There are nine countries with nuclear weapons and 122 countries without. As 51 of the 122 countries have agreed with the UN resolution to outlaw all nuclear weapons, nuclear weapon are now officially illegal. The terms of the resolution are: “no design, testing, manufacturing, storage, transport, use or threat of use.”
Thirty five additional countries are in the process of ratifying the Treaty; 50 more support the Treaty; a dozen more have immense popular support, among them Canada, and are one election away from signing the Treaty.The piece goes on to describe the practical effects of what that all means.
This piece is a deep dive into the 6 January coup attempt. It was clearly what the Spanish refer to as an attempt at an autogolpe, a term meaning “self-coup,” where the legitimate president with defined powers seeks to transform himself into a dictator. The attack was clearly not a riot as the term “riot” suggests disorder and no central planning.
A film clip shows that there were far too few people at the fence. Far too little back up. The cops there were hugely outnumbered by the protesters. Many Black people, both online and my acquaintances, noted bitterly that there were many more police, heavily armed and armored at demonstration by Black Lives Matter then there were guarding the Capitol on the 6th. President-Elect Biden agreed:
”No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they wouldn’t have been treated very, very differently from the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol,” Biden said. “We all know that’s true, and it is unacceptable.”When I went to my first anti-Iraq War demonstration in Philadelphia, there were way many more police, drawn up into rows, ready and waiting for any disorder.
The Maryland National Guard was entirely ready to assist the Capitol with their siege. Governor Hogan explained:
But under federal law, final authorization for National Guard troops to be sent across the border to federal land, such as the Capitol grounds, is controlled by the Secretary of Defense, not D.C.'s mayor, and Hogan said his requests were denied. "I was ready, willing and able to immediately deploy [National Guard] to the Capitol, however we were repeatedly denied approval to do so," Hogan said.The problem was not that Maryland never learned of the invasion of the Capitol, but that neither the President nor the Secretary of Defense would give the order for Maryland to send in troops to help.
The attack on the Capitol started about 1:00pm, during the President’s speech.
2:10 p.m. Capitol Police send an alert that all buildings in the Capitol complex are on lockdown due to "an external security threat located on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Building. ... [S]tay away from exterior windows and doors. If you are outside, seek cover." The House and Senate abruptly go into recess.NPR reports that at about 6:00pm, large numbers of troops from various units arrived at the Capitol to put down the attackers.
The Washington DC National Guard was activated at
...3:36 p.m. when White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted that President Donald Trump had directed the activation of more troops.Off-going President “calls off” his people.
…
Once activated, the D.C. Guardsmen made their way to the armory, where they donned protective gear, loaded up vehicles and made their way to the Capitol. They were there before a mandatory curfew began at 6 p.m., and stayed into the night to perform crowd control on protestors who refused to pack it in.
“We can’t play into the hands of these people,” Trump said. “So go home. We love you. You’re very special.”
Did the people charged with protecting Congress intentionally downplay the threat from MAGA people, which led to a reduced police presence, which soothed the President? Were they more afraid of angering him then they were of failing to protect Congress?
Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s view.
In just a few hours, though, my heart had fallen harder and faster than I can remember. Like all of you, I watched as a gang – organized, violent, and mad they’d lost an election – laid siege to the United States Capitol. They set up gallows. They proudly waved the traitorous flag of the Confederacy through the halls. They desecrated the center of American government.
And once authorities finally gained control of the situation, these rioters and gang members were led out of the building not in handcuffs, but free to carry on with their days.
Very interesting that, several days later, DC Police and Mayor held briefings, but no one above them had.
But no press briefings from DOJ; FBI; DoD; DHS; Capitol Police; or any other relevant agency.On the 11th, it was shown that Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) had tweeted that
The Speaker has been removed from the chambers.In the military, we call that a “security violation.” Absolutely no one needed to know where the Speaker was during an attack on the Capitol! Boebert later produced some very unpersuasive reasons as to why she did that.
“It feels like everyone on the Upper East Side is texting me today. Suddenly they all want to join the Resistance,” the former friend said.
So how have some of the now-minority party dealt with their relationship to the former President? Well, Larry Kudlow, an economic adviser, has bad-mouthed Trump. The former Attorney General, Bill Barr, has also piled on. Dr. Birx of the coronavirus task force has also come out with news that would have been useful several months ago. It’s really hard to feel any sympathy for any of them as they’re all so deeply compromised and served the President so faithfully for so long. They were all AWOL when some courage on their part could really have made a difference.
When would have been the time for people to have spoken up? I think, at the latest, would have been when both Vladimir Putin and Mitch McConnell admitted that Biden won. At that point, the people quitting should have turned into a flood, with several high-level resignations per day. Seriously, is there anything they could have done that would have been more useful and patriotic and helpful to the nation?
Reports are that the former President is very upset.
Trump has also griped this weekend about not being able to tweet about the Biden team telling journalists that Trump and ex-officials had left them with a gigantic COVID mess to mop up...Well, yeah. The vaccines came out fine, but the distribution of them has been a real mess.
Trump has been insisting that when it came to distributing vaccine, Americans were going to see a wonder. “Our military is now being mobilized,” said Trump. “So at the end of the year, we’re going to be able to give it to a lot of people very, very rapidly.” That statement came one day before whistleblower Dr. Rick Bright testified in a House hearing that Trump was putting cronyism ahead of science, ignoring the advice of experts, and was operating from politics rather than science.Usually, companies under-promise and over-deliver. They'll promise you'll get your package on the 4th, and they get it there by the 2nd. It's a good practice, but the Trump Administration tends to do the opposite. Overselling the Covid cure had a cost. It made some people overconfident and careless.
And please keep in mind that the Trump Administration had several months of advance notice that this would be the last memory that people would have had of how they performed in office.
Unfortunately, this is exactly what you get when the President is AWOL on his job and leaves everything up to the states.
THREAD: I generally abstain posting about my own personal experiences or those of my family, but what my parents are seeing and experiencing in SW Florida with the vaccine rollout is a disgrace.Problems with getting the vaccine out were systemic and deeply rooted. They could have and should have been addressed many months ago.