I gotta say, from the external perspective the biggest takeaway has been this: Biden has failed to complete the first massively publicised task of his premiership. Not enough from the senators themselves comes through our media, and the hype engines on both sides just screech such incomprehensible bile that they cannot be taken seriously.
The dystopian sit-com called “The USA” continues.
If Biden had any political capital to spend he would have stopped the impeachment, but the president can’t control the Senate directly. It was a waste of a couple weeks of Senate time and wasted any momentum they could have taken into the new session.
Incitement is damn hard to prove and whether you believe the actions were presidential they didn’t hit the level that would guarantee a conviction in a court of law. A political process isn’t going to work either.
However, considering the backpedaling that’s already happened with relations with China and the loss of American energy independence in only a few weeks. Maybe it’s just as well that the momentum was wasted.
There are two things I am really curious about though that haven’t come to light. And normally these things do come out quickly. Who shot that woman during the Capitol invasion and how did Brian Sicknick die? Usually the name of a shooting officer is made public pretty quick, and there are several stories questioning what happened with Sicknick. Did he sustain injuries during the riot or not? The Medical Examiner has still not announced a cause of death and it’s been well over a month.
Or, there was nothing wrong with the actual actions and the crime is the assumption of his motives. But this ground is well covered here and there’s not much point in discussing it.
I cannot attest to the veracity of this, but our media reported at the time that it was a private security agent for a Senator. They weren’t named, and by the time The Official Story was settled the person was shot by “a radical right-wing extremist” which is a very easy translation for “we screwed up so we’re blaming it on the public, business as usual”.
Which is demonstrably untrue since the actual shooting is on video. There was only one person veritably killed by the rioters and they were trampled by the crowd outside. The police officer who died they aren’t releasing the cause of death and the fire extinguisher story is sounding pretty thin. The others were natural causes and the shooting.
I was initially horrified by what happened but as it became clearer that 90% of the people who got in were just wandering around and the 10% were playing pretend revolutionary that it was nothing compared to the riots this summer. Hell, even with the inflated death count it’s not even in the top ten. And at least the people were bringing the protest to the people who they believed wronged them instead of a random car dealer or drugstore.
I still think it was stupid people doing stupid things, but the pearl clutching about murder plots and etc is a bit much after everyone has ignored actual physical assaults on Senators at softball practice and while mowing their lawn. I’ve seen multiple posts of people wishing they had better aim or giving the neighbor a CMH for his part in trying to clean up America.
Thankfully we have a Democrat back in office so the media will stop prying into what’s going on and we will continue sliding into the hand basket but this time quietly. I’m sure we will have a nice new war to distract people in a few months.
A few of the people that have been facing backlash for supporting Trump have been trying to dismiss it as just being cancel culture. “You don’t like me so you’re trying to get rid of everything about me.”
I’ve been thinking about that for a few days and it seems to me it’s more of a side effect than the primary goal.
If you look at this in military terms, you might hear a few people expressing the sentiment of “bomb 'em back to the stone age”. But you won’t hear it expressed as “we’re going to completely obliterate them so it’s like they never existed”. Instead, you might hear the phrase “destroy the enemy’s ability to wage war”.
That objective has two parts: stop the damage that’s currently happening, and prevent future damage. The two often go hand in hand. If they have factories making heavy weapons (missiles, bombs, aircraft, tanks and the like), destroying them achieves the first part and is a significant step towards the second part. Continuing to target the instruments of war makes it much more difficult to keep going. Eventually, they can’t and future damage is usually curtailed.
The two atomic bombs dropped on Japan in World War II showed the potential for obliteration. It was even announced ahead of time, but without saying how: surrender or face complete destruction of all Japanese armed forces and then the entire homeland. The objective of preventing further damage from the war continuing was achieved more by destroying the enemy’s will to wage war rather than ability and means. Taking it further was not necessary, and today Japan is an ally instead of remaining a conquered nation.
These people have also demonstrated that they’re going to continue. They’re not going to stop. That’s what makes the steps to stop the damage currently happening and to prevent future damage necessary. They won’t wake up one day and realize it was a horrible mistake because many of them already know that they’re inflicting damage by what they’re doing. They’re doing it deliberately and consciously. They’ll keep doing it until they’re forced to stop, and even then, they’ll want to continue.
The whole mostly-conservative backlash against “cancel culture” just seems…petty to me. For the most part, from my experience, it just seems to be a bunch of people who’re upset that they’re no longer able to be an asshole at people without consequences. If you’re an asshole at people, you should not be surprised when those people find a way to keep you from being an asshole at them.
I dislike the whole term “cancel culture” because it seems to be said by the same people who’ve also participated boycotts in the past.
Oh, I agree. It’s the same kind of thinking that “snowflake” and “attack helicopter” come from.
Whenever I hear/read “I identify as an attack helicopter” I want to throat punch the person saying/typing it. It’s so stupid.
You and me both, for the same reasons.
I wish they would identify as on original joke.
If child concentration camps were bad when Trump used them, then surely they are a lot worse when someone who acknowledges that they are bad uses them?
The Biden administration has set up “detainment” camps for migrant children. They are trying to spin the camps as much better than when Trump did the same thing, but who do they think they are fooling? They were bad before, they are bad now.
And for the record, I found out about it from the mainstream media (who were just as horrified about it as I am).
Over here it seems as if Tito (He Who Manages Finances) managed to get a little bit of common sense by deciding not to increase personal tax due to the reason that the taxpayer base is too small to carry the burden.
Which means unions gonna union and clamour for salary increases fot SoE (state owned enterprise) workers.
Things will get interesting. There are simply not enough money in the kitty, and the govt cannot keep on borrowing money.
Also, Eskom debt is now at R488 billion. I have no idea how they gonna manage that black hole debt.
The problem with cancel culture is that it only targets assholes on one side of the political spectrum. And it is applied as if it is the sword of justice because they have wrong opinions.
Often even if someone on the left is cancelled they are later rehabilitated.
I’m any case its not the words, images, or whatever used, its the cause they are employed in that’s cancelled. Congress is currently asking cable companies why they carry fox news and other channels. Not only asking them why but asking them to defend why they aren’t dropping them.
For years we listened to several news channels say that Trump stole the election with help from the Russians. With multiple people saying they had a smoking gun, or bombshell or whatever, yet no one ever showed that evidence and it all turned into nothing. Bit AT&T should drop fox because of three months of following potential fraud stories?
Also, it only took a month for Biden to bomb someone. And apparently Harris is upset she wasn’t told first.
I don’t like the smell of politics early in the morning
Tend to upset and ruin one’s day.
I don’t think this is accurate. The right loves its own cancel culture, but it manifests differently and uses different words. How many people on the right loudly announced boycotts of the NFL when players were taking a knee? Or every time some professional sport fails to adequately genuflect on the altar of Support The Troops?
None of the owners, networks, or leagues did. I give a crap if someone decides not to read a book, but refusing to publish it because you don’t ideologically agree with the author?
The logic for that attack escapes me. It’s supposed to be a de-escalation (how on earth is an attack a “de-escalation”?), and it’s retaliation for attacks on American personnel in Iraq, but it’s on Iranian backed troops in Syria?
Is there something in the constitution that says new administrations have to launch an attack on someone in their first month?
Obama: 3 days
Trump: 3 weeks
Biden: 4 weeks
Bush: let the side down a bit because it was just over a month
I’m not sure whether it’s the new administration just flexing their muscles and saying “don’t mess with me”, or the military trying one on. Or maybe it’s the other countries trying one on to test the resolve of the new crowd?
Publishers don’t have Right of Association?