I said a few days ago that this was a real possibility. We have Trump supporters inside the Capitol after they overran Capitol Police. Reportedly there is a standoff outside the House chamber, and members of Congres were issued gas masks.

This is an extremely dangerous situation and we saw similar events during the open the state's demonstrations during the summer. They charged up the steps in Michigan and Tennessee and what we are seeing is sedition. This is the textbook definition of the term. We may still see people killed.

So for the moment, the pretty sedate certification of the election has been replaced with an attempted coup, (I expect it to fail.) And perhaps the GOP will realize that this is a beast that cannot easily be controlled. …

So the new year has rolled in and there are a lot of us who have new Year resolutions. They mostly are the perennials I am sure. Lose weight, be healthy, save for a rainy day (which is only happening if you have a paycheck, am aware.) In some cases, it may be getting training a field you always wanted to do. Writing books is also a perennial for some people. Keep the house more ordered could be for some, me for example. I admit it. I am a slob. I have been looking for ways to do this for decades, but hey, I am distracted most of the time…and no, it is not an excuse, but it does make it harder. …

The word auto-golpe sends shivers down my spine. It means self-coup. I have written recently about how we are moving in this direction. Now we have twelve United States Senators, led by Joshua Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas, who will support 140 members of the US House when they object to the electoral votes of the states that flipped from President Donald Trump to President-Elect Joe Biden. What is this political theater about? They claim that an election that was free and clear and was certified was somehow tainted and the presidency was stolen.

January 6 is mostly ceremonial. The electoral college tallies sent by the states are opened and certified by a joint session of Congress, making it, once again, official. The certification means that on January 20th, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will take their oaths of office. If a member of congress objects and a senator supports it, both houses go debate for two hours. Then they vote to assert whether to throw the slates out, or keep them? Nobody expects any of the slates to be thrown out. In the end, this will further cement the results of the election. As I stated above, a rational mind says they will lose in this effort to overturn the election and insert an alternate slate of electoral votes. . This is just a temper tantrum on the national stage because Republicans fear President Donald Trump and his MAGA base. A more cynical view would see this as the opening salvo of the 2024 presidential race. After all, they will need the hyper-nationalist MAGA base to win the primary. Yet, this ignores darker meaning and prevents the media from looking at it from the view of history, even recent history, if not American history. …

We ended the year with a COVID test. Both my husband and I were having symptoms that could be COVID. No, we did not lose our sense of smell. But we had others. Also, his workplace had a cluster in the last three weeks, but he is religious about his PPE. Three weeks is the limit when you could potentially show symptoms from science. We have not been so happy ever to have a simple cold. Yes, my chest tightness is due to my asthma, not COVID. It happens every time I get an upper respiratory infection. So there is an inhaler. …

So far one in a thousand Americans has died from COVID. The numbers keep climbing, but they are so high that Americans have become numb to them. Unless you are directly affected I suppose. Yes, there are people out there who are lucky enough were none in their direct family or group of friends has gotten infected. At this point, there is a good chance you know either family or friends, or both, who have gotten ill or died. …

You likely know people who believe at this late hour that Covid is a hoax. Their voices are loud online. They diminish the seriousness of the virus by claiming it’s the flu. They diminish or deny the deaths of over 300,000 Americans and believe that the projections of half a million deaths are made up. Some of this is coming from economic desperation because our government, for ideological reasons, has refused to support people when they need it.

Let me make this clear. The Republican Senate has done all it can to block the even minimum relief the American people need to survive this pandemic. They are opposed to direct payments on ideological grounds and now that a Democrat will take over the presidency, they will preach austerity and will oppose all on the grounds of the deficit. It is predictable because they do it every time. They blow the national debt when they hold power sky high and then insist on austerity, meaning cutting the safety net as far as they can. Democrats play the game and surrender to many of their demands because we must be clear, many center-right democrats subscribe to the same ideological belief. They are just less open about it, or less radical. After all, a belief that the state role should be limited is not limited to Republicans. Libertarians are part of both parties. It’s been with us from the beginning of the republic in some forms, since John Locke is part of a view of the state that started with the Enlightenment, and so is John Hobbes. …

We all woke up yesterday to the news that a large explosion happened in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. It soon was called an intentional explosion and thought the day this monicker remained. In fact, as we woke up this morning this monicker remains. It is not baffling. Since this is most likely far-right, militia based, terrorism.

First, let's review the definition of the term under the US Code:

(5)the term “domestic terrorism” means activities that —
(A)involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
(B)appear to be intended —
(i)to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii)to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii)to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
©occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United…

The other day Lt. General Michael Flynn went on Newsmax and spoke nonsense. According to the former general, who recently got a pardon from the president, the president should enact martial law and re-run elections where Donald Trump lost. Now, let’s be clear, this talk of a coup, of martial law, has been the biggest thing this side of crazy town in far-right fringe websites. It’s also circulated on more mainstream ones, even if this is a matter of degree. The president even considering it, according to the New York Times, is not normal.

He also spoke of naming Sidney Powell special counsel to investigate the election and find out where the (imaginary) fraud was, Until now many of the talking heads on the TV Machines were thinking that this was just a grift from Trump. Some of us knew it was more than a way to raise money from a base desperate to overturn the election. That the president continues to encourage is clear. But for a moment of clarity, we saw one of the talking heads breach the necessary subject. Donald Trump is not just encouraging a base to raise money. …