January 6 was the third anniversary—some say remembrance—of the insurrection. About 140 officers were injured, four people died during the riot, and three other police officers died afterwards. Republicans, including Deposed Donald Trump (DDT), have convinced 25 percent of the U.S. population that the FBI was responsible for the travesty despite evidence that DDT and his MAGA supporters were behind the insurrection. Robert Reich presents five “basic truths” about the ongoing coup:
- January 6, 2021 topped the two months after the 2020 election while DDT illegally tried to stay in the White House.
- Failing, DDT incited the attack at the Capitol, calling on his followers to riot.
- DDT continues to lead his attempted coup.
- No one has held DDT accountable for his actions.
- DDT keeps a manipulative control over the GOP.
And DDT promises to consider full pardons for the 1,200+ charged insurrectists with almost 900 convicted, even Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader, who was given 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat writes:
“Trump has pulled off a double coup. Working in a democracy, with a pluralistic media environment, he got tens of millions of Americans to ‘forget’ a fact that even Fox News accepted on election night —that Trump lost the 2020 election—and embrace an alternate reality (the stolen election) that spurred civilians to take up arms on his behalf.
“Three years later, over 1,200 individuals have been arrested for participation in the insurrection and Trump and his co-conspirators have been indicted for trying to overthrow the government. Yet 1 in 4 Americans believe that the FBI ‘probably’ or ‘definitely’ instigated the coup attempt….
“Think about the moral abyss of those GOP politicians who pledge to support Trump even if he is convicted for acts that jeopardized their safety. No one excels at this game of self-humiliation more than former VP Mike Pence, whose public support for a man who tried to have him killed that day reminds me of the behaviors of the frightened subalterns who live in authoritarian regimes or work in organized crime (two worlds that overlap considerably).”
Ben-Ghiat writes about cowards like Rep. Troy Nehl (R-TX), Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Pence who displayed fear on January 6, 2021, and now “refuse to speak the truth about who Trump is for fear of what he might do to them, their families, and their careers.
“Like all authoritarians, Trump needs his enablers to have no limits on what they will do to protect him; he asks them, ultimately, to betray themselves, and accept their fates of being put into danger if that is necessary for the Leader’s safety. And now Trump asks them to publicly deny an experience that, for many, was likely traumatic for them and their families. ‘You are nothing and I am everything’ is the strongman’s mantra, and it is the essence of the memory politics developing around Jan. 6.”
Cowards such as Elise Stefanik (R-NY), chair of the House Republican Conference, promote their belief that violent insurrectionists invading the Capitol on January 6, 2021, are innocent “hostages,” a claim that Elise Stefanik (R-NY), chair of the House Republican Conference. On NBC’s Meet the Press., host Kristen Welker played Stefanik’s quote from the evening of the insurrection that “violence in any form is absolutely unacceptable …, anti-American and must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” Stefanik lambasted Welker for NBC’s bias in not playing the entire quotation and complained about the “weaponization of the federal government … against conservatives.”
Stefanik won’t commit to certifying the 2024 election, waiting to see if it is “legal and valid.” She said she didn’t certify the 2020 Pennsylvania results because of “unconstitutional acts circumventing the state legislature.” In addition, Stefanik accused Democrats of trying to remove DDT from the ballot although four Colorado Supreme Court justices voted to omit his name from the state ballot. “The American people” should made the decision, she asserted, despite constitutional qualifications for presidential candidates. Stefanik is viewed as a possible vice-presidential candidate.
Like Stefanik, Pence wants the people to decide. He refuses to accept the attacks on the Capitol on January 6 as an insurrection, saying that attempts to remove DDT’s name from the 2024 ballot are “antithetical” to democracy. When a presidential candidate, Pence denounced DDT’s actions on January 6.
Breaking News: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) have supposedly reached a topline spending deal for the 2024 budget: an overall spending level of $1.66 trillion, as agreed on last spring in the debt ceiling law, with $866.3 billion for the military and $772.7 billion for the domestic discretionary spending. Military funding receives $6.1 billion in unused Covid funding and $10 billion in IRS funds from the Inflation Reduction Act. Freedom Caucus member Chip Roy (R-TX) called the deal “s—t.”
Last spring’s agreement made between President Joe Biden and then Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) limited discretionary spending to the same amount, one percent growth plus an additional $69 billion for 2024 and 2025, some of that funding from repurposing existing funds.
Hezbollah is attacking Israel across the border, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering a full-blown war in Lebanon to protect his political future. Intelligence assessment predicts Israel’s military assets and resources will be spread too thin. Hezbollah has well-trained fighters and tens of thousands of missiles and rockets; an attack on them could pull in Iran’s support for Lebanon. The result could be 300,000 to 500,000 casualties in Lebanon and “a massive evacuation of all of northern Israel,” according to Bilal Saab, a Lebanon expert at the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank. The Biden administration increased criticism of Israel after its shootouts against Hezbollah on the border and hits on the U.S.-funded and trained Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), opposition to Hezbollah, over 34 times since October 7. Last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to the Middle East for the fourth time since Israel started its war against Gaza.
Highlights about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:
Within the past week, Russia began firing North Korea-provided ballistic missiles into Ukraine. North Korea may also be looking for fighter aircraft, surface to air missiles, and other advanced technology in upgrades for its own military capabilities. Ramping up its winter offensive, Russia fired about 500 missiles and drones from December 29 to January 2, killing dozens of Ukrainian civilians and injuring hundreds more.
On New Year’s Eve, Ukraine struck the Donbas Palace” hotel in Donetsk six times, killing a military commander and a “journalist.” The occupiers’ “elite” hosted guests from Moscow for a special dinner.
Another Russian politician recently died from a mystery “fall from a window,” a member of the ruling Tsar’s “United Russia” party who was forced out of city administration in 2016 after a corruption scandal. In early December, the former commander of Russia’s 6th Air Force and Air Defense Forces Army who once criticized Putin’s Air Force as “third-rate,” and his wife were found dead in bed. State media reports no signs of foul play, no violence, and no toxic substances in their blood. In October, Russians were reported executing their own soldiers who mutinied. Running out of men as cannon fodder, Russia is recruiting women.
Russia has lost 315,000 military members, 87 percent of its starting army of 360,000. Also lost are 2,200 of 3,500 tanks, forcing Russia to use Soviet-era equipment. Ukraine regained half the land that Russia took in the February 2022 invasion, forced Russian warships out of Ukrainian territorial waters, and created export corridors moving Ukrainian grain to needy countries. Over 200 ships have taken seven million tons of cargo out of Ukraine, helping the economy which is growing at a five percent rate which relieves the nation from future foreign aid.
Ukrainians also forced the Russian fleet to retreat from the Crimean headquarters, Sevastopol, in the Black Sea. Russian President Vladimir Putin had taken pride in his 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian land and a large naval fleet whereas Ukraine has none. Russia can no longer launch cruise missiles from ships in Sevastopol and the western Black Sea. The victories were accomplished with the use of drones and missiles along with “really good intelligence inside the Russian military,” according to Matthew Schmidt, associate professor of national security and political science at the University of New Haven.
In late December, Ukraine claimed it destroyed a Russian Navy tank landing, the third major loss in less than a week. On Christmas Eve, the Ukraine also destroyed an Su-24 fighter jet in the eastern Donetsk region and an Su-30SM fighter jet over the Black Sea before downing three Russian Su-34 warplanes a few days later. One of the newest Russian aircraft, Su-34 jets, each costing at least $50 million, carry out aerial bomb and missile strikes.
Fiona Hill, senior director for European and Russian affairs on DDT’s National Security Council staff, said that a Putin win in Ukraine would dimmish the U.S. standing in the world, strengthen North Korea, allow China to dominate the Indo-Pacific, make the Middle East more unstable, and proliferate nuclear weapons. She added:
“Ukraine has become a battlefield now for America and America’s own future—whether we see it or not—for our own defensive posture and preparedness, for our reputation and our leadership. For Putin, Ukraine is a proxy war against the United States, to remove the United States from the world stage.”
Russian media outlets laud Republicans refusing Ukrainian assistance as Russian assets.
Nel's New Day 