A CNN commentator observed this a.m. that as long as CFSG is president he could just issue them a wholesale pardon, like Jimmy Carter did for the Vietnam-era draft refusers who migrated to Canada.
T**** needs to go right now. Article 25, impeachment or tranquilizer dart. The cornered rat is the fiercest fighter.
The Trump supporters in my orbit are all on board with this having been antifa. I naively believed that it would be impossible that this line could work when Foxnews first started pushing it.
Has anyone actually seen trump or heard directly from him since yesterday afternoon?
This was clearly a stand down on the part of law enforcement. Just look at the difference in response compared to the BLM protests, and I’m no fan of BLM. They gassed and used rubber bullets on BLM, but MAGA gets to ransack the capitol and just go home.
We are in serious trouble here.
Doesn’t matter. Most of the crimes they committed weren’t federal crimes, they were local. Pres can only pardon federal crimes.
Now, what he can do is give a blanket pardon to them for sedition. Not that I want to give the CFSG any ideas.
He still has plenty of enablers who will do that.
https://tips.fbi.gov/digitalmedia/aad18481a3e8f02
Plus:
(Full Title of story below: “Confused Americans Think the Rioter’s Name Who Stole Podium from US Capitol is ‘Via Getty’”)
Equals LOLS
Trespassing and breaking windows on federal property is a tad more significant than elsewhere. I’ve often been in federal courtrooms, where some poor schmuck didn’t realize the significance of speeding or smoking weed in a National Park…
As Thread Opener, I have finally caught up with the postings. I am thinking about asking the mods to close the thread since the events of 6 January are now history and the aftermath can be debated on a new (or several new) threads, and we preserve this one as a record of a day that is not likely to be forgotten anytime soon.
Thoughts?
Frankly, I’m happier hearing them trying to blame Antifa than I am hearing them trying to justify it.
It’s too long of a thread to keep track of what happened and should be preserved as is. Adding more after December the 37th 2020 whould be confusing.
To me it makes most sense to keep it here and all in one place.
The consequence of the studio audience getting it wrong is that a substandard singer/dancer/performer goes to the next round.
The consequence of legislature getting a several hundred or thousand page bill wrong can affect the lives of millions.
I say leave this thread alone to die a natural death and eventually decay on the forest floor where woodland creatures can use the remains to make nests for their young.
Indeed it is, and I don’t think people understand just how little time we have left. A lot of people are now, only after yesterday, waking up to this and recognizing the alarm bell for what it is, but it’s actually been ringing for a while. In fact, yesterday is the result of years and years of the right wing having spun spectacular lies and disinformation – yesterday was at least 4 years in the making. Any reaction right now will probably only serve as a speed bump to possibly slow the momentum of anti-democratic forces, the inertia of which will continue to move this situation further even if it’s interrupted somehow. It will take a coordinated effort - and a bipartisan/multi-partisan commitment - to get all sides to put a lid on disinformation and to agree to play by certain rules again; otherwise, what happened yesterday is only just the beginning of the end of self-rule in this country. It is imperative that everyone who is horrified at what happened yesterday understands this.
I said it a long time ago, over and over and over again: a contested election is some serious shit. People get killed over contested elections, as we have seen in many parts of the world. We in the United States smugly dismissed these concerns as “third world problems,” but guess what…those problems have arrived at our shores, and I am fairly confident (unfortunately) that although we are outraged, chances are, we are most likely too psychologically and politically paralyzed to think of an actual methodical response to this crisis. This is not over - not by a long shot - and we need to understand this.
I suspect that one of the first steps in our collective reckoning will be to seriously rethink what “freedom” and “free speech” should mean, and it is long past time to have that thought exercise and discussion. People should be free to espouse and express controversial ideas, but they shouldn’t have the freedom to spread information that causes people to doubt facts or reality or our own value system. We absolutely should pursue QAnon, but we should also start regulating social media more aggressively. They should be regulated by the FCC, FTC, and/or other regulatory bodies so that they operate in the public interest and they should be fined when they don’t. The ideas of “Oh it’s the Internet, this is all new to us and we’re figuring it out as we go along” should be over – they’ve been given time to self-regulate and they have failed us all.
Sens. Klobuchar and Merkley, interviewed on the Today show, were asked what should be done with Trump. Merkley said “censure” and Klobuchar said it was up to his cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment. Merkley said “impeachment makes no sense at all in the short time we have.” Both of them pivoted to platitudes about, e.g., improving the electoral process and dealing with the pandemic. [?!?!]
If their view represents that of most congresspeople, then… who will restrain Trump for the next two weeks?
I tip my hat to your prescience in opening a thread specifically dedicated to possibly the single most eventful day out of an exhaustingly eventful four years.
The legislature has all the time they want to debate and talk and pontificate and horse trade. Literally they can take as long as they want to do that.
Once the vote is called why add another hour to it? Just be do it and be done.
I think folk and institutions need to be more overtly critical of folk who support Trump and his harmful ideas. Both private citizens and elected officials. They need to be marginalized and treated as the pariahs they should be.
No, we have to sweep it to prevent forest fires.