Post inauguration Trump:

[David]

Trump's constant fanning of outrage and hatred among his supporters, and his deliberate blindness to white terror has led to this: right now, today, it is judged necessary to station 20,000 troops - yes, that is twenty thousand soldiers in Washington just to keep the peace.

There are more American soldiers in Washington than there are in Iraq and Afghanistan both put together.

It's an absurd overreaction to compensate for the bizarrely complacent response the first time around. The thing a lot of people don't seem to be talking about in all this is how a relatively small group of mostly unarmed crazies actually managed to get into the Capitol Building to begin with (after posting about their intentions to do so online for days previously, to boot!). A moderate police presence (certainly a lot less than 20,000!) could have easily held them at bay and essentially rendered the unrest a minor story that most people would have forgotten about by now.

[roar]

Not sure it is an overreaction, tbh. Better to have a force that will stop things before they start than a force that will be "just enough" to deal with an attack.

[David]

That makes sense, but this still feels like an excessively overcompensatory show of force. They could have had the same effect with far smaller numbers, but I suspect this is all about making a point.

[Tannin]

Nonsense David.

It's not about stopping a few thousand Proud Boys and assorted other Trump Thugs starting another deadly riot. (Though it is much better to be sure than sorry, as Roar says.)

It is about stopping a handful of gun-crazy Trumpistas starting a massacre.

One crazy with an automatic weapon can murder 50 or 100 people. America is full of automatic weapons. And it is full of Trump-supporting crazies. It's a recipe for carnage. The question isn't whether 20,000 soldiers is too many. The question is whether 20,000 soldiers is enough.

[David]

[stui magpie]

I really really wouldn't use the "gun nuts are cowards"line if you ever visit the USA.

[Pies4shaw]

Yes - because telling them the truth to their faces might upset them.

[Tannin]

Colbert hosts Bernie Sanders: well worth watching this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmh7pcytW5g

[David]

I really really wouldn't use the "gun nuts are cowards"line if you ever visit the USA.

Having a gun and threatening someone with it certainly doesn’t make someone any less of one.

[pietillidie]

Colbert hosts Bernie Sanders: well worth watching this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmh7pcytW5g

That is really promising.

You have to hand it both wings of the party for finding the right niche for the right person (Bernie) to deal with things that business and shonky opportunists only make much worse (the pandemic, healthcare, climate change, the minimum wage, etc.).

Meanwhile, the centrists can work with corporations to get business activity moving in a positive direction (aside from shrill far right business sponsors, fossil fuels crazies and Wall Street opportunists, why wouldn't business be happy given Trump's mismanagement and instability has almost completely trashed the economy and business activity?).

Hopefully, this turns out to be that rare balance you need in government between the social (stability; optimism; access; productivity; safety; fairness) and the economic (growth; efficiency; technology; specialisation; adaptation; contribution). That's the sort of balance that the Hawke-Keating government had from right to left wing within the same party.

Government might always let you down in the end, but it's about moving the ball forward 10% and get things going in the right direction. That 10% is all that's needed for people to start participating and producing with a hopeful mindset. That in turn can act as somewhat of a damper on far right (and left) lunacy.

That's the optimistic spin, which I'll take for now given the misery heaped on us all over the past year. The US has a long way to go to arrest the flailing and flakiness, but you have to stay hopeful. Fundamentally, if they can't deal with the wealth gap, the instability it causes will keep dragging us all down.

[stui magpie]

I really really wouldn't use the "gun nuts are cowards"line if you ever visit the USA.

Having a gun and threatening someone with it certainly doesn’t make someone any less of one.

Agreed, but just owning guns without threatening anyone doesn't make you a coward. It's an incorrect insulting generalisation that wouldn't be received well.

[David]

Lol, I'm hardly saying that! My point is that if you're stockpiling guns purely for the sake of one day forming a militia and overthrowing the government (i.e. literally what the Second Amendment is for and why many of these people say they're pro-gun) and you feel the election was illegitimate and stolen from your candidate of your choice by your enemies, one might think that now is your moment and that the rest of the country should be worried about what you might do. But I really don't think most of those people actually have the stomach for doing any of this and I suspect that it's all just tough talk.

[Lazza]

I say that this far rightwing sizzle will be greater than the sausage they cook. All froth, bubble and bluster from a small group of crazies and nutters. I could be wrong of course but I predict a few blowhard wankers making a bloody nuisance of themselves.

[Pies4shaw]

How do you distinguish between the “crazies” and the “nutters”, Lazza?

[Lazza]

Yeah good point, I can’t. They are both made from the same cloth.