{"id":152953,"date":"2021-01-06T18:56:26","date_gmt":"2021-01-07T01:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=152953"},"modified":"2021-01-06T18:56:26","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T01:56:26","slug":"a-news-report-from-a-banana-republic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2021\/01\/06\/a-news-report-from-a-banana-republic.html","title":{"rendered":"A News Report from a Banana Republic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today a radical mob proclaiming &#8220;revolution&#8221; stormed the nation&#8217;s parliament, shutting down the legislative session attempting to settle the recent elections according to constitutional norms. The crowd was incited by the embattled current chief executive, <em>El Presidente<\/em>, whose term ends in a few weeks after a serious re-election defeat two months ago.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.americasquarterly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/chile_protest_2.jpg\" width=\"1250\" height=\"833\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Election observers, as well government officials, many of them from the embattled president&#8217;s own party, have validated the results of the election as fair and free of systemic fraud. Challenges by <em>El Presidente<\/em>\u00a0have been rejected by the judiciary, including by the nation&#8217;s constitutional court.<\/p>\n<p>The outgoing president met with protesting supporters before the attack, many of whom had traveled from outlying provinces to show their allegiance to the popular politician, who has held large rallies around the nation. <em>El Presidente<\/em> vowed to the crowd to never concede defeat, once again claimed massive fraud and conspiracy in the election, and encouraged the protesters to march on the parliament building to support his allies in that legislative body.<\/p>\n<p>The mob, arriving at the parliamentary building, quickly pushed past police lines and briefly scuffled with security forces within the rotunda, as members of parliament were quickly evacuated to protected shelters. The insurrectionists broke into both legislative chambers and the offices of parliamentary leaders, sending grinning selfies as they ransacked the building, before being finally forced out of the building by late-arriving police forces.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/ZWITfaeEQAE\/maxresdefault.jpg\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When called upon by national leaders to call his rioting supporters off, the current president, sheltering in the executive mansion, issued video and text messages in social media expressing his love and appreciation for the<br \/>\n&#8220;great patriots,&#8221; and justified their actions based on his re-election being &#8220;stolen&#8221; by &#8220;evil&#8221; people. He called on his supporters to &#8220;remember this day forever!&#8221;A<\/p>\n<p>Supporters of the current president immediately went to national television, asserting without evidence that the attack on parliament was actually the work of anarchists and anti-government rebels, not supporters of the defeated chief executive.<\/p>\n<p>Parliament met later that evening, in defiance of the defeated insurgent mob, to confirm the results of last year&#8217;s election. It remains uncertain whether <em>El Presidente<\/em> would continue to foment domestic violence to overturn the election results, and, if so, whether the nation&#8217;s institutions would be able to address the threat to democratic processes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The troubled democracy faced new challenges of terrorist violence today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1142,358,1071],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-2020","category-poor-citizenship","category-trump"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":46086,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/27\/the-dire-constitutional-crisis-that-apparently-wasnt.html","url_meta":{"origin":152953,"position":0},"title":"The Dire Constitutional Crisis That, Apparently, Wasn&#039;t","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 27-Oct-14 3:40pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Remember that bold and patriotic lawsuit the House GOP were all hep to get filed in order to to stop That Man in the White House and his consistently evil and unconstitutional overreaching of executive authority which clearly borders on, nay, plows headlong into blackest TYRANNY?_Yeah, well, it was encouraging\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45036,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/08\/help-help-im-being-repressed.html","url_meta":{"origin":152953,"position":1},"title":"&quot;Help! Help! I&#8217;m being repressed!&quot;","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 8-Sep-14 9:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Daily Caller article manages to bury a single reference in the middle that makes it clear that what's being talked about is financial contributions, not \"free speech\" as most people (besides a slim majority on SCOTUS and corporate lobbying groups) recognize it. To be sure, the Senate Dems are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27825,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/08\/you-talk-about-a-revolution.html","url_meta":{"origin":152953,"position":2},"title":"You talk about a revolution","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 8-May-12 9:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Notes:1. My 6th Grade daughter's language arts teacher would seriously mark this particular diatribe down for spelling, grammar, and sentence structure.2. I've come to the conclusion that a sign of political narcissism is the constant portrayal of the Current Struggle as The Most Important Election Ever. Both parties (esp. on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41250,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/01\/on-the-direct-election-of-senators.html","url_meta":{"origin":152953,"position":3},"title":"On the Direct Election of Senators","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 1-Mar-14 9:39am","format":false,"excerpt":"Repeal of the 17th Amendment, one of the great successes of the Progressive Era a century ago, has become a Big Thing in some parts of the Republicans. But not only would it not give state interests a greater voice in national politics (the ostensible reason), as this article notes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9843,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/10\/23\/will_hill_fill_the_bill_w.html","url_meta":{"origin":152953,"position":4},"title":"Will Hill Fill the Bill with Bill?","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 23-Oct-06 7:39am","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, it's Silly Season in American election news, as discussions suddenly veer off into \"Who will run for President in 2008?\" Or, in this case, who will be tapped as...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Elections 2008&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5539,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/02\/24\/line_in_the_san.html","url_meta":{"origin":152953,"position":5},"title":"Line in the sand?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 24-Feb-04 11:02am","format":false,"excerpt":"Pressed, inadvertently or intentionally, by his supporters on the Right and events in Massachussetts and San Francisco, Bush has declared his support for a Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriage. Today,...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Elections 2004&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2004","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2004"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152953"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152955,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152953\/revisions\/152955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}