Off Topic

INAUGURATION SECURITY

Joe Bidens Inauguration begins 3am Sydney time Thursday 21 January live on SBS TV.

Trump has organised 2 distractions hours before the Inauguration:

1. A military parade at nearby Andrews Air Force Base https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrews_Air_Force_Base to which a pro-Trump crowd is invited. The crowd are due to assemble from 11.15pm (Sydney Time) Wednesday 20 January. Trump may well do more crowd incitement. Trump's timing allows several hours for this crowd to travel to central Washington, to do their worst during the Noon (US time) Inauguration. As Andrews Air Base is only 14km southeast of the Inauguration at the Capitol Building pro-Trump people could start a riot distraction within the Andrews area itself.

During Trump’s 6 January Insurrection many pro-Trump people appeared to have military training in coordinated action. So riots drawing the attention of security forces (Secret Service, FBI, National Guard http://www.9news.com.au/world/fbi-vetting-guard-troops-in-dc-amid-fears-of-insider-attack/374127e2-e1dd-4685-9216-33b0c8660186 and police ) may be coordinated with more deadly pro-Trump people shooting and bombing incidents.

2. Instead of attending the Inauguration (as is customary) Trump will fly from Andrews Air Base to one of his palaces, just north of Miami Florida. This will establish an alibi before the likely riot in Washington. It is also possible Trump may incite a crowd in the Miami area.

Additional scenarios to pro-Trump people violence in/around Washington are pro-Trump people Riots of Opportunity in US State Capitals and other major US cities. These may happen while most US security attention is focused on Washington.

If any violence happens this will dominate Aussie morning news, on Thursday 21 January. The most sustained reporting for us, is likely to be "ABC America World News" 12.30pm Sydney time, on SBS TV. This will be immediately followed, at 1pm, by "PBS NewsHour" on SBS TV.

Here's hoping nothing violent happens.

More see http://www.9news.com.au/world/joe-biden-inauguration-explainer-date-what-to-expect-how-to-watch-everything-to-know/ef3a5c33-a7a7-4e2b-9d77-1471daa33e2a

Fortunately most Australians are in the "sensible centre" to which the article author refers. But sensible is a little boring.

The author's comments on the killings and damage of the BLM riots are more easy to accept because the author is so even-handed.

US politics is much more polarised than Australian politics. This makes it much more ideologically exciting than Australian politics.

Such excitement can be quantitively demonstrated in the vastly larger number of comments on those OLO General Discussion Threads that deal with US politics.

This US excitment, in turn, polarises we OLO commenters between pro-Trump "Trumpsters" and anti-Trump "leftists".

Extrapolating to History - generally the dates of polarised Wars/Conflict are much more clearly milestoned than sensible times of Peace.

Pete

The word 'centre' means different things to different people. To me, it means that you don't believe in anything much; I prefer to be right if centre. 'Moderate' is just another word for Left.

I am amused that some posters here call themselves 'centrists' when everything they utter is dogmatic hard Left.

being centrist is a worthy goal as a student of politics.

While extremely difficult to pull off, given our own bias and preferences (as ttbn suggests), it is about highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of all sides of the debate.

Still, some bias may be evident, but that is the type of scholarship I appreciate.

'Moderate' is just another word for Left.
ttbn,
Other way round !

A quick search reveals that Dave is an admirer of the psychotic world-view promoted by the all American loon Eric Metaxas:
http://americanloons.blogspot.com/2018/04/1995-eric-metaxas.html

Eric hosted the recent absurdly pretentious Jericho March in Washington. A march which featured the very best (sic) of all American loons. It is interesting to note that the conservative blogger Rod Dreher was unreservedly deeply critical of Metaxas's involvement in that march. Rod and Eric have been life long friends.

Rod Derher is very popular in conservative circles in Australia and has come to Australia as a guest speaker at Campion College and The Ramsey Center. As far as I know Campion college has close links to the right-wing "catholic" outfit opus dei.

Rod was quite rightly deeply disturbed with the Trump phenomenon - right from the start. Which is sort of interesting because he has been a featured writer for Quadrant magazine and is occasionally cited on the online Quadrant site. Most/all of those who scribble for Quadrant are of course enthusiastic supporters of the Donald, which is to say that THEY are deeply deranged.