Will the Republic as we know it end?

[Kishkumen]

Big Mac wrappers are classified??

You're losing your touch.

What about the Top Secret sauce?

[Chap]

Big Mac wrappers are classified??

You're losing your touch.

What about the Top Secret sauce?

Exactly. If only Shades kept a finger on the political pulse like we do, he'd have seen the MacAnon drop about this only a little while back.

[Some Schmo]

He declassified all the Big Mac wrappers just by thinking about it and then eating the contents.

Big Mac wrappers are classified??

You're losing your touch.

That was one of Moksha's better ones, I thought, especially since it's likely Trump wouldn't know the classification difference between nuclear secrets and a Big Mac wrapper.

[Kishkumen]

That was one of Moksha's better ones, I thought, especially since it's likely Trump wouldn't know the classification difference between nuclear secrets and a Big Mac wrapper.

He certainly treats them with equal care.

[Gunnar]

Big Mac wrappers are classified??

You're losing your touch.

That was one of Moksha's better ones, I thought, especially since it's likely Trump wouldn't know the classification difference between nuclear secrets and a Big Mac wrapper.

I agree. That was certainly one of Moksha's bests, and that Trump had no more concern about the privacy and classification of classical secrets than about Big Mac wrappers.

[Gunnar]

That was one of Moksha's better ones, I thought, especially since it's likely Trump wouldn't know the classification difference between nuclear secrets and a Big Mac wrapper.

He certainly treats them with equal care.

Obviously! Shameful, isn't it?

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

I really hope the media, to include social media, starves this clown of oxygen. He was a sideshow curiosity that became President due to the billions of free advertising everyone gave him. Leave him to the Parler crowd and let the rest of us discuss other things that require our attention.

- Doc

[Kishkumen]

I really hope the media, to include social media, starves this clown of oxygen. He was a sideshow curiosity that became President due to the billions of free advertising everyone gave him. Leave him to the Parler crowd and let the rest of us discuss other things that require our attention.

- Doc

Agreed.

[Gunnar]

. . .There are enough American who did not say it, may have been somewhat unaware of thinking it, but nevertheless felt something like this. Oh my god a black president the country is going down the drain we need a truly white guy who is a macho business boss guy.

I am sure you're right about that. That is exactly what the people whom Trump was able to dupe into following him were thinking, whether or not they overtly expressed that view (though some of them actually came right out and explicitly said so). It seems obvious to me that Trump himself definitely felt that way, and he correctly guessed that there were just enough American voters whose latent bigotry enabled them to be duped into voting for him to enable his election. It broke my heart to find out that there were still enough of my fellow Americans with sufficient residual bigotry in their hearts to make that possible.

[Dr Exiled]

Is that what would have happened? Did you forget who was still in charge on that day?

All that the rioters really needed to do was to collect inside, and set up a sit-down strike. Do you believe that the Capitol police or National Guard would really start kicking ass on 1000 MAGA protestors that were peacefully refusing to leave? Trump still even managed to tell those same protesters how they were wronged and hated and stolen from - almost as if trying to nudge the crowd into renewed anger - during his video request arguably suggesting that they ‘go home’, which he made three hours after realizing that he had no plan for them and no balls or intellect to formulate and be responsible for one, and that no one else was going to step up in his place and create a takeover plan for him (calling Mike Pence … Mike, are you there? Mike?).

Had anyone in that crowd really thought this through, an effective occupation could have begun that day, and Trump - once someone else was responsible for putting the plan into action - would have ridden that horse as far as it would have taken him in the name of ‘the people’. And, even if that lasted for only 24 hours before falling apart, or the military gently dragging off the occupiers, it most definitely would be the only example in modern US history - and a blatant one, at that - of an insurrection.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insurrection

The above isn't an insurrection, although the Jan 6 committee really tried to sell that hard and even hired a TV director to make it look more menacing. Protests, even misguided ones, aren't an insurrection, unless disagreement is somehow morphed into something different. However, there were definitely violent clashes with police and that should be condemned. Sure, there is a continuum regarding behavior, but, as you point out, the protesters left eventually. There clearly wasn't a plan to take over the government. And afterward, Biden was officially elected by the electoral college. The constitution worked. There wasn't a plan by Trump to become a dictator or to remain in office. Trump left. He left kicking and screaming, but left nonetheless.

So, some of the questions I have are why did the capitol police let some of the protesters through? Who opened the big doors from the inside? Were there FBI informants mixed in the crowd?(the FBI director won't answer this question and some criminal defense attorneys were just informed, late, that there were FBI informants in the Proud Boys and another of the groups that were part of Jan 6) Why the refusal to have more security as Trump claims to have asked Nancy Pelosi to do?