I‘d say “unbelievable,” but unfortunately this is all too believable.
Discuss. Post information. This is a dark day for democracy in America.
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MAGA mob shuts down Capitol: Open Thread
We Hunted The MammothMisogyny, tracked and mocked
Frankly, unless some serious force is applied to these bozos, they will only be emboldened.
Both governors of VA and MD have sent their state national guard divisions to DC.
After seeing what is happening today, I fear for what will happen on the 20th. People are going to be shot during the Inauguration.
A desperation attack in response to knowing their chosen ‘drug’ will fade away hopefully in obscurity. People will do some awful things when the source of their obsession is taken away from them. It does not mean we shouldn’t take this seriously, though. This has left me scared, uncomfortable and even more shameful of my family who wanted that man to stay in office. I don’t have much else to say. I’m on two hours of sleep. Stay safe and healthy, everyone.
So far, 2021 is just 2020 2.0.
I have to say, ‘armed mob storms the US Capitol Building’ is more dystopian than I had expected.
The Republican Party is a terrorist organization. There’s no other way to describe it.
AP has just called Georgia Senate run-offs for Ossoff.
Wonder how that will affect things at Capitol as news filters down. Bad as it is now, I think it could get even worse.
It’s white privilege that they haven’t been tear gassed and shot with rubber bullets yet.
And the sedition caucus is enabling all of it.
Ilhan Omar and one other representative are drafting articles of impeachment. There’s not much time left, but it’s possible Trump will become the first president to be impeached twice.
One of my coworkers said they had been tear gassed and rubber bulleted, but I haven’t seen any news saying that yet…
I just skipped the news scrolling for a few hours to finish a porn story I’ve been writing, and now it’s past my bedtime while shit happens. I just can’t.
Word is the Capitol has been secured. Shit is still bad elsewhere though. Salem, OR is a mess judging from some video footage I saw earlier. And in DC, Proud Boys and other assorted fascist goons were attacking random Black people, with zero intervention from cops. Meanwhile cops treated the ones who stormed the Capitol building, stealing stuff and firing shots inside, with kid gloves.
I’m cautiously optimistic now, with the Capitol back under control and the curfew in place, but I’m going to be very disappointed if Dems – with control of the Senate now! – don’t get it together to start expelling secessionists from Congress, slashing police budgets, and passing laws against hate speech in media and FOX-style “news entertainment”. Not that I expect the centrist contingent to allow that, but gods, this can’t go on.
Yeah their white privilege is certainly shielding them. Heard from some on Twitter that police were taking selfies with them. This is terrible.
I’m not living in the US (Scotland) but feeling as anxious as anything and not able to sleep, as about to go back into my first day of work at a care centre with COVID cases rising. Helluva start to the year – really thinking of all of you in the US. Stay safe and best wishes.
Someone got shot in the Capitol (no info as to how, who who did it, zero details available) and she has now died. :/
So, now the “coup attempt” phase.
Crossed fingers that it end well. As in, I hope the rioters get hit with the brutality BLM got, which is more than warranted here, unlike BLMs.
@ Policy
The article I saw on Yahoo said she was a protester. No other explanations, but I would hazard a guess it was an accident or a cop got excited.
Edit: The same article referenced riot gear, pepper spray, and tear gas, so the cops may be taking it a little easier than a BLM protest, but haven’t taken it completely laying down.
Twitter has blocked Trump from posting!
@Ohlmann
They won’t get that level of brutality. At all. Ever. The cops legit love them; TBH the only thing that’s surprised me today is that police made even a pretense of doing their jobs, instead of outright joining in. As it was, the “failure” to keep these scumbags out of the Capitol was almost certainly deliberate on some level.
US law enforcement, and to a lesser degree the military, has wanted a far-right dictatorship here for a long time. You can see this going way back if you look at popular military SF – Michael Z. Williamson, John Ringo, even Robert Heinlein, all popular as hell among white veterans IME. All this stuff about “common sense”, needing Strong Men who Act rather than think or talk, talk and thought and caution being for the weak. They’ve wanted this for so very long.
@Alan
Good,the last thing that is needed is him supporting and encouraging them.
Will he get back on later, or will he have apoplexy and keel over before the 12 hour suspension is up? Inquiring minds want to know.
@PoM
I’m curious if his sense of pride will prevent him from deleting the three tweets which he must delete before the countdown starts. He might be out indefinitely if that happens.
And I expect him to finally be suspended on January 21 when his special privileges as a world leader end.
@ POM
Nothing would encapsulate the last four years better than the President of the United States’ official social media account ending up on Parler.
Fun trivia quiz! Which of these rioters is the bigger patriot?
You know what’s fun? Waking up a hair before midnight, checking your tablet by the bed and seeing several Skype messages about “coup happening in USA”. Then you get up, shamble by the desktop to check out your Twitter feed and whoop, there it is; Twitter on desktop refuses to refresh much further, because in a scant time of two hours, it is already full and I am not following very spammy things either.
I’m sick and tired of American leadership refusing to take the threat of rightwing shit seriously. I’m sick and tired of FINNISH leadership not understanding that we have similar sort of problem brewing underneath; not too long time ago, we had someone preparing Breivik-like op, with home-tailored cop uniform in the works, with explosives to go with what he was planning to do.
I’m sick and tired of social media treating these fuckwads as “engagement” and promoting this crap and neglecting reports of dangerous conduct and plans. I’m sick and tired of MEDIA doing the same, trying to milk that sweet, sweet clickbait from mislabeled reporting and juggling with “must balance everything” like some sort of demented Thanos.
FFS, enough is enough.
@Cyborgette
It does raise the uneasy, ominous question of what happens to any left wing or progressive cops and soldiers or other elements who happen to be in the ranks should the instillment of a dictatorship does, hypothetically, come to pass?
I mean I have a few ideas, but they all get increasingly worse for the tactical lefties…
There are rumors in the air that Trump’s cabinet secretaries and Mike Pence are considering invoking the 25th amendment. Not sure how reliable these rumors are, though.
A little late, isn’t it? 2017 would have been more timely. And there were rumors like that back then, too, and unfortunately nothing happened.
Though I suppose tonight’s Boor Hall Putsch might have crossed a line for some of them. If anything would cross a line for them it might be their own place of work being invaded and vandalized by a gaggle of uncultured, armed goons.
People were joking that Trump would insert extra days into the calendar to stay in power. I guess he did, because we’re still in 2020.
Arrest them all (after tear gassing them), and name names so they can be fired if they have non-MAGAt employers. This, of course, is presuming they have jobs.
It takes a mofo armed coup to get Twitter to shut down Tr*mp’s account… and only for 12 hours, mostly overnight.
At least all the conspiracy theories about Georgia look to have backfired on them, though it’s still too close to call for those two Senate seats that are needed for even a modicum of sanity.
It is definitely still 2020, though. I’m pushing back my official 2021 recognizing till Chinese New Year.
@GSS ex-noob
The Associated Press has called both races for the Democratic candidates. The final totals are both outside of the range for automatic recounting, with Ossoff leading by 35,000 and Warnock by 73,000.
And the GOP isn’t bothering to try to help Trump
Turns out that they aren’t willing to die for Trump
@Ooglyboggles
I would imagine the armed insurrection earlier today had a bit of a chilling effect for senators looking to object. That said, the house is voting now and it appears that at least 100 of them have voted to object.
@Naglfar
How unfun.
Also did some diving
the 4channers are in an uproar and those in the donald
like with heather heyer they can’t decide between treating the maga woman who got shot in the throat for storming the Capitol building for a martyr and peak misogyny.
What an eventful day, and it isn’t even over yet.
It is fun seeing how the senators turn to religious type wording, did they not realize that Trump and his supporters have been violating every single unspoken gentleman’s agreement?
From CNN:
Lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas …
Trying to explain all of this to my husband in japan when he first woke up this morning was kind of funny.
After one of the greatest security failures in American history, the House of Representatives gives the Capitol Police a standing ovation.
https://twitter.com/_WhatRiot/status/1347006510124081154
I too worship cops after they let potential killers in the capitol building and take selfies with them /s
On a very minor note- saw pix of trump in the last couple of days, wearing those big black gloves, and with his fists clenched it is obvious that the fingers are much too long for him, and are half empty.
I can’t remember many times when I’ve been so profoundly shaken. It’s a dictator ‘s tantrum, by proxy.
@Cyborgette : I am well aware of how unlikely it is, sadly. I still hope for that.
Looking at photos of the Trump supporters I notice two guys dressed… oddly. One has what looks like a buffalo headdress, while the other is dressed in animal skins? Is this an allusion to the Boston Tea Party?
@.45, that guy is Q Shaman, who has been a regular feature in anti-BLM protests and various Trump-related happenings. Yeah, it is, I guess, a reference to original Boston Tea Party, what with whites appropriating Native American clothing for that as well.
Here’s a useful thread by the way:
https://twitter.com/legndofphoenix/status/1346949780648419336
The deplorables are all on the same page with blaming MAGA-impersonating BLM/Antifa for the attempted coup. As usual.
@Skiriki
Wow, Ian Miles Cheong, of all people, pointing out that stupid antifa false flag talk is stupid, and complaining about violent white supremacists. Who’d have thought that supporting and encouraging said violent white supremacists for so many years could result in anything bad?
This is what happens when a country turns a blind eye to fascist terrorists for years.
The terrorists get emboldened and try to take over.
Well, apparently one of the rioters was a musician who heavily influenced my taste in music. Jon Schaffer, the guy behind Iced Earth, always leaned conservative and I had lost interest in his band because he’s a dick (the way he fired lead singer Tim Owens was just not ok), but this stuff is just deeply disappointing since his music meant so much to me. Now considering purging my music collection but there are so many good memories there. Ugh.
https://www.metalsucks.net/2021/01/06/iced-earths-jon-schaffer-reportedly-among-pro-trump-rioters-at-capitol/
The electoral vote was finally certified last night. It seems I was correct that the uprising may have persuaded some senators to refrain from their objections, as the only other state which was objected to was Pennsylvania.
Reports from close to the president say he is inconsolable since losing his Twitter and has been sulking and watching TV. Exactly as I expected. I was hoping Twitter would suspend him entirely, but that seems unlikely until the 21st if it takes an armed coup to even get a 12 hour lock.
…and the Dirtbag Left is coming in with predictably terrible takes identical to the far right.
If they don’t remove this fuckmuppet from office post haste, they can COUNT on more of this happening. It’s well known that Donnie is a vindictive retaliatory loser when he doesn’t get his way. There’s no doubt he savored every minute of causing the government officials who refused to destroy our democracy to keep him in power fear for their safety. And it’s crystal clear from his message to the terrorists that he wants to keep them happy, and motivated, and on his side.
Congress, you need to shut down this clown immediately before the unhinged cultists at his disposal do any more damage.
Zuckerberg has put out a statement that Donnie is banned from FB (and assorted services) indefinitely… or at least until Biden is sworn in.
https://twitter.com/NYTnickc/status/1347210274345005057
Semi-OT, but since Q-Anon came up here I figured this was a good a place as any to post these links.
For those here who have wondered why some many of their otherwise smart (seeming) relatives have fallen for Q-anon, Fred Clark of Slacktivist offers a clue for at least those folks who are in their 50s, give/take a few years.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2021/01/01/teaching-hal-lindsey-to-teenagers-in-the-80s-was-child-abuse/
That column was inspired by one from another Patheos blogger, James McGrath, who was reacting to the news that someone he considered one of the best people in his old church youth group had fallen hard for Q-anon.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/religionprof/2021/01/evil-in-the-youth-group.html
I don’t know how many family members of folks here fall into that age range, but that does seem to be a factor in why that bunch became Q-annoners.
And btw, for those here who are SF/F fans, McGrath’s blog is worth reading. He’s a fan too, who likes looking at the religious/philosophical messages of various SF/F, including Dr. Who, Star Trek, Star Wars, and many others. He also signal boosts a few times a month assorted Calls for Papers that lookk at various ethic and philosophical ideas from a SF/F perspective. Worth checking out, I think.