When the Congress critters sheltered in place inside the Captihole Building one Dem asked everybody to put on their masks. Over half the GOPpy guys refused. The Dem lady is now positive.

I'd charge those refusers with assault.

(January 11, 2021 at 3:45 pm)arewethereyet Wrote: ...it's just more visible in the south...at least it was until Trump made it okay to loud and proud about being a White Supremacist.  They whispers became shouts when the megaphone was handed to him.

Dave said it best.  If you've got hate in your heart let it out.

(January 10, 2021 at 12:49 pm)TaraJo Wrote:

(January 10, 2021 at 12:20 pm)Spongebob Wrote: There's no doubt about this.  I've been getting more concerned about the direction of politics during the last decade and I was convinced the US is on a trajectory to eventual dissolution.  Before the election, I though maybe we had another 25 years or more, but now, after the last 2 months and the insurrection, it looks like any election cycle could be the last our country ever sees.  We are dangerously close to the time of dictators.  I would say the GOP needs to purge itself of this rot and set its members straight, but it's been taken over sort of like the agents in The Matrix.  The GOP is now the party of white supremacy.  Trump was a buffoonish version of Mussolini; the next will be far more dangerous.  Unless something happens soon, I don't believe we have even ten more years left as a 50 United States.  And I have no idea what might change our current path.

This is not unprecedented.  Rome's republic failed under similar strains and circumstances.  A popular figure appears who claims he will solve all our problems and blames them on "those" people over there.  Hitler took full advantage of these same fault lines in Germany.  It sounds almost surreal to say these things but I believe they are for real.  I've watched those videos of the insurrection at the Capitol several times.  A lot of those people may go to jail, but there are millions of them!  I'm going to have to work with a lot of them and I don't know how I'm going to stand it.

I don't think the country is going to dissolve that easy.  We have problems, sure, but once Rupert Murdoch and Charles Koch realize that the foaming at the mouth lunatics they've encouraged are threatening the country that made them rich, they'll suddenly have a financial interest in reigning them in.  Rule number one in modern America: if you want to get something done, get someone rich on your side.  If/when the rich people want to stop the lunatics, they'll be able to do it..... for better or worse.

We may be dealing with domestic terrorism for some time. But I agree. I said it before, our military heads have said they would not take part in overthrowing election results, so they certainly will not participate in a Military coup.

And you said it. Unfortunately money does equal power, and you are going to need those at the top to do the things Mark and Jake and other social media ceos are finally doing. I don't even care if it is merely about them fearing legal action, as long as it shuts that despot wannabe up.

They got fired and replaced with people who absolutely would. That's how the nasty girls ended up delayed and the capital police unprepared and uncommited.

(January 11, 2021 at 4:43 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote:

(January 11, 2021 at 3:45 pm)arewethereyet Wrote: ...it's just more visible in the south...at least it was until Trump made it okay to loud and proud about being a White Supremacist.  They whispers became shouts when the megaphone was handed to him.

Dave said it best.  If you've got hate in your heart let it out.

To the republilcan party, "freedom of speech" means "freedom to be a giant asshole and not face any consequences for it."  

I suppose, in a way, this is kinda a good thing.  They're finally finding out just how socially unacceptable their behaviors, their beliefs and their actions really are.  The cockroaches have come out from under the counters and the cracks they were hiding in, which means we can squash them out in the open.  We have the opportunity to make it completely, abundantly, absolutely clear that no, we do not allow you to be a violent, hate-mongering, idiotic, racist jerk and not face retribution for it.

---

(January 11, 2021 at 4:43 pm)Brian37 Wrote:

(January 10, 2021 at 12:49 pm)TaraJo Wrote: I don't think the country is going to dissolve that easy.  We have problems, sure, but once Rupert Murdoch and Charles Koch realize that the foaming at the mouth lunatics they've encouraged are threatening the country that made them rich, they'll suddenly have a financial interest in reigning them in.  Rule number one in modern America: if you want to get something done, get someone rich on your side.  If/when the rich people want to stop the lunatics, they'll be able to do it..... for better or worse.

We may be dealing with domestic terrorism for some time. But I agree. I said it before, our military heads have said they would not take part in overthrowing election results, so they certainly will not participate in a Military coup.

And you said it. Unfortunately money does equal power, and you are going to need those at the top to do the things Mark and Jake and other social media ceos are finally doing. I don't even care if it is merely about them fearing legal action, as long as it shuts that despot wannabe up.

I don't even think they're doing it because they fear legal action; it's simpler than that.  They fear that letting him and the rest of his mob keep being lunatics will cost them more money than it's worth.  

Like I said, if you want to get something done in modern America, make inaction cost money to billionaires.

If they predicted that the legal action costed them less than the money they'd lose from shutting Trump up, they'd gladly take a stand for "freedom of speech" and take that hit.  Now it's gone beyond that.  Their money is in American dollars, money that becomes worthless if Trumpanzees destroy the government (while I don't think they ever had a chance in hell of succeeding, I'd be willing to bet their actions hurt the value of the dollar).  Advertisers aren't spending money on destabilized regions that have unchecked mobs attack the capitol.  The people who see this kind of lunacy happening on the news are scared and scared people are more likely to try to save money than spending it.  Yes, the billionaire class are ABSOLUTELY scared of what kind of money this will cost them.  I just hope the predicted monetary loses are greater than the tax cuts Trump gave them.  

I also hope they reach the point where they realize the role a lack of education and an abundance of poverty have played in this.  When people are constantly up to their eyeballs in debt, when they're working 80+ hours a week to get by, when they don't have quality healthcare and when their job is cutting all kinds of corners, they get pissed.  Hell, even the Trumpanzees are arguing in favor of workplace rights now that many of them are getting fired for participating in a riot.  Uneducated people don't know how to get change or how to tell when a con man is manipulating them.  And when you get scared, stupid people and you find someone like Trump who's able to find convenient scapegoats..... I'm glad people are standing up to him.  I sincerely hope they keep standing up to him.  Not to go all Godwin here, but not standing up to someone like that is exactly what put Hitler in power.

(January 11, 2021 at 5:57 pm)TaraJo Wrote:

(January 11, 2021 at 4:43 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: Dave said it best.  If you've got hate in your heart let it out.

To the republilcan party, "freedom of speech" means "freedom to be a giant asshole and not face any consequences for it."  

I suppose, in a way, this is kinda a good thing.  They're finally finding out just how socially unacceptable their behaviors, their beliefs and their actions really are.  The cockroaches have come out from under the counters and the cracks they were hiding in, which means we can squash them out in the open.  We have the opportunity to make it completely, abundantly, absolutely clear that no, we do not allow you to be a violent, hate-mongering, idiotic, racist jerk and not face retribution for it.

They already knew it was unacceptable, that's part of their complex and why they love Il Douche.  Stigmatization, denial of pride.

They're not learning anything, we are - and we've made it abundantly clear that we do allow people to be and do all of those things.  We think that it would somehow be a danger to freedom (lol, no less!) if we failed to adequately center white supremacy.

Boru

(January 11, 2021 at 3:47 pm)TaraJo Wrote:

(January 11, 2021 at 1:45 pm)arewethereyet Wrote: First Lady Melania Trump: Our Path Forward | The White House

FLOTUS Barbie of "I really don't care, do you?" fame made a statement.

Whoopdeedamndoo.

She's a victim in this because people are gossiping about her.  BooHoo.

At least she did mention the dead and offered condolences though I don't find that terribly heartwarming.  

Bimbo Barbie wants us to stop the violence...we're saved.  

I don't want to sympathize with her or anything, but I gotta give her credit: she sounded far more diplomatic and more like a statesman than her husband ever has.  The fact that she didn't tell the terrorists "We love you.  You're very special" automatically makes her better than Donnie.

Given what we know of her, it's about 99.999999999% odds she neithr wrote nor looked at that statement.

14th Amendment comes into play?

For the first few days after the insurrection, I was content in the knowledge that it never would have succeeded in doing anything other than causing some property damage. But after reading more reports of how the National Guard was delayed (apparently intentionally) and how limited security was, I think this was far more serious than originally thought. I think we dodged a real bullet here. If not for a small contingent of security who protected the lawmakers, we might be looking at the end of our democracy. Consider what might have happened had just a dozen or so of them been murdered, including Pence. What if Biden and Harris had been murdered? It wouldn't take the total destruction of DC to cement Trump as dictator, all he would need is to kill off just enough of his opponents so that there would be too few of them to do anything about it. With no president-elect and no vice president-elect, Trump would retain power and begin to purge any and all opposition from the Capitol and the states. It's clear that he placed numerous loyal people in key positions of government in the weeks after the election, obviously planning for this event. It might sound a little far fetched, but it's not really. I believe they came much closer than this has been depicted. And yet somehow, he's still walking around a free man, avoiding the consequences of his actions as he always does. The ultimate con man.

Just imagine Fox News reporting that Biden, Harris, Pence, Pelosi and many other Dems were dead by the hands of an angry Antifa mob pretending to be Trump supporters, who the President vows to bring to justice just as soon as he has organized a new national election for President. This will take place in March and it will be the greatest and most secure election in history. Enter the Trump dynasty...