A lot has already been written about what happened on Wednesday. I imagine I’ll be talking about it for a while. We saw far-right cracker-fascist assholes beating a cop with an American flag while chanting, “USA! USA! USA!” That was not something I had on my bingo card.
If the election really had been stolen, then direct action, even violent action, could be justified. But it fucking wasn’t. I read a bunch of the affidavits, and collectively they comprise a bad fucking joke. If you’re going to take up arms against the US government, I’d think you’d have some fairly conclusive evidence of your claimed grievances. Not some bullshit you saw on facebook. Watching footage from DC, it became clear that this was not a crowd that was big on evidentiary standards of truth. More like a group that’s heavily swayed by the social pressures within their insular far-right media and social-media ecosystem.
And the fact that we have the President on tape telling the GA Secretary of State that he needs to “find” the exact number of votes needed to flip the result in that state does not lend credibility to claims of election fraud. Makes it seem like he’s more interested in winning the state than he is in getting to the bottom of any alleged fraud.
If the election had been stolen, direct action would be justified. Leaders on the right who are still lying about the election being stolen are implicitly calling for violent insurgency.
Also, DC statehood is a national security issue. Turning the Senate blue is just lagniappe.
It also became clear how coddled the far-right have been. These fuckers were shocked when they got maced, or when they were not allowed to fly home. The left has seen far worse from the police state. I’ve spent a fair amount of time thinking about what armed conflict against a corrupt law enforcement agency would look like. These people have not had to think about how bad that fight would be.
I’m convinced Trump’s statement days later was handed to him, along with an ultimatum to read it verbatim or be removed via the 25th Amendment. When he starts talking about how serious Covid is, I could hear him in my head with his dismissive refrain of, “Covid, Covid, Covid…that’s all I ever hear about.” Shit doesn’t add up.
In local news, I took my van to the MB dealership and they want to replace the whole exhaust system and charge me 8500$. I bout shit my britches. Got the detailed quote and like 6500 is labor. We ain’t doing that. My brother knows way more about vehicles than I do, and he thinks they’re likely just trying to replace everything, and a much more limited strategy would suffice. I’ll get it home (paying for just the diagnosis), and take a look at it myself. I’ve found a specialty exhaust shop nearby that I’ll take it too if I don’t feel like I can do it.
That shit stressed me out today, but I after a short break I got back to work.
I remembered today that professorships in Costa Rica are also possible.
Making good progress on math research. I think I have a solid outline of a proof of the only major unresolved question from my doctoral research. If I can get it locked down, I’ll be in great shape to get some manuscripts written up and submitted. I want to be published in the Journal of Mathematical Biology.
Making good progress with the guitar too. That shit is fun. Even playing scales is fun.
Had some troubling dreams of emotional and spiritual failures, culminating with a competitor getting the girl. Today has been a struggle, but I gained some ground, nonetheless.