caulfield12

Grassley will be able to stay as long as he wants to. The Toomey, Burr and Ron Johnson seats are more likely.

I would have hated to witness an actual vicious attack.

Isn’t banning him now just going to create or add to the perpetual grievances on the right against media/tech elites like Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg? The whole “cancel culture” that Hawley brought up when his book was dumped by Simon & Schuster? Still hard to imagine that 15-20% of the country will not follow him to OAN...or his own channel, wherever he eventually ends up. This is going to make him more of a martyr, IMO...and somehow I have a feeling Dorsey is not going to give back all the profits he made off of Trump for the last 5 1/2 years. Twitter was definitely trending in the wrong direction as a company, and Trump helped to make it more relevant again. We keep arguing people will get bored of Trump’s act or he will just fade away, but it’s going to be a long and drawn out process. Trump is going to do everything he can to empower and pass the baton on to Don Jr. or Ivanka, at the very least...especially if legal troubles bring him down.

“It’s an inconvenience at this point, is all it is,” he said. “This is not some mass insurrection, coup attempt. They’re not destroying or burning down the fricking Capitol building. This hyperbole and this emotion that the media is spewing now, like this is some kind of end-of-times scenario, is ridiculous.”

Elaine Chao just resigned, so it’s really on with Trump vs. McConnell. GA runoffs were undoubtedly the final straw for that family, as Trump cost her husband his majority leader spot for two years and perhaps longer. Buttigieg now gets to hit the ground running on that long-debated infrastructure stimulus bill. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/07/politics/elaine-chao-cabinet-resignation-trump/index.html

Supposedly, Pence as well as Pelosi were being secured in that area behind where the SS officer fired his gun from...

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/rudy-giuliani-accidentally-leaves-voicemail-042600037.html Full recording of call included...

ACAB=had to look that one up There has to be some degree of nuance, here. Obviously, not all cops are bad/bastards, whatever. That said, if people of all races and creeds witnessed the same exact response to these riots/protests as what we saw in Lafayette Park over the summer, we wouldn't be having such an argument. In that situation, the Secret Service and National Guard were assertive/aggressive, and pretty much instigated all the action, as well as choreographing a series of coordinated tear gas attacks...which were ostensibly to clear a path so Trump could pull his Bible stunt in front of that church, and the good 'ol law and order show of force. Here, you had so many issues with the security lines/defensive perimeter (granted, a much bigger area to provide coverage) that it was almost impossible to stop the protest advance without using deadly force. So when clearly the Lafayette Park situation, where you had protestors surrounded/hemmed in and outnumbered....here you had officers in an impossible tactical situation where they were simply overwhelmed or gave way intentionally. Even the officer with only a baton trying to protect the Senate lobby...you could almost see him thinking that striking one of the first protesters up the stairs would 1) not stop the mob behind him, and 2) likely injure himself in the process/inflame the crowd, and 3) that a delaying/stalling approach while waiting for reinforcements was the wisest course of action. Had he opened fire with a sidearm into the crowd, one can only imagine how much worse things would have gotten. All these things are understandable enough. The problem is that it's almost inconceivable that BLM/Antifa protesters wouldn't have been violently assaulted were the situation reversed. Taking selfies with those guys? Not cracking them over the head with batons and bombarding them with pepper spray? The body count would have been in the high teens or even 100's. Yet these protesters were almost treated with deference and there was even a common bond/camaraderie evident in some of the reactions or interactions. Just watch videos of the Chicago Democratic Convention in 1968 or The Trial of the Chicago Seven. It had nothing like that feel, it was more like unruly college kids who'd somehow burst through security, couldn't believe they'd gotten so far...and tore down the goal posts just for the heck of it (the mob mentality setting in and subsuming individual ethics or morality.)

Marc Short is his name...haven't gotten to the final page of this yet, but FOUR (4) are now dead, not just that lone woman who was critically wounded/shot.

Can the Congressional Medal of Freedom be taken back, lol?

Marco Rubio has to be breathing a sigh of relief he came as close as possible to the getting consumed by the fire but still retains his political viability for 2024 going forward. Cruz and Hawley are DONE. On second thought, with Rubio, he has been so craven politically during the last 6 years that there might be no redemption for him, either. You just get no clear idea what he actually stands for, as he's the GOP counterexample to John Edwards in many ways (minus the marital issues.) The GOP governors and Nikki Haley/Paul Ryan have done the best job staying as far away from the fray as possible.

Can we really give positive credit to Lindsey Graham for making GA SoS Raffenberger so "on guard" (after 13 attempted calls from the WH) that he felt he had no alternative but to record that call? Graham was one of the first, and most outspoken GOP'ers to completely jump onboard with the Trumps when it benefited him politically, but was quick to complain this year when Jamie Harrison was killing him in fundraising and it even looked like losing a SC statewide race to a Democrat was a very distinct possibility.

Trump's immigration policy has been so effective he's cut the "illegals vote" by roughly 75%, from nearly 5 million in 2016 to just 1.2 million in 2020. Amazing. Yeah, that guy deserves to be put out to pasture with Judge Roy Moore.

With Blunt (and Danforth by extension), it has only been the last 2-3 weeks, and in the face of Hawley's assault on democracy. As for Scott, he's been consistently outspoken/forthright on racial issues throughout Trump's tenure, although he hardly is deserving of deification. One name not mentioned in Liz Cheney. And that Rep. Kinzinger, whose name has been in the news nearly every day this last month. Justin Amash from MI. Charlie Dent from PA. If there's any quibble about Romney, and this is almost impossible to prove/quantify, it's that he has so much support in the state of Utah that it would be pretty hard for him to lose...and even then, it wouldn't come at much personal cost at this point in his life, as he's already set for life financially. He is needed by the Senate more than he needs it, in other words. But he's also not jeopardizing his family's future by taking the stance he took against Trump. With all that said, he was the ONLY one, the lone voice is the wilderness or desert, willing to take on Trump that wasn't already out of office or leaving elected office. He has his moral code, which is derived from his religious beliefs, and he is at least consistent...even though I will never applaud a venture capitalist all that much.

National security adviser Robert O'Brien, deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger and deputy chief of staff Chris Liddell were all considering resigning as soon as Wednesday night, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. Pottinger's resignation appeared to be imminent while the others may sleep on the decision. By evening, as sirens wailed on Capitol Hill and Washington entered a 6 p.m. ET curfew, even some of his top allies were critical -- though, after four years of equivocation and appeasement of his violent base, unsurprised -- by the President's response. One top Republican ally called the President's video a "piece of sh*t." In it, Trump sought to empathize with the rioters based on the lies he's spread about a fraudulent election. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/donald-trump-capitol-mob/index.html

Bane Capital. Or Bain Capitol.

Profiles in Courage, lol. Of course, history will remember Romney, Flake, Sasse, Toomey, Thune, Cornyn, Blunt, Scott, Collins and Murkowski and some of the GOP governors more fondly.

Lankford is already backtracking as well... The Kansas City Star writes: "No one other than President Donald Trump himself is more responsible for Wednesday’s coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol than one Joshua David Hawley, the 41-year-old junior senator from Missouri, who put out a fundraising appeal while the siege was underway. This, Sen. Hawley, is what law-breaking and destruction look like. This is what mobs do. This is not a protest, but a riot. One woman was shot and has died, The Washington Post reported, while lawmakers were sheltering in place. No longer can it be asked, as George Will did recently of Hawley, 'Has there ever been such a high ratio of ambition to accomplishment?' Hawley’s actions in the last week had such impact that he deserves an impressive share of the blame for the blood that’s been shed." At the request of the US National Guard, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is deploying 1,000 members of the New York National Guard to Washington, DC, “to aid and facilitate peaceful transfer of power,” Cuomo said in a statement Wednesday. The troops will be deployed for up to two weeks. The decision was made at the request from the US National Guard. Cuomo said the deployment “will not impact our state's ongoing efforts to contain and combat the Covid virus.”

For most of THAT night, Trump and his family believed he'd actually won...until Arizona was called by FOX. UPDATE: the woman shot earlier in the day (circumstances still unclear) is dead and they're back in the Capitol resuming the electoral vote count One MIGHT think Hawley and Cruz would have the sense to shut up at this point. "History will rightly remember today’s violence at the Capitol, incited by a sitting president who has continued to baselessly lie about the outcome of a lawful election, as a moment of great dishonor and shame for our nation. But we’d be kidding ourselves if we treated it as a total surprise," Obama said. Obama added: "I’ve been heartened to see many members of the President’s party speak up forcefully today. Their voices add to the examples of Republican state and local election officials in states like Georgia who’ve refused to be intimidated and have discharged their duties honorably. We need more leaders like these — right now and in the days, weeks, and months ahead as President-Elect Biden works to restore a common purpose to our politics. It’s up to all of us as Americans, regardless of party, to support him in that goal."

Acting Secretary of Defense: D.C. National Guard activated after speaking with VP Pence, Pelosi Jan 6, 2021 Updated 1 hr ago Acting Secretary of Defense, Christopher Miller, shared a statement on the U.S. Department of Defense’s website stating after he spoke with Vice President Pence, Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, Senator Schumer and Representative Hoyer about the situation at the U.S. Capitol, they decided to fully activate the D.C. National Guard. The full statement from the U.S. Department of Defence website: "Chairman Milley (JCS) and I just spoke separately with the Vice President and with Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, Senator Schumer and Representative Hoyer about the situation at the U.S. Capitol. We have fully activated the D.C. National Guard to assist federal and local law enforcement as they work to peacefully address the situation. We are prepared to provide additional support as necessary and appropriate as requested by local authorities. Our people are sworn to defend the constitution and our democratic form of government and they will act accordingly." https://www.khq.com/elections/acting-secretary-of-defense-d-c-national-guard-activated-after-speaking-with-vp-pence-pelosi/article_d0453d0f-9a51-5eca-99a9-f787d33092f6.html

Goodbye, political careers, at least on a national basis! Hawley Cruz Lankford Daines Kennedy Hagerty (TN) Tuberville Loeffler (adios) Blackburn (already attempting a political U-turn) Braun (IN) Lummis (WY) Marshall (KS)

Some foreign governments, including Turkey, also warned citizens to be wary of potential further violence. "We believe that the USA will overcome this domestic political crisis in maturity. We recommend that our citizens in the USA stay away from crowded places and places where shows are held," said the Turkish Foreign Ministry in a statement. You know your country has real problems when Turkey is punking you...and that’s also pretty much the end of any “moral high ground” the political right had in terms of accusations about protesters contributing (supposedly) to Covid-19 super-spreader events.

“They had more security at the Holocaust Museum when we visited a few years so. Literally one guy with a baton? God save the USA.”

Of course, that Antifa “violent protester” would be shot down before he ever got close...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/opinion/trump-republicans-election.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage Never Forget the Names of These Republicans Attempting a Coup This time they’ll fail. But their disloyalty to America is clear. Wonder how much money has been fundraised today on the backs of all this? Surreal. Unreal. Not even sure that words can describe it. Of course, in many ways, none of this is particularly surprising, either. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/opinion/jeff-flake-trump-republicans.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage Opinion Jeff Flake: My Fellow Republicans, Trump Is Destroying Us There is power in standing up to the rank corruptions of a demagogue.