Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

In my day, never was longer.

The lights are all blinking red.

Petty moves from a petty man.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Stand up, dammit!

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Is trump is trying to break black America over his knee? signs point to ‘yes’.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

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Interesting Times

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Well, here we are, America:

Biden called on Trump to address the nation and call off the mob. When Trump spoke to the braying Brown Shirts prior to the insurrection, he specifically called on the assembled cretins to storm the Capitol. Let’s not allow that to go down the memory hole.

Pro-Trump insurrectionists are still occupying the U.S. Capitol. They need to be identified, arrested and prosecuted.

In other news, the GA Senate race was just called for Ossoff. So maybe there will be some goddamned accountability for this attempted coup. Open thread.

Reader Interactions

301Comments

  2. 2.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    I checked out Fox coverage for thirty minutes. Pretty muted, far away camera on the Capitol so you can’t really see what’s happening. No details about various crimes, almost like they’re trying to pretend it isn’t happening.

  3. 3.

    Old School

    Meanwhile, Trump tweets that it was a fraudulent election, but everyone should go home.

  7. 7.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    So when you lose by millions and millions of votes, the election was stolen from you? Someone needs to let Hillary know.

  8. 8.

    Cermet

    When Liz Cheney gets on cable and denounces both the protestors and president (blaming him for this terrible event) the world has turned up-side down.

  10. 10.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Laura Fucking Ingraham actually said that this is all the result Antifa and BLM people who have infiltrated the ranks of (un)Real, White MURKINS!!!!!!, thus, this is all caused by the left.

    Oh well, such propaganda is to be expected out of Faux “News”.

  12. 12.

    TS (the original)

    MSNBC saying that it will be days before congress can resume because the capitol will have to be searched and cleared. Is this the reality? More days before the EC vote is completed?

  15. 15.

    Amir Khalid

    In two weeks time, Trump needs to be perp-walked out of the White House and into a police car.

  16. 16.

    Jeffro

    “We love you” – trumpov to the seditionists in his video.

    Hey GOP, he’s not going to go away until you help us PUT him away.  #facts

  17. 17.

    laura

    Putin must be thrilled.

    The shite bag occupying the White House – will he attempt to declare martial law? The Republicans who birthed this coup better be held to account or we’re well and truly fucked.

  21. 21.

    Debbie(Aussie)

    I hope (probably futilely) that the MSM will call them insurectionists (?).They aren’t protesters anymore.

  27. 27.

    Martin

    @TS (the original): It will take a fair bit of time to clear the building.

    Should note that Congress does have contingency plans to continue the work of the legislature in the event they cannot use the building (for whatever reason).

    They can certify the EC vote from the (actual) Four Seasons if need be.

  29. 29.

    jonas

    @Cermet:  I guess it was her dad — of all people — who got the other 8 living former SecDefs to publish that letter the other day warning Trump and the GOP to knock this shit off or it was going to get out of hand, so not too surprising.

    I get the impression that Liz is trying to pull off what Nikki Haley thought she was going to do — position herself as the “reasonable” female Republican successor to Trump. Sad trombone for Haley after today.

  30. 30.

    Cheryl Rofer

  32. 32.

    Captain C

    @Sayne: As I said in the thread below, it sounded like a prep school kid giving a forced apology because otherwise his parents’ money won’t be enough to keep him from getting expelled.

  33. 33.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    I just got a phone call with “an urgent message for the vehicle owner.” Don’t know if it’s related to the coup attempt.

  36. 36.

    TS (the original)

    @Baud:

    Guy on now, saying they are going to complete the vote tonight. Does not have to be in the capitol.

    So you are correct – no-one knows. What a cf.

  37. 37.

    germy

    No police dogs. No fire hoses. No massive display of firepower.

    What do you call it when a country has two sets of policies, depending on the color of one's skin again?

    — Neil Barsky (@nsbarsky) January 6, 2021

    Things are going to get crazy as the curfew approaches. Some of that crowd look like they have no intention of leaving.

  41. 41.

    jonas

    Also, since a lot of us were wondering how the Capitol Police allowed this to happen, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that they did just that — just stood down and let it happen: twitter.com/garyhe/status/1346931334032334848?s=20

    Once these domestic terrorists have been cleared from the building, arrested, and prosecuted, there needs to be a *thorough* investigation of the CP’s role in the whole thing and the Sergent-at-Arms or whoever serves as chief of the CP should be sacked.

  43. 43.

    germy

    @VeniceRiley:

    Yes, his statement was outrageous.

    He should have conceded right then and there. Admitted he was wrong.  (Impossible for him, I know) Instead, he continued to incite.

  49. 49.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    they’re going to have to delouse the Capitol, it’s full of covid.

  51. 51.

    jl

    @germy: Trump is trying to play it both ways. Short insipid tweet to his followers to behave, citing the ‘Blue Lives Matter’ theme, and then sending out videos with more incitement.

  53. 53.

    CaseyL

    I am so enraged by this I can’t even begin to write what I think or I’ll violate a whole bunch of blog rules, and quite possibly have the FBI or Secret Service on my doorstep.

  55. 55.

    Martin

    The only bright spot to this is that it’s nice to have the last few years of anxiety validated.

  56. 56.

    jonas

    @laura: will he attempt to declare martial law?

    I wouldn’t be surprised if we find out sooner or later that he was trying to do this and his aides had to forcibly restrain him from picking up the phone or something.

  60. 60.

    jl

    @germy: Some corporate media talking heads have summoned up the courage to call it what it is, and using the ‘c’ word on national news.

  64. 64.

    lee

    Those Capitol Police that let the terrorists in have to know they are about to find out how intrusive federal investigations are.

  70. 70.

    Feathers

    Apparently MaggieNYT had a tweet which angered many, but was quickly deleted. Does anyone here have a screenshot?

  71. 71.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Do these white people have jobs they are supposed to be doing right now or are they just unemployed rabble?

  72. 72.

    jl

    @jonas: From videos I saw, they didn’t deploy nearly enough people. I saw one where there were like a dozen police, without any riot gear, trying to stop a hundred or more rioters on the Capitol steps. I also heard on the news that there was internet chatter of the leaders of the rioters talking about looking at the Capitol floorplans and scouting good routes to get in where they wanted to go.

    So, if that is true, who was responsible for such an inadequate deployment is where the investigation should start.

  76. 76.

    Booger

    @germy: What’s the meme: “It’s only a coup if it comes from the Coup region of France; otherwise it’s just sparkling fascism.”

  77. 77.

    raven

    @jl: Exactly, they were way overmatched. What do the armchair warriors think they should have done, opened fire on trespassers?

  78. 78.

    TS (the original)

    @lee:

    I hope so – Member of congress on MSNBC ( I missed his name) saying how good the Capitol police were in protecting them.

  81. 81.

    germy

    @jl:

    I remember when disabled people in wheelchairs tried to stage a sit-in for universal healthcare.  They were knocked off their wheelchairs and dragged out.

  84. 84.

    jl

    @Just Some Fuckhead: “Do these white people have jobs they are supposed to be doing right now or are they just unemployed rabble?”

    It’s a cultural problem among working class whites. Even David Brooks wrote about it in some columns before he retired. They lacked good examples in the home when growing up. /snark.

    Though, Brooks did write some columns saying just that.

  87. 87.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    National Association of Manufacturers has called on Pence to invoke 25th Amendment

  96. 96.

    Shakti

    @Amir Khalid:
    He needs to be perp walked out of the WH right NOW. Not in two weeks time. He’s going to try some more….bullshit.

    My cousin and her family, who live right outside of DC off the subway line, and commuted in during the before times, went to visit my uncle for his 80th birthday in Pittsburgh. (They’ve been staying in, otherwise.) We had the Zoom birthday party yesterday.

    I didn’t stop panicking until I heard that she was still in Pittsburgh and not about to drive into/around DC. Who do you think a bunch of assholes with free floating anger might attack?

  98. 98.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @jonas: That is INCREDIBLE. It sure looks like the Capitol Police themselves opened the barricades and let them in.

    I thought I was cynical, but sheesh.

  99. 99.

    Spanky

    As coups go  it was a pretty half-assed attempt, with Trump riling up his nazis to go disupt the vote count. No military help  no police help. I think the Capitol Police letting them in was uncoordinated but very useful.

    Yes, it was a coup attempt, but also classic Trump – unplanned, half-assed, but with (he hoped) enough deniability that he can throw those dupes under the bus and skate.

  100. 100.

    PAM Dirac

    @Leto: Nope. His current margin on Decision Desk is about 27K. The recount is triggered under ~22K.  Most of the reports I’ve seen expect his final margin to be 40-50K.

  101. 101.

    Kent

    @TS (the original):MSNBC saying that it will be days before congress can resume because the capitol will have to be searched and cleared. Is this the reality? More days before the EC vote is completed?

    I expect they are just spitballing and really have no idea.  I expect it will take some time to go room by room to check for bombs and other shit like that.  I don’t know about days though.

  106. 106.

    raven

    @Leto: I don’t think so as it stands now

     

    “Under Georgia law, candidates can request a recount if the margin of votes is 0.5% or less.”

    Candidate
    Party
    Votes
    Pct.

    WinnerJon Ossoff
    Dem.
    2,225,715
    50.31%

    David Perdue*
    Rep.
    2,198,640
    49.69

  107. 107.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    I hope the terrorists didn’t damage the Freedom Fries in the Capital cafeteria

  108. 108.

    Cheryl Rofer

  109. 109.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Oh wow. Callers to CSpan: “This was really Antifa.” And moderator is not pushing back.

    I love C-SPAN for BookTV, think tank events, and original documentary specials, but their anchors for call-in segments have always been an absolute disgrace.  Unless a caller uses a profanity or makes a death threat, these idiot anchors will let them say anything.

  111. 111.

    PJ

    @jl: There’s a video where the Capitol Police (not many, maybe 5 or 6), after conferring with the insurrectionists, just walk away from the barriers and let all of the insurrectionists in.

  113. 113.

    Leto

    @raven: yeah, Imm and PAM got me upthread. I think the WaPo wasn’t updated just yet so I got it wrong. But very glad it’s outside that margin.

  121. 121.

    Poe Larity

    Murkowski:

    The dangerous destructive activity at the Capitol is continuing to unfold. I, along with other members of the Senate, are secure but the situation is clearly not safe. It is truly mob rule at the moment.

    Would that she was ever in a position to do something about it in the last few years.

  126. 126.

    germy

    CNN has begun calling these individuals anarchists and the events an insurrection

    — Tal Kopan (@TalKopan) January 6, 2021

    Storming the Capitol so that a far right authoritarian leader can remain in power is not something that anarchists do. It is what fascists do. t.co/ra3vHq955p

    — Brooke Binkowski (@brooklynmarie) January 6, 2021

  128. 128.

    jl

    @PJ: Yes, that changes my mind. More than just an inadequate deployment.  The rot runs deep with some rank and file.

    In the clip I saw, that group of police was trying to push the crowd back down the steps, but no way that they could manage it with the large crowd.

  130. 130.

    Yutsano

    @zhena gogolia:

    I can’t believe you made me laugh in the middle of this.

    It’s Fuckie’s superpower. AKA why I’ve missed the big galoot round these parts.

  133. 133.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    I keep hearing journalists lament that the inauguration is in two weeks and the capitol is a mess. Like who will clean this mess up is the very least of our worries right now.

  141. 141.

    david

    Bunkie Perkins@BunkiePerkins · 1h

    Tommy Tuberville gets sworn in and the Capitol’s defense immediately falls apart.

  145. 145.

    Feathers

    @Kent: Having worked on Capitol Hill, the Capitol was built in the Victorian era, with lots of columns, embellishments, statues, nooks and crannies, and hallways, not to mention an entire underground tunnel system going several levels underground and spreading out to all the enormous and rabbit warrenish House and Senate office buildings, as well as the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress. The Capitol complex is an enormous building, and not modern. Just remembered all the underground parking lots.

    I can’t imagine sweeping it for IEDs will be able to be done quickly, especially if offices were broken into, which seems to have happened.

  146. 146.

    PJ

    Why aren’t these assholes all being arrested?

    God, I sound like an “abolish the police!” advocate, but what good are they if they can’t or won’t arrest people who are trying to destroy democracy?

  147. 147.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @germy: Storming the Capitol so that a far right authoritarian leader can remain in power is not something that anarchists do. It is what fascists do. t.co/ra3vHq955p

    — Brooke Binkowski (@brooklynmarie) January 6, 2021

    Fucking No True Scotsman nonsense, Anarchist are authoritarians.   Only under a violent dictatorship does their ideas work.

  150. 150.

    Martin

    @Leto: I suspect at least some of them were planning on carrying out the MI militia plans – take members of congress hostage and execute them.

  156. 156.

    MomSense

    It was just yesterday that James Arrogant Prick Comey said that trump shouldn’t be prosecuted after he leaves office.

  158. 158.

    WaterGirl

    @Leto: Someone upthread said 22,000 was the cutoff, and when I subtracted Perdue’s # from Jon Ossoff’s, that was 27,075.

    So I think he is outside of the automatic recount area.

  161. 161.

    Leto

    @Martin: same thought; there were some insurrectionists talking with the MSNBC reporter saying they were planning to come back with weapons. I hope Merrick Garland can bring the full weight of the Justice Dept against these traitors.

  162. 162.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Baud: You know it’s gone extreme when Pence has his gander up. Damn, this is,.,, interesting,

  165. 165.

    jonas

    @PJ:Why aren’t these assholes all being arrested?

    Because the police support them. Wouldn’t be surprised if there are a lot of off-duty cops among this rabble and that’s why they’re being treated with kid gloves. I’m sure there are all sorts of signals being flashed about as to who is an LEO under those bandanas and balaclavas.

  168. 168.

    stinger

    Watching ABC News, and they just had a minority reporter on the scene. I didn’t catch her name, but total respect for Black reporters who are surely at risk in that crowd.

  169. 169.

    Lyrebird

    @Immanentize: Srsly.

    I want to see lots of memes like this contrast from The Real Hoarse

    and like what you said

     

    The Hoarse Whisperer

    @TheRealHoarse

    This country’s systemic racism is never more visible than in the way it responds to protests.

     

    2:32 PM · Jan 6, 2021·Twitter for iPhone

    I also wanna see the photos again of that nurse, I think a young white gal, who was there to support BLM in her scrubs and was taken to be such a threat in Seattle.  And those terrifying Portland moms.  Is Kaepernick from the Pac NW?  He’s got a cool mom, too.

  171. 171.

    jl

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Seems like a long time ago, but the BS GOP pundits wrote some nonsense like that a couple of years ago when they saw some of their dupes start to defect to the commie Dems, after getting tired of eating shit for years, as everyone except the rich do in this country, and others go stark raving rabies mad and evil and joining the violent among the Trumpsters.

    Sad and impotent attempt to get off the tiger they created.

  172. 172.

    japa21

    Trying to arrest all these folks right now would be a real hassle.  Fortunately, since they are all idiots, pictures of almost all of them are available. They just try to put the pictures on FB and get them recognized by FB’s face recognition software.  Most of these people are on FB, I am sure.

     

    The ones inside the building may have more difficulty getting away though, since they have committed more serious crimes.

  173. 173.

    Ken

    @Just Some Fuckhead: I just got a phone call with “an urgent message for the vehicle owner.” Don’t know if it’s related to the coup attempt.

    Only in the sense that enforcement of the “Do Not Call” registry has gone to hell over the last four years.

  175. 175.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    So Pence refused to declare Trump president-for-life and Trump tried to have him killed. Isn’t Pence the one who leads the effort to relieve Trump of the presidency via the 25th?

  176. 176.

    PJ

    @Lyrebird: This wasn’t a protest.  This was a serious, successful attack on Congress to prevent them from doing their work in confirming the election of the guy who won the popular vote and the electoral college vote.  These fuckers should be going to jail for a good long spell.

  178. 178.

    VeniceRiley

    I can’t believe they’re letting these racist insurrectionists melt away. Bowser declares curfew 6pm thats in 45 so I hope Dc rocks up on every one of these terrorists.

  179. 179.

    germy

    I am drawing up Articles of Impeachment.

    Donald J. Trump should be impeached by the House of Representatives & removed from office by the United States Senate.

    We can’t allow him to remain in office, it’s a matter of preserving our Republic and we need to fulfill our oath.

    — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 6, 2021

  180. 180.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Martin: I was worried about far worse than this–this is a violent coup attempt with essentially no chance of succeeding. Nobody is gonna peruse the US Code and go “OMG, it turns out there’s a law from 1799 that if a guy with a horned helmet steals the Speaker’s podium, he has dibs on the Presidency!”

  181. 181.

    Leto

    @Baud: The fact they’re still on the front lawn is fucking infuriating. There should be mass clearings/arrests/etc. My inner military response has just been overwhelming since 1pm.

  182. 182.

    germy

    Just to be completely clear today, pointed questions like "Where is the teargas?" or "Why don't we see more choke slams?" are not demands for police brutality. They are rhetorical questions meant to highlight the fact that police *do* know how to avoid police brutality.

    — tj usiyan (@griotspeak) January 6, 2021

  183. 183.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    Just had an amusing thought: I’d put the odds at better than one in three that on January 20th, Joe Biden isn’t sworn in as the 46th President of the United States…

    …but as the 47th.

  184. 184.

    lgerard

    @p.a:

     

    That blew my mind

    They are the very most staid of conservative republicans, and they called on Pemce to invoke the 25thAmendment

  185. 185.

    jonas

    @Martin:  That’s my sense as well. They need to stop treating this like a protest that got out of hand and declare what it is: an attempted coup against the US government at the behest of a corrupt leader who refuses to acknowledge an election and leave office.

  188. 188.

    Baud

    @Leto:

    I’m not sure they can attest the people who stayed outside and didn’t do any vandalism. I hope everyone inside gets rounded up.

  192. 192.

    Spanky

    @Leto: With a little luck they’ll wander into N.E. …

    … where they may find residents who take a dim view of their shenanigans.

  193. 193.

    Leto

    Maddow reporting that some journalists/camera people have been attacked by the insurrectionists. Also asking why there haven’t been arrests, why they’re still allowed on the Capitol. I mean, because they’re white but still.

  194. 194.

    Kent

    @jonas: More on how the Capitol Police basically rolled over and let these fuckers take over the building:  twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1346920198461419520?s=20

    What the hell?

    I know people have said it a million times by now, but if these had been BLM protesters, the streets of DC would be running with blood tonight.

    In 15 days both the House and Senate will be under Democratic Control.

    Among their many other urgent duties, a thorough investigation and top-to-bottom house cleaning of the Capitol Police seems to be in order.

  195. 195.

    jonas

    @Matt McIrvin:  with essentially no chance of succeeding. 

    Agreed, but it should still be treated as an attempted coup and the participants prosecuted for insurrection and sedition.

  199. 199.

    jl

    @Matt McIrvin: There are two sets of laws in this country. For these people, if there were no riot, there would be worrying over whether the invasion was really illegal. I mean, does the law really cover a guy in a Viking/ninja turtle costume barging into the chambers if he just wants to sit in the chair behind the dais and yell shit.

    Just like if you are politician taking a bribe: well was it really a bribe unless there wasn’t a contract that explicitly spelled out the quid pro quo and an escrow account?

  203. 203.

    jonas

    @Kent:  Among their many other urgent duties, a thorough investigation and top-to-bottom house cleaning of the Capitol Police seems to be in order.

    Yep. They had one job….

  206. 206.

    Steeplejack

    @CaseyL:

    [. . .] quite possibly have the FBI or Secret Service on my doorstep.

    It’s not like they’re busy with anything else.

  208. 208.

    jl

    @Baud: Josh Marshall says Fox News is trying to use ‘police failures’ as a way to get out of their current PR media crisis messaging dilemma. We’ll see how well that kite flies.

  209. 209.

    Leto

    New level of hate unlocked by reject Eddie Munster: Cruz is currently sending out email fundraising off this.

  211. 211.

    Kent

    @Baud:

    @Leto:

    I’m not sure they can attest the people who stayed outside and didn’t do any vandalism. I hope everyone inside gets rounded up.

    I don’t know anything about Capitol security.  But I gotta imagine that there are top quality security cameras EVERYWHERE inside and outside of the capitol, covering every corner.  With modern face recognition, I gotta think they can identify most of these rioters.  They aren’t wearing masks and are going about it overtly.  It might take some time.  But I expect that the FBI can eventually identify every last on of them and will have most everything they did on HD camera.

  214. 214.

    BellyCat

    Given the seriousness of what just took place, It’s remarkable that people were not killed.  Let’s hope tonight goes equally well.

  216. 216.

    GrannyMC

    DC Mayor: Please send National Guard.

    WH: lolololol

    VA gov: Here’s some guard units for you, and some state troopers.

    MD gov: How about another 200 or so?

    WH: Well, okay then…

  220. 220.

    Ken

    @japa21: We have rules?

    Now that you mention it, I do recall John banning someone a while back (he was more, um, acerbic than usual). So yes, there are rules, and they may even be written down somewhere.

  221. 221.

    Leto

    @WaterGirl: it was a tag on (follow on tweet? Idk the terminology) to a Malcom Nance tweet. The image was from inside the Capitol but there’s only 1 reason to bring zip tie handcuffs, and it’s not knitting related.

    Also NPR is reporting multiple IEDs have been found on/in the Capitol. Totally not an organized event.

  223. 223.

    CarolDuhart2

    @Martin:  They would have contingency plans from back in the early days of the Cold War when it was assumed rockets would fly over the city of Washington-and possibly earlier when some people thought Russians might come over and invade. Those plans need to be updated to take account of domestic terrorism now.

    I have been shaking all day long, terrified that things would get worse. But reassured that no rioter can give Trump what he needs, legitimacy after the 1/20.

  224. 224.

    MisterForkbeard

    @WaterGirl: It looks like the seditionists had rope and zip ties on them. Several were also armed.

    That’s not absolute proof they were going to take hostages (they can claim that they were going to tie themselves to things, maybe), but it’s good enough for me. I don’t know what ELSE they thought they could do.

  227. 227.

    germy

    WASHINGTON (AP) – The Latest on Congress’ tally of the Electoral College vote won by Joe Biden (all times local):

    4:35 p.m.

    At least one explosive device has been found near the U.S. Capitol amid a violent occupation of the building by supporters of President Donald Trump.

    Law enforcement officials said the device was no longer a threat Wednesday afternoon.

  228. 228.

    Heywood J.

    @raven:

    Exactly, they were way overmatched. What do the armchair warriors think they should have done, opened fire on trespassers?

    That’s precisely what they would have done if the “protesters” had been a couple shades darker, and we all know it.

    At the very least, the head of the Capitol Police needs to be fired ASAP. These assholes have been planning this for weeks, and there was clearly zero preparation, zero planning, and then when shit rolled down as we all knew it would, the cops just let these violent yahoos into the building. I can’t imagine any congressional representative feels remotely safe anymore, knowing they have a bunch of inept Keystone Kop types entrusted with their lives.

    Fire the people that need to be fired. Start impeachment proceedings against Trump tomorrow. Arrest as many of these domestic terrorists as possible, and make examples of each and every one of them.

    Or this is going to become a regular occurrence. Hell, it already is at many state houses. No one is held accountable. Why shouldn’t they keep doing this?

  230. 230.

    Roger Moore

    @geg6:

    They can do the vote anywhere. There’s no requirement that it happen in the actual Capitol building.

    There’s no requirement it happen in a particular place, but the two houses have to agree if they’re going to do it in some other place:

    Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

  231. 231.

    Sanjeevs

    Now I know why Trumpers are anti mask.

    Theyre really afraid they might be mistaken for black people

  232. 232.

    GrannyMC

    @Kent: All that is true, but frankly, I don’t care. That’s just going after the little fish instead of dealing with the real problem at the top.

  234. 234.

    Martin

    @jonas: There’s a gallows set up on the west side of the Capitol. We know they were planning on taking hostages. They brought an explosive device and guns.

    I mean, I get deescalating, but they are only being empowered by the response. I’m guessing there will be violence tonight. Every mom that participated in this needs a 10 year federal sentence. And it needs to go up from there.

    And Congress needs to pass laws that allows prosecution of police for hate crimes given that clearly they know how to de-escalate without shooting.

    This is absurd. After 9/11 the FBI interviewed me for hours and hours asking about every muslim student and every muslim faculty member if they’d ever said or done anything that suggested they might be a terrorist.

    We need the same level of dedication devoted to identifying and prosecuting every person on camera for federal crimes.

  239. 239.

    Leto

    Per MSNBC a sharp young aide, while being evacuated, went back in and grabbed the electoral ballot certificates. Duuuuuude…

    Edit: SCOOPED by MSNBaudC again! Drats!

  242. 242.

    Suzanne

    Never ever ever let anyone you know who voted for Trump forget that they are partially responsible for this.

  243. 243.

    Aleta

    From DHS website

    Jan 4   Acting Secretary Wolf Participates in Ceremonial Groundbreaking of CYCLOPS in Cyprus

    Jan 5   Acting Secretary Wolf Signs Joint Declaration on Border Security Cooperation with Cypriot Foreign Affairs Minister Christodoulides

    Jan 5   Statement From Acting Secretary Wolf on The Completion of 450 Miles of Border New Wall System

    Jan 6   Acting Secretary Wolf Signs Multiple Security Cooperation Agreements with Bahraini Government

  244. 244.

    jl

    @Heywood J.: Investigation needs to go all the way down into the ranks. Videos showing some police doing their job, others collaborating with the rioters.

    I don’t have much hope that the evolution of two systems of law in the country, one for white conservatives, and another for everyone else, will be looked at. But, after this… maybe, a tiny unlikely maybe, but a maybe.

  249. 249.

    gene108

    Biden’s DOJ needs to quickly arrest people, whose pictures have been posted online, who they can ID.

    That needs to start at 12:00:01 on January 20, 2021.

    ********************

    Whoever in the Capitol Police decided to effectively have their officers stand down, and let the terrorists seize the Capitol is going to have fun in Congressional hearings. Even Republican Congresscritters are no longer amused by this group of Republicans/Trump supporters that seized the Capitol.

  251. 251.

    Leto

    @TS (the original): maybe if they treated the insurrectionists the same as that old man in Detroit, who had his head rebounded off the ground, simply beat them/step over them/keep going, and then arrest the broken on the ground on the roundup.

    I’m sorry for being heartless/graphic, but I’m just so out of fucks. Rage. Unfettered rage.

  253. 253.

    debbie

    @Suzanne:

    Yeah, I’m coming very close to getting kicked off FB because of my angry posts that will show up on family members’ feeds.

  258. 258.

    Geminid

    “Socialist Dog Mom” Molly Conger was tweeting reports and pics from outside the Capitol. Not a lot went on away from the building- an ice cream truck was even selling soft serve- but more and more law enforcement were unloading from buses, including what she thought was a 50+ member FBI swat team. The curfew starts at six, her Dad has texted her, and she was getting out.

  262. 262.

    Fair Economist

    @Matt McIrvin: You’re not thinking if you think this had no chance of success. I’m not going to say what they could have done, obviously, but there were certainly possibilities. Read about North Carolina at the end of Reconstrction.

  263. 263.

    TS (the original)

    MSNBC – DC  LE (various levels) are not strangers to these types of protests – and they have stopped this before. Questions need to be asked as to why they allowed this to happen.

  265. 265.

    Steeplejack

    Garrett Haake on MSNBC talking about the fact that D.C. police agencies regularly deal with large protests and raising questions about how this one supposedly developed as a big surprise.

    There will probably be an investigatory commission down the road.

  267. 267.

    WaterGirl

    @Leto:

    only 1 reason to bring zip tie handcuffs

    I had not seen that.  I think the way it’s been handled by the capital police and letting everyone go is possibly even more alarming than that they tried this in the first place.

    I am so grateful that we will have the house and the senate.  what a relief.

  268. 268.

    Spanky

    You all (and definitely including the MSM) keep calling these seditionists “white people”. I’m going to go with “off-duty police”, given the video evidence of on-duty police reacting to their presence exactly as like they’ve been shown in other incidents, e.g. BLM “riots”. The wink and nod and letting them go on about whatever shit business they were engaged in.

    Not police? Let them prove it.

  270. 270.

    trollhattan

    When Liz Cheney is your teller of truth, it has become the weirdest of times.

    Said Cheney: “What he has done and what he has caused here is something that we’ve never seen before in our history. It’s been 245 years, and no president has ever failed to concede or agree to leave office after the Electoral College has voted, and I think what we are seeing today is the result of that, the result of convincing people that somehow Congress was going to overturn the results of this election, the results of suggesting that he wouldn’t leave office.” She added: “Those are very, very dangerous things, and he will be remembered, this will be part of his legacy, and it is a dangerous moment for the country.”

  272. 272.

    Aleta

    Dec 17 (Reuters)

    In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, former intelligence chief Brian Murphy accused department leadership of urging him to “blame Far Left groups in an exaggerated fashion” for violence during summer protests in Portland, Oregon, according to lawyer Mark Zaid.

    In a Sept. 8 whistleblower complaint, Murphy accused President Donald Trump’s acting DHS chief, Chad Wolf, of having told him to hold back on circulating assessments of the threat of Russian interference in the approaching Nov. 3 election in part because it “made the President look bad.”

    Wolf also asked Murphy to play down U.S. white supremacist activity, the complaint said.

  273. 273.

    CaseyL

    Another, and comparatively minor, reason I’m so mad is that last night I didn’t let myself express my joy at the results of the Georgia Senate races, for fear that, like Orpheus in Hades, if I looked back did, my wife would vanish the results would change.

    Then, before I can say “Yay, Warnock and Ossoff!,” the Capitol gets taken over by traitors while the Capital Police do nothing.

    I am all in favor of outlawing the GOP altogether as an insurrectionist, treasonous, Anti-American organization. Treat them like HUAC treated the US Communist Party – and for much better reason!

    I am all in favor of trials for sedition, insurrection, and treason against every goddamn one of the Seditious Dozen, the 126 GOP Representatives, and the entire Trump Administration.

    I am all in favor of Trump standing trial for treason, being convicted, and then executed.

    And this is the nice, cleaned up version of what I’m in favor of.

  275. 275.

    jnfr

    @Cermet:

    Weirdest thing in the world to applaud Liz Cheney. We’ve reached quite a terrible place when simply standing up for democracy is so important.

  277. 277.

    Leto

    @WaterGirl: yeah. I hope arrests were made inside, but there needs to be large investigations on how the fuck this was allowed to happen. Unacceptable.

  279. 279.

    MisterForkbeard

    The lack of arrests is what’s bothering me.

    They just… let people in to trash everything and try to attack Congress to overthrow the government. They didn’t really have enough personnel to stop it without escalating and that’s a HUGE problem, and they were chummy with the seditionists. This is another problem.

    But now they’re just… going to let all these traitorous fucks go home with no consequences.

  280. 280.

    Ken

    @lgerard: The convenient thing about the 25th Amendment is that Congress must decide within 21 days, so invoking it now removes Trump from power until after the inauguration – assuming Congress doesn’t move quickly to put him back, which is probably more likely now than it was six hours ago.

    Also, Pence only beomes acting President, so we don’t have to renumber the Biden merchandise.

  281. 281.

    Suzanne

    @CaseyL: 

    I am all in favor of trials for sedition, insurrection, and treason against every goddamn one of the Seditious Dozen, the 126 GOP Representatives, and the entire Trump Administration.

    Yes. Prison.

  282. 282.

    Heywood J.

    @jl: Totally agree with all of that.

    While I did appreciate President Biden’s message earlier, I was dismayed by his appeal to Trump to de-escalate the situation. It should be painfully obvious by now that there is nothing to say to Trump anymore, about anything. It’s like asking John Gotti to please stop criming. I mean, Jesus H. Christ.

    The appeal should be to all of the law enforcement agencies on the ground there to do their goddamned jobs, and then to the Democratic politicians to do theirs, at the earliest possible opportunity. Like tomorrow. Articles of impeachment, firings and prosecutions of all law-enforcement personnel who palled around with the terrorists, arrests and prosecutions of as many of these terrorists as possible. No mercy. No unity. No reconciliation.

    Watching this shit unfold for the last several hours, I honestly haven’t felt like this since 9/11. Serious shit is coming down, fast and hard, and the people in power need to decide quickly whether they’re going to knuckle down on it, or continue to try to appease it.

    I don’t know when we decided to start negotiating with criminals and terrorists, but it’s not a path that ends well.

  283. 283.

    gene108

    @Martin:

    This is absurd. After 9/11 the FBI interviewed me for hours and hours asking about every muslim student and every muslim faculty member if they’d ever said or done anything that suggested they might be a terrorist.

    I worked for an IT staffing company during that period. In 2002, we hired a Pakistani man, who had recently finished his master’s degree. He was broke. We wired him money for relocation. We got a call from some federal agency questioning this.

    Also in this time period we hired someone on an H1-B visa. He never worked for one employer for very long. He liked to jump at the next job that paid a bit more.

    I got a notice from the FBI that an agent would come to our office to review his employee file, because they found this suspicious.

    The woman agent from the FBI was dressed in business clothes with suit jacket. I was going over the file with her in my office. Her jacket opened a bit, showing she had a gun under it. It’s very unnerving being audited by the government, and more so when the government agent has a gun.

  285. 285.

    jl

    @Spanky: ” Not police? Let them prove it. ”

    Good point. There needs to be a very thorough investigation. News reports say there was plenty of warning. People can argue with whether the overall tactics were correct to stop a lot of shooting from possibly breaking out.

    But the pix of police taking selfies with rioters is enough to start a big investigation.

    The videos of some police totally outnumbered trying to stop the rioters and insurrectionists, and others paling around with them, is shocking. Looks like the boys in blue doing their jobs don’t have all of their colleagues’ support. If that doesn’t start a big investigation, nothing will.

  286. 286.

    trnc

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Do these white people have jobs they are supposed to be doing right now or are they just unemployed rabble?

    Probably unemployed due to the pandemic they consider fake but was actually made worse by the response from their perverted savior. File this in the same compartment that allows these he-men to think the whiniest asshole on earth is a tough guy.

  287. 287.

    cain

    @Kent:

    Also consider that foreign agents will easily have access to Congress and who knows what kind of thing that is going on there in terms of espionage.

  288. 288.

    debbie

    @raven:

    NPR reported similarly and pointed out that the building wasn’t hardened specifically because it is the Peoples House.

  290. 290.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Fair Economist: Oh, I agree there were possibilities. Just not the way they actually did it. I was thinking Reichstag passing the Enabling Act, 1933, where you remove a bunch of members of the legislature beforehand and essentially take the rest hostage and force them to vote the way you want.

    Of course for that, you need to have already established enough control of the rest of society that people don’t immediately say “come on, that’s illegitimate because it’s under duress.” And Trump didn’t have that, but he could have under slightly different circumstances, if he had more focus.

  294. 294.

    Ascap_scab

    Lou Dobbs tonight: These were not Trump supporters, these were Antifa mobsters impersonating Trumpers. That’s why Capitol Police were nowhere to be found.

  295. 295.

    NotMax

    @Leto

    Next up –
    “Chain of custody has been broken, any so far uncounted are therefore suspect and must be thrown out.”

    (wish it were snark)

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