This week in Scared White People news

Amber Ruffin of the "Amber Ruffin Show" on Peacock and a writer for Seth Meyers's NBC late night show amusingly covered the appalling events of this past week, giving a humorous but true view of the sad and weird events of January 6th. Amber Ruffin is very funny and very smart and insightful and let's go back to the fact that she is very smart and also well spoken. Look at the video after you've read this -- all the way at the bottom. This should have been a semi-normal week in the news. On Tuesday, the runoff election in Georgia had good voter turnout due to the solid efforts of Stacey Abrams. Reverend Warnock and John Ossoff prevailed! Reverend Warnock is the first black Senator from Georgia and John Ossoff is the youngest person to be elected senator since President-Elect Joe Biden and the first Jewish senator from that state. Congratulations, gents! And now the Dems run the Senate. The representation is 50-50 but VP-Elect Kamala Harris will be the presiding over the Senate which gives the Dems control. Look for no Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer instead. Yes, please! On Wednesday, there was the very easy task of finalizing the Electoral College votes. While there were no faithless electors in the vote of the Electoral College itself, there were senators and representatives who were willing to deny their constituents and vote as they saw fit which meant they wanted it to go to Trump even though Trump lost not just the Electoral College but also the popular vote. Even VP Mike Pence said that he was going to preside over the proceedings and approve the Electoral College. Trump wanted his VP to reverse the win and give it to him and Pence told him no. He was not legally allowed to do so and he was going to go and do his job within the law. Trump summoned his followers -- all the crazy, scared White people in America -- to come to Washington for a rally. At the rally, Trump and his sweaty old lap dog, Rudy Giuliani, told people to march off to the Capitol and take back the election. Trump told them "we are going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue ... and give them the pride and boldness they need to talk back our country," meaning the Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate. So off they all went, marching on Pennsylvania Avenue to convince the Republicans to take back the election, thinking that Trump is at the head of the crowd. Except Trump went back into the White House to watch this on TV and, perhaps, touch himself a little bit from the pleasure of riling up a lot of scared White folks. I was working that day and a friend of mine called and excitedly asked, "Are you watching TV?" I advised that no, I was working. "You're not watching TV?" "I'm working. What's going on?" And she was so upset that she at first told me the crowd had broken into the White House. She was very upset and meant to say Capitol. I called my sister who works in a room with two computers -- her work computer and the family iMac. She wheeled over and said it was the Capitol they'd broken into and they were occupying the building. I listen to pop music all day long and the thing that's great about it is they never have news. The bad thing about it is they never have news. Of course they are not going to cover this as they hardly do traffic or weather (but they have contests and I was the 10th caller and won an Echo Dot). I turned to my iPad for YouTube live streaming from CNN and NBC news as I worked. Here is what I found appalling: the rioters -- when protestors bust into a building they are rioters -- going through the desk drawers on the Senate floor, recorded from the gallery by a reporter who'd not yet been advised to go shelter (but then he was). My sister found the person walking through the Capitol with an unfurled Confederate flag to be appalling. Then we saw the most appalling of all: A fellow who goes by the unlikely nicknamed of 'Bigo,' sitting at the desk of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with his feet up on the desk. In his mind he was probably chillaxin' and being The Man. He stole a piece of her mail and then bragged about it for cameras. He left her a rude note. He was arrested the next day at home in Arkansas. Then there was the mighty fellow walking out with a podium, mikes and all, smiling like this is the most acceptable thing in the world. Someone he knows called the FBI and gave his identity. He was arrested at his home in Florida. A man who was a newly-sworn-in member of the West Virginia legislature was in the middle of the fray and was arrested. He might have been a person who could give his constituency honest help and make a difference in their lives but instead he is a criminal. At least one of the Capitol Policemen died from injuries he sustained during the riot. What does this make those who caused the injuries? Murderers. Homicidal maniacs. It's not just the Capitol of the USA, it's the scene of an active homicide investigation. This entire episode just makes me again share that there is nothing in this world worse than a scared White person. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram agreed and have closed down all Trump accounts, barring him from using their sites to share his bile, evil rhetoric, and baseless bullshit. Now, look at Amber Ruffin's YouTube video. She is right on every point she makes and she is awesome. https://youtu.be/XNhii_kfBzE

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who's that dame?

It has been many, many weeks since my last post and apparently I've not been missed. That is okay! Things have happened since my last attempt. Teranofuji won the May Basho -- if he wins in July, his Yokozuna status is assured -- and as of tomorrow I will be working 40 hours a week. I've not worked 40 hours a week in a year and a quarter and I am both happy and feeling what best can be described as lazy. I will miss YouTube and reading books. After thinking about it for many years, I decided to adopt a cat from PAWS Chicago. PAWS is a terrific place and since they opened their doors the number of cats that have been euthanized in Chicago has gone from 46,000 to 1,900. Much of this is due to trap, neuter, release for those who cannot be socialized and adopted; they are returned to their feral colonies to live out their lives with their felines pals. My cat, now named BB, was a stray. She always uses the box and covers her business; she sleeps on the bed with me but in her own s...
Read more

Have you seen the gallinule?

Image
American purple gallinule, courtesy of VIREO Yesterday morning I set off with the birders to look at birds at the Magic Hedge near Montrose Harbor in Chicago.  As we were arriving, I found out a gallinule had been spotted very recently.   Two men were walking away from the harbor as we were leaving our car.  "Did you see the gallinule?" my sister asked. These were two very sweet and funny guys.  "No," said one, "but I saw a really big fish," and held his hands about 20 inches apart.  "I don't look at fish," said the second, "but I saw a grebe.  The gallinule is supposed to be down by Slip A." Fall at the Magic Hedge near Montrose Harbor, Chicago There was a difference for me this week.  I had my own [not great but they work and hey, they were free] binoculars.  I forgot my plastic bag so I couldn't concentrate on picking up trash (which was too bad as there was a lot of it).   I actually looked at something and was late...
Read more

Oops and here is a vacation I took

Image
Arrgh! Sorry! Last week's blog just got away from me. When our last president was in office, I had anger and questions and more anger. For many of his base, Pandora's Box of Racism was opened and can never be closed. Now we have President Biden and he is getting things done. The last time I was in Paris was in November, 2014. As we are only going places in our minds and not with our bodies -- not safe yet, vaccines or not -- here is a picture on which to dream.
Read more