January 8th, 2021
January 6: Never Forget.

The guys were carrying flex cuffs, the plastic double restraints often used by police in mass arrest situations. They walked through the Senate chamber with a sense of purpose. They were not dressed in silly costumes but kitted out in full paramilitary regalia: helmets, armor, camo, holsters with sidearms. At least one had a semi-automatic rifle and 11 Molotov cocktails. At least one, unlike nearly every other right-wing rioter photographed that day, wore a mask that obscured his face.

These are the same guys who, when the windows of the Capitol were broken and entry secured, went in first with what I’d call military-ish precision. They moved with purpose, to the offices of major figures like Nancy Pelosi and then to the Senate floor. What was that purpose? It wasn’t to pose for photos. It was to use those flex cuffs on someone.

January 8th, 2021
Hey, Virginia! You can get her as GOVERNOR!!

She’s running!

January 8th, 2021
The Economist’s Current Cover.
January 8th, 2021
Latest Proposal:

Change name of Smoot-Hawley Act to Smoot-XXXXXX Act.

January 8th, 2021
Farewell to Erin

Musical background here.

Erin Hawley, the wife of Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), was listed as of counsel to the appellate practice of Kirkland & Ellis LLP as recently as January 6, 2021, the day the Capitol coup took place. Hawley’s bio associating her with the firm has since been scrubbed from the internet.

Maybe go back to your maiden name?

Maybe leave the son of a bitch?

January 8th, 2021
UD’s beloved Uncle Mario, an Argentine Jew, was Always Picking Out Jews.

UD‘s kind of the same. You know – you’re watching a film and the end credits come on and you’re looking for Jewish last names… Merrick Garland gets nominated for Attorney General and you race to Wikipedia to see whether, despite the unpromising name, he’s one of us (yes)… So UD was of course intrigued (though, since she follows the subject of Orthodox Jews, not surprised) that busloads of Orthodox Jews came to Fuckface’s pre-insurrection rally, and of those more than a few stormed and ransacked the Capitol building.

If you follow the subject of right-wing Orthodox Jews, you know that en masse they LOVE Fuckface. They vote for him in droves. In fact they are his most consistent and enthusiastic voting bloc. 80%, 85% of them vote for him every time.

They love him because he’s just like them: They are a cult. He leads a cult. He hates and despises science and therefore has no trouble with their refusal to vaccinate their children, and of course with their refusal to educate their children. He loves a con, and therefore has no trouble with many of their communities’ decades of welfare fraud. A significant minority of them love to riot and they do it at the drop of a hat – and Fuckface too adores violence. Fuckface loves authoritarianism, so their worship of grand rabbis sits very well with him – benighted old guys should tell you what to do (most importantly, they should tell you to vote for Fuckface), and you should (and do) unquestioningly obey them. Ff is a white supremacist, and they are too – white ultra-Orthodox supremacists. They are a rogue mob unto themselves – in Israel and in the United States – and in Ff they have correctly identified a president who doesn’t give a fuck what they do. Cheers them on. On the very simplest level, many of the men among the ultra-Orthodox are obnoxious (consider their routine vile behavior on planes, buses, and city streets in regard to women) and obnoxiousness is just … constitutive of Ff.

**************

A number of people seem surprised by the coincidence, inside the desecrated Capitol building, of Israeli flags and Camp Auschwitz sweatshirts. Of fervently pious Jews, and neo-Nazis. How the hell can both…??? But that’s because they’re not thinking. Let us think about how this can be, about how American fascists who HATE HATE HATE Jews, and Orthodox American Jews, gathered together at the Capitol building on Wednesday to try to destroy American democracy.

First point: This is not the comic/pathetic thing Andrew Higgins describes having seen in post-communist violent demonstrations – demonstrations that remind him of the sick circus we saw on Wednesday. Higgins describes a confusion of lost-cause flags:

In Donetsk, these included not just the Red Flag of the defunct Soviet Union and the black-yellow-white tricolor of the long-gone Tsarist empire, but at times also the emblem of an even more distant, failed venture, the Confederate States of America.

Same seemingly irresolvable contradiction, right? Everyone gathered in solidarity to riot, some fervently hoping to bring back Stalin, others worshipful in regard to the people Stalin slaughtered, and yet others – what the hell – hoisting the Confederate flag. Amusing, ain’t it? Call it the Undifferentiated Resentment Carnivalesque.

Wednesday’s attempted coup was more organized, under the banner you better fucking look at me and let me do what I want.

Details? The ultra-Orthodox Jewish side of this is the easy one to figure. The people on those Trump rally buses represent a small incredibly tightly-knit cult which positively cultivates ignorance of any world outside itself. Abstractions like “the Israeli state” or “the American government” come to life for them primarily as impediments – via universal education mandates and the like – to their self-enclosed way of life. They are things against which you riot because you want to do what you want. Note, for instance, the wonderfully cooperative attitude toward state covid mandates we continue to witness among the ultra-Orthodox. Their appalling behavior is not really in defense of anything spiritual – they just want to do what they want.

If you ask them what about those Nazi flags waving around you at the Capitol? They will respond: What Nazi flags? And if they’re under a certain age they will respond: What’s a Nazi?

As for the neo-Nazis: They might not like Jews, but they love them some Israel. “[T]here’s a real affinity here … Far-right nationalists often see Israel, particularly its current far-right government, as an ally. When far-right extremists like [Richard] Spencer look at Israel, they claim to see more than a hint of their own vision for society.” Obviously the American fascist view of Israel is wacky; nonetheless, it inspires and animates white nationalists at the highest levels.

Most broadly, you saw ultra-Orthodox Jews and neo-Nazis at the Capitol because violent anti-democratic extremists/cultists recognize one another; they recognize that much more unites than divides them.

January 8th, 2021
Written by Emily of the State (to the tune of “If you’re happy and you know it”)

If you’re Nazi and you’re fired it’s your fault

If you’re Nazi and you’re fired it’s your fault

When you’re spotted in the mob and you lose your fucking job

If you’re Nazi and you’re fired it’s your fault

If you’re fascist and you’re maced that’s on you

If you’re fascist and you’re maced that’s on you

When you try to stage a coup

But you haven’t got a clue

If you’re fascist and you’re maced that’s on you

January 8th, 2021
Josh’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Josh Hawley is a very bad boy, and he’s gotten into a lot of very bad trouble and made a lot of adults very mad. Little Josh likes to run around pumping his fist at proto-fascist rallies; he likes to destroy democratic institutions; he likes to lie about his house having been attacked by evil left-wingers.

People die because of his rabble-rousing, but it’s not Josh’s fault. He is not a disreputable person, beneath contempt; he is a well-groomed, well-educated, highly promising young statesman.

But because it certainly looks as though people die because of Josh, publishers cancel his book contracts. But the publishers are bad evil left-wingers and he is going to sue them! He is going to sue them on behalf of all of those innocent people who are cancelled merely because they are mob-inciting, proto-fascist, traitors. Who among us is not a mob-inciting, proto-fascist, traitor? Why should Josh Hawley be singled out?

Because he is a white man, that’s why. If he were one of millions of mob-inciting, proto-fascist, black women, he would be celebrated, not condemned.

January 7th, 2021
“There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me.”

Betsy DeVos resigns. At this rate, there won’t be any Cabinet left to invoke the 25th Amendment.

January 7th, 2021
The Wall Street Journal Calls on Trump to Resign

He has cost Republicans the House, the White House, and now the Senate. Worse, he has betrayed his loyal supporters by lying to them about the election and the ability of Congress and Mr. Pence to overturn it. He has refused to accept the basic bargain of democracy, which is to accept the result, win or lose.

It is best for everyone, himself included, if he goes away quietly.

***********

In calling for him to resign, the WSJ uses the hilarious language of “personal responsibility.” For some reason, that editorial board believes, or pretends to believe, that a man who is both insane and degenerate can deploy personal responsibility and decide to do the right thing.

***********

Donald Trump must be frightened into leaving the White House. That is why UD has proposed a strategy meeting between McConnell and Pence, after which they meet with Trump (they will need to have armed guards stationed nearby, because Trump at this point is capable of having Pence killed – something his sickos clearly wanted to do when they stormed the Capitol) and lay out the long list of excruciating political, personal, and financial hits they will make sure he suffers if he stays. How many such hits can these men – in league with the CIA, FBI, and others – actually deliver? That matters less than that Trump believe they have power over him. Like Peter Finch believing Ned Beatty. (“I have seen the face of God.” “You might just be right, Mr. Beale.”)

The obvious danger with UD‘s approach is that Trump’s paranoia combined with his hysteria at the prospect of no longer being president will prompt him – under this pressure – to declare (see post below this one) martial law. But I suspect Trump is at this point fully castrated, fully incapable of mounting anything, much less a state of martial law.

January 7th, 2021
Why we’re all so traumatized.

In institutional self-defense, Trump must be impeached again and this time removed. That needs to happen immediately, before he can declare martial law…

Schedule an impeachment vote for this very night. Stay ’til dawn. Do whatever is necessary. Avert any potential for martial law. Deny Trump command of the military; withdraw the nuclear codes. Don’t wait until the next crossed red line, until the next smashed barrier, until the next putsch attempt…

Remove this treasonous president.

January 7th, 2021
HUGE opportunity for NS Publications!

Simon and Schuster has cancelled its contract to publish Treason Caucus member Josh Hawley’s book… So… calling NS! This obscure neo-Nazi press has a real opportunity to get its name out there by signing America’s most famous homegrown neo-fascist to its list.

January 7th, 2021
‘Mr. Trump will deservedly be left a man without a country.’

Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis gets it said.

Strange to think about, though, isn’t it? Donald Trump will in fact probably be unable to live in America; yet for the moment he is president of the country!

I predict he will live out his life alongside disgraced Spanish King Juan Carlos in Abu Dhabi, a luxurious retreat which welcomes any POS with money. Mr UD, along with many others, argues that he will feel most at home in Putin’s Russia.

January 7th, 2021
“I join the Senate Democratic leader in calling on the vice president to remove this president by immediately invoking the 25th Amendment. If the vice president and Cabinet do not act, the Congress may be prepared to move forward with impeachment.”

Pelosi wants the stain removed.

January 7th, 2021
“To our disloyal customers…”

Shopify regrets to inform Trumpers that it no longer carries MAGA merchandise.

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