Comments

1

At long last, Republicans seem ready to fire their offensive coordinator.

Better late than never.

2

Cue the opinions of angry white men on why a female POC is being overly dramatic about being scared of angry white men.

3

Republicans who voted against accepting Joe Biden's electoral votes in order to nullify millions of Americans' votes, need to STFU and sit down. By congressional ethics and law they all should be removed from Congress. They sure as shit shouldn't be allowed any time to give speeches about healing and unity. There is no unity with white supremacists. There is no negotiating with terrorists. The ONLY way to heal from this situation is to impeach and remove Trump, remove all complicit Republicans and charge them with sedition, and send them all to prison where they can all rot for the next 20 years wishing they hadn't chosen treason and terrorism as their preferred courses of action to maintain their power. Fuck every last one of them.

4

It was an extremely frightening time for our senators and representatives. Neither AOC and Susan Collins need anyone negating their harrowing experience.

5

Lisa Montgomery (the woman who was executed) had murdered a pregnant woman, then cut the unborn child out of the dead woman's body in an effort to pass it off as her own. How the hell someone who performs such an act could not meet the legal definition for insanity or mentally unfit is absolutely beyond comprehension.

6

Who could've known that four years of psycho-fascist Tr666p/Republinazi rule would result in mass death, the environment on fire, the economy in total shambles, and a near collapse of the United States government in a domestic terrorist attack except anyone with two brain cells to rub together.

7

for gavel-to-gavel coverage
of trumpf's Coronavirus nope
sorry, his Impeachment -- the Second!
plus NON-Corporate commentary see:

https://www.democracynow.org/2021/1/13/capitol_insurrection_historian_timothy_snyder

8

Prezinazi AntiChrist is bigger than Jee-zus for the idolatrous, Evilungelical, Republinazi-voting Despicables. It looks like the GOPtanic is gonna violently split into the regular-crazy kleptocrats and the tongue-talking Tr666pnazi QBelievers. They're all going down with the shithead.
Well glug glug--you love to see it!!!

9

Well, thank you very much for that introduction to The Internet, Jasmyne. Very nice track. Will be checking out other songs of theirs now.

10

mike blob @5, I don't think you want to be going down the road you're going down.

You write: "How the hell someone who performs such an act could not meet the legal definition for insanity or mentally unfit is absolutely beyond comprehension." The same could easily be said for Donald Trump. Or, to put this in a less political light, Jeffrey Dahmer. Let's try to avoid the thinking that the more heinous the crime, by definition the more applicable is a mental illness defense.

Speaking of crimes, I hope we can distinguish between the politicians who can be criminally charged for incitement to insurrection--I'm thinking not only Trump but also AL Rep. Mo Brooks--and those who deserve to face purely a political censure like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz. Now, for the rest of their political careers Hawley and Cruz need to be shunned by all, such that their political careers can come to the quickest possible end.

11

The trump nightmare is basically over, I'm really looking forward to not having to hear about his fat ass any more. I'd like to start seeing more energy put into making sure democrats do something while we have a chance to overcome congressional gridlock. Tax the rich, strengthen social security and healthcare, get infrastructure week done, and approve Washington State's DST bill already FFS!

12

@10,

I would ABSOLUTELY agree that Dahmer was most likely insane and shouldn't have been executed for his crimes, as unspeakably horrific as they were. I don't know much about the guy, but would have to imagine there was a case to be made he was sociopathic, at least if we're using the broad definition that he lacked an ability to empathize with others.

13

@ 12,

Maybe it was his economic anxiety?

14

Who had Wright brothers and moon landing on their impeachment bingo card?

15

Capital punishment is a relic of an uncivilized society. It's not justice, it's vengeance.

17

@15 is correct.

18

@15 definitely makes my broader point much more succinctly than did my OP and perhaps I shouldn't have discussed the specific circumstances regarding her case in commenting, though I also couldn't possibly imagine listening to those circumstances and coming away thinking that she committed her crime for no other reason than in the simple interest of becoming a mother were she not mentally ill.

20

'It's not justice, it's vengeance.'

well there's your
Bumpersticker.

22

@12: IIRC, Dahmer was killed in prison by another inmate.

24

at what point did Lester Nygaard (aka Martin Freeman) become (legally?) un-hinged in season one of Fargo? the moment before he picked up a hammer and put his wife into her grave or when he told Lorne Malvo (aka Billy Bob Thorton) to expose himself and have to kill the 3 (innocent) people in the elevator with them or...

when does the Madness set in?

and how the Fuck
do we Reverse it?

25

Regardless of her mental competency, federal executions are a massive misuse of public funds. According to one source, trials that seek the death penalty cost about EIGHT times as much as those that do not. Also, in most cases the death penalty is not imposed or gets eventually overturned so it's even more wasteful. It's not about justice though, it's about starving the beast by maximizing spending on shit that provides little to no benefit for Americans. That's why trump wants to execute people.

Here's a source: https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/NELIS/REL/76th2011/ExhibitDocument/OpenExhibitDocument?exhibitId=17686&fileDownloadName=h041211ab501_pescetta.pdf

26

@23 You have to ignore them and move on, perseverating over trump is exactly what his cult wants because it distracts from what needs to get done.

27

Thank you for the musical accompaniment, the featured song's not new to me but I never get tired of hearing such loveliness. Hint: Play it during a full moon, outdoors where the melody can float on the breeze. There's something in the sonic blend of 'Hold On' that pairs brilliantly with patios, lush plantings, and moonlight.

28

@22

That is also my recollection. He clearly wasn't on death row, because he got to move around the prison with other inmates, and someone killed him.

30

Yeah, no we can't ignore trump's more deranged followers. The trump nightmare isn't over, it's just that the biggest symptom of a broken and poisoned country is going away. The disease is still lingering inside. All trump did was encourage people who think like him to go ahead and act out the crazy ideas that they usually only post on anonymous blogs.

31

@30: Trump II will really be crazy like a fox.

32

whoever that is

33

Nobody else thinks it’s weird that 2 cops were murdered and police unions and organizations don’t give a shit?

34

Trump as a mainstream political player is done. What will be left is a hodgepodge collection of violent white supremacists and nationalists. It will be more similar to what we saw in the 60s during the violence then. Most of those at the Capitol that day were more talk than action but still a non trivial number are violent extremists. They won’t be able to topple the government but they’re plenty dangerous none the less. All it takes is one determined person to assassinate a member of congress or a judge or commit a bombing.

36

Trump 2 will be Tom Cotton. He will be much more difficult to defeat as he is 1000x smarter than Trump.

37

If you guys wanna keep indulging the trolls then be my guest. I'll be extremely unhappy if nothing substantial gets done in the next two years because the media wants us to continue to focus on a scumbag who helps their ratings.

38

speaking of nice things*
Hang ON, Neolibs and Cons
from the NYT:

Atop the Powerful Budget Committee at Last, Bernie Sanders Wants to Go Big

To the chagrin of Republicans, the democratic socialist senator will play a central role in shepherding Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s agenda through Congress.

Mr. Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats and twice ran unsuccessfully for the party’s presidential nomination, said he would move quickly in his new role to push through a robust and deficit-financed economic stimulus package soon after President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. takes office.

“I believe that the crisis is of enormous severity and we’ve got to move as rapidly as we can,” Mr. Sanders said in an interview.

“Underline the word aggressive,” he said. “Start out there.”

Despite Democrats’ narrow control of the Senate, Mr. Sanders is expected to exert heavy influence over taxes, health care, climate change and several other domestic issues. That is because his role as budget chairman will give him control over a little-known but incredibly powerful congressional tool that allows certain types of legislation to win Senate approval with just a simple majority.

By Alan Rappeport and Jim Tankersley
Jan. 12, 2021

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/us/politics/bernie-sanders-budget-committee.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage&login=smartlock&auth=login-smartlock

*AND trumpf's Second
Impeachment! 232-197

40

For an authoritarian to topple a democracy they need to have a much better than majority approval rating. I recall reading around 80% or so based on previous cases. Those countries were more racially and culturally homogenous than the US. Playing the nationalism card big time is a key. It’s going to take another outsider that hasn't come on to the scene yet.

41

@39: You can't say it's failed spectacularly until the New Hampshire primary in 2024.

42

There's a documentary about serial killers and why the should not be executed because they are not mentally competent. It focuses a lot on Bundy.

https://collider.com/crazy-not-insane-trailer-hbo-serial-killer-documentary/

Executing people has no value. It does not prevent others from committing the same crimes. Just like the overall justice system it is rife with mistakes and far too many innocent people have been murdered by the state after being wrongfully convicted. Due to process, death row costs 10X as much as keeping someone in prison for life. And it never brings back a victim. Even if those who loved that victim feel satisfied by the person who murdered their loved one being murdered. It is a hollow and meaningless act of revenge.

But what should be done with people who kill for a living? Who enjoy it? Who engage in sexual acts with their victims dead bodies after they murder them?

I really don't have an answer for that. We put sick animals down. Are these human beings that engage in such violent and disturbing behavior not sick animals?

43

@40: When people are frightened they become homogeneous. Think George Bush after 9/11 and the Patriot Act. Think the Human Trafficking moral panic and the passage of SESTA/FOSTA with overwhelming majorities.

People wrong compare President Trump to a dictator, but he was never more than an actor playing at being a dictator, better know as a grifter. He was more interested in satisfying his small minded ego than manufacturing the type of crisis dictator's depend on to suspend democracy. The next Trump will be a Bismark declaring war on France in order to unify Germany. Even when handed a real crisis "Covid," Trump proved incapable of exploiting it even to get re-elected, let alone suspect democracy. Apparently he never had an Apprentice episode based on that to practice with beforehand.

It's seems clear to me we have a major financial crisis looming tax payers will be unable to bail us out of and people are more interested in political tribalism than fixing this. We'll see who's President when that occurs.

44

@33 kind of hard to make a stink about cops being murdered when they were actively engaged in aiding and abetting and participating in the coup. it's just collateral damage.

45

@42: "Executing people has no value. It does not prevent others from committing the same crimes."

Like everything else about our criminal system execution is not meant to prevent crime, or promote public safety.

Execution is a blood sport meant to show the terrible unaccountable power of the state, satisfy the blood lust of it's supporters and feed tax money into the criminal system at the expense of spending on a credible safety net for the poor in society.

We will never stop executions by arguing that it's cruel, deeply biased and corrupt, entirely arbitrary, racists and does nothing to protect pubic safety. The criminal system is designed to promote all those harms, not prevent them.

In that sense, execution really does promote the revenge based system we built.

46

@43 good point about W and 9/11. It was different in that it was an external enemy and not within our own country. I’d agree that further financial issues and pain could be a rallying point. Since many of those most impacted are women and/or persons of color I don’t see how either the mainstream Republicans or Trumpers will appeal to them/me. Like the way Trump came in someone more masterful (or that had any competence at all beside show biz) is more likely to be able to pull it off than anyone in the mainstream political pipeline.

47

@46: There was a believe and hope 40 years ago all minorities would move up and to the left. Some have, but many have instead moving down and to the right based on the last elections numbers. That's something we will need to address.

I think what has change since 9/11 is that politicians have convinced us the war is now internal rather than external. Look at the way Republicans and Democrats view each other and how politicians have exploited that hatred to harm all of us. Since the terrible attack on the capital politicians have proposed domestic terrorism laws that will formalize the internal war on the American people and like all laws be used in ways no one intended or imagined when they were passed.

It will keep the police state busy treating it's own citizens like Al Queada while each side cheers against the other and we all lose our legal protections in the process in an effort to harm "the other team."

We will keep electing sociopaths to carry out our darkest fantasies against our enemies so we can distance ourselves and claim "well we would never do such a thing!: unless we were part of a mob.

Going forward the enemy will be the American people and as a famous Roman wrote a few millennia ago:

“In times of war, the law falls silent.
Silent enim leges inter arma”

― Marcus Tullius Cicero

48

Much of the rightward drift in Latino communities can be attributed to the am radio they listen to selling them nothing but pro-capitalist/-monopolist, anti-regulations Paternalist republicanism 24/7/365. without addressing that, the gap only widens.

the Left NEEDS a few good
Billionaires of their very own.

49

... and a Host of
Left-leaning News
and Opinion stations.

50

47 "There was a believe and hope 40 years ago all minorities would move up and to the left. Some have, but many have instead moving down and to the right based on the last elections numbers. That's something we will need to address."

We need to address minorities having free will and thinking for themselves? Yikes


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