Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Motown is Joe-Town!

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Michelle Obama’s Message for Us Today

Michelle Obama’s Message for Us Today

by | 283 Comments

This post is in: 

Michelle Obama is a treasure.  Full text of her tweet:

Like all of you, I’ve been feeling so many emotions since yesterday. I tried to put my thoughts down here:

I woke up yesterday elated by the news of Reverend Raphael Warnock’s election victory.  He’ll be Georgia’s first Black senator, and I was heartened by the idea that Senior Pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church – the home parish of Dr. King and a spiritual and organizational hub during the Civil Rights Movement – would be representing his state in the united States Senate.

In just a few hours, though, my heart had fallen harder and faster than I can remember. Like all of you, I watched as a gang – organized, violent, and mad they’d lost an election – laid siege to the United States Capitol. They set up gallows. They proudly waved the traitorous flag of the Confederacy through the halls. They desecrated the center of American government.

And once authorities finally gained control of the situation, these rioters and gang members were led out of the building not in handcuffs, but free to carry on with their days.

The day was a fulfillment of the wishes of an infantile and unpatriotic president who can’t handle the truth of his own failures. And the wreckage lays at the feet of a party and media apparatus that gleefully cheered him on, knowing full well the possibility of consequences like these.

It all left me with so many questions – questions about the future, questions about security, extremism, propaganda, and more.

But there’s one question I just can’t shake:  What if these rioters had looked like the folks who go to Ebenezer Baptist Church every Sunday? What would have been different?

I think we all know the answer. This summer’s Black Lives Matter protests were an overwhelmingly peaceful movement — our nation’s largest demonstrations ever, bringing together people of every race and class and encouraging millions to re-examine their own assumptions and behavior.

 And yet, in city after city, day after day, we saw peaceful protestors met with brute force. We saw cracked skulls and mass arrests, law enforcement pepper spraying its way through a peaceful demonstration for a presidential photo op.

And for those who call others unpatriotic for simply taking a knee in silent protest, for those who wonder why we need to be reminded that Black Lives Matter at all, yesterday made it painfully clear that certain Americans are, in fact, allowed to denigrate the flag and symbols of our nation. They’ve just got to look the right way.

What do all those folks have to say now?

Seeing the gulf between the responses to yesterday’s riot and this summer’s peaceful protests and the larger movement for racial justice is so painful. It hurts. And I cannot think about moving on or turning the page until we reckon with the reality of what we saw yesterday. True progress will be possible only once we acknowledge that this disconnect exists and take steps to repair it. And that also means coming to grips with the reality that millions voted for a man so obviously willing to burn our democracy down for his own ego.

I hurt for our country. And I wish I had all the solutions to make things better.  I wish I had the confidence that people who know better will act like it for more than a news cycle or two.  All I know is that now is a time for true patriotism.  Now is the time for those who voted for this president to see the reality of what they’ve supported – and publicly and forcefully rebuke him and the actions of that mob.

Now is the time for Silicon Valley companies to stop enabling this monstrous behavior – and go even further than they have already by permanently banning this man from their platforms and putting in place policies to prevent their technology from being used by the nation’s leaders to fuel insurrection.

And if we have any hope of improving this nation, now is the time for swift and serious consequences for the failure of leadership that led to yesterday’s shame.

Thankfully, even in the darkness, there are glimmers of hope. It’s something I imagine Reverend Warnock has preached about before — and I’m still heartened beyond belief that he’s headed to Washington. I’m glad his fellow Georgian, Jon Ossoff, is, too, and that together they’ll help give control of Congress back to the only party that’s shown that it can put our democracy above its own short-term political fortunes. I pray that every American, especially those who disagree with them, will give our new Congress, President-Elect Biden, and Vice-President-Elect Harris the chance to lead us in a better direction.

But make no mistake. The work of putting America back together, of truly repairing what is broken, isn’t the work of any individual politician or political party.  It’s up to each of us to do our part.  To reach out. To listen.  And to hold tight to the truth and values that have always led this country forward.  It will be an uncomfortable, sometimes painful process.  But if we enter into it with an honest and unwavering love of our country, then maybe we can finally start to heal.

I typed this out so it would be easier to read than in the tweet.  Any mistakes in here are surely mine.

* this is Michelle’s entire statement, but I broke it in two so that only part of it would show above the fold on the front page.

Reader Interactions

283Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    the only party that’s shown that it can put our democracy above its own short-term political fortunes

    Preach, Honorary Jackal.

  5. 5.

    RedDirtGirl

    So powerful. And did anyone see Connor Lamb speaking late last night? Calling out the Rethuglicans as liars. And a phucking GOP’er throws a hissy and needs the truth to be stricken from the record

    Also, too. Has anyone seen Kellyann lately?

  6. 6.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    I hate to point out a typo, but this one stuck out like a sore thumb, and I’m hoping it’s trivial to correct it, or I’m going to feel dumb for wasting a comment on it: “the home parish of Dr. Kina…”.

  9. 9.

    BruceFromOhio

    I typed this out so it would be easier to read than in the tweet.

    Thank you. Michelle is a national treasure, and these words are important. Honestly, I’ve been avoiding BJ because its all twatter, all the time. I realize a lot is happening and it makes easy to get a post together quickly that cites multiple sources.

    But the twitterverse is one step behind the dumpster fire in a world fraught with steaming piles, and I’m avoiding it like the fucking plague it is.

  10. 10.

    Mike in NC

    Once they calculate the cost of the vandalism and theft done to the US Capitol and related buildings by the MAGAts, the bill should go straight to the Trump Organization.

  13. 13.

    debbie

    Did you see that jackass walking out with the Speaker’s podium is trying to sell it on eBay?

  14. 14.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    @WaterGirl: glad to help; I personally have a *terrible* time proofing my own writing. I know what I *meant*, so why didn’t the keyboard get it right :-)?

  16. 16.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    @debbie: I’m flashing on the old show, Baretta, with its theme song Keep Your Eye On The Sparrow, with lines like “don’t do the crime, if you can’t do the time” and I’m just trying to imagine how you’d throw *this* nugget in.

    “don’t ebay stolen good if  your brain ain’t made of wood…”?

  17. 17.

    Suzanne

    I love Michelle so much.

    We cannnnnnnnooooot let Trump and his stooges get away with this. They need to be prosecuted SO HARD.

  18. 18.

    Mary G

    @RedDirtGirl: I was still watching and cheering. Tim Ryan is really growing on me too. He was pumping his fist and when the guys in the back were trying to decide whether to have a baseball fight or commit actual fisticuffs he was up out of his seat first.

  20. 20.

    mesmer a la carte

    Slightly off topic, but related: the behind the scenes video posted by DJT jr shows a very high-end  ‘video village’ with multiple monitors for the various cameras and a very attentive DJT looking on like a producer prior to his inciting hate speech.  The rally trappings themselves are all very professional – detailed staging, high resolution screens, etc.  This was all clearly planned and well in advance.  Here’s my point: who paid for this and who organized it?  I’ve seen nothing about who sponsored the rally in any news/social media accounts.  Anyone have insight?

  21. 21.

    Leto

    @Suzanne:

    Michael Beschloss@BeschlossDC

    “A White House official tells me that people in the West Wing today are ‘depressed’ and that those without jobs already lined up are concerned that they’re unemployable,” says @elainaplott
    .
    6:01 PM · Jan 7, 2021

    Maybe they’ll have to get real jobs like portapotty cleaner, Alaska lobster fisherman (dude hauling the traps in, not the captain), or sweatshop laborer.

  22. 22.

    gene108

    * this is Michelle’s entire statement, but I broke it in two so that only part of it would show above the fold on the front page.

    So Balloon-Juice is finally resorting to clickbait

  24. 24.

    gene108

    @Leto:

    I’m thinking meat packing plants. They don’t look to closely at people’s prior work history, and stuff.

  25. 25.

    different-church-lady

    @Leto: Only a matter of time before we get a 21st century reenactment of Charles Sumner getting beaten with a cane in the Senate chamber.

  28. 28.

    gene108

    @karen marie:

    Did the rioters all go home? No second act?

    The second act is being planned for January 19, 2021.

    I don’t think most people are aware, but the crazies on Parler are posting their insurrection plans for all to see. They’re not very smart, but they’re still dangerous. This was shared with me, and others should share it. pic.twitter.com/jMABLcQLhH— ?That F*cking Fangirl?| BLM ✊? (@f_ckingfangirl) January 7, 2021

  29. 29.

    Suzanne

    @Leto: Unemployable?! My heart, it bleeds.

    Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.

    They could go do work like landscaping, hotel housekeeping, bussing tables, unskilled construction…. you know, all the things that undocumented immigrants do that white people won’t. They could be the change.

  32. 32.

    Patricia Kayden

    Nazis urinated in the offices of Members of Congress in the Capitol yesterday, according to Hakeem Jeffries (Congressman from New York). A memorial to the late John Lewis is also “missing.”— Lisa Goldman (@lisang) January 7, 2021

  34. 34.

    namekarB

    Michelle Obama = 21st Century Eleanor Roosevelt. No, actually Michelle is leaps and bounds above Eleanor

  42. 42.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Patricia Kayden: I’m sure every one of them was also carrying his/her cell phone.

    Remember when, back during the 2013/2014 Maidan demonstrations in Ukraine, the government had the cellular carriers send an SMS to every phone there saying “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance”? Subpoena location records from TM/VZW/ATT.

  46. 46.

    Danielx

    @Leto: 

    I’m told there are openings for shitpickers in Gas City, IN.

    “Every Indiana girl’s dream – a double wide in Gas City!”

  50. 50.

    JPL

    DeVos resigned. hahahahahahahahah

    What Mary said.    They are jumping ship because they are fearful, that they will have to make a decision about the 25th amendment.

  51. 51.

    Danielx

    @gene108:

    Off the top of my head, I’d say that with a police officer being killed they’d be much better off staying at home, because the cops are not going to be in a particularly good mood. No selfies with cops this time.

  53. 53.

    No name

    @WaterGirl: You are the best!  Just had seen a link to this tweet, saw the format and was just about to fumble for my reading glasses when your post appeared!  Thank you.

  54. 54.

    CarolPW

    @Patricia Kayden: The WaPo had a photo series of damage in the Capitol and the people cleaning it up. And there was a photo of a woman masked and gloved with a small flashlight shining it at the wall. I remembered the flashlights that health professionals use to detect mouse urine, and it ocurred to me she must be doing the same thing.

  55. 55.

    trollhattan

    @Mary G:

    They all seem to think as long as there’s a parachute left on board they can jump out at the last second and save their reputations. Yeah, good luck with that folks.

  56. 56.

    Elizabelle

    I love that Michelle called out the responsible parties.  She writes honestly and clearly.  She calls out the radical right leaders and enablers, not just Trump whom, again, she never calls by name. “Media apparatus.”  Will use that phrase in the future.

    … The day was a fulfillment of the wishes of an infantile and unpatriotic president who can’t handle the truth of his own failures. And the wreckage lays at the feet of a party and media apparatus that gleefully cheered him on, knowing full well the possibility of consequences like these.

    … Seeing the gulf between the responses to yesterday’s riot and this summer’s peaceful protests and the larger movement for racial justice is so painful. It hurts. And I cannot think about moving on or turning the page until we reckon with the reality of what we saw yesterday. …  And that also means coming to grips with the reality that millions voted for a man so obviously willing to burn our democracy down for his own ego.

    …  Now is the time for Silicon Valley companies to stop enabling this monstrous behavior – and go even further than they have already by permanently banning this man from their platforms and putting in place policies to prevent their technology from being used by the nation’s leaders to fuel insurrection.

    And if we have any hope of improving this nation, now is the time for swift and serious consequences for the failure of leadership that led to yesterday’s shame.

  58. 58.

    raven

    Updated at 8:48 p.m. ET

    U.S. Capitol Police say the report that one of its officers had died after being assaulted by violent protesters loyal to President Trump is not accurate. NPR incorrectly reported the death based on information from a well-placed source.

    “Although some officers were injured and hospitalized yesterday, no USCP officers have passed away,” Capitol Police said in a statement. “We ask that our officers’ and their families’ privacy be respected at this time. Should a statement become necessary, the Department will issue one at the appropriate time.”

  60. 60.

    Mary G

    Oops! Maybe joining a violent terrorist group in committing an insurrection wasn’t such a good idea:

    Paul Davis, Associate General Counsel, is no longer employed by Goosehead.— Goosehead Insurance (@followgoosehead) January 7, 2021

    Must have slept through criminal law.
    Another guy wore his work badge into the Capitol and has also been summarily fired.

  61. 61.

    Elizabelle

    Really thoughtful of you to type that out, WG.  It was hard to read in its original format, and could not be copied.

    Deserved a wider audience.

  63. 63.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud:

    Updated at 8:48 p.m. ET

    U.S. Capitol Police say the report that one of its officers had died after being assaulted by violent protesters loyal to President Trump is not accurate. NPR incorrectly reported the death based on information from a well-placed source.

    “Although some officers were injured and hospitalized yesterday, no USCP officers have passed away,” Capitol Police said in a statement. “We ask that our officers’ and their families’ privacy be respected at this time. Should a statement become necessary, the Department will issue one at the appropriate time.”

    NPR 

  64. 64.

    Elizabelle

    @raven:   Good to know.

    I was wondering why there had been no mention of any grievously injured officers in all the earlier coverage today.

    Could never find the story in the WaPost, either.

  67. 67.

    Ken

    @Mary G: I don’t think there was any consensus in yesterday’s discussion of whether “acting” cabinet secretaries counted for 25th amendment purposes.  But if they all resign, then does Pence become the sole vote?

  72. 72.

    Baud

    If the House impeaches, Trump will be the only president impeached twice in one term by two Congresses.

  75. 75.

    WaterGirl

    @Elizabelle: The earlier article said the officer was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, had a stroke from that, and was on life support.

    The office may not have died or perhaps the family is still deciding about life support, but unless the whole story was totally wrong, the officer was grievously injured.

  81. 81.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I think they basically have to impeach.  I hope there are enough members of the House who are willing to do it.

    Even Ted Lieu agrees with me.  :-)

    Actually, I would be fine with Trump agreeing to resign so that he wouldn’t be impeached.  That would be even better.  But there’s no one who will tell him the truth, so I don’t see that happening.

  82. 82.

    BretH

    Check Trump’s twitter for his “please don’t impeach me or take away my social media privileges” speech.

  87. 87.

    WaterGirl

    I am still flying high about our two new senators from Georgia.  Jon Ossoff make a great video where he declared victory.  No concession from Perdue yet, of course, but Kelly Loeffler conceded.  She is light a slightly less greasy KellyAnne Conway and I am glad that I will not have to look at her anymore.

  89. 89.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Mary G: Betsy will probably  take off in one of her 50 yachts  to Dubai and get her brother to provide her some mercenary protection in case one of those pesky QAnon nutjobs decided to come after her.

  90. 90.

    Tokyokie

    You want an idea of what it would have looked like had these been BLM protesters? Watch the Odessa Steps sequence in Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin.

  92. 92.

    Baud

    Oh wow.  DeVos didn’t just resign. She called out Trump.

    Via LGM

    NEWS: Betsy DeVos has resigned, writing in a letter to the president: “There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me.” https://t.co/Kiq4WwbKhh

    — Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) January 8, 2021

  93. 93.

    CarolPW

    @WaterGirl: Mouse urine flashlights were developed because of hantavirus danger. Urine is urine, so mouse flashlights would detect human urine too. She was shining the light about 3 ft up the wall, not mouse urine height.

    It is a crime scene. And people working there would probably prefer urine to be cleaned from the walls.

  98. 98.

    Anya

    @WaterGirl: I am glad Rep. Conor Lamb defended his state and called out these craven liars. They can’t handle the truth. They just want to hide behind their lies without anyone pointing it out.

  100. 100.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: The other 9,999 awful things he has done weren’t bad enough for her.  Kids in cages, no problem.  Good people on both sides, no problem.  Paper towels is the best he’s got for Puerto Rico, no problem.

    Fuck her.

  101. 101.

    Another Scott

    @BretH:

    THERE IS NO NEW TONE, LITERALLY HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO DO THIS, THERE HAS LITERALLY NEVER BEEN ONE TIME WHERE HIS PREWRITTEN FORCED READINGS EVER STUCK WHAT ARE YOU DOING

    — Asawin Suebsaeng (@swin24) January 8, 2021

    +1

    (via Popehat)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  119. 119.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Speaking of the clean up

    Chris Gayomali @chrisgayomali 2h
    Congressman @AndyKimNJ stayed at the Capitol until 3am this morning helping to clean up the mess

    Andy Kim might well win the award for the most emails I get from a candidate I’ve never (directly) donated to (unless he’s part of one of DougJ’s groups). I may just have to send him $25 after seeing this.
    (Val Demmings on The Rachel Maddow Program. I really would love to see her in the Senate. She’s damn impressive)

  120. 120.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @lgerard:

    KellyAnne had a thing at Breitbart yesterday absolutely roasting trump

    Conway? Isn’t she still on his staff?

  121. 121.

    WaterGirl

    wow, I clicked a link in another thread and found both of these things.

    Brian Schatz tweeting that:
    The Capitol Police leadership turned down backup. My blood is boiling.

    and Kyle Cheney tweeting that:

    PELOSI says the acting Secretary of Defense “has to answer for where the National Guard was yesterday.”

    Holy cow.  (No idea who Kyle Cheney is but Brian Schatz is definitely believable.)

  122. 122.

    Anya

    Rachel showed a clip of a prayer protest in 2017, when Rev. Raphael Warnock and other clergy women and men were arrested for…praying. She contrast that with what happened yesterday.

  123. 123.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @WaterGirl: this was Maddow’s opening segment, Gov Larry Hogan talking about the delay in sending back up because the SefDef wouldn’t authorize it. He finally got a call from the Sec of the Army. From what I’ve seen, Pence was in contact with the military, working around trump. People are calling it the “soft 25th Amendment”.

    (Kyle Cheney is a Politico reporter)

  124. 124.

    lgerard

    @WaterGirl:

    Yes

    He said trump was “all talk and no action” and spent all his time watching TV.  She portrayed him as having the “right ideas” but unable to execute them due to incompetence.

    She reserved the real vitriol for Jared and Ivanka, so I guess that bridge has been thoroughly burned.

    Hopefully she disappears forever

  126. 126.

    Gravenstone

    @WaterGirl: taught Human Sexuality

    Ah this brings to mind one of the most famously apocryphal statements uttered from such a class, “if it’s mostly sugars, why does it taste so salty?”

  128. 128.

    Mary G

    @WaterGirl: It really did feel like a movie – Georgia voters did Gandalf coming down the mountain with the Rohan just when it lools like all lost and Moscow Mitch is planning Obama Administration 2.0.

  130. 130.

    Martin

    @WaterGirl: This is what I was saying in the prior thread. This was not an implementation problem – the system broke. Badly. The media now see this. Lawmakers now see this. The consequences here need to be severe. Severe enough for changes to the system to take.

    The way you stop an insurrection is to start by calling it an insurrection and charge people as if it were an insurrection. Putting people’s moms in prison for a decade because they were irresponsible enough to believe shit on Facebook as sufficient to overthrow the government.

  131. 131.

    Ken

    @WaterGirl: But what does “can I peg you, Seth Rogan, mean?

    When a man and a woman love one another very much, with some help from the plastics industry….  At least, assuming the Urban Dictionary has it right.

  133. 133.

    Martin

    BTW, yesterday was a great case for why DC should get statehood. They wouldn’t have had to rely on Trump to call in the national guard against his own supporters. DC by virtue of having a governor could have done that independently.

  134. 134.

    Anya

    Jon Ossoff’s win being outside of the recount threshold is one of the good news we didn’t get to celebrate yesterday because of the coup attempt. The only disappointing this is I found that Rev. Warnock will not serve a full term. Damn. Still happy though.

  135. 135.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Just Fyi, next time you can just use ThreadUnroller app (there’s a couple others, Scroller is another I think) to tie all the tweets together in one place, in stead of copy/paste or transcribing it all.

  137. 137.

    Feathers

    @WaterGirl: I saw reporting that he was on life support, but that they were waiting for family to come to say goodbye before removing, so the initial reports may well have been correct.

    Note: I worked at an organ bank. This is also what would happen if the officer had designated themselves as an organ donor. The donor is kept on life support until matches for organs are found and also to bring the organs back to a healthy state after whatever trauma caused the donor’s death. It’s a weird twilight sort of situation. Also, almost all organ banks have social workers who are handling the family and requests for someone to be allowed to come and say goodbye are honored wherever they can be. Don’t know if it is the case everywhere, but the social workers at organ banks are amazing. Sign up to be an organ donor if only that your family will be supported in your passing. I remember talking to a woman who told me that all these years after her husband died, no one else remembered the anniversary, but she got a thank you card from the organ bank donors support group every year.

    Note: I do not know if this is the case, but it fits with the facts as presented and with what I know of how the end of life experience happens if someone has decided to give the gift of life – their organs.

  139. 139.

    p.a.

    Greg P Miller, WaPo Nat’l Security Reporter: tRump’s newbie appointees at DoD refused DC Guard requests for riot gear & ammo.

  140. 140.

    WaterGirl

    @Mary G: Exactly!  Perfect.

    The crazy thing is that Stacey Abrams set Georgia in motion either in 2010 or 2014, I forget which, when she started the New Georgia project.  This absolutely happened when we needed it most.

    I am so grateful.  Yesterday would have been 1000x worse if we hadn’t already known that we had won the senate with the 2 georgia races.

    What if yesterday had happened the day BEFORE Jan 5?  It might have changed the outcome.  I’m just so grateful that they won.

  141. 141.

    Leto

    Natasha Bertrand@NatashaBertrand
    Replying to
    @NatashaBertrand
    Meanwhile, a current Metro D.C. police officer on the scene yesterday said in a public Facebook post that off-duty police officers and members of the military, who were among the rioters, flashed their badges and I.D. cards as they attempted to overrun the Capitol

    And

    Brad Heath@bradheath

    One of the guys charged during the Capitol siege just told the judge that he’s a federal employee.

    5:39 PM · Jan 7, 2021

  149. 149.

    WaterGirl

    @Ken: Got it!  I was confused on two fronts, what “peg you” meant and also Seth Rogen.  Who is the really conservative awful person whose name is similar to Seth Rogen?  Or maybe that is Seth Rogen?

  154. 154.

    WaterGirl

    @Martin: Oh, sorry, I thought your reply to me above was about something different.  Yeah, I copied your comment earlier when i replied about the 30,000 foot view, in case it turns out to be something to front page.  thanks for that.

  156. 156.

    WaterGirl

    @Leto: We suspected, but there’s a difference between suspecting and knowing.  Maybe this is what we needed in order for the pendulum to start swinging back in the other direction.

  157. 157.

    Spanky

    @Leto:

    Meanwhile, a current Metro D.C. police officer on the scene yesterday said in a public Facebook post that off-duty police officers and members of the military, who were among the rioters, flashed their badges and I.D. cards as they attempted to overrun the Capitol

    This is my shocked face. It was the most obvious explanation for the way those fuckers were treated.

  161. 161.

    Elizabelle

    @Martin:   Well, I am bringing your comment forward.  Had missed it on earlier thread, and it’s very good.

    THIS COMMENT IS BY MARTIN:  (was #167 on previous thread):

    This isn’t dying down. It’s escalating. There are more and more reports regarding how much planning was involved in this.

    This doesn’t have a ‘we need to move on’ tone to it. Remember how Obama would always tell us that we needed to make him make the change we wanted? He was telling us he needed political support, his response was attenuated to our anger or outrage, etc. That’s how government often works and we’re getting clearer signs that there was more coordination here, that this wasn’t a crowd out of control but a planned insurrection effort.

    Understand too that the media play a role here as well as they serve to either magnify that message or to tone it down. Swalwell wants investigations on members of congress or their staff because of how efficiently the insurrectionists were able to find key offices of people that even people who work in the building struggle to find. Adam believes that normally locked doors may have been unlocked by people in the building. Some DC police are reporting that some insurrectionists flashed badges on the way in.

    There’s problems which are failures of execution – we had a good plan to prevent this thing, but it didn’t work. And there are problems which are failures of the system. This is looking more and more like a failure of the system. Why did the FBI refuse to support more security. It wasn’t that they weren’t asked – they were, and they refused. This was planned in the open – the FBI can’t claim that they couldn’t get intel on this. That’s their job, and it wasn’t done. I’m guessing we’ll soon learn that analysts were calling for more security but Wray or someone right under him denied it, not wanting to anger the president. And we can’t claim it was a one-off when other state government locations were also stormed. That’s a coordinated effort.

    We tend to downplay failures of execution because it means the system was working, just not as well as needed. Its not like we need to pass major legislation or do restructuring of the government. Work needs to be done but it’s done within the existing framework. Media is pretty good at recognizing this and sort of talking everyone down.

    Failures of the system are much more serious. They require rethinking the existing framework. Media do the opposite – they amplify here because they recognize that the political will needs to be built for this much larger lift. We’re seeing that happening now. WSJ calling for resignation, calls for 25th amendment, even when it seems we might need to just ride out 13 more days. Resignation of cabinet members.

    Lack of remorse from participants indicates that the lesson hasn’t been learned, and a much more substantial action needs to be taken. The GOP scapegoating others suggests that we can’t move on. If they acknowledged their role, you could maybe get by with federal trespassing and a censure of Hawley and Cruz. But they don’t. Clearly we need a MUCH  bigger hammer here, and a charge of insurrection is a very big hammer, and a very broad one. It lets the feds go after entire militia groups. It lets the feds go after lawmakers and Fox hosts that stoked this.

    The other reason is that the tone of lawmakers and the media tells us something about what they know, but can’t say, either because it’s secret, or unverified. And their tone indicates that there are more alarming revelations coming.

  163. 163.

    Kent

    @Leto: Maybe they’ll have to get real jobs like portapotty cleaner, Alaska lobster fisherman (dude hauling the traps in, not the captain), or sweatshop laborer.

    That would be a pretty shitty job as there are no lobsters within 1000 miles of Alaska.

    King crab on the other hand….

  164. 164.

    Elizabelle

    @ Martin:

    the tone of lawmakers and the media tells us something about what they know, but can’t say, either because it’s secret, or unverified. And their tone indicates that there are more alarming revelations coming.

    Can you be more specific/examples?

  166. 166.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    NYT report on the terrorists :

    “We wanted to have a few words” with Mr. Schumer, he said. “He’s probably the most corrupt guy up here. You don’t hear too much about him. But he’s slimy. You can just see it.”

    slimy… you can just see it…. all has a ring to it, doesn’t it?

    But they could not find Mr. Schumer’s office. He said they asked a Capitol Police officer, who tried to direct them.

    they got directions, which they couldn’t follow, but they got directions, from a CP officer.

  167. 167.

    Kent

    Meanwhile, a current Metro D.C. police officer on the scene yesterday said in a public Facebook post that off-duty police officers and members of the military, who were among the rioters, flashed their badges and I.D. cards as they attempted to overrun the Capitol.

    They are all on camera and facial recognition will find them, especially if they are police or military.  Do as Trump says and toss every last damn one of them in prison for 10 year Federal sentences as Trump suggested should be the penalty for attacking a Federal building last summer.

    No one on the right wing should care or make a peep about that since they were really all just undercover ANTIFA as Fox and the rest of their media are now telling us.

  170. 170.

    Nicole

    @Anya:The only disappointing this is I found that Rev. Warnock will not serve a full term.

    He can run for the full term in two years, and it’s probably better that his was the seat won by the more comfortable margin as I think it bodes better for 2 years from now.  I know I’ll be writing postcards again for him.

  173. 173.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Many said they would not have tried to go in, but they sympathized with those who had.
    “I’m not going in there, but, yeah, I’m kind of OK with it,” said Lisa Todd, 56, a high school teacher from Raleigh, N.C. She was standing with three friends, all fellow teachers.

    that is so fucking depressing

  174. 174.

    Another Scott

    @Nicole: I can imagine his constituent service is going to be stellar.  He’s going to be very hard to beat if there’s any justice in 2022.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  175. 175.

    MoCA Ace

    @WaterGirl:

    Probably not the first but I read that as “to execute Trump or get him to resign” and I’m like fuck yeah Lieu… count me in!

  177. 177.

    Elizabelle

    Margaret Sullivan, WaPost ombudsman and honorary jackal:
    The pro-Trump media world peddled the lies that fueled the Capitol mob. Fox News led the way.

    “Fair and balanced” was the original Fox News lie, one of the rotten planks that built the foundation for Wednesday’s democratic disaster.

    Over decades, with that false promise accepted as gospel by millions of devotees, Fox News radicalized a nation and spawned more extreme successors such as Newsmax and One America News.

    Day after day, hour after hour, Fox gave its viewers something that looked like news or commentary but far too often lacked sufficient adherence to a necessary ingredient: truth.

    Birtherism. The caravan invasion. Covid denialism. Rampant election fraud. All of these found a comfortable home at Fox.

    In the Trump era, the network — now out of favor for not being quite as shameless as the president demands — was his best friend and promoter. So to put it bluntly: The mob that stormed and desecrated the Capitol on Wednesday could not have existed in a country that hadn’t been radicalized by the likes of Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, and swayed by biased news coverage.

    …. Is Fox the only culprit? Of course not. Social media — the president’s corrosive Twitter feed and the conspiracy-coddling hotbed of Parler — have played their necessary role. Facebook and YouTube, too.

    …. Success has many fathers, goes the aphorism, while failure is an orphan. But Wednesday’s indelible stain on American democracy turns out to be the one with many parents: Trump himself; his lawyer Rudy Giuliani who called Wednesday morning for “trial by combat”; the crazies of Q-Anon; the dark rabbit holes of social media; and the appalling Republican enablers and fomenters, led by Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who was shameless enough to send out a fundraising appeal even as the invasion was underway.

    Many fathers. But the pro-Trump media — led by Fox News — has earned its disgraceful place near the top of the list of infamy.

    They own this.

  178. 178.

    Benw

    I miss ABL on this site. She would articulate much better than I can how this was not a failure of the system, but rather the system working as designed.

  180. 180.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Elizabelle:

    And their tone indicates that there are more alarming revelations coming.

    I tend to look askance at conspiracy theories, but Swalwell made a point on MSNBC when he was suggesting inside help: They found, and looted, the Parliamentarian’s office. He said he isn’t sure he could have found the Parliamentarian’s office and (my words not his) these fucking goobers don’t know what a Parliamentarian is or does. They couldn’t spell Parliamentarian if you spotted them the consonants.

  185. 185.

    Anya

    My fave TikTok is Gen Z kids publicly dragging their seditious parents and exposing them for being part of a mob that tried to overthrow the government.

  190. 190.

    Elizabelle

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:   I was in my car yesterday when I heard the Capitol had been breached.  I thought pretty quickly it may have been help from staff.

    It did not occur to me it might be Capitol Police.

    But, why not both?

  194. 194.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Nicole: don’t forget Kemp is up in 2 years as well and if Stacey Abrams runs against him she better have a massive war chest with every big Dem star coming out for GOTV.

  195. 195.

    Martin

    @Elizabelle: So, little details. NYT is reporting more details regarding Capitol Police assisting the insurrectionists. The refusal to accept help from other agencies. The breakdown of chain of command among federal agencies and the Pentagon.

    I mean, one way of supporting this is to simply stand down – simply don’t prepare for what you think is coming, and there is reporting that federal agencies knew this was coming but they refused to deploy. Some agencies didn’t want to anger the president. Some agencies didn’t want to deploy if other agencies were standing down.

    I think what will surface is that this was a failure at many levels, and that doesn’t happen by accident, not in a place like DC that is so, so, so practiced at this kind of stuff.

    And the other reason why I don’t think this will be a slap on the wrist is that Congress isn’t expressing outrage on behalf of others. They were the ones sheltering in place, active shooter style. Some of them had family there. We’re learning the insurrectionists brought semi automatic weapons, molotovs, waiting to hear what the guy with zip cuffs brought them for, why they were telling supporters to bring sleeping bags and food. How much was this styled on the Michigan operation that intended to take members of the legislature hostage and execute them.

    And the reach of this is also alarming. Federal employees participating? A WV legislator? NYT reported on 3 high school teachers that were there. It cannot stand that teachers participate in an insurrection and get off with a minor trespassing charge. These weren’t fringe individuals like we normally think of them – loners. This has reached into a lot of mainstream populations and you aren’t going to deprogram them treating them like a disorderly protestor.

  197. 197.

    Elizabelle

    @Leto:

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Three days before supporters of President Donald Trump rioted at the Capitol, the Pentagon asked the U.S Capitol Police if it needed National Guard manpower. And as the mob descended on the building Wednesday, Justice Department leaders reached out to offer up FBI agents. The police turned them down both times, according to senior defense officials and two people familiar with the matter.

    Despite plenty of warnings of a possible insurrection and ample resources and time to prepare, the Capitol Police planned only for a free speech demonstration.

    …. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said that as the rioting was underway, it became clear that the Capitol Police were overrun. But he said there was no contingency planning done in advance for what forces could do in case of a problem at the Capitol because Defense Department help was turned down. “They’ve got to ask us, the request has to come to us,” said McCarthy.

    Still stinging from the uproar over the violent response by law enforcement to protests last June near the White House, officials also were intent on avoiding any appearance that the federal government was deploying active duty or National Guard troops against Americans.

    … Ed Davis, a former Boston police commissioner who led the department during the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing: “Was there a structural feeling that well, these are a bunch of conservatives, they’re not going to do anything like this? Quite possibly,” Davis said. “That’s where the racial component to this comes into play in my mind. Was there a lack of urgency or a sense that this could never happen with this crowd? Is that possible? Absolutely.”

    …. The Justice Department, FBI and other agencies began to monitor hotels, flights and social media for weeks and were expecting large crowds. Mayor Muriel Bowser had warned of impending violence for weeks, and businesses had closed in anticipation. She requested National Guard help from the Pentagon on Dec. 31, but the Capitol Police turned down the Jan. 3 offer from the Defense Department, according to Kenneth Rapuano, assistant defense secretary for homeland security.

     

  198. 198.

    Skepticat

    @Kent: That would be a pretty shitty job as there are no lobsters within 1000 miles of Alaska.

    Which is all the more reason to have them out there on the cold, unforgiving sea looking for them. They’ll be busy and out of our way.

  199. 199.

    WaterGirl

    @Benw: Take a look at Martin’s comment that Elizabelle copied to #161 in this thread.  It seems like Martin takes the opposite view.  Can you explain why you think this was the system working properly?

    No help for hours, thousands of people scaling the walls like an embassy that is being overrun?

    I don’t get it, but maybe I am missing something.

  200. 200.

    Nicole

    @Mai Naem mobile: I’m so hopeful.  I mean, Abrams needs to do whatever she feels is best for her own career, but yeah, I sure hope she’ll think about running for governor again if it’s what she wants.

  201. 201.

    Elizabelle

    @Martin:   This could be helpful in the long run, while painful in the short.

    The radical right — who think of themselves as conservatives — are embedded in law enforcement and the military, and we need to weed them out.

    You’re right about the reach of this insurrectionist fervor.  Teachers, nurses.

    It’s too bad there is so much money and power to be had in turning Americans feral.

  202. 202.

    WaterGirl

    @Mary G: That was actually pretty smart – she wanted people to have to see the whole thing and not cherry pick things out of context.

    I decided she wouldn’t mind if I typed it out because we are Michelle-friendly here.

  203. 203.

    planetjanet

    @WaterGirl: @WaterGirl: I believe @Benw is saying that ABL’s cynical view is the system was (covertly) designed to discriminate between black people and white people. The police were created to suppress minorities.

  206. 206.

    Felanius Kootea

    @WaterGirl:  The argument I’ve seen goes: imagine that Black Lives Matter protestors were scaling those walls. What would have happened? Why didn’t it happen with these pro-Trump protestors? System working as designed – protects one set of people but makes (often lethal) examples of another set.

  207. 207.

    Ken

    @Yutsano: I would like to report a murder by a Kiwi.

    Oh, that kind of Kiwi. Being pecked to death by the bird would be such an embarrassing way to go.

  208. 208.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    from MO’s OP:

    They proudly waved the traitorous flag of the Confederacy through the halls.

    Has that goober been named yet?

  210. 210.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ken: or pelted by hundreds of little fuzzy fruit

    I imagine they’d have to be un-ripe to cause physical damage

  211. 211.

    WaterGirl

    @Leto: With every article I read, I become more and more distressed by the awfulness and the malignant intent of people who are supposed to be protecting our lawmakers.  Not quite sure what to do with my rage and anxiety.

  212. 212.

    WaterGirl

    @Martin: I have also been wondering what impact this might have on legislation re: guns and schools, now that legislators have (sort of) gotten to experience the immediate threat of violence and being locked in, fearing for your life.

  214. 214.

    Martin

    @WaterGirl: It’s a difference of focus. I think he’s arguing that we have a system that is designed to not treat white males as threats, even when they’re standing in the Michigan capitol armed to the teeth. And to that point I agree.

    But that’s not what I’m describing. There’s a cultural foundation on what you need to put laws and infrastructure around, and there’s the laws and infrastructure itself. We’re most guilty of the cultural failures – what Benw I believe is describing. But once you put the laws and infrastructure in place, they should just work  (even if in a biased way). That doors that should be locked will be locked, that employees that should be deployed will be deployed. And there seems to be a lot there which just didn’t happen like it was supposed to.

    The cultural stuff, the places we choose to put government is what elected officials do. The mechanical stuff I’m describing is the work of the career professionals  – the ones that shouldn’t bring their politics to work.  That’s the wrong layer for things to break down, and when they break down badly, I get suspicious.

  218. 218.

    gene108

    @Feathers:

    I remember talking to a woman who told me that all these years after her husband died, no one else remembered the anniversary, but she got a thank you card from the organ bank donors support group every year.

    As a transplant recipient we get little information about the donor other than a rough age range. Cause of death isn’t really disclosed.

    We did send a thank you card through the transplant coordinator’s office to give to the family.

  219. 219.

    Leto

    @WaterGirl: hope that it goes the way Martin is talking about: full fledged unrelenting Federal probes. None of this “Hunter Biden laptop” bullshit, or the fucking “Russia Collusion Origins” bullshit DoJ members are “working” on now. The country has dicked around too long. It’s time to do the hard work. It’s going to get ugly but it has to be done. There’s no alternative, at least not one that I want to be a part of.

  221. 221.

    Benw

    @WaterGirl: Yeah I’m making a mistake disagreeing with Martin but here goes. This is what happens when the protestors are white, the difference in how the BLM marches were treated vs this sedition is madenening

  222. 222.

    WaterGirl

    @Felanius Kootea: Yeah, I completely get that part.  Benw and Martin were both using the word “system” but in completely different ways.  I was reading Benw’s comment with Martin’s comments in mind.  On every level what was done was so wrong.  I was going to say “what happened was wrong”, but the word “happened” completely hides the deliberate nature of all of it.

    It’s the stuff on nightmares.

  223. 223.

    Jay

    You have to understand they don’t think they’ve done anything wrong. They’re just starting. They have lists of targets. They’ve been planning stuff like this for a very long time.— Hilary Sargent (@lilsarg) January 7, 2021

  224. 224.

    Kent

    @Martin: Capitol Police might need to fire all the white males on the force (along with police forces across the country) “until our country’s representatives can figure out what’s going on”

  227. 227.

    Punchy

    Josh Marshall says this correctly:  you either hunt these fuckers down and put them in steel cages for the next decade, or you’ve invited them to do this every 2 years.   Put up or shut up, Biden DoJ.

  228. 228.

    Martin

    @WaterGirl: Big change requires big crisis. This is big crisis. Clearly soft-walking gun control ain’t working. Losing some votes in Indiana starts looking like not such a big deal compared to having the government overrun by those folks in Indiana.

    I think electoral reform gets more urgency. I think media accountability and hate speech gets more accountability. I think right wing terrorism gets more accountability. I think the President loses some power. I think Congress oversight responsibility gets a huge boost. Above all else, I hope Congress takes the gloves off and uses the power they were given.

  229. 229.

    WaterGirl

    @Martin: Yeah, that’s what I was getting at when I figured out that you were both using the word “system” but were talking about entirely different things.

    I agree with what Benw was saying, now that I understand what he was saying.  I also agree with what you are saying.

  230. 230.

    Martin

    @Benw: I don’t think we’re in disagreement at all. I 100% agree with what your saying. This is like showing up to the DMV and discovering nobody bothered to come to work. That’s not a function of the decision to only put DMVs in white neighborhoods, it’s a more foundational problem, when the civil servants that run the day to day go off the reservation.

    There both bad, but one we’re attenuated to and understand (but disagree) with why it happened, and the other is more ‘WTF is going on here’ because it just doesn’t happen.

  231. 231.

    Kent

    @Nicole:

    @Anya:The only disappointing this is I found that Rev. Warnock will not serve a full term.

    He can run for the full term in two years, and it’s probably better that his was the seat won by the more comfortable margin as I think it bodes better for 2 years from now.  I know I’ll be writing postcards again for him.

    I’d lay odds that his opponent will be Doug Collins again, who took third in the primary.  He was the long-time GOP tea partier congressman who thought he should have gotten the appointment over Loeffler in the first place.

  232. 232.

    Jay

    Our CEO, Brad Rukstales' participated in the recent Washington DC protests. Those actions were his own and not acting on behalf Cogensia nor do his actions in any way reflect the policies or values of our firm. He has been placed on leave of absence while we assess further.— Cogensia (@Cogensia) January 8, 2021

  233. 233.

    Martin

    Coons calls for Hawley and Cruz to resign. Not exactly the radical left wing of the party calling for this. And while it doesn’t sound like a big thing, it’s a big thing in the Senate to call a fellow member to resign.

  236. 236.

    Ken

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’ve heard that the most physically dangerous fruit is the Brazil nut.  The tree grows well over 100 feet high, and the fruits weigh up to 5 pounds. (The nuts we eat fit together inside the fruits, like orange segments.) When ripe, they drop.

  237. 237.

    WaterGirl

    @Benw:

    Yeah I’m making a mistake disagreeing with Martin but here goes.

    This is what happens when the protestors are white, the difference in how the BLM marches were treated vs this sedition is maddenning.

    You’re not disagreeing with Martin at all.  You were just talking about something else entirely.

    I agree with every word of your second sentence.  It’s wrong and it’s maddening.

    I was really glad to see Michelle Obama call it out as plainly as she did, because maybe people will be able to hear it from her.  Biden called it out plainly today, too.

    it’s way too late and it will be too slow because it’s too late and because it’s hard to turn a big boat around, but I think we will start to see changes on this front very soon.  That gives me hope.

    I just don’t know how we root out all the rot in our law enforcement, at every level.

  238. 238.

    Feathers

    Axe Body Spray has weighed in on the can left behind: https://twitter.com/AXE/status/1347325351668682752?s=20

    We’d rather be lonely than with that mob. AXE condemns yesterday’s acts of violence and hate at the Capitol. We believe in the democratic process and the peaceful transition of power.

    Being called out by Axe has to hurt. I wonder if the can was taken in evidence and wiped for fingerprints. Imagining detectives of the future. “We ran the prints and got a match. They were found on a can of Axe Body Spray left behind in the Capitol in the 2021 coup attempt. Does this sound like any of our suspects?”

  239. 239.

    Elizabelle

    WaPost satirist Alexandra Petri wrote a serious column about yesterday.

    We love you. You’re very special. Go home.

    … Trump’s long-ago boast that “when you’re a star, they let you do it” has dangled over everything that followed. His presidency has been a harrowing survey of the things that are possible if nobody stops you. The norms he eroded, from his unreleased tax returns to his insults to his firings by tweet, his phone calls, his impeachable offenses — it is amazing, after all, what you can do, if no one bothers to get in your way. And now, here was democracy, standing athwart the will of Trump and his people.

    So when Trump urged these disciples to march on Congress, they did.

    This story is not unrelated to the American dream: a story about who deserves things simply by virtue of who they are, and who doesn’t; who is instantly presumed to be a true countryman, who will be told to go back to a place they never came from. It is a story about who gets to go where, who gets to exist safely in public, and who is only there on sufferance. It is a story about who gets to be real.

    It is not a surprise that Trump has thrilled white nationalists and white supremacists, Proud Boys and xenophobes and misogynists, those to whom being more real than others is so important.

    … [Trump] has always known whom he was addressing. “You’re strong, you’re smarter … you’re the real people,” he told his crowd Wednesday. “You’re the people that built this nation. You’re not the people that tore down this nation.”

    He has been dividing the country into us and them for as long as he has been in public. For them, a full-page ad calling for the death penalty. For us — go ahead and grab them by the pussy. His pitch has always been that some things belong to you not because you have earned them but because you did not have to earn them. They are your birthright, and to be denied them is an affront: Supreme Court seats, the presumption of innocence, deference from police officers, the presidency itself.

    …. And when you’re real, they let you do it. You can be a grown, bearded man, brandishing bear spray, and a place ordinarily bristling with metal detectors and guards simply opens to you. ….

    But if you are not lucky enough to be the real one in the story, then what you see is different. The Trump era is also the story of being menaced with guns and told you weren’t actually being menaced with guns — you were seeing people exercising freedom …

    It is the story of a president seeing all this and turning to the people who wreaked this havoc and telling them, “We love you. You’re very special.”

    The message echoes down the frescoed corridors: Never forget, for a second, what we can do to you, if no one stops us.

  240. 240.

    WaterGirl

    @Punchy:

    Josh Marshall says this correctly:  you either hunt these fuckers down and put them in steel cages for the next decade, or you’ve invited them to do this every 2 years.   Put up or shut up, Biden DOJ.

    Pretty much.

  241. 241.

    Kattails

    @Kent: I’ve been looking back over my online browsing today but can’t find the little twitter snippet; but what you’re referring to is law, signed by Trump. In (over)response to the BLM protests. That it could come around to bite his own hounds on the ass would be just delightful.

  242. 242.

    wuzzat

    @WaterGirl: You know, there were a lot of middle-aged white people at work today who were shocked, just shocked, that the cops shot that unarmed white lady in the Capital Building yesterday. I don’t have high hopes for all of them, but I think a few of them might be starting to put the pieces together.

  243. 243.

    Yutsano

    @Jay: Oh lookie! One is She Who Wants to Be Governor of Virginia! Surprise surprise surprise!

    – West Virginia Delegate Derrick Evans- Tennessee state lawmaker Terri Lynn Weaver- Virginia state Senator Amanda Chase- Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano- Missouri State Representative Justin Hill- Michigan State Representative Matt Maddock— Operation Raindrop (@raindroporg) January 8, 2021

  244. 244.

    WaterGirl

    @Martin: I think you’re right.  I hope you’re right.

    It’s true from the moral perspective – right and wrong – and also from a practical perspective, because if we try to do things incrementally, change will be imperceptible and then the folks who think there’s not much difference between parties because nothing every fucking gets done will just vote in the Rs again and we will be right back where we are now, only worse.

    Plus we are seriously in the DANGER zone democracy-wise.  We have no time to lose.

  245. 245.

    Mary G

    @Jay: Brad wrote a heartfelt apology – the best a high-end crisis communications firm can sell. Not going to link to it.

  246. 246.

    Elizabelle

    @Martin:   Wow.  That is serious.  Good for Senator Coons.

    We are seeing blow after blow fall, on Trump and on the congressional enablers.

  250. 250.

    Elizabelle

    @Yutsano:  Amanda Chase.

    Who is such a whack job that even the state Republicans have disavowed her.  She is running as an independent.

    Two men who were frequently photographed with her were arrested on weapons charges in Philadelphia, where they’d gone to mess with the vote count.

  251. 251.

    Jay

    Ashli Babbitt was a decorated Air Force veteran addicted to Fox News, InfoWars, and QAnon. She was killed while rioting at the Capitol yesterday. What did she get for her service to Q? Fellow travelers are calling her death a "false flag," of course. https://t.co/2LACqnyMYM— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) January 7, 2021

  252. 252.

    WaterGirl

    @Mary G: He’s as sorry as my cocker spaniel who got into the garbage every chance she got, and when I caught her in the act, she was only sorry that I was yelling at her.

    She was never sorry that she got in the garbage, and she would do it again at every opportunity.

  254. 254.

    Jay

    1/ On 1/6 domestic terrorists stormed the U.S. capitol in an attempt to overthrow democracy. Today, lets meet 2 of those terrorists who participated in the failed coup: Kim (51) and Steven (63) Dragoo of Saint Joseph, MO. pic.twitter.com/lFEWwjZjNV— Antifascist Trash Panda ↙️↙️↙️? (@trashpandaAFA) January 7, 2021

  255. 255.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Martin: Jack Danforth, about as old school a Republican as you can still find breathing– Bob Dole having gone around the MAGA bend– while noting his patronage of Clarence Thomas, I didn’t say Danforth was a liberal Republican– Danforth said today that supporting and endorsing Josh Hawley is the biggest regret of his political life.

    and I never heard of this guy Humphreys, but this would seem to be a big deal, pissing off a home state “mega donor” in your quest for the presidency before 50

    Bryan Lowry BryanLowry3
    Missouri megadonor David Humphreys calls for @HawleyMO to be censured.

    Daniel W. Drezner @dandrezner 2h
    Humphreys: “Hawley’s irresponsible, inflammatory, and dangerous tactics have incited violence and further discord across America. And he has now revealed himself as a political opportunist willing to subvert the Constitution and the ideals of the nation he swore to uphold.”

  256. 256.

    Jay

    Woozuh, who's real name is Jared L. Nobel of Tacoma, Washington, was an early friend of ours wayyy back in March. Jared is an acolyte of white supremacist Nick Fuentes known as a Groyper, and it seems that Jared had a fun time at the Capitol yesterday!!!2/ pic.twitter.com/yoJla3a15V— Garfield but Anti-Fascist (@AntifaGarfield) January 8, 2021

  258. 258.

    Kattails

    @Kent: One of the comments to Blaire Erskine:  “We spend $750 billion a year on ‘defense’ and the center of American government fell in two hours to the duck dynasty and the guy in the Chewbacca bikini”. (Yousef Munayyer) Ouch.

  259. 259.

    The Dangerman

    I hear a DC Cop died today. Why aren’t the people that invited the riot (Junior, Guliani. Et al) that aren’t President (we can wait 2 weeks for him) in handcuffs already?

  260. 260.

    Feathers

    Content warning: Rumor

    @wuzzat: There was a tweet this morning from a reporter saying the woman was shot by the Secret Service because she was breaking into the corridor of the room where the Secret Service was holding Vice President Pence and that there were verbal warnings. Haven’t seen the story again.

    Basically, an entire shitshow. We really don’t know much of anything at this point. But the Capitol Police held their fire so completely, that it makes sense for the woman to have been shot by someone under a different chain of command.

    As I’ve said, I grew up in DC and have friends and family in the local “Homeland Security” and law enforcement apparatus. Their drunken swagger, high on the Rush Limbaugh/Tea Party/Killary Flavor-Aid, has always been a time bomb just waiting to explode. Toxic masculinity and toxic workplaces interact in terrible ways. Imagine the normal sort of “hate my job, hate my boss” asshole bullshit magnified by talk radio and Fox, turning your every petty grievance into a moral crusade against everything that is bringing the country down. “My request for time off got turned down. Fuck Obama and everything he stands for. I’ll kill every lie-beral I can if I get the chance!” Not a direct quote, but it comes close to some beer can waving rants I’ve heard. And speaking up at all only antagonizes them. They are high on a terrible moral superiority.

    Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a chance of stopping until the media start seeing and portraying the police as corrupt, but with a few good apples, rather than the other way around.

  261. 261.

    Feathers

    It looks like the Capitol Police death is now official and will be investigated as a homicide: https://twitter.com/DavidBegnaud/status/1347408734163673089?s=20

    BREAKING: United States Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick passed away due to injuries sustained while on-duty. He was responding to the riots at the Capitol when he was injured by rioters/domestic terrorists. He had returned to his office when he collapsed.

  262. 262.

    Elizabelle

    WaPost just confirmed:  the Capitol Police officer has died

    Breaking: A U.S. Capitol Police officer died of injuries suffered during Wednesday’s confrontation with rioters at the Capitol. Brian D. Sicknick collapsed after returning to his division office on Wednesday and was taken to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries Thursday night, a police statement said.<

  263. 263.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Feathers: Brian D. Sicknick died protecting our Republic.  Like Heather Heyer, we need to remember his name and honor his sacrifice.

  264. 264.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @wuzzat: did you speculate aloud about Babbit’s mom being on welfare with 7 kids from 7 different drug dealer daddies and how the mother must have  obviously  spent her big welfare check on crack?

  266. 266.

    sdhays

    @Elizabelle: Still stinging from the uproar over the violent response by law enforcement to protests last June near the White House, officials also were intent on avoiding any appearance that the federal government was deploying active duty or National Guard troops against Americans.

    This fucking shit enrages me. Apparently, it’s all the fault of people criticizing the police for their jackbooted tactics against the peaceful BLM protests.

    NO!!!

    If you can’t figure out the difference between a peaceful protest and people planning an insurrection openly on the internet, then you don’t have any business being in law enforcement.

  267. 267.

    Elizabelle

    @sdhays:   I know. But AP demolishes that later in the article, which is a long one.  Informative; no paywall.

    It reports the DC Mayor, she who had Black Lives Matter painted on a public street (visible to passing aircraft), had been begging for the National Guard since December 31.

  268. 268.

    Kent

    Meanwhile while no one is paying attention, Ossoff’s margin has crept up to 41,303 votes (1.0%) and Warnock’s margin is up to 79,291 (1.8%).  Turns out those races weren’t even that super close.  And they still aren’t done counting.

    Way too far outside the margin of error to allow theft from recounts and other GOP fuckery.

  270. 270.

    Felanius Kootea

    @Kent: Wow.  Even better.  Maybe Perdue will concede tomorrow like Loeffler has, given the growing margin of victory.

  272. 272.

    sdhays

    @Elizabelle: I’ve been seeing that “explanation” in different places today and even voicing the suggestion that critics are to blame for the catastrophic failures of the entire law enforcement apparatus yesterday just sets me off.

    I really, really hope that we can use this as a catalyst to make DC a state. Finally. And I hope that the FBI’s utter failure either leads Wray to resign in disgrace or gives cover for Biden to fire his ass.

    Every single person appointed by Dump needs to be gone. And every single person who were cowed by Dump needs to do something else with their lives too.

  273. 273.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Jason Hancock @J_Hancock 3h
    David Humphreys, who along w/his family have donated $6 million to @HawleyMO over the years, said the senator has “now revealed himself as a political opportunist willing to subvert the Constitution and the ideals of the nation he swore to uphold.”

    Six. Million. Dollars. Six million dollars to one candidate.

  275. 275.

    Elizabelle

    @sdhays: From a WaPost article on the failures:

    Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, said he worried that the lack of preparedness was rooted in police’s perception of the crowd. He said officers might have seen a largely White group as inherently less hostile.

    “They see Black Lives Matter and go ‘Oh my God, we’ve got to be ready.’ But, hey, these people have their blue lives matter flags all over the place,” which made them seem pro-police, Acevedo said. “And that bias and that false sense of security bit them. And it bit them in a historical fashion yesterday.”

    “It is a monumental failure,” Acevedo said of the response.

    BUT:

    There had been signs that Wednesday’s protests could turn violent. Pro-Trump Internet forums had been full of posts promising violence. Trump had cast Congress — which was about to formalize his defeat in the 2020 election — as the target.

    So why would an attack against Congress be out of the question?

    “You didn’t need intelligence. You just needed to read the newspaper,” said Michael Chertoff, who served as Homeland Security secretary from 2005 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. “They were advertising, ‘Let’s go wild. Bring your guns.’ You don’t need to have an FBI investigation. You just need to be able to be able to read.”

  277. 277.

    Martin

    Brad Heath (Reuters reporter) saying that what he’s hearing from current US attorneys is that they are going to take a very expansive view of criminal liability for the insurrectionists.

    So, I was thinking that charging them with insurrection might be in the cards, but lawyers seem to think that seditious conspiracy is the likely charge:

    If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

    It’s a bit easier to sell to juries because the whole theme of the event was to by force prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of federal law. It covers their motive, and they don’t get to fall back on the defense of ‘we didn’t intend to overthrow the government’, because that’s not necessary for the charge of sedition.

    For hanger-ons, they could be charged for unlawful activities on Capitol grounds. 6 months to 5 years depending on whether they used a weapon (even an improvised one). And they could  face multiple charges for theft, destruction of property, etc.

    And federal charges are no fucking joke, even if you’re only facing 6 months.

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