Insurrection, Riot, Terrorism … My Balding Backside

 

I don’t know the answers to these three questions about The Dread 1/6, but I think they are enlightening as a thought experiment. Feel free to invent your own numbers, or characterizations, but please remember the basis upon which you made your estimates:

  • What was the total property damage compared to the value at stake? Feel free to lowball “inestimable” valuables (everything is estimable, but that’s a different post).
  • How many non-protesters were injured or killed by protesters? Feel free to include anybody who worked in or around the building, elected officials, LEOs, bystanders, or counter-protesters.
  • Without using words like insurrection, sedition, terrorism, and so forth, what other charges could be brought against the protesters? Think “lesser included charges” rather than “terrorism covers everything so it’s a trick question.”

Do you have a pretty firm feeling what the answers would be? To an order of magnitude? Rough guesstimate? Wild swag?

Good.

Now try the same questions on any other recent political violence or even sorta-political near-violence.

Worst.  Terrorists.  Ever.

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  1. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    BDB:

    I don’t know the answers to these three questions about The Dread 1/6, but I think they are enlightening as a thought experiment. Feel free to invent your own numbers, or characterizations, but please remember the basis upon which you made your estimates:

    • What was the total property damage compared to the value at stake? Feel free to lowball “inestimable” valuables (everything is estimable, but that’s a different post).

    I honestly have no idea. Maybe $50,000 damage. I mean, they broke some windows, right?

    • How many non-protesters were injured or killed *by protesters*? Feel free to include anybody who worked in or around the building, elected officials, LEOs, bystanders, or counter-protesters.

    Um, I think that is none. A heart attack later does not count. An unarmed protestor was shot. 

    • Without using words like insurrection, sedition, terrorism and so forth, what other charges could be brought against the protesters? Think “lesser included charges” rather than “terrorism covers everything so it’s a trick question.”

    That one is easy: Trespassing. I am not sure it should count when if you were invited in, but maybe going where you were not supposed to go. I am not quite sure why they have arrested people who did not breach the grounds who happened to be there. You got me on that. 

    But, BDB, I am assured by very important people that this was a really, really, big deal. 

     

    • #1
  2. BDB Inactive
    BDB
    @BDB

    Bryan G. Stephens (View Comment):

    BDB:

    I don’t know the answers to these three questions about The Dread 1/6, but I think they are enlightening as a thought experiment. Feel free to invent your own numbers, or characterizations, but please remember the basis upon which you made your estimates:

    • What was the total property damage compared to the value at stake? Feel free to lowball “inestimable” valuables (everything is estimable, but that’s a different post).

    I honestly have no idea. Maybe $50,000 damage. I mean, they broke some windows, right?

    • How many non-protesters were injured or killed *by protesters*? Feel free to include anybody who worked in or around the building, elected officials, LEOs, bystanders, or counter-protesters.

    Um, I think that is none. A heart attack later does not count. An unarmed protestor was shot.

    • Without using words like insurrection, sedition, terrorism and so forth, what other charges could be brought against the protesters? Think “lesser included charges” rather than “terrorism covers everything so it’s a trick question.”

    That one is easy: Trespassing. I am not sure it should count when if you were invited in, but maybe going where you were not supposed to go. I am not quite sure why they have arrested people who did not breach the grounds who happened to be there. You got me on that.

    But, BDB, I am assured by very important people that this was a really, really, big deal.

     

    You’ve played perfectly.  Thank you!  Rice-a-Roni after comment #100.

    • #2
  3. Victor Tango Kilo Member
    Victor Tango Kilo
    @VtheK

    I have always had questions about the January 6th “Insurrection/Domestic Terrorism/Overthrow the Government Narrative.” The biggest one being, how was this largely unarmed group of mostly elderly people going to overthrow the Government? Like, seriously, what was the plan?It always had a South Park Underpants Gnome quality to the supposed insurrection.

    1. A few hundred unarmed and mostly elderly people led by a guy in Viking cosplay enter the Capitol.

    2. ???

    3. Democracy is overthrown and Trump is dictator for life.

    No one has ever solved ‘???’ To my satisfaction. “Oh, they intended to stop the vote counting.” And? Like Congress couldn’t just reconvene in another time or another place and finish it anyway? Seriously, it’s such a stupid allegation. “They were chanting ‘Hang Mike Pence?” Yeah, and I’m sure they meant that literally. Just like everybody who chants ‘FJB’ is threatening the president with rape. There is no credible way this group was going to end democracy; especially since democracy was what they were explicitly protesting in favor of. They just didn’t believe our corrupt political system was delivering it. And anyway, I was told by the president that you couldn’t fight the Government without F-15s and nukes and as far as I know none of the protesters had any.

    Also, the claims that Trump told people to storm the Capitol. Whenever you asked to point out the exact words he used to do so, they used to say “He used code words, but his followers knew what he meant.” But they have lately abandoned that idiotic claim for the more nebulous, “He could have told them to stop, but he didn’t, or at least not quickly enough.” Which is grasping at straws, IMHO.

    • #3
  4. Nohaaj Coolidge
    Nohaaj
    @Nohaaj

    You keep confusing and conflating rational analytical thought with emotional, indoctrinational , MSM pablum

    • #4
  5. Victor Tango Kilo Member
    Victor Tango Kilo
    @VtheK

    And can I add one thing since the teenage girls are comparing January 6th to September 11th. The one thing they don’t much remark upon is how completely and unequivocally successful Al Qaeda was in terms of achieving the goals of the 9-11 attacks.

    1. Draw the United States into a long, costly, and ultimately futile war in the Middle East.
    2. Open cracks in American society; begin the process of the country tearing itself apart.
    3. Force western countries to accept Islamization.

    I would say they succeeded brilliantly.

    • #5
  6. Cow Girl Thatcher
    Cow Girl
    @CowGirl

    Oh, I cannot even give you enough LIKES for this post. The inflammatory rhetoric that is being used by Pelosi and her cohorts–which naturally includes the media–is so off the charts. Seriously. The “insurrectionists” weren’t armed! The only person killed was one of the unarmed invaders. How the heck do the Inflammatistas explain the video of the Capital Building doormen letting in those “invaders”? 

    I don’t watch TV news at all, but I imagine this week is absolutely appalling. Sheesh. 

    • #6
  7. Steven Seward Member
    Steven Seward
    @StevenSeward

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

     

    1. A few hundred unarmed and mostly elderly people led by a guy in Viking cosplay enter the Capitol.

    2. ???

    3. Democracy is overthrown and Trump is dictator for life.

    No one has ever solved ‘???’ To my satisfaction.

    2. ???  I’m sure it was at least hundreds of dollars worth of damage.  Probably took two handy-men a full afternoon to fix.

    • #7
  8. The Scarecrow Thatcher
    The Scarecrow
    @TheScarecrow

    This is all “talking”.

    That’s what we do on this site, talk to each other. We present ideas, ask for input, looking for clarity. We keep using logic. And the normal consideration that comes from honest, vigorous inquiry and debate.

    These people, the people who are grinding 1/6 in their mills, will never respond to talking. I am sad to type that.

    Rush died right around this time last year. We should all remember one of his most fundamental principles, formulated presciently many years earlier: “You cannot reason with these people.  They must simply be defeated.”

    • #8
  9. CACrabtree Coolidge
    CACrabtree
    @CACrabtree

    “You cannot reason with these people.  They must simply be defeated”.

    I’ve heard that quote repeated many times but never from a Republican in Congress.  Strange…

    • #9
  10. James Salerno Inactive
    James Salerno
    @JamesSalerno

    1. Total property damage: Windows were broken and guardrails were tipped over. Do you know how much it costs to fix guardrails? The NIH spent 415k on pigeons playing slot machines last year (thank you Rand Paul Festivus Report). It will cost millions to re-straighten and buff all the dents out of those governmemt guardrails. And that’s before they budget in a commission to deal with the union contractors. All told? $396,233,032.

    2. How many non-protestors were injured or killed? At least 160 cops committed suicide after the trauma of these events. Nevermind that you need to have a little more, um, “fortitude” than that to be a cop. Nevermind that their names are being withheld, that’s irrelevant. Just go with it.

    3. What can they be charged with? They were Trump supporters. Isn’t that enough?

     

    • #10
  11. James Salerno Inactive
    James Salerno
    @JamesSalerno

    Also, Trump could have stopped the rioters at any time. Regardless of whether he knew about the riot and regardless of whether they were within listening distance. He’s a criminal mastermind whose mental control over his subjects does not need to obey physics or logic.

    And he’s also like, the dumbest dumb guy ever…

    • #11
  12. Steven Seward Member
    Steven Seward
    @StevenSeward

    James Salerno (View Comment):

    Also, Trump could have stopped the rioters at any time. Regardless of whether he knew about the riot and regardless of whether they were within listening distance. He’s a criminal mastermind whose mental control over his subjects does not need to obey physics or logic.

    And he’s also like, the dumbest dumb guy ever…

    Excellent funny observations, Salerno!  As far as I can tell, Trump is the first President of the United States to be charged with the personal responsibility of crowd control.

    • #12
  13. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    It’s almost impossible to not believe this was a script intel rogues (not at all patriots BTW) had chambered to sully and smear Trump and more cleverly, Trump supporters.

    When events unfold, it’s not easy to see, but after-the-fact with more information some things become obvious. 

    Had they not tried so hard to convince us by trick rhetoric and hyperbole, they might have been able to cover this up better, but they had to claim this was absolutely horrendous to further their cause.

    One has to question where the threshold of propaganda really is.

    At this point the corporate MSM and their Democrat parasites seem to have chosen – quite happily – the low IQ and low information voters as their base. This is why we are seeing unprecedented censorship, and cancel culture.

    I haven’t read enough about civil wars and revolutions to be sure, but it appears if you have the dumb people on your side (guided by a core group of nefarious operatives) you will win. Pol Pot’s Cambodia, Mao’s Cultural Revolution, the rise of Hitler in the 30’s a few powerful examples off the top of my head.

     

    • #13
  14. Steven Seward Member
    Steven Seward
    @StevenSeward

    Franco (View Comment):

    Had they not tried so hard to convince us by trick rhetoric and hyperbole, they might have been able to cover this up better, but they had to claim this was absolutely horrendous to further their cause.

    One has to question where the threshold of propaganda really is.

    Good point!  I think this is why they have hidden all the film footage of the January 6th protest from public view.  But it can only be hidden for so long.  We’ve already seen the very worst of it in their melodramatic film montage shown at the Impeachment trial.  I’m hoping that when Republicans take over the House of Reps this year, they will release a video dump of the entire coverage of January 6th.

     

     

    • #14
  15. Marythefifth Inactive
    Marythefifth
    @Marythefifth

    Babbit AND Boyland were killed that day. If you look at the footage of the tunnel crowd you can see the level of panic that was experienced by the couple dozen people caught at the entrance of the tunnel between angry protesters and the police. Had I been unlucky enough to be caught in that spot I’d be beating on folks in all directions, including the police, to let me out, let me breathe, save my life. There has to be some tried and true strategy to ease that constriction and the panic it necessarily creates. 

    • #15
  16. BDB Inactive
    BDB
    @BDB

    “Ashli Babbit Can’t Breathe”

    • #16
  17. GlennAmurgis Coolidge
    GlennAmurgis
    @GlennAmurgis

    1/6 was a riot and those who participated should be convicted

    Russia Collusion was as bad or worse – those who participated get a government pension or a gig in corporate media

    • #17
  18. davenr321 Coolidge
    davenr321
    @davenr321

    This wouldn’t have happened if John Adams had gotten that second term. 

    • #18
  19. Keith Lowery Coolidge
    Keith Lowery
    @keithlowery

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    1. A few hundred unarmed and mostly elderly people led by a guy in Viking cosplay enter the Capitol.

    2. ???

    3. Democracy is overthrown and Trump is dictator for life.

    This brought to mind the “Underpants Gnomes” from South Park. Their plan was to steal underpants and make a profit, but it was what happened in between the stealing and the profits that they could never quite work out.

    In the feverish imaginings of the left, there is some nefarious plan by the right to take over the world. The left is just a little unclear about what happens at step 2. It has never occurred to them that we just want to be left alone.

    • #19
  20. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    davenr321 (View Comment):

    This wouldn’t have happened if John Adams had gotten that second term.

    Hear hear

    • #20
  21. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Keith Lowery (View Comment):

    Victor Tango Kilo (View Comment):

    1. A few hundred unarmed and mostly elderly people led by a guy in Viking cosplay enter the Capitol.

    2. ???

    3. Democracy is overthrown and Trump is dictator for life.

    This brought to mind the “Underpants Gnomes” from South Park. Their plan was to steal underpants and make a profit, but it was what happened in between the stealing and the profits that they could never quite work out.

    In the feverish imaginings of the left, there is some nefarious plan by the right to take over the world. The left is just a little unclear about what happens at step 2. It has never occurred to them that we just want to be left alone.

    Literally, LOL.

    • #21
  22. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    I hope the Left and NTs go after the “insurrection” narrative good and hard (although I won’t be watching). I’m betting the American people are as sick of it as they are all things COVID.

    Democrats (and NTs, but, I repeat) can’t help themselves. They’re going to overplay it. 

    • #22
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