Enough With The Cutesy Titles, People Are Dead: US Politics January 2021 pt 2

There's a difference between depressing and urgent. There was plenty of depressing political news before Trump, and will be plenty after. But a lot fewer things that will prompt the "JFC DID U SEE THIS LATEST ASSAULT ON ALL THINGS DECENT" reactions that have fueled these threads for the past 4 years. Or here's hoping anyway.

oh, for sure. the things i want to post about today are just expected things - mcconnell is doing his best to make sure as many people die of covid as possible and biden takes the blame; trump is trying to start the Patriot party, and smart people in portland thought burning a biden flag (lol?) on inauguration day would be a good thing. but yeah, none of that compares to what happened a couple weeks ago - trump trying to overthrow the election in yet ANOTHER way by trying to get the acting attorney general thrown out and then installing a stooge to overturn the Georgia results (via...magic?)...anyway, holy shit. the trump years chewed me up and spit me out. i'm a whiny piece of half-solidified blood, hardened bloodsnot after a violent sneeze. the silence of this thread is comforting in some ways

So, no need for a January part two thread, and Feb will most likely be...... quiet

This is the January, part two thread.

It does all feel pretty weird. The silence of the Trump. I do not miss him even a tiny little bit, but it's just like some asshole with a jackhammer has been right outside the window for the past four years, except the jackhammer was hate speech and crazy talk, and now it's just ... gone. Or at least muted to an extent you have to strain to hear it. Takes some adjusting to.

thank god twitter booted him

Both amazing and I guess predictable what a difference that made.

yep

also, fuck those dumbasses in Portland, smdh

🙄

there was a good roasting response on twitter but I've already given it more attention than it deserves

which assholes in portland are these?

some dumb anarchists basically re-enacting the argument we had here on the 20th

Given it's Portland, I guess it could be any number of assholes. Meanwhile:

The Bidens stop at Call Your Mother, the bagel shop in Georgetown, en route back to the White House -- already a big change. Trying to remember but can't recall Trump ever stopping anywhere in DC other than his own hotel.

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) January 24, 2021

I'm not sure I understand why Donnie didn't just create his own alt-website in order to directly funnel his parasitic filth into his hosts' willing brains.

Trump is getting warm welcome from the skies near Mar-a-lago today pic.twitter.com/S6uUFx3t30

— Daniel Uhlfelder (@DWUhlfelderLaw) January 24, 2021

really looking forward to the impending eviction from M-A-L:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/12/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-neighbors

nah Portland protestors otm

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/us/protests-portland-seattle-biden.html

anyway, i'm in portland for work. first time I've left my house for my job since covid hit and i'm *extremely* unhappy about it.
we're staying downtown and it's pretty much a boarded up ghost town compared to when i was here last. if things are popping off around our office & hotel it can't be much, or it's happening pretty late at night.

on that NYT headline:

Change in Headline pic.twitter.com/35VI67L5JP

— Editing TheGrayLady (@nyt_diff) January 23, 2021

and here's the washpost version:

https://i.imgur.com/kbGl20N.png

I'm not sure I understand why Donnie didn't just create his own alt-website in order to directly funnel his parasitic filth into his hosts' willing brains.

He knows the best people:

I have a son. He’s 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers, it’s unbelievable. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it’s hardly do-able. But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing, but that’s true throughout our whole governmental society. We have so many things that we have to do better, Lester and certainly cyber is one of them.

What has Biden done since inauguration that they are protesting?

existing

He has continued to be Joe Biden.

can't speak for everyone but for me probably not saying "Damn i'm sorry that was really stupid of me to say i'd veto M4A if it came across my desk"

The systemic racism and brutality of the police continues, as evidenced by feds teargassing people protesting against it in Portland, and a cop in Tacoma accelerating an SUV through a crowd and running over / hospitalising one bystander last night. Biden repeatedly campaigned on treating brutality by increasing funding to police, and training them to shoot protestors. As the interviewees in the article say, continuing to protest continues to keep attention on the issues in a way which ceasing protests does not.

and this is more Dem party in general rather than Biden specifically, but the little tapdance about "vote for us and $2k is yours" to "hahah sike we were already including the 6 hundo you fucking rubes and the GOP hasn't even begun negotiating" probably didn't win them any friends

xp agree w/all of that and also think waiting a week would have been a better choice

yeah, i think those are valid reasons to protest, i don't know if the timing was productive and worry it gives the republicans space to "both sides" jan 6, which is bullshit but

As one person held a lighter below a Biden-for-president flag, another chanted a phrase often seen on conservative message boards: “Not my president.”

republicans are going to respond to all left protest exactly the same regardless of when it happens or what happens, though

“Not my president.”

Should've been "not any president".

Optics, people!

I'm every President

Fillmore's in mmmeeeeeee

As one person held a lighter below a Biden-for-president flag, another chanted a phrase often seen on conservative message boards: “Not my president.”

Incredibly stupid framing here, heard this at every Bush era protest.

Protesters were seen drinking water, as was common at many STOP THE STEAL events. Clear liquids are also fond with RUSSIANS.

popular with RUSSIANS, damn it

they also like kahlua and milk iirc

agree w/all of that and also think waiting a week would have been a better choice

The cop in Tacoma accelerated through and ran over pedestrians (a crowd of randos watching dickheads do donuts) at 18:45.

A spontaneous protest was taking place by 8pm.

In August, Pierce County diverted COVID response funds to a cop project to monitor specific organisers who had been coordinating protest against, and calling for the arrest of, the individual cops who murdered Manuel Ellis in March.

Two of those organisers arrived at the protest between 8 and 8:30, sat peacefully in place, and were searched without consent and arrested without Miranda reading before 9. They were held overnight until hat-passing raised their bail.

If the crowd who had been attacked by a cop in a murdervehicle had waited a week to protest, instead of organising immediately, would the cops have returned the stolen COVID funds, instead of targeting and violating the rights of two people for protesting previous cop murderers?

If the two organisers had waited a week to go down to yesterday's protest, would the four cops originally filmed murdering Ellis in March have somehow not been cleared to return to work in April?

If the pedestrians who filmed the cop attempting to kill random citizens last night had waited a week to tweet their videos, would the local PD and Sheriff's Dept have, for some reason, finally censured the two additional officers (one off-duty, just abetting murder for fun), whose active involvement had been kept concealed for until three weeks ago?



There's no polite time to wait to protest. The change of President in Washington DC last week doesn't affect the reasons to protest police violence in the PNW, unless that president does anything to curb or correct it.

Reminder that the new President's repeated, and repeated, up to the internationally televised campaign debates in November, policy towards addressing police violence to state that the institution of US policing is irreparably damaged and rotten, and to argue that the solution is:

1) increase funding for the police
2) remove external oversight
3) shoot protestors.

ok this may sound harsh but i really think we need to start letting the kids out of the cages and replacing them with Guys like This:

https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article248663695.html

I would like it if his prison cell was "over the edge of a cliff"

wtg Joshua you've shot past some of the most loathsome assholes to ever draw breath

I know, Stuart Stevens (who, among lots else, I'm sure, has Sarah Palin to answer for), but I did find this funny:

"Now, if you're a Republican, if you're a Trump voter, to be born in America is you're a victim, you're a sucker. There are these powerful forces out there in the world, like Canada, that are taking advantage of us."

(The inflection he puts on "Canada" is better heard than read--it's at 2:50.)

https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/01/24/stevens-rupert-murdoch-is-the-most-dangerous-immigrant-in-america.cnn/video/playlists/reliable-sources-highlights/

Maybe, as a Canadian, I should be offended, I'm not sure. But we invented self-deprecation, so I'm okay no matter how he intended that.

I just realized that I’m almost more interested in the story of this present administration than the story of the administration we just escaped.

i'm absolutely dying to be more interested in this administration but they need to fucking DO something instead of crying about republicans not liking them

i'm probably the only person in this thread who thinks this but i just. don't. fucking. care. what happens to trump at this point. what i need is for the democrats to fucking work for the people for once.

why on earth would you believe you're "the only person in this thread who thinks" democrats working for the people is badly needed and what happens to trump is a minor side issue by comparsion? this is a weird idea.

if it was donors' pockets on the line they'd use reconciliation in a heartbeat and something would already be done. instead it's just everyone else who doesn't matter and fuck them obviously.

xp thanks for providing a valuable counterpoint to my hyperbole

Interesting interview with Fauci about his interactions with the dministration, with Trump personally, and holy-shit details about death threats to him and his family: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/24/health/fauci-trump-covid.html