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6 JANUARY 2021 will live in infamy.
Protesters, rioters, domestic terrorists, even arguably seditionists – take your pick – took over the US Capitol, interrupting a sitting that would officially confirm Joe Biden as the next US President.
Here’s how the day unfolded.
Democrat candidate Reverend Raphael Warnock declares victory in Georgia, where votes are being counted in a run-off election which would decide control of the Senate.
Trump supporters begin gathering for a Save America rally in Washington DC.
President Trump takes to the stage at his rally, using the White House as his backdrop.
“We will never give up,” he tells the crowd of thousands.
We will never concede. It will never happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore.
A joint session of Congress begins, presided over by Vice-President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. The sitting is to certify the results of the Electoral College votes.
Shortly beforehand, Pence circulated a letter in which he made clear he would defy Trump’s request to overturn the election result and continue with proceedings as planned.
Throughout the morning, a small crowd is gathered at the Capitol building. This starts to swell in size.
Protests break through barricades – in some cases, the barricades appear to have been removed for them – and rush security to occupy the steps of the US Capitol building.
Protesters and police clash outside the building.
Politicians are rushed to a secure location.
The crowd continues to grow in size, and many gain access to the building itself.
Trump tweets for protesters to support law enforcement.
Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2021
A shelter-in-place order is issued for those in the Capitol building, with many donning ‘escape hoods’ after police use tear gas within the building.
Security barricade themselves into the House Chamber as protesters attempt to gain access – one Trump supporter is shot.
Protesters continue making their way through the building, occupying the Senate chamber and breaking into offices. A curfew of 6pm is announced.
A Trump supporter carries a podium around the U.S. Capitol after protesters breached the Capitol Building during a joint session of #Congress in Washington, DC 📷: @WinMc pic.twitter.com/lsF7wg6BI5
— Getty Images News (@GettyImagesNews) January 6, 2021
A Trump supporter sits in the chair of the #Senate Chamber after protesters breached the #USCapitol during a joint session of #Congress in Washington DC #CapitolBuilding 📷: @WinMc pic.twitter.com/LfEr0FBBrm
— Getty Images News (@GettyImagesNews) January 6, 2021
Protesters are cleared from the chambers – and, crucially, security is able to protect the electoral college ballots.
Political leaders appeal for calm.
The violence and destruction taking place at the US Capitol Must Stop and it Must Stop Now. Anyone involved must respect Law Enforcement officers and immediately leave the building.
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) January 6, 2021
.@SenSchumer and I are calling on President Trump to demand that all protestors leave the U.S. Capitol and Capitol grounds immediately. pic.twitter.com/z6D8qb6bpe
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 6, 2021
The National Guard is mobilised during this time.
President-Elect Joe Biden addresses the nation:
It is insurrection. The world is watching — and like so many other Americans, I am shocked and saddened that our nation, so long a beacon of light, hope, and democracy has come to such a dark moment.
President Trump publishes a video message, which is seen as doing little to quell the violence It is later removed by Twitter and Facebook.
“Go home, we love you, you’re very special,” he tells protesters.
Protesters are cleared from the building as heavily armed security arrive.
The remaining seat in the Georgia race is called for Jon Ossoff, securing the Democrat’s control of both the House and Congress.
Many Trump supporters remain in the area.
Once the Capitol is cleared, politicians are permitted to return to the chamber and continue with the certification of electoral college votes.
Outside, with the 6pm EST (11pm Irish time) curfew in effect, there are further tense scenes between protesters and police.
This process continues well into the night, ultimately leading to Joe Biden being formally confirmed as the next president of the United States.
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Question one: Why did the Department of Health tell nursing homes and hospitals to lift their restrictions at around the same time that planeloads of Italian rugby fans and thousands of cheltenham goers were entering Ireland?
@The Risen: Correct. https://mobile.twitter.com/FergalBowers/status/1237447726331281408
“Fergal Bowers
@FergalBowers
Department of Health has said that general visiting restrictions that some hospitals & nursing homes have introduced, should be lifted. The National Public Health Emergency Team has not recommended these.
6:38 PM · Mar 10, 2020″
@Wheresmyjumper: the Irish President is merely a figure head – so not much, just a loss of respect from other nations
@milton friedman: question 3.. what is the Risen’s Rzero infection rate on journal articles?
@The Risen:
“and thousands of cheltenham goers were entering Ireland?”
Cheltenham is in the UK.
No country in Europe had any restrictions on travel, during this time period.
The very small number of Italian’s who came to Ireland during this time would have had a significantly less impact than the Irish ski holiday makers returning from Northern Italy who we now know were one of the biggest cause of infections.
There was no one going to stop Irish citizens returning from the UK following the Cheltenham Festival. That was never going to happen
If this is the best that you Sinn Féin stooges can come up with, it is an indication of what an excellent job, the HSE and the Government are actually doing.
@The Risen: The topic aside, interesting that someone with a Kylo Ren profile picture, First Order being the Star Wars equivalent of Nazis is commenting how great of a job a Fine Gael government did. Am I pulling at straws? Most definitely, is it meant to be a point? Not at all.
@The Risen: Aaron. Well spotted, my avatar is from a recent blockbuster movie. The characters and plot are fictitious. Come back into the real world if you want to have an adult conversation.
The current government have done an excellent job. That is accepted by the vast majority of fair minded people. The fact that it consists of Fine Gael and Independents is irrelevant. The HSE have done an excellent job. Can you tell me what party its employees belong to, or voted for?
@The Risen: What are you even talking about Kylo, I have 0 interest in what you are discussing and couldn’t give a rats ass about SF/FG/FF/LAB/SD/GP any of them whatsoever. I just thought it was interesting is all haha,
@The Risen: You tell me to come back into the real world to have an adult conversation. It’s tough to have an Adult conversation with someone who thinks they are kylo ren from star wars. You know it’s fiction right, you’re never going to own a red lightsaber, I’m sorry to disappoint you. “Adult conversation” woo that’s good, if you weren’t 12 I would give it a shot.
@The Risen:
Aaron, do you think the Risen is Patrick Pearse? Do you think Diarmuid is an albino orangutan? Do you think Milton Friedman is invisible?
If that’s all you can offer then, as hilarious are you might think you are, really you are just trolling.
@The Risen: Yeah could be I don’t know, still more admirable than Kylo Ren. I don’t care whatsoever, you’re the one getting your knickers in a twist. Off with you now, go play with your lightsaber
Will be questioned! Like they give a hoot, no accountability regardless of what they did. Why are we months behind other countries lifting lockdown measures? It was obvious icu totals and deaths which result from these admissions were dropping weeks ago so why weren’t the restrictions lifted three weeks ago? The financial impact of these decisions is catastrophic for many families but of course the public servants running the show are fine and making sure their rears are covered as per page 1 of the public service training manual.
@Dino:
Its a pity we don’t have more people like yourself who know everything about everything!
@Dino: clearly your knowledge is wasted on sites like here.
@Dino: obviously the government are trying to keep us locked up forever, I thought a person of your superior intellect would know that
@Dino: incorrect. Chile have just gone into a second lockdown after easing restrictions due to increased infections again so not every country has eased restrictions permanently. People posting about Ireland being stricter than anywhere else is BS
What is the actual plan here ,the goalposts are shifting constantly. Harris newstalk interview on Sweden , ‘our goal is nobody in ICU’?! Basic logic , opening the economy = virus spreading= a certain amount of people in ICU.
Have we now gone from flattening the curve to a fruitless attempt at eradication. Goodbye economy!
@Ruairi O Gorman: exactly they changed the goalposts, its no longer flatten the initial curve. With the UK next door going for a contained spread,( whatever you want to call it, herd immunity) approach, it makes their position look insane, futile and impossible
@Ruairi O Gorman: good points – surely the plan should be to increase ICU capacity for any rise in cases when restrictions are lifted, and these ICU facilities can be used in the future as an integral part of our State run health services.
As usual, we look to be stumbling from one situation into another.
@Tony Stack: their meaning the gov nphet hse
@Ruairi O Gorman: It’s become a massive game for them at the expense of the economy
@Séadna O’Grádaigh: I’m not lost at the logic. The R0 is under 1 because you have the country locked down. Once you open up the virus spreads. So the idea opening the economy but suppressing the virus is a complete oxymoron. Keeping ICU levels below the threshold was the plan we were told!
@Ruairi O Gorman: Exactly, you’re spot on. The path we are currently going is not going to work. They seem to believe like you say, that they can eradicate the virus. That will simply never happen. They need to open a much wider sector of the economy, basically because the healthcare capacity is allowing for it. This game of trying to suppress the numbers so much is going to bite us in the @rse, we will suppress it so much that by the time the economy does open, there will be a large spike in numbers (naturally) and people will be all aboard the hysteria again and cry for another lockdown. It’s craziness. They’re focusing too much on numbers and not enough on economy. If the healthcare is available for more cases, the economy should open more, it’s a balancing act.
So is Breslin going to answer the question about the estimate for cancer deaths or is he just avoiding it
@Aaron O’Leary: It seemed to me that the hard questions were answered with self praise. Then we were told not to take comparisons from other countries, but it was ok for the cmo to make comparisons that showed us in a positive light.
@Aaron O’Leary: Yeah, no doubt. To me from the beginning it has felt like the government and health team sitting on NPHET have used this as a means to shower themselves in praise
@Aaron O’Leary: Exactly! Self praise and Trump style speeches, perhaps toned down a bit.
And as far as comparisons with other countries, that’s a widespread tactic nowadays. See, Ireland is unique in every respect, so therefore comparisons are without merit. What that implies is that they don’t have to do anything about it, and they avoid painful accountability questions. Basically we benchmark ourselves against others only when it suits us…
@Aaron O’Leary: What’s worse is people lapping it all up, god praise our supreme leaders!
“We have it down to a very, very low level. We don’t have widespread community transmission,” concludes the CMO.
Why are we still effectively in lockdown for another two months? Until we can sit indoors with other people, everyone’s lives are drastically affected.
@Emma Meehan: yeah given the current situation the phased openings are looking very very slow. It would have been nice if they’d have given numbers we need to reach in order to do certain things, i.e. reproductive rate of the virus and ICU capacity required in order to reopen restaurants.
Talk about scare mongers and faux forecasts, Breslin daubing fear around pre the committee hearing as a binding effort for his buds. Wtf does he think he is.. the all seeing eye. And not once since this whole thing started have I heard anyone of these card players advise anyone on boosting immune system.. etc
Senior civil servant to warn Dáil committee that Covid-19 crisis could last for years https://jrnl.ie/5102189
@Eugene Walsh: However, if more than 0.0056% of our population ended up critically ill from COVID-19 at the same time, we’d have run out of ICU capacity.
At the peak of the epidemic on April 13th, we had 135 empty ICU beds, one bed for 36,300 people (for 4.9 million people). There were 144 critically ill COVID-19 patients in ICU. If the lock down was delayed by a week or two, given the rapid rise in cases that was doubling every ca. 10 days, we’d have run out of capacity.
So we had no choice but to crush the curve.
After watching the virus spread for 2 weeks what was the initial idea to have schools closed and Paddy day cancelled but to have 25 percent of the countries workforce sit in offices with more than 100 people?
Ridiculous
Since when do health officials run this country
Thousands are suffering from a lack of necessary treatments far more than are suffering with this virus
My deepest condolences to those who lost loved ones to covid 19 but many more will lose them to cancer if we do not resume a normal healthcare regime
Fear is a liar.
Great to see all the “experts” we have posting to the Journal. The country will be saved by these guys.
We should get rid of the government, Tony Holohan, Simon Harris, the HSE’s Chief Executive Paul Reid and all the guys doing the work – and let the Journal “experts” run the Covid-19 plans.
@For Goodness Sake: Perhaps it’s time to move past cool one-liners and air quotes when the word expert is being mentioned.
People have the right to show their disillusionment and frustration with the current situation and with the power that be. Just because they comment here and show disappointment, that doesn’t mean they are stupid or don’t have a point, just as it doesn’t mean that those in charge got everything right (far from it).
And to be fair I’m not sure who deserves more derision, those expressing their critical views or those still showing unshakeable faith and obedience to the power that be, even after everything that transpired in the last 2.5 months.
And which experts are we talking about btw… surely not the likes of Prof. Jack Lambert:
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/coronavirus-everything-is-being-done-two-weeks-too-late-1.4242691
As far as the current questioning is concerned, I’m sure there will be a day of reckoning… not!
@Stan Papusa: I’ll add you to the list of experts! I never suggested or thought that they got everything right – the only possible way to achieve this is through retrospection.
@For Goodness Sake: Peoples have questions these days. It would be nice to have answers. The more transparent thee fight against the virus is the more people are content with the steps we are asked to take.
We are asked to commit to a 6 months+ exit plan with further social distancing to follow. You may acknowledge that the prospects might be distressing for people.
Why are not all just working together to solve any problems. Bizarre way to solve a problem if you ask me. It feels almost like a way for the government to wash their hands of any culpability if something goes wrong. Then again, what do I know. I’m writing this in NYC
There has been a lot of circling of the Wagons today. Amazed at C.I.F. Trying to justify building cost increases without a shred of proof, mentioning Prolonged programmes and Crane hire. Wages or materials won’t increase so beware of Parlon’s predictions. Beware of Real Profits for Developers. 5 to 10 % increase on new dwellings and up to 40% on projects like the new Children’s Hospital, and all this off the cuff, a total Kite.
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