And Sleepy Joe Will Get The Credit: US Politics January 2021

back in session

pence says it's "a dark day"

pence finally growing a pair after trump lit him up on twitter lol

Whatever Mike, let's start the count you dullard

Really most protesters should be treated with the prudence that these assholes were treated.

I don’t know why anyone clowned Reid today but being a homophobe and then blaming it on being hacked is evergreen fodder for clowning IMO.

This will sound petty, but who cares: every news organization whose equipment was destroyed today should identify and sue every one of these idiots they can identify

I’m not even aware of Joy Reid

i haven't seen mcconnell be correct about something in SO long

Is she on television?

McConnell has aged 10 years in 12 hours

@ Jordan - I appreciate the analysis you're articulating here. For me the Madison comparison doesn't really feel apples-to-apples - it's been a while but I don't remember that as a chaotic mob clearly intending to do harm. But I agree that a true democratic/public space must have the potential to be occupied and disrupted. All the centrist "not our cherished BUILDINGS!" stuff is total "oof, those 60s radicals, they sure were out of line" stuff, warmed over decades later - respectability politics encouraging people to view establishment and state property as inviolable and sacrosanct.

But that's not to say that some of the people pushing that line aren't also saying other things that are more reasonable about the dangers of volatile alt-right mobs attempting coups, etc. This is a rapidly developing situation so pretty much any hot take at soundbite length is going to be lousy and weak on nuance.

What a fucking day, y'all.

― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, January 6, 2021 7:56 PM (fifty-five seconds ago)

i appreciate that there are differences between the two incidents but the way that we interpret those differences as a matter of politics isn't able to be recognized by the law. and the way we interpret the differences in the intentions of the protestors is also a slippery slope -- the lede of the NYT story is of leftist protestors saying "come out come out wherever you are" to elected politicians. we know that they didn't mean "come out so we can inflict violence on you," but we also know that republicans are very eager to cynically demonize (leftist) protestors to the point where blocking a car is harmful/illegal but running someone over with one is not. so if we introduce the concept of "intending to inflict harm" into the equation of when police should arrest or use force on protestors, i don't really see it working out in our favor. and again, this was all true before today even happened, and before this summer even. look at the way GOP lawmakers wanted to deal w/ protestors who in their minds were "intending to do harm" when they got run over and killed in charlottesville or who tried to block oil pipelines.

Wow.. Mitch displaying a bit of eloquence. He's still a knob goblin, but still.

I mean, I wouldn't feel sorry for any of these people if they got their asses kicked but I'm also not going to root for the fucking cops to do it (if they were ever going to)

the equation of when police should arrest or use force on protestors

who is saying this? on this thread?

I was in a 13-hour meeting last month (long story--literally) and it took 12 of those hours to get the other side to stop lying and come to the table AT ALL, and by the time they started to crack it was a triumph for the side I was following...and yet, also I couldn't believe we maybe still had hours of work to do....Sending congresspeople all the willpower in the world.

i think all of these fascist thugs should be ddt'd in a steel cage match

somewhat related, re "come out wherever you are" stuff, I know it isn't really news to point out the millionth case of projection but it was still very interesting to see the magas on that police selfie livestream arguing that they should be provoking the cops into violence

You telling me this tactical genius overpowered the officers protecting the Capitol? pic.twitter.com/TW5ziJq8s0

— Felonious Munk 🇪🇹 (@Felonious_munk) January 7, 2021

i mean i would watch a cop tune up a nazi just to check it out see what its all about

pic.twitter.com/nSKz5iavCm

— joshh O))) (@JNalv) January 6, 2021

lol schumer sucks so bad, mcconnell's speech was 10x better than this shit

yep.

so is cruz just going to be like "ahem, jk about earlier, now i vote to certify these very fucking obvious votes"

who is saying this? on this thread?

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, January 6, 2021 8:12 PM (two minutes ago)

doctor casino said that the protestors were "clearly intending to do harm" as an explanation for why this occupation was different than the one in madison and while i don't disagree on the merits i'm just saying that the concept of what "harm" is and when protestors are intending to inflict it is not going to end positively for leftists

re: the capitol police being underprepared. Seems plain as day to me. The National Guard should have been called in in advance to support the police and properly guard the premises. Like what has happened with other protests. Maybe the pomice were even expecting this as a matter of course. The difference being in this case that Trump would be in charge of calling in the National Guard, and he very specifically did not want to do that as it would have thwarted his own goals.

There is also the possibility that Trump called the chief of the capitol police and leaned on him to not fully deploy. Who the hell knows.

Schumer better not be the fucking majority leader

Hate to break it to u

I wonder if there’s anyone on earth who wants Chuck Schumer to be Senate Majority Leader less than Chuck Schumer

he will be

harm is ambiguous, but "physical harm" is less so

lol “pomice”, spellcheck, where were u when I needed u most?

I don’t want to argue with anyone, but what was so awful about Schumer’s speech?

i didnt watch is sorry maybe someone else did

His voice wasn’t as deep and resonant?

lol “pomice”, spellcheck, where were u when I needed u most?

You rang?

this situation is a softball, for a politician. this is the dream "make a speech" situation, unambiguous, where even the least inspiring thing of all time will be KINDA good, just because of how much everyone supports the cause. schumer is generally at the 2 to 5th percentile of speechgivings, for this era

He didn’t inflate the air sac in his neck after each sentence?

how is "intent to cause physical harm" a good marker, that's literally been the excuse of every cop who's killed someone

however, he did better than the house democratic speeches i heard earlier during the AZ deliberations (before they were postponed) - some of those sounded like kids reading book reports. the talent pool in congress is low

schumer has made a very nice career out of being the most ineffectual man dont hate

taking a macro view it's pretty clear that the difference between today and blm protesters getting the whole force of america directed at them is a little bit bigger than "did the capitol police do their jobs". when the whole tide is out, a little wave isn't going to crest the shoreline, if that metaphor makes any kind of sense. overwhelming force makes it impossible to trespass from the get go if the apparatus of the state is directed at you, and it is never directed at fascists, because that is fundamentally who the american police and security state is.

xp

you're right, physical harm is a useless marker

He didn’t pause dramatically to eat a bug?

if a cop can abuse the idea of physical harm, that means that no cop should do anything to prevent physical harm

unless there is 100% certainty, we're paralyzed

sen catherine cortez masto is doing a great job

if a cop can abuse the idea of physical harm, that means that no cop should do anything to prevent physical harm

― Karl Malone, Thursday, January 7, 2021 1:26 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

Wait til you find out about the "duty of care."

https://mises.org/power-market/police-have-no-duty-protect-you-federal-court-affirms-yet-again

“Neither the Constitution, nor state law, impose a general duty upon police officers or other governmental officials to protect individual persons from harm — even when they know the harm will occur,” said Darren L. Hutchinson, a professor and associate dean at the University of Florida School of Law. “Police can watch someone attack you, refuse to intervene and not violate the Constitution.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_v._District_of_Columbia

i am somehow not comforted by the senate jumping straight back into pure procedural theater mode

hell yeah babey

America is back.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 24, 2020

I am crying at E!’s coverage of the coup pic.twitter.com/AInyVYm9WG

— Carey O'Donnell (@ecareyo) January 7, 2021

whaaaat

JUST IN: “This is not news we deliver lightly,” @margbrennan says as she reports: Trump Cabinet secretaries are discussing invoking the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump. Nothing formal yet presented to VP Pence.

“I’m talking about actual members of the Cabinet,” she says

— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) January 7, 2021