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Ted Cruz: America’s #1 Hypocrite

By dianeravitch
January 11, 2021 //
59

The Houston Chronicle reported that Ted Cruz criticized Trump for the violent siege of the Capitol.

No kidding.

Even after the vandals stormed into the buildings, even after they spread feces on the floors and invaded private offices, even after five deaths, Cruz resumed his campaign to discredit Biden’s election victory. He persuaded a few other Senators and the majority of House Republicans to join him in claiming that an “audit” was needed in states that Biden won, even those states had already conducted recounts and audits.

There must be a metaphor for the role Cruz is playing: raising doubts about the elections, repeating them endlessly, stoking Trump’s claims that the election was stolen, despite ample evidence to the contrary.

“Shame on you,” Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo tweeted on Friday, saying to Cruz “You fanned the flames of mistrust and history will hold you accountable for the ensuing chaos. Outrageous!”

Cruz bears responsibility with Trump for the violence on January 6. He has blood on his hands.

Categories Education Reform, Hypocrisy, Texas, Trump

There Was a Failed Coup Attempt on January 6. Who Planned It?

By dianeravitch
January 11, 2021 //
44

We know a lot of very disturbing facts about what happened on January 6 when a mob of thousands of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building and held it for two hours.

We know the mob was incited by Trump, Guiliani, and others at the Trump rally that morning. Trump said repeatedly that Congress was meeting to certify the election of Joe Biden, that the election was stolen, that his followers must “stop the steal.” He urged the mob to march to the Capitol and falsely claimed that he would march with them. Of course, he didn’t, but they did.

When they entered the Capitol grounds, the Capitol Police were quickly overwhelmed. For some reason, though they knew about the Trump rally, they were not prepared for a mob. The barriers were knocked over, the domestic terrorists entered the hallowed halls of the Capitol, where they vandalized the building, went searching for Congressional leaders who had “betrayed” Trump, broke windows, smashed doors, smeared feces on the floor, and entered Congressional offices in search of Trump’s enemies.

Somehow they knew where House Minority Whip James Clyburn’s secret office was, although it was behind a marked door. They broke into Speaker Pelosi’s office and stole her laptop.

Some of the terrorists had a plan. Not only did they know the layout of the building and where to locate the key members of Congress, but they had flex cuffs, preparing to take hostages. Fortunately, the members of Congress were in a secure, undisclosed location.

The Pentagon and D.C. officials traded accusations, but there is little doubt that the Pentagon was very slow to provide aid and blocked state officials in Maryland and Virginia from sending in their National Guard.

A timeline released by the Pentagon late Friday says Capitol Police twice declined help from the Defense Department in the days prior to Jan. 6. But it also shows that when the city officials and the Capitol Police requested additional National Guard troops after rioters breached the Capitol, it took four hours for those troops to arrive...The Army secretary, not the city, set the number of National Guard troops at about 300, decided not to use armored vehicles and “established that the guard members were not to move East of 9th Street NW,” roughly nine blocks away from the foot of the Capitol, said mayoral spokeswoman LaToya Foster.

According to the Pentagon’s timeline, officials became aware of demonstrators moving to the Capitol just after 1 p.m. The timeline says that the Capitol Police ordered the building evacuated at 1:26, and that Mayor Bowser and Capitol Police Chief Sund requested help from the DoD by phone at 1:34 and 1:49 respectively.

The acting secretary of defense verbally authorized deployment of additional National Guard troops 75 minutes later, at 3:04 p.m., according to the timeline. The timeline describes an additional conversation with Bowser and a separate discussion of the Sund and Bowser requests by top Defense officials in the interim, but there also intervals of 33 and 30 minutes with no phone calls or meetings listed.

The timeline also lists a call between Bowser, the D.C. police chief and the Army secretary at 3:26, in which the defense official tells the local officials their request for troops was not rejected, and that the deployment has been authorized.

According to the timeline, the D.C. National Guard troops did not leave the D.C. armory until 5:04 p.m, and arrived at the Capitol at 5:40, four hours after they were first requested by the mayor.

At 5:45, the acting secretary of defense formally authorized Virginia and Maryland National Guard troops to support the Capitol Police. The governors of both states had offered their assistance hours earlier. Virginia’s Ralph Northam had tweeted the offer at 3:29 p.m.

You may recall that Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper after the election and replaced him and the top echelon of leaders at the Pentagon with Trump loyalists.

Jim Bourg of Reuters said he heard some of the rioters say they were looking for VP Pence so they could hang him.

Reuters photographer Jim Bourg, who was photographing protesters trying to break down doors to the Capitol building, said he heard three older white men in red “Make America Great Again” caps talking about finding Vice President Mike Pence to hang him from a tree as a “traitor.”

Bourg said shouts of “traitor” were common among other demonstrators as well. Pence was presiding over the electoral vote count, a largely ceremonial duty to confirm Biden’s victory. Trump had falsely suggested to his followers that Pence could ignore the official count and hand Trump a second term. Security agents rushed Pence from the Senate chamber after protesters breached the Capitol building.

There is a video on Twitter of the mob inside the Capitol chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” posted by @59Dallas.

Snopes confirmed that there was a noose erected outside the Capitol building

All of those who participated in this seditious action should be arrested and charged with sedition, not just trespassing. They were trying to stop the democratic process ordained in the Constitution, so they could install Trump for a second term, despite the fact that he lost the election. They are traitors, as is Trump. He was the instigator of the Insurrection and he should be held accountable. His enablers in Congress should also be held accountable.

Categories Democracy, Elections, Republicans, Trump

FBI Arrests QAnon Leader of Capitol Mob

By dianeravitch
January 10, 2021 //
89

The FBI arrested the guy wearing the horns and carrying a 6-foot spear at the insurrection.

He is not Antifa. He is QAnon.

Categories Accountability, Elections, Trump

Donald Trump is a Traitor

By dianeravitch
January 10, 2021 //
61

Jake Tapper summarized the case about Donald Trump’s traitorous actions here. Watch this video.

What happened on January 6 was a failed coup. Many of Trump’s MAGA base joined the mob innocently.

But the mob was led by trained militia men, equipped to take hostages, prepared with flex cuffs, which police use to handcuff suspects.

The mob chanted “Hang Mike Pence.”

The mob knew the location of the secret Capitol offices of Democratic leaders.

They went looking for them.

Members of Congress exited the Chambers only a minute or two before the mob. If they had not escaped, there would have been mayhem.

The mob would have seized the leaders of Congress and VP Pence, handcuffed them, perhaps given them a show trial, perhaps executed them.

What then? Our democracy and our Constitution shredded. Would Trump declare himself President for Life?

What happened was terrifying. What might have happened would have been far, far worse.

Trump toadies are incorrigible. How to explain the members of Congress who emerged from their hiding place to vote to sustain Trump’s lies and to overturn a free and fair election? How to explain the perfidy of Senators Cruz and Hawley? How to explain the majority of House Republicans, who voted in support of a man who incited a coup against our democracy and our Constitution?

There must be a full investigation, including an inquiry into why the Defense Department, led by Trump toadies, did not send the National Guard to the Capitol for four hours and denied the governors of Maryland and Virginia permission to send their National Guard to protect the seat of our government.

Donald Trump is a traitor.

Donald Trump incited a coup attempt.

Donald Trump is a fascist.

Donald Trump must be held criminally accountable for his actions.


Categories Accountability, Shame, Trump

One by One, the Domestic Terrorists Who Swarmed the Capitol Are Identified. But Most Will Not Be.

By dianeravitch
January 10, 2021 //
29

This is a very satisfying post at the blog “Crooks & Liars.”

The vandals and terrorists who invaded the U.S. Capitol took selfies and posed as they desecrated one of the nation’s greatest civic spaces. They were engaged in criminal trespass and, yes, the far more serious crime of sedition. They went to the Capital to disrupt a process ordained by the Constitution. They struck at our democracy. Many of their faces have been identified. They are being fired and arrested. They humiliated our democracy, endangered the lives of members of Congress and their staff. They broke the law. Anyone who participated in this violent assault on our Capitol should face serious jail time.

Unfortunately, they are being faced with minor charges: trespassing, disorderly conduct, and the like. Not one of them so far has been charged with sedition or anything consequential.

In addition to those listed in this post, Richard Barnett of Gravette, Arkansas, was arrested by the FBI. He was identified as the guy sitting in Nancy Pelosi’s office with his feet on her desk. Her laptop was reported missing.

A guy just elected to the West Virginia legislature live-streamed his participation. He was arrested at his home by the FBI.

The guy seen carrying the Speaker’s podium was arrested in Pinellas County, Florida.

Hundreds who stormed the Capitol will never be identified or charged.

They should all be identified, charged, tried, and face serious jail time for their role in this despicable siege of our Capitol.

UPDATE: Justice Department announces arrest of Richard Barnett, the Capitol vandal from Gravette
Categories Corruption, Democracy, Elections, Trump

Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz: Impeach Trump Without Delay

By dianeravitch
January 9, 2021 //
115

Writing in the Washington Post, constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe and impeachment lawyer Joshua Matz assert that Trump should be speedily impeached for his violation of the oath of office.

Trump spent months convincing his followers, without factual basis, that they were victims of a massive electoral fraud. He summoned them to D.C. for a “wild” protest as Congress met to certify the election results. He then whipped them into a frenzy and aimed the angry horde straight at the Capitol. When Trump’s mob breached the building, he inexcusably dawdled in deploying force to quell the riot. And when he finally released a video statement, it only made matters worse.

Simply put, Trump knew perfectly well that his rally on Wednesday was a powder keg of his own creation. But he gleefully lit a match and tossed it at Congress... the Constitution does not require slow motion at times of crisis, especially when the nation witnessed an impeachable offense in real time. Here, holding protracted hearings would be a foolish undertaking, akin to playing a sonata on the decks of the Titanic. The House can and should act with dispatch….

As a matter of principle and precedent, the House must leave no doubt that Trump’s conduct is beyond the pale. He came close to destroying the Capitol in pursuit of his antidemocratic effort to overturn an election; an unequivocal response is called for.

Moreover, there is now widespread, bipartisan recognition that Trump will remain a danger to our national security through his final days in office. His obvious lack of remorse and unwillingness to accept responsibility confirm the threat. So do his pattern of placing his personal interests above the law, and his failure to modify his conduct after being impeached last year. With every passing hour that he has the instruments of executive power at his command, the risk that he could do incalculable damage cannot responsibly be ignored...

The impeachment power must never be exercised lightly. But the House would be fully justified in finding that Trump’s incitement of mob violence against the United States government warrants that drastic remedy.

Categories Accountability, Democracy, Trump

Business Insider: U.S. Allies Say Trump Attempted Coup with Inside Help

By dianeravitch
January 9, 2021 //
51

Business Insider interviewed foreign inteigence officials about the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and they expressed suspicion that Trump tried to orchestrate a coup with the quiet assistance of federal law enforcement.

This article is deeply disturbing and worth a read.

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-attempted-coup-federal-law-enforcement-capitol-police-2021-1

It begins:

The supporters of President Donald Trump who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday to stop the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory were attempting a violent coup that multiple European security officials said appeared to have at least tacit support from aspects of the US federal agencies responsible for securing the Capitol complex.

Insider spoke with three officials on Thursday morning: a French police official responsible for public security in a key section of central Paris, and two intelligence officials from NATO countries who directly work in counterterrorism and counterintelligence operations involving the US, terrorism, and Russia.

They said the circumstantial evidence available pointed to what would be openly called a coup attempt in any other nation. None were willing to speak on the record because of the dire nature of the subject...

The French police official detailed multiple lapses they believe were systematic:

  1. Large crowds of protesters needed to be managed far earlier by the police, who instead controlled a scene at the first demonstration Trump addressed, then ignored the crowd as it streamed toward the Capitol.
  2. “It should have been surrounded, managed, and directed immediately, and that pressure never released.”
  3. Because the crowd was not managed and directed, the official said, the protesters were able to congregate unimpeded around the Capitol, where the next major failure took place.
  4. “It is unthinkable there was not a strong police cordon on the outskirts of the complex. Fences and barricades are useless without strong police enforcement. This is when you start making arrests, targeting key people that appear violent, anyone who attacks an officer, anyone who breaches the barricade. You have to show that crossing the line will fail and end in arrest.”
  5. “I cannot believe the failure to establish a proper cordon was a mistake. These are very skilled police officials, but they are federal, and that means they ultimately report to the president. This needs to be investigated.”
  6. “When the crowd reached the steps of the building, the situation was over. The police are there to protect the building from terrorist attacks and crime, not a battalion of infantry. That had to be managed from hundreds of meters away unless the police were willing to completely open fire, and I can respect why they were not.”

Categories Accountability, Democracy, Trump

Josh Hawley: Bad Karma for Bad Character

By dianeravitch
January 9, 2021 //
33

Josh Hawley, graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School, took the low road, aligning himself with Trumpism and trying to block the pro forma certification of Biden’s election. He saluted the rioters as they encircled the Capitol and prepared to storm it. Even after the siege, he continued to press the case against Biden’s certification. He pandered to seditious thugs carrying Confederate flags, some wearing T-shirts that said 6MWNE (six million were not enough), a reference to the Jews murdered in the Nazi Holocaust.

The reaction to Hawley’s self-disgrace was swift.

Simon & Schuster canceled his book deal.

His mentor, the respected former Senator John Danforth, said that he regretted his association with Hawley, calling it “the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.”

Former Missouri Sen. John Danforth spent years promoting Josh Hawley as the future of the Republican Party, a “once-in-a-generation” candidate destined to contend for the presidency, perhaps in 2024.

But a day after the riot at the U.S. Capitol left four people dead, Danforth blamed his former protégé for sparking the insurrection.

“I thought he was special. And I did my best to encourage people to support him both for attorney general and later the U.S. Senate and it was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my life,” he said Thursday. “I don’t know if he was always like this and good at covering it up or if it happened. I just don’t know.”

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch denounced Hawley in scathing language.

Sen. Josh Hawley had the gall to stand before the Senate Wednesday night and feign shock, shock at what happened — hours after he had fist-pumped and cheered the rioters as they arrived on Capitol Hill. Hawley’s tardy, cover-his-ass condemnation of the violence ranks at the top of his substantial list of phony, smarmy and politically expedient declarations.

Americans have had enough of Trumpism and the two-faced, lying, populist politicians who embraced it. Hawley’s presidential aspirations have been flushed down the toilet because of his role in instigating Wednesday’s assault on democracy. He should do Missourians and the rest of the country a big favor and resign now.

To add injury to insult, Hawley’s biggest campaign donor harshly criticized his craven behavior and recommended that Congress censure him.

For once, just desserts. Or, karma is a bitch.

Categories Accountability, Biden, Character, Democracy, Elections, Missouri, Trump

George Will: Remember The Seditionists

By dianeravitch
January 8, 2021 //
108

George Will is a conservative who adheres to conservative principles of personal responsibility, ethical behavior, and limited government. For these reasons, he despises Donald Trump, a man who has no values, ethics, or principles.

Will was appalled by the storming of the U.S. Capitol and also by Trump’s refusal to concede his loss in the election.

He wrote a column excoriating the three villains of American democracy: Trump, Hawley, and Cruz.

He wrote:

The three repulsive architects of Wednesday’s heartbreaking spectacle — mobs desecrating the Republic’s noblest building and preventing the completion of a constitutional process — must be named and forevermore shunned. They are Donald Trump, and Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz.

Trump lit the fuse for the riot in the weeks before the election, with his successful effort to delegitimize the election in the eyes of his supporters. But Wednesday’s explosion required the help of Hawley (R-Mo.) and Cruz (R-Tex.).
Hawley announced his intention to object to the certification of some states’ electoral votes, for no better reason than that there has been an avalanche of “allegations” of election irregularities, allegations fomented by the loser of the election. By doing so, Hawley turned what should have been a perfunctory episode in our civic liturgy of post-election civility into a synthetic drama. He turned this moment into the focus of the hitherto unfocused fury that Trump had been stoking for many weeks.


And Cruz, by organizing support for Hawley among other Republican senators and senators-elect gave Hawley’s grotesque self-promotion an ersatz cloak of larger purpose. Shortly before the mob breached the Senate chamber, Cruz stood on the Senate floor. With his characteristic unctuousness, he regretted the existence of what he and kindred spirits have not only done nothing to refute but have themselves nurtured — a pandemic of suspicions that the election was “rigged.”


“I want to take a moment to speak to my Democratic colleagues,” said Cruz. “I understand your guy is winning right now.” Read those weasely words again. He was not speaking to his “colleagues.” He was speaking to the kind people who were at that instant assaulting the Capitol. He was nurturing the very delusions that soon would cause louts to be roaming the Senate chamber — the fantasy that Joe Biden has not won the election but is only winning “right now.”

The Trump-Hawley-Cruz insurrection against constitutional government will be an indelible stain on the nation. They, however, will not be so permanent. In 14 days, one of them will be removed from office by the constitutional processes he neither fathoms nor favors. It will take longer to scrub the other two from public life. Until that hygienic outcome is accomplished, from this day forward, everything they say or do or advocate should be disregarded as patent attempts to distract attention from the lurid fact of what they have become. Each will wear a scarlet “S” as a seditionist.

Categories Accountability, Citizenship, Democracy, Elections, Trump

Accountability for Those Who Provoked Insurrection

By dianeravitch
January 8, 2021 //
66

Brianna Keilar of CNN speaks here about the post-insurrection efforts to rewrite history by those who were complicit in nurturing the mob and amplifying their grievances.

For months before the election, Trump warned that it would be rigged. He said that if he lost, it was proof that it was rigged. The only “fair” election, he warned, was one that he won. You may recall that in 2016, he repeatedly predicted a “rigged” election, but since he won, it wasn’t rigged.

Since the election, he has been obsessed by the certainty that the election was “rigged,” “stolen,” and the greatest political crime in American history. His campaign team filed 60 or so lawsuits, which failed in state and federal courts, including twice at the U.S. Supreme Court. It didn’t matter whether the judges were appointed by Democrats or Republicans, even Trump himself. There was no evidence of widespread election fraud. Even Trump’s Attorney General Bill Barr said do.

But nothing could stop the slander against the election. Trump created a “Stop the Steal” movement of his most ardent cultists. His message was echoed by elected officials like Ted Cruz abd Josh Hawley, who hope to win the loyalty of the Trump base.

Trump summoned his cult to Washington in January 6 to rally them one more time to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. He urged them to march to the Capitol, and he unleashed the Monster.

So far, five people have died because of the Trump-inspired insurrection. We can be grateful that the death toll was not greater and that the domestic terrorists did not set fire to the seat of our national government.

In the aftermath of the insurrection, some say “this is not who we are.” We are not haters, looters, thugs, and vandals. Sadly, this is who some of us are.

What do we do? We don’t appease the mob by holding hearings about blatant lies. As Mitt Romney said, what we owe the American people is the truth. They won’t get the truth from those who seek political gain by telling lies that stoke rage. When Trump’s hoax was twice tossed out by a Supreme Court dominated by six conservatives, including three he appointed, that should have ended the post-election battle. It didn’t because Trump and his enablers had an agenda that did not include the truth.

The deep divisions that Trump exploited won’t be healed anytime soon. As educators, we must remember that the first obligation of public schools is to develop good citizens. Not compliant citizen, not indoctrinated citizens, but citizens who are knowledgeable about our government and our institutions; citizens who can weigh evidence, listen to opposing views, and think critically about their decisions. We need citizens who can tell the difference between facts and propaganda. In rebuilding a functional democracy, we need education more than ever. Civic education is obviously not all that is needed for active participation in society, but it is crucial to sustain our democracy and strengthen it. As Ted Cruz and josh Hawley demonstrate, intellect is not enough when it becomes a tool of the unscrulous.

What matters most, I believe, is a combination of knowledge and character. People who knowingly lie do not have it. People who are driven by greed and ambition do not have it. Our Founding Fathers understood full well that men are not angels, and they created a Constitution of elaborate checks and balances to protest us from the predators who seek power by any means necessary. We have been reminded during these past four years that our democracy must be renewed in every generation. Its promise of equal justice for all is far from real and for too many, a false promise.

We must continue to work towards a better, fairer society. That work begins with truth-telling. We must demand it from our elected officials and practice it in our daily lives. That’s a start.


Categories Accountability, Character, Citizenship, Civics, Democracy, Elections, Hoax, Lies, Trump
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