January 6, 2021 Was The Most Shameful Day In American History.

The following post is by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich:

Five years ago was the most shameful day in American history.

We must not allow Trump to persuade America that it did not happen or that he was innocent, or let him deflect the nation’s attention from the fifth anniversary of what occurred that day. 

Less than three weeks ago, Jack Smith, the former special counsel to the Justice Department, appeared before the House Judiciary Committee and testified under oath: 

“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power.”

The sole reason Donald Trump is not now behind bars is that Smith dropped the case after Trump was elected to a second term, because the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States — written by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by five other justices, three of whom were nominated by Trump — prevented the prosecution of a sitting president.

Let us ponder this for a moment. 

Although the peaceful transfer of power lies at the heart of American democracy, Trump sought to overturn the result of the 2020 election. He is now president once again.

 

Five years ago, on January 6, 2021, when Vice President Mike Pence walked into the Capitol, he faced a withering pressure campaign by Trump. 

Trump and his henchmen had already twisted the arms of governors and election officials around the country to change the result of the election in his favor. They had coaxed loyalists in five swing states to submit signed certificates falsely claiming they were “duly elected and qualified” members of the Electoral College.

Pence was about to throw out the slates of false electors. As he began the electoral vote count, thousands of Trump supporters — many of them armed — stormed the Capitol. Some chanted they wanted to “hang Mike Pence” for refusing to block the certification.

They came directly from a rally Trump held on the Ellipse, in which Trump repeated his false claim that the election had been stolen and told the crowd, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

According to the criminal indictment, 

“After it became public on the afternoon of January 6 that the Vice President would not fraudulently alter the election results, a large and angry crowd — including many individuals whom the Defendant had deceived into believing the Vice President could and might change the election results — violently attacked the Capitol and halted the proceeding.”

The FBI estimated that between 2,000 and 2,500 people entered the Capitol Building in the attack, some of whom participated in vandalism and looting, including of the offices of members of Congress. Rioters also assaulted Capitol Police officers. They occupied the empty Senate chamber while federal law enforcement officers defended the evacuated House floor.

Within 36 hours, five people died. One was shot by Capitol Police; another died of a drug overdose; three died of heart attacks or strokes, including a police officer who died the day after being assaulted by rioters. Many were injured, including 174 police officers. Four other officers who responded to the attack died by suicide within seven months.

“President Trump was wrong,” Pence said subsequently. “I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”

A week after the attack, the House of Representatives impeached Trump for incitement of insurrection. In February 2021, after he left office, the Senate voted 57–43 in favor of conviction but fell short of the required two-thirds majority, resulting in his acquittal.

Senate Republicans then blocked a bill to create a bipartisan independent commission to investigate the attack, leaving the House to organize its own select committee.

After an 18-month investigation including more than 1,000 witnesses and nine televised public hearings, the House’s select committee identified Trump as the “central cause” of the Capitol attack by the pro-Trump mob.

The panel, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, voted unanimously to recommend charges to the Justice Department to prosecute Trump for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Following a special counsel investigation by the Justice Department, Trump was indicted on four charges in August 2023.

As I’ve noted, all charges against Trump were dismissed after his reelection to the presidency.

 

Of the 1,424 people charged with federal crimes relating to the riot, 1,010 pled guiltyand 1,060 were sentenced and served time in prison. Enrique Tarrio, then the chairman of the Proud Boys, received the longest sentence, a 22-year prison term.

Upon retaking the presidency, Trump pardoned them all. 

Trump and his lackeys in the Republican Party have since promoted a revisionist history of the event — downplaying the severity of the violence, spreading conspiracy theories, and portraying those charged with crimes as hostages and martyrs.

Trump has tried to recast the violent events as a “day of love.” 

On December 8, 2024, in his first broadcast news interview since the 2024 election, Trump said members of the House committee that investigated the riot “should go to jail.”

We must never forget. We must teach our children and our children’s children and all future generations of Americans what happened on January 6, 2021— so that, as Mike Pence hoped, “history will hold Donald Trump accountable.” 

January 6, 2021 was the most shameful day in American history. It should live in infamy, as should the traitor who refused to accept the election results and incited the attack on the U.S. Capitol — Donald J. Trump.

Trump Was The Mastermind Of The Attack On Democracy

 

Republican officials won't admit that they know who orchestrated the attack on our democracy. And the timid media seems to be going along with that -- talking about there being no proof of who did it. Hogwash! They all know who did it, and so does every American.

The criminal who organized the attack on our Capitol (and the many attacks on our democracy in the courts) is Donald Trump. 

Trump was the person who came up with the "Big Lie" on which all the attacks on democracy are predicated. He was the one to continually spread that lie (that he actually won the election but had it stolen from him by massive fraud). He was the one to ask his supporters to come to the Capitol on January 6th, and he was the one that sent the crowd to attack the Capitol Building. He was the one that directed attorneys to file dozens of lawsuits to overturn the result of a valid election. And the memos to create fake electors came from his office.

Could any of this have happened without Trump's knowledge and consent? No. All you have to do is look at Trump's past history to determine that. Trump has always been a micro-manager. In Trump's business history, nothing happened that Trump did not know about and approve. Anyone who has ever worked for him can tell you that.

And he did not change his stripes when he entered the White House. Nothing happened during his administration that he did not know about and approved. Anyone who disagreed with him quickly found they were out of a job (and vilified by him).

Why would the attack on our democracy be any different from his past history in business and political office? It's not. Trump micro-managed the attack on democracy just like he micro-managed his business and his presidency.

Donald Trump organized and set into motion the most serious attack on American democracy since the Civil War. He is a criminal and a traitor. He needs to be punished (and that should include a prison sentence)!

Why Do We Honor Traitors In Our Schools?

The Confederacy was created for only one reason -- to protect the right of the Confederate states to enslave human beings. That is a fact. 

Another fact is that the leaders (and soldiers) of the Confederacy were traitors to the United States. They denied their citizenship in our country, and worse, they actually waged war on the United States -- killing soldiers who defended our country. 

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are still 198 schools in this country that have Confederate-themed names. Why do we allow this to be? Why do we honor traitors to this country by naming schools after them.

This gives the impression that we support their traitorous actions, and gives our students the impression that we still support the slavery and discrimination that they fought for.

This must change!

What If The "Foreign Help" Shoe Was On The Other Foot?

A few days ago, Donald Trump admitted in an interview on ABC that he would accept help from a foreign power that had information about his 2020 opponent. He said he would want to see the information, and he would not report the contact to the FBI.

It doesn't seem to bother him that accepting help from a foreign power is against the law. He got away with it once, and figures he could do it against. The fact that it's against the law means nothing to him.

That shouldn't surprise anyone, because Trump has demonstrated throughout his life that he is corrupt -- and will do anything (legal or not) that he believes can benefit him.

The sad part is that the Republican Party, once the loyal opposition, now supports Trump even when he breaks the law. Collusion with a foreign power or obstruction of justice is fine with them as long as it's Trump doing it. But what if the shoe had been on the other foot? How would they have acted if it had been a Democrat colluding with a foreign power?

In an excellent op-ed at the Daily Beast, Rick Wilson asks and answers that question. Here is just part of what he wrote:

I have to beg my Republican friends to imagine—just for a moment—what you’d be doing if Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama said they would accept the help of a foreign power in a campaign and not report it to the FBI.  

I’ll tell you what you’d do: You’d lose your fucking shit.  

You’d spurt blood from your goddamn eyes.

You’d corner the market on guillotine, tumbrel, and pitchfork stocks. A gibbet would appear in Lafayette Park.

Fox News producers and on-air talent would grind out weeks of videos until they collapsed, as sick and exhausted as they keep saying Trump’s opponents must be. They’d work like galley slaves, a nearly naked Lou Dobbs beating a massive kettle drum to keep them producing screeching agitporn.

Entire forests would be leveled and pulped to write the condemnatory articles and books. The lights would dim on the Eastern Seaboard, and nuclear power plants would be brought online to support the massive surge of electricity needed to power a hundred thousand new servers hosting the hundred million articles and videos you’d make condemning this outrageous act.

You’d demand not only impeachment, but also drawing, quartering, and the wholesale razing of the villages of everyone involved. You’d call anyone else doing this a traitor, a villain, and the worst person ever to hold the office of president.

But we all know what’s going to happen to Trump, don’t we? It’s already happening:

Not a goddamned thing.

A few Republicans in the Senate will—ever so briefly—furrow their brows. Some will issue anodyne comments that if you squint and look really closely could be vaguely suggestive of something in the general vicinity of an elliptical criticism of Trump’s invitation to foreign governments to fuck us.

In the House, the Clown Caucus will run around with their dicks out, as per normal, and bleat about Jim Comey or Chris Steele or Bruce Ohr or Peter Strzok or whatever imaginary Deep State conspiracy they’re trying to froth into existence today. They’ll race to Fox shows like Bonfire of the Hannity to bellow about witch hunts and reap millions from the boob donors on their email lists: Help me fight the Deep State and protect President Trump from Soros-Clinton-Hussein Obama Witch Hunt Sharia Lesbianism.

Bill Barr’s Trump Family Legal Defense and Obstruction Center will do exactly fuck-all. Nothing, exactly nothing will be said or done about this outrage. A realattorney general would demand a private meeting in the Oval Office and would give President Fuckwit both barrels. A real attorney general would nut-punch a president who so obviously invites foreign intelligence services to compromise the so-called leader of the free world. Bill Barr is not a real attorney general. He is a family retainer for Trump Inc., a small man in a big job without the moral compass or legal sensibility God gave the common rat. . . .

Trump’s ichor, his slimy amorality, his reek of greed and treason is an insult to the work, legacy, and memory of the men of both political parties who put America before their own egos, their own political fortunes. The sense of anger, outrage, and disgust on the part of Americans with the slightest sense of conscience is palpable and justified. That is directed not only at Trump but all those who serve and enable him, and dare call that public service.

There Was (Is) Collusion And GOP Congress Has Joined In It

(Cartoon image is by Steve Sack in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.)

Was there collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to affect the 2016 election? Did Trump know about and approve of the collusion, or even direct it? The answer to both questions is a resounding YES! Even though we don't know everything that Robert Mueller knows, there has been enough information made public remove any doubt that Trump's campaign aides and family did collude with Russia. And nothing happens in Trump-world, without the express consent of Donald Trump himself.

Trump keeps repeating that there was no collusion. He's hoping that if he denies it enough, people will start to believe him. But frankly, you'd have to be brain-dead at this point to believe there was no collusion. But it gets worse. The collusion is STILL HAPPENING! And the colluders now include most of the Republicans in Congress. They have joined in Trump's denials, efforts to obstruct justice, and basically ignoring Russia's attack on the U.S. democracy. They are now as guilty as Trump.

Following is just a part of an excellent article by David Rothkopf in The Daily Beast:

This is an extraordinary moment. It is without equal not only in American history but in modern history. A hostile foreign power intervened in our election to help elect a man president who has since actively served their interests and has defended them at every turn.

Trump may deny collusion. But given that this the attack continues, denying it is collusion, distracting from it is collusion, obstructing the investigation of it is collusion — because all these things enable it to go on.

That the president is abetted in his aid for the Russians — again, in the midst of this ongoing attack — by the leadership of the Republican Party makes the situation all the more extraordinary and dangerous. As they seek to undermine the investigation, they serve Russia as directly as if they were officers of the GRU. Some now reportedly seek to impeach Rosenstein on trumped up charges. To attack one of the leaders of our national defense as we are being attacked and to do so to benefit our foreign adversary is textbook treason.

That is strong language. But consider this: If we updated our definitions of war to include cyberwar, then aiding a foreign power engaged in such a war against us would certainly meet the Constitutional definition: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”

When only semantics protect our president and our ruling party from the harsh sentences treason demands, we need to recognize the severity of the situation. . . .

At stake are the results in our 2018 and 2020 elections and the integrity of our political system. This enemy seeks not only to put puppets or weak or deficient leaders in place, it seeks to gain leverage over them as they come to realize they are advertently or not the beneficiaries of the Russian attacks. . . .

If they succeed, America will be profoundly weakened, our standing, our alliances and the international system we built may be irreversibly damaged.

Robert E. Lee Is NOT An American Hero

I am tired of hearing about what a heroic figure Robert E. Lee was. He was not a hero. He was a traitor, who left the U.S. Army to fight against the country he had sworn to defend -- and he did it to support slavery and white supremacy. How can that be considered heroic -- except by those who still support those odious ideas?

The following article on Lee was written in 1928 by W.E.B. DuBois. It is just as relevant today as it was the day it was written.

Each year on the 19th of January there is renewed effort to canonize Robert E. Lee, the greatest confederate general. His personal comeliness, his aristocratic birth and his military prowess all call for the verdict of greatness and genius. But one thing–one terrible fact–militates against this and that is the inescapable truth that Robert E. Lee led a bloody war to perpetuate slavery. Copperheads like the New York Times may magisterially declare: “of course, he never fought for slavery.” Well, for what did he fight? State rights? Nonsense. The South cared only for State Rights as a weapon to defend slavery. If nationalism had been a stronger defense of the slave system than particularism, the South would have been as nationalistic in 1861 as it had been in 1812.

No. People do not go to war for abstract theories of government. They fight for property and privilege and that was what Virginia fought for in the Civil War. And Lee followed Virginia. He followed Virginia not because he particularly loved slavery (although he certainly did not hate it), but because he did not have the moral courage to stand against his family and his clan. Lee hesitated and hung his head in shame because he was asked to lead armies against human progress and Christian decency and did not dare refuse. He surrendered not to Grant, but to Negro Emancipation.

Today we can best perpetuate his memory and his nobler traits not by falsifying his moral debacle, but by explaining it to the young white south. What Lee did in 1861, other Lees are doing in 1928. They lack the moral courage to stand up for justice to the Negro because of the overwhelming public opinion of their social environment. Their fathers in the past have condoned lynching and mob violence, just as today they acquiesce in the disfranchisement of educated and worthy black citizens, provide wretchedly inadequate public schools for Negro children and endorse a public treatment of sickness, poverty and crime which disgraces civilization.

It is the punishment of the South that its Robert Lees and Jefferson Davises will always be tall, handsome and well-born. That their courage will be physical and not moral. That their leadership will be weak compliance with public opinion and never costly and unswerving revolt for justice and right. it is ridiculous to seek to excuse Robert Lee as the most formidable agency this nation ever raised to make 4 million human beings goods instead of men. Either he knew what slavery meant when he helped maim and murder thousands in its defense, or he did not. If he did not he was a fool. If he did, Robert Lee was a traitor and a rebel–not indeed to his country, but to humanity and humanity’s God.