Coup Klux Klan
St. Louis Dispatch: We must stop Trumpism before it morphs into Hitlerism.
A young girl in robes drinks a Coca-Cola while she and her mother watch a Ku Klux Klan rally. Location unspecified. August 1925. Library of Congress. Photo from historycollection.com
I have a dog entry about my rescue dog Sally’s anxiety surrounding winter conditions but I cannot quit thinking about what happened this past Wednesday. Especially after perusing photos of - at minimum - two men in one of the chambers of Congress, who may be ex-military, who were in possession of a type of zip tie - way more than one of them - that are used by law enforcement officers instead of handcuffs. One of these guys also was armed with what looked like a taser in a holster.
Posts in social media days ahead of the January 6th Stop the Steal rally exhorted these domestic terrorists to “bring handcuffs and zip ties” and discussed the entrances and exits of the Capitol Building and where senators and representatives might go when under attack.
Follow this Twitter thread if you want a glimpse at some of the photo evidence I am referring to.
This was a coup.
Just like the coups you’ve watched on television in “third world” countries.
Just like the chaos we watched during the Arab Spring.
Just like what those who study autocracies have been warning us about for the past four years.
Americans are wont to blow it off. Move on to the next Netflix series or who’s going to outlast who in some dumbass survival show.
But consider what might have happened if this “mob” - which for all we know at the moment may have been another Brooks Brothers riot but, this time, with a more malicious intent - had caught up to Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer or Ilhan Omar or Alexandria Ocasio Cortez or any number of other Democratic members of Congress?
What did they intend to do with all of those zip ties and tasers? Why were they met with minimal resistance? Why were the Capitol Hill police so unprepared? Why did the Secretary of Defense drag his feet about assistance? How could those who should have seen this coming - all you have to do is monitor social media - allow it to happen?
Hell, all you had to do was listen to the president’s rally rants or check his Twitter feed.
You might recall at demonstrations around the country this past summer that law enforcement officers were “armed for bear” and not reluctant to use force. Tear gas, which is supposed to be banned, was used liberally. Flash bombs, extrajudicial kidnappings, rubber bullets, riot helmets, riot billy clubs, riot shields - the approach toward Black Lives Matters supporters and anti-fascists was as militaristic as you could get.
Anyone remember the older gentlemen in Wisconsin, or Minnesota, or one of those midwestern states known for dairy cattle and subfreezing winters, who got mowed over by a phalanx of police officers doing their best impersonations of fascist brown shirts? And then they left him for much longer than you should ever leave anyone who needs to be “protected and served” and - eventually - he wound up in critical care in a hospital? Those cops were packing and amped up for action.
Where were those guys this past Wednesday? (Quite likely - part of the crowd.)
Everything pointed at the Stop the Steal rally as being just as potentially lethal as any Black Lives Matter rally. And it was being held outside the Capitol Building while our representatives were carrying out their Constitutional duties in the peaceful transition of power! The clear difference being the Black Lives Matters rallies were about Black lives and included Black bodies. And this rally was for all of those deplorables from every neighborhood in every state of the country we’ve been worried we don’t understand well enough. This rally and coup was for their Great White Hope and orchestrated by their Great White Dope. Law enforcement officers weren’t worried about the Debbies from Dallas or the cast of Duck Dynasty rampaging through the Capitol Building because, well, they’re white. And, if they do rampage, they’ll be polite about it.
I don’t care if most of the rioting participants were oafish, backwoods nitwits. I don’t care if most of them were selfie souvenir seekers. Some of the rioters were behaving as if they had the thumb’s up to carry out a coup. Why else would you come with zip ties, tasers, military patches and riot wear? They came with dark, malignant intentions. Dark, malignant intentions that leads right back to the men and women who egged them on.
It won’t surprise me if former Blackwater thugs participated.
It won’t surprise me if former (or current) law enforcement officers participated.
It won’t surprise me if former Capitol Hill officers participated.
I know former military personnel participated.
I know sitting state representatives participated.
I know the CEO of some tech firm called Cogensia participated. He’s already begging forgiveness because - you know - his company’s bottom line is suddenly at risk.
We got lucky this time. This will not be the last bullet to dodge if we don’t figure out how to apply the rule of law and do so in a way that both deters further insurrection and moves us down the path to reconciliation. Though, I’ll be honest, I’m not feeling conciliatory, or reconciliatory.
I’m feeling like there must be room in Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, aka Gitmo, for some of these jokers.
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I got it backwards with the 25th Amendment and impeachment. With impeachment, the Toddler Tyrant could not ever run for office again. Nor would he receive your usual presidential benefits.
A fun fact I discovered while checking that out, impeachment does not have to happen while he is in office. If it precludes him ever running for any kind of office and precludes him from sucking more money out of the U.S. Treasury - especially since he has only paid about $1,500 in federal taxes in decades - I’d think it would be worth it.
So, if they start the proceedings, but don’t finish quickly, fear not! It will still be worth it.
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This is a F*cebook video by one of my high school friends which I thought might resonate with those of you with kids or grandkids. His name is Mike Mahaffey - we endearingly called him “Moose” - and his brush with fame is that he used to play open mics in Nashville during the time Garth Brooks learned a black cowboy hat would put him over the top. Garth Brooks and Mike crossed paths every now and then at those open mic events.
His other brush with fame was singing Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville with me in our high school days.
I can’t post F*cebook videos straight to this medium, so here’s a photo of Mike on horseback which is also a link to his heartfelt song.
Also, I highly recommend Anne Helen Petersen’s column called Culture Study which can be found here on Substack. And, in particular, this week’s column titled How to Work Through a Coup.
These are her dogs, Steve and Peggy.
