January 6th

[BoSoxGal]

OPINION
GUEST ESSAY
Jimmy Carter: I Fear for Our Democracy

One year ago, a violent mob, guided by unscrupulous politicians, stormed the Capitol and almost succeeded in preventing the democratic transfer of power. All four of us former presidents condemned their actions and affirmed the legitimacy of the 2020 election. There followed a brief hope that the insurrection would shock the nation into addressing the toxic polarization that threatens our democracy.

However, one year on, promoters of the lie that the election was stolen have taken over one political party and stoked distrust in our electoral systems. These forces exert power and influence through relentless disinformation, which continues to turn Americans against Americans. According to the Survey Center on American Life, 36 percent of Americans — almost 100 million adults across the political spectrum — agree that “the traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it.” The Washington Post recently reported that roughly 40 percent of Republicans believe that violent action against the government is sometimes justified.

Politicians in my home state of Georgia, as well as in others, such as Texas and Florida, have leveraged the distrust they have created to enact laws that empower partisan legislatures to intervene in election processes. They seek to win by any means, and many Americans are being persuaded to think and act likewise, threatening to collapse the foundations of our security and democracy with breathtaking speed. I now fear that what we have fought so hard to achieve globally — the right to free, fair elections, unhindered by strongman politicians who seek nothing more than to grow their own power — has become dangerously fragile at home.

I personally encountered this threat in my own backyard in 1962, when a ballot-stuffing county boss tried to steal my election to the Georgia State Senate. This was in the primary, and I challenged the fraud in court. Ultimately, a judge invalidated the results, and I won the general election. Afterward, the protection and advancement of democracy became a priority for me. As president, a major goal was to institute majority rule in southern Africa and elsewhere.

After I left the White House and founded the Carter Center, we worked to promote free, fair and orderly elections across the globe. I led dozens of election observation missions in Africa, Latin America and Asia, starting with Panama in 1989, where I put a simple question to administrators: “Are you honest officials or thieves?” At each election, my wife, Rosalynn, and I were moved by the courage and commitment of thousands of citizens walking miles and waiting in line from dusk to dawn to cast their first ballots in free elections, renewing hope for themselves and their nations and taking their first steps to self-governance. But I have also seen how new democratic systems — and sometimes even established ones — can fall to military juntas or power-hungry despots. Sudan and Myanmar are two recent examples.

For American democracy to endure, we must demand that our leaders and candidates uphold the ideals of freedom and adhere to high standards of conduct.

First, while citizens can disagree on policies, people of all political stripes must agree on fundamental constitutional principles and norms of fairness, civility and respect for the rule of law. Citizens should be able to participate easily in transparent, safe and secure electoral processes. Claims of election irregularities should be submitted in good faith for adjudication by the courts, with all participants agreeing to accept the findings. And the election process should be conducted peacefully, free of intimidation and violence.

Second, we must push for reforms that ensure the security and accessibility of our elections and ensure public confidence in the accuracy of results. Phony claims of illegal voting and pointless multiple audits only detract from democratic ideals.

Third, we must resist the polarization that is reshaping our identities around politics. We must focus on a few core truths: that we are all human, we are all Americans and we have common hopes for our communities and our country to thrive. We must find ways to re-engage across the divide, respectfully and constructively, by holding civil conversations with family, friends and co-workers and standing up collectively to the forces dividing us.

Fourth, violence has no place in our politics, and we must act urgently to pass or strengthen laws to reverse the trends of character assassination, intimidation and the presence of armed militias at events. We must protect our election officials — who are trusted friends and neighbors of many of us — from threats to their safety. Law enforcement must have the power to address these issues and engage in a national effort to come to terms with the past and present of racial injustice.

Lastly, the spread of disinformation, especially on social media, must be addressed. We must reform these platforms and get in the habit of seeking out accurate information. Corporate America and religious communities should encourage respect for democratic norms, participation in elections and efforts to counter disinformation.

Our great nation now teeters on the brink of a widening abyss. Without immediate action, we are at genuine risk of civil conflict and losing our precious democracy. Americans must set aside differences and work together before it is too late.

Jimmy Carter was the 39th president of the United States.

[BoSoxGal]

[Crackpot]

Ted Cruz picks odd times to find and lose his spine.

[Econoline]

Ted Cruz picks odd times to find and lose his spine.

Ted Cruz Begs Tucker Carlson’s Forgiveness for Being Mean to Violent Insurrectionists
By Jonathan Chait

Senator Ted Cruz has tried to cling to what has become the safest ground in the Republican Party: Denouncing the violent attack on the Capitol one year ago without criticizing either the lies that inspired it or acknowledging their growing hold over the GOP. It was a “dark day” when a few bad people decided to beat up cops for ephemeral reasons, to no effect.

But Cruz made a crucial error. In denouncing the people who attacked Capitol police, he employed his customary term: “terrorists.” It has been one of his favorite words of abuse, generally reserved for domestic criminals. But Tucker Carlson objected to Cruz deploying the epithet against right-wing insurrectionists. (He also objects to the term “insurrectionists.”) And so Cruz, in what has become a Trump-era ritual, pleaded for the chance to trade one of his remaining scraps of dignity in return for a measure of forgiveness.

“As a result of my sloppy phrasing, it’s caused a lot of people to misunderstand what I meant,” Cruz begged. “What I was referring to was the limited number of people who engaged in violent attacks against police officers.”

Cruz and Carlson disagreed over whether it was accurate to describe people who assault police as “terrorists.” (The FBI defines domestic terrorism as “violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature,” which would seem to include assaulting police officers in order to further the ideological goal of giving Donald Trump an unelected second term.)

Cruz did not back down on the broader definitional claim that attacking police officers is “terrorism.” He conceded, however, that it was wrong to describe Trump fans who attacked police officers this way. “The reason I used that word is that’s the word I’ve always used for people that attack cops,” he pleaded, “But in this context, I get why people are angry. Because we’ve had a year of the corrupt corporate media and Democrats have so politicized it.”

Calling right-wing extremists who attacked cops in hopes they could pressure Congress to cancel the results of the election “terrorists,” Cruz now agrees, was a horrendous slur. Whatever these people are, they are not as bad as people who attack police officers for other, less sympathetic reasons.

Cruz also noted that, while he erred by describing the violent attackers in the insurrection as “terrorists,” he would never describe their effort to overthrow the government as an “insurrection.” “Saying it’s an insurrection is a political term,” he noted. “It’s a lie, I’ve repeatedly denounced it.”

Cruz ended the segment by reminding Carlson he was one of a dozen senators who supported Trump’s effort to cancel the election results. “While thousands of people were standing up to defend this country on January 6,” he said, “I was standing on the Senate floor, objecting to the election results.”

Cruz thought the sweet spot for him was to position himself as a champion of Trump’s non-violent efforts to discard the election results while strongly condemning its violent aspects. Not for the first time, and probably not for the last, he misjudged the political market.

[Crackpot]

That article has the gall to accuse Ted Cruz of having “dignity”.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Ted Cruz terrifies me. He's like Trump, only smarter. (Mind you, that's a pretty low bar.)

[BoSoxGal]

The people who turned in their parents for their role in the Capitol attack

Many young Americans are still reeling from their parents’ involvement in the violence of a year ago – and some reported them to the police

A year on from the Capitol attack by loyalist supporters of Donald Trump, many families are still reeling from members outing each other to law enforcement and offspring traumatized by their parents’ involvement in the insurrection.

Jackson Reffitt, a 19-year old from Texas, called the FBI weeks before his father, Guy Reffitt, stormed the US Capitol on January, saying that his father had been hinting at doing “something big”, Teen Vogue reported.

In text messages obtained by the magazine, Jackson’s younger sister texted their father in a family group chat, writing: “Dad, please be safe!! You know you are risking not only your business but your life too.”

Guy Reffitt replied: “I have no intention on throwing it away. I love ALL of you with ALL my heart and soul. This is for our country and for ALL OF YOU and your kids. God bless us, one and all … ”

Guy Reffitt has since been charged with numerous crimes.

The charges relate to obstruction of an official proceeding, obstruction of justice for threatening his children, transporting firearms with the intention of using them during the mob attack on the Capitol, and a misdemeanor charge of accessing Secret Service-protected grounds without lawful authority.

While in jail awaiting trial, the senior Reffitt texted news reports to the family group chat that featured photos of himself at the riots.

Jackson told Teen Vogue that as the attacks unfolded, live on television, he received a phone call from the FBI, asking him to confirm his father’s identity and he confirmed that it was his father at the riot.

Jackson now lives away from his family and rarely communicates with them.

“He used to be one of the best dads ever,” he told the magazine. “He made me the man I am today. He taught me to be honest, not to steal, all that cliche stuff. I believe he brought me up to do what I did.”

When Jackson does talk to his mother, she calls him “the Gestapo”, referring to Nazi secret police. His older sister, Sarah, 24, reportedly remains in disbelief towards Jackson.

According to Sarah, she knows that their father loves Jackson, which in turn makes her even more upset to accept the fact that her brother turned him in to the FBI.

“It’s hard not to condemn Jackson in defending my father,” she said. “I’m not gonna call [my dad] a hero for going [to the Capitol],” she added, but said: “He’s a hero to me because he’s my dad, but not for that.”

Sarah also does not think her father should be jailed as he awaits trial. Unlike the judge in Guy Reffitt’s case, she does not see her father as a danger to the community.

In a jailhouse letter obtained by ProPublica, Guy Reffitt wrote: “January 6 was nothing short of a satirical way to overthrow a government. If overthrow was the quest, it would have no doubt been overthrown.”

On Thursday, Joe Biden, and Liz Cheney, the Republican congresswoman and the co-chair of the Capitol attack select committee, spoke about how close the mob came to violently overturning the election result – but failed.

Meanwhile, Robyn Sweet, the 35-year-old daughter of a Virginia man, Douglas Sweet, is dealing with being the daughter of a Capitol Hill insurrectionist.

Douglas Sweet, a staunch Donald Trump supporter, has been sentenced to 36 months’ probation with one month of home detention, fined and ordered to perform community service.

Robyn Sweet said that once, when she was protesting against schools being named after Confederate generals, she saw her father across a parking lot, standing under a Confederate flag with his friends.

“It’s like we’re living these mirrored lives,” Robyn told the magazine. When a friend sent her a link to a news report that mentioned her father as one of the rioters arrested on 6 January, Robyn said she felt relieved because she knew he was safe.

Since then, Robyn and her father have limited their conversation topics to only light ones.

“We can’t even talk about religion, politics or current events,” she said.

While Jackson and Robyn continue to remain in touch with their families, albeit to different extents, 19-year-old Helena Duke has not spoken to her mother, Therese Duke, since the day she found out that her mother was part of the Capitol mob.

After a video showing Therese harassing a Capitol police officer and then being punched in the face surfaced online, Helena tweeted, in what has become a viral post: “Hi mom, remember the time you told me I shouldn’t go to [Black Lives Matter] protests because they could get violent … this you?”

Helena has since moved across the country from her mother and says that they are barely in contact.

“It horrifies me to this day that she did such a thing. I’ve attempted to close the last chapter of my life in order to heal fully,” Helena said.

Nevertheless, Helena mourns the relationship that she used to have with her mother. “As a child, my mother was my idol. She was the ‘fun mom’ who all my friends adored. She was so loving and full of life. I wish people knew how painful it is to grieve the life of a parent who is still living,” Helena said.

Since the riots, federal prosecutors have brought cases against 727 individuals over their involvement in the deadly riots.

I read another article on Jackson Reffitt in the Daily Mail, which was followed by hundreds of comments shaming him, calling him a Judas and a traitor. Over and over people commented blood is thicker than water, never turn your back on family, etc.

Is this a common way of thinking these days? Has it always been? The irony is that I’m sure many of the commenters are the same folks who express law and order mentality in other comments on stories about criminal activity.

I’ve also seen these types of comments on stories about perpetrators caught by familial DNA matching by family members who use the various DNA ancestry services. Lots of comments saying people shouldn’t use them because they might inadvertently lead to a relative's being caught up by the police.

Honestly sometimes I feel like an alien in society. If I knew that a loved one had committed a crime, I would not hesitate to turn them in. If my DNA in a database helped law enforcement to find my loved one who had committed the kind of offense that leaves DNA behind (usually rape, serious assault or murder) I would be grateful to have helped. Of course I would experience ambivalence about the effect on my larger family and myself, but it just would not occur to me to refuse to help law enforcement and instead harbor my loved one as a fugitive from justice.

It seems to me that there is only ever one right course of action if you know someone you love has committed a serious crime. Any crime, for that matter - my mother took me back to the store and made me return the candy bar I’d grabbed as a very very young child, too young to even grasp the wrongfulness of the act, in order to teach me the wrongfulness of the act and to take responsibility for my actions, always. Isn’t that what most parents do, or should do? As Jackson says in the article, his father taught him not to steal, right from wrong, etc. How can he be surprised that his son internalized the message?

I would do what I could to support my loved one emotionally and materially as they faced the consequences of their crime, but I would never ever cover up or lie for them, or harbor them. Would you?

[ex-khobar Andy]

"If I knew that a loved one had committed a crime, I would not hesitate to turn them in."

Depends on the crime, I suppose. If I knew that my cousin got his jollies from smoking weed, I'd leave it alone regardless of the law. But if I knew that he got off on underage girls, I would not hesitate (I think but of course it has never happened so I don't really know) to turn him in.

[ex-khobar Andy]

Kamala Harris said something like "Jan 6 is one of those dates which will live in infamy, like Pearl Harbor and Sept 11."

She has of course been vilified by right wing media for this statement. I wasn't around for Pearl Harbor so I won't comment on that comparison, but I was around for Sept 11.

It's difficult to make this argument, but I will try. On Sept 11 'only' 3000 people died and 'only' a few billion dollars with of real estate was destroyed. 'Only' of course is a relative word, a value-driven word. So far 800,000 people have died of Covid and at least some of the number can be blamed on incompetence and mis-steps by Trump and Biden and state governments. About 40,000 people die every year in the US from firearms, with maybe 60% by suicide and the rest by homicide.

I use 'only' to point out that democracy was not threatened. Nor, for most of us, was our food / shelter / security / freedom of association threatened. In fact and in many ways, we were more united in the days after 9/11 than we had been for years and years prior and for about 19 1/2 of the years since 2001.

Do I think that 9/11 (or Pearl Harbor, for that matter) was a good thing? Of course not. But I do not understand why the USA was united in its desire to militarily defeat the Japanese or to punish Al Qaeda but we cannot seem to unite against the enormous threat to democracy attempted by the 1/6 insurrection. A coup attempt which is unpunished becomes simply a learning exercise for the next one.

[BoSoxGal]

I think we ARE united, though. It’s just that a very large percentage of Americans believe the Big Lie and support violence against the government as necessary - the recent shocking poll was 40% of Republicans and 40% of Independents hold that view. So of course they see nothing wrong with January 2, 2021 except that it didn’t succeed in keeping THEIR President in office.

It’s very easy to unite against a threat from outside, like what we experienced in 1941 and in 2001. When the threat is your own neighbors - that is chilling and hard to grasp.

Some people are shouting from the rooftops. Others are burying their heads in the sand. Many others are just living with chronic anxiety and hoping everything works out okay. Surely our society right now has much in common with Germany in the 1930s.

[Burning Petard]

You can fool all of the people some of the time; and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. - A. Lincoln
You can fool enough of the people enough of the time. - D. Trump

And Leon Trotsky said he only needed 3% of the population, if disciplined [meaning will do what they are told, no matter what] to control any country.

snailgate.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I love watching Ted Cruz tie himself in knots. It's not so long ago that he told us:

“I don’t make a habit out of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my family,” he said.

He was discussing Trump in 2016.

Fact is though, Ted: you do.