Uvalde School Massacre
Let’s take Uvalde, TX (Robb Elementary School shootings) first. The Democratic reaction was, quite predictably, it is the assault rifles, their accessories, and the easy access that the shooter had to them on his 18th birthday. There was lots of finger pointing and blame casting on the local police department, and people lost their respectability, credibility, and, as time went on, their jobs. Families were ripped apart emotionally, mentally, and financially as they realized that the pathologist could not even positively identify their children because the bodies were so destroyed. Then they had to cope with burying their dead.
In the meantime, the Republican reaction was summed up in one extremely callous sentence: “People should just get used to this. It isn’t going to go away.” I was dumbfounded. Get used to a young man so deranged that he felt it a reasonable thing to go get weapons of war and walk into an elementary school and massacre children and teachers who didn’t know him and whom he didn’t know? No, I can’t and I won’t. I refuse to do that. But they tried to brush it off. Then when that failed to work, they went back to their 2nd Amendment arguments. Those arguments are weak in the face of such an event, but still they return to them like dogs to their own vomit. (I’ll argue those elsewhere.)
January 6 Coup Attempt
This one is another head scratcher in many respects. The Republican leadership has, by turns, denied that it happened (“it was just a bunch of tourists”), said that it DID happen and that Trump was responsible (largely immediately following while their pants were still damp), and a range of harrumphs, umms, and ahems, followed by protests of “but that’s not a crime” to “these people are being mistreated even though they are PATRIOTS.” (direct quote from Marjorie Taylor Green, CD14-GA R).
When the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the creation of a special investigation committee into the events of that day, she said that she wanted it to be bi-partisan. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy provided a list of Republicans he wanted on their side. Problems arose because three of the names he proposed were on the possible witness list already. It is a breach of protocol to have someone sitting on an investigating committee AND be a witness at the same time. So Pelosi objected to their presence. McCarthy immediately threw a tantrum and, instead of doing the sensible thing of merely replacing them, withdrew the entire list saying that the investigation would be a “partisan witch hunt”. Two Republican members of the House stepped forward voluntarily knowing that they would sacrifice their careers and volunteered to be on the committee so that it would be bipartisan-Rep. Liz Cheney, WY, and Adam Kinzinger, IN. (Kinzinger let it be known that he would not run again for his seat. Cheney did run for hers, but lost.)
The public hearings have been remarkable primarily because nearly 100% of the witnesses presented and the video clips shown have been of REPUBLICANS. The evidence has been damning. The silence from the Republican side has been deafening. And we still have more evidence and hearings to go in September.
The Democrats, to their credit, have not been gloating, but they have been gratified by the depth and power of the hearings. The timeline, the written documentation, the videos of actions taken and things said, and the results have painted a frightening picture of what came before that day, what happened on that day, and the absolute callousness of the man who planned it, Donald J. Trump, Sr.
We still have so much work to do to clean this up. It will take years to finish.
The Mar-A-Largo Debacle
In a related, but not related, event, AG Merrick Garland got tired of asking for documents that could not be located from the Trump compound at Mar-A-Largo (MAL). Everyone knew that boxes and boxes of things had been loaded onto the plane when he departed the White House. The problem was that the people who knew what was in them weren’t talking nor were they forthcoming with the boxes, at least not all of them. Twelve were returned to the National Archive.
But the National Archives said some really sensitive things were still missing. AG Garland and the DOJ know that they know their jobs so they started asking in stronger and stronger language for the documents. Trump’s attorneys stalled them telling them that they had everything. As usual with these things, you don’t tell an old prosecutor “no” but for so long. They will find a judge who will listen to them, sign off on a search warrant, and they will send people to search wherever it is until they are satisfied. The FBI notified the USSS they were on the way, they were admitted when they knocked on the door, and they searched until they got their boxes. Not a raid at all. Raids entail SWAT teams, stun grenades, and blasted down doors. That didn’t happen.
But to hear the Republicans talk about it. OMG. Starting with the man himself talking on social media about his home being “raided”. It’s been two weeks and they’re still at it. “If it can happen to a “former President”, it can happen to you.” Well, heck, yeah, it can, and it always could. Anybody can have a search warrant executed. Give me a break.
And, of course, now we find out what was IN those boxes, and it seems that those boxes should have never left Washington OR the White House without an armed guard. We’re talking spy level documents. Good God. And he was keeping them in an unlocked basement at a resort where who knows what kind of people come and go every day? Don’t talk to me about security. I’m not THAT stupid.
These are the kind of people who willfully and knowingly follow that guy and call themselves Republicans. I don’t know about you, but I do not want them in the Georgia State House writing laws that concern me and mine. They TRIED to put up a slate of fake electors to get him elected for a second term. I don’t trust them and this Senator was one of them. Vote for me to get a Democrat to represent you in the Senate. I will help Stacey Abrams and Charlie Bailey get Georgia put back to rights. Women need to have their rights given back. Let’s DO THIS.
Endorsed by:
Emily’s List as a Pro-Choice candidate
Moms Demand Action as a Gun Control candidate
Wright4Georgia 