Bad Mood

 

Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, Ballroom, American Hotel, Detroit. Via failedarchitecture.com.

Not to excuse them, but they're stupid, and they're psychopaths. They're bad children.

“Many of Trump’s followers are living in a fantasy world,” said Eric Foner, an American historian and author of the book “Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877.” “They don’t appear to have given any thought to the consequences of their actions.” https://t.co/IYYGbb8EDR

— Judith Weisenfeld (@JLWeisenfeld) January 12, 2021

“We were just playing, having fun,” one history professor who resigned tells @LindaSoReports

“I’ve been making Facebook Live videos for years. They’re meant to be lighthearted," said.

In his video he pledged to "run out" all the Congress members who betrayed Trump.

— Heather Timmons (@HeathaT) January 12, 2021

These are the people who beat up so many cops and broke such a lot of furniture and came so close to murdering the speaker of the House and the vice president and who knows who else. Overprivileged white toddlers who can't imagine being in trouble, some of whom were apparently shocked at the way it seemed to get out of hand. And then there was Jake:

Jacob Chansley, AKA Jake Angeli, Arizona man makes first court appearance in for charges related to storming the U.S. Capitol. His mom says he hasn’t eaten since Friday because the detention facility won’t feed him all organic food. @abc15 pic.twitter.com/doTLFal4At

— Melissa Blasius (@MelissaBlasius) January 11, 2021

I am so over being scared of them, even though I realize they can do incalculable harm. It's beneath my dignity.

Astonishing how many of them seem to be officers in the uniformed services, elected officials, shopkeepers and professionals, people you'd have thought would be of some kind of substance. They were never going to take over and install their emperor as permanent president, if you were worried about that. Nobody had anything like a plan to get them there. What exactly do you achieve by killing some legislators? There was no coup planning, no effort to secure military support. The White House government to which they wanted to accord absolute power isn't able to issue enforceable decrees, there's hardly anybody left who knows how. There's no organized Sturmabteilung or SS, no provision for arresting and jailing the millions of people who would have been in the streets resisting. That's why it's appropriate to call them terrorists, because they had no real aims beyond riling people up. It was going to be a blood-soaked grand guignol for nothing but laughs.

But if it led to dictatorship, as it likely would, it wouldn't be the fun Trump empire they were expecting. That's the worst thing of all: it would be a dictatorship that you and I would find ourselves supporting. It's likely to happen in any case. 

Because it really is an emergency, isn't it? That's why we've all become pearl clutchers. Where's the outrage? Right here. And it's true! If General Milley or some other sad sack tells us we all need to obey a curfew while he uproots the subversives we're going to be glad to obey. It's really dangerous! We're happy that Twitter and Facebook have suppressed Donald (though none of the voices of people who know what they're doing). Let them eat 8kun! 

And capitalism is doing it all! Google, Facebook, fucking Amazon, taking care of business! How many corporations withdrawing political donations (from Republicans and Democrats, naturally)? Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Bank of America and Wells Fargo! Visa, American Express, and MasterCard! Does that make you a bit suspicious or anything? I love Deutsche Bank cutting Trump off as a customer, but what does that mean? Are they going to foreclose on $340 million worth of property? Or write it off? I like the PGA cutting him off from holding golf tournaments better, that's real money he's losing. But does all this frenzied activity mean these companies are going to stop creating inequality?

I just switched the TV away from looking at Tom Friedman, who is (obviously) on my side of wanting Trump out. That's nothing, I've gotten used to it, I just don't want to listen to him doing it. Now on the other hand it's looking like I'm on the same side as Liz Cheney and Mitch McConnell. They're ready for impeachment. Why do you suppose that is? McConnell's apparently mad at Trump because he was having so much fun watching his friends beat up cops on TV on Wednesday that he didn't manage to return McConnell's calls, or something like that, I'm sure you'll correct me. I suppose Cheney thinks she has a chance of being appointed dictator herself.

Meanwhile in the Senate they're full of thrilling options for parliamentary maneuvers! The 14th Amendment says they can prevent Trump from ever holding office again! Whoop-de-doo! We're saved from the possibility that we might accidentally vote for him some day, if they do it, which they won't.

They'll install President Biden on the 20th, under heavy guard, and he'll be unable to accomplish anything in office, but he and Kamala will look really great to 51% of us. Ossoff and Kelly, those inspiring new senators, will vote with Manchin and others against taking down the filibuster, and our thrilling Democratic majority won't be able to pass a bill other than a  continuing resolution, and maybe one convicting Trump, if they get around to it. Nobody will be to blame. It won't make any difference whether the president elected in 2024 is a Democrat or a Republican. All because of a few thousand chuckleheaded petits-bourgeois who decided to rush the Capitol. Everything we thought we were fighting for over the past year is off the table again. They didn't win, Trump's over, but we lost. We'll put up with all of it, because at least Trump's gone.

Or? Talk me down if you can.