House Special Committee Holds First Jan. 6 Hearing | Talking Points Memo

And General Mireau in Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory” is sort of a Trump character, I’d say.

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Flynn was military intelligence, which is not a specialty that requires operational and planning skills. When he got promoted from the field to the Pentagon, he quickly showed himself to be a buffoon, which is why Obama canned his sorry ass. He’s a moron.

And for all his obvious faults, General Jack D. Ripper wasn’t fomenting an insurrection against democracy. He was just nuking the commies.

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and don’t forget - specifically all of the coordination & planning - this wasn’t a spur of the moment arrangement on the morning of January 6th …

  • it absolutely was NOT a sort of "Oh! see if there’s a room at the Willard where we can hang out and chit chat about long term future politics & philosophy"

  • nope - bet that room & all of the services was set up weeks in advance …

What exactly would one hope to have made happen down the street at the Capitol that would have necessitated a “War Room” ?? with all of these people ??

An attempt to produce a variation on “The Brooks Brothers Riot” ??- The riot played out on November 22, amid Florida’s recount. Hundreds of protesters, later identified as paid Republican operatives, rushed the Miami-Dade County building where the state’s ballot recount was under way. Those who participated in the chaotic demonstration demanded that poll workers stop their recount, pushing the elections officials involved to move locations and restrict media access. Unable to meet the court’s deadline to submit a reviewed vote tally, Florida ultimately did not complete its recount.

Don’t doubt for a second that the planners knew that - this time it would have to be more violent & deadly! - because votes were already counted in the states … much greater disruption & upheaval would be needed to destroy the certification & counting of the electoral votes.

There is absolutely ZERO doubt that if the evacuation of the chambers had gotten FUBARed & the mob had gotten their hands on Pence - he would have died in a hallway… along with various others … and all kinds of things that we all would say “could not have happened” because “the Constitution does not provide for that” … well … they would have happened … because the whole thing would have gone “off script” and because … “something” would have to happen … and … in moments of anarchy, what ever gets shoved through … gets to be “what happens”

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Flynn knew how to deploy trained troops who follow orders. There was nothing like that with this insurrection. The vast majority of the crowd had no tactics, no plan, other than somehow they would make Pence declare that Trump was President. They had to smash windows and doors to enter the Capitol and make that happen… somehow.

Listen to what the rioters were shouting as they entered the building. It was all over the place, disorganized. What kind of “plan” involves putting your feet up on Pelosi’s desk for a selfie, or grabbing a lectern and walking out with it as a souvenir?

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Yes, I’ve calculated as best I can. Hubby and I are figuring they will have the boosters ready for this fall along with our usual flu shots (which I got last year anyway).

I also have “mixed” vaccination (first shot AstraZeneca, second shot Pfizer/Biontech) which, according to our top virologist here in Germany is showing to be actually a tad more effective than two shots of either. So, we’ll see. But I figure the window for me is optimal right now.

But, I still have a “travel kit” of 4 FFP N-95 masks (medical), two sets of disinfecting wipes (for things like touchscreens in the plane), as well as a purse-sized bottle of disinfectant. I also have a face shield, which, depending on how crowded the plane is (and if there are any nutjobs on it) I can pull out as extra protection. Especially when eating (which is necessary on a transatlantic haul).

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Gonell is flaying McCarthy and Jordan alive!

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Or Failsafe, or the Manchurian Candidate. That era was full of films with similar themes and plotlines. We are still contending with the paranoid and resentful reaction of many white Americans to the twin post-WWII issues of domestic desegregation and being the leader of the free world abroad and what that entails. These folks don’t deal well with change and the real or perceived loss of privilege and status. Most of them just grumble and vote for assholes. Some take it further.

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I probably said that as early as J6, but Fanone has also stated his thinking about not shooting since his very first interview, which was just a few days later. It just seems pretty obvious to me that a cop facing hundreds or thousands of bloodthirsty assholes is substantially more likely to be killed if he starts shooting.

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Tucker Carlson: “Hold my tackle box…”

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I find Gonell, not only credible, but very moving.

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It’s also lighter than a duck.

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You’re not wrong, but don’t sell Mickey short. He’s also a criminal, and a petty grifter. Remember he was working for the Russians to sell nuclear reactors to certain Arab states. And he was working for Turkey, and he was planning to extrajudicially extradite a US resident to Turkey for torture and execution.

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Well no, Seven Days in May had the Joint Chiefs conspiring to kidnap the POTUS and take over the government.

The good news is, Trump tried to co-opt the military and failed. January 6 was likely a Hail Mary Pass after other plans failed to gain critical mass. I was still afraid that there would be shooting and martial law declared. Perhaps the people who were slow to deploy NG had the same worries. I hope this committee will go theer.

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I’m not in a position to second guess this testimony.

Hodges is telling Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) that he and other officers opted not to use their service firearms in part because they were completely outnumbered and believed that they were outgunned.

Hodges says that there were as many as 9,000 insurrectionists that day, but only hundreds of law enforcement officers. Both he and Fanone have said that they didn’t want to give rioters a pretext to shoot.

“If that turned into a firefight, we would have lost,” he says. “This was a fight we couldn’t afford to lose.”

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I look forward to my third jab relatively soon, by fall hopefully. I was lax for a while with mask-wearing since I got my second shot in April, but I’m wearing it more often again now. I can still catch it, and even if it’s very mild, who knows how it’ll effect me and others I might transmit it to longer-term. My mom’s in her 80’s.

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This place is…different. About half of the residents are also scared of chem trails.

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Perhaps it’s testament to my current extreme lack of sleep, but when I read that “many tattoos” idiocy, I envisioned a bunch of these and amused myself severely:

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Yet. And it may be a couple years before we know the answer to that, or it might be 50+ years (some of Nixon’s crimes are still buried). But I still lean towards thinking that the hopes of certain white house operatives were that a hostage drama would ensue from the elements they put in place.

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Subverting the democratic process IS de facto insurrection, no different from how a rogue cop playing ghetto vigilante is effectively trying to overthrow law and order. Hell, that’s what cops like Chauvin ARE doing, taking the law into their hands and thus effectively destroying it. No meaningful difference for me. Sidestepping a process IS destroying it.

You do like to argue though, I’ll concede that to you.

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