US Politics: Nine Days in January

[Martell Spy]

Quote

 

In an ironic twist, right-wing media outlets, professional MAGA influencers, and pro-Trump social media groups are now warning their members to avoid these events, albeit with their own conspiratorial spin: that they are acutally false flag operations, either created by the government in an attempt to silence conservatives and strip away their Second Amendment rights, or by leftist antifa plotters hoping to make the MAGA movement look bad, or even by the Chinese government in conjunction with the elites.

“Do not go to capitols armed, do not be part of the demonstrations on January 20th. It’s run by the globalists,” warned Infowars’s Alex Jones on Tuesday. “There isn’t some secret plan to overthrow things so Trump wins. All you’re doing is cementing things as domestic terrorists, so Biden can cement a new Patriot Act and come after you.”

 

Right-wing extremist chatter spreads on new platforms as threat of political violence ramps up
The online conversation is becoming harder to track. And it’s alarming the feds.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/12/right-wing-extremist-social-media-458387

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

3 minutes ago, DMC said:

Sure, I meant an ulterior motive for McConnell wanting to convict Trump.  The fact Trump put MCs' lives in danger is, like, the explicit article of impeachment.  That's not ulterior.

Well maybe after smoking some weed I misread something kind of like you did. We can't all understand the next dimension. Sue me. 

[Fragile Bird]

I have to apologize, CNN is saying that the Trump to Pence quote is "Do you want to be remembered as a patriot or a pussy."

The word 'fucking' may not have been there, but the first time they said it they said "there are words we shouldn't use". Don Lemon just came out and used the full quote.

On the other hand, from what we've heard before about Trump's language, the fucking could have been there, because I find it difficult to believe Trump was trying to be sensitive to Pence.

[Zorral]

9 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

thing is cutting too close.

Just as reading about the Second Catalin\e Conspiracy in 63 B.C. to take over Rome, including murdering targeted senators and taking others hostage.

Look folks this was REAL, not a joke by incompetent jokesters.  It aws nip and tuck and they are doing again -- good grief they are telling us this every single minute!  They couldn't w/o shoggoth's assistance and enabling, salted throughout the federal agencies and government and the senate and the congress and the courts and the cops.  He went to 'Alamo' today -- which was a call to his real military force, ICE, and to get his media fix.

 

[Fragile Bird]

I actually thought he was going to The Alamo in San Antonio, not a town called Alamo.

The San Antonio Worldcon was held near by The Alamo, which I took a tour of. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

21 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I have to apologize, CNN is saying that the Trump to Pence quote is "Do you want to be remembered as a patriot or a pussy."

The word 'fucking' may not have been there, but the first time they said it they said "there are words we shouldn't use". Don Lemon just came out and used the full quote.

On the other hand, from what we've heard before about Trump's language, the fucking could have been there, because I find it difficult to believe Trump was trying to be sensitive to Pence.

The symbolic act was, though. 

[Fury Resurrected]

21 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I actually thought he was going to The Alamo in San Antonio, not a town called Alamo.

The San Antonio Worldcon was held near by The Alamo, which I took a tour of. 

Fuck the Alamo, both for its historic significance and for the current people in charge. I had a friend who worked for the site and it’s such a misogynist boys club one of the men on staff urinated in the trash can in her office because they don’t like womenfolk in charge around there.

[Fragile Bird]

18 minutes ago, Fury Resurrected said:

Fuck the Alamo, both for its historic significance and for the current people in charge. I had a friend who worked for the site and it’s such a misogynist boys club one of the men on staff urinated in the trash can in her office because they don’t like womenfolk in charge around there.

Sounds like Trump’s kind of place!

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

2 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

The NYT is apparently reporting that on the last phone call between Trump and Pence before the events of the 6th, Trump asked if he he wanted to be remembered as being loyal or a fucking pussy.

Jesus.

I finally got around to watching the interview between Sean Hannity and Lindsay Graham the day after his airport incident. This is the one where Graham made the appeal for "unity". I'm no body language expert, but Graham looked really shaken up to me. He may be genuinely terrified of what happens next.

It's easy to joke about his u-turn since his statements after the capital building invasion (lord knows I've done it), but now I'm concerned he may actually be thinking about more than just his own political career. Or maybe he's a better actor than I thought.

[Castellan]

7 hours ago, Fury Resurrected said:

A wifebeater isn’t even a tshirt, it’s a white ribbed tank top

so more like an old fashioned undershirt, vest, singlet, whatever you call them, that would have been worn under a shirt?  or some other new invention?

I thought it must be the sleeveless things made like t shirts that show shoulder and arm muscles.

I was closer than my brother in law's family they thought it was headgear!

I should have just googled, of course.

[Fury Resurrected]

1 hour ago, Castellan said:

so more like an old fashioned undershirt, vest, singlet, whatever you call them, that would have been worn under a shirt?  or some other new invention?

I thought it must be the sleeveless things made like t shirts that show shoulder and arm muscles.

I was closer than my brother in law's family they thought it was headgear!

I should have just googled, of course.

Yes, they’re intended for undershirts but some people wear them just as shirts. Think Kid Rock and you’ll be spot on.

[Fury Resurrected]

1 hour ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

Jesus.

I finally got around to watching the interview between Sean Hannity and Lindsay Graham the day after his airport incident. This is the one where Graham made the appeal for "unity". I'm no body language expert, but Graham looked really shaken up to me. He may be genuinely terrified of what happens next.

It's easy to joke about his u-turn since his statements after the capital building invasion (lord knows I've done it), but now I'm concerned he may actually be thinking about more than just his own political career. Or maybe he's a better actor than I thought.

TBH, I have no sympathy at all for people on the right (with the exception of Romney, who did vote to convict) who have enabled Trump this far and are now scared for their lives or careers from the monster they’ve created. This is what they’ve brought upon us all, knowing exactly what he was and being the reason he was allowed to do all this. They don’t get to cry about the consequences now.

[GrimTuesday]

Obviously we don't know if she is actually going to run, but Dainne Feinstein has filed her FEC paperwork to run in 2024.

The woman is apparently in, at best, the early stages of cognitive decline, as detailed in this New Yorker article from late last year. This isn't even a "Grimtuesday hates establishment Dems" thing, this is the fact that no one should be running for election at 91. I work in campaign finance, so I know that this was likely done as a way to raise money that is probably just going to be dumped into the DNC, but I don't really get why her donors wouldn't just give to a PAC or the DNC since the contribution limits are higher (5k and 35k respectively vs 2800 to a candidate committee).

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

1 hour ago, Fury Resurrected said:

TBH, I have no sympathy at all for people on the right (with the exception of Romney, who did vote to convict) who have enabled Trump this far and are now scared for their lives or careers from the monster they’ve created. This is what they’ve brought upon us all, knowing exactly what he was and being the reason he was allowed to do all this. They don’t get to cry about the consequences now.

I don't have any sympathy for him either. Just wondering what he knows. 

[GrimTuesday]

1 minute ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

I don't have any sympathy for him either. Just wondering what he knows. 

He knows he got his tax cuts and everything else is gravy.

[SpaceChampion]

 

 

[Martell Spy]

The case for consequences
Why Republicans have to be held accountable for the attack on Capitol Hill.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22222056/trump-republicans-impeachment-case-capitol-fourteenth-amendment

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Disrupting a culture of elite impunity
Criminal prosecution of prominent individuals is the most powerful signal any democracy can send that its leadership class is not above the law.

Many other contemporary democracies, ranging from Peru to France to South Korea to Malawi, have punished leaders for crimes committed in office. Scholars of democracy see it as a vital form of horizontal accountability, of ensuring that leaders are deterred from engaging in the most egregious abuses of power.

This might seem strange to Americans because we have a culture of elite impunity, where lower-level criminals in government are punished but the leaders behind their actions escape criminal investigation. None of the architects of George W. Bush’s torture policy were arrested or even faced serious professional sanction, despite strong evidence that they broke domestic and international law.

The Obama administration chose not to go after them in order to avoid getting its legislative agenda mired in a controversial battle; “a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards,” as then-President Obama put it.

This logic is seductive — and what Republicans are parroting now. ”It is past time for all of us to try to heal our country and move forward,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) wrote last week.

Democrats “are placing a desire for vengeance above the best interests of the country,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) tweeted. “We have great and important tasks to accomplish soon and we must focus on defeating Covid, rebuilding our economy and getting back to normal.”

 

 

[Toth]

Shit, I'm still shaken by yesterday's dip into the hornet's nest of the right-wing youtube bubble I did so stupidly to understand how the nutjobs comment on last week's coup attempt. The violent rhetoric and blood lust and how this morning I saw a few of these posters pop up in other comment sections of more neutral videos made me worry a lot about next week and the safety of democrats in the next months.

What I found the most telling is that most of these violent insurrectionists have stopped seeing it as a partisan Republicans vs Democrats issue. A common thread I saw was that they are convinced the whole democratic system is rigged against them by 'the elite' and they want to burn it down altogether. They revere Trump because in their view he's just as much an outsider to politics as them, which is something where I guess they have a point, though of course they are unwilling to see that that doesn't make him better or any less of a pathetic grifter that is only out for himself.

I'm appalled that so many Republican politicians still seem not to have gotten that memo. What part about "Hang Mike Pence!" did they misunderstand? The Republicans thought they could control fascist elements to increase their power through their votes, but oh wow the fascists also only regard Republicans as allies of convenience and will silence or kill them the moment they served their purpose. Just ask the guys voting with Hitler for the Ermächtigungsgesetz! For the Republican party there are only two options as far as I can see:

1. Disavow Trump and the fascists and start from scratch even if this will hurt and throw the party into a minority position for the next years. There will likely be an openly fascist party arising then that is directly competing with them, but it is possible the Majority Voting System might be able to keep it suppressed for a long time thanks to that competition. Then again, rural America could also flip fast...

2. Throw away the last vestiges of pretense and openly become that fascist party, hoping they will not be eaten alive once American democracy is dead.

No matter what they will decide, this will become a tough time. I fear it is far too late to stop the rise of political violence. This has become something that moves on its own, it doesn't need the permission of Trump or the Republicans. There will be assassination attempts and bombings and whatnot. And it will only get worse if those in power aren't willing to crack down hard on it.

[Winterfell is Burning]

10 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Way, way too early to predict 2024.

It is...to a point. With vaccine distribution, there will be economic recovery worldwide, and that will tend to favor people who are already in power. Plus, in the US, it's rare for a party to leave power after only 4 years anyway.

[DMC]

While this will get drowned out today, I think it's important to mention it appears the Dems plan on using reconciliation immediately to pass a stimulus bill - meaning they will not seek or be compromising with any Republican votes:

Quote

Key Senate offices are coalescing around a plan to pass another round of coronavirus legislation soon after Biden takes office using a process called reconciliation, which would allow them to move forward without any Republican support, five Senate aides tell POLITICO.

The package, which Biden said late last week will be “in the trillions of dollars,” is expected to provide direct relief to Americans through stimulus checks and give federal funding to help cash-strapped state, local and tribal governments distribute a vaccine and survive the most dire phase of the pandemic to date. But, freed of the need to compromise with Republicans, Democrats are also discussing including other priorities, including investing in infrastructure, moving to sustainable forms of energy and potentially even expanding Obamacare subsidies.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who will be a key figure for Biden in crafting reconciliation legislation as the new head of the Senate Budget Committee, pledged on Tuesday to use the powerful procedure to address the immediate health and economic crisis at hand.

Another thing of note I haven't seen mentioned here - FNC is getting its ass kicked in the ratings lately, more thoroughly than any time in a very (very) long time:

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Thrashing usual leader Fox News Channel, [CNN] ranked No. #1 in total day, dayside and Monday to Sunday primetime from January 4 – 10. That week encompassed the eve and election day of the bitterly contested Georgia runoff Senate races, the violent invasion and siege of the Capitol by MAGA morons and the delayed certification of the electoral college votes by both the House of Representatives and the upper chamber. [...]

Slipping back to last week, with a 3.8 million audience and 824,000 in the demo, MSNBC was second, according to Nielsen. The Comcast-own outlet jumped up 108% and 165% respectively over the same time in 2020. In last place with their best week since the November 3 election was the Rupert Murdoch-owned FNC Fox News had an average of 3.4 million viewers in primetime and 590,000 among the 25-54s from January 4 – 10. What may hurt Fox News more than coming third is the fact that the Trump supporting net was down 6% and 4% in the categories from last year.

Finally, I think of note, Politico/Morning Consult has a poll out this morning that support for a 2024 Trump run among Republicans has dropped to 40 percent from 53 percent in November.  I hardly want to present "only" 40%, or even the 13% drop, as "good" news - especially when 75% of Republicans still approve of Trump in the same poll (albeit the overall number dropped to 34%, the lowest of his presidency from Morning Consult).  But I think these type of numbers are worth keeping an eye on in the coming days following Liz Cheney coming out for impeachment and, much more importantly, McConnell apparently dabbling his feet.

5 hours ago, GrimTuesday said:

This isn't even a "Grimtuesday hates establishment Dems" thing, this is the fact that no one should be running for election at 91.

Agreed entirely.  Wouldn't read too much into it because of what you said - this is largely pro forma/keeping options open.  A good sign is she did bow to pressure and relinquished her top ranking (turned out to be chairpersonship) at Judiciary in November.  Hopefully mounting and consistent pressure will prove successful over the coming months/years.