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Let's see if I've got this straight. I'm neither a prosecutor nor a defense lawyer nor a member of the jury. But this guy invited his followers to Washington. They were already mad because he'd told them repeatedly that the election was stolen from him, and from them.
The date was January 6th. His followers formed a ragtag army for sure, dressed in their cammies, carrying banners and flags, bullhorns, and a range of weapons including pipe bombs. They were mainly out-of-shape, older white guys looking to express their anger.
He fed that anger, standing up in front of them and exhorting them to take back their government by force by marching on the Capitol. He said he'd be right there along side of them.
But that was just another lie. As they departed, riled up and looking for trouble, he scampered back to the safety of his heavily-armed lair to watch it all play out on TV.
He was feeling all cozy with his snack foods, as he readied himself for the show, just like we all feel before a big sports game or a favorite movie.
Meanwhile, his crowd erected a gallows outside the Capitol, then broke through police lines, kicking in doors and breaking windows, beating back the officers on duty, killing at least one, chanting "Hang Pence," "Kill Pelosi," and "Where Are They?" (The last indicating the members of Congress.)
The blood-thirsty mob was hunting for the leaders of our democratically elected government. Some wanted to capture these officials, put them on "trial," and execute them on the spot. This was not a movie and it was not a reality TV show. But it *was* a show made for TV.
Inside the chamber, the would-be victims had been hurriedly ushered from where they'd been authenticating Biden's victory to other parts of the Capitol building by the handful of a police guards not directly engaged with holding off the advancing mob.
As they cowered in fear, hearing the chaos nearby, members of Congress tried desperately to contact the man ensconced in front of his large screen TV in the White House. "Call off the mob! Send us help!" They were screeching for their lives but these messages never got through because the man instructed his aides to strictly refuse all interruptions while he watched his coveted fantasy play out on TV.
Into this national security vacuum, Vice-President Mike Pence, while himself under siege, was the one who called in the National Guard, which arrived at the last minute while the thin line of defenders held the murderous crowd at bay.
Thankfully, no lawmakers were assassinated in the end but five people died in the riot and others were injured. Weeks later, hundreds have been arrested, over 400 others are under active investigation, and the picture has become fairly clear.
What I've written above is what prosecutors know so far.
So let me ask the big question. If you were a juror (aka a Senator) hearing this case starting February 8, how would you vote? Guilty or innocent? Shockingly, 90 percent of the GOP Senators have already announced they will acquit Trump, even before hearing any of the evidence.
So Trump is going to get away with murder like he always bragged he could do. Only this time his victim is not some guy on Fifth Avenue but our democracy itself.
***
[CORRECTION: The news flow has not lessened by 30 percent as reported yesterday. It was just a Sunday night-into-Monday morning kind of thing.]
The news:
* The Proud Boys Were Key Instigators in Capitol Riot -- The Proud Boys, a far-right group, have tried to downplay their role in the Capitol riot. An investigation shows that at many of the day’s key moments the Proud Boys were at the forefront. (WSJ)
* Making Sense of the Facebook Menace (Siva Vaidhyanathan/The New Republic) Highly recommended (DW)
* Did the Coronavirus Escape From a Lab? --"We need to stop hunting for new exotic diseases in the wild, shipping them back to laboratories, and hot-wiring their genomes to prove how dangerous to human life they might become." (Nicholson Baker/ New York) Highly recommended (DW)
* As Virus Grows Stealthier, Vaccine Makers Reconsider Battle Plans -- Vaccines by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech effectively protect recipients. But in a worrying sign, they are slightly less effective against a variant found in South Africa. (NYT)
* Biden to limit private prisons and bolster fair housing policies (Reuters)
* Biden takes first step aimed at dismantling systemic racism with orders focused on equity (WashPo)
* U.S. Suffers Sharpest Rise in Poverty Rate in More Than 50 Years (Bloomberg)
* Watchdog to Examine Whether Justice Dept. Helped Trump Effort to Overturn Election -- The inquiry was announced after revelations about a plot between Donald Trump and a top former department official to promote false claims of voter fraud by replacing the acting attorney general. (NYT)
* How fast food chains failed to protect workers from COVID-19 (Lance Williams/Reveal)
* Biden struck a blow to his predecessor’s legacy of deregulation, blocking a rule from the Trump administration that would have allowed faster line speeds in poultry plants as a pandemic raged. Worker safety groups and a prominent labor union had warned that raising the line speeds would exhaust already-taxed workers and lead to more injuries and COVID-19 infections. [HuffPost]
* Major Internet outages hit the East Coast, causing issues for Verizon, Zoom, Slack, Gmail (WashPo)
* After the Capitol Was Stormed, Teachers Try Explaining History in Real Time -- Educators have turned to Shakespeare, science fiction and cat people analogies to help students understand the past weeks. (NYT)
* Google’s Future Is Artificial Intelligence. It’s Now a Management Challenge (WSJ)
* Twitter decided to ban Mike Lindell, who founded bedding company MyPillow, due to “repeated violations” of its civic integrity policy against disinformation. Lindell, a Trump supporter, has continued to insist that the presidential election was rigged even after Biden’s administration has begun. [AP]
* Biden now hopes for 1.5 million vaccinations a day, a big jump from earlier comments (WashPo)
* From the border wall with Mexico to the ban on transgender people in the military to travel prohibitions on majority-Muslim countries to the withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, many of Trump’s proudest "accomplishments" have been undone in just the first days of Biden’s administration. Trump’s failure to codify policies through legislation left them vulnerable to Biden’s signature on countermanding orders. [HuffPost]
* Zappos Founder Tony Hsieh Was Found With Flammables, Drugs and Alcohol --Police find no criminality in the November fire that killed the entrepreneur, and fire officials said there were many possible causes. (WSJ)
* It's official: no Hall of Fame candidate received the 75 percent required for election. Barry Bonds has one more chance. (Andrew Baggarly / Twitter)
* At U.N., Washington assures support for two-state solution in Middle East (Reuters)
* Changes to the tongue, the hands or the soles of the feet could give an early indication of Covid-19 infection, Spanish researchers found in a study presented on Tuesday (Jan 26). (AFP)
* Angry farmers storm India’s Red Fort in challenge to Modi (AP)
* I’ve Said Goodbye to ‘Normal.’ You Should, Too. -- Climate change is upending the world as we know it, and coping with it demands widespread, radical action. "As the pandemic has worn on, the desire to get back to normal has increased, and I worry that the hope for radical positive change has subsided. But we must not let it dissipate. We can’t afford to. Because we won’t see “normal” again in our lifetimes. Our parents and grandparents burned normal up in their American-built cars, with their American lifestyles, their American refrigerators and American dreams." (Roy Scranton/NYT)
* Biden Sets in Motion Plan to Ban New Oil and Gas Leases on Federal Land -- The president will announce a suite of executive actions on Wednesday to combat climate change, two people familiar with his plans said, and will ask federal agencies to determine the extent of a drilling ban. (NYT)
* State lawmakers struck a long-sought deal that would extend California’s eviction moratorium until the end of June. Landlords could also get relief if they forgive back rent. [CalMatters]
* 200 Lemons, 30 Bananas: Online Shoppers Accidentally Buy Too Much (WSJ)
* California lifts major restrictions in large swaths of the state. (California Today)
* Biden to tap nurse as acting surgeon general (WashPo)
* 40% of People Report They No Longer Physically Go to Their Bank (Invisibly)
* Why Vaccines Alone Will Not End the Pandemic -- New estimates suggest the vaccine rollout is no match for the severity of the U.S. outbreak, and stricter social distancing measures are needed to reduce infections. (NYT)
* Parents of Remote Learners Have Smaller Roles in U.S. Workforce -- About 24% of parents whose children are attending school virtually aren’t working at all compared with 15% of parents whose children are attending school in person every day, according to a new survey. (WSJ)
* New India-China Border Clash Shows Simmering Tensions (NYT)
* CDC Recommends Also Wearing Face Mask On Back Of Head In Case Coronavirus Attacks From Rear (The Onion)
***
Every breath you take
And every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take, I'll be watching you
Every single day and every word you say
Every game you play
Every night you stay, I'll be watching you
-- The Police
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