6 Jan 2020 U.S. Events (Split from A Deeply Fractured US)

[KevinB]

So… He still thinks America had a fraudulent election, so his cunning plan is to seek asylum in the bastion of transparent democracy that is Belarus?

One might think he wasn't really of sound mind, or he wasn't really a Trump guy at all - or maybe both -
His story doesn't make any sense.

As political tantrums and self-owns go, this is pretty amazing.

I would say confusing more than anything.
Belarus is effectively a dictatorship run by a Putin wannabe.

Or maybe he wanted a Trump Dictatorship here - and when that didn't come through - he bailed to his next best option.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Everything is far-right these days, it seems. Trump's support is broader than that.

While Trump's support is for sure broader than the few idiots doing idiot things, the idiots in question are still @ that end of the spectrum.

OP edit to clarify that in this case, that's where these particular idiots are situated on the spectrum

 

[QV]

While Trump's support is for sure broader than the few idiots doing idiot things, the idiots are still @ that end of the spectrum.

Are you saying that because you think there are only idiots at one end of the political spectrum? Because if we agree there are idiots at both ends and everywhere, you're point is a moot one.

 

[Brad Sallows]

the idiots are still @ that end of the spectrum.

Rioting idiots exist at all fringes of the political map these days. Some are prosecuted with more vigour than others.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Are you saying that because you think there are only idiots at one end of the political spectrum? Because if we agree there are idiots at both ends and everywhere, you're point is a moot one.

Rioting idiots exist at all fringes of the political map these days. Some are prosecuted with more vigour than others.

More than happy to agree that the fringe idiots exist at both ends of the political spectrum, 100% without question or qualification.

How much attention MSM or social media pay to various idiot ends is another question, but I wouldn't go as far as saying everything is far-right. It's like the social media memes saying "why isn't media paying attention to x?" when even a quick, imperfect Google News search shows a ton o' stuff out there. In some cases, some people complaining may not be seeing/reading the outlets carrying what they say is being "censored".

 

[quadrapiper]

Stylistically, US right-wing types seem to go out of their way to make themselves identifiable as such in a way that the left doesn't seem to embrace, especially not outside of specific events.

If a group tends to extremely visible displays of allegiance, then so will that group's idiots, who, after the way of such people, will be extremely unsubtle about it.

If there's only one peacocking group in play, they're going to be the ones whose idiots everyone else will notice first, because of e.g. the flags and stickers on their enormous trucks.

Add in an anti-intellectual/pro-"people of the land" bent (where other groups might at least occasionally attempt to stifle their idiots, for any number of good reasons) and it's not surprising to see a certain impression form. The real-time and localized conspiracy theory sphere that seems to be mostly (all?) rightish, electing Trump, and an apparent susceptibility to grift in the name of God and the GOP just reinforces it.

 

[Brad Sallows]

The real-time and localized conspiracy theory sphere

The massive delusional Russian Collusion conspiracy theory was smack in the middle of conventional and respectable institutions and people and can't simply be laid aside.

 

[quadrapiper]

The massive delusional Russian Collusion conspiracy theory was smack in the middle of conventional and respectable institutions and people and can't simply be laid aside.

There's plausible concerns about potential conspiracies (Putin and Trump are both shady people in their own spheres, and the latter especially has the ethics of a gutter rat), whether or not they turn out to exist, then there's QAnon delusions. It's the latter I'm referring to.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Rioting idiots exist at all fringes of the political map these days. Some are prosecuted with more vigour than others.

Are you saying that because you think there are only idiots at one end of the political spectrum? Because if we agree there are idiots at both ends and everywhere, you're point is a moot one.

Just circling back & edited my comments to clarify that the idiots brought up upthread were on the right, hence the label.

You're still bang on re: idiots at both ends.

 

[Brad Sallows]

There's plausible concerns about potential conspiracies

I agree, but the notion that there was a conspiracy to be uncovered after the previous Democratic administration had more than half a year controlling the full power of the executive branch and ample motivation to uncover anything which might disqualify or even merely discredit the incoming administration, was as delusional as QAnon. Note that I refer to a conspiracies to collude with Russians, not conspiracies to create the illusion of collusion with Russians.

 

[Remius]

Conspiracies can get you some jail time.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-capitol-riot-sentence-chansley-1.6252266

41 months of prison. Glad to see he is on the right track.

 

[Altair]

Conspiracies can get you some jail time.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-capitol-riot-sentence-chansley-1.6252266

41 months of prison. Glad to see he is on the right track.

Oh, that's particularly sweet. Good for him.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Visual headliner gets 41 months ....

Jacob Anthony Chansley, a.k.a. Jake Angeli, 34, of Phoenix, Arizona, was sentenced today to 41 months in prison for his criminal conduct during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, which disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was in the process of ascertaining and counting the electoral votes related to the presidential election. The defendant – wearing a Viking hat and carrying a six-foot spear – was among the first 30 rioters in the building ...

 

[brihard]

Visual headliner gets 41 months ....

View attachment 67207

Plead guilty to a single non-violent felony count. 41 months.

Those charged with felony counts for acts of violence need to start having a hard think about what sentencing may look like for those who take it through trial and lose.

 

[Altair]

Plead guilty to a single non-violent felony count. 41 months.

Those charged with felony counts for acts of violence need to start having a hard think about what sentencing may look like for those who take it through trial and lose.

Q will save them.

 

[RangerRay]

What I’ve found most interesting is how many times judges have berated prosecutors for not charging them with more serious offences or not requesting higher penalties.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Yeah. A protest lasting a few hours is one thing; lese majeste and insulting the authorities is another.

 

[brihard]

What I’ve found most interesting is how many times judges have berated prosecutors for not charging them with more serious offences or not requesting higher penalties.

Where are you seeing that?

I’ll be curious to see if, as investigations or cooperation agreements continue to bear fruit, there will be charges for the organizational and planning aspects- the criminal conspiracy side of things.

Given the overwhelming amount of work they’ve had to do, prosecutors and investigators have done very well moving this many files forward simultaneously. Most of what we've seen so far are more straightforward prosecutions. I suspect there's more to come.

Yeah. A protest lasting a few hours is one thing; lese majeste and insulting the authorities is another.

Plus breaking and entering and impeding the peaceful transition of power from one democratically elected executive to the next, but sure, let's pretend it's about a guy looking like an idiot and sitting in someone else's chair. Once you smash your way into a place and forcibly occupy it, it's no longer a simple, lawful protest. And of course there are the hundreds of charges for things like assaults, obstructing/impeding police, vandalism, and the various other things for which charges have been laid and convictions are already starting to be entered. But let's not let that get in the way of the apologist narratives.

 

[Brad Sallows]

I'm not apologizing. If the reports of the conditions in which some of these people have been incarcerated are true, it's outrageous. It wasn't an armed uprising. I'm unlikely to be dissuaded from my theory that what is mainly going on here is disproportionate punishment because some people are pissed that a certain kind of authority and the trappings thereof were disrespected. They've lost perspective.

 

[brihard]

Not trappings. Legal mechanisms. Literally the way in which the country legally chooses its next president when the current one’s term has expired. It’s the preservation and perpetuation of that mechanism that keeps the process peaceful, when in so many other places it’s something to go to war over. If defending the peaceful transition of executive power isn’t worth putting the full might of the judicial system in play, I don’t know what is. I would say that regardless of the parties in power.