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Dangerous myths – politicalbetting.com
Dangerous myths – politicalbetting.com
What happened today was down to him – a President who has ignored his oath of office, who has for months deliberately cast doubt on the democratic process and trust in it, who has undermined its processes, who has spread lies about the result, who has abused the legal process to try and support his lies, who has deliberately woven a myth about his election victory being stolen from him and who has urged his supporters to fight. And now that myth has its own martyr with the shooting dead of one of the female protestors. She may have made the choice to go to the Capitol. But it is the President who should be feeling shame tonight at what his words have led to.*
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The old saw has rarely seemed more apt: that America is the only great power to have gone from rise to decline without an intervening period of civilization...
Only I think maybe it's a bit understated.
https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1347028811133677569?s=20
https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1347033388465741824?s=20
The US system has lost credibility with gerry mandered constituencies, unreliable election procedures geriatric politicians. It needs a complete cross party overhaul to restore faith in the system.
Republicans: 27% threat / 68% not a threat
That is absolutely shocking.
One thing we repeatedly find here is as soon as any protest turns violent, the British public aren't onboard. BLM and the anti-statue toppling ones lost critical mass real fast after they turned violent. The student fees ones, they lost public support as soon as they started to smash up London on a couple of Wednesday afternoons.
The Republican Party has been shameful. They need a long, hard think in opposition and to do whatever they can to expunge the worst parts of Trump's legacy.
The Democrats need to lead by drawing inspiration from the foundational myths of the USA, and build on those, and rein in their loony-wing who are more interested in attacking them.
If we can get past that, we hopefully have the hope of a healthy democracy once more.
If he does go early, Pence won't pardon him. Wonder if he'll go for a self pardon. Probably not because it could interfere with him running on the GOP ticket in 2024 (The RNC could adopt that rule if they don't have it right now quickly I think).
They probably should though, he was incapable of sending out the national guard to what was a clear emergency situation in a timely fashion. That's where the theoretical difficulties and poor choices of him being president become real live dangers to the republic.
This is how the law falls into contempt and people have actual evidence that they are above it.
He will be will be joined by NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens and Brigadier Phil Prosser, who is involved with vaccine roll-out.
Viking Chewbacca etc ought to be able to be picked up today by the FBI even if they were not yesterday.
Long overdue
They deliver about 975 vaccinations in that time until the batch is gone and they wait for the next week's delivery. "This is the biggest piece of work we've done in our medical lives," he tells the BBC.
We need to be getting this up to 7 days a week, more than 14hrs a day.
https://twitter.com/robpowellnews/status/1347127770086838276
A new and much more comprehensive Voters Rights Act is required. One of the substantive objections to Pennsylvania was that the State had opened 200 "unauthorised" polling stations in the State. Trying to suppress the vote by restricting the ballot stations open in certain areas really should be a criminal offence akin to attempting to pervert the course of justice. The gerrymandering of boundaries in Republican led states is absurd. The challenge is to create a program for renewal that isn't just an attack on the Republican party (although they are clearly the worst offenders). Balance is going to be needed.
The chain of command is broken.
"We cannot preserve a republic if those in power fail to protect it. What happened to standing up honorably and putting God, country, family above one’s self?"~
And you think yes, this is something everyone can agree on. Selfless devotion to the republic etc...
Then it's followed by "The election was stolen" or words to that effect.
And you're like WAIT WHAT ?!
*Well not that odd
This sort of shit was all over the GOP in the house yesterday/today
Just like extreme religions, it must be tackled, I don't have the answers but former insiders suggest taxing the data it relies on heavily is part of the solution.
I think that the insurrectionists last night wanted and expected to be part of a coup, but we were spared that because they lacked leadership. They had, however, been given to believe that they would be lead - not only by Trump in the run-up up to and at the rally where this kicked off, but also by the words and actions of Hawley and Cruz in orchestrating the 'objections' to the vote certification. And I think those two particularly, and perhaps the other objecting Senators, need to be held accountable for what they have incited.
I am currently reading John Prebble's The Lion in the North, covering the history of Scotland. And thinking about last night, I was struck by the comparisons to that interminable period of rebellion and counter-rebellion from, say, 1100 to 1600.
Time after time, a group of lords would conspire against the king, thinking only of their personal gain and not of the wider impact. And then, when the rebellion was under way and they realised they couldn't win, off they'd gallop to kneel to the king and beg forgiveness. Of course, their repentance was a complete sham - the next opportunity they saw, they would recant and join another rising. Such was the role of many of the senators last night and this morning - recoiling from the protests, dropping their procedural objections while still maintaining, with an eye on the future and the base, that their central arguments were valid. And, like those Scottish lords, they abandoned those who followed them to whatever their fate might be.
There needs to be a reckoning for their role, otherwise they will take the opportunity again when it arises, and the US might not be so lucky next time.
Unusually Articulate Taxi Driver: "Sure, Guv. Hop in."
Brum brum. Brum brum.
UATD: "See that shit going down over in the States?"
Me: "Yeah. Unbelievable. Trump is a fucking menace."
UATD: "Not the point."
Me: "No?"
UATD: "No. The way I see it is that the Democrats in recent times have become infatuated with a radical woke agenda, critical race theory, white privilege, all the rest of it, which has made millions of essentially ordinary decent Americans feel like despised strangers in their own country."
Me: "Jeez. What a counterproductive approach by the Democrats."
UATD: "Yup. So now the payback. It was always coming. Rather than empathizing with issues important to these people this aggressive style of politics from the Left has radicalized them.
Me: "Ok but surely -"
UATD: "Shut up mate, let me finish. Radicalized them. Until now this. Banging on about Donald Trump misses the point. The point is, if you keep telling people they are racist lowlife scum the more spunky of them will at some point snap and kick back. Sadly."
Me: "I see. Thanks. Food for thought at the very least. Right, this is me!"
Of course some say the rot started to set in in September 1993... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
Trump patently does not take his share of the blame and never has, never will. His share btw should be c.80%; the other 20% falls squarely on the GOP for enabling him in pursuit of 'power at any cost'
When did Democrat-inspired mobs invade the Capitol or state legislature buildings?
Which party has worked tirelessly to exclude vast numbers of voters who might vote against them?
Great article btw @cyclefree
Russiansbad news?Look beyond the mob, beyond Trump, to obstructionists in Congress, gerrymandering and vote suppression at the state level. Look back less than 24 hours in the House and Senate to see votes against certification of November's election results. The threat to democracy is not that disorganised bunch of clowns, some in fancy dress, who invaded the Senate but the belief, especially amongst senior American Republican politicians, that the end justifies the means.
EDIT: Just paid me my winnings on no overall majority.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55571482
My post simply reflected that the Democrats (right now) control all the wings of federal government, no matter how narrowly, so it's their move on national leadership whilst the Republicans need to sort themselves out.
On the more serious point, 90% of Americans just want to live in peace, but there’s a very vocal few % at the extreme right and left who still number in the millions.
The best thing would be for the 90% to just ignore them, but the media, and especially social media, have realised that covering them extensively is good for business. It’s almost as if we are watching the plot of Tomorrow Never Dies becoming reality.
Need to be going at 50x that.
Does he really believe the facts bear him out - in which case he is clinically ill with some kind of delusion disorder or is he just a complete and utter liar?
But if it had been supported I would have expected it to obtain a "right to support" through time. Unless there is an exception to the principle.
'Hi. I've just committed high treason and insurrection. The Feds will never find me though.'
Reporter: 'Wow. That's amazing. How do we get hold of you to follow up?'
'This is my name and address.'
I think we can settle on a principled position: use violence to achieve your political goals, and you get your head cracked by the authorities and a long spell in prison, whether you're on the Right or the Left. Nice and simple.
I know there were holidays, but it seems dangerous to let this happen. And makes a bit of mockery of the new rules which prohibit people in "hotspots" (more than 200 cases per 100,000 in previous week) from travelling more than 15km from where they live.
I've never had the impression that anyone is really in charge of the pandemic situation here, nor that there is any kind of plan.
It's tragic because some of the earliest known outbreaks in Europe were in Germany, and they were more or less successfully kept under control by doing lots of testing, but this success was thrown away by allowing everyone to travel almost without any restrictions for the whole of February, and into March.
/the first couple of minutes relates to position in Ireland
How many doses were given out?