Current Affairs The 2020 United States Presidential Election

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riddick said:
Who else is just shocked, SHOCKED I say, that Trump came out saying "he doesn't take any responsibility for the Capitol siege"?

Such an upstanding person I thought would be contrite!
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The lack of contrition is irrelevant. It is the insertion of clauses when denouncing violence that should be setting off alarm bells everywhere. That will be seen as a green light by his supporters to double down.

America is about to start down a path that can't be reversed easily and I don't think they realise that. Worrying times.
 
From a British point of view there is a certain humorous irony in the President of the United States of America being charged with ‘incitement of insurrection’...King George must be laughing his head off.........
 
Anyway guys don’t depress yourselves any more, the match is on in twenty minutes.....actually scrub that you may be happier in here.....
 
verreauxi said:
Great comment on NYT from someone named "East End." They aren't saying anything that a lot of us here don't already know, but it's both well said and worth repeating:
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Very well said indeed. I think the discrepancy between how a BLM protesters and a white supremacists rioters were engaged differently has to do with the way race still is perceived in this country. NPR Sam Sanders had a great segment today about the lies our society still tell ourselves about race. Is a also a long read but also worth it.

The Lies We Tell Ourselves About Race​

There is a lie some Americans tell themselves when America is on its worst behavior: "This isn't America!" or "This isn't who we are!" or "We're better than this!"

You heard versions of this lie again this past week after armed insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol on urging from President Trump, attempting to undo the results of last November's election.

Even in the halls of Congress, after the broken glass was cleared and U.S. senators and representatives were allowed back into their chambers from undisclosed locations, Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska came back to this refrain: "Our kids need to know that this isn't what America is."

We are a country built on fabrication, nostalgia and euphemism. And every time America shows the worst of itself, all the contradictions collapse into the lie I've heard nonstop for the last several years: "This isn't who we are."

In the final weeks of Donald Trump's presidency, we are still collectively struggling over whether to treat his term and the reaction to it as an aberration or as a continuation of an American way of life. So much of it feels unprecedented: the emergence of the Trump-led Twitter news cycle, the abandonment of political norms we thought were etched in stone, the seemingly never-ending protest movements sprouting up in reaction to it all.

It all feels new. But it is not.

The images from the Capitol this past week made that clear: a noose hanging outside the building. Inside, insurrectionists carrying a Confederate flag. Members of the mob wearing T-shirts that read "Civil War."

Our current troubles — and our current administration — are both just the latest chapters in America's ongoing battle over race.

Trump's presidency has always been about race and reacting to a nation more diverse than it has ever been. We've been reminded of that time and again since he announced his candidacy. So how can anyone still say, "This is not who we are"? Why do we continue to hear that same lie as the worst of America rears its head?

Once you see it as such, it all makes a lot more sense. Remember, Trump began his ascent to political power on a racist lie: birtherism. He launched his campaign for the presidency calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists. His first major policy initiative was travel restrictions on Muslim-majority nations that felt a lot like a travel ban on people with darker skin. His supporters cited "economic anxiety" as their motivation, but they were driven by racial animus. Former KKK leader David Duke endorsed Trump twice for president.

Trump's presidency has always been about race and reacting to a nation more diverse than it has ever been. We've been reminded of that time and again since he announced his candidacy. So how can anyone still say, "This is not who we are"? Why do we continue to hear that same lie as the worst of America rears its head?

I see glimpses of who we are every day and, at the same time, a deep discomfort with that reality. That lie permeates my industry, the media. There would have been a time, several years ago, where if I had attempted to write this essay using words like "racist" or "lie," I would have been told to rewrite it. Urged to soften the tone. To maybe not make it all about race. This is not an indictment of NPR; the entire industry did it. Much of the industry still does.

Even this past week, there was hand-wringing about what to call the rioters storming the U.S. Capitol and how to describe their insurrection.

But I'd be wrong to say it's only the media that nurtures the lie. Our audiences do as well.

As a Black NPR host, I am often talking to mostly white audiences about race. By and large, listeners are happy to go where those conversations lead, but regularly, a loud minority shows that it actually wants no part of such discussions. Listeners send emails wondering whether I ever talk about anything but race. Others suggest I may actually have it all wrong, invoking some version of "not all white people."

recent example came after an interview with an Asian American author, tracing the long history of discrimination against Asians in this country. Several white listeners wondered why other groups just didn't "work hard" the way their own white ancestors did. And then another listener wrote they didn't consider themselves "the least bit racist," but called all Asians "manipulative and dishonest."

The lie is all around us. So when weeks like the one we just experienced happen, some yell the lie even louder, to our detriment. What would happen if we decided to be more honest about race the next time our nation found itself at a racial flashpoint? What might be lost? What might be gained?

It's hard to know, because I've never seen us, collectively, do it before. But I know that history only yells louder each time we refuse to listen. And no lie, no matter how often it's told, can keep the truth at bay.

Sam Sanders is a correspondent and host of the NPR podcast It's Been a Minute With Sam Sanders
 
RAFUH said:
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I hope they arrest every single traitorous insurrectionist and prosecute them to the maximum possible extent.

www.washingtonian.com

What Crimes Can the Capitol Insurrectionists Be Charged With? - Washingtonian

As of Thursday morning, only 68 people had been arrested by the Metropolitan Police Department, and 14 by the Capitol Police, for taking part in Wednesday's violent storming of the U.S. Capitol building and related mayhem. The FBI has put out a call for tips and digital media from the public...
www.washingtonian.com www.washingtonian.com
 
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