The saga of Mike Pence is irresistible in a don't-make-Saddam-mad kind of way. Here's a guy who has given himself entirely to servility for almost five years, and you know he has to be counting the days until he can go the fuck home, and then Trump decides, with a couple weeks to go, that he should be killed.
No doubt some people will try something, and far more will talk about it, but the inauguration is a whole different ballgame. Security services have already been planning for a year across multiple agencies with the Secret Service in charge. Over 6,000 National Guard troops will start gathering in D.C. days before, in addition to D.C. and Capitol Police and god knows who else. This is a good rundown:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/inauguration-biden-capitol-riot/2021/01/09/942eceae-51e0-11eb-83e3-322644d82356_story.html
1: One might also feel bad for him except that it's impossible to.
To be fair, Trump probably was never really dead set against having Pence killed, it's just the subject hadn't come up before.
Blah blah blah Florida Florida Florida Florida y más Florida... this is going to keep getting worse. (In my opinion.)
7 cont'd: I mean, it's a ratchet. People captured by right-wing media early on have tended to be extremely loyal. I have no idea what if any interventions have been effective in limiting the market in the Anglophone media since the dawn of Fox... I'd love some reason to be optimistic here.
Apparently, you can now get banned from Parler for calling for the death of the vice president. I did not learn this from personal experience.
9: Who's been banned? Wood has just had those posts removed, unless that's old info.
9: Maybe only after a credible threat to the VP's life has occurred after your threat. More datapoints required.
9: Maybe only after a credible threat to the VP's life has occurred after your threat. More datapoints required.
Parler suspended from App Store now: https://twitter.com/MikeIsaac/status/1348067454111531009
What curse has kept me online this long? My mind is not my own
Amazon likewise to stop hosting Parler. I've always thought the American problem is primarily a problem of its media. It's looking increasingly like we're going to get an opportunity to test that theory.
I don't understand how this works. If Apple takes an app from the store, does that mean people who have already installed it cannot use it? It's got a website, right? So even if the app is gone, you can just go the webpage.
Can't go to the website after AWS kicks them off.
Bezos can do that but whoever is now Steve Jobs can't?
I feel like sending Washington Post subscriptions to people as gifts.
This seems an important read, just published today. The goofy photos may have misled us on the military capability, organization, intention of the insurrectionists.
I've watched a lot of video footage of the Capital Riot but this one-- a compilation by an apparent participant-- gives a pretty terrifying overview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MGKJafSOcE&feature=youtu.be
I can absolutely see why the police stood down. There is a tiny bit of a Trump rant at the beginning and the rest is the best (worst) overview of the afternoon that I've seen.
It was a real coup and I think we were very close to having a member of Congress assassinated or kidnapped.
I'll fight anyone who disagrees with 22.
Parler was the #1 iOS download today because people wanted to get it before it was booted. The app still works if you have it installed prior to removal from the store- they don't go into your phone and take it away.
Blocking hosting, however, does kill it. There was another right wing site that got shut down several years ago when they couldn't find a host, I forget who that was- maybe 8chan? They eventually got back up but it significantly reduced their reach for a while.
22 is spot-on:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-capitol-siege/2021/01/09/e3ad3274-5283-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html
Attempted to read 4chan to see for myself what is being said but it is incomprehensible? Perhaps it requires an induction of some sort.
Reduce them to communicating by fax, all for it.
23: I saw an expert try to argue that it wasn't a coup because the military was not involved. Very dangerous event but properly characterized as an insurrection or domestic terrorism. I found myself thinking that the differences were not all that meaningful, but maybe they are. What's your argument that it was a coup?
I would say a "coup" is when one part of the government uses extra-legal means to take over.
28: Is there evidence, and a I think there might be but don't know, that people who are not elected officials are trying to do that, like Senior military leaders?
There's a lengthy LGM post discussing that. Arguably it is an insurrection not a coup because the forces involved are not an official part of the state apparatus. A coup (or autogolpe since it is the current leadership trying to illegitimately maintain power) would be if Trump used the military or law enforcement in some form.
However, there was some element of that because the DoD leadership apparently assisted the insurrection by refusing to have state forces responsible for putting it down deploy in a timely manner. Someone said that is a mechanism that has been used in some African countries, where the leader maintains power by allowing irregular forces to take command by sabotaging the response of the state forces.
The other argument in favor of calling it a coup is that it is being driven by current parts of the state (Trump, McCarthy, Cruz, Hawley) regardless of what forces are used; insurrection makes it sound more like an act independent of their control where they just happen to benefit.
And by elected officials, I meant Trump. I know Clarence Thomas's wife was supporting the protesters on Facebook, but she is not a part of the government.
27: have seen a few people arguing that some sort of coup threshold has not been crossed. But what difference would that make? Are there things that you'd still hold back from fixing because it's not coup-y enough yet? Events are obviously 'on a coup spectrum' and fixes have to go ahead with full force. The numbers come down against the fascists. Lots of police and some bits of the military appear radicalised, but not leadership and not enough of just about any of the other components of society. AWS booting Parler looks to be a great forward step.
29: It's the highest military leader of all. The Commander-in-Chief, you might say.
If Congress fomented a coup to drive Obama out of the Presidency, wouldn't that be a coup?
Posted before SP's comment. The thing I don't understand about Cruz is would he be capable of controlling these forces and not consumed by them himself. And is there a difference, however minor, between McConnell and Cruz/Hawley.
Yeah, if the difference between a attempted coup and not-a-coup-but-just-an-insurrection is whether it relied on control of state forces, there's at least ambiguous evidence that policing decisions controlled by people in sympathy with the rioters were made that allowed them to get very close to murdering members of Congress. Picking apart what "sympathy" means in that prior sentence, on a scale from "nice white American patriots aren't dangerous, we don't need to prepare" to "the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and I'm in a position to make that possible" is going to be very hard, but depending on how close the decision makers were to the latter end of the scale, that weighs in favor of calling it a coup attempt.
35 to 30, and written before I saw the intervening posts. I like Charlie's "on the coup spectrum".
I think the real answer with the policing/planning questions is probably that there was a lot of pressure to not prepare properly from people not quite exerting formal control over the decisions. That is, if the Senate Sergeant at Arms had been made clearly aware by McConnell or by communications from the White House that the demonstrators should be only minimally interfered with for the optics of it all, that's not precisely an order to stand aside and let them through, but it is a use of state power to make it more likely that the attack would succeed.
I agree that affected some of the immediate decisions by police on the ground or even local commanders, but there was also a more official chain-of-command decision both in refusing to plan for enough security and in Trump's recent appointees at DoD intentionally delaying any support once it was in progress.
A use-of-force investigation is underway in the shooting. Probably that's a routine thing, but it will say a lot if a cop who shoots a white person about to physically attack members of Congress faces more consequences than, well, pick your favorite recent BLM example.
Right -- what I was going for, kind of unclearly, is that there could easily be breaks between the people who literally wanted the insurrection to be successful and the people whose names are on the decisions not to prepare. It seems likely to me that the Capitol Police command wasn't literally rooting for the success of the coup, but that they were under strong informal pressure from the White House and its allies to make the decisions to underprepare that made it get as close as it did to success. In a coup, who literally 'controls' what parts of the government can get fluid and informal.
38: Yes, and I think there are two related aspects of that:
1) As has been demonstrated time and time again during this presidency and the pandemic, normalization bias is powerful and preparing for a "free speech demonstration" is right in these people's wheelhouse.
2) A "tyrannical" boss superpower is that everyone consciously or unconsciously pre-adjusts there thinking to minimize aggravating them. Meeting (or preparing for) the patriots with anything hinting that they were potentially dangerous would be distasteful to Trump. And with someone like a President this extends beyond those in his immediate control. I saw somewhere that at one point Bowser said she did not want a massive show of force*.
To the extent that any of that was done explicitly rather than implicitly I wonder if any breadcrumbs will be left. And Republicans of course are trying to limit the scope of any investigation. From a WaPo article I've misplaced the link to:
Republicans appear prepared to resist any attempt to expand a congressional probe beyond the scope of a security review and do not favor including the actions of Trump and other leaders who may have had a role in inciting the riot.
Shock...
*If true, I expect this to get play among the intellectually dishonest. However, when did the Feds ever listen to her on anything prior to this.
Speaking of normalcy bias, I include myself among those who (despite my tendency to be alarmist) underappreciated the situation in the moment. And I have a pretty good timestamped record of that as my wife was at work while I was simul-watching the 2 C-Spans and following the disturbances on my phone (until it all merged). For instance "fortunately does not seem to be a huge number yet"- 1:44PM. (I think that was when they first arriving at the barricades, although it was after I had reported ancillary office buildings evacuated (was that because of pipe bomb/Molotov cocktail truck, though?)
I think due largely to:
1) It took a lot of people time to process what had happened, and whether it was normalcy bias or appropriate, the House/Senate getting back to business that evening and finishing* (which I think was appropriate and important) while not outwardly appearing alarmed helped create a sense of not that big of a deal.
2) A lot of the more dangerous looking videos, pictures and reports have only emerged over the last several days.
*And as a fuller appreciation of the events have settled in, Josh Hawley's proceeding with the Pennsylvania challenge that evening looks even worse. (Someone commented as impossible as it seemed for someone to overtake Cruz in the most hated within the Senate title, Hawley has made a run at it.)
And to me in the annals of Congresscritters being despicable and deplorable it is hard to top a number of R reps refusing to wear masks in the crowded shelter areas despite the remonstrations of elderly D Reps. I saw one short video of a someone trying to pass out masks and being rebuffed and a somewhat mocked.
Lots of consequences should be on the table for a lot of different thing, but I think a specific censure for that one thing alone would be well im order.
This officer deserves a medal, and a promotion. Very quick and calm thinking and also a possible explanation as to why he didn't shoot much less draw his sidearm. The mob would have scattered and possibly gone down that hall leading to the Senate chamber he had diverted them from.
Clearly I have thoughts...
Among them is that as this is an ongoing unstable, dangerous situation about which I have limited information, I am willing to grant more benefit of a doubt to many of the actions and words of many of the people at the forefront of responding to this.
For instance, what Pelosi, Schumer at al do (or say) re: impeachment (and even Pence* a bit, for instance his waffling on whether the 25th is on the table or not). I assume much of this being done for the audience of one (and assorted attendants and enablers) in the interests of getting through the next 240+ hours. For instance I have no idea what Pelosi was doing talking about her call with the military guys re:nukes and wars, but I am sure it was somewhere along those lines and I am inclined to be less snap judgmental about those choices for the time being.**
*WaPo confirming what I had asked earlier (but was sure was true):
Trump has not spoken to Pence since before the assault, when he urged Pence to try to block congressional certification of Biden's victory, according to two people familiar with the relationship, who like others interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the president's actions on the record. Trump remains angry at Pence for refusing to do as Trump wished.
I love how Trumpcentric their coverage continues to be; maybe a comment on the feelings of the VP would be fucking warranted in this fucking circumstance you fucking not-up-to-the-moment savvy Beltway insider puke brains...
**Of course since the broader "situation" will be ongoing well past the 240 hours that needs to be attended to to some degree. Particularly as most Rs who are always already free of the constraints of actully needing to make anything work or deal with any situation are free to play the long game with little consequence.
42: Yes. That whole sequence has taken on new meaning in the light of context and more well-established timelines.
A few of my other questions I had from before that I think need follow-up even more than before:
1) Acosta report on WH knowing intentions of rioters during the event (that they intended to stay overnight). Burn the source, Jim; you fucking squish. And a good chance it is not *that* sinister but then reveal more to assuage people's concerns.
2) What was the a nature of the exchange between Trump and McCarthy during the siege. Reportedly they were yelling at each other. Whatever it was McCarthy has gotten over it to the extent he is being an utter dick and I do not extend to him the goodwill I describe in 44.
3) The nature of the *10* minute conversation between Trump And Tuberville on Mike Less' phone (this was hours before the voicemail on another Senator's phone intended for Tuberville that evening). Reportedly only ended when Leee needed his phone back as they were about to be moved to a theoretically more secure location.
Local older man has thoughts about a thing that happened and other things that are still happening.
What about the officers taking selfies with the rioters?
48: To my mind a telling symptom of where we are in the US on right-wing sympathies of the police plus normalization of everything white people and the oddities of the event rather than anything likely to shed much light on the whys of this particular event.
Yeah, that could be anything from genuine support for the insurrection from the cop to a craven attempt to look friendly so they wouldn't hurt him. I can't see any way it's not bad behavior from the selfie cop, but I wouldn't know exactly what specific conclusion to draw from it.
Speaking of normalcy bias, I include myself among those who (despite my tendency to be alarmist) underappreciated the situation in the moment.
It was definitely reported originally as a jolly romp, almost. Milling around, feet on desks, hanging from porticos.
In a way, they broke into the capitol with exactly the same tenor as they have online and everywhere: are we kidding or are we violently dangerous? Both! Wheee! It turns out that those really can coexist in an eerily Joker-esque way.
In several ways, I think this is Brook Brothers riot writ large. And in the case of the Brooks Brothers riot almost none of the savvy (nor then media consumers) ever took that one seriously (and admittedly it was not nearly as dangerous), Infuriating then and now how pooh-poohed t was, as if mobs of politically-motivated middle class white people had never been a problem in the prior century. And many of the direct participants* are in positions of relative power within the Republican Party/Conservative establishment today. And it fucking worked.
*Indirectly, Kavanaugh, Barret and one other (Gorsuch?) were involved in 200 recount legal stuff. But they will steal the vote by more seemly means, entrenching gerrymandering, and coming R-favorable rulings on mail-in voting and other poll access issues. (Part of what is surely burning Trump right now is his realization that he is in danger of being the cast aside stepping stone by folks like the Religious Right playing the long game. He surely has a nose for that. And what manner of lashing out that will lead to is not clear to me.)
31: Yes. I think it was snarkout either here or the other other place who mentioned Kekistan. My wife who always has an eye out for the shades of Naziism asked me about a Kekistan flag she saw in some pictures.
I was vaguely familiar with it, but when you dive down into it you are five-levels of ironic detachment fused with hate and owning the libs in way that is hard to even describe without sounding like a loon* yourself.
Also see Charlie W's comment on 4chan in 25.
*Also also see old white dude blows up himself and half of Downtown Nashville to the strains of Petula Clark because he was (maybe) concerned about Lizard People.
I still somehow think that the primary effect is that this delivered such a huge electric jolt to so many complacent people - politicians, corporations, and a semi-distracted general population. That the MAGA on display here is no different than what we've known, but that there is now a giant amount of sunlight exposing the pathology.
I'm not trying to seem too rosy and optimistic, but I just keep feeling like the existing rotten core is now widely exposed. For Trump's entire presidency we waited for a meaningfully shocked reaction from the center-of-gravity of the country, and were perpetually let down! Clearly the vast majority of people understood he was terrible - and voted accordingly - but the emotional intensity of the center was always too muted. Nothing quite revealed the depravity he stokes like this has.
And Speaking of Brooks Brothers, in my heart of hearts I know there are some young Republican Hill staffers who were complicit in some way. (I mean even more directly than their bosses.... wel maybe not more so than Mo Brooks.)
54: This is the hope. And clearly true to some extent.
The dumb thread wondered why her sometimes boyfriend had shaved his beard and deleted his instagram account after he got back from a road trip with his friends.
So I had a peek at my dad's twitter. He's still as fully a Trump supporter as ever and he thinks that antifa cosplayers did it.
those are both golden, Ponyboy. I laughed out loud.
60 The cognitive dissonance on display there is unreal. He also retweeted posts lamenting the death of that poor innocent woman.
The "it was antifa" crowd are morons, but they give me a slight amount of hope, since they at least recognize violently overthrowing the US government would be bad.
Walt may be a touch more optimistic than even me.
62: always bad to find out what your parents think. People who have sound parents: you are blessed, be thankful. My mother (85) thinks that unemployed people should be made to weed farm fields to reduce pesticide use (better for the environment that way).
Babbitt clearly not innocent; she had agency over her own radicalisation, not least. Admit that my first thought was that she deserved it. Surely the takeaway is that the tragedy here should be owned in full _by the instigators_, of whom she was one. Someone else was trampled to death. The coronary victims seem just ridiculous though.
My parents definitely would have been Trump supporters. They are the exact dumbasses that would successfully be whispered, in heebie's immortal phrase.
They don't recognize that violently overthrowing the U.S. government would be bad. They recognize that violently not-overthrowing the U.S. government is bad. Which is cheering, so far as it means they thing the next steps talked about are not going to succeed.
60 and 62 are quite a window into a fever dream. How surreal. It must be so disturbing to see.
62 "poor innocent woman" should have been in scare quotes.
63 Thanks. I don't often look at his twitter account (not good for my mental health, but I had to know what he thought about this), the most recent retweets were all outrage over Trumps banning from social media.
66.last Yeah, tazing oneself in the balls while trying to steal a painting and giving yourself a fatal coronary is as ridiculous as it gets.
And further to 41, House physician just sent out a memo that people were exposed on Wednesday to someone with coronavirus. A masker or a non-maker? Finding out is half the fun!
I'm not the first to observe this, obviously, but I do relish the irony of refusing to wear a mask while you commit crimes.
I think of a coup as an effort to seize and exercise the organs of state power. I'm not sure whether this thing amounts to that: the indication from the misdirected Rudy call is that the true mission on the hill was to buy time, whether simply by occupying the building, having a bomb scare, killing Pence, whatever. But the actual apparatus of maintaining Trump power was going to be state legislatures finally sending newly certified slates of electors. It might be giving Trump too much credit to say that this was his play -- he might just have been getting off on the idea that his people were willing to kill and die for him. Anyway, seizing the radio station is an act in support of a coup, even if not the coup itself, and I suppose that's analogue enough.
Obviously, we'll learn a lot more when Biden is in control of the Executive, and Schumer is in control of the Senate.
If this was a coup worthy of the name, they'd have seized control of Twitter.
51: I think that might. E characteristic of a lot of fascists.
So, is he going to Alamo, or *the* Alamo?
66, 72- I saw reports that the trampled person was carrying a Gadsen flag but that's so on the nose it can't possibly be true, right?
In the technical discussions of a coup I'm not seeing a lot of sentences with "Republicans" or "the Republican Party" as subject, which seems like missing the forest for the trees a bit. Without the Republican Party power structure, infiltration by/welcoming of extremists and open terrorists, and focus on loyalty and discipline, none of this comes even close to happening.
55- I saw rumors that someone gave a group of the rioters detailed floor plans. This is supported by Clyburn's statement that he has a marked office door near the rotunda and an unmarked office far from there where he actually works and people went straight for his actual office.
I think tased himself was true, tased himself in the balls was a joke that got taken up as true.
We have a good friend, our age, primary care provider, typical Obama-supporting do-gooder in 2008, who has been fully redpilled. So this was antifa, the communists, led by AOC are taking over, Trump has been great for the blacks, and on and on. The weird thing is, it's honestly indistinguishable from mental illness. My wife tries to joke and redirect, but the slightest engagement gets a wall of text with all the latest conspiracy theories. I think she's unwell, but how the hell can you tell?
Per my 46.1 above:
Andrew Feinberg on Twitter:
I'm working on a story about White House-rioter contact.
Bottom line, there was.
It's the funniest thing to happen to balls since the guy who played Mr. Belvedere accidentally sat on his balls and they had to stop filming for a couple of days.
Anyway, even a cursory glance at how the Nazis took over shows that "this looks like mental illness" and "this is a serious attempt to take over a country" are not mutually inclusive.
79: had heard that too. I thought I saw that Babbitt died on top of a Trump flag that she was carrying. Dying for their beliefs, sure, but their beliefs are pitiful.
75: if the insurrectionists meant to cause a different president to take office than the one voted for, even if the method was probably unworkable (supposedly: delay, then some sort of 'compromise by legislators'?) I'd say 6 Jan was a matter of forcible takeover over a function of state (rather than assault, criminal damage to a building, etc.).
the guy who played Mr. Belvedere accidentally sat on his balls
If you look into this, there are different accounts of how he sustained the injury (simple sitting, falling over on a parade float) and who witnessed it, and ok, maybe one of those is true, but when someone who wikipedia describes as a "lifelong bachelor" sustains a purported traumatic nut injury, I think you have to ask yourself if the answer doesn't lay elsewhere.
That can't be true. The show was set in Beaver Falls.
82: I have a crackpot theory that the US suffers from an extremely widespread epidemic of some kind of prion disease that adversely affects higher brain functions. This is mostly my way of coping with living among fascists but sometimes I legitimately wonder.
82: Like, how does that happen to people who don't have a diagnosable mental illness? What is the process and how are people fortified against the pathogenic process?
91: The best explanation is Ionesco's play Rhinoceros.
27: the taxonomic arguments are, in my view, are at once very boring and also a political cul de sac. But in this case, the president and some of his close advisors conspired with people who attempted to capture and kill elected officials in the legislative branch so that a peaceful transfer of power couldn't take place in the executive branch. The goal was allowing the president to remain in office. I don't actually care if Corey Robin or other talmudic scholars want to insist that, strictly speaking, this doesn't meet the definition of a coup. It was a coup. And for what it's worth, it succeeded on several fronts. We still don't have a functioning government. If we're lucky, we will again on January 20, but I'm not holding my breath.
As ever, not being able to edit comments is worse than living under creeping or even full-blown fascism. I blame neb and ogged, who could have fixed this problem years ago. They'll go down in history as the Nancy Pelosi and Jim Clyburn of unfogged: complicit in its downfall, because they were so wedded to their misapprehension of the value of tradition and norms.
Barry inspired me to check in on my own lost souls. The only acknowledgment of events was a link, without comment, to a post-insurrection Fox story with this headline:
Trump promises 'orderly transition' on Jan. 20 after Electoral College results certified
I found it heartening that the only response to this was two laugh emojis. I added a third.
The priest who ran my high school is reporting that he has covid, which somehow happened just a couple of weeks after he went to Texas on vacation.
41, 73: Short video of Rep. Rochester (D-DE) trying to hand out masks and getting rebuffed by Scalise, Andy Biggs and the QAnon Georgia lady.
I cannot quite make out what is being said for the most part.
"It would be easier for us if you were sick or dead"?
The Washington Post has a very thorough ticktock story here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-capitol-siege/2021/01/09/e3ad3274-5283-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html
one very clear point is that the Capitol security chain of command fell apart completely very early on (in the sergeant at arms' case, personally).
That's really too much for an NCO. It should be like a Lt. Colonel.
Trump is going to Alamo Total Landscaping? The actual fucking what?
I tried, but it didn't work. Maybe the chicken wasn't pure?
Insane Jan 06 rant/speech on the House floor by Rep Lauren Boebert:
"Madam Speaker, I have constituents outside this building right now. I promised my voters to be their voice."
https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1348311925138939905
She looks like her blood pressure is going through the roof and she absolutely knows what is going on outside.
Someone needs to take her guns away from her.
She's the rep for some friends of mine, so I've read a bit about her. A woman of no accomplishments, with a history of arrests for being an asshole, who made a name for herself by running a restaurant where the staff carries guns, and then rode Q insanity to office.
She seems to have deleted most of her tweets from that day-- including one stating that "The Speaker has been removed from the chambers." Why would she be giving info on the Speaker's location to her followers while they were rioting?
The only one left from that day is an "all safe-- oh yeah we deplore violence" sort of thing.
the taxonomic arguments are, in my view, are at once very boring and also a political cul de sac.
Sounds like you're admitting he definitely sat on/taxed his own balls
Did anyone yet mention here that a second Capitol Police officer has died, although it isn't clear whether it was related to his work during the siege? They haven't affirmatively said it's not related...
I have seen somewhere that it was suicide. Which supports conspiratorial theorizing in a bunch of different directions (actually murder because he knew too much; suicide because he knew too much; I guess that's it) but we'll probably never know.
Or just guilt over the whole performance.
103: SNOW!!!
https://twitter.com/EhresmanKatya/status/1348365089427042305
Supposedly the insurrectionists - presumably anyone who took part on the 6th - have been put on the Homeland Security no fly list and labelled "domestic terrorists". Fair enough. Some entertaining videos out there anyway.
73:
A Kansas House rep tested positive for covid shortly after objecting to the Arizona results. So everyone in that room was exposed.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2021/01/07/kansas-rep-jake-laturner-tests-positive-for-covid-19-hours-after-house-vote/
115- One of those just showed up in my feed, big man crying about how they're calling him a terrorist! (Left unsaid but I'm sure he's thinking, "How can I be a terrorist? I'm white!")
I shouldn't be laughing at some of these but I can't help it- Super USA brothers, animaniacs mace girl, "Did you hear the arrested the guy who stole Pelosi's lectern? He won't be taking the stand!" It's like meme Christmas and schadenfreude Hanukah fell on the same day.
He won't be taking the stand!
It would not be possible for a situation to be so dire that I would not use that joke if I had thought of it first.
Mr. Meredith has connections to the QAnon conspiracy theory movement, and that he erected a billboard in Acworth, Ga., in 2018 that read, "#QANON" along with the name of his business, Car Nutz Car Wash.
From NYT roundup of folks arrested.
93: [ever-so-slightly edited, because I'm taking a stand against the creeping fascism of a no-edits policy] the taxonomic arguments are, in my view, at once very boring and also a political cul de sac.
Yeah: Is it a full-blown coup? or is it merely a beer hall putsch? It is very scary and profoundly disturbing, imo, whatever we decide to call it.
||
There's no check-in thread on the front page or I would post this comment there. It occurred to me this evening that I haven't seen a comment from Thorn in a while. I was wondering if she was ok, and if there's anybody reading this who knows her IRL, could they please say hi.
|>
123 I've been wondering the same
From prawfsblog, an interesting argument that Trump has not held the office of President since January 6. So any pardons, nuclear launch orders, or other executive order issued between January 6 and January 21 will have no legal effect.
14th Amendment Section 3.
No Person shall . . . hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, . . . who, having previously taken an oath, as . . . an officer of the United States, . . . to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.
The presidency is an office. Trump previously did take an oath to support the Constitution. Whether he engaged in insurrection is trickier, but it would worth litigating if there are any pardons, or nuclear wars.
https://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblawg/2021/01/a-stroll-through-section-three-of-the-fourteenth-amendment-as-applied-to-the-president.html
In Pelosi's Dear Colleague letter about impeachment:
"Your views on the 25th amendment, 14th amendment section 3, and impeachment are valued as we continue."
Which makes the taxonomic arguments more relevant. 14 sec 3 uses the phrase "insurrection or rebellion". If it's an insurrection, and if he "engaged" in it, he is disqualified from the Presidency.
As an anecdotal counter to some of the "know all semi-reasonable" people even Repubs see the light. A lot of twitter threads etc. describing how energized and double-downed all of their Republican friends are.
Or for instance this thread from a couple who went to observe the rally (he's a historian):
https://twitter.com/TerryBoutonHist/status/1348365375449268226
Their five takeaways:
1) This insurrection wasn't just redneck white supremacists and QAnon kooks. The people participating in, espousing, or cheering the violence cut across the different factions of the Republican Party and those factions were working in unison.
I'm sure there were Republicans there who were horrified by what was happening. But the most common emotions we witnessed by nearly everyone were jubilation at the take over and anger at Democrats, Mike Pence, non-Trump supporting Republicans, and the Capitol Police.
2) There is no doubt the Capitol was left purposefully understaffed as far as law enforcement and there was no federal effort to provide support even as things turned very dark. This contrasts sharply with all of other major protests we have attended
3) The Trump rioters only supported law enforcement as long as they believed law enforcement was supporting them. Rioters, many carrying Thin Blue Line flags, seemed convinced that the Capitol Police would turn against the government and join them. Numerous rioters shouted at the police, saying some version of "we had your back, now you need to have ours." All of the Capitol officers we saw--Black, white, Latino, male, female--seemed alarmed by what was happening and continued to try to do their job faithfully.
4) There were also no clear crowd rules imposed for Stop the Steal like there were for all the other protests we have attended. All of the "liberal" protests of the last four years we attended had a long list of things you could not bring that were enforced at the Capitol. At these protests, there were no poles or sticks, no backpacks, no weapons or body armor, etc. There were sometimes security check points to go through to get onto the mall or Capitol grounds
5) These people are serious and they are going to keep escalating the violence until they are stopped by the force of law. There were many, many people there who were excited by the violence and proud and excited about the prospect of more violence. And it wasn't just the white nationalists, Second Amendment radicals, and QAnon boneheads. I can't adequately describe the blood lust we heard everywhere as we walked over the Capitol grounds, even from mild-mannered looking people.
120- Alternate version:
You may disagree with his politics but you have to admire him for taking a stand.
Some thing of note (and not a good one): I do not believe there have been any briefings since the even from any law enforcement other than DC Metro. (Maybe someone else mentioned this upthread.)
123/124 I also hope Thorn is okay and would be interested to hear how she's doing.
Eh,. I can see I am tipping over into alarmist fearmongering. Not a good look.
This is also a fantastic tweet essay on the composition and motivation of the insurrection: https://twitter.com/gwensnyderphl/status/1348277044568862720?s=21
So if he pardons everyone and himself and that act is what tips Congress over into removal, they could use the Fourteen Amendment to disqualify him retroactively to the 6th- which, presumably, would void the pardons!
New news: former Capitol Police chief blames the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms.
Read that piece. Seems more complicated than that. What a cluster all around.
And I think everyone involved blinded to the clear dangers going in and not really appreciating the potential for Trump to egg them on.
It's still fog of war, and I think maybe it's not a bad thing that we're not having briefings designed to fix the narrative. That DOD memo calling this a First Amendment exercise isn't going to survive beyond the next two weeks. Three months from now, there will be a whole lot more clarity.
On the question of the range of Republicans present, I think you still have to remember that we're starting with two big sorts -- first, it's the kinds of people who would come the DC when summoned by Trump to help overturn the election, and then, among those, it's the kinds of people who would walk to the capitol to try to help reverse the election. It's hardly surprising, then, that veryone there was ok with trying to get Congress to overturn the election, even if no one had any idea how to do it.
I was just reading this, which has a number of good turns of phrase: One of the most important things to know about Trump is that he never has a plan. He barely has an itinerary. He simply moves from one flubby gilded hustle to the next, dedicating each moment to whatever feels good or whatever he thinks looks strongest. . . .
Trump's people set up a literal gallows outside and brought rifles and zip ties inside with them, but then they were stuck there, chanting and desecrating and posting and posting and posting it all online to advance their own individual stories. Finally they were just milling aimlessly around the grandest building in the country, the place where government ostensibly lives, like video game characters waiting to be raptured up to the next level, or onto the quest after this one.
On Trump's behalf, at Trump's behest, his people had done their part. But because anyone who spends enough time thinking about Trump comes to sound and think and fail like him, there wasn't even really any demand to make beyond More Trump. There was no one around to threaten, even. These people had taken Trump and his abettors seriously, and answered the language that they used--the endless calls to fight, to avenge the great and dishonorable betrayals of an enemy that deserved no mercy--with commensurate action. They'd expected to confront their enemies, and find catharsis, and victory. But the chamber was empty, and there was nothing to do but shout and pose
Apparently, some people have hacked Parler, and have managed to download everything (including "deleted" stuff, which Parler didn't really delete): https://twitter.com/bitburner/status/1348558563019427842
Kinda off topic, possibly TMI, CW: miscarriage.
|| We got too excited about the election results and had impulsive sex after only vaguely consulting ovulation calendar and got pregnant on what was essentially our first less than a try. I found out the day after my 41st birthday and was shocked at how excited I was. I thought I was super ambivalent. I was strangely entertained at having a baby whose due date might so obviously be part of a Biden baby boom. Political angst had certainly been a major part of the ambivalence.
So perhaps aptly it was with massive sense of doom to have the miscarriage diagnosed on Tuesday afternoon and be in agony on the bathroom floor at 3 am on Wednesday and curled up in bed bleeding all day Wednesday and Thursday . I totally randomly managed to catch the intact sac and on Saturday I buried it in in my garden.
The last two nights I have woken up for hours obsessed with doing all the Trying To Conceive reading I avoided all these years and calculating how soon I can try again. Part of me wonders if I am in denial about my grief or madly projecting hopefulness because I have somehow linked my new child greed with my desire not to end up in a totally fascist society.
||
137: So very, very sorry Abigail A. Not TMI.
135: It's still fog of war, and I think maybe it's not a bad thing that we're not having briefings designed to fix the narrative.
Ok. A good chance that they would not add any value (or even distract), but I still think it is telling that they have not happened. (Not that there has ever been an absence of "tells" with this group but it is still operationally useful to know in as much detail as possible the nature of beast growling menacingly outside your door.)
WH should be asked incessantly about how they are preparing for inauguration week security. It will all be BS, but potentially illuminating BS.
I'm so sorry Abigail. My condolences.
Sympathies AA. And best of luck with your family plans and avoiding living in a fascist society.
That's awful, Abigail. I'm so sorry that happened, and that you have to deal with the world being insane while your own life is being hard.
Via Jennifer Jacobs, the least sympathy -deserving people in the world have a sad.
So many WH and admin aides incensed at Trump.
"He made a mockery of our hard work. Furious."
Some seeing job leads/offers evaporate because they waited a week too long.
"We believed in the work. He only believes in himself."
"I have to wear a scarlet T now."
Dr evil has undone al; of our good work for Virtucon Industries.
Don Jr. finally gets something right.
On Colin Powell Jr. saying he is no longer a Republican:
I'm pretty sure this is from 2008, 2012, 2016 etc.
"I have to wear a scarlet T now."
To show their pain, they will light giant 't's on fire. To show their modesty, they will be lower case.
I'm so sorry, Abigail. May your physical pain heal quickly and your emotional pain be relieved by the comfort and care of your friends, both here and offline.
Sympathies Abigail- thank you for sharing.
137: Sorry, AA. That's horrible.
121 et al.: I messaged her on faceb/ook this morning. No response yet but I think the app said she's been active within the past day, for whatever it's worth.
150: Eh, it's complicated. Same for Graham, Pence, and all the others who backed Trump fully for the past 3 years and 11 months or so. Morally, I might think they're worse than Trump. (Not in any meaningful way, but if I were feeling philosophical about this horror story, there's some sense in which Trump is crazy whereas some of his enablers are consciously choosing to be evil.) But practically, at almost literally the last minute, they technically did the bare minimum of the right thing last week. They aren't the enemy at the moment and I'm not in a position to tell them the right way to oppose Trump, other than to support impeachment (or the 25th amendment, but that gets harder with every Cabinet member who quits) and keep doing what they've been doing for the past 2 business days.
I dunno. Extending them even this much goodwill might be excessive. It's just that we aren't going to survive without, if not some current Trump supporters, some people currently calling for unity with Trump supporters.
Sorry, Abigail, I hope you have the time, space, and support you need.
sorry all, I've been stuck at dentist appointments and on a loaner computer. I'll get an open thread up when I'm on my lunch break.
It occurred to me rereading the Fourteenth Amendment, third section, that it doesn't specify precisely who determines or pronounces the disqualification from public office. Just "No person shall [hold office] who shall have [given comfort to insurrectionists]. (It limits to Congress the ability to remove the disqualification, but not to impose it.)
So could the California Legislature disqualify people from state (including local) office on this basis, for example? Though the Supreme Court could take a dim view of it.
Abigail, I'm so sorry. Having the political and personal bound together like that sounds excruciating.
136- Any chance they'll set up a search portal for the Parler dump? I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who'd be interested in finding out if their crazy relatives were openly racist in a public forum.
161: I feel like the benefits of that would be outweighed by the boon to identity thieves.
161: I feel like the benefits of that would be outweighed by include the boon to identity thieves.
That sounds awful. So sorry you have to deal with that, AA.
41. 73: NJ D Rep announced she has COVID. Probably to soon to be from the lockdown, but jeesus. And she's 75.
Not at all, 5 days post exposure is well within normal range of symptoms and testing positive.
Best wishes, AA. That's rough.
The representatives that refused to wear masks in crowded lockdown rooms should be thrown out of the House, preferably physically and from a moderate height.
171:Ah yes. Forgot it has been that long, seems like yesterday.
Millennial millennialism is the worst.
I have the sense that some people here will like this: https://twitter.com/GraceSpelman/status/1348307846568570881
It shows a bunch of tweets from QAnon types at the end of their (metaphoric) ropes.
We just had our first entirely domestic suicide bomber over Christmas. I'm not finding it reassuring.
Thanks everyone. I have no idea why it helped to write that out somewhere and be heard, but it did.
Deutsche Bank contemplates the death spiral.
Bill Belichick won't even take a Medal of Freedom from him.
The WaPo tick-tock of Wednesday at the WH is a must read. Pretty much as everyone thought. Assume there will be an NYT one soon.
Bad headline though(as is often the case); says "Six Hours if Paralysis." Hardly the right adjective.
Bad headline though(as is often the case); says "Six Hours if Paralysis." Hardly the right adjective.
What the article doesn't quite say is that Trump was watching to see if it might somehow work in his favor, which is why he ignored everyone's calls for help.
They were waiting for him to lead them in some particular effort, and he was waiting for them to hand him the presidency without any further effort.
If only Putin had wanted Trump to be re-elected, there would have been some competent planning for this thing.
185: Yes, all of these articles are kind of dancing around the stark reality y of it. As in the headline. And an Axios story tonight that Trump leaning into the it was antifa narrative.
And now Rep Jayapal positive for Covid. Fuckers.
Not to defend that treasonous fuckwad, but everyone keeps saying Boebert was tweeting Pelosi's location to the would-be assassins because she said "we're locked in the House" and "the Speaker has been taken from the room." Didn't anyone watching CSpan know that?
Meanwhile, how much of this is realistic? I wouldn't put it past Boebert to try to be a hero to the Q crowd by taking a shot at Biden but this idea of surrounding the three centers of government and controlling them for an extended period seems to have some tactical issues.
189: I think some of the insurrectionists realized they didn't have a plan (or they had 20 different plans, which is the same thing) and want to do better next time.
If the authorities have also resolved to do better, my money is on them.
I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like me.
181: The NYT has their ticktock up. They do nice work, visually.
183-186: Overnight became more annoyed at the wording they chose* to describe what happened. This quote for instance:
"He was hard to reach, and you know why? Because it was live TV," said one close Trump adviser. "If it's TiVo, he just hits pause and takes the calls. If it's live TV, he watches it, and he was just watching it all unfold."
In particular since during part of that time he *was* on the phone calling Tommy Tuberville (and I assume others).
JPS version: One close Trump advisor tried to spin his deliberate malfeasance by claiming <insert quote>.
*Whilst acknowledging at least they are shedding light on what was going on via their sources, who probably cooperate in part because they know it will all be described in a mealy-mouthed fashion; it's the great cycle of anonymous sourcing.
Just starting it; and yes it does have nice visuals. More comprehensive too, the WaPo was just on the WH stuff.
And here I am giving to kudo to Maggie Haberman for a change.
In this video she does not sugarcoat it.
184: An but it seems to be just up to the time of the breaches. I assume more coming.
deliberate malfeasance
One of Trump's advantages is that he, and the people around him, are always able to credibly claim incompetence. "He was too busy watching TV" is both plausible and not exculpatory in any normal world.
195: Haberman disagrees with me, saying it wasn't just that he was watching TV and they couldn't get his attention, "which is a very different thing."
198: if you actually think he was :just watching TV" then reality disagrees with you.
199: I just think "watching TV and calling his pals in Congress" isn't much different from "watching TV."
It is if you remember that those pals are still going to be in office after 1/20.
The existence of his pals in Congress is the problem there.
The coup attempt continues: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/11/donald-trump-dc-state-of-emergency-inauguration-457890
'Watching TV and calling pals in Congress to see if this was going to help him stay president' is different enough from 'watching TV, what an addict' that I think they're misstating the story, whether intentionally or not.
Roger, I don't think this will help him stay in power. If there' a big disturbance on 1/20, Biden, Harris, and Roberts will walk inside the capitol and Roberts will administer the oaths.
I hope not. Declaring an emergency does give him some bonus powers, as well as access to a pool of money.
They should do the oaths as early and secretly as possible.
I think that's what the coup plotters want, so they can say Biden didn't really win.
Take a public one later, after the new CiC and staff get a security briefing.
Biden is going to stand outside and give the full speech. It's his way of telling people plotting against him to go fuck themselves.
207: Agreed. I'm assuming "the coup plotters" in this case means Trump himself or someone psychically attached to him. As rough as the past four years have been, we're lucky the current leader of the fascist movement is 74 years old and so incompetent. Whoever takes over his movement might turn out to be a lot more dangerous.
Yes. And Trump probably wants to crowd to be smaller than his crowd.
It was a serious mistake not to send up articles of impeachment as early as last Thursday, Friday at the very latest. Pelosi has got to go.
The pandemic is sufficient for that.
Didn't some people try to migrate to MeWe a while ago as a more private alternative to FB? Unfortunately it looks like that's one of the landing places for the Parler diaspora. Not that I use it anyway, I never got any connections set up there.
Nitpicking newspaper choices is a mug's game, but I continue to be puzzled that WaPo didn't give significant emphasis to Trump's "I will kill again" remarks this morning like the NYT did. Their version is headline with a relatively sedate "President Trump lashes out at social media companies following Twitter ban". It's important information that he's not repentant!
I set up an account on mewe and I know various other people did, but nobody seemed to use it, so I'd almost forgotten its existence. I couldn't remember my password to save my life.
At least it's not the password to $200M of Bitcoin.
212: I dunno. Pelosi still has to work with a whole caucus, and I'm guessing it's hard to unilaterally make a decision of that gravity for everybody -- and she needs near-unanimity. Clyburn was out there floating a trial balloon saying that a Senate trial needs to wait until long after the inauguration, so that's one powerful voice casting doubt.
212 Is precisely the kind of snap judgment that was cautioning against in 44 above.
Among them is that as this is an ongoing unstable, dangerous situation about which I have limited information, I am willing to grant more benefit of a doubt to many of the actions and words of many of the people at the forefront of responding to this.
My favorite thing was the Republicans saying impeachment would have gotten more votes from then if done last week. If you ever catch me taking seriously a Republican saying they would have done the decent thing if only the timing were better, drool on my dinner.
221: It would make a cat laugh.
Ogged, do you have any swimworld context or insight on Klete Keller being one of the seditionists?
Also swimswam is a delightful name for a magazine.
Also my phone keeps trying to autocorrect href into beer which is odd since I almost never mention beer.
At the moment I'm thinking of just which Republicans might come out and vote for impeachment. I can't imagine anyone from whom I am more ideologically distant then Liz Cheney but this is what she had to say on Fox immediately after the Capital riot:
"What is important is to recognize we just had a violent mob assault the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to prevent us from carrying out our constitutional duty," Cheney told "Special Report" host Bret Baier.
"There is no question that the president formed the mob. The president incited the mob, the president addressed the mob. He lit the flame. This is what America is not."
Maybe I am being too hopeful. Or not.
Oops I guess I still can't html on a phone.
https://swimswam.com/olympic-gold-medalist-in-us-capitol-during-clashes-video-appears-to-show/
It looks like they have a clear picture of the man who murdered the officer.
I think Liz Cheney is pissed because her Dad was once the Republican VP certifying a Democrat's win.
Not like psychologically, but his face.
225: there was just one? The photo I saw there were a few people who earned the charge.
The one with the fire extinguisher.
They seem to be focusing on this guy, who they are calling extinguisherman:
https://twitter.com/No_Nazis_Please/status/1349079196669255680
Lots more info here: https://twitter.com/jsrailton/status/1348453055663116290
Damn:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/12/us/impeachment-trump-25th-amendment#mcconnell-is-said-to-be-pleased-about-impeachment-believing-it-will-make-it-easier-to-purge-trump-from-the-republican-party
They wanted mass arrests, they got'em. US Atty Sherwin says hundreds expected.
any swimworld context or insight on Klete Keller
Did not know his politics. I remember his contemporary Larsen Jensen joining the SEALs, but that's...different.
McConnell fucked up the $2000 checks, so maybe he'll fuck up impeachment, too. But I'll smile if he doesn't.
221- on Earth2 where Democrats immediately introduced articles of impeachment at the end of the electoral certification joint session:
One Republican strategist said it was unfortunate impeachment was defeated and blamed Democrats for rushing ahead so quickly. "If they had just waited until next week when more details could come out, they might have had 80 votes for impeachment."
221/238: Also, they didn't just say if the vote were held last week, they said if the vote were held Wednesday night. When they were working until 3:30 the next morning.
I mean, I certainly would like it to happen faster if the ceteri are paribi. I'm just not in a position to know that.
And Ted Cruz could have filibustered.
Prior to Jan 20, passing articles has the effect of handing McConnell a loaded gun to point at Trump. It doesn't amount to anything other than that, and so I doubt we've lost anything by Pelosi calling on Pence to do the right thing first (and thus gauge whether the mainstream Republicans were really ready to bail -- the answer is generally no). When can McConnell brandish the gun at Trump? I think if/when the FBI and SS start to tell him that there really is going to be an armed mob on Jan 17, looking for his hide as much as anyone else's, it'll be time for him to tell Trump to tell them to stand down, or he'll call for a vote.
I don't think it was the case before about mid-December, but I think now that every single Republican that can credibly be said to have had a chance to keep Trump in and doesn't take it is taking a genuine risk to their own physical safety and that of their families. It's easy to say 'buy the ticket take the ride' or something like that, but most among us can hardly judge someone who passes that cup to someone else to drink.
That risk isn't go to go away, and so VP Pence, CJ Roberts, and, I guess, McConnell are going to have to look over their shoulders for some Q addled yahoo for a good long time.
I would expect both houses to be in recess on Jan 17, so the mob will be attacking, and LE defending, an 'empty' building. Downside risk of the use of force by LE would be much lower, and risk to Biden & Harris quite minimal. I don't see how anything could happen that would provide Trump any excuse to extend his term.
So. McConnell shouldn't be having an impeachment trial/debate/vote on Jan 17. If blood is shed, though, I'd not be surprised if they convened the next day to get it done.
235: Has anyone seen any estimates of how many Trumpers were at the rally vs. how many went to the Capitol vs. how many rioted vs. how many entered the building? I've heard wildly different numbers for all of them. The videos of the riot look like a sea of people: a thousand? two thousand? more? (Trump of course would say "My riot had more people than any other! It was YUGE!")
232- 10 points to the first person who finds someone defending him because he just threw the fire extinguisher and hit the cop in the head, he didn't beat the cop repeatedly, how can you hold him responsible for that? (Assuming that was the fatal blow in the video.)
When someone threw a full menstrual cup down into the California Senate chambers just before the end of the legislative year, they reconvened at another location to complete the (voluminous) business. Congress should have such a location ready this time; I'm surprised they didn't before.
The legislative period was ending anyway.
I really hope that story is correct about McConnell intending to throw Trump out of the GOP, not just because it would be the right thing for the country but also because it would push the GOP into a generational internal war. But I repeat myself.
Yeah, it's totally on. Trump has to either stand down and let Liz Cheney and Nancy Pelosi own him, or declare war on the anti-overt-sedition wing of the Republican party. She's going to need security for a while.
Adding the Liz Cheney move, you know that if Trump is removed formally or just keeps meek until he's out of office, within a few weeks as a private citizen he'll call for the GOP to expel those who betrayed him or be destroyed.
That's quite a statement, really makes you wonder what's yet to hit the news.
249: Right. I've actually started wondering if Trump could become too weak to destroy the Republicans. Maybe the New York prosecutors need to hold off on charges.
Re Senators and impeachment, Dave Wasserman just tweeted:
"A few other Rs I'd watch in next few hours/day: Kim (CA), Simpson (ID), LaHood (IL), Meijer (MI), Upton (MI), Bacon (NE), Amodei (NV), Smith (NJ), Reed (NY), Stivers (OH), Fitzpatrick (PA), Curtis (UT), McMorris Rodgers (WA), Herrera Beutler (WA), Gallagher (WI)."
I live in Michigan and Fred Upton and Meijer sound quite likely to me.
I saw "Natural Born Killers" and then went into a Meijer. Never been back to one because I accidentally made it associated with death.
254: Oops-- make that Representatives . . .
On the Senate side off the top of my head, I'd wonder about Richard Burr since he is retiring anyway.
Douthat has a column about how Trump could now destroy the Republicans. Unfortunately, it's really dumb.
You have to work for years to become dumb enough to replace David Brooks.
Friedman also weighs in, and is also really dumb. Unfortunately, his column elaborates on my comment in 253, which I hereby retract.
Friedman, in his own way, is kind of irresistible. Who else could write something this ridiculous:
"[I]f the principled Republicans split from the Trump cult, the rump pro-Trump G.O.P. would have a very hard time winning a national election anytime soon."
I'm trying to imagine what principle the principled Republicans adhere to.
Anyway, Twitter says Meijer is for calling Trump a piece of shit but leaving him in charge of the nuclear weapons.
Cheney's ambitions certainly becoming clear, and a big move for her. Arrayed against Cruz and Hawley (all in with the seditionists), Cotton fingered-in -the-wind it and think he will get crushed by his natural "base" what with the not objecting to AZ and PA, and Haley also trying to play the "middle" (Repub version which means not overtly seditious) but under less pressure because of not needing to vote. Of course the wild card is Trump's behavior in next 9 days and afterwards*. Cheney not unreasonably betting that it will be bad or really, really bad stuff to come out. The good news is having some stronger Rs profiting from that will aide in getting some really, really bad stuff to the light of day. Of course they will all try to stuff up any decent aspects of the Biden/D agenda. and 2 years and 4 tears are a long time away politics-wise.
*And how Fox will handle him. Fox is in one of those periods where they can't quit coalesce on a strategy. Often happened after a a Trump outrage, but generally within a day or two they settle on common talking points. They'd love to go all in with "It was antifa!" (and Trump seems to be leaning towards that) but it may be a bridge to far even for them. Ds not letting the country heal, and 1st A -violating big tech seem to be there g-to distractions for the time being. But they are probably going to have a lot of Trumpian "opportunities" they will need to address. I would bet on the corporatist/money line winning out (also at CNN, MSNBC and the broadcast networks).
260.last: I'm trying to imagine what principle the principled Republicans adhere to.
Sedition Lite. (Voter suppression and faux originalist activist judges.)
262: The real answer rather than all of these 2nd -to 7th place finishers in Iowa in 2024 is some rough beast now slouching towards Branson, Missouri.
262: Cheney certainly has ambitions-- but this really seems like a country over party thing. She's spoken out in disagreement with Trump before this.
Frankly I'm grateful for any Republicans who are willing to step up-- even Mitch, though I don't quite believe I'm saying this . . . It would be much easier-- and better for the country if this ends up being a bipartisan effort . . . It takes time for lies like "it was antifa" to settle in and there is actually some resistance to it outside of Trump's nuttiest core loyalists. They just arrested 3 men in Georgia and a 4th (Christopher Stanton Georgia) committed suicide before they got to him. Not exactly what you'd expect from a hero of the insurrection . . . more death of a traitor.
Once this is over (and I am hopeful that it will be), we can get back to arguing about the appropriate size/role of government and taxes. And voting rights. And originalism. And police reform. And healthcare. And climate change. And the 2nd amendment. Arghhhhhh. I think I will stop now before I start feeling suicidal myself.
from my own experience it is always gratifying when one's ambitions align with a higher principle. And that is in fact how a lot of good things get done in the world.
265: I hope it comes down to Mickey Gilley against Yakov Smirnoff.
More seriously, it will be Trump again. Or if he's not able to run for some reason, it will be some QAnon lunatic.
Current Fox News headline:
McConnell furious with president, supports move to initiate impeachment proceedings: sources
Republicans in disarray is always a good development.
The 'it was antifa' lie was always going to fall apart because of all the cameras and the arrests.
Of course tons and tons of bad shit are going to come out about Trump and not only this thing but everything. Are there going to be memos in some file showing him overtly taking bribes? Who here would be surprised? Did he try to extort -- jeez, just pick one at random -- Ecuador? Zambia? Honduras? Anywhere some Trumpish business guy saw an opportunity.
Axios says McConnell is leaning toward convicting.
William Henry Harrison has mixed feelings.
27): The 'it was antifa' lie was always going to fall apart because of all the cameras and the arrests.>/i>
Yes, one of last week's most apt tweets:
MAGA the last 2 weeks: HEY GANG LETS CARPOOL TO BERLIN TO BURN DOWN THE REICHSTAG
MAGA this morning: CHECK OUT MY SELFIE ON WAY TO BURN DOWN THE REICHSTAG
MAGA later this morning: ME, BURNING DOWN THE REICHSTAG
MAGA tonight: ANTIFA BURNED DOWN THE REICHSTAG
Hmm, this from Rep. Mikie Sherrill is something:
I don't doubt it I guess, but details would be nice, and not sure why she presented this way and during a constituent webcast.
In a live webcast Tuesday evening, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-11, made a startling claim that some members of Congress led groups of people through the Capitol Building on a "reconnaissance" tour one day before the riot that laid a deadly siege on the government's legislative branch.
She was a Navy helicopter.
First aircraft elected to Congress as Democrat.
255: Hey Moby--
They might both be from Grand Rapids but Peter Meijer is not Betsy DeVos:
"I still can't wrap my head around the fact that the President of the United States was completely MIA while the next three individuals in the line of succession (VP, Speaker of House, Senate Pres Pro Tempore) were under assault in the Capitol. Unconscionable."
https://twitter.com/RepMeijer/status/1348476046182649858
I saw that he was introducing the censure resolution and took that to mean he did that to avoid impeachment. But I see that's not necessarily the case.
Antifa was the friends we made along the way.
275- Should be easy to back up with surveillance videos, although it wouldn't surprise me if we get the ridiculous plot device* of "oh we overwrite the video every 24 hours to save money."
*IIRC the entire plot of a Dan Brown novel rested on the idea that the video cameras at the Louvre were fake and just for show.
This is very good https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/goodman-capitol-police-video/2021/01/13/08ab3eb6-546b-11eb-a931-5b162d0d033d_story.html
