All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Revolutionary_Jack]

On the bright side, Parler getting its shorts dropped probably has a few of the sorts BB's concerned about looking over their shoulders and thinking twice on any "bold, patriotic" acts.

There are certain kinds of things you can do basically, just once. It's very much "come at the king, best not miss". 9/11 was one example, the Putsch of January 6 is another.

-- Bin Laden when he planned 9/11 was exploiting the kind of open tent nature of international airports before 2001. For those too young to remember, before 9/11 there was no TSA. You did have X-rays and a security check and certain items you couldn't carry but it wasn't as extensive as now, and nor did you have to say remove your belt, shoes and socks or any metallic stuff to go through. It was also possible for family to accompany you all the way to the Boarding Gate and say goodbye. Bin Laden came up with the idea of combining suicide bombing (which was innovated by Sri Lankan terrorists in the 1980s against the government of India, including the one who assassinated a Prime Minister) and combining it with hijacking (which is a classic old terrorist standby going back to the '70s extremists) and did something nobody really expected and predicted, and exploited a weakness that nobody noticed. The crowds of international airport were filled with people who didn't take flights and so on, that meant fewer eyes to notice stuff and easy to blend in. And since he knew that doing this kind of attack would result in changes that make it impossible, he intended it to be the biggest terrorist attack of all time and so it is. Bin Laden went for the king, and he didn't miss.

-- The Putsch also depended on it being a first-of-its-kind novelty. There's never been an attempt to outright interrupt the certification of an election, the idea of physically storming Capitol Hill is the stuff of bad B-movies (and so was 9/11, the idea of destroying US monuments was a staple of action and disaster movies from the '70s to '90s). And then it happens. Unlike Bin Laden, Trump had no sense of occassion, he didn't realize this was a "go big or go home" moment of the kind he's not going to get a chance to do again.

Trump lacked Bin Laden's real evil genius and we should be grateful for that.

[babyblob]

Trump lacked Bin Laden's real evil genius and we should be grateful for that.

I will say it is a very good thing for the lawmakers, staff and others in that building that Trump and his kind see a coup as a chance to live stream on Facebook and as a chance for one in a life time selfies. If any of them had half a brain Pelosi, pence, Shummer and many more would be dead right now, with Trump setting himself up as President for life with Cruz and Howley fighting for the number two spot.

[JCAll]

I hope this doesn't end up being a whole thing.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

I hope this doesn't end up being a whole thing.

It's totally going to be.

[babyblob]

I think is is so funny listening to Trumpers bitching about the GOP freaking out that the PGA pulled an event at a Trump owned Golf Course. Saying you shouldnt bring politics into sports. You shouldnt punish some one for thier political views.

Isnt that all The GOP did? Bring politics into sports by yelling so loud about the NFL kneeling protests? And demanding these players be fired?

[babyblob]

Thee is always something coming out.

CNN is running the story now. Two capital Hill Police officers suspended for talking selfies with terrorists.

[Robotman]

Thee is always something coming out.

CNN is running the story now. Two capital Hill Police officers suspended for talking selfies with terrorists.

The Hill is reporting that one of the suspended officers had put on a MAGA hat and was giving the rioters directions.

[Amadeus Arkham]

Here’s some other Trump Voter poll results.

78% agree with Trump’s claims that it was “stolen.”

67% believe if you count the votes “accurately and fairly,” Trump would win.

Respondents were weighted to reflect the Trump electorate by age, gender, ethnicity and edu.

Trump voters about last week’s storming of the U.S. Capitol:

25% say Trump is responsible for what happened.

60% say Mike Pence acted more appropriately afterward than Trump did.

38% call the participants “domestic terrorists” while 24% say they’re “patriots."


50% of Trump voters believe he should "continue his fight to remain President."

51% say they’d tell him to run again in 2024, while 31% say he should retire from politics.

73% of Trump voters consider themselves “Republican-first” voters, compared to 27% who are “Trump-first" voters.

Surprisingly, 73% of Trump voters say they never followed him on Twitter. (Only about 20% of U.S. adults have a Twitter account.)

https://mobile.twitter.com/FrankLunt...25433362042880

[Joker]

Just proof they live in fantasy land. There is no "traditional American way of life".

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Just proof they live in fantasy land. There is no "traditional American way of life".

White people being free to murder non-white people with impunity, and trample at rule of law to assert white supremacy, is in fact the traditional American way of life.

The majority of American history has had that as its norm than otherwise.

So yeah "the traditional American way of life" just as say feudalism is the traditional way of life, or in the case of France, women not having the vote is the traditional way of life since the majority of its history as a democracy dating back to the French revolution has had male suffrage as its norm, and French women only got the vote since 1944 (still better than Switzerland where it's from the 1970s!!!).

[Hypestyle]

I really hope all the people who stormed the Capitol get indicted.
I hope that anyone who was involved in the poor security response gets indicted.
I hope that all the congresspeople and senators who officially voted to repeal the Electoral Count and who encouraged the "stop the steal" rally get called out and hopefully kicked out of Congress. Even censure is too mild at this point.

The Democrats can't play softball anymore, regardless of how reactionary all the white conservatives are going to get, especially in the pundit class; feel free to ignore any self-described "independents" who may insist on the notion of "Trump's gone on the 20th, leave it at that"...

The attorneys general in various states also need to find a way to hit Trump hard with as many applicable charges as possible, and aside from criminal penalties they need to VOID his Presidential pension and secret service detail. No more perks on the public dime. And the "Son of Sam" law should apply where he can't profit by writing a book, etc., based on his crimes.

[Tami]

A Disgruntled Employee Changed The State Department’s Website To Say That Trump’s Term Ends Today, Sources Say

A disgruntled employee at the State Department changed the biographies of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to say their term was coming to an end on Monday — nine days before President-elect Joe Biden is to be sworn in — two current-serving diplomats with knowledge of the situation told BuzzFeed News.

The changes to the State Department’s website come days after Trump incited a deadly insurrection at the US Capitol that has led Democrats to begin the process of impeaching him for a second time and led to calls for Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from office.

The president’s biography was changed to read, “Donald J. Trump's term ended on 2021-01-11 19:49:00,” while the vice president’s biography was edited to “Michael R. Pence's term ended on 2021-01-11 19:44:22.” The time stamp on Trump's page changed multiple times, before both pages were removed around 3:50 p.m. and replaced with a 404 reading, "We’re sorry, this site is currently experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again in a few moments."

[worstblogever]

Here’s some other Trump Voter poll results.

https://mobile.twitter.com/FrankLunt...25433362042880

At this point, I could give a f*** what Trump supporters think. Much like I don't give a f*** what white nationalists or Neo-Nazis think. They're intermingling far too much, anyway, as groups separate from one another. But I have enough of a gist to know what their agenda is, and from that point, don't give a f*** what their feelings about what's happening in the world are. Because they'll rewrite reality to get back to the white supremacy and fascism universe where they're somehow "the good guys" when they are decidedly not the hero of the story.

So f*** 'em.

[Wildling]

feel free to ignore any self-described "independents" who may insist on the notion of "Trump's gone on the 20th, leave it at that"...

Yeah I hate this thing about assuming Trump and his supporters are like a videogame level that absolutely ends at a preordained point. Not having POTUS powers is important and all (which is the point of impeaching and calling for the 25th in the first place) but it's naive to think he's not going to rile up people all over again at the slightest opportunity to mention the election was stolen. I heard some social platforms have his ban only temporary until after the inauguration at least right now. Consequences need to start rolling since now.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

There's videos across America of Putschists getting cuffed at airports or being told they are on the No-fly list.

This guy gives the game away when the police have him on the floor:
https://twitter.com/TalbertSwan/stat...10740480077827

That guy yells "You're treating me like a f--king black person".
The cops says, "You're gonna get sprayed."