NPR

Slick wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:49 am

dpedin wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:30 am The thing that gets me is why are some of these seemingly well educated folk in senior positions still supporting Trump after all this? For me it can only be because Trump has so much dirt on them and has been using it to ensure they did his bidding. They are more scared of what is going to come out than ruining their political ambitions. Ok - one or two might have been suckered into all the hype and one or two might want to take over the Trump mantle but I suspect the overwhelming majority are just shit scared of the man and what he is capable of. It will be really interesting to see what shit emerges over the next few weeks and months and you can bet your bottom dollar that Trump will try and drag them all down with him, he will have no problem in throwing a few to the wolves to save his own skin. Many will stick with him in the hope of a pardon but Trump wont save others and watch himself going down! The concrete wellies will be on everyone.

The even bigger question is who has what dirt on Trump? There will be the inevitable court cases, led by NY over his finances and alleged rape but once he is of no longer any use to possible 'foreign interests' then it will be interesting to see what they do with him. His handler Melania will have a big role here. He is obviously shitting himself big style and I don't think it is about tax avoidance, he has been there before and can stall that type of issue for years. I suspect the Steele dossier is probably pretty close to the truth - I look forward to the pee tapes suddenly appearing on YouTube!

I think this is overthinking it. They just want to hold on to their cushy jobs and not go back to the real world. If they think Trump is the best way to get votes they will stick with him, if not, they won't. I don't think he has any particular cunning plan or dirt, he is just a cunt who has no problem destroying lives, careers and reputations.

Rhubarb & Custard wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 9:25 am

Kiwias wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 4:09 am Matt Gaetz had all guns firing.

If he had them point blank to his own head he'd still miss

Sandstorm wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:52 am

Rinkals wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:50 am Thank fuck Trump is such a moron.

If he wasn't completely brain dead he might have actually done some damage.

Ummm...is this a troll or have you mis-read the situation again?

fishfoodie wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:54 am I tend to agree; for the GOP he represented an opportunity, a useful idiot.

fishfoodie wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:54 am

Slick wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:49 am

dpedin wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:30 am The thing that gets me is why are some of these seemingly well educated folk in senior positions still supporting Trump after all this? For me it can only be because Trump has so much dirt on them and has been using it to ensure they did his bidding. They are more scared of what is going to come out than ruining their political ambitions. Ok - one or two might have been suckered into all the hype and one or two might want to take over the Trump mantle but I suspect the overwhelming majority are just shit scared of the man and what he is capable of. It will be really interesting to see what shit emerges over the next few weeks and months and you can bet your bottom dollar that Trump will try and drag them all down with him, he will have no problem in throwing a few to the wolves to save his own skin. Many will stick with him in the hope of a pardon but Trump wont save others and watch himself going down! The concrete wellies will be on everyone.

The even bigger question is who has what dirt on Trump? There will be the inevitable court cases, led by NY over his finances and alleged rape but once he is of no longer any use to possible 'foreign interests' then it will be interesting to see what they do with him. His handler Melania will have a big role here. He is obviously shitting himself big style and I don't think it is about tax avoidance, he has been there before and can stall that type of issue for years. I suspect the Steele dossier is probably pretty close to the truth - I look forward to the pee tapes suddenly appearing on YouTube!

I think this is overthinking it. They just want to hold on to their cushy jobs and not go back to the real world. If they think Trump is the best way to get votes they will stick with him, if not, they won't. I don't think he has any particular cunning plan or dirt, he is just a cunt who has no problem destroying lives, careers and reputations.

I tend to agree; for the GOP he represented an opportunity, a useful idiot.

JM2K6 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 11:04 am I think we had a robust discussion on this a few months ago, when I pointed out that the Tea Party takeover of the GOP had led to this. Insane, anti-reason, anti-intellectual, xenophobic, populist nightmares were suddenly mainstream in the GOP.

Slick wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:56 am Happlily, he will go down as the worst President in American history.

Unhappily, the long lasting notoriety might be just fine with him.

dpedin wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:58 am

Sandstorm wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:52 am

Rinkals wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:50 am Thank fuck Trump is such a moron.

If he wasn't completely brain dead he might have actually done some damage.

Ummm...is this a troll or have you mis-read the situation again?

Irony?

sockwithaticket wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 11:12 am
As for competent staffers and such... most of those are long gone aren't they? The ones still hanging around know who and what they're dealing with and either don't care so long as they've got a job or are still telling themselves lies about it being necessary to support the office.

sockwithaticket wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 11:14 am
Perhaps not. Bad as things look now, they really could be orders of magnitude worse.

Ymx wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 9:31 am

stemoc wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 8:50 am well most were fat Americans who died of heart attack possibly.. one was shot dead, she would still be alive today had she been at home in the kitchen as her lord and saviour Lord Shitgibbon had proclaimed..

Christ, I’d hate to hear what you thought of George Floyds death, if the above disdain is anything to go by.

Sandstorm wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 11:20 am

sockwithaticket wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 11:14 am
Perhaps not. Bad as things look now, they really could be orders of magnitude worse.

Fair point. If the DC Police had had much higher numbers in place, there could have been a proper clash on the stairs and 150 dead MAGA hat wearers.

1 dead woman, several dented cops , a fat bloke sitting in Nancy's office chair and someone carrying a lectern down the corridor was pretty tame in comparison.

stemoc wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 11:23 am

Ymx wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 9:31 am

stemoc wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 8:50 am well most were fat Americans who died of heart attack possibly.. one was shot dead, she would still be alive today had she been at home in the kitchen as her lord and saviour Lord Shitgibbon had proclaimed..

Christ, I’d hate to hear what you thought of George Floyds death, if the above disdain is anything to go by.

FLOYD DIED on the street, murdered by Police, this lady got shot trying to trying to take over capitol hill which the Constitution of the US defines as Terrorism... watch the video of her shooting,s she was warned not to enter but she did..

sockwithaticket wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 11:14 am

dpedin wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:58 am

Sandstorm wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:52 am

Ummm...is this a troll or have you mis-read the situation again?

Irony?

Perhaps not. Bad as things look now, they really could be orders of magnitude worse.

sockwithaticket wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 11:27 am

Sandstorm wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 11:20 am

sockwithaticket wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 11:14 am
Perhaps not. Bad as things look now, they really could be orders of magnitude worse.

Fair point. If the DC Police had had much higher numbers in place, there could have been a proper clash on the stairs and 150 dead MAGA hat wearers.

1 dead woman, several dented cops , a fat bloke sitting in Nancy's office chair and someone carrying a lectern down the corridor was pretty tame in comparison.

4 dead, although we only seem to have details about that one braindead woman who thought breaking into the chamber was a good idea.

Oh yes, this particular incident could be so much worse, but I'm thinking even more broadly. A leader with a Trumpian authoritarian bent, but far more competent, could have been a president who won the election, didn't lose the senate and have America even further down the road to a true fascist dictatorship.

Similarly we could be looking at insurrection and domestic terrorism across the country rather than one riot in DC. Still time I suppose...

There must be a certain amount of trepidation about impeaching or enacting article 25, because the last thing anyone wants will be to stir up more of the cultists and risk the above, but then that means they've won. Their threats and attempts at intimidation would be preventing officials from actually doing their fucking jobs.

stemoc wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 12:16 pm This ppl should either resign or be forced out.

bandicam 2021-01-08 01-05-53-401.png

GogLais wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 12:16 pm Many things astonished me yesterday. One of them was the lack of physical security in the Capitol building. Surely they must have addressed the possibility of terrorist attack before now, at least after 9/11. The idea that doors and windows deliberately weren’t secured doesn’t bear thinking about.

GogLais wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 12:16 pm Many things astonished me yesterday. One of them was the lack of physical security in the Capitol building. Surely they must have addressed the possibility of terrorist attack before now, at least after 9/11. The idea that doors and windows deliberately weren’t secured doesn’t bear thinking about.

The Washington Post have an interesting look this morning at the security implications of yesterday’s events, when a pro-Trump mob easily broke into the Capitol. They report Kim Dine, chief of the Capitol Police from 2012 to 2016 saying “It’s like watching a real-life horror movie. I mean, we train and plan and budget every day, basically, to have this not happen.”

Dine said he was surprised to see that, on Wednesday, the Capitol Police had allowed rioters to gather so close to the building, on the Capitol steps — and that, once they forced their way inside, the rioters were not immediately arrested.

“We protect the people, the place and the process that makes us the United States. That’s why we’re there,” Dine said. But, he said, on Wednesday, “The people, the place, the process — all were attacked.”

One source told the Washington Post that the police were simply unprepared.

Law enforcement officials said the Capitol Police and other federal agencies also seemed to underestimate the potential threat posed by Trump’s supporters — even as the DC police grew more alarmed. DC police patrol the streets around the Capitol but do not usually have any role in protecting the building itself. In recent days, DC officials said, they had tracked reservations for incoming buses, and read Trump’s calls for supporters to gather for a “wild” protest in Washington. “It was then that we realized this could be a stadium-sized crowd — a full-fledged Trump rally, and much bigger than anything we had seen previously,” said a senior District official.

Former commissioner of police in Boston, Ed Davis, told the Post as he watched events unfold that the force’s preparations around the perimeter were inadequate:

A good perimeter, and then a show of force. Enough people that can deal with the crowd that’s coming at you. Right now, there’s almost nothing here. This is incomprehensible.

Sandstorm wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:52 am

Rinkals wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 10:50 am Thank fuck Trump is such a moron.

If he wasn't completely brain dead he might have actually done some damage.

Ummm...is this a troll or have you mis-read the situation again?

JM2K6 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 12:49 pm This made me laugh:

On the cops being unprepared - this has to be deliberate. The conservative groups have been talking ever since the election about Jan 6th. Never forget that a huge percentage of LEOs are Trump supporters.

JM2K6 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 12:49 pm This made me laugh:

On the cops being unprepared - this has to be deliberate. The conservative groups have been talking ever since the election about Jan 6th. Never forget that a huge percentage of LEOs are Trump supporters.

Rinkals wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 2:01 pm

"Sorry Don, it's out of your hands now.

"You poked the bear."

Not sure if that is serious or not: it could be a parody.

Difficult to tell these days.

Paddington Bear wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 3:29 pm Question is, does the US Union survive the next few years? What happened was disgusting and is clearly supported by a not insignificant chunk of Americans, I would bet concentrated in some areas. The Republicans will cry bloody murder at everything the Dems do in government. Clearly the coastal types and the middle already have contempt for each other. Can this carry on?