How many of you, like me, are glued to every new installment of the January 6 Committee’s hearings? Are you as stunned that not only did something like this take place in the United States but that repercussions for those involved still seem light years away?
When it was revealed that former president Trump demanded that the metal detectors be taken away at the Jan. 6—then rally, now insurrection—despite evidence that some people in the crowd were armed because “they’re not here to hurt me,” that should have been the end of it. Game, set, jail time!
Just fucking mull over those words for a minute. “They’re not here to hurt me.” This was the outgoing president of the United States, flippant to the idea that armed insurrectionists were there to hurt other people. Anyone! The entire job of the president is to ensure the well-being of the citizens on his watch. A president is a president for everyone, not just the people who voted for him/her. In Trump’s case, this is an egomaniac who values loyalty to himself as an individual over loyalty to the country. That’s why he’s a traitor.
And that’s why the notion of him in the White House again is so utterly terrifying. How the hell would we survive another four years? There’s the slight silver lining that he could only serve one term this time but who would put it past him to challenge even that?
Trump is a tyrant. That’s no hyperbole. The fact is he terrifies over half of the country yet provides joy to the other half — which is also insanely problematic. It’s not supposed to be like that. “Your president scares you – HAHA!”
Make no mistake, another four years of Trump will see him prioritize revenge over everything else. He’ll sit up all night watching news channels, screaming at the screen when people speak out against him. Everyone who he feels has “wronged” him, not the country but him, will be in the firing line. That’s simply not presidential behavior.
And it won’t even take a Trump presidency. MAGA cult members in the Republican party are baying for a red sea in the November midterms, with plans afoot to punish members of the Jan 6 Committee, make abortion illegal at a federal level, and perhaps impeach President Biden for, you know, being President Biden.
VOTE, goddammit. Lives literally depend on it.
Biden has not been a great president, this is true. His desire to try to go the traditional political route and negotiate with the Republicans basically amounts to negotiating with terrorists nowadays. He needs to be stronger in order to do good. He needs to pull Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema in line. He needs to get shit done!
But still, the alternative is too awful to contemplate. And right now, we don’t even know if Biden will be running again. The Republican Party is, at best, ok with terrorists. At worst, they’re complicit.
It was incredibly annoying to see Jason Van Tatenhove, former spokesperson for white supremacist organization the Oath Keepers, wearing a Descendents shirt and a Deftones pin while sworn in at the Jan. 6 hearings. Besides the fact that it’s plain stupid to wear a band shirt, any band shirt, for such a solemn and official proceeding, the Oath Keepers stand for everything SoCal punks the Descendents are against.
Yes, bands can’t rule over who likes their music. Still, it was no surprise when the band released a short statement that read, “We completely disavow groups like the Oath Keepers and in no way condone their hateful ideology.”
Just look at the lyrics to the Descendents’ tune “‘Merican.”
That couldn’t be more relevant today and highlights just how far apart the band is from the god-awful Oathkeepers.
The Spring Valley band Social Spit, which has apparently shared a bill with the Descendents in the past, pointed out, “I totally agree and we of social spit stand with you, except that this man had walked away from the oath keepers and he testified against them, something that is very dangerous to do. So he showed a lot of courage.”
They added, “Yesterday a friend of mine was incredulous about the reasons that guy joined. But they kind of obfuscate their more extreme beliefs. So a lot of members probably just didn’t know what they joined, at first. Obviously, other members were full-on extremists.”
Those are interesting points and not without merit. But still, it’s fair enough that the members of the Descendants would see their shirt being worn by a former member of the Oath Keepers AT THE DAMN HEARING and want to clarify their position. At the time of writing, the Deftones haven’t made a statement about Van Tatenhove wearing their pin.
Meanwhile, how do we know that the Jan. 6 Committee is on the side of good? Because Ted Nugent is squawking nonsense about them. Seriously, a guide for life is to ask yourself what Ted Nugent would do and then do the complete opposite. Uncle Shitty-Pants himself is still out there falsely claiming that the people who did the damage on Jan. 6 were ANTIFA and BLM, in MAGA cosplay. Everybody knows that, no matter the reason, nobody affiliated with ANTIFA and/or BLM could put on Trump merch because there’s not enough soap and hot water in the world to remove the filth.
So that’s where we are. The hearings continue and more corruption is revealed. We should understand that the Justice Department / Merrick Garland need to have their ducks 100 percent in a row before charging Trump because losing the case would be worse than not charging him at all — it would look like vindication.
But rest assured, Donald Trump is a very, very bad man. He tried to overthrow the government. He knew that he had lost a fair election but he tried to ignore the will of the people. He’s dangerous. He wanted people to die on Jan. 6.
And he would do it all again.
