U.S. Capitol Placed on Lockdown as Election Protests Grow Violent

[caz]

12. Incumbent party candidate is charismatic or a national hero (Dems win this key as Trump is disliked by many, although not by his fans)...

...One could argue that key no. 12 could go to Trump, as MAGA fans no doubt find him "charismatic."

This virus has more "charisma" than Trump, and infinitely more intelligence if it has contributed to his downfall.

Something positive to come out of 2020 after all?

[caz]

It's being reported that Pence was the one who called in the National Guard. Also, Twitter shut down Trump's feed and deleted his last two messages. A couple of Congressmen are reporting that articles of Impeachment are being drawn up. Unusual evening, to say the least.

And there was I, thinking the UK had been a political embarrassment since 2016...

[caz]

I'm waiting to see how Democrats will get the blame for the failure of decent Republicans to recognise and take out their own trash.

I thought we were engaged here in Britain in a catastrophic act of self harm, but now it looks like a friendly game of charades by comparison.

[Wickerman]

There aren't enough decent Republicans left to make any meaningful decisions. By far the majority of Republicans are spineless, an embarrassment to their party. Too frightened of upsetting Trump's base to 'do the right thing'.

After all this is over, once Biden takes power, I don't feel confident his administration will encourage pursuing the people who instigate, and will continue to instigate revolt & rioting.
Biden's position is all too likely to be to let sleeping dogs lie, not to make things worse, put this all behind us. This view, often taken as 'the high road' only emboldens the anarchists.
It is for this approach, I suspect Democrats will be held responsible. We'll have to see what transpires. These radical groups have been ignored and tolerated across the US for way too long. They need to be stamped out or they will continue to grow.

[rjpalmer]

This attempted coup, not a very well executed one, was organised by Trump and his right wing backers.

Agreed. This was not an outburst of spontaneous emotion. Despite a major rally, security was at a minimum. Someone saw to that. By now, most of the world has watched the video of a startling small group of officers--5 or 6--opening up barricades at one end of the Capitol grounds, letting a mob flood in, unimpeded. It's being reported that one 'protester' had a fist full of zip ties.

The clumsiness of the operation suggests the messy fingerprints of Giuliani and/or Kushner, but there were others.

White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney has just resigned. Interpret that how you want.

[Svensson]

And there was I, thinking the UK had been a political embarrassment since 2016...

yes but we corrected this misperception by putting an ACTUAL clown in charge. No more mixed messages :P

[Svensson]

Biden's position is all too likely to be to let sleeping dogs lie, not to make things worse, put this all behind us. This view, often taken as 'the high road' only emboldens the anarchists.

Yes, I think Biden missed a trick by not nominating Hillary Clinton for AG. She would have come after Trumpists like there's no tomorrow.

[rjpalmer]

White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney has just resigned

I should have written 'former' Chief of Staff. They switch hats so often under Trump it's hard to keep track.

Evidently, Trump is still agitated this morning. He's just four putted on the 7th green at Bedminster.

[barnflatwyngarde]

Do you think Mexico is rethinking it's attitude to the wall?

[C. F. Leon]

Few things say "I'm stupid" quite like filming yourself committing a felony/-ies and then posting it online and boast about it. It's considered a confession.

[YomRippur]

There aren't enough decent Republicans left to make any meaningful decisions. By far the majority of Republicans are spineless, an embarrassment to their party. Too frightened of upsetting Trump's base to 'do the right thing'.

After all this is over, once Biden takes power, I don't feel confident his administration will encourage pursuing the people who instigate, and will continue to instigate revolt & rioting.
Biden's position is all too likely to be to let sleeping dogs lie, not to make things worse, put this all behind us. This view, often taken as 'the high road' only emboldens the anarchists.
It is for this approach, I suspect Democrats will be held responsible. We'll have to see what transpires. These radical groups have been ignored and tolerated across the US for way too long. They need to be stamped out or they will continue to grow.

These people will continue to grow as long as the social and financial well being of a large number of Americans continue to drop. So the only way to fix this is improve the quality of life in America. If more people live a good life, there will be fewer of these groups. Lack of social and financial well being leads to poor education, hopelessness, fearfulness, susceptibility to wild theories, etc., all the trademarks of these groups. And when their hopelessness and desperation reach the lowest point where they feel they have "nothing to lose," they do and say wild things, unsurprisingly. If the economy doesn't pick up fast, expect this to continue. Yes, you bet the Dems will take the blame if this situation doesn't improve on their watch. Whenever bad things happen, the incumbent party always takes the rap. It happened to Trump and the GOP, and it would happen to Dems the next 4 years if certain key things didn't improve (refer to the "13 keys" I mentioned earlier).

And calling these groups "terrorists" would be an insult to real terrorists! The kind of terrorism we have faced since 9/11 is organized, well-planned, and formidable. Do these adjectives really describe the Capitol Hill protestors?? If we called them terrorists, then those who piss on the sidewalk or smash windows with trashcans would be terrorists too! The people yesterday were some of the weakest people we have, both in minds and bodies and overall well-being.

[Wickerman]

Do you think Mexico is rethinking it's attitude to the wall?

Word is, they've volunteered to pay for it, to get it done!

[Wickerman]

Few things say "I'm stupid" quite like filming yourself committing a felony/-ies and then posting it online and boast about it. It's considered a confession.

One of the first claims Trump did on camera in 2016 was, extend his arms and claim, "..how I love the uneducated!".

[C. F. Leon]

Worst President EVER!

January 20th can't arrive too soon. I suspect something similar will happen to the White House on Inauguration Day, probably to cover the Nut-Job's looting of everything valuable from it.

Damn, I miss Nixon.

[Svensson]

These people will continue to grow as long as the social and financial well being of a large number of Americans continue to drop. So the only way to fix this is improve the quality of life in America. If more people live a good life, there will be fewer of these groups. Lack of social and financial well being leads to poor education, hopelessness, fearfulness, susceptibility to wild theories, etc., all the trademarks of these groups. And when their hopelessness and desperation reach the lowest point where they feel they have "nothing to lose," they do and say wild things, unsurprisingly. If the economy doesn't pick up fast, expect this to continue. Yes, you bet the Dems will take the blame if this situation doesn't improve on their watch. Whenever bad things happen, the incumbent party always takes the rap. It happened to Trump and the GOP, and it would happen to Dems the next 4 years if certain key things didn't improve (refer to the "13 keys" I mentioned earlier).

This has nothing to do with economic well-being, it's a cultural problem on the american right that has this generally unpleasant mix of guns, god, anti-science and government wrapped in white supremacy. There are plenty of $60K trucks at Trump rallys and Trump's enablers in the House and Senate who voted to object to the result of a democratic election AFTER the Capitol had been stormed by Trump supporters can not reasonably be called destitute. Likewise, urban areas where there is economic hardship have not been captured by craziness that is Trumpism.

the first time I noticed that there was something fishy going on in american politics is when this senator came into the chamber with a snow-ball in the middle of February as "proof" that global warming did not exist. The next thing was when in 2010 I asked a colleague of mine from Arizona what he thought of US citizens finally getting universal Health care, he said he hated it because it took away his freedom to chose his own health care (or lack thereof). Then you throw in Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Fox News and you have your reasons for the rise of Trumpism. All indications are it will get even worse. People are flocking over to Newsmax because it seems that Fox is no longer crazy enough for them. So, people are constantly being subjected to crazy sh!t and there is no end in sight. Things will not improve until there is a consensus that News and information on political events need to be fact-based and yes, I agree that this is difficult to achieve because you would need to accept some kind of arbiter which likely to be a deal breaker for most people. Trump was right in one thing: The swamp needs to be drained but it must be from the grass-roots and anti-democratic senators and house-members need to be primaried and voted out of office. This way, a new generation of politicians will bubble-up into government. For example, I always wonder how someone like Louie Gohmert gets elected. I mean, how is this even possible? His continuous re-election is probably a good indicator on why the current electoral system is failing the country. Figure out why HE gets elected, fix the problem and the future will probably look a lot brighter.