Waiting for the inauguration
It's been a few days since the attempted coup and the riots. Things have been relatively quiet, but I (and probably most of the country) remain very much on edge and very nervous.
Over the last few days some good things have happened. There has been widespread condemnation of the attackers, and 45's incitement of their riot. Most of the major tech companies have banned 45 and his cronies in one form or another. Twitter and Facebook took down his accounts, and Apple, Google and Amazon removed the Parler app that was a right-wing substitute for Twitter for those who wanted to sidestep Twitter's (extremely lax) content moderation.
Unfortunately these bans came to pass because there is a continued threat of violence from right-wing terrorists. Apparently there is some action planned for next weekend. It is very very frightening. Even here in liberal Massachusetts there are extremist groups festering.
Our useless governor gave his lame 'bad people on both sides' speech today, showing yet again how out of touch he is. I've been fed up with him for quite some time because of his non-response to the pandemic, and his non-vote in the election, but this puts things over the top. Basically, if you're not willing to condemn terrorists, I've got no time for you.
The inauguration can't come soon enough, and in any other year it would seem imminent, but there's still ten days in which 45 can and probably will continue to do unspeakable damage to the country and the world. The House is going to impeach him again, but the Senate isn't going to take up a trial for quite a while, so I don't see how a second impeachment (or is it a third? There were two counts last time...) is going to stop him in any way. There's still a chance that Pence will grow some guts and invoke the 25th, but I don't really see it happening.
It feels a bit like those bizarre and terrifying days that followed 9/11, when we all wondered if another attack was coming. The key difference to me is that back then there were law enforcement agents actively seeking out terrorist cells to prevent attacks. Now there's no way to know if law enforcement is actually working to stop these right-wing terrorists, if they are working together, or if they are being hamstrung by 45's orders.
So I find myself marking the days. I'm hoping beyond hope for ten uneventful days, but bracing myself the what feels like a grim reality that we have not seen the end of this yet.