https://twitter.com/GeoffRBennett/status/1346896848909455363

https://twitter.com/briantylercohen/status/1346899462782808064

why the fuck are police not lighting that ass up?

Imagine if the black lives matter protestors had breached the capitol

.

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

Police must not be afraid for their lives.

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

Remember this one
https://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=13267776&mesg_id=13267776&listing_type=search

.


"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWpnHADKEb8

Trump aint gonna call the troops to stop them either.

They've been worked into a frenzy

FUCKIN THUGS!!!

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

...
"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

Like I legit might take the rest of the work day off

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

it’s no way they should be able to breach that easy...

This didn't need coordination just half assed effort

There might have been a coordinated effort though, curious to see footage from the moment of breach

No resistance, they have been at it for awhile.

they definitely let this happen

those people should be getting sprayed with rubber and real ass bullets

they really allowed these honkeys to stop the senate.

filled with the US government's leadership too

unprecedented! remarkable! stunning!

these niggas treating this like an olympics opening ceremony.

and theyre still calling them 'protestors'. they passed the protest stage a while ago. this is a mob.

i know its fucked up but i hope some reporters get hurt. they only care when one of their own are in danger.

otherwise they feel zero threat from a racist mob overpowering law enforcement and governmental institutions. once these racists feel emboldened here...black and brown people will bear the brunt of their empowerment.

the appropriate term of terrorists used at all...not once...

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

Police departments all across this country have basically been operating as MAGA sleeper cells.

Terrorism is the apt word to describe this.

-->

slick :-)

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

.

of this and the candlelight vigil by like 5 people outside josh hawleys house.

i hope a democrat doesnt say a bad word in the next 24 hours. then we have to be lectured about the decline of civility it might spark.

https://twitter.com/justinbaragona/status/1346906164492193792

https://twitter.com/igorbobic/status/1346906369232920576/photo/1

They’re in the chamber. One is up on the dais yelling “Trump won that election!” This is insane

The Defense Department has just denied a request by DC officials to deploy the National Guard to the US Capitol.

https://twitter.com/byaaroncdavis/status/1346908166030766080

and indicted immediately following bidens inauguration.

https://twitter.com/ByMikeBaker/status/1346905327279636480

they dont even have on riot gear.

Fucking infuriating

Either way, I'm about to make a run to the market real quick to make sure I'm stocked up.

That's not up for debate. It's in the videos and mentioned a few times in this post. If this was all "real" then that was a ridiculously bad job by security.

Or serious about going to the market? I am. My city was shut down for a week due to looting because of national events. Stores and ATMs boarded up for weeks. Some still are.

Is that a real question or are you joking?

...with very little resistance. DEEP into the building.

Not just into the building, but into the building at the time the presidential confirmation was going on. With all those important politicians to protect.

Compare/contrast this with the show of force at the capitol during the George Floyd protests.

>...with very little resistance. DEEP into the building.

>Not just into the building, but into the building at the time
>the presidential confirmation was going on. With all those
>important politicians to protect.

>Compare/contrast this with the show of force at the capitol
>during the George Floyd protests.

Yes, white people are treated significantly differently from Black people, and people in general are treated differently when they are protesting Black causes than when they're protesting white causes.

The differences fall right in line with what we know about the centuries of racism. We already got clips of cops taking selfies with these terrorists, and that fits.

Absent significantly more detailed information than "compare the response to that to the response to this", I don't see any evidentiary or even logical justification to make the leap to "this was staged".

Can you demonstrate the connection between those differences and your assertion that this was actually staged?

While I can certainly see how this could have happened with help from the inside, I think this is very, very real, and not at all "staged".

is what I'm getting from what he wrote

As written, "staged or real" comes across to me along the lines of "fake".

I'm not questioning that the attempts to stop them look phony, but the conclusion he's drawing from that.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/staged
- contrived for a desired impression

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/staged
- to organize an event

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/staged
- to produce or cause to happen for public view or public effect


I'm saying there was collusion between to "protesters" and the Capitol's security. Probably others as well. I'm saying that this "stprming of the Capitol" was planned in advance by more than just the "protesters."

This was a "staged" event.



Edit: "real" was a bad word choice in my initial question. Maybe "spontaneous" or "authentic" or something else would've been a closer antonym.

https://twitter.com/Vanessid/status/1346906560769839107?s=09

Trumpers storm Congress: bring out the bike police with their reflector vests

against a bunch of potentially armed MAGAts, not so much.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

'now i have to point out that there are a lot of protestors who are just staying back. they may support the ones rushing the capitol but they arent participating'.

theyre basically gonna 'few bad apples' this shit.

i hate these people.

https://twitter.com/stevennelson10/status/1346909952410062848/photo/1

this country is a fucking joke.

cuz he will be right back here in 4 years and prolly win.

this high road shit *always* backfires on these coward ass democrats.

cuz these next few years are gonna make the tea party look like a poetry slam.

republican voters and politicians have just given up on civil society.

On these fucking traitors. The Capitol building has plenty of cameras so they need to ID all of these people and arrest them all. Then they need to go after all these right wing nut jobs.

Dems in 2022 better run attack ads and commercials with this footage and bury the GOP. I can’t imagine this will play well with suburban voters.

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

but yeah

NO plans of holding these people legally accountable/taking the necessary steps to prevent shit like this from happening again because that would actually mean taking a stand and showing some backbone

unless their Donors tell them take action, probably not going to happen



I hope I end up being wrong about that.

>NO plans of holding these people legally accountable/taking
>the necessary steps to prevent shit like this from happening
>again because that would actually mean taking a stand and
>showing some backbone
>
>unless their Donors tell them take action, probably not going
>to happen
>
>
>
>I hope I end up being wrong about that.

DC OKPs: How y'all doing?

Just saw someone with a Confederate battle flag inside the US Capitol building.

There was a person being rolled out on a stretcher bleeding from the chest on MSNBC

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/msnbc-airs-woman-covered-in-blood-carried-out-of-congress-on-a-stretcher-amid-pro-trump-protests-chaos/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

And unsurprisingly these fucks ain't trying to take no parts of their responsibility for provoking this shit

everyone who enabled this bullshit.

treason. sedition.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

for the past hour.

thats not even an exaggeration.

of one of the windows being broken from the outside and folks streaming in through the broken window frame. The footage was from a CNN camera based on the logo.

My mind is completely blown right now.

Because that's what it fucking is.

I’m angry as hell

and dethrone their king.

https://twitter.com/GovernorVA/status/1346916716614451207

police might have seen that and fired.

i cant believe im defending the police.

and spent countless amounts of time in Ferguson. The days after Mike Brown was killed, you would have been hard pressed to tell them apart...and yet, the police are playing pitty-pat with these motherfuckers as they storm the Capitol Building. What a fucking country we live in, man.

https://twitter.com/NoahCRothman/status/1346912905929785344

like, how do they even get themselves to be able to say this shit?

Trump and denouncing this shit
It was ok to bring them out six months ago but not now? When they armed and in the capitol?

and left a message on a folder "we will not back down". OMG!! If a fucking black man did that, he would have left the building in a fucking bag. Man, I'm so fucking done!!!

I just can’t believe they didn’t prepare.

faux king exploiting all our cracks.

and

the mf’er gave a damn speech basically telling them to do this. smh

https://www.nytimes.com/

can they deem him incompetent and remove him by 6pm?

with the number 46 on it. <- joking - I mean they are indeed selling "Biden 46" merchandise but, seriously, who takes over for two weeks? And is that person recognized as 46?

https://twitter.com/transhuman/status/1346910448386338817/photo/1

other than insanity.

https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1346920198461419520

How were these fucking dolts able to just waltz into the goddamn Capitol building? They just let them do it.

like, it’s nothing

i think people are just autoprogrammed to say this whenever something bad happens.

the last few years have made it clear that this is exactly who we are.

75 million people voted for at least 4 more years of this.

.

https://imgur.com/a/CAdGEHs

.

>the last few years have made it clear that this is exactly who
>we are.
>
>75 million people voted for at least 4 more years of this.

includes those 75 million motherfuckers.

this been 'us'.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

this is clearly what the US is.

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/01/06/us/politics/06dcprotests-blog-guns/merlin_182053923_a40c0137-6b73-426a-9369-62ed1e34d9c9-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp

dude opened up by still lying about the election being stolen.

it's just further encouraging this

https://twitter.com/MR_CALL_DUTY/status/1346923967227940864?s=20

7:23pm!

.

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

ive been seeing updates about national guard troops and police departments being called to the scene for a while now.

any rioters leaving are pretty much doing it voluntarily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJhiMnVpjnw

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/01/06/us/politics/06dcprotest-blog-social-media/merlin_182058801_9cb047d1-20df-49db-90f3-bf74c53fbfa9-superJumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp

to make them look peaceful

then deleted it

https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/1346923672431423498

Ivanka Trump addressed the rioters as "American Patriots" in a tweet, then deleted it

It's as if they don't realize a screen capture function exist.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

or nah?

republicans completely destroyed our economy and got us embroiled in TWO failed wars at the same time.

lost the next presidential election.

then went on to win a historic landslide in the midterms just 2 years later.

At first I thought maybe self-inflicted to set off commotion and die a death of note in the Capitol

But someone said she was climbing something. The suit and another guy with a gun show up shortly after

I'm still sad she died being an idiot

that you see in another picture where capitol security has their guns drawn on the other side.

i cant find the picture right now.

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/01/06/us/politics/06dcprotests-blog-guns/merlin_182053923_a40c0137-6b73-426a-9369-62ed1e34d9c9-jumbo.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp

.

Until no one was in the hallway anymore.

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

I'm so confused fam.

Dude is the founder of something called Insurgence USA

.

https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1346948734471561222

this shit didnt do anything but put the battery in their back.

these dudes out here defying the curfew and talking about more violence later tonight.

And Hines Ward better keep running


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

i said multiple times on here that folks wouldnt do this sort of shit

and short of something actually blowing up, and hopefully nothing blows up, this might be THEE wildest shit i have ever seen

im watching this shit w/ the same sense of awe i have when im high.

One at the Capitol and one at the RNC

"But rest assured, in my luxurious house built on the backs of people darker than me, I am sipping fine scotch and scoffing at how stupid you are." - bshelly

Attack from outside the borders too.

DOJ aint said shit today.

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

They just took the airport conveyor belt to get there so it took them a few.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and he said he doubts these were trump supporters.


https://twitter.com/KTENnews/status/1346961405556228098

despite the fact they had on maga hats and trump flags and trump literally just gave a speech to them earlier and *told* them to march up to the capitol.

he also brought up antifa to muddy the waters.

btw this was markwayne mullin when the mob showed up at the chamber door (in the white shirt)

https://twitter.com/garrrish/status/1346953245437038592/photo/1

ready to get busy with a fuckin easel or whatever that is.

Why did they leave one black man to defend the entrance of the building?

Please tell us there's a VICE doc about this.

*edit*

https://mobile.twitter.com/igorbobic/status/1346911809274478594

POTUS (POSOTUS).

the natl guard activation include VP, not president.

pelosi's note for tonights congressional plans and vote mentions congress, military and VP. not president.

i think/hope/pray his bitchass under housearrest somewhere and they aren't telling anyone until its over.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

If Pence doesn't step up and remove him from office tonight.

I'm pretty sure Trump is trying to be removed before inauguration day, so that Pence could (he's hoping) give him a more legally solid pardon than he'd be able to give himself.

Regardless, I hope pence is on a zoom call with the chief justice and the cabinet right now. You wanna put the Trump years behind you? Now's the time.

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

i feel that might be warranted.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

..no need.


*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

thing on okp. i'm just used to it when something truly big goes down.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

Pence called in the DC National Guard, not Trump.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

yes

This fuckers didn’t grow a spine while in lockdown.

Unfortunately, would be waste to even make the attempt imo.

https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1346982839703650308

With Gitmo.

she was basically Trump's muse for all this madness

she doesn't get to talk about 'sane' ever

Fmr. Secretary of Defense Mattis releases statement:

“Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, an effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump. His use of the Presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice. Our Constitution and our Republic will overcome this stain and We the People will come together again in our never-ending effort to form a more perfect Union, while Mr. Trump will deservedly be left a man without a country.”

https://twitter.com/CopsRBad/status/1346963029448142849

"Get ready....for your blessing....."
"Bury me by my Grand-Grand and when you can come follow me"

https://twitter.com/search?q=state%20capitol&src=typeahead_click

Is he just chilling in the White House?

While watching Newsmax and OANN while talking to Powell and Giuliani.

He is on an island with only his most loyal supporters left around him.

He might have to hurry up and finish that trump tower in Turkmenistan.

kicking Hitler's ass and going to the moon!"

Just now on the Senate floor.

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

fuck ben sasse, too.

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/album-cover-for-eddie-kendricks-people-hold-on-which-was-news-photo/941164594?adppopup=true

maaaan

McCarthy said "we are the party that reaches across the aisle" and didn't miss an opportunity to take a parting shot at BLM protesters from last summer as he finished his disingenuous bullshit statement.

https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/01/06/US-capitol-trump-poll

A YouGov Direct poll of 1,397 registered voters who had heard about the event finds that most (62%) voters perceive these actions as a threat to democracy. Democrats (93%) overwhelmingly see it this way, while most (55%) Independents also agree. Among Republicans, however, only a quarter (27%) think this should be considered a threat to democracy, with two-thirds (68%) saying otherwise.

AND

One in five voters - including 45% of Republicans - approve of the storming of the Capitol building

I imagine one less person is alive in East County tonight.

I thought that was his boy lol

or if you take this as any real statement, you're dumber than shit.

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

like, this sh*t really happened?!

no sleep for me tonight

Let the heathens fight.

he went hard at Trump when everyone knew he would lose to Hillary

When that changed he's kissed his ass for 4 years

he called the GA SoS to overturn the election

NOW enough is enough? Fuck you forever

I hope he dies painfully.


>he went hard at Trump when everyone knew he would lose to
>Hillary
>
>When that changed he's kissed his ass for 4 years
>
>he called the GA SoS to overturn the election
>
>NOW enough is enough? Fuck you forever

in the MAGA hat & shirt?

>in the MAGA hat & shirt?

You know they were glad af to see him in on the scene so they could keep showing him.

https://youtu.be/mWxq84olsV4

Should have listened to the police and not been such a thug terrorist.

She probably thought there was no way they would actually shoot a white woman

and NOT 100% expecting to be shot and killed

.

forcefully entering a government building...she had to expect a bullet.

https://nypost.com/2021/01/07/who-was-ashli-babbitt-woman-shot-inside-capitol-building/

.

.

https://twitter.com/JennyJohnsonHi5/status/1347034718231957505

https://twitter.com/Nath_2389/status/1347195175978868742

https://twitter.com/EmilyGorcenski/status/1347240046739550208

Still pure comedy though.

https://twitter.com/gillis57/status/1346929942139846658?s=21

That’s scary. Even at my company you get in trouble if you walk away from your computer without locking it. Their systems could have easily been compromised and sensitive information accessed.

>https://twitter.com/gillis57/status/1346929942139846658?s=21
>
>That’s scary. Even at my company you get in trouble if you
>walk away from your computer without locking it. Their systems
>could have easily been compromised and sensitive information
>accessed.

but I aint gonna lie..

while we always lock our computers or risk getting clowned in emails or having our desktop wallpaper changed to Trump in a bikini..

if someone screamed shooter or I heard gunshots and broken glass..

fuck them computers.

I’m not risking my life on some “death star plans must be saved” bullshit.

Them hillbillies can have all my emails.

up to date their computers should automatically lock after 5-15 minutes of inactivity.

>but I aint gonna lie..
>
>while we always lock our computers or risk getting clowned in
>emails or having our desktop wallpaper changed to Trump in a
>bikini..
>
>if someone screamed shooter or I heard gunshots and broken
>glass..
>
>fuck them computers.
>
>I’m not risking my life on some “death star plans must be
>saved” bullshit.
>
>Them hillbillies can have all my emails.

You'd think they would have a quick way to remotely shut down all the machines in emergencies.

They wouldn’t remember their password

this is what they're going with

cults gonna cult

Antifa was made up by Trump to create a boogeyman.

The white people dressed in all black sent to protests to frame BLM protestors were “Antifa”

Them mofos been on the Trump payroll to rabble rouse and sew chaos to make Trump appear to be on that “Law and Order” bullshit with his responses.

The ones storming the Capitol yesterday are the same people, bought and paid for by Trump for political theater.

Shits so obvious to me...

(202) 224-3121

DC switchboard

NEED TO BE STOMPED THA FUCK OUT IMMEDIATELY....ON SIGHT!!!!!!

those mfs shouldnt be able to breathe nowhere... officially domestic terrorists

Arrested on site or shot.

cant say unbelievable because we all expected they would try to make trouble and its not really surprising that they would let them get away with it. had some hope it wouldnt get as bad as it did but not surprised.

Its really jarring to me that this shit happened

Like person above said, it's wholly unsurprising but still jarring and surreal that it actually happened.

I expected them to act a fool but I was a bit surprised (not really) that they didn’t beat the shit out of these crazy people

but someone said it perfectly. Wondering where the troops and cops were is like wondering where Miley Cyrus is when Hannah Montana is performing.

>but someone said it perfectly. Wondering where the troops and
>cops were is like wondering where Miley Cyrus is when Hannah
>Montana is performing.
>
>

I mean seriously, who cosplays as a MAGA idiot just to to make the MAGA idiots look bad. MAGA needs no help in looking bad.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

for people who believe spielberg eats babies, pizzagate, flat earth, bill gates made covid from 5g in china, hugo chavez stole the election... someone dressing up like maga is a pretty tame one

in a sense like, watching a dream become true. I strongly believe it was planned just by how they were chillin on the steps. a beast with our entire playbook!

oh...

I watched the mayor of DC press conference. I’m glad she explained why her crew wasn’t there because I was wondering...

What I mean is OF COURSE all the Trump supporters being there was planned because they were requested to be there and were basically asked by the president to riot.

the planning I'm talking about it the lack of police or military presence. i mean, i don't know exactly who controls which forces, but i know Trump has control of some of them.

there's no way, when there's an angry mob coming to the capitol who is very likely to harm people and property, that you don't have an insane number of police and military in place unless it was meant to be that way.

i mean, obviously we saw some police letting people thru the barricades but i think that was more the actions of THOSE officers. i'm speaking to just the general lack of "boots on the ground".

In some of the videos the "enforcement" were literally mall security guards. That couldn't have been an accident. Everyone on earth knew these assholes were coming. And considering the bullshit they were pulling the nite before, how could you possibly be "unprepared" for more escalation the next day ?

Lot of fishy shit going on.


>there's no way, when there's an angry mob coming to the
>capitol who is very likely to harm people and property, that
>you don't have an insane number of police and military in
>place unless it was meant to be that way.

...your average office building in NYC has more security than what was shown at the capital yesterday ..we're lucky it was more a clown parade than hostages being taken or worse

yet terrorists were able to walk through our headquarters of congress like it was a shopping mall.

failures of that magnitude arent coincidental.

i think the bigger idea i'm getting to or hope that people who can actually do something about it are getting to is investigating whether this "stand down" approach (actual or via lack of numbers) WAS ordered or was it simply just white privilege rearing it's head on some "white people could never" and just being unprepared.

where they just felt unthreatened by a bunch of white people.

theres a well documented history of police being sympathetic to the proud boys and various militia...and even explicitly coordinating with them in places like portland.

That's not by mistake or "unpreparedness." Everyone on earth knew this was coming, they telegraphed it for months if not immediately the night before.

on platforms like twitter, fb, and parler.

the leader of the proud boys was arrested the day before with 2 high capacity magazines for semi automatic weapons in his possession.

so the police knew the potential for danger. its just that theyre as pissed about the election as the rioters are.

because the people who support Trump stay armed and ready to go.

of course the national guard should’ve been present but I’m hearing rumors that Trump would have authority over them in that situation which is why it took so long to call them.

Dude waited 2.5 hours after the breach to act

pretty sure he was hoping they killed a few members of congress so he could stay in power.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1346951431195144200

>Dude waited 2.5 hours after the breach to act
>
>pretty sure he was hoping they killed a few members of
>congress so he could stay in power.

NYT you don't still have to do this lol

'...a dangerous political gambit sure to threaten more disarray in their caucus amid increased tensions with the progressive wing of the party'.

I make that distinction because from the times I've visited there, I was amazed at how small D.C. is and how close all of the government buildings are to the residential areas.

I mention the small size because I'm stunned more wasn't done to stop the mobs from easily infiltrating the Congressional buildings and how long it took to remove them.

Off tangent from yesterday's nightmare, Biden and Harris should have some trepidation about the security for their inauguration. I seriously hope nothing major happens when that goes down.

(when we were working from the office), than it was for folk to get into the Capitol, yesterday. Not just in the vestibule or some shit, but all up in the bowels of the place. How the fuck is guys chillin on the Senate floor? Dude got his feet up, in Pelosi's office. C'mon.

>(when we were working from the office), than it was for folk
>to get into the Capitol, yesterday. Not just in the vestibule
>or some shit, but all up in the bowels of the place. How the
>fuck is guys chillin on the Senate floor? Dude got his feet
>up, in Pelosi's office. C'mon.

idgaf what mcconnell will or wont do in the senate.

dems need to show their the anti-coup anti-insurrection party.

plus they lose *nothing* politically with this as trump is a weakened lame duck anyway.

and repubs have mad seats to defend in 2022. put this on their record and go on the offense for fucking once. create some ad material you can bomb them with.

and also put one last foot in trumps ass on the way out the door to show *your* voters that just won you 3 big red state senate seats in the middle of pandemic that you are fighting for *them*.

this shouldnt be a hard call.

meaning, will pelosi actually move on them?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/members-of-the-house-set-to-announce-articles-of-impeachment-for-trump-after-capitol-riot

and circulating/endorsing them instead of waiting for some conference call with her.

hopefully the chorus gets so overwhelming that she looks like shes aiding and abetting trump if she doesnt move on them.

https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/1347223560302034945

if his weak ass is giving the green light then pelosi better hop her ass on the 1st flight back to dc.

the faster they move...the less time they give repubs to come up with a spin or mount an effective defense.

With hearings and all that. What can be done in 12 days? The way Congress moves, they'll be ready to start talking about it by mid February

.

(as we have seen with the republican senate and the last sc judge confirmation).

remember when repubs and their media enablers were saying impeachment is a political process and not a legal one?

well that goes both ways. lets use it politically then.

dems need to start drawing hard lines in the sand and putting republicans on the other side of it. they also need to start making blatant overtures to their own base to keep them fired up and engaged from election to election.

cant just keep letting these folks skate then wonder why your base wont consistently show up to give you power you dont even use.

How are these fucking people (some) going to stick up for anyone when they won't stand up for themselves.

There were dudes with fucking firearms and zip ties.

You have the cover. You have some GOP cooperation.


If she does nothing?? If she just turns the page?

https://twitter.com/kasie/status/1347258992825917442

that 'considered' is giving me a lil hesitation.

might just be imperfect word choice. might be stall tactic to open things up for debate instead of committing.

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1347230227756441605
https://twitter.com/jdawsey1/status/1347248284138614789

dems better use all of this press/public sentiment while its still hot.

we obviously shouldnt fall for it but we can use it to our strategic advantage to persuade the people that do fall for it.

throw mcconnells own wife in his face when he sits on his hands.

>we obviously shouldnt fall for it but we can use it to our
>strategic advantage to persuade the people that do fall for
>it.
>
>throw mcconnells own wife in his face when he sits on his
>hands.

Who gives a fuck if you were on board for 1500 days but now you want to take a vacation?

“While it’s only 13 days left, any day can be a horror show for America,” Ms. Pelosi said, calling Mr. Trump’s actions on Wednesday a “seditious act.”

In an extraordinary news conference in the reclaimed Capitol, Ms. Pelosi singled out members of the Cabinet by name, asking why they would not intervene.

“Are they ready to say for the next 13 days this dangerous man can assault our democracy?” Ms. Pelosi said of the cabinet.

She said she hoped to have an answer from Mr. Pence within the day on whether he would attempt to use the 25th Amendment. The two leaders tried to call Mr. Pence directly on Thursday but were left on a holding line for 20 minutes without Mr. Pence picking up.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

We've seen this before.

"He's not worth it"

Lets celebrate her when she acts, not when she performs.


They could have taken this shit up last night, but kicked it to...wait for it...Mike Pence.

Then gave him another day to return their calls.

Same way Mueller kicked responsibility to congress.

Just fucking act. Act. Do it.

What has he done in the past 24 hours? What will he do in the next?

The longer she waits the more support she will lose from the other side.

What I meant was damn, I'm surprised she even said anything at all. I figured she'd let the congresswomen she hates so much run w/impeachment and just do the whole "they tried and they failed" grandstanding shit.

So yea I'm with you, no question. Just surprised she even *said* something.

And Nancy knows that shit.

That was her usual performative bullshit, while she slyly kicks the can down the road and checks her bank account.


"I demand Mike Pence suddenly grow a spine...in a day... assuming mother will allow it..." FOH

My only debate was if people were going to get more hyped over this or her ripping up his speech.


And now the Trump tape = GOP cover.


She should have had the articles to the senate before Romney, etc had a chance change their fucking pants.

Younger folks and folks new to this just don’t know about Nancy

I know people love to get hyped when she does a side clap or rips a paper or says some tough shit, but is she going to do it or nah?

Clock is ticking on this maniac. Pence is ducking her calls. Cabinet members are resigning.

She going to take up maybe starting debate on maybe impeaching him on Monday or some shit?

Hell, both chambers could have knocked this shit out last night with a quick summary of "high crimes" and some extra coffee.

I'd LOVE to be wrong. Any updates?

bypassing his committee hearings and going straight to putting articles on the floor for a vote.

https://twitter.com/kadiagoba/status/1347320037749698560

nadler was the one who really moved the needle with pelosi last time.

they could do this shit, but they wont

It's insane. They should use every single second of the next two years to the FULLEST extent that they can, and they've already dropped the goddamn ball on one of the easiest decisions they'll have to make.

And it's only gonna lead to more destruction and chaos.

at best. And now GOP have their cover.

I hear you, but I'm fucking disgusted and furious.


And tired of our side celebrating tough talk, sub tweets, and slick burns.

obviously but yeah

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-attempted-coup-federal-law-enforcement-capitol-police-2021-1

Some among America's military allies believe Trump deliberately attempted a coup and may have had help from federal law-enforcement officials

Multiple European security officials told Insider that President Donald Trump appeared to have tacit support among US federal agencies responsible for securing the Capitol complex in Wednesday's coup attempt.

Insider is reporting this information because it illustrates the serious repercussions of Wednesday's events: Even if they are mistaken, some among America's international military allies are now willing to give credence to the idea that Trump deliberately tried to violently overturn an election and had help from some federal law-enforcement agents.

"We train alongside the US federal law enforcement to handle these very matters, and it's obvious that large parts of any successful plan were just ignored," one source told us.

The supporters of President Donald Trump who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday to stop the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden's election victory were attempting a violent coup that multiple European security officials said appeared to have at least tacit support from aspects of the US federal agencies responsible for securing the Capitol complex.

Insider spoke with three officials on Thursday morning: a French police official responsible for public security in a key section of central Paris, and two intelligence officials from NATO countries who directly work in counterterrorism and counterintelligence operations involving the US, terrorism, and Russia.

They said the circumstantial evidence available pointed to what would be openly called a coup attempt in any other nation. None were willing to speak on the record because of the dire nature of the subject.

While they did not furnish evidence that federal agency officials facilitated the chaos, Insider is reporting this information because it illustrates the scale and seriousness of Wednesday's events: America's international military and security allies are now willing to give serious credence to the idea that Trump deliberately tried to violently overturn an election and that some federal law-enforcement agents — by omission or otherwise — facilitated the attempt.

One NATO source set the stage, using terms more commonly used to describe unrest in developing countries.

"The defeated president gives a speech to a group of supporters where he tells them he was robbed of the election, denounces his own administration's members and party as traitors, and tells his supporters to storm the building where the voting is being held," the NATO intelligence official said.

"The supporters, many dressed in military attire and waving revolutionary-style flags, then storm the building where the federal law-enforcement agencies controlled by the current president do not establish a security cordon, and the protesters quickly overwhelm the last line of police.

"The president then makes a public statement to the supporters attacking the Capitol that he loves them but doesn't really tell them to stop," the official said. "Today I am briefing my government that we believe with a reasonable level of certainty that Donald Trump attempted a coup that failed when the system did not buckle.

"I can't believe this happened."

The French police official said they believed that an investigation would find that someone interfered with the deployment of additional federal law-enforcement officials on the perimeter of the Capitol complex; the official has direct knowledge of the proper procedures for security of the facility.

The security of Congress is entrusted to the US Capitol Police, a federal agency that answers to Congress.

It is routine for the Capitol Police to coordinate with the federal Secret Service and the Park Police and local police in Washington, DC, before large demonstrations. The National Guard, commanded by the Department of Defense, is often on standby too.

On Wednesday, however, that coordination was late or absent.

"You cannot tell me I don't know what they should have done. I can fly to Washington tomorrow and do that job, just as any police official in Washington can fly to Paris and do mine," the official said. The official directs public security in a central Paris police district filled with government buildings and tourist sites.

"These are not subtle principles" for managing demonstrations, "and they transfer to every situation," the official said. "This is why we train alongside the US federal law enforcement to handle these very matters, and it's obvious that large parts of any successful plan were just ignored."

The National Guard, which was deployed heavily to quell the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, did not show up to assist the police until two hours after the action started on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.

One video appeared to show some police officers opening a barrier to allow a group of protesters to get closer to the Capitol dome. Another video showed a police officer allowing a rioter to take a selfie with him inside the Capitol while protesters milled around the building unchecked.

Kim Dine, who was the chief of the Capitol Police from 2012 to 2016, told The Washington Post that he was surprised that the Capitol Police allowed demonstrators on the steps of the Capitol. He said he was also mystified that few rioters were arrested on the spot.

Larry Schaefer, who worked for the Capitol Police for more than 30 years, told ProPublica something similar: "We have a planned, known demonstration that has a propensity for violence in the past and threats to carry weapons — why would you not prepare yourself as we have done in the past?"

The Capitol Police did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Systematic failures

The French police official detailed multiple lapses they believe were systematic:

Large crowds of protesters needed to be managed far earlier by the police, who instead controlled a scene at the first demonstration Trump addressed, then ignored the crowd as it streamed toward the Capitol.
"It should have been surrounded, managed, and directed immediately, and that pressure never released."
Because the crowd was not managed and directed, the official said, the protesters were able to congregate unimpeded around the Capitol, where the next major failure took place.
"It is unthinkable there was not a strong police cordon on the outskirts of the complex. Fences and barricades are useless without strong police enforcement. This is when you start making arrests, targeting key people that appear violent, anyone who attacks an officer, anyone who breaches the barricade. You have to show that crossing the line will fail and end in arrest."
"I cannot believe the failure to establish a proper cordon was a mistake. These are very skilled police officials, but they are federal, and that means they ultimately report to the president. This needs to be investigated."
"When the crowd reached the steps of the building, the situation was over. The police are there to protect the building from terrorist attacks and crime, not a battalion of infantry. That had to be managed from hundreds of meters away unless the police were willing to completely open fire, and I can respect why they were not."

The third official, who works in counterintelligence for a NATO member, agreed that the situation could only be seen as a coup attempt, no matter how poorly considered and likely to fail, and said its implications might be too huge to immediately fathom.

"Thank God it didn't work, because I can't imagine how hard it would be to sanction the US financial system," the official said. By sanctions, he means the imposition of the diplomatic, military, and trade blockages that democratic nations usually reserve for dictatorships.

"The broader damage around the world will be extensive in terms of reputation, and that's why Putin doesn't mind at all that Trump lost. He's got to be happy to take his chips and count his winnings, which from the Trump era will be a shockingly quick decline in American prestige and moral high ground.

"Every moment the Americans spend on their own self-inflicted chaos helps China, it helps Putin, and, to a lesser extent, it helps the mini-dictators like Erdogan and Orban, who breathe cynicism about politics, human rights, and democracy as their air," the official said. "They won't miss Trump; they'll be glad to see his drama leave so they can enjoy the poisoned political climate."

https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1347321469001465856

if discussions werent happening with the vp then it was never really serious.

They still support him. Pence. Graham. Bill Barr. All the cabinet members. ALL OF THEM.

Only way to show it is to NOT support him.

lmao

complete psychopath.

i bet you his cabinet starts hitting the news shows and applauding his response to the insurrection.

these people are so craven.

after encouraging them to come to dc and storm the capitol.

i wonder how they will react.

.

https://thedonald.win/p/11RhKCPJ93/breaking-message-from-president-/c/

how long before the media praises his new tone then trump abandons his own fake messaging and makes them look stupid again.

https://twitter.com/MattNegrin/status/1347340694134910986

lets see how long it takes trump to go back to the old tone.

how many times has this happened when reads a statement someone else wrote and the media talks about about his 'tone'

like, now he finally gets it.

in less than 24 hours he'll be blaming antifa and fake news

It's policy set out by media owners that are mainly interested in profits, and draws journalists that have strong "both sides" reflexes. Actually condemning people for their behavior is confused with bias.

so fuck him and his tone.

>after encouraging them to come to dc and storm the capitol.
>
>i wonder how they will react.

Tha Art of the deal? Was that speech something that would allow him to stay for last 2 weeks? Perhaps keep him outta jail long enough for him to move elsewhere? I wonder. Anything is possible.

Fuck these folks.

https://mobile.twitter.com/SenTomCotton/status/1347214203795484682

seen a few of them sending subliminals at the repub senators who were acting like they could overturn the results.

hawleys presidential aspirations are prolly already over just like that. maga aint buying his diet trump act and his own caucus is torching him.

It was a calculated gamble but he lost, big time.

You know he had his campaign commercials all scripted out and ready to go. But the MAGA thugs he riled up ruined his dreams

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/capitol-police-chief-steven-sund-resigns_n_5ff760cec5b6c0ae2e737470?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1347317550242295810?s=20

https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1347327743004995585

someone said its definitely not orwellian because orwell got his shit published.

>someone said its definitely not orwellian because orwell got
>his shit published.

how did it become "white people should be able to say literally anything with zero consequences of any kind"

>https://twitter.com/HawleyMO/status/1347327743004995585
>
>someone said its definitely not orwellian because orwell got
>his shit published.

LOL I saw one that said "nah, Orwell hated fascists" or something.

No matter how many times it's explained to them that "free speech" means the government cannot regulate your speech .. but that the private sector still can .....

Their brains are in pretzels.

How can you value property over human life because its "private" and not understand that the Starbucks barista can make you wear a mask or choose not to take your business because you are on STARBUCKS PROPERTY!!!

He's relatively tuned into this stuff and when I brought this clown up he was like "who's he ?"

I was like man I hadn't even heard of him either til like 2 weeks ago and suddenly he's like the nazi prince of america ha

He was the Missouri AG at the time
Signed on to repeal the entire healthcare law while hiding behind the preexisting condition of his son

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/1/17924512/voxcare-josh-hawley-preexisting-conditions

It'd be like Ken Paxton running on a platform about state autonomy.

and wants to be an original cosponsor.
https://twitter.com/kaikahele/status/1347233205678723078

tulsi refused to vote on impeachment the 1st time around.

im so glad we flipped this seat from red to blue in 2020.

When has other white people truly punished white supremacy or supremacists? Like really go hard on 'em.

Has Black, and other so called minorities, gained enough power over the decades to truly punish white supremacy?

This country's freedom and progression depends on whether this country can cut away one of its founding principles (white supremacy) and move forward without tearing itself apart.

Hearing these Dems, and others, talk tough with no action is kinda giving me my answer.

But we shall see. It is so present and in our faces now. There is no hiding. This is a tipping point. Where we go from here depends on the actions of today. A new course is being set.

Nervous, excited, and appalled all at the same time.

The incongruity of Trump supporters marching with the Gasdsen flag along with the Blue Lives Matter flag is right up there with them also rocking the Confederate battle flag...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2021/01/08/ashli-babbitt-shooting-video-capitol/

likely had people "imbedded" in the group so none of it was a "surprise"

>likely had people "imbedded" in the group so none of it was a
>"surprise"

So why let it happen? Why have this go down with hundreds of the government’s decision-makers in the building?

Was it an inside job from folks who were down with the DT? And now that it’s over, DT took a deal and read that hoe ass speech yesterday to save his own ass? And these late af resignations are a part of it too? What in the fuck is going on with these folks?

And now, the alleged holy grail of law and order wyte folks: a cop died fucking around with this! Now what? No comment cuz there wasn’t overtly poor folks involved? Not enough coloreds there to use all of the code words for niggers?

Oh, and the most priceless part for me is that several regular ass folks who went to this shit have not exactly been hiding in a trunk. They’ve been posting messages. They’ve been making videos. They’ve been boldly claiming that they went there and walked through. If you’re a kid who lived through a school shooting, how are you ever going to take American politicians seriously if nothing of note happens with at least these folks? And I don’t mean fired from your job 8 months later. I mean kick down your door, see if you even try to pull some shit and act accordingly if so type shit.

but there was a grip of republican reps still sitting and chilling like it was no big deal...

I thought it peculiar.....

and there were threats if kidnapping and killing politicians.

I’m pretty sure that was the plan Trump wanted them to carry out.

Cops were definitely in on it too

It's pretty clear that some people had some pretty specific intentions here.


https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/01/06/opinion/06darby2/06darby2-superJumbo-v3.jpg?quality=90&auto=webp


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/opinion/white-supremacists-capitol-riot.html


"It’s useful to remember the story of Earl Turner. He is 35, white, unemployed, racist and angry. The world is changing too fast for him: The economy is in shambles, Jewish people wield more power than he thinks they should, Black Americans incite chaos, and the government is cracking down on civil liberties, including the right to bear arms. Turner refuses to sit by, so he joins a movement plotting to overthrow the government. He wants to install right-wing rule by any means necessary. He is frustrated by those he judges to be merely “conservative,” people who talk but don’t act. Turner and other zealots go to Washington to do their part, and violence ensues.

Earl Turner wasn’t one of the people who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday. He isn’t even real. He is the titular character of “The Turner Diaries,” a racist dystopian novel published by a white supremacist named William Luther Pierce in 1978, in which right-wing guerrilla operatives terrorize the streets of Washington, bomb the F.B.I. and commit atrocities against fellow citizens. Still, Turner was very much present on Wednesday. The plot, symbols and language of Mr. Pierce’s novel have seeped into the right-wing imagination, influencing generations of extremists. “The Turner Diaries” is so influential, in fact, that experts on white nationalism sometimes refer to the book as the movement’s bible.

Think I’m overstating? A gallows was erected in front of the Capitol on Wednesday. As Hannah Gais, a senior researcher for the Southern Poverty Law Center, noted on Twitter, some of the more than 5,000 viewers of a livestream of the siege proclaimed “hang all the congressmen” and “give them the rope.” These were allusions to an event in “The Turner Diaries” known as the “day of the rope,” when the terrorists lynch their enemies: “the lawyers, the businessmen, the TV newscasters, the newspaper reporters and editors, the judges, the teachers, the school officials, the ‘civic leaders,’ the bureaucrats, the preachers.” And, yes, “the politicians.”"


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

They put the brakes on Maryland Gov sending in the national guard

https://twitter.com/lrozen/status/1347364591521701890


and the Pentagon placed significant restrictions on the DC Guard days before the attack.

https://twitter.com/hshaban/status/1347370208990781441

if so, why? are you good with your situation? just wondering

and yes, all politicians are supposed to be protected when something like this happens

>

President Biden can help stabilize the country.

So that's my civic duty protecting politicians/everybody thing.

got it. definitely past voting at this point

Yes

like believing they shouldnt be killed in a riot?

citizens are not protected, why should they have more protections

Crash is wild af when it comes to politics

but this is on some other shit lol.

'why do yall care if white supremacists start killing politicians?' is past tokpr territory fam.

and add me to your database. just because i'm asking some questions
that you don't like

here because i dont know wtf is going on

fear mongering by the media and dems right now. just fyi, i don't like
either party

it could happen, absolutely

for someone who claims they dont like either party...you sure have no problem echoing talking points from one of them.

your problem is but, don't box me into some shit

Did you want all of them to be murdered, or just some of them?

>

cmon bruh lol

https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1347587166902300675
-----
We can preserve the transition of power and ensure the American President is there to witness that transition by making Mike Pence the President through a swift impeachment.
-----

i dont really give a fuck about him or pence or any of these ghouls.

but framing a swift/radical impeachment as actually the best way to preserve historical norms is actually kinda genius.

dems can pretend they care about the previous president being present at the inauguration (which trump is skipping out on) as an olive branch to the opposing party and maintenance of a centuries long tradition upholding democracy. thats how we frame it out in public.

and also its plays up the trump vs pence cold war and further divides the republican base lol (thats the part i love most about it).

if you see how trump supporters are flaming people like nikki haley and ted cruz on social media for not towing the trump line now...then you know how angry they would get with pence opportunistically stepping in to undercut trump and claim the presidency for a few days (thats how we frame it behind the scenes to add fuel to the fire). they already hate pence now. this would make the rift 10x worse.

https://twitter.com/carlquintanilla/status/1347584903324594177

and hold them hostage or kill them in hopes it would lead to
martial law and Trump staying in office.

I also think they used the Handmaids Tale as inspiration for their attack plans.

I saw a story that said they were looking to hang Pence

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turner_Diaries#White_supremacist_terrorism


Like I posted above, people familiar with the book say Wednesday was almost beat for beat how the "Day of the Rope" is portrayed in that book, other than the politicians didn't make it to the noose and it took place on the steps of the Capitol Building instead of downtown LA.


I finally read the summary of that book last night after hearing about it for years and it at least gives the dumbass logic of these people a strong foundation. Everything about that book sounds like a horror story and the protagonist is forced to kill himself for white power...but despite a global scale nuclear war and rendering half the planet completely uninhabitable with a dead protagonist, for these people it's a feel good story because every non-white and race traitor is dead! Yippee!


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

https://twitter.com/sarahnferris/status/1347604326525644801

between this and the media flipping from complete horror watching the riots to questioning why dems would impeach if they care about unity...this shit aint happening mayne.

pelosi giving everyone the entire weekend plus some days next week to get desensitized to the violence we just witnessed is gonna be a bad move.

if you wanna talk about optics...claiming that we are in a dangerous/dire crisis but also not immediately calling the house back into session while letting everyone take their time and enjoy their weekend is absolutely bad optics.

theres no question they should impeach and remove him. every hour that passes its clearer that it wont happen.

i guess back to thoughts & prayers that he "behaves" until his term is up.

https://twitter.com/JStein_WaPo/status/1347597564149903360

way to rise to the occasion folks.

Should make passing legislation fun times for Biden.

Especially since I'm sure Republicans are just going to be blind obstructionists regardless of what gets presented.

I have a feeling Schumer is going to get embarrassed with the games the Senate Republicans are going to play with him.

At least the Senate committees with be led by Democrats, so there is some benefit there.

and hand mcconnell the gavel.

that was a really strong unambiguous rebuke of something that biden said was a day 1 priority. manchin would damage biden for his entire 1st term by preventing him from passing that after biden made such a public proclamation to the american people and dems just won 2 senate seats in ga off of that.

now the party would look like liars.

at least if a repub did it then dems could draw a distinction between the parties and hammer repubs with it in ads for 2022.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

he can be a thorn in the side sometimes...but he voted to keep obamacare, voted against repub tax cuts, voted yes on impeachment, etc.

whenever his vote is pivotal he tends to end up with dems.

and most importantly...he caucuses with dems and makes sure their leader runs the chamber when they have the numbers for a majority.

i know everything is binary and people dont really do nuance and complexity nowadays...but hes a dem and still much better than a repub from wv would be in that seat. even with all of his flaws.

I was told that was the plan to get M4A passed, so $2k should be a fucking breeze.

But seriously, a real leader (not Chuck) would at least get him not to air this shit out in public, etc.

I had hope Wed and early Thursday that a gang of nazis showing up with zip ties, nooses, and literally taking shits in their offices *might* spur them to actually act quickly.

Especially when the GOP started to break.

But Nancy went full out-of-touch Lucille Bluth and sent everyone home to get their dine on or whatever, and tricked stupid ass democrats into thinking she was being tough by kicking it to Pence (lol lol) for a day...wait no a week.

And now they are debating the optics?? The mullet-man march was there to kidnap you fucking people.


Un-fucking-real.

Who worries more about the GOP base feelings/optics, Democrats or Mitt Romney?

it is what it is.

they have very little real skin in the game and they are gonna be okay regardless of our political circumstances.

it sucks that we basically have to do all we can to keep them employed just to stave off actual fascism and gradual ethnic cleansing. but such is life i guess.

I thought the idea of Nazis coming to hang *you* but having to settle for defecating in your office might spark action...

If they won't stand up for themselves even? shiiit.


Think about it though-

relative to the consequences they may face, who worries more about the optics of upsetting Trump voters...Dems or Mitt?

I'd argue Mitt fucking Romney, relative to the consequences he will face, worries about it less.

Not sure if he plans to run again, but my guess is his ass gets primaried if he does.

Dems control all 3 and are worried about how it will look if they go after a president who just attempted to overthrow the gov.

Think about it.

for doing the minimum to barely break with trump after a fucking siege of the capitol building.

https://twitter.com/dlippman/status/1347612365093826565

https://twitter.com/jiveDurkey/status/1347621552519577602

repubs created this monster. i hope it destroys the entire party.

>for doing the minimum to barely break with trump after a
>fucking siege of the capitol building.
>
>https://twitter.com/dlippman/status/1347612365093826565
>
>repubs created this monster. i hope it destroys the entire
>party.

if Democrats force the issue. Yet another reason to impeach.

Impeach, kick it to the senate, and make them take a side- Trump or Democracy?

It should be in the senate right now.


Not to mention whatever legally can be done to Cruz and MAGA O'Rourke.

Yet another reason to impeach.
>
>
>Impeach, kick it to the senate, and make them take a side-
>Trump or Democracy?
>

the same way repubs brought the green new deal to the floor untouched and watched dems scatter like roaches away from it.

repubs are just so much better at this mayne. it hurts to witness.

if Republicans that break with Trump are going to find it hard to fund-raise when Biden takes office. Graham is such a proven snake, so I'm certain he'll craft his morals to whatever it takes to get funding.

are saying they will never vote republican again.

and...i mean...they were planning to kill the vice president so simply not voting isnt that hard to believe lol.

i imagined if democratic senators and joe biden just publicly rebuked obama over something i passionately wanted him to do. and yeah i would be pretty pissed.

of trump supporters harassing republicans as they go home during the recess...

then the recess might have actually been worth it.

im thinking about the healthcare fight and the impact all of those town hall videos had on public perception of the issue.

this should really drive home the danger of trump to other republicans and make dems look a lil more like the principled party by thinking about repub safety too (if we are gonna do the whole optics thing).

So exhausting, imagine just being at that airport trying to catch a flight and not a virus


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

https://twitter.com/NateRockQuarry/status/1347640894774669312

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2021/01/08/ashli-babbitt-shooting-video-capitol/

Ugliness through and through.

3 people died from "medical emergencies"? I don't ever recall hearing about people dying that way during BLM or other protests/"riots"/uprisings.

The heart attack guy reportedly tasted himself in the testicles on accident which caused the heart attack.
During the protests you didn't see a bunch of out of shape losers trying to stage feats of strength en masse

>The heart attack guy reportedly tasted himself in the
>testicles on accident which caused the heart attack.

these motherfuckers were gassed up in a way protesters never would be.

they really thought that shit was theirs to take and they were on 150% exertion

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

>The heart attack guy reportedly tasted himself in the
>testicles on accident which caused the heart attack.

A good friend of mine from HS is Tip O'Neill's grandson, and apparently the dude who zapped his jewels did so while trying to steal a goddamn picture of Tip O'Neill.

So we've been having a field day with that story. My friend is like "WHY WAS GRAMP'S PICTURE SO IMPORTANT TO HIM" lol

i laughed out loud at that

Feel free to use the enhanced version too lol.

https://twitter.com/THEKIDMERO/status/1347620980806606849

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

please look up the atlanta bombing and find out who died there and how.


www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

some of them prolly never walked that much in their life.

Enough people, enough dust, too little space ...

This was on December 21, 2020 in Oregon.


https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2021/01/video-clearly-shows-rep-mike-nearman-helping-right-wing-demonstrators-breach-oregon-capitol.html

By Hillary Borrud | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Video clearly shows Rep. Mike Nearman helping right-wing demonstrators breach Oregon Capitol

Security video obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive under a public records request clearly shows Rep. Mike Nearman, a Republican from Independence, open two doors to the Capitol during a Dec. 21 special legislative session, allowing violent demonstrators who were protesting immediately outside the door to illegally enter the building.

Oregon’s Capitol was and is closed to the public due to the pandemic, although journalists are allowed inside to report on proceedings and the meetings are streamed live and archived online.

The demonstrators, many of whom were unmasked and some of whom carried rifles, objected to the state’s coronavirus restrictions and sought to disrupt the session underway. State troopers and Salem police ultimately prevented them from entering the building’s rotunda or reaching the House or Senate chambers, but not before some of the rioters allegedly sprayed six troopers with a chemical substance that was reportedly pepper spray. The video shows spray being deployed.

Some demonstrators physically attacked journalists who were reporting on the event. At least one person was arrested after trying to enter the Capitol by breaking the window in a door. People also gained entrance without breaking in — and this security footage shows exactly how.

At least two people have so far been arrested on charges related to the breach on the morning of Dec. 21.

House Speaker Tina Kotek said on Thursday that legislative leaders were exploring how they could sanction any lawmaker who aided rioters in forcing their way into the Capitol on Dec. 21. Oregon State Police are investigating the incident, she said.

House Republicans never responded to a request for comment on the incident Thursday.

— Hillary Borrud

https://twitter.com/WSAZChadHedrick/status/1347629406043443203?s=20


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://twitter.com/JaredHuffman/status/1347244313160380422

the sad part? its prolly true.

With the “patriots”

https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/1347306934521757696

calling on congress not to impeach and ranting about big tech

if you were writing a script you might take that out for being too corny and on the nose

https://www.cbs46.com/news/friend-of-kennesaw-woman-killed-in-capitol-riot-recounts-her-final-moments/article_c36b3146-515c-11eb-adfd-a32b248f9815.html

She got to live it






If only for a few minutes.

Over and over and over and over and over and ov-

i did envision that reply while posting it

>Over and over and over and over and over and ov-

not this part tho lol

I was like, this is good, but obvious.

Lemme spice it up

He made and sold kangaroo trump stuffed animals...

https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennsylvania/washington-protest-trump-capitol-pennsylvania-ben-philips-20210107.html

I mean of course I knew that, but reading some of these stories and quotes from them is so bizarre.

And I know that trumpism is way more than just this election fraud thing. But the fact that they are willing to go to such lengths over something that’s just a plain lie with zero evidence because certain people kept repeating it is insane. It really doesn’t take much.

I always thought of the Nazis as this group of people who were just evil. But to put the trump spin on them, where they were largely a bunch of idiots who were brainwashed by a few shitheads at the top gives me a different perspective. I know this isn’t a new revelation but to be seeing it today with my own eyes is interesting.

The whole thing is kind of fascinating honestly.

and founder of justice democrats

https://twitter.com/themattdimitri/status/1347805435848392705

this is all just an academic exercise for these folks. just pure political porn whose outrageousness and melodrama bring them amusement and laughter.

then they wonder why their 'movement' continuously fails to connect with the voters they claim to champion.

https://twitter.com/ExportedFromMI/status/1347763885646827522

“I got called a nigger 15 times today,” the veteran officer shouted in the rotunda to no one in particular. “Trump did this and we got all of these fucking people in our department that voted for him. How the fuck can you support him?”


“That was a heavily trained group of militia terrorists that attacked us,” said the officer, who has been with the department for more than a decade. “They had radios, we found them, they had two-way communicators and earpieces. They had bear spray. They had flash bangs ... They were prepared. They strategically put two IEDs, pipe bombs in two different locations. These guys were military trained. A lot of them were former military,”"

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmanuelfelton/black-capitol-police-racism-mob

These Black Capitol Police Officers Describe Fighting Off "Racist Ass Terrorists"

Two Black officers told BuzzFeed News that their chief and other upper management left them totally unprepared and were nowhere to be found on the day.

Picture of Emmanuel Felton
Emmanuel Felton
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on January 9, 2021, at 4:32 p.m. ET

The first glimpse of the deadly tragedy that was about to unfold came at 9 a.m. on the morning of the insurrection for one Black veteran of the US Capitol Police. But it didn’t come from his superiors — instead the officer had to rely on a screenshot from Instagram sent to him by a friend.

“I found out what they were planning when a friend of mine screenshot me an Instagram story from the Proud Boys saying, ‘We’re breaching the capitol today, guys. I hope y’all ready.’” The officer, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation from his superiors, told BuzzFeed News that it was just a sign of the chaos that was to come, which saw officers regularly finding themselves unprepared and then outmanned and overpowered by the mob.

The officer said that while the department’s upper management had been telling them to prepare for Wednesday’s storming of the Capitol like they would for any other protest, that Instagram post sent a clear message: this wasn’t going to be just some kind of free speech protest, this was going to be a fight.

Management’s inaction left Black police officers especially vulnerable to a mob that had been whipped up by President Donald Trump, a man who has a record of inspiring racist vigilantes to action. One of the most defining videos of that day was of one of their colleagues, another Black officer, trying in vain to hold back the tide of rioters who had broken into the building and were hunting for Congressional members.

BuzzFeed News spoke to two Black officers who described a harrowing day in which they were forced to endure racist abuse — including repeatedly being called the n-word — as they tried to do their job of protecting the Capitol building, and by extension the very functioning of American democracy. The officers said they were wrong footed, fighting off an invading force that their managers had downplayed, and not prepared them for. They had all been issued gas masks, for example, but management didn’t tell them to bring them in on the day. Capitol Police did not respond to BuzzFeed News’s request for comment about the allegations made by officers.

While some of the images from that day appeared to show officers standing by to let the mob into the Capitol building, the veteran officer said that they had fought them off for two hours before the attackers eventually gained access. The officer said that many of the widely spread images of smiling marauders, wandering the halls dressed in absurd costumes, had the effect of downplaying how well prepared some of the rioters were to overtake the building, and even to capture and kill Congress members.

“That was a heavily trained group of militia terrorists that attacked us,” said the officer, who has been with the department for more than a decade. “They had radios, we found them, they had two-way communicators and earpieces. They had bear spray. They had flash bangs ... They were prepared. They strategically put two IEDs, pipe bombs in two different locations. These guys were military trained. A lot of them were former military,” the veteran said, referring to two suspected pipe bombs that were found outside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee.

The officer even described coming face to face with police officers from across the country in the mob. He said some of them flashed their badges, telling him to let them through, and trying to explain that this was all part of a movement that was supposed to help.

“You have the nerve to be holding a blue lives matter flag, and you are out there fucking us up,” he told one group of protestors he encountered inside the Capitol. “ pulled out his badge and he said, ‘we’re doing this for you.’ Another guy had his badge. So I was like, ‘well, you gotta be kidding.’”

Another officer, a newer recruit, echoed these sentiments, saying that where he was on the steps to the rotunda on the east side of the Capitol, he was engaged in hand-to-hand battles trying to fight the attackers off. But he said they were outnumbered 10 to one, and described extraordinary scenes in which protesters holding Blue Lives Matter flags launched themselves at police officers.

“We were telling them to back up and get away and stop, and they’re telling us, they are on our side, and they’re doing this for us, and they’re saying this as I’m getting punched in my face by one of them … That happened to a lot of us. We were getting pepper sprayed in the face by those protesters, I'm not going to even call them protestors, by those domestic terrorists,” said the officer.

While it was a hard day for almost every officer at the Capitol, Black officers were in a particularly difficult position, he said, and he drew a stark contrast with how police handled the Black Lives Matter protests this summer.

“There’s quite a big difference when the Black Lives Matter protests come up to the capitol,” he said. “, some officers were catering to the rioters.”

He said that what upset him the most was when he later saw images of a white colleague taking a selfie with the attackers, seeming to enjoy his time with the insurrectionists who were roaming the US Capitol with confederate flags and other symbols of white supremacy.

“That one hurt me the most because I was on the other side of the Capitol getting my ass kicked,” he said.

He is certain that if a group of Black Americans had stormed the Capitol they wouldn’t have gotten that kind of friendly reception from his white colleagues.

“If you’re going to treat a group of demonstrators for Black Lives Matters one way, then you should treat this group the same god damn way. With this group you were being kind and nice and letting them walk back out. Some of them got arrested but a lot of them didn’t. Everyone who came into that Capitol should have been arrested regardless if they didn’t take anything.”

The number of arrests has steadily increased in recent days, but it currently seems unlikely that everyone who breached the building on Wednesday will be arrested for their actions.

Five people died on Wednesday including a Capitol Police officer. One protestor was shot and killed by Capitol Police, while three others died of medical emergencies during the attack.

The older Black officer didn’t think it was a simple case of treating the rioters differently from BLM protesters, but instead part of a bigger issue with how the agency is managed.

“Our chief was nowhere to be found, I didn’t hear him on the radio. One of our other deputy chiefs was not there,” he said. “You don’t think it’s all hands on deck?”

The veteran officer welcomed the resignation of US Capitol Police chief, Steven Sund, but he thinks more needs to change at the agency, which answers to Congress and where security is not as tight as it should be.

“Congress can bring anybody in the building that they want. They can go outside and find 200 people, and say hey, they’re with me. Come on in. They don’t have to go through security as long as a Congressman said so,” he explained. “They just want to make Congress happy. So I think the next chief needs to come in and sit down with Congress.”

At the end of the night, after the crowds had been dispersed and Congress got back to the business of certifying president-elect Joe Biden’s victory, the veteran officer was overwhelmed with emotion, and broke down in the rotunda.

“I sat down with one of my buddies, another Black guy, and tears just started streaming down my face,” he said. “I said, ‘what the fuck, man? Is this America? What the fuck just happened? I’m so sick and tired of this shit.’”

Soon he was screaming, so that everyone in the rotunda, including his white colleagues, could hear what he had just gone through.

“These are racist ass terrorists,” he yelled out.

In the seven years since Black Lives Matter has become a rallying cry, the image of a white cop, deciding how and when to enforce law and order, has become ubiquitous. On Wednesday, Americans saw something different, as Black officers tried to do the same, as they attempted to protect the very heart of American democracy. And instead of being honored by the supporters of a man who likes to call himself the “law and order” president, Black Capitol officers found themselves under attack.

“I got called a nigger 15 times today,” the veteran officer shouted in the rotunda to no one in particular. “Trump did this and we got all of these fucking people in our department that voted for him. How the fuck can you support him?”

“I cried for about 15 minutes and I just let it out.”

thank God they made it out safe.

but i could only imagine wtf they went through.

it says a lot that capitol police arent holding press conferences...giving updates on the aftermath, officers injured, calling on prayers/support for the officer killed in the riot, etc.

their leadership intentionally hung them out to dry. the level of coordination with pro trump allies is gonna come out and make all of these 'dems shouldnt pursue impeachment' takes look foolish.

was purposely luring them away from the senate chamber and to where he had some back up

https://heavy.com/news/eugene-goodman/

and yeah i read that buzzfeed piece yesterday. gut wrenching, angering. I'm glad they made it out without serious injury or worse.

with a lot of jokes and a lot of people saying different versions of “why didn’t he shoot them/I would have busted my gun, etc.”. There were a few of us saying he was doing what he was supposed to do...call for backup and run to their location. He prolly had a 9mm with 13 to 20 rounds, in it. Extra magazines don’t matter, cuz he was not going to be reloading. He might have knocked off 3, 4, 5 of them...before he got overrun and torn to pieces. He was smart and he went home, that night. Fuck that Bad Boys, hero shit.

who don't know shit about shit


www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

sometimes it’s hella frustrating. They were really clowning that man for not trying to take out an angry, racist mob with one handgun.

They think that the second they find themselves in a situation like this, their body's muscle memory will access a decade of intense, Universal Pictures level CIA training and decimate everyone in their path.

>sometimes it’s hella frustrating. They were really
>clowning that man for not trying to take out an angry, racist
>mob with one handgun.

.

.

after biden used it in his speech.

great job of messaging for once.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie

that phrase is seeping into the public discourse so well that even repub senator pat toomey used it.
https://twitter.com/kasie/status/1348301135099129857

its clearly not coincidental and im wondering if dems have finally gotten some type of disciplined info/messaging coordination going on.

i notice dems pushing the term 'survival checks' in regards to the $2k and more people in comments sections adopting that phrasing. so maybe we are finally getting our shit together a bit.

Highly recommend taking the time. If you can read it on the site it's worth it for Gilbertson's photos.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/magazine/trump-coup.html?referringSource=articleShare

The American Abyss – A historian of fascism and political atrocity on Trump, the mob and what comes next.

By Timothy Snyder
Published Jan. 9, 2021
Updated Jan. 10, 2021, 10:12 a.m. ET

When Donald Trump stood before his followers on Jan. 6 and urged them to march on the United States Capitol, he was doing what he had always done. He never took electoral democracy seriously nor accepted the legitimacy of its American version.

Even when he won, in 2016, he insisted that the election was fraudulent — that millions of false votes were cast for his opponent. In 2020, in the knowledge that he was trailing Joseph R. Biden in the polls, he spent months claiming that the presidential election would be rigged and signaling that he would not accept the results if they did not favor him. He wrongly claimed on Election Day that he had won and then steadily hardened his rhetoric: With time, his victory became a historic landslide and the various conspiracies that denied it ever more sophisticated and implausible.

People believed him, which is not at all surprising. It takes a tremendous amount of work to educate citizens to resist the powerful pull of believing what they already believe, or what others around them believe, or what would make sense of their own previous choices. Plato noted a particular risk for tyrants: that they would be surrounded in the end by yes-men and enablers. Aristotle worried that, in a democracy, a wealthy and talented demagogue could all too easily master the minds of the populace. Aware of these risks and others, the framers of the Constitution instituted a system of checks and balances. The point was not simply to ensure that no one branch of government dominated the others but also to anchor in institutions different points of view.

In this sense, the responsibility for Trump’s push to overturn an election must be shared by a very large number of Republican members of Congress. Rather than contradict Trump from the beginning, they allowed his electoral fiction to flourish. They had different reasons for doing so. One group of Republicans is concerned above all with gaming the system to maintain power, taking full advantage of constitutional obscurities, gerrymandering and dark money to win elections with a minority of motivated voters. They have no interest in the collapse of the peculiar form of representation that allows their minority party disproportionate control of government. The most important among them, Mitch McConnell, indulged Trump’s lie while making no comment on its consequences.

Yet other Republicans saw the situation differently: They might actually break the system and have power without democracy. The split between these two groups, the gamers and the breakers, became sharply visible on Dec. 30, when Senator Josh Hawley announced that he would support Trump’s challenge by questioning the validity of the electoral votes on Jan. 6. Ted Cruz then promised his own support, joined by about 10 other senators. More than a hundred Republican representatives took the same position. For many, this seemed like nothing more than a show: challenges to states’ electoral votes would force delays and floor votes but would not affect the outcome.

Yet for Congress to traduce its basic functions had a price. An elected institution that opposes elections is inviting its own overthrow. Members of Congress who sustained the president’s lie, despite the available and unambiguous evidence, betrayed their constitutional mission. Making his fictions the basis of congressional action gave them flesh. Now Trump could demand that senators and congressmen bow to his will. He could place personal responsibility upon Mike Pence, in charge of the formal proceedings, to pervert them. And on Jan. 6, he directed his followers to exert pressure on these elected representatives, which they proceeded to do: storming the Capitol building, searching for people to punish, ransacking the place.

Of course this did make a kind of sense: If the election really had been stolen, as senators and congressmen were themselves suggesting, then how could Congress be allowed to move forward? For some Republicans, the invasion of the Capitol must have been a shock, or even a lesson. For the breakers, however, it may have been a taste of the future. Afterward, eight senators and more than 100 representatives voted for the lie that had forced them to flee their chambers.


Image
Rioters threatened and chased a police officer inside the Capitol, 2:13 p.m.
Rioters threatened and chased a police officer inside the Capitol, 2:13 p.m.Credit...Ashley Gilbertson/VII, for The New York Times
Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president. When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to create spectacle in its place. Without agreement about some basic facts, citizens cannot form the civil society that would allow them to defend themselves. If we lose the institutions that produce facts that are pertinent to us, then we tend to wallow in attractive abstractions and fictions. Truth defends itself particularly poorly when there is not very much of it around, and the era of Trump — like the era of Vladimir Putin in Russia — is one of the decline of local news. Social media is no substitute: It supercharges the mental habits by which we seek emotional stimulation and comfort, which means losing the distinction between what feels true and what actually is true.

Post-truth wears away the rule of law and invites a regime of myth. These last four years, scholars have discussed the legitimacy and value of invoking fascism in reference to Trumpian propaganda. One comfortable position has been to label any such effort as a direct comparison and then to treat such comparisons as taboo. More productively, the philosopher Jason Stanley has treated fascism as a phenomenon, as a series of patterns that can be observed not only in interwar Europe but beyond it.

My own view is that greater knowledge of the past, fascist or otherwise, allows us to notice and conceptualize elements of the present that we might otherwise disregard and to think more broadly about future possibilities. It was clear to me in October that Trump’s behavior presaged a coup, and I said so in print; this is not because the present repeats the past, but because the past enlightens the present.

Like historical fascist leaders, Trump has presented himself as the single source of truth. His use of the term “fake news” echoed the Nazi smear Lügenpresse (“lying press”); like the Nazis, he referred to reporters as “enemies of the people.” Like Adolf Hitler, he came to power at a moment when the conventional press had taken a beating; the financial crisis of 2008 did to American newspapers what the Great Depression did to German ones. The Nazis thought that they could use radio to replace the old pluralism of the newspaper; Trump tried to do the same with Twitter.

Thanks to technological capacity and personal talent, Donald Trump lied at a pace perhaps unmatched by any other leader in history. For the most part these were small lies, and their main effect was cumulative. To believe in all of them was to accept the authority of a single man, because to believe in all of them was to disbelieve everything else. Once such personal authority was established, the president could treat everyone else as the liars; he even had the power to turn someone from a trusted adviser into a dishonest scoundrel with a single tweet. Yet so long as he was unable to enforce some truly big lie, some fantasy that created an alternative reality where people could live and die, his pre-fascism fell short of the thing itself.

Some of his lies were, admittedly, medium-size: that he was a successful businessman; that Russia did not support him in 2016; that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Such medium-size lies were the standard fare of aspiring authoritarians in the 21st century. In Poland the right-wing party built a martyrdom cult around assigning blame to political rivals for an airplane crash that killed the nation’s president. Hungary’s Viktor Orban blames a vanishingly small number of Muslim refugees for his country’s problems. But such claims were not quite big lies; they stretched but did not rend what Hannah Arendt called “the fabric of factuality.”

One historical big lie discussed by Arendt is Joseph Stalin’s explanation of starvation in Soviet Ukraine in 1932-33. The state had collectivized agriculture, then applied a series of punitive measures to Ukraine that ensured millions would die. Yet the official line was that the starving were provocateurs, agents of Western powers who hated socialism so much they were killing themselves. A still grander fiction, in Arendt’s account, is Hitlerian anti-Semitism: the claims that Jews ran the world, Jews were responsible for ideas that poisoned German minds, Jews stabbed Germany in the back during the First World War. Intriguingly, Arendt thought big lies work only in lonely minds; their coherence substitutes for experience and companionship.

In November 2020, reaching millions of lonely minds through social media, Trump told a lie that was dangerously ambitious: that he had won an election that in fact he had lost. This lie was big in every pertinent respect: not as big as “Jews run the world,” but big enough. The significance of the matter at hand was great: the right to rule the most powerful country in the world and the efficacy and trustworthiness of its succession procedures. The level of mendacity was profound. The claim was not only wrong, but it was also made in bad faith, amid unreliable sources. It challenged not just evidence but logic: Just how could (and why would) an election have been rigged against a Republican president but not against Republican senators and representatives? Trump had to speak, absurdly, of a “Rigged (for President) Election.”

The force of a big lie resides in its demand that many other things must be believed or disbelieved. To make sense of a world in which the 2020 presidential election was stolen requires distrust not only of reporters and of experts but also of local, state and federal government institutions, from poll workers to elected officials, Homeland Security and all the way to the Supreme Court. It brings with it, of necessity, a conspiracy theory: Imagine all the people who must have been in on such a plot and all the people who would have had to work on the cover-up.

Trump’s electoral fiction floats free of verifiable reality. It is defended not so much by facts as by claims that someone else has made some claims. The sensibility is that something must be wrong because I feel it to be wrong, and I know others feel the same way. When political leaders such as Ted Cruz or Jim Jordan spoke like this, what they meant was: You believe my lies, which compels me to repeat them. Social media provides an infinity of apparent evidence for any conviction, especially one seemingly held by a president.

On the surface, a conspiracy theory makes its victim look strong: It sees Trump as resisting the Democrats, the Republicans, the Deep State, the pedophiles, the Satanists. More profoundly, however, it inverts the position of the strong and the weak. Trump’s focus on alleged “irregularities” and “contested states” comes down to cities where Black people live and vote. At bottom, the fantasy of fraud is that of a crime committed by Black people against white people.

It’s not just that electoral fraud by African-Americans against Donald Trump never happened. It is that it is the very opposite of what happened, in 2020 and in every American election. As always, Black people waited longer than others to vote and were more likely to have their votes challenged. They were more likely to be suffering or dying from Covid-19, and less likely to be able to take time away from work. The historical protection of their right to vote has been removed by the Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, and states have rushed to pass measures of a kind that historically reduce voting by the poor and communities of color.

The claim that Trump was denied a win by fraud is a big lie not just because it mauls logic, misdescribes the present and demands belief in a conspiracy. It is a big lie, fundamentally, because it reverses the moral field of American politics and the basic structure of American history.

When Senator Ted Cruz announced his intention to challenge the Electoral College vote, he invoked the Compromise of 1877, which resolved the presidential election of 1876. Commentators pointed out that this was no relevant precedent, since back then there really were serious voter irregularities and there really was a stalemate in Congress. For African-Americans, however, the seemingly gratuitous reference led somewhere else. The Compromise of 1877 — in which Rutherford B. Hayes would have the presidency, provided that he withdrew federal power from the South — was the very arrangement whereby African-Americans were driven from voting booths for the better part of a century. It was effectively the end of Reconstruction, the beginning of segregation, legal discrimination and Jim Crow. It is the original sin of American history in the post-slavery era, our closest brush with fascism so far.

If the reference seemed distant when Ted Cruz and 10 senatorial colleagues released their statement on Jan. 2, it was brought very close four days later, when Confederate flags were paraded through the Capitol.

Some things have changed since 1877, of course. Back then, it was the Republicans, or many of them, who supported racial equality; it was the Democrats, the party of the South, who wanted apartheid. It was the Democrats, back then, who called African-Americans’ votes fraudulent, and the Republicans who wanted them counted. This is now reversed. In the past half century, since the Civil Rights Act, Republicans have become a predominantly white party interested — as Trump openly declared — in keeping the number of voters, and particularly the number of Black voters, as low as possible. Yet the common thread remains. Watching white supremacists among the people storming the Capitol, it was easy to yield to the feeling that something pure had been violated. It might be better to see the episode as part of a long American argument about who deserves representation.

The Democrats, today, have become a coalition, one that does better than Republicans with female and nonwhite voters and collects votes from both labor unions and the college-educated. Yet it’s not quite right to contrast this coalition with a monolithic Republican Party. Right now, the Republican Party is a coalition of two types of people: those who would game the system (most of the politicians, some of the voters) and those who dream of breaking it (a few of the politicians, many of the voters). In January 2021, this was visible as the difference between those Republicans who defended the present system on the grounds that it favored them and those who tried to upend it.

In the four decades since the election of Ronald Reagan, Republicans have overcome the tension between the gamers and the breakers by governing in opposition to government, or by calling elections a revolution (the Tea Party), or by claiming to oppose elites. The breakers, in this arrangement, provide cover for the gamers, putting forth an ideology that distracts from the basic reality that government under Republicans is not made smaller but simply diverted to serve a handful of interests.

At first, Trump seemed like a threat to this balance. His lack of experience in politics and his open racism made him a very uncomfortable figure for the party; his habit of continually telling lies was initially found by prominent Republicans to be uncouth. Yet after he won the presidency, his particular skills as a breaker seemed to create a tremendous opportunity for the gamers. Led by the gamer in chief, McConnell, they secured hundreds of federal judges and tax cuts for the rich.

Trump was unlike other breakers in that he seemed to have no ideology. His objection to institutions was that they might constrain him personally. He intended to break the system to serve himself — and this is partly why he has failed. Trump is a charismatic politician and inspires devotion not only among voters but among a surprising number of lawmakers, but he has no vision that is greater than himself or what his admirers project upon him. In this respect his pre-fascism fell short of fascism: His vision never went further than a mirror. He arrived at a truly big lie not from any view of the world but from the reality that he might lose something.

Yet Trump never prepared a decisive blow. He lacked the support of the military, some of whose leaders he had alienated. (No true fascist would have made the mistake he did there, which was to openly love foreign dictators; supporters convinced that the enemy was at home might not mind, but those sworn to protect from enemies abroad did.) Trump’s secret police force, the men carrying out snatch operations in Portland, was violent but also small and ludicrous. Social media proved to be a blunt weapon: Trump could announce his intentions on Twitter, and white supremacists could plan their invasion of the Capitol on Facebook or Gab. But the president, for all his lawsuits and entreaties and threats to public officials, could not engineer a situation that ended with the right people doing the wrong thing. Trump could make some voters believe that he had won the 2020 election, but he was unable to bring institutions along with his big lie. And he could bring his supporters to Washington and send them on a rampage in the Capitol, but none appeared to have any very clear idea of how this was to work or what their presence would accomplish. It is hard to think of a comparable insurrectionary moment, when a building of great significance was seized, that involved so much milling around.

The lie outlasts the liar. The idea that Germany lost the First World War in 1918 because of a Jewish “stab in the back” was 15 years old when Hitler came to power. How will Trump’s myth of victimhood function in American life 15 years from now? And to whose benefit?

On Jan. 7, Trump called for a peaceful transition of power, implicitly conceding that his putsch had failed. Even then, though, he repeated and even amplified his electoral fiction: It was now a sacred cause for which people had sacrificed. Trump’s imagined stab in the back will live on chiefly thanks to its endorsement by members of Congress. In November and December 2020, Republicans repeated it, giving it a life it would not otherwise have had. In retrospect, it now seems as though the last shaky compromise between the gamers and the breakers was the idea that Trump should have every chance to prove that wrong had been done to him. That position implicitly endorsed the big lie for Trump supporters who were inclined to believe it. It failed to restrain Trump, whose big lie only grew bigger.

The breakers and the gamers then saw a different world ahead, where the big lie was either a treasure to be had or a danger to be avoided. The breakers had no choice but to rush to be first to claim to believe in it. Because the breakers Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz must compete to claim the brimstone and bile, the gamers were forced to reveal their own hand, and the division within the Republican coalition became visible on Jan. 6. The invasion of the Capitol only reinforced this division. To be sure, a few senators withdrew their objections, but Cruz and Hawley moved forward anyway, along with six other senators. More than 100 representatives doubled down on the big lie. Some, like Matt Gaetz, even added their own flourishes, such as the claim that the mob was led not by Trump’s supporters but by his opponents.

Trump is, for now, the martyr in chief, the high priest of the big lie. He is the leader of the breakers, at least in the minds of his supporters. By now, the gamers do not want Trump around. Discredited in his last weeks, he is useless; shorn of the obligations of the presidency, he will become embarrassing again, much as he was in 2015. Unable to provide cover for their gamesmanship, he will be irrelevant to their daily purposes. But the breakers have an even stronger reason to see Trump disappear: It is impossible to inherit from someone who is still around. Seizing Trump’s big lie might appear to be a gesture of support. In fact it expresses a wish for his political death. Transforming the myth from one about Trump to one about the nation will be easier when he is out of the way.

As Cruz and Hawley may learn, to tell the big lie is to be owned by it. Just because you have sold your soul does not mean that you have driven a hard bargain. Hawley shies from no level of hypocrisy; the son of a banker, educated at Stanford University and Yale Law School, he denounces elites. Insofar as Cruz was thought to have a principle, it was that of states’ rights, which Trump’s calls to action brazenly violated. A joint statement Cruz issued about the senators’ challenge to the vote nicely captured the post-truth aspect of the whole: It never alleged that there was fraud, only that there were allegations of fraud. Allegations of allegations, allegations all the way down.

The big lie requires commitment. When Republican gamers do not exhibit enough of that, Republican breakers call them “RINOs”: Republicans in name only. This term once suggested a lack of ideological commitment. It now means an unwillingness to throw away an election. The gamers, in response, close ranks around the Constitution and speak of principles and traditions. The breakers must all know (with the possible exception of the Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville) that they are participating in a sham, but they will have an audience of tens of millions who do not.

If Trump remains present in American political life, he will surely repeat his big lie incessantly. Hawley and Cruz and the other breakers share responsibility for where this leads. Cruz and Hawley seem to be running for president. Yet what does it mean to be a candidate for office and denounce voting? If you claim that the other side has cheated, and your supporters believe you, they will expect you to cheat yourself. By defending Trump’s big lie on Jan. 6, they set a precedent: A Republican presidential candidate who loses an election should be appointed anyway by Congress. Republicans in the future, at least breaker candidates for president, will presumably have a Plan A, to win and win, and a Plan B, to lose and win. No fraud is necessary; only allegations that there are allegations of fraud. Truth is to be replaced by spectacle, facts by faith.

Trump’s coup attempt of 2020-21, like other failed coup attempts, is a warning for those who care about the rule of law and a lesson for those who do not. His pre-fascism revealed a possibility for American politics. For a coup to work in 2024, the breakers will require something that Trump never quite had: an angry minority, organized for nationwide violence, ready to add intimidation to an election. Four years of amplifying a big lie just might get them this. To claim that the other side stole an election is to promise to steal one yourself. It is also to claim that the other side deserves to be punished.

Informed observers inside and outside government agree that right-wing white supremacism is the greatest terrorist threat to the United States. Gun sales in 2020 hit an astonishing high. History shows that political violence follows when prominent leaders of major political parties openly embrace paranoia.

Our big lie is typically American, wrapped in our odd electoral system, depending upon our particular traditions of racism. Yet our big lie is also structurally fascist, with its extreme mendacity, its conspiratorial thinking, its reversal of perpetrators and victims and its implication that the world is divided into us and them. To keep it going for four years courts terrorism and assassination.

When that violence comes, the breakers will have to react. If they embrace it, they become the fascist faction. The Republican Party will be divided, at least for a time. One can of course imagine a dismal reunification: A breaker candidate loses a narrow presidential election in November 2024 and cries fraud, the Republicans win both houses of Congress and rioters in the street, educated by four years of the big lie, demand what they see as justice. Would the gamers stand on principle if those were the circumstances of Jan. 6, 2025?

To be sure, this moment is also a chance. It is possible that a divided Republican Party might better serve American democracy; that the gamers, separated from the breakers, might start to think of policy as a way to win elections. It is very likely that the Biden-Harris administration will have an easier first few months than expected; perhaps obstructionism will give way, at least among a few Republicans and for a short time, to a moment of self-questioning. Politicians who want Trumpism to end have a simple way forward: Tell the truth about the election.

America will not survive the big lie just because a liar is separated from power. It will need a thoughtful repluralization of media and a commitment to facts as a public good. The racism structured into every aspect of the coup attempt is a call to heed our own history. Serious attention to the past helps us to see risks but also suggests future possibility. We cannot be a democratic republic if we tell lies about race, big or small. Democracy is not about minimizing the vote nor ignoring it, neither a matter of gaming nor of breaking a system, but of accepting the equality of others, heeding their voices and counting their votes.

--------

Timothy Snyder is the Levin professor of history at Yale University and the author of histories of political atrocity including “Bloodlands” and “Black Earth,” as well as the book “On Tyranny,” on America’s turn toward authoritarianism. His most recent book is “Our Malady,” a memoir of his own near-fatal illness reflecting on the relationship between health and freedom. Ashley Gilbertson is an Australian photojournalist with the VII Photo Agency living in New York. Gilbertson has covered migration and conflict internationally for over 20 years.

The parallels to Nazi fascism are obviously there but the most interesting point is that the Big Lie in this case served no true grand vision like Hitler's, only one man's narcissism and political gain.

I'm reading a book currently called The Authoritarian Personality. It's based on the studies developed by a team of psychologists and social scientists led by Theodor Adorno to identify personalities that are drawn to authoritarian figures and develop a scale they call an F-scale to predict how closely an individual is likely to adhere to a powerful figure.

Some of the passages just in the intro are chillingly on point to what we saw in the last 5 years with DJT and his base.

I finally found someone in my Facebook friends list who attended the rally on the 6th. The photos and posts from that day were deleted by the time I heard about them and I haven't done the diligence to see if they're archived anywhere, but she does still have a "confessional" from the following Friday posted.

She explained how, in moving to San Diego this year with a deployed military husband, she often feels alone and unwanted in a state that has taken COVID so seriously she can’t meet new people period, let alone “people like her.”

Now, she's an incredibly stupid person. We're friends because I worked with her at a restaurant six years ago, and in that time it became clear she both A) had no business in a craft beer and burger spot and B) was adjusting customers' tips when she entered them at the end of her shift by small increments that amounted to an extra $15-$30 per shift. Upon further review, she'd been fired for theft as an assistant manager at a Buckle location and essentially forced to look for more work after "inventory issues" at a previous mall job I don't remember.

When confronted, she told the AGM that if she believed that to be the case (and those allegations to be true) she should be fired but she had done nothing wrong. Here she was, a small time liar embarrassed by her actions, deflecting blame for her loss onto the one doing the taking...even though it was her actions that caused the loss.

I remained friends with her and eventually she seemed to have attempted to "brand" herself as a fitness and mental health expert on Instagram. She was clearly copying the Posi Vibez™ and photographic aesthetic of true models with marketing teams and, to be frank, far better bodies, but it was a modest delusion that seemed to be making her happy. It sounded like she had some fitness clients, and even if her likes were small her comments section was relatively jumping. I felt kind of good for her; in her own way, she was doing some good body positive work for the women who enjoyed her content.

She disappeared from (any of) my feed(s) for most of the Trump era, but has come back in a MAJOR way the past three months on Facebook. Always with some rhetoric about "USA, Inc." or "we just want the facts, not the hate" and so on and so forth that eventually led to "I'm not saying Mr. Trump is right, but if he's wrong why would so many believe him?" It got really sad, and the likes seemed even less than her previous life as an "Instagram influencer", but the comments were even more affirming and supportive.

So again, fast forward a couple months and here she is, in tears because she got bullied on Twitter over some photos she apparently posted to Facebook. She thought she was in this bubble that "loved" her, and conveniently forgot that she's probably not entirely friends with people who agree with her. She built that bubble for herself as a sort of blanket for the loneliness she was feeling in a new state very uniquely locked down compared to here in Nebraska, with a new husband who was often away on active duty. It's easy to see how she feels the world has conspired against her to feel bad, and here's this One Guy with this One Thing that makes her feel like, if we would Just Be Nice to Him, Everything Would Go Away.

For months (I mean, years, but specifically months) I've been so annoyed by her, but man did this article paint a picture of how easily irrefutably dumb and depressed people will reach out for something to make them feel meaningful.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

https://twitter.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/1349046338927919105?s=20

about how the left are the real nazis

>about how the left are the real nazis

Fantastic, gripping reporting by WaPo team on this.

Sund should be on suicide watch. You know shit is bad when Lindsey Graham looks more heroic than you. That correction at the end is cold-blooded.

Republicans are trying to make this go away because they know they won't stand up to Benghazi style scrutiny on this.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-capitol-siege/2021/01/09/e3ad3274-5283-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html

Inside the Capitol siege: How barricaded lawmakers and aides sounded urgent pleas for help as police lost control

By
Karoun Demirjian,
Carol D. Leonnig,
Paul Kane and
Aaron C. Davis
Jan. 10, 2021 at 12:07 a.m. EST

The growing crowds outside the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon sounded menacing but at bay as senators began to debate challenges to the electoral college vote. A top adviser to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stepped out of the ornate chamber for a short break.

Alone in the Capitol’s marble halls, just outside the chamber’s bronze doors, it was suddenly apparent that the citadel of U.S. democracy was falling to the mob incited by President Trump.

A cacophony of screaming, shouting and banging echoed from the floor below. McConnell’s security detail rushed past and into the chamber. The adviser began walking toward the Rotunda and came face to face with a U.S. Capitol Police officer sprinting in the opposite direction. The two made eye contact and the officer forced out a single word: “Run!”

The aide to McConnell (R-Ky.) darted down a side hallway lined with offices. He jiggled one locked doorknob, then another. A co-worker poked his head out of the office of McConnell’s speechwriter. The adviser lunged, pushing him and a colleague back inside.

The screaming and shouting soon seemed right outside. Only then, a text alert from Capitol police blared on every phone in the room: “Due to security threat inside: immediately, move inside your office, take emergency equipment, lock the doors, take shelter.”

Three senior GOP aides piled furniture against the door and tried to move stealthily, worried that the intruders would discover them inside. In waves, the door to the hall heaved as rioters punched and kicked it. The crowd yelled “Stop the steal!” Some chanted menacingly, referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “Where’s Nancy? Where’s Nancy?”

Peering out a window into a courtyard below, the adviser could see scores of people still streaming in — and no police in sight.

Before Congress met on Jan. 6 to formalize President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund had assured House and Senate members that his force of 2,000 officers could handle the large expected crowds, according to multiple people who spoke with Sund in the days leading up to the siege.

But across the Capitol that day, as lawmakers and aides were holed up in offices, closets and conference rooms, a terrifying reality was taking hold — the Capitol police had lost control and no one was coming to save Congress, at least not right away.

The deaths of five people, including a Capitol police officer, were linked to the riot. During their rampage, marauders came perilously close to penetrating the inner sanctums of the Capitol while lawmakers were still there, according to a reconstruction of the events based on eyewitness videos and interviews with nearly 40 lawmakers, staff members and law enforcement officials. The belated emergency response carried out with the help of the D.C. police, FBI and National Guard came after pleas by people sheltering throughout the complex.

How one of America’s ugliest days unraveled inside and outside the Capitol

Armed only with their phones and some of the best Rolodexes in the world, lawmakers and their aides began calling and texting anyone they thought could help — the secretary of the Army, the acting attorney general, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, governors of nearby states, the D.C. mayor.

The McConnell adviser, who described his role on the condition of anonymity because of security concerns after the attack, reached out to former top officials at the Justice Department.

Speaking in a whisper, he told one the situation was dire: If backup did not arrive soon, people could die.

Congressional staff members evacuate after the attack on the Capitol.
Congressional staff members evacuate after the attack on the Capitol. (Amanda Voisard/for The Washington Post)
The drumbeat
For almost two months leading up to that day, Trump had alleged massive fraud in his November election loss. He had applauded supporters, calling them “patriots,” when they converged twice before in Washington to parrot Trump’s message that his second term had been stolen through wild conspiracy theories of voting-machine fraud.

On Dec. 19, five days after the electoral college convened to finalize states’ counts, the president for the first time advertised and endorsed a third such protest. This one would be held on the day that Congress would take the final step of counting the electoral college votes in a joint session, cementing Biden’s victory.

“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump tweeted. “Be there, will be wild!”

The previous two protests had ended with bands of Trump supporters and counter protesters in late-night, violent brawls on the streets of downtown Washington.

After Trump’s imprimatur, D.C. police quickly began bracing for a final protest that could dwarf the previous two, with a stadium-sized crowd. The president’s personal encouragement also prompted immediate concern on Capitol Hill.

Aides to McConnell, along with their Democratic counterparts, asked for briefings with Michael Stenger, a former assistant director of the U.S. Secret Service whom the GOP leader had tapped as Senate sergeant at arms. They also met with Sund, the Capitol police chief, who had previously been a D.C. police commander and led responses to mass shootings and planned crowd management for the estimated 1 million people who attended President Barack Obama’s first inauguration.

House Democrats were also concerned. At a House Caucus meeting before Christmas, Rep. Maxine Waters of California asked where Capitol police would allow people to gather, and if they would be allowed on the Capitol plaza, the brick and paved area immediately around the building that leads to walking paths to the offices of lawmakers.

In the back of Waters’s mind was a 2010 incident when protesters had gathered against a vote on Obama’s health-care plan. Some surrounded and followed then Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) back toward his office, hurling racial epithets. One even spit on him.

In an hour-long conversation on New Year’s Eve, Waters said Sund told her he had a plan for keeping protesters far from the building. They would be corralled beyond the plaza, in a grassy area east of the Capitol, she recalled. If counterprotesters showed up, his officers would form a line between the two groups, and as a precaution for lawmakers, Capitol security would direct all members of Congress and their staffers to travel by the network of underground tunnels that connect the Capitol with House and Senate office buildings.

Waters recalled asking Sund what intelligence the force had about how big the gathering would be. Sund, she said, didn’t have a clear answer. She hung up the phone at her home in D.C. thinking, “They don’t know who’s coming. They don’t know whether any of these are violent groups.”

On the eve of the joint session, lawmakers peppered top Capitol security officials with more questions.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), the chair of the House Administration Committee that oversees Capitol security, said she held a teleconference with Sund and House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving, another ex-Secret Service assistant director selected by Pelosi for his post.

The National Park Service, which issued the permit to organizers, had allowed the pro-Trump supporters to adjust their expected crowd size sixfold, up from 5,000 to 30,000.

Lofgren asked whether Capitol police had enough officers to handle the capacity, and if they had the National Guard on standby and available to quickly help if needed.

Sund insisted, yes, they had both bases covered, Lofgren said. Later, in a call with Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), he repeated those assertions, Ryan said.

In fact, three days earlier, Capitol police had told the Pentagon that it was not requesting National Guard support for the event, according to defense officials. And when masses of Trump supporters began pushing against the limited barricades around the Capitol, the agency’s officers were rapidly overrun.

Sund, who is set to resign in days, has not responded to phone messages, emails or notes left at his home. In a statement issued before the news of his resignation, Sund said Capitol Police had a “robust plan established to address anticipated First Amendment activities.” He acknowledged that the force had not prepared for the violent mob that came instead. “The violent attack on the U.S. Capitol was unlike any I have ever experienced in my 30 years in law enforcement here in Washington, D.C.”

Stenger, the Senate sergeant at arms, and Irving, his counterpart on the House side, both also resigned under pressure from lawmakers.

On the move

On the morning of the rally, lawmakers and their aides on their way to work passed a smattering of protesters around the Capitol. Many held or wore blue and red Trump 2020 flags and yellow-and-green “Don’t Tread on Me” banners. Homemade signs with QAnon symbols dotted the Mall. Most protesters were walking west toward the White House, near where Trump planned to address the crowd.

Inside their offices, lawmakers prepared for Republicans to force a marathon day — perhaps 12 hours or more of floor debate — before formalizing Biden’s victory.

By around 1 p.m., as the joint session began, the mood in the crowd outside began to shift. Trump had just given a one-hour speech to thousands of supporters amassed on the Ellipse near the White House, excoriating his enemies and reiterating his baseless claims of fraud. GOP lawmakers, he emphasized, needed to take a stand.

“We’re going to the Capitol,” he said. “We’re going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”

The president added: “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Trump returned to the White House; he did not go to Capitol Hill. But his supporters began streaming east along Pennsylvania Avenue.

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They first reached the west side of the building — several blocks away from the area that Sund had told lawmakers was the designated protest area.

The crowd grew 10 deep, then 20 deep as the soon-to-be rioters spilled in along all sides of the Capitol. In many places, a line of waist-high, movable metal barriers was all that separated protesters from clumps of police and the building.

The crowd never stopped advancing. Some picked up the barriers and carried them, creating gaping holes for rioters to close in toward the stage being erected for Biden’s inauguration.

Before 1:30 p.m., Lofgren heard from staff that a wall of people had been able to push into the iconic Capitol steps on the west side. Through the windows of the House chamber, Lofgren’s aides could see outside that a ragtag group of rioters had been able to climb atop the risers and the platforms.

Neither Lofgren nor her staff could reach the Capitol police chief on the phone, she later recounted.

Irving, who was in the House chamber, assured Lofgren that things would be fine. Protesters would be kept outside. The doors were all locked, he told her. “Nobody can get in,” Irving said.

A seeming fortress from a distance, the Capitol contains more than 400 separate doors, entryways and ground-level windows. And police lines on all sides of the building were collapsing.

Waters placed an urgent call to Sund, who was at Capitol police headquarters two blocks away, two law enforcement officials said.

Protesters were already crossing the plaza. “What are you going to do about it?” Waters asked. “We’re doing the best we can,” came Sund’s reply, she said, and then the line went dead.

Waters was unsure if the call had dropped or if Sund hung up. She turned to a staffer: “That’s not a plan.”

On the other end of the building and a floor below, alarm was growing among senior congressional staffers crowding into the office of Stenger, the head of security for the Senate.

His House colleague, Irving, was placing a call to a law enforcement association that can organize mutual aid from county and state police forces in suburban Maryland and Virginia, according to people in the room. The request was brand new, and it would take an hour or two for any officers to arrive, Irving was told. A Democratic aide and a Republican one in the room looked at each other in surprise.

At that point, Irving began talking about bringing in the National Guard. While a few hundred D.C. National Guard members had been activated and were elsewhere in the city, the two aides realized there was no arrangement to pre-stage military assets to help at the Capitol.

In fact, a small quick-reaction force at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland had been assembled by the Defense Department to assist if needed — but it did not immediately respond because of a lack of a prior planning with Capitol police over how it might be deployed, Pentagon officials said.

Military quick-reaction force not deployed during storming of Capitol because of a lack of planning, defense officials say

Outside on the west side of the building, a handful of Capitol police officers had been backed into a corner, under the scaffolding holding up the inaugural stage. One was pulled down a set of stairs and then beaten and kicked while he tried to cover his head, according to footage of the incident.

Atop the stairs, another had his helmet ripped off as he tried to hold up the last remaining metal barrier before the crowd could flood into the building. A person in the mob sprayed something at an officer. Another lifted a hammer above his head as if preparing to throw it, and then instead began striking at the barrier, where officers were holding it with their hands.

Shortly before 2 p.m., rioters were on all sides of the building. They waved Trump flags from landings and porticos, while the most violent and those armed with pipes, rocks and other objects trained on the many doors and windows.

One used a police shield to break a window. A rioter jumped through, followed by others who either used the window or nearby doors.

On the second floor, Lofgren could see the mob encircling a landing. She didn’t yet know protesters were inside.

She again turned to Irving — what was going on? He said the National Guard was on its way.

In fact, Sund had just requested National Guard support from the Defense Department. It would be hours before they would arrive.

A moment later, the thunderous sounds of banging at exterior doors around the House side gave way to a crash of window glass and then shouts from rioters who had breached a second side of the building.

At 2:14 p.m., Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) had begun his speech objecting to Arizona’s electoral college results. As he spoke, Pelosi’s protective detail agents hustled her away.

Moments later, there was yelling in the gallery, as staff and security details started to move around with a heightened sense of alarm.

Inside the chamber, news photographers that Pelosi (D-Calif.) had allowed in to capture the historic electoral vote at the dais instead turned around and trained their cameras toward the doors in the back of the chamber.

As lawmakers were ushered out another side of the chamber, plainclothes Capitol Police officers dragged a desk to use as a barricade in front of the door that presidents enter to deliver the annual State of the Union address.

On the other side, rioters began breaking small windows. The officers inside drew their guns.

Lawmakers inside were still being evacuated when, around a side entrance, the mob came much closer to breaking their way onto the House floor — less than 10 feet away from an open door into the chamber.

Dozens of rioters pressed against police trying to block their entry into the Speaker’s Lobby, as captured on a video The Post obtained.

Several officers left their post seconds before much heavily armed reinforcements showed up. But in those few seconds, the rioters smashed in the windows of the doors to the Speaker’s Lobby and were on the verge of entering the House chamber.

“There’s a gun! There’s a gun!’ one rioter screamed, then an officer fired into the crowd.

Trump supporter and Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old California native, was killed.

‘The storm is here’: Ashli Babbitt’s journey from capital ‘guardian’ to invader

The intruders ran around the back hallways of the second floor, weaving in and out of the Senate majority leader and House speaker’s adjoining suites, and entering the sanctum of the two most powerful figures in Congress like the halls were their playground.

Eight Pelosi staffers trapped inside their suite barricaded themselves inside a staff conference room, and huddled together under the table in the middle, hoping that the protesters who had already broken down one door — and were rummaging through materials and shooting selfies with their feet up on an executive assistant’s desk — wouldn’t make it any farther inside.

At 2:11 p.m. on the Senate side, Vice President Pence sat in the chair of the presiding officer when aides started motioning to Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) that he had to replace him. The vice president hurried out a door.

At that moment, one floor below, rioters had crashed through windows and climbed into the Capitol and clashed with police, including a lone Black Capitol police officer who tried to prevent them from ascending toward the Senate chamber.

A video captured by Igor Bobic, a congressional reporter for HuffPost on the scene, shows the officer trying to hold back a few dozen rioters who push him back and up the steps leading almost directly to the chamber.

For almost a minute, the officer held them back — at the exact moment that, inside the Senate, police were frantically racing around the chamber trying to lock down more than a dozen doors leading to the chamber floor and the galleries above.

“Second floor!” the officer yelled into his radio, alerting other officers and command that the mob had reached the precipice of the Senate.

Had the rioters turned right, they would have been a few feet away from the main entrance into the chamber. On the other side of that door, had they made their way into the Senate, were at least a half-dozen armed officers, including one with a semiautomatic weapon in the middle of the floor scanning each entrance for intruders.

Instead, the group — all White men — followed the Black officer in the other direction and met a group of police in a back corridor outside the Senate.

At 2:16 p.m., Bobic tweeted a photo of a half-dozen police confronting the protesters.

According to the contemporaneous notes of a Washington Post reporter inside the chamber, it was mere seconds of a differential: “2:15 p.m., Senate sealed.”

Rhonda Colvin and Lindsey Sitz were reporting live from the Capitol when a pro-Trump mob stormed the building. This is their account of what happened next. (The Washington Post)
Back in the barricaded room with McConnell aides, one staffer began snapping photos through a window. They could see Trump supporters streaming toward the building — and just four police officers.

Outside the door, the intruders kept coming, as if running laps, trying to open doors. The McConnell aides heard a woman praying loudly outside their door for “the evil of Congress to be brought to an end.”

Calls for help were going out as fast as people could text and dial.

The senior McConnell adviser reached a former law firm colleague who had just left the Justice Department: Will Levi, who had served as Attorney General William P. Barr’s chief of staff.

They needed help — now, he told Levi.

From his home, Levi immediately called FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich, who was in the command center in the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

Capitol police had lost control of the building, Levi told Bowdich.

The FBI official had been hearing radio traffic of aggressive protesters pushing through the perimeter, but Levi said it had gone even further: The mob had already crashed the gates and lives were at risk.

Capitol police had said previously they didn’t need help, but Bowdich decided he couldn’t wait for a formal invitation.

He dispatched the first of three tactical teams, including one from the Washington field office to secure the safety of U.S. senators and provide whatever aid they could. He instructed two more SWAT teams to follow, including one that raced from Baltimore.

These teams typically gather at a staging area off-site to coordinate and plan, and then rush together to the area where they are needed. Bowdich told their commander there was no time.

“Get their asses over there. Go now,” he said to the first team’s commander. “We don’t have time to huddle.”

From their secure locations, meanwhile, Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) made calls for help to acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D).

“Ralph, there’s glass being broken around me,” Northam recalled Pelosi saying. “I’ve heard there’s been gunfire. We’re just very, very concerned right now.’”

Amid the mayhem, a large group of senators were secretly led to a room in a Senate office building. Stenger was with them, and the furious lawmakers peppered him with questions.

“How does this happen? How does this happen?” demanded Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.)

Stenger could not muster much of an answer, practically inaudible as he dispiritedly debriefed the senators. “He was talking in circles,” Graham thought to himself.

Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., called Stenger’s attempt to field that question “absolutely pathetic” and further reduced confidence in the room. As Graham pressed for a better explanation, Stenger’s voice got weaker and smaller.

“Here’s your mission: Take back the Senate,” Graham told Stenger. “Whatever you need to do, do it. We’re not leaving this place. We’re not going to be run out by a mob.”

Finally, the Senate sergeant at arms sat down amid the others in the room, saying to no one in particular: “I wish I had just retired last week.”

McConnell was determined to get back to the floor. “We are going back tonight” to finish the vote to formalize the election, he said at one point. “The thugs won’t win.”

By 6 p.m., a perimeter around the Capitol was secured.

A few hours later, shaken lawmakers filed back in, surrounded by the wreckage of the day’s attack: smashed windows, splintered furniture, a bust of President Zachary Taylor smeared with what appeared to be blood. They went back to work. At 3:42 a.m. Thursday, Pence affirmed Biden’s victory as the next president.

The pro-Trump mob left wreckage in their wake.
The pro-Trump mob left wreckage in their wake. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)
Correction: An earlier version of this story erroneously described a call that Senate Sergeant at arms Michael Stenger made to a law enforcement association seeking support for the Capitol Police on Wednesday afternoon. In fact, it was his House colleague Paul Irving who made the call.

"Finally, the Senate sergeant at arms sat down amid the others in the room, saying to no one in particular: “I wish I had just retired last week.”"

smh

Apparently they did this shit earlier that morning.

For what it is or isn't worth, my source for this is my first ever pastor. I haven't been able to find a corroborative news source though. I don't know him terribly well these days, and interact very occasionally via FB. I would be shocked if he just made this shit up though.

Skip the paragraph 4 for the incident.

Beloved Friends,

At the request of my wife, I am posting the remarks I made at the outset of our worship service at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Los Altos this morning.

"On January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany, a day in which for centuries followers of Jesus have celebrated Jesus as the light of the world, we watched in horror as the United States Capitol came under siege in a violent and deadly act of sedition by domestic terrorists.

Incited by a sitting president, these terrorists attempted to stop the certification of the election of President elect Biden and Vice-President elect Harris, and to enact mob justice upon the vice president and the women and men who serve in congress. Our democracy came under attack, not from the outside, but from within.

What you probably don’t know, is that earlier that morning, as clergy and bishops gathered in prayer at Luther Place Memorial Church in Washington DC supporters of President Trump invaded the sacred space of their circle of prayer and reenacted the murder of George Floyd in their midst before pausing to take pictures in front of the Black Lives Matter sign and statue of Martin Luther.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the denomination of which we are a part, has been clear and unequivocal in condemning these acts of terror, violence, and desecration as well as the hatred and evil that undergirds them.

As your pastor, even though only for a short time, I am bound by my conscience to add my voice to the condemnation of these acts, to name them as evil, and to commit myself to fulfill the promise of my baptism to work for justice and peace in the world."

It's very brief. They do it long enough for a third cracker to take a picture but that doesn't matter. They are monsters, fam.

These are the people who would take selfies at a lynching given the chance and they are working over time to get that chance.

https://twitter.com/AnthonyMague/status/1346856138546016262

i rock w/ the good lutherans.

served on the board of a non profit for a few years that started off as a lutheran charity.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

That was my original church, and i got confirmed under him.

When he left in the late 90s, there was some division because, rumor had it, he had no problems with homosexuality, and many felt that he was a bad influence on the youth because of it.

They and the church they spawned were pretty liberal overall though, with female head, associate, and youth pastors.

Some of them are even more liberal in today's climate, decidedly pro BLM, gay marriage, and firmly anti-Trump.

A good number of them flipped to AOG's (which iad done in thelate 90's) and non denominational churches are gun totin MAGAnites.

I still gave some good relationships, and good memories overall from the Lutheran church.

i see his name being attributed to a lot of stuff.

anyone on here have a video or audio of him speaking about the experience? how was he maneuvering through there safely? what was he feeling the whole time?

https://twitter.com/RayRedacted/status/1348388601118273537

pussy ass terrorist

Fuck these people.....shit is making my day.

https://media.giphy.com/media/kkEm7G8KUezK/giphy.gif

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/ct-nw-capitol-police-officer-howard-liebengood-death-20210110-ou4fzbyle5aoti3i5kj5qti2ha-story.html

have turned on aoc once it became clear she wasnt gonna be a vessel for their nihilist anti dem/establishment motives.

https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/1348299003469983744

people like him, jimmy dore, etc are willing to take up any absurd stance just to criticize her now.

https://twitter.com/DavidNeiwert/status/1347945415044288517?s=20

Thought so.

because she touched his wrist while walking away from him

fuck that pussy

(including mine lol)

i hate that i know and pay attention to these people that 99% of the population doesnt even know exists.

I remember posting about how Republicans were enacting policies to help keep military from barring white nationalists and being told 'tHe MiLiTaRy wAs AlWaYs RaCiSt!"

This was before the arrested the Ghetto Gaggers/Facial Abuse guy w/ 2 Ex-Marines for threatening one of the BLM's organizer.


In future's-so-bright-we-gotta-wear-shades news: "The Pentagon also has been asked to review all members who will be a part of the security detail for the Jan. 20 inauguration to ensure the are "not sympathetic to domestic terrorists," Crow said."


At least 25 troops under investigation for terrorism in connection with Capitol riot
Tom Vanden Brook
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – At least 25 troops are under investigation for terrorism related to Wednesday's siege at the Capitol, according to a Defense official and a member of Congress.

Rep. Jason Crow, a Democrat of Colorado and a former Army Ranger, said he spoke with Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy on Sunday and was told that "at least 25 domestic terrorism cases have been opened as a result of the assault on the Capitol."

The troops are suspected of taking part in the insurrection that shut down Congress as it formalized President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory, said a Defense official, who was not authorized to comment on the law enforcement investigation. Five people died, including a Capitol Hill police officer, after the pro-Trump mob overwhelmed security lines.

Members of the military are sworn to protect the Constitution. It is not clear if they would face military courts martial or prosecution in civilian court.

“We are engaged in identifying all of those who took part in breaching the Capitol, regardless of their affiliation,” Justice spokesman Marc Raimondi said Sunday.

The Pentagon also has been asked to review all members who will be a part of the security detail for the Jan. 20 inauguration to ensure the are "not sympathetic to domestic terrorists," Crow said.

President Donald Trump encouraged thousands of his followers to march on the Capitol after he addressed them outside the White House on Wednesday.

the videos, 1st person press accounts, 60 minutes segment with pelosi, etc are all exposing this as much worse than it looked a few days ago.

before...it could be mistaken as some zany bunch of frat bros who broke into congress just to take selfies and troll pelosi.

now its pretty clear they were fucking up cops, hunting for politicians to kill, and even wanted to hang trumps own vp based on trumps incitement.

you can already tell its having an effect because members of the press who were starting that 'dems should skip impeachment because it might further divide...' shit seem to be tucking it away now.

i like pelosis schedule/setup too.
https://twitter.com/nataliewsj/status/1348415023228604418

put republicans (and possibly pence) on record for the 25th amendment. then put them on record for impeachment.

then when it comes up in the senate (most likely during a new dem majority)...we are gonna have more details about the nature of the involvement/relationship btwn trump (admin)/capitol police/terrorists. we are gonna have actual evidence, communications, legal correspondence from some of the people arrested too.

also theres this detail about how people trump might pardon in his last days couldnt plead the 5th after that.
https://twitter.com/NormOrnstein/status/1348425849339580421

it has no chance of getting a conviction in the senate. but dems could use it to tar the repub party for 2022 and also drive a few wedges between factions on the right that are already showing some cracks.

>the videos, 1st person press accounts, 60 minutes segment
>with pelosi, etc are all exposing this as much worse than it
>looked a few days ago.

waaay worse.

these bastids out here beating cops with flag poles (american and bullshit lives). shit is wild.

you see the column of military / paramilitary / blackwater wannabe cats moving up them steps in unison? they had bad intentions. and those intentions were declared, in multiple places.

there needs to be public beheadings.
>
>before...it could be mistaken as some zany bunch of frat bros
>who broke into congress just to take selfies and troll
>pelosi.
>
>now its pretty clear they were fucking up cops, hunting for
>politicians to kill, and even wanted to hang trumps own vp
>based on trumps incitement.
>
>you can already tell its having an effect because members of
>the press who were starting that 'dems should skip impeachment
>because it might further divide...' shit seem to be tucking it
>away now.
>
>i like pelosis schedule/setup too.
>https://twitter.com/nataliewsj/status/1348415023228604418
>
>put republicans (and possibly pence) on record for the 25th
>amendment. then put them on record for impeachment.
>
>then when it comes up in the senate (most likely during a new
>dem majority)...we are gonna have more details about the
>nature of the involvement/relationship btwn trump
>(admin)/capitol police/terrorists. we are gonna have actual
>evidence, communications, legal correspondence from some of
>the people arrested too.
>
>also theres this detail about how people trump might pardon in
>his last days couldnt plead the 5th after that.
>https://twitter.com/NormOrnstein/status/1348425849339580421
>
>it has no chance of getting a conviction in the senate. but
>dems could use it to tar the repub party for 2022 and also
>drive a few wedges between factions on the right that are
>already showing some cracks.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

=========================================
I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

because i feel like it was inevitably gonna get framed as really not *that* bad. no wars, institutions held up, the stock market surged, and the economy not being on him because of a global pandemic that on one really predicted

he was just a colorful unorthodox figure who connected with the part of america most politicians neglected. he spoke his mind more harshly than most, and even though it wasn't always pretty, often people tended to overreact. they called it Trump derangement syndrome

But this violent Trump led terrorist insurrection is the perfect culmination of his presidency, and it floats everything else to the surface. 400,000 people dead because of his horrible mishandling of a pandemic, economy in the shitter, kids in cages, Russia, the lies, the racism, massive protests, a nation more divided than ever.. chaos, chaos, chaos

more than anything else, Jan 6 will be the defining images of Trump's presidency

shows the impact of the words he spoke, and will add context to his mismanagement of the pandemic and all of the other failings of his presidency.

Outgoing Capitol Police chief: House, Senate security officials hamstrung efforts to call in National Guard

By
Carol D. Leonnig, Aaron C. Davis, Peter Hermann and Karoun Demirjian

Jan. 10, 2021 at 10:34 p.m. EST
Two days before Congress was set to formalize President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund was growing increasingly worried about the size of the pro-Trump crowds expected to stream into Washington in protest.

To be on the safe side, Sund asked House and Senate security officials for permission to request that the D.C. National Guard be placed on standby in case he needed quick backup.

But, Sund said Sunday, they turned him down.

In his first interview since pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol last week, Sund, who has since resigned his post, said his supervisors were reluctant to take formal steps to put the Guard on call even as police intelligence suggested that the crowd President Trump had invited to Washington to protest his defeat probably would be much larger than earlier demonstrations.

House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving said he wasn’t comfortable with the “optics” of formally declaring an emergency ahead of the demonstration, Sund said. Meanwhile, Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger suggested that Sund should informally seek out his Guard contacts, asking them to “lean forward” and be on alert in case Capitol Police needed their help.

Irving could not be reached for comment. A cellphone number listed in his name has not accepted messages since Wednesday. Messages left at a residence he owns in Nevada were not immediately returned, and there was no answer Sunday evening at a Watergate apartment listed in his name. A neighbor said he had recently moved out.

Stenger declined Sunday to comment when a reporter visited his Virginia home. “I really don’t want to talk about it,” he said.

It was the first of six times Sund’s request for help was rejected or delayed, he said. Two days later on Wednesday afternoon, his forces already in the midst of crisis, Sund said he pleaded for help five more times as a scene far more dire than he had ever imagined unfolded on the historic Capitol grounds.

An army of 8,000 pro-Trump demonstrators streamed down Pennsylvania Avenue after hearing Trump speak near the White House. Sund’s outer perimeter on the Capitol’s west side was breached within 15 minutes. With 1,400 Capitol Police officers on duty, his forces were quickly overrun.

“If we would have had the National Guard we could have held them at bay longer, until more officers from our partner agencies could arrive,” he said.

How a pro-Trump mob was able to breach security and storm the Capitol
Capitol Police were unable to stop a breach of the Capitol. Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig and a former Senate Sergeant at Arms describe the events. (The Washington Post)
Just before 2 p.m., the pro-Trump mob entered the Capitol, sending lawmakers and staff scrambling for safety. D.C. police had quickly dispatched hundreds of officers to the scene. But it wasn’t enough. At 2:26 p.m., Sund said, he joined a conference call to the Pentagon to plead for additional backup.

“I am making an urgent, urgent immediate request for National Guard assistance,” Sund recalled saying. “I have got to get boots on the ground.”

On the call were several officials from the D.C. government, as well as officials from the Pentagon. The D.C. contingent was flabbergasted to hear a top Army official say that he could not recommend that his boss, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, approve the request.

“I don’t like the visual of the National Guard standing a police line with the Capitol in the background,” the official said, according to Sund and others on the call.

Again and again, Sund said, “The situation is dire,” recalled John Falcicchio, the chief of staff for D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser. “Literally, this guy is on the phone, I mean, crying out for help. It’s burned in my memories.”

Pentagon officials have emphasized that the Capitol Police did not ask for D.C. Guard backup ahead of the event or request to put a riot contingency plan in place with guardsmen at the ready, and then made an urgent request as rioters were about to breach the building, even though the Guard isn’t set up to be a quick-reaction force like the police.

“We rely on Capitol Police and federal law enforcement to provide an assessment of the situation,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said during a news conference last week. “And based on that assessment that they had, they believed they had sufficient personnel and did not make a request.”

Despite Sund’s pleas, the first National Guard personnel didn’t arrive at the Capitol until 5:40 p.m. — after four people had died and the worst was long over.

Sund, 55, offered his resignation the next day, telling friends he felt he had let his officers down. Many lawmakers, infuriated by the breach and angry that they had been unable to reach Sund at the height of the crisis, were only too happy to accept it.

Under pressure from lawmakers, Stenger and Irving also resigned.

In a wide-raging interview, Sund sought to defend his officers, who, he said, had fought valiantly. And with threats of violence looming ahead of Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration, he said he remains worried.

“My concern is if they don’t get their act together with physical security, it’s going to happen again,” he said.

As he prepared for last week’s demonstrations, Sund drew on decades of experience. Hired as chief in 2019, two years after joining the Capitol Police, he worked for 23 years on the D.C. police force, leaving as commander of the Special Operations Division. Widely respected in the District and among leaders of U.S. Secret Service and Park Police, he had helped to run 12 national security events, including Barack Obama’s 2013 inauguration. He also served as incident commander during the 2013 Navy Yard shooting.

Last Monday, Sund said, he began to worry about the Jan. 6 demonstration.

“We knew it would be bigger,” Sund said. “We looked at the intelligence. We knew we would have large crowds, the potential for some violent altercations. I had nothing indicating we would have a large mob seize the Capitol.”

Sure, there were claims that alt-right instigators had discussed storming the building and targeting lawmakers. But Sund said such threats had surfaced in the past.

“You might see rhetoric on social media. We had seen that many times before,” he said. “People say a lot of things online.”

Still, he decided to call Irving and Stenger to ask for permission to request that the National Guard be put on emergency standby. Irving didn’t like the idea, Sund said; he said it would look bad because it would communicate that they presumed an emergency. He said he’d have to ask House leaders.

On the way home that evening, Sund did as Stenger suggested, calling Maj. Gen. William J. Walker, the head of the 1,000-member D.C. National Guard, to tell him that he might call on him for help. “If we can we get you leaning forward,” Sund said, “how long do you think it would take to get us assistance?”

Walker said he thought he could send 125 personnel fairly quickly. Over the weekend, Sund had also conferred with D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III, who also had offered to lend a hand if trouble arose.

On Tuesday, Sund said he briefed Irving and Stenger, who said that backup seemed sufficient.

Just before noon Wednesday, Sund was monitoring Trump’s speech to the crowd on the Ellipse when he was called away. There were reports of two pipe bombs near the Capitol grounds. So Sund didn’t hear the president call on protesters to “fight” against lawmakers preparing to confirm Biden’s victory. Nor did he hear Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, urging the crowd to engage in “trial by combat,” an eerie reference to battles to the death in the series, “Game of Thrones.” Sund said he now suspects that the pipe bombs were an intentional effort to draw officers away from the Capitol perimeter.

The first wave of protesters arrived at the Capitol about 12:40 p.m.

“As soon as they hit the fence line, the fight was on,” Sund said. “Violent confrontations from the start. They came with riot helmets, gas masks, shields, pepper spray, fireworks, climbing gear — climbing gear! — explosives, metal pipes, baseball bats. I have never seen anything like it in 30 years of events in Washington.”

Using video footage from the Capitol and radio transmissions from his incident commanders, Sund could see his officers trying to hold the line. But the rioters immediately yanked the barricade fence out of the way and threw it at his officers’ heads.

“I realized at 1 p.m., things aren’t going well,” he said. “I’m watching my people getting slammed.”

Sund immediately called Contee, who sent 100 officers to the scene, with some arriving within 10 minutes. But at 1:09 p.m., Sund said he called Irving and Stenger, telling them it was time to call in the Guard. He wanted an emergency declaration. Both men said they would “run it up the chain” and get back to him, he said.

Minutes later, aides to the top congressional leaders were called to Stenger’s office for an update on the situation — and were infuriated to learn that the sergeants at arms had not yet called in the National Guard or any other reinforcements, as was their responsibility to do without seeking approval from leaders.

“What do you mean that there’s no National Guard, that there’s no reinforcements coming?” aides demanded to know. “Why haven’t you ordered them, why aren’t they already here?”

Sund said he called Irving twice more and Stenger once to check on their progress. At 1:50 p.m. — nine minutes before the Capitol was breached — Sund said he was losing patience. He called Walker to tell him to get ready to bring the Guard. Irving called back with formal approval at 2:10 p.m. By then, plainclothes Capitol Police agents were barricading the door to the Speaker’s Lobby just off the House chamber to keep the marauders from charging in.

Sund finally had approval to call the National Guard. But that would prove to be just the beginning of a bureaucratic nightmare to get soldiers on the scene.

At 2:26 p.m., Sund joined a video conference call organized by D.C’s homeland security director, Chris Rodriguez. Among those on the screen were the District’s police chief, mayor and Walker.

Unlike anywhere else in the country, the D.C. Guard does not report to a governor, but to the president, so Walker patched in the office of the Secretary of the Army, noting that he would need authorization from the Pentagon to order soldiers to the Capitol.

A top Army official noted the Pentagon still needed authorization from Capitol Police to step foot on Capitol grounds. Sund ticked through details on the severity of the breach, but the call got noisy with crosstalk as officials asked more questions.

Contee sought to quiet the din. “Wait, wait,” he said, and then directed attention to Sund. “Steve, are you requesting National Guard assistance at the Capitol?”

Sund said he replied: “I am making urgent, urgent, immediate request for National Guard assistance.”

But the Army official, dialed in from across the river at the Pentagon, pushed back, according to Sund, saying he would prefer to have Guard soldiers take up posts around Washington, relieving D.C. police, so that they could respond to the Capitol instead of guardsmen. Sund’s account is supported by four D.C. officials on the call, including D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser.

Bowser told The Post that Sund had “made it perfectly clear that they needed extraordinary help, including the National Guard. There was some concern from the Army of what it would look like to have armed military personnel on the grounds of the Capitol.”

Falcicchio said that once Contee confirmed that Sund wanted the National Guard, D.C. officials echoed his request.

“Contee was definitely — I hate to use this term, but there’s no other term for it. He was pleading,” Falcicchio said. “He was pleading with them to fulfill the request that Capitol Police was making.”

But the entire discussion was in vain. Only McCarthy, the secretary, could order the Guard deployed — and only with the approval of the Pentagon chief. McCarthy has since said that, at the time of the call, he was busy taking the requests to activate more Guard to acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller.

At one point, according to a defense official, Contee said, “Let me be clear, are you denying this?” To which the Army official responded that he wasn’t denying the request; he simply didn’t have the authority to approve it.

“It was clear that it was a dire situation,” the defense official said. “He didn’t want to commit to anything without getting approval.”

At 3:45 p.m., Stenger told Sund that he would ask his boss, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), for help getting the National Guard authorized more quickly. Sund never learned the result. More of Contee’s officers had arrived and were helping remove rioters from the grounds. Capitol Police worked with other federal authorities, including the Secret Service, the Park Police and the FBI, to secure lawmakers, eject rioters and sweep the building so lawmakers could return to finish counting the electoral college votes that would allow them to formally recognize Biden’s victory later that night.

According to a timeline the Defense Department published Friday, Miller verbally authorized the activation of the entire D.C. Guard at 3:04 p.m. It would take two more hours for most of the citizen soldiers to leave their jobs and homes, and pick up gear from the D.C. Armory.

Sund, who was officially replaced as chief Sunday, said he is left feeling that America’s bastions of democracy need far more security. He said the violent crowd that mobbed the Capitol was unlike anything he has ever seen.

“They were extremely dangerous and they were extremely prepared. I have a hard time calling this a demonstration,” he said.

“I’m a firm supporter of First Amendment. This was none of that,” he added. “This was criminal riotous activity.”

Sund blamed Trump for putting his officers at risk, saying “the crowd left that rally and had been incited by some of the words the president said.” Sund said he fears what may come next.

On Sunday, the Capitol’s rolling green lawn was ringed by high black fencing and patrolled by personnel in green camouflage keeping the public at bay.

“This is the people’s house. Congress members have always prided themselves on having an open campus,” Sund said. But now, “I’m not sure that will continue to be defensible.”

jesus

Video shows Republican lawmakers refusing masks during Capitol riot lockdown

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/republican-lawmakers-masks-capitol-riot-lockdown-b1784713.html

These fucking assholes were UNDER SIEGIE and refused to wear masks to protect people.

Turns out the nimrods that ram-sacked Pelosi's office took one of her computers and a labtop.

Gotta wonder how much confidential materials were stolen last week. That's potentially troublesome.

and dont have sensitive info on them.

but...

the fact that people know her devices were taken would help a disinfo campaign a lot more. fake emails, pictures, memos, etc released purported to be from her accounts.

https://twitter.com/RepBonnie/status/1348686673085931520

https://watsoncoleman.house.gov/newsroom/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1751

Today, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12) received a positive rapid antigen test result for COVID-19. She believes she was exposed during protective isolation in the U.S. Capitol building as a result of insurrectionist riots. As reported by multiple news outlets, a number of members within the space ignored instructions to wear masks.

“I received a positive test result for COVID-19, and am home resting at this time. While I am experiencing mild, cold-like symptoms, I remain in good spirits and will continue to work on behalf of my constituents.”

Watson Coleman is isolating and awaiting the results of PCR testing; she previously received the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID19 vaccine, which has been made available to members of Congress, the Supreme Court, and Executive Branch agencies for the purposes of continuity of government operations.

https://www.npr.org/sections/congress-electoral-college-tally-live-updates/2021/01/11/955598516/in-historic-first-u-s-capitol-police-name-yogananda-pittman-as-acting-chief

https://www.npr.org/sections/congress-electoral-college-tally-live-updates/2021/01/11/955629940/new-york-state-bar-association-considers-expelling-rudy-giuliani

https://twitter.com/RepJayapal/status/1348871117407203328

https://jayapal.house.gov/2021/01/11/covid-test/

Jayapal Tests Positive for COVID-19 Following Lockdown at Capitol With Republican Lawmakers Who Cruelly and Selfishly Refused to Wear Masks

WASHINGTON — United States Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) received a positive COVID-19 test result tonight after being locked down in a secured room at the U.S Capitol where numerous Republican lawmakers recklessly refused to wear masks in the moments after the January 6 attack. Dr. Brian Monahan, the Attending Physician of the United States Congress, advised representatives and Congressional staff on Sunday that those in the secured room could have, “been exposed to another occupant with coronavirus infection.” The duration in the room was multiple hours and several Republicans not only cruelly refused to wear a mask but mocked colleagues and staff who offered them one.

“Too many Republicans have refused to take this pandemic and virus seriously, and in doing so, they endanger everyone around them. Only hours after President Trump incited a deadly assault on our Capitol, our country, and our democracy, many Republicans still refused to take the bare minimum COVID-19 precaution and simply wear a damn mask in a crowded room during a pandemic — creating a superspreader event on top of a domestic terrorist attack,” said Congresswoman Jayapal. “While I am isolating per the Capitol Physician’s instructions, I will continue to work to the best of my ability because the deep urgency of our many crises is paramount. I share the outrage and anger of my constituents and those across this country who have watched Donald Trump fail to combat this raging pandemic and refuse to take care of Americans who are suffering, dying, and devastated. Now, we have also watched him openly fuel and incite these insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol and our democracy on January 6—so I will not rest until I do everything in my power to remove this President from office.”

“I am also calling for serious fines to be immediately levied on every single Member who refuses to wear a mask in the Capitol,” Jayapal continued. “Additionally, any Member who refuses to wear a mask should be immediately removed from the floor by the Sergeant at Arms. This is not a joke. Our lives and our livelihoods are at risk, and anyone who refuses to wear a mask should be fully held accountable for endangering our lives because of their selfish idiocy.”

Jayapal began quarantining immediately after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, fearing and foreseeing exactly what would occur given the number of maskless lawmakers sitting in the same room as her and her colleagues. In an interview with The Cut on Thursday, she said, “I’m quarantining now because I am convinced that where we ended up, in the secured room — where there were over 100 people and many were Republicans not wearing masks — was a superspreader event.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-briefed-plot-overthrow-government_n_5ffd29a4c5b691806c4bf199

One plot includes surrounding the Capitol and murdering Democrats to allow Republicans to take control of the government.


By Matt Fuller

WASHINGTON ― Capitol Police briefed Democrats on Monday night about three more potentially gruesome demonstrations planned in the coming days, with one plot to encircle the U.S. Capitol and assassinate Democrats and some Republicans.

On a private call Monday night, new leaders of the Capitol Police told House Democrats they were closely monitoring three separate plans that could pose serious threats to members of Congress as Washington prepares for Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration on Jan. 20.

The first is a demonstration billed as the “largest armed protest ever to take place on American soil.”

Another is a protest in honor of Ashli Babbitt, the woman killed while trying to climb into the Speaker’s Lobby during Wednesday’s pro-Trump siege of the Capitol.

And another demonstration, which three members said was by far the most concerning plot, would involve insurrectionists forming a perimeter around the Capitol, the White House and the Supreme Court, and then blocking Democrats from entering the Capitol ― perhaps even killing them ― so that Republicans could take control of the government.

The members of Congress whom HuffPost spoke to Monday night were extremely concerned by the call.

“It was pretty overwhelming,” one member said.

Officials on the call warned lawmakers about sharing too much information with the media, saying that divulging specific dates, times and countermeasures could aid the organizers of the plots. HuffPost is not disclosing certain information, such as who appears to be organizing these plots and when they are to take place.

One member was explicit that these groups were trying to get journalists to report on their demonstrations.

“Some of their main communications to organize these have been cut off, so they’re purposely trying to get the media to report on this as a way to further disseminate information and to attract additional support for their attacks,” this member said.

Democrats were told that the Capitol Police and the National Guard were preparing for potentially tens of thousands of armed protesters coming to Washington and were establishing rules of engagement for warfare. In general, the military and police don’t plan to shoot anyone until one of the rioters fires, but there could be exceptions.

Lawmakers were told that the plot to encircle the Capitol also included plans to surround the White House ― so that no one could harm Trump ― and the Supreme Court, simply to shut down the courts. The plan to surround the Capitol includes assassinating Democrats as well as Republicans who didn’t support Trump’s effort to overturn the election ― and allowing other Republicans to enter the building and control government.

All of these plots may never materialize. The Capitol Police have established a new perimeter with fencing and razor wire, and the National Guard has already been called in to help protect the Capitol and lawmakers.

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But while Capitol Police assured members they were prepared for these terrorist plots, there was obvious concern from a number of lawmakers.

One topic of discussion was the need to put every member of Congress through a metal detector before the inauguration. A member on the call told HuffPost that there was an “eyes-wide-open realization” that Capitol Police needed to take precautions against “all these members who were in league with the insurrectionists who love to carry their guns.”

“You can’t just let them bypass security and walk right up to Biden and Harris at inauguration,” this lawmaker told HuffPost.

Another area of concern was the Trump administration’s involvement in tamping down an insurrection. “I don’t think anyone has confidence that the folks at the Pentagon, that may or may not even be needed for some of this, or the Department of Homeland Security, where we don’t even know who’s in charge, are going to be cooperative,” one member told HuffPost.

One Democrat on the call also raised the issue of security for members coming from their residences to the Capitol, as well as traveling to Washington, given recent confrontations at airports and on flights between some protesters and lawmakers. One member who spoke to HuffPost said the Capitol Police didn’t have a satisfactory answer about that concern.

This member mentioned how the briefing had underscored the wisdom of Twitter suspending Trump’s account, as well as tens of thousands of accounts associated with the right-wing conspiracy theory QAnon, and said the decision to cut off the social media platform Parler “looked a lot smarter” given the efforts to recruit armed extremists to come to the nation’s capital in the coming days.

“It’s a decision that might ultimately save lives,” this member said.

One of the lawmakers who spoke to HuffPost said members of Congress were all experiencing difficult reactions to the storming of the Capitol last week.

“Most of us are feeling that,” this Democrat said. “But we are also feeling that we don’t have time to indulge too much of it, that this is not about us, that it’s about a job that’s way bigger than us, and we are just going to suck it up and get through, and we’ll talk about how nutty it is on the other side.”

https://twitter.com/SeamusHughes/status/1349068974722580480/photo/2

Post was deleted

Let's see if this picture still shares.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErjbDa6XEAEmHRR?format=jpg&name=large

This is well-worth the hour.

It's one of the most honest, impassioned, incisive pieces of political speech from an American politician.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ-OkgNAO1N/

With each passing day, thanks to analysis of video/images of the attack as well as statements from the targets of the attack (like AOC), the scale and viciousness of the insurrection comes further into focus.

When things shake out, there's going to be hell to pay.

Something I didn't know I needed to listen to

The human side of her is just as impressive.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/panic-buttons-were-inexplicably-torn-145712135.html

Panic buttons installed in Alyssa Pressley’s congressional office were torn out before rioters stormed the Capitol last week, her staff have said.

Sarah Groh, who serves as Ms Pressley’s chief of staff, was with the congresswoman when president Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol building last Wednesday.

She told the Boston Globe that she had reached for the panic buttons installed in Ms Pressley’s office as they tried to barricade themselves in.

But, when they went to press panic buttons, Ms Pressley’s staff saw that they weren’t there, and appeared to have been ripped out.

“Every panic button in my office had been torn out - the whole unit,” Ms Groh told the paper.

She added that she could not believe why the panic buttons were removed, and that Ms Pressley’s staff had used the panic buttons in the past, including during drills.

Nor had Ms Pressley and her staff moved offices, said Ms Groh.

She went on to say that the panic buttons were installed because Ms Pressley, a member of the progressive group of House Democrats dubbed the “Squad”, had been on the receiving end of racist attacks by the US president and his supporters.

Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, asked Capitol Police to heighten the security surrounding Ms Pressley and other Democratic congresswoman in 2019, after the president wrote a series of racist tweets attacking members of the “Squad”.

Mr Trump, who was rebuked for the remarks, told the congresswomen to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

Ms Pressley had warned in response that the president’s “cruel efforts to rile up his base have serious consequences on our collective safety and well-being."

Ms Groh added that she was “deeply concerned” about arriving at the Capitol Building last Wednesday, aware that Mr Trump was addressing his supporters, who were told to march on Congress with “strength”.

She added: “It felt like the heat was being turned up in terms of the rhetoric and Trump’s aims to incite violence”.

Social media users have since expressed outrage at reports the panic buttons were removed from Ms Pressley’s office, with a senior adviser to incoming US Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg saying “what happened and is happening - but it’s very bad. The Democratic women, especially women of colour, are in my head and heart today.”

Authorities announced on Tuesday that around 70 arrests had been made in relation to last week’s attack, and that “hundreds” were being investigated.

Among those arrested were rioters who carried plastic restraints and ammunition into the Capitol, and one person who was said to have wanted to shoot House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The attack led to the resignations of the head of the US Capitol police, amid criticism at the agency’s planning and response to the rioters.

According to CNN, two US Capitol Police officers have since been suspended and at least 10 more are under investigation for playing potential roles in the riot.

it wouldnt be surprising at all if the delay to call in reinforcements was really because they wanted to give ample time to make sure their targets were taken out.

These aren't people who just got caught up in the excitement. They are plotting.

https://twitter.com/AynRandPaulRyan/status/1349312406804025345?s=09



Get one of them to start snitching and take them all down. 40 years!!!!
https://youtu.be/vPjURf03Lno?t=66s

Instead they (hopefully) incriminated themselves.

What the fuck you thinking man!"

Gotta agree w/Stringer on this one man.

.. ever suffer consequences for all of this because they'd have succeeded in overtaking the US government ...

None of these idiots can even conceive that their fuhrer won't just take power.

They seem to think that that a high degree of confidence in their their beliefs is enough to make them real, even if there is no actual evidence to support them.

and use it to pit them against them.

confused...just...WTF!! Probably nothing will even happen to most of them.

If they don't launch a FULL scale investigation and hold every responsible person accountable for this shit then I'm done man. They served this up on a platter for them.

The way Republicans have dragged Democrats through the mud over the years and the bullshit they put Hillary Clinton through over Benghazi.

They need to drag each and every one of the mfkrs.

https://twitter.com/GAFollowers/status/1349377413332008962?s=20

.

imagine that being the culmination of your life

https://youtu.be/tQCsVVVknzQ

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

In this video.

it would be hugely satisfying to see RICO charges leveled against them

Oh, one of yall committed a felony on 1/6?

yall all feeling the effects

Obviously just a fantasy because it's mostly bored housewives and soccer moms and old people, but THAT would be some long overdue justice in this country for all the effects RICO had to Black and Brown communities.

https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1348619731734028293

that greenwald/gabbard/etc part of the left might have caught the biggest L these last few years. made it clear it was all a sham to everyone but their most delusional supporters.

Just makes shit up that he thinks sounds good.

People are stupid enough to fall for it.

they attack aclu, splc, etc heavy as far left activist groups.

the american right is pretty much mimicking the eastern european right by leading an assault on ngo's and institutions of higher education since those are the institutions that tend to provide the social/intellectual backbone of anti-fascist movements.

for centrist Dems, they certainly have a lot of common ground with fucking nazis.

DOJ: “Strong evidence...supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States government.”


https://twitter.com/fordm/status/1350092966392684546

I know there reports of some of the rioters getting tours in advance of the riot, along with panic buttons being removed. There's got to be some trail to follow on how it was coordinated and planned.

but he was mocking AOC for saying she thought she was gonna die.

There is ZERO doubt that had these fuckheads run into one of their "targets" (AOC, Omar, Pelosi, etc.) that they'd be deader than dead.

like if I ever saw that motherfucker on the street, i would have to think about how much jail time i'm willing to do.

even without jan 6 she probably receives the most of anyone in congress outside of maybe Omar.

rich from the guy who mocks her for being justifiably afraid while his whole steez is white conservative victimhood

Well, of course you don't have to try to make racist white supremacists what they are, but you can spend a ton of money lying to them about an election being stolen from them

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/15/trump-republicans-election-defeat-club-for-growth

I meant astroturfed in the sense that they want us to believe these people just formed a flash mob and were not incited into doing what they did for months / years by the 'elites' they rage about

But sure bankrolled in that the money to create Parler came from a known right-wing billionaire. And when they de-platform that, you have Musk telling people to use Signal intead?

The notion of election fraud was widely disseminated by a collective of billionaires through media channels and through politicians, to rally their troops on the ground. Kinda both I think.

edit:
I got you, you mean bankrolled in the degree to which they created the events on 1/6. Not influenced, directly created.

Individual 1 needs to be convicted...

Hawley and Cruz need expelled....

House members need expelled....

NY state needs to do its thing...


I'm serious. This shit needs to be deaded before it goes any fucking further.


Deplatforming is important and a good step.


But the page just can't be turned. It just can't.


They are too extreme and too dangerous.


Biden needs to deliver policty wise of course.


But this extreme shit needs to be squashed.

They have always been there and Trump just allowed them to come out of the shadows. Now they will prolly be plotting some terrorist attack, back in the shadows. The only deterrent forreal for the rioting nutzos will be hard penalties/convictions for those charged.

https://twitter.com/elwasson/status/1351553025605857281

wtf is she thinking?

one of the oath killer dudes was getting updates on the location of folks and instructions how to find them.

https://twitter.com/Lollardfish/status/1352771134291374082

i wonder who was doing the updating.

Starting to come into focus and it's been clear from a few days after the attack that this was where this was heading.

Self-styled militia members planned on storming the U.S. Capitol days in advance of Jan. 6 attack, court documents say

By
Spencer S. Hsu,
Tom Jackman and
Devlin Barrett
Jan. 19, 2021 at 8:28 p.m. EST
Self-styled militia members from Virginia, Ohio and other states made plans to storm the U.S. Capitol days in advance of the Jan. 6 attack, and then communicated in real time as they breached the building on opposite sides and talked about hunting for lawmakers, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

While authorities have charged more than 100 individuals in the riot, details in the new allegations against three U.S. military veterans offer a disturbing look at what they allegedly said to one another before, during and after the attack — statements that indicate a degree of preparation and determination to rush deep into the halls and tunnels of Congress to make “citizens’ arrests” of elected officials.

U.S. authorities charged an apparent leader of the Oath Keepers extremist group, Thomas Edward Caldwell, 66, of Berryville, Va., in the attack, alleging that the Navy veteran helped organize a ring of dozens who coordinated their movements as they “stormed the castle” to disrupt the confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college victory.

“We have about 30-40 of us. We are sticking together and sticking to the plan,” co-defendant Jessica Watkins, 38, an Army veteran, said while the breach was underway, according to court documents

“You are executing citizen’s arrest. Arrest this assembly, we have probable cause for acts of treason, election fraud,” a man replied, according to audio recordings of communications between Watkins and others during the incursion.

“We are in the main dome right now. We are rocking it. They are throwing grenades, they are fricking shooting people with paint balls. But we are in here,” a woman believed to be Watkins said, according to court documents.

A man then responds, “Get it, Jess,” adding, “This is . . . everything we f---ing trained for!”

The FBI said it recovered the exchange from Zello, a push-to-talk, two-way radio phone app.

FBI charging papers against Caldwell, Watkins and a third person, former U.S. Marine Donovan Crowl, 50, allege that Caldwell and others coordinated in advance to disrupt Congress, scouted for lodging and recruited Oath Keepers members from North Carolina and like-minded groups from the Shenandoah Valley. The group claims thousands of members who assert the right to defy government orders they deem improper. The plotters both anticipated violence and continued to act in concert after the break-in, investigators alleged in court documents. FBI papers also say that Caldwell suggested a similar event at the local level after the attack, saying in a message: “Lets storm the capitol in Ohio. Tell me when!”

The three are charged with five federal counts of conspiracy against the United States; obstructing an official government proceeding; impeding or injuring government officers; and destroying U.S. property, entering restricted grounds and disorderly conduct at the Capitol.

Attempts to reach attorneys for Caldwell, Watkins and Crowl have been unsuccessful. No one immediately responded to messages left at numbers connected to Caldwell.

Watkins, of Woodstock, Ohio, told the Ohio Capital Journal last week that she formed a group known as the Ohio State Regular Militia in 2019 and that it had patrolled 12 protests to “protect people” on both sides. She said she had served a tour in Afghanistan while in the Army. She also said she was a member of the Oath Keepers.

“I didn’t commit a crime. I didn’t destroy anything. I didn’t wreck anything,” Watkins said to the Journal, adding that the riot was a peaceful protest that turned violent.

Crowl’s mother, Teresa Rowe, said she was appalled to see pictures of him in the Capitol. She said he had become radicalized after leaving the Marine Corps.

“I wish I could tell people what happened to him, but I don’t know,” Rowe said.

The arrests this weekend of several people with alleged ties to far-right extremist groups, including the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and the Three Percenters, suggest that the riot was not an entirely impulsive outburst of violence but an event instigated or exploited by organized groups. Hours of video posted on social media and pored over by investigators have focused on individuals in military-style gear moving together.

“This is the first step toward identifying and understanding that there was some type of concerted conspiracy here,” said one senior official with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which is leading the investigation.

“Whether everyone else just happened to be there and got caught up in the moment, or if this is just the tip of the iceberg, how much this will grow at this point I can’t tell you, but we are continuing to investigate aggressively,” according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a pending investigation.

In charging papers, the FBI said that during the Capitol riot, Caldwell received Facebook messages from unspecified senders updating him of the location of lawmakers. When he posted a one-word message, “Inside,” he received exhortations and directions describing tunnels, doors and hallways, the FBI said.

Some messages, according to the FBI, included, “Tom all legislators are down in the Tunnels 3floors down,” and “Go through back house chamber doors facing N left down hallway down steps.” Another message read: “All members are in the tunnels under capital seal them in. Turn on gas,” the FBI added.

Other arrests Tuesday also underscored law enforcement’s concerns about threats to elected leaders, particularly because so many of the participants in the Jan. 6 chaos are still unidentified.

In New York, a Queens man who worked in the state court system was accused Tuesday of making threats to murder Democratic politicians, including suggesting another attack on the Capitol timed to Biden’s inauguration. The man was not at the riot on Jan. 6 but made threatening remarks about Democratic politicians beforehand that intensified in a video he posted two days later, which was titled “KILL YOUR SENATORS.” In the video, he encourages people to return to the Capitol and take up arms.

“If anybody has a gun, give it to me, I’ll go there myself and shoot them and kill them,” the man said, according to the FBI.

In Caldwell’s charging papers, the FBI said that it is reviewing communications between Cald­well “and other known and unknown Oath Keepers members.”

An FBI agent in court records said Caldwell helped organize a group of eight to 10 individuals led by Watkins. Members of the group are seen on video wearing helmets and military-style gear, and moving purposefully toward the top of the Capitol steps and leading the move against police lines, court records said.

A search of Watkins’s home in Ohio found numerous firearms, cellphones, pepper spray, a radio, a bag with a helmet and respirators, paintball guns, pool cues cut down to baton size, and zip/cable ties, as well a camouflage hat and jackets, the FBI said.

The FBI said without elaboration that it also recovered a document titled “Making Plastic Explosives from Bleach,” redacting the instructions in a photo exhibit.

According to a 23-page affidavit, Caldwell in Facebook messages said he scouted lodging for Watkins and others, starting at a Comfort Inn in Ballston, Va., about eight miles from the Capitol, that “would allow us to go hunting at night if we wanted to.”

Meanwhile, the group was making contingency plans and focused on security, the FBI said. Caldwell said he would probably “do pre-strike on the 5th” and expected a man named Paul “will have the goodies in case things go bad and we need to get heavy.”

“Keep eyes on people with Red MAGA hats worn backward. Saw a report that they were going to infiltrate crowd tomorrow,” Crowl was warned Jan. 5 in another Facebook message, as he prepared for what he called an “Oathkeepers op,” court documents said.

“Thanks Brother, but we are WAY ahead on that. We have infiltrators in Their ranks. We are doing the W.H. in the am and early afternoon, rest up at the Hotel, then headed back out tomorrow night ‘tifa’ hunt’in. We expect good hunting,” Crowl responded, in an apparent reference to antifa counterdemonstrators, the FBI said.

At some point on the day of the riot, Watkins posted to the social media site Parler a photograph of herself in uniform, writing: “Me before forcing entry into the Capitol Building. #stopthesteal #stormthecapitol #oathkeepers #ohiomilitia,” the FBI said. She added a photo of Crowl in paramilitary gear and an Oath Keepers patch as “one of my guys,” and the pair allegedly took a selfie in video recorded in the Capitol Rotunda, the FBI said.

Caldwell also posted a message after the riot, court documents said: “Us storming the castle. Please share. . . . I am such an instigator!”

“Proud boys scuffled with cops and drove them inside to hide. Breached the doors. One guy made it all the way to the house floor, another to Pelosi’s office. A good time,” Caldwell added, according to the FBI.

In a Jan. 8 message to Crowl, the FBI said Caldwell added, “We stormed the gates of corruption together (although on opposite sides of the building) so between that and our first meeting and getting to know you since I can say we will always be brothers!”

Along with Greene, the conspiratorial pro-Trump Republican from Georgia who took office earlier this year, the pair both say the members who participated in these conversations or had top staffers join in included Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/exclusive-jan-6-organizers-met-congress-white-house-1245289/

Only a matter of time if not.

personally, i don't think there are any political accidents. typically, when you find yourself with a polarizing choice, chances are it has been set up that way.

I know they blanket-antifa'd all the protesters shortly after the insurrection. Before they started calling them "tourists."

Shit's nuts.
There needs to be consequences.

He's in attack mode. Anger in his voice. Kinda sounds like he's baiting Trump to do/say something

I thought he'd be on some somber reconciliation stuff

Bringing back a shutdown and start sending folks checks again

It’s becoming increasingly obvious that people just
want performative bullshit and a nicer face

Coup is still happening across the country.

Voting access gutted.

Pandemic still raging.

Climate change.

ICE still detaining and deporting people.


All of it. And these motherfuckers brought out
Lin Manuel.

like 'wouldnt it be funny if...' and they actually do it.

they need to start locking up dem strategists with the the 1/6 insurrectionists.

these people are a public menace lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XqnE1PnWF4


>RE: that hamilton cast sing a long was like something out of south park.
>like 'wouldnt it be funny if...' and they actually do it.
>
>they need to start locking up dem strategists with the the 1/6
>insurrectionists.
>
>these people are a public menace lol.

i honestly cant envision any dem not eye rolling at the hamilton shit.

the liberal/metro hamilton audience is prolly too educated/discerning to be roped in by the histrionics.

and the moderate working class types are prolly just turned off by the celeb/actor/artists forcefeeding in general.

its just completely unnecessary (and a good chance of backfiring) with very low upside even if you do whatever you intended it to do.

now...after a pretty formative speech by biden...congressional dems look like this shit isnt that serious to them. way to take the eye off the ball and muddy the message (not to mention hamilton was a literal insurrectionist lol).

i have no idea why dems have had such an addiction to hamilton in the 1st place lol. especially still in 2021.

either way...strategists involved in dumb shit like this need to be publicly identified and marched to the guillotine.

>now...after a pretty formative speech by biden...congressional
>dems look like this shit isnt that serious to them.

Leave it at the surprisingly good speech. Like you or someone already said, the fucking Hamilton performance makes it appear like this is all performative and nothing more.

>>now...after a pretty formative speech by
>biden...congressional
>>dems look like this shit isnt that serious to them.
>
>Leave it at the surprisingly good speech. Like you or someone
>already said, the fucking Hamilton performance makes it appear
>like this is all performative and nothing more.


Love how the last thing that happens overshadows the real fucking thing.

This country is fucking hopeless.

Even without the performative bullshit that was the Hamilton performance, tell me exactly what the speech accomplished/would have accomplished beyond sparking a bunch of "thank you, Brandon !" tweets from sycophants on twitter (and you on OKP, apparently) ?

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that a year later, Biden was finally willing to call orangeman out by name and speak clearly about the ongoing threat that we face. But without tangible action in response to the active threat to democracy, what the fuck good does it do ?


>Love how the last thing that happens overshadows the real fucking thing.

.
I'm ducking mad at how everything has to be perfect or you spend time bitching about the party who might care a little about it.

Direct your outrage elsewhere. If you're so satisfied with the speech yesterday then why are you here being such a miserable little bitch ? Who cares what we think ? Dems are doing great ! Democracy's safe ! Go celebrate !

LOL at "my framing." I asked a question. If you can't answer it just say so, instead of crying that not everyone is willing to applaud a mostly-useless speech by a guy who's done nothing to counteract the threat he allegedly finds so dire.

Also LOL @ "the party that might care a little bit." That's pretty accurate.

Fuck you.

.

How did you end up like this, man? Why do you think its so bad to criticize/ask more of the people who allegedly care?

What horrible thing do you think will happen if you expect more from Democrats?


Literally no on is asking for perfection. Just asking to take the Coup seriously. To try and slow COVID. Etc.



bottom line

- No one important has been held accountable for 1/6

- The coup is still happening in states across the country through changed voting laws, crazies running for SOS, etc

- an important part of politics is messaging, which Dems are objectively horrible at. Even Reeq agrees with this.

- Joe's speech was cool but it achieves nothing tangible. It would have been a nice way to influence the message, but Nancy brought out Lin Maneual (lol lol lol)


Agenda shit in politics is disgusting. Its bad when MAGA hats do it. Its bad when Bernie Bros do it. And its bad when Democrat stans do it.

Just because your team is in power doesn't mean you should defend/justify/ignore all the horrific shit that is happening.

Coup. Raging Pandemic. Mass shootings. Deportations. The list goes on and on.


To ask DEMOCRATS to at least try and address this stuff seriously is asking for perfection?


These motherfuckers brought out LIN MANUEL. LIN MANUEL!!!

Its not even good politics. You'll be very upset when Democrats get their asses kicked, but full throttle defend their incompetence.


You care a lot more about defending Democrats then they care about you.

he really is a great example of what is wrong with Dem leadership.

any suggestions or criticism is seen as a full on attack so they triple down instead of listening to suggestions that could improve their chances moving forward.

Dude better be getting paid for this shit.. lol

then spending his remaining days repenting for it

i'm fairly certain this dude would march his wife and kids to a death camp if the base suggested it

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/07/politics/ted-cruz-jan-6-terrorist-attack-capitol/index.html

Make sure to read the follow-up tweet for full effect.

https://twitter.com/TheGoodLiars/status/1479307662160502785

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1481699739234095112

this tweet aged like potato bread.
https://twitter.com/brithume/status/1481649782841962500

Trump call Jan. 6 to ‘walk down to the Capitol’ prompted Secret Service scramble
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/07/trump-pressed-secret-service-for-plan-to-join-march-to-capitol/

Secret Service considered options to get Trump to Capitol on January 6
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/07/politics/secret-service-trump-capitol/index.html