Democrats Win Historic Victories in Georgia and Take Control of Power in the Senate –

Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol following a rally with the president on Wednesday in Washington, D.C.: Getty Images

By Glynn Wilson –

On a historic day when all Americans should be celebrating a great victory for democracy, that news according to the visual media at least was overshadowed by a gang of delusional rednecks led to a fake, short-lived insurrection by a fascist president — under the influence of a Russian dictator — who should have been arrested and removed from office a long time ago.

One reasonable banner headline for this day could very well be this: TRUMP MOB LEADS PUTIN’S FINAL BREACH OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.

Although it might not be the final breach, because mainstream American politicians and some traditional corporate-owned news outlets are just way too naive, still, or in on the jump over the shark, like Sinclair broadcasting stations and Gatehouse Media newspapers, in addition to Fox News, NewsMax, Breitbart and the rest of the right-wing mediasphere.

Will this wake them up, finally?

Congress Stands Up, Democrats Take Georgia

At the end of the day, however, or in the wee hours of the morning, the vast majority of members of Congress voted to confirm a duly elected president, Joe Biden, who won the election with 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232. He will be sworn in on Jan. 20, 2021.

Down in Georgia, the votes of a record number of citizens who turned out at the polls were counted, changing the balance of power in the United States Senate.

A Democrat, Jon Ossoff, unseated Republican Senator David Perdue with 50.5 percent of the vote to 49.5 percent. And Democrat Raphael Warnock defeated Kelly Loeffler 51 percent to 49 percent.

Cheers to them. They are the real heroes here.

Vice President Kamala Harris will now hold the tie-breaking deciding vote, and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will now set the Senate calendar, an important power. See how Republican Mitch McConnell has used it for so many years, mainly as an obstruction to the other side.

There will soon be a return to sanity and normalized governing in the White House and the Senate, joined by a Democratic majority in the House. The votes will be there to begin changing direction in the courts.

Democrats — and some Republicans and independents — who worked altruistically together and voted to reverse course away from Trump’s brand of selfish-gene fascism, are the winners here on this day, not the rednecks who have longed for a race war and a new civil war for years.

How can they in good conscience call themselves “patriots” when they are caught on video tearing down an American flag from the U.S. Capitol, and replacing with it a Trump flag for this dictator — and carrying Confederate flags? This is NOT what American democracy looks like. This is an attempted coup, something that happens in third world countries run by fascist or communist dictators.

Is that really what these rednecks want? They like to say we are about to be like Venezuela. Well now we are, thanks to them.

This could only happen in a world where reason and reality have been turned upside down by a savvy media and social media propaganda campaign to undermine American democracy itself.

Reaction

While prominent leaders of democracies around the world reacted with shock and horror at the scene in Washington, the vodka flowed inside the Kremlin at the wildly successful disruption of American democracy and power. There are also leaders in China and Iran who have taken notice that America is in a weak place. This is highly dangerous, and Trump and his followers are to blame.

The New York Times, a newspaper I had the distinct honor and privilege of working for in my life and career, got the banner headline right Thursday morning.

CONGRESS CONFIRMS BIDEN’S WIN, DEFYING MOB ATTACK
Electoral College Count Is Completed Despite Mayhem Incited by Trump

The editorial boards of the Times and The Washington Post did not hesitate to place the blame for the breach of the Capitol squarely on Trump’s shoulders.

Trump caused the assault on the Capitol. He must be removed.

Trump Is to Blame for Capitol Attack: The president incited his followers to violence. There must be consequences.

To their great credit, much of the press in this country and some in the broadcast media have been hammering Trump for some time, yet all the while still providing this deranged, compromised president a platform for his distractive lies. This must stop!

At least Trump has finally been banned from posting on Twitter, thanks to the employees there. And Facebook has suspended Trump’s account at least until he is out of the White House.

There must be a reckoning about the definition of objective journalism that developed in the 20th century by the highly profitable mass circulation daily newspaper chains and wire services, and the network and cable news outlets that have continued to fly under this ill-defined banner.

I outlined this problem in-depth in my book, and will continue to elucidate the solution going forward.

Of all the reading and viewing I’ve done over the past 24 hours, I guess I was most troubled by this paragraph written by the Atlanta bureau of the Times.

“By the time Mr. Ossoff was officially declared the winner in the late afternoon, and the significance of what Democrats had accomplished in Georgia became clear, control of the Senate was secondary to the loss of control in the Capitol.”

NO! We must not allow the victories in Georgia — and the victory by Joe Biden in the presidential election and now in Congress – to be overshadowed by one day of mob violence.

Evidence of Police Collusion With Rioters

A US Capitol building police officer poses for a selfie with one of the insurrectionists who helped storm the US Capitol building. Source: Twitter

Video of Capitol Police being cozy with rioters:

The other story that troubles me a lot did not may never appear in the mainstream media in this country, because it is just too horrible a thought to publicly contemplate and admit that some cops might very well have been in on this insurrection. How could these white rioters possibly and successfully breach the Capitol — one of the most secure, protected buildings in the country — without the help of police?

Link

The public is never allowed to enter the main doors of the capitol building anymore, which remain locked at all times. They must enter through a Capitol Visitors Center started back during the Bush years and go underground into the building through heavy security.

The way of getting up into the House and Senate galleries is highly secure, and members of the public must have a pass bestowed on them by a member of Congress to even get in line. How is it possible that rioters got into the gallery to take selfies — unless some Republican members of Congress and Capitol Police let them in? The visitors center has been closed off for months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A Trump rioter somehow gets into the House gallery in the Capitol. Well-known Arizona QAnon supporter Jake Angeli was one of the hundreds of violent insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol. The police and FBI know who he is, and where he lives. Why hasn’t he been arrested?: Twitter

The only people who ever use those doors you saw breached on television are specifically authorized federal employees and cops. Capitol Police and DC Metro Police were seen removing barriers, backing away from doors, and later even fist bumping and taking selfies with the rioters. One group did break into a window, which calls into question why the windows in the Capitol are breakable. The windows in the White House are bullet proof.

Vision emerges of police moving barricades to allow rioters into US Capitol, taking selfies

A cop fist bumping with a white supremacist rioter: Twitter

This storming of the Capitol should not have come as a shock to anyone. Plenty of early warning was out there all over the place on social media.

The term “Storm the Capitol” was mentioned 100,000 times in the 30 days preceding Jan. 6, according to Zignal Labs, a media insights company. Many of these mentions appeared in viral tweet threads that discussed the possible storming of the Capitol and included details on how to enter the building, according to media reports.

There are also cameras everywhere in and around the Capitol. Did someone look away from the bank of monitors and fail to dispatch cops to entrances being breached?

We now have many hours of official and unofficial video footage available showing what happened, and there should be a full investigation by the incoming Biden administration. The U.S. Department of Justice is already collecting this data. They should also be looking at texts, emails and social media posts by police officers working in the building.

In some cases, cops held the doors open for rioters to leave. Why weren’t they arrested?

A line of people exit the Capitol building. One bloodied in the head and more came out who previously stormed the building. pic.twitter.com/0MF2aAp3Ly

— Matthew Miller (@mattmiller757) January 6, 2021

The lack of a massive police presence to protect the Capitol might remind you of another day of infamy in American history.

According to many investigators and scholars, police agencies in Dallas, Texas, were secretly ordered to “stand down” on Friday, November 22, 1963. At 12:30 p.m, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza.

Were police agencies in Washington secretly ordered to “stand down” on Wednesday, January 6, 2021? That is a term Trump used in one of the presidential debates with Joe Biden. “Stand down, stand by,” he told the Proud Boys and their allies in Qanon conspiracy groups, white supremacy groups and full blown domestic terrorists in the radical right militia movement.

Will we ever discover the truth? Will they be held accountable?

The Press

Also to the credit of the press in this situation, there was lots of great reporting on the ground. Some reporters and photographers were threatened and attacked by rioters, even detained by police.

Journalists were attacked, threatened and detained during the Capitol siege

How pro-Trump insurrectionists broke into the U.S. Capitol

To the credit of the Black Lives Matter protest leaders, I don’t know how they got their people to stand down on this day, but it is a good thing they did. At least the American people got to see the Trump mob at work without a conflict with counter protesters. That did not stop some Republicans from trying to claim that the violence was committed by liberal activists masquerading as Trump supporters. Don’t believe a word of it. This was Trump’s thugs and only Trump’s thugs.

Antifa was nowhere to be seen. If they had been there, you would have known it. This anti-fascist activist group wears all black and they wear masks to hide their faces and protect their identities, even before COVID. They show up and put their bodies on the line whenever the white supremicists and Neo-Nazis show up to riot. In this case, it was not specifically a “unite the white right” Nazi rally. This was a rally and riot specifically called up by the president of the United States.

At the end of the day, Trump and his small, tiny-brain army of thugs will lose. We have the majority now, and there’s no going back. They can march in every state capitol and get themselves arrested until their black hearts are content and their asses are in prison. If that’s how they want to spend their last days, in captivity rather than breathing the free air after we get everyone vaccinated from COVID, so be it.

You can read and watch as much of the reaction to the events of Jan. 6 as you can stand, including the words of Senate Leader Chuck Schumer who called it “a day that will live in infamy.”

But I will end with the words of a Congressman I know and respect very much, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer of Greenbelt, Maryland, one of my home towns on the road.

“Today’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol complex was a direct attack on our democracy. It is shameful and despicable, but it will not prevent us from carrying out our Constitutional duties. Tonight, the House and Senate will reconvene in a Joint Session of Congress to continue the Electoral College certification. We will fulfill our duty to the Constitution and the American people.

“This is a dark day in our nation’s history, but our democracy will prevail,” Hoyer said in a statement. “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be confirmed as the next President and Vice President of the United States. When they are sworn into office on January 20, I hope that day will mark the beginning of a new era for the American people in which we can come together as one nation and heal.”

Hoyer also released a statement on the results of the Georgia Senate races:

“I congratulate Sen.-elect Raphael Warnock on his historic victory to become the first African American to represent Georgia in the Senate,” he said. “From the votes that have already been counted and those still remaining, it appears very likely that Jon Ossoff will join him in the Senate. If this is indeed the outcome, Democrats will control both houses of Congress and the White House on January 20.

“Voters in a historically Republican-leaning state delivered a striking rebuke of the politics of division and disinformation, rejecting the Republican Party’s embrace of the outgoing president and his determination to dispute a settled election by undermining our democracy and our Constitution,” he said. “Now it is time to turn the page from the past four years and begin to heal the wounds, time to focus on making real progress for the American people through responsible government.”

Remember these names of the six senators and 121 representatives who voted to sustain an objection to Biden’s clear electoral victory in November. Either we have a democratic republic, or we don’t. Anyone who is elected to office who doesn’t believe in that should resign their public office and get out there in the streets with the mob.

The 147 Republicans Who Voted To Overturn Election Results

More Evidence of Complicity

After this story was first published Thursday morning, the day after the violent breach of the Capitol, in what may be the first news report alleging collusion on the part of the Capitol Police to simply let the Trump mob in, we continue to add video and other evidence of Capitol Police complicity with the right-wing rioters. If you see photos, stories or video footage that supports this investigation, please share it with us.

By Sunday, at least an author and expert on racist policing had a column published in The Washington Post accepting the very real possibility that racist, white Capitol Police officers were involved in allowing the breach of the Capitol.

Rosa Brooks, a law professor at Georgetown and the author of “Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American City,” to be published in February, wrote: “When crowds pressed toward them, many officers simply retreated, not making any apparent effort to physically block protesters from pushing past the gates.”

This led some on social media (including me) to “accuse at least some officers of being in cahoots with the mob. It’s too soon to say whether there’s any truth to the charge of active complicity, but it can’t be dismissed out of hand; watchdog groups and the FBI have warned for years of efforts by white supremacists and other right-wing extremists to infiltrate law enforcement.”

Here’s one blog that followed that line of reasoning on Saturday.

Clyburn Suggests Someone Within US Capitol Was ‘Complicit’ In Letting Mob In

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) suggested on Friday that someone from inside the U.S. Capitol may have been “complicit” in its attack earlier this week, citing the relative ease that Trump’s supporters raided the building on Wednesday.

“I do believe that something was going on,” Clyburn told CBSN’s Lana Zak in an interview on Friday. “They knew where to go.”

Clyburn told the network that he had heard from others in Congress that their staff reported seeing members of the violent mob being let into the building “through side doors.”

“Somebody on the inside of those buildings were complicit in this,” the South Carolina lawmaker asserted.

The comments come after President Trump incited his supporters to lay siege at the U.S. Capitol in what became an attack that left five people dead.

Clyburn added that he felt something was “amiss” on Wednesday morning when he arrived at the U.S. Capitol and “the perimeter had not been established,” in preparation for what was expected to be a contentious joint congressional session to count the Electoral College votes that would reaffirm Joe Biden’s win of the presidency.

“We have seen a double standard here,” Cluyburn said, comparing the lack of security on Wednesday to the incredible show of force amid peaceful Black Lives Matter protests last summer.

“There were no security people on the steps. They were all out in a place which I thought gave low security,” Clyburn said.

“They did not do their jobs. They were not just derelict. You could say they were complicit,” he added of law enforcement.

Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund stepped down after Wednesday’s attack, but amid widespread criticism of police response defended how law enforcement had mobilized to handle the situation calling their actions “heroic given the situation they faced.”

Sund said more than 50 Capitol Police and DC Metropolitan police had sustained injuries and that some were serious. One Capitol police officer, Brian Sicknick died on Thursday night due to injuries sustained while on duty during the attack.

More video evidence finally made it onto MSNBC.

“Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!” Rioters chanted.