Treason in the U.S. Senate & rioters storming the Capitol

Be aware of the following feckless U.S. Senators:

  • Ted Cruz (R-Texas),
  • Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), ?
  • James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), ?
  • Steve Daines (R-Montana),
  • John Kennedy (R-Louisiana),
  • Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), ?
  • and Mike Braun (R-Indiana),

and Senators-Elect:

  • Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming),
  • Roger Marshall (R-Kansas),
  • Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee), ?
  • and Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama)

These Members of Congress signed a posted statement inciting violence in my nation’s capitol today. Lawless Trump supporters have even breached the Capitol Building itself, forcing the U.S. Senate and House to bar their doors and interrupt their proceedings at around 14:30 on January 6, 2021.

Official Election Mail trademark authorized by US Postal ServiceThe Senators’ statement pretends that there remains valid and significant contention about the results of our November 2020 election. These men and women are intentionally ignoring the fact that our courts have already acted in accordance with the law and found no legal justification for further action regarding purported irregularities.

2% of Americans believe the Earth is flat in spite of evidence to the contrary being plainly visible to the naked eye at sea or from a plane; the fact that a population being fed a steady diet of misinformation by social- and partisan media doubts reality makes it no wonder that, as per the Senators’ statement, “39% of Americans believe ‘the election was rigged.’

By your own admission in your statement, then, Senators, 61% of Americans must believe the election was valid. With the majority holding such an opinion, how do you justify encouraging rioting in the streets of Washington, D.C. and the interruption of the work of our nation’s government?

By continuing to defy the United States Constitution to which they’ve sworn allegiance, our laws, and the reasoned decrees of our state and federal judges, the Senators I’ve listed are feeding their constituents’ inflated paranoia, not doing their jobs as duly elected representatives.

Trump is attempting a coup. These Senators are complicit.

By all means, the Feckless Eleven—and others like freshman Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)—are entitled to hold opinions and do their own research into how, when, and why our elections are imperfect. If they find any actual evidence of wrongdoing, they should bring it to the attention of the courts. It’s hard not to ask, however:

If they sincerely doubt the results of November’s ballots, how do the four newly elected Senators feel justified in showing up in Washington, D.C. at all? By their own logic, they have not received any mandate from their respective constituencies!

If [Senators-elect Lummis, Marshall, Hagerty, Tuberville, and Hawley] sincerely doubt the results of November’s ballots, how do [they] feel justified in showing up in Washington, D.C.?

Perhaps these treacherous Senators should use their own funds to continue investigating, if they sincerely believe there really are unsettled questions; their frequently seditious* states are also free to launch investigations from their own budgets. After all, elections in the United States of America are conducted by the states, each with its own local authority.

One might suppose the representatives of states known to still promote the idea that the Civil War was primarily about States’ Rights’ as opposed to slavery could comprehend this distinction.

These so-called Senators will earn a salary of at least $174,000 per annum to defend the U.S. Constitution. I’ve read that one woman inside the Capitol Building has already been shot. What are the odds it was one of these highly paid politicians glibly spouting conspiracy theories for personal gain as opposed to an aide or security guard serving her country for minimum wage?

Shame on you, Senators. America will remember your names, right alongside that of Benedict Arnold.USA flag - 1

Senators Daines and Braun publicly stated that they would not opt to object to Biden electors after violent extremists stormed the Capitol. In recognition of the update, I’ve lined through their names in my post. Screenshot from NYT article listing 8 Senators and 139 Reps who objected to Nov 2020 electoral votes for president

The Senators after whose names I’ve appended a question mark do not appear to have voted to object according to the New York Times, but they were not included in the AP statement I linked to above.

139 Members of the House of Representatives voted to object; their names are included in the NYT link above.

For those who haven’t followed the news, I’ll include the relevant snippet of Trump’s speech that literally instructed his supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol Building. It should be noted that the man himself was lying when he stated that he would join the protestors in that action. Trump went back inside the White House and is reported to have spent the afternoon watching the chaos he’d instigated on television.

“…we’re going to walk down to the Capitol… I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your votes heard today.”

—Donald Trump’s speech of January 6, 2021 as reported on Snopes

* Seven states formed the Confederacy, seceding and initiating the U.S. Civil War: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana, followed shortly thereafter by Texas.

The short-lived Confederate States of America added Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina to total eleven states. Slave states Missouri and Kentucky were acknowledged as members, but neither officially declared secession. The Confederate Territory of Arizona is also worth remembering.

Half of the Senators I’ve called out in this post for their reckless, Constitution-violating actions hail from states with a history of rejecting the rule of U.S. law. Three of the others represent states did not yet exist as of 1861: Oklahoma, Montana, and Wyoming.

4 thoughts on “Treason in the U.S. Senate & rioters storming the Capitol

    • I’ll tell you, though, I also pay attention to those who are speaking up for what is right, and that is happening, too. Mitt Romney has been consistently ethical in his responses to this downward spiral in Washington; Mitch McConnell’s speech before the incursion might be the first time I’ve ever really approved of the man. (He did speak plainly and against baseless conspiracy theories today, finally.)

      I looked at news photos showing the relatively empty Washington Mall. That’s the truth: most people want peace, moderation, and decency. It’s tragic that enough rabble-rousers showed up to storm the Capitol, but it’s heartening that the crowd could not compare to my personal experience of a march on Washington back in college (when that same space teemed with people advocating for gay rights.) This is a tiny minority of delusional cry babies. They are dangerous, but, in the end, mostly pathetic.

      Can I quote MacBeth here?
      …all our yesterdays have lighted fools
      The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
      Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
      That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
      And then is heard no more: it is a tale
      Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
      Signifying nothing.

      I remain optimistic, overall. Silly me, perhaps, but I can’t seem to help it.

      Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are holding up okay. 🙂

  1. Holding up fine thanks, hope you guys are the same.

    I think, when I say “the whole world over”, I go back to a lecture I attended, given by a great UK statesman by the name of Anthony Wedgewood Benn. In answer to a question regarding the stability of western democracies, he replied with something along these lines (I paraphrase because although it has mostly stayed with me, it was about 30 years ago):

    I don’t think democracy is a destination. You don’t just get on a train and arrive there, and there you can stay. It’s not something that we in the west can just take for granted. Each of us have to exercise our democratic rights every day in order to keep them. The people of Germany learnt to their great cost that they were only one megalomaniacal demagogue away from a dictatorship.

    I don’t think any of us listening realized quite how prescient he was at the time. The current US president worries me, not least because almost half the voting public — in a record US general election turn-out — were quite happy to vote for his politics for another four year term. It’s that which scares me… that level of hatred for minorities, the vulnerable, shithole nations, and more. The extreme few that invaded Capitol Hill today are, I think, the outward signs of the disease. The virus, however, is still in office and a second wave could just be waiting for President Cruz, Pence, or Ryan a few years down the road.

    • I agree absolutely with your statesman. Democracy requires effort on the part of each of us.

      You commented back when I wrote about Hoffer’s “The True Believer” ( https://wp.me/p44h81-3Fb ) that you’d never read it in its entirety. I’m thinking of buying a copy now. I think my children need to read it.

      Georgia’s electing two Democrats as Senators is a sign that more people are paying attention. I wouldn’t have imagined that happening in the Deep South in my lifetime.

      I will keep writing, keep speaking up, and keep trying to shine a light in the darkness, but I won’t give in to despair. Giving up means evil wins; may I never be complacent and complicit!

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