kind of danger is not hard to sway. All you do is repeat to them that they are the deserving, that the undeserving are after what they have, and that those people are the enemy who deserve only death. Then they are willing servants.

In my view, Trump plans to open his own media company after he leaves office and to use his claim of “legitimate hold” on the presidency to cement the attention of his revanchist audience.

Did five people die for a publicity gimmick? I think so, and hope not.

Mike Reynolds is a social studies teacher in the Hartford Public School System and a former guest member of the R-J editorial board.