DC Unrest Megathread

[Calthrina950]

Many, many Trump supporters are utterly embarassed at what has happened, IRL and on forum.

Sure, but the question therefore is; are they still Trump supporters?  The answer to that will tell us all we need to know.

No, even that doesn't go far enough. It's easy for these profile in Courage last-minute converts to democracy to reject Trump in the last week and a half of his presidency when he is irrelevant towards conservatives maintaining political power and advancing their agenda. If they don't oppose Trump ISM, which encompasses all those jackass congressmen, Senators, Governors, and hundreds of assorted Republican officials who full bore stood by and parotid Trump's Fantastical claims of election fraud and incitements for Direct action.

If they can't bring themselves to throw out those individuals for at bare minimum a sane Republican like Nancy Mays, Mitt Romney, John Kasich, Etc, or if not then bite the bullet and vote Democrat or third-party, then they've demonstrated they really don't give a crap. Between conservatism and democracy, they will choose the former every time.

Except for the fact that you could count on one hand the number of elected Republican politicians who are truly Trumpists.  Frankly, that list might begin and end with Josh Hawley.  And, even he is probably more pandering than anything.

Tuberville?  Gosar?  Mo Brooks?  Boebert?  Greene?  Gaetz?  We're already over one hand and those are just the first ones that jumped to mind.

Jim Jordan is another one that I can think of. As I was remarking elsewhere, the number of extremist ideologues in the Republican caucus is alarming to me.

How can we forget Big Louie Gohmert

Him also. I knew there was someone I was missing. I would have included Ken Buck also, but he shocked me by not voting for the objections.

[Calthrina950]

Many, many Trump supporters are utterly embarassed at what has happened, IRL and on forum.

Sure, but the question therefore is; are they still Trump supporters?  The answer to that will tell us all we need to know.

No, even that doesn't go far enough. It's easy for these profile in Courage last-minute converts to democracy to reject Trump in the last week and a half of his presidency when he is irrelevant towards conservatives maintaining political power and advancing their agenda. If they don't oppose Trump ISM, which encompasses all those jackass congressmen, Senators, Governors, and hundreds of assorted Republican officials who full bore stood by and parotid Trump's Fantastical claims of election fraud and incitements for Direct action.

If they can't bring themselves to throw out those individuals for at bare minimum a sane Republican like Nancy Mays, Mitt Romney, John Kasich, Etc, or if not then bite the bullet and vote Democrat or third-party, then they've demonstrated they really don't give a crap. Between conservatism and democracy, they will choose the former every time.

Except for the fact that you could count on one hand the number of elected Republican politicians who are truly Trumpists.  Frankly, that list might begin and end with Josh Hawley.  And, even he is probably more pandering than anything.

Tuberville?  Gosar?  Mo Brooks?  Boebert?  Greene?  Gaetz?  We're already over one hand and those are just the first ones that jumped to mind.

Jim Jordan is another one that I can think of. As I was remarking elsewhere, the number of extremist ideologues in the Republican caucus is alarming to me.

How can we forget Big Louie Gohmert

Don't leave out rising stars Bob Good and Mary Miller!

These two as well. They are major downgrades from Denver Riggleman and John Shimkus.

[Calthrina950]

Is Trump legally liable for the death of that cop? I’d say he should be. He has blood on his hands.

Blood on his hands, blood coming from his eyes. Blood coming from...wherever.

Do you have to make a sexual joke out of everything? Even over a matter as sensitive as someone's death? Particularly someone who died in the line of duty against these extremists?

[Calthrina950]

Is Trump legally liable for the death of that cop? I’d say he should be. He has blood on his hands.

Blood on his hands, blood coming from his eyes. Blood coming from...wherever.

Do you have to make a sexual joke out of everything? Even over a matter as sensitive as someone's death? Particularly someone who died in the line of duty against these extremists?

Please explain how that was sexual. I’ll wait.

It's clear what you were referring to. I'm not going to debase matters by giving the details which you seem to desire. As I've made clear before, I don't take that well to people who cheapen the deaths of others, particularly those whose deaths should not be addressed in such a manner.

[Calthrina950]

Is Trump legally liable for the death of that cop? I’d say he should be. He has blood on his hands.

Blood on his hands, blood coming from his eyes. Blood coming from...wherever.

Do you have to make a sexual joke out of everything? Even over a matter as sensitive as someone's death? Particularly someone who died in the line of duty against these extremists?

Please explain how that was sexual. I’ll wait.

It's clear what you were referring to. I'm not going to debase matters by giving the details which you seem to desire. As I've made clear before, I don't take that well to people who cheapen the deaths of others, particularly those whose deaths should not be addressed in such a manner.

https://www.cnn.com/2015/08/08/politics/donald-trump-cnn-megyn-kelly-comment/index.html

No, I'm exactly aware of what this is in reference to. That doesn't mean I have to condone it being used within this context.

[Calthrina950]

Is Trump legally liable for the death of that cop? I’d say he should be. He has blood on his hands.

Blood on his hands, blood coming from his eyes. Blood coming from...wherever.

Do you have to make a sexual joke out of everything? Even over a matter as sensitive as someone's death? Particularly someone who died in the line of duty against these extremists?

Please explain how that was sexual. I’ll wait.

It's clear what you were referring to. I'm not going to debase matters by giving the details which you seem to desire. As I've made clear before, I don't take that well to people who cheapen the deaths of others, particularly those whose deaths should not be addressed in such a manner.

https://www.cnn.com/2015/08/08/politics/donald-trump-cnn-megyn-kelly-comment/index.html

No, I'm exactly aware of what this is in reference to. That doesn't mean I have to condone it being used within this context.

Oh. The way you were describing it as a "sexual joke" and refusing to discuss "details" made me think that you were possibly assigning a different, even less savory meaning to what they had said. I don't think it really has anything to do with sex, it has to do with Donald Trump being incredibly immature, and the point of the comment was to mock him for that reason, so I don't think the intention was to at all cheapen the officer's death. Not the most tasteful comment in the world, sure.

If that was the intent, then it's understandable. He certainly could have phrased his comment better, as I think this one still isn't the most appropriate.

[Calthrina950]

The Houston Chronicle, which is not what you'd call a bastion of liberalism, calls for Ted Cruz to resign:

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Editorial-Resign-Senator-Cruz-Your-lies-cost-15857293.php

Good.  He should.  He never will, because all his cares about is his political career, even over his wife and his father.

I fully understand now why his colleagues so strongly detest him, and it also helps to explain why O'Rourke was able to come so close in 2018. Cruz is an utterly reprehensible character, and all of his actions are dictated by ambition. This man has so utterly debased himself at Trump's feet, and history will look down upon him very unkindly.

[Calthrina950]

Sen Roy Blunt: Trump "learned his lesson", shouldn't resign

Remember when Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) explained away her decision to acquit President Donald Trump of impeachment last year because, in her opinion, “the president has learned from this case?”

Well, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) gave us the sequel to that hopelessly naive notion on Sunday morning.

....

“I think the country is the right way to hold presidents accountable,” he said. “The president should be very careful over the next 10 days that his behavior is what you would expect from the leader of the greatest country in the world.”

“My personal view is that the president touched the hot stove on Wednesday and is unlikely to touch it again,” the senator continued. “And if that’s the case, we get—every day we get closer to the last day of his presidency. We should be thinking more about the first day of the next presidency than the last day of his presidency.”

Republicans are so in thrall to Trump and so terrified of his supporters that they are still reluctant to move against him. This kind of cowardice is establishing a horrific precedent, and would encourage future Presidents to believe that they could get away with almost anything without suffering the consequences for it.

[Calthrina950]

From his podcast episode yesterday, Dan Crenshaw calls out Trump, Giuliani, etc. pretty brutally.

"There is nothing to be proud of. There is no patriotism to be had by what happened...Don't call yourself a patriot by what happened. You got someone killed. You accomplished nothing."

"...but none of them ("good" Republicans) were amping up January 6th. None of them were telling people to come and fight, and stand, and 'This is your revolution!...people I just mentioned (Congressmen with military experience who protected the Capitol during the coup) actually know what a fight looks like. The people who did hype everybody up, and you know who you are, and all of you know who they are, they were nowhere to be found. These cowards - who've never been in a fight themselves, who created one and then ran."

Slight on-the-fence-ism as is Crenshaw's signature trait, but I'm really impressed that he's willing to risk his 2024 primary odds this way. I saw him as one who would defend the events that happened.

I wouldn't be surprised if Crenshaw gets Ted Cruz's Senate seat after this.

[Calthrina950]

Am I the only one who thinks Trump can recover from this by 2024?
Or am I just a doomer?

Assuming he's not barred from running for office, he's still the heavy favorite for the Republican nomination.

However, he is DOA for the general election. Harris wins with the 413 map.

I too think Trump would finally be damaged goods from the get-go in a general election, but I still think the 413 NUT map is fantasy.

Agreed. I think Trump would lose all of the states he lost last year, in addition to North Carolina and possibly Florida. He would probably still hold Texas by the skin of his teeth, and would comfortably hold Iowa and Ohio.

[Calthrina950]

https://twitter.com/EoinHiggins_/status/1348291105180282882

very moderate and nice! glad to see one of the good ones around

What is the context of this statement? What "peaceful" protesters is he referring to? None of the people who stormed the Capitol were "peaceful".

[Calthrina950]

Rep. Brad Schneider tests positive for COVID:

https://twitter.com/kirk_bado/status/1349022517902643206

How many members of Congress, since the start of the pandemic, have contracted the virus? The number must be at least 40 or 50 by now.

[Calthrina950]

https://twitter.com/ryanobles/status/1349154850844639234?s=20

Could you imagine what would happen if Ilhan Omar refused to be searched? Anyways, Boebert should not be seated in that case.

Boebert is a grandstander, and we unfortunately have too many of those in Congress. She certainly is provoking much more controversy than her predecessor Scott Tipton. Tipton was a Generic Republican, but he was also a backbencher and generally stayed out of the limelight. Ironically enough, this is one of the reasons why he lost the primary to Boebert last year.

[Calthrina950]

https://twitter.com/ryanobles/status/1349154850844639234?s=20

Could you imagine what would happen if Ilhan Omar refused to be searched? Anyways, Boebert should not be seated in that case.

Boebert is a grandstander, and we unfortunately have too many of those in Congress. She certainly is provoking much more controversy than her predecessor Scott Tipton. Tipton was a Generic Republican, but he was also a backbencher and generally stayed out of the limelight. Ironically enough, this is one of the reasons why he lost the primary to Boebert last year.

Boebert has, unsurprisingly, proven to be the absolute worst Republican freshman so far. She is even ahead of stiff competition from Madison Cawthorn and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

I wonder how many GOP senators secretly want a Trump conviction so he's not a primary threat in 2024.

This is definitely going to be on the mind of some. I never put the ambitious cynicism of Republicans past them. I guess it's a gamble though depending on how the base sees it and where the party ends up during the Biden years. Cruz and Hawley will probably think that sticking by Trump as a martyr is the better plan and others like Sasse might think otherwise, for the party to move on from him.

Also cynical will be the GOP Senators who don't have to be re-elected for another four to six years, without 2024 ambitions, and can afford to vote for Trump with little to no consequence.  

I think they're tied for absolute worst. It's possible for more than one person to be at the bottom of the barrel. But it is certainly a shame that Diane Mitsch-Bush, who was a Generic Democrat very much similar to Michael Bennet or John Hickenlooper, was unable to defeat her last year. Colorado's Republican House delegation is among the worst in the country (again, a race to the bottom of the barrel), and this state has never been known to elect moderate Republicans at the federal level. We're the same state that produced such worthies as Tom Tancredo and Marilyn Musgrave. Boebert is certainly keeping this odious tradition strong.

[Calthrina950]

More Republicans are now freaking out and refusing to go through the medal detector.

Is there someone (media) showing this live?.
If so, where.

https://twitter.com/MEPFuller/status/1349159121032011777?s=20

https://twitter.com/MEPFuller/status/1349159492383100928?s=20

https://twitter.com/MEPFuller/status/1349162337568227328?s=20

Many Republicans in Congress have lost their minds, if they even had minds to begin with. As I've said multiple times before, it alarms me that such ignorant, selfish, and arrogant people are in our national legislature, and that they walk the halls of Congress.

[Calthrina950]

More Republicans are now freaking out and refusing to go through the medal detector.

Is there someone (media) showing this live?.
If so, where.

https://twitter.com/MEPFuller/status/1349159121032011777?s=20

https://twitter.com/MEPFuller/status/1349159492383100928?s=20

https://twitter.com/MEPFuller/status/1349162337568227328?s=20

Many Republicans in Congress have lost their minds, if they even had minds to begin with. As I've said multiple times before, it alarms me that such ignorant, selfish, and arrogant people are in our national legislature, and that they walk the halls of Congress.

Unfortunately these people are only there because there are enough crazies to get them elected in the first place.

You're absolutely correct. I've seen polls indicating that ~30% of Americans are not holding Trump accountable or responsible for what happened last week. These are the very voters which elect the buffoons with which Congress is infested.

[Calthrina950]

Random thought while looking up Boebert's info while trying to see if it was her, I found out her son's name is Kaydon. Why am I not surprised?

In what way? Is there any significance to the name?

[Calthrina950]

Random thought while looking up Boebert's info while trying to see if it was her, I found out her son's name is Kaydon. Why am I not surprised?

In what way? Is there any significance to the name?

The -aiden (well sound) names are just kind of stereotypical tacky white names that you’d think someone like her would bestow upon a kid.

I get what you're saying now, and it's what I suspected. And to think that white people like to get on us for the names that we give our children. The names of white children nowadays can oftentimes be very bizarre or unusual, to put it mildly.

[Calthrina950]

Random thought while looking up Boebert's info while trying to see if it was her, I found out her son's name is Kaydon. Why am I not surprised?

In what way? Is there any significance to the name?

The -aiden (well sound) names are just kind of stereotypical tacky white names that you’d think someone like her would bestow upon a kid.

Also, names like Tanner, Colton, Wyatt, Cody, Logan, etc.

No offense to any of you who have one of these names lol.

Two people at my job are named Logan, although one of them is actually Hispanic (or perhaps mixed). But I think it's only a matter of time before we get a member of Congress who has one of these names, if we haven't already. In fact, one could argue that Madison Cawthorn meets this definition-he is, after all, the first member of Congress to have been born in the 1990s, and that is around the time such names became more common.

[Calthrina950]

https://twitter.com/AndrewDesiderio/status/1349521778629107713?s=20

Pelosi is fed up with dealing with many of these Republican extremists. First, they refused to wear masks, compelling her to make them mandatory, and now they're refusing to adhere to basic security procedures, that are intended to protect them.

[Calthrina950]

https://twitter.com/HotlineJosh/status/1349844554539806721

She was happy to stoke these people for votes until they literally tried to kill her...

If she feels so strongly about this, she should have sent a message by voting for Trump's impeachment. But alas, she did not, so I don't take much heed in what she has to say. I've lost a considerable amount of respect for Republicans because of how they've conducted themselves in response to the events of last week.

[Calthrina950]

https://twitter.com/HotlineJosh/status/1349844554539806721

She was happy to stoke these people for votes until they literally tried to kill her...

If she feels so strongly about this, she should have sent a message by voting for Trump's impeachment. But alas, she did not, so I don't take much heed in what she has to say. I've lost a considerable amount of respect for Republicans because of how they've conducted themselves in response to the events of last week.

Honest question. Were you even remotely surprised?

Given how strongly Mace was condemning what happened at the Capitol last week, I had thought that she would vote for impeachment. I had also imagined that Brian Fitzpatrick would do so also, and that other establishment-minded Republicans, who've long been uncomfortable with Trump, would break with their party and do the same. The fact that these two, and virtually all Republican representatives who seemed to have a semblance of a conscience, bar the 10 who ultimately did vote for impeachment, did not do so, demonstrates the extent to which partisan loyalty overrides loyalty to the country for many of them.

[Calthrina950]

So it has come to this:

Some Democrats in Congress are worried their colleagues might kill them
House members openly accuse far-right representatives of threatening their health and safety after the Capitol riot.

Boebert, Cawthorn, and Taylor-Greene are identified in the article as being of "particular concern" (my language) to many Democrats. Boebert and Cawthorn both have carried firearms while inside the Capitol Building, and Boebert is one of several Republicans who has refused to abide by the new security procedures imposed by Pelosi. Taylor-Greene is a anti-masker and had to be forced to wear one on the House floor when the new Congress convened. What's notable is that the spokespersons for all three have denied that they harbor violent or malicious intentions towards their colleagues; those for Boebert and Taylor-Greene claim that they don't believe in QAnon.

[Calthrina950]

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/01/15/biden-begins-presidency-with-positive-ratings-trump-departs-with-lowest-ever-job-mark/


Trump is now at 29% approval and 68% disapproval according to the Pew poll.  Republican support dropping to 60%.  I hope this is a trend and not an outlier.

Biden is at 58% approval and 39% disapproval.

The events of the past week have made me even more grateful that Biden won the election. I can only imagine the disaster we would be facing if Trump had won reelection. We have just five more days before he is out of the White House, hopefully for good.

[Calthrina950]

Have many Trump supporters been around since Trump attempted a coup?

I’ve only seen Del Tachi post a few times, and have yet to hear from Fuzzy Bear or SirWoodbury.


I hopeful that they now see they were wrong to support him but I also kinda doubt it.

Del Tachi called for Trump to resign, but he's made posts that seem to be supportive of what House Republicans have been engaging in over the past week-that is, in defying security procedures and carrying their firearms onto the floor. He's justified this as an exercise of legislative privilege.