Sorry, no humor today. I can’t think of anything funny. Instead let’s talk for a second about the mob of insurrectionists who stormed our Capitol yesterday to try to prevent Congress from carrying out its constitutionally-mandated duty.
First, we know that if this had been a mob of black people storming the Capitol, the police would have opened fire with deadly force. BLM protesters have been routinely met with rubber bullets, beatings, tear gas and worse. After George Floyd’s death, Federal law enforcement officers swept people up in unmarked vans and used troops and pepper spray so that the President could pose in front of a church.
Second, how could the police be so unprepared. During the recent BLM rally, the city was in virtual lockdown but yesterday the police seemed to be unaware that anything was going to happen. This, even though the event had been advertised on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and various other social media channels. It’s hard not to believe that some of the police were complicit with the rioters, especially when you see Capitol police posing for selfies with them. The police reported that they arrested some 50 people. I can remember some anti-war protests where thousands were arrested. I guess the police thought that these insurrectionist thugs were okay guys.
Third, it’s interesting to see all those who have been enabling Trump and his lies and dismantling of our governmental institutions now pretending to discover that he’s not a nice guy. We can start with Mike Pence and Mitch McConnell both of whom seem to have rediscovered democracy and the constitution after four years of supporting the man who tried to dismantle both. Then there are organizations like the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and so forth which were quite happy to bask in Trumps benign gaze and wallow in his money but now see which way the wind is blowing. What hypocrites! There are also those who repeated his lies to curry his favor even though they know they weren’t true, they knew the election wasn’t fraudulent and there weren’t millions of fake votes and Trump didn’t win by a landslide. But they repeated these lies anyway. They need to go.
Fourth, there are the social media companies which made lots of money repeating and amplifying his lies and the lies of others. We know that Facebook and Twitter and YouTube make money every time one of those lies is repeated and read again. It’s amusing that some of them have now decided that maybe Trump’s ungrammatical squeekings and calls to violence need to be…moderated.
Finally, there are the rioters themselves. How ironic to see them wearing ‘Make America Great Again’ hats while actually making America look like some third-rate banana republic. They should be ashamed of themselves. I’m certainly ashamed of what they’ve done to our country and its image abroad. They acted like ignorant thugs. They need to go home and shut up.
I should add that all of this took place on a day when almost four thousand Americans died of Coronavirus. Truly a sad day.
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