President Biden and US politics catchall

[Chilli]

https://www.businessinsider.com/pentago ... 021-1?IR=T

Pentagon officials sent memos on January 4 and 5 barring DC guardsmen from receiving ammo and riot gear, engaging with protesters (except for self-defense), sharing equipment with local police, and using surveillance or air assets without explicit approval from President Donald Trump's acting Defense Secretary, Christopher Miller, according to The Post.

The additional bureaucratic hurdle delayed the DC National Guard's response after US Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund asked on Wednesday for 200 guardsmen to provide backup — with guardsmen not arriving until 2 1/2 hours later — according to The Post.

MAGA Lives Matter More

What did you expect?

[Chilli]

Jacob Chansley, AKA Jake Angeli, Arizona man makes first court appearance in for charges related to storming the U.S. Capitol. His mom says he hasn’t eaten since Friday because the detention facility won’t feed him all organic food.

Poor old Buffalo Boy.

Should he not rather be in the loony bin?

[Rinkals]

https://www.businessinsider.com/pentago ... 021-1?IR=T

MAGA Lives Matter More

What did you expect?

I think it was expected and certainly doesn't come as any surprise.

It just needs to be hi lighted so that it isn't brushed under the carpet in the name of "Unity".

[Biffer]

Jacob Chansley, AKA Jake Angeli, Arizona man makes first court appearance in for charges related to storming the U.S. Capitol. His mom says he hasn’t eaten since Friday because the detention facility won’t feed him all organic food.

Poor old Buffalo Boy.

Should he not rather be in the loony bin?

[Hal Jordan]

I understand that organic food is a very important thing to the Q Incel crowd for some reason.

[Blake]

Jacob Chansley, AKA Jake Angeli, Arizona man makes first court appearance in for charges related to storming the U.S. Capitol. His mom says he hasn’t eaten since Friday because the detention facility won’t feed him all organic food.

Poor old Buffalo Boy.

Yep; maybe he should have supported the party that is pushing for prison reform and better conditions in prisons?

That being said, things could get quite sticky if this loon goes on a hunger strike.

[Uncle fester]

Good examples of how screwed their electoral system is in that thread.

[Hal Jordan]

I see Bill Belichick (head coach of the monstrously successful New England Patriots NFL team if you didn't know) has turned down the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump.

Best move since he quit the NY Jets, and add his name to the list of woke socialists that are cancelling Trump (the PGA, multinational corporations etc).

Trump must have run out of piss to boil with his inability to take to social media to rant about it.

[GogLais]

Inauguration Day is going to be ugly isn't it?

[Blake]

Inauguration Day is going to be ugly isn't it?

Could go either way at this point...

[fishfoodie]

Corporate America has grabbed the GOP by the scrotum; & is slowly beginning to squeeze.

The latest is Deutsche Bank telling the shitgibbion, that they won't do any further business with him.

This comes after everyday being filled with a list of companies telling it & the GOP, that they are suspending all donations to them.

Will they get the message ?

[Slick]

Inauguration Day is going to be ugly isn't it?

Not sure. It seems, even with the stuff last week, that the militias that are stirring it up and acting Billy Big Bollocks on the internet are not actually as tough as they think when sitting round drinking beer.

[Lemoentjie]

Look's like the radicals have got their DOJ candidate:

Biden nominee to lead DOJ made black supremacist comments in the 1990s

A new investigation by our reporters has uncovered shocking — and we don’t use that word lightly — legitimately shocking statements that Clarke made, in public, while at Harvard,” he continued. “In 1994, Clarke wrote a letter to the Harvard Crimson in her capacity as the president of the Black Students Association. Clarke wanted to explain her views on race science.”:

“Please use the following theories and observations to assist you in your search for truth regarding the genetic differences between Blacks and whites.”:

• “One: Dr. Richard King reveals that at the core of the human brain is the ‘locus coeruleus,’ which is a structure that is Black, because it contains large amounts of neuro-melanin which is essential for its operation. Two: Black infants sit, stand, crawl and walk sooner than whites. Three: Carol Barnes notes that human mental processes are controlled by melanin–that same chemical which gives Blacks their superior physical and mental abilities. Four: Some scientists have revealed that most whites are unable to produce melanin because their pineal glands are often calcified or non-functioning. Pineal calcification rates with Africans are five to 15 percent, Asians 15 to 25 percent and Europeans 60 to 80 percent. This is the chemical basis for the cultural differences between Blacks and whites. Five: Melanin endows Blacks with greater mental, physical and spiritual abilities — something which cannot be measured based on Eurocentric standards.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-no ... -abilities

[JM2K6]

Dumb shit. But then, she was a teenager when she wrote that, 16-17 years ago. Now she's a respected civil rights lawyer.

[Hal Jordan]

Corporate America has grabbed the GOP by the scrotum; & is slowly beginning to squeeze.

The latest is Deutsche Bank telling the shitgibbion, that they won't do any further business with him.

This comes after everyday being filled with a list of companies telling it & the GOP, that they are suspending all donations to them.

Will they get the message ?

I see some of them are in the "bad people on both sides" horse, having suspended PAC payments to the Democrats as well. Those fine fellows at Goldman Sachs, for example.

[Sinkers]

Trump’s biggest donor (to the tune of $430m) has just croaked as well

[Insane_Homer]

[Fangle]

While I think that Trump deserves the worst, it won’t help in uniting the country, which is what Biden has pledged to do.

[JM2K6]

Letting him and his collaborators get away with an attempted coup is not going to bring the country together. The Republicans actually admitting they've been lying about the election being a "fraud" is the other thing that needs to happen.

[Blake]

Corporate America has grabbed the GOP by the scrotum; & is slowly beginning to squeeze.

The latest is Deutsche Bank telling the shitgibbion, that they won't do any further business with him.

This comes after everyday being filled with a list of companies telling it & the GOP, that they are suspending all donations to them.

Will they get the message ?

I see some of them are in the "bad people on both sides" horse, having suspended PAC payments to the Democrats as well. Those fine fellows at Goldman Sachs, for example.

Good. Corporations shouldn't be donating to politicians in any capacity anyway. A step in the right direction, even if the Dems end up being collateral damage.

Long term it's what they should be pushing for anyway.

[Insane_Homer]

While I think that Trump deserves the worst, it won’t help in uniting the country, which is what Biden has pledged to do.

Fuck that, bury him and everyone one of his enablers and treat them like the terrorists they are.

[Blake]

While I think that Trump deserves the worst, it won’t help in uniting the country, which is what Biden has pledged to do.

In fairness, that pledge was made before the coup attempt.

I admire his will to try it, but uniting with seditionists is a dead end.
If they are not purged from the body politic first, they will just poison the discourse for the next 4 years with their bad faith arguments, straw men and whataboutisms.

You can't bandage up a wound while the bullet is still inside and expect it to heal.

[Rinkals]

It seems preposterous that contesting the results of the election and claiming fraud isn't regarded as divisive but attempting to hold insurrectionists to account is.

[JM2K6]

Decent article: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ ... ill-457549

The good news for the United States is that Trump’s self-coup failed. The bad news is that his supporters still believe the false narrative, the Big Lie that he won the election. Trump has not repudiated it, nor have the House and Senate Republicans who voted against the Electoral College results. Millions of people still think the election was stolen. They still support Trump the person, not the Republican Party, and many are prepared to take further action on his behalf.
...
Unless the Big Lie is thoroughly refuted, we can expect more attempts to subvert the constitutional order from Trump’s supporters—and we still have to get through the January 20 inauguration.
...
If we are to restore democratic norms and make sure this does not happen again, these congressional Republicans will have to take personal responsibility for their actions in support of Trump’s coup attempt. They must tell the truth to their constituents about the election and what the president tried to do in January 2021. They owe it to the people they represent as well as the country they serve.

[Hal Jordan]

The "Big Lie" has rather disturbing echoes of the stab-in-the-back myth in terms of the way it"s portrayed (plus the actual anti-Semitic Soros tropes and similar).

[JM2K6]

Another good one: https://thebulwark.com/the-attack-on-de ... right-now/

It has a lot of receipts.

Tim Miller is The Bulwark’s writer-at-large. He was previously political director for Republican Voters Against Trump, communications director for Jeb Bush 2016, and spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

[sturginho]

While I think that Trump deserves the worst, it won’t help in uniting the country, which is what Biden has pledged to do.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/opin ... crisy.html

[Slick]

Letting him and his collaborators get away with an attempted coup is not going to bring the country together. The Republicans actually admitting they've been lying about the election being a "fraud" is the other thing that needs to happen.

Now that the dust has settled a little are we not in danger of getting a bit shrill and over the top calling it an attempted coup (not a dig at you in particular). It was a fucking disgraceful action and for it Trump deserves absolutely everything coming his way. But coup? Not sure it is helpful using language like that.

[Blake]

Another good one: https://thebulwark.com/the-attack-on-de ... right-now/

It has a lot of receipts.

Tim Miller is The Bulwark’s writer-at-large. He was previously political director for Republican Voters Against Trump, communications director for Jeb Bush 2016, and spokesman for the Republican National Committee.

Tim’s a good guy. Been following him on Twitter since 2016. Feel sorry for him and Republicans like him; their party was completely hijacked when they brought the loonies from the Tea Party into the fold...but the cracks were there before that. They were just ignored.

[JM2K6]

Letting him and his collaborators get away with an attempted coup is not going to bring the country together. The Republicans actually admitting they've been lying about the election being a "fraud" is the other thing that needs to happen.

Now that the dust has settled a little are we not in danger of getting a bit shrill and over the top calling it an attempted coup (not a dig at you in particular). It was a fucking disgraceful action and for it Trump deserves absolutely everything coming his way. But coup? Not sure it is helpful using language like that.

Well, what's your argument that it wasn't an attempted coup?

[Slick]

Letting him and his collaborators get away with an attempted coup is not going to bring the country together. The Republicans actually admitting they've been lying about the election being a "fraud" is the other thing that needs to happen.

Now that the dust has settled a little are we not in danger of getting a bit shrill and over the top calling it an attempted coup (not a dig at you in particular). It was a fucking disgraceful action and for it Trump deserves absolutely everything coming his way. But coup? Not sure it is helpful using language like that.

Well, what's your argument that it wasn't an attempted coup?

It was a bit shit

[Blake]

Letting him and his collaborators get away with an attempted coup is not going to bring the country together. The Republicans actually admitting they've been lying about the election being a "fraud" is the other thing that needs to happen.

Now that the dust has settled a little are we not in danger of getting a bit shrill and over the top calling it an attempted coup (not a dig at you in particular). It was a fucking disgraceful action and for it Trump deserves absolutely everything coming his way. But coup? Not sure it is helpful using language like that.

I’ve seen this argument from a couple of intellectuals; not calling it an attempted coup; but from what I can tell; the main arguments against it are basically just that it was too inept and uncoordinated to do the term justice.

From what I can tell the definition fits well enough?

Definition of coup d'état
: a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics
especially : the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group
a military coup d'état of the dictator

[JM2K6]

Now that the dust has settled a little are we not in danger of getting a bit shrill and over the top calling it an attempted coup (not a dig at you in particular). It was a fucking disgraceful action and for it Trump deserves absolutely everything coming his way. But coup? Not sure it is helpful using language like that.

Well, what's your argument that it wasn't an attempted coup?

It was a bit shit

That's why it failed.

[Slick]

Letting him and his collaborators get away with an attempted coup is not going to bring the country together. The Republicans actually admitting they've been lying about the election being a "fraud" is the other thing that needs to happen.

Now that the dust has settled a little are we not in danger of getting a bit shrill and over the top calling it an attempted coup (not a dig at you in particular). It was a fucking disgraceful action and for it Trump deserves absolutely everything coming his way. But coup? Not sure it is helpful using language like that.

I’ve seen this argument from a couple of intellectuals; not calling it an attempted coup; but from what I can tell; the main arguments against it are basically just that it was too inept and uncoordinated to do the term justice.

From what I can tell the definition fits well enough?

Definition of coup d'état
: a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics
especially : the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group
a military coup d'état of the dictator

Firstly, many thanks for the compliment, not enough folk on here accept that.

It was a rabble rouse that got a bit out of hand. I don't think even Trump thought it was a coup or had any chance of actually changing things. There was zero chance the military were going to get involved off the back of a few 100 idiots. Trump was trying to be the big man and shat it when things actually started happening.

[robmatic]

Letting him and his collaborators get away with an attempted coup is not going to bring the country together. The Republicans actually admitting they've been lying about the election being a "fraud" is the other thing that needs to happen.

Now that the dust has settled a little are we not in danger of getting a bit shrill and over the top calling it an attempted coup (not a dig at you in particular). It was a fucking disgraceful action and for it Trump deserves absolutely everything coming his way. But coup? Not sure it is helpful using language like that.

Well, what's your argument that it wasn't an attempted coup?

I experienced an attempted coup here in Turkey in 2016 and it involved military units on the streets, hundreds of people dying and a plan to capture key elements of state administrative and communication infrastructure and enforce a curfew. There was less of the LARPing.

[JM2K6]

Trump spent months trying to delegitimise the results of a free and fair election, refused to concede, and wound up his supporters to the point where violent action was inevitable. He had a clearout at the agencies to install loyalists above and beyond the already hopelessly compromised friendlies that were already there. He put what he thought would be Supreme Court Justices in place that would fix the election for him. He refused to call in the National Guard or do anything to prevent the mob.

Stochastic terrorism is a thing. Just because he didn't tell them explicitly to go overthrow the government, doesn't mean he wasn't trying to seize power.

[JM2K6]

Now that the dust has settled a little are we not in danger of getting a bit shrill and over the top calling it an attempted coup (not a dig at you in particular). It was a fucking disgraceful action and for it Trump deserves absolutely everything coming his way. But coup? Not sure it is helpful using language like that.

Well, what's your argument that it wasn't an attempted coup?

I experienced an attempted coup here in Turkey in 2016 and it involved military units on the streets, hundreds of people dying and a plan to capture key elements of state administrative and communication infrastructure and enforce a curfew. There was less of the LARPing.

I'm not arguing that it was a major attempt. But it was an attempt nonetheless. The articles I've posted give some pretty good reasons as to why. Here's another one: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021 ... -just-same

let's not forget his attempts to strongarm Brad Raffensperger into "finding" the votes in Georgia right before he whipped up his mob.

[Blake]

Now that the dust has settled a little are we not in danger of getting a bit shrill and over the top calling it an attempted coup (not a dig at you in particular). It was a fucking disgraceful action and for it Trump deserves absolutely everything coming his way. But coup? Not sure it is helpful using language like that.

I’ve seen this argument from a couple of intellectuals; not calling it an attempted coup; but from what I can tell; the main arguments against it are basically just that it was too inept and uncoordinated to do the term justice.

From what I can tell the definition fits well enough?

Definition of coup d'état
: a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics
especially : the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group
a military coup d'état of the dictator

Firstly, many thanks for the compliment, not enough folk on here accept that.

It was a rabble rouse that got a bit out of hand. I don't think even Trump thought it was a coup or had any chance of actually changing things. There was zero chance the military were going to get involved off the back of a few 100 idiots. Trump was trying to be the big man and shat it when things actually started happening.

Haha...should have said “conservative intellectuals I follow online”...I walked right into that one.

If you look at the timeline of events the rioters were a lot closer than many thought to clashing directly with senators and house members.

Just out of curiosity, they they had managed to enter the chambers and maybe even executed Pense and Pelosi (2 and 3 in the line of succession), as some of them wanted to do, would it have qualified as a coup attempt then?

[Slick]

Trump spent months trying to delegitimise the results of a free and fair election, refused to concede, and wound up his supporters to the point where violent action was inevitable. He had a clearout at the agencies to install loyalists above and beyond the already hopelessly compromised friendlies that were already there. He put what he thought would be Supreme Court Justices in place that would fix the election for him. He refused to call in the National Guard or do anything to prevent the mob.

Stochastic terrorism is a thing. Just because he didn't tell them explicitly to go overthrow the government, doesn't mean he wasn't trying to seize power.

I think this is giving him far too much credit. He did all those things but I think any thought that he connected the dots is far fetched, the guy is an utter moron. IMO it's getting into conspiracy theory territory to think he had a masterplan to seize power.

[JM2K6]

Trump spent months trying to delegitimise the results of a free and fair election, refused to concede, and wound up his supporters to the point where violent action was inevitable. He had a clearout at the agencies to install loyalists above and beyond the already hopelessly compromised friendlies that were already there. He put what he thought would be Supreme Court Justices in place that would fix the election for him. He refused to call in the National Guard or do anything to prevent the mob.

Stochastic terrorism is a thing. Just because he didn't tell them explicitly to go overthrow the government, doesn't mean he wasn't trying to seize power.

I think this is giving him far too much credit. He did all those things but I think any thought that he connected the dots is far fetched, the guy is an utter moron. IMO it's getting into conspiracy theory territory to think he had a masterplan to seize power.

It's really easy to connect the dots. He was laying the groundwork for this long before the election. He was casting doubt on the validity of it months before it happened. He made "jokes" about having 2nd and 3rd terms. Practically everything he's said and done has been in service to him holding onto power regardless of what happened. The fact that he's a gigantic fucking idiot doesn't change that - it just made it easier for everyone to pretend it wasn't really a problem.

I mean Christ, he outright said that the Supreme Court were there to win it for him, threatened the Georgia guy if he didn't come up with the votes, and ordered Pence to overturn the election results. The fact that it doesn't work that way didn't stop him from trying all these things. I just don't think you can dismiss the observable fact: he said he was going to try and delegitimise the election and hold on to power, and that's exactly what he's just tried to do. We're past the point where he's just bloviating - he's an actual threat.