277. Unsurprising surprises

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I am trying to find the right nouns to describe my reaction when hearing those who abetted and supported Donald Trump for the last four years, and even for the two months following his electoral defeat, expressing shock and bemusement at the events at the Capitol a few days ago. It is not easy. Trump has been warning us that he was going to do just this for months. Social media are full of threads among his support base organising and threatening just this, if not worse. Nothing we have seen in the last few days came unannounced, on the contrary, it was just a partial realisation of ongoing threats. In the aftermath, many politicians and commentators are trying to distance themselves from the events, relinquish their responsibility, claiming they did not know it would come to this. In fact, it would be surprising if anything else had happened. We must urgently question how fit to lead a nation are those who wilfully ignore an obvious reality to fit facts to their wishes and biases 

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Location: Hereford, UK

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