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Posts by stl1
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2022-01-06 at 9:51 PM UTC in THE MAGA PARTY!,,, the GOP is dead, republicans are going down with the dems,, get ready for THE MAGA PARTY lefty's
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2022-01-06 at 9:45 PM UTC in STICK IT, Damn It!
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2022-01-06 at 8:48 PM UTC in THE MAGA PARTY!,,, the GOP is dead, republicans are going down with the dems,, get ready for THE MAGA PARTY lefty'sHe's going to deport you?
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2022-01-06 at 8:42 PM UTC in BradleyBs Better Beef StewJust made two gallons of stew. The high today was 19 degrees (at midnight) and it's currently only 17. So, a good day for stew!
Stew meat
Hot sausage
Frozen peas
Frozen green beans
Frozen corn
Red onion
Yellow onion
Mushrooms
Beef broth
Chicken broth
Carrots
Green pepper
Potatoes
Cabbage
Steak seasoning
Cajun seasoning
Edit to add: Celery -
2022-01-06 at 8:25 PM UTC in I ordered car tires on Amazon.
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2022-01-06 at 8:20 PM UTC in Shes extorting me now guysSending nekkid pictures to underage girls.
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2022-01-06 at 8:18 PM UTC in THE MAGA PARTY!,,, the GOP is dead, republicans are going down with the dems,, get ready for THE MAGA PARTY lefty'sRump IS the problem.
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2022-01-06 at 6:47 PM UTC in THE MAGA PARTY!,,, the GOP is dead, republicans are going down with the dems,, get ready for THE MAGA PARTY lefty's
Originally posted by frala Why don’t you just provide your own damn thoughts for a change
Actually, because of these:
Originally posted by Solstice No one is reading that shit, nigger
Originally posted by Solstice No one is watching that shit either, nigger.
I try to show the truth to the ignorant who will only watch Faux News, conspiracy videos and "alternative facts".
I'm the "NOT FAKE NEWS" poster. -
2022-01-06 at 6:43 PM UTC in THE MAGA PARTY!,,, the GOP is dead, republicans are going down with the dems,, get ready for THE MAGA PARTY lefty's
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2022-01-06 at 6:39 PM UTC in Sad updateA cross between Tom Selleck, George Clooney and Bozo the Clown.
Did that help? -
2022-01-06 at 6:32 PM UTC in Realizing how fucked up my life has been.
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2022-01-06 at 6:20 PM UTC in Sad update
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2022-01-06 at 6:13 PM UTC in THE MAGA PARTY!,,, the GOP is dead, republicans are going down with the dems,, get ready for THE MAGA PARTY lefty's
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2022-01-06 at 6:04 PM UTC in THE MAGA PARTY!,,, the GOP is dead, republicans are going down with the dems,, get ready for THE MAGA PARTY lefty's'A dagger at the throat of democracy': Read the transcript of Biden's full speech calling out Trump
Matthew Brown and Sean Rossman, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden marked one year since the Capitol attack of Jan. 6, 2021, with a speech in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol on Thursday.
Before a small crowd of congressional staff and journalists, Biden excoriated his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, and his false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election and vowed to protect democracy.
Here's the full transcript of his speech:
Madam Vice President, fellow Americans. To state the obvious, one year ago today, in this sacred place, democracy was attacked. Simply attacked. The will of the people was under assault. The Constitution, our constitution, faced the gravest of threats.
Outnumbered in the face of a brutal attack, Capitol Police, the DC Metropolitan Police Department, the National Guard and other brave law enforcement officials saved the rule of law.
Our democracy held. We the people endured. We the people prevailed.
For the first time in our history, a president had not just lost an election; he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob breached the Capitol. But they failed. They failed.
And on this day of remembrance we must make sure that such an attack never, ever happens again. I'm speaking to you today from Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol. This is where the House of Representatives met for 50 years in the decades leading up to the Civil War.
It is on this floor where a young congressman from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, sat at desk 191. Above him — above us — over that door leading into the rotunda is a sculpture depicting Clio, the muse of history. In her hands, an open book in which she records the events taking place in this chamber below. Clio stood watch over this hall one year ago today, as she has for more than 200 years.
She recorded what took place. The real history. The real facts. The real truth. The facts and the truth that Vice President Harris just shared and that you and I and the whole world saw with our own eyes.
The Bible tells us that 'We shall know the truth and the truth shall make us free.' We shall know the truth. Well, here is the God's truth about January 6, 2021.
Close your eyes. Go back to that day. What do you see? Rioters rampaging. Waving, for the first time inside this Capitol, the Confederate flag that symbolizes the cause to destroy America. To rip us apart.
Even during the Civil War that never, ever happened. But it happened here in 2021. What else do you see? The mob breaking windows, kicking in doors, breaching the Capitol. American flags on poles being used as weapons, as spears.
Fire extinguishers being thrown at the heads of police officers. A crowd that professes their love for law enforcement assaulted those police officers. Dragged them, sprayed them, stomped on them. Over 140 police officers were injured.
We all heard the police officers who were there that day testify to what happened. One officer called it "a medieval battle" and that he was more afraid that day than he was fighting the war in Iraq. They've repeatedly asked since that day, how dare anyone, anyone, diminish, belittle or deny the hell they were put through? We saw with our own eyes. Rioters menaced these halls, threatening life of the Speaker of the House, literally erecting gallows to hang the Vice President of the United States of America.
But what did we not see? We didn't see a former president who just rallied the mob to attack sitting in the private dining room of the Oval Office in the White House watching it all on television and doing nothing for hours.
Police were assaulted. Lives at risk. The nation's Capitol under siege. This wasn't a group of tourists. This was an armed insurrection. They weren't looking to uphold the will of the people; they were looking to deny the will of the people. They're weren't looking to uphold a free and fair election. They were looking to overturn one. Then weren't looking to save the cause of America. They were looking to subvert the Constitution.
This isn't about being bogged down past. It's about making sure the past isn't buried. That's the only way forward. That's what great nations do. They don't bury the truth; they face up to it. Sounds like hyperbole, but that's your truth. They face up to it.
We are a great nation. My fellow Americans, in life there's truth and tragically there are lies. Lies conceived and spread for profit and power. We must be absolutely clear about what is true and what is a lie. And here's the truth: The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election.
He's done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interest as more important than his country's interest, than America's interest. And because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution.
He can't accept he lost even though that's what 93 United States senators, his own attorney general, his own vice president, governors and state officials in every battleground state have all said: He lost.
That's what 81 million of you did as you voted for a new way forward. He's done what no president in American history, in the history of this country, has ever, ever done.
He refused to accept the results of an election and the will of the American people. While some courageous men and women in the Republican Party are standing against it, trying to uphold the principle of that party, too many others are transforming that party into something else. They seem no longer to want to be the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, Reagan, the Bushes.
Well, whatever my other disagreements are with Republicans who support the rule of law, and not the rule of a single man, I will always seek to work together with them. To find shared solutions where possible. Because when we have a shared belief in democracy, then anything is possible. Anything.
So at this moment, we must decide: What kind of nation are we going to be?
Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm? Are we going to be a nation where we allow partisan election officials to overturn the legally expressed will of the people? Are are going to be a nation that lives not by the light of the truth but in the shadow of lies? We cannot allow ourselves to be that kind of nation.
The way forward is to recognize the truth. To live by it. The "Big Lie" being told by the former president, and many Republicans who fear his wrath, is that the insurrection in this country actually took place on Election Day, November 3, 2020. Think about that. Is that what you thought? Is that what you thought when you voted that day? Taking part in an insurrection? Is that what you thought you were doing? Or did you think you were carrying out your highest duty as a citizen and voting?
The former presidents' supporters are trying to rewrite history. They want you to see election day is the day of insurrectionand the riots that took place here on January 6 as a true expression of the will of the people. Can you think of a more twisted way to look at this country, to look at America? I cannot.
Here's the truth. The election of 2020 was the greatest demonstration of democracy in the history of this country. More of you voted in that election than have ever voted in all of American history. Over 150 million Americans went to the polls and voted that day, in a pandemic, some at great risk to their lives. And they should be applauded, not attacked.
Right now, in state after state, new laws are being written not to protect the vote, but to deny it. Not only to suppress the vote, but to subvert it. Not to strengthen and protect our democracy, but because the former president lost instead of looking at the election results in 2020, and saying they need new ideas or better ideas to win more votes. The former president and his supporters have decided the only way for them to win is to suppress your vote and subvert our elections. It's wrong. It's undemocratic. And frankly, it's un-American.
The second "Big Lie" being told by the former president's supporters is that the results of the election of 2020 can't be trusted. The truth is that no election, no election in American history has been more closely scrutinized or more carefully counted.
Every legal challenge questioning the results in every court in this country that could have been made, was made and was rejected. Often rejected by Republican-appointed judges, including judges appointed by the former president himself. From state courts to the United States Supreme Court. Recounts were undertaken in state after state.
Georgia, Georgia counted its results three times, with one recount by hand. Phony partisan audits were undertaken long after the election in several states. None change the results.
In some of them, the irony is the margin of victory actually grew slightly. So let's speak plainly about what happened in 2020.
Even before the first ballot was cast, the former president was preemptively sowing doubt about the election results. He built his lie over months. It wasn't based in the facts. He was just looking for an excuse, a pretext to cover for the truth. He's not just a former president. He's a defeated former president.
Defeated by a margin of over 7 million of your votes. In a full and free and fair election. There is simply zero proof the election results are inaccurate. In fact, in every venue where evidence had to be produced, an oath to tell the truth had to be taken, the former president failed to make his case. Just think about this: The former president and his supporters have never been able to explain how they accept as accurate other election results that took place on November 3rd. Elections for governor, United States Senate, House of Representatives, elections in which they close the gap in the House.
They challenged none of that. The president's name was first. Then we went down the line. Governor, senators, House of Representatives, somehow those results are accurate on the same ballot. But the presidential race was flawed. And on the same ballot, same day, cast by the same voters. The only difference: the former president didn't lose those races. He just the lost the one that was his own.
Finally, the third "Big Lie being" told by a former president and his supporters is that the mob who sought to impose their will through violence are the nation's true patriots. Is that what you thought when you looked at the mob, ransacking the Capitol, destroying property, literally defecating in the hallways, rifling through the desks of senators and representatives, hunting down members of Congress? Patriots? Not in my view. To me, the true patriots are the more than 150 Americans who peacefully expressed their vote at the ballot box, the election workers for protecting the integrity of the vote and the heroes who defended this Capitol. You can't love your country only when you win, you can't obey the law only when it’s convenient. You can't be patriotic when you embrace and enable lies.
Those who stormed this Capitol and those who instigated and incited and those who called on them to do so held a dagger at the throat of America and American democracy. They didn't come here out of patriotism or principle. They came here in rage. Not in service of America, rather in service of one man. Those who incited the mob, the real plotters who were desperate to deny the certification of this election, to defy the will of the voters. Their plot was foiled. Congress, Democrats, Republicans stayed. Senators, representatives, staff, they finished their work the Constitution demanded. They honored their oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Look folks, now it's up to all of us, we the people, to stand for the rule of law, to preserve the flame of democracy, to keep the promise of America alive. The promise is at risk, targeted by the forces that value brute strength over the sanctity of democracy, fear over hope, personal gain over public good. Make no mistake about it, we're living at an inflection point in history, both at home and abroad.
We're engaged anew in a struggle between democracy and autocracy, between the aspirations of the many and the greed of the few, between the people's right of self-determination and self-seeking autocrat. From China to Russia and beyond, they're betting that democracy’s days are numbered. They actually told me democracy is too slow, too bogged down by division to succeed in today's rapidly changing complicated world. And they're betting, they’re betting America will become more like them and less like us. They’re betting America’s a place for the autocrat, the dictator, the strong man. I do not believe that. That is not who we are. That is not who we have ever been. And that is not who we should ever ever be.
Our founding fathers, as imperfect as they were, set in motion an experiment that changed the world, literally changed the world. Here in America, the people would ruled. Power would be transferred peacefully, never at the tip of the spear or the barrel of a gun. They committed to paper an idea that they couldn’t live up to, but an idea that couldn't be constrained.
Yes, in America, all people are created equal, and reject a view that if you succeed, I fail. If you get ahead, I fall behind. If I hold you down, I somehow lift myself up. The former president lies about this election and the mob that attacked this Capitol could not be further away from the core American values. They want to rule or they will ruin, ruin what our country fought for at Lexington and Concord, at Gettysburg and Omaha Beach, Seneca Falls, Selma, Alabama. What were we fighting for? The right to vote, the right to govern ourselves. The right to determine our own destiny. With rights come responsibilities, responsibility to see each other as neighbors. Maybe we disagree with that neighbor but they're not an adversary. The responsibility to accept defeat, then get back in the arena and try again the next time to make your case. Responsibility to see that America is an idea, an idea that requires vigilant stewardship.
As we stand here today, one year since January 6 2021, the lies that drove the anger and madness we saw in this place, they have not abated. So we have to be firm, resolute and unyielding in our defense of the right to vote and to have that vote counted.
Some of us made the ultimate sacrifice in this sacred effort. Jill and I mourned police officers in this Capitol Rotunda not once but twice in the wake of January 6th. Once to honor Officer Brian Sicknick, who lost his life the day after the attack and a second time to honor Officer Billy Evans, who lost his life defending this Capitol as well. Think about the others who lost their lives and everyone living with the trauma of that day. Those defending this Capitol, to members of Congress of both parties and their staffs, to reporters, cafeteria workers, custodial workers and their families. Don't kid yourself, the pain and scars from that day were deep. I’ve said it many times, and it's no more true or real, when we think about the events of January 6. We are in a battle for the soul of America. A battle, but by the grace of God, the goodness and greatness of this nation, we will win.
Believe me, I know how difficult democracy is, but I’m crystal clear about the threats America faces. I also know that our darkest days can lead to light and hope. From the death and destruction the vice president referenced at Pearl Harbor came the triumph over the forces of fascism. From the brutality of Bloody Sunday, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, came historic voting rights legislation. So now let's step up, write the next chapter in American history. For January 6 marks not the end of democracy but the beginning of a renaissance of liberty and fair play. I did not seek this fight brought to this Capital one year ago today. But I will not shrink from it either. I will stand in this breach. I will defend this nation, and I'll allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of democracy. We will make sure the will of the people is heard, that the ballot prevails, not violence, that authority of this nation will always be peacefully transferred. I believe the power of the presidency and the purpose is to unite this nation. Not divide it, to lift us up, not tear us apart. It’s about us, not about me.
Deep in the heart of America burns a flame lit almost 250 years ago of liberty, freedom and equality. This is not a land of kings or dictators or autocrats. We're a nation of laws, of order, not chaos, of peace, not violence. Here in America, the people rule through the ballot, and their will prevails. So let us remember together. We're one nation, under God, indivisible, that today, tomorrow and forever at our best, we are the United States of America.
God bless you all. God protect our troops, and may God bless those who stand watch over democracy. -
2022-01-06 at 5:15 PM UTC in THE MAGA PARTY!,,, the GOP is dead, republicans are going down with the dems,, get ready for THE MAGA PARTY lefty'sReuters
Factbox-Trump's false claims debunked: the 2020 election and Jan. 6 riot
By Jan Wolfe
(Reuters) - A year after a mob of Donald Trump's supporters assaulted the U.S. Capitol in a failed bid to overturn his 2020 election defeat, the Republican former president continues to repeat false claims blaming widespread voting fraud for his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Those claims have been rejected by courts, state governments and members of his own former administration. Trump and his supporters also have sought to play down or deny the violence that unfolded at the seat of the U.S. Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.
Here are some examples of the repudiation of Trump's false claims by state and federal officials.
FEDERAL AGENCIES
The top U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies have concluded that there was no widespread voter fraud in the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election.
Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, the nation's top law enforcement official under Trump, said https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-biden/barr-sees-no-sign-of-major-u-s-vote-fraud-despite-trumps-claims-idUSKBN28B5UK on Dec. 1, 2020, that he had not seen any evidence of fraud that would have changed the election results.
Barr was more pointed in a later interview https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/06/william-barrs-trump-administration-attorney-general/619298/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AtlanticPoliticsChannel+%28The+Atlantic+-+Politics%29 with journalist Jonathan Karl for Karl's book "Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show."
"If there was evidence of fraud, I had no motive to suppress it," Barr told Karl. "But my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there. It was all bullshit."
The 2020 presidential election was the most secure in American history, according to a statement https://www.cisa.gov/news/2020/11/12/joint-statement-elections-infrastructure-government-coordinating-council-election issued by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, on Nov. 12, 2020.
"There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised," the statement read.
COURT CASES
State and federal judges dismissed more than 50 lawsuits brought by Trump and his allies challenging the election.
Several judges, including Trump appointees, noted a lack of evidence of fraudulently cast votes.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann, a conservative jurist in Pennsylvania, issued a decision https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-pennsylvania/u-s-judge-calls-trump-claim-challenging-biden-win-in-pennsylvania-frankensteins-monster-idUSKBN2810WR on Nov. 21, 2020, that dismissed the Trump campaign's effort to block the certification of Biden's victory in the key election battleground state.
"One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption," Brann wrote. "Instead, this Court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations."
Of one of the assertions made by Trump campaign, Brann wrote: "This claim, like Frankenstein's Monster, has been haphazardly stitched together."
A Trump appointee in Milwaukee, U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig, similarly rebuked https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election/trump-castigates-supreme-court-barr-as-election-challenges-sputter-idUSKBN28M0T7 a Trump campaign lawsuit contesting the election results in that state.
Unlike other judges who dismissed cases on procedural grounds, Ludwig provided the Trump campaign with a day-long hearing to consider evidence that Wisconsin's election rules were violated. Ludwig found that evidence woefully lacking.
"This court has allowed the plaintiff the chance to make his case and he has lost on the merits," Ludwig wrote.
STATE AUDITS
In Georgia, an election battleground state won narrowly by Biden, a post-election audit was conducted by Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who was the state's top election official.
"The audit confirmed that the original machine count accurately portrayed the winner of the election," Raffensperger's office said https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-election-georgia/georgia-confirms-bidens-victory-in-state-as-it-completes-hand-audit-of-ballots-idUKKBN280014 on Nov. 19, 2020.
In Arizona, a review https://www.reuters.com/world/us/arizona-republicans-release-findings-widely-panned-election-audit-2021-09-24 of results by Trump allies in its most populous county reaffirmed Biden's victory in the crucial state.
Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican who paved the way for the "full forensic audit" of 2.1 million ballots in Maricopa County, said in September that the review's overall vote tally matched the initial results in November.
THE RIOT
Federal judges have similarly criticized Trump and Republican lawmakers for seeking to downplay the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"I'm especially troubled by the accounts of some members of Congress that Jan. 6 was just a day of tourists walking through the Capitol," U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth said https://www.reuters.com/world/us/what-planet-are-they-judge-blasts-republicans-downplaying-attack-us-capitol-2021-06-23 during a June court hearing. "I don't know what planet these people are on."
"The rioters were not mere protesters," Beryl Howell, the chief judge of the federal district court in Washington, said in October, adding that on the day of the riot there was "shocking criminal conduct that represented a grave threat to our democratic norms."
According to the Justice Department, about 140 police officers were injured while defending the Capitol.
Federal prosecutors have charged more than 725 people with various crimes arising from the Capitol riot. Of those arrested, 225 people were charged with assault or resisting arrest. More than 75 of those were charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon against police officers. -
2022-01-06 at 3:52 PM UTC in THE MAGA PARTY!,,, the GOP is dead, republicans are going down with the dems,, get ready for THE MAGA PARTY lefty'sMay we
All
Get
A democratic country that respects the people's right to choose their leaders without interference
ABC News
Jan. 6 live updates: Biden slams Trump for 'web of lies' about Jan. 6, election loss
Thursday marks one year since the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and Democrats plan to observe the anniversary with somber tributes at the building that's the symbol of American democracy.
The events in Washington include a moment of silence, a panel discussion with historians, firsthand testimonies from lawmakers and a prayer vigil on the Capitol steps.
President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are making remarks at the Capitol where the White House says the president will address the "singular responsibility" former President Donald Trump had "for the chaos and carnage" witnessed and commemorate law enforcement officers who protected the lives of lawmakers last year. No Republican leaders are expected to attend the ceremonies.
Biden slams Trump for spreading 'web of lies' around election loss
In his most forceful remarks yet against Trump, Biden called out the former president -- without using his name -- for weaving what he called a "web of lies" around the 2020 election and attacking American democracy as no other leader has before.
"We must be absolutely clear about what is true and what is a lie," Biden said. "And here's the truth: The former president of the United States of America has created spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He's done so because he values power over principle -- because he sees his own interest is more important than his country's interest and America's interest -- because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution."
"He can't accept he lost," Biden said. "He can't accept he lost even though that's what 93 United States senators, his own attorney general, his own vice president, governors and state officials and every battleground state, all said, he lost."
Establishing Trump as a "defeated former president -- by a margin of 7 million votes in a free and fair election," Biden defended his win against Trump and his supporters by laying out the facts of the election.
Harris ties ‘fragility of democracy’ to push for voting rights legislation
A somber Vice President Kamala Harris, in remarks ahead of Biden, said what the "extremists who roamed these halls targeted" last year when was not only an attack on the lives of elected leaders and the 2020 election.
"What they sought to degrade and destroy was not only a building, hallowed as it is. What they were assaulting. were the institution's the values, the ideals that generations of Americans have marched, picketed, and shed blood to establish and defend," she said.
The vice president, who was at the Capitol on the morning of Jan. 6 last year, reflected on what she called "the dual nature of democracy: its fragility and its strength."
"The strength of democracy is the rule of law," she said. "And the fragility of democracy is this. That if we are not vigilant, if we do not defend it, democracy simply will not stand. It will falter and fail."
She ended her remarks with a call to pass Democrats voting rights bills in the Senate as restrictive voting laws are enacted across the country.
"But we, the American people, must also do something more. We cannot sit on the sidelines. We must unite in defense of our democracy," she said.
Biden arrives at the Capitol
Arriving on Capitol Hill, reporters asked the president ahead of his remarks how he was feeling heading into the day.
The president, flanked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, appeared to respond, "Praying that we will never have a day like we had a year ago today."
Notably, he did not respond when asked if he held Trump personally responsible for the attack.
The three walked towards Statuary Hall, which rioters stormed through one year ago.
To mark one year since a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed through the Capitol -- including Statuary Hall where Biden will soon speak -- and attempted to breach the House chamber in an attempt to undo the 2020 election, in his remarks this morning, Biden will say that Americans are facing a moment when “we must decide what kind of nation we are going to be.”
“Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm? Are we going to be a nation where we allow partisan election officials to overturn the legally expressed will of the people? Are we going to be a nation that lives not by the light of the truth but in the shadow of lies?” Biden will say according to speech excerpts released by the White House.
“We cannot allow ourselves to be that kind of nation. The way forward is to recognize the truth and to live by it,” the excerpt read.
While Biden is not expected to mention the former president by name, the White House said he will lay out the “singular responsibility President Trump has for the chaos and carnage that we saw.”
Upon Biden’s arrival to the Capitol, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer greeted him. The pair flanked the president as they walked towards Statuary Hall.
Fortified fencing, massive force, not part of anniversary scene
Armored military vehicles, concertina wire atop non-scalable fencing and the massive show of force that fortified Capitol Hill in the aftermath of the violent attack on democracy last Jan. 6 are not defining Thursday's anniversary.
The security posture in Washington, by comparison, appears fairly ordinary. The temporary fencing that ringed the Capitol for more than six months, and again briefly for a September demonstration has not returned, though that could change quickly if conditions warrant, Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger told ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas in a recent interview.
In a briefing Tuesday, Manger said his office was aware of several events planned for the day but that “most of them aren't of much concern to us.”
“There's no intelligence that indicates that there would be any problems,” he said.
By the numbers: DOJ investigates Jan. 6
At least 704 accused rioters have been charged by the Department of Justice, according to an ABC News count. At least 172 have pleaded guilty to their changes.
The FBI is still seeking 350 individuals believed to have committed violent acts on the Capitol grounds, according to the DOJ, including over 250 who assaulted police officers.
Capitol Police union praises officers' 'dedication and commitment'
The union representing United States Capitol Police officers praised the "dedication and commitment" of those who protected the Capitol building one year ago.
"Today, we recognize the dedication and commitment to mission of the men and women who put their own lives and safety on the line to defend the U.S. Capitol," Gus Papathanasiou, chair of the union, said in a statement Thursday. "We especially pay tribute to Officer Sicknick who died after being injured during the rioting, and to Officer Liebengood who tragically took his own life after the attack."
According to Papathanasiou, 80 Capitol Police officers sustained injuries that day, with some so serious they are still not back at work. He said members of the force remain "committed to our mission," but that comes with an increase in officers as well as improved intelligence and communications between officers and leadership.
Papathanasiou noted that the legacy of Jan. 6 -- from a policing perspective -- should be a police force that is better prepared, with an eye toward readiness if an attack of such scale ever occurred again.
"Going forward, this Union will work with the Department to ensure those sacrifices will not be in vain," he added. "We must ensure that the events of January 6th are never repeated."
Who placed the pipe bombs the night before the Capitol attack?
On the evening of Jan. 5, 2021, on a sleepy street a short distance from the U.S. Capitol, a mysterious figure loomed. Wearing a sweatshirt with the hood pulled up, a pair of Air Max Speed Turf shoes with a yellow Nike logo, a backpack and gloves, the suspect walked through alleyways and was equipped with what investigators say were two pipe bombs.
A full year later, the agency still has not caught the person who placed the bombs nor has it released information about a "person of interest."
How Trump's plot nearly succeeded: ANALYSIS
Beyond the riot, Jan. 6 was a dangerously close call. ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl asks: "What if Pence had followed Trump’s order? What would have happened if he had brought the gavel down during the joint session on Jan. 6 and thrown out Biden’s electoral votes in the states Trump had contested? What if he had declared Trump the winner of those states?"
J. Michael Luttig, a former federal appellate judge popular among conservatives, had advised Pence he would be violating the Constitution if he followed Trump’s order, and Luttig tells ABC News that if Pence had attempted to do it, he would have "plunged the country into a constitutional crisis of the highest order."
Pence sheltered feet away from insurrectionists
As lawmakers returned the evening of Jan. 6 to certify the election following the attack, then-Vice President Mike Pence tweeted his thanks last year to the law enforcement officers who kept him safe, showing how he was rushed to a Capitol Hill parking garage during the attack.
In the subsequent weeks, video played at Trump’s second impeachment trial revealed just how close the rioters came -- some within 100 feet of Pence and his family, who were forced to take shelter in the Capitol.
In an interview with Trump for his book "Betrayal," ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl asked Trump at Mar-a-Lago last March if he was worried about the safety of his vice president.
"No, I thought he was well-protected," Trump said. "And I had heard that he was in good shape.”
When asked directly about the "’Hang Mike Pence’” chants on tape, Trump said, "Well, the people were very angry. Because it's -- it's common sense, Jon, it's common sense, that you're supposed to protect -- How can you, if you know a vote is fraudulent, right — how can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress?"
There is no evidence to support Trump’s claims that he won the election over Biden, despite dozens of failed court battles last year. -
2022-01-06 at 5:55 AM UTC in James Webb Telescope To Launch Tomorrow---To Infinity And Beyond!TechRadar
'We have a telescope': James Webb Space Telescope's secondary mirror is now in place
John Loeffler
After the successful deployment and "tensioning" earlier this week of the five-layered sun shield on the James Webb Space Telescope -- the long awaited successor to the Hubble and a huge leap forward for astronomy -- NASA announced on Wednesday that the telescope's secondary mirror has also been successfully extended.
Extending the boom arm to deploy the secondary mirror on the telescope was one of the major anxiety points for the mission; if something mechanically failed during this process, it would have been non-recoverable and the telescope couldn't work.
Fortunately, the unfolding went off without a hitch, and now we just need to wait for the extension of its now-iconic honeycombed primary mirror later this week, which will be the next critical milestone for the telescope's deployment.
Analysis: this was arguably the most important deployment of the entire mission
What makes the secondary mirror so important? It's one of the few parts of the telescope that simply could not fail to deploy if the mission was to even barely succeed.
Were the sunshield's deployment to fail, Webb wouldn't be able to pick up the deep-infrared light that it was designed to detect, but it could still pick up near-infrared. This would \be an improvement over the Hubble Space Telescope, just not as much of an improvement as we're hoping for.
If the primary mirror fails to deploy successfully later this week, the telescope will lose sensitivity, but it will still be able to function and provide new deep-infrared imagery -- just not as well as we wanted it to.
Without the secondary mirror, however, no light would make it to the telescope's infrared sensors at all, so the mission would immediately fail. No light, no telescope.
So it was absolutely critical that the secondary mirror deployed properly, which it now has.
"We are 600,000 miles from Earth and we have a telescope," announced Bill Ochs, Webb's program manager, to his team after the mirror successfully extended and securely latched into place.
If nothing else, the James Webb Space Telescope should now work in some capacity. After the primary mirror deploys, we'll know how close to working perfectly we'll get. Fingers crossed! -
2022-01-06 at 5:46 AM UTC in THE MAGA PARTY!,,, the GOP is dead, republicans are going down with the dems,, get ready for THE MAGA PARTY lefty'sBBC News
Biden to blame Trump for Capitol riot one year on
President Joe Biden will blame Donald Trump for the US Capitol riot as he marks the anniversary of the attack on the seat of American democracy.
Speaking at Congress, Mr Biden will say his predecessor holds "singular responsibility" for the "chaos and carnage", said spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
Investigators have so far arrested 725 suspects in connection with the attack.
Trump supporters stormed the Capitol as Congress was meeting to certify Mr Biden's presidential election victory.
Images of US lawmakers cowering from the mob in the gallery of the House of Representatives on that afternoon of 6 January 2021 shocked the world.
Mr Trump had urged protesters at a rally outside the White House shortly beforehand to "peacefully" march on Congress, but he also exhorted them to "fight" and stirred up the crowd with unsubstantiated claims of mass voter fraud.
The former president had planned to host a competing news conference on Thursday from his Mar-a-Lago resort home in Palm Beach, Florida. But he cancelled the event after aides reportedly warned of negative press coverage.
A spokesman for Mr Trump, Taylor Budowich, said it was "unsurprising" that Mr Biden, a Democrat, would spend the day "trying to further divide our nation" in an attempt to distract voters from rising inflation and crime and a fresh round of coronavirus school closures.
President Biden - who rarely mentions his predecessor - will speak on Thursday morning in Statuary Hall, a section of the Capitol complex that was breached by rioters.
The White House press secretary said on Wednesday that the president's speech "will lay out the significance of what happened at the Capitol, and the singular responsibility President Trump has for the chaos and carnage that we saw".
"He will forcibly push back on the lies spread by the former president - in an attempt to mislead the American people, and his own supporters, as well as distract from his role in what happened," she added.
"President Biden has been clear-eyed about the threat the former president represents to our democracy," Ms Psaki continued.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will preside over a moment of silence at noon on the chamber floor.
An inquiry into the riot is being conducted by a House committee, which is dominated by President Biden's Democrats.
The panel is chasing phone records, visitor logs and other White House documents that could shed light on events leading up to the attack on Congress. They have issued legal summonses to members of Mr Trump's inner circle.
Senior Republicans will mostly be outside of Washington on Thursday, with the party's Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, leading a delegation to the funeral of a former senator in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr McConnell said in the immediate aftermath of the riot that Mr Trump was "practically and morally responsible".
Some Republican lawmakers have attempted to recast the invasion of Congress, in which some rioters engaged in hand-to-hand combat with police, as a peaceful protest that was spoiled by a few troublemakers.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland gave an update on the FBI inquiry on the eve of the anniversary, calling the law enforcement operation "one of the largest, most complex and most resource-intensive investigations in our history".
"The actions we have taken thus far will not be our last," he said. "We will follow the facts wherever they lead because 6 January was an unprecedented attack on the seat of our democracy."
He said 140 police officers had been assaulted, including one who was beaten and zapped repeatedly with a stun gun until he had a heart attack.
Another screamed for help as rioters crushed him between doors and bludgeoned him with his own weapon, said the attorney general.
Mr Garland is facing pressure from the left to more aggressively prosecute the rioters as well as charge the former president himself and his allies.
"We build investigations by laying a foundation," Mr Garland said. "We resolve more straightforward cases first because they provide the evidentiary foundation for more complex cases."
Most of the charges so far have been misdemeanours that can entail no jail time in the event of a conviction.
These suspects have been charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct, parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, and obstructing congressional proceedings.
But 325 suspects are facing felonies - more serious counts - such as assaulting officers using a dangerous weapon.
Mr Garland said 300,000 tips had been submitted by private citizens, and the FBI were still hunting about 2,500 suspects.
One rioter, an unarmed woman, Ashli Babbitt, was shot by an officer while trying to breach the House chamber. Two others died from natural causes related to cardiovascular disease and another died from a drug overdose.
Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died a day later of natural causes after suffering two strokes while defending the building, according to medical officials.
In an opinion piece for the New York Times on Wednesday, the oldest-living former US President, Jimmy Carter, warned that the country "now teeters on the brink of a widening abyss".
"Without immediate action, we are at genuine risk of civil conflict and losing our precious democracy. Americans must set aside differences and work together before it is too late."
A week after the riot, Mr Trump was impeached by the House for incitement of insurrection, but acquitted by the Senate, which was then still controlled by his fellow Republicans. He is still seen to wield significant influence over the party.
Of 10 Republicans who sided with Democrats in the lower chamber vote, two have resigned amid death threats, three others are facing Trump-backed election challenges, and four more have kept a low profile.
Wyoming's Liz Cheney was stripped of her Republican leadership position in the House, but is spearheading the congressional inquiry into the Capitol riot.
National divisions over the riot are underscored by BBC interviews with American voters.
James Clark, 69, a life-long Republican voter in Virginia, said: "It was truly shocking. President Trump seemed intent on burning down the house before leaving Washington."
But Trump voter Keri Smith, 42, of Texas, argued that the Black Lives Matter protests were worse.
"We've seen stuff crazier than that happening on a weekly basis for the past two years," she said.
Laura Powers, a disaffected Republican, says she is "still horrified" by what she watched on TV that day.
"It was a horrible, dark day for democracy and it should never ever happen again."
The Capitol riot has been described as the worst assault on the Capitol since the War of 1812. -
2022-01-05 at 7:27 PM UTC in Realizing how fucked up my life has been.No, they wouldn't.
Hell, my daddy (Marine pilot WWII and Korea, 2nd in State wrestling, definitely not somebody to fuck with) took me to a McGovern rally.
Very Democratic and proud of it. -
2022-01-05 at 7:21 PM UTC in ChiliHe's busy on the toilet.
