Day 302…
There’s a joke that’s been circulating on the internet.
A Black man and a Jew walk into a bar in the South. The bartender looks at them and says, “What can I get for you, Senators?”
In the middle of the insurrection, yesterday, I went out for a walk to buy some jam. We had reached the point that occurs in any crisis where nothing new was happening and the newscasters were repeating themselves and interviewing people with only the most remote connection to the events. It was hard to keep still.
We had a whole cabinet full of jam at one point but over the last endless months we have worked our way through it all. Some of it was a gift from our neighbor. We got some from a great store up on Cape Cod this past summer and some I had picked up during my two road trips last year. By yesterday, we only had one jar of pumpkin butter left that was from somewhere in the Midwest and it was almost empty. In the face of everything that I was seeing on television, going out to get jam was the only constructive thing that I could think of doing.
Any addict will tell you that you have to hot rock bottom before you can truly start to recover. Rock bottom is the point at which it is not possible to sink any lower. The only way from there is up. Or out.
Yesterday, the United States of America hit rock bottom. At least I hope that what happened yesterday was rock bottom because I cannot imagine what could possibly happen that would bring us any lower.
At a rally of white supremacists and QAnon believers in the afternoon, the President of the United States incited a mob to storm the Capitol to attempt to take control of the government of the country as elected officials were certifying the results of the election.
Before he got there, one of the President’s sons along with his personal lawyer Rudi Giuliani stoked the crowd, adding fuel to the fire. Giuliani actually screamed out, “Let’s have trial by combat!”
At the point in the certification process where Republican Senators and Congresspeople had lodged the first of their baseless objections to the electoral college results - in this case those from the state of Arizona - the mob of domestic terrorists that the President unleashed, broke through the perimeter of the Capitol building.
For the first time since the war of 1812, over two hundred years ago, forces hostile to the US government occupied the building that is one of the central symbols of our Democracy. While windows were smashed and doors broken into, it also looks like some of these people were actually invited in.
American flags were taken down and replaced by the President’s own flags. While legislators sheltered in place or cowered in balconies, armed terrorists took selfies of themselves everywhere from the Senate dais to inside House Speaker Pelosi’s office seated at her own desk. Files were vandalized and objects looted. Shots were fired.
Capitol police were unprepared, outnumbered and overwhelmed. Watching all of these events unfold yesterday, that was one of the most notable things about it. Where was law enforcement? Where were the legions of police officers in riot gear? This is the Capitol of the United States of America and there was nobody there to defend it.
Nothing about yesterday should have been a surprise. The President’s attack against the legitimacy of the election has been going on for weeks if not months. That he viewed the certification process yesterday as his last chance to overturn them was not a secret. The rally he attended and began his coup attempt actually had a permit.
If even a fraction of the response we saw happen against the largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protests had occurred, none of this would have occurred.
This mob, however, was almost completely White. There were no images of them being shackled and dragged away. Instead, they roamed the halls freely.
The President refused to call in the National Guard. Ultimately the Vice President did that but only after the Governors of Virginia and Maryland had sent in theirs. The President did not want the insurrection to end. Insiders report that he was “borderline enthusiastic” about the carnage. When he finally issued a video message to try to halfheartedly break it up, it ended with him saying, “So go home. We love you. You’re very special.”
Four people died.
One woman was shot and killed by the police and three others died from other medical issues somehow connected to the events of the day.
Once law enforcement had finally cleared the mob from the building, they swept it and the buildings surrounding it for explosive devices. Two pipe bombs were found - one each in the RNC and DNC headquarters - as well as a cooler full of Molotov cocktails in the back of a vehicle.
After 8pm, the Senators and Congresspeople returned to their work of certification in the chambers. The objection to the Arizona results was voted down.
Even after the shocking events of the day, and despite the fact that several other Republicans decided not to proceed with their objections to the election results, a small group of them nonetheless persisted.
Even after the President’s attempted violent coup, seven Republican Senators still stood solidly by him and objected to the fair and secure results of the Pennsylvania vote.
These are those seven Senators. Do not forget their names:
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas
Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri
Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming
Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas
Senator Rick Scott of Florida
Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama
Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi
Their meritless objections were also summarily overruled. Some minutes later, with Vermont’s three electoral votes, Joseph R. Biden and Kamala D. Harris officially crossed the 270-vote threshold. It was just after 3:30am. A short while after that, the process was finished, and all of the results certified.
As of this morning, Joseph R. Biden and Kamala D. Harris are officially and irrevocably, the President and Vice-President-elect of the United States of America.
After last night’s bender, this morning the recovery needs to begin.
Senator Josh Hawley, who sided with the insurrection was raked over the coals by his hometown paper. There’s a picture of him raising his fist in solidarity with the violent mob. The Kansas City Star says that he has ‘blood on his hands’.
Rudi Giuliani is backtracking like mad and, somewhat hilariously, is now condemning yesterday’s violence. Talk about blood on his hands. Does he think we will forget, “Let’s have trial by combat!”?
The President’s own twitter account was frozen last night because of his incendiary tweets but this morning on another account he tweeted, “Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again.”
In one regard, he’s right. It is the beginning of the fight to make America, if not great, at least good, again. It will start as soon as he’s gone.
There is a lot to fix. The broken glass and jimmied locks will all be replaced in short order. What is going to take much longer is the damage that has done to our trust in our government. Not only our trust in it, but also the trust of the people over the entire rest of the planet in it.
Some of the President’s cabinet is reportedly discussing invoking the 25th Amendment and removing him from power. The Vice-President is apparently furious with him for turning on him so it will be interesting to see if they actually do anything. I’m not going to hold my breath.
There have been some resignations in response to the violence. The First Lady’s chief of staff and the White House social secretary have left. The Deputy National Security Advisor has quit. As I write this, the President’s former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney who had been operating as a special envoy to Northern Ireland has also resigned. There will probably be more to follow. It’s nice to know that there are some things that these people won’t put up with. That wasn’t at all clear before this.
I fell asleep early last night - right after the Arizona objection discussion started up again - I then woke up a few hours later just after the Pennsylvania objection was voted down. Michael and I watched the rest of the process until the end.
Then, we went to bed, but I couldn’t really sleep, so now I’m up very early.
I still can’t really believe what we all saw yesterday. One of the images that keeps flashing into my mind is the one of the white guy carrying a confederate flag through the Capitol rotunda.
If we really hit our rock bottom yesterday, and I pray that we did, then there is hope this morning that things will finally start to get better.
In the middle of all the mayhem, Jon Ossoff’s win in the Georgia Senate race was finally confirmed. He won by .8% so there is no avenue for his opponent to demand a recount. A Jewish man and an African American man - both Democrats - are now the Senators from Georgia.
Democrats, at least for the next two years, will have control of both houses, if only just. If I were in that bar, I’d put their drinks on my tab.
The current Senate Majority Leader has been demoted to Senate Minority Leader. He gave an excellent speech last night against the spurious objections that were being lodged. I will give him that.
There is still some of Michael’s last loaf of sourdough bread left. I am now going to toast a slice of it and slather it with jam. I’m not sure which flavor yet. I bought three,
Yesterday was a long day. We all deserve a treat for getting through it.
And we did get through it.
We were lucky.
What a ride this has been! There is solid hope for the future now but the scars are deep. Bruce couldn’t even watch the news last night - said he was so ashamed! It’s actually quite strange I think being an American in another country through all this. I don’t know what word describes patriotic defensive feelings amidst such failures.
The first thought this morning was ‘I can’t wait to read Richard’s post’
Jx
❤️thank you, Richard. We did get through, the majesty of President Biden his request, like a prayer. Yes, me too taking a long walk in the sun, tonight I will again under the stars.
“People say I’m a dreamer”
My choice this day, how I recover from trauma. 🙏💕⭐️