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If somebody said "your democracatically elected government has been taken away but you should just go home," would you? Would the Trump supporters that raided t
by fredophile 6y ago
If somebody said "your democracatically elected government has been taken away but you should just go home," would you? Would the Trump supporters that raided the capital yesterday? The reason they will forever believe that the election was stolen is because Trump continues to say that the election was stolen.
- barbacoa 6y agoPeople spent years de-legitimatizing the 2016 election by claiming that Trump colluded with the Russian government. There were even stories published by mainstream media outlets that Russians hack election machines. The other side undermining the election results after they lost is not exactly new.
- dmitriid 6y agoHillary Clinton conceded she lost the very next day. There was an orderly transition process from Obama to Trump that started on the second day after the election. Compare that "undermining" to what the GOP and Trump are doing.
- zaroth 6y agoHardy ordinary though, for the FBI to orchestrate false charges and spy on the incoming administration with fraudulent FISA warrants. They are both very wrong, in different ways.
- barbacoa 6y agoOr that time Obama had a sit down meeting with heads of the FBI and directed them to go after Trump's national security adviser in order to get Flynn "arrested or fired".
- dmitriid 6y ago--- start quote --- On December 9, 2019, Horowitz released his report on the findings of the DOJ OIG investigation. The OIG found no indication that the investigation of Trump and Russia was motivated by political bias, but did make 17 "basic and fundamental" errors and omissions in its warrant applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) to surveil Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser on the Trump campaign.[160][5][161][162][163] The report found that the FBI's investigation had a factual basis and was initiated for an authorized purpose,[162] stating: "We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced" the agency's decision to open the investigation --- end quote --- What else? Ah, I also remember Obama calling for months that the election was stolen, inciting violence, calling for forceful removal of government officials and obstructing transition teams. I also remember Obama refusing to commit to a peaceful transition of power until after his supporters stormed the Capitol and his own party (just as complicit) turned against him and certified election results.
- adamsea 6y agoHonest question - do you really believe the two situations are equivalent?
- barbacoa 6y agoAre they equivalent? No. This is a clear escalation but the escalation is due to the deteriorating of our political discourse. I would not have been surprised if we saw something similar if Trump had won a 2nd term.
- adamsea 6y ago> I would not have been surprised if we saw something similar if Trump had won a 2nd term. When you say similar, what do you mean? An armed mob breaking in to the Capital to stop Congress from certifying the electoral college votes and the President-elect? Requiring the evacuation of the entire Congress and the Vice-President to ensure their safety and avoid a potential hostage situation? And then planting pipe bombs in the Capital? Or do you mean something else? [EDIT: Look. Let’s be real. There is not a semblance of similarity and there hasn’t been for the past four years. What we saw today was unprecedented and seditious, on the part of the mob, the President himself, and anyone else involved in the planning or execution of this attempted coup. And anyone who can’t see the truth needs to do a real hard gut check right now, no joke. Let’s also be real. White supremacists are in the minority and their numbers are dwindling. Their days are numbered. There’s more of us than them and at some point if they push hard enough all of us patriotic American citizens who actually respect the Constitution and the vision of justice the United States, at its best, represents, well, we will push back. These folks lost the Civil War. If they really do want to bring it, it’ll be a tragedy and waste of human life, and, it won’t be a war they’ll win. And any Trumpists, at this point, go fuck yourselves. You should be ashamed of the treasonous behavior you’ve enabled. That’s the real talk, and people who hate on it, hate on it because they recognize the truth - you know it deep down, and, you are ashamed of yourselves. Consider your actions. Anyone can change for the better, as difficult and unpleasant as the process is, it’s always worth the effort. If I was religious like that I’d pray for you, because you don’t even know how badly you need some forgiveness.]
- newacct583 6y agoSacking the Capitol Building to prevent certification of an election is certainly new, though. I remain horrified at the level to which republicans genuinely think these situations are equivalent.
- incrudible 6y agoIt wasn't a sacking. There was trespassing and a couple of smashed windows. These are the worst images that CNN could find: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/gallery/electoral-college-vote-count/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/gallery/electora... There are two ways forward: We make a really big deal out of this and therefore implicitly demand that protests should be suppressed with massive force. Alternatively, we can admit that this is about as peaceful an outcome as we could have possibly hoped for, all things considered.
- newacct583 6y agoHow exactly do you define sacking? They pushed past armed guards, broke barriers, entered the chambers of an active joint session of congress forcing the entirety of the USA legislative branch and its Vice President at the very moment they were certifying a presidential election into a secure bunker. ... and you think that's "about as peaceful an outcome as we could possibly have hoped for"? I genuinely don't understand. This is the kind of operation of government that is supposed to never be disruptible. If past mobs knew it was this easy then we could have had a zillion coups by now. You're saying they weren't murderers I guess? That they didn't blow up the building or take hostages (though there is footage of a guy with zip ties that looks like he wanted to)? I mean, yeah, that would be worse. This is still unimaginably bad.
- awnird 6y agoThe insurrectionists were murderers though. https://twitter.com/kristin__wilson/status/1347328325019164680 https://twitter.com/kristin__wilson/status/13473283250191646...
- incrudible 6y ago
- NeutronStar 6y agoSo using legal means to undermine the others is the same as sedition now?
- wnissen 6y agoThe difference is that there are 250 million documented user engagements with confirmed Russian propaganda pages. Those are the numbers provided directly from Facebook: 76 million on Facebook and 187 million on Instagram. That's a lot of likes, comments and shares. Page 48. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume2.pdf https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/docu...
- upbeat_general 6y agoI don’t know of any mainstream stories about actual votes being changed/hacked but there’s tons of evidence that Russia hacked state voter databases and manipulated online media for their benefit. We also have significant evidence that the trump campaign tried to collide with Russia (he even published those self incriminating emails on Twitter). Few people cast doubt on the votes themselves however in 2016 and that Trump was the legitimate winner. In this case there is zero evidence of widespread voter fraud after being litigated through the courts and acknowledgement as such by many republican Secretaries of State, senators, etc.
- fredophile 6y agoThere is a huge difference between saying "the winning campaign worked with a foreign government to spread disinformation" and "the votes were rigged. If you ignore the fraudulent ballots I won in a landslide." There's also a long running argument in American politics about voter registration. Over the years both sides have had victories but after the elections no one claims the results of those elections were fraudulent.