Three U.S. Capitol Police officers have been suspended and 17 others are under investigation for suspected involvement with or inappropriate support shown for the Jan. 6 demonstration that devolved into a deadly riot at the Capitol, according to a congressional official briefed on the developments.
Eight separate investigations have been launched, the official said. In one of the cases, officers had posted what Capitol police investigators found to be messages showing support for the upcoming Jan. 6 demonstration, including supporting President Trump’s baseless contention that the election had been stolen through voter fraud.
Investigators in one instance also found that a Capitol police officer had posted “inappropriate” images of President-elect Joe Biden on a social media account. The official declined to describe the photographs.
When you think of the heroism shown by some of the Capitol Police, and the anguish after the invasion of the Capitol probably resulting in the suicide of one of their members, it’s just sad that some of them are apparently traitors.
I worked in the Capitol one Summer long ago, and I remember the Capitol PD who manned the metal detectors as basically good guys, the epitome of a hometown cop, which is essentially what they are. The staffers I worked with were all political types, and they all had “hi, how you doin'” relationships with the cops, whose main duty was to search bags and help tourists.
Human beings can’t be good at everything. Eugene Goodman, the Capitol Hill cop who cleverly led traitors away from the open doors of the Senate chamber, used the soft skills that I saw in the Capitol Hill PD to avoid bloodshed. (Anne Laurie’s post below has a good video of what he did.) I am not surprised that some of them are really struggling after being put in a really awful position by their leadership.
Speaking of shit leadership, Chad Wolf, Trump’s nth acting Homeland Security Secretary, just resigned.
chopper
chad wolf resigned, eh? say, isn’t DHS gonna be in charge of security on 1/20?
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
I’m Beginning to Think We Have a Problem with the
Capitol HillPoliceThere, better.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@chopper:
The 1/20 security will be much better if the people in charge of it are career government civil service types instead of idiot Trump appointees.
Baud
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
Agreed. Wolf added no value.
chopper
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
yeah but somebody even worse than wolf is likely to be running the show next week, right? or if DHS ends up being pretty leaderless, then who the fuck knows how badly organized security is gonna end up.
i got a bad feeling about all this.
MattF
Maureen Dowd is no one’s favorite, but in this column she explains that her father’s job was working to protect the Capitol, so she takes the January 6th events personally.
Mary G
Appears at least one Capitol Police officer has been arrested:
Moving fast, I like it!
Baud
@Mary G:
Someone’s taking this seriously. The investigation is moving so fast.
Parfigliano
Gives real insight on why Biden wanted certain Secret Service re-assigned
Just Some Fuckhead
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
jl
The pics of some of the police paling around, taking selfies, etc. with the insurrectionists was shocking to me. The realization that the corruption is do deep that some won’t do their duty if it conflicts with the Trump cult is dangerous and scary.
But even more shocking to me on a visceral level, is that the corrupt cops were willing to abandon their fellow officers. What happened to the cops having each others’ backs? And from the news, it looks like two officers who did do their duty were murdered by the Trumpster insurrectionists.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@Mary G:
The FBI is a pretty independent agency, which in this case is a good thing. Also, this is the most photographed and recorded insurrection in history. I just hope the jails have enough room for everyone they’re going to arrest.
Mary G
@Baud: Me likey.
Villago Delenda Est
The members of the Fifth Column are being unmasked. It’s not pretty, but it’s necessary.
Jay C
Not that would make much difference at this point, but I think it’s a positive that the management of the USCP is in the hands of Congress, not the Executive Branch.
It’s one of those rare occasions where the victims of crime get the main say in checking into the actions of “law enforcement”….
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@chopper:
Apparently Trump’s acting DoD chief head is heading out of town. So I wonder, too.
Brachiator
I don’t want to assume, but I wonder how many of these detained officers are white or Hispanic?
Baud
Via Reddit
Martin
Today I’m writing to my state legislators to immediately expand the state’s firearm laws to prohibit ‘anyone who participated in, organized, or gave aid and comfort to the attack on Congress on Jan 6, 2021’ from owning a gun, including the seizure of any weapons for persons with registered firearms.
This might only work in CA where we have strong red flag laws, and where seizing weapons is not some kind of ultimate sin.
But if there is going to be any kind of constraint on the second amendment, any kind of notion that ‘hey, maybe we shouldn’t give everyone a gun they can carry around whenever’ it’s going to come from an attempted insurrection.
I’m still reading through them and trying to figure out what other restrictions should be imposed – serve in law enforcement, etc. and whether red flag laws should be involved as they’re focused on the right of someone to be protected by someone else who is armed, not the right of that other person to be armed in the first place. But it’s the red flag laws that give the most fleshed out process fo removing a gun.
I’m also asking for a 15 day moratorium on ammunition sales in the state.
After this I’m going to return to the my senators and congresswoman to request something similar in a gun control bill by explicitly requesting a check for participation in or support for the insurrection during an NICS check. At least in California, that would also prohibit these individuals buying ammunition.
dmsilev
Meanwhile, Republicans plea for ‘unity’.
DCrefugee
I was a House staffer for several years, and a lobbyist for several more. The CP I knew most likely were from Prince George’s County Maryland, which is kind of the poor step-child of the DC suburbs. The CP is a good job for someone in law enforcement. Yeah, they were mostly the friendly town cop, in part because there was little violent crime in their territory and it was rather easy to spot troublemakers (e.g., someone not wearing a suit). (I used to ask one of them if he had actual bullets in his revolver…)
I could make some generalizations about white cops from blue-collar neighborhoods, but it’s not a stretch to point out there likely was/remains at least some white-supremacy-curious members of that force.
I’ve always had a reverence for the Capitol complex, and it made me sick to see the vandalism last week. I don’t understand how someone could work there, whether as a suit or a cop, and not come away feeling the same.
Villago Delenda Est
@dmsilev: The words of the much missed ef goldman come to mind at once.
Leto
And as we know, our military:
Army investigates psyops officer for role in Washington on day of Capitol riot
She’s such a peach.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Martin: Do you sign it “Martin @ Balloon Juice”?
Calouste
@chopper: Wolf successor at acting DHS Secretary is apparently one Pete Gaynor, now Administrator of FEMA. Surprisingly, for a shitgibbon appointee, he seems to be somewhat qualified for that job, having previously been director of the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency.
Leto
@Villago Delenda Est: The can all burn in hell? I think that’s what he said… :P I miss him and can only wonder what he’d say about this.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Leto: I was intrigued by how a psyops officer could be so thoroughly bamboozled by conservative psyops. That alone merits a discharge.
Kent
It’s not police and solders and such that are so much complicit with this. It’s mostly WHITE police. The Black police were the heroes. And I’ve yet to see any arrests of any Black cops who were part of this mob.
Van Buren
Don’t get your hopes up, folks-
Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.
I will be shocked if anyone in a leadership position faces any meaningful consequences for this.
laura
It will take some fair amount of time to determine what did and didn’t happen, who may or may not have been active accomplices, who may have cajoled or curried favor, who did or didnt deviate from their training, experience or biases.
It is very easy to Judge Officer Eugene Goodman. His actions were selfless, righteous, smart – and I hope that he is afforded every honor and benefit a grateful nation owes him.
For those who by their acts violated their oath to protect and defend the Capitol, i hope they are afforded Due Process for whatever administrative and criminal proceedings they may be subject to.
For those Officers who feel that they failed in their official or personal capacities last Wednesday, I hope that they are safe, cared for or seeking guidance and counsel because the MORAL HARM that they may be experiencing may be to great to deal with alone. I am aware that at least one officer turned in her weapon due to the risk if self harm – and I’m glad for it. The issue of Moral Harm in the fog of war of last week has kept my mouth shut and my fingers mostly idle. I fear that way too many LE are okay with the Trump fuckery and that an as currently unknown number may be somewhere on the scale of democracy yeah or nay, but I do not believe that you can or should make sweeping generalizations about the whole based on the actions of some. I hope that the issue of Moral Injury is something that should be part of the conversation for the good of society.
Also, Officer Eugene Goodman is a Damn Hero and I am asking my Congresswoman Doris Matsui to nominate him for any/every acknowledgement of his efforts to protect and defend our People’s House.
Martin
Note that the Sec of the Army is performing a review of each Natl Guard troop that will be deployed during the inauguration. We also got a hint of the scale of the problem when Biden’s SS detail was changed to agents that protected him as VP. That was done on Dec 30, so they were worried about this before the attack.
This is why I’ve been calling for members of Congress to be arrested. There is an urgency here that doesn’t match the idea that this was a bunch of yahoos on Parler.
MattF
@dmsilev: Noot wants bipartisanship.
Keith P.
@MattF: Isn’t support for impeachment already bipartisan?
Baud
@Martin:
The impeachment vote should help narrow the field of suspects in the House.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Kent
But of course. He’s the expert in bipartisanship, don’t you know?
I was working in government back during the contract with America days and Newt’s temper tantrum government shutdowns. So much bipartisanship back then I could barely stand it.
Poe Larity
Gaynor was a Marine LTC, XO at Camp David, so he should be familiar with the SS. Sherrod Brown, Schumer, Gillebrand and a few others voted against his FEMA nomination.
Kent
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Apparently she misread the memo. It was ANTIFA.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Those clever bastards carried Trump flags and wore MAGA hats and.. uh, white skin. But they couldn’t have been that clever if they were trying to keep Trump in power.
raven
@Leto: If she did what she said they can’t do much.
The Moar You Know
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I deeply resent when people assume I’m stupid. Senator Collins thinks we’re all dumb as dogshit.
debbie
@Jay C:
Makes it more imperative that the D.C. National Guard be the mayor’s responsibility, not the DoD.
Leto
@Just Some Fuckhead: Pretty much calls her training into question, agreed.
@raven: true, but it sounds like she took a very large group with her so she better hope everyone was on their best behavior. Of course they were there, so… also I’m sure an officer has never ever lied before. Nope, no sir’ee.
debbie
@Martin:
I’d bet the guys you’re trying to restrict already have all the guns they will ever need.
Aleta
No one could have predicted Jan. 6.
VOR
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: And Trump announced he won’t be at the inauguration. Some people have wondered if that is a signal to the mob that they don’t have to worry about accidently attacking Trump.
zhena gogolia
Very lucid analysis by Fiona Hill.
politico.com/news/magazine/2021/01/11/capitol-riot-self-coup-trump-fiona-hill-457549
Roger Moore
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Was she really bamboozled, or was she brought in to bamboozle others?
Just Some Fuckhead
It’s a shame Tom Clancy wasn’t alive for this. Where is Jack Ryan when you need him? My guess: trying to stop the imposter Biden from taking office.
BlueGuitarist
@Leto:
EFG: “Fuck ’em”
MattF
@The Moar You Know: Well… it’s also possible that she’s the stupid one.
Leto
@Kent: Iranian ANTIFA ACORN terrorists, don’t’cha know!
OzarkHillbilly
I am shocked, shocked I tell you!
mrmoshpotato
Now we can resign him into the Sun.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Roger Moore: Who will bamboozle the bamboozlers?
Martin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: And then there’s the problem of people who are just too fucking dumb to hold office.
Leto
@BlueGuitarist: I know his signature saying; thinking this might call for something a bit stronger.
Jay C
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Boy, I bet the thought of a mob of Iranian Revolutionary Guards swarming into the Joint Session really caused her brow to furrow! And she probably got VERY concerned as well!
SRSLY, I read that Bangor Daily News piece, and my first thought was: OMG! How fatuous! A present eyewitness to the worst political violence in ages, and her account of it is basically “Aunt Susan Gets Caught In A Fire Drill At The Mall”??
SiubhanDuinne
@MattF:
Saw that last night. It’s one of a mere handful of MoDo columns I’ve read over the past however many decades that I actually liked.
Martin
@Baud: I would take the vote to certify on Jan 6 as adequate. It was clear by the time of the vote what the motivations of the attackers were and members of Congress either reinforced those motivations or opposed them.
Leto
Of course we also have this on the other end:
Capitol Police officer who was on duty during the riot has died by suicide, his family saysa
This is another death directly attributable to Trumpov, every single fucking enabler, and the traitorous insurrectionists.
raven
@Leto: good point
Jim, Foolish Literalist
caught between the Devil they created and the deep blue sea
Spanky
@mrmoshpotato:
Not worth the fuel.
Roger Moore
@VOR:
Among those who believe this is Twitter Safety. They used this reasoning in their justification for disabling his account. Of course that could have been an excuse for something they already planned to do, but it’s noteworthy that they thought the argument would fly with the public.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
GTFOH, Susan. Jeez-oh Pete.
trnc
I think a venn diagram with republican members of congress and parler subscribers might not fit on one page.
Elizabelle
Remember the earlyish days of Talking Points Memo, when Josh Marshall was collecting stories from around the country — which US Attorneys were being replaced by the GW Bush admin? He knew something very odd was up.
Anyway: I hope he — or another easily accessible site — is keeping a list of stories of:
** Law enforcement who attended the insurrection, and law-enforcement adjacent types.
** Military, retired and active duty, and military-adjacent.
** Politicians from around the country who attended the protest, as well as those who made their way inside the Capitol.
** Rioters who ended up fired as a result of their presence/participation. (The last more for entertainment value too, I must admit. However: illustrative too.)
I know we get more instantaneous reporting via Twitter now, but someone needs to keep the receipts. It is so much to keep up with.
And we need to know.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SiubhanDuinne: she really should have left politics with George W Bush. Just seeing her name and all I can think of is how visceral and personal her hatred of Hillary Clinton seemed to be.
Feathers
Do any of the lawyer jackals know if the hacked materials from Parler (how sweet that sounds) can become admissible evidence in a court of law? Or knowing what is there can they get a warrant to get a copy from Amazon before it is all removed?
I really hope the Parler hack smokes out a lot of local PD who are white supremacists. Security clearance forms are going to have to ask about this, like they did communism. Also, believing in Q will have to be disqualifying.
I interned on Capitol Hill one summer in high school, back when security was much looser and you could go almost anywhere. The police really were very friendly and looked out for the young people working there. The Capitol complex is lovely. They used to serve a picnic style lunch in the courtyard of one of the Senate office buildings. The public could go, you just had to know how to get there. My mother worked in the Methodist Building which is next to the Supreme Court.
My great-grandfather worked at the Mint and they lived on Capitol Hill. My grandmother and her siblings would go to the Capitol and explore. They figured out how to get up to the walkway around the base of the painting in the rotunda ceiling and would drop their bologna peels down onto tourists. She remembered when Pennsylvania Avenue was paved with the asphalt you could roller skate on, which vastly expanded the trouble the young girls of the 1910s could get up to.
Spanky
@Martin:
I thought you were aware of Louie Gohmert.
I don’t believe you will find a US citizen who is so stupid that they couldn’t get the majority of votes for some public office.
Brachiator
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I don’t know. I admit that I keep wondering which season of “24” this mess most reminds me of.
Yutsano
@Leto: She’s a peach all right.
From the article:
Lady, you done stopped being a private citizen like that once you signed your damn contract! I’m just gonna weep for the stupid in the corner now.
MisterForkbeard
@Keith P.: There are some R congresscritters who’ve made noises in that direction, but they really REALLY don’t want to vote on it.
Other than Murkowski, Romney and one of the other House Reps I don’t expect any of them to follow through on it. Toomey will decide that Trump did a bad thing and deserves to be impeached, but the Democrats “politicized” it and he can’t reward that, etc
@raven: Agreed. If she told her superiors she was going and they didn’t complain, and she didn’t engage in anything or provoke and lawbreaking, that’s where it ends.
She remains a huge idiot, to get caught up in a Trump Psyop while a Psyops officer. But not illegally.
Frank Wilhoit
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Collins is a fool and a panderer; but not such a fool, and, hitherto, not such a panderer either. Why now?
Spanky
@Yutsano: She actually called herself a “private citizen”? Does she know she’s an Army officer*?
(*– May not be true by the time this comment gets posted.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Sure Lurkalot
@Kent:
David Simon’s reply tweet:
From Mr. Sherlock in the Department of No Shit, but yes, it bears constant repeating. Having a person of color as the national leader left a solid tenth of this country insane. And another tenth vaguely disturbed for reasons they would try to deny. At least.
Leto
@Yutsano: I saw that and just… I couldn’t. This is an officer who said that. I had E2s with more self awareness than her.
MomSense
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I was in my car when I heard her interviewed on Maine Public Radio and I started swearing at my radio. Fuck Susan Collins.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Sure Lurkalot: I’m afraid he’s low-balling that number
VeniceRiley
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I always assumed it was the jealousy of someone used to being the smartest woman in the room- Only to discover you’re merely a snark columnist, no one remembers your books – and the woman with gravitas that can think in pages is the far smarter and more accomplished woman. Because MoDo went after her like Hillary stole her husband.
HumboldtBlue
@Brachiator:
I just texted on a family thread about the officers arrested and under investigation — “you know none of them are black.”
I’d be shocked if a black officer took part, this is all white boy white supremacist cop shit.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
What a ridiculous attempt at spin by the “Pence whisperer.”
He’s got a bus whose wheels have come off, and there’s the transmission out on the asphalt too.
Nothing to see here, allies and adversaries.
KSinMA
@zhena gogolia: Thanks. Really good.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@VeniceRiley: I have a theory that the Beltway press took out on HRC their own self-loathing cause they could never bring themselves to hate that charming rascal like their inner David Broders told them they should
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
What would the other 9% do?
ETA: As bad as that number is, that’s a drop of about 7 million votes.
Kent
On an evangelical fundie forum where I lurk to see what my family members are up to, there is considerable paranoia today about the Parler hack. [chuckle] They probably thought they were all anonymous when they spewed their filth. I don’t think any of them were the seditionists who mobbed the capitol. Just othwise “respectable” folks who thought they could let their MAGA free flag fly on Parler with anonymity and no consequence.
Omnes Omnibus
@Yutsano: You are always an army officer and should always be aware of how your behavior reflects on both the army and the officer corps. That’s the kind of shit they told me back when Christ was a corporal.
Calouste
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s people who still are willing to admit that they voted for the shitgibbon. I’m fairly sure there are some people who are no longer willing to admit to that.
Patricia Kayden
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): That will come as a shock to Black and Brown people, that’s for sure. /s
Calouste
@Baud: Write in David Duke. /s
Kent
@Baud: Vote for him anyway. But with “troubled” heavy hearts.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: I wonder who many people really get what happened last week, how violent it was, how much more violent so many of that crowd wanted it to be
Leto
@MisterForkbeard:
That’s not though. Let me give you an example: at my first base we had these three airmen in my workcenter take a trip to Florida. Leadership knew they went (filled out leave paperwork) and when they got back. Everything a-ok, right? Well while they were down they proceeded to take Ecstacy, hang out with a known drug dealer, and when they got back AFOSI (Air Force Office of Special Investigation) proceeded to roll them up and within 6 six months they were all discharged from the military (dishonorable discharge).
Just because she said her leadership knew she left/came back doesn’t mean jack shit. Army investigators are going to be going through this woman’s every detail with an electron microscope. She better hope there’s no video/electronic message/social media posting linking her with anything. And even beyond that, I’d question the Oath she took. She’d be on permanent KP/latrine duty until her contract ran out if I was her supervisor.
trollhattan
Now, for something completely different.
Poor gorillas, what did they do to deserve this?
Just Some Fuckhead
@trollhattan: I wanna know what crazy motherfucker is getting within six feet of them.
Leto
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Does someone want to tell Pence we no longer use the telegraph to communicate?
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Information actually moves more slowly than we think.
Kent
Unless they are stupid enough to admit that that they don’t believe in God but do believe in systemic racism.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Leto: Can you tell that bastard anything?
OzarkHillbilly
No it’s not. I’ve been dealing with depression all my life and you can’t say “This did it.” It may well have been the straw that broke the camel’s back, but it is never one single event. I long ago concluded that suicide is an acceptable way to say, “I’m done with this shit.” and so far I have never come close to that point, but a day will come when I just might. But that isn’t to say that if my son who is suffering thru a depressive episode right now might push me to it, I might well decide to go there.
Is it his fault if I do? FUCK no. I and only I am responsible for my actions.
Omnes Omnibus
@Leto: OIC of latrine inspection.
Leto
@Omnes Omnibus: it’s the kind of thing we pound into the heads of our enlisted when they’re deployed, stationed overseas, and basically from the moment they hit basic training. She sounds like a dorm lawyer.
For those unfamiliar with “dorm lawyer”: it’s the kid who supposedly “knows how to beat the wrap” on any kind of charge. Typically their advice is so bad that anyone following it usually winds up in more trouble.
Mary G
The Grio.com has Rep. Hakeem Jeffries’ first hand account of the invasion:
I like Jeffries, who’s pretty high up in leadership. Maybe he’ll succeed NancySmash.
karen marie
@Calouste: The hilarity is that apparently Wolf had no choice but to “resign” because Trump pulled his nomination – he timed out as “acting.” So much winning.
Leto
@OzarkHillbilly: while I agree with what you’re saying, his death is directly attributable to the fact that the President of the fucking United States whipped up a fucking mob to storm the Capitol of the US to overthrow the election results to keep him emperor for life.
I will always blame Trumpov, his enablers, and the motherfucking traitors who stormed the Capitol. Always.
Frank McCormick
@Baud: If anything Wolf “removed value”.
Omnes Omnibus
@Leto: Shithouse lawyer.
Cacti
The black Capitol Police Officers who were on duty that day, have told Buzzfeed (off the record of course, for fear of department retaliation), just what they faced that day, and how their white brothers in blue left them twisting in the wind. Including the Chief.
karen marie
@Leto: My gob is smacked.
Geminid
@Elizabelle: I hope investigators pays particular attention to staffers for jerks like Gohmert and Gosar. These could be the “insiders” who mapped out various offices for the mob.
Roger Moore
@Frank Wilhoit:
Possibly because she’s decided inside she isn’t going to run for reelection, so she can let the mask slip a bit.
Cacti
More from the Buzzfeed article:
Just Some Fuckhead
Any word on if Pence plans to make a very public exit ten minutes after the inauguration starts?
Comrade Colette
@Parfigliano:
When I read about that, my first thought was “Indira Gandhi assassinated by her own bodyguards.”
It’s sickening that it has cone to this. It’s a hideous stain on the Secret Service’s reputation.
OzarkHillbilly
@Leto: Sorry, bullshit. Quote me from his suicide note where he said, “I can’t deal with this treasonous event. I must end it all because trump won’t go away.” You can go ahead and blame them for the suicide if you like, but they were never anything more than a trigger.
And right now my son isn’t answering my calls, so I am done here.
NotMax
@Jim, Foolish Literalist
Attributing it to Uranians would render her less of a clueless, feckless,, vapid, chickensh*t twit.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Cacti: the initials on this guy’s hat– CFD– are not comforting
Just Some Fuckhead
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Looks pretty old to be Antifa.
Kattails
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “…they are getting tons of death threats”–every last one of them enabled this for four years and ignored the ever darkening nature of the threat. brushed it off & and fund-raised from it.
Jinchi
I remember reading (about a week before the Capitol march went down) that the Secret Service was shuffling presidential security for Biden because a few members were a little too close to Trump, but it seems a lot more ominous in retrospect.
This is a serious problem if some of these guys can’t stay professional enough to honor their oaths.
NotMax
@Baud
Vote for him twice.
//
egorelick
@Omnes Omnibus: Jack Posobiec had piss duty during his tenure in the military.
BR
@Elizabelle:
You might email him at [email protected] and suggest it. He reads the email.
Cacti
@Jinchi: If you read that Buzzfeed article, the Capitol Police they interviewed said their were a bunch of off duty cops from around the country among the terrorists.
japa21
@trollhattan: Who had the job of sticking the swab up the nostrils?
Mary G
Move along, nothing to see here:
Elizabelle
@trollhattan:
Meanwhile, the hippos down in Colombia are going wild.
WaPost: Invasion of the hippos: Colombia is running out of time to tackle Pablo Escobar’s wildest legacy
Efforts to castrate hippos are not as easy as you would think
[That is the best sub-hed I have seen all week.]
The late Pablo Escobar’s four pet hippos are now dozens, and they’re apparently quite good at hiding out in the wetlands and ruining the water therein for other species. They have no local predators; in Africa drought would keep their numbers in check.
Um.
Marklar
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
After initially suspecting that the attack on the Capitol was the Iranians, she concluded her interview with “And I’m sure the Ayatollah has learned his lesson and will never do something like this again.”
Elizabelle
@BR: Will do. Thank you.
Baud
@Elizabelle: Lucky guy.
Anya
Am I the only one who is disgusted with MSNBC for featuring Michael Cohen? Why is he rehabilitated this quickly? Granted, he’s the only one in the Trump circle who showed remorse and paid but I still think he shouldn’t be on TV talking about Trump or anything else.
Elizabelle
@Baud: I just caught your meaning.
Yes. He was/is Daddy zero.
thalarctosMaritimus
@Yutsano: Exactly.
USMC: yoU Signed the Motherfucking Contract.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
these sick fuckign mother fuckers
Jinchi
I’ve got my fingers crossed for you, but I thought the same thing after a lunatic gunned down 20 kids at Sandy Hook Elementary and Republican candidates responded by having gun raffles in defense of the 2nd amendment a few weeks later.
Mary G
???
Just Some Fuckhead
@Anya: Cohen has done more penance than all the rest of the fuckers combined. That includes the likes of Steve Schmidt and Jennifer Rubin.
Gin & Tonic
@Elizabelle:
Who thought it was easy? Certainly not me.
Martin
@Feathers: 100% positive the FBI had that data before the breach was detected. One benefit of them hosting on AWS is that AWS already has infrastructure in place to comply with subpoenas or natl security letters (which this probably was) VERY quickly.
The hacked materials is valuable because the FBI is responsible and shit and doesn’t spread all of the embarrassing stuff all over the place. Citizen journalists are not so polite.
sab
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I worry about that too. I watch cable not the networks. At my husband’s zoom coffee klatch this week one of the women said “I don’t know… They just looked kind of silly and harmless in their costumes.”
This was on Thursday. I saw all the ransacked offices and the tape with Goodman. Noome had announced that Sicknick had died.
She isn’t a Trumper. Just completely unaware of a lot of the information coming out.
On the other hand, the retired police officer in klatch was spitting nails already by Wednesday afternoon about the police and the building being overrun like rhat.
Mary G
This one’s got to sting:
Martin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This is why they need to be charged with sedition.
The lies have sunk in too deep that they aren’t going to be easily snapped out of it. Arresting 145 members of congress is practically unthinkable, but I think also absolutely necessary.
Ken
Wait until the Republicans realize they’re going to have to pry Trump’s hands off the fundraising apparatus. Then you’ll see weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
zhena gogolia
@Mary G:
Good.
Kattails
Just to take your mind off crap for a few, Rex Chapman posted this lovely video of a groom surprising his bride with a parade of her young Down’s Syndrome students acting as ring bearers. Just all misty-making.
whoever linked to him, it was someone here I think, it’s a great feed, thanks.
Baud
@Mary G: Whoa.
Princess Leia
I feel like a crazy person, but I worry that the plan is to not confirm Biden’s cabinet, so that if something “happens” to all of them,plus Pelosi and Schummer, the Trump SOS or SOD would take over as President.
Please talk me off the wall- all these folks leaving DC on Inauguration day is giving me the willies.
Martin
@Mary G: He’s being groomed to replace Nancy. That’s exactly the plan.
chopper
@Calouste:
pfft, that’s the easiest job ever, an idiot could do it. whenever there’s an emergency you just box the state up and send it somewhere safe via UPS.
Spanky
@Mary G: I’m actually surprised that Bill found a clue.
Ken
I don’t normally approve of “let the punishment fit the crime,” but in this one case…
Comrade Colette
@Anya:
Not the only one. I admit I enjoyed listening to him dump all over Trump on The New Abnormal podcast, but when Rick Wilson called him “brother” I almost hurled my phone.
debbie
@Mary G:
First good thing he’s done in years!
Patricia Kayden
Yeah sure, he’s just an anomaly. *rolls eyes**
Gin & Tonic
@Feathers:
I would be shocked if the FBI is not already in possession of a complete clone of the Parler site. Under proper evidentiary rules, with a warrant and everything.
MisterForkbeard
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I am not surprised.
I’ve spent a chunk of this morning arguing with people on Reddit and Facebook (I know, I know). What it comes down to is that they’re CONVINCED the election was stolen and Trump is right to protest it. They have a laundry list of reasons why this is the case, all of which have been debunked thorough and in many cases by Republican officials.
You can show them, piece by piece why they’re wrong. You can demonstrate it repeatedly. You can show that Trump waited until over 3 hours of violence had passed and until the attempt had failed to reach congressional leaders (who were all safe at that point) before halfheartedly telling people to go home. You can show them that 3 hours later he was still encouraging them and saying they had to fight hard.
They just don’t care. They’ve decided it was stolen because they feel like it was and they can’t bear losing. And now they also have a chip on their shoulder because they ALL say they’re about to banned from twitter and facebook like Trump was.
They went off the edge because that’s where they want to be, and I don’t think you can drag them back with facts and evidence.
zhena gogolia
@Anya:
I think he has provided valuable insight. This doesn’t enrage me.
raven
@Leto: We called em “barracks” lawyers.
Calouste
There is no Secretary of Defense at the moment, (acting Secretaries are not in the line of succession), and all other Secretaries are going to be fired on 1/20. And Schumer is not in the line of succession either, that’s Grassley.
Baud
@MisterForkbeard:
I think this is exactly right.
Jinchi
Coverage on day one was focused on the people dressed as clowns and the idiots with their ID badges showing. Then we learned about zip-tie guy and the hunt for Pence and Pelosi. The videos I’ve seen get more violent every day.
MisterForkbeard
@Leto: Oh, I agree. I sort of meant to cover that with “and she didn’t engage in anything or provoke any lawbreaking”.
They’re going to go over it with a fine-toothed comb to find out what she did. But if she just showed up, went to the rally and didn’t encourage anything illegal she’s probably fine.
That said, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if she got shit-tastic assignments in the future just for showing extremely poor judgment and failing in her chosen field.
HumboldtBlue
@Anya:
I think one of the reasons I don’t mind is because he’s been the only one to speak openly and honestly about who Trump really is. He provides honest insight into the fucking clown we don’t get anywhere else.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Despite their criticism of his conduct since November 3rd and last week, ??% of Trump voter
So Trump would lose by a bigger number, again?
Martin
@OzarkHillbilly: Capitol PD is treating it as a fatality from that day, an injury sustained that didn’t result in death until later. Just not a physical injury.
I’m not saying you can normally draw a straight line between events like that, but they know a lot more about what happened than we do.
So far they’ve had to respond to multiple reports of officers threatening to harm themselves and some who turned in their sidearms because they didn’t think they could trust themselves with it at this time.
It’s pretty clear they have a widespread crisis on their hands.
Mike in NC
If the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers and other fascists go ahead and carry out riots in any state capitals, any time between today and January 20 like they’re threatening, the state attorneys general must hold Trump personally responsible for any damage and injuries that result. Sue the fucking Trump Organization for every last penny that can be squeezed out of it.
We finally finished watching the special CNN report on “The Trump Insurrection” and I was surprised to see a couple of non-white faces in the mob.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kent: ha! they should be terrified the fact that any dimiwit hacker has their SS and drivers license for ID theft spree because Parlers security sucked so badly.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Yup. Horse’s mouth. Few enough who have been privy to the inside willing to speak openly and candidly about their unique perspective. Doesn’t make him an angelic person, makes his a voice of interest.
Jinchi
I’m pretty sure Biden can fire all the Trump appointees (and acting officials) on day one.
NotMax
@Calouste
Grassley as president pro tem will cease too. Once the Ds are in majority I believe it is Leahy who is the obvious candidate.
mrmoshpotato
@Van Buren:
Leave a message, and I’ll call you back?
PaulWartenberg
We have a problem with U.S. law enforcement in general when it comes to how they view the Far Right, neo-Nazi, White extremist militia cosplayers. They either view them as buddies/allies in a war against the “soft-on-crime” libruls or view them as “harmless” protesters just angry at the world and not REALLY a serious threat. Well, the shit they pulled this January 6, after all the other shit they’ve pulled since the Oklahoma City bombing and even before all that, ought to remind the cops that these gun-wielding wingnuts will target everybody in their way including you cops.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Anya: it doesn’t enrage me, but does he have anything to add at this point?
I’d rather hear from him than certain other guests who pop up on my political shows and podcasts. The O’Bros have Bernie Sanders campaign manager on this week to explain how the guy who beat Bernie 2:1 in the primaries can get a “progressive” agenda past Joe Manchin and Angus King.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: When are Ossoff and Warnock sworn in?
Lyrebird
Is there an explainer you like on a website somewhere? I did not totally follow what you said, and I’d be interested to know more.
Separate from that, I hope the investigators are very thorough and also aware that some of the kid glove treatment may have been a choice based on how outnumbered they were. I have lost the link… was someone reporting that the DC police officers that got in specifically wanted to just get ’em all out of there, even if it meant smiling and appeasing a bit. We do not know how the Capitol Police officers who cleared enough of a corridor to get Rep. Crow and the others out pulled that off.
I am NOT trying to minimize the awfulness of what happened. I really want to see more consequences for the people that said no, you can’t have National Guard etc. And the Hallmark PAC letter was a beautiful thing, hitting Hawley and KS person right in the paycheck.
Sorry I am running on, who knows if you or anyone else will read all this, but hey cool I also asked my Rep to give Officer Goodman all the recognition in the world!
Raven
Natty comin up haters.
Kelly
Brian Sicknick Memorial GoFundMe has raised has raised $584,523.
gofundme.com/f/95xqrr-officer-brian-d-sicknick-memorial
Yutsano
Prepare to gag. I did. She needs to get caught up in this web of deceit and jailed with the rest of them.
Martin
@Jinchi: Sandy Hook was too easily excused as the act of a crazy person (which, to some degree it was). We don’t generally restrict rights because of the acts of people that are impossible to predict.
This is VERY different. This is a planned, organized political attack. This is why you have to take off your shoes to get on a plane. This establishes that non-crazy people, non-lone-wolves cannot be trusted as ‘responsible gun owners’.
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Following final confirmation by Georgia (IIRC, by or on the 22nd).
TS (the original)
My bold – I guess this was a 10 second meeting unless Pence spent a couple of minutes making up those accomplishments.
mrmoshpotato
@Elizabelle: Thanks for sharing.
Sadly, “Going hippo wild!” is a saying. Why couldn’t they’ve been hogs. :(
Mary G
@mrmoshpotato: Georgia law gives Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger 17 days after the election, until Jan. 22, to certify the results.
And although we just got through the election, I have started my donation to John Fetterman, who is considering running for Toomey’s Senate seat in two years:
Cole likes him and Republicans hate him; also he was rude to Jeb Bush on Twitter, so I like him.
Punchy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: holy shit….people still send telegraphs?
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Not to take anything away from either of them but put that way it really sounds like the name of a CPA firm, doesn’t it?
;)
Aleta
Chad Wolf (attendant to violence-worshiping, white supremacist Stephen Miller) is very bad news in or outside the administration. I hope he can be exposed, investigated and face prosecution. I’d bet he’s played his part in some actions leading to the Jan. 6 violence, though unreported so far. He’s also fairly skilled at controlling the media.
MisterForkbeard
@Yutsano: “promising political career”? She’s DESPISED by most Democrats and Republicans don’t love her like her dad. She’s fundamentally useless at every level and the worst example of privilege we’ve seen in decades.
I mean, she’s going to try and Haberman will try to prop her up, but I really don’t see it happening. Especially not if she stays married to Jared.
Gravenstone
@jl: There were cops on the insurrectionist side too. That’s who they chose to align themselves with, not their fellow Capitol police.
lowtechcyclist
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
Repurpose Gitmo to hold them all.
Gravenstone
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: I’m sure there are some out of season sports venues that can be repurposed for bulk detention. Or say, what about a bunch of cages along the southern border?
Aleta
@Feathers: That’s really cool.
sdhays
I hope the follow up questions were: “In retrospect, do you feel totally stupid for thinking such preposterous thing. Do you think someone with your absurdly terrible instincts should continue as a United States Senator?”
Suzanne
@Mary G: I am a fan of FETTERMAN. He’s great.
Reading this about the manatee is the closest I’ve come to crying in a while.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MisterForkbeard: Rick Wilson says she’s talking to people in FL, and gunning for Teenie-Weenie Marco. I can’t imagine her stilted, studied phoniness will play well with trump’s base, or anyone else, but Rick Scott is a fucking crook who’s won statewide three times.
why?
HumboldtBlue
Oath Keepers has been one of the primary drivers of the white supremacy we see on display, actively recruiting retired cops and military to take part in the coup attempt.
Oath Keepers website is currently down. They are getting a lot of FBI attention.
I posted this link in the thread below. How QAnon found the real deep state.
NotMax
@MisterForkbeard
“Not no way, not no how” is a promise, too.
:)
sdhays
@Yutsano: Who gave her tickets?
Martin
@lowtechcyclist: Plenty of low-level drug offenders in state prisons that can be released to make space.
Leto
@sdhays: that’s what I was going to ask. Plus those can be revoked. She’s not an elected official and she can follow her shit stain father someplace else.
NotMax
@lowtechcyclist
Never gonna happen. Military, not civilian, facility.
Now, maybe a GoFundMe to lease Devil’s Island and get that back up and running….
Baud
@Leto:
Don’t we want her there as a human shield?
Leto
@Mary G: I like him quite a bit, and his wife is a certified badass.
Kent
“Jews Will Not Replace Us”
JanieM
@Yutsano: Her “promising political career”? Gag indeed.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mary G:
not a Belichick fan, but… yeah, good on him. Here’s his statement.
Patricia Kayden
You’ve got to love the Scots!
The Thin Black Duke
@Spanky: Bill doesn’t want to lose most of the team.
HumboldtBlue
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I just read that too. He’s a very smart man and grew up at West Point where his dad was a coach. I’m not surprised at this reaction. I don’t think he would have accepted it from Trump under any circumstances.
Miss Bianca
@Leto: “sea lawyering” is the term of art in Patrick O’Brian novels. Not to be confused with “sea lioning”, except when it is.//
Kent
He also completely owned the execrable Lt. Governor of TX in public on twitter. So there’s that.
Martin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Bill understood that his ability to recruit players was going to be hurt by this.
If it had been a genuine moral conviction it wouldn’t have taken so long to turn it down.
WaterGirl
@Martin: Every one of them should have been released when COVID hit.
Just Chuck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Huh, did T run out of war criminals to give the medal to?
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The “decision has been made” is awkward phrasing. The “Above all, I am an American citizen” is good though.
Calouste
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s a rather stilted statement: “the decision has been made not to move forward with the award”.
Who made that decision Mr. Bellicheck?
Kent
He’s full of flop sweat right now looking around desperately for people who’s glory and stature might rub off on him via proximity.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: I was actually struck by the bad writing, I guess he did it himself.
@Martin: no doubt, but it’s fuel to trump’s rage and a massive cardio-vascular event is the best hope we have for getting him out before 1/20. I’m sure Robert Kraft has turned his phone off
NotMax
@Just Chuck
“Hey, Jared, you want a medal? I’ve got a spare.”
//
Leto
@Miss Bianca: can’t wait for the term “space station lawyer” to enter the lexicon :P
Raven
@Calouste: Did you know Saban is older than him?
7-7 first
Martin
@Just Chuck: I want to know what Nunes and Jordan provided in return for the medal.
Calouste
@Raven: I don’t even know who Saban is.
Captain C
cain
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Who is threatening them? It isn’t our side.. I assume that it’s MAGA people who see them as traitors.
Anya
@Yutsano: Let her think she has a prayer. I want her to primary that sanctimonious fake christian, Marco Rubio. I want that fucker humiliated by the MAGA he’s been brownnosing for the past 4-years.
NotMax
@Kent
“Sir, the calls to Scott Baio keep going to a full voice mailbox.”
//
Kathleen
@Martin: When I read that I thought about his rationale for choosing experienced people to serve in his administration – “They know where all the bodies are buried”. While I understand the term refers to how people can negotiate or get things done quickly, I think in retrospect it also refers to having people embedded in organizational personal networks who have his back. Security is weighing heavily on his mind, as it should.
lowtechcyclist
@dmsilev: Meanwhile, Republicans plea for ‘unity’.
The Dems should give them a list of what the GOP needs to do before there can be any discussions about ‘unity.’
Dems should tell them, “do all that, and we can talk about unity. If not, you can kindly fuck off.”
They won’t do that, of course. Any of it. But that’s the point: it would put on record the things they aren’t willing to do in the name of unity.
Patricia Kayden
Sm*t Cl*de
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I suppose “showing our allies and adversaries by actually governing” is not an option.
Uncle Cosmo
@Omnes Omnibus: IIRC the antediluvian term is barracks lawyer, or maybe barracks barrister – but hey, what do I know, I did not serve.
Gravenstone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Go home Susan, you’re drunk.
Raven
@Calouste: ha, I forgot where I was!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@cain: yup, it’s Rs who voted to confirm the Electoral College who are getting the death threats
Baud
@Sm*t Cl*de:
For the first and last time in Pence’s life, the people are screaming about how much they want him, and he’s just letting it pass him by.
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This genie is not going to go back in the bottle willingly.
Baud
@WaterGirl: Unwillingly is acceptable.
Nelle
@Princess Leia: I jolted awake with thoughts of what if they took out Pence, Pelosi, and Grassley? Isn’t Pompeo next.? I just shudders his greasy smile, his sticky hands. I think he still thinks he has a sparking chance.
Leto
@Uncle Cosmo: I think each service probably has their moniker for it. Army/Marines are barracks, Air Force dorms, Navy swabby, Space Force space station, Coast Guard is hey we’re still here… :P
NotMax
@Raven
Calouste is not alone. Was sitting here scratching my noggin over where the Power Rangers fit in with any of this.
;)
HumboldtBlue
Steve Schmidt points out what we all know.
Kent
No shit. An old Washington hand and badass Nazi prosecutor like Merrick Garland makes a hell of a lot of sense right now. This isn’t the month for on-the-job training for the next AG.
WaterGirl
@Baud: They are never going to go away completely.
I had this whole cockroach analogy that I was trying to explain, but it got too disgusting.
Needless to say, under Trump they no longer scattered when the lights were turned on.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: There is porn about that.
Raven
@NotMax: and people who do have been cowed into submission
Ceci n est pas mon nym
.– .- .. – –..– / .– …. .- – .—-. … / .– .-. — -. –. / .– .. – …. / – . .-.. . –. .-. .- — … ..–..
Leto
@Omnes Omnibus: need to wait 5 more minutes before the site red light turns on for that type of content.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t even want to know. Roaches are totally disgusting creatures and they give me the willies. Not unlike these insurrectionists in that respect, now that you mention it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
this is of course, both pathetic and funny, but the scary thing is, millions of people believe this. He wears make up, probably heels and a girdle. His dyed hair-do is more elaborate than an 18th century Parisian courtesan’s. He whines constantly and refuses to take responsibility for anything. Just astounds me that tens of millions of people, mostly men, think he’s a paragon of machismo.
Raven
@WaterGirl: don’t move down here
Miss Bianca
@HumboldtBlue: wow. great read. I think I’m gonna quote (with attribution) these last paragraphs in the article I’m writing about Boebert:
This is what you need to absorb: QAnon and “stop the steal” are forever associated with a violent attack against the United States. Maybe that’s not what it’s meant to you, maybe you think that’s a misread of last week’s events, but that’s how the real Deep State, a lot of elected officials, and much of the public sees it.
If that isn’t what you signed up for, now would be a good time to get out.
Omnes Omnibus
@Leto: Fuck ’em
NotMax
@Nelle
There’s actually been some esoteric legal swordplay in select enclaves about what happens in the situation you posit if and when the House subsequently votes in a new Speaker. Does he/she then slide in and replace the Secretary?
HumboldtBlue
Trump has just declared en emergency for the District of Columbia. What the fuck is this?
catclub
I suspect because they WANTED to be.
artem1s
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
how? by telepathy?
Baud
@HumboldtBlue:
The mayor asked for something like this. If Trump gave in, then this is good.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Counsel for 18th century Parisian courtesans on hold for you. Something about even being mentioned in the same sentence….
Ceci n est pas mon nym
It doesn’t make the nightmare of the last four years worth it, but it’s nice to see how rapidly and how thoroughly his world is imploding in the final bunker days.
Miss Bianca
@Leto: LOL!
Or just…Spaaaaace Laaaawyer!! (you need to use the Space Ghost voice to say it. Every time.)
Patricia Kayden
Sigh
dogwood
@Calouste: You’re right . All the existing Cabinet Secretaries real and acting leave on 1/20. And there will be none confirmed to take their place. The Senate hasn’t even begun the confirmation process. Clinton, W and Obama had the major positions confirmed before they took office. I have no idea why Democrats aren’t screaming bloody murder about this. It’s a national security threat. We’re lucky the Dems control the Senate or else Mitch would have slow walked the process. I hope Joe understands that the Senate Dems don’t much give a shit about the predicament he’s in on Jan. 20. This is what happens without a peaceful transition.
Patricia Kayden
Kent
MAGA Oregon legislator caught on camera illegally letting protesters and rioters into the Oregon capitol building at the protests a couple of weeks ago. youtu.be/iCaSgWNPp_4
You KNOW there are going to be similar shoes drop in DC. They think they can do this shit with impunity. Oregon Dems are not amused and pursuing both criminal charges and expulsion.
Miss Bianca
@lowtechcyclist: I like the way you’re thinking, here. Of course, since I’ve just been watching the Godfather series, there’s also part of me that wants to see Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership doing a Michael Corleone turn.
Metaphorically speaking, of course.
Patricia Kayden
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: But we don’t.
Geoboy
@HumboldtBlue: I thought Belichek grew up at the Naval Academy.
Omnes Omnibus
@dogwood: Do you think that a couple of people on the internet hit on an issue that no one else thought of? Jesus Fucking Christ.
cain
I’m not, I saw a mob attack a local black woman, ripped her wig off and assaulted her. In that MAGA crowd was a black man, who watched and did nothing. Asshole.
Raven
@dogwood: recess appointments?
Leto
@Miss Bianca: haha, love it!
Jim Appleton
I’ll bring my fucking unity when y’all keelhaul your very own terrorists.
Thank you.
Now to read comments.
Kathleen
@Kent: When I heard Garland’s extensive experience with white terrorism it all clicked.
HumboldtBlue
@Geoboy:
You’re correct, Naval Academy.
Fun fact. Nick Saban served on the same coaching staff as Belichick at Navy in 1982.
Elsewhere, I’m not much of a Chris Hayes watcher but this is a good segment.
Miss Bianca
@Patricia Kayden: If anyone out there is still wondering why Biden made changes in the Secret Service detail assignments, you can stop wondering now.
sab
@Leto:Coasties’ are squab bays, according to husband who was a coasty.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Some of the responses to those tweets are priceless!
Doc Sardonic
@Princess Leia: they would be leaving anyway because the nanosecond after Joe says “So help me God” they are all unemployed.
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Hogan Gidley: Trump is “the most masculine person to ever hold the White House as the president of the United States”
I confess that I did not know whether this Hogan Gidley person was male or female.
Trump, with his vanity and makeup, reminds me of one of the bewigged and powdered fops in the recent film “The Favourite.”
A commenter recently posted a link from an article doing a remote psych evaluation of Trump and his followers.
One thing I have noted is how many Republican men appear to love to be dominated by Trump, even if he uses them and tosses them aside.
And he is weak, immature and insecure. How anyone could ever fall for his false bluster is almost beyond me. But then again, I have seen people fall for obvious financial grifters, so I recognize some of the techniques at play.
Kathleen
@Leto: Good grief. Yesterday it was Baud and Debbie and now this. Still think Cole could make bank on BJ Pay Per View.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Courtiers (and courtesans) in 17th and 18th century France were fashion sheep.
When Louis XIV showed up at court one day with the heels of his shoes reddened (it is theorized from stepping through a puddle of blood outside a butcher’s) an aristocratic mania to sport red heels immediately took hold and that became de rigueur.
Kathleen
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Also I heard he wears adult diapers. When I think that America’s been held hostage by a guy who poops his pants…
Raven
@Miss Bianca: I don’t think Biden made those changes
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: One is aware.
dogwood
@Raven: how can a POTUS make a recess appointment if the Senate isn’t in recess? They’re in recess now, but Joe ain’t the President.
Raven
@dogwood: after the fucking inaugural
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@dogwood:
then what happens?
WaterGirl
@Baud: I can’t imagine that DC won’t be made a state after this.
debbie
@Raven:
How’s Ohio State playing?
Leto
@sab: will update the smack talk notebook; tell him, “Anchors away, and ahoy matey!” :P
HumboldtBlue
@Baud:
I was unclear it was related because of shock Trump would do correct thing.
catclub
Bloomberg headline. A sternly worded letter? A congressional medal?
NotMax
@Doc Sardonic
Nitpick: The second before that, as “so help me God” is not a part of the oath of office.
Maximum nitpick: At the stroke of noon, as the administering of the oath is ceremonial and Biden becomes president at that moment whether or not it takes place.
Uncle Cosmo
Um, close but no cigar:
And his first job in football was with the Baltimore Colts, as a $25/wk assistant to head coach Ted Marchibroda in 1975.
Raven
Bama just turned it Over and the bucks tied it at 14. Sermon got hurt on the first play but his replacement is a hoss
Baud
J R in WV
@Leto:
I was an E2 when I enlisted (to avoid being drafted) and an E2 when I got out. Deliberately so. Did my job, kept my head down, didn’t want promotion, just to do my job and get out.
Why was this person in the military at all?
ETA: My enlistment was like being Press Ganged into the Royal Navy during the wars with Napoleon — just minding my business when I got this letter: “Greetings” it started…
WaterGirl
@Patricia Kayden: At this point, I think Biden needs to be sworn in inside the closet of his choosing, in the location of his choosing.
Leto
@Kathleen: will have to say since he’s stopped drinking the amount of naked mustard mopping incidents have basically disappeared. If he were to do a PPV, it’d have to be Rosie/Lilly/Thurston/Steve shenanigan-cam. He’d probably make bank with that.
catclub
Now who was it who kIlled Indira Gandhi?
Mary G
@dogwood: Joe’ll have all the paperwork filled out and hand it to Chuck right after the inaugural ceremonies.
debbie
@Baud:
Now I’m really suspicious. He’s a snake in the grass.
Comrade Colette
@catclub: A blow job.
Misterpuff
@dmsilev: UNITY will exist when the Republicans join with the Dems and expel all of the seditionists and their co-conspirators from government and charged with any crimes committed. Then and only then will they be allowed unity with the rest of America.
if it needs to be said: 88% are outraged.
trollhattan
@Calouste:
Iran, Russia, North Korea and China have no idea any of this is happening right now.
Danielx
@MattF:
Fuck Newt and his Neuticles™, which should be removed with a rusty farm implement.
NotMax
@catclub
“It is the sense of this august body that the as of this date current president be limited to no more than one scoop of ice cream.”
//
Princess Leia
@Nelle: That was my worry. And why the gathering outside with all these threats seems…imprudent. It’s a multilevel crisis. Do it inside and quietly. Celebrate when we can. But now… it feels like the wrong thing to do on so many levels.
nasruddin
@sdhays: “Do you think someone with your absurdly terrible instincts should continue as a United States Senator?”
Her instincts on getting elected are impeccable, I would say, & that is what cuts it
Martin
@WaterGirl: I think DC and PR are almost guaranteed at this point.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
He’s raging because his lawyers have told him a self-pardon for incitement would be an admission of guilt, and open him up to civil suits from victims of his mob. I don’t think he can hold, too many people would be willing to flip for AG Garland.
Leto
@J R in WV: I would say that if she acted like you had, did her job, kept out of trouble, tried to maintain some professionalism, she probably would’ve been fine. But if you look at the article she’s already caused issues off base. Being warned twice by the cops to stop messing with COVID procedures? This? I feel like if Army investigators scratch even a little bit, there’s going to be a mess more shit to come out.
nasruddin
Can you imagine working in this force, knowing that someone working next to you might be a mole working for insurrectionists who are out to kill you?
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t usually like insidery gossip, but that made me smile.
trollhattan
@Kent:
I get a bit of “quiet assassin” vibe from Garland and if true, he could be perfect for the jerb. I don’t think he’ll either be overwhelmed by nor surprised about what he’s up against.
trollhattan
@nasruddin:
“And that’s the last time I ever went to the Department Christmas party.”
Odie Hugh Manatee
@OzarkHillbilly: “I long ago concluded that suicide is an acceptable way to say, “I’m done with this shit.”…”
No, it’s not and if you really believe this then please seek help. Please. I read that and it stopped me dead in my tracks because of just how wrong it is.
Talk to someone about this, please.
Jim Appleton
@catclub:
Megzaktly.
The lesson learned this last week is that our system of government is as fragile as anyone else’s.
dogwood
@Kathleen: Noel Casler, who worked on the live shows of Celebrity Apprentice tells the best stories of what it’s like when he shits his pants. You can see it coming. He’s a drug addict and the adderall acts as a diuretic. When he gets angry and agitated is when he shits. He also wears a plastic corset contraption. He does his own hair and makeup which isn’t a surprise.
HumboldtBlue
@Uncle Cosmo:
I caught the error.
I bet you wear Johnny Unitas high-top black cleats to work.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
still kind of sickeningly high, but it’s something
WaterGirl
@Martin: Oh god, I certainly hope you are right.
trollhattan
If there’s one thing Rupert hates more than liberals, it’s losing money.
HumboldtBlue
@Leto:
I think we get shenani-cam, I think that works and the rhythm is better.
Leto
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: is that W level end of term polling?
Baud
@trollhattan:
Probably because they were getting more non-regular viewers.
Doc Sardonic
@NotMax: Picky, picky, picky……there isn’t a booger anywhere safe from you. //
Captain C
@Leto: Not quite, as IIRC Shrubya was deservedly down to the Crazification level, but the rate of decline may be steeper.
Elizabelle
Might be time for a fresh thread. This one has to be getting unwieldy on phones.
Doc Sardonic
@HumboldtBlue: Don’t want to see Cole shenani. Dammit where is that brain bleach?
Martin
@Leto: Bush got down to 25 post-Katrina. Trump has a way to go yet.
sdhays
@Martin: You think there are 60 votes in the Senate for cloture to allow DC and PR? Or do you think that the Democrats have enough fire in their bellies to make it work without the 60 vote rule one way or another?
Gravenstone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Not unexpected, but this is basically proof that Trump is pulling this medal shit out of his ass. This would have been coordinated weeks it not months in advance in a competent admin. Trump just flies by the seat of his pants, tossing them out like Mardi Gras beads to whoever suits his fancy in the moment. And he finally ended up with someone with enough self respect to say “no thank you”.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
I’m with Ozark Hillbilly. Incidentally, I did discuss this exact position with a psychiatrist last week. I told him a good way to both appall people and start an argument was to announce a belief that suicide is a an acceptable personal choice. He did not argue with me.
I recognize everyone’s right to disagree and would of course never encourage anyone to make that choice, but I believe it is an acceptable personal choice. Rather like palliative care as opposed to chemo that may or may not postpone death and may make the patient’s life hellacious prior to death. Very few people criticize that choice. Life is a terminal condition.
p.a.
@juliettekayyem
Political commentators are falling into mistake that violent terror threats get less so if some mercy (no impeachment) is shown its leader. There is history of counterterrorism efforts that show otherwise. Only complete isolation, powerlessness, deplatforming, of leader works. 1/
For the next 10 days and beyond, Trump has to be seen as ineffectual, without oxygen, so he can not have second act. No soft exit. It’s horrible to admit, but do not buy into argument that violence is less if we put a brake on gas pedal. They need to be stopped. 2/
But the violence is actually worse if they, and future recruits, view him as strong. They want to back a winner. We prepare for violence but it will be less so in the future with no leadership and if they know their leader can’t help them. 3/
Maybe I’m sounding too harsh, no mercy etc. He may be president of the United States but he is also inciter of domestic terrorism. And his complete isolation and condemnation is the safest path forward. We can’t stop now. Total isolation. 4/4
[OF COURSE (SOME) polit commentators are, even outside the right wing wurlitzer?]
HumboldtBlue
@Doc Sardonic:
Ohhhh myyy… no… we don’t want to see Cole’s shenani…
Martin
@Martin: I take that back, it wasn’t post-Katrina, it was the massive stock market drops in Sept/Oct 2008.
Brachiator
@Martin:
It might be quite a battle. PR is in a dire economic condition. Would there be tremendous federal costs imposed if it became a state? And is there some percentage of support from the people of the island required before statehood could be considered?
Gravenstone
@Patricia Kayden: They spelled “was immediately fired and walked out of the office by security” wrong.
Martin
@sdhays: I think the filibuster is toast. I thought it probably was before, but now the minority party is trying to overthrow an election, and I don’t think Democrats are going to be open to letting Ted Cruz recite Green Eggs and Ham for the next 4 years.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@p.a.: I haven’t seen anyone but Hugh Hewitt types and elected Rs calling for just moving on. I see Kayyem’s at CNN. Do they have people calling for forgiveness?
Nelle
@Patricia Kayden: Secret Service is allowed to have social media? When a young friend joined the FBI, he eliminated his facebook and other social media.
sdhays
@Brachiator: Considering what we didn’t do for them after Hurricane Maria, I think we owe them a lot of debt forgiveness. They’ve been exploited quite a bit, as well as run poorly (but so have many states). Just redirect the Space Farce budget to Puerto Rico; it will be money a lot better spent.
Matt McIrvin
@Princess Leia: The filibuster doesn’t apply to appointment confirmations any more, so there’s not going to be much of an obstacle to getting Biden’s whole cabinet confirmed, particularly once Warnock and Ossoff are seated.
And regardless, all of the Trump political appointees go when Biden comes in. That’s executive-branch standard operating procedure.
Gravenstone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Jarvanka, Uday and Qusay must have the biggest case of the sads right now…
Leto
@Martin: has anyone convinced Manchin of this? He’s at least 1 who’s said he doesn’t support getting rid of it.
Martin
@Brachiator: They’re already part of the US. They’re already our tremendous costs.
Both populations have successfully voted for statehood, so that’s already done. Giving them representation allows them to deal with these problems – DC being able to police themselves without approval from the President (not really a problem until this week), and PR to get fair treatment within the federal budget.
sdhays
@Martin: Before the Georgia elections, Manchin said he was absolutely against dropping the filibuster, so I had given up on that reform in the near term. I hope you’re right that he and any others (DiFI, probably, and I know Angus King was not a fan of removing the filibuster) have a change of heart. That would be huge!
Kent
There were EIGHT seditionist Senators who voted against the certifications of the electoral college results in AZ and PA. For PA the following Senators voted for sedition in PA: Hawley, Cruz, Tuberville, Hyde-Smith, Marshall, Lummis, and Scott. For Arizona, the following Senators voted against: Hawley, Cruz, Tuberville, Hyde-Smith, Marshall, and Kennedy.
One way for the Democrats to make them pay for their actions short of expulsion, is to remove their ability to obstruct Democratic legislation through filibuster. They LOST that privilege by their actions, which is simply one granted to them by the majority.
So essentially REFUSE to count any of their votes on cloture motions, blue slips, or any other non-Constitutional privileges that are granted to Senators via tradition and concession of the majority and nowhere in the Constitution.
If you are refusing to abandon the filibuster, that will at least drop the cloture vote down to 52 not 60, until those states decide to replace the traitors that represent them
If Manchin isn’t willing to drop the filibuster, he should at least be willing to act to deal with the seditionists in his midst who painted a target on his back and aimed a murderous mob in his direction.
Martin
@Leto: Nothing said by Democrats before Wed should be assumed to apply after Wed. Understand that many Dem lawmakers rightfully believe their colleagues tried to get them killed. That tends to change the nature of collegiality pretty dramatically.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@sdhays: there’s been twitter speculation that Manchin and King will form some kind of ‘gang’, as they used to like to say, with Romney and Murkowski. I don’t know if there’s anything more than speculation, but it would surprise me not. I could see Collins
Synema, Kelly, and Carper joining. Maybe Hickenlooper?
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Raven: Good game so far
VeniceRiley
@Gravenstone: Trump throwing Medals of Freedom around like paper towels in Puerto Rico, you mean. So disgusted!
ballerat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: What is the point for Collins to tell the press that, like, when it has been a number of days where we’ve already known who did it.
She didn’t have to say anything. Is she so out of touch or senile she has no clue how out of touch that sounds? Or is she among those republicans still trying to give their trumpers another crazy fig leaf to hide behind?
HumboldtBlue
@Brachiator:
Yes, there is.
sdhays
@Kent: Can the Senate do that? I can’t imagine it’s valid for the majority to simply ignore the votes of duly elected colleagues. They can expel them, but that takes a supermajority that they probably lack. They might be able to censure them, but that wouldn’t affect their ability to vote, right?
Danielx
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
How many people have you known who were in agonizing physical pain to the point medications no longer worked?
Subsole
@MisterForkbeard:
You can’t. You cannot appeal to the mind of a man who thinks with his emotions and get anything but heartache.
Subsole
@Baud:
Yep. They would rather stop being American than be American with us.
Fuck ’em.
Subsole
@Martin: Could be their officers are having nervous breakdowns after the brass left them twisting, too…
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: Ask and you shall receive.
sdhays
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Carper is a big ally of Biden, so I would be surprised if he participated in that kind of thing. Tester might be interested.
Anyway, a “gang” like that really isn’t that interesting unless the filibuster is eliminated or there are at least 10 Republicans involved. Otherwise, the Republicans aren’t really bringing anything to the table. It seems shortsighted to me for Manchin to oppose removing the filibuster. Without the filibuster, he becomes the most valuable member in the Democratic caucus. He could do a lot with that power.
Subsole
@Leto: Airlock lawyer, my dude.
MisterForkbeard
@Patricia Kayden: I mean, shes out of the SS. You can’t be part of it and believe that the President isn’t legitimate and is a traitor.
WaterGirl
@Subsole: It could be anything, and we have no way of knowing.
Totally off-balance after being left swinging in the wind by superiors – for house that must have felt like a lifetime?
Maybe very close to the officer that was murdered?
Maybe a supporter of the insurrection until it got out of hand, and feeling responsible for what happened?
Your world collapsing because fellow offices betrayed their duties and you and left you in mortal danger?
Terrified, so maybe you didn’t fight and let them go past?
Or it could be a million other things that we have no way of knowing.
evodevo
@Anya: He knows where all the Trumpian skeletons are buried…better than anyone…
Miss Bianca
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: I hear ya. (Hi! I’m sorry I’ve missed you around here in real time!)
MisterForkbeard
@catclub: Evidently censure because Trunp “may” have some responsibility. But also investigating the election! Looking into ‘fraud’ to appease the american people! And changing the electoral voting laws to do… something.
So yeah, complete nonsense.
LesGS
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: You can easily find that cap for sale on Etsy: CDF = Chicago Fire Department.
Viva BrisVegas
@Suzanne: This upset me too. The only thing that makes it slightly less obscene is that it appears that the word Trump was not carved into the manatee, but was put there by scraping algae off the manatees skin. So it appears it is not suffering from external wounds.
In order to do that they would have had to restrain the manatee in place. Which would of course traumatize it.
Drown these shitheads.
geg6
@MisterForkbeard:
You can’t convince them with facts. Everything I’ve read about people in thrall to a cult says facts don’t penetrate and may, in fact, harden their misguided views. It apparently takes a bunch of time and patience and persistence to coax these people out of their insanity. If you can at all.
MisterForkbeard
Crazily stupid army psyops lady just resigned her commission, apparently.
This way she remains somewhat less investigated, could see the writing on the wall regarding her career and NOW she gets to be a martyr.
Tony Gerace
@jl: This is ancient history, but, unfortunately, Frank Serpico could testify about cops watching each other’s backs.
Kent
What they can’t do is violate any constitutional provisions. So they couldn’t ignore their votes on actual legislation and declare that say a 53-47 vote against something is actually a 47-45 vote in favor.
But on everything else short of legislative votes, the Senate can do anything they want. There is nothing constitutional about cloture votes. Those are just simply the rules for ending debate. When they reconvene under the new Democratic majority they can, by majority vote, simply reduce the cloture vote from 60 to 52. And announce that they will consider raising it again as states replace the seditionists with less compromised Senators. The can also simply ignore any blue slips from seditionists. Those are just courtesies anyway. McConnell ignored them when it was convenient to do so.
geg6
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I know, right?!?!?!? I don’t understand it at all. Even back in the 80s when he was still young, I never viewed as anything other than soft rich boy who would crumble and run away from a fight. He’s always kinda grossed me out and I never understood why any woman would be attracted to him. I certainly wasn’t.
Calouste
@MisterForkbeard: I don’t think resigning her commission will get her out of the military justice system.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Gin & Tonic: Hippos are one of the deadliest animals in Africa (I.e. they kill the most people). They come out of the water at night to graze and run over people if they are blocking the hippo’s path back to the water. Also their teeth are very sharp and they attack and capsize boats, drowning people All those pictures you’ve seen of hippos with their mouths open, showing their teeth – those are threat displays. The Columbians made a big mistake.