January 6 was a strategic victory for authoritarianism.
Yes, the mob was ultimately repulsed. Yes, Mike Pence certified the votes. Yes, Joe Biden was inaugurated.
But Donald Trump was never held accountable. On the contrary, the fallout from January 6 probably made him more popular. On the fifth anniversary of the Capitol insurrection, Trump, its chief inciter, is back in the White House, less restrained than last time. If not treated quickly and comprehensively, the antidemocratic virus adapts and comes back stronger.
In post-Soviet Russia, we teetered on the brink of democracy.
Yet there was no reckoning over the communist past. No tribunal or commission to dispense justice for decades of crimes against humanity. Many of the old party elites simply rebranded, joined by a new cadre of oligarchic power brokers. Despite having a similar political pedigree, our neighbors in Ukraine managed a peaceful transition of power in 1994. Russia never did. Today, a KGB agent is the most firmly entrenched Russian dictator since Joseph Stalin.
That was Russia. At the very least, no one was looking to Moscow as a beacon of liberty.
But when the president attempts a self-coup in America?
Then the virus—untreated, uncontrolled—becomes especially contagious.
My appeal to Americans on the fifth anniversary of the insurrection is not another empty admonishment to never forget. Those who have forgotten have done so consciously.
Instead, I am calling on my American friends to embrace your destiny as a nation. The United States is the blueprint that so many others follow—whether in the right direction or the wrong one. Many countries’ constitutions and declarations of independence have been written on the American model. Yet demagogues the world over have also emulated your leaders’ worst habits.
As a matter of political reality and historic providence, you have a special responsibility. Create a world that embodies the spirit of 1776, not January 6.
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Cheeto And Control Of The Military
Last night Rachel Maddow made the case for Emperor Cheeto’s foreign policy She went through all the excuses that have been raised Cheeto wants to put up the middle finger to a Nobel laureate; it’s the cocaine/fentanyl; it’s broadening campaign support from his wealthy cronies in the oil industry or at Koch Industries; it’s to support Big Oil in order to diminish green initiatives and oppose the ideas of global warming; it’s the poor quality Venezuelan oil or tar/asphalt; it’s to underscore his own “rigged” 2020 election claims by pointing to Maduro’s Venezuelan rigged elections to support election denialism; it’s to serve as a distraction to domestic inadequacies of inflation, ACA subsidies, ICE raids, losses in court, the Epstein files
All of these are plausible but with Paul Ryckoff as her guest (https://bit.ly/4971Mcw at 32minutes) Maddow makes the point that Cheeto wants to dominate the Western Hemisphere and use the powerful US military to achieve his goal But more than that Cheeto wants to show that he alone is in control of the military and get them used to following his unconstitutional use of the them Sure they won’t be asked to shoot peaceful demonstrators But what about just deploying them for the 2026 midterm elections to intimidate voters What would be so wrong with that?
Trump is celebrating Jan 6 by having a White House website created that continues the lie and blames Democrats.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/j6/