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January 6 Hearings Live

Jemele Hill on Twitter: "Just watched @CoriBush on MNSBC and she pointed out that it seemed like law enforcement was behaving as if they were told essentially not harm the rioters. My spidey senses were already going off about this, but hearing her account ... this feels planned." / Twitter

Interesting take on how those cops behaved. They didn't even try to be even-handed about brutality. The didn't try to show that they could also be brutal to right-wing honkies.

Chicago Police Union Leader Defends Capitol Rioters, 'There Was Little Destruction of Property'

Albert Lee on Twitter: "I always knew it was easier for White guys to get into Congress, but I didn't realize all they had to do was walk in." / Twitter


Kyle Cheney on Twitter: "Rep. LOFGREN, who chairs the House Administration Committee, ..." / Twitter
Rep. LOFGREN, who chairs the House Administration Committee, says the Capitol Police chief incorrectly told her that the National Guard was at the ready ahead of the Jan. 6 session.

"What they told me about the National Guard was just not true."

While she says most Capitol Police acted honorably and risked their lives to protect people, a handful need to be investigated for potentially letting rioters into the Capitol and, in at least one case, taking selfies with them.

LOFGREN explaining her support for a potential second Trump impeachment:

"This is about securing the United States from someone who seems to have lost it. As much as I disagree with Mike Pence, he is living in the real world."

FWIW, if the House does impeach Trump again, Lofgren will have played a role in four of the nation's five impeachment processes.

1) Nixon (as a House staffer)
2) Clinton
3) Trump 1
4) Trump 2
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Brian Sicknick, the injured police officer, has died.

[TWEET][FONT=&quot]https://twitter.com/CraigCaplan/status/1347406036802674688?s=20[/FONT][/TWEET]
 
"Ted Cruz here. I'm leading the fight to reject electors from key states unless there is an emergency audit of the election results. Will you stand with me?"

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Oh - you’re accusing me of lying? ..." / Twitter
Oh - you’re accusing me of lying?

Isn’t this you? Your campaign sent out this fundraising message as people were sieging the Capitol. You claimed to be “leading the fight to reject electors.”

Clashes started around 1:20pm. This message was sent after the Capitol was breached.

Your complete refusal to acknowledge any of the above harm, wrongdoing, or even misjudgement; & your lack of any self-reflection in how these acts contributed to yesterday’s chaos is alarming. It is unbecoming of any elected official and makes you unfit for the office you occupy.

Resign.
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Trump did NOT immediately send out the National Guard. ..." / Twitter
Trump did NOT immediately send out the National Guard.

No initial presence. Clashes began ~1:20pm. The breach happened (roughly) around 2/2:30. Around 3:38pm, DC council tweeted their request for National Guard was DENIED.

When NG was approved, Trump wasn’t cited in decision.

Trump and his team are trying to cover their actions yesterday and avoid being identified for inciting an attack on Congress.

He is a clear + present danger as long as he is in office. Reports are indicating that he is unwell and getting worse. He must be removed from office.
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Seems like Trump didn't want the NG. Was he wanting his followers to do his dirty work?

Council of DC on Twitter: "Statement from the DC Council on the Department of Defense’s Denial of DC’s National Guard Deployment Request https://t.co/vXjm5WXFpg" / Twitter

Jonathan Lemire on Twitter: "Three days before the pro-Trump riot at the Capitol, the Pentagon asked the U.S Capitol Police if it needed National Guard manpower.

And then as the mob descended, DOJ leaders reached out to offer up FBI agents.

The police turned them down both times (link)" / Twitter
Capitol Police rejected offers of federal help to quell mob
 
Kyle Cheney on Twitter: "This is really hard to fathom:

LOFGREN says the chief of the Capitol Police was "not truthful with me" about whether the Natl Guard was called up before Jan. 6.

"It was just not true. They had not been called."

Then, when woeful security became clear, DOD resisted sending them" / Twitter


Josh Hawley on Twitter: "My statement on the woke mob at @simonschuster (image link)" / Twitter
This could not be more Orwellian. Simon & Schuster is canceling my contract because l was representing my constituents, leading a debate on the Senate floor on voter integrity, which they have now decided to redefine as sedition. Let me be clear, this is not just a contract dispute. It's a direct assault on the First Amendment. Only approved speech can now be published. This is the Left looking to cancel everyone they don"t approve of. will fight this cancel culture with everything I have. We'll see you in court.
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Katie Hill on Twitter: "Dude incites a mob and the death count keeps rising but he’s whining about a lost book deal." / Twitter

Ro Khanna on Twitter: "Maybe they cancelled your contract because there isn’t a market for politicians who give fist pumps to rioters attacking the Capitol. Your reasoning wouldn’t pass a first year law exam. Simon & Schuster is not a state actor. The 1st amendment doesn’t apply." / Twitter

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "You fist-pumped insurrectionists and baselessly attacked our elections. Your actions fueled a riot and you fundraised in the chaos. Five people are dead.

Even your GOP colleagues have distanced from your acts.

Yet here you are crying over a book deal. You should be expelled." / Twitter

What a big baby JH is. Given his partisanship, I'm sure that he professes undying love of capitalism. But here is a capitalist organization rejecting his book.
 
Alex Thompson on Twitter: "Sen. Coons, considered one of Biden's best ambassadors w/ GOP Senators, calls on Hawley and Cruz to step down @marianne_levine reports https://t.co/72fA3RD9yu" / Twitter

Coons calls on Cruz and Hawley to resign - POLITICO - "The Delaware Democrat said the two Republican senators who mounted challenges to Biden's victory should step down in the aftermath of the deadly riots in D.C."
Cruz and Hawley aren’t just receiving criticism from Democrats. Former Republican Sen. John Danforth told the St. Louis Post Dispatch that supporting Hawley’s 2018 Senate campaign “was the worst mistake I ever made in my life.” And Simon and Schuster also announced that it would cancel the publication of his forthcoming book.

Both senators are widely viewed as potential 2024 contenders.
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blaire erskine on Twitter: "Wife of the guy who stole Nancy Pelosi’s podium just posted this to Facebook https://t.co/mNyRYUgUZA" / Twitter - that is absurd.

Katie Porter on Twitter: "@blaireerskine @KKTreseder I think her child may be named “Holiday Inn Express”" / Twitter
Presumably a reference to BE talking about pilfering from hotel rooms.

blaire erskine on Twitter: "@katieporteroc @KKTreseder Oh my god oh my god oh my god 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍" / Twitter

Katie Porter on Twitter: "@blaireerskine @KKTreseder I legit grew up with someone who named his kid “Tax Deduction”. Which I always thought was weird bc it is either an Exemption or a Credit but not a Deduction." / Twitter
 
Rep. Barbara Lee on Twitter: "The 25th amendment must be invoked immediately.

I joined @RepRaskin on legislation to invoke the 25th amendment last year, and now it’s taken on a new and dangerous urgency." / Twitter

Josh Mankiewicz on Twitter: "At least the book would have had a spine https://t.co/WtlmLzr2Bb" / Twitter
noting
Simon & Schuster Cancels Plans for Senator Hawley’s Book - The New York Times
The publisher faced calls to drop the Missouri Republican’s upcoming book, “The Tyranny of Big Tech,” following criticism of his efforts to overturn the presidential election.

...
The cancellation signaled the pitfalls that mainstream publishers face as they attempt to straddle the partisan divide in a hyper-polarized and volatile political environment. The biggest commercial publishers have long released works by both Democrats and Republicans, and most have dedicated imprints for works by politicians and pundits on the right. But some publishing professionals wondered if the violence at the Capitol would make it untenable for them to work with conservative authors who have questioned the legitimacy of the election or taken other incendiary positions.
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Where is their meekness toward Big Business that they claim that everybody ought to have?
 
Shadowy Man said:
I miss the good old days when saluting with a cup of coffee in your hands was considered treasonous.
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Don't worry. Those days will be back the second Biden takes office. At least on Fox.
 
voterunlead on Twitter: "Because OF COURSE they did. #Leadership

"Many politicians and constituents alike froze in place as events transpired, 👉🏿 while once again 👈🏿, Black women were the ones to demand change in the face of fear."

(link)

@karennameredith @POPSUGAR @CoriBush" / Twitter
noting
Black Women in Politics Demand Change After Capitol Riot | POPSUGAR News
Like Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Stacey Abrams, and Maxine Waters.

John Kelly after Capitol riot: 'Look infinitely harder at who we elect to any office' | TheHill
then
The Hill on Twitter: "John Kelly after Capitol riot: America should "look infinitely harder at who we elect to any office" (links)" / Twitter
then
Stonekettle on Twitter: "Didn't I tell you?

Republicans suddenly all: Man! that Trump guy sucks. I never liked him. Crazy, am I right? Racist! Bigot! Misogyny and nepotism! Sedition even! He's NUTS, man. I mean, I worked for him, and did his dirty work, but I never liked it

These fucking people" / Twitter

Republican senators now regret not doing more to contain Trump | TheHill
You're telling "me"
“We should have done more to push back, both against his rhetoric and some of the things he did legislatively,” said the lawmaker. “The mistake we made is that we always thought he was going to get better. We thought that once he got the nomination, and then once he got a Cabinet he was going to get better, he was going to be more presidential.”

...
Many Republicans are shell-shocked over the horrific scenes at the Capitol, and seem to be trying to come to grips with their role in the disaster.

The mob that hit the Capitol was filled with people who believed Trump’s claims of a rigged election despite a lack of any serious evidence. It served as a symbol of the fact that many Americans are now moving through a reality no longer based on real facts — or the truth.

...
“The Republican leadership explained repeatedly that we’d need Trump to help get votes out,” said the lawmaker, who added that colleagues worried the president would find a way to sabotage them in Georgia runoff races if they quickly acknowledged Joe Biden as president-elect or forcefully dismissed claims of widespread voter fraud.
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It's their mess. They should clean it up.

Trump likely got out a *lot* of votes and made the party perform better than expected last November. I compared the actual results to 538's predictions and I found a significant difference, though most of the time within 538's margins of error.
 
The feelings of remorse are only now being expressed privately after Republican senators spent much of the past four years dodging questions about Trump’s controversial tweets, statements and decisions.

While Republicans did chide Trump from time to time, such as when the president declined to condemn groups such as the Proud Boys, who were linked to Wednesday’s violence, they often did so without direct and forceful criticism.
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What a bunch of whimpering cowards.

Cudd says she’s getting death threats after rioting; “I didn’t do anything illegal”
You're telling "me" :p

"Cudd posted a video on her Facebook page Wednesday afternoon, proudly telling viewers that she stormed the Capitol. She talked about people tearing down Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s officer doors and stealing her gavel and the general chaos all over the building."


Responding to Sen. Josh Hawley's getting butthurt about his book's rejection by a publisher:
Yonatan Lupu on Twitter: "Rookie mistake. You're supposed to wait a couple of years after your failed putsch before publishing a book about your struggle." / Twitter
In fairness, Adolf Hitler wrote his

John Scott-Railton on Twitter: "WOW: Was there a plan to take hostages? This man is carrying police-style zip-tie handcuffs. And mace(?) https://t.co/np3i1pUc6n" / Twitter

John Scott-Railton on Twitter: "Side view of his AR Flag hat confirms my suspicion that its from @blckriflecoffee. Logo now visible.

This guy is really hitting all the notes for tying to look like current former LE/MIL. https://t.co/KuMCDT46cx" / Twitter

There are several similar pictures. The attackers of the Capitol don't seem very organized, but some of the attackers seemed to have more in mind than taking over in building. Like taking Congresspeople hostage and presumably demanding from them that they certify Trump as the winner.

Brian Sicknick: US Capitol Police confirm death of officer after pro-Trump riot - CNNPolitics
 
John McCormack on Twitter: "Gov. Larry Hogan says requests to send in the Maryland National Guard were rejected for 90 minutes on Wednesday.

Read this. (WaPo link)" / Twitter
New Capitol fence in place; D.C. police identify three who died during riots - The Washington Post
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) offered new details Thursday about the delayed response to assist law enforcement at the Capitol, saying the Maryland National Guard was ready to help but was “repeatedly” told they did not have the authorization needed to join the effort. Hogan received a panicked call from House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md)., who pleaded with him to send in troops from Maryland, the governor said. Hoyer told him that he was calling from a secure location with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).

“I was actually on the phone with Leader Hoyer who was pleading with us to send the guard,” Hogan said. “He was yelling across the room to Schumer and they were back and forth saying we do have the authorization and I’m saying, ‘I’m telling you we do not have the authorization.' ”
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One has to ask who was giving the orders here. Trump, for all his belief in law and order and his love of the military and the police, seems to have been very negligent there. He seems to have been reluctant to call in the NG.
Hogan said Maj. Gen. Timothy Gowen, the adjutant general of the Maryland National Guard, was repeatedly rebuffed by the Pentagon.

Gowen “kept running it up the flagpole, and we don’t have authorization,” Hogan said. “We don’t have authorization.”

Ninety minutes later, Hogan said, he received a call “out of the blue, not from the secretary of defense, not through what would be normal channels,” but from Ryan McCarthy, the secretary of the Army. McCarthy asked if the Maryland guardsmen could “come as soon as possible,” Hogan recounted.

“It was like, yeah, we’re waiting, we’re ready,” Hogan said.
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fromderinside said:
Chicken shitty is the foulest kind of shitty.
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My vote goes with elephant shit -- get ready for tons and tons of it. Ted Cruz is now saying that he never agreed with Trump's tone and rhetoric "for the past four years"...Teddy Cruz!!!! They're all strategizing on how they can downplay their cuddle time with John Wilkes Trump. It'll be a feast for anyone whose sense of humor was honed on Twain, Mencken, and W.C. Fields. A bunch of strutting, pearl-clutching, neo-patriotic righties. Fuck them all.
 
ideologyhunter said:
My vote goes with elephant shit -- get ready for tons and tons of it.
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If you're dying of dehydration on the African savanna, elephant can save your life: you can wring potable water out of it.
I wouldn't try that with chicken shit.

(Follow me for more helpful tips)
 
ideologyhunter said:
fromderinside said:
Chicken shitty is the foulest kind of shitty.
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My vote goes with elephant shit -- get ready for tons and tons of it. Ted Cruz is now saying that he never agreed with Trump's tone and rhetoric "for the past four years"...Teddy Cruz!!!! They're all strategizing on how they can downplay their cuddle time with John Wilkes Trump. It'll be a feast for anyone whose sense of humor was honed on Twain, Mencken, and W.C. Fields. A bunch of strutting, pearl-clutching, neo-patriotic righties. Fuck them all.
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All this useless hand wringing by the gop is meaningless theater.

A few take aways from this (and I'm sure there will be much more in the days and weeks to come).
1. Many (maybe most) of the cops around the area were in agreement with the insurrectionists. They are at least as indirectly responsible for one of their own dying as the actual rioters. But maybe they don't consider him 'one of their own' if he was actually trying to do his job.

2. No amount of reality is going to make a difference with a large number of the 'base' that still support the orange shitgibbon and his insurrectionists.

3. Any of the gop bleating about how bad it was need to be asked one simple question: "Will you vote to convict if trump is impeached.?" If they answer with anything other than an unequivocal "Absolutely", fucking guillotine them.
 
lpetrich said:
blaire erskine on Twitter: "Wife of the guy who stole Nancy Pelosi’s podium just posted this to Facebook https://t.co/mNyRYUgUZA" / Twitter - that is absurd.
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Years ago, one of my on-watch conversations was about how we would judge if our life was or was not a success. Number of kids, net worth, size of the gun collection, that sort of thing.

I had a real clear answer last November. If the entire world dances in the streets when i get fired, i was not a success.
Right now, though, if my wife does not proudly tell the English-speaking world that i have five kids and no job....
 
Looking more broadly, I have to ask how well-organized this attack on the Capitol was. The attackers seemed like a big mob rather than a typical military or police or militia or special-forces or terrorist operation -- such operations tend to be much better organized. But there was at least one "gentleman" with zip-tie handcuffs, something that looked like preparation for more than simply taking over the Capitol building. Holding some Congresspeople hostage and demanding the recognition of Trump as re-elected?

For analogies, I looked at some video of warfare in other species, and sports riots:

Ants at War! | How They Fight over Territory - YouTube

Chimps Attacking Leopard - YouTube

Neither the ants nor the chimps are well-organized, and sports riots are a human example of disorganized warfare:

Top 10 Craziest/Well Known Football Riots - YouTube

I also looked at some video of some real military operations, even if they were all dramatizations. Like

 Operation Entebbe - Raid on Entebbe - Full Movie (1977) - YouTube (dramatization) - a.k.a. Operation Thunderbolt or Operation Yonatan, after Yonatan (Jonathan) Netanyahu the only Israeli soldier who was killed in it. His brother Binyamin (Benjamin) is now Prime Minister of Israel.

Both the terrorists and the rescuers were well-organized with plenty of division of labor and strategies like hiding at the side of a door.

 Norwegian heavy water sabotage - The Heroes of Telemark 1965 - YouTube (dramatization)

 Killing of Osama bin Laden - Osama Bin Laden's death: How it happened - YouTube (documentary with some video taken by the hit squad that killed him)

Here also, plenty of organization.

Personal note: I'd seen both RoE and HoT long ago, and I'd remembered bits of both of them.

There are lots of documentaries and dramatizations about large-scale human warfare, and it's much better organized than ant warfare, even if they may have similar numbers of soldiers. There are oodles of docs and movies about World War II, for instance. I've also seen simulations with video-game software of battles over the centuries, as far back as the Battle of Kadesh in the Middle East on 1275 BCE. Armies have been fighting in formation for millennia.
 
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