American Politics

[mark12345]

According to this - https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...tage-rcna71878 - Schumer included his reasons for not releasing the tapes


Basically, that the video footage would give away the security protocols in place in the capitol building, and the footage could be used to identify weaknesses in that same security.

That statement came out in February 2023, two months before Carlson was let go from Fox. There's no official statement from the network why he left.

So essentially, you pulled up a link to an NBC story and regurgitated it in your own words. It's clear you don't have the same life experience as someone who lives on the ground in the country you are writing about.

Anyway, the article you posted very conveniently forgets to speak about the actual footage from inside the building which Carlson released on his show. It shows a completely different story to the one they were telling us at the time. People walking around taking selfies, chatting and laughing with the police, and the police even opening doors for one of them. The powers that be are supposedly worried about security but never bothered to ask who opened the fortified front doors from the inside. For his part, Carlson fully admitted that the vandals who damaged the building that day deserved prosecution.

And then of course there were the five police officers killed by the "rioters." The killing of five police officers, with not even one of those acts caught by the plethora of TV cameras and cell phones present? One of the officers was reportedly beaten to death with a fire extinguisher - remember? But that same officer was having dinner with his family the next evening (he did die of a stroke apparently the following day). And the funerals for the five officers. Do you remember seeing them on CNN or RTE? No, neither do I, and neither does anyone else. A monumental screw up wouldn't you say by a media which would move mountains just to have some mud to throw at DT. Hopefully, by now Tets, you can see that the gullible public in America and the world, was sold a bill of goods with the reporting that day.

The larger point about TC's credibility is that the man was a living legend on cable TV for a good number of years in America. He broke stories that none of the networks did, and he had the highest ratings of anyone in cable news. FOX loved him then and paid him a massive amount of money annually. FOX fired him for a reason. He was on a mission to bring the truth to the screen and if than meant exposing lies and deception on a grand scale, as it often did, then so be it. But FOX didn't want to go down that road with him.

[Razors left peg]

I have the same life experiences of someone living in the country as you Mark and as Ive said previously you worship at the altar of Fox, Carlson and Trump. Yet have the gall to say that Irish news is biased when you by your own words only watch the equivalent of North Korea state tv in how they fawn over Trump.

[tetsujin1979]

So essentially, you pulled up a link to an NBC story and regurgitated it in your own words. It's clear you don't have the same life experience as someone who lives on the ground in the country you are writing about.

I never claimed to have the same life experience as anyone, anywhere. I searched for Chuck Schumer's statement on the video files, that story contained them. Did you read the quotes from Schumer?

Anyway, the article you posted very conveniently forgets to speak about the actual footage from inside the building which Carlson released on his show. It shows a completely different story to the one they were telling us at the time. People walking around taking selfies, chatting and laughing with the police, and the police even opening doors for one of them. The powers that be are supposedly worried about security but never bothered to ask who opened the fortified front doors from the inside. For his part, Carlson fully admitted that the vandals who damaged the building that day deserved prosecution.

I posted this link one page ago - https://www.factcheck.org/2023/03/ex...-presentation/ - and it contains the following(note the claim is a quote from Carlson in his report)

Claim: “The tapes show the Capitol Police never stopped Jacob Chansley. They helped him. They acted as his tour guides.”

Facts: This is false. Chansley, also known as the “QAnon Shaman,” who was sentenced to 41 months in prison for obstructing an official proceeding on Jan. 6, 2021, signed a plea agreement acknowledging that he entered the Capitol through a door broken by other rioters and that he ignored Capitol Police officers who asked him to exit the building multiple times.

On his show, Carlson played video of a shirtless Chansley — in face paint and wearing a horned headdress — walking through the halls of the Capitol, mostly being trailed by one or more Capitol Police officers.

“Capitol Police officers take him to multiple entrances and even try to open locked doors for him,” Carlson claimed in the segment. “We counted at least nine officers who were within touching distance of unarmed Jacob Chansely. Not one of them even tried to slow him down. Chansley understood that Capitol Police were his allies. Video shows him giving thanks for them in a prayer on the floor of the Senate.”

But Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger disputed Carlson’s description of the events in a staff memo issued the day after Carlson’s show aired. Manger said officers tried to resolve the situation without violence.

“One false allegation is that our officers helped the rioters and acted as ‘tour guides.’ This is outrageous and false,” Manger wrote. “This Department stands by the officers in the video that was shown last night. I don’t have to remind you how outnumbered our officers were on January 6. Those officers did their best to use de-escalation tactics to try to talk rioters into getting each other to leave the building.”

One of the officers seen walking with Chansley, Capitol Police Officer Keith Robishaw, who has red hair and was wearing glasses and a light blue face mask, explained his thinking in the 2021 HBO documentary “Four Hours at the Capitol.”

In one of his first encounters with a group of rowdy protesters, including Chansley, who was armed with a spear affixed with an American flag, Robishaw said he knew he and his fellow officers had to try to get them to leave peacefully.

“We were standing on that line, and there was the six of us. Meeting violence with violence at this time would not be safe for me and my fellow officers,” Robishaw said about 36 minutes into the film. “The sheer number of them compared to us, I knew in my head there was no way that we could all get physical with them, so I took it upon myself to try and talk to them.”

“No attacking, no assault, remain calm,” Robishaw told the men.

Later, when Chansley had made his way to the Senate floor, Robishaw saw him and followed him inside, by himself, and tried to get Chansley and others already in the chamber to leave.

“I walk in behind him, and that’s when I realized I was alone now. I was by myself,” Robishaw told the documentarians. “I was like, ‘I can’t do anything.’ You know? I can only do is, you know, shout orders, and if they listen, great, if they don’t, I can’t force them. I’m all by myself.”

In video filmed by a New Yorker reporter, Robishaw is shown saying to the men: “Any chance I could get you guys to leave the Senate wing?” At one point, a protester says, “You should be stopping us.” Robishaw responds that he is outnumbered.

According to court documents, Chansley and others did not exit the chamber until additional law enforcement officers arrived to back up Robishaw.

And then of course there were the five police officers killed by the "rioters." The killing of five police officers, with not even one of those acts caught by the plethora of TV cameras and cell phones present?

There's no footage because none of them died at the scene. Brian Sicknick died in hospital, four others(Howard Charles Liebengood, Jeffrey Smith, Kyle Hendrik DeFreytag, and Paul Hashida) died by suicide following the events - https://www.reuters.com/world/us/off...de-2021-08-02/

One of the officers was reportedly beaten to death with a fire extinguisher - remember? But that same officer was having dinner with his family the next evening (he did die of a stroke apparently the following day).

The fire extinguisher aspect of the story was disputed and later withdrawn
from https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/br...-extinguisher/

Law enforcement officials initially said Mr. Sicknick was struck with a fire extinguisher, but weeks later, police sources and investigators were at odds over whether he was hit. Medical experts have said he did not die of blunt force trauma, according to one law enforcement official.

You should read the official statement from the capitol police, he did not have dinner with his family - https://www.uscp.gov/media-center/pr...ian-d-sicknick

He returned to his division office and collapsed. He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

And the funerals for the five officers. Do you remember seeing them on CNN or RTE? No, neither do I, and neither does anyone else. A monumental screw up wouldn't you say by a media which would move mountains just to have some mud to throw at DT. Hopefully, by now Tets, you can see that the gullible public in America and the world, was sold a bill of goods with the reporting that day.

Why would anyone, anywhere, want to see the funerals of five men? It's exceedingly rare for any network to broadcast such an event.

The larger point about TC's credibility is that the man was a living legend on cable TV for a good number of years in America. He broke stories that none of the networks did, and he had the highest ratings of anyone in cable news. FOX loved him then and paid him a massive amount of money annually. FOX fired him for a reason. He was on a mission to bring the truth to the screen and if than meant exposing lies and deception on a grand scale, as it often did, then so be it. But FOX didn't want to go down that road with him.

He was(and is) more of a showman than a reporter. He gamed the system by reporting aspects of a story that would get higher ratings, even if it meant leaving out relevant points. There was no confirmation from the network on why he was fired, various reports from around the time all give different reasons.

[joey B]

A completely mental situation,crazy stuff happening over there….

[Razors left peg]

A completely mental situation,crazy stuff happening over there….

He hires only the best people dont you know.

[dahamsta]

This thread should just be a laundry list of MAGA idiocy. Let's start with the dismantling of the Department of Education.

[tetsujin1979]

Adding a journalist to a group chat would have ended the careers of other security chiefs. Now it's just what happened on Monday

I found this to be interesting: https://www.project2025.observer/

[Razors left peg]

Further details of the group chat were released by the Atlantic today. Its clear in black and white the monumental fcuk up this was.... whatever about conducting national security by group chat, adding someone accidentally is incredible. Instead of taking ownership of it thought we are just getting the usual deny and deflect. Attacking The Atlantic, saying its a failing magazine, saying the editor who was added to the group chat is a liar. The lack of accountability would be beyond belief in any other time in politics.

Meanwhile in a completely separate issue, there was a congress woman from Texas who called the Governor " Governor Hot wheels" in a jokey speech. The man is in a wheel chair, so it was definitely an insensitive joke ( even if the guy is a pr1ck), but the faux outrage from MAGA land is incredible. Coming from the people who elected a President who has horrible nicknames for everyone, and openly mocked a disabled journalist at one of his rallies ... they want to have an official censure from congress for the insult. Its mindblowing!

Theres a World Cup in this country next year and I genuinely hope fans from the rest of the world boycott it. Its going to be a sh1tshow anyway. Match tickets will probably be about $500 each, just like every other event here, but it will be the perfect opportunity for the world to make their feelings known about this current administration.

[dahamsta]

Adding a journalist to a group chat would have ended the careers of other security chiefs. Now it's just what happened on Monday

I found this to be interesting: https://www.project2025.observer/

Jesus, it's incredible to see it in black and white.

[pineapple stu]

Why would you break up the Department of Education, of all things? Or roll back the goal of making the air easier to breathe?

It's mental how quickly he can action these things. Imagine how useful the office of President of the US could be if it wasn't filled by a deranged looney.

[Razors left peg]

Why would you break up the Department of Education, of all things? Or roll back the goal of making the air easier to breathe?

It's mental how quickly he can action these things. Imagine how useful the office of President of the US could be if it wasn't filled by a deranged looney.

The idea is that it pushes back the Education responsibility to the individual States. In theory it's not terrible, but in actuality it's a disaster. Creationism is a more valid theory than Evolution in a lot of States just for example, but the main issue will be the lack of federal funds towards Education.

The reason behind it is simple. The better educated States vote Democrat. That's a verifiable fact before any says I'm biased. The dumber you keep voters the easier you can control them

[pineapple stu]

The reason behind it is simple. The better educated States vote Democrat. That's a verifiable fact before any says I'm biased. The dumber you keep voters the easier you can control them

I see. I can't think of anything on this thread that would back you up in that regard

But it's more cynical than I was capable of being, which is saying something

[Eminence Grise]

I don’t have stats for voting patterns and education, but Razor’s last point about keeping voters dumb holds water. As far back as 1920, Walter Lippmann was writing much the same – he’s something a doyen for the right because his theories about halting the decline of democracy propose having a technocratic elite [Edit: rereading this, it struck me that tech bros and conservative Christiain patriarchy are the new technocrats] able to interpret issues for the masses, even though as a journalist and political commentator he wasn’t naturally disposed to that mindset. He saw the elite as a useful thing, once its power was kept in check.

In the absence of institutions and education by which the environment is so successfully reported that the realities of public life stand out sharply against self-centered opinion, the common interests very largely elude public opinion entirely, and can be managed only by a specialized class whose personal interests reach beyond the locality. This class is irresponsible, for it acts upon information that is not common property, in situations that the public at large does not conceive, and it can be held to account only on the accomplished fact.

In other words, if you let this class dominate what information they masses receive … you’re in trouble. If the message is creationism good, evolution bad and it’s sustained (and interpreted for the masses) by state-approved textbooks and publicly funded universities – well, good night and good luck.

Lippmann was clear that the elite should never engage in debate with the masses, but give them simple easy to understand symbols and stereotypes – the flag, Commies and Reds, God, the dollar, Uncle Sam – and they’ll go where the messages condition them.

The orthodox theory holds that a public opinion constitutes a moral judgment on a group of facts. The theory I am suggesting is that, in the present state of education, a public opinion is primarily a moralized and codified version of the facts. I am arguing that the pattern of stereotypes at the center of our codes largely determines what group of facts we shall see, and in what light we shall see them.

What’s dismal is that the book these are from, Public Opinion, came out in 1920 and is still in print, and on university reading lists around the world (mine too, but as an early stage on a continuum that eventually ends up with Goebbels, and in counterpoint to John Dewey who was all for education the masses as a bulwark to support democracy against elites).

[Razors left peg]

Mark12345 I am very curious to get your take on this Trump tariff stuff. I have yet to see anyone say its a good idea or even anything less than its a disaster for the economy and working people in general. As we talked about previously you put more trust in FOX and Newsmax so Im wondering if the talking heads over there have a different take that has you convinced that this is a really good thing?

[dahamsta]

The convervative line, which that person will take, is that it's just a matter of time, America will win. You know, like the Brits did.

[Stuttgart88]

I seem to recall the performance of 401(k)'s being cited as a gauge of Trump v1.0's "success".

[osarusan]

In the case of Kilmar Ábrego García, despite acknowledging that his deportation to El Salvador was an administrative error, and despite a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling that they must facilitate his return, the Trump administration will not do so.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9qwxwrr74jo

What an utter basket case of an administration.

I read this morning that Australian academics who had planned to attend some conference in the US are hesitant to do so, and some events are being switched to hybrid to cater for this reluctance to travel.

How pointlessly stupid.

[seanfhear]

I read this morning that Australian academics who had planned to attend some conference in the US are hesitant to do so, and some events are being switched to hybrid to cater for this reluctance to travel.

How pointlessly stupid.

This will be great for the climate change.

[SkStu]

This will be great for the climate change.

OK - this made me laugh!

[CraftyToePoke]

In the case of Kilmar Ábrego García, despite acknowledging that his deportation to El Salvador was an administrative error, and despite a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling that they must facilitate his return, the Trump administration will not do so.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9qwxwrr74jo

What an utter basket case of an administration.

I read this morning that Australian academics who had planned to attend some conference in the US are hesitant to do so, and some events are being switched to hybrid to cater for this reluctance to travel.

How pointlessly stupid.

The UK lad who's tattoo somehow ended up on their gang watching for idiots guide to running a country another highlight.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly22xm8kx1o

Of course he has the US holiday of a lifetime booked and is now twitching a bit.

Have a look at Benidorm lad or Ibiza, few yokes, bit of footwork, make do with that for now would be my advice.