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U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

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Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#41
post #2

What do these protestors hope to accomplish?

There are only a handful of endings to this... hostage-taking of senators or house representatives, or failing that, occupation of the building.

Considering that the senators and house representatives have been evacuated, the latter is looking more likely.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#42
post #37

Where's the tear gas and rubber bullets? Where is the national guard? There was more police response for a fscking photo op!

The Defense Department has just denied a request by DC officials to deploy the National Guard to the US Capitol.

EDIT: Source - https://twitter.com/byaaroncdavis/status/1346908166030766080

"BREAKING: A source tells me The Defense Department has just denied a request by DC officials to deploy the National Guard to the US Capitol." -Aaron C. Davis (Investigative Reporter for The Washington Post)

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#43
This is a failure of leadership by the republicans - plain and simple. I don't care if this comment is perceived as partisan, it's a statement of fact. If the republican leadership had unequivocally come out against the narrative that the election was stolen, this wouldn't be happening.

Edit: Yes, it's true that the top leader and his acolytes have engineered this outcome, but the majority of the republican leadership did not want this and do not benefit from this, they were (with some exceptions) simply too cowardly to speak out against it.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#44

History in the making right here. This[1] might be an early contender for image of the year [1] https://twitter.com/igorbobic/status/1346906369232920576/pho...

God, poor Capitol Police.

Imagine having to try and reason with that crowd, to avoid having to shoot anyone.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#45

Is there ANY credible evidence of fraud, anywhere? Or are people protesting solely because they trust Trump?

Every election has fraud, and this one was no different. It's just a matter of the scale of fraud. From all evidence thus-far, this election is not all that different than past elections when it comes to voter fraud. There was more chance for fraud (due to more mail-in voting), but no one has been able to prove it was large enough to impact any election result.

So yes, Trump has been riling up his base with words of stolen election, which has led to this moment.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#47
Are there people here on HN that believe the election was stolen? I haven't seen any evidence, most of the lawsuits haven't borne fruit either. However, I also recognize that there may be blindspots/biases.

I'd really like to hear from anyone who believes this, to present a cogent argument. I promise not to attack. I want to hear the argument from the other side. I also beseech the rest of HN to please refrain from attacking anyone who is doing so.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#50
post #8

Is this a coup?

Yes. Armed protestors storming the capitol and taking over the legislative chambers at the request of the defeated president is 100% a literal coup.

Where are you reading that the protestors are armed? The linked NPR article does not say so. The NYTimes coverage [1] mentions that people posted pictures of weapons on Facebook on Tuesday, but does not mention that the people in the Capitol are armed.

Breaching into government buildings in response to spurious allegations of electoral fraud is bad enough - there's no need to taint the message with embellishment, and doing so gives ammunition to people who want to claim that critics of these events are spreading falsehoods.

1. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/06/us/electoral-vote

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