Four Data Points on the January 6 Insurrection

The NYT and WaPo both have stories beginning to explain the failures to protect the Capitol (ProPublica had a really good one days ago). The core issue, thus far, concerns DOD’s delays before sending in the National Guard — something that they happened to incorporate into a timeline not long after the attack, before the Capitol Police or City of DC had put their own together (the timeline has some gaps).

I can think of two charitable explanations for the lapses. First, in the wake of criticism over the deployment of military resources and tear gas against peaceful protestors to protect Donald Trump in June, those who had been criticized were reluctant to repeat such a display of force to protect Congress (and Mike Pence). In addition, in both DOJ and FBI under the Trump Administration, job security and career advancement depended on reinforcing the President’s false claims that his political supporters had been unfairly spied on, which undoubtedly created a predictable reluctance to treat those political supporters as the urgent national security threat they are and have always been.

Those are just the most charitable explanations I can think of, though. Both are barely distinguishable from a deliberate attempt to punish the President’s opponents — including Muriel Bowser and Nancy Pelosi — for their past criticism of Trump’s militarization of the police and an overt politicization of law enforcement. Or, even worse, a plan to exploit these past events to create the opportunity for a coup to succeed.

We won’t know which of these possible explanations it is (likely, there are a range of explanations), and won’t know for many months.

That said, I want to look at a few data points that may provide useful background.

Trump plans to pardon those in the bunker

First, as I noted here, according to Bloomberg, Trump has talked about pardoning the four men who’ve been in the bunker with Trump plotting recent events, along with Rudy Giuliani, who is also likely to be pardoned.

Preemptive pardons are under discussion for top White House officials who have not been charged with crimes, including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, senior adviser Stephen Miller, personnel chief John McEntee, and social media director Dan Scavino.

I like to think I’ve got a pretty good sense of potential legal exposure Trump’s flunkies have, yet I know of nothing (aside, perhaps, from McEntee’s gambling problems) that these men have clear criminal liability in. And yet Trump seems to believe these men — including the guy with close ties to far right Congressmen, the white nationalist, the guy who remade several agencies to ensure that only loyalists remained in key positions, and the guy who tweets out Trump’s barely-coded dogwhistles — need a pardon.

That may suggest that they engaged in sufficient affirmative plotting even before Wednesday’s events.

Mind you, if these men had a role in coordinating all this, a pardon might backfire, as it would free them up to testify about any role Trump had in planning what happened on Wednesday.

Trump rewards Devin Nunes for helping him to avoid accountability

Several key questions going forward will focus on whether incompetence or worse led top officials at DOD to limit the mandate for the National Guard on January 6 and, as both DC and the Capitol Police desperately called for reinforcements, stalled before sending them.

A key player in that question is Kash Patel, who served as a gatekeeper at HPSCI to ensure that Republicans got a distorted view of the Russian intelligence implicating Trump, then moved to the White House to ensure that Trump got his Ukraine intelligence via Patel rather than people who knew anything about the topic, and then got moved to DOD to oversee a takeover of the Pentagon by people fiercely loyal to Trump.

And a key player in coordinating Kash’s activities was his original boss, Devin Nunes. On Monday, Trump gave Nunes the Medal of Freedom, basically the equivalent of a pardon to someone who likely believes his actions have all been protected by speech and debate. The entire citation for the award is an expression of the steps by which Trump, with Nunes’ help, undermined legitimate investigations into himself. In particular, Trump cited how Nunes’ efforts had hollowed out the FBI of people who might investigate anyone loyal to Trump.

Devin Nunes’ courageous actions helped thwart a plot to take down a sitting United States president. Devin’s efforts led to the firing, demotion, or resignation of over a dozen FBI and DOJ employees. He also forced the disclosure of documents that proved that a corrupt senior FBI official pursued a vindictive persecution of General Michael Flynn — even after rank and file FBI agents found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Congressman Nunes pursued the Russia Hoax at great personal risk and never stopped standing up for the truth. He had the fortitude to take on the media, the FBI, the Intelligence Community, the Democrat Party, foreign spies, and the full power of the Deep State. Devin paid a price for his courage. The media smeared him and liberal activists opened a frivolous and unjustified ethics investigation, dragging his name through the mud for eight long months. Two dozen members of his family received threatening phone calls – including his 98 year old grandmother.

Whatever else this debasement of the nation’s highest award for civilians might have done, it signaled to Nunes’ team — including but not limited to Patel — Trump’s appreciation for their work, and rewarded the guy he credits with politicizing the FBI.

That politicization is, as I noted above, one of the more charitable explanations for the FBI’s lack of preparation on Wednesday.

Interestingly, Nunes is not one of the members of Congress who challenged Biden’s votes after law enforcement restored order.

Corrected: Nunes did object to both AZ and PA.

Trump takes steps to designate Antifa as a Foreign Terrorist Organization

The day before the insurrection, Trump signed an Executive Order excluding immigrants if they have any tie to Antifa. Effectively, it put Antifa on the same kind of exclusionary footing as Communists or ISIS terrorists. Had Trump signed the EO before he was on his way out the door, it would have initiated a process likely to end with Antifa listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, giving the Intelligence Community additional intelligence tools to track members of the organization, even in the United States (the kind of tools, not coincidentally, that some experts say the FBI needs against white supremacist terrorists).

The EO will have next to no effect. Joe Biden will rescind it among the other trash he needs to clean up in the early days of his Administration.

But I find it curious that Trump effectively named a domestic movement a terrorist organization just days before multiple Trump associates attempted to blame Antifa for the riot at the Capitol.

That effort actually started before the order was signed. Back in December, Enrique Tarrio suggested that the Proud Boys (a group Trump had called to “Stand by” in September) might wear all black — a costume for Antifa — as they protested.

“The ProudBoys will turn out in record numbers on Jan 6th but this time with a twist…,” Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, the group’s president, wrote in a late-December post on Parler, a social media platform that has become popular with right-wing activists and conservatives. “We will not be wearing our traditional Black and Yellow. We will be incognito and we will spread across downtown DC in smaller teams. And who knows….we might dress in all BLACK for the occasion.”

The day after the riot, Matt Gaetz relied on a since-deleted Washington Times post to claim that the riot was a false flag launched by Antifa.

In a speech during the process of certifying President-elect Joe Biden, Gaetz claimed there was “some pretty compelling evidence from a facial recognition company” that some Capitol rioters were actually “members of the violent terrorist group antifa.” (Antifa is not a single defined group, does not have an official membership, and has not been designated a terrorist organization, although President Donald Trump has described it as one.)

Gaetz attributed this claim to a short Washington Times article published yesterday. That article, in turn, cited a “retired military officer.” The officer asserted that a company called XRVision “used its software to do facial recognition of protesters and matched two Philadelphia antifa members to two men inside the Senate.” The Times said it had been given a copy of the photo match, but it didn’t publish the picture.

There is no evidence to support the Times’ article, however. An XRVision spokesperson linked The Verge to a blog post by CTO Yaacov Apelbaum, denying its claims and calling the story “outright false, misleading, and defamatory.” (Speech delivered during congressional debate, such as Gaetz’s, is protected from defamation claims.) The Times article was apparently deleted a few hours after Apelbaum’s post.

Rudy Giuliani also attempted to blame Antifa.

And Captain Emily Rainey, who resigned today as DOD investigates the PsyOp officer for her role in the insurgency, also blamed Antifa for the violence.

Her group — as well as most at Wednesday’s rally — were “peace-loving, law-abiding people who were doing nothing but demonstrating our First Amendment rights,” she said.

She even shared a video on Facebook insisting that the rioters were all Antifa, saying, “I don’t know any violent Patriots. I don’t know any Patriots who would smash the windows of a National jewel like the [Capitol].”

It is entirely predictable that Trump loyalists would blame Antifa for anything bad they do — Bill Barr did so as the formal policy of DOJ going back at least a year. But Trump seems to have prepared the ground for such predictable scapegoating by taking steps to declare Antifa a terrorist “organization” hours before a riot led by his supporters would storm the Capitol.

The White House makes DHS Secretary Chad Wolf’s appointment especially illegal

I’m most intrigued by a flip-flop that had the effect of making DHS Acting Secretary’s appointment even more illegal than it has already been at times in the last two years.

On January 3, the White House submitted Chad Wolf’s nomination, along with those of 29 other people, to be DHS Secretary. Then, on January 6, it withdrew the nomination.

Wolf himself was out of the country in Bahrain when the riot happened. But he did tweet out — before DOD mobilized the Guard — that DHS officials were supporting the counter-insurgency. And he issued both a tweet and then — the next day — a more formal statement condemning the violence.

It’s not entirely clear what happened between his renomination and the withdrawal, but Steve Vladeck (who tracks this stuff more closely than anyone), had a lot to say about the juggling, not least that the withdrawal of his resubmitted nomination made it very clear that Wolf is not now legally serving.

This could have had — and could have, going forward — a chilling effect on any orders Wolf issues to deploy law enforcement.

Thus far, we haven’t seen much about what DHS did and did not do in advance of the riot — though its maligned intelligence unit did not issue a bulletin warning of the danger.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and an intelligence unit inside the Department of Homeland Security didn’t issue a threat assessment of the Jan. 6 pro-Trump protests that devolved into violence inside the Capitol, people briefed on the matter said.

In the weeks leading up to the protests, extremists posted about their plans to “storm” the Capitol on social media.

The joint department bulletin is a routine report before notable events that the agencies usually send to federal, state and local law-enforcement and homeland security advisers. The reports help plan for events that could pose significant risks.

At the DHS unit, called Intelligence and Analysis, management didn’t view the demonstrations as posing a significant threat, some of the people said.

Last year, Ken Cuccinelli forced whistleblower Brian Murphy to change language in a threat analysis to downplay white supremacist violence and instead blame Antifa and related groups.

In May 2020, Mr. Glawe retired, and Mr. Murphy assumed the role of Acting Under Secretary. In May 2020 and June 2020, Mr. Murphy had several meetings with Mr. Cuccinelli regarding the status of the HTA. Mr. Cuccinelli stated that Mr. Murphy needed to specifically modify the section on White Supremacy in a manner that made the threat appear less severe, as well as include information on the prominence of violent “left-wing” groups. Mr. Murphy declined to make the requested modifications, and informed Mr. Cuccinelli that it would constitute censorship of analysis and the improper administration of an intelligence program.

Wolf had been complicit in that past politicization. But something happened this week to lead the Trump White House to ensure that his orders can be legally challenged.

Update: Jake Gibson just reported that Wolf is stepping down.

These are just data points. We’ll learn far more about Trump’s involvement as the FBI obtains warrants for the communications who have ties to both groups like the Proud Boys and Trump associates like Roger Stone and Steve Bannon. But these are a few data points worth keeping an eye on.

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209 replies
  1. PeterS says:

    Thank you for this. I even got a laugh out of it, albeit a bitter laugh: “I don’t know any violent Patriots” says Captain Rainey.

  2. Ravenclaw says:

    There is going to be a lot to unpack here and plenty of blame to go around. But it seems to me that it all begins with the Capitol Police, the force actually in charge of maintaining law and order on premises. As of December 30, it was announced that there would be enhanced security on the 6th due to the potential for violence. Yet according to TMZ only about a quarter of the force’s 2,000 officers were actually on duty that afternoon. That sounds like barely any increase over standard levels, so the supposed enhancements must have been limited to the inadequate fences. Given that the force knew there was a real and present danger, their failure to mobilize their own resources (let alone call for assistance from the National Guard or elsewhere, even on a standby basis) is unfathomable. The most charitable interpretation would be gross incompetence born of complacency. From there one spirals rapidly toward passive support of the president’s hoped-for suppression of the legislative branch of government. Which sounds like some kind of conspiracy theory, though given the number of off-duty police officers and former military personnel involved in the attempted putsch one may be forgiven for a measure of cognitive vigilance.

    “”https://www.rollcall.com/2020/12/31/capitol-police-to-enhance-security-at-jan-6-session-to-certify-election/””
    “”https://www.tmz.com/2021/01/07/capitol-police-understaffed-ill-equipped-handle-capitol-rioters-tear-gas/””

  3. madwand says:

    While we are thinking about all this, just in from Business Insider. A new FBI bulletin warns that “armed protests” are expected to take place at the US Capitol and state capitols across the country leading up to Inauguration Day.

    https://www.businessinsider.com.au/fbi-bulletin-warns-pro-trump-armed-protests-capitol-inauguration-day-2021-1

    An FBI bulletin obtained by ABC News reporter Aaron Katersky warned that “armed protests” are expected to take place at the US Capitol and state capitols across the country leading up to Inauguration Day.
    One group is reportedly calling for “storming” local, state, and federal courthouses and buildings if Trump is removed from office before January 20.
    And the bureau also reportedly said it has “received information about an identified armed group intending to travel to Washington, DC on 16 January.”
    The development comes after President Trump incited a deadly riot at the US Capitol last week and was banned from Twitter because the company said his supporters were using his tweets to plan more violent demonstrations.

    The protests “are being planned at all 50 state capitols from 16 January through at least 20 January, and at the US Capitol from 17 January through 20 January,” said the bulletin, which was first obtained by ABC News reporter Aaron Katersky.

    Call them what they are here, attacks against the Federal and State governments. There is obviously a very intelligent strategist behind all this. Force the governments to defend many locations. That freezes them in place, and this really applies to states surrounding DC who might be able to send Guard troops to defend DC.

    Trump is not going to give up.

    • PeterS says:

      “There is obviously a very intelligent strategist behind all this”. Wouldn’t lots of locally organized events, through semi-connected networks, look much the same, i.e. protests planned at all 50 state capitols?

      • BobCon says:

        Yes, we don’t want to jump to the same type of thinking that led Rumsfeld and Cheney to think taking out one or two top people in AQI was going to end the attacks.

        It’s necessary to go after the top people but not sufficient.

        • General Sternwood says:

          >it would free them up to testify about any role Trump had

          Your statement that “It’s necessary to go after the top people but not sufficient,” is exactly why the silver lining argument that pardons will allow Congress to compel testimony (which is somewhat dubious anyway given the events of the past few years) is cold comfort.

      • madwand says:

        Well obviously they have a means of communication and just as obviously they would have locally organized units to pull this off, and you forgot the word armed in front of protests. If you look back at the three weeks prior to Jan 6 they were all online saying what they were going to do and then did it.

        Now they are saying something different. Should we disbelieve them? The business insider article was about armed operations in 50 states and please understand I am not advocating right now decaptitation, though I would support the FBI arresting and detaining any leaders they can identify. I’m only saying there is a military mind behind this. To me that is easy to see maybe not to you.

      • DH says:

        The strategist will probably turn out to be Ginni Thomas in a mash up of VEEP and Manchurian Candidate. Anyone for solitaire?

    • BobCon says:

      I’d like to know if they’re warning about anything else besides “armed protests” too. I think it would be a huge mistake to automatically assume a repeat of January 6, and instead of mass attacks we may get shootings or bombings.

    • P J Evans says:

      In CA, I expect that there will be stuff in downtown L.A. – it’s a favorite location because they can gather in/around Pershing Square and march the three or four blocks to City Hall.

      In TX, I’d expect trouble also in Dallas, Houston, and maybe San Antonio. In PA, Philly and Pittsburgh.

    • Legonaut says:

      Since we’ve already had armed thugs storming the statehouse here in Michigan, establishing our ready supply of asshats, I’m expecting an encore here. Probably won’t even bother to bus them in this time!

  4. Montana Voter says:

    These are not conspiracy theories about UFOs and Roswell NM.

    These are real conspiracies going on with actual planning to overthrow our government. They have been around for years. We had a bunch of them here in Montana in the ‘80s who tried to kidnap and hang a District Court Judge. Called themselves the Freemen.
    The difference now is the proliferation of their ideas through the internet, Fox News etc. and craven willingness of the big moneyed groups like the Koch organizations and politicians to exploit it.
    As we are seeing they are rooted in police, military and government. Our new Representative fully supports them and our Legislature is full of them. Soon “all good men will have to come to the defense of the country.”
    This is a serious problem that can’t be ignored.
    Trump ramped up federal executions, that is a penalty for sedition too!

    • General Sternwood says:

      And yet somehow UFO theories and other conspiracy theories are related, as in Marco Rubio’s measure in the recent stimulus bill that compels the military to report on their UFO data.

      I’m still trying to parse the quote I saw of his about it:

      “Frankly, if it’s something outside this planet that might actually be better than the fact that we’ve seen some sort of technological leap from the Chinese or Russians,” Rubio told CBS during an interview last year.

      • Valerie Klyman-Clark says:

        The New Age, too. I didn’t realize what I was hearing for a while but a dear friend pointed me toward David Wilcock and Corey Goode and asked me what I thought. I took 8 pages of notes.

        So, this disinformation is coming from the right and the left. And this stuff is . . . I dunno, I just keep thinking L. Ron. That said, these charlatans are complicit because they’ve been feeding a global audience a whole a lotta -I don’t even know what.

          • Stacey says:

            YES! Thank you for that Conspirituality recommendation!!!! I went there last night after I saw it in your comment, listened to the latest one, and then went back to the beginning and am making my way through them in order from the middle of this year on!

            I too am familiar with the David Wilcock and Coorey Goode material and they are an excellent example of how the ‘light workers’ in the spiritual left or politically neutral get pulled into the rabbit warrens of the right. I saw a reference to “pastel Q” meaning a layer of the Q conspiracy stuff that is packaged to attract suburbanite women concerned about children being abused and all the rest of it. These rabbit holes are very much structured the same way internet porn is designed, to pull you in deeper and deeper, not give you the full frontal nudity, as it were, in the first thing you click on! Not at all different from the way the rest of the social media addiction opioid IV drip is set up–all the same structured path to get you from where you are now to believing the craziest shit you can think of and feeling very confident about how you got there!

            But this podcast, Conspirituality, hits the nail on the head as to how these two seemingly unrelated universes could possibly ever come together! Again, thank you for that recommendation!!!

            • MB says:

              You’re welcome! The 3 guys who do the podcast (2 from L.A. and 1 from Toronto), all of them yoga teachers whose livelihoods took a sharp turn by virtue of the pandemic, got really alarmed last May when they saw well-respected and well-known “wellness influencers” making alliances with the anti-vax movement, the Q conspiracy cabal and radical right-wing causes. Their weekly podcast debunking efforts are a sorely needed oasis in the midst of this insane “post-truth” bubble we all find ourselves inside of these days…

        • Ren C says:

          Hey! I used to run the apartment building where David rented a flat with another chap back in the 90’s. At the time he worked PT locally in Ulster county, trying to figure out the best way to make some moolah. Looks like the he found something!! Hi David!

      • X-Plane says:

        I am not a fan of Mark Rubio. Regarding his remarks this year about UFO’s, there has been legitimate news. I have linked to a CNN article below. The United States Navy through funding made possible by former Senator Harry Reid (D Nevada) has been investigating a series of reports of unidentified flying objects entering closed air space over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Virginia. This summer the Navy acknowledged the facts in the rumors after a video was released.

        Please keep in mind that the U in UFO only means unidentified.

        https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/13/politics/navy-ufo-incident-reports/index.html

        P.S. Thank you for this website, love it.

  5. pseudonymous in nc says:

    On the one hand, the “blame Antifa” thing is just reflexive now in far-right discourse: it’s like blaming the dog for farting.

    On the other hand, there’d be incentives to cook up an infiltration narrative, and while there was some immediate cooking-up from the usual suspects, it fizzled out, because the full-spectrum maga assault was undeniable.

    The president wanted “his people” to be identifiably the ones outside the Capitol. Perhaps he wanted more than that once he started watching the scenes. Perhaps it was underpants gnomes thinking. Mobs have their own dynamics.

    You start by asking what the president and the organizers expected to happen once the rally ended. They hyped it up. They must have expected ~something~, even if their planning was primarily towards creating the conditions for ~things~ to happen.

    • Dave says:

      So if the antifa insurectionists at the capital were succesful in copting the maga rage on Jan 6th then Bernie would be president?

      [Welcome to emptywheel. Please use a more differentiated username when you comment next as we have several community members named “Dave” or variant of
      Dave or David. Thanks. /~Rayne
      ]

      • Rayne says:

        I have absolutely no idea where you pulled that from. There’s nothing in the Constitution to support that.

        Bernie lost the Democratic primary. He’s a seated senator and that’s what he’s going to be through his term.

        • Mitch Neher says:

          I think Dave may have been impersonating, and following through on, the warped logic exhibited by your typical false-flag theorist.

          But I could be wrong. (It is one of those acquired tastes).

          [Yes. I confess. It takes one to know one.]

      • Bruce Olsen says:

        Nicely played.

        RWNJs seem incapable of working out even the most inescapable implications of their wild-eyed accusations, and yet they believe the wildest conspiracies.

        It’s not stupidity/ignorance: it’s a serious mental health issue and it’s affecting all of us. If this isn’t covered in the DSM it should be.

    • Ginevra diBenci says:

      To those of us who live in the fact-based universe, the MAGA composition of the mob is undeniable. Among those who live in their denialist world, I have seen little willingness to give up the narrative that the violence was “all antifaBLM.” Anyone who questions that gets shouted down, and generally labeled “Commie.” Or much worse.

  6. Molly Pitcher says:

    I posted this on the other thread, but I think it is better here.

    https://twitter.com/TerryBoutonHist/status/1348365375449268226

    Terry Bouton is an Associate Professor of History at UMBC. He was the 2012-2015 Presidential Teaching Professor at UMBC and an Organization of American Historians (OAH) Distinguished Lecturer.

    Terry and his wife attended the riot on Wednesday as observers. His wife is a noted photographer. On their Twitter feed they have posted their observations and photos, which are well worth reviewing.

    • gmoke says:

      I read it earlier and sent it out to my friends list.

      Very good observations from trained observers who have been following demonstrations of all flavors for a while now.

    • Nehoa says:

      Thank you for the link to Prof. Bouton’s posts. Underscored a feeling that I have that the GOP members of Congress do not appreciate how much at risk they were from the mob. Particularly from the ones prepared to do murder. Lots of white men in both parties and its not like the Dems and GOP wear different uniforms to work.
      The avoidance of bloodshed in the chambers was a close thing.

    • Montana Voter says:

      Excellent piece of research by Troy. The money is the connection. To the NRA, to Trump, to many Republican campaigns.

      Also this needs to be tied to the Second Amendment frenzy. They are trying to legislate “open carry” everywhere so they can travel fully armed without fear of local repercussions. They just passed such legislation in Montana.

      These folks are evil, determined and well-funded. No coincidence that they continually, especially Trump, use the “not me, its them” approach. That’s why all of a sudden every Dem. candidate was a socialist/communist. They have this stuff down to a fine science and our goof balls here eat it up.

  7. Fran of the North says:

    There are some conflicting accounts about how widespread the penetration, but it sounds like Op Sec failed at Parler due them being deplatformed. Some are indicating that the ENTIRE db has been downloaded, messages, videos and personal identification to other services for research, identification and threat identification.

    • Fran of the North says:

      Sorry for the dump without showing my work – employment called. Turns out that it may be that:

      What happens on Parler doesn’t stay there. SAD!

      Gizmodo has an article that links to twitter user @donk_enby who is tweeting extensively on her work breaking into and downloading the Parler db. Some interesting factoids:

      1) Seems that if you wanted to be first-tier Parler citizen, you had to upload pics of the front and back of your drivers license to prove you weren’t a sock puppet. Wonder how that will play with the Fibbies???

      2) Lots of post 1/06 traffic deleting posts and accounts. Rumors have it that nothing got deleted, Parler just made the posts unviewable and disabled user accounts. Darn, I hate when that happens.

      3) CNCB has an article from Parler’s CEO on July 20, 2020 wherein he describes their intent to build out an influencer model, where influencers are paid to write content that gets eyeballs. Makes one wonder whether individuals or organizations with less than pure intentions might have been coordinating one or more activities of the proles.

      https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/02/how-parler-app-plans-to-make-money dot html

    • BobCon says:

      I take a little bit of grim pleasure that a few people who were spreading email conspiracy theories based on a complete ignorance of servers are starting to get an education of how things really work.

      • Chris.EL says:

        There is an account on Twitter called Parlertakes — he/she looks at Parler so you don’t have to…

        Pinned tweet:
        …”As Parler comes to an end, just know that there are many more free speech apps and sites MAGAs are fleeing to. I’ve identified 19 of them. This isn’t the end.” …

    • Stacey says:

      Well, this is funny. A portion of a statement Rebekka Mercer, funder/co-founder of Parler gave apparently around the time of its being launched.

      “The ever increasing tyranny and hubris of our tech overlords demands that someone lead the fight against data mining, and for the protection of free speech online. That someone is Parler, a beacon to all who value their liberty, free speech, and personal privacy.”

      Like the Mercers weren’t going to be involved in the Surveillance Capitalism (data mining) inherent in all of the “Tech Overlords” in existence. Like Robert Mercer isn’t HIMSELF one of the worst Tech Overlords ever born–after Cambridge Analytica and all the rest of it! Her accusing anyone else of hubris–I’m speechless!

      And that last bit about their platform protecting the users’ personal privacy! Wow! That’s rich! They were too cheap and lazy to build in even the barest measures of privacy protection which is how all of that happened as they were dying. Just stunning!

  8. Mesquite says:

    Many folks are discussing White Supremacists needing to be designated a terrorist organization. This has been needed for many years and looks like it might finally happen. At least there is going to be a lot of pressure to do so; I hope they do. But at this point it is clear that QAnon is responsible for radicalizing many people to violence and insurrection.
    I think QAnon should be declared a terrorist organization as well. Twitter has seen the light and is enforcing its rules on them for calls to violence and eliminationist rhetoric. The nature of Q beliefs naturally spawn that reaction from many of their followers. They are rumored to have more than a million followers, including suburban moms wanting to “Save the Children.” AFAIK only a minority are really far gone. But enough of their followers spew violent rhetoric, and so many are directly implicated in violent insurrection that they should be designated terrorists as well. Imprison the few for their criminal actions and threats, deprogram the many- make them aware that they too are part of the problem. Hopefully Facebook will police them better, but I don’t trust Facebook to do much for long.

    • PieIsDamnGood says:

      I don’t think the US government designates domestic terrorist groups. It’s also tricky since the white nationalist terrorism is largely an export of the US, the opposite of a group like ISIS.

      • bmaz says:

        They have a list of violent extremist groups which is the functional equivalent. There is no specific law for “domestic terrorism” (thankfully), though the word is mentioned is a provision of the Patriot Act.

    • Mary R. says:

      I am very wary of designating domestic groups as terrorist organizations, don’t like it for foreign groups, either. Such a designation would do little or nothing to enhance existing law enforcement tools to prevent violent acts, while being ripe for grievous abuse. There was a reason that the Trump administration fought tooth and nail to extend the surveillance provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, and it wasn’t to rein in Proud Boys.

      • bmaz says:

        Exactly right. And precisely why I said “thankfully” there is no specific domestic terrorism law. LE, both federal and state, has plenty of tools and statutes.

    • PeterS says:

      In what sense does QAnon exist as an “organization”? I thought it was nonsense disseminated online by a fake persona, that nonsense quickly gaining a life of its own. Is acting against QAnon more viable than acting against 9/11 trutherism? I don’t know what tracking “Q” down on 8kun and silencing “him” would quite look like.

      • Stephen Calhoun says:

        Seems to me Q-anon has become to a greater degree generative/self-organizing and decentralized.

  9. joel fisher says:

    The US will survive the next 9 days and move into a period of information collection on right wing terror groups. Enough morons are under arrest and facing federal prison that a few are going to cooperate, then a few more, then a lot more. These scum haven’t got the backbone of the mafia guy or an actual soldier and they will talk. Prediction: the DC cop that aced himself was a, not the, conduit for information between the rioters’ command and control and the sheep and he couldn’t face the consequences.

    • PhoneInducedPinkEye says:

      I think that is an irresponsible and disrespectful to the deceased theory to float without evidence.

      Find a parler/gab account and then float that theory.

      • Ginevra diBenci says:

        Officer Liebengood took his own life days after an attack overwhelmed Capitol Police, killing one of his fellow officers. I have yet to see any evidence Liebengood was part of planning the assault, but even were that the case writing that he “aced himself” demeans not just him but every victim of suicide, including their loved ones.

      • Molly Pitcher says:

        MSNBC just said that Chad Wolf is stepping down from his pretend head of DHS position, very shortly after releasing the information that the security for the inauguration starts this Wednesday, not on the 19th.

        That must have made someone cranky.

        • Chris.EL says:

          Breaking news ~5 pm Eastern Time from CNN:

          “Chad Wolf is resigning as the acting secretary of Homeland Security, he said in a letter to the department Monday obtained by CNN.

          FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor will be the new acting secretary, taking over in the wake of the US Capitol attack and as the national security apparatus prepares for possible violence leading up to Inauguration Day.” …

  10. Raven Eye says:

    Oddly enough, whilst preparing an email to my two senators, I wanted to check some information on the Oath Keepers website.

    I couldn’t get to the site. Maybe just a temporary glitch…

    • dimmsdale says:

      Considering their visibility at the Capitol terror event, they may have decided to close it down temporarily to avoid members being ID’d. Hopefully the FBI has cached versions of the site (if they don’t have informants inside the organization already, that is).

    • cavenewt says:

      Don’t forget the Wayback Machine. The last snapshots are from January 10. http://web.archive.org/web/20210110054559/http://oathkeepers.org/

      Here’s a snippet of a comment on a post about January 6 activities.

      VN era troop during evacuation, retired cop out of Texas, range officer and armorer, academy instructor, swat marksman, older, but not that old. Still believe in my America, land of the free and home of the brave, still got some grit and brass left, not about to sit or stand by while some commies (politicians included) take over our nation.

  11. Molly Pitcher says:

    “Nowhere to run, Nowhere to hide” for the Trump alumni. Going be tough to cash in for them.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/randalllane/2021/01/07/a-truth-reckoning-why-were-holding-those-who-lied-for-trump-accountable

    “That Donald Trump devolved from commander-in-chief to liar-in-chief didn’t surprise Forbes: As we’ve chronicled early and often, for all his billions and Barnum-like abilities, he’s been shamelessly exaggerating and prevaricating to our faces for almost four decades. More astonishing: the number of people willing to lend credence to that obvious mendacity on his behalf.” […]

    “As American democracy rebounds, we need to return to a standard of truth when it comes to how the government communicates with the governed. The easiest way to do that, from where I sit, is to create repercussions for those who don’t follow the civic norms.” […]

    “Let it be known to the business world: Hire any of Trump’s fellow fabulists above, and Forbes will assume that everything your company or firm talks about is a lie. We’re going to scrutinize, double-check, investigate with the same skepticism we’d approach a Trump tweet. Want to ensure the world’s biggest business media brand approaches you as a potential funnel of disinformation? Then hire away.”

    • P J Evans says:

      Forbes was willing to list him as a billionaire, based on his own claims – did they ever check those claims?

        • Stacey says:

          Or just more reputation laundering, like all the rest!
          I read that article too, earlier today, and was glad for it, but yeah, I am also old enough to remember that Trump used Forbes list of rich people which he finagled his way onto–not because they had high standards of proof for that, obviously– and then parlayed that into showing banks he was good for it when applying for loans. So, yeah, Forbes, thanks…I guess?

  12. Mulder says:

    I finally found something about why no one drew their weapon even when the mob was kicking the crap out of cops…From the AP article below. “Once the mob began to move on the Capitol, a police lieutenant issued an order not to use deadly force, which explains why officers outside the building did not draw their weapons as the crowd closed in. Officers are sometimes ordered against escalating a situation by drawing their weapons if superiors believe doing so could lead to a stampede or a shootout.”

    https://apnews.com/article/politics-police-riots-michael-pence-capitol-siege-c3a5973a68c699ff6a57cdd76d675e29

  13. Norskeflamthrower says:

    OK, the slow motion coup is and has been goin’ on since the end of the GW Bush reign of unelected terror. The cooptation of civilian “security” officials in Homeland Security, DOD, FBI, and Secretary of State follows decades of packing police forces from local through counties and states. This is the result of years of conscious planning and coordination, a public private “partnership” if you will between folks like the Kochs , that had it’s inception in the two plus years after Nixon’s ignominious exit. Look at where the FBI memo on the inability of the federal executive to be indicted came from and when. Look at Rumsfeld’s effort to “privatize” the military and eliminate the draft and his subsequent friendship with Erik Prince. This has all been goin’ on the last 10 years with the addition of Russian money laundered through the National Rifle Association. So now we’re sitting out here, the great majority of citizens unarmed surrounded by a minority of lunatics armed and trained with absolutely nothing left to lose. Bob Dylan Said: Sometime I think tghis whole world is one big prison yard, some of us are prisoners the rest of us are guards

    This can only get worse from here until whatever is planned for the entire country on January 20th. Remember this day when the militias and the cops are on one side of the street and the National Guard is on the other and we are stuck in the crosswalk in the crossfire.

  14. Raven Eye says:

    Riddle me this…

    A federal judge has ruled that Chad Wolf has not been serving legally as Acting Secretary of DHS. (At least until he resigned).

    Does he have criminal or civil exposure for continuing to issue orders, authorize/delegate personnel decisions, authorize/delegate contracts and purchases, etc. during that period? What is required to prove that he knowingly acted unlawfully in the office where he was previously authorized? Is this a false flag situation which can be investigated and charges filed?

  15. Molly Pitcher says:

    Alex Miller
    @AlexMillerNews
    Rep.
    @TimRyan
    says TWO CAPITOL POLICE OFFICERS have been SUSPENDED, ONE ARRESTED.

    SUSPENSIONS:
    -Officer who took selfies
    -Officer who put on a MAGA hat and took rioters around
    1:56 PM · Jan 11, 2021·Twitter Web App
    4.3K
    Retweets

    Alex Miller
    @AlexMillerNews
    ·
    1h
    Replying to
    @AlexMillerNews
    Ryan says he is going to get more information on the arrest. Clarifies he’s unsure if it was a USCP officer or a Guardsman and the reason for the arrest.

  16. Former AFPD says:

    There’s a road map for the admissibility of Trump’s statements over the years for use against him and his co-participants. It comes from the trials in US v. Larry Layton in the ND Cal. Layton was tried for conspiring to murder Congressman Leo Ryan as Ryan was attempting to depart the Guyanese jungle after visiting Jonestown/Peoples Temple members as part of a Congressional investigation. Jones taped statements he made to his captive followers in the jungle which are quite similar to the exhortations Trump has made to his followers over the years. Reading the 9th Circuit decision will be more informative than my describing it. The similarities between the veiled and outright threats by both Trump and Jones seem obvious to me. Those working in any capacity to bring people to justice might want to familiarize themselves with this decision. https://casetext.com/case/united-states-v-layton-9

      • Former AFPD says:

        I am well aware of Jackie Speier’s role and the grievous injuries she suffered in the Guyanese jungle as a result of this attack. She has Congressman Ryan’s seat in Congress. I imagine she has been thinking about these events as well.

        • Former AFPD says:

          It might not be decisive authority in another jurisdiction, but it could certainly be persuasive. Any lawyer who is involved in sorting out the admissibility of Trump’s statements, historical and present, could learn from this decision, the Layton trials, and the exhortations of Jim Jones to his followers.

  17. Rapier says:

    I can think of another charitable explanation for the general stand aside configuration that day. That is nobody wanted to see an escalation into a gun battle on the capital steps and inside. It could have come to that by cascading random events and that would be a point from which there is no turning back. Instead we have a few casualties and some shit on the wall, and a chance to turn back.

    I don’t think this was anyone’s plan but it’s one way to look at what we’ve got.

    Did anyone really want to see entire companies of National Guard troops outside the capital defending it? Maybe deterrence would have worked, and the pent up energy coiled ever tighter. Charitably, I judge the outcome could have been much worse.

    • Rayne says:

      Only by inches and seconds did we not have a massacre. It should never have been that close. Literally 10 feet and one armed Capitol Police officer stood between Ashli Babbit and the horde behind her, and the House chamber into which the last representatives had just been evacuated as the officer fired at Babbit. Only the quick thinking of another Capitol Police office, Eugene Goodman, kept rioters from going into an as-yet unsecured Senate chamber. It should never, ever have been this close, riding on one officer near the Senate and another near the House.

      Not going to give this a charitable eye. There’s no excuse for what happened. Symbolically, the problem is restated in the White House’s refusal to lower the flag for the first Capitol Police fatality — the flag only being lowered on Trump’s order. The problem is Trump who has earned zero charity in failing to execute his duties according to his oath of office.

      • madwand says:

        Agree and also as has been theorized, a hostage situation where we might still be negotiating with ballots still not certified. Close call indeed.

      • Molly Pitcher says:

        The texting by Boebert informing the recipient of when Pelosi left the chamber, the calls to Tuberville both tell me that they were at least part of the inside eyes to inform where members were so they could be captured and executed, and the procedures could be delayed long enough to get the assassins in place. Trump first accidently called the personal cell phone of Lee, a Utah Republican, in an attempt to speak to Tuberville. shortly after 2 p.m. ET. At that time the senators had been evacuated from the Senate floor and were in a temporary holding room.

        Boebert and Tuberville were used because they had no institutional knowledge of the workings of Congress and they would be ‘flattered’ to be serving the President. I’m not saying that they necessarily knew what was planned for members.

        For anyone to think that there wasn’t indiscriminate wholesale slaughter of Congress members planned is naive.

        Trumps flunkies in DOD, Homeland Security, Capitol Police, the FBI and wherever else hamstrung the preparations and response by those who could have held seditionists off.

        Killing Pence, Pelosi and Grassley would have left no one behind Trump but Pompeo, one of Trump’s key supporters. I think some of the GOP enablers in Congress better think long and hard, because eliminating loose ends that might make inconvenient testimony is not something that Trump wouldn’t consider.

        • cavenewt says:

          For anyone to think that there wasn’t indiscriminate wholesale slaughter of Congress members planned is naive.

          I’m appalled to say I agree. I can’t think of any other reason for the mob to storm the Capitol — Giuliani’s excuse that it would give more time for them to come up with evidence of election fraud is laughable. Although, who knows, he might believe that.

          From the attitudes of the people in the party tent before the rally, and especially various scary posts on social media by wingnuts, including Boebert’s “Today is 1776” tweet at 7:30 AM on January 6, it looks to me like the Trumpers actually thought they could wipe out Congress and set up their own shiny new government.

          • P J Evans says:

            Or half of congress, with the assumption that the governors would fill the seats with people the insurrectionists liked.
            I doubt that many women and minorities would have survived.

            • cavenewt says:

              I’d agree, except I doubt many of the rioters could recognize the less known “undesirable” Congresspeople by sight.

              Also, mob.

        • @pwrchip says:

          Molly Pitcher says:
          January 11, 2021 at 8:25 pm
          I pretty much said the same thing earlier.

          “Think about this proposition, in the coup attempt WHO were the targets? #MikePence & #NancyPelosi the #2/#3 in succession, hmm how convenient for #Pompeo.”

          https://twitter.com/PwrChip/status/1348685005086732288

          I just hope they find & catch every single one them involved in this horrible mess.

    • 1812 says:

      I don’t think there were any plans for the DC NG to be armed. My understanding is that they may have been deputized and given riot control equipment at most.

    • skua says:

      “Did anyone really want to see entire companies of National Guard troops outside the capital defending it? ”

      Are optics the proper base for decisions around pre-recognized dire threats to national security?

      In a Trump’s world clearly “yes”, and Walter Piatt agreed.

      The blood bath of slaughtered rioters that could have occured was made much more likely by having only a token security force in place. There could easily have been 60 Babbits rushing into the Senate and posing immanent lethal threats to Congress members – they would have been gunned down like Babbit was.

      In areas where lethal response will be used, safety comes from having overwhelming control of disruptors.

      I agree that a mass-slaughter of insurrectionists would have bad for the nation. But inadequate preparations actually made that more likely. And this fact would have been well known to those involved in any plotting to maximise damage to civilian rule of the nation on Januray 6.

    • Stacey says:

      See, I don’t get that? “Did anyone want to see entire companies of Guard troops outside defending the capitol?” Uhmmm, yeah! Because if the opposite is, “oh, wow, that was easy, sign me up for that!” Says every would be terrorist/insurrectionist/Civil War re-enactor.

      When the police over-react to black people we reach around in the couch cushions to find anything we can get ahold of to justify that reaction, we’re not embarrassed by it! But when white supremists over-run the capitol EASILY and it takes them 5 hours to re-secure it from morons that act like they’re still in high school, an answer that says ‘if you folks even have the thought flick through your little heads that THIS was a good idea ever again, let this disabuse you of that notion!’ Yeah, I’d like the answer to be a little bit more convincing, actually. I think the shame is in getting our responses completely BACKWARDS between the BLM protests and this… NOT protest.

      Why are we always embarrassed about the wrong things????

  18. Dizz says:

    Ex-Capitol Police Chief Says Requests For National Guard Denied 6 Times In Riots
    https://www.npr.org/2021/01/11/955548910/ex-capitol-police-chief-rebuffs-claims-national-guard-was-never-called-during-ri
    January 11, 20216:17 AM ET

    The Capitol Police contingent, which numbered around 1,400 that day, was quickly overrun by the estimated 8,000 rioters.

    Granted I know nothing about security, but these numbers don’t seem to add up. 1 cop for every 6 ‘rioters’ with the police on their home turf. Those aren’t the image(s) I saw – frequently it seemed like one cop versus a mob. Something else we don’t know here.

    • P J Evans says:

      There were a bunch out by the barricades, more at the steps, and some inside. Whether they were well-positioned is a good question – and some were sympathetic to the insurrectionists. I understand several are suspended because of that.

    • skua says:

      There might be some BS categorization method being used here.
      Could it be convinient for some high-level Trumpists if the count of insurrectionists/rioters were kept low?
      Or maybe there is some early estimate of crowd size being (mis-)used?
      NPR do not make it clear where the 8,000 number comes from. Perhaps Bowser, perhaps elsewhere.
      This 8000 figure is being promolgated from NPR by Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_E._Piatt
      (Piatt, a true military administrator, held the line for Trumpian aesthetics during the insurrection saying, “I don’t like the visual of the National Guard standing a police line with the Capitol in the background” and did not quickly pass the urgent request for intervention by the National Guard to Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy .)

      Fuck NPR.

    • 1812 says:

      Is there any information about what the ‘right’ number of police would be? What should the ratio of police to protesters be if you expect the protest to get violent?
      Clearly the capitol police got this wrong, but can someone point me to info. available before Jan. 6 that indicates whether the ratio the police anticipated was valid?

      • skua says:

        You are wanting info on the right ratio of police/rioters for an event for which there was weeks of preparation for violence on social media platforms with violence openly being planned for by Trump’s gun-toting nationalist base, a group with a history of violence at demonstrations, with Trump saying beforehand that the event will be “wild” and conducting a sustained and high-profile campaign to motivate his dangerous, naive and brainwashed followers into thinking “democracy is at risk” and “the election was stolen”, and so acting at the Jan 6 demonstration, at the time of the Senate certification of the Electoral College vote, to #stopthesteal?

        The answer to this question is “No gathering would have been permitted and there would have been overwhelming numbers of police and NG present to neutralize the clear threat to national security posed by any insurgents who continued.”

        There are multiple tweets from people who had attended other recent events in DC, such as a march associated with Science Week, where security was apparently far higher than for Jan 6.

        • 1812 says:

          I agree, there was a lot of evidence things would get crazy. I’m trying to figure out whether the final outcome on Jan 6 was due to incompetence, or worse. And I think that is important to know.
          There were previous pro-trump demonstrations after the election that got violent but didn’t end with buildings being stormed and cops being attacked, what is the likelihood that the feds thought Jan 6 would be the same type of event? Was Jan 6 just a failure of imagination? Were they starting to get complacent about MAGA because of all the crazy talk for years?

          • skua says:

            Further investigations may show that the multiple cronies that Trump placed into position of authority, and his targetted harrasement and firing of governement officials who failed in their “duty” to make Trump look good, had no significant effect on the multiple agencies that were tasked to make accurate assesments of, and preparations for, the dangers of Trump’s planned January 6 DC event.

            It may be found that the presence of ex-military and serving police amongst the “demonstrators”, (who would show badges and tell USCP officers that, “We’re here to make things good”) was unknown to relevant government agencies prior to the event and hence not properly prepared for.

            Did those previous demonstrations co-incide with the Trump-Powell-Guiliani claimed “opportunity to #stopthesteal by preventing the Senate from accepting the Electoral College votes”? Such a timing would be seen by experienced analysts to magnify the danger of violence.
            Situational analysis is basic to evaluating threats.
            Those with a goal of creating divisiveness and instability in the nation had much to benefit from many of the likely outcomes of a large violent mob being matched against a inadequate security presence at the Capitol buildings on Jan 6.
            It remains to be seen whether this mis-match was created accidently or deliberately.

            Do guards on duty going to sleep, at a firebase in an area where intelligence shows increasing chatter, indicate insufficient imaginations?
            That’s not how it works AIUI.

  19. 1812 says:

    There were 125 NG prepositioned in DC prior to afternoon of Jan 6 (see Sund interview in Post). Were these the troops that were being delayed in responding by the DoD, or was the DoD only delaying the deployment of additional DC NG (the DC NG is about 1000 strong)? How long does it take to deploy the NG if they haven’t been prepared (it took the MD NG 12 hours)? If it takes a long time DoD may not have felt time pressured to make a decision.

    Prior to Jan 6 DC gov called for 340 NG (out of 1000) troops for traffic duty, not for riot control. Was this small request made because the DC NG is not controlled by DC mayor, and instead controlled by DoD (and thus the president)? Was there concern that Trump could use a large contingent of NG and other federal law enforcement as his personal militia? Should this concern be seen as a ‘charitable’ reason for the DoD delay in approving NG deployment?

    The DC gov is not controlled by Trump insiders, so if their intelligence assessment prior to Jan 6 was similar to DoD, DHS, etc. then maybe Jan 6 was a general failure of imagination and not of willful manipulation. Of course, it changes things if DC gov gets their I&A primarily from the feds.

    • Norskeflamthrower says:

      The questions about deployment and control of those hundreds of federalized Guard troops is still timely but we aren’t gunna get the complete story until well after the 20th. Also we gotta look up the states that have Republican Quislings in the governorships and threats on those capitols. Does anyone know the current procedure for a governor to request calling NG troops to active duty? This is just the beginning not even the beginning of the end.

      • madwand says:

        A governor can declare an emergency and call up troops on his own volition if the emergency is in his state, such as flood, earthquake, etc which is where they generally get called up. But they’ve been called up for riot control in cities within the states many times. At that point they are on state active duty. They can be federalized under title 32 or 10 the difference being the governor retains control under 32 but the president does under 10. For troops they get paid the same, their pay grade, regardless for states its a matter if they pay or the Feds pay.

        Frequently the orders stating what authority you are operating under arrive after the fact, as I would think the Maryland Guard action was so in real time a troop does not know what authority he may be operating under and frankly doesn’t care. It operates in a strict linear fashion starting from the Governor to the State Adjutant General through the pertinent Commanders to units within their commands.

        Activated soldiers and airmen say goodbye to their full time job and hello to whatever mission awaits. The real benefit is you can’t be fired from your job for walking out in the middle of the day to respond to a callup.

        • 1812 says:

          This is an important point that I don’t think was addressed in the original post.
          “The D.C. National Guard is the only National Guard unit, out of all of the 54 states and territories, which reports only to the President. In this status they operate similar to a state National Guard unit in Title 32 status with the same legal authorities.” (from Military Times) Did we really want an army unit under the president’s command while his supporters were attacking the Capitol building?

          You’re also right that calling the NG up is a significant burden on those individuals that make up the guard, it’s extremely disruptive to their lives. It’s fair to think that this weighed on the minds of DoD.

          • bmaz says:

            It is not “fair to think” in the least. That is the purpose for the NG, and it is their job to protect government, especially the very seat of it for the entire nation. Screw the “disruption to their lives”. What the fuck is wrong with you?

              • bmaz says:

                Take you spittle and shove it. You made a ridiculous statement and got busted on it.

                You are quite new here, having been around for six comments in less than 24 hours. You might want to rethink your participation strategy if you think attacking the proprietors of this blog is a good idea.

                • 1812 says:

                  I made two points in my comment. One of which I think was very good, the other one maybe less so. Your fuck off comment was pretty uncalled for. Go ahead and criticize it, it may have been very wrong. For someone running a blog that’s pretty over the top behavior to a comment.

                  • bmaz says:

                    JFC, now you are not just a comment hog, but also the conscience of the blog, and the decider of what is appropriate here? Quit before you get further behind.

          • earlofhuntingdon says:

            It might also be unfair to leading defense counsel to be asked to leave their barbecued brisket and beer and attend to a client who has been arrested for murder. But shit happens.

            As bmaz says, the problem is not the role the NG ought to have played in defending the federal legislative branch’s members and its principal offices from pillage and armed attack. It was that the President of the United States refused to order it to fulfill the duty for which it exists.

            • 1812 says:

              .Lets hope the delay wasn’t so that DoD could make sure the DC Guard leadership wasn’t filled with Trump loyalists.

              It would be like leaving the BBQ for your client without making sure you’re going to right client address.

              • bmaz says:

                For such a new participant, you are very much a pain in the ass. You do not run the conversation here, we do.

                And, by the way, in such situations, and I have fielded them, you know exactly where the putative client is. He is in the fucking downtown jail. This is not some AOL messenger board, you will have to do better.

                • 1812 says:

                  Alright, it’s clear you’re more interested in demonstrating how important you are than in the questions surrounding the DC Guard deployment. Enjoy policing the comments here and welcoming new commenters, lovely community you got!

                  • bmaz says:

                    Nice exclamation point. I am interested in keeping this blog sane. Most of our commenters are very long time participants. That is why we still have comments at all, and, yes, we jealously protect that from sudden interlopers like you that wander in and think they own the joint. You do not, you have been an overly assertive dick from the start. Change your attitude if you are so self claimed interested in your “questions surrounding”.

                    • 1812 says:

                      This is my last comment on this, it’s such a waste of time. Don’t tell people to fuck off and assume bad intent. My behavior was in response to your belligerent comment, I came in here respectfully up until that point. Good luck protecting your very important comments section from interlopers and people trying to ‘own the joint.’

                    • bmaz says:

                      You can go straight to hell. If you deign to come back, it better be with a better attitude, or it will be your last comment at all.

                      You want to be a member of this community and stick around, do not waltz in like you own the place and have privilege to tell us how we need to act. You made a really stupid comment and got called on it. Grow up. We honestly do not have time to deal with your intemperance and belligerence. And will not. How it goes from here is up to you, make your second day here better.

                  • P J Evans says:

                    You came in, acted like you owned the place, shat on the floor, and you’re mad about being called out for it?
                    GTFO. And keep going.

          • madwand says:

            I think I said “The real benefit is you can’t be fired from your job for walking out in the middle of the day to respond to a callup.” you extrapolated the rest.

  20. Chris.EL says:

    “George Conway Retweeted
    Eric Lipton@EricLiptonNYT
    1/11/2021
    ~8:00 pm eastern time
    “JUST POSTED: Blowback re President Trump’s role in Capitol riots now engulfed his family company. Not just PGA Tournament. Banks cutting off business, including one that is liquidating accounts with millions in Trump family money.” …

    ~~~~~~

    Also saw a WH press release just recently Trump has declared State of emergency in DC!

    Trump is determined to shut down Biden’s inauguration!

    • P J Evans says:

      Trmp is claiming the SoE is due to the upcoming inauguration. No mention of his supporters planning to disrupt it, or of their role in *starting* it by attacking the Capitol with intent to kill elected officials.

    • Raven Eye says:

      A declaration of emergency also allows more mundane things to happen. Some are administrative in nature such as purchasing authorities, local regulations, overtime pay, overtime caps, capabilities for assisting the populace, flexible staffing and temporary transfers, etc.

      I am very familiar with the Fed –> State –> Local –> chain of events, but DC has always been it’s own special thing.

      One problem lies with Trump, who shows almost unlimited capability to screw up a perfectly good thing, and then twist it for personal profit or deploy it as a revenge weapon. (Just another reason for him to be gone.)

      • Chris.EL says:

        On further web reading, apparently noble Mayor Bowser had actually *requested* the emergency order via letter to Trump on 1/10/2021; she acted proactively!

        A terrific leader!
        ~~~~~~~~
        Somewhere I read Jimmy Carter *95 years old* suffered a fall at home (in photo looked like he had some bright red injury to his face) BUT HE STILL SHOWED UP TO WORK ON A HABITAT FOR HUMANITY HOME!!!!

        A leader who knows what service is.

        (If you handed a nail gun to Trump he probably wouldn’t have any idea what it was. Plus, volunteer? What’s that?)
        ~~~~~~~~
        Seeing the photos of the capitol building with the rioters showed how beautiful it is.

        Biden and family and pets should do a picture tour.

  21. Dizz says:

    OT. Another tech company shutting off the taps – this one on the flow of $.
    Salesforce ‘Takes Action’ to Prevent RNC Emails From Inciting Violence
    January 11, 2021, 3:40pm
    https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkdmdv/salesforce-takes-action-to-prevent-rnc-emails-from-inciting-violence

    The Donald Trump campaign has not used its millions-strong email list since the riots at the Capitol. Its email provider says it has taken action to prevent Republicans from using “our services in any way that could lead to violence.”

    The election ended in the first weeks of November, but that hadn’t stopped the Trump campaign from sending many emails every day, and from begging supporters for money. The campaign sent four emails the morning of January 6, nine emails on January 5, six emails on January 4. Between November 3 and January 6—after the election—the campaign sent 569 emails. Its sudden silence, especially after Trump got banned by Twitter, Facebook, and a host of other platforms, was mysterious.

  22. Molly Pitcher says:

    From the NYT, the banks are closing their vaults to Trump World:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/business/trump-brand-capitol-mob.html

    Deutsche Bank, which has been Mr. Trump’s primary lender for two decades, has decided not to do business with Mr. Trump or his company in the future, according to a person familiar with the bank’s thinking. Mr. Trump currently owes Deutsche Bank more than $300 million, which is due in the next few years.

    The bank has concluded that, short of forgiving the debt, it has no way to extricate itself from the Trump relationship before the loans come due.

    Another longtime financial partner of the Trumps, Signature Bank, also is cutting ties. The bank — which helped Mr. Trump finance his Florida golf course and where Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, was once a board member — issued a statement calling on Mr. Trump to resign as president “in the best interests of our nation and the American people.”

    Susan Turkell, a spokeswoman for the bank, said Signature had decided that it “will not do business in the future with any members of Congress who voted to disregard the Electoral College.” Ms. Turkell said that in the wake of the riots the bank began closing Mr. Trump’s two personal accounts, which had about $5.3 million

  23. Hika says:

    Hmmm. How does someone who’s day job is psyops get taken in by Trump and his “elite strike force” lawyers? Methinks Capt. Rainey doesn’t have a good understanding of psyops. How many others working in US military who are meant to understand this stuff have been happy to gulp the Kool-Aid? Trump and his crew have been using very blunt and obvious methods since he descended the golden escalator. I guess this what can happen when mainstream press are unable to give up both-sidesing everything.

    • Doctor My Eyes says:

      Speaking of both-sidesing, was I the only person screaming at Leslie Stahl when she started insisting that hero Nancy Pelosi is unyielding, blaming her for the lack of a stimulus deal? Being ignorant of what went down in the stimulus “negotiations”, in which Pelosi most certainly DID demonstrate a willingness to compromise with Republicans acting in bad faith, was the least of it. Ms. Stahl betrayed a profound lack of understanding of the significance of this moment. To portray Pelosi as uncompromising at a time when the future of our nation depends on Pelosi finding support in being most certainly, definitely, fuck-all uncompromising. Hell, to even engage in such chatter at this time was horrifying. And this after what Pelosi has just gone through and is going through. Pelosi seems somewhat in shock to me, pushing herself to carry on through strength of character and deep devotion to her duties. Tone deaf doesn’t begin to capture it.

      As a side note, I have often been unhappy with her, but Pelosi’s strength, determination, self-possession and courage through this saga has cemented her position as one of the all-time great American public servants.

      Sorry for the rant–hope this isn’t too OT.

      • Chris.EL says:

        We are trying to be steadfast Americans, aren’t we? Like Arnold Schwarzenegger!

        I, for one, will not fault you for seeing someone struggling and finding the need to express sympathy and appreciation.

        It sure seemed like Pelosi was doing her best to negotiate with Mnuchin

        I hope Madame Speaker Pelosi has the chance to spend some time — post retirement — enjoying her family and lovely San Francisco.

        • Hika says:

          Well, Pelosi is Rooseveldt’s “Man in the Arena” at this moment and we have to wish her well … but with great power comes great responsibility and, for what it’s worth, I think the political environment today would be different if Pelosi had started impeachment against Trump in Jan. 2018 with hearings on live-broadcast for month after month after month to bury the “bothsidesers” in an avalanche of Trump’s obvious corruption. But that didn’t happen and here we are.

          • Hika says:

            Just to be super clear. I don’t blame Pelosi for where we are. That’s on Trump and his Republican enablers. But to argue Pelosi and Dem leadership have been strategic geniuses and nothing more could have been done to impede the Trumpists is nonsense.

            • Rayne says:

              They need to do a better job of messaging and PR. That’s been their real problem — the lack of a snappy narrative which represents an extremely diverse party but throws a solid body blow at so-called conservatism — while fighting against the message machine behind the GOP.

              If you think about it, that’s all the GOP is, nothing but message. They deliver very little except tax cuts for their donors. But since they are all message from Fox, WSJ, talk radio, with weaker backup from sources like CBS, other Murdoch outlets like New York Post, it’s really corporate media they’re up against. How does the Democratic Party continue to do what it’s supposed to, fundraise to run for office, and fight back against right-wing media behemoth?

              • AndTheSlithyToves says:

                A tweet from one of my faves:
                ——————–
                Anand Giridharadas / @AnandWrites 17h
                Barack Obama took office amid an economic crisis. Joe Biden takes office amid a civilizational crisis.
                He must know that you don’t heal a nation through avuncular kumbaya bipartisan shamanism.
                You heal a nation by fixing it. And that means transformation.
                ——————-
                This from 2018 but still very applicable:
                https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/18/anand-giridharadas-author-aspen-wealthy-elite

              • dude says:

                Speaking of corporate media and messaging, what is the Sinclair broadcasting syndicate ‘messaging’ now? I don’t think they operate any of their outlets around me, but it occurred to me Trump might go to them for media support since he isn’t a Fox fan anymore.

  24. punaise says:

    Hmmm, thoughts onthis approach?

    House Democrats’ plans to rush through an impeachment of President Trump won’t work […] But that needn’t be the end of efforts to prevent Trump from again holding federal office. There is another, little-known constitutional provision that can achieve precisely that without distorting the Constitution’s meaning.

    Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, passed in the aftermath of the Civil War, bars Trump from holding another federal office if he is found to have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the Constitution of the United States.

    The finding could be accomplished by a simple majority vote of both houses, in contrast to the requirement in impeachment proceedings that the Senate vote to convict by a two-thirds majority. Congress would simply need to declare that Trump engaged in an act of “insurrection or rebellion” by encouraging the attack on the Capitol. Under the 14th Amendment, Trump could run for the White House again only if he were able to persuade a future Congress to, “by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”

    • Chris.EL says:

      This Huff post reporter says on Twitter:
      “Matt Fuller@MEPFuller
      ·1/11/2021
      “House Democrats Briefed On 3 Terrifying Plots To Overthrow Government
      One plot includes surrounding the Capitol and murdering Democrats to allow Republicans to take control of the government.”
      huffpost.com
      and this:
      “Matt Fuller@MEPFuller
      ·1/11/2021
      10h
      A perfect encapsulation of Donald Trump is that he’s more upset about losing his ability to host a golf tournament than inciting a violent and deadly riot.”

    • AndTheSlithyToves says:

      Too late in the evening to go looking for it, but my understanding is that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was going to be appended to the article of impeachment submitted in the HOR today. Will check around later today. As I commented here on another post somewhere here (I think), good luck with him being anywhere but a 24/7 memory care center if he’s still alive by 2024.

  25. sneakynordic says:

    Read this hoping to find out how Stone fit in with his Brooks Brothers Riot 2.0, but alas, just a teaser at the end. How long before we learn which of the Oath Keepers photographed with Stone on January 5 have been arrested and are talking?

  26. Eureka says:

    Matt Fuller: “There’s actually a good bit of news in here. One tidbit: Democrats expressed concern tonight that all members needed to go through a metal detector on Inauguration because they’re worried a fellow member might try to assassinate Biden or Harris. [HuffPo link below]”
    https://twitter.com/MEPFuller/status/1348869611203293184
    12:49 AM · Jan 12, 2021

    House Democrats Briefed On 3 Terrifying Plots To Overthrow Government
    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-briefed-plot-overthrow-government_n_5ffd29a4c5b691806c4bf199?cte

    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 [note: and some Republicans] from entering the Capitol ― perhaps even killing them ― so that Republicans could take control of the government.

    Dems were warned to avoid sharing too much info: the terrorists want the press to publicize their plans to facilitate recruitment, which has fallen off with deplatforming.

    Good to read the whole piece.

    Dems are trying to plan effectively while processing trauma.

    • Amers says:

      I am looking forward to understanding when and who did recruiting for reps like Boebert and the fellow from WV who already resigned. If there was a coordinated effort like that to put in place persons who would act on the inside, what would that crime be called? This is all so horrifying. Last night my brain kept zooming in on pictures I has seen thru the day’s news cycle, trying to find all the moles. And the bomb guy! The video made by proud boy showing their actual leader just walking in from somewhere. Utterly terrifying.

      • P J Evans says:

        Boebert and Greene from GA. The WV guy wasn’t in Congress, but the state legislature (as were two guys from PA, who still haven’t had the decency to resign).

      • Eureka says:

        Had to take a break from the images today.

        Yeah I’ve been thinking since this happened how it really started a lot earlier [at *most innocent*, they/ their ecosystems escalatingly (self-) selected people with ever fewer boundaries, who’d go along with anything Trump said, perform any sideshow to please him. That was the chief job description]. It might be tough to find the line between conspiracy to commit whatever Trump wants and what would be crime, if any could be shown (these folks are all outside the law, too — supplicant only to Trump and their grievances du jour).

        It’s outrageous that they took so long to deplatform him and this network, that it took actual insurrection to reach this point. WTAF?!?!

        Boebert especially has tons of batty pre-election public statements (IIRC the particular nutter), has anyone combed those?

        There’s ample evidence that Trump and allies like Barr pre-planned the Big Lie for the event of a Trump loss — and Trump himself has a long history of inciting violence (“Liberate Michigan!” et al. in context) (is anything like that noted in the impeachment docs as fact pattern?) — but it’s probably harder to identify these candidates _pre-election_ as deliberately part of any criminal conspiracy.

  27. cal1780 says:

    Was he played to any degree or did this all come directly from him? I think its most likely Trump was played by his phalanx of sycophants. I think they’ve now been around him long enough to know exactly how to wind him up and capitalise on his psychosis and get him to do their bidding. But because of his unhinged personality he fell right into the trap. He went out on to that stage and he delivered for them all. And as such he will never get a second term now even if he wanted it. The thing I cant understand is why would the Trumpian inner sanctum push things to this extent. They know theyre all going to be without a job soon. Could it be because they are looking towards a post Trumpian successor to Trump to give them a further opportunity to have proximity to power?

    • Ken Muldrew says:

      A cabal of geniuses pulling the strings of puppets from the shadows
      vs.
      The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand

      I’m going with the latter.

      • PeterS says:

        Yep, in pretty much all cases it’s the latter.

        Meanwhile further down the “hierarchy” there’s a huge number of not very bright guys, many with guns, so things getting out of hand looks very scary.

        I commented here before Christmas that the “stop the steal” narrative was surely the biggest short term national security threat the country was facing. Hopefully those in a position to act and react understand this better now.

    • P J Evans says:

      It’s possible some thought it would succeed. Remember that one of his close associates right now was previously fired for gambling.

  28. harpie says:

    Via Marcy:

    https://twitter.com/KrisGoldsmith85/status/1348970469383352322
    7:29 AM · Jan 12, 2021

    Disinformation pushed by Trump has poisoned the minds of countless troops on active and reserve status. The conspiracy theories that led to this insurrection are incompatible with military service. This is a massive, durable readiness and security threat. [MIITARY TIMES link]

    TRUMP has ACTIVELY made US immeasurably WEAKER.
    He has DELIVERED big time.

    • Amers says:

      Thanks for this. Twitter is not loading, just like on the 6th at some points. Wondering if it is being throttled and with good reason considering 9:00 House Session.

    • ducktree says:

      Jeebus on a jujubee … the most incessant drill from the first minute in basic training at Lackland AFB was to ignore and do not disseminate “rumors and propaganda.”

      That was back in 1976!

  29. newbroom says:

    What to do with our negative emotions? How to pro-seed? Existential queries abound.
    Unfair competition is also unhealthy. Might does not make right. I would just love to believe: “to be continued”.

  30. jaango says:

    It seems that almost all Pundits, Sages and Gurus, have went all out for describing what occurred this past week at our nation’s capitol.

    And which brings me to my ‘virtuous’ disclaimer or Question for: “When Will America’s Indigenous Democracy Arrive?”

    • Eureka says:

      This is about my speed. Eclipse, Sharpie map, the horrible makeup job … lawnmower boy is the gift that keeps on giving, though (not worth the price of coup, however).

      One for him to add: trying to hold Melania’s hand while she was off duty

      Oh, and Rocket Man (from insult to tribute)

    • Molly Pitcher says:

      I look at this and am gobsmacked, again, that this buffoon was ever made President. That 70M people think he’s the one, and that the lunatic fringe think he is literally the Second Coming.

      • Eureka says:

        People were raised on too many bad sitcoms. You can hear the cheesy, forced laugh track [Aw, shucks! He’s so bumbly affable! Or It’s just locker-room talk]. Add it to the list of reasons we can blame Hollywood producers for our horrible fate.

        Every time these gaffes were corrected, aggrieved magas grew their wings. They’ve really internalized any criticism of him as quite personal.

        Honestly, the leash kept on him by (his fear of) the Mueller investigation is the only thing that saved the country from more of his worst impulses being realized sooner.

    • punaise says:

      Hmm, lug nut (threads, of course). Can I be one of those wheel balancing weights instead, looping around the perimeter?

      • bmaz says:

        Heh, no you are right here in the center of the wheel with the rest of us. Besides, you would not want to be one of those lead weights on the perimeter of the wheel, the centrifugal force would create headaches.

        • punaise says:

          OK, lug it is then. You’ve surely heard the groaner about why the diner serves Eggs Benedict on a hubcap?

          “Because there’s no plate like chrome for the Hollandaise.”

            • ducktree says:

              I find that the lemon juice tends to leave an indelible stain on my aluminum veneered teeth…

              And loved the twitter thread of great moments of the Trumpresidency, which shall remain a stain on our nation’s exceptional table linen…

              We’ll be needing a new Betsy Ross to design and produce a new Presidential Medal of [tbd].

      • bmaz says:

        Exactly, there is so much seriously craven that seeing the almost comical what the fuck moments is refreshing. Hell of a place to be, and yet here we are.

  31. Alan K says:

    Just caught this Huffington Post story. Might be hysterical? I don’t know, but it does the job of feeding my sense of alarm. BTW I heard that there were armed protesters in Albany as well.

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-briefed-plot-overthrow-government_n_5ffd29a4c5b691806c4bf199?cte

    quote: “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.”

    • BobCon says:

      To be honest, I think that is just one thing to worry about. I think we are facing a couple of big followup problems.

      One is that mobs see the risks of going after well defended places like the Capitol and switch to other targets, like network or corporate headquarters.

      The other is single people or small groups decide to copy Timothy McVeigh and the Las Vegas shooter,

      Both would be planned in the hopes of sparking a clampdown that leads to widespread armed attacks, and also encourage a sense of hopelessness among their opponents.

      There are people there who are clearly thinking like criminal gang pseudo revolutionaries like FARC, although I don’t think they are well organized at this point. But the clock is ticking.

      • skua says:

        The RW armed anti-government cells have been blatantly obvious for … over a century?
        If LE has not got just about every one on file then complicity would seem a more reasonable explaination that bias-induced blindness.

  32. Jenny says:

    Interesting tweets about McCarthy.

    Dave Wasserman on Twitter: 6:21 PM · Jan 6, 2021
    https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1346960142089248768
    A few weeks after the election, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy acknowledged Trump’s clear loss to me and I asked him if the president’s refusal to concede would lead the country down a dangerous road.
    His response: “Maybe.”

    And

    Dave Wasserman on Twitter: 11:31 AM · Jan 11, 2021
    https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1348668986133721088
    True story: the day before the election, House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy told me that if Trump refused to concede, he and McConnell would eventually have to come out and issue a joint statement acknowledging the result.
    In the end, McCarthy left McConnell twisting in the wind.

  33. BobCon says:

    Washington Post: internal FBI warning that extremists were headed to DC on 1/6 planning for war.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/capitol-riot-fbi-intelligence/2021/01/12/30d12748-546b-11eb-a817-e5e7f8a406d6_story.html

    Paragraph 3:

    >> “As of 5 January 2021, FBI Norfolk received information indicating calls for violence in response to ‘unlawful lockdowns’ to begin on 6 January 2021 in Washington. D.C.,” the document says. “An online thread discussed specific calls for violence to include stating ‘Be ready to fight. Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in, and blood from their BLM and Pantifa slave soldiers being spilled. Get violent. Stop calling this a march, or rally, or a protest. Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die. NOTHING else will achieve this goal.”

    The article continues:

    >>Yet even with that information in hand, the report’s unidentified author expressed concern that the FBI might be encroaching on free speech rights.

    • Eureka says:

      You can’t make this stuff up. Reminder of the right’s long perversion of what 1A means. They are defenestrating us through the Overton window once again.

      • BobCon says:

        The FBI as an institution has had a double standard for decades and decades on whether the right to assembly applies to minorities and people on the left.

        It’s pretty clear that their myopia toward the far right is a scary parallel to their myopia toward organized crime and the Klan during the Hoover years. Fixation by leadership in one direction leads to awful oversights in more important areas.

  34. blueedredcounty says:

    “Rep. Marilyn Strickland Calls Out The Erasure Of Black Capitol Workers Impacted By Riot”
    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/marilyn-strickland-capitol-riots_n_5ff880a3c5b6567198852f17

    When I read this article, all I could think was that every Republican that voted against election certification should have been forced to clean up the excrement, with the janitorial staff supervising them to make sure they did it correctly. And keep them at it until it was done right. Considering they were destroying evidence (especially DNA evidence) against their supporters, who knows…some of them might have even been enthusiastic about it.

  35. e.a.f. says:

    Thank you for writing this article. It provides us with important information not always available from the MSM. You shine a light on things people need to know.

    • Ginevra diBenci says:

      Michigan is NOT off topic. The plot against Governor Whitmer should have served as a much brighter warning of what happened last week and will happen again. “The system was blinking red.”

    • skua says:

      from that great article,
      “70% of Republican voters say that Republican lawmakers who tried to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election were “protecting democracy,” according to a Quinnipiac poll taken AFTER the assault on the Capitol”.
      Trump’s base is still holding! The depths of stupidity remain unplumbed.

  36. x174 says:

    yes, the lack of complete, up-to-date, and thorough assessments from the highest ranking members of the FBI and the DOJ is worrisome and i’m not sure what that signifies. on the other hand, it surely looks as if trump’s failed coup didn’t come with any backup plan. as per usual for rethugs. the complicity of Congress is particularly troublesome, and i hope vigorous efforts are being made to neutralize those deemed most complicit and responsible for coordinating 6 Jan. i can’t help thinking that what’s going to unfold in the next 6 days will not be coordinated. more like aftershocks following trump’s failed coup debacle. though it’s possible, i get the sense that the only way it could be “successful” would be if certain members of Congress are dead set on installing trump. my feeling is that foreign involvement needs to be thoroughly investigated, pronto. thanks for the data points. gives us some points that may have been overlooked.

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