DL Open Thread: Friday, Jan. 7, 2022
Biden’s Speech, Annotated. He realizes how much jeopardy democracy is in. This was an essential rallying cry. How Biden Decided To Directly Confront Trump:
Throughout the first year of Joe Biden’s presidency, Donald Trump was the name that must not be spoken.
Inside the White House, meanwhile, the president and his team strategized about when and how to break his silence. They decided to do so, finally, Thursday, as the nation paused to mark the first anniversary of the deadly attack on the Capitol.
Speaking from the Capitol’s iconic Statuary Hall, which last Jan. 6 had been overrun by violent pro-Trump rioters, Biden unburdened himself from the norms of presidential deference and unleashed a torrent of attacks against his immediate predecessor. Though he did not call out Trump by name, Biden made 16 references to the “former president,” whom he squarely blamed for undermining America’s democracy.
“The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election,” Biden said. “He’s done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interest as more important than his country’s interest and America’s interest, and because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution.”
Biden’s remarks do not mark a permanent shift in strategy about how to handle Trump, according to the president’s aides and allies. Rather, they said, Biden felt he had no choice but to directly address Trump’s culpability in the Capitol insurrection last Jan. 6 and the threat he poses to democracy.
“You can’t talk about what happened on January 6 without talking about the former president’s role in it,” Mike Donilon, a White House senior adviser, said in an interview. “There’s no way to be truthful about what happened there without doing that.”
Another Anti-Vax Radio ‘Influencer’ Dies Of Covid. Yep, he attended the so-called ‘anthrax’ super-spreader event in Texas. Believed his own bullshit. Sad.
Florida’s DeSantis Denied That 1 Mill Covid Tests Had Been Allowed To Expire. He Lied:
In a press conference Thursday morning, Governor DeSantis admitted state officials found 1 million unused COVID-19 tests in a warehouse. The admission came as DeSantis unveiled a plan to get 1 million COVID-19 tests to Florida’s seniors.
Kevin Guthrie joined DeSantis at today’s press conference. Guthrie, the head of Florida’s Department of Emergency Management said, “We had between 800k and a million Abbott test kits in our warehouse that did expire.”
Today’s revelation follows allegations by Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried that the governor was stockpiling tests which were soon expiring. On Wednesday, the Governor’s office called that allegation “bizarre.”
The proposed solution? Get the Feds to say that the the test kits did not expire:
The governor said he’s asking the federal government to extend the expiration date on these newly-discovered tests. They are awaiting an answer.
‘Bizarre’.
Right-Wing Nuttery And Race. Cause? Effect? Survey in Brevard County, Florida suggests that, as the percentage of white population diminishes, there is a correlative increase in extremists and extremism:
Perhaps the most compelling study on the subject was published by Robert Pape at the University of Chicago, who found that Capitol insurgents were more likely to come from counties where the white population was getting smaller. “For every one-point drop in a county’s percentage of non-Hispanic whites from 2015 to 2019, the likelihood of an insurgent hailing from that county increased by 25 percent,” The Atlantic reported, citing his research.
For Pape, a political science professor and expert in political violence, the findings were further evidence that the Capitol attack was fueled by white nationalist fears over the “great replacement” — the conspiracy theory that one day Black people, Hispanic people and other minorities will not only overtake whites as the majority population in America but will also have more rights.
I hope to live to see that day. Another related explanation is also possible:
But some people in Brevard County have another, related theory for why so many of their neighbors were arrested in the storming of the Capitol: They were inspired in part by the rhetoric and actions of their local elected lawmakers and officials.
Brevard is home to a group of bellicose Republicans — all of whom have embraced former President Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen — who in recent years have targeted their political opponents with a particularly vile and vindictive mix of harassment and mendacity. The result has been incidents of alleged violence, vandalism, intimidation and even a false report of child abuse.
In this coterie are a sheriff with extensive ties to the extremist constitutional sheriffs movement; a state representative who may have created a website to falsely accuse two of his enemies of having an affair; a county commissioner who has advocated that a local Democratic official get an abortion so that her “litter” wouldn’t be a “scourge on humanity”; a mayor who bragged about stockpiling weapons to use against Democrats; and a U.S. congressman who recently said “Let’s go, Brandon” — a euphemism for “Fuck Joe Biden” — on the House floor.
Both theories can be, and are, true.
Rysheema Dixon Resigns From Wilmington City Council. That’s disappointing. Wonder if she’s placed politics on hold permanently. It’ll be interesting to see what grifters come out of the woodwork.
What do you want to talk about?
If I prayed, I’d pray that “Democrats” like Manchin and Coons were listening to Biden yesterday. “Democrats” who provide relentless cover for Republican malfeasance are a dagger at the neck of democracy.
Du’h. Prominent anti-vax personalities are supposed to be fully vaxx’ed like Tucker Carlson and the loser ex-president.
Dumb anti-vax Radio hosts like Douglas Kuzma simply don’t understand the scam.
What Trump really wanted to do to the George Floyd protesters:
“ALMATY (Reuters) – Security forces appeared to have reclaimed the streets of Kazakhstan’s main city on Friday after days of violence, and the Russian-backed president said he had ordered his troops to shoot to kill to put down a countrywide uprising.”
Our response to Russian provocations will likely become a campaign issue in 22 and 24, and Putin is counting on it.
If Biden has any guts he will propose sanctions, which Senate Republicans will likely obstruct (and Ds won’t have the sense to campaign against the obstruction).
Putin will continue provocations, allowing Trump or some other R to run on “weak Biden” and “reducing tensions with Russia” (i.e., capitulating).
For the first time in our history, a president had not just lost an election, he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob breached the Capitol.
Listen well Senator Coons. You are activly supporting people who, a year later, continue to endorses this. That perfidy is noted and will be remembered.
Just read the full speech. Very good. Now we need some leadership in the Democratic Party to run with it.
did i really see a headline that nancy pelosi had the cast of hamilton at a commemorative event for the 1/6 insurrection?
I want to encourage all of you to open your homes to our homeless brothers and sisters. We can make a difference by helping those we claim to defend.
You go first. Set the example you cite. Provide photographic proof, please.
Amen brother…..so how many folks are you putting up?
I was thrilled with Biden’s speech, it was an At Last! moment for me. Especially liked the way he called out the jack ass down in Seaford who paraded around with a Confederate flag in the capitol. Can’t help with putting up the homeless but I did give away free firewood to what I called “host families” in need of heat for 33 years (ran out of trees). As for Coons he’s a waste case who either lives in a dream world or pretends to.
The Great Replacement is not a conspiracy as much as a natural demographic trend. I don’t think the Democratic party is actively encouraging illegal immigration to create a permanent underclass who will trade votes for handouts, but they sure as hell don’t take any obvious steps to counter that narrative.
Having dealt with a lot of these alt-right fruitcakes it does seem like the issue is not racial but centered on cultural assimilation. The relative rates of demographic change should be evaluated as much as the raw numbers. I get the sense that if the newcomers “acted American” (the fruitcakes’ words/definitions, not mine), their melanin content or immigration status would be largely a non issue.