Reconciliation requires repentance

Just when I thought I’d pretty much seen it all, the storming of the Capitol proved that, even as a jaded and politically black-pilled political junkie, I am still capable of being shocked and enraged. My personal practice is to not have breaking news alerts on my phone, but even that veil was pierced when one of my pals called me and asked if I was watching TV now. I said, “What’s the deal?” and he said that the Capitol building was being overrun by a MAGA mob. Holy smokes! The scenes of the paunchy entitled suburban dads and crazed right-wing, gun-nut yahoos with Confederate flags laying siege to the seat of national government in the midst of a typically snoozy ceremonial event to register the Electoral College vote totals was my proof that I do indeed live in hellworld. Watching a random MAGA chud inexplicably get past all the Secret Service level security to stand in the rostrum of the Senate to bellow out “Stop the Steal” brought out my inner authoritarian. I want that guy in jail! Everyone who entered that building should be prosecuted and every member of Congress who came out of a safe room (where the Republicans who refused to wear masks gave Covid to their Democratic colleagues) and sustained the vote to deny certification to the election should be censured or expelled from Congress. AOC’s personal account of the trauma she and other House Democrats endured, genuinely fearing for their lives on the day of the Klan action that actually stopped the certification of the Electoral College vote until after dark, moved me deeply. The MAGA mob had erected a gallows in sight of the Capitol building and was prepared to haul out The Squad and any disobedient RINOs and perform public executions on the spot, which is the climatic scene of the Q cult fantasy video. As Americans, we were fixated on this unseemly spectacle as a domestic policy flare-up, but we weren’t the only country watching. Literally, the whole world is watching. They are appalled and concerned. America will never again be considered the global leader after this abysmal showing. Within 20 years, we have produced the Bush Administration and the ruinous war on Iraq, which has permanently destabilized the entire Middle East, and then the Trump Administration, which capriciously withdrew from both the Paris Climate Accords and the Iran nuclear deal. Internet Winner of the Week: "We spend 750 billion annually on defense and yet the center of American government fell in two hours to the Duck Dynasty fan club and a horned chucklehead in a Chewbacca bikini." Expel or censure all the coup plotters and enablers from Congress. We don't have to govern at the whim of the fascists. We need to repeatedly defeat, marginalize, and stigmatize the MAGA movement. As usual, the local political scene is far healthier. Put this on your Zoom calendar: Progressive Persistence: “Blue/Green Eggs and Ham” 2020 Election Debrief on Saturday, January 23, 10 a.m. Co-sponsored by Sonoma County Conservation Action, the North Bay Labor Council, and the Sonoma County Democratic Party. The moderators, including Denny Rosatti with SCCA, SR mayor Chris Rodgers and former Assemblymember Michael Allen interview our Congressional Representatives, County Supervisors, and all nine Sonoma County Mayors.

Continue Story...

Recipe file: Sonoma’s favorite soups