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6 Jan 2020 U.S. Events (Split from A Deeply Fractured US)

Meanwhile, in Canada, the collateral damage reverberates:

Undated photo appears to show Conservative Party of Canada deputy leader Candice Bergen in​

in MAGA hat​

candice_bergen.jpg


In the wake of a Donald Trump–inspired riot at the U.S. Capitol, a photo is making the rounds featuring a senior Conservative politician.
Candice Bergen, the party's deputy leader, appears to be seen in a Make America Great Again cap.

It's become an emblem for Trump lovers across North America. The source of the photo is unknown.

Bergen, the MP for the Manitoba riding of Portage-Lisgar, has refused to confirm or deny to CBC News that she's the person in the photo.
She put out the following tweet regarding the riot in Washington, D.C.

 
Symbols only matter when people believe they have say in the system, clearly these people don`t believe they do. Governance in a democracy is about consent and respect. These are the people that the Democrats called the "deplorables" and only useful to the GOP come election time. This pot has been cooking for quite sometime. Trump for all his faults was the only one to give them something and pay attention to their concerns.
This is a very good point,.......for 4 years the "other" side has done nothing but degrade the folks, and validity, of this symbol, HARD, ....."roosters, time to come home now."
 
Symbols only matter when people believe they have say in the system, clearly these people don`t believe they do. Governance in a democracy is about consent and respect. These are the people that the Democrats called the "deplorables" and only useful to the GOP come election time. This pot has been cooking for quite sometime. Trump for all his faults was the only one to give them something and pay attention to their concerns.
The reason why these people feel isolated is because their grievances, real and imagined, were exploited by by a host of actors including the guy with the biggest bully-pulpit on Earth. They were fed a steady diet of lies, agitprop, and fantasy that fit their biases. Believe me, I have my issues with biases in the mainstream media especially in this country. But when you want your fantasy validated by the rest of society because you don’t believe reality, sorry, you are not entitled to your own facts. (Not “you” personally, Colin 🙂).
 
The reason why these people feel isolated is because their grievances, real and imagined, were exploited by by a host of actors including the guy with the biggest bully-pulpit on Earth. They were fed a steady diet of lies, agitprop, and fantasy that fit their biases.
So politics 101??

Kinda like how we'll finally have transparency in ours?? Nothing new here kids....
 
The thoughts going through my mind as I watched this were along the lines of 'Security Force, rioters to your front, rapid, fire!'. This helps justify my first impressions....


Capitol assault a more sinister attack than first appeared​

WASHINGTON — Under battle flags bearing Donald Trump's name, the Capitol's attackers pinned a bloodied police officer in a doorway, his twisted face and screams captured on video. They mortally wounded another officer with a blunt weapon and body-slammed a third over a railing into the crowd.

"Hang Mike Pence!" the insurrectionists chanted as they pressed inside, beating police with pipes. They demanded House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's whereabouts, too. They hunted any and all lawmakers: "Where are they?" Outside, makeshift gallows stood, complete with sturdy wooden steps and the noose. Guns and pipe bombs had been stashed in the vicinity.

Only days later is the extent of the danger from one of the darkest episodes in American democracy coming into focus. The sinister nature of the assault has become evident, betraying the crowd as a force determined to occupy the inner sanctums of Congress and run down leaders — Trump’s vice-president and the Democratic House speaker among them.

This was not just a collection of Trump supporters with MAGA bling caught up in a wave.

That revelation came in real time to Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., who briefly took over proceedings in the House chamber as the mob closed in Wednesday and Pelosi was spirited to safer quarters moments before everything went haywire.

"I saw this crowd of people banging on that glass screaming," McGovern told The Associated Press on Sunday. "Looking at their faces, it occurred to me, these aren’t protesters. These are people who want to do harm."

"What I saw in front of me," he said, "was basically home-grown fascism, out of control."

Pelosi said Sunday "the evidence is that it was a well-planned, organized group with leadership and guidance and direction. And the direction was to go get people." She did not elaborate on that point in a "60 Minutes" interview on CBS.

The scenes of rage, violence and agony are so vast that the whole of it may still be beyond comprehension. But with countless smartphone videos emerging from the scene, much of it from gloating insurrectionists themselves, and more lawmakers recounting the chaos that was around them, the contours of the uprising are increasingly coming into relief.

___

THE STAGING

The mob got stirring encouragement from Trump and more explicit marching orders from the president's men.

"Fight like hell," Trump exhorted his partisans at the staging rally. "Let’s have trial by combat," implored his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, whose attempt to throw out election results in trial by courtroom failed. It's time to "start taking down names and kicking ass," said Republican Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama.

Criminals pardoned by Trump, among them Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, came forward at rallies on the eve of the attack to tell the crowds they were fighting a battle between good and evil. On Capitol Hill, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri gave a clenched-fist salute to the hordes outside the Capitol as he pulled up to press his challenge of the election results.

The crowd was pumped. Until a little after 2 p.m., Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was at the helm for the final minutes of decorum in partnership with Pence, who was serving his ceremonial role presiding over the process.

Both men had backed Trump's agenda and excused or ignored his provocations for four years, but now had no mechanism or will to subvert the election won by Biden. That placed them high among the insurrectionists' targets, no different in the minds of the mob from the "socialists."

"If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral," McConnell told his chamber, not long before things spiraled out of control in what lawmakers call the "People’s House."

Far-right social media users had openly hinted for weeks that chaos would erupt at the Capitol when Congress convened to certify the election results. As the attack unfolded, they urged followers to "trust the plan" and "hold the line." Just what the plan might have been is central to the investigation.

The FBI is investigating whether some of the attackers intended to kidnap members of Congress and hold them hostage. Authorities are particularly focused on why some in the mob were seen carrying plastic zip-tie handcuffs and had apparently accessed areas of the Capitol generally difficult for the public to locate.

___

THE ASSAULT

Thousands had swarmed the Capitol. They charged into police and metal barricades outside the building, shoving and hitting officers in their way. The assault quickly pushed through the vastly outnumbered police line; officers ran down one man and pummeled him.

In the melee outside, near the structure built for Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, a man threw a fire extinguisher at the helmeted head of a police officer. Then he picked up a bullhorn and threw it at officers, too.

The identity of the officer could not immediately be confirmed. But Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who was wounded in the chaos, died the next night; officials say he had been hit in the head with a fire extinguisher.

Shortly after 2 p.m., Capitol Police sent an alert telling workers in a House office building to head to underground transportation tunnels that criss-cross the complex. Minutes later, Pence was taken from the Senate chamber to a secret location and police announced the lockdown of the Capitol. "You may move throughout the building(s) but stay away from exterior windows and doors," said the email blast. "If you are outside, seek cover."

At 2:15 p.m., the Senate recessed its Electoral College debate and a voice was heard over the chamber's audio system: "The protesters are in the building." The doors of the House chamber were barricaded and lawmakers inside it were told they may need to duck under their chairs or relocate to cloakrooms off the House floor because the mob has breached the Capitol Rotunda.

Even before the mob reached sealed doors of the House chamber, Capitol Police pulled Pelosi away from the podium, she told "60 Minutes."

"I said, ‘No, I want to be here,’"she said. "And they said, ‘Well, no, you have to leave.’ I said, ‘No, I’m not leaving.' They said, ‘No, you must leave.’" So she did.

At 2:44 p.m., as lawmakers inside the House chamber prepared to be evacuated, a gunshot was heard from right outside, in the Speaker's Lobby on the other side of the barricaded doors. That's when Ashli Babbit, wearing a Trump flag like a cape, was shot to death on camera as insurrectionists railed, her blood pooling on the white marble floor.

The Air Force veteran from California had climbed through a broken window into the Speaker’s Lobby before a police officer's gunshot felled her.

Back in the House chamber, a woman in the balcony was seen and heard screaming. Why she was doing that only became clear later when video circulated. She was screaming a prayer.

Within about 10 minutes of the shooting, House lawmakers and staff members who had been cowering during the onslaught, terror etched into their faces, had been taken from the chamber and gallery to a secure room. The mob broke into Pelosi's offices while members of her staff hid in one of the rooms of her suite.

"The staff went under the table, barricaded the door, turned out the lights and were silent in the dark," she said. "Under the table for two and a half hours."

On the Senate side, Capitol Police had circled the chamber and ordered all staff and reporters and any nearby senators into the chamber and locked it down. At one point about 200 people were inside; an officer armed with what appeared to be a semi-automatic weapon stood between McConnell and the Democratic leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer.

Authorities then ordered an evacuation and rushed everyone inside to a secure location, the Senate parliamentary staff scooping up the boxes holding the Electoral Collage certificates.

Although the Capitol's attackers had been sent with Trump's exhortation to fight, they appeared in some cases to be surprised that they had actually made it in.

When they breached the abandoned Senate chamber, they milled around, rummaged through papers, sat at desks and took videos and pictures. One of them climbed to the dais and yelled, "Trump won that election!" Two others were photographed carrying flex cuffs typically used for mass arrests.

But outside the chamber, the mob's hunt was still on for lawmakers. "Where are they?" people could be heard yelling.

That question could have also applied to reinforcements — where were they?

At about 5:30 p.m., once the National Guard had arrived to supplement the overwhelmed Capitol Police force, a full-on effort began to get the attackers out.

Heavily armed officers brought in as reinforcements started using tear gas in a co-ordinated fashion to get people moving toward the door, then combed the halls for stragglers. As darkness fell, they pushed the mob farther out onto the plaza and lawn, using officers in riot gear in full shields and clouds of tear gas, flash-bangs and percussion grenades.

At 7:23 p.m., officials announced that people hunkered down in two nearby congressional office buildings could leave "if anyone must."

Within the hour, the Senate had resumed its work and the House followed, returning the People's House to the control of the people's representatives. Lawmakers affirmed Biden’s election victory early the next morning, shell-shocked by the catastrophic failure of security.

https://www.timescolonist.com/capitol-assault-a-more-sinister-attack-than-first-appeared-1.24265440
 
Thing is, it would seem that a lot of people that felt left out didn’t really think Trump did much for him and voted against him this time.
 
Quick, call out the thought police.

If by "thought police" you mean voters, then yes. Symbols mean something. And using them, whether we like it or not, whether the person using it put any thought into the action, whether it was four days ago or four years ago, that use will be judged. Now, nobody really cares if Billy Bob from Shitkicker Junction wears a MAGA cap while he trims the nails of his eleven toes, but lots of people will wonder about what was/is/will be the mindset of a federal politician (one who was reported to be considering running for leadership of her party - so who wanted to be PM) that she wore one of the most recognizable symbols (and supposedly a good moneymaker for the person it represents) of probably the most divisive (foreign) politician in the memory of most of us. And even four years ago, even before he was inaugurated, he was already one of the most divisive figures in western politics.

"A week is a long time in politics" a successful political leader once said. But by the same token, four years is practically yesterday - I can scarcely believe that it's been four years since Trump was inaugurated; all the noise of the past four years has filled the space so much that the normal breaks that help us mark the passage of time disappeared. And it will probably be some time before that noise subsides.

Likely one of the people losing their mind over this is the Leader of the CPC - okay, losing his mind may be a stretch but this is just one more stupid thing that adds to the right wing image of his party that he needs to change. Though many here will complain about double standards and compare the failings of those in other parties not being reported, the truth is that perception in politics matters more than reality. Unfortunately for the CPC, they don't do perception well. The ideal is to make perception and reality the same, but that rarely happens.
 
All good points, but my comment was only slightly tongue in cheek, and was based on the likelihood that those who are making the most noise, and are advocating for the most severe punishment, are least likely to have voted for her in the first place. Should the voters of her riding select someone else in the next go round, then so be it. That's how the system works. We must resist all efforts to use the bully pulpit to punish people who don't think like us.
 
The people who put Trump in office and enabled him are voters - a lot of them. They chose Trump in the 2016 primary and two general elections because Democrats and establishment Republicans weren't delivering what was wanted. Many people customarily assumed to be Democrat-affiliated switched in 2020. The Democratic plan is to continue moving left; the establishment Republican plan is to try to resume business as usual; the media plan is to revile pretty much anyone to the right of Mitt Romney. I suppose the Republican candidate who taps into the unresolved grievances is most likely to win the nomination in 2024 - peasants outnumber gentry. Disaffection among the mainstream right will continue to sustain extremists.

I would expect overt expressions of extremism to rise or fall as general disaffection rises or falls. Based on what is happening in real time in politics and media, we're going to see the experiment run to test the "increases" relationship. Pride and wrath are running ahead of charity and fortitude.
 
The people who put Trump in office and enabled him are voters - a lot of them. They chose Trump in the 2016 primary and two general elections because Democrats and establishment Republicans weren't delivering what was wanted. Many people customarily assumed to be Democrat-affiliated switched in 2020. The Democratic plan is to continue moving left; the establishment Republican plan is to try to resume business as usual; the media plan is to revile pretty much anyone to the right of Mitt Romney. I suppose the Republican candidate who taps into the unresolved grievances is most likely to win the nomination in 2024 - peasants outnumber gentry. Disaffection among the mainstream right will continue to sustain extremists.

I would expect overt expressions of extremism to rise or fall as general disaffection rises or falls. Based on what is happening in real time in politics and media, we're going to see the experiment run to test the "increases" relationship. Pride and wrath are running ahead of charity and fortitude.

what are those unresolved grievances though? Judging by all the confederate flags it seems some of those are outstanding from the civil war.
 
I was debating which room to post this, so my apologies if this not the correct place.
While TV surfing, I came across something by CNN and the possible upcoming impeachment. The President will receive a yearly pension of $200,000 plus 1 million for travel, plus money to upkeep a office and staff. Ok, that’s fine I guess for any president. Now here comes the thing, no matter where we stand on political views, it has been proven that there has been some criminal activity that took place, yet he will receive the pension unless he becomes impeached within the next 9 days ( probably not going to happen).
Yet, many of us has stepped into a war zone and are still fighting to get the coverage or a pension/ income beyond the two years given. What is wrong with this picture? I get it’s two different countries but it’s the same principle, one group of people hurting a country gets it all, another group gave sacrifices to help another.
 
They were using pepper spray, I saw several large bursts of it.

Ever been pepper sprayed? It sucks. A lot. But that’s all. We were trained to be sprayed full on in the face, and fight through it. It debilitates but it doesn’t incapacitate. It’s only a ‘psychological’ stop. Someone who is still motivated to fight or otherwise cause a ruckus can; they’ll just be angrier and in pain and less able to see.
Ooooohhhhh!! Now that I've watched it on a bigger screen, I see it. Ignore my comment.


I have been pepper-sprayed. Twice. Not fun either time. (In a training environment, ofcourse)

But, I was also bear-sprayed once while trying to help a girl who was having her head smashed against the sidewalk. Holy hell... for the first 10 seconds I just thought to myself "You stupid little prick, I'm going to beat you into a mashed mess!" and started to chase him. Partially to hold him there until police arrived, and also to gain control of the subject so he couldn't go on the offensive. (Smaller guy, was a very quick sprinter - ran away.)

After the first 10 seconds, I stopped...realized I was in trouble... and went to a nearby house while waiting for police & EMS.

Let's just say between my face literally feeling like it was on fire, enough mucus coming out of my nose, eyes, and mouth that I literally couldn't breathe, and my eyes barely able to open for more than a second at a time. It absolutely incapacited me, I'll humbly admit. I can't even pretend to be macho enough that it didn't... I was 100% DOWN!

If I had to go hands on with the subject in that state, I'm still confident I'd have won quickly. But it would have depended on me winning that fight very very quickly - anything prolonged, and I'd have been on the losing end.



Was my own stupidity that got me into that mess. I was complacent, and let myself make a very very rookie mistake. Complacency really can be our own worst enemy.

<Sorry for the story/rant>
 
...for 4 years the "other" side has done nothing but degrade the folks, and validity, of this symbol, HARD, .....

... Governance in a democracy is about consent and respect ...
Like those on the side that kept calling - at least kinda hard - for one of the Dem folks to be locked up since 2016? Even after the election was well won?

Or will that be considered just as respectful if it happens again now that the sides are reversed?

Dems shot themselves in the feet/stepped on their unmentionables more than once in the past 4 years, and should have spoken out against the worst excesses of their team a lot harder, but it's hard to agree that only one side was slinging mud and assassination memes.
 
Right wing talk radio company pretty much tells its hosts to knock it off,

 
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