…so…seems like 10 whole republicans in congress were capable of recognizing the reality of what it means to have another bite at the impeachment cherry they spurned the first time around
Several major companies on Monday said they planned to cut off political donations to the 147 members of Congress who last week voted against certifying the results of the presidential election, while other major corporations said they are suspending all contributions from their political action committees — a sign of corporate America’s growing unease with the election doubts and violent attacks encouraged by President Trump.
Companies that collectively pour millions of dollars each year into campaigns through employee-funded PACs are registering their worry and anger about last week’s chaos with a reexamination of their role in powering the nation’s fractious politics.
Campaign finance system rocked as firms pause or halt contributions after election results challenged [WaPo]
…although the turtle is predicatbly dragging his feet slow enough that he won’t be back at work until jan 19th…which is some bullshit even if it isn’t much of a surprise…at least that header image is accurate…again…the motherfucker is impeached…you might even say double-impeached…& this one better come with a conviction…because if not I imagine my head may actually explode…either way…to answer my own question oddly enough “impeach” probably isn’t the word I’d pick…I’d go with one I used the other day in one of those alliterative benders I sometimes find myself stuck on
…& here’s why
Weeks before a mob of President Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, right-wing activist Ali Alexander told his followers that he was planning something big for Jan. 6.
Alexander, who organized the “Stop the Steal” movement, said he hatched the plan — coinciding with Congress’s vote to certify the electoral college votes — alongside three GOP lawmakers: Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Mo Brooks (Ala.) and Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.), all hard-line Trump supporters.
“We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting,” Alexander said in a since-deleted video on Periscope highlighted by the Project on Government Oversight, an investigative nonprofit. The plan, he said, was to “change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body, hearing our loud roar from outside.”
A ‘Stop the Steal’ organizer, now banned by Twitter, said three GOP lawmakers helped plan his D.C. rally [WaPo]
“Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass,” said Mr. Brooks, Republican of Alabama. “Are you willing to do what it takes to fight for America? Louder! Will you fight for America?”
Before Capitol Riot, Republican Lawmakers Fanned the Flames [NYT]
…that shit is explicitly still a crime
…it doesn’t matter if the assholes committing to commit a bigger one are too inept to pull that off because it’s so entirely out of their league that it might as well be a whole other sport
https://www.reddit.com/r/CapitolConsequences/
…in some things intent matters
https://gizmodo.com/every-deleted-parler-post-many-with-users-location-data-archived
[…& while we’re talking about how places like parler stay online…it’s thanks to people like (& I’m not trying to be funny) mr monster]
…& no amount of post-hoc rationalisation or speciously reductive reasoning you try to employ alters the fact that your guilt is plain to see for all who choose to look
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inchoate_offense#List_of_inchoate_offenses
…& you’ll never guess what shows up on that list…well…all right…you probably will…you’re a smart bunch…incitement‘s on there…so’s conspiracy…so’s compounding treason…but that’s really more of a UK thing…along with misprision…which just as a word (& maybe a bit as a concept) I wish got to be part of what’s been going on in the US lately come the many & various days in court you’ve got to assume are coming for these addled assholes…& when it comes to the assholes who belong on that list here’s a thing to consider…one of those inchoate offences is that of criminal facilitation…& the thing about being “an accessory before the fact” under US law is…you get treated like a principal
18 U.S. Code § 2 – Principals
(a)Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2
(b)Whoever willfully causes an act to be done which if directly performed by him or another would be an offense against the United States, is punishable as a principal.
Six hours of paralysis: Inside Trump’s failure to act after a mob stormed the Capitol [WaPo]
…anyway
FBI reportedly on alert for armed pro-Trump protests in 50 states and Washington [Guardian]
…I’m not going to attempt the sub-heading challenge from yesterday
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021/jan/13/donald-trump-lawyers-fallout-election-fraud-claims
Giuliani hit with disbarment complaint, faces possible expulsion from New York lawyers association [WaPo]
…but maybe bear some of that inchoate stuff in mind as we trawl through this latest litany of links…like…say…this?
…or (as @loveshaq pointed out yesterday) this kind of thing
…or these
…now I know sometimes I have a tendency to bang on about things at what some might deem excessive length
…& they might have a point…but I like to think I generally have one or two of those, myself…& that (hard as it may be to believe) all these ellipses actually take the place of a fair bit more I could say about this or that…like “sure, I get what they mean…but no he wasn’t a ‘genius’ at twitter”
Now that he’s been banned we can say it: Donald Trump was a genius at Twitter [Guardian]
…so in place of a diatribe of my own about the display of desperately sycophantic bullshit so many of the GOP members of congress displayed in the various speeches they made against the resolution to impeach the solipsistic sack of self-serving seditious sophistry that custom dicatates be referred to as the president
The Republican Party has devised its response to the push to impeach the president over his role in the attack on the Capitol last week, and it is so cynical as to shock the conscience.
“Now the Democrats are going to try to remove the president from office just seven days before he is set to leave anyway,” said Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, who voted with 146 other Republicans in Congress not to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election. “I do not see how this unifies the country.”
The House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, also said that impeaching the president “will only divide our country more.”
The Bogusness of Anti-Impeachment Republicans [NYT]
…here’s a thread from seth abramson that serves as an annotated breakdown of the rhetorical rabble-rousing that prefaced the attempt at mob-rule last week…incitement is arguably too tame a term to do the thing justice & even the full 200 tweets it runs to falls short of all that might be said on the subject
…one of the (numerous) points he makes pertains to the military & law enforcement support that the delusional dyspeptic dissembling demagogue claimed to number in the tens thousands & wished could “be allowed to come up here with us” (that’s around tweets #24-#32)…&…well…makes you wonder, to say the least
When President Trump railed against the election results from a stage near the White House on Wednesday, his loyalists were already gathering at the Capitol. Soon, they would storm it. We analyzed a crucial two-hour period to reconstruct how a rally gave way to a mob that nearly came face to face with Congress.
How a Presidential Rally Turned Into a Capitol Rampage [NYT]
Two days before Congress was set to formalize President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund was growing increasingly worried about the size of the pro-Trump crowds expected to stream into Washington in protest.
To be on the safe side, Sund asked House and Senate security officials for permission to request that the D.C. National Guard be placed on standby in case he needed quick backup.
But, Sund said Sunday, they turned him down.
Outgoing Capitol Police chief: House, Senate security officials hamstrung efforts to call in National Guard [WaPo]
The outgoing head of the Capitol Police requested that D.C. National Guard units be placed on standby in case his small force was overwhelmed by violent protesters last Wednesday, but he was rebuffed by House and Senate security officials and a top Pentagon commander, he said in an interview on Sunday.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/the-capitol-police-chief-says-his-pleas-for-backup-were-ignored-by-the-sergeants-at-arms-and-the-pentagon.html
In an interview with the Washington Post, Sund claimed the House of Representatives’ sergeant-at-arms, Paul Irving, said he was not comfortable with the “optics” of declaring an emergency ahead of the demonstration, while the sergeant-at-arms at the Senate, Michael Stenger, suggested he should only informally seek for the national guard to be put on standby.
Irving and Stenger, who also resigned over last week’s attack, have not commented on Sund’s allegations.
Claiming he sought assistance on some dozen occasions both in the run-up to the rally and in the midst of the rioting, Sund told the paper: “If we would have had the national guard [available] we could have held them at bay longer, until more officers from our partner agencies could arrive,” he said.
Describing the delays in deploying the national guard as the mob pushed past Sund’s officers to enter the Capitol as Congress was sitting to certify Joe Biden’s victory in November’s presidential election, Sund said he joined a 2.26pm conference call with the Pentagon to plead for help, but once again received pushback because of the perceived “optics” of deploying the national guard.
“I am making an urgent, urgent immediate request for national guard assistance,” Sund said. “I have got to get boots on the ground.”
Among those pushing back, according to Sund, was Gen Walter E Piatt, the director of the army staff who Sund said did not like the potential “visual” of the national guard standing in a line with the Capitol in the background. The guard was eventually deployed by the acting defence secretary, Christopher Miller, at 3.04pm.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/11/head-capitol-police-steven-sund-mob-assault-recounts-security-failings
…so this ought not to be a surprise
The Defense Department is facing scrutiny over its role in the events at the Capitol last week, after the D.C. government and Capitol Police accused Pentagon officials of slow-walking an emergency call for National Guard reinforcements as rioters threatened to breach the building.
The search for answers about why the security breakdown took place, leaving the Capitol all but defenseless against a marauding group of pro-Trump rioters, has taken on increased urgency as Washington prepares for the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and possible new threats from extremists trying to keep President Trump in office despite his loss.
Up to 15,000 National Guard members could be deployed in Washington during the inauguration, senior defense officials said Monday, part of a rapidly expanding response following the deadly insurrection.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/military-riots-national-guard-response/2021/01/11/story.html
Troops Flood a Rattled Washington Ahead of the Biden Inauguration [NYT]
…but don’t go thinking that all the domestic fucking up means they aren’t trying to make sure they get some overseas fuck ups in under that wire
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/pompeo-defends-shake-up-voice-america
Holding Fast to Trump, Pompeo Angers Diplomats, Foreign and Domestic [NYT]
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/u-s-declares-cuba-state-sponsor-of-terrorism
On its way out the door, Trump administration to name Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism [WaPo]
The Business Rules the Trump Administration Is Racing to Finish [NYT]
A Late Burst of Climate Denial Extends the Era of Trump Disinformation [NYT]
…but let’s not forget…mango unchained has been fucking up a lot longer than just the last few days/weeks/months…& them chickens look to be on their way to roosting pretty soon
…I can’t even imagine how fucked I’d feel if that wasn’t even in the running for the biggest fuckup of mine that was due to bite me in the ass
New York City to consider ending contracts with Trump that bring his company $17 million a year [WaPo]
A growing number of prominent institutions have taken actions against President Trump and his associates since the deadly rampage at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday by the president’s supporters.
Two universities stripped him of honorary degrees, major banks paused political contributions, and the P.G.A. of America said it would no longer hold the P.G.A. Championship at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., which had been scheduled for May 2022.
Here is a list of entities that have severed ties with Mr. Trump or distanced themselves from the president and in some cases, Republican politicians who supported his efforts to overturn the election. Many were identified by the newsletter Popular Information.
These Businesses and Institutions Are Cutting Ties With Trump [NYT]
…still…let’s end on a high note, shall we?
Just 148 hours to go.
New York got a lot of good Trump-related news out of this. Chuck Schumer will be leader of the Senate, so rather than Mitch McConnell steering God knows how much money to the failed welfare state of Kentucky, we assume that he and Amtrak-loving President Biden will send more funds to the NYC area for public transportation. A good portion will be lost to incompetence, fraud, and overtime abuses, but it’s far better to have something and lose it than not to have it at all.
The Trump Crime Family is voluntarily draining the NYC swamp, in a way. Don and Mel will be off to Florida. Joining them will be Half-Scoop and his girlfriend. Ivanka and her loathsome husband too. Word comes that even Tiffany (who?) is seeking out refuge in the Sunshine State. That only leaves Eric, the nominal head of the Trip Criminal Enterprise, but it’s only a matter of time before the Trump “Organization” relocates out of Manhattan, if it’s not liquidated altogether. Sorry, Florida, you don’t deserve this. Ron DeSantis does, but the innocent citizens don’t.
As a very petty aside, there has long been some speculation about how the Trump Klan will be received in New York Post-presidency. Them moving to Florida shouldn’t change things much. Donald didn’t get out much except to attend flashy, vulgar self-created “events” that people would attend for self-interested reasons or morbid curiosity. Half-Scoop was known to favor three or four restaurants on the Upper East Side but that was about it. Eric, for all we know, is and always has been a recluse. About six or eight months ago I read a story about how Ivanka was “in the art world” and would return to her “friends” once this was all over. I immediately contacted my legitimate friends who are legitimately in the art world and they claimed no knowledge of any such ties, but one did say, “Well, maybe behind the scenes, dealers don’t talk about clients in public, only among themselves, but I’m pretty sure that if her name were Mary Smith no one would have any idea who she was.”
But still, it’s nice to have the Trump taint removed from The Greatest City in the World™. Now their only connection to New York will be for when they’re compelled to appear (at least by video conference) for depositions, hearings, and trials.
…I’m not generally a fan of the NIMBY attitude…but I have to admit I do kind of want his neighbors down mar-a-largo way to hold him to the whole “I promise not live here” small print
…didn’t he have some gaudy plane he claimed was nicer than AF1?
…let him go park that up on blocks in some tornado-prone trailer park…since hopefully he won’t be able to afford to keep the thing aloft sometime soon
Oh yes, the plane! He had, or at least slapped his name on, an airline briefly but it, like everything else he touches, went bankrupt.
I saw a photo this morning of moving vans on the White House grounds. My heart grew three sizes. I think there’s a part of the Capitol where Presidential portraits are hung. That photo should be the one they choose for Trump.
It won’t be as much fun for them in Florida as they think:
https://pagesix.com/2021/01/13/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-need-not-apply-to-florida-country-club/
Fun quote:
“But it only takes one member to object against any new member, and many members are objecting, particularly after the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Jared and Ivanka can lunch with their fellow ‘patriots’ at Mar-a-Lago.”
I don’t think Ivanka has any real idea of what level of shitstorm awaits her after this. There ain’t gonna be fancy brunches and art shows and fashion lines waiting for her.
Yeah, see my response to Myo below. I’m not worried about them coming to Florida because they are about to lose everything with the Trump name on it, Mar-a-Lago included. They’re looking for our tax laws to shelter their income, but they’re not going to have any income — or if they do it will be seized to satisfy lawsuits. Trump’s “brand” is fucked.
Every single person on either side of that riot who has the slightest claim, and their families, will sue Trump, and yes, I’m including his MAGAts. If Sally Red-hat stubbed her toe, she’s going to sue him. Some will get thrown out, but the lawyers gotta get paid (except Rudy — Trump’s not paying his bill, which I find utterly hysterical).
Kushner will divorce Ivanka — mark my words. He’s got the best chance of any of them to scurry away into rich obscurity, but only if he severs all ties. He’s certainly not going to bankroll the legal defense for Daddy and the other chuds. He was unknown before Ivanka, and he can get unknown again, but it’s going to require serious duck-and-cover.
Jared wasn’t exactly unknown. He’s part of a very unsavory real estate company, like the Trumps. His father, Charles, did two years in prison in a very lurid, tabloid-ready case. He hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law in attempt to break up his sister’s marriage. Dad bought Jared’s way into Harvard by donating enough money to fund a building. This happens all the time at universities, not just the Ivy League, so why this made the news I don’t know. Probably because of Dad’s notoriety. Then, at the age of 25, Jared acquired “The New York Observer,” and for that I’ll never forgive him. It used to be one of the smartest, funniest print weeklies I’ve ever read. Jared turned it into this shell with 3rd-rate underpaid stringers with more than an unusual focus on unremarkable New Jersey real estate deals. They of course became one of the very few print outlets to endorse Trump for President during the first go-round in the 2016 primaries. The editor resigned (and he was a friend of Jared’s, so that must have been awkward.)
Elizabeth Spiers, whom you may remember from Gawker in its distant past, was briefly the editor and wrote a fairly interesting piece about working under Jared Kushner. Let’s just say he doesn’t come off as the brightest bulb and doesn’t exactly have a nose for news. The Observer still publishes online (they dropped “New York”) but it’s sad, very sad.
Speaking of dropping New York, I wish “The New York Times” would do the same thing. The Times doesn’t give a shit about New York. Even when it had only four sections and one was the Metro section it was embarrassing to read because it was so tone-deaf and got so much wrong. Not a matter of my opinion, factually incorrect. Like reporting that two streets intersect when in fact they run parallel, concerning something in the outer boroughs where the unwashed masses live. There’s so much to hate about the New York Times’s take on its hometown but that is a screed best left unwritten.
You can see a good indication of where the priorities of the paper lie when you look at how they covered their big tax evasion scoop.
The NY state bureau co-reported it with the investigations desk (the records surfaced in NY, probably with Mary Trump’s help). But the DC/politics desks essentially memory holed it in their own reporting.
NY State/Albany reporters did followups and were very plain spoken about how it was criminal fraud. When the DC reporters bothered to mention requests from the US House for Trump’s taxes, they somehow neglected to mention the work of their colleagues in NY which provided full justification.
And the Times editors all prioritized the DC point of view in terms of number of articles and placement in the print and online editions. NY is absolutely an afterthought, especially in terms of news.
You can’t just toss “unity” out as a blanket on the federal level after attempting a coup. You need to take the grass roots approach and work up to unifying the country on a larger scale. I don’t know how to unify violent people who don’t believe reality with everyone else, but I’m pretty sure that if we start with working on unity in places like, say, university wrestling departments rather than the House of Representives we might have a better chance succeeding in the long run?
…even by the standards of the party of false equivalence the whole “but unity” thing is some seriously thin gruel…like you say, it might be better to unify at the level of agreeing on a baseline objective reality first…no sense trying to run before you can walk & all that
1. At this point, “unity” needs to be tabled until all of the criminal conspirators are rooted out. It’s a bullshit smokescreen Republicans are using to hopefully forestall investigations and maybe keep some of their corporate donors from fleeing. As a rallying cry, it’s … unsuccessful at best.
2. Getting the orange shitstain off Twitter has done more for “unity” than literally any other action, judging from my Facebook feed. Silencing that relentless drumbeat of absolute horseshit has calmed things immeasurably. I know there are still freaks congregating in the dark corners of the internet, but I definitely feel the crazy has been dialed back at lot. Arresting idiots who don’t understand trespassing and other laws has been a pretty big shock to the domestic terrorists — “Oh, fuck, you mean that’s against the law?”
3. Trump and his conspirators are going to be absolutely buried in lawsuits, and the DOJ doesn’t work for him any more. From impeachment on down to wrongful death, he’s going to have massive legal battles. He’s already stiffing Rudy on the bill — once again, Trump doesn’t pay a contractor. Without his fucked-up presidential “immunity,” he and cartel are going to be scrambling to scrape together money for legal bills. He may have to sell property — oh, wait, he doesn’t own any. My point here is that he won’t be able to continue to rabble-rouse — we taxpayers have been footing the bill for his ongoing Klan rallies.
Getting rid of him isn’t going to fix everything, but I do think it will dial it down from 11 to 7 or 8.
Calling for unity just after giving tours to the fucking insurrectionists! If these fuckers don’t get kicked out of office, our whole system is doomed.
and this Q-bitch is really going for the unity platform…
https://www.rawstory.com/republican-to-impeach-joe-biden/
This bit on her husband exposing himself to a minor in a bowling alley is wild:
https://annelandmanblog.com/2020/10/republican-cd-3-candidate-lauren-boeberts-husband-arrested-in-04-for-indecent-exposure/
The police report says she was there and got kicked out with him. They got married after his arrest.
She has been arrested on her own at least four times.
I was not aware of this! She makes Sarah Palin look like a rocket scientist and scares the shit out of me. I cannot imagine how terrible a city would have to be to put her in office! But then, if you look at the dark money that went into even campaigns like hers, it is a little more explainable?
https://www.dailyposter.com/p/the-slush-fund-bankrolling-the-insurrectionist
Well, here we go:
“One of the victims wrote in her statement, “I know that wasn’t his thumb, because thumbs aren’t 6 inches long.”
Boebert apparently thought, “This one’s a keeper.”
“Unity” for them clearly means Democrats should compromise with Republicans, which is some bullshit. They only call for unity when we’re in power, because they want us to meet their demands even when they have no power. You know if the tables were turned, as they were in 2016, those douchecanoes would be calling the election a mandate to do whatever the fuck they want with zero input from the other side. We need to start taking advantage of being in power the way they’ve been doing forever.
The trouble is, in many ways I think white supremacists are right that this country was founded as a white supremacist nation. From our founding, we gave disproportionate power to rich slave-owning southerners, because that was the way we were able to form a unified country. We conceded to their demands, and we’ve been doing it ever since. Some fundamental things need to change for us to start improving this country. DC and PR statehood is a start. Eliminating the electoral college is a start. But ultimately? We should get rid of the Senate altogether. Representation should be proportional.
…I guess I’m at least theoretically attached to the idea of a “second chamber” but I’d agree that as it’s currently constructed it’s in urgent need of reform
…over in brexit-land the rough equivalent of the senate is the house of lords, which – as the name suggests – has its own design-flaws
…but one thing about that model that I’ve always kind of liked is that it has a decent proportion of people who actually know some shit about a thing or two because prior to getting to sit there & debate things they had whole careers successfully doing/making/learning/teaching stuff
…not all of them by any means…but enough that there’s often someone available with relevant knowledge & experience when a piece of legislation comes up for debate who can argue it needs to be sent back because the government of the day hasn’t done it’s homework & ought to redraft it before it gets anywhere near being an actual law
…they also have this neat concept they call “crossbenchers” who owe no party affiliation…which I like to think is more than just a mixture of tradition & semantics…funnily enough there’s a fair bit of crossover between those & the people who know a thing or two about a thing or two
…basically I agree with you, I think…I’d just like the things represented by a representative legislature to include knowledge & experience of something other than how to play the game of politics…& having part of the set up include checking that homework got done before the law makes it onto the books seems like it has some merit, too
…but then I think of mitch…& it’s hard not sympathize with guy fawkes’ perspective…& that’s confusing since these MAGAssholes doubtlessly imagine fondly that they’re some blend of guy fawkes, robin hood & the founding fathers…& I haven’t an ounce of sympathy for them?
I think I get your meaning. Senators do often seem to be a little more experienced than reps, but not really by design. My uneducated guess is that this happens in the more populated states, where a large amount of people are voting on just two senators, as opposed to the smaller pockets of people that vote on reps. Plus it’s just seen as a more prestigious position, so it tends to attract people with higher credentials.
I think there’s some merit to the idea of a second chamber, because they do each seem to have their own roles to play in balancing each other. But is a lot of that perception just an outsider’s perspective? Without the Senate, wouldn’t the House just have more debate before settling on a bill? Maybe there are other ways to reform it too. Add more senators to make it proportional too. I don’t know, I’m sure there are solutions. But the system as it stands is weirdly undemocratic.
I think what it comes down to is – are we one country, or are we a coalition of states, more like the EU? And we can choose to be either, but currently the Republicans seem to claim we’re whichever one gives them maximum benefit. They want to tell blue states what to do but don’t want blue states to be able to tell them what to do.
Yeah I don’t remy calls for calm and unity from republicans during BLM protests. It was all “charge them with terrorism!” and “hit them with your car!”
It’s the hallmark of an abusive relationship: The GOP punches America in the face, says “Look what you made me do” and then follows it up with “If we work together we can get through this.”
The baseline objective reality for trumpists though is that only cheeto is telling the truth, not the news, not the dems, not the courts, not the FBI, not their own damn eyes. How do you fight that? Cheato did a good job on that score, in real time, in plain sight. I don’t think it is possible to change their minds. I have a brother with that kind of mentality, I can’t reason with him, I can’t change his mind, I can’t even get him to stop talking, I just had to distance myself and make sure he couldn’t hurt me in any way.
The whole stolen election thing sort of makes sense in the context of republicans spending decades on gerrymandering and voter suppression to ensure minority rule. When they didn’t win of course it had to be some kind of trickery, not math, oh right, math is fake, too.
…yeah, that’s a serious problem that it’s hard to know how we deal with…I mean, I’d argue that technically speaking it isn’t the slightest bit objective but part of the problem is they have been taken in at such a fundamental & unquestioning level that it’s warped their definition of terms
…apparently the people who make it out the other side of cults statistically (& I have no clue how one arrives at statistics for this kind of stuff) don’t do so because they got convinced the beliefs they held were wrong by rational argument nearly as often as they do because they had someone be good to them when they knew their behavior didn’t deserve it & they followed that person back up out of the rabbithole
…& it’s tough to see where we find volunteers to take on that kind of sisyphean task where tens of millions of trump voters are concerned?
This. Another route, hopefully, is over time. Over the next few years, more information will surface, the lies, the deceit, and trumpists may not have his megaphone in their faces, screaming fake news. And they may have that ephiffany and realize that they were the hoax all along.
This is the crux of our problem, and I hope smarter people than me are working on solutions. We need to have real ways to combat misinformation. I think a good start is that there should be a barrier to organizations calling themselves “news” – news should not be allowed to report lies.
As trump, complicit Republicans, and far right groups get taken down by this, violence is going to escalate. For people with skewed information sources, this is going to look like a terrifying effort from the Democrats to throw our opponents in prison. Obviously we still have to do it, but I think we also need to be prepared for more conservatives to get radicalized in the aftermath. My husband and I were discussing it last night – there’s probably going to be a serious domestic terrorism problem in this country for years. We need to hope the government, FBI, etc have the stomach to totally root it out.
As uneasy as I am with the idea, I think we need to seriously think about putting some limitations on freedom of speech.
I don’t know which speech to limit it, how to limit it, or how to enforce/penalize it, etc., but I feel that there are some things very different now then in the late 18th century, and some of our problems now I think were unpredictable back then.
Mostly I’m thinking all of this Q-anon nonsense and fake news (like, actual fake news, not “fake” news that someone just doesn’t like)
Especially with stuff like Youtube and Facebook, where someone can put out some absurd conspiracy theory bullshit, and it gets sent specifically to people most likely to believe it.
I don’t know… there has to be a more reasonable way…
The thing is, freedom of speech is probably our most highly recognized and honored right. For a lot of people, it is synonymous with our country. Anyone proposing a curtailing of freedom of speech is going to be met with major opposition, almost definitely by a large majority of the population. That said, there are already limits on how far freedom of speech can go. Based on some quick Wikipedia-ing, limits include “libel, slander, obscenity, pornography, sedition, incitement, fighting words, classified information, copyright violation, trade secrets, food labeling, non-disclosure agreements, the right to privacy, dignity, the right to be forgotten, public security, and perjury.” So the question I would ask is whether fake news at this point, with a mounting insurrectionist movement, is equivalent to sedition or incitement. (Incitement notably is extremely hard to successfully charge in a criminal case.)
Though also, probably one of the biggest things we can do is take away their platforms. Freedom of speech means the government can’t stop you, but has no bearing on private companies. TV networks don’t have to give them airtime. Amazon doesn’t have to host their sites. That’s probably going to be the best route to start climbing out of this mess – stop amplifying them. In a lot of ways, both sides bullshit in the media has gotten us to where we are.
Oh, and I am really pissed that Biden/Harris won’t be able to show cheeto a real crowd at the inaugeration what with Covid and safety fears. You just know he is going to surface with some bull about the size of the crowd.
I had the same thought. Even if I weren’t worried about everyone getting assassinated, still a pandemic.
I can’t help but notice that, of all the higher profile arrests that have been made so far, nobody is being charged with accessory to murder for the death of the cop. Is there an actual, legal, reason for this? If not, then they need to charge every single one of these motherfuckers with that one on top of all the other charges.
…not a lawyer & all that…but my understanding is that for a lot of these arrests they basically start with a charge that’s as hard to contest as possible so that they can get the arrest part done & then go about adding escalating charges that are applicable…so when these people get picked up & the “story” hits the actual charges quoted are kind of a placeholder rather than the last word on the subject?
…it might take a while to figure out who they attach that particular charge to but I’d be down with an addition of accessory to murder for just about anyone who made it past the capitol perimeter on the day…let it be on them to demonstrate why that shouldn’t apply to them
…also (per that accessory before the fact thing up near the top) definitely for the people that organised things & incited the crowd to go down there & storm that specific place at that particular time…which definitely includes the toddler-in-chief & at least three GOP reps at a bare minimum?
HAH! RIP weighs in first. Fast on the post button, my friend.
…don’t know as my reflexes are reliably that swift…but at least I wasn’t too far off base even if I do think your answer is better
My understanding is that typically initial charges are for offenses that are most easily proved. That gets the suspect into the system with the greatest likelihood of facing conviction. Other charges can be added later as warranted. So it’s kind of the path of least resistance. For a drunk driver who kills someone — “reckless endangerment” gets Suspect A arrested and charged, and they can add “manslaughter” later.
Another aspect that may be influencing these charges is that it’s easier to drop a lesser charge in exchange for testimony. So you charge Buffalo-Man with trespassing on federal property, then put him in an interrogation room and ask who said what and who was waving around weapons and if he comes clean, we can get that charge dropped and get him back to his momma’s organic food.
You then go after the guys in facemasks and tactical gear for criminal conspiracy based on Buffalo-Man. They rat out the ringleaders, you go after those guys for accessory to murder, they rat out the scumbag who hit a cop with the fire extinguisher, he gets murder charges.
Then you can go back and charge ALL the assholes with the highest crime warranted, say accessory to murder and the one asshole gets charged with murder. You might let Buffalo-Man off because he’s clearly mentally ill. Or put him in some program.
They are trying to identify the guy who threw the fire extinguisher for questioning and hopefully possible murder charges
Apparently I linked the wrong link…here is an update from WSJ:
Man Who Allegedly Threw Fire Extinguisher at Police Arrested on Federal Charges
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/trump-impeachment-house-biden/card/jjabJi3k3h0KAkxYDoWY
They will find the murderer. Cops can’t let that stand. They’ll find the guy. Also, they’ve got dozens of witnesses who are themselves guilty of crimes. It’s one thing when you have an uninvolved witness. But if all of them are facing their own charges? They won’t be able to squeal fast enough.
I believe they’re just charging them with the most obvious thing (like trespassing) so they can hold them. You can only hold someone for 72 hours without charging them. They’ll need to investigate each person more in depth to append more serious charges.
That’s really super that the sergeants-at-arms and the Pentagon were worried about the optics of having National Guard troops lined up OUTSIDE the Capitol. Fantastic forward thinking, gentlemen. And where are we at now?
Right then. Carry on. Nothing to see here.
Fuck Facebook, Twitter & Parler, I’m taking my hate speech back to its original platform…
The innate wrongness of Trump and his followers continues to overwhelm me. For over four years, racist, misogynistic, compassionless, reality-avoiding, science-denying scum have been thrust into the daylight from the darkness of the metaphorical rocks and caves in which they which they grew and festered. And rather than shriveling up and blowing into dust like any evil bloodsucker should, they grew strong and emboldened. I don’t think that unity with the current regime and its supporters has any place in moving our country forward. They must be called out, shamed, and relegated to Nixonian and McCarthy-era ridicule as our history is written. Also – inchoate is an awesome word! Also, also – the songs are on point again, that Buffalo Springfield tune has stayed relevant for 54 year, and the brand new KRS-One tune is spot-one.
…if there’s one thing (in terms of the long view where all of this is a matter of retrospect, that is) that really strikes me as a failure to see beyond immediate short-term self-interest it’s the attempt by the GOP to minimize the incredible damage that these people have wrought on themselves & everything from the mechanisms & institutions of their government to the underlying fabric of their society
…& that goes for everyone from the top of the administration itself right down through every level of the folks who’ve supported & enabled it & the thoroughly deplorable melted waxwork effigy it wedded itself to as a figurehead
…all that can’t just be boiled down to a couple of footnotes in a history book…it needs to be literally writ large & unmistakable if there’s to be any chance of not repeating this scale of mistake in the future
…& every one of the senators that provided insulation against conviction the first time he was impeached should be objects of shame, scorn & ridicule…along with anyone whose support in any way sought to legitimise the lies about the election…all those people should know in their heart that that history will remember their names…but the way benedict arnold is remembered
…& god forbid they don’t have the moral fibre to convict him this time…because the consequences of that are horrifying to contemplate
…inchoate is a good word…but for these people it feels like it ought to be spelled in-co-hate
The next mayor of NYC?
Interesting timing?
I’m a fan of Yang and wish him luck. If he can make those policies work in NYC it will be hard for the rest of the country to say they can’t.
I find Yang to be a mixed bag. I’m glad he was so successful at getting UBI into our national conversation. But I remember back in the primaries he said some relatively socially conservative things that gave me pause. He was one of the people that seemed happy to cater to former trump supporters, those with “economic anxiety”. He said some colorblind type crap back then, and then early in the pandemic he said some crap about how Asians need to work to be more American to avoid anti Asian bias.
No doubt he has serious flaws & has said some dumb shit but most I attribute to not being a skilled politician (ie. bullshitter). I just think many of his policies are outside the box but could be totally helpful
More news from NY…
The first part is great. The second part is patently untrue, as our 200+ years of history have clearly proven.
I can’t remember who I was watching lately who said something to the effect of “stop saying this isn’t who we are. This is very much who we are and who we have been.”
We can’t have a real reckoning with all these white supremacist militias and terrorists unless we take a hard look at how we’ve been empowering them for the entire history of our country.
Amen, sister.
https://nypost.com/2021/01/14/kyle-rittenhouse-flashes-white-power-sign-with-proud-boys/
Oh Christ, it’s this asshole again. Wisconsin protest murderer seen drinking in a bar with Proud Boys and flashing white power symbols after arraignment.
How the hell is he out on bond right now? Don’t they usually hold people without bail if they’re a danger to the community? Because the boy killed someone totally indiscriminately… Really don’t know how anyone could consider him not extremely dangerous, especially right now.