Coup in Washington DC

Capitol police have been overrun by violent mob. Mob forced entry into US Capitol. Congresspeople evacuated or on lockdown. Reports of gunfire from within Capitol building. Situation developing.

 

How does any of this matter when Kim and Kanye are getting a divorce.

Seriously, it is of major concern.....

 

Crazy stuff. Trump's even lashing out against Mike Pence now. I've come to the belated conclusion that the man patently doesn't give a damn anymore.

 

And so Rome burns.

 

Congratulations America

Just call me mystic Deadpool, history will not look on this favourably, let's hope it's not the start of the end.

 

This has been an unbelievable day. Four dead, ideas that coups can't happen here firmly gone.

If there's one image that stuck with me, it's this, of law enforcement in the House chambers ready to make a final stand at a barricaded door.



https://www.wkrg.com/washington-dc/guns-drawn-inside-us-capitol-building/

Trump doubled down afterward, not distancing himself from the insurgents wearing his clothing, but instead saying in a now-deleted Tweet, "These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away." Remember that when someone claims that these criminals were lone wolves and not agents of Trump's own wishes.

 

One positive to take away is the resilience shown by the US political system to tyranny, even with most of the ruling party selling out the country to ride on the coattails of a madman.

I hope that lessons are learnt from this. Thinking that s system is infallible is dangerous, and if Trump had brains to equal his ambition things could have played out very differently.

I wonder how many of those people fighting police and spraying them with chemical irritants were wearing blue Punisher badges and talking about respect for law enforcement a few weeks ago...

 

Quite amazing that in 4 years Trump managed to get the US - a country once respected for its institutions and constitution - to look like one of those "poo-hole" countries he was disparaging at the start of his term.

 

Saul Loeb Pictures and Photos - Getty Images Here is a stack of photos from the press of the attempted putch.

 

one side wants a dictatorship....the other is happy about a one party system......it is a dark time in the USA IMO...

 

There was never much between the parties in the US.

Maybe eventually we'll see splits between authoritarian/evangelical Republicans, and the same with progressive Democrats who are actually left of centre. That would leave the neoliberal centre-right "moderates" of both parties to join up.

 

The Democratic Party doesn't "want a one-party system." The Democratic Party won control of the Senate through fair, open, and honest democratic elections. It's still a two-party system even when one party has temporary gained control of both houses of Congress and the Oval Office; they're still going to have to run against a serious candidate every couple years, so they're still responsible to their voters. You wanna know how normal it is for one party to temporarily have control of both houses of Congress and the Oval Office? Republicans had control of both houses of Congress and the Oval Office in 2017-2018 as a result of the 2016 election. Did you call it a "one-party system" then?

Not to mention Biden has constantly trumpeted his history of bipartisanship, the literal opposite of a president pedaling false conspiracy theories and encouraging violence against his enemies like we're now witnessing.

Please don't draw moral equivalency to Democratic wins in a fair, open, and honest election to Trump's COUP ATTEMPT the likes of which America has never seen before.

 

Please don't put words in my mouth....or assume a political agenda.....I am neither Republican or Democrat.....Democrats are not the savior of democracy and Republicans aren't the great evil....and both would prefer to be in complete charge....frankly IMO....they are pretty much the same....neither cares about the country or its people beyond their vote. And I agree with George Washington's view that political parties are bad for the country, because people will vote for what's best for the party over what's best for the country...and there is always a big difference between what a politician says and what he/she actually believes (including Biden, who by the way has been caught in more than a few lies...graduating at the top of his class being one of them)..... and for the record, I have worked with and around politicians for over 25 years...this is why I see no difference, nor do I trust any of them.

The old joke is how do you know a politician is lying? His/Her mouth i open. Sadly, I no longer see it as a joke, but a fact

 

"Both sides are the same" is an odd take when one party's leader just launched a violent coup, sending Congress fleeing to a secure location, and the other party never has.

Some of Trump's insurgents carried zip ties. They were intending on taking hostages.



Good Afternoon, News: Trump Inspires Fascist Followers to Stage Capitol Coup

 

It just goes to show how brain washed some of the population are, when confronted with obvious evidence of one side being bad, they start with the "both sides are equally as bad" retoric.



Notice the handgun and zip ties......

 

Perhaps for a time there wasn't, but the republicans have gone far to the right recently, and have no signs of slowing down.

The democrats issues are that they have to avoid what happened to Corbyn in the UK, if you move too far away from the overton window, you don't get elected, but if you don't move far enough away from it, it allows the other party to shift it in their direction, and if you infight too much, then you end up being the sorry state of what labour is at the moment.

 

Spoke like a true partisan political supporter

Sorry to burst your bubble but yep....seen to much in 25 years...up close and personal to think otherwise....and I seriously doubt all Republican leaders launched a coup attempt.....not even sure one did.....do think at least one should come out strongly against it...but at this point has not

As for the news....don't trust them much either....a research paper on terrorism in a college class that I researched and wrote for a certificate in Terrorism (Homeland Security) and seeing news in the US, Beijing and a BBC report on the same exact incident...tells me otherwise. I trust nothing they say until I research it myself and corroborate it and I am not going to waste my time on the "Good Afternoon News"

I will also say, right now, I am in no frame of mind to get into a ridiculous partisan politics argument at this time...I've apologized once this week, I don't have a second one in me....have a nice day...and have fun storming the castle

 

The Republican Party is pretty split between those who think this is okay (Trump) and those who think it's a fundamental threat to democracy (Romney).

Biden and Romney are two sides of the same coin, sure. But there's no Democrat equivalent to Trump, who openly advocated political violence and a coup like we saw yesterday.

Romney's statement:

Spoiler

“We gather today due to a selfish man’s injured pride and the outrage of his supporters whom he has deliberately misinformed for the past two months and stirred to action this very morning. What happened here today was an insurrection, incited by the President of the United States. Those who choose to continue to support his dangerous gambit by objecting to the results of a legitimate, democratic election will forever be seen as being complicit in an unprecedented attack against our democracy. They will be remembered for their role in this shameful episode in American history. That will be their legacy.


“The objectors have claimed they are doing so on behalf of the voters. Have an audit, they say, to satisfy the many people who believe that the election was stolen. Please! No Congressional led audit will ever convince those voters, particularly when the President will continue to claim that the election was stolen. The best way we can show respect for the voters who are upset is by telling them the truth. That is the burden, and the duty, of leadership. The truth is that President-elect Biden won this election. President Trump lost. Scores of courts, the President’s own Attorney General, and state election officials both Republican and Democrat have reached this unequivocal decision.

“We must not be intimidated or prevented from fulfilling our constitutional duty. We must continue with the count of electoral college votes. In light of today’s sad circumstances, I ask my colleagues: Do we weigh our own political fortunes more heavily than we weigh the strength of our Republic, the strength of our democracy, and the cause of freedom? What is the weight of personal acclaim compared to the weight of conscience?

“Leader McConnell said that the vote today is the most important in his 40 plus years of public service. That is not because this vote reveals something about the election; it is because this vote reveals something about ourselves. I urge my colleagues to move forward with completing the electoral count, to refrain from further objections, and to unanimously affirm the legitimacy of the presidential election.”