We Are Alive (Bruce Springsteen)

When 8 p.m. this past Thursday night rolled around, I was front-and-center to my TV, MSNBC dialed in, with the Dream Team of Rachel, Nicolle, and Joy (plus Chris and Lawrence).  Chair Bennie Thompson kicked it off, and the subsequent proceedings held us all in rapt attention until the very end (including the 10-minute recess during which the above panel gave their mid-hearing commentary).  From the narrative, the deposition interviews, and the two witnesses... it was a compelling connect-the-dots of foundational evidence, designed to show that President Trump designed and perpetrated this beyond-riot insurrection:  "Riots usually have no intent; they devolve from protests and have no purpose except to vent steam by destroying things.  An insurrection is an attempt to overthrow the legitimate government."

This all hearkens back to the phrase used after Watergate about Nixon:  "What did the President know, and when did he know it?".  Stay tuned!

Feel Good... um... Sunday?... 😉

~ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert:  Kermit and the gang open the curtain on the January 6th Committee's first primetime hearing.

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~ Here's every word of the first Jan. 6 committee hearing on its investigation:  ...read the full transcript from the June 9 hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6th Capitol attack. The transcript was produced by CQ.

~ Letters From an American by Heather Cox Richardson, June 10, 2022:  Preliminary reports say that about 20 million people watched last night’s compelling hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. That number, which does not include streaming or later views, is fewer than tune in for a normal State of the Union address, but more than for the World Series. In contrast, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 11-hour testimony in a 2015 Benghazi hearing drew only about 4 million viewers. 

~ Only one major cable news channel did not carry the Jan. 6 hearing live: Fox News:  Fox is the nation's most highly rated cable news station and is a favorite of conservatives, Republicans and devotees of former President Donald Trump. But its live coverage of Thursday's Jan. 6 hearing was relegated to Fox Business Network, which is much more lightly viewed, and its digital sites.

~ What’s next for the Jan. 6 panel: More hearings, more Trump:  The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has laid out a roadmap for the hearings this month as it examines President Donald Trump’s responsibility for the melee and the damage that resulted for law enforcement officers, members of Congress and others in attendance that day.  The next round of hearings won’t take place in prime time like the debut on Thursday, but lawmakers will go into greater detail about specific aspects of the insurrection.

SONG:  We Are Alive by Bruce Springsteen (link ncludes commentary by Michael Moore)

BOOK:  Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy by Jamie Raskin

POEM:  The Start by Matt Mason (the state poet of Nebraska)

It probably started

in a whisper, a murmur,

a low tone hardly caught by the papers,

a sticker, a poster,

a brick wall with slogans in fresh black paint

because

it probably started with a shove,

some bluster, a gunshot,

crushed fingers, it probably started

with a speech that caught the right ears

on an otherwise happy day,

yellow flowers in a wooden stand on the sidewalk,

red apples, radio

trying hard to smooth out the mood,

kid hurrying past, thinking,

God, is that man on the corner

shouting

about me,

pulls his hat low,

it probably started

with another man

drunk on swagger,

it probably started

with a small crowd

coaxing exciting lies,

it probably started

with a neighborhood’s head bowed

as the drone grows each day

(though they’ll claim

it came

in a quick, monstrous surprise).

QUOTE:  "On this point, there is no room for debate. Those who invaded our Capitol and battled law enforcement for hours were motivated by what President Trump had told them: That the election was stolen, and that he was the rightful president. President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack." ~ U.S. Representative (R-Wyo.) Liz Cheney, Vice-Chair of the January 6 Select Committee