(Featured image by Steven Nelson)

The news right now is a moving target for anyone covering Q, or the right-wing online. It’s 15:30 GMT on the 7th of January as I’m typing this and I have no doubt that when I wake up tomorrow morning it will be to more messages from loved ones about right-wing extremism.

George W. Bush’s Deputy Chief of Staff and man who is only technically not a war criminal, Karl Rove, has been in full damage control mode today. For the President, he wrote an easy to understand condemnation of yesterday’s events. For the more educated conservative, his condemnation of yesterday centered around the GOP’s senate loss and a rhetorical slight of hand I think will be important in the coming weeks.

As Democrats ride their high horses about Wednesday’s congressional fiasco, it’s worth recalling that they’ve also challenged Electoral College results. In 2001 the House Democrats’ effort fizzled on the floor when they failed to recruit the necessary senator to force a debate…Then in 2005…

It must be said that in neither instance was there a president who incited a crowd to shut down the Congress as it received the Electoral College results.

The Republican Party Is in Disarray, Karl Rove. Wall Street Journal [Emphasis mine]

He is technically correct, but by any meaningful measure the 2000 Presidential election was stolen with help from the Brooks Brothers riot. A lawful re-count of the votes in Miami-Dade County, Florida was shut down by paid Republican operatives assaulting police officers and Democratic aides. Instead of being directed by a sitting president, participants were paid operatives of the Bush Recount Committee, who were then given jobs in the new administration.

The riot of 2000 was smarter and more controlled than the riot of 2021, and that’s why it worked. But never forget that this isn’t an aberration of politics as usual, this is the natural result of a decades-long process. They can play respectability politics all they like, but no-one in the Republican apparatchik has clean hands today.

Good Articles To Read – 7th January 2021

A short roundup on great stories to read.

• The Making of QAnon: A Crowdsourced Conspiracy
• Extremists were able to lay siege to the US Capitol because America’s law enforcement ignored warnings of right-wing extremism for years
• (This is an Archive link to a Daily Mail article I include only because it’s fascinating to see them scorn Trump this much) ‘This represents end of greatest first term in presidential history’: Trump posts tone deaf tweet via aide’s phone (after being banned from Twitter) in which he agrees to ‘orderly transition’ after MAGA mob
• User TapTheForwardAssist on Reddit has been doing really interesting coverage, even if I don’t agree with everything they write – you should definitely check it out