Terrible swift nerf bat

 "The idea that democracy is the best antidote to terrorism has enjoyed widespread acceptance recently.  This is too simplistic.  Terrorism has occurred in democracies the world over.  Terrorism is employed by minorities.  (If they were not in a minority, they would not need to resort to terrorism.)  To be a permanent minority within a democracy can be a frustrating position, and unless democracies can demonstrate that they provide not only a nonviolent means of expressing dissent but also a nonviolent means of redressing the grievances of minorities, they are unlikely to be an acceptable substitute."  (Louise Richardson, What Terrorists Want, 2006)

"Is there anyone who doubts he'd do it again if he could?"  (Steven Beschloss)

There's nothing like a murderous, seditious mob of white people to reveal that American judges are a bunch of softies.  Enjoy your Mexican vacation/gluten-free organic tapas/no-bail release into the custody of Mommy!  Middle-class white people are inherently trustworthy, unlike that Latino kid picked up with a bag of weed.  Judges are in the law enforcement business, so there was no reason to think a bunch of Republican senators, who are in the insider-trading/fund-raising/clinging to power business, would do any better.  I was amazed that a handful remembered the sphincter-clenching fear they must have experienced on 1/6 long enough to vote for conviction.  And they're all paying for it now, being scolded ("censured") by state parties and getting death threats from constituents.  

At this point the Republicans are a disaffected minority as defined by Professor Richardson, angry, frustrated, and surviving by the grace of the Electoral College and the district fiddling named for Elbridge Gerry.  Their base of uneducated, resentful white people will be a demographic minority in a few decades; in some places it already is.  There isn't a Republican-controlled legislature that isn't considering vote suppression laws undreamed of since 1964.  It would be remarkable if they didn't turn to terrorism.  Nancy Pelosi wants a "9/11-style commission" to study the Trump coup attempt, as if its origins were as secret as an al-Qaeda strategy meeting.  We know who did it, we know why.  Let's not waste months Benghazi-ing this.   Only short trials and long prison terms will prevent the next one.

I continue to be puzzled by the lack of response from the country's many powerful police unions.  One officer murdered, two others driven to suicide, over 140 injured -- it usually takes a lot less to get them outraged.  They can't all be busy sharing racist Valentines.   That they are makes me wonder if the Blue Line will stand against the Red Hat mob next time, or join in.  There is no point pretending that the Rightzis have learned anything from this, because they never do.  Force has to be applied.