Ashli Babbit's Mom Speaks

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   I don't know what to think about the shooting. She was doing something utterly idiotic and aggressive--something so idiotic and aggressive that being shot was a foreseeable consequence. If you're smashing your way into a part of the Capitol--well, I think I'd basically expect to get shot. OTOH, there were cops standing right outside the door beside her. It was a bizarre situation, and there's no denying that. But you storm the Capitol--or riot inside it, or however it should be described--you should expect to pay a rather high price. 

   It's largely Trump's fault, obviously. Not so much for what he said at the rally that day, but more because of the premises he laid out over the preceding months--premises that clearly supported the conclusion that the election was being stolen. Once those premises have been made plausible to someone, the practical conclusion takes care of itself. Someone who believed that the election was being stolen, and this could only be stopped by halting certification, storming the Capitol becomes basically obligatory.

   This Trumpian insanity will likely go down in history as a low point in the history of the Presidency and the nation. Utter madness. 

   This piece, of course, focuses on the crazy on the other side. Here's an important part:

Three USCP officers participated in an overdramatic public hearing before the January 6 select committee on Tuesday, often referring to protesters as “terrorists,” “insurrectionists,” and “traitors,” though not a single person arrested in the aftermath has been charged with terrorism, insurrection, or treason. They repeatedly claimed they thought they would be killed by the protesters. USCP officer Harry Dunn asked for a moment of silence in honor of Officer Brian Sicknick to once again promote the falsehood that he was killed in the line of duty.

I don't know how to think about it. None of 'terrorists' 'insurrectionists' nor 'treasonous' strikes me as being far off the mark--when predicated of some of the rioters. But it's certainly extremely significant that none have been charged with such things. And, for all I know, Babbit was one of people ushered into the Capitol. However, she was there when others smashed the glass in the doors leading to the Speaker's Lobby. It was impossible for her not to realize that she and the others were doing something that was likely to provoke a violent response from USCP. 

   Crazy, crazy, crazy. Utterly crazy. The batflu pandemic often seems like nothing to me compared to the plague of madness that's upon us.

[Addendum: I haven't watched the hearings, just excerpts. Pelosi has made sure they'll be a circus, so I'll wait for the judgment of history. The testimony I saw from the officers was moving...but they've been hand-picked. We know that the odds of them being representative are basically nil. It's appalling that the Dems have turned this into a propaganda exercise. We need the facts, and to let them speak for themselves.]