The WH Transition Thread --- all things Trump to Biden until Inauguration

[tennbengal]

Is the assumption that even if Pence has the stomach he doesn't have the secretaries?

I mean, that's my working assumption.

Yeah, I don't know which is less likely - Pence *and* a majority of Trump-appointed cabinet secretaries voting to remove Trump, or 66 Senators doing it.

At least forcing the issue would put Repubs on record. Even if they can't get 66 Senators, we make those who won't stand up and be counted again.

[mister d]

Can they just refuse to reconvene?

[L-Jam3]

Quorum in either house is a simple majority. Schumer conceivably could just call all the Ds and Romney to vote, and force the rest of the Rs back to DC, or simply stay home so they don’t have to vote on impeachment.

Of course, we’d be asking fucking Schumer to pull this off.

[EnochRoot]

[screams for 3 hours straight]

Dude. She's not really praying for him. She's giving voice to God-fearing Americans.

[mister d]

It would be like me standing in front of my fridge praying for dinner.

[mister d]

Terror ... ish?

[govmentchedda]

A little light treason.

[Rush2112]

[Steve of phpBB]

Terror ... ish?

Yeah, I'll give on that one. That's terrorism.

[P.D.X.]

It would be like me standing in front of my fridge praying for dinner.

Would that be strange if you were trying to appeal to people who follow the fridge god?

[Pruitt]

Can't make this shit up...

Trump awards Medals of Freedom to three golfers on morning after riot at Capitol

[mister d]

Would that be strange if you were trying to appeal to people who follow the fridge god?

Strange in that someone could logically ask me why I was choosing to pander by praying for something I could just do myself?

[Johnnie]

Someone finally swore on TV! 2021 looking up!



And thankfully Pelosi and Biden have called what happened yesterday terrorism. Thank goodness on that front too.

[Ryan]

Swallwell was just on MSNBC saying there needs to be an investigation into possible information from the inside as to how people found their way to places like Pelosi's office. When asked to clarify, he repeated the claim and mentioned Louie Gohmert by name. Weird thing to just invent as a theory?

[The Sybian]

Swallwell was just on MSNBC saying there needs to be an investigation into possible information from the inside as to how people found their way to places like Pelosi's office. When asked to clarify, he repeated the claim and mentioned Louie Gohmert by name. Weird thing to just invent as a theory?

Holy shit, that would be the greatest thing ever if they proved it! I saw the DC US Attorney mention investigating every speaker, including Trump, from the rally prior to the insurrection. I think they should hold off until after the inauguration to bring charges, so Trump can't pardon. I did hear an expert saying Trump can give a blanket pardon to everyone involved, and cite Vietnam War draft dodgers getting a blanket pardon as precedence. They need to prevent Presidents from pardoning people committing crimes on their behalf or in a conspiracy with the President.

[Steve of phpBB]

They need to prevent Presidents from pardoning people committing crimes on their behalf or in a conspiracy with the President.

Theoretically this is the kind of constitutional amendment I could actually see passing.

Though maybe Biden would have to nudge it along by issuing a blanket pardon to George Soros.

[Steve of phpBB]

So this is one of the guys who died of a "medical emergency" yesterday:



Apparently another accidentally tasered himself to death? Or is that just a Twitter rumor?

[Pruitt]

Man In Capitol Mob Fired After Wearing His Company ID Badge To Riot

[DaveInSeattle]

Former Deadspin writer recognizes a cousin...

[Pruitt]

Former Deadspin writer recognizes a cousin...

I saw a picture of that guy earlier and thought - "they let a Jew in their club?"

ETA: (from the gothamist)

"My brother did nothing illegal," Nachman told Gothamist. "He definitely was not part of the riot." Asked how he ended up in the Capitol building, Nachman said his brother was "pushed inside."

"You’re full of shit. You’re a dishonest person. My brother went as a citizen of America," Nachman continued.

[The Sybian]

I saw a picture of that guy earlier and thought - "they let a Jew in their club?"

Ha! I had the same thought. Reading this line in the article: the sone of "Shlomo Mostofsky, a prominent modern Orthodox figure in Brooklyn" , had me wishing he was next to the Camp Auschwitz shirt guy or the "6MNE" t-shirt (stands for 6 million not enough).

[DaveInSeattle]

Former Deadspin writer recognizes a cousin...

I saw a picture of that guy earlier and thought - "they let a Jew in their club?"

ETA: (from the gothamist)

"My brother did nothing illegal," Nachman told Gothamist. "He definitely was not part of the riot." Asked how he ended up in the Capitol building, Nachman said his brother was "pushed inside."

"You’re full of shit. You’re a dishonest person. My brother went as a citizen of America," Nachman continued.

They've had 24 hours, and the best they could come up with was 'he was pushed inside'?

[DaveInSeattle]

Josh Hawley gets (book) cancelled...

[The Sybian]

They've had 24 hours, and the best they could come up with was 'he was pushed inside'?

It worked for me when I got off on the rape charges.

[Pruitt]

Too soon!

[tennbengal]

@nonlinear @johnnie



I mean, yeah.

[tennbengal]

One NATO source set the stage, using terms more commonly used to describe unrest in developing countries.

"The defeated president gives a speech to a group of supporters where he tells them he was robbed of the election, denounces his own administration's members and party as traitors, and tells his supporters to storm the building where the voting is being held," the NATO intelligence official said.

"The supporters, many dressed in military attire and waving revolutionary-style flags, then storm the building where the federal law-enforcement agencies controlled by the current president do not establish a security cordon, and the protesters quickly overwhelm the last line of police.

"The president then makes a public statement to the supporters attacking the Capitol that he loves them but doesn't really tell them to stop," the official said. "Today I am briefing my government that we believe with a reasonable level of certainty that Donald Trump attempted a coup that failed when the system did not buckle.

"I can't believe this happened."

[Shirley]

I saw a picture of that guy earlier and thought - "they let a Jew in their club?"

Ha! I had the same thought. Reading this line in the article: the sone of "Shlomo Mostofsky, a prominent modern Orthodox figure in Brooklyn" , had me wishing he was next to the Camp Auschwitz shirt guy or the "6MNE" t-shirt (stands for 6 million not enough).

Well, he is standing next to a dude holding a confederate flag. Close enough.

[tennbengal]

The French police official said they believed that an investigation would find that someone interfered with the deployment of additional federal law-enforcement officials on the perimeter of the Capitol complex; the official has direct knowledge of the proper procedures for security of the facility.

It is routine for the Capitol Police to coordinate with the federal Secret Service and the Park Police and local police in Washington, DC, before large demonstrations. The National Guard, commanded by the Department of Defense, is often on standby too.

On Wednesday, however, that coordination was late or absent.

"You cannot tell me I don't know what they should have done. I can fly to Washington tomorrow and do that job, just as any police official in Washington can fly to Paris and do mine," the official said. The official directs public security in a central Paris police district filled with government buildings and tourist sites.

"These are not subtle principles" for managing demonstrations, "and they transfer to every situation," the official said. "This is why we train alongside the US federal law enforcement to handle these very matters, and it's obvious that large parts of any successful plan were just ignored."

[Steve of phpBB]

[tennbengal]

The French police official detailed multiple lapses they believe were systematic:

Large crowds of protesters needed to be managed far earlier by the police, who instead controlled a scene at the first demonstration Trump addressed, then ignored the crowd as it streamed toward the Capitol.
"It should have been surrounded, managed, and directed immediately, and that pressure never released."
Because the crowd was not managed and directed, the official said, the protesters were able to congregate unimpeded around the Capitol, where the next major failure took place.
"It is unthinkable there was not a strong police cordon on the outskirts of the complex. Fences and barricades are useless without strong police enforcement. This is when you start making arrests, targeting key people that appear violent, anyone who attacks an officer, anyone who breaches the barricade. You have to show that crossing the line will fail and end in arrest."
"I cannot believe the failure to establish a proper cordon was a mistake. These are very skilled police officials, but they are federal, and that means they ultimately report to the president. This needs to be investigated."
"When the crowd reached the steps of the building, the situation was over. The police are there to protect the building from terrorist attacks and crime, not a battalion of infantry. That had to be managed from hundreds of meters away unless the police were willing to completely open fire, and I can respect why they were not."

[tennbengal]

The third official, who works in counterintelligence for a NATO member, agreed that the situation could only be seen as a coup attempt, no matter how poorly considered and likely to fail, and said its implications might be too huge to immediately fathom.

"Thank God it didn't work, because I can't imagine how hard it would be to sanction the US financial system," the official said. By sanctions, he means the imposition of the diplomatic, military, and trade blockages that democratic nations usually reserve for dictatorships.

"The broader damage around the world will be extensive in terms of reputation, and that's why Putin doesn't mind at all that Trump lost. He's got to be happy to take his chips and count his winnings, which from the Trump era will be a shockingly quick decline in American prestige and moral high ground.

"Every moment the Americans spend on their own self-inflicted chaos helps China, it helps Putin, and, to a lesser extent, it helps the mini-dictators like [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and [Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor] Orban, who breathe cynicism about politics, human rights, and democracy as their air," the official said. "They won't miss Trump; they'll be glad to see his drama leave so they can enjoy the poisoned political climate."

[DaveInSeattle]

[sancarlos]

[P.D.X.]

Soooo the LEO's that they did post and never intended to provide back up are... 'necessary' collateral damage?

(there's some harrowing vids in that thread)

[psunate77]

[sancarlos]

He is Putin's boy. He loves dictators. So, rather than nuking a foreign country, I think it is more likely Trump would nuke San Francisco, Seattle, or New York City.

[Johnnie]

Bruh. He cannot unilaterally launch nukes.

It will be taken as an illegal order. The CJCS won't allow it.

Regardless, he needs to be removed immediately. It was already a soft removal yesterday since Pence had to make the other to call in the National Guard.

[EnochRoot]

The third official, who works in counterintelligence for a NATO member, agreed that the situation could only be seen as a coup attempt, no matter how poorly considered and likely to fail, and said its implications might be too huge to immediately fathom.

"Thank God it didn't work, because I can't imagine how hard it would be to sanction the US financial system," the official said. By sanctions, he means the imposition of the diplomatic, military, and trade blockages that democratic nations usually reserve for dictatorships.

"The broader damage around the world will be extensive in terms of reputation, and that's why Putin doesn't mind at all that Trump lost. He's got to be happy to take his chips and count his winnings, which from the Trump era will be a shockingly quick decline in American prestige and moral high ground.

"Every moment the Americans spend on their own self-inflicted chaos helps China, it helps Putin, and, to a lesser extent, it helps the mini-dictators like [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and [Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor] Orban, who breathe cynicism about politics, human rights, and democracy as their air," the official said. "They won't miss Trump; they'll be glad to see his drama leave so they can enjoy the poisoned political climate."

This is fantastic. Thank you for posting these excerpts.

I was talking with a systems architect earlier today about the IT security aspect to what happened yesterday. The fact computers were still up and running after the perimeter was breached suggests existing policies were not enforced about shutting down workstations to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data, etc.

[psunate77]

And who was saying Police were going to bash skulls again? I would say 80-90% of them are Pro-Trump