Charlottesville Riots August 2017 (Edu Bayer / New York Times)
Astead W. Herndon, As President Preaches Unity, Charlottesville Calls For Justice, New York Times, Friday, January 22, 2021, at A1, based on an interview with Ms. Susan Bro, the mother of Heather Heyer who was killed in 2017 in the Charlottesville Riots.
Please read the disclaimer. This blog article ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
(Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)
January 17 is the date reportedly set for Capitol Hill Riot Part Two. That date is the choice of the same people who staged the Capitol Hill Riot Part One, on January 6, to do it again.
January 16 -- the date before Capitol Hill Riot Part Two, or shall we call it Capitol Hill Coup Part Two -- is the day that the current chief of the Capitol Police says that he will leave office.
If you believe in coincidence, you are living in the wrong time and place.
Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
(Doug Mills / New York Times)
The victories of Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock in the U.S. Senate runoff elections in Georgia surprised many people. But their victories did not surprise Mr. Ossoff or Reverend Warnock.
And their successes were certainly not surprising to Ms. Stacey Abrams, whose approach to politics is a successful contrast to Democratic Party politics nationally.
The two Democratic Senate candidates were a striking shift from previous recruits, who tended to be white moderates, and stepped gingerly, and sometimes awkwardly, around the God and guns issues crucial to white voters who had become disenchanted with Democrats.
Mr. Ossoff, with his degrees from Georgetown and the London School of Economics, speaks without a hint of Southern twang; he could hail from Santa Monica, or Portland. He would also be the first Jewish person to be elected to the Senate from Georgia.
Mr. Warnock is the kind of preacher who sees activism as central to the mission of the Black church. As pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, he has embraced Dr. King’s philosophy of economic justice as a corollary to racial justice.
In effect, the two men ran as themselves. As unabashed liberals. In Georgia.
*You may be wondering about the name of Abigail Spanberger in the headline of this blog article. Ms. Spanberger is the person who exemplifies the national Democratic approach to elections. She famously melted down during a telephone conference call among Democratic Members of the House of Representatives, blaming Progressives for the loss of Democratic seats in the House in 2020.
It seems that the national Democratic party needs to look at how it does things just as much as it needs to look at how things are now done in Georgia. Not a single Progressive lost a House seat in 2020. Not one. Now, two Senators are coming to Washington who ran "as unabashed liberals. In Georgia."
Faith Over Fear, Ms. Spanberger. Faith Over Fear, Democratic National Committee.
Please read the disclaimer. ©2021 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
"Pro-Russian insurrectionists in Ukraine in 2014 had a look similar to what was seen on Wednesday." Caption to this photograph published in The New York Times, Friday, January 8, 2021:
(Mauricio Lima / New York Times)
Possible Putin connections or directions are compared by Andrew Higgins in the accompanying article, Moscow Dispatch / Scene in Washington Recalls Images of Post-Soviet Uprisings, NEW YORK TIMES, Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, at A16.
Nothing should be off the table for investigators of the Capitol Hill Riot.
Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
(Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)
The Capitol Hill Riot did not just happen. The Capitol Police did not just make a mistake yesterday, January 6, 2021.
Law enforcement showed a very different face yesterday from Black Lives Matter protests and since June, when border guards and prison guards and the D.C. National Guard all showed up equipped for riots, although there were no riots.
I am not sure about the involvement of the Capitol Police or for that matter the involvement of the Metropolitan Police Department (D.C. Police) on those earlier occasions. I do not know if they were among the people who showed up in riot gear, although there were no riots then.
There was a riot yesterday at the U.S. Capitol. The Capitol Police were not equipped in riot gear. They were not equipped for riots, although even civilians could see that a riot was coming their way. That was true for days beforehand. Any fool could see that a riot was at least possible and, more likely, that a riot was probable.
History has this lesson about riots, not a hidden lesson either but one that is well-known: Historically, police either allow riots or they join them, when they don't put them down.
The Capitol Police did not put down the Capitol Hill Riot of January 6, 2021. If history is our guide, that leaves just two options.
There have been pictures and videos of Capitol Police easing the way of the rioters into the Capitol. Only 52 people as of this writing have been arrested. Along with much of the rest of the country, I watched the Capitol Hill Riot on television. There were thousands of rioters to choose from, but only 52 were chosen. That says something about the enthusiasm behind making arrests following the Capitol Hill Riot.
The performance of the Capitol Police was not confined to just grunts. More were implicated than just frontline police officers. What happened is beyond the power of grunts. It is within the power of their leaders.
Don't always assume negligence as the cause of things. For four years now, negligence seems to be the default assumption about the cause of such events as we witnessed yesterday.
When the Capitol Hill Riot is investigated, perhaps it will instead be investigated by experienced people who doubt the easy assumption. Perhaps, at long last, it will be the Capitol Hill Riot investigation that works on inductive reasoning, which is the same tool that police officers use when they are tasked with investigating crimes: Inductive reasoning reasons from the specific to the general.
In the case of the Capital Hill Riot, we pretty much know that there was a riot and that the Capitol Police were nowhere to be seen preventing access to the Capitol (although there is a now-famous photograph taken at the time the rioters reached the House Chamber, showing some of the police inside the Chamber who pulled their guns but by then the rioters were already inside the building), and the Capitol Police were definitely not seen slowing the flow of any rioters coming in, let alone turning the rioters back.
That is what we know, all we know, at this early time in our investigation. Now, without assumptions, let's look all the way to where this leads.
Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
Tropical Bank (Photo by Dennis Wall)
I think there is a certain wisdom in this saying. I like it almost as much as this quote, rephrased from a saying by Mr. Upton Sinclair: 'It is difficult to get a person to recognize a fact, when their salary depends on them not knowing it.'
Georgia, this is the day and this is the hour, beginning at 7 AM and going through 7 PM.
Vote! Elect Democrats Ossoff + Warnock for Senate and Daniel Blackman for PSC. If you have your Absentee Ballot, drop it off at a drop box or at a polling site.
Or vote in person! But vote!
Your Vote = Your Voice, make sure you are heard!
(John Amis / Atlanta Journal Constitution)
Elect Democrats Ossoff + Warnock for Senate and Daniel Blackman for PSC.
The Georgia Secretary of State says that Friday was the last day both to Vote Early and to ask for an Absentee Ballot.
So, plan to vote in person on Tuesday, January 5 OR if you have not dropped off your Absentee Ballot yet, the SOS Website says you can drop off your Absentee Ballot by Election Day!
Your Vote = Your Voice, make sure you are heard!
(John Amis / Atlanta Journal Constitution)
Elect Democrats Ossoff + Warnock for Senate and Daniel Blackman for PSC.
The Georgia Secretary of State says that Friday was the last day both to Vote Early and to ask for an Absentee Ballot.
So, plan to vote in person on Tuesday, January 5 OR if you have not dropped off your Absentee Ballot yet, the SOS Website says you can drop off your Absentee Ballot by Election Day!
Your Vote = Your Voice, make sure you are heard!
(John Amis / Atlanta Journal Constitution)
Elect Democrats Ossoff + Warnock for Senate and Daniel Blackman for PSC.
The Georgia Secretary of State says that Friday was the last day both to Vote Early and to ask for an Absentee Ballot.
So, plan to vote in person on Tuesday, January 5 OR if you have not dropped off your Absentee Ballot yet, the SOS Website says you can drop off your Absentee Ballot by Election Day!
Your Vote = Your Voice, make sure you are heard!
(John Amis / Atlanta Journal Constitution)
Let the objectors know that they have chosen to play hardball. This is not slow-pitch softball.
Since they choose to make objections and challenges, fine. Challenge them back.
The best defense is an offense whether in war, in football, or in politics.
Challenge Tommy Tuberville of Alabama who also stood for election in 2020. Oh, you say, that was an election to the U.S. Senate and January 6th is only about the presidential electors? Okay, then Democrats challenge the certification of presidential electors from Alabama.
Then after starting with the letter "A," challenge the certification of electors from every other State which voted for anyone other than Biden-Harris. Object to certifying electors from each and every one of those States.
If the objectors in the Senate and House are going to make their challenges, let them know that they have opened up everything to objections and challenges including the elections that elected or re-elected them.
There is no reason to let them have the inevitable microphones to themselves. There is no good reason to let them hog the TV coverage that is coming, either. Share the air time. Give the corporate media their sound bites and videos.
And for good measure, remind the people of this country every chance you get that these federal challengers, these federal objectors in the Senate and the House, are attacking democracy itself. They are trying to have the federal government tell the States what to do. They want the federal government to overturn the will of the voters in America.
There is no such thing as a free lunch. Make them pay a price for what they themselves have chosen.
Please read the disclaimer. ©2021 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
(FreePhotos)
Put that University education to work for your State and your Nation! Elect Democrats Ossoff + Warnock for Senate and Daniel Blackman for PSC.
The Georgia Secretary of State says that Friday was the last day both to Vote Early and to ask for an Absentee Ballot.
So, plan to vote in person on Tuesday, January 5 OR if you have not dropped off your Absentee Ballot yet, the SOS Website says you can drop off your Absentee Ballot by Election Day!
Your Vote = Your Voice, make sure you are heard!
(John Amis / Atlanta Journal Constitution)
Elect Democrats Ossoff + Warnock for Senate and Daniel Blackman for PSC.
The Georgia Secretary of State says that Friday was the last day both to Vote Early and to ask for an Absentee Ballot.
So, plan to vote in person on Tuesday, January 5 OR if you have not dropped off your Absentee Ballot yet, the SOS Website says you can drop off your Absentee Ballot by Election Day!
Your Vote = Your Voice, make sure you are heard!
(John Amis / Atlanta Journal Constitution)
Elect Democrats Ossoff + Warnock for Senate and Daniel Blackman for PSC.
The Georgia Secretary of State says that Friday was the last day both to Vote Early and to ask for an Absentee Ballot.
So, plan to vote in person on Tuesday, January 5 OR if you have not dropped off your Absentee Ballot yet, the SOS Website says you can drop off your Absentee Ballot by Election Day!
Your Vote = Your Voice, make sure you are heard!
Have a Happy New Year, and a Healthy one, all year through!
We shouldn't ever forget 2020, but we shouldn't dwell there any longer. We live today not just for today, but in this case for tomorrow as well. We owe nothing less to the people who cannot be here with us today. So, in their name and ours, let's lift up a toast to all our tomorrows!
Happy and Healthy New Year in 2021!
The caption to these two photographs in Tuesday's print edition of The New York Times says everything that should be said and is not being said often enough:
(Victor J. Blue / New York Times)
(Victor J. Blue / New York Times)
"Supporters of President Trump gathered at the Washington Monument for one of several rallies in Washington on Saturday. The crowd at Freedom Plaza, left, was far smaller than the one that gathered there shortly after Election Day."
NEW YORK TIMES, print edition, p. A18, Tuesday, December 15, 2020.
Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
In yesterday's article I asked a question.
Much has been written and said about the Occupant's behavior dampening the enthusiasm of voters for Georgia's Republican Senatorial candidates.
The question I posed yesterday was about the behavior of the President-Elect and whether his behavior dampens the enthusiasm of workers for Georgia's Democratic Senatorial candidates.
My answer is that I will continue to work as hard as I can to elect Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, the Democratic candidates for U.S. Senator in the Georgia runoff election.
My answer is the promise of things unseen.
Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
Happy Thanksgiving!
America won, we beat back the first plague! Now let's win the battle against COVID-19.
Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
God Bless the people with COVID. That could be us. That is us.
Let's get to work on COVID, together.
(Ted S. Warren / Associated Press)
Please read the disclaimer. This article ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
(Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press)
We are reliving 2016. Well, we're not, not all of us. But The Occupant is reliving 2016.
The Occupant is trying to keep being The Occupant. That apparently means repeating the imagined triumphs of 2016 in Michigan, Pennsylvania and, yes, Wisconsin. See MICHIGAN, PENNSYLVANIA & ... WISCONSIN NEXT? "BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID, posted here on Saturday morning, November 21, 2020 predicting that the next target is going to be Wisconsin.
Now it is Wisconsin. Late in the afternoon on the same day, the LOS ANGELES TIMES posted this Associated Press story: Wisconsin Officials Say Trump Observers Are Obstructing Recount.
Reportedly the current Occupant's Observers are supposed to remain quiet but they can't help themselves, "interrupting vote counters with questions and comments."
They are only supposed to have one representative at each counting table in Wisconsin, but sometimes they have two.
Other times they pose as "independents" so they can have more observers.
It is also reported that there appears to be a pattern in Wisconsin. Many, some or all of the Occupant's Observers object to every single ballot.
A County Election Commissioner in Wisconsin told the Associated Press that this was all "prima facie evidence of bad faith[.]"
He said it. The Associated Press quoted it. "On Wisconsin!"
Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
(Patricia McKnight / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Three states that voted Democratic in past presidential elections and that voted for the present Occupant in 2016 -- and that are widely credited with giving him a majority in the Electoral College -- are of course Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
In an effort to keep on being the Occupant, the present Occupant has done some wild things to Michigan's process of certifying its electoral votes in 2020.
Rumors in the corporate media have it that the present Occupant is now turning his lonely eyes to Pennsylvania.
No-one in the corporate media seems to understand why Michigan, or why Pennsylvania.
"It's the 2016 election all over again, stupid." There's nothing like reliving past glories, I guess. If this is what's going on, Wisconsin is next on the agenda.
That's another State that went by the many thousands for Biden in 2020, of course.
Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
.... also." Matthew 6:21.
(Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)
Two headlines from the Orlando Sentinel newspaper on Saturday, November 21, 2020 tell the whole story.
1. Trump Again Bids to Undo Loss, Orlando Sentinel, p. 1, Section 1, Sat., Nov. 21, 2020.
2. 659,000 Floridians Still Remain Out of Work, Orlando Sentinel, p. 1, Section 2, Sat., Nov. 21, 2020.
Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
Wall of Moms, Portland, Oregon 2020
Abigail Spanberger spoke for the entitled crowd apparently on a recent telephone conference call. The call was for Democratic Members of the House of Representatives. AS complained that Progressives hurt the party because the opponents accused her and her crowd of "socialism."
Progressives did not lose their seats in 2020.
Centrists, the entitled crowd of the Democratic House membership, did.
I have started looking at the numbers: It appears that some 80% of the lost seats in the House were held by Democratic Centrists. Maybe they were not Progressive enough. Or maybe the voters decided that if they were going to elect Republicans, they were going to vote Republican and elect the real thing.
Whatever motivated the voters it is clear that Progressives were not the cause of the Democrats' poor House results.
Like I said, I have just started to look into the case of the lost seats and the people who lost them. Some things come clear upon the first examination, however.
The losers included a large number of first-termers, that is, people who were elected in 2018 and so were running for re-election at the end of their first term. People like Donna Shalala of Florida, and Abby Finkenauer of Iowa. No-one ever called Donna Shalala a "socialist" except her opponent. If Ms. Shalala wasn't able to respond to that, it explains a lot about why she is no longer in office.
The losses included close races. Finkenauer lost 51%-48.6% in Iowa, for example, and Harley Rouda of California lost 51%-49%. Not exactly a blowout, even in very Republican Districts. Rouda's District is in Orange County, California and not in Beverly Hills. Mr. Rouda was defeated by the Chair of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, a very conservative and very Republican person in a very conservative and very Republican District.
Collin Peterson of Minnesota had been in Washington, D.C. a long time. This was not his first re-election campaign. However, he consistently voted for GOP interests over the years, as did Max Rose of New York, another of the first-termers. Rouda in fact voted against impeachment. Twice. It is likely that the voters in their conservative Republican Districts decided that if they were going to vote for a Republican, they were going to elect the real deal this year.
I plan to continue to look at the losses and the people who lost. But the beginning of my search leads me to call BS, AS. It was not the Progressives who lost seats. No. It was Centrists who were either not Progressive or not Republican enough for the people in their Districts. And even then, many of these races were close. There were few if any blowouts.
So again I call BS, AS.
Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
(Gridview_imagefull / Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services)
Go quickly to www.loser.com while it's still operative!
Enjoy!
The current regime has not declared martial law yet. Many people have feared that they would declare martial law before now.
The fact that they haven't says that the Army (speaking of the entire military as a whole) will not do it. Soldiers, sailors, air force personnel, coast guarders and marines will not shoot their fellow citizens.
More to the point, the fact that they haven't declared martial law says that the current regime has been told that the Army will not go along with it. The Army will not obey unlawful orders. They are not the German army of the 1930's; they are the American Army of 2020.
The current regime cannot declare martial law and enforce their declaration with just border guards and prison guards, like they did in Washington, D.C. and like they failed again trying to do in Portland, Oregon. The United States is just too big. There are not enough border guards and prison guards, and specialized units in say the U.S. Marshals Service, to do anything more than target specific locations or, perhaps, a specific individual.
If there are individualized disruptions at specific locations, they will be at places where the most likely resistance will not be armed. These border guards and prison guards have not encountered victims who are armed, and they certainly do not confront people who can fight back on anything like equal terms. No, the guards are most likely to "deploy" to areas where they are most likely to confront unarmed people.
Individualized disruptions at specific locations? Perhaps. But not martial law, it looks like. Then the question becomes:
If there are individualized disruptions involving violence, shootings, and even death, what will the Army do then?
Please read the disclaimer. ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
And now a message from the Common Ground Project in Florida: More resources, more volunteer opportunities for protecting the vote!
(Common Ground Project)
Defend Democracy:
Poll monitors needed!
Can we count on you?
The Common Ground Project is looking for volunteers to assist in our Poll Monitoring and Election Protection Program. This is a large statewide initiative led by our coalition partners: Common Cause, State Voices, and Florida for All. The Common Ground Project is committed to ensuring that all voters have safe and accessible access to casting their ballots and having their voices heard on November 3rd. We are in need of volunteers!
Please join us for this critical work to protect our election. We look forward to working with you as a leader in your community!
Please register to be a poll worker and sign up for one of the following upcoming training opportunities:
As always, please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions!
Regards,
Lisa Perry
Please read the disclaimer. This blog article ©2020 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
