DC Unrest Megathread

[NYSforKennedy2024]

Officer Brian Sicknick has died.

https://twitter.com/IntelDoge/status/1347407481329299457

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

https://twitter.com/frankthorp/status/1347404855606915072

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1347396715670810626?s=20

You know I was giving allot more benefit than perhaps they deserved to Capitol Police, given that not turning a riot into a mass casualty when you've been deliberately undermanned is hard, but the more stories like this come out, the more I want the department just abolished and reconstituted.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Rest in peace, Capitol police.
We salute you for all your years protecting this nation.

[The Undefeatable Debbie Stabenow]

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1347396715670810626?s=20

There needs to be some drastic action taken. I'm not sure if these suspicions have been formally laid out, but Cori Bush and other House Democrats seem to be suspecting that was some real malfeasance on the behalf of the Capitol Police, beyond negligence. Some of the anecdotes about how the officers behaved are pretty damning.

I honestly don't know how to even begin addressing the disparity between the treatment of BLM protesters and the treatment of the insurrectionists yesterday, because it seems like an inevitable consequence of law enforcement being as overwhelmingly conservative as they are.

[rhg2052]

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1347396715670810626?s=20

[NYSforKennedy2024]

And to think people thought this was "too far" at one point.

[Badger]

Might as well do a response to all the craziness that happened, now that its one day past and emotions have been sorted out.
What happened yesterday was not acceptable, and I don't see any blue avatar here trying to defend the looting and damage done. Those people will hopefully be charged and go to jail and pay all appropriate fines/fees. It is understandable to be upset at what happened with the election and how it was counted but this simply was not the way to do it. Changes need to be made at the state level in order to ban VBM and all other regulations. Capitol Hill is not the main place where that happens.
However, that being said the summer riots greatly encouraged this. When people saw ANTIFA unleashed in Portland and stores being broken into and cops kneeling in front of BLM they believed that they could (wrongfully) do this stuff too.
I am still a Trump supporter and was since 2015, as I do not think it is his fault. He was misguided in the approach post Nov 3 and I do not think the election was stolen, but he never wanted the Capitol building to be stormed. Instead he wanted large outdoor protests but he never had intent of something like this happening. Removing Trump would be a horrible decision as he only has 13 days left, and impeachment would only add more fuel to the fire. The country needs to unite at this moment not get more divided, which attempting to lock up a former President will do.

What a good little goosestepper you are. Pathetic

[7,052,770]

Brian Sicknick's blue life mattered. RIP.

[Antonio the Sixth]

https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1347396715670810626?s=20

There needs to be purges in the Capitol police NOW.

[Fargobison]

A man died over nothing but a made up farce to ease the hurt feelings of a 74 year old entitled toddler. I hope Cruz and Hawley are happy with their idiocy.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

https://twitter.com/RepDeanPhillips/status/1347311506266984450
Compare the character of Andy Kim and Donald Trump...

Andy Kim for President.

[Coolface Sock #42069]

One of the frustrating things about all of this is it could have been avoided right from the start if Republicans had just picked basically any other candidate, in what was a large primary with lots of acceptable choices (relatively speaking).

Instead, they opted for the biggest loudmouth on stage, who despite having a very long and storied history of lying, scamming and disloyalty, earned enough votes to be nominated because people liked that he didn't talk like a regular politician. Guess what, those other pesky things like ethics, decent behavior and critical thinking actually matter when choosing leaders.

So for the love of god Republicans, next time have some decency and don't put the country through this kind of bs again.

I tried!

[NYSforKennedy2024]

Sending supporters to beat a policeman to death with a fire extinguisher - that will be Trump's legacy. That needs to be #1.

[Badger]

Meanwhile half of the Republican Party approves of the riots, and their conspiracy theory was validated by a majority of the Republican House caucus just hours after the attack!

To be fair, pretty much every Republican has condemned the violence, just as how establishment Dems condemned BLM riots.

But only a minority are rightly blaming Trump for their actions, and NONE are taking responsibility for the wholescale encouragement and parroting of Trumps lies and incitement.

Furthermore, unlike Trump and 80-plus percent of the Republican Party, the Democrats didn't spend literally several months beforehand encouraging the riots. New paragraph, there is a huge huge distinction between BLM marches and protests for a small minority of empty pot anarchists who despise Joe Biden and Democratic party is much as they do Republicans committed actual acts of violence and destruction, along with a bunch of opportunistic criminals who have Jack s*** to do with BLM. Conversely, the proud boys is an organization 100 and 1% founding and dedicated to support Donald Trump aggressive mob violence against leftist, and Trump has supported them without reservation

[Badger]

Might as well do a response to all the craziness that happened, now that its one day past and emotions have been sorted out.
What happened yesterday was not acceptable, and I don't see any blue avatar here trying to defend the looting and damage done. Those people will hopefully be charged and go to jail and pay all appropriate fines/fees. It is understandable to be upset at what happened with the election and how it was counted but this simply was not the way to do it. Changes need to be made at the state level in order to ban VBM and all other regulations. Capitol Hill is not the main place where that happens.
However, that being said the summer riots greatly encouraged this. When people saw ANTIFA unleashed in Portland and stores being broken into and cops kneeling in front of BLM they believed that they could (wrongfully) do this stuff too.
I am still a Trump supporter and was since 2015, as I do not think it is his fault. He was misguided in the approach post Nov 3 and I do not think the election was stolen, but he never wanted the Capitol building to be stormed. Instead he wanted large outdoor protests but he never had intent of something like this happening. Removing Trump would be a horrible decision as he only has 13 days left, and impeachment would only add more fuel to the fire. The country needs to unite at this moment not get more divided, which attempting to lock up a former President will do.

Zip it, fascist. Nobody wants to hear it.

There are only two things I am willing to hear from Trump supporters right now.

1) "I am sorry. My vote aided and abetted an attempt at a fascist coup in the United States. I will now live the rest of my life attempting to atone for what I have done."

2) "I am clearly a terrible judge of character. Democrats, please educate me. How did you know the warning signs of Trump's narcissistic, dictatorial personality before I did? Before I ever cast another vote, I should learn how to watch for these things."

Anything else is either apologism, whataboutism, or genuine fascism.

[Fargobison]

Sending supporters to beat a policeman to death with a fire extinguisher - that will be Trump's legacy. That needs to be #1.

"We love you, you're very special."

Mr. Law and Order himself on these murderous thugs.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

So when are the murder charges coming?

[Badger]

Meanwhile half of the Republican Party approves of the riots, and their conspiracy theory was validated by a majority of the Republican House caucus just hours after the attack!

To be fair, pretty much every Republican has condemned the violence, just as how establishment Dems condemned BLM riots.

147 Republicans voted to object to the election based on the president's lies. They know his claims are and have always been completely fabricated and they've decided perpetuating the lies is worth more to them than defending and uniting the country. Those lies triggered the violence by Trump's supporters. He's radicalized them with lies that their country is being stolen from them, their culture is being stolen from them, their election is being stolen from them.

The lies are behind the violence and unless the Republican Party comes out and apologizes to the nation for breeding terrorism in the gullible to get votes, they're 100% still the pieces of crap to blame.

Saying "I still think I won but don't hurt people" with no affect isn't worth a bucket of snake piss.

But it’s different from actually supporting the violence, which I’ve seen no Republican do so far.

An Al Qaeda recruiter who never leaves camp or hurts someone directly is still to blame. You don't get to spend years radicalizing people and suddenly be outraged they're radicalized and insane. They need to stop the lying or they're knowingly encouraging more of this. 147 of them voted with hopes of maintaining this madness to further their own ambitions. They're all going to hell when they die.

I don’t think they actually wanted to incite violence though.

WHAT DID THEY THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN?

You spend months telling people this election is the "last chance to save the country" and if Biden wins we'll be a socialist tyrannical dictatorship, then he wins and you say "THE ELECTION WAS STOLEN! WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!"

How do you think people are going to react to that?!

Idiocy =/ condoning violence.

Okay, child, we get it. You refuse despite every scrap of evidence and explanation of the basic concept of aiding and abetting, to acknowledge the Republican party at anything bad to do it is. We get it. Your conscience is absolved of all naughty list. Now go sit in the corner while the grown-ups continue their discussion.

Don't worry, another would be destroyer of democracy will come along in the Republican Party within the next two or four years, then you will have every opportunity to support all over again without having learned a damn thing.

[TheReckoning]

Meanwhile half of the Republican Party approves of the riots, and their conspiracy theory was validated by a majority of the Republican House caucus just hours after the attack!

To be fair, pretty much every Republican has condemned the violence, just as how establishment Dems condemned BLM riots.

147 Republicans voted to object to the election based on the president's lies. They know his claims are and have always been completely fabricated and they've decided perpetuating the lies is worth more to them than defending and uniting the country. Those lies triggered the violence by Trump's supporters. He's radicalized them with lies that their country is being stolen from them, their culture is being stolen from them, their election is being stolen from them.

The lies are behind the violence and unless the Republican Party comes out and apologizes to the nation for breeding terrorism in the gullible to get votes, they're 100% still the pieces of crap to blame.

Saying "I still think I won but don't hurt people" with no affect isn't worth a bucket of snake piss.

But it’s different from actually supporting the violence, which I’ve seen no Republican do so far.

An Al Qaeda recruiter who never leaves camp or hurts someone directly is still to blame. You don't get to spend years radicalizing people and suddenly be outraged they're radicalized and insane. They need to stop the lying or they're knowingly encouraging more of this. 147 of them voted with hopes of maintaining this madness to further their own ambitions. They're all going to hell when they die.

I don’t think they actually wanted to incite violence though.

WHAT DID THEY THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN?

You spend months telling people this election is the "last chance to save the country" and if Biden wins we'll be a socialist tyrannical dictatorship, then he wins and you say "THE ELECTION WAS STOLEN! WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!"

How do you think people are going to react to that?!

Idiocy =/ condoning violence.

Okay, child, we get it. You refuse despite every scrap of evidence and explanation of the basic concept of aiding and abetting, to acknowledge the Republican party at anything bad to do it is. We get it. Your conscience is absolved of all naughty list. Now go sit in the corner while the grown-ups continue their discussion.

Don't worry, another would be destroyer of democracy will come along in the Republican Party within the next two or four years, then you will have every opportunity to support all over again without having learned a damn thing.

Trump and 147 other Republicans should be kicked out of Congress and some should be put in jail.

[Badger]

Meanwhile half of the Republican Party approves of the riots, and their conspiracy theory was validated by a majority of the Republican House caucus just hours after the attack!

To be fair, pretty much every Republican has condemned the violence, just as how establishment Dems condemned BLM riots.

147 Republicans voted to object to the election based on the president's lies. They know his claims are and have always been completely fabricated and they've decided perpetuating the lies is worth more to them than defending and uniting the country. Those lies triggered the violence by Trump's supporters. He's radicalized them with lies that their country is being stolen from them, their culture is being stolen from them, their election is being stolen from them.

The lies are behind the violence and unless the Republican Party comes out and apologizes to the nation for breeding terrorism in the gullible to get votes, they're 100% still the pieces of crap to blame.

Saying "I still think I won but don't hurt people" with no affect isn't worth a bucket of snake piss.

But it’s different from actually supporting the violence, which I’ve seen no Republican do so far.

An Al Qaeda recruiter who never leaves camp or hurts someone directly is still to blame. You don't get to spend years radicalizing people and suddenly be outraged they're radicalized and insane. They need to stop the lying or they're knowingly encouraging more of this. 147 of them voted with hopes of maintaining this madness to further their own ambitions. They're all going to hell when they die.

I don’t think they actually wanted to incite violence though.

They're adults. They saw the violence happen. Even if they didn't want it go that far they still continued the behavior that made it happen. If they were naïve, that excuse was eradicated by the time the 147 traitors made that vote. It was criminally irresponsible and deliberate.

And none of them have the excuse that they believe the vote was truly stolen. They all know how elections work and none are trying to throw out congressional results where they won. They know Trump lost because his behavior turned out Democratic voters, but they're afraid his base won't vote for them in 2022 or 2024 without this commitment to the lies he's made them believe.

This isn’t me supporting the people opposing the certification of electoral votes- they should honestly resign immediately- but opposing the results doesn’t mean they actually support the violence.

I think we are getting bogged down in semantics now. I appreciate and respect your view that the idiots in Congress who facilitated this my supporting Trump's groundless conspiracy theories and incitements should resign. I'll also go to a degree and say that most of the people didn't want this kind of violence, with a possible exception of crew Mad Men like Mo Brooks or Louie gohmert.

But this isn't about "supporting the violence". This is about these same individuals you and I are discussing non stop pouring gasoline on a campfire for several months straight, and then claimng they oppose the forest fire that just ignited. Regardless of whatever mealy-mouthed self-serving statements they are now making about "opposing" the forest fire, that doesn't absolve them one iota of recklessly starting it in the first place.

[NYSforKennedy2024]

So when are the murder charges coming?

In that role, Garland's responsibilities included the supervision of high-profile domestic-terrorism cases, including the Oklahoma City bombing, Ted Kaczynski (also known as the "Unabomber"), and the Atlanta Olympics bombings.

Soon.

[Morning in Atlas]

A man died over nothing but a made up farce to ease the hurt feelings of a 74 year old entitled toddler. I hope Cruz and Hawley are happy with their idiocy.

This needs to be the new response to the "defund the police" talking point. Republicans incited people to kill a good cop in cold blood.

[Morning in Atlas]

Of course, we can also talk about how good cops die in riots because Republicans let the bad ones off the hook. But yeah. Seems like we have a lot of outs compared to "Well I'm not like OTHER Democrats, I don't want to defund the police!"

[Badger]

I think there are some really bad-faith arguments about conservatives and Republicans in this thread that I want to do my best to address in a level-headed manner and avoid "whataboutism" as much as possible.

Most respectable conservatives- most of whom voted twice for Donald Trump- that I know in real life are equally embarrassed and saddened by this as all Americans are.  What happened is not OK, and we should all be ashamed of that display and how it looks on our country- and especially on our party.  I agree that, after this, Trump should be nowhere near power ever again.  Where I disagree is that I don't think Trump is really a fascist dictator, but rather a petulant crybaby with a massive ego.  His behavior since the election strikes me more like a 5 year old mad that he lost a game to his brother than a wannabe dictator.  Regardless, though, either one is bad enough that he should never be in power again.  And, I will do everything I can to try to encourage my party to move on from this man.  I would even support exercising the 25th Amendment or impeachment.

But, I've seen a lot of posts here suggesting that, by voting for him, we are endorsing the worst traits that he could ever possess.  I think most people would agree that there is no perfect presidential candidate and we always have to prioritize things.  I've always had major misgivings about President Trump.  Just look back to how I talked about him during the 2016 GOP primaries.  Ultimately, I voted for him because I am very issue-focused and care very little about personalities.  I viewed it as just looking at a list of issues and seeing who I agreed with more often.  Maybe I should have been more forceful on a couple of occasions, but, through the years, I feel that I have been willing to criticize the president when he is wrong, and that continues to this day.

Even worse to me is the suggestion that many red avatars have made that we should abandon all of our principles to vote against all Republicans because they are "enablers".  I could not disagree more strongly with that.  First, if all respectable conservatives left the GOP, all you would have left would be the loons who stormed the Capitol, and that's not an outcome anyone wants.  Almost all Republican officeholders, including those who have been staunch allies of Trump to this point, are speaking out vigorously against these riots.  Maybe some Republican officeholders have been too scared to go against Trump, but I understand why.  Like it or not, politicians are almost always trying to make politically calculated moves.  Going against Trump publicly, loudly, and frequently was not going to be in the cards for most officeholders.  With that said, that doesn't mean that their true allegiance is to Trump.  Most officeholders probably really saw him as a "useful idiot" of sorts.  It seems to be becoming more and more clear to me since yesterday's domestic terrorism event that most Republicans in office are going to be steering the party away from Trump.  

And, even if that's not the case, I don't think I could vote for a Democrat because there are issues that I literally view as life and death that I cannot support.  I couldn't ever hold my nose for Trump again, either.  I truly believe that most of us are doing the best we can in a very broken political system, and we should not paint all people in a party with a broad brush of the worst people theoretically on their side.

God Bless!

No, just no.

You're attempting to write Trump off as just another politician after what he has done over the last 4 years after what he did yesterday how he is fundamentally unlike any other politician American history unravel them very fabric of democracy, because you couldn't handle not voting for a conservative? You sir, are just as big a part of the problem as Trump himself. You Oughta be embarrassed far far more than you are.

Don't offer this week need spineless excuse that you need to keep supporting Republicans who are embarrassed by yesterday or otherwise The Crazies will take over. Guess what Sunshine? That's already happened! And you know one of the biggest reasons? Is because again, exactly like people like you. He will swallow Trump and all his outright sedition and threatening the very core of American democracy itself because of your conservative "principles". If your principles value of conservatism over democracy, then you, again, are absolutely part of the problem here.

It's real simple, buddy boy. Either you vote out Republicans actively aided and abetted and repeated Trump's lies and incitement, even if God forbid that means you have to clutch your pearls and vote for a Democrat, or this will happen again. Why on Earth will the Republican party ever change when you continue to an able what happened yesterday. It wasn't just about Trump. Take a long look in the mirror and accept it.

God bless us all indeed, because of people like you. Still, without hesitation, choose trumpism under another candidates name as long as it's a republican, we will surely need it.