The Model MAGA Tourist, Anna Morgan-Lloyd, and Evidence Collection

Today, Anna Morgan-Lloyd, a 49-year old grandmother from Indiana was supposed to be sentenced to probation on her misdemeanor trespass charges relating to January 6. That has been postponed on account of the Juneteenth holiday. But I suspect the courts and the government hope that other sentencing hearings — including that of Jessica and Joshua Bustle, who pled guilty on Monday — will take place after Morgan-Lloyd, so as to make hers the model of how to earn a (three-year) probation sentence for participating in the riot.

Five Factors

In their own sentencing memo, the government laid out five factors that presumably are the ones prosecutors are using to identify those who might be offered probation deals.

The first four may be the checklist the government has used to weigh whether to charge those originally arrested on trespass charges with a felony, each of which loosely correlates with one of the felony charges used against insurrectionists (which I’ve added in brackets).

First, the Government is not aware of any evidence that Defendant’s entry into the Capitol was preplanned or coordinated with anyone else, including any extremist or organized groups. [18 USC 1512, obstruction]

Second, the Government is not aware of any evidence that the Defendant incited others to commit acts of violence or destruction. [18 USC 231, civil disorder]

Third, the Government is not aware of any evidence that the Defendant engaged in any violence towards law enforcement. [18 USC 111, assault or resisting federal officers]

Fourth, the Government is not aware of any evidence that the Defendant destroyed or stole any property from the Capitol. [18 USC 1361, depredation of government property]

The fifth factor is more discretionary — but will be important in distinguishing MAGA tourists for those who got swept up into the effort to terrorize Congress. Morgan-Lloyd spent about 10 minutes in the Capitol, but she also didn’t go to any of the places — like the Senate floor or into a Member of Congress’ office — that suggests someone got caught up in the effort to delay the vote count or to hunt down members of Congress.

Fifth, based on the Government’s investigation, it appears that the Defendant remained in a limited part of the Capitol building for a limited period of time – i.e., in one hallway for a little over ten minutes. The Government is not aware of any evidence that the Defendant entered any rooms or offices in the Capitol, the Capitol Rotunda, or the Senate or House Chamber.

I suspect this will be used to distinguish those who committed misdemeanor offenses that merit some jail time (and it’s likely to be weeks, not months), from those who will get probation.

Respect for rule of law

There’s a section of the government memo that addresses respect for rule of law, including laying out the 3-year probation expected of Morgan-Lloyd that includes five factors:

  • The two days Morgan-Lloyd spent in jail after her arrest that gave her a taste of the criminal justice system
  • Three years of probation that, among other things, includes a discretionary condition that will prohibit her from possessing firearms
  • Cooperation with law enforcement, which I’ll return to
  • An expression of contrition, which I’ll return to
  • Both community service and the restitution of her share of the $1.5 million damage to the Capitol

While I doubt the probation sentence will be that onerous for Morgan-Lloyd (though the government notes it is twice as long as the supervised release as she’d get if she did do jail time), for others, the prohibition on owning guns will be. To the extent this is a model for others, it will serve to either disarm former insurrectionists or criminalize owning weapons for some years.

Contrition

One reason I suspect the government would prefer that Morgan Lloyd be sentenced before the Bustles is that even in Monday’s plea hearing, Jessica Bustle made a statement to insist that in addition to some horrible things she said online, she said we should pray for the country. That isn’t actually all that exculpatory, given that it may still reflect a belief that the country is in trouble because the democratic victor will become President. In any case, on Monday at least, the Bustles seemed more anxious to get this done than to express any remorse.

By contrast, Morgan-Lloyd did several things to express contrition. She watched several movies about diversity and wrote two movie reviews (for Schindler’s List and Just Mercy) showing an attempt to get out of her bubble; in the former she criticized her son-in-law’s Holocaust denialism. She also acknowledged that there are less privileged people who still suffer in the US.

I’ve learned that even though we live in a wonderful country things still need to improve. People of all colors should feel as safe as I do to walk down the street.

These may be just busy work a smart defense attorney will impose, but you never know when the process will lead someone to rethink their own bubble.

More importantly Morgan-Lloyd’s statement includes a very accurate description of how her participation in the riot helped those with violent intent.

I felt ashamed that something meant to show support for the President had turned violent. This is not the way to prove any point. At first it didn’t dawn on me, but later I realized that if every person like me, who wasn’t violent, was removed from that crowd, the ones who were violent may have lost the nerve to do what they did. For that I am sorry and take responsibility. It was never my intent to help empower people to act violently.

Again, this may reflect the work of a good defense attorney, but stating it is an important step in moving beyond the insurrection.

Cooperation with law enforcement

Finally, the government motion and Morgan-Lloyd’s statement describe the import of cooperation with law enforcement. In the government’s description, they noted she allowed her phone to be imaged and analyzed.

Third, one important aspect of promoting respect for the law is encouraging cooperation and truthfulness with law enforcement. Here, following her arrest, the Defendant fully cooperated with law enforcement and admitted to the full scope of her actions. In addition to waiving her rights and agreeing to be interviewed by law enforcement, she also allowed her mobile phone to be downloaded for substantive analysis.

Morgan-Lloyds statement described how she freely let the FBI get the contents of her phone.

I openly and honestly told them everything I could recall from that day. I gave them my phone freely to download what they needed. My phone was not locked so they didn’t need a password to get in. If it had a password I would have willingly provided it.

I have described how, especially more recently, the government seems to have been prioritizing the misdemeanor arrests of those who might have important evidentiary videos on their phone. Morgan-Lloyd describes seeing what may be the East Doors get opened from inside.

I saw the side doors being opened from the inside and assumed the door closest to me were also open because people who worked in the Capital Building walked past us. They didn’t look nervous or scared.

If she did see those East Doors open, and especially if she has some kind of video evidence, it may prove important to figure out who precisely initiated that and whether it was premeditated and coordinated with those outside the building (as seems likely).

When I first noted that the government seemed to be arresting those from whom they expected to get key evidence, I imagined that those people, especially, would get favorable terms for sentencing. The emphasis here on sharing her phone contents seems to accord with that.

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77 replies
  1. Leoghann says:

    I thought the Bustles’ behavior during their plea hearing was pretty hinky. Although it wasn’t said directly, they made it pretty clear that they didn’t see anything wrong with what they did. Simply saying “I’m sorry” isn’t an apology; the words are meaningless unless they’re accompanied by an explanation of exactly what one is sorry for. And Jessica’s “pray for America” was in to her claim that “[a]n unarmed peaceful woman down the hall from us was shot in the neck by cops.”

    It’s been my observation that anything composed and written down seeps into the brain of the writer to some degree, even if it was written without sincerity. (Of course, that doesn’t apply to untrue things written with the intent to deceive.) Writing is a valuable tool in cognitive-behavioral therapy.

  2. Joseph Andrews says:

    …clear and concise writing. Thank you.

    What are the best estimates for how many insurrectionists actually entered the Capitol?

    And the total number of ‘protestors’? What is that estimated number?

    I just cannot get my head around the notion that, apparently, there is a substantial amount of overlap between three ovals in an early January DC Venn diagram:

    1. The oval representing Holocaust deniers
    2. The oval representing 1/6 insurrectionists
    3. The oval representing Trump voters

    …almost seens like many of the folks who gathered that day at the Capitol were suffering from some form of mental illness. How is this fixed?

    My oh my I fear for the future of my country.

    • emptywheel says:

      Original FBI estimates were that there were 800 people, of any category, who trespassed in the Capitol. They now say about 2,000 were involved, I presume to mean criminally, in Jan 6, which includes a larger number of people inside the barricades on the outside. Keep in mind that the worst assault happened outside the Capitol or in the Tunnel. So the people inside were a threat because of threats of hostage-taking and their physical occupation of the places where the vote was supposed to come off.

      I like USG’s separation of those into people who genuinely just wandered the halls and those who did more, because there are clear differences.

      • Savage Librarian says:

        I like the separation of the wanderers, too. This post actually choked me up a little and brought a few tears to my eyes.

        People actually do sometimes have a change of heart. Especially when information is presented to them in a way they are able to process productively. I even saw this happen in the courtroom between a witness and my attorney. He asked her something that made her have a jolt of awareness. I almost could see a little lightbulb go on in her head.

        So, I am grateful that the USG is taking this approach. And I am grateful that Anna Morgan-Lloyd has cooperated. It would be interesting if the ADL and SPLC could generate some recommended ideas for community service. If wanderers agreed to some of their recommendations, that might be a way of telling whether or not the apologies are genuine or not.

  3. klynn says:

    “I felt ashamed that something meant to show support for the President had turned violent. This is not the way to prove any point.”

    So she meant to go and disrupt the count. She thought that would happen peacefully? And prove WHAT point? Support for the Former at this point was about one thing.

    The “process” she is demonstrating for the court is NOT rethinking, an apology, contrition or admission of guilt. This is pure performative. She makes that clear through her quote above.

    Honestly, this insulting. She went in the Capital to be a part of stopping the count. The fact that she thought it would happen peacefully is BS.

    • Jenny says:

      The escalator descended with abusive Trump running for office.
      Abuser in chief for 4 years.
      Departing office he incited abuse on Jan 6th.
      Bookends of abuse.
      Abuse breeds abuse.

    • emptywheel says:

      Where do you have evidence of that?

      That’s entirely the point here: DOJ is charging those who exhibit evidence of having gone to disrupt the count with obstruction, a felony. They read through her phone and, credibly, found no evidence of that.

      • klynn says:

        My question, phone evidence aside, in looking at her words in her quote, what did she mean by, “…support the President,”

        On THAT day and leading up to it “support the President” meant disrupt the count.

        • skua says:

          I think your interpretation is valid – it is consistent with the available evidence.
          I favour the more generous interpretation – which is also valid.
          And there might also be contrition mixed in with ongoing love for Trump.
          What I like is that her written stuff models thoughtful reflection. FoxNews has been very successful at shutting that skill down in its users.

        • Ginevra diBenci says:

          According to the sentencing memo, “in response to a post by another rioter, the Defendant [Morgan-Lloyd] wrote, ‘I’m here. Best day ever. We stormed the capital building me and Dona Bissey were in the first 50 people in.’”

          I wish I weren’t so cynical, but I don’t find her “contrition” very convincing either.

          • FL Resister says:

            Anna had to see them battering police officers and storming the barricades, breaking the windows.
            And then she walked in.
            This should merit at least an ankle bracelet.

  4. MissyDC says:

    Thank you for this post. It’s turned down my own anger at the situation. That the FBI didn’t act on the intelligence to GOP refusal to want 1.6 commission and their continued gaslighting. For me, the best thing is getting firearms out of the hands of “tourists.” And a good community service could change hearts and minds.

  5. OldTulsaDude says:

    From a legal standpoint, I’m confident the charging decisions are being made with due deliberation. On a personal level, though, I see everyone who went to Washington, D.C. to support Trump through the same lens: after 4 years they knew exactly who and what they were supporting.

    Some there were as dangerous as a stage IV pancreatic tumor while others were more like a newly found carcinoma of the skin – but all are cancers, and left unexcised all can kill.

  6. Surfer2099 says:

    On the Fifth item on your list that is more subjective, this seems like the government is saying that Morgan-Lloyd confined herself to areas that were already open to the public on a general basis as permitted during normal days…ie…common areas (Hallways, etc) of the capitol where visitors go anyways and didn’t enter what might normally be restricted areas such as a congressional members offices.

  7. P J Evans says:

    “people who worked in the Capital Building walked past us. They didn’t look nervous or scared”
    I’m wondering who she saw and why they didn’t look nervous.

    • subtropolis says:

      Yeah, I’d like to know that the FBI has video of, and has plans to interview, those individuals.

      Keep in mind, though, that many of the police who were in the midst of the mob, whether outdoors or inside, were smartly not being antagonistic. There’s a time and a place for using force — generally when one has numbers on one’s side. That can be seen in the just-released bodycam video showing Metro cops filing through the crowd. Even after one is assaulted, they continue towards the line that they are heading towards. There wasn’t any sense in fighting back while isolated like that.

      Ditto, on the inside of the complex. I’ve seen lots of video now showing security — both uniformed and not — seemingly acquiescing to the growing mob around them. Aside from those cops who were posing for selfies, etc. this isn’t evidence, as some claim, that they were in league with the mob. They were simply outnumbered and monitoring the situation until either help arrived or they had to retreat.

      But, if it can be shown that an employee had opened any doors …

  8. Tracy Lynn says:

    The cynic in me says that a good lawyer can direct a client to say/do the right things like watch Schindler’s List and write a review about it. We’ll never know, but hopefully these acts of contrition aren’t just a metaphorical get-out-of-jail-free card for Anna Morgan Lloyd, and that her experience will inform her actions going forward.

    • Leoghann says:

      No matter whether she did it at the direction of her attorney, the court, or a PSI officer, she did it. And if you’re being cynical, think of how damned expensive it would be to have an attorney’s office write a review of Shindler’s List, complete with researching your family so as to add a few personal details.

      • Peterr says:

        Expense aside, if a lawyer wrote the review rather than the defendant, he or she is jeopardizing their law license.

  9. Silly but True says:

    OOH, it’s a good deal and they should take it.

    OTOH, DoJ itself already had its own internal deliberations leaked detailing its own questions and difficulty in prosecuting exactly this case of all of the “Morgan-Lloyds” so it’s not definitely any foregone conclusion that even misdemeanor trespass prosecution would be successful if she wanted to roll the dice.

  10. Rayne says:

    I don’t know how many times I’ve seen Lloyd described by media as some version of “49-year old grandmother from Indiana.” The law doesn’t care that the charged is any age except older than a minor; doesn’t care if they’ve replicated one or more generations; doesn’t care what state they’re from.

    How many of us are older/younger, childfree/one or more children/one or more grandchildren, from any state in this country, and didn’t follow a rioting group of insurrectionists into the Capitol building before turning around?

    You’d think someone noticing a crowd dressed in all manner of tactical gear beating on Capitol police, assaulting them with bear spray, breaching police barriers, following people breaking through doors, would have had the goddamned common sense to turn around *before entering the Capitol* because something looked really, really wrong.

    She had the wherewithal and resources to get herself to D.C., let alone the capacity to go online to learn about the January 6 event. She therefore had the capacity to check what was limited to the public and what was expected of the average person that day.

    I don’t give a flying fig that Lloyd is a “49-year old grandmother from Indiana.” Lloyd had no excuse for trespassing, let alone being present in the Capitol at Trump’s request to obstruct Congress’s duties. I’m going to be really disappointed if Lloyd doesn’t get at least 6 months time for this on top of an apology and restitution, because “insurrection tourism” should not become the next big thing.

    • klynn says:

      Absolutely. All of this. Thank you Rayne. That is why I point out about that her words, “…meant to support the President,” are of vital import to her state of mind.

      • pdaly says:

        I agree with you, Rayne and klynn.
        The ‘strolling insurrection tourists’ are there, as you say, because they made the decision to listen to Trump and to disrupt Congress. Hoping the lightest sentences for the least violent among them are still enough of a deterrent to future rampages.

        The fact that those people look somewhat innocent strolling about may also be the result of good police de-escalation techniques than any inherent sweetness of character on the part of the insurrection tourists.

        Juliette Kayyem, a former Homeland Security official under Pres. Obama, was on CNN soon after the event of 1/6/21 praising the work of a Capitol police officer seen in one video standing in the Senate Chambers quietly “guiding” the insurrectionists through the room.

        Before hearing her perspective, I was finding myself annoyed that the officer was not making any aggressive attempt to get them out of the chamber and instead rewarding them with his patience.

        Kayyem pointed out, however, that this outnumbered officer was doing what he was taught, using de-escalation techniques on the rioters, letting them explore the chamber without riling them up by barking orders.

        I cannot find the link to the CNN clip but this 1/7/21 tweet of Kayyem’s says something similar:

        “I am critical of how this happened. But capitol police lost control, and (counterintuitively) to assert control, they had to deescalate. I get anger, comparisons. But in that moment, it was best of bad options. Now arrest the traitors.”

        So now when I see images of innocent looking insurrection tourists do we have the de-escalation responses of the police to thank? How would these same people have looked had they not been getting their way inside the Capitol?

        Glad to see, as emptywheel mentions in the main post, that guilty parties who are required to give up their weapons will have a potential illegal weapons possession charge if they subsequently ignore the conditions of their probation.

        • David says:

          This is a really interesting point about de-escalation. No doubt the same can occur in more mundane settings like nightclubs, or other demonstrations like BLM. Credit to the police in uncharted, volatile territory. Although it may seem a windfall, I think it is right that the sentencing of potentially violent protesters whose calm is maintained by skilful policing should reflect the comparative calmness of their stroll around the capitol that actually happened, rather than the aggression they might have shown had the policing been less wise. This may seem an undeserved windfall, but they should be sentenced for what they actually did, not what they might have done.

          • pdaly says:

            I agree. De-escalation as a technique was effective on 1/6/21 so all the more reason we should expect the police to employ it in other situations instead of shooting first and asking questions second.

            Re: the well-mannered trespassers
            IANAL, so I don’t know what prevents the DOJ from treating as an accomplice with the goal of disrupting Congress’ certification of the Electoral Collage vote ANY trespasser inside the Capitol that day.

            To be included in a conspiracy charge, does the DOJ have to show prior affiliation or planning with one or more of the several militia groups storming the Capitol on 1/6? Are flash mobs somewhat immune from conspiracy charges?

    • P J Evans says:

      Yeah, the stuff about her being a grandmother and from Indiana is supposed to make you turn off critical thinking and go with emotions instead. It would have been just as wrong if Dems had done it in Jan 2001.

    • punaise says:

      Indeed. Generational status should have no bearing on this.
      “Grannies for Tyranny” shouldn’t be a qualifier for getting the kid glove treatment.

      • Rayne says:

        I’m a 60-year-old step-grannie and I can’t help thinking what my kids and my grandkids would learn if I had done as Lloyd did — ignoring the entire democratic process to listen to a criminal malignant narcissist who refused to yield power, following a violent crowd of rioters to trespass a federal building and thinking at the time, BEST. DAY. EVAH.

        Jesus Christ, they’d have me involuntarily committed.

        • timbo says:

          This. Claiming to be a grandparent like this is a double-edged sword! Particularly if the grand kid is emotionally or economically dependent on said grandparent, and so possibly lead astray by the elder.

          At least this grandparent here in this case is at least demonstrating some sort of attempt at appearing to please the court in some way… which is more than one can say about some of these defendants I’m sure.

          • Rayne says:

            Pleasing the court doesn’t make right the fact an adult, old enough to have participated in at least 15 federal elections, ignored that her preferred candidate had already availed himself of every Constitutional measure of petition and redress, and went along with a violent mob in defiance of law and police presence to support their effort to overthrow our government. What did she think was going on with this in front of her?
            Photo by Jessica Griffin, The Philadelphia Inquirer - A mob engages with police trying to get past the barriers outside the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
            These people were there to overthrow the government. We need to stop minimizing this. Lloyd’s appearance of regret should only assure that she doesn’t receive the maximum — but this shouldn’t be treated as if she stepped out from between velvet ropes on a guided tour on federal property. Lloyd thought this was great and she should be reminded she was supporting with her presence the attempted theft of the most valuable resource this country has, the source of its existence, its very essence.

            • klynn says:

              Yep. Unfortunately, her “contrition” still reads as performative to me.

              Maybe have her watch hours of clips of Cap police getting beaten and then meet with Sicknick’s family and the police officers who went to talk with MOC to advocate for an investigation. Then have her write an apology letter to them about giving oxygen to violence by being there and being one of the first 50 into the Cap Bldg.

              I would also make her explain what she meant by “support the President” and why being one of the first 50 into the Cap bldg was a big deal to her based on: “in response to a post by another rioter, the Defendant [Morgan-Lloyd] wrote, ‘I’m here. Best day ever. We stormed the capital building me and Dona Bissey were in the first 50 people in.’”

              Then I would make her answer: Why was it “the best day ever?” Why did you “storm the Capitol” Building?

              None of her “contrition” addresses any of her personal motives.

          • Yancy says:

            Maybe most of her family & friends wanted to get her out of the grips of the conspiracy theories she had latched onto? The attorney and judge saw the opportunity, and thought it stood a decent chance of keeping her from becoming even more radicalized, and gave her a chance to live out her days in reality and peace?

    • sls642 says:

      Agree with Rayne. This was an attempt to overthrow the duly elected President of our country. Nothing this serious has happened since the Civil War. and unlike this Trump mob, the South wanted to secede, not take over the country. IMO, 1/6 was much worse.

      This mob should be treated like the terrorists they are, No way you could be “just hanging around” the Capitol and not know what was happening. I experienced a riot once in my life and will never forget it. Thought I might die.
      The noise, chaos, anger and physical danger was terrifying. It’s something you never forget.

      I wouldn’t cut any of these traitors one inch of slack. To the contrary, it should be just the opposite given what they were there for. This wasn’t an ordinary situation al all and every one of the people who breached the Capitol barriers deserve substantial prison sentences.

    • subtropolis says:

      Perhaps you’re reading into it an appeal to sympathy where it wasn’t intended. My own impression is that it was included because there was a wide variety of participants that day. Many stories about the insurrection have mentioned that the mob consisted of people from all over the country, and pointed out that they had varied backgrounds. It would be journalistic malpractice, after all, to intentionally leave the impression that they were ALL trigger-happy militia types or Nazi glorifiers. That they weren’t is, imho, more compelling.

      Please don’t get me wrong, though. I really do not have any time for sympathy with any of these dumbasses. But I don’t see it here. It just so happens that she is a grandmother from Indiana, among a variety of perps. There’s nothing wrong with the Press accurately describing this diversity of assholes.

      • Rayne says:

        You know what? Fuck that. They neatly avoided mentioning she’s from a county which is 98.1% white in a state with a continued KKK presence along with 18 other hate groups. Don’t tell me what I’m reading into the lazy description of an insurrection tourist when I’ve been worried for +5 years about the safety of my non-white family members who live in Indiana.

        • subtropolis says:

          Yes, fuck that journalist for not taking into consideration your personal feelings on the matter.

          Did it occur to you that whoever wrote that might not have had those statistics memorized? Should every mention of a mob participant include a breakdown of hate groups in their home county? Granted, something like that might be illuminating, but I don’t fault the Press for neglecting to include lists and graphs in every damned story about an insurrection tourist.

          I wish your family well. I certainly would not feel safe living in Indiana.

          • Rayne says:

            Did it ever occur to you that goddamned journalists have this thing called GOOGLE or DUCK DUCK GO or LEXIS NEXIS or WIKIFUCKINGPEDIA at their fingertips to do the necessary research before throwing out the hackneyed “poor grannie” clickbait lede?

            How much of what we do at this site has been media criticism related to journalistic laziness and their inability to find their way out of time-worn habits? Like interviewing white people in red states and creating fallacious narratives about “economic anxiety” when it’s really goddamned racism?

            Not to mention audience inability to get out of their own insular whiteness for a while to recognize when they are being played with such trite garbage creating and maintaining stereotypes threatening people of color.

            How often have journalists and their publishers thrown up terms which imply Black people protesting are thugs while white perps are depicted as “nice quiet boy kept to himself” though they just committed a mass shooting? “Poor grannie” is right up that alley — and she just prided herself on being an early entrant into insurrection.

            Seriously, you can just bite me.

    • Max404 says:

      from the link you supplied

      will turn in the guns they waved at protesters.

      These are rich m-figgers who live in a mansion earned with personal injury lawsuits percentages … nothing wrong with that but they are certainly owners of many more guns. This was such a slap on the wrist it makes we want to …. pun.
      If anyone pointed an automatic rifle at me I would prolly sheet in my pants and keel over with a heart attack from fear. I would want them to be handled a little more earnestly for their threatening behavior.

      I am sure their clients’ injuries – caused by others’ incorrect behavior – have earned their clients handsomely.

  11. Savage Librarian says:

    I support Marcy. That doesn’t mean I think Morgan-Lloyd is innocent. And it appears she will incur consequences. I honestly believe these will be deterrents to her for ever wanting to do anything like that again. Vengeance is counterproductive in this case, IMO. And I don’t think that is what the rule of law or democracy should represent.
    So, I’m calling BS on all that.

    “Julia Galef: Why you think you’re right — even if you’re wrong” | TED Talk
    …..
    “One thing that’s really interesting to me about the Dreyfus Affair is this question of why the officers were so convinced that Dreyfus was guilty. I mean, you might even assume that they were setting him up, that they were intentionally framing him. But historians don’t think that’s what happened. As far as we can tell, the officers genuinely believed that the case against Dreyfus was strong. Which makes you wonder: What does it say about the human mind that we can find such paltry evidence to be compelling enough to convict a man? “
    …..
    “Well, this is a case of what scientists call “motivated reasoning.” 

    https://www.ted.com/talks/julia_galef_why_you_think_you_re_right_even_if_you_re_wrong/transcript

    • timbo says:

      Dreyfus was Jewish. That made him the prime suspect by anti-Semites inside the French military and without. He was also successful and from a wealthy family. So much of it was about “teaching them their place” by anti-Semites in French society basically. Many French nationals helped the Nazis round up the Jews… and you can bet there’s still enough French deniers of the Holocaust to make one cringe (if one bothers to look hard enough).

      • Savage Librarian says:

        Yes, I know. But what Ms. Galef goes on to say is:

        “Picquart managed to get Dreyfus exonerated. But it took him 10 years, and for part of that time, he himself was in prison for the crime of disloyalty to the army.”

        “A lot of people feel like Picquart can’t really be the hero of this story because he was an anti-Semite and that’s bad, which I agree with. But personally, for me, the fact that Picquart was anti-Semitic actually makes his actions more admirable, because he had the same prejudices, the same reasons to be biased as his fellow officers, but his motivation to find the truth and uphold it trumped all of that.”

        • subtropolis says:

          Galef’s talk about the Dreyfus Affair is an excellent example. It is so true that “motivated reasoning” is often at the heart of partisan thinking that serves to unjustifiably hinder our understanding of history — whether ancient, or of contemporary events. Take a step back. Try to look at things without emotion; or, without allowing emotion to dominate reason. Come to understand that one can empathize without sympathy. (They are truly separate things.) That’s not to say that I’m perfect — far from it. But, there’s something liberating about allowing oneself to reason about something without the normal motivating factors. It doesn’t require abandoning one’s principles, but not allowing them to obscure the facts.

  12. rosalind says:

    [with apologies to Gilbert & Sullivan]

    She is the very Model of a Modern MAGA Tourist-ing
    She came to town to stop the vote and see the Gov’ment Buildings
    She got caught up with the rest of the mob and did a bit o’trespassing
    She stands contrite and swears with might she did no insurrectioning

    She’s not well acquainted, too, with matters all Political
    She mis-understood positions both present and historical
    About bizarro theorem she was teeming with a lot of views
    With many fact-free cites about purveyors of that fake news

    She rues the day and stands to pay with a long probation
    She’s resolute to restitute amid cooperation
    She’ll remain disarmed and do no harm as part of her new sentencing
    She’ll shut her trap and give all thanks to her great Defense Attorney-ing

    She is the very Model of a Modern MAGA Tourist-ing

    • FL Resister says:

      Bravo!

      Rayne has summed Anna up nicely here, too:

      –You’d think someone noticing a crowd dressed in all manner of tactical gear beating on Capitol police, assaulting them with bear spray, breaching police barriers, following people breaking through doors, would have had the goddamned common sense to turn around *before entering the Capitol* because something looked really, really wrong.

    • Bruce Olsen says:

      Bravissimo!

      I am a MAGA in D.C.
      A 49 year old gran-nee
      Who prays that probation Faruqui grants
      And we are her cousins wearing camo pants
      All motivated by a madman’s rants

      When I let myself inside
      My bosom swelled with pride
      And I snapped my fingers at a lawman’s taunts
      And so did her sisters and her cousins and her aunts…

      But when the breezes blew
      I pretended that I never knew
      And I did all my homework to get lenience grants
      And so did her sisters and her cousins and her aunts…
      Her sisters and her cousins whom she reckons up by dozens and her aunts

      Anyone up for When I Was A Lad?

    • Savage Librarian says:

      Thanks, rosalind. I’m glad you shared here!

      Systemic structural racism and misogyny are so insidious, so sneaky. They have propagandized us for so long and in so many ways. Even those who are aware can have new, unsettling revelations.

      It took me decades to realize the motivations of some people I used to work with. Just recently it dawned on me what really happened in a particular meeting that had significant repercussions.

      Trying to untangle personal ambition, ego, groupthink, scapegoating, and terror management make systemic structural practices all that much harder to unwind.

      It takes a lot of energy to try to cast off all that crushing abusive behavior. All of which is a long winded way of saying: I appreciate your insight and wit!

  13. Leoghann says:

    Something else just occurred to me about Morgan Lloyd’s case. Particularly, if the government really believes in her being contrite and having had an awakening of sorts, prosecutors and some judges can use her contrition as another qualifier for probation and/or very short sentences. OTOH, this treatment of her and a few others might serve as a counterpoint to very harsh treatment of the true insurrectionists and seditious conspirators, which I definitely hope happens.

    • emptywheel says:

      Right: That’s why I said I suspect prosecutors hope she goes first. Because most misdemeanor defendants won’t be able to pull this off. So it’ll lay down a measure that will permit short sentences for the others.

  14. Marinela says:

    Tend to be cynical about this case. Her incentive is to avoid and minimize the consequences. If insurrection had succeeded, she would be proud and brag about being there when it happened, despite seeing violence.
    The proof for all of us is the next election. How many of the people like her are going to vote for Trump again?

    Yesterday was reading about what happened in Hungary. Viktor Orban party was defeated the second time he run, but ended up winning the third time. I’m afraid we may be in the interim period before the second Trump term.

    [https://www.democracynow.org/2021/6/16/masha_gessen_on_surviving_autocracy_fight]
    Part 2

    • timbo says:

      Yep. That’s why it’s incumbent that the DOJ and other national and state law enforcement impose sanctions on all the folks who actively flaunted the laws to make this Jan 6 debacle happen.

      • FL Resister says:

        Take heed of the Cy Vance and Latisha James investigations going full steam ahead in New York and the heat going up on Allen Weisselberg in the near future.

        Ari Melber on MSNBC’s The Beat (6/15/21) presented the big shot financial prosecutors Vance hired in a very sexy light, (we are desperate for winners) and these two are no Mueller and Garland, but like them will not go into just any fight.

        AM — “But when a DA brings in these kind of outside legal ringers, people like Pomerantz and Fishman, it`s because they think they have a strong case to make. This is something we have been reporting on, but it`s also something — I just want you give you clear — a clear view here — that`s pretty much in the legal mainstream, because if you`re just doing the ordinary cases, you don`t always bring in what I`m calling the ringers.”

  15. Marinela says:

    Is she going to be able to vote now that she was arrested? Does it matter if she gets probation with respect to voting?

      • Rayne says:

        I wish it was appropriate for the judge to ask her how many times she’s voted in her lifetime. I suspect a large percentage of these insurrectionists are irregular voters who were finally moved to do something because they were upset with the outcome of the election, instead of taking legitimate civic action within the democratic framework.

  16. dadidoc1 says:

    I’m fine with some of these “tourist” insurrectionists getting probation as long as each of them share in the cost of repairs to the Capitol building, cost of the investigation, and restitution to those who were injured or to the families of those who lost their lives. The apology is nice, but we’re not quite done with you yet, so to speak.

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