• ssu
    8.5k
    Lol. That's the problem with you Americans. Always taking the credit for everything! :wink:

    Believe me, other people besides you can also fuck up things too in a spectacular fashion. Many times even without you.
  • 180 Proof
    15.3k
    Truer words have rarely been (spoken). :up:
  • Michael
    15.5k
    Trump’s White House Passed Around a PowerPoint on How to End American Democracy

    The PowerPoint presentation, which spanned 38 pages and was titled “Election fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 JAN,” was part of an email sent on Jan. 5, the day before the attack on the Capitol. The email pertained to a briefing that was to be provided “on the hill.” Hugo Lowell of The Guardian tweeted slides from the presentation on Thursday detailing a conspiracy theory-laden plan for Vice President Pence to install Republican electors in states “where fraud occurred,” and for Trump to declare a national emergency and for all electronic voting to be rendered invalid, citing foreign “control” of electronic voting systems.

    In the 13 months since the election, no evidence has emerged that foreign entities influenced the election, or that any significant fraud occurred.
  • Agent Smith
    9.5k
    People in America are fed up with something. Democracy? It does get a bit tedious after some time.
  • Wayfarer
    22.4k
    At last the obvious was stated:

    Refusing to believe in the results of a free and fair election have to be disqualifying for any party leader. It's non-negotiable. If we can't agree that the election was fair -- even if our preferred candidate lost -- then we have sacrificed the thing that makes America great. That Hewitt -- and his fellow conservatives who continue to bend over backward to placate Trump -- can't (or won't) see that suggests just how lost the conservative movement is at the moment. — CNN

    It’s unbelievable that Trump could even be considered a candidate unless he admits Biden won - which of course he'll never do. I don’t understand why this is not being said more often.
  • Mikie
    6.7k


    I've been very surprised by the Atlantic the last couple of years. They seem to be one of the few major organizations running the relevant stories.
  • Wayfarer
    22.4k
    Well, as I mentioned, I'm subscribing to it - one of about three news & current affairs subscriptions I pay for. I got interested when there was a story in early 2019 about Laurene Powell Jobs taking a major stake but renewed again since. They have some excellent writers and in-depth articles (although they don't have Jonathan Chait).
  • Michael
    15.5k
    Meadows texts show Hannity, Don Jr. wanted Trump to stop Jan. 6 riot

    As rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, several leading Fox News pundits and Donald Trump’s eldest son all voiced desperate concerns that the former president was doing nothing to quell the violence and protect those in the building, according to damning text messages unveiled Monday night by the select committee investigating the attack.

    The stunning messages, submitted to the panel by Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, revealed that Sean Hannity, Brian Kilmeade and Laura Ingraham — all superstar Fox personalities with enormous conservative followings — and Donald Trump, Jr. were all pressing Meadows to convince the president to intervene during the early hours of the siege.

    “He's got to condemn this shit ASAP,” Donald Trump Jr. texted Meadows as the attack was underway.

    “I'm pushing it hard. I agree,” Meadows replied.

    But when the president still did not act, his eldest son reached out again to Trump’s chief of staff, according to Jan. 6 Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who read the series of texts during a hearing Monday night.

    “We need an Oval Office address. He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand,” Trump Jr. texted.

    Around the same time, a trio of Fox News hosts were also bombarding Meadows with text messages, trying to get Trump to call off the attack.

    “Mark, president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy,” Ingraham texted.

    “Please get him on TV. Destroying everything you have accomplished,” added Kilmeade.

    “Can he make a statement? Ask people to leave the Capitol,” texted Hannity.

    Meadows also received dozens of texts from GOP lawmakers, staffers and members of the press trapped inside the Capitol during the assault, Cheney said.

    “We are under siege here at the Capitol,” read one text. “They have breached the Capitol,” read another.

    A third person texted: “Mark, protesters are literally storming the Capitol. Breaking windows on doors, rushing in. Is Trump going to say something?”

    A fourth person told Meadows: “There's an armed standoff at the House chamber door.”

    A fifth person inside the Capitol wrote: “We are all helpless.”

    Across the administration, Trump officials also pleaded for Meadows to convince Trump to intervene. Messages read: “Someone is going to get killed” and “POTUS needs to calm this shit down.”
  • Wayfarer
    22.4k
    All forgotten. The lie that is being spouted by Tucker Carlson is that the riot was instigated by 'liberals' to 'make Trump look bad'. So once again, Trump is the victim, first of poll fraud, then of a riot that they're trying to pin on him.
  • NOS4A2
    9.2k
    Those texts really throw the insurrection theory out the window. It’s kind of weird they’re making a big deal of it.
  • tim wood
    9.3k
    Those texts really throw the insurrection theory out the window.NOS4A2
    Please make clear how that works. That they may have blanched at the whirlwind is in no way proof they did not sow it.
  • NOS4A2
    9.2k


    I don't see anyone in these texts desiring the events that unfolded that day. It appears no one desired it, and in fact actively worked to stop it. It's no strange wonder that the president called in the national guard, mobilized federal law enforcement, and worked swiftly to end it. Far from "attacking our democracy", they protected it.
  • tim wood
    9.3k
    Do you really believe that? "Worked swiftly"? Protecting democracy? You move from absurdity to insult.
  • NOS4A2
    9.2k


    Is that the extent of your argument, Tim? blind and baffled rage?
  • tim wood
    9.3k
    Is that the extent of your argument, Tim? blind and baffled rage?NOS4A2

    You're right. Trump is the victim, and the rioters victims all. BLM arranged it all, the downfall of Democracy and the GOP, and the destruction of the integrity of whatever is good about the American form of government, getting a few people killed in the process. Is that your position? After all, according to you, Trump "worked swiftly," calling out and mobilizing to end it.

    And no facts whatsoever support your version of events, and all facts contradict your version of events. But as ever, you appear not to be troubled by that.
  • NOS4A2
    9.2k


    The irresponsible fear of President Trump using the military to "steal the election" was regnant in the press leading up to Jan. 6th, so much so that acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller testified that the hysterics lead him to refuse to send National Guard troops to the capitol building (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lht8T3VDUPE). This same hysteria differed little from the QAnon conspiracy theories, and probably fuelled it, even though Trump declared such reporting as "fake news".

    Ex-head of Capitol Police Steven Sund asked for national guard help from security officials in both the house and senate, but was refused due to "optics", just he was when he had a joint call with the Pentagon. It wasn't until around 3pm that Defense Secretary Christopher Miller finally deployed the National Guard, who finally arrived after 5pm.

    Within that time Trump made a series of tweets and videos asking the rioters for peace, to stop the violence, to respect law and order, and to go home. The press secretary also said the National Guard and federal law enforcement were deployed at Trump's request. Out of all the powers involved—the mayor of DC, house and senate security officials, the pentagon—Trump was the only one to mobilize forces.

    Further investigation reveals FBI finds scant evidence U.S. Capitol attack was coordinated, so any notion of coup or insurrection are derived from the same hysteria that hindered the military, security officials and law enforcement in the first place.

    So what is your version of events?
  • Wayfarer
    22.4k
    you have to learn not to feed the troll.
  • Baden
    16.3k


    But after extensive journalistic investigation and analysis, NOS4A2 has singlehandedly demolished the theory that Sean Hannity and Brian Kilmeade were conspiring to violently overthrow the US government and install themselves as Trump's dictator princes. What now have we left??
  • Wayfarer
    22.4k
    1020.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=80564801462b255600a0e7bcf8fe1719
    55 Savushkina Street, St Petersburg, said to be the headquarters of Russia’s ‘troll army’.
  • NOS4A2
    9.2k
    Yikes, people are getting angry their conspiracy theories are being criticized. They await further orders from Liz Cheney, Bill Kristol, and Chris Cuomo.
  • Baden
    16.3k


    Love Billy Kristol. "You look... mahvelous!" Haha! :heart:
  • Wayfarer
    22.4k
    Liz CheneyNOS4A2

    ….is doing the Republicans an historic service.
  • NOS4A2
    9.2k


    ...by participating in a show trial with a kangaroo court. It's the kind of "investigation" that has its own twitter account and youtube channel, and the members are all chosen by Nancy Pelosi. Now insurrection conspiracy theorists get to watch her try to embarrass her critics by releasing their texts to the public, all on their favorite social media platforms. Meanwhile, real investigations have turned up nothing.

    No, Chaney is proving to be nothing more than an arrogant megalomaniacal neocon like her father.
  • Olivier5
    6.2k
    TRUMP’S NEXT COUP HAS ALREADY BEGUN

    January 6 was practice. Donald Trump’s GOP is much better positioned to subvert the next election.

    By Barton Gellman
    DECEMBER 6, 2021

    .........

    An unpunished plot is practice for the next.

    Donald trump came closer than anyone thought he could to toppling a free election a year ago. He is preparing in plain view to do it again, and his position is growing stronger. Republican acolytes have identified the weak points in our electoral apparatus and are methodically exploiting them. They have set loose and now are driven by the animus of tens of millions of aggrieved Trump supporters who are prone to conspiracy thinking, embrace violence, and reject democratic defeat. Those supporters, Robert Pape’s “committed insurrectionists,” are armed and single-minded and will know what to do the next time Trump calls upon them to act.

    Democracy will be on trial in 2024. .........

    https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/january-6-insurrection-trump-coup-2024-election/620843/
  • praxis
    6.5k
    The law and order president is sued by police officers. Hmm, maybe, just maybe, Trump ain’t as law love’n as advertised? :chin:

    https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/04/politics/trump-lawsuits-metro-capitol-police/index.html
  • Deletedmemberzc
    2.5k
    worked swiftly to end itNOS4A2

    That's silly.
  • Michael
    15.5k
    Rep. Liz Cheney says Trump sat in the White House dining room and watched the Capitol riot unfold on TV instead of taking immediate action to stop the violence

    The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot has "firsthand testimony" that former President Donald Trump watched the violence unfold on television instead of taking immediate action to stop the attack, Rep. Liz Cheney said on Sunday.

    "We are learning much more about what former President Trump was doing while the violent assault was underway. The committee has firsthand testimony now that he was sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office watching the attack on television as the assault on the Capitol occurred," Cheney, vice chair of the panel, told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos.

    The Wyoming Republican called Trump's conduct that day "a dereliction of duty."

    "We know, as you know well, that the briefing room at the White House is just a mere few steps from the Oval Office. The president could have at any moment walked those very few steps into the briefing room, gone on live television, and told his supporters who were assaulting the Capitol to stop. He could have told them to stand down. He could have told them to go home, and he failed to do so," she said.

    The January 6 committee also has firsthand testimony that members of Trump's staff, including his daughter and then-White House senior advisor, Ivanka Trump, "went in at least twice to ask him to please stop this violence," Cheney said.

    Prior to the investigation's findings, several news reports last year highlighted that Trump watched the riot on television and did not take steps to intervene.

    Just five days after the riot, The Washington Post reported that Trump was glued to the TV screen as members of Congress locked down in the Capitol sought his help.

    Post reporter Carol Leonnig, co-author of the book "I Alone Can Fix It," described Trump as "almost giddy" while he watched the riot on television. Journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa also reported in their book "Peril" that Trump ignored pleas to step in and instead continued watching the attack on TV.

    Hours afterward, Trump released a video urging his supporters to go home while also telling them: "We love you, you're very special." Twitter and Facebook later suspended Trump from their platforms due to further risks of violence.

    "It took Trump 187 minutes to make a statement calling off the mob that attacked our Capitol," the January 6 committee tweeted on Monday. "The former President's dereliction of duty is cause for serious concern."

    Swiftly indeed...
  • Streetlight
    9.1k
    God the democrats are really going to be faffing about on a topic that affects exactly zero lives on the day-to-day while the Republicans watch on in glee aren't they.

    I mean you have to be a literal moron to think Jan 6 is the election play. Like dropped on your head and then beat by mallets kinda moron.

    Jan 6 is the democrat's Hunter Biden.
  • praxis
    6.5k
    I mean you have to be a literal moron to think Jan 6 is the election play.StreetlightX

    Indeed.

    So no one would care if there wasn’t an upcoming election? The presidential election is three years from now and Americans have a very short attention span, in case you hadn’t noticed.
  • NOS4A2
    9.2k
    Never forget: it was ok to take over Capitol Hill when Hillary-supporters did it.

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