Yesterday I saw the same things you did. No matter where you were in the world, you know what happened.

At first all I could feel was rage. Then shock mixed in, and finally, shame.

Anxiety? I was screaming. I had to take a damn pill. I hate panic. I hate feeling like the world is about to end.

The first question I screamed at the TV was where the fuck are the police, where’s the tear gas, what about the troops and rubber bullets?

Because peaceful protests last summer mixed with a few looters and some imbecile with a Zippo were met with exactly that.

But white people storming the US Capitol Building after Trump prompted a crowd, stoked a crowd and provoked them were met with Capitol Police. Yeah, and that’s it.

Those assholes took selfies with the fuckers.

By then the crowds had grown, and the building was breached. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. In England it would be like a crowd storming Parliament or the Palace. Think about it. Try that, you’ll be lucky to live long enough to be put in bracelets.

Our elected leaders were forced to hide under chairs and use gas masks. As soon as it could be done, they were evacuated. That’s when people gained entry into the chambers. Donald Trump was begged to say something to stop it. Begged to do something about it. He stoked the fires more, telling the crowd he loved them. Fucking psycho.

Twitter froze his account. For twelve whole hours. Nobody throw freedom of speech at me. All the things I’ve said, believe that I understand. But that freedom doesn’t come without a price and at least some responsibility and Trump used it and held it up and waved to the whole world with it. He promised the crowd he was going with them but, being a pussy, he of course retreated to his chambers and just watched it unfold on TV while he had imaginary orgasms because those are, by now, his favorite kind. Those orgasms come only when he’s misused his power and turned nouns and verbs into weapons. He sits back, thinking he’s a king or dictator and in reality he’s stupid, evil and without a shred of honor. His delusional world has infected ours. Nothing has been off limits to him since he took office. From the nepotism to the swindling of Americans and the kidnapping and caging of Latin American children, nothing has been beyond his conscience. And for four, well five I’d rather say, years, many of us tried to warn our country, our friends and our families that something terrible was coming.

There’s nothing worse than sticking masses of children in cages. The US’s own little concentration camps. Some in tents during a hot summer. Some in warehouses in pens like an animal shelter. And don’t let anyone tell you differently; there were more than what you heard, and more whose parents could not be found, than you know. They were also dispersed in unknown numbers to various parts unknown. Some, of course, must be assumed dead, trafficked or forever missing.

And know this: I never met a Latino or otherwise Hispanic person I wanted to see hurt. They’re beautiful people who take the code of honor in their cultures seriously. You can’t lump them into categories like rapists and thieves like Trump has. Southern and Central America has some of the most beautiful places to visit and some of the most wonderful people you can meet. If some travel is dangerous, think about the United States. I constantly warn people not to visit Baltimore because people die there. 300+ homicides a year in a streak that can’t be broken. Visit Mesoamerica and see the awesome ruins, and the worst thing to worry about are snakes and mosquitoes. And the festivals and dances they put on are eye candy; colors of every shape and hue. What we do? They’re not invited to our shindigs, are they? They stand a big chance of being mugged, raped, murdered or, if they’re really lucky, unceremoniously detained and dropped off at the Mexican border where they’ll be spotted by predators right away. We are so fucked up and racist. And Trump made it all so much more heinous.

And I still burn over that. But with that, we had the chance to realize that Trump was capable of anything.

Some of us saw that. People from Latin America to Germany knew it. Russia knew it. Not Putin. The People. They watched as the United States began to break under the weight of an evil man and his goons. I prefer to believe they had no idea how terribly close we were to worldwide disaster.

Around the world, pundits, politicians and comedians alike gave their attention to the news and Trump’s latest fuckups for four years.

We all laughed at the SNL skits, Colbert’s whacked impression and internet cartoons and memes.

Except we ain’t laughing now. The first thing Trump did when COVID-19 hit us was to set the stage for human tragedy on a scale we could not see at the time. But the simplest minded among us knew that he had condemned people to die.

We warned people that worse was coming. We heard the rumble, saw the comments on twitter and Facebook. We knew if would be bad.

And then came the campaign and the election. What followed led directly to yesterday’s fucked up scene.

The truth is that when we were predicting bad things, people didn’t need us to say anything; they already knew. They always knew. And they did nothing to stop it. Impeached, and the Senate refused to convict him. That essentially handed the man a blank cheque to go forth and use to, without conscience, steal campaign funds, lie about even more outlandish shit and have superspreader events that killed without regard to a person’s political affiliation.

The ultimate psychotic episode came yesterday. While instigating the crowd he said something that didn’t make sense. That’s not new; it’s just that for the first time some people saw it as a sign that the man’s a fucking nut.

Five people died. One was an Air Force veteran. All vets should know better. A soldier’s oath is not unlike that of the president. “Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” When one of them becomes a domestic enemy, it is too shameful for me to control my outrage.

They desecrated hallowed ground. They looked right at the cameras. They had no fear, no shame. And that’s what is so scary.

Trump has been trying to destroy our democracy since way before he was elected. He was a red flag that walked and talked and that red flag was ignored.

After tear gas was released in the Rotunda and the crowd chased out by National Guard troops from Maryland and Virginia, there were remnants outside even after a 6 pm curfew. Defiant criminals, domestic terrorists.

It was Vice President Pence who activated the Guard. Trump refused, proving he wanted this to happen. Proving he is an enemy to the United States and a terrorist nut job unfit for the performance of his duties.

There’s talk of another impeachment if Pence doesn’t remove Trump from office.

Pence wants to. He screamed at Trump recently: “I have a duty to the People and the Constitution and I’m sick of your shit!” is an approximation of one retort.

After the smoke had cleared, Pence, Pelosi and McConnell insisted that the ratification would be done. The houses of Congress went back in. Although the day had been harrowing, there were Republicans who still insisted on voting against Biden, even though it didn’t mean jack shit and Biden will be president on the 20th of this month.

I’m not sharing links tonight. I want you to look at the footage. Then look at the senators and congressional representatives who voted to overturn the election. I want you to remember them. I want you to insist that they be held accountable because they were a willing part of what happened earlier and those votes they cast prove it. Not one name on that list surprised me. McConnell had warned his Senate Republicans not to oppose the peaceful transition. He gave a nice little speech before the night session began. He later said that those who had voted for the petition would regret it. I like that. I liked Mitt Romney’s comments. I fell asleep before it was over.

What I see is a cancer. It’s grown. It will not kill. It will be put into remission but to get there we have work to do. Those who work for We The People have to stop ignoring trouble, especially when the signs are as big as they have been with Trump. They must rededicate themselves to the democratic process and never again betray it. Because men like McConnell and Graham helped this happen. Four years. They saw what he did to crowds. Heard his lies. Saw his progressive march toward madness. Knew he had done treasonous things and yet they did nothing.

So yeah, track down the dogs that invaded the Capitol yesterday. Prosecute them. But don’t give me any crap that it was impossible to see coming.

Because that’s the biggest lie of all.