forces of evil in a bozo nightmare

I was quite productive today, all in all. My new washer showed up, and it is lovely but also wrong - for some reason they brought a very slightly different model that is likely $100 cheaper than what I paid for. However, I didn't really want the other model and had only ordered it because it was in stock. This is something I will deal with tomorrow. But in the meantime, I did several loads of laundry today, which was great.

I also did a lot of other cleaning throughout the day - my bathroom (including the shower, even though I hate cleaning showers), part of the downstairs bathroom (not including the shower, because I'm not a saint), mopping half the basement, etc. And I put out new solar lights, which is exciting. Some of my neighbors might have preferred that I spent that time weeding instead of putting out lights, but I love lights and hate weeding, so whatever.

Eventually, I went to my parents' house and had dinner - my mom made me my favorite cheeseburgers and fried potatoes, and it was a delight. I also showed her some photos from Italy, which brought back good memories. And I sadly didn't get to see any new kittens, although they are getting old enough to emerge soon - but it may not happen until I get back to Colorado.

After dinner, I came home and watched the first January 6 committee hearing. I watched the live Jan 6 coverage all afternoon/evening when the riot first happened, and it was clear at the time how violent it was and how close it came to disrupting the quintessential American value of a peaceful transition of power. The committee did an excellent job of pulling together a lot of information, including:

• video compiling the timeline, which was really sad to watch - it's just shocking to see people beating cops and searching for politicians to kill
• the testimony from an officer who was injured to the point of blacking out before she got back up and continued to fight for several more hours
• video testimony from Trump officials (including Barr and Ivanka) about how they'd repeatedly told Trump that evidence of election 'fraud' simply didn't exist (and, as Barr said in his testimony, after eighteen months he's never seen any compelling evidence of anything that would have changed the outcome) 

They're laying out a clear case for how Trump and his circle used the false concept of a stolen election to incite their followers to violence, and that the Proud Boys / Oathkeepers were engaged in a seditious conspiracy to shut down the vote count and ensure that Trump illegally stayed in power. And the hearing didn't have any of the grandstanding I've come to expect from congressional hearings - they treated it like a prosecution's opening statement, not an opportunity for personal soundbites.

Beyond that, I'm just sad. It continues to shock me that principled, staunch conservatives like Liz Cheney (voted with Trump 97% of the time until Jan 6), Bill Barr (a devout Catholic who supported Trump at every turn until deciding he couldn't support efforts to overturn a valid election), Mike Pence (another devout Christian who was completely loyal to Trump but felt he had to uphold his Constitutional duty; Trump later told his staff on Jan 6 that the insurrections had the right idea by chanting that they were going to hang the VP), and others are promptly and completely excommunicated by the GOP for voicing any criticism of Trump. The party has completely lost its moral and ethical center, and engages in obfuscation and whataboutism to avoid any responsibility for how close Trump came to a coup and how dangerous the moment continues to be.

But even though they're trying to act like this is solely a political witchhunt...there is tape of many of them (both politicians and Fox News pundits) begging Trump to stop the riot, and evidence of others, after January 6, trying to get presidential pardons for what they did. As Cheney said in the hearing - 'there will come a day when Trump is gone, but [the GOP's] dishonor will remain.' I just hope there's some accountability for all of this, because otherwise, we're headed down the same road as Germany in the 1930s. Hitler's first coup failed, but too many people were too complacent (or too supportive of his fascist ambitions) to stop the next one.

And now, it's time for bed - goodnight!