A Year After Insurrection                          #204

by Hank Silverberg

At the end of this week we will mark an ugly milestone in American history. It will be one year since hundreds of people stormed the U.S. Capitol with the intent of overturning the fair election of Joe Biden and disrupting one of the main tenets of  our Republic: the peaceful transition of power.  

More than 700 individuals have been charged with crimes for their participation in the attacks, and so far more than 50 have been convicted.  January 6 Capitol Riot Arrests (usatoday.com)

At least seven members of Congress have been named for helping to plan the event along with some of former President Trump's staff, though none have been criminally charged. More disgusting: very few Republican members of Congress have even expressed outrage over the violence and the attempt to overturn the election even thought it actually threatened their lives.   

Report: Members of Congress Helped Plan the January 6 Rally | Washingtonian (DC)

At the very least, those politicians and others around the country who may have been involved in the January 6 incident should be kicked out of office. Some may eventually be censured by Congress or even convicted of a crime. But justice may be moving too slowly. We have a congressional election coming up in November and the closer we get to it the more such accusations will become political fodder rather than criminal cases. 

It's clear that the American public wants something done, but there is great divide over just what to do. 

A poll conducted by the University of Maryland and The Washington Post in late December  indicates only 54% of those asked believe the events of Jan 6 were mostly violent, with 43% believing Mr. Trump had a great deal to do with the event.  

(Here is the actual poll: Dec. 17-19, 2021, Washington Post-University of Maryland poll - The Washington Post

At the same time, only 64% of those polled say they are confident that the votes in the upcoming 2022 midterm election will be counted accurately. That is actually a disturbingly low number for an American election. 

Republicans and Democrats still divided over Jan. 6 insurrection and Trump’s culpability, Post-UMD poll finds (adn.com)

I note these are low numbers considering the entire riot played out on live TV and more video continues to surface showing different spots with different aspects of the violence in which five people died.   

It all seems to divide over party lines in a dramatic way. Another poll conducted the last week of December by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst found 71% of Republicans viewing Joe Biden's victory as illegitimate. They largely defend those who stormed the Capitol to disrupt the certification of that election.  

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FOR MORE ON THE POLL look at these links. 

One Year Later, New UMass Amherst Poll Finds Continued National Political Division Over the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol | UMass Amherst

Toplines and Crosstabs December 2021 National Poll: Presidential Election & Jan 6th Insurrection at the US Capitol | Department of Political Science | UMass Amherst

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The political divide over election results and the January 6 insurrection is much larger than the divide on many other issues.

But here are the poll results that should worry most of us no matter what political stand you take. And I hope I didn't bury the lead here. The Post/UMD survey also found one-third of all those queried believe it can sometimes be "justified for citizens to take violent action against the government." It broke down to 40% of the Republicans, 23% of Democrats, and a striking 41% of Independents. 

One in three Americans say violence against government sometimes justified: poll | TheHill

For clarification, 22% of those who thought violence could be justified said that would be the case only if the government was taking away people's rights or freedoms. But as we have seen over the last two years during the pandemic, people have a distorted view of what their rights and freedoms are.  

Tweet Tweet Tweet  

One of those Congress members who has been linked to complicity with the 1/6 attackers is Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene. You have seen me highlight some of her obnoxious and dumb quotes in this blog.  Well, you won't see as many now.

Twitter has permanently suspended her PERSONAL twitter account for spreading misinformation about Covid-19. 

Now, I am sure there are some people out there who are screaming about this and saying, "What about the First Amendment??"  Well, for the record, the First Amendment protects you from GOVERNMENT censorship. Twitter, the last time I checked, is NOT the government. Those who run the private entity have the right to control what information goes out on their platform. In fact, many social media giants have been taking a lot of heat from the U.S Government and foreign countries for things they don't censor, like some hate speech or pornography.   

Greene, by the way, has been repeatedly fined for violating House rules and not wearing a mask on the House Floor. Unfortunately, her official congressional twitter account remains active. True to her form, on Sunday she issued an official statement saying twitter is seeking a "communist revolution." There was more to her ridiculous  statement, but I am not going to play her game and repeat it.  

Twitter permanently suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene’s personal account (msn.com)

Raining Fish!!!

We have had some strange types of weather across the country this year, but here's a rare one. The folks in Texarkana, Texas say it was raining fish this past week. 

It's okay to laugh, but it's real. Over the years people have seen fish, frogs, bats, snakes, birds and other animals fall from the sky in what has since been labeled "animal rain." 

(Fish  rain in Texrakanna KTFW photo)

According to National Geographic, animal rain occurs when small critters are swept up in waterspouts. The spouts are formed when storm clouds swirl to create a tornado-like column of moving clouds filled with wind that move over a body of water. There can also be updrafts over 60 miles an hour that pick up small animals. Eventually, the animals fall to the ground.  

Stories of such "animal rain" have been told for hundreds of years. Now with social media and cameras in every phone, it is being documented more often. 'Raining Fish' Explained: Storm Brings in Fish Falling From Sky in Rare Texas Phenomenon (msn.com)

Dumbest Quote of The Week!

The dumbest quote of the week this time comes from Ann Coulter, who claims to be a political pundit but continues to give blonds a bad reputation. This is one of her tweets. It's in response to one of her followers tweets that included video of Dr. Fauci urging people to get vaccinated. 

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Ann Coulter

@AnnCoulter

Vax is not effective at preventing CASES, just deaths. If YOU are vaxxed, you're safe. Stop bothering the unvaxxed.

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But of course, she doesn't get it. The "unvaxxed" are not helping themselves for sure, but they are also harming the rest of us. Hospitals are now overcrowded with Covid-19 cases, about 90% of which are people who are not vaccinated. That is creating a dangerous situation. There are bed shortages for other people who need critical care from other medical issues including emergencies. It is overtaxing our health care workers again as well.

The severe cases among the unvaccinated are damaging our workforce and our economy, and are threatening the very lives of children too young to get vaccinated, or those with immunocompromised conditions.

Coulter and others of her ilk need to remember that their right to extend their fists ends just before our noses.

They say wearing a mask or getting a vaccination is damaging their freedom.

Good grief! Have they no shame? It's a small sacrifice for the good of the country and the world. Where is that patriotism they are always bragging about? It's not like we are asking them to storm the beaches of Normandy or Iwo Jima. Get vaccinated and put on a mask in indoor public places.

(Copies of  my latest book "The Campaign" can be purchased at the links below. Or you can buy a copy by emailing me at:

HankSilverberg@gmail.com  for instructions on  how to get a copy at a reduced price and with my signature. )                       

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084Q7K6M5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-campaign-hank-silverberg/1126429796