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Trump impeached for 'inciting' US Capitol riots:
The US House of Representatives has impeached President Donald Trump for "incitement of insurrection" at last week's Capitol riot.
Ten Republicans sided with Democrats to impeach the president by 232-197.
He is the first president in US history to be impeached twice, or charged with crimes by Congress.
Mr Trump, a Republican, will now face a trial in the Senate, where if convicted he could face being barred from ever holding office again.
But Mr Trump will not have to quit the White House before his term in office ends in one week because the Senate will not reconvene in time.
Mr Trump will leave office on 20 January, following his election defeat last November to Democrat Joe Biden.
The Democratic-controlled House voted after several hours of impassioned debate on Wednesday as armed National Guard troops stood guard inside and outside the Capitol.
[...] Impeachment charges are political, not criminal.
Also at Newsweek, c|net, Al Jazeera, Washington Post.
[Ed Note - The linked article has been revised since submission. The quoted text has been revised accordingly. - Fnord]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by slinches on Thursday January 14 2021, @01:43AM (18 children)
It matters what he actually said. If there were no direct calls for violence, just emotionally charged rhetoric, then there's no crime there. He charged up a crowd for a protest, which then turned violent. Should we remove all of the politicians from office who spoke ahead of the BLM riots too?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 14 2021, @02:15AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXAv2cDkWAA
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/08/13/fact-check-democrats-have-condemned-violence-linked-protests/3317862001/
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11572-017-9427-8
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 14 2021, @02:46AM
Until today I had absolutely no idea that an incitement charge requires the accused to confess their crime as they commit it.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Gaaark on Thursday January 14 2021, @03:29AM (15 children)
What matters is intent: what he WANTED to have happen.
Adolf Hitler only said, "We need to find a final solution to the Jewish problem". What he WANTED to have happen happened.
Donald Trump said, "Stand down and STAND BY" and "We’re going to have to fight much harder" and "You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength. You have to be strong.". What he WANTED to have happen happened.
People without knowledge of the past and without the ability to see Trump for his personal failures don't seem to see this, but it IS PLAIN TO SEE for those who know Trump for what he is: a Hitler wannabe. If he hadn't these personal failures, he might have been more successful, but his inability to accept failing led to his downfall. He was a poor leader because he WANTED to be a dictator.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Thursday January 14 2021, @04:13AM (5 children)
Um, Godwin?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday January 14 2021, @04:17AM
Ya gots to do what's ya gots to do! ;)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 14 2021, @05:05AM (1 child)
If the shoe fits...
I'm not specifically referring to the riots themselves, but rather the big lie [wikipedia.org] started months before the election that it was going to be "rigged."
And when the preferred result was not achieved, the volume was amped up on false claims of "fraud."
I'd point out that not one (that is *zero*) of the lawsuits filed by Trump and his cronies even *alleged* fraud. In fact, when actually in court (where there are penalties for lying), Trump's lawyers explicitly said they did not allege fraud.
But that didn't stop the liars, those same lawyers among them, from screaming about "rigged" and "stolen" elections and all manner of flat out lies in the media.
Which whipped up those who believed the bullshit and is what mostly contributed to the mayhem at the Capitol on 6 January.
So yes, Trump & company most certainly incited these folks. But it wasn't just the speeches on 6 January, it was months of lies, misinformation and demonizing anyone who wouldn't toe the line as traitors.
Taken together, it's a textbook example of the big lie [wikipedia.org], which was pioneered by Hitler himself.
So Godwinning is permissible in this case, methinks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 14 2021, @07:42AM
methinks youthinks goodthinks
(Score: 2) by ze on Friday January 15 2021, @12:36AM
Godwin applies to the hyperbolic use in online discussions of arbitrary topics. It is explicitly not about an appropriate comparison.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 15 2021, @08:22AM
"By all means, compare these shitheads to Nazis. Again and again. I'm with you"
(Score: 2, Troll) by slinches on Thursday January 14 2021, @05:46AM (7 children)
Or maybe you're seeing what you want to. You created this caricature of an orange tinged devil and see his words and actions through that lens, twisting anything he says or does to reinforce the image that he is evil.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 14 2021, @07:46AM
Nope, sober assessment of his past actions and character. Easy example is Trump saying, "I could shoot someone on 5th avenue and not lose any supporters." Real stable non-evil statement there, and that is just his superficial locker-room evil. Do you need a new brain?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 14 2021, @09:28AM (4 children)
I'm a native New Yorker and Donald Trump has been in the news here since I was child in the 1970s.
I don't think he's *evil*. Rather, over the past 40 years or so he's shown us that he's greedy, selfish, unmoored from reality, ready to trash anyone or anything that bruises his fragile ego, ready to smash anything -- no matter how precious or important -- in a childish rage if he doesn't get what he wants. And most of all, he craves adulation and notoriety, deserved or not.
Add to that a severe lack of intellectual curiosity and and addict's penchant for always blaming someone else, and you have quite a piece of work.
No. Trump isn't evil in the sense of being a cackling, malevolent, bent on world domination/destruction bad guy. Trump is a spoiled, greedy, selfish, unpleasant egomaniac with no concept of empathy, fairness or the value of anything unless it benefits him personally.
And I could have told you that 15 years ago or 25 years ago, had you asked. It's nothing new. He's always been that way.
And since I'd learned decades ago that he was a worthless human being, I always ignored him. And I was shocked to see him do so well. I mean it's not like he hides who he is.
I didn't and don't need to see him for anything other than he is, the same guy he's always been. Nor do I need to "twist anything he says," because I knew what he was all along.
But soon he'll shuffle off to Florida and can be nasty and difficult with his family and the other objects around him that he finds useful.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I'll just go back to ignoring him as I mostly have for the last 40+ years.
And good riddance to bad garbage.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 14 2021, @11:03AM (2 children)
Doesn't that say something about how bad people found Hillary then, if they voted for that guy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 14 2021, @01:01PM
Actually, it tells me more about how uninformed, un-engaged and susceptible to misinformation, propaganda and outright lies many people are than anything else.
As the ridiculous lies about the most recent election proved, once again, in spades.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday January 15 2021, @09:20AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday January 14 2021, @03:40PM
That's a description of Adolf Hitler... evil? You decide.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday January 16 2021, @02:36AM
Well, the entire world is laughing at him and his supporters, especially Putin. See what YOU want to see but yeah: the whole world can't believe what an ass he is.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 16 2021, @12:09AM
"Adolf Hitler only said, "We need to find a final solution to the Jewish problem". What he WANTED to have happen happened."
Try learning a little about what really happened in ww2. You're just regurgitating Jew lies.