US Politics

[bustamente]

That's a lot of hugs and kisses going on in the first video shown at the 1/6 committee hearing

[Tracker]

40 minutes ago, bustamente said:

That's a lot of hugs and kisses going on in the first video shown at the 1/6 committee hearing

Which parts of anatomies are being kissed?

 

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

Solid work by Aaron Rupar. Here is a video thread of the 6/1 hearing:

Edited July 27, 2021 by wanna-b-fanboy

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

It's surreal... fox isn't even touching the 6/1 hearing at all... like, there is absolutely no mention...

[FrostyWinnipeg]

 

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

13 minutes ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

 

That trump death cult needs to be dissolved... 

[Mark F]

GOP,  not just Trump, have shown ...... There is no downside of any kind to telling the most absurd lies.

 

in fact it seems you must be a complete liar to make your way in the world of the right wing. 

being able to lie without any kind of qualm, is the essential job requirement  for them.oo

 

seems to apply around the world.  it  resembles Stalinism, cult of Mao, North Korea;

the  right has gone so far right, they now are close to the extreme left.

Edited July 27, 2021 by Mark F

[Fred C Dobbs]

That didn't last long:

Quote

http

s://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1420070917154164742?s=20

 

[bustamente]

1 hour ago, Fred C Dobbs said:

That didn't last long:

 

 

.............and the rats flee 

 

[Tracker]

7 Key Takeaways From The First Day Of Jan. 6 Commission Testimony

Tuesday marked the first meeting of the House select committee charged with investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, with hours of emotional testimony about the mob of angry Donald Trump supporters who stormed the building and terrorized its occupants. 

Four law enforcement officers delivered prepared remarks before the panel and answered questions: U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, and Metropolitan Police officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges.

Each was on the front lines of the attack and spoke of injuries they sustained both mentally and physically. Each also showed varying degrees of emotion on the stand ― whether they were clearly holding back tears or reaching for a tissue. 

Here are seven key takeaways from the hearing.
Dunn described being called a ‘n****r’ by a crowd of rioters. He wasn’t alone in experiencing racist abuse.  As more and more Trump supporters streamed through the building, Dunn, who is Black, recalled telling them they should turn around. 

“In response, they yelled, ‘No, man, this is our house. President Trump invited us here. We’re here to stop the steal. Joe Biden is not the president. Nobody voted for Joe Biden,’” Dunn said.

He continued: “I do my best to keep politics out of my job, but in this circumstance, I responded, ‘Well, I voted for Joe Biden, does my vote not count? Am I nobody?’ That prompted a torrent of racial epithets. One woman in a pink MAGA shirt yelled, ‘You hear that, guys? This n****r voted for Joe Biden.’ Then the crowd, perhaps around 20 people, joined in screaming, ‘Boo! ******* n****r!’” 

“No one had ever, ever called me a n****r while wearing the uniform of a Capitol police officer,” Dunn testified. 

In Dunn’s telling, another Black officer he served with ― who was in his 40s ― had never been called that word to his face at any point in his life until the afternoon of Jan. 6. After heavily armed law enforcement arrived at the scene and cleared the building of rioters, Dunn said he sat and spoke with some other officers of color. He broke down.

Officers suspected that some of the Trump supporters were armed with guns. 
“We scanned the crowd, but these people, they know how to conceal their weapons,” Hodges said. “If it’s in a backpack, there’s not much you can do.” Dunn also testified that “any reasonable police officer” would assume some of the rioters had guns based on the imprint beneath the clothing at their hips.

The officers had been prepared for peaceful demonstrations outside the Capitol, where members of Congress and Vice President Mike Pence were formally certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. 

But Dunn described a screenshot he received in a text from a friend the morning of Jan. 6 that detailed the Trump supporters’ violent plans for the day. The screenshot read, “among other things, that ‘Trump has given us marching orders,’ and to ‘keep your guns hidden,’” Dunn said. It also “indicated there would be ‘time to arm up.’”

Several of the officers testified that they believed they might die.  One man attempted to gouge out Hodges’ right eye, but the officer managed to extract himself from the man’s grip before any “permanent damage” was done, he said. Some weren’t as lucky: At least one officer lost an eye in the riot. 

As they battered law enforcement, hordes of Trump supporters accused the officers of being traitors to their country. Hodges referred to them as “the terrorists” throughout his congressional testimony. Asked why he used that term while some Republicans had called the rioters mere “tourists,” Hodges quipped: “Well, if that’s what American tourists are like, I can see why foreign countries don’t like American tourists.”

He feared that he would, “at worst, be dragged down by the crowd and lynched” that afternoon. Fanone said he believed there was “a very good chance I would be torn apart or shot with my own weapon” during the melee. 

Members of the crowd accused Gonell of choosing his “paycheck” over loyalty to the United States ― a country the Dominican-born officer had grown up revering. 

“To be honest,” he said, “I did not recognize my fellow citizens who stormed the Capitol on January 6 or the United States that they claimed to represent.”

Responding to Trump’s claim that the rioters were “hugging and kissing” the law enforcement officers at the scene, Gonell snapped: “I’m still recovering from those ‘hugs and kisses’ that day.”
Dunn led a moment of silence at the hearing at the start of his remarks. Sicknick died of what a medical examiner called natural causes after the riot, where he was sprayed with chemical irritants. He later collapsed.

U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement that the medical examiner’s ruling “does not change the fact Officer Sicknick died in the line of duty, courageously defending Congress and the Capitol.” 

The events have taken an immense mental health toll on sworn officers in the nation’s capital.  Sicknick was one of five people to die either during the riot or in its immediate aftermath. Two police officers who were at the Capitol that day died of suicide afterward.

Others have chosen simply to leave: Gonell testified that “many” of his colleagues in uniform “have quietly resigned” from the force in the last six months. Dunn encouraged his colleagues in his prepared statement not to be ashamed of seeking professional mental health care, as he has. 

Gonell called out the discrepancy between Jan. 6 and the law enforcement response to racial justice protests.
During the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, Gonell said, he and his colleagues had “all the support we needed and more.” Yet only a smattering of officers were assigned to guard the Capitol on Jan. 6. They were left fighting for their lives for hours as higher authorities dragged their feet on deploying backup. 

“Why the different response?” Gonell asked. 

Fanone let his anger show, hitting the table and calling right-wing lawmakers’ actions ‘disgraceful.’  As shown in clips from his body-worn camera and other video footage, Fanone was dragged into the crowd at one point in the rioting, where he was beaten and electrocuted. Following the attack, a doctor told him at the hospital that he had survived a heart attack. Later, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. But the ordeal was made all the more difficult, he said, when some politicians and right-wing pundits decided to downplay the damage of Jan. 6. 

“I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them, and the people in this room. But too many are now telling me that hell doesn’t exist, or that hell wasn’t actually that bad,” Fanone said. 

“The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful!” he said, ending on a shout as he slammed his hand down on the table. 

“My law enforcement career prepared me to cope with some of the aspects of this experience,” he said. “Being an officer you know your life is at risk whenever you walk out the door, even if you don’t expect other law-abiding citizens to take up arms against you. But nothing — truly nothing — has prepared me to address those elected members of our government who continue to deny the events of that day, and in doing so, betray their oath of office.” 

7 Key Takeaways From The First Day Of Jan. 6 Commission Testimony | HuffPost

[Mark F]

2 hours ago, Tracker said:

Fanone let his anger show, hitting the table and calling right-wing lawmakers’ actions ‘disgraceful.’ 

his testimony is moving.

 

"

[Tracker]

Trump's lackeys are falling all over themselves trying to deflect the damning testimony by simultaneously blaming Pelosi and minimizing the horror of the insurrection.  They are in near panic because the police testimony is very personal and very credible, so it is difficult to discredit. 

[the watcher]

17 hours ago, bustamente said:

.............and the rats flee 

 

As much as the GOP deserve this treatment I find it disturbing.  The GOP had degenerated to a fear mongering, anti democratic, conspiracy supporting mess. But in  these videos I see those that oppose that lowering themselves to the same level. It heightens anger and hate and promotes more backlash .There has to be a better way.

[Tracker]

Cop Shares Voicemail Threat He Received During Testimony About U.S. Capitol Riot. “This is what happens to people who tell the truth in Trump’s America,” said officer Michael Fanone.

A Washington, D.C., police officer who was beaten and shocked during the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6 shared a voicemail he received from a Donald Trump supporter on Tuesday.

In an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon, officer Michael Fanone played a message that he said was left on his phone while he was testifying on Capitol Hill earlier in the day about what he experienced during the insurrection. 

“You want an Emmy? And Oscar? What are you trying to go for here?” the male caller asked. “You’re so full of ****,” he added, before using a homophobic slur and several profanities.

Listen to the full message below:

DC Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone joins @donlemon in the studio tonight after his testimony to the Select Committee investigating January 6th.

Hear the shocking voicemail he received during his testimony – and a warning – the language is graphic. Listen: pic.twitter.com/U9AqFamzzr

— Don Lemon Tonight (@DonLemonTonight) July 28, 2021
Fanone said his immediate reaction to the voicemail was: “This is what happens to people who tell the truth in Trump’s America.”

Cop Shares Voicemail Threat He Received During Testimony About U.S. Capitol Riot | HuffPost

[Tracker]

Mike Lindell vows that Biden and Harris will resign after seeing his "evidence" on Aug. 13. President and veep to quit in shame after facing "absolute proof" of election fraud, says pillow salesman

Conspiracy theorist and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has promised that following his bigger-than-Elvis "cyber symposium" in mid-August, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will resign, blown away by his thus-far-nonexistent "evidence" that China rigged the entire 2020 presidential election.

Lindell's remarks came Wednesday morning on Steve Bannon's "War Room: Pandemic" podcast. "It gives me hope that even your Democrats, they're seeing now first-hand what government can do and how bad socialism and communism can be," he said. 

"When we get through this, and the Supreme Court pulls down this election — like I've been telling everybody — when they do this, it's going to be a great uniting, and that gives me hope," Lindell continued.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Next, the man who has brought restful sleep to millions turned to the great unresolved question, which he defined this way: "How are the pathways of Donald Trump coming back?" Lindell's first answer is that "once we have the symposium, by the night of the 12th or the morning of the 13th, if everyone has seen it, including the administration that's in there now that didn't win — maybe, you know, Biden and Harris would say, 'Hey, we're here to protect the country and resign!'"

Mike Lindell vows that Biden and Harris will resign after seeing his "evidence" on Aug. 13 | Salon.com

(Probably should have posted this in the humour section)

[Mark F]

18 hours ago, Tracker said:

blaming Pelosi a

yeah, Pelosi, the person those very fine loving people wanted to hang. one of the people they were actually "hunting" for.

puke.

It is now time to drag Trump down to the hearing, and play the videos of the violence, his violence, to his face.

thankful that he is such a dolt, or this would have worked.

Edited July 28, 2021 by Mark F

[rebusrankin]

So according to the MyPIllowGuy, he has evidence that will cause Biden and Harris to step down when they realized they didn't win. Does he get that if Biden/Harris step down, the speaker of the house, Pelosi becomes President, not Trump?

[Mark F]

mike is nuts

mike says biden will

"quit in shame"

😂

 

 

Edited July 28, 2021 by Mark F

[blue_gold_84]

5 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

So according to the MyPIllowGuy, he has evidence that will cause Biden and Harris to step down when they realized they didn't win. Does he get that if Biden/Harris step down, the speaker of the house, Pelosi becomes President, not Trump?

Mike Lindell, to be put it nicely, is troglodytic fucktard.

[Tracker]

As someone put it, "The problem is that intelligent people have doubts but idiots have iron-clad certainty".

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

Facebook just murdered irony. 

 

[bustamente]

1 hour ago, blue_gold_84 said:

Mike Lindell, to be put it nicely, is troglodytic fucktard.

How has this guy has not be fitted with a nice tailored white jacket is beyond  me

[Tracker]

1 hour ago, wanna-b-fanboy said:

Facebook just murdered irony. 

 

As has Google.

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

Oof, so thirsty for those crazies' votes.

 

 

Edited July 29, 2021 by wanna-b-fanboy

[Mark F]

Biden and friends are happy cause they got a bipartisan agreement.

on climate, it isnt ten percent of whats needed, but who cares, as long as there is bipartisanness. so much love with his good republican friends, cause thats what matters.

shocking devlelopement, turns out Biden gets a lot of donations from oil.
 

but no worries, the rest will get done "later" 😂

lets see if he has the Democratic votes to get this piece of used toilet paper passed.

but mainstream democrats style is to kiss republican asses, and twist progressive

democrat 's arms.

 

same old shat while the world burns and floods.

Edited July 29, 2021 by Mark F