Let’s examine race and policing in Portland & DC » « You know what you did…

A coup is underway: First thoughts

Thought 1:

I’m not saying that I like the use of tear gas, but after being tear gassed with no warning because someone 50 yards away from me threw a firecracker over a fence I literally am confused as to how the masses of people occupying the steps outside were not tear gassed before the could force their way in.

And then they used tear gas inside the rotunda because they wouldn’t use it on people who were charging the Capitol Building but not yet inside… but once the rubicon was crossed, why wasn’t gas used on the people outside the building? Why only inside?

I’m not trying to be selfish or make this all about me, but my perspective, being showered with gas for several weeks, makes me unable to maintain my old rationale.

Now I have to admit that the way Portland protesters were targeted is nothing less than premeditated evil. I always thought it was wrong. I always thought it was fucked up. But the fact that they won’t use the same tactics against actual, violent coup participants tells me just how evil they think it is to use those crowd control weapons, and shows how much malice they had towards Portland protesters given that they were willing to use those same weapons (which now they consider too evil to use) nearly continuously for hours, and repeatedly for weeks.

This is … a shocking admission of how much they hate people on the left and how much they wish to do us harm.

 

Thought 2:

I just found out that about 4 months ago the DOJ advised BLM protesters should be charged with sedition (ETA @1:26pm PST: in certain circumstances – not all BLM protesters). This is an incredibly serious crime. IIRC it can carry a sentence as long as life in prison (I’ll check on that later, it might be only 20 years). People on the left who brought first aid supplies to marches and protests that later had participants engage in fairly minor property destruction were charged with riot, which carries a maximum sentence of 5 years.

All this for BLM protesters and other left-wingers. What will be the response now to these coup participants? They seem not even to be arresting any of them. The executive branch appears to have embraced a double standard so outrageous it constitutes nothing less than a complete embrace of lawlessness.

 

Thought 3: 

I’m sorry, CNN, but calling Trump “the man who is responsible for all of this” is a cop out.

You wouldn’t be able to get elected president as a man who denies reality if CNN and other major networks hadn’t acted as if lies had equal standing with the truth for two or three decades now.

You gave lies equal standing, so we got someone as President who told lies more attractive than the truth. That would NEVER have been possible without your decades of malfeasance.

This mob is the instrument. Trump is the immediate cause. But you, CNN, are for damn sure a major contributing cause. Announcing Trump’s responsibility for “all of this” leaves no room for you to have any responsibility … and if you don’t take some, then we’re just going to get another fucking Trump you self-serving assholes.

 

Thought 4:

SHOCKING. In the middle of this riot the cops are taking selfies with the terrorists. They wan’t us to believe anything other than ACAB and then they do this?

 

Thought 5: 

Biden just called this insurrection. Trump, it is widely being reported, has refused to condemn the rioters & demand they leave. It’s amazing that Biden must publicly call on Trump to simply clear the Capitol of rioters. What is Trump competent to do?

Need a better source on Trump’s refusal to act? I’m not a Haberman fan, but read these two tweets of hers:

 

 

Thought 6: 

1:19 pm Pacific time CNN first uses the word “terrorists” in their reporting. They don’t explicitly call the coup participants terrorists, but they said something like, “You know what we call people who commit violence for political ends? We call them terrorists.” (Again, wording is approximate.) It was the anchor, who (I think) is Anderson Cooper, but I could be wrong about that. They’re not showing the faces of the anchors and I don’t memorize their voices, but Cooper does have a fairly distinctive voice and I have watched him before. I could be confused & conflating my memories of Cooper & someone else, but right now I really think it was Cooper who first used the word.

WHOOPS. They just showed his face, and it’s not Anderson Cooper. It looks like Jake Tapper to me.

 

Thought 7:

Anderson Cooper (really it was Cooper this time!) just called the rioters “treasonous”. 1:32 pm. It’s the first time I’ve heard anyone say as much, although there’s been some other language that has come close earlier. (One commentator suggested that people might maybe possibly be charged with sedition.)

I doubt that what they did could be considered treason (from a legal perspective). But it’s important that descriptors like “seditious” and “treasonous” be used as they apply at least colloquially.

Now CNN is asking, “Where are the arrests?” I’ve been wondering the same thing. 1:35pm. (I don’t recognize the person who is speaking.)

Same person speaking again at 1:42… I’m wondering if this might be Claire McCaskill. Anyway, it’s someone wearing a white jacket over a dark (probably navy blue) shirt who has straight, medium-length hair of a dark blonde/light brown.

Thought 8:

Let’s just quote The Root:

This is straight-up sedition. There are no ways about it. Many on Twitter couldn’t help but note that just this summer Black Lives Matter protesters were tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed so President Trump could take a photo op at a church. It’s just interesting that the same energy wasn’t there for a horde of white folks literally trying to reject democracy.

The Root then embedded some tweets which I will also embed:

There’s a lot more over at The Root. Go read them too!

 

Thought 9: 

The AP site was down temporarily (I assume they were swamped with traffic), but it’s back up & I found the text of the story about charging BLM protesters with sedition. Take a look here. Money quote:

The sedition statute doesn’t require proof of a plot to overthrow the government, the memo read. It instead could be used when a defendant tries to oppose the government’s authority by force.

Attorney General William Barr has been pushing his U.S. attorneys to bring federal charges in protest-related violence whenever they can, keeping a grip on cases even if a defendant could be tried instead in state court. Federal convictions often result in longer prison sentences; sedition alone could lead to up to 20 years behind bars.

The memo cited as a hypothetical example “a group has conspired to take a federal courthouse or other federal property by force,” but the real thing took place in Portland, Oregon, during clashes that erupted night after night between law enforcement and demonstrators.

It clearly applies to todays actions.

 

Thought 10: 

 

Thought 11:

Trump’s message about all this is deranged. There’s no other word for it. He showers these seditionists with love:

 

Thought 12:

Evan at Wonkette is reporting this:

5:11: Lots of tear gas and flash grenades at the Capitol right now.

You’ll know they’re serious when they start throwing Buy-One-Get-One-Free coupons to the Cracker Barrel.

I replied:

Oh, Evan. You sweet summer child. This is nothing. Portland was worse in single waves. Then, of course, the waves were repeated.

They are going to mount a vicious assault – not because they wanted to, but because they’ve been embarrassed on national television. As soon as the 6pm curfew hits, they’re going to go in with weapons blazing & then you’ll see something. Not before. The smoke grenades that have hit so far were all in one area that was easy to flee from. Having the fire tear gas into the line of retreat & then march forward fully masked with their sticks and pepper spray and MORE gas is just going to be the opening gambit come 6pm.

It’s already bad. It’s going to get much, much worse.

 

Thought 13:

From a couple hours ago, probably between noon & 12:30pm PST:

As you can see, the rioters are deliberately attacking cops.

 

Thought 14:

 

Let’s examine race and policing in Portland & DC » « You know what you did…

Comments

  1. says

    And people (elswhere, not on FtB) said it was hyperbole when I said cops would participate in overthrowing the government.

    The question now is, will this end like Red Square or Tianenmen Square?

  2. Who Cares says

    Ah but those people teargassing you couldn’t be sure you weren’t one of the enemy.
    The congress and senate critters are not only not the enemy but ultimately the people paying the ones throwing the teargas. So it is better to be careful where to toss the stuff unless you want to risk losing that paycheck.
     
     
     
    Did I just really write that? I’m going to see if the bottle of brainbleech is not over date.

  3. Who Cares says

    Seems even NewsMax is calling it an insurrection. They are however blaming it on Antifa terrorists riling up the ‘peaceful’ protesters.

    Also others have noticed the disparity in how the protesters are treated. But since this is Washington the comparison is with how Lafayette Square was fumigated to get rid of the BLM protesters instead of with what happened in Portland.

  5. Tethys says

    Congress just got physically attacked by armed magas, put in lockdown and evacuated. I hope there are no injuries, and congress peed their collective pants enough to, at the very least, have Twitter temporarily suspend their maga leaders ability to foment sedition.
    There is nothing like experiencing personal danger to clarify priorities, and unify those endangered.

  7. says

    The capitol police did not tear gas the rebels because they did not bring gas masks, themselves. They pepper sprayed rebels and the rebels sprayed back and the cops retreated.

    And the national guard was probably wondering how many of the rebels would stop what they were doing and report for duty.

    The FBI HRT guys are apparently out there, and they are serious. Seeing pictures of rebels facedown getting handcuffed is heartening.

  8. says

    will this end like Red Square or Tianenmen Square?

    Nope. The rebels are white. We only shoot white people if they are college students or union members in this country.

  9. says

    Talleyrand once said “never interrupt your enemy while they are making a mistake.” They should keep photographing these magaidiots stomping around in the capitol; they’re shitting the hot tub bigly and they’re only a danger to themselves.

  10. Tethys says

    Even the eastern Iowa gazette is calling it sedition while fox quotes a clearly pissed off Pence. “This assault on our Capitol will not stand!” The national guard have been called out, along with the FBI.

    Rep. Ilyan Omar is drawing up more articles of impeachment as I write.

    “We can’t allow him to remain in office, it’s a matter of preserving our Republic and we need to fulfill our oath,” the progressive lawmaker tweeted.

    It does seem like a good idea to remove his powers of office immediately. Maybe the senate will now concur?

  13. Tethys says

    Well flabber my gast, Twitter has locked the traitors account. It’s too bad they waited until the horses were gone to lock the barn door, but it does send a message to the ravening mob.

    The woman who was shot by police has died.

  14. says

    You know, whenever cops are criticized, there’s always that smug guy, saying: “But I bet you’re happy that they show up when you need them, huh?”
    Well, where the fuck are they? They were needed here and they were asleep at the switch.

  15. Pierce R. Butler says

    Marcus Ranum @ 7-9: … rebels …

    I had planned on making a comment about how people are tiptoeing around that word with synonyms like “insurrectionist”.

    Your appellation is utterly correct, but I worry that, should any of them chance to read it, it will induce bodily spasms of joy.

    AP’s 1/6 photo gallery (as of earlier tonight; the item remains on their front page but the link is kaput) showed only one Confederate battle flag, iirc, but I have no doubt many such were waving in the rioters’ little minds. (Curiously, they showed several pictures captioned something like “protesters attempt to break through barricades”, and several of them inside the Capitol, but none depicting the actual breakthroughs.)

  16. Pierce R. Butler says

    Marcus Ranum @ # 9: Talleyrand once said “never interrupt your enemy while they are making a mistake.”

    Almost everybody attributes that to N. Bonaparte, so I tried to look it up.

    Closest I could find was on a site called Quote Investigator, which provides multiple variants, several attributed to the lamented Emperor, but apparently citing only English-language sources from decades after Waterloo. This is a job for a Francophone!

  18. Pierce R. Butler says

    Marcus Ranum @ # 17 – Alors, votre nouvelle mission – découvrez qui a vraiment dit, “N’interrompez jamais votre ennemi pendant qu’il fait une erreur.”

    Ou quelquechose comme ça.

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