By Diane Roberts
Important things we now know, thanks to the January 6th committee:
- White House Chief of Staff and election fraudster Mark Meadows suggested Italian satellites may have sabotaged Trump votes.
- The Proud Boys have nothing to be proud of. The sad camo. The backwards ball caps. The racism. They wrote up a nine-page plan to occupy congressional offices, “rushing the buildings” and targeting “specific senators” from whom they’d somehow demand an election do-over. They called it “1776 Returns.”
- Ivanka is clearly a bot. Its beige plastic skin. Its blank tar-pit eyes. It seems to be malfunctioning, too. Could be a motherboard issue: Has anybody checked under the hair for an error code?
- Jared Kushner, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabia, said the White House lawyers who summoned enough decency to threaten resignation over Trump’s seditionary lies were just “whining.”
- The inevitable Florida connection: Publix heiress Julie Fancelli paid Don Jr.’s shouty squeeze Kimberly Guilfoyle 60 grand for a two-minute “introduction” at the Jan. 6 Reichsparteitag.
- Former Attorney General Bill Barr is a shameless harlot whose only redeeming quality is a peculiar resemblance to the University of Georgia mascot. Barr smelled the stink rising from Oval Office gents and resigned, while praising Trump for the “unprecedented achievements you have delivered for the American people” — whatever he imagines those “achievements” to be. Before he turned on Trump, that is. Man’s gotta sell books.
- Rudy Giuliani apparently was drunk when he told Trump to declare victory and they’d figure out how to steal the votes later. He’s probably still drunk. And on his way to being disbarred.
- Trump thought it might actually be a good idea to hang Mike Pence.
D.C.’s Arya Stark
The House hearings on the violent near-coup at the Capitol is the most exciting television since “Game of Thrones,” though with less sex and fewer beheadings. The whole show is a kind of House Stark versus an orange-tinted Night King: dead and wounded all over the Capitol’s marble floors, turncoats insisting they tried to stop him (honest!) while Liz Cheney, the Washington, D.C., version of the name-taking, butt-kicking Arya Stark, presents all that damning evidence.
You don’t want to get in the way of Liz C., daughter of the equally ruthless Dick, as she exacts her revenge on those who murdered whatever credibility the Republican Party had left after 2016.
There was a time when America was pretty good at the democracy thing. We had a decent hold on reality, at least. Presidents understood what “you lost” means. Political parties occasionally worked together.
But since the Obama administration, eight years of decent progress on social justice, it’s becoming clear something has gone very wrong with Republican brain-wiring.
Or as we say in Wakulla County, them people ain’t right.
Candidate Herschel Walker is in the grip of several delusions: For one, he claims there’s some kind of mist you can walk through that kills COVID and, for another, that he’s qualified to be a United States senator.
To be fair, the poor fellow spent years on the gridiron being repeatedly hit in the head.
And gym rat Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene may be suffering from ’roid rage. Over Memorial Day weekend, she put out a statement that fake meat grown in what she called a “peachtree dish” will be forced on us by Bill Gates who will somehow be able to “zap” you from inside your guts should you be so bold as to eat a real cheeseburger.
‘Dead horse’
Hostility to the truth is now the Republican brand. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz continues to bang on about how the FBI incited the Jan. 6 riot, while Gov. Ron DeSantis dismisses the whole thing: Trying to overturn the 2020 election? So 2021. “Why are they constantly beating this dead horse?”
No doubt DeSantis also thinks Watergate was just another equine corpse not worth talking about.
But this 2020 pony looks pretty lively: It’s landing sharp kicks on many a Republican posterior.
Of course Il Duce needs to play down the insurrection. He’s hardly going to diss the Christian nationalists, white supremacists, neo-Nazis, Oath Keepers, and latter-day confederates who did their damnedest to destroy the fairly elected government of the United States. They’re his core voters.
There are now at least six Proud Boys on the Miami-Dade Republican Executive Committee.
Republicans seem to have decided they just don’t like the democracy thing. Or the free thought thing. All that challenging of America’s greatness and goodness and God-favoredness. All that annoying science getting in the way of destroying the planet for money. All that equality stuff. All that voting by unsuitable (read: Black, Latino, Native American, poor, elderly) people.
Authoritarianism is so much easier. So much more profitable.
They don’t care if the U.S. government is a criminal operation and the president interested only in enriching himself. The entire Cheez Doodle regime was a feast of treasonous acts, murderous thoughts, epic lies, reality-denying, grift-enabling, tantrum-throwing, finger-pointing, back-stabbing, psycho-coddling, and ass-showing.
Loser
Trump knew that he lost the 2020 election. Everyone around him knew it, too, from his feral children to his congressional toadies to his alarmingly unglued “lawyers” such as John Eastman, who admitted that even if Mike Pence had decided he had the power to hand the presidency to Trump, the con man from Queens would lose 9-0 in the Supreme Court.
By then the country might be in flames.
From Hannity to Rupert, Mitch to the My Pillow Guy, they knew there was no real voter fraud, no manipulation of voting machines by Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez (dead since 2013), no suitcases full of votes in Georgia, no bamboo-infused ballots illicitly flown from Asia to Arizona.
Trump lost. But he was prepared to destroy the country to feed his ego. He still is.
2024 is coming.
Diane Roberts is an 8th-generation Floridian, born and bred in Tallahassee. Educated at Florida State University and Oxford University in England, she has been writing for newspapers since 1983, when she began producing columns on the legislature for the Florida Flambeau. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Times of London, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Oxford American, and Flamingo. She has been a member of the Editorial Board of the St. Petersburg Times–back when that was the Tampa Bay Times’s name–and a long-time columnist for the paper in both its iterations. She was a commentator on NPR for 22 years and continues to contribute radio essays and opinion pieces to the BBC. Roberts is also the author of four books.
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TrumpIsATraitor says
Maybe Diane was in a hurry but given the title of her essay you would think that she could muster a few more words or at least just one fact regarding Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
The facts are that in the aftermath of the January 6th attack, Governor DeSantis issued a statement condemning the violence which occurred that day while praising law enforcement’s attempts to protect the Capitol building from the mob. “Violence or rioting of any kind is unacceptable and the perpetrators must face the full weight of the law,” said DeSantis in a statement. “The Capitol Police do an admirable job and I thank them for their hard work.” On January 7, 2021, DeSantis repeated his condensation of the rioters during a press conference regarding the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was totally unacceptable and those folks need to be held accountable. And it doesn’t matter what banner you’re flying under, the violence is wrong,” the governor said. “The rioting and the disorder is wrong. We’re not going to tolerate it in Florida.”.
Regarding the talking point about ‘Proud Boys’ being on the Miami Dade Republican Executive Committee; Dovernor DeSantis has no role in selecting who volunteers and serves on that committee. Further reporting by the NY Times points out (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/02/us/miami-republicans-proud-boys.html) that in multiple instances people who were accused of being members of the Proud Boys has supposedly resigned from the Proud Boys (as if their is some way of checking that information.).
Flagler Live in the future please try to make sure that the headline accurately represents the content of a story.
Pierre Tristam says
You’re right about what DeSantis said on Jan. 7 of course. But like so much of what so many of his GOP colleagues said that day, it vanished quickly afterward to be replaced by Qanon-like denialism of the day, or glorification of it. There are too many examples to count, as far as DeSantis is concerned, and your intention here is not to correct the record, but to obfuscate it: that, too, is part of the ploy, if not the plot. The headline is off only to the extent that it understates the issue.
Pippagirl says
If the GOP continues to alienate 20 million in the LGBTQ community, women who just lost the rights to their bodies, women who want to protect their children from Covid and people with half a brain who don’t believe in the BIG LIE…….well they sure are alienating a pretty large group of voters! Keep up the good work! Not sure the Proud boys…..those not in jail will be enough to take you over the line in the next Presidential election………….
Coffee says
1. On the contrary, the gay/lesbian community (as a whole) has isolated themselves from mainstream America with their radical behavior, rhetoric, and unyielding “It is our way, and no one one else’s way” agenda.
2. You conradicted yourself. You said that women want to protect your child from a virus, but not from murder?
3. You said that women just lost the rights to their own bodies. Seriuously? Its been a couple days since Roe v Wade was reversed and all American women are living life as normal. No body snatchers have come to take us away. No body police have come to govern what we do with our bodies. You are free to bath it, train it, feed, groom it, tattoo it, decorate it, dress it, and whatever else you want to do.
People need to stop whining. All the beta males and Karens are us giving normal, level-heded people a bad name around the world. Understand…regardless who you shove in office, or what country your live in, it will never be your way or the highway. You are never going to get everything you want. That is not how the world works.
You want to get upset, and fight for woemn’s rights? Fight for women and children around the world that are trafficied daily…daily. Fight for little girls that are sold as child brides, becuase their country says it is legal to do so. There are some women who HAVE lost the rights to the own bodies. Shame on all these Karens for being so shmaless and self-centered. American women enjoyed amazing freedoms, that many women around the world can only dream on. Grow up!
Laurel says
Coffee: Shame on you for labeling women “Karens.” Terrible term.
James says
So you are proud of your so-called president now. The reason you are so enthralled in Jan 6 is to take away from our nation going into a crash landing, with Biden being the pilot.
When you have time why don’t you do an article on Hunter biden.
Dave says
DeSantis wants to be president that is so obvious. We thought Donald was a dictator you haven’t seen nothing yet if DeSantis gets elected President. If he doesn’t like you, or your company or their beliefs he is coming after you. It is his way or no way PERIOD. He is a control freak and will object to voters rights for his own political gains.
Motherworry says
This whole deal was planned well in advance. Note the proud boys going straight to the capital not to the rally. How did they know trump was going to send his mob from the rally to the Capital?
My grandfather told me to think before you vote. Well people didn’t think and they elected trump who gave us the SC we have today. AOC may be correct if they lied during there hearings, can they be removed from the bench?
This article must have hit home! Note all the deflection.
Wallingford says
With the latest Supreme Court decision regarding Roe v Wade, and with the Justice Thomas comments regarding future targets of the Court as he envisions them, there is a dire need for all Members of the LGBTQ+ Community, Minority Women, all Women of Child-Bearing Age, and Minorities in general to band to campaign against all Republican Candidates to defeat them at the Polls so that National Legislation can be passed to protect against these State Dictators. The Mission of the Republican Party seems to be to have a Male, White, Straight Society with no other Races or Sex having any standing.
A question regarding Herschel Walker: How can a Resident of Texas run for the Senate from Georgia? Didn’t Georgia have any qualified candidates or does Trump have the State so snookered? At least he promised to move if he won.
Beach Cat says
Just a note to Coffee who is obviously male. Bless your heart, how will you feel when they take away your Viagra? The Supremes are on a roll, so watch them snatch all those condoms and The Pill off the shelves, place more restrictions on voter rights, wreck the already weakening environment and all the rest.
Deborah Coffey says
DeSantis has already secured the noose around the neck of democracy with almost all of the bills he’s signed in the past year. He’s just waiting to kick the stool out so that democracy will drop to its death until he’s sure he can run for president. It will be the end of Florida or the end of America if he is ever elected to public office again. And, all of his supporters will learn in very short order exactly what it’s like to live under a real Fascist. They have no idea….