Thomas Mills is taking Republicans to task:

This past weekend, Senator Tommy Tuberville said African Americans are responsible for crime in the United States. A few weeks ago in Wilmington, Donald Trump goaded his audience into shouting the N-word. While a few Republicans might quietly say they disagree, neither Tuberville nor Trump will get much of a rebuke from the Republican Party because everyone, whether they like it or not, knows that race will drive White voters to the polls in November.

Williamson and company are also mistaken in believing all this behavior is just performative. As the AP wrote yesterday, Q-anon conspiracist Marjorie Taylor Greene is becoming a power player in the Republican Caucus. Liz Cheney lost her primary. At CPAC, participants openly supported Putin and Russia. The party has an armed wing made up of militias and violent right-wing organizations. The leadership of the GOP is quickly becoming reactionary and authoritarian, not conservative.

There are also 299 Republican candidates for Congress who at least pay lip service to Donald Trump's claims the election was stolen from him. Think about that for a minute. Numerous Republican election officials have adamantly denied the claim, and provided reams of evidence to back up that denial. And have been ostracized for it. In other words, if you deny the conspiracy, then you must be part of it. I don't know if it's the tail wagging the dog, or what, but our democracy is at a crossroads. Confidence in elections is at an all-time low amongst NC's Republican voters:

Forty-four percent of likely Republican voters have little to no confidence that their vote in the Nov. 8 election will be counted accurately, a WRAL News Poll found. Meanwhile, Democrats and independents overwhelmingly have at least some confidence their votes will be properly recorded.

Bitzer said Trump’s questioning of the mail-in voting and unproven claims of mass election fraud in key swing states is the driving force behind Republicans’ skepticism.

“A lot of that certainly gets laid at the feet of the former president, who continuously reinforced the idea of, ‘If I lose, the system must have been rigged,’” Bitzer said. “That is not a basic American norm or principle. If you lose, it’s because the other candidate won more voters or got more support. What he’s doing is calling the system into question and this is the result.”

We are so far from the "norm" we can't even see it from here. Thanks to a narcissistic, sociopathic, misogynistic prick. Trump's lies are so obvious, I simply don't have the time nor the inclination to argue with these idiots. Let them stay home and not vote, if they really believe that shit. Best thing that could happen for us.

Tomorrow may be the final hearing of the Jan 6 Committee:

The committee plans to share in Thursday’s hearing new video footage and internal Secret Service emails that appear to corroborate parts of the most startling inside accounts of that day, said the people briefed, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal records. Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified in June that Trump was briefed on Jan. 6 that some of his supporters were armed for battle, demanded they be allowed into his rally and insisted he wanted to lead them on their march to the Capitol.

Surveillance footage the committee plans to share was taken near the Ellipse that morning before Trump’s speech and shows throngs of his supporters clustered just outside the corralled area for his “Stop the Steal” rally. Secret Service officers screened those entering who sought to get closer to the stage. Law enforcement officials who were monitoring video that morning spotted Trump supporters with plastic shields, bulletproof vests and other paramilitary gear, and some in the Secret Service concluded they stayed outside the rally area to avoid having their weapons confiscated, according to people familiar with the new records.

The new correspondence obtained by the committee shows that while Trump was still speaking to his supporters and announcing he was going to the Capitol, Secret Service personnel in charge of transportation and field operations scrambled to try to secure a safe motorcade route for the president and his entourage, two people briefed on the records said. The Secret Service staff members sought D.C. police help to block intersections. But with tens of thousands of protesters in downtown Washington, and D.C. police being dispatched to help Capitol Police with protesters breaking through barricades, D.C. police declined the Secret Service’s request, The Washington Post previously reported.

About 1:10 p.m., Trump had left the Ellipse in his motorcade after finishing his speech and demanded to go to the Capitol. Trump’s detail leader, Bobby Engel, riding with Trump in his sport utility vehicle, told an enraged Trump that they were heading back to the White House and it was not safe to take him to the Capitol, The Post previously reported.

He wanted to lead the coup d'état, probably believing Congress would be forced to declare him the victor. He needs to be in jail, not playing golf.