Biden's strategic shift towards China brings us ever closer to war

V.P. Kamala Harris was sent to South China Sea last month to try and push Singapore and Vietnam into an anti-China front. But her offer was rejected by both. 

The new Cold War with China, begun under Trump and now escalating under Biden, once again pushes us closer to the nuclear abyss. How close are we? So close that according to a new book “Peril,” by the Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was so consumed with fear that former President Donald Trump might launch “rogue” conventional or nuclear strikes against China, he acted twice to prevent it. 

Trump's defeat brought hope to many around the world that Biden and the Democrats would break from Trump's anti-China saber-rattling, trade-war policies and shift towards repairing the breach and lowering the temperature. These hopes have grown more desperate during the global pandemic as the growing cold war now includes vaccine wars. 

Instead, Biden has doubled down on Trump's policies and seems bent on provoking a military confrontation in the South China Sea. 

Here are a few of the repercussions...

North and South Korea are once again firing ballistic missiles hours apart from each other instead of negotiating towards unity as they were doing only a couple of months ago without U.S. involvement. This while South Korea and China were meeting to discuss de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula. You get the picture. 

Then there's this...

In what appears to those in the region to be a white united front against China the US, UK, and Australia are creating a trilateral security partnership which will include helping Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines. 

The initiative, called Aukus, was announced jointly by President Joe Biden and prime ministers Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison, following US briefings which described the agreement as binding the three English-speaking countries together.

Is anyone in these "English-speaking countries" feeling any safer from all this? Me neither. 

Remember, it was Biden who previously referred to Johnson as, "a physical and emotional clone'" of Trump. 

It's all occurring in the wake of Biden's strategic military shift away from the Middle East and towards Cold War. It follows his helter-skelter withdraw and re-positioning of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

Biden's main cold-warrior strategist and regime-change specialist, Sec. Anthony Blinken is under the gun here at home, facing withering attacks from left and right over the "chaotic" Afghan retreat.

I'm still wondering though. Has there ever been a smooth withdrawal by an invading army after a major military defeat? Wish we could ask Napoleon or Gen. Creighton Abrams who was sending Nixon upbeat reports on the progress of the war in Vietnam right up 'til the very end. 

The lessons of war are hard to learn. Let's pull the reins in on the warmakers. 

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

68% of Americans approve of labor unions—despite a relentless and withering assault on worker organizing by those who benefit from the atomization of all but the super wealthy.

Happy Labor Day! And solidarity forever. https://t.co/c9FFE3K8Ik

— Ben Wikler (@benwikler) September 6, 2021

Jamie Contreras, secretary-treasurer of the SEIU 

 “We’re not anywhere near done. People still need help. ... For millions of people nothing has changed from a year and a half ago.” -- Covid safety net cut

Rebecca Solnit

If the US defends its democracy, such as it is, and protects the voting rights of all eligible adults, the right will continue to be a shrinking minority. -- Guardian

The Former Guy

...expressed disappointment about receiving a low number of votes from Jews. 

"Look what I did with the embassy in Jerusalem and what I did with so many other things. Israel has never had a better friend, and yet I got 25% of the [Jewish] vote." -- Business Insider

Joanna Klonsky

It’s been quite a week to be a woman in this world. -- Twitter

How far we've come

Remembering Trump's lost armada.

It was just three years ago that Trump was threatening "fire and fury" against North Korea and boasting to N.K President Kim Jong-Un, "My button is bigger than yours". He had Pentagon on a nuclear war footing and the U.S. "lost armada"  sailing into Korean waters.

 

See how far we've come.

Yesterday, it was V.P. Kamala ("Don't come") Harris, fresh off the Afghan withdrawal debacle, standing on a U.S. combat ship at the Changi naval base in Singapore warning China to end its "incursions" into the South China Sea. 

”Take a look at the map and tell me who's the one making "incursions"?

To borrow a line from Carlos Martinez (@agent_of_change): "Whoever said Americans don't understand irony?"

Advancing our interests...Sounding more and more like an old-line imperialist, Harris proclaimed, “It is also imperative that as we address developments in one region, we continue to advance our interests in other regions, including this region."

CPAC QUOTABLES

Donald Trump

“If it’s bad, I say it’s fake. If it’s good, I say that’s the most accurate poll ever.” -- Forbes.

Pastor James Altman 

...said in a morning prayer “let us realize our health is in the name of The Lord, who actually did make Heaven and Earth,” adding, “that’s all the science we need to know.” -- Newsweek

Sidebar ~  Altman has been canned as pastor of St. James the Less, a Catholic church on La Crosse’s north side after he delivered a slew of political messaging and misinformation that has caused pushback from his congregation. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci

“It’s horrifying. They’re cheering about someone saying that it’s a good thing for people not to try and save their lives,” Dr. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said of the crowd cheering for low vaccination rates. “I just don’t get that, and I don’t think anybody who’s thinking clearly can get that." -- CNN 

Greg Sargent

 These days, the right-wing culture war is perhaps better described with three Vs: vaccine derangement, validation of white racial innocence, and valorization of insurrectionists. -- WaPo 

CRITICAL RACE THEORY QUOTABLES

WH Press Secretary Psaki: "Kids should learn not just the good, but also the challenging in our history." -- Twitter

Nikole Hannah-Jones

’“At some point when you have proven yourself and fought your way into institutions that were not built for you . . . you have to decide that you are done forcing yourself in.” -- Statement on her decision to decline tenure at UNC

White House press secretary Jen Psaki 

...acknowledged during a briefing on Friday that the U.S. is still plagued by “systemic racism” and it is “responsible” to teach about it in schools as part of critical race theory. -- Press briefing

Paul Butler, Georgetown Law School professor

Sometimes, helping majority-White spaces be less racist and more inclusive feels transformative. Other times, it feels like an intellectual version of my great-grandfather’s job; he cleaned outhouses — i.e., shoveling White people’s excrement.  -- Washington Post

AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten 

"Mark my words: Our union will defend any member who gets in trouble for teaching honest history. Teaching the truth is not radical or wrong." -- Address at the union's TEACH conference.

Donald Trump

 "With the help of everyone here today, we will defeat the radical left, the socialists, Marxists, and the critical race theorists." -- CPAC Conference

INDEPENDENCE DAY QUOTABLES

Dorian Warren, the president of Community Change, a D.C.-based social justice organization

What Is Post-Trump Patriotism? ~ I thought of Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech “What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July?” It is a searing indictment of the hard truths of our history, of plunder, of enslavement, of a range of exploitative and unjust actions at the highest levels. At the same time, I’m a black person in America so I have no choice but to fight for the promise of America. -- Capital & Main

Dr. Gyan Pathak

Vaccination against COVID-19 suffers from inequality and sluggishness nationalism, competition, and charity retreat and make room for internationalism, cooperation and solidarity, the world will be propelled towards an unprecedented tragedy in the history of mankind. -- National Herald of India

Robert P. Jones, author of “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity” 

It’s time to exorcise the ahistorical notion of white Christian supremacy and innocence. Patriotism is not the purview of those who see a white Christian America as the divinely ordained end of human achievement. We can no longer sustain its mythical vision of God and country where white Christians are always heroes, inheriting and defending America as their own divinely ordained promised land. -- RNS

 

We observe this #July4th in the shadows of a #SCOTUS decision gutting our voting rights, following a white supremacist insurrection to undermine a fair election & a GOP that seeks it’s preservation by burying truth & stoking fear. We have to face the darkness and fight for light.

— Maya Wiley (@mayawiley) July 4, 2021

On this 4th of July we acknowledge the gap between our nation’s ideals and the racism that pervades our criminal legal system. While we create new polices, expand language access, and end the death penalty in San Francisco, we continue to fight for our ideals.

— Chesa Boudin 博徹思 (@chesaboudin) July 4, 2021

I, too, sing America...

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

~Langston Hughes pic.twitter.com/NNh9TRwdiO

— Be A King (@BerniceKing) July 4, 2021

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Surfside, FL condo building collapse could be an omen of things to come if we go light on the infrastructure bill.

AOC on the infrastructure bill

 “Frankly, we really need to understand that this is our one big shot, not just in terms of family, child care, Medicare, but on climate change,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, said on “Meet the Press.” 

Dave Zirin

Civil disobedience in 2021 is teaching the truth. -- FB

Dallas Schools Superintendent Michael Hinojosa

“I’m Mexican American, and with the Alamo, they always talked about slaughtering the Mexicans when I was a little kid,” he said. “Can you imagine what went through my mind? When I became a teacher, I could say, ‘Well, here’s the other perspective. Make up your own mind about it.’” -- Washington Post 

Cas Mudde, Univ. of Georgia prof

There is a specter haunting America – the specter of critical race theory. -- Guardian

Gwen Berry

Athlete/activist Gwen Berry at the Olympic Trials

Berry said that her mission was bigger than the sport and "me being able to represent my communities and my people, and those that have died at the hands of police brutality, those that have died to this systemic racism."  -- Reuters 

More AOC 

Marjorie Taylor Greene: Calls AOC a "little communist" and says locking her up is a good idea. 

AOC: First of all, I’m taller than her -- Twitter

Former Attorney General William Barr

...in a newly released book excerpt, said he suspected then-President Donald Trump's claims of widespread election fraud were "all bullsh*t," but that he launched unofficial inquiries into some of them to appease his boss.

 D.T. responded

"The president, livid, responded by referring to himself in the third person: 'You must hate Trump. You must hate Trump,'" the excerpt reads. -- CNN

 

CRT is not taught in the schools. 99% of teachers never heard of it. https://t.co/OLQYPwRJr2

— Diane Ravitch (@DianeRavitch) June 28, 2021

Shit, my last paycheck for 89 hours of work in 2 weeks was $1323, and I'm at a job I kind of like. Can't imagine why people aren't chomping at the bit to go work at shit jobs to make shit money with little to no benefits

— David Raleigh (@david__raleigh) June 28, 2021

The Trump Party confederates are still whistling 'Dixie'

Of course, the neo-confederate GOP leadership is opposed to another probe of their 1/6 attempted coup d'etat. To them, the coup wasn't a crime but rather a great success that will enable them to seize back the power they lost in the election in much the same way as their forebearers did it in 1861. D.T. is their Jefferson Davis. Like Trump, Davis never surrendered his white supremacist lost cause.

The final vote was 54-35, but Republicans withheld the votes necessary to bring the bill up for debate. Just six GOP senators joined with the Democrats today, leaving the measure short of the 60 votes needed to proceed.

According to the recent Reuters/Ipos poll, 53% of Republicans believe Trump, their party's nominee, is the “true president” now, compared to 3% of Democrats and 25% of all Americans. The Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that 61% of Republicans believe the election was "stolen" from Trump. 

More to the point, the confederates not only believe it, but MAGA politicians are actively working to pass new restrictive voting laws in their states, laws they hope will enable them to limit the voting impact of the new Black/Latinx/immigrant majority and consolidate their ideological hold on millions of their followers while paving their way back into the majority in both houses in 2022 and into the White House in 2024. 

The neo-confederates are also using their power to impose restrictions on what teachers can or cannot teach about the history of slavery and racial discrimination. The've especially targeted the 1619 Curriculum and its creator, Nikole Hannah-Jones, along with Critical Race Theory as wedge issues to spread fear and whip up a white backlash. 

The question is, how will Biden and the Democrats respond? How many concessions will Biden, Schumer and Pelosi make in the name of "bipartisanship"? 

Jefferson Davis was imprisoned after the Civil War, a fate that should await D.T. and his fellow neo-confederate leaders. 

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

CNN anchor, Jim Acosta calls "BS" on Fox

"That tale from the border didn't just border on BS, this was USDA Grade-A bullsh*t. -- Raw Story

Rick Ayers -- Capitalism is killing us

The big US and European pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Moderna, hold patents on the counter-COVID vaccines and the accompanying formulas they’ve developed, keeping the processes of production under wraps. -- Medium

Sec. of State Anthony Blinken on Afghan pullout

 Just because our troops are coming home doesn't mean we're leaving. We're not. -- 60 Minutes

 Eric Goldstein on Israeli apartheid

To bring real change, we need to call the situation what it is: an oppressive and discriminatory system that shows no signs of going away, and that meets the legal definition of apartheid. -- Human Rights Watch

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves

On the penultimate day of the Confederate Heritage Month Gov. Reeves made a bold declaration: “There is not systemic racism in America.” -- Mississippi Free Press

Ali Velshi 

Arizona recently chose to out-source its rights and responsibilities to recount ballots to a private company run by a CEO who has been spreading the “Big Lie” that the election was stolen. -- MSNBC

Rebecca Solnit

Ideas put forth in the Green New Deal in 2019, seen as radical at the time, are now the kind of stuff President Biden routinely proposes in his infrastructure and jobs plans. -- Guardian

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

This, in the era of mass school shootings...

Trump Junior

Donald Trump Jr. Rips Teachers Unions In Front Of A Gun Wall.

"The teachers' unions are out of control & are destroying our kid’s futures." -- Huffington 

 U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

“White supremacy and neo-Nazi movements are more than domestic terror threats. They are becoming a transnational threat." -- Addressing U.N. Human Rights Council

Simon Tisdall on Iran nuclear agreement

Biden’s instinct to try to break this impasse and find a diplomatic way through – supported by the UK, Germany and France – is the right one. But words are not enough. As a sign of good faith, he should swiftly relax some sanctions and unfreeze Iran’s Covid-related $5bn IMF loan request. -- Guardian

 Yuh-Line Niou, a Democrat who represents New York City's Chinatown 

“They are all calling me asking me, 'How do I get this vaccine? What’s going on?' Then they will ask me, 'Hey, can you translate this site for me?'” -- USA Today 

 Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus 

“We can’t let one or two Democrats prevent the $15 minimum wage from being in the relief bill. It’s bad politics and bad policy.” -- The Hill

The Republican Party may be dead but Trumpism is still very much alive.

 "I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning. There's never been anything like it." -- Donald Trump

Following the failed impeachment vote, it's should now be clear to all that the Republican Party, or what has become the Trump Party, is bankrupt, if not dead. But in its place is an emergent white supremacist, neo-fascist movement here and in Europe. Trump is out of the White House but is still very much in as the movement's benefactor, figurehead leader, and international symbol of resistance to democracy.  

Roughly 70% of Republicans continue to support Trump strongly, polls suggest. A similar share says they would be less likely to vote for a Republican senator who voted to convict Trump. 

He and his one-time fascist sidekick, "Alt-Right" founder Steve Bannon set out to destroy the official Republican Party and reconstruct a global neo-fascist network soon after the election in 2016. It's obvious now that they have succeeded and Bannon has been rewarded with Trump's only pardon of any consequence for his efforts.

AP reports:

In nearly half of the more than 200 federal cases stemming from the attack on the Capitol, authorities have cited evidence that an insurrectionist appeared to be inspired by conspiracy theories or extremist ideologies, according to an Associated Press review of court records.

The FBI has linked at least 40 defendants to extremist groups or movements, including at least 16 members or associates of the neo-fascist Proud Boys and at least five connected to the anti-government Oath Keepers. FBI agents also explicitly tied at least 10 defendants to QAnon, a pro-Trump conspiracy theory that has grown beyond its fringe origins to penetrate mainstream Republican politics.

Parler posts containing the word “revolution” grew by five times as much as the overall rate of message traffic after the election, the analysis found.

And by "revolution", they don't mean a democratic or socialist one, but rather a fascist putsch reminiscent of Germany in the 1930s that embraces many of the old fascist symbols and language about white identity and the threat of "replacement" by immigrants. 

The neo-fascist, white-supremacist wave has gained strength against the backdrop of the pandemic and a worldwide recession and a Trump administration that has gutted social reforms and driven millions into poverty while widening the racial/class wealth gap. The U.S. now has the highest level of income inequality among its post-industrialized peers.

While many of those arrested in the Capitol riot owned businesses or worked white-collar jobs, a large sector of declassed white youth, many out-of-work, out of school and facing bleak futures, have become potential recruits for groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. 

An apocryphal AP story this morning describes the growing despair among French youth. 

Nearly a quarter of French young people can’t find work — two-and-a-half times the national unemployment rate and one of the highest in the European Union’s 27 nations. Many university students now rely on food aid and several organizations have rallied to meet the need.

The pandemic has led to a surge in mental health complaints that authorities say are most acute in people without work, those in financial hardship, and young adults. 

The rise of neo-fascist movements and their apparent embrace offered by a majority of Republicans needs to be taken seriously. First and foremost this requires an immediate and massive injection of pandemic relief funds and vaccines, including more than a trillion dollars in funding to support safe school reopening, and setting the federal minimum wage at $15/hour. This must be done immediately, even without Republican support if necessary. 

Also, Trump and his co-conspirators, along with leaders of the neo-fascist and neo-confederate groups that attacked the Capitol on January 6th, need to face criminal and civil trials in state courts if necessary. This can be done without adding draconian new repressive laws or government agencies or infringe on the civil liberties of the rest of us. 

But this is just the beginning of a long struggle that will require some heavy discussions and difficult reassessments by left/progressive community and union groups about the direction of organizing efforts. 

Hopefully, more on this to come. 

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

 

“If [a metal shredder] is not good enough for the North Side,” said Gina Ramirez, referring to the area where RMG previously operated General Iron, “then it’s not good enough for the South Side.” -- Guardian

Sen. Mitch McConnell

His is a profile in cowardice. But I felt a need to quote him here.

"Former President Trump's actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty...There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day..."We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former Presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one. -- CNN

Then he voted "not guilty".

Dr. Anthony Fauci

"I think it can be done. I mean, obviously, it's not a perfect situation, but it's really important to get the children back to school in the safest way possible. Safe for the children, but also safe for the teachers and the other educators." -- ABC's "This Week"

 CDC Director, Rochelle Walensky

"We have work to do" when it comes to reopening schools safely.

"If there's more disease in the community, there will be more in school and that most disease in school does not come from in-school transmission but comes from outside, from into the community. So what we would advocate for is to have more kids in school as our community spread comes down." -- CNN

AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten tweets

For the first time in 10 months, we have a set of guidances that's based not on politics, but on public health. -- @rweingarten

 

Indict them.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s top leaders listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with President Donald J. Trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department’s power to force Georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results. -- NYT

Impeachment aside, if this isn't enough for the Attorney General and state prosecutors to put Trump, Giuliani, Jeffrey Clark, and the rest of their co-conspirators behind bars for a decade or two, they should turn in their prosecutor badges and find another line of work. 

The latest...The acting head of DOJ's civil division spoke with Trump about a plan to overturn the presidential election and then told Acting AG Rosen that he was going to be replaced in order for the plan to be implemented. But then came the problem. DOJ senior leaders threatened to quit en masse and let the cat out of the bag. 

According to the NYT:

Mr. Trump’s decision came only after Mr. Rosen and Mr. Clark made their competing cases to him in a bizarre White House meeting that two officials compared with an episode of Mr. Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice,” albeit one that could prompt a constitutional crisis.

If Trump's plotting to fire Rosen, on top of his phone call to Georgia election officials, on top of his provoking the MAGA riot at the Capitol aren't indictable, what the hell is?

The real question here is, do Democratic leaders have the nerve to go after the grifter WH crew and the Trump family on criminal charges rather than, or alongside another impeachment trial down the road?

All I know is, if D.T. was Black and had filched some laundry soap from Safeway, he'd be rotting in jail. 

Capitol riot suspect Eric Munchel, dubbed "zip tie guy," to be released from jail pending trial.

As a public defender, I represented a client charged with stealing detergent. Held in on $3000 bail he could not afford.

Two. Systems. Of. Justice. pic.twitter.com/OhQaa8EKWJ

— Eliza Orlins (@elizaorlins) January 23, 2021

Not with a bang but a whimper.[

Hollow Men

So this is the way Trump goes out. Not with a bang but a whimper, to borrow from T.S. Eliot's The Hollow Men. And if there was ever a fitting description for D.T. and his White House crew, hollow men (and women) is it. 

His MAGA insurrection apparently has turned out to be a dud, having shot its wad on January 6th. His Republican Party is in tatters as rumors spread of a new fascist "Patriot Party" under his command. Democrats can only wish. 

His plan for lifetime immunity from criminal prosecution evaporated after his own lawyers told him that pardons for himself and his grifter family wouldn't hold up in state courts and would only further incriminate him. The only hope the grifter clan has for staying out of prison rests with his appointed Supreme Court trio or the benevolence of Biden and the Democrats. 

Ironically, the one pardon he issued of any consequence was for his fascist muse, Steve Bannon, who stands accused of bilking Trump's own supporters out of hundreds of millions of dollars, money that was supposed to go towards building his glorious border wall. As P.T. Barnum used to say: "There's a sucker born every minute."

This morning's planned farewell rally, originally envisioned as a counter-inauguration, turned into little more than fodder for SNL with invitees being asked to bring five guests with them. The irony, which may have been lost on the dum-dums in the tiny crowd, was the playing of Credence's Fortunate Son as D.T.'s chopper landed at Edwards. 

It ain't me, it ain't me

I ain't no millionaire's son
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no fortunate one

Gotta go now. Gaga is singing the National Anthem at the Inauguration. She'll be followed by JLo doing This Land is Your Land. 

Wish you were here to see this, Woody. 

Trump's last few days. 'Loot, pillage, and burn.'

National Guard Troops sleeping on the floor of the Capitol.

Trump isn't sticking around D.C. until the very end. He's hopping on the next Air Force 1 headed for Florida where he can watch in the safety of Mar-a-Lago as his confederate gangs threaten to lynch lawmakers and try and bring D.C. and 50 state capitols to a violent, chaotic halt. They won't succeed in restoring the defeated Trump regime to power. But they could leave many casualties and lots of property damage in their wake again. The state's repressive forces arrayed against them, will likely be a deterrent. If not, they will be overpowering. As many as 25 thousand troops are so far deployed. That's more than are currently deployed in the Middle East. 

By this afternoon, 43 troops had reportedly tested positive for coronavirus. 

The problem with state repressive forces is that they threaten the freedom and civil liberties of all of us, not just the fascists and white supremacist MAGA thugs. And that repressive, official militarized force, aided and abetted by a reactionary Supreme Court, is just what the MAGAs are trying to provoke. There's already a Republican-led move, likely to draw some Democratic support, to push through new anti-riot laws. As if there isn't a shitload of those already on the books. 

Within one day of last week’s attack on the Capitol, at least three states used the MAGA insurrection as an excuse to introduce legislation to criminalize protest, legislation that couldn't have passed in the days following the Black Lives Matter protests. There's even talk, now circulating within both parties, of dusting off old anti-sedition laws.  

In his last days in office, Trump and what's left of his party, are carrying out their loot, pillage, and burn strategy in order to make it impossible for Biden to implement pandemic relief or to undo the political and economic damage the Republicans caused during the past four years. 

Among the Trumpists' last-days priorities is the carrying out of court-sanctioned federal executions.  A Black man, Corey Johnson, 52, became the twelfth inmate put to death at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana since the Trump administration restarted federal executions following a 17-year hiatus. He was pronounced dead at 11:34 last night. His execution followed by days the killing of the only woman on federal death row: Lisa Montgomery.

Dustin Higgs will likely be put to death tonight. 

What a monstrous regime! It's not hard to imagine what the years ahead might look like had Trump been reelected. It may be too late, even with the impeachment process, to keep him and his cult followers at bay during these next 5 days and beyond.  

Wednesday was a MAGA dress rehearsal

It appears that Wednesday's assault on the U.S. Capitol was only a dress rehearsal for so-called Million Militia Marches leading up to Inauguration Day, with armed white-supremacist and fascist groups primed to attack government buildings and perceived enemy politicians in all 50 states. 

As with the online chatter ahead of that assault on the Capitol, new online calls to action are rife with insurrection talk and vows to bring guns to Washington in defiance of the city's strict weapons laws. Twitter cited some of these posts in its announcement Friday night stripping Trump of his account and preventing him from creating new ones in the future. Some event listings are openly discussing delivering "justice" for Ashli Babbitt, a rioter and Air Force veteran who was fatally shot by police inside the Capitol on Wednesday.

Unlike the first assault, which was an attempt to overturn the Democrats' electoral victory and keep Trump in power, the next actions, planned or unplanned, reflect a lack of faith in electoral politics on the part of the MAGAs. An online militia forum called for recruits in Kentucky because "diplomatic efforts have been exhausted."

Whereas the last riot had a semi-official air about it, having been inspired and called for by the POTUS himself, the next rounds will be organized mainly by loosely-affiliated Republican and other right-wing groups, Proud Boys, and neo-Confederates, who apparently have given up on any electoral or constitutional path to power. Most have already turned on Trump and Pence for having sold them out last week. 

For example, the St. Croix County, WI Republican Party is telling its members to "prepare for war" and to remove "leftist tyrants" from office. Scrawled across the top of the party's homepage is the Latin phrase "Si vis pacem, para bellum," which is followed by its translation: "If you want peace, prepare for war."

But rather than influence the next elections, the next wave is designed to cause fear and chaos, including disruption of the pandemic recovery. This, the very definition of terrorism. 

The question remains...how prepared will police, FBI, Secret Service, and the military be for another round of riots? Once shooting begins, security efforts have already failed and the fascists have succeeded. They are quite willing to use their rank-and-file protesters as human shields and cannon fodder. Another question has to do with cops and even elected officials taking part or even leading the assaults as was the case Wednesday. 

Here in Chicago, aldermen and community activists are demanding the resignation of John Catanzara, the President of the Fraternal Order of Police after he came out in full-throated support of the Trumpists, making excuses for the riots even as rioters caused the deaths of capitol cops. 

*************

As long as we're talking impeachment, why not start here? Globally, there were more than a half-million new corona cases reported yesterday. One-third of them in the U.S. alone. US deaths: 375,373 (up 1,365 from yesterday). This with a president and political regime purposefully sabotaging Covid recovery and enabling massive profiteering off the pandemic. 

*************

The department with the oxymoronic name Homeland Security is in total shambles and that's probably a good thing. With the main threat to national security coming from the White House rather than from foreign terrorists, and the inability (unwillingness) of the regime to protect even itself against Trump-inspired, white-supremacist, domestic terrorism, another DHS director has called it quits. 

Chad Wolf, who was never formally appointed, lasted only 14 months before joining the mass exodus of rats from this sinking ship. How do you "resign" from a post to which you were never appointed? Beats me. Wolf was roundly condemned for his role as Trump's wingman in the war on immigrants. If one thing has become clear since Wednesday, it's that the main threat to homeland security is homegrown, not imported.

As the siege on the Capitol shows, White supremacists are not pro-cop. They are anti-Black. They defend cops who kill Black people and attack cops who get in their political way.

Story by @katemshepherd https://t.co/24rRiUXnPy

— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) January 11, 2021

I’m still tripping that folks thought they could take off a few days of work, go do an insurrection, and then fly on home and resume normal life.

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) January 11, 2021

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

 

Another man, wearing a red Trump hat, told the officers, “We backed you guys in the summer. When the whole country hated you, we had your back.” At this point, one officer guarding the door said to the others, “They’re ready to roll,” and gestured to them to come with him, the video shows. The officers stepped away from the door together and moved to an adjacent wall. -- Washington Post

Joe Biden 

"We need a Republican Party..." -- Intelligencer 

You fill in the rest. Ie. "like a fish needs a bicycle." 

 Arnold Schwarzenegger

“Wednesday was the day of broken glass right here in the United States. The broken glass was in the windows of the United States Capitol. But the mob did not just shatter the windows of the Capitol. They shattered the ideas we took for granted.” -- Video

Robert Reich

That the attempted coup failed shouldn’t blind us to its significance or the stain it has left on America. Nor to the importance of holding those responsible fully accountable. Trump’s culpability is beyond dispute. -- Guardian 

 Mike Davis

Predictably liberal pundits are now telling us that the far-right has committed suicide, that the age of Trump has ended, and that the Democrats are free to build their shining city on the hill. In fact, the riot was a deus ex machina that lifted the curse of Trump from the careers of conservative war hawks and rightwing young lions whose higher ambitions have been fettered by the presidential cult. -- Guardian

Chicago F.O.P. Prez

 “As your President, I showed a lapse in judgement [sic] yesterday during an interview. For that I am sorry. I brought negative attention to our Lodge, the FOP family, and law enforcement in general. -- Sun-Times

Fascist site folds. Abandoned by corporate backers

Double win in GA could provide resources needed for a safe national school-reopening campaign

What a great double victory in GA! I stayed up most of the night watching the results come in like any good political junkie would. Now I'm trying to unwind and crank out a blog post before grabbing some badly-needed shut-eye. 

Wins for John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, against tough odds, open up new possibilities for Biden to transcend his "bi-partisan" fantasy and advance a progressive agenda that begins to undo much of the damage from the Trump era. As of this writing, Warnock has been declared the winner while Ossoff's lead of 16,370 votes is now greater than that of Joe Biden's over Donald Trump in Georgia (11,779 votes). 

I'm imagining with glee how DT must be beating up on his white supremacist toadies Loeffler and Perdue, over losing to a Jewish liberal and the Black preacher from Dr. King's old Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

Thanks and some dough should go out to all the organizers on the ground throughout the state, led of course by Stacey Abrams and her statewide political organization as well as many union brothers and sisters from around the country (including Chicago) and the multi-racial movement of the poor and civil rights groups who have been plowing the Georgian political fields for decades. 

That progressive agenda includes real federal pandemic relief (immediately including $2,000 checks), rent, and debt-relief for those working, unemployed and poor families in greatest need and aggressively leading the war against COVID. 

It must also include a massive program of relief for public school systems ravaged under Betsy DeVos and her predecessors, as well as support for a national reopening of schools on the scale of the Marshall Plan. This federal initiative needs to be put in place apart from or alongside current hit-or-miss efforts by local school boards, many of which have been marked by confusion and division at a time when trust, clarity, and unity in the community are necessary prereqs. 

The key to a safe, full-scale reopening is prioritizing teachers and school staff for vaccination. They should be classified nationally as essential workers with schools used centers for vaccine distribution and community health education.

I'll be talking more about reopening our schools tonight at 10 ET on the Rick Smith Show. Tune in at thericksmithshow.com. 

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Right Ruling for the wrong reason...A British judge has blocked the extradition to the U.S. of WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, ruling that “Mr. Assange’s risk of committing suicide, if an extradition order were to be made, to be substantial.”

Trump to Raffensperger

“All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have." Raffensperger’s Twitter response: “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true. The truth will come out.” -- AP

Sen. Dick Durbin (IL)

President Trump's call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) "merits nothing less than a criminal investigation." In his statement calling for an investigation, the No. 2 Senate Democrat labeled the conversation as "more than a pathetic rambling, delusional rant."

"His disgraceful effort to intimidate an elected official into deliberately changing and misrepresenting the legally confirmed vote totals in his state strikes at the heart of our democracy and merits nothing less than a criminal investigation." -- The Hil

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez backs Pelosi for Speaker

...a progressive leader, backed Pelosi and told reporters that Democratic unity was important “at a time when the Republican Party is attempting an electoral coup.” -- AP

Trump ~ Fauci

The number of "China Virus" cases and deaths in the U.S. are "far exaggerated," President Donald Trump said on Twitter. He cited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's methodology. "When in doubt, call it Covid. Fake News!" Trump said.

Anthony Fauci, speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, said anyone who went into the "trenches" – intensive care units at hospitals across the nation – will quickly realize how severe the virus is. He called the statistics "real numbers, real people and real deaths."

Trump shot back on Twitter: "Something how Dr. Fauci is revered by the LameStream Media as such a great professional, having done, they say, such an incredible job, yet he works for me and the Trump Administration, and I am in no way given any credit for my work. Gee, could this just be more Fake News?" --  USA Today

When we look back on all this, the notion that Trump was impeached for the Ukraine call alone will seem utterly bizarre.

— Carlos Lozada (@CarlosLozadaWP) January 3, 2021

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

 

Debra Haaland, the next Sec. of the Interior

“I’ll be fierce for all of us, for our planet, and all of our protected land,” said Haaland in her acceptance speech. “This moment is profound when we consider the fact that a former secretary of the interior once proclaimed it his goal to, quote, ‘civilize or exterminate’ us. I’m a living testament to the failure of that horrific ideology.” -- Guardian

'Not Tuskegee...'

“This ain’t that, I’ll say it again, this ain’t that,” Cook County Commissioner Dennis Deer (2nd) said. “I want to get the message across that this is not Tuskegee; this is about you and about your children and about your generation.” -- Sun-Times

Kim Foxx

 “If we recognize substance abuse disorder as a health condition, then we must modify our justice system to treat it as such,” she said. “Criminalizing health is not in the interest of public safety.” -- Sun-Times interview

 CNN's Jake Tapper 

...says he won't have Kayleigh McEnany on his show because she “lies the way most people breathe.” -- Independent

NY State Dem Party Boss Jay Jacobs

AOC hasn't signaled a run for the Senate. But that didn't stop Jacobs from warning her not to challenge Chuck Schumer.  

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would “absolutely” lose a challenge if she went head-to-head against the veteran Democratic lawmaker, said Jacobs — who noted he’s yet to meet the Queens rep. -- NY Post