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This is some serious third world batshitedness.
I make a motion that New Jersey secedes. We’ll allow NYC to join North Jersey, Pennsylvania can have south Jersey.
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Absolute fucking nonsense. And I know people who are perfectly happy with the way this is going, because, after all, the election was stolen, so why shouldn’t they try to take their country back by force?
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Far be it for me to suggest it’s a fascist coup by white supremacists.
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I love / hate that this site exists.
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I was a few miles away when this happened, so this made thing especially stressful as people were looking to commute home. I had to put one employee on telework tomorrow because he lives in DC, and isn’t sure what a commute would look like tomorrow.
I’m shocked Capitol Police weren’t better prepared. It’s not like these nuts hid their intent to invade the Capitol and disrupt the proceeding before they decided to gather. The Mayor had requested DC National Guard support earlier this week. Where were they? DC is a messy ass patchwork of jurisdictions, so it’s doesn’t surprise me the response was slow, but the solution would have been to not let the nuts get this far.
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I’m told DC National Guard reports to the President directly.
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So, digging into this, the President delegated authority for use of the DC Guard down to the Secretary of the Army. That said, it seems they were gun-shy after the excessive use of force after the the various Dept of Justice agencies forcibly cleared Lafayette Square. Which is a SMDH reaction since the rioters were pretty clear about their plans on the internet.
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I know our response to covid has been worse than yours, but given the open calls to organise for violence on Parler, I think we come out slightly ahead in the Fall of the West stakes.
I really hope DC is ready on the 19th.
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It was deliberate. It’s been reported that off-duty officers flashed their badges to get through the gauntlet, and god knows what else was agreed upon before hand. You don’t bring the full force of the law down on those you consider friends.
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Fiona Hill’s interview put the shits up me.
It’s all very well looking at the morons carrying Don’t Tread On Me flags getting trampled in a crowd and tasering their own balls and having a heart attack, but some of the people there were armed, in proper kit that’s either some very expensive LARPing or they’re professionals or ex-professionals, ready to go with flexcuffs. Some of them were pure idiots, and perhaps even the ones in tactical gear were just as stupid, but they came prepared.
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My favorite part of all of this is that everyone, on every side of the insurrection, seems to be just shocked that everybody else was a poseur. I’m imagining some poor staffer trying to explain to Trump that a million likes on a post announcing a plan to stop the steal by force doesn’t translate into a million bodies storming the capital, or any planning or equipment adequate to the task. It’s his consistent refusal to acknowledge a difference between theater and reality finally coming home to roost.
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I find it odd just how much was known, weeks ahead of time.
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I went to have a look at Conservative Home (UK site, that’s “Conservative” as in the ruling Tory party). Out of interest, because they’ve always been a bit Trumpy. Not disappointed - the main editorial is broadly, yeah, right-wing violence bad on balance, but look, left-wing violence, we weren’t that pro-Trump, but Boris has taken the right wing and tamed it, so he’s awesome and everything here is fine, so long as no one does anything bad. Mm. Meanwhile the commenters are full-on voting fraud believers. Very fine people everywhere.
ETA: meanwhile,if I can be a bit parochial, back in the current no.2 dumbest English-speaking country, the previously pro-EU, pro-freedom-of-movement leader of the Opposition has just said that whatever he might have said previously, there’s no case for rejoining the EU and should Labour win, eh, no change. Christ what a country.
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I note that the fantastic racist Spectator magazine has set about retitling old articles, including those by renowned anti-Semite Douglas Murray.
changed to
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Which makes it even more awful how little was done ahead of time. We are truly, truly screwed.
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If the National Guard on the 20th isn’t under Trump’s direct control, it’s out of his hands. You can’t count on the police as a whole (they have the bad habit of melting away under confrontations with mass fascism), but I don’t think the armed forces or the Secret Service will fall in line.
I hope not. I’m just appalled by the relative ease with which these people got into the Capitol and how underprepared the authorities were. Somehow doubt that’s going to happen again … but I wonder what happens if/when the insurrectionists actually get competent leadership.
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My mom, dad, sister and her wife are now all positive. Mom is in the hospital, so fingers crossed.
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