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January 6 Hearings Live

Opinion | A.O.C. and Jamie Raskin Reveal That Politicians Are Real People - The New York Times - about AOC's and JR's reactions in that horrible day.

About JR's describing how some family members hid from the mob under a desk in a Capitol office, and texting what they thought were their final texts. Also using an American flag's pole to attack a Capitol cop.
Mr. Raskin is not the only lawmaker to get personal about that day. On Feb. 1, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York Democrat, spent 90 minutes on Instagram Live, recounting the details of her nightmare: hiding in her office bathroom, searching a colleague’s office for gym shoes in case she had to flee for her life, listening to the mob baying at the building’s door.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez ventured beyond Jan. 6, revealing that she is a survivor of sexual assault and noting that “trauma compounds on each other” — that it can “intersect and interact.” Much like Mr. Raskin, she repeatedly had to wipe away tears.

Displays of raw pain and vulnerability are uncommon among members of Congress and other Washington leaders — the famously weepy former House speaker, John Boehner, notwithstanding.
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They usually get worked up in outrage over some others' misbehavior, or else they get very weepy about how *they* are the victims.
Not everyone is comfortable with such intimacy. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s video also prompted its share of backlash. She was criticized for conducting “a masterclass in emotional manipulation” and even accused, falsely, of lying about her experience at the Capitol.

...
Indeed, over the years, women politicians in particular often have been hesitant to talk openly about offensive or scary aspects of their jobs, lest critics tag them as weak, hysterical or overly sensitive. Remember all the hand-wringing during the 2008 campaign about whether Hillary Clinton was too emotional or shrill to win the presidency?

Men have their issues as well. Certainly, Mr. Trump bought into the idea that any display of emotion — other than rage or petulance, of course — was tantamount to weakness.
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We should credit AOC for opening up about how she suffered during the Capitol attack. Also, Rashida Tlaib was in tears when she recalled death threats against her, and AOC put a hand on her back on two occasions as she spoke about that on the House floor.
 
Here's the real reason Republicans are obsessed with hating Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - Alternet.org
notes
Republicans’ Biggest Problem is That They Need Trump Supporters’ and Extremists’ Votes
and continues with
  • Malignant reality. Me: right-wingers alternate reality, complete with conspiracy theories.
  • Support for the violent coup and its underlying ideology.
  • Victimology. Me: they call themselves victims, despite their claimed opposition to claims of victimhood. Victims of left-wingers, "political correctness", minorities and immigrants taking their jobs, etc.
  • The eroticization of women's pain and fear.
  • Victims are responsible for their own suffering.
  • Hostile sexism and racism.
  • The annihilation of emotion. Me: some emotions at least, like expressions of vulnerability.
  • White women — or at least subservient conservative white women — are to be protected, admired, adored, and honored.
 
Why conservatives are now targeting the victims of the Capitol riot | Salon.com
No doubt about it, making fun of trauma victims has been a major source of fun for movement conservatives for the past decade. In particular, right-wing trolls enjoy mocking the concept of being "triggered," which is mental health jargon for experiencing stress or anxiety when reminded of traumatic events. Donald Trump Jr. even titled his book "Triggered," trying to put this noxious cruelty on the bestseller lists.
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Advertisers drop Laura Ingraham after she mocks Parkland survivor | Salon.com - "Ingraham apologized on Twitter after brands announced they'd remove ads from her show after she mocked David Hogg"
Conservatives mock Parkland victims after state GOP turns its back on them | Salon.com - "Conservatives are delighting in the pain caused to children upset that Florida won't consider assault weapons ban"
After Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., took to Instagram to detail her horrific experiences during the insurrection, the right-wing noise machine moved into action, deploying the usual sexist stereotypes about hysterical, manipulative, deceitful women typically employed to discredit victims of rape or sexual harassment. Things swiftly escalated when Rep. Nancy Mace, R.-S.C., tried to imply Ocasio-Cortez was a liar, tweeting that "no insurrectionists stormed our hallway".
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But NM cowered in her office during that attack, denying the threat only later, when it was expedient for her to do so. "As usual with conservatives, she is projecting her own bad behavior on Democrats."
But this isn't just about the recent GOP choice to kowtow to the violent mob who rampaged through the Capitol. This grotesque denial and mockery of trauma is the result of years of the right cultivating a sociopathic aesthetic, which really hit an apex during the presidency of Donald Trump, a man who mocked disabled people and called alleged sexual assault victims too ugly to rape.

This sort of thing, unfortunately, plays well with the devoted right-wing base, many of whom have given up on trying to make positive arguments and live only for being a bunch of hateful trolls.
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SLD said:
lpetrich said:
Capitol insurrection: Most of the people charged, like Jenna Ryan, showed signs of prior money troubles - The Washington Post - "Trail of bankruptcies, tax problems and bad debts raises questions for researchers trying to understand motivations for attack"
Jenna Ryan seemed like an unlikely participant in the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. She was a real estate agent from Texas. She flew into Washington on a private jet. And she was dressed that day in clothes better suited for a winter tailgate than a war

...
Despite her outward signs of success, Ryan had struggled financially for years. She was still paying off a $37,000 lien for unpaid federal taxes when she was arrested. She’d nearly lost her home to foreclosure before that. She filed for bankruptcy in 2012 and faced another IRS tax lien in 2010.

Nearly 60 percent of the people facing charges related to the Capitol riot showed signs of prior money troubles, including bankruptcies, notices of eviction or foreclosure, bad debts, or unpaid taxes over the past two decades, according to a Washington Post analysis of public records for 125 defendants with sufficient information to detail their financial histories.

The group’s bankruptcy rate — 18 percent — was nearly twice as high as that of the American public, The Post found. A quarter of them had been sued for money owed to a creditor. And 1 in 5 of them faced losing their home at one point, according to court filings.
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Though many of the attackers were middle-class and upper-middle-class, they were financially precarious. This is an economic problem that has not gotten as much attention as it ought to, because it is not as apparent as some other economic problems. But it is a real problem. What can be done? Look for ways of providing more economic security? Like long-term employment. If people tried to get around that problem by saving instead of spending, then that will produce the  Paradox of thrift, a form of the  Tragedy of the commons. Not buying anything will ruin every business dependent on having customers, causing an economic collapse.
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Very interesting analysis. Financial insecurity has been growing due to increasing income inequality that has risen sharply since the election of Ronald Reagan. I really think Reagan’s presidency is the root cause of a lot of our issues. Reagan was the first corporate president. Since his election, corporate power has eroded the will of the people. There’s too large a disconnect between our representatives and the people as a result. Congressmen are expected to spend the vast majority of their day on fundraising. They don’t care about their constituents, but the corporate lobbyists who really pay them. This has created a loss of economic and political power for ordinary Americans. That is a recipe for political violence.
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Good analyses.

I'm confused about one thing: Jenna Ryan, struggling financially, "flew into Washington on a private jet." I've never flown on a private jet, but I'd have guessed that it would be quite costly! Could such extravagance be related to her financial troubles? :-)
 
Swammerdami said:
I'm confused about one thing: Jenna Ryan, struggling financially, "flew into Washington on a private jet." I've never flown on a private jet, but I'd have guessed that it would be quite costly! Could such extravagance be related to her financial troubles? :-)
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Somebody else chartered the jet. She was just along for the ride riot
 
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How one billionaire family bankrolled election lies, white nationalism — and the Capitol riot | Salon.com
While Charles Koch and his late brother David have dominated Republican fundraising in recent decades, the Mercers' recent strategic investments in far-right candidates bought them a disproportionate level of influence in the Republican Party before culminating in an effort to subvert the election that fueled the deadly Capitol siege.
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Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, supporting Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, Sens. Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Reps. Kevin McCarthy, Mo Brooks.

Stop shaming women for sharing their trauma — The Ticker Like AOC.
Following the stream, many spoke out in support of Ocasio-Cortez, while others called her a manipulative liar, including author Candance Owens who in a tweet wrote, “she seems disturbed.”
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Candace Owens is a right-wing activist.
“The reason I’m getting emotional in this moment is because these folks who tell us to move on, that it’s not a big deal, that we should forget what’s happened, or even telling us to apologize — these are the same tactics of abusers,” Ocasio-Cortez said, referring to Republican leaders like Sen. Ted Cruz who have called to move on from the Capitol attack.

...
“The validation of what happened is the number one step in terms of healing trauma,” Dr. Karol Darsa, who is a licensed psychologist and founder of the integrative trauma treatment center Reconnect, told Refinery29. “It’s really crucial, for healing to occur, that there’s a validation of the feeling, there’s a validation of what happened, and an acknowledgement of how difficult that was for the person.”
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jonatha said:
Swammerdami said:
I'm confused about one thing: Jenna Ryan, struggling financially, "flew into Washington on a private jet." I've never flown on a private jet, but I'd have guessed that it would be quite costly! Could such extravagance be related to her financial troubles? :-)
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Somebody else chartered the jet. She was just along for the ride riot
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I doubt that Lenin had to pay for a train ticket when he was returned to Russia, either.
 
Four New Things We Learned About the Capitol Riot From Trump’s Impeachment Trial
The rioters got even closer to their targets than we realized. ...

n one video, Capitol Hill officer Eugene Goodman is seen directing Mitt Romney, the only Republican Senator who voted to impeach Trump the first time around, to turn around and run the other way, shortly before Goodman’s now-famous confrontation with rioters in which he distracted them away from the Senate chamber. Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer had a near run-in of his own in the hallways, missing the mob by “a few yards.” Still another video shows then-vice president Mike Pence (the primary focus of Trump’s rage on January 6th) coming within a few hundred feet of the crowd. Republican senators called the videos “overwhelmingly distressing” and a “very effective” tactic by the impeachment managers.
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That's two very close scrapes. Any others?

I hope that the impeachment trial won't be the end of investigations of what happened that day.

"The rioters thought they were doing what Trump wanted them to do."

Something that Trump never tried to challenge.

The vice-president has his own “nuclear football.”

The nuclear satchel doesn’t carry a device with buttons to push, but rather phone numbers to call, encryption technology, and a passcode.
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"Trump’s lawyers are getting worse."

For the first trial, Trump had Alan Dershowitz and Clinton impeachment lawyer Ken Starr, but the two lawyers who stayed on were grossly incompetent.
Castor then delivered a 45-minute speech that Maggie Haberman at the New York Times called “rambling, almost somnambulant.” Trump himself was reportedly furious over the defense, and even Senate Republicans and Trump stalwarts couldn’t make sense of it.
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"But he’s still probably getting off."
Which he did.
 
Trump 'made no attempt' to reach the National Guard to help overwhelmed Capitol police, Rep. Castro says
Rep. Joaquin Castro was one of the impeachment managers.
“You heard from my colleagues that when planning this attack, the insurgents predicted that Donald Trump would command the National Guard to help them,” Castro said in his presentation on the Senate floor. “There’s a lot that we don’t know yet about what happened that day, but here’s what we do know: Donald Trump did not send help to these officers who were badly outnumbered, overwhelmed and being beaten down.”

...
“Two hours into the insurrection, by 3 p.m., President Trump had not deployed the National Guard or any other law enforcement to help, despite multiple pleas to do so,” Castro said. “President Donald Trump was, at the time, our commander in chief of the United States of America. He took a solemn oath to preserve, protect and defend this country and he failed to uphold that oath. In fact, there’s no indication that President Trump ever made a call to have the Guard deployed or had anything to do with the Guard being deployed when it ultimately was.”
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Trump reportedly enjoyed it, and that claim about him is consistent with him not ordering the deployment of the National Guard.

The recent impeachment trial ought not to be the end of investigations into this affair.

I'm sure that some more Trump officials and associates will write books about their experiences with Trump and his Presidency, like what Omarosa Manigault-Newman, John Bolton, and Michael Cohen have done. They may have a lot to say about this event.
 
lpetrich said:
Trump 'made no attempt' to reach the National Guard to help overwhelmed Capitol police, Rep. Castro says
Rep. Joaquin Castro was one of the impeachment managers.
“You heard from my colleagues that when planning this attack, the insurgents predicted that Donald Trump would command the National Guard to help them,” Castro said in his presentation on the Senate floor. “There’s a lot that we don’t know yet about what happened that day, but here’s what we do know: Donald Trump did not send help to these officers who were badly outnumbered, overwhelmed and being beaten down.”

...
“Two hours into the insurrection, by 3 p.m., President Trump had not deployed the National Guard or any other law enforcement to help, despite multiple pleas to do so,” Castro said. “President Donald Trump was, at the time, our commander in chief of the United States of America. He took a solemn oath to preserve, protect and defend this country and he failed to uphold that oath. In fact, there’s no indication that President Trump ever made a call to have the Guard deployed or had anything to do with the Guard being deployed when it ultimately was.”
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Trump reportedly enjoyed it, and that claim about him is consistent with him not ordering the deployment of the National Guard.

The recent impeachment trial ought not to be the end of investigations into this affair.

I'm sure that some more Trump officials and associates will write books about their experiences with Trump and his Presidency, like what Omarosa Manigault-Newman, John Bolton, and Michael Cohen have done. They may have a lot to say about this event.
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It’s quite possible that more impeachable offenses will come to light.
 
Pretty much anything is impeachable. But what's the point if there is no chance of conviction?
 
Jayjay said:
Pretty much anything is impeachable. But what's the point if there is no chance of conviction?
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Well, now they are on record saying he should have been tried in court.

So next there will be court hearings where they will say courts have no jurisdiction over a President for crimes occuring while in office. Remember, most legal scholars said the impeachment trial was Constitutional.

So, basically, there's no point to anything...

...even though we're talking about a fascist coup attempt.
 
Don2 (Don1 Revised) said:
Jayjay said:
Pretty much anything is impeachable. But what's the point if there is no chance of conviction?
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Well, now they are on record saying he should have been tried in court.

So next there will be court hearings where they will say courts have no jurisdiction over a President for crimes occuring while in office. Remember, most legal scholars said the impeachment trial was Constitutional.
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I wouldn't be surprised if his lawyers try that.


Capitol riots timeline: The evidence presented against Trump - it has some gaps, like not giving when the House gallery was evacuated.
 
Don2 (Don1 Revised) said:
Jayjay said:
Pretty much anything is impeachable. But what's the point if there is no chance of conviction?
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Well, now they are on record saying he should have been tried in court.

So next there will be court hearings where they will say courts have no jurisdiction over a President for crimes occuring while in office. Remember, most legal scholars said the impeachment trial was Constitutional.

So, basically, there's no point to anything...

...even though we're talking about a fascist coup attempt.
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The good news, many GOP lawmakers have now signed off on attempts to govern by threat. So, next time Schumer or Pelosi want a supermajority, "I draw your attention to the snipers in the gallery...."
 
Pelosi Vows to Move Forward With Independent Inquiry Into Capitol Riot - The New York Times
Congress will move to establish an independent commission to investigate the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, including facts “relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California announced on Monday.

In a letter to her Democratic colleagues in the House, Ms. Pelosi also promised to move forward in coming weeks with emergency funding legislation “for the safety of members and the security of the Capitol” after consulting with retired Gen. Russel L. Honoré, whom she had asked to examine security on Capitol Hill.
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That will be welcome, though recently Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur went into hysterics about it as likely going the way of the 9/11 Commission and more interference with civil liberties for the sake of security.

Riot probe to likely focus on McCarthy-Trump call | TheHill
“The thought of cross-examining Kevin McCarthy just filled my heart with glee,” one of the impeachment managers, Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands), said on MSNBC on Monday.

The 9/11-style commission “will look at the facts related to the Jan. 6 domestic terror attack. Certainly the president doing nothing to stop the attack, even after the urging of the Republican House leader, would be a relevant part of the inquiry,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), an impeachment manager and member of Pelosi’s leadership team, told The Hill on Tuesday.
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Republicans have also endorsed this planned commission:
“It is our responsibility to understand the security and intelligence breakdowns that led to the riots on January 6 so that we can better protect this institution and the men and women working inside it,” McCarthy said. “A commission should follow the guidance of Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton to be ‘both independent and bipartisan,’ and to preserve that integrity it must be evenly split between both parties.”

...
“I want to look at what Pelosi knew, when she knew it, what President Trump did after the attack, and on the Senate side was Senate leadership informed of a threat,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in an interview with “Fox News Sunday.” The Senate reference was to GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who was majority leader at the time of the siege.
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ZiprHead said:
Senator Ron Johnson lies for Trump

[YOUTUBE]https://youtu.be/vVYL_-hpD2w[/YOUTUBE]
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Yes, the slow coup is continuing. Expect it to start up again in 2024 to early 2025. Romney just said that Trump could easily win the 2024 nomination in a landslide. My hope is that he punts due to age. We should be fully prepared for another coup attempt.
 
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