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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:
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...
...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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @03:44PM
Anyone else notice how these trump rioters seemed to resemble sort of a sick twisted version of the Disney Minions characters?
That rioter who got comfy sitting in the front of the senate, did he happen to yell "King Bob!"?
(Score: -1, Troll) by zion-fueled on Thursday January 07 2021, @06:51PM (6 children)
So let me get this straight. The sum of our legislators have been fucking us to our face for the better part of a year. Censoring speech, manipulating the media and taking your livelihood, all while ignoring their own rules and laws. The elections are fishy and both sets of candidates seem to side with the status quo in the end.
Some people get riled up and finally decide to do something, granted something a bit stupid. But for a split second we get to watch our "representatives" cower in fear and have to worry about their lives and well being for once. It may not have lasted for long but they came back with some speeches that truly ripped the mask off and showed you what they think about the little guy. It's right there in your face, whether you are "left" or "right".
A summer of rioting was fine, even justified... but as soon as it comes for them it's an insurrection, pearl harbor and 9/11 all rolled into one....
Now, you fucking people cheer on oppression. Not just that, oppression that has about a 95% chance of flipping onto you as soon as it's convenient. Holy shit, may your chains rest lightly... get some damn glasses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @06:59PM
The situations are not the same by any means, and I see no one cheering that hasn't been modded down. Stupid narrative is stupid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @07:35PM (3 children)
"but as soon as it comes for them it's an insurrection, pearl harbor and 9/11 all rolled into one"
Yep. It is funny how they are all "domestic terrorists" now. Totally giving this guys way too much credit. The orange fuhrer and the the senator from the south carolina aryan nation got some retards to commit an act of violence on their behalf. This is more like a trailer trash version of your typical saturday night in the projects, than an "insurrection". The country was never threatened. These posers aren't that smart.
The hyberbole on the left is how you know they are the same party as the right. They are playing one half of the poor off against the other half. What they did was a crime against the state. That is what the 25th amendment and the sedition act are for. The leaders, (the ones on the senate house floor, and the one in the white house) need to go to jail. As for the little fish, there are existing statutes to deal with them. No need for all the wrending of garments.
There are laws. They need to be used. The kabuki theater is the reason this happened in the first fucking place.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday January 07 2021, @08:59PM (2 children)
Just because it was an incompetent and unsuccessful insurrection doesn't mean it wasn't an insurrection.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @10:27PM (1 child)
Doesn't matter if it was. The most important thing is to get back to normal. This whole event is going to have serious long term effects on the markets, and the faster we get past it the better. So hold the ring leaders to account (that would be the orange fuhrer and the senator from the south carolina aryan nation), send those guilty of serious statutory crimes to jail, and forget about the rest. But do it fast, because every minute spend it drama land, is time that the things that created this problem, aren't getting fixed. It happened because of a lack of leadership. Hemming and hawing about the injustice they experienced by having to walk a few yards away while law enforcement ate the shit sandwich they prepared, isn't leadership.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Saturday January 09 2021, @03:53AM
Based on what we know right now:
1. There were thousands of people involved. It takes time to round up that many people.
2. Some of the people involved on the wrong side were Capitol Police officers.
3. Several state-level elected officials were involved.
4. The FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies knew in advance what was planned (the people planning to attack the Capitol were announcing their plans on social media), and chose not to act to prevent it.
5. Acts of espionage occurred in the chaos, including classified documents stolen from the desk of Nancy Pelosi, and from her computer.
6. It seems probable that at least one Cabinet officer, the Secretary of Defense, was involved in what went down (not on the ground, of course, but comfortably behind a desk making sure additional law enforcement and National Guard took hours to arrive).
7. Based on the item above, public statements about the vice-president, and reporting during the events that the president was watching with glee as this happened, it is entirely possible that the president and his consigliere Rudy Guiliani were involved in ways other than inciting the riot.
8. It is possible that dozens of members of Congress on both sides of the aisle also were involved in planning what happened.
And it's worth keeping in mind that the stated intent of the people attacking the Capitol included assassinating the Vice-President and numerous members of Congress.
That's going to take time to deal with. Sorting out which public officials have to be removed from power, actually removing them from power, who gets charged with what, etc. Adding to the complication is that since there were people inside law enforcement agencies involved on the wrong side, you can't trust that investigations and arrests and charges will happen as they're supposed to. So far, the arrests have been mostly of the small-fry who were directly attacking the Capitol. Presumably, as more evidence is collected, that will change.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 5, Informative) by helel on Thursday January 07 2021, @08:17PM
What oppression? A bunch of right wing nut jobs got tired of throwing pipe bombs at BLM protesters [opb.org], shooting at cops [startribune.com], and burning police cars [twincities.com] and decided to storm the capitol building instead and that's supposed to, what, make me suddenly sympathetic for these people? They've been rioting for months. Now they just do it at their own protest instead of attacking left leaning protests.
Maybe if the cops had sent a clear message six months ago that violence will not be tolerated this wouldn't be happening now but instead the police were too busy arresting peaceful BLM protesters by the literal bus load. Instead it seems that only when right wingers target political leaders [nypost.com] with their bombs do they finally go too far.
But what really bothers me, and most people on the left, isn't the fact that cops are barely inconveniencing the protesters but that they refuse to show the same restraint when dealing with peaceful, left wing, protesters. Three years ago when veterans and their families protested outside the capitol building they were literally thrown from their wheel chairs and dragged across the pavement by this same police force. Those veterans not only lost use of their body serving the country but never once tried to breach the building and yet they were brutally attacked by police.
Now we have a mass of Trump supporters, some sporting nazi merchandise [dailydot.com] breaching the building with bombs and for some reason the cops stand by and take selfies with them [independent.co.uk].
tl;dr: The way the police handle this protest isn't really the problem. The problem is the way they handle every left wing protest. Police reaction should increase with the violence and threat the protesters present, not how far to the left they lean.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 08 2021, @03:36AM
In all his glory. [c-span.org]
Yep, this guy has been shilling for exactly this kind of event for the past decade, making war on the every part of the Constitution but the second amendment, and has the audacity to throw the seargent at arms under the bus. Then goes on to blame democrats for the fact that his pal the orange fuhrer is incompetent at running a proper coup de tete.
Anybody here from SC? This is YOUR guy. I guess he is a step up from the guy he replaced, who I think had actual ties to the KKK. Well, not really a step up. More sideways. He just modernized the state view from a "slavery was OK" viewpoint, to a "nazi's are ok" viewpoint. I guess that is at least 70 years of progress since the civil war.
The DNC doesn't seriously contest this guys seat, because his crazy is good for fund raising. Which is how you know the DNC and the RNC are the same party. You should be able to run a dog with fleas against this jackass and win. He is just that batshit crazy.