Liz Truss resigns

Gilead

Right-wing militias


Fig. 1. “ODF militiamen Frank Delollis, right, signals for a patrol party to turn around while searching the Old Roseville Prison property in Roseville, Ohio for enemy combatants during the Ohio Defense Force’s annual FTX on Aug. 21, 2010.” Photograph by Ty Cacek, August 21, 2010, via Time Magazine,[1] fair use.

I do not wish to excuse the folks participating in the January 6 coup attempt in any way. But I have questions about the testimony in the Oath Keepers’ trial:

“It seemed to me a lot of us were prepared — I was prepared — to stop the certification process [on January 6, 2021] one way or the other,” [Jason] Dolan said. When asked by the prosecutor how they would achieve that goal, Dolan responded: “By any means necessary. That’s why we brought our firearms.” . . .

Dolan’s testimony could undermine [Stewart] Rhodes’ argument that he was acting in anticipation of orders he expected from Trump — orders that never came.

Rhodes’ attorneys have said he will take the stand [at his trial for seditious conspiracy] to argue that he believed [Donald] Trump was going to invoke the Insurrection Act and call up a militia to put down what he saw as a coup. While Trump never did that, Rhodes’ lawyers say his actions should be seen not as sedition but as lobbying a president to utilize a law. The group ultimately did not use the massive stash of weapons — dubbed a “quick reaction force” and stored in a hotel room in nearby Virginia — that included weapons Dolan [the pistol and semiautomatic rifle Dolan brought with him] and others brought with them.

Dolan said he believed that if Trump had invoked the Insurrection Act, which gives the president wide discretion to decide when military force is necessary, there would have been “factions of the federal government fighting against other factions of the federal government.” But Dolan told jurors that the Oath Keepers were prepared to act no matter what Trump did.

“If the president wasn’t going to act, we would have to act,” he said.[2]

The piece of this story that’s missing for me is, well, why didn’t they? They believed their cause was legitimate, even to restore a Constitutional order. They brought weapons they did not use. They stormed the Capitol but ultimately did not prevent the certification. If their intent was to act “by any means necessary,” and even if Donald Trump did not give the order, then why weren’t they fully armed? Why didn’t they start shooting?

What we’re seeing here is that 1) this could have been and was indeed planned for being much worse than it was, and 2) there’s more to this story than I’m seeing in this account.

Lindsay Whitehurst, “Testimony: Oath Keepers Ready to Use ‘Any Means Necessary,’” Military.com, October 19, 2022, https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/10/19/testimony-oath-keepers-ready-use-any-means-necessary.html

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

Lindsay Whitehurst, “Testimony: Oath Keepers Ready to Use ‘Any Means Necessary,’” Military.com, October 19, 2022, https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/10/19/testimony-oath-keepers-ready-use-any-means-necessary.html


Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh

State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh


Fig. 2. Photograph by Matt Freed, September 6, 2021, via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, fair use.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Jailhouse break: State seeks best reuse for closed Western Penitentiary on the North Side,” October 20, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2022/10/20/western-penitentiary-north-side-pa-dgs-michael-baker-international-sci-pittsburgh-fontana-wheatley/stories/202210200081


(dis)United Kingdom

Prime minister


Fig. 1. President Reagan on the South Lawn during the arrival ceremony of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom. U.S. Government photograph, November 16, 1988, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

It should be utterly unsurprising, if you read—if you haven’t, you really should—about the Parliamentary shitshow in my last issue of the Irregular Bullshit early this morning,[3] that Liz Truss has indeed resigned[4] and almost on the schedule that Justin Sherin foresaw.[5]

[Liz] Truss said she cannot deliver on the mandate she won in the Conservative election, and said a new leadership election will be held in a week. Betting markets suggest that Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, may succeed her.[6]

[Liz] Truss’ resignation after just 44 days makes her the shortest-serving prime minister in British history — an extraordinary and unwanted tag she could scarcely have imagined when she was selected as leader by Tory members on September 6.

But in less than two months in office she triggered a meltdown in financial markets, sacked two of her most senior ministers, was forced into multiple policy U-turns and ultimately lost the backing of her own MPs. . . .

Speaking to reporters in Westminster Thursday afternoon, [Graham] Brady said the plan as agreed with Berry was to conclude the leadership election by October 28, meaning a new prime minister will be in placed before Hunt’s next big fiscal statement on October 31.

Brady said the “expectation” was that the Conservative Party grassroots — approximately 180,000 grassroots members — will be included in the truncated selection process, though no details of the process have yet been set out.[7]

Apparently, it is not, after all, “a done deal”[8] that Rishi Sunak will succeed Truss though he is a favorite to do so.[9]

Christopher Hope, “I’ve seen a WhatsApp message setting out the future Tory leadership – and it’s brutal,” Telegraph, October 17, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/17/seen-whatsapp-message-setting-future-tory-leadership-brutality/

Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot, “Liz Truss faces unrest over public spending cuts and pensions triple lock threat,” Guardian, October 18, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/18/liz-truss-faces-fresh-unrest-over-public-spending-cuts

Max Colchester, “U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss in Limbo as Her Party Weighs How to Replace Her,” Wall Street Journal, October 19, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-k-prime-minister-liz-truss-in-limbo-as-her-party-weighs-how-to-replace-her-11666192271

Pippa Crerar, Peter Walker, and Aubrey Allegretti, “Liz Truss’s government on the brink after Suella Braverman’s parting shot,” Guardian, October 19, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/19/liz-truss-government-on-the-brink-after-suella-bravermans-parting-shot

Chris Mason, “Liz Truss’s special adviser suspended and faces investigation,” British Broadcasting Corporation, October 19, 2022, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-63311454

Adam Taylor and Karla Adam, “To boot Liz Truss, U.K. Conservatives face short list of poor options,” Washington Post, October 19, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/19/liz-truss-removal-options-uk/

Eleni Courea and Matt Honeycombe-Foster, “Liz Truss quits as UK prime minister,” Politico, October 20, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/article/liz-truss-uk-conservatives-latest-resign-prime-minister/

Steve Goldstein, “U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss announces her resignation,” MarketWatch, October 20, 2022, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/uk-prime-minister-liz-truss-announces-her-resignation-2022-10-20

Camilla Turner and Nick Gutteridge, “Chief Whip Wendy Morton quits – then returns – amid reports MPs ‘manhandled,’” Telegraph, October 20, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/19/chief-whip-wendy-morton-quits-returns-amid-reports-mps-manhandled/


  1. [1]Barton Gellman, “The Secret World of Extreme Militias,” Time, September 30, 2010, http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2022636,00.html
  2. [2]Lindsay Whitehurst, “Testimony: Oath Keepers Ready to Use ‘Any Means Necessary,’” Military.com, October 19, 2022, https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/10/19/testimony-oath-keepers-ready-use-any-means-necessary.html
  3. [3]David Benfell, “‘[T]his is a Government that is functioning well,’” Irregular Bullshit, October 20, 2022, https://disunitedstates.com/2022/10/20/this-is-a-government-that-is-functioning-well/
  4. [4]Eleni Courea and Matt Honeycombe-Foster, “Liz Truss quits as UK prime minister,” Politico, October 20, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/article/liz-truss-uk-conservatives-latest-resign-prime-minister/; Steve Goldstein, “U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss announces her resignation,” MarketWatch, October 20, 2022, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/uk-prime-minister-liz-truss-announces-her-resignation-2022-10-20
  5. [5]Richard M. Nixon [Justin Sherin], “She may be gone by morning,” Twitter, October 19, 2022, https://twitter.com/dick_nixon/status/1582828176291794944
  6. [6]Steve Goldstein, “U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss announces her resignation,” MarketWatch, October 20, 2022, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/uk-prime-minister-liz-truss-announces-her-resignation-2022-10-20
  7. [7]Eleni Courea and Matt Honeycombe-Foster, “Liz Truss quits as UK prime minister,” Politico, October 20, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/article/liz-truss-uk-conservatives-latest-resign-prime-minister/
  8. [8]WhatsApp message, quoted in Christopher Hope, “I’ve seen a WhatsApp message setting out the future Tory leadership – and it’s brutal,” Telegraph, October 17, 2022, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/17/seen-whatsapp-message-setting-future-tory-leadership-brutality/
  9. [9]Eleni Courea and Matt Honeycombe-Foster, “Liz Truss quits as UK prime minister,” Politico, October 20, 2022, https://www.politico.eu/article/liz-truss-uk-conservatives-latest-resign-prime-minister/; Steve Goldstein, “U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss announces her resignation,” MarketWatch, October 20, 2022, https://www.marketwatch.com/story/uk-prime-minister-liz-truss-announces-her-resignation-2022-10-20

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