Scene of the crime

 

The expression you have when the guy you voted for sets his dogs on you for the second time.

This is CNN commentator Michael Fanone, formerly of the D.C. Police, at last night's hearing of the House Select Committee.  On January 6, 2021, Fanone was beaten and robbed of his radio and badge, and subsequently suffered a heart attack.  On July 21, 2022, he was leaving the Capitol with a less violent mob in pursuit, shouting insults and demanding, "Are you a real cop?"  A man with an anti-Trump banner interposed himself between Fanone and the mob, whereupon one goon threw himself to the ground like a diving soccer player and yelled, "He attacked me with his pole!"  As you might expect, the would-be Samaritan was promptly arrested and handcuffed by police.

It was that kind of an evening.  The committee's tech geniuses synced up video of the rioters with simultaneous radio calls by Mike Pence's Secret Service detail, obviously believing they might soon die and communicating last words to loved ones.  That jolting echo of 9/11 was followed by some comic relief, Josh Hawley fist-saluting the gathered Trumpanzees and Josh Hawley running for his life down a Capitol corridor.  The laughter in the committee room was soon exceeded by the national laughter when the video of fleeing ferret-face was set to appropriate music.  And as the Kansas City Star observed, he's still fund-raising off the ridicule.  Strange times.

The Case of the Missing Text Messages was not addressed although it has been the main topic of the week and has led to several agents hiring lawyers.  Is it possible that the Secret Service agents who thought they might die also willingly deleted incriminating evidence just to protect Trump?  Maybe we'll learn more in September.  Last night's subject was:  What did Trump know and for how long did he refuse to do anything about it? and the answer was the better part of three hours.  From undeleted communications we know he ignored Kevin McCarthy, Kayleigh McEnany, several Fox News allies and his own children essentially saying "You alone can fix it."  According to Pat Cipollone everyone in the White House wanted him to end the insurrection (except Melania, who was too absorbed in her photographic duties to notice smoke rising from the Capitol).  Eventually Mogul was coaxed into the desolation that was Jacqeline Kennedy's Rose Garden and presented with a speech, which he rejected ("I don't wanna say the election's over").  That was where he finally came out with the stern dismissal his troops heard ("We love you...you're very special").  Not very different from "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by."  The next day in the press room it took an hour to get him to stumble through a condemnation of the "heinous" attack (this is a parody, but only just).  It was hard not to think of Marilyn Monroe's 47 takes needed to produce the line "It's me, Sugar" in Some Like It Hot.

Liz Cheney still thinks there's a line separating Trump Republicans from Real Republicans, a distinction without a difference that I think even Adam Kinzinger has abandoned.  It's not as if the Reagan Republicans or the Goldwater Republicans or her father's Republicans were a big improvement over the MAGA mob, they just found more subtle ways to damage democracy.  The 2000 election overthrow, for instance, focused on Florida and had the imprimatur of the Supreme Court.  We know now that it was a dry run which benefited from Al Gore's refusal to tear the country apart.  That's what decency gets you.

And today, twenty months on, the chair of the Wisconsin Assembly's elections committee is still trying to deliver the state's electoral votes to Trump, employing the word "tyranny" to describe the multiply-recounted results of 2020.  It never ends.

What has rule by the White-Right minority brought us today?

South Carolina wants to make it illegal to discuss abortion online or on the phone.  That's South Carolina, not North Korea. 

In Oklahoma librarians can be fired or prosecuted for helping library patrons find information about abortion, or even for using the word.  

What we need is a group called "Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections."  Probably not involving Bill Barr, Karl Rove and others of that stripe, though.  I see more voter IDs, fewer days of voting, vanishing drop boxes and lots of litigation.  I see red (state) people.

At the Opus Dei Court, a 5-4 decision written by Brett the Boofer overturned US v. Kagama (1886) and gave states back the right to interfere in the affairs of tribal reservations.

We need some nice news.  Steve Bannon was convicted of contempt of Congress.  Not less than a year, which is what the Hollywood Ten got.  A shower a week for fifty-two weeks -- cruel and unusual?

Here is a monarch butterfly.  Like me, they're nearly extinct.

The last word is from Michael Fanone:  "Josh Hawley is a bitch.  And he ran like a bitch."