Interesting how the shift in the 'pubs message is now "hey, lets get unified". And do that by trying, yet again, to elude consequences...and investigation, into what happened.
We have tried that path multiple times already.
It does not work.

Rep. Jordan does not see!..
(thread)

Of course not. It is imperative that he not see.

Here is how it works...The way you and your team always put up a concrete wall when it comes to the relatively petty crimes some people do. They need to learn the lesson by suffering the consequences of their choices.
Consequences you absolve those who actually do deep and structural damage to the country from. At least until it cannot be ignored any longer, and you need a "sacrificial lamb".

Looking forward to seeing which 'lambs' will be offered up for this monumental moment.

Eventually
Eventually when the lesser 'lambs' are insufficient to the crime, sometimes, the responsibility finally lands on the leader, the head perp, the mob boss goes to prison after all. Or like Spiro Agnew, allowed to resign quietly... (one of the lucky ones).

Trump has the option to
Trump has the option to resign. The quick (and cowardly) way out. It won't heal the nation as well as a deep investigation would.
However, regardless of how these next few days play out, that investigation that has been called for before Jan6 still needs to happen.
So there
still is an opportunity for the national recognition of how thick the lies and deceptions has been this entire Trump time. This coupled with the clarifying sense of just how close we came to the edge...
This is what is needed to actually come to national unity. And healing.
Not the rat plea "don't do it to me", "who could have possibly have known", "I was just following orders", or whatever escape hatch is proposed to elude the klieg light.

One example of the hypocrisy of this plea can be seen in the example of the endless, fruitless, Bengazi
hearings the 'Pub's put Hillary through. Over and over trying to find something, anything to pin on her. And when there was nothing, just do anything to create as much damage to her personally. Eventually harm & impede her campaign.
This was a stated goal.

No healing/unity
intended, or got.

Now here we have one of the most serious, momentuous events in our history, certain recent history. A break out of the underlying cancer that has been Trump and the vitriol, and fictions, he has inculcated into his believers..

Now you want to give a pass?
It is called 'consequences of your actions'. Something most people learn as a child.

The unification comes as we all confront our complicity in what has happened, what led up to it, what enabled it, and the shock of seeing it worked out.

Not trying to elude responsibility.

More from Michael Beaton

Yes. This is the problem.

Irrational anger & outrage which is easily manipulated, as we see being done, into tribal affiliation. Predicated not on some devotion to core ideals & principles of the country, but something else.

Notice what ea side appeals how they express it.


One side largely is moved by wanting a system, a society, a government that is responsive to the situation and needs of the public. This has a number of aspects, from infrastructure, taking care of the environment, BLM, taking care of the 'least among us' &etc.

These folks...

These folks on "the other side"... Not sure what to call this other side. It is a collection of right wing people, some who are simply "members" by affiliation, by tradition, by location in the country...others by reasoned choice.
However they get there, a large % are like this.

Lets call this the Trumpian side, Trumper Cohort, since that is the current center around which these "73M" are organized.
Within this cohort, there are many who are simply "Republicans" by inertia. Their family has been so forever, and so they are too. In actual fact they

do not like what is being done in their name, wonder what happened to the party, but cannot imagine voting for a "Democrat", no more than the feud over Ford vs Chevy would resolve in welcoming in the other 'team'.
These don't really know or und what a "Democrat" is these days,
When (if) the full story of Jan6 ever comes out I predict it will have multiple levels of intention and complicity.
Broadly
1/The "base" level of the mob reacting out of what they believe & has been taught & insinuated into them for years.
I think this chaos is the cover for


other levels that seem to have a much more clear, "calm" mission.
These are the people who are now utterly confused that what they were told turns out to not be true.
These people being disbarred from flying, or taken into custody, thinking they were just returning home, are

bearing the brunt of the response by the law enforcement system. They are the easiest to see, find, and catch.
They are the pawns. They are the Orcs in the Trumpian system...expendable. Useful. Necessary. But Expendable as the strategy & tactics require.

Who knows if these

people, so adamant in their emotional pumped up outrage will figure this out. For now, the fact that they are the ones being hauled in, the first ones facing the consequences of their actions, seems to be solidifying their martyr frame of mind. I suspect they feel a kinship

with Trump, who does nothing but proclaim himself a victim and a martyr. In this they get to feel even moreso that they are part of the righteous army, gods army, doing gods work.
And they will be used again and again as necessary for the other levels.
Such a clear example of the conflicts embedded deep into our systems. In this case voting system.
What is lost in this maelstrom of Trump(ism) and its nonsense, so well called out by @GabrielSterling, is the underlying fact that partisans are in control of what should be a


non partisan function.

As welcome is the pushback the office of the Sec State of GA is, it is only barely sufficient. And when coupled with the equally sever problem of voter suppression, including purging the rolls, shutting down voting locations, all aimed at minority

populations, making it unnecessarily difficult, sometimes impossible, for these citizens to register their vote...When the larger issue is taken into account it is clear that we, and GA, are still reeling from ancient social problems.

As good as @GabrielSterling has been re this extreme Trump lying and BS...it is only because Trump is so very far out of sync with reality and facts that he falls outside even the very generous boundaries of what voter suppression is officially sanctioned. That itself is amazing

So, appreciate that, thankfully, there actually is a line that some people, even in their partisan positions of power, will not cross.
And then recognize that in this tweet is embodied the substrate of the problem....

A non partisan function is being administered in a partisan
It is not just wrong
& it is not just the epitome of historical ignorance,
& a comprehensive misunderstanding of the relationship of religious and civil society,
This is the declaration of a much deeper intention of instantiating an "American Fundamentalism".
Think "Gilead".


This is the low information ranting of fundamentalists who lay out the emotional, fact & history free, case for what is essentially an American Taliban.
There is no "compromise" or a sense of comity between differences. When you have "the truth" it is a violation to "compromise".

Others, like "The Grand Inquisitor" use the froth and confusion--and subsequent absolutist certainty of their "righteousness" generated by such as this. (and thus justification for killing/harming anyone who disagrees..In the name of God, of course)

It is useful demagoguery.

This battle has been raging for years. Perhaps forever.

One distinctive characteristic of America, has been keeping this level of fundamentalism out of secular power. Individuals, yes, but not the entire system.

One of the consequences of Trumpism is to equate patriotism w religion in a way that births what becomes a passionately ignorant fundamentalism, unmoored from fact or truth,wedded only to its own self as the measure & guide of truth.
It creates a condition of deep tribal devotion

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MDZS is laden with buddhist references. As a South Asian person, and history buff, it is so interesting to see how Buddhism, which originated from India, migrated, flourished & changed in the context of China. Here's some research (🙏🏼 @starkjeon for CN insight + citations)

1. LWJ’s sword Bichen ‘is likely an abbreviation for the term 躲避红尘 (duǒ bì hóng chén), which can be translated as such: 躲避: shunning or hiding away from 红尘 (worldly affairs; which is a buddhist teaching.) (
https://t.co/zF65W3roJe) (abbrev. TWX)

2. Sandu (三 毒), Jiang Cheng’s sword, refers to the three poisons (triviṣa) in Buddhism; desire (kāma-taṇhā), delusion (bhava-taṇhā) and hatred (vibhava-taṇhā).

These 3 poisons represent the roots of craving (tanha) and are the cause of Dukkha (suffering, pain) and thus result in rebirth.

Interesting that MXTX used this name for one of the characters who suffers, arguably, the worst of these three emotions.

3. The Qian kun purse “乾坤袋 (qián kūn dài) – can be called “Heaven and Earth” Pouch. In Buddhism, Maitreya (मैत्रेय) owns this to store items. It was believed that there was a mythical space inside the bag that could absorb the world.” (TWX)