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posted by martyb on Wednesday January 06 2021, @10:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the stock-up-on-popcorn! dept.

2021-01-07 14:44:44 UTC: UPDATE (See below the fold).

Pro-Trump rioters breach the US Capitol on historic day in Congress:

Supporters of President Donald Trump breached the US Capitol on Wednesday while Congress was meeting to certify the Electoral College's votes for president and vice president.

The Capitol has been put on lockdown and the certification vote has been paused. Vice President Mike Pence was evacuated from the building. House and Senate leadership is safe and in undisclosed locations, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Congress' counting of electoral votes is typically little more than an afterthought. But this joint session was expected to be a contentious affair that would last late into the evening and possibly on Thursday. Some Republicans are objecting to the count and delaying the inevitable certification of President-elect Joe Biden's win.

Also at AlJazeera (In Pictures: Pro-trump mob storms US Capitol building) and c|net (Mob storms Capitol forcing halt of election vote count).

[2021-01-06 22:33:53 UTC; UPDATE] NOTE: This is a chaotic time.

The Electoral College votes are currently being confirmed and tallied. Runoff votes in Georgia are being tallied and the results may swing the balance of power in the US Senate. The Georgia secretary of state [has been] relocated from [State] Capitol for security reasons. Mitch McConnell goes off on Trump. Pro-Trump reporter gloats over access to fleeing Hill staffer's computer. And Trump hand-picks replacement for Atlanta's US attorney after surprise resignation.

Let's please try and keep the discussion civil.

Also, please be polite and share your popcorn!

[Updates Begin]:

(1) Fox News reports Biden's Electoral College victory certified -- hours after Capitol chaos:

The U.S. Congress early Thursday certified the Electoral College vote that gave Democrat Joe Biden his presidential victory -- after a day in Washington that was marred by pro-Trump protesters storming the U.S. Capitol.

Vice President Mike Pence, who had announced he would not overturn the will of voters, confirmed the Biden victory at 3:41 a.m. ET.

Lawmakers had returned to the chamber in an act of defiance, with some Republicans who initially vowed to challenge states' results due to voter fraud concerns announcing they'd instead vote to certify.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the breach of the Capitol a "failed insurrection," adding that those who "tried to disrupt our democracy" had not succeeded.

(2) President Trump "Responds" via Staffer's Twitter Account after His Account was Suspended:

Dan Scavino 🇺🇸 🦅@DanScavino:

Statement by President Donald J. Trump on the Electoral Certification:

"Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. I have always said we would continue our...

Dan Scavino 🇺🇸 🦅@DanScavino:

...fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it's only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!"

(3) Facebook, Twitter lock Trump's account following video addressing Washington rioters:

  • Twitter and Facebook on Wednesday said they would lock the account of President Donald Trump after he continued to make false claims about the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
  • Facebook, YouTube and Twitter on Wednesday removed a video by President Donald Trump addressing Washington rioters.
  • Meanwhile, calls are mounting for Twitter and Facebook to suspend Trump's accounts.

(4) The Associated Press has called the results for the Georgia Senate elections: both Democratic candidates defeated their GOP opponents:

With projected victories in the twin races of Warnock and Ossoff, President-elect Joe Biden will have the narrowest majority in the Senate, with both parties holding 50-50 seats apiece, allowing the tie-breaking vote to be cast by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

Also at The New York Times.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 06 2021, @10:55PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 06 2021, @10:55PM (#1095910)

    Don't say that shit. The majority of the protesters are just idiots who believe lies and think they are standing for "real" democracy. They can protest if they want, they can believe lies if they want. No one should be shot unless they are committing violence and shooting them is the only option

    I despise these assholes, but that is no reason to suddenly lose my own morality and hope they die for being idiots.

    They have a right to protest, and storming the capitol should be met with arrests not bullets. If one of these morons points a gun at police, well they forfeit the right to not be shot.

    Someone please mod the parent flamebait or troll.

    Starting Score:    0  points
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by sjames on Thursday January 07 2021, @02:07AM (3 children)

    by sjames (2882) on Thursday January 07 2021, @02:07AM (#1096111) Journal

    To be fair, an angry mob was actually busting in to confront a fairly geriatric senate..

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @02:42AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @02:42AM (#1096134)

      Yes I understand, I wasn't passing judgment on any specific incident since we do not yet have the details.

      The comment said not enough people were shot, and that is a blanket statement which I see as morally repugnant. I doubt more than a handful of the protesters were true extremists planning to harm anyone, just angry people misled by scheming fascists. Ethics should not be partisan.

      • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @11:16AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @11:16AM (#1096402)

        The comment said not enough people were shot, and that is a blanket statement which I see as morally repugnant. I doubt more than a handful of the protesters were true extremists planning to harm anyone, just angry people misled by scheming fascists. Ethics should not be partisan.

        A good point. I did see a reporter (can't remember who, but I think it was Amna Nawaz [wikipedia.org]) who said she interviewed one of the folks who had been inside the Capitol who said that once they got inside they "walked all around and checked it out because they'd never been there before, then got bored and came back outside."

        I watched a bunch of video and a lot of it looked like undirected rage. And who can blame them? They've been fed a pack of lies about "rigged elections" and the like, where do they direct their anger?

        I heard one woman call in to CSPAN crying. She was distraught over that woman's death and was wondering aloud if all of the talk about evil democrats and stolen elections were lies...she said, "Oh my god. I voted for him! I voted for him!"

        It was fairly heart wrenching.

        That's not to say that it's okay to bust into the Capitol and trash people's offices. In fact, doing so is insurrection against the US government, especially if they were armed/brandishing weapons.

        It's really sad that folks have gotten so twisted up by the lies and misinformation that opportunists are promulgating, mostly to make money.

        • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Saturday January 09 2021, @04:18AM

          by Thexalon (636) on Saturday January 09 2021, @04:18AM (#1097305)

          one of the folks who had been inside the Capitol who said that once they got inside they "walked all around and checked it out because they'd never been there before, then got bored and came back outside."

          18 USC 1752 [casetext.com]: Those actions alone are punishable by up to a year in prison, unless they brought a weapon in or hit somebody in which case it's 10 years. Oh, and if the prosecutors go by the doctrine of felony murder, it is possible they could be criminally responsible for the dead cop, even though they didn't kill said cop.

          I get that a lot of these people committed their crimes with the impression that they wouldn't be charged or punished for them. I get that a lot of people have, in many cases because they agree with the crimes in question, decided that they shouldn't be charged or punished for them even if they could be. But make no mistake, that person is a crook, and a lot of the people advocating for people like them to not be punished are the same ones who believed Michael Brown deserved to die for jaywalking.

          --
          The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by istartedi on Thursday January 07 2021, @06:55AM (2 children)

    by istartedi (123) on Thursday January 07 2021, @06:55AM (#1096322) Journal

    The majority of the protesters are just idiots who believe lies and think they are standing for "real" democracy

    And it turns out that "idiots" are a significant component of our society. I put "idiots" in quotes because even though this batch skews away from college, it's still possible to trick educated people who test with high IQs. A significant body of research was conducted shortly after WW2, such as the infamous Milgram Experiment and the Stanford Prison Study.

    Y'all can google that stuff. The big take-away is that a significant percentage of the population, even smart students from Stanford, will do horrible things if they believe that a legitimate authority is leading them.

    You may not sleep any better at night knowing this, but it's better to be armed with that knowledge than ignorant of it. More importantly it's even better not to assume that only the other guy is the idiot.

    Seeking the answer to the question, "How do I know I'm not the fool?" might be key to keeping society on track.

    --
    Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @01:33PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @01:33PM (#1096433)

      Thank you and all the animosity does not help.

      • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @06:30PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @06:30PM (#1096566)

        Animosity enters when lies are called out and people double down on them. When someone like Trump and his admin lie as a matter of course and are defended. When obvious crimes are ignored for partisan loyalty. When lies are used to minimize police brutality and murder.

        These are not topics where we can agree to disagree.