The Trump Administration

Jimmy Krankie already said he isn't allowed to travel to Scotland.
White House denies Trump planning Scotland trip after Sturgeon tells him he’s not allowed to visit because of Covid (msn.com)

 

I do think if the Americans really think trump is that dangerous and going to blow up the world that they would have started impeachment on the 7th. Or the 8th or 9th but no.

They went off for their weekend off.

For all the posturing at this point trump is sat in the white House scheming his next trick. Starting with Taiwan over night btw.


If there had actually been a real intent on the 6th with even 20 guys with guns there would have been a slaughter on capitol hill. The reality is they cannot impeach the guy and the further away from the 6th they let it go the less case and less chance they have as they need 2rds of the senate?

 

I saw an interview with a guy who monitors right-wing chat rooms. He said that a lot of insurrectionists thought they were following Trump's plan, and were expecting him to tell them the next stage of the plan once they broke in.

 

If only he'd told them to come armed eh?

I don't know how they think he specially told them anything as his meandering ramble never actually said break a barrier or enter the building.

He told them to make themselves heard.

In my little head I am also sure someone on his behalf made sure the capitol police didn't request any extra security etc. That guy who resigned has more info that needs to be squeezed out of him.

 

Which explains the disparity in how this and earlier BLM protests were policed. Even when serious failures happen on the day like this the authorities still have a broad idea what the groups they were dealing with could and would do if there was a security failure like the one that happened. Anyone with even basic intel would have known that even a in worst case scenario where they did breach the building it'd still be possible to fall back to designated safe zones within the building and that there was no widely co-ordinated plan. While there was certain fringe groups with organised plans they were different and un-coordinated that could be and was easily dealt with once the authorities regrouped while the majority stand around waiting for orders or not knowing what to do next.

Even if there was a catastrophic failure like there was on the day, at the higher levels they still probably knew what they were dealing with if that did happen. There wasn't large numbers of armed militia type groups there that could have tried a serious attempt at holding or capturing the Capitol like they almost did in Michigan earlier in the year but they just weren't there with as much arms or in numbers capable of doing that so I suspect that's why it wasn't anything more than the same level of policing as previous Trump events there since the election. They were likely expecting something the same as those rallies where the unrest was clashes afterwards with counterprotesters not because they tried to storm buildings. At the end of the day the mostly Trump supporter crowds did something they haven't and weren't expected to do so it's no surprise mistakes were made in policing the event when extra personnel were likely on hand but not expected to be needed until later in the day.

The BLM ones were a different type of crowd and certain groups involved would have acted differently and that's why the level of policing reflected it. Even if there wasn't any widely circulated plans or talk of storming buildings on the opportunistic chance they did they would have likely caused extensive damage pulling down statues, paintings, spraying extensive graffiti and possibly even starting fires not just broken windows and entry points and a few trashed offices like on the 6th. There's also the point that certain left-wing groups involved were much more organised and greater in number and they know how they would've likely acted in the same situation. They know well enough from past experience and intel that they are decentralised groups that aren't going to awkwardly stand around asking 'what do we do next?' and would probably move quickly to try and establish an occupation or barricade themselves into a large part of the building. In a situation they had a lot of unaffiliated people who'd be willing to join them it would have turned into something far harder to restore order with than any right-wing riot or small scale occupation so the level of policing on show there was proportional to what could have happened and enough to prevent that kind of scenario.

While I suspect the way right-wing protests are policed in future is going to change now after this and serious failures have clearly happened, some of the claims going around from commentators or journalists about why there was a difference in the scale of policing are frankly stupid. You don't police groups that operate different ways and have different objectives and organisational structures the same as each other.

 

This is all fine until you see people with pipe bombs.

Restraint ties actually inside the building etc etc.

Incompetence is not a defence.

So yes they will be policed differently and yes the difference is scale looks stupid but imo the truth will out there.

There was very very clear evidence and information that trump was getting a big rally together and plenty of chatter all over various media. Someone deliberately held those numbers down. Be it to not antagonise (stupidity) or to open the doors only time will tell.