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Contents 1 U.S. Constitution 2 2020 Elections 2.1 Results 2.2 Transition and Inauguration 2.3 Russian interference, Trump collusion 2.4 Liberal Dark Money 3 Past elections, fraud 4 2021 4.1 California Recall 5 2022 5.1 2022 & Redistricting 5.2 California 5.3 Trump GQP rallies, Republican/Nazi Party/Brotherhood of Evil Mutants 5.4 Civil War 5.5 Primaries & special elections 6 2024 Election 6.1 GQP, Trump 6.2 Biden 6.3 Warnings 7 117th Congress, 2021-2022 7.1 117th Congress, 2021-2022 7.1.1 Leadership 7.1.1.1 Democrats 7.1.1.2 Republicans 7.1.1.3 Senate Judiciary Committee 7.1.2 Republican/Nazi Party/Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Threat to Democracy 7.1.3 Republican/Nazi Party/Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, archived September 17, 2022 7.1.4 Republican/Nazi Party/Brotherhood of Evil Mutants archived May 28, 2021 7.1.5 DINOs 7.1.6 News, Budget, Infrastructure 7.1.7 Impeachment 7.2 Whitehouse, The Presidency 7.3 Climate Change 7.4 behavior 7.5 Education, schools 7.6 School shootings, guns, murder rate 7.7 Racism 7.8 Corruption, current Hunter Biden, Rep. Darrell Issa and former Rep. Duncan Hunter 7.9 Reparations 7.10 Coronavirus crisis, tracking 7.11 Coronavirus crisis, HealthCare, political, economy, masks 7.12 Coronavirus crisis, HealthCare, political, economy, masks archived July 14, 2021 7.13 Economy 7.14 ★ Insurrection Index 7.15 Trump incited Insurrection January 06, 2021, Qanon, MAGA Zombies 7.16 Trump incited Insurrection January 06, 2021, Qanon, MAGA Zombies, archived July 22,2022 7.17 Trump incited Insurrection January 06, 2021, Qanon, MAGA Zombies, archived May 25, 2022 7.18 Trump incited Insurrection January 06, 2021, Qanon, MAGA Zombies. archiver April 15 2022 7.19 Trump incited Insurrection January 06, 2021, Qanon, MAGA Zombies: archived March 21, 2022 7.20 Trump incited Insurrection January 06, 2021, Qanon, MAGA Zombies. archived January 05, 2022 7.21 Trump incited Insurrection January 06, 2021, Qanon, MAGA Zombies. archived November 18, 2021 7.22 Trump incited Insurrection January 06, 2021, Qanon, MAGA Zombies. archived August 31, 2021 7.23 Trump incited Insurrection January 06, 2021, Qanon, MAGA Zombies, archived June 20, 2021 7.24 Trumpism Coup, archived February 10, 2021 7.25 Protests 7.26 combatting online extremism 7.27 Oath Keepers, Militiamen, Vigilantes, Terrorists, Proud Boys 7.28 Oath Keepers, Militiamen, Vigilantes, Terrorists. archived December 18, 2021 7.29 Police riots and violence, collaboration, disinformation, propaganda, and lies 7.30 Police riots and violence, collaboration, disinformation, propaganda, and lies. Archived September 22, 2022 7.31 Religion, Christofascism, Anti Choice American Morality Police 7.32 Judiciary, SCOTUS, abortion 7.33 Judiciary, SCOTUS, abortion. archived July 07, 2022 7.34 IRS 7.35 DOJ, FBI 7.36 CBP, Immigration, Border, Wall 7.37 DHS 7.38 DOD, NSA, US Military, Afghanistan, VA 7.39 Ukraine/Russia 7.40 International Terrorism 7.41 SOS, Foreign Policy, Ukraine 7.42 Trump Russia collusion 7.43 ★ Trump Crime Family, Rape, Racism, Election Lies, Grifters gotta Grift 7.44 Trump Crime Family, Rape, Racism, Election Lies, Grifters gotta Grift, archived September 14, 2022 7.45 Trump Crime Family, Rape, Racism, Election Lies, archived May 18, 2022 7.46 Trump Crime Family, Rape, Racism, Election Lies. archived September 09, 2021 7.47 Trump will pay you Tuesday for a cheeseburger today 7.48 MAGATs 7.49 Trump Nazifacation of US 7.50 Voter Suppression 7.51 Spying 7.52 Media, Propaganda, Ratfucking, Truth Decay 7.53 Media, Propaganda, Ratfucking, Truth Decay, archived Saturday August 06 2022 7.54 Media, Propaganda, Ratfucking archived November 16, 2021 7.55 Media Bias Fact Checking Point-of-View 8 links

U.S. Constitution

U.S. Constitution Annotated. This edition of the Congressional Research Service's U.S. Constitution Annotated is a hypertext interpretation of the CRS text, updated to the currently published version. It links to Supreme Court opinions, the U.S. Code, and the Code of Federal Regulations, as well as enhancing navigation through search, breadcrumbs, linked footnotes and tables of contents. https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transcript

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/amendments-11-27

2020 Elections

Results

Trump pollster's campaign autopsy paints damning picture of defeat. The 27-page report pins Trump's loss on voter perception that he was untrustworthy and disapproval of his pandemic performance. The post-mortem, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO, says the former president suffered from voter perception that he wasn’t honest or trustworthy and that he was crushed by disapproval of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. And while Trump spread baseless accusations of ballot-stuffing in heavily Black cities, the report notes that he was done in by hemorrhaging support from white voters. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/01/trump-campaign-autopsy-paints-damning-picture-of-defeat-464636

Saturday, November 7, 2020 08:50:41 AM

Biden 284 50.6% 74,847,834

Trump 214 47.7% 70,591,531

Vote Results Wednesday, December 9, 2020 04:46:17 PM

candidate	electoral votes	share	popular vote
Biden	306	51.30%	81,282,896 +7,060,412
Trump	232	46.85%	74,222,484

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-elections/president-results

Sunday, November 22, 2020 08:27:27 AM Biden advantage in California 5,085,114

Share of vote 21st c. presidential candidates https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1334623664474628097

1. Obama 2008 52.9
2. Biden 2020 51.3
3. Obama 2012 51.1
4. Bush 2004 50.7
5. Gore 2000 48.4
6. Kerry 2004 48.3
7. Clinton 2016 48.2
8. Bush 2000 47.9
9. Romney 2012 47.2
10. Trump 2020 46.9
11. Trump 2016 46.1
12. McCain 2008 45.7

Transition and Inauguration

Inside the frantic, final days of record-keeping that landed Trump in hot water. Aides to the former president described a chaotic process that was colored by the boss’ desire to keep litigating the election and retain his own mementos. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/16/records-trump-fbi-white-house-mar-a-lago-00052272

Trump Was ‘Fact Free’ During Briefings, Says Former National Intelligence Director. “For the Intelligence Community, the Trump transition was far and away the most difficult in its historical experience with briefing new presidents,” a new CIA report said. Even once Trump started receiving the President’s Daily Brief (PDB), a daily summary of high-level national security and intelligence issues, Trump chose not to read it, according to Ted Gistaro, a career CIA analyst who frequently briefed Trump. This backed up earlier reports that Trump did not read the PDB. “He touched it,” Gistaro said when asked how closely Trump read the briefs. “He doesn’t really read anything.” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-fact-free-cia-report-1263777/

McConnell sought to disinvite Trump from Biden’s inaugural. According to a new book from Jonathan Karl, Trump got wind of the plan and preemptively announced he wasn’t attending. To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/15/mcconnell-disinvite-trump-biden-inaugural-522253

In Farewell Speech As President, Trump Says ‘We Did What We Came Here To Do’. “As I conclude my term as the 45th president of the United States, I stand before you truly proud of what we have achieved together,” Trump began. “This week, we inaugurate a new administration and pray for its success in keeping America safe and prosperous,” he continued, adding: “We also want them to have luck, a very important word.” (See video of the speech above.) “We did what we came here to do ― and so much more. Above all, we have reasserted the sacred idea that in America, the government answers to the people,” Trump said. “We restored the idea that in America, no one is forgotten ― because everyone matters and everyone has a voice.” Falsely casting his time in office as an effort to unify Americans, Trump claimed that his agenda “wasn’t about Republican or Democrat, but about the good of a nation, and that means the whole nation,” despite having spent his entire presidency vilifying his political opponents. He appeared to defend his violent rhetoric on Tuesday, saying, “In America, we don’t insist on absolute conformity or enforce rigid orthodoxies and punitive speech codes.” “Now, as I prepare to hand power over to a new administration at noon on Wednesday, I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning,” Trump said. “There’s never been anything like it.” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-final-address-speech-video_n_6006ef17c5b6df63a91a0cec

Washington's security preps in high gear for inauguration. Thousands of National Guard forces have been called to the DC area ahead of President-elect Biden's inauguration. https://www.foxnews.com/us/washingtons-security-preps-high-gear-inauguration#

The next 12 days will be something to tell the grandchildren! It’s 1776 all over again! https://nyegop.org/2021/01/08/a-letter-from-the-chairman/?v=7516fd43adaa

Media has yet to do a deep dive on precisely what Trump *said* in his January 6 speech in DC—a speech now called an "incitement to insurrection," and the basis for an article of impeachment coming Monday. This thread unpacks the speech. https://threader.app/thread/1347908845281095680 https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1347908845281095680

Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump Plans for future armed protests have already begun proliferating on and off-Twitter, including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17, 2021. https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspension.html

To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th. Jan 8, '21 @ 10:44 am ET Author: Likely Trump

The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!! Jan 8, '21 @ 9:46 am ET Author: Likely Trump

The violence at the Capitol was an attempted coup. Call it that. video https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/06/trump-mob-storm-capitol-washington-coup-attempt

Trump privately admits it’s over, but wants to brawl for attention. To one person, Trump even confided he was “just disappointed we lost.” But he still maintains he would have won a fair election. But mostly, he is continuing his fight to subvert the election for a Trumpian reason: to keep the attention on himself and give his supporters what they want, according to the people who have spoken with him. “The point is to still be relevant and still be talked about in the news,” said one of the people. “This is someone who’s been on Page Six of the New York Post for 40 years. He’s beyond embarrassment.” https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/05/donald-trump-election-challenge-455233

Trump says he’ll ‘fight like hell’ to hold on to presidency. With mounting desperation, Donald Trump declared Monday night he would “fight like hell” to hold on to the presidency and appealed to Republican lawmakers to reverse his election loss to Joe Biden when they convene this week to confirm the Electoral College vote. Electoral voters won by President-elect Biden are “not gonna take this White House!” he shouted as supporters cheered at an outdoor rally in Georgia. Trump’s announced purpose for the trip was to boost Republican Senate candidates in Tuesday’s runoff election, but he spent much of his speech complaining bitterly about his election loss — which he insists he won “by a lot.” https://apnews.com/article/trump-congress-reverse-election-loss-e2a6fa060432bd19d92a142a0da5688e

Fox News panelist defends Trump's leaked call to Georgia secretary of state: He is a “man who fights” The Washington Post just released tape of Trump threatening GA Secretary of State Bread Raffensberger in an attempt to overturn election results. 3:30 GAYLE TROTTER: The voters who wanted President Trump to have a second term voted for him because he's a fighter. He's a man who fights. And this is yet another example -- A.B. STODDARD: [LAUGHS] https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-panelist-defends-trumps-leaked-call-georgia-secretary-state-he-man-who-fights

Donald Trump could be planning Turnberry trip as Scots airport told to expect a high-flyer the day before Joe Biden’s inauguration. Prestwick airport has been told to expect the arrival of a US military Boeing 757 aircraft, that is occasionally used by Trump, on January 19 – the day before his Democratic rival takes charge at the White House. https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/donald-trump-could-be-planning-turnberry-trip-as-scots-airport-told-to-expect-a-high-flyer-the-day-before-joe-bidens-inauguration/

Trump, on tape, presses Ga. official to ‘find’ him votes. “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have,” Trump said. “Because we won the state.” https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-georgia-elections-a7b4aa4d8ce3bf52301ddbe620c6bff6 Here’s the full transcript and audio of the call between Trump and Raffensperger https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-transcript-georgia-vote/2021/01/03/2768e0cc-4ddd-11eb-83e3-322644d82356_story.html

GOP senators, led by Cruz, to object to Electoral College certification, demand emergency audit. The lawmakers call for an electoral commission to be established to audit results." In 1877, Congress did not ignore those allegations, nor did the media simply dismiss those raising them as radicals trying to undermine democracy," the lawmakers said in the statement. "Instead, Congress appointed an Electoral Commission -- consisting of five Senators, five House Members, and five Supreme Court Justices -- to consider and resolve the disputed returns." https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-senators-cruz-electoral-college-certification-audit

Trump returns to White House after Florida vacation. Shortly after he entered the White House, Trump tweeted out a previously recorded message in which he praised Americans for showing "grit, strength, tenacity and resolve" throughout 2020 and boasted of his administration's work in developing a coronavirus vaccine. "This is one of the most extraordinary scientific, industrial and medical feats in history. Everybody has it at that," Trump said. "That's what they're marking it down as, and we can never let people forget where it came from and how it came. We're very proud to be honored, and all of the people that worked so hard on it, we have to be remembered for what's been done." https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/532236-trump-returns-to-white-house-after-florida-vacation

Democrats who praised 2004 objections to Electoral College certification now slam Hawley. Democrats objected to electoral vote certification last 3 times a Republican was elected president. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democrats-who-praised-2004-objections-to-electoral-college-certification-now-slam-hawley Democrats challenge Ohio electoral votes. Move delays official certification of presidential election. Thursday, January 6, 2005 The move was not designed to overturn the re-election of President Bush, said Ohio Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and California Sen. Barbara Boxer, who filed the objection. https://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/06/electoral.vote.1718/

Keep Calm and QAnon. Pro-Trump conspiracy theories may have actually discouraged postelection violence. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/12/qanon-post-election-violence-trump.html

Trump Attacks FBI, DOJ, Supreme Court and GOP Senators in Boxing Day Twitter Tirade. https://www.newsweek.com/trump-attacks-doj-fbi-supreme-court-gop-senators-mitch-mcconnell-twitter-1557376

Trump’s Bonkers Oval Office Meeting With Sidney Powell Was Even Too Much for Rudy. Dec. 19, 2020 8:05PM ET. Her claims of mass election fraud have fallen flat. But it didn’t stop Trump from inviting conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell to the White House for a brainstorm. Sidney Powell’s insane claims about the election being stolen have left judges across the country shaking and scratching their heads. But during a bonkers Oval Office meeting with her on Friday night, President Trump floated the idea of appointing her as a special counsel investigating voter fraud. Two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to The Daily Beast that Trump and Powell held the Friday meeting to discuss their baseless theories of mass election fraud. According to The New York Times, which first reported the meeting, some aides were left in shock at Trump’s suggestion of making Powell a special counsel. Even Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s most loyal foot soldier in his election fraud crusade, was against the idea. A source quoted by CNN on Saturday described the meeting as “ugly” after Powell and Flynn lashed out at others. “It was heated, people were really fighting it out in the Oval,” the source was quoted saying. Even some of the president’s closest allies vocally opposed some of the insane ideas floated in the meeting. Along with Giuliani, White House counsel Pat Cipollone was against the special counsel idea. Flynn’s idea of invoking martial law was similarly shot down, as was an extraordinary idea for an executive order to seize voting machines, according to the Times, which described the meeting as “raucous.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-bonkers-oval-office-meeting-with-sidney-powell-was-even-too-much-for-rudy

This might be the most embarrassing document created by a White House staffer. The first thing I did when I cracked open White House trade adviser Peter Navarro’s 30-page compilation of President Trump’s voter-fraud greatest hits was check a footnote. The introduction claimed that, as of midnight Election Day, Trump looked to be “well on his way to winning a second term,” given that he “was already a lock to win both Florida and Ohio.” “[N]o Republican has ever won a presidential election without winning Ohio,” the document notes, “while only two Democrats have won the presidency without winning Florida.” But this, in broad strokes, is how Navarro’s document operates. It throws out as near-certainties things that are unfounded, misrepresented or unimportant. Philip Bump is a correspondent for The Washington Post based in New York. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/12/18/this-might-be-most-embarrassing-document-created-by-white-house-staffer/ https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/peter-navarro-puts-out-immaculate-deception-report-rehashing-debunked-trump-complaints https://bannonswarroom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/The-Immaculate-Deception-12.15.20-1.pdf

Joe Biden asks Trump to accept his 'clear victory' after electoral college vote result. Kayleigh McEnany slammed for claiming Biden’s electoral college speech was ‘divisive’. Remarks came as EC officially recognised Joe Biden’s election win. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kayeligh-mcenany-joe-biden-electoral-college-speech-b1774297.html

Joe Biden asks Trump to accept his 'clear victory' after electoral college vote result. Trump says Biden is ‘pretending he’s won’ and insists he had a ‘landslide victory’. The president shows no signs of accepting reality and may never concede defeat. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/trump-electoral-college-votes-biden-b1774343.html

Supreme Court declines to hear Trump-supported Texas case over election results in four other states. Legal experts said Texas' case, flawed in several ways, was likely to fail. The order does not foreclose any other pending or future election appeals at the Supreme Court, but time is running out. The states meet next week on Dec. 14 for the Electoral College exercise. And on Jan. 6 there will be a joint session of the House and Senate to count the electoral votes and certify President-elect Joe Biden as the winner. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said they would have heard the case -- without granting other relief, like issuing an injunction on electoral proceedings. They added that they expressed "no view on any other issue." https://www.foxnews.com/politics/scotus-denied-election-texas-election-suit

White House Asks Staff To Transition With ‘Professionalism’ Despite Trump’s Lies: Report. Staffers were asked to “prioritize preparations for a smooth transition.” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/white-house-transition-professionalism_n_5fd2e7e2c5b68256b113dcfc

Trump holds self-congratulatory vaccine 'summit,' dismisses concerns over virus spread. The White House pushed back on reports U.S. declined to buy more vaccine doses. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-vaccine-executive-order-raises-questions-pfizer-offer/story?id=74604381

President Trump walks out on Medal of Freedom ceremony for legendary wrestler, ex-Iowa coach Dan Gable. Well, I think the case has already been made. If you look at the polls, it was a rigged election. You look at the different states. The election was totally rigged. It’s a disgrace to our country. It’s like a third-world country — these ballots pouring in from everywhere, using machinery that nobody knows ownership, nobody knows anything about. They have “glitches,” as they call them. Glitches. The glitches weren’t glitches. They got caught sending out thousands of votes — all against me, by the way. No, this was like from a third-world nation. And I think the case has been made. And now we find out what we can do about it. But you’ll see a lot of big things happening over the next couple of days. https://www.nj.com/sports/2020/12/president-trump-walks-out-on-medal-of-freedom-ceremony-for-legendary-wrestler-dan-gable.html

'We're all victims' Trump whines at Georgia rally, repeatedly refusing to accept he lost election to Biden. https://boingboing.net/2020/12/05/at-georgia-rally-trump-declares-repeatedly-he-refuses-to-accept-that-he-lost-election-to-biden.html

Just 26 congressional Republicans acknowledge Biden’s win, Washington Post survey finds. Two Republicans consider Trump the winner despite all evidence showing otherwise. And another 221 GOP members of the House and Senate — nearly 90 percent of all Republicans serving in Congress — will simply not say who won the election. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/survey-who-won-election-republicans-congress/2020/12/04/1a1011f6-3650-11eb-8d38-6aea1adb3839_story.html

When Kimmel extracts all lies from Trump's 45-min rant, it turns into great 45-second speech https://boingboing.net/2020/12/04/when-kimmel-extracts-all-lies-from-trumps-45-min-rant-it-turns-into-great-45-second-speech.html

Pentagon blocks visits to military spy agencies by Biden transition team. Dec. 4, 2020 at 5:52 p.m. EST The Trump administration has refused to allow members of President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team to meet with officials at U.S. intelligence agencies that are controlled by the Pentagon, undermining prospects for a smooth transfer of power, current and former U.S. officials said. The officials said the Biden team has not been able to engage with leaders at the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and other military-run spy services with classified budgets and global espionage platforms. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/pentagon-blocks-biden-transition-team/2020/12/04/2e7042fa-3656-11eb-a997-1f4c53d2a747_story.html

Michigan voter fraud hearing goes viral for alleged flatulence, unruly witness. HuffPost reporter Ryan J. Reilly shared a video on Twitter of Giuliani passionately answering a question about Attorney General William Barr’s statement that federal prosecutors had not found evidence of election fraud that would influence the outcome. During the clip, what sounds like flatulence can be heard as he’s speaking. https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/528666-michigan-voter-fraud-hearing-goes-viral-for-alleged-flatulence

In February, 2021, a man goes to the White House to see Donald Trump. He is told by the Marine on duty that Trump is no longer president and that he no longer resides there. Three days in a row the man returns to see Trump and each time the same Marine tells him Trump is no longer president. On the fourth day, the Marine finally asks the man why he keeps coming back asking for Trump when he already knows the answer. The man replies, “I just love hearing you tell me Trump is no longer the president.” The Marine snaps to attention, salutes and says, “See you tomorrow, sir!”

Biden chief of staff says inauguration ‘not going to be the same’ Ron Klain said the inauguration ceremony will be altered to prevent the spread of coronavirus. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/22/biden-klain-inauguration-coronavirus-439181

Russian interference, Trump collusion

Dinesh D’Souza’s 2000 Mules Is a Hilarious Mockumentary. A tour de force exploring the limits of how many suckers there are willing to pay for fantasy. ome of the film’s funniest moments come when D’Souza summons his fellow Salem Media Group talkers—Dennis Prager, Eric Metaxes, Seb Gorka, and Charlie Kirk—for a meeting of the minds to discuss their thoughts about election fraud before and after viewing D’Souza’s movie. But even the Salem hosts seem wise to the game and acknowledge that D’Souza hasn’t, and won’t be able to prove anything. Gorka sums it up with this non sequitur: “It’s the perfect crime because it cannot be curated after it’s committed.” https://www.thebulwark.com/dinesh-dsouzas-2000-mules-is-a-hilarious-mockumentary/

Meadows texts reveal just how tight the Fox News-Trump embrace is. As Trump raged against non-existent election fraud, he took counsel from his actual staff. He also had help from acquaintances and associates like Rudy Giuliani. But, less conventionally, Trump’s White House was also getting guidance from some of Fox News’ best-known personalities, in a level of coordination rarely, if ever, seen in top-level politics. The direct interactions between Trump’s administration and the Fox hosts Sean Hannity and Maria Bartiromo were revealed in leaked text messages from the phone of Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff during the November election and the January 6 insurrection. The texts, revealed by CNN, show how the lines between Fox News and the Trump White House had become jarringly blurred in Trump’s final months. On election day 2021 Hannity, the second-most watched host on Fox News, was texting Meadows asking which states he particularly needed to “push” – to encourage people to vote. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/may/07/fox-news-donald-trump-meadows-hannity-texts

Homeland Security Secretary Altered Report on Russian Election Interference to Help Trump, Watchdog Says. The DHS inspector general’s office found that Chad Wolf and his employees made “changes that appear to be based in part on political considerations” The watchdog’s office said it interviewed an individual in the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) “who told us the Acting Secretary asked the product be held because it made President Trump look bad and hurt President Trump’s campaign — the concept that Russia was denigrating candidate Biden would be used against President Trump.” The product, titled “Russia Likely to Denigrate Health of US Candidates to Influence 2020 Electoral Dynamics,” was first being drafted in April 2020 after then-candidate Biden had assumed frontrunner status in the Democratic primary. These findings align with a whistleblower report from Sept. 2020 filed by Brian Murphy, the former principal deputy undersecretary in DHS’s I&A office. Murphy alleged that DHS leaders including Wolf, former Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and senior official Ken Cuccinelli not only minimized Russian influence in the election, but fabricated data relating to the U.S.-Mexico border wall and downplayed the threat of white supremacy. Murphy also claimed retaliation by his superiors after he raised these concerns. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/chad-wolf-homeland-security-russian-interference-report-1347046/

Durham says CIA found data alleging Trump-Russia connection not 'technically plausible,' was 'user created'. Special Counsel John Durham asserted in a court filing Friday that the CIA concluded data from Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann alleging coordination between Donald Trump and Russia was "not technically plausible" and was "user created." But Sussmann is moving to preclude evidence concerning the "gathering" of that "DNS data" by "Tech Executive 1," who has been identified as Rodney Joffe, and his associates. Durham's original indictment alleges Sussmann told then-FBI General Counsel James Baker in September 2016 — less than two months before the 2016 presidential election — he was not doing work "for any client" when he requested and held a meeting where he presented "purported data and 'white papers' that allegedly demonstrated a covert communications channel" between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, which has ties to the Kremlin. The indictment alleges that Sussmann lied in the meeting, "falsely stating to the general counsel that he was not providing the allegations to the FBI on behalf of any client." Durham also alleges that Sussmann is a lizard person. https://news.yahoo.com/durham-says-cia-found-data-193143924.html

The Presidency of Donald Trump review: the first draft of history. Julian Zelizer of Princeton has assembled a cast of historians to consider every aspect of four years that shook America. One of the best essays, about the Republican party Trump inherited, is written by the book’s editor, Julian Zelizer. The Princeton historian reminds us that the “smashmouth partisanship” perfected by Trump actually began when Newt Gingrich snared the House speakership nearly 30 years ago. In 1992, Pat Buchanan’s speech to the Republic convention featured all of the gay-bashing that Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, (and many other Republicans) have revived with so much gusto in 2022. With major contributions from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the rightwing media machine, most of the GOP moved so far right it didn’t become Trump’s party because he “seized control” but rather because “he fit so perfectly” with it. Most Republicans were “all in” for Trump, from Mitt Romney, the ex-never Trumper who voted with his former nemesis more than 80% of the time, to “moderate” Chris Christie, who gave Trump an “A” four months after his four years of scorched-earth governance were over. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/apr/03/the-presidency-of-donald-trump-review-history-zelizer-republican-party

Former President Trump is raising eyebrows after he seemingly admitted to losing the 2020 presidential election in a video published by The Atlantic on Monday. “I didn’t win the election,” Trump, who has repeatedly rejected President Biden’s victory, said while speaking in July to a panel of historians convened by Julian Zelizer, a Princeton professor and editor of “The Presidency of Donald Trump: A First Historical Assessment.” https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/3259729-trump-gets-attention-for-saying-he-lost-election/

It Wasn’t a Hoax. People with scant illusions about Trump are volunteering to help him execute one of his Big Lies. By David Frum NOVEMBER 25, 2021

1. Dating back to at least 2006, Trump and his companies did tens of millions of dollars of business with Russian individuals and other buyers whose profiles raised the possibility of money laundering. More than one-fifth of all the condominiums sold by Trump over his career were purchased in all-cash transactions by shell companies, a 2018 BuzzFeed News investigation found.
2. In 2013, Trump’s pursuit of Russian business intensified. That year, he staged the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. Around that time, Trump opened discussions on the construction of a Trump Tower in Moscow, from which he hoped to earn “hundreds of millions of dollars, if the project advanced to completion,” in the words of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
3. Trump continued to pursue the Tower deal for a year after he declared himself a candidate for president. “By early November 2015, Trump and a Russia-based developer signed a Letter of Intent laying out the main terms of a licensing deal,” the Senate Intelligence Committee found. Trump’s representatives directly lobbied aides to Russian President Vladimir Putin in January 2016. Yet repeatedly during the 2016 campaign, Trump falsely stated that he had no business with Russia—perhaps most notably in his second presidential debate against Hillary Clinton, in October 2016.
4. Early in 2016, President Putin ordered an influence operation to “harm the Clinton Campaign, tarnish an expected Clinton presidential administration, help the Trump Campaign after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, and undermine the U.S. democratic process.” Again, that’s from the Senate Intelligence Committee report.
5. The Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos “likely learned about the Russian active measures campaign as early as April 2016,” the Senate Intelligence Committee wrote. In May 2016, Papadopoulos indiscreetly talked with Alexander Downer, then the Australian high commissioner to the United Kingdom, about Russia’s plot to intervene in the U.S. election to hurt Clinton and help Trump. Downer described the conversation in a report to his government. By long-standing agreement, Australia shares intelligence with the U.S. government. It was Papadopoulos’s blurt to Downer that set in motion the FBI investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, a revelation authoritatively reported more than three years ago.
6. In June 2016, the Trump campaign received a request for a meeting from a Russian lawyer offering harmful information on Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump Jr. and other senior Trump advisers accepted the meeting. The Trump team did not obtain the dirt they’d hoped for. But the very fact of the meeting confirmed to the Russian side the Trump campaign’s eagerness to accept Russian assistance. Shortly after, Trump delivered his “Russia, if you’re listening” invitation at his last press conference of the campaign.
7. WikiLeaks released two big caches of hacked Democratic emails in July and October 2016. In the words of the Senate Intelligence Committee: “WikiLeaks actively sought, and played, a key role in the Russian intelligence campaign and very likely knew it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort.”
8. Through its ally Roger Stone, the Trump campaign team assiduously tried to communicate with WikiLeaks. Before the second WikiLeaks release, “Trump and the Campaign believed that Stone had inside information and expressed satisfaction that Stone’s information suggested more releases would be forthcoming,” according to the Senate Intelligence Committee. In late summer and early fall 2016, Stone repeatedly predicted that WikiLeaks would publish an “October surprise” that would harm the Clinton campaign.
9. At the same time as it welcomed Russian help, the Trump campaign denied and covered up Russian involvement: “The Trump Campaign publicly undermined the attribution of the hack-and-leak campaign to Russia and was indifferent to whether it and WikiLeaks were furthering a Russian election interference effort,” the Intelligence Committee found.
10. In March 2016, the Trump campaign accepted the unpaid services of Paul Manafort, deeply beholden to deeply shady Russian business and political figures. “On numerous occasions, Manafort sought to secretly share internal Campaign information” with a man the Intelligence Committee identified as a Russian intelligence officer. “Taken as a whole, Manafort’s high-level access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services … represented a grave counterintelligence threat,” the committee found. Through 2016, the Russian state launched a massive Facebook disinformation program that aligned with the Trump campaign strategy.
11. At crucial moments in the 2016 election, Trump publicly took positions that broke with past Republican policy and served no apparent domestic political purpose, but that supported Putin’s foreign-policy goals: scoffing at NATO support for Estonia, denigrating allies such as Germany, and endorsing Britain’s exit from the European Union.
12. Throughout the 2016 election and after, people close to Trump got themselves into serious legal and political trouble by lying to the public, to Congress, and even to the FBI about their Russian connections.

The Steele dossier undertook to answer the question “What the hell is going on with Trump and Russia?” The Senate Intelligence Committee found that the FBI investigation gave the Steele dossier “unjustified credence.” But the disintegration of the dossier’s answers has not silenced the power of its question. It was to silence that question that the outgoing Trump administration appointed a special counsel of its own to investigate its investigators. John Durham has now issued three indictments, all for lying to the FBI about various aspects of the Steele dossier. None of these indictments vindicate Trump’s claims in any way. It remains fact that Russian hackers and spies helped his campaign. It remains fact that the Trump campaign welcomed the help. It remains fact that Trump’s campaign chairman sought to share proprietary campaign information with a person whom the Senate report identified as a “Russian intelligence officer.” It remains fact that Trump hoped to score a huge payday in Russia even as he ran for president. It remains fact that Trump and those around him lied, and lied, and lied again about their connections to Russia. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/trump-russia-senate-intelligence-report/620815/

Putin Did It Again: New Intelligence Report Says Moscow Helped Trump in 2020. Anti-Biden propaganda was prepared with the assistance of Russian intelligence. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/03/donald-trump-russia-2020/

Liberal Dark Money

Liberal ‘dark money’ groups’ revenue soared ahead of 2020 elections. More than $86.2 million of Sixteen Thirty Fund’s windfall came from its sister 501(c)(3) group, New Venture Fund, which tax documents show raised over $965 million — nearly $1 billion — in 2020 from a myriad of anonymous sources. Since New Venture Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, individual donors can write off their contributions as tax-deductible even though some of the nonprofit’s money is given to more politically active groups. Both New Venture Fund and Sixteen Thirty Fund give to an array of groups and causes with a wide range of levels of political activity. New tax records reviewed by OpenSecrets reveal that New Venture Fund was primarily funded by multimillion dollar donations in 2020 with ​​just eight anonymous donors giving tens of millions of dollars each in 2020 making up the bulk of its fundraising. Two donors gave over $100 million each. While Sixteen Thirty Fund and New Venture Fund do not voluntarily disclose donors, some funders have been made public by foundations and other groups giving grants to them. Donors have included nonprofits linked to Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar and liberal mega-donor George Soros. https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/12/liberal-dark-money-groups-revenue-soared-ahead-of-2020-elections/

Past elections, fraud

Pro-Trump Group Invented Voter Fraud Claims Months Before Election. A well-funded far-right group—that made inroads with Stop The Steal organizations, paid a former police captain more than $200,000 to hunt ballots, and became entangled in a roadside stickup—was making war plans for Election Day 2020 months ahead of time, documents reveal. The fringe group, the Liberty Center for God and Country (LCGC), led a lucrative fundraising blitz in the run-up to the election and quietly networked with now-notorious election denialists. Their work came to light in October of that year when former Houston Police captain Mark Aguirre allegedly rammed his SUV into a man’s truck, forced the man onto the ground at gunpoint, and accused him of transporting 750,000 fraudulent ballots. Aguirre’s claims were baseless—his victim was an innocent air conditioner technician—and no widespread voter fraud has been found in the 2020 election. Aguirre was indicted this week for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. https://www.thedailybeast.com/pro-trump-group-liberty-center-for-god-and-country-invented-voter-fraud-claims-months-before-election-2020

How Ashley Biden's Diary Made Its Way to Project Veritas. Federal prosecutors and FBI agents are investigating whether there was a criminal conspiracy among a handful of individuals to steal and publish the diary. Those being scrutinized include current and former operatives for the conservative group Project Veritas; a donor Trump appointed to a political position in the final days of his administration; a man who once pleaded guilty in a money laundering scheme; and a financially struggling mother of two, according to people familiar with federal grand jury subpoenas and a search warrant who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The investigation has focused new attention on how Trump or his allies sought to use the troubles of Biden’s two surviving children to undercut him. The inquiry has also intensified the scrutiny of Project Veritas. Its founder, James O’Keefe, was pulled from his apartment in his underwear and handcuffed during a dawn raid last month by the FBI, two days after a pair of his former employees had their homes raided. Asked a list of specific questions related to the investigation, a lawyer for Project Veritas, Paul A. Calli, responded with a statement from O’Keefe criticizing The New York Times. Project Veritas has said in court filings that it was assured by the people who sold Ashley Biden’s items to the group that they were abandoned rather than stolen. But the police report said that Bantner’s client had told him that the property was “possibly stolen” and “he got it from an unknown person at a hotel.” The video footage, which appears to be a partial account of the encounter, records Bantner describing the bags as “crap.” The officer can be heard telling Bantner that he is going to throw the bags in the garbage because the officer did not have any “information” or “proof of evidence.” “Like I said, I’m fine with it,” Bantner replied. But police did examine the contents of the bag and quickly determined that they belonged to Ashley Biden. The report said police contacted the Secret Service and the FBI, which later collected the items. https://news.yahoo.com/ashley-bidens-diary-made-way-194903781.html

Probe finds Trump officials repeatedly violated Hatch Act https://apnews.com/article/presidential-elections-election-2020-elections-778951007a888c1f2af6babbb198634b

FEC drops investigation into Trump hush money payments. The Federal Elections Commission (FEC) has closed its investigation into whether former President Trump illegally made hush money payments to women prior to the 2016 election. The FEC voted 4-1 to close the probes after failing to find that Trump or his campaign “knowingly and willfully” violated campaign finance law when his former attorney Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her from disclosing an alleged affair. Cohen was convicted in 2018 of lying to Congress, tax evasion and other charges relating to the payments to Daniels and other women. He served three years in prison. His attorney said Cohen testified in court that the payment was made “for the principal purpose of influencing an election.” The FEC's Office of General Counsel issued a report in December finding that there was “reason to believe” that Cohen and the Trump campaign knowingly and willfully violated campaign finance law. However, the FEC said that it failed by a 2-2 vote to prove any of the parties violated campaign finance law. The panel’s two Republican commissioners, Allen Dickerson and Sean Cooksey, wrote in a statement that they felt Cohen had already been punished criminally and the matter was “not the best use of agency resources.” “The public record is complete with respect to the conduct at issue in these complaints, and Mr. Cohen has been punished by the government of the United States for the conduct at issue in these matters,” Dickerson and Cooksey wrote. In a separate statement, Democratic commissioner Ellen Weintraub and Commission Chair Shana Broussard said the probe should have been continued after the general counsel said there was reason to believe campaign finance law was broken. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/552271-fec-drops-investigation-into-trump-hush-money-payments

Twitter troll arrested for election interference related to disinformation campaign. The charges are a potentially tectonic shift in how the federal government tries to enforce laws against election interference. The notorious Twitter troll and alt-right figure Douglass Mackey, known better by his alter ego, Ricky Vaughn, was arrested on Wednesday on federal charges of election interference stemming from an alleged voter disinformation campaign during the 2016 election. Mackey is charged with conspiring with others “to disseminate misinformation designed to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote,” according to the newly unsealed criminal complaint. In September 2016, Mackey’s groups turned to creating memes that misled potential voters about how they would be able to cast votes, creating memes that falsely claimed that supporters could cast their vote by posting on Facebook or Twitter or by voting through text message. According to the complaint, 4,900 unique telephone numbers texted their votes to the number provided. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/twitter-troll-arrested-election-interference-related-disinformation-campaign-n1255864

2021

California Recall

Republicans overplayed their hand in California – and Democrats are laughing. Larry Elder just discovered that his brand appeals to a tiny fraction of voters. Republican governors in Texas and Florida may learn similar lessons. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/15/california-recall-republicans-larry-elder

5 Takeaways From The California Recall Election. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) crushed a Republican-led effort to oust him from office a year early.

1. Democrats’ coronavirus approach vindicated
2. ‘Trumpism is not dead’
3. Newsom dodges friendly fire
4. Recall reform could gain public support

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/california-recall-newsom-election_n_61417135e4b09519c50b7047

California Recall Updates: Gavin Newsom Wins, in a Relief for Democrats. The governor of America’s most populous state brushed aside an effort to remove him, as deep-blue California rallied to prevent Republicans from capturing its top office. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/09/14/us/california-recall-election-newsom

No 5,840,283 63.9%

Yes 3,297,145 36.1

California women show decisive support for Newsom, concerns about Elder, as recall looms. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-04/women-voters-thumbs-down-on-recall-elder-thumbs-up-on-keeping-newsom-in-office

Column: Gavin Newsom has been one of the most pro-Latino governors in California history, and he’s under attack for it. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-08-25/recall-election-newsom-latino-support

How Jerry Brown fits in among California’s greatest governors. Historians say he’s one of the best but doesn’t match his father. None of the other modern-era governors who served between Brown’s two stints in the top job quite match up, historians say, pointing to episodes like Wilson’s anti-immigrant policies, Gray Davis’ recall election, and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s failure to staunch the state’s fiscal problems. https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/12/23/jerry-brown-california-greatest-governors-history/

Column: How recall candidate Larry Elder mentored Trumpism’s top acolytes. BY JEAN GUERRERO https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-07-14/larry-elder-candidate-newsom-recall-election

Recall backers try to block Trump mentions from California voter guide. Their demand: Recall supporters say that Newsom's language misleadingly casts the recall as illegitimate and falsely implies only Republicans are in support. They want to strip out various references to Republicans and to mute Newsom’s attempts to frame the recall as a nefarious effort to seize power. Newsom response: "The lawsuit is totally baseless," Newsom campaign spokesperson Nathan Click said in a statement. "The facts are clear — this is a partisan Republican recall: one that was launched by Republicans like Heatlie and Netter and funded almost exclusively by Republican donors, the RNC and allies of Donald Trump. Republicans know they can't win in a normal election year, so they are trying to force a special election and grab power." Why it matters: Newsom has striven from the outset to define the recall as a cynical maneuver by Trump-aligned Republicans, believing that will resonate in a heavily Democratic state where Trump was very unpopular. The state’s official voter guide offers a prime opportunity to make that case to voters — or not. https://www.politico.com/states/california/whiteboard/2021/08/02/recall-backers-try-to-block-trump-mentions-from-california-voter-guide-1389380

Reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner said Friday that she's leading all contenders in the Gov. Gavin Newsom recall despite polling and fundraising totals that suggest otherwise, addressing California political reporters in her first campaign press conference. Jenner said she plans a statewide bus tour in the month before the Sept. 14 recall and dismissed a major May poll showing that she was fourth among GOP hopefuls with only 6 percent support. “Honestly, I'm not concerned about the polling,” she said, dismissing the survey as outdated. “I guarantee you that I am in the lead." Jenner said she has no plans to drop out of the race ahead of a filing deadline next week and will provide five years of tax returns as required by California's elections chief under a new law. “I have a tremendous advantage, obviously because of name recognition," Jenner said in her first trip to Sacramento some 10 weeks after declaring her candidacy. https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2021/07/09/jenner-insists-shes-leading-california-recall-field-despite-polling-1388190

GOP’s Faulconer: Boost Shelters For Homeless Californians. Republican gubernatorial candidate Kevin Faulconer wants to create more homeless shelters in California as part of his effort to get people off the streets, declaring homelessness in the state an emergency that must be treated like one. Faulconer, the former two-term San Diego mayor, released a statewide plan Tuesday modeled off his efforts while leading the nation's eighth-most populous city. Expanding shelters would make it easier for law enforcement to clear encampments and to cite or arrest people who don't leave. But the plan offers limited details on what happens to people once they're in the shelters, and only lays out a plan to help veterans access permanent housing. Faulconer said all shelters would be required to offer services for mental health and drug addiction. Converting hotel and motel rooms into housing is the key component of Newsom's response to homelessness. Faulconer supported such programs as San Diego mayor and said there's “absolutely" a place for it in the state's approach. https://www.kpbs.org/news/2021/jun/29/gops-faulconer-boost-shelters-homeless-californian/

‘It’s all fallen apart’: Newsom scrambles to save California — and his career. The Democrat leading the nation’s biggest state is facing a raging pandemic, vaccine distribution problems and a nascent recall drive. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/11/gavin-newsom-california-scramble-fallen-apart-456665

2022

2022 & Redistricting

Star Trek makes Stacey Abrams president of United Earth – and stokes conservative anger. National Review says candidate for governor in Georgia and self-confessed superfan does not deserve fictional title. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/19/stacey-abrams-president-earth-star-trek-georgia-governor

Inside McConnell's Campaign to Take Back the Senate and Thwart Trump. For more than a year, former President Donald Trump has berated Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona, savaging him for refusing to overturn the state’s presidential results and vowing to oppose him should he run for the Senate this year. In early December, though, Ducey received a far friendlier message from another former Republican president. At a golf tournament luncheon, George W. Bush encouraged him to run against Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat, suggesting the Republican Party needs more figures like Ducey to step forward. “It’s something you have to feel a certain sense of humility about,” the governor said this month of Bush’s appeal. “You listen respectfully, and that’s what I did.” https://news.yahoo.com/inside-mcconnells-campaign-back-senate-153831180.html

Louisiana candidate for Senator burns up a confederate flag in this new kickass ad. Hoping to unseat racist Senator John Kennedy in the 2022 election, Louisiana Senate candidate Gary Chambers gets right down to business in his powerful new campaign ad. Appealing to Democrats and anyone else opposed to what the far-right senator stands for, Chambers hangs a confederate flag, douses it in gas, and then burns it up. And after explaining how Jim Crow never left Louisiana and the South, he ends the ad saying, "Our system isn't broken — it's designed to do exactly what it's doing, which is producing measurable inequity. … I do believe the South will rise again, but this time it will be on our terms." https://boingboing.net/2022/02/09/louisiana-candidate-running-against-sen-kennedy-torches-a-confederate-flag-in-this-new-kickass-ad.html https://youtu.be/X6iSRU9486I

Watch: Simple explainer on why democracy in America will lose, unless Democrats wake up https://boingboing.net/2022/01/14/watch-simple-explainer-on-why-democracy-in-america-will-lose-unless-democrats-wake-up.html

CA AD 78 old 77th Democrat Brian Maienschein Elected four times as a Republican, became a Democrat on January 24, 2019.

CA SD 39 old 39th Democrat Toni Atkins

CA CD 51 old 53rd Democrat Sara Jacobs

First-term Rep. Sara Jacobs announced Tuesday that she will seek re-election to the House of Representatives in the new 51st District in 2022. Hours later, Republican Rep. Darrell Issa said he’d seek the new 48th District seat. The new district in central San Diego County includes much of Democrat Jacobs’ current 53rd District, but also parts of the county previously represented by Reps. Scott Peters, Issa and Juan Vargas. https://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2021/12/21/reps-jacobs-issa-to-seek-re-election-in-new-51st-48th-congress-districts-in-2022/

The map viewer includes draft maps that were approved 11.10.21. https://www.wedrawthelinesca.org/map_viewer

Finally, three safely Democratic districts in the San Diego area have turned into two safely Democratic districts and one competitive district, which could force one of the area’s Democratic incumbents to either run on much redder turf or take on one of their colleagues. At the same time, though, the new map moves Republican Reps. Ken Calvert’s and Darrell Issa’s districts each 8 points to the left, putting them in danger of losing reelection later in the decade. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/redistricting-2022-maps/california/

FiveThirtyEight also determined that the 50th District, which has historically always been a Republican stronghold, will still favor Republicans, but less strongly than it has before. "Certainly Darrell Issa will yet again be one of the targeted Republicans nationally and someone who will likely draw a top tier challenger and will be in another strong political fight," Kousser said. https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/new-proposed-political-maps-make-49th-50th-districts-more-competitive/2793411/

Trump’s Underlying Rally Message Is Clear: Fear Me. As he kicks off a new series of rallies, Trump hopes to punish those who have defied him and scare off any would be challengers in 2024. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-underlying-rally-message-is-clear-fear-me

‘As Long as the Party Embraces Trump, It’s Going to Have Trouble’ The Republican collapse in Michigan’s Oakland County, once a stronghold, was a long time coming. Is losing these suburbs a warning light for Trumpism? https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/06/18/biden-republican-voters-oakland-county-michigan-suburbs-494983

Pollster Frank Luntz: Trump's 'Big Lie' is working, may cost GOP votes. Luntz noted in an interview on the New York Times podcast “Sway” released Thursday that “more than two-thirds of Republicans believe that the election was stolen,” warning that a widespread and unproven belief that there was rampant fraud last November could turn Republicans off from voting in the midterm elections. “What Donald Trump is saying is actually telling people it's not worth it to vote. Donald Trump single-handedly may cause people not to vote. And he may be the greatest tool in the Democrats' arsenal to keep control of the House and Senate in 2022,” Luntz said. The pollster also said that Trump would be the "odds-on favorite" to win the Republican nomination if he runs again in 2024. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/552076-gop-pollster-frank-luntz-trumps-big-lie-is-working-may-cost-gop-house

California

What 2022 election? California Republicans grim on beating Newsom. Republican donors and fundraisers described a dearth of activity. Faulconer has been reaching out to funders to see if another run is viable after he finished a distant third among recall replacement candidates, receiving only 590,000 votes compared with more than 3.5 million for Elder. (Nearly 8 million voted to keep Newsom in office.) https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2022/01/21/what-2022-election-california-republicans-grim-on-beating-newsom-1405828

Trump GQP rallies, Republican/Nazi Party/Brotherhood of Evil Mutants

Ohio GOP House Candidate Has Misrepresented Military Service. Rather than deploying to Afghanistan, as he has claimed, records state that J.R. Majewski was based in Japan for much of his active-duty service. They indicate Majewski never deployed to Afghanistan but instead completed a six-month stint helping to load planes at an air base in Qatar, a longtime U.S. ally that is a safe distance from the fighting. The mischaracterizations extend to his professional career, in which he has repeatedly described himself as an “executive in the nuclear power industry,” including in a campaign ad last spring.But a review of his now-deleted resume on the website LinkedIn and a survey of his former employers do not support the claim. He most recently worked for Holtec International, a Florida-based energy conglomerate that specializes in handling spent nuclear fuel. But he is not listed among the executives and members of the corporate leadership teams in current or archived versions of the company’s website. A spokesman confirmed Majewski was a former Holtec employee, but declined to offer details on his position or role, which Majewski’s LinkedIn page described as “senior director, client relations.” Majewski also described himself on LinkedIn as “project manager - senior consultant” for First Energy, an Ohio based power company, a position that he stated he held since shortly after leaving the military. The company, Majewski explained in a biography posted to his website, quickly recognized him for his “intellect and leadership capabilities” Yet records from his 2009 bankruptcy raise questions about his seniority. They show he was an “outage manager” who earned about $51,000 a year. In the bankruptcy, Majewski and his wife gave up their home, two cars and a Jet Ski to settle the case, court records show. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/j-r-majewski-military-service_n_632b62e4e4b09d8701bb9e15

Cult Vibes: Trump Ends Rally In Bizarre Fashion, Leaving Crowd Mesmerized. Members of the crowd raised their hands in a weird salute to the former president. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/cult-vibes-trump-ends-rally-145326148.html

QAnon song plays and MAGA supporters give unusual finger salute as Trump speaks at JD Vance rally in Ohio, video shows. Former President Donald Trump spoke at a rally for JD Vance on Saturday in Youngstown, Ohio. A QAnon song played while he spoke about Ukraine, "Fake News," and Hunter Biden's laptop. His followers pointed their fingers to the sky. Experts say the finger salute may have also been a nod to QAnon. According to Media Matters, the US-based media watchdog, the soundtrack appears to be a song previously released online with the title "Wwg1wga" — the QAnon slogan. An unusual finger salute, which saw attendees of the Youngstown rally raise their fingers to the sky, is also being described by experts on the conspiracy theory as a potential nod to QAnon. "Some on Twitter are calling it a QAnon salute, with 1 finger for 'Where we go 1,' and Trump is playing a pro-Q song as he talks," said Will Sommer, author of an upcoming book on QAnon, in a tweet on Saturday. https://news.yahoo.com/qanon-song-plays-maga-supporters-102043124.html

Mitch McConnell greatly damaged US democracy with quiet, chess-like moves. While Trump’s coup attempt may have failed, McConnell’s own machinations have proven highly effective. Another brazen GOP action, however, has succeeded – this one engineered by the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, whose chess-like skills of political strategizing put to shame Trump’s powerful but limited game of bluster and bullying. The act to which I refer is McConnell’s theft of Barack Obama’s 2016 appointment to the supreme court, a radical deed that has dimmed somewhat in public consciousness even as it proved crucial to fashioning a rightwing supreme court willing to overturn Roe v Wade and to destabilize American politics and American democracy in the process. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/15/us-supreme-court-mitch-mcconell-conservative-judges-democracy

The Enigma of Peter Thiel. There Is No Enigma — He's a Fascist. Thiel’s libertarianism is about freedom—freedom for him and people like him, the entrepreneurial elite of the capitalist class. He’s openly antidemocratic. In an essay for the Cato Institute, Thiel once wrote, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible…” Why? Because if you empower the demos, they will eventually vote for restrictions on the power of capitalists. and therefore, restrictions on their “freedom.” He continues, “Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of ‘capitalist democracy‘ into an oxymoron.” In that 2009 essay, Thiel imagines a kind of futurist program of utopian projects “beyond politics” in cyberspace or “seasteading,” but it’s clear now he’s returned to believing in politics, or at least an anti-political form of politics. https://johnganz.substack.com/p/the-enigma-of-peter-thiel

New book claims Steve Bannon admitted Trump ‘would lie about anything’ Bannon, according to sources in Jonathan Lemire’s Big Lie, said Trump lies ‘to win whatever exchange he [is] having at that moment’ Lemire writes that “even for Bannon, Trump was something new. The chief strategist told me that Trump ‘was not looking to win a news cycle, he was looking to win a news moment, a news second.’ Lemire, citing sources, added: “An at-times shell-shocked Bannon would relay to aides that ‘Trump would say anything, he would lie about anything to win that moment, to win whatever exchange he was having at that moment.’ “Entire campaign proposals had to be written on the fly, policy plans reverse engineered, teams of aides immediately mobilised to meet whatever floated through Trump’s head in that moment to defend his record, put down a reporter, or change a chyron on CNN.” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jul/16/steve-bannon-trump-would-lie-about-anything-book-jonathan-lemire

Pence endorses in Arizona governor’s race, putting him at odds with Trump. Pence and Trump, who are considering 2024 presidential runs, will both campaign in Arizona on Friday. Former vice president Mike Pence is endorsing Arizona gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson, a developer who has long been involved in Republican politics, instead of former president Donald Trump’s chosen candidate, Kari Lake, a former TV anchor who continues to falsely claim that the 2020 election was “stolen.” The endorsement comes two months after Pence and other prominent Republicans lined up behind Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), whom Trump targeted for certifying the 2020 election. Kemp won in a landslide. But Arizona’s gubernatorial primary appears far tighter, raising the stakes for Pence. Split-screen campaign events Friday will underscore Pence’s breaks from the former president since he, too, defied pressure to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/18/pence-arizona-governor-karrin-taylor-robson/

Marjorie Taylor Greene says man who sexually harassed AOC should be thanked [with amusing update] https://boingboing.net/2022/07/15/marjorie-taylor-greene-says-a-thank-you-is-owed-to-the-man-who-sexually-harassed-aoc.html @RonFilipkowski Since she has no interest legislating, and nothing else to do, Marge takes a break from podcasts to continue her daily crusade to have the staffer fired who put stickers on her ‘Two Genders’ sign. Now she is saying it was a “hate crime.” https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1547994257763344386

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Says Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Should Thank Her Sexual Harasser. Greene featured the harasser on her podcast and called his lewd shouts "quite the compliment." “I think women should be confident,” Greene said. “And if a man gives you a compliment, a woman can say ‘thank you.’” Patriot Takes, an account that monitors right-wing media, posted part of the podcast interview: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ocasio-cortez-taylor-greene-harassment_n_62d113bbe4b04aa0fe660bab

A man harassed members of Congress as they walked to votes on Wednesday. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says the incident shows security issues persist at the Capitol. "These systems are not working," Ocasio-Cortez said. Our team witnessed a man, later identified as Alex Stein of the conservative website The Blaze, harassing members of Congress, including Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday night as they headed to votes. Capitol Police did not appear to intervene as the man made sexually harassing comments to Ocasio-Cortez, in particular. https://www.politico.com/minutes/congress/07-14-2022/another-security-incident/

Footage shows the "life-threatening" tap on Rudy Giuliani's back by market employee. Snowflake Rudy Giuliani nearly cracked his head and died after being "attacked" by a passerby in a supermarket (see harrowing video above). Or at least that's what the disgraced former Trump attorney is bellowing on about after a market employee slapped him on the back yesterday. "I feel a shot on my back like somebody shot me. I went forward, but luckily I didn't fall down," the skittish New York mayor-turned-slipper peddler said. "I mean, suppose I was a weaker 78-year-old and I hit the ground, cracked my skull, and died." (Yes, and suppose I walked outside and, from out of nowhere, a bolt of lightning struck me in the skull and I died.) "My back hurts, but otherwise I'm able to walk and stuff like that," continued the Big Lie promoter, who is still battling ongoing defamation lawsuits brought against him by Dominion Voting Systems. "He almost knocked me down. Thank God for a 78-year-old, I am in pretty good shape." https://boingboing.net/2022/06/27/footage-shows-the-life-threatening-tap-on-rudy-giulianis-back-by-market-employee.html https://youtu.be/VxSQ75InlVc

5 notable moments from Trump’s remarks at Faith and Freedom Coalition event

1. Trump floats pardons for Jan. 6 defendants after a potential 2024 win
2. Trump continues attacks on Pence over 2020 election certification
3. Trump claims without evidence that Jan. 6 videos shown as evidence are doctored
4. Trump asserts Capitol riot was ‘a simple protest that got out of hand‘
5. Trump bashes ‘left-wing indoctrination’ in education

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/3528846-5-notable-moments-from-trumps-remarks-at-faith-and-freedom-coalition-event/

Trump Posts Fake Video Of Him Hitting Biden In The Head With Golf Ball. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-golf-ball-strikes-biden-fake-truth-social-video_n_62ae57f6e4b0c77098aedcf7

Trump calls Pence a 'human conveyor belt' who 'didn't have courage to act' and says Democrats want to execute babies AFTER birth in speech attacking Biden, the January 6 committee and schools that let 'kindergartners pick their own gender' Former President Donald Trump slammed his former vice president on Friday He said Pence 'had a chance to be great' if he refused to certify election results Instead he behaved like a 'human conveyor belt' by delivering the votes Trump addressed religious conservatives in Nashville, Tennessee 'It was a simple protest,' he said of January 6. 'It got out of hand' https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10928309/Trump-slams-Mike-Pence-human-conveyor-belt-delivering-fraudulent-votes-January-6.html

Anti-Abortion Rep. Lauren Boebert Reportedly Had Two Abortions. The allegations were shared by the same PAC that targeted Rep. Madison Cawthorn. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Co.) reportedly had two abortions and worked as an unlicensed paid escort. During her escort work, one wealthy client in Aspen introduced her to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who subsequently encouraged Boebert to run for office. https://jezebel.com/anti-abortion-rep-lauren-boebert-reportedly-had-two-ab-1849062919

Primary election results – live: Trump rages as Dr Oz struggles and Madison Cawthorn crashes out. With almost all the results now in from Tuesday’s key primary elections, strong performances by several Donald Trump-backed candidates underscore the former president’s ongoing clout within the party – but it was far from a perfect scorecard, with North Carolina Republicans throwing out Trump-backed congressman Madison Cawthorn in his primary. Meanwhile, Mr Trump has taken to Truth Social to baselessly suggest mail-in ballots were fraudulent in Pennsylvania, where his chosen Senate candidate Dr Mehmet Oz is locked in a tight battle with former hedge fund executive David McCormick. With only a small portion of the vote yet to be counted, the two men are just a tiny number of votes apart, putting them within the 0.5-point margin that triggers an automatic recount – and raising the possibility that mail-in votes could put Mr McCormick ahead. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/primary-election-day-2022-pa-nc-b2081044.html

Trump, Don Jr., Imagine Themselves MAGA 'Royalty' In Cringey Memes https://news.yahoo.com/trump-don-jr-imagine-themselves-121639140.html

Lauren Boebert’s American Dream. The Colorado congresswoman has built her reputation as a certain kind of working-class hero. Her employees tell a different story. ABIGAIL WEINBERG The high percentage of unaffiliated voters in Boebert’s district lends a degree of unpredictability to the upcoming election, but the tea leaves seem to read in her favor. Boebert supporters, unsurprisingly, are confident that Boebert is not a fluke, but the future. “I think she’s going to become a very powerful member of the US Congress,” McInnis says. Or, as the donor who denounced “liberal crap” tells me, “Maybe she’ll be president someday.” https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/05/lauren-boebert-profile-shooters-grill-rifle-gun-obama-pay-staff-employees/

Lindsey Graham is heard praising Joe Biden as the 'best person' to lead the country in new audio while he was waiting in a 'secure location' during Jan. 6 riot The South Carolina senator called Biden the best person to unify the country 'I mean, how mad can you get at Joe Biden?' Graham asked rhetorically The audio was released by two New York Times reporters promoting a book about the 2020 election It was recorded as the Republican sought refuge from rioters on January 6, 2021 Graham sharply criticized Trump supporters after the riot Since then, he has been spotted golfing with the former president in Florida https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10803907/Lindsey-Graham-praises-Joe-Biden-best-person-lead-country-Jan-6-riot.html https://youtu.be/eprdMcZsjnQ

President Who Was Wrong Countless Times Tells Cult Followers ‘I Was Right About Everything’ Trump claimed tonight he was “right about everything” but also forgot the name of a candidate at whose rally he spoke just last week. Trump took to the stage as the Sept. 11 tribute song, “Proud to be an American,” played. He then told the crowd, “I could have gotten out of this one.” The rally, originally scheduled for Friday, had to be postponed because of potential severe weather in the area. Promoting Herbster, Trump said that the candidate accused of assault by multiple women was “a good man, a very good man.” (Trump has been credibly accused of sexual harassment or assault by at least 18 women.) https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/list-trumps-accusers-allegations-sexual-misconduct/story?id=51956410 Trump also touted other candidates he has endorsed in the 2022 elections, kind of. “We’ve endorsed Dr. Oz. We’ve endorsed J.P., right? J.D. Mandel. And he’s doing great. They’re all doing good. They’re all doing good. And let’s see what happens.” Except, J.D. Vance is the candidate Trump endorsed, not J.D. Mandel. Vance is running against Josh Mandel in Ohio’s Republican Senate primary. This, from a “stable genius” with a perfect cognitive test score and a “very, very large brain” who claims he has been “right about everything.” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-rally-charles-herbster-1345950/

Macomb County GOP ousts party leaders stuck re-litigating Trump's 2020 loss. When Macomb Township Republican Jamie Roe walked into the event at the Shelby Gardens convention space, he said the place was well on its way to being packed and that the mood was "spirited." "Last night, everyone who was focused on winning the election in 2022 had been pushed over the edge," said Roe. "Fed-up activists and elected officials joined together to remove the Executive Committee and officers from office and replace them with a new group focused solely on winning in 2022 and not on the past." Grassroots activists have a way of showing us what is happening within a party long before the first ballots are cast. What happened in Macomb is evidence that the party is ready to move on -- not necessarily beyond Trump, but certainly beyond 2020. https://news.yahoo.com/macomb-county-gop-ousts-party-173703937.html

Video shows Donald Trump struggling to say the name of his own social media platform, Truth Social. In Ohio, Trump was heard bungling the name of Truth Social, calling it "Truth Central" instead. At the same rally, Trump messed up the pronounciation of "drop box" too, calling them "drok boxes." https://www.businessinsider.com/video-shows-trump-struggling-to-name-his-truth-social-platform-2022-4

Trump Rambles About Toilets Not Flushing During Ohio Rally … Oh, and Also: Hijacking America’s Election Systems. The former president went on several laughable rants during his speech on Saturday night. He also waxed about his ongoing efforts to cut the legs out from under the democratic process. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/donald-trump-rally-delaware-ohio-jd-vance-1342199/

2022 election: Q&A with Rep. Darrell Issa, 48th Congressional District candidate. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/story/2022-04-21/2022-election-q-a-with-darrell-issa-candidate-for-californias-48th-congressional-district

In the summer of 2020, Ruth Ben-Ghiat was putting the final touches on her history of modern autocracy. She had to do it, though, without the benefit of knowing whether one of her most important subjects would remain in power come November. The genius of the “big lie” was not only that it sparked a movement that ended up with January 6 to physically allow him to stay in office. But psychologically the “big lie” was very important because it prevented his propagandized followers from having to reckon with the fact that he lost. And it maintains him as their hero, as their winner, as the invincible Trump, but also as the wronged Trump, the victim. Victimhood is extremely important for all autocrats. They always have to be the biggest victim. https://news.yahoo.com/one-way-history-shows-trump-110000336.html

GOP pollster Frank Luntz says 'Trump isn't the same man he was a year ago' He claims Republicans are mocking and laughing at the former president behind his back and 'think he's a child' Republicans, he says, are fed up with Trump pushing 2020 election fraud claims Comments come after New Hampshire GOP Governor Chris Sununu said during the Gridiron Dinner in D.C. on Saturday that Trump is 'f***ing crazy' He said: 'I don't think he's so crazy he should be in a mental asylum. But if he's in one, he's not getting out' 'I don't know a single Republican who was surprised by what Sununu said,' Luntz said https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10714987/Pollster-says-Republicans-mock-child-Trump-private-tired-talking-2020-election.html

Donald Trump has long equated crowd size with success ― reportedly even bragging of the size of the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to block the certification of the election and keep him in power. GOP strategist Susan Del Percio said Trump is now falling short by that measure as his rally crowds decrease in size. “That’s what you saw there: a very shrinking base,” she told MSNBC’s Cori Coffin one day after Trump addressed a surprisingly sparse crowd in Selma, North Carolina. Local newspaper The News & Observer reported that Trump spoke to about 1,000 to 2,000 people ― a far cry from the 15,000 who turned out for him at the same venue in 2016. https://news.yahoo.com/gop-strategist-spots-ominous-warning-050550956.html https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article260270845.html

Mike Pence launches his midterms 'Freedom Agenda' to 'stop the radical left' - and jabs at Trump by saying Democrats would 'love nothing more than for conservatives to talk about the past' Former Vice President Mike Pence launched his 'Freedom Agenda' Thursday that outlines policy positions he argued conservative candidates can use to win He told Fox News Digital it was important for the conservative party to 'rally around a bold, optimistic agenda' Pence said Democrats would 'love nothing more for conservatives to talk about the past' The former VP is walking a thin line between touting what he and Trump accomplished and not further calling attention to his rift with the ex-president. With Trumpworld turned against him, Pence is trying to carve out areas where he can have clout within the Republican Party. The 'Freedom Agenda' is split into three sections: American Culture, American Opportunity, American Freedom. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10673793/Mike-Pence-launches-midterms-Freedom-Agenda.html

Trump, who was impeached in 2019 for his request to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he do Trump a "favor" by investigating Joe Biden's son Hunter, told right-wing television host John Solomon in an interview published Tuesday that he wanted Russian President Vladimir Putin to shed light on unverified reports that Biden's son received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Yelena Baturina, the wife of Moscow's former mayor. “She gave him $3.5 million, so now I would think Putin would know the answer to that,” Trump told Solomon. “I think he should release it. I think we should know that answer.” “How is it that the mayor of Moscow, his wife, gave the Biden family three and a half million dollars?” he continued. “I think Putin now would be willing to probably give that answer. I’m sure he knows.” https://news.yahoo.com/trump-solicits-putins-help-to-expose-alleged-dirt-on-hunter-biden-181900886.html

Trump Degrades His Own General as an ‘Idiot’ Before Gushing Over ‘Smart’ Kim Jong-un. Trump once again finds himself praising an autocrat who doesn’t care about democracy. Funny how that keeps happening. Before Donald Trump took the stage in Commerce, Georgia for a campaign-style rally Saturday night, those in attendance were shown a monologue by General George Patton. It wasn’t the actual Patton; like most what took place on stage Saturday night, it was someone acting a part. In this case, it was the general as played by George C. Scott in the 1970 Academy Award-winning film Patton. Within the hour, Trump had called the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — Gen. Mark Milley — a “freaking idiot.” “Where the hell are our General Pattons?” Trump exclaimed, before rehashing an alleged dialogue he had with Milley, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who’d also held that role under Trump. According to Trump — who, as a reminder, lies a lot — Milley advocated for leaving certain American-made weapons in Afghanistan during the withdrawal of U.S. forces while Trump thought otherwise. (Trump also claimed that the United States left some $85 billion of equipment in the country, but the real number is $18 billion, according to an Associated Press fact check.) “Sir, it’s cheaper to leave the equipment than to take it out, sir,” Trump said, giving an impression of Milley, whom he nominated as chairman in 2018. “That’s when I realized he was a freaking idiot,” Trump blurted out, in a near replica of comments he made about the general late last year at Mar-a-Lago. “I’ll never forget it. I said, ‘This guy says it’s cheaper to leave all this equipment.'” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-rally-north-korea-mark-milley-1327392/

Trump's Georgia Rally Sees 'Smallest Crowd' in State Since 2016: Reporters. Former President Donald Trump's Georgia rally on Saturday failed to draw the number of supporters he has been accustomed to in the southern state, according to multiple journalists covering the event. Trump held the event in support of several of Georgia's Republican primary candidates in Commerce, Georgia, which is about an hour drive northeast of Atlanta. While the former president has regularly seen tens of thousands attend his events in the state, as well as other states across the country, journalists assessed that the crowd size was underwhelming this weekend. "I've covered more than two dozen Trump rallies around the nation. This is the smallest crowd I've seen at a rally of his in Georgia since he won the 2016 election—significantly smaller than the crowd in Perry in September," Greg Bluestein, a political reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweeted. Fowler also reported that people in attendance began "streaming out" even as Trump was still speaking. "People keep leaving during Trump speech. It's cold and windy and there's not much enthusiasm," he wrote. He also shared photos from different times during the event, showing that the venue got emptier as the former president spoke. https://www.newsweek.com/trumps-georgia-rally-sees-smallest-crowd-state-since-2016-reporters-1692212

Peter Thiel-tied dark money group helping bankroll super PAC spending on 2022 election. A “dark money” group tied to billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel steered hundreds of thousands of dollars into a super PAC spending on Ohio’s Senate race in support of “Hillbilly Elegy” author J.D. Vance, who worked at Thiel’s venture capital firm. Vance faces a crowded field of Republican contenders in the Ohio Senate race with a primary scheduled for May 3. The pro-Vance super PAC, Protect Ohio Values, received $200,000 from a group called Per Aspera Policy. Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook, also gave $10 million to the pro-Vance super PAC during the first half of 2021 but the super PAC did not report any money received from Thiel during the second half of the year. https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2022/02/peter-thiel-tied-dark-money-group-helping-bankroll-super-pac-spending-on-2022-election/

A weakened Trump? As some voters edge away, he battles parts of the Republican Party he once ran. The former president’s power within the party and his continued focus on personal grievances is increasingly questioned behind closed doors at Republican gatherings, according to interviews with more than a dozen prominent Republicans in Washington and across the country, including some Trump advisers. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity because there remains significant fear of attracting Trump’s public wrath. The growing split is rooted in diverging priorities: Trump has pursued a narrow effort to punish those who challenged his efforts to overturn the 2020 election result, while also working to put people in power who would be more sympathetic to him should he try the same thing again. Other Republicans are more focused on finding palatable candidates most able to win in November. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/13/trump-politics-weakness/

Confederate Flags, Conspiracies, and the Ghost of JFK Jr.: What I Saw at Trump’s Bananas Texas Rally. It’s part roadshow and part religious revival, but the show is a grift and the religion being revived is fascism. We were in one of the reddest counties in one of the reddest states, and it showed: When I arrived at the press check-in station, the first thing I saw was a merchandise vendor with a Confederate flag — the banner of a nation that lasted only 4 years before being routed out of existence — that says “Come And Take It.” It was set up directly across from a wooden cross. Having attended the prior rally in Arizona and the Lara Trump event on Thursday, a twisted sense of deja vu came over me when I got into the venue and began to hear the same songs, watch the same videos, listen to the same speeches, and see the same people. There were many familiar faces — election conspiracy peddling MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and the JFK Jr. obsessed QAnon cult leader Michael Protzman — and in some instances, near word for word repeats of previous events. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-texas-rally-conspiracies-ghost-of-jfk-jr-1292592/

They’re Too Extreme for QAnon — and Right at Home at Trump’s Rally. Michael Protzman tells his followers that JFK Jr. and other dead celebrities are helping Trump catch a global cabal of pedophiles. Saturday night, he was seated with the VIPs. Florence, Ariz. — One full day before Trump spoke to an estimated 15,000 die-hard Republicans in Arizona, a group of JFK Jr. obsessed QAnon fanatics arrived at the venue grounds here. They drove all the way from Dallas, Texas, where they’ve been holed up in a Hyatt hotel for over two months amid a series of failed prophecies that JFK Jr. would return from the dead. The first among them was Stephen Tenner, right hand man to the group’s leader Michael Protzman. “I’m the first person and only person,” Tenner said in a video posted on social media. “I’m the number one mofo.” Tenner was later joined by Protzman and about two dozen members of this cultish group, whose months-long antics in Dallas have worried locals and drawn national attention. Protzman is a QAnon influencer who peddles a form of religious numerology known as “gematria,” which he infuses into his interpretations of QAnon theories. Protzman uses gematria to promote the idea that he is in direct contact with both the Kennedy family — which he believes are direct descendants of Jesus Christ — and members of the Trump inner circle. His group also trafficks in a wide range of outlandish conspiracy beliefs such as that long dead famous people such as Michael Jackson and JFK Jr. faked their deaths and are working with Donald Trump in secret to take down a global satanic pedophile cabal. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-rally-qanon-jkf-conspiracy-1286053/

Trump kicks off midterm year still stuck on last election. The former president delivers Jan. 6 rebuttal in Arizona, home to ground zero in the “Stop the Steal” movement’s fraudulent push to find evidence that the 2020 election was rigged. Trump, speaking at a podium emblazoned with “Save America,” opened his speech by falsely claiming “proof” that the 2020 election was “rigged.” As he vowed Republicans will take over the House and Senate in 2022, and sweep governors races across the country, an energized sea of supporters cheered at the Country Thunder festival grounds. “The fake news and the lamestream media … they refused to talk about it,” Trump said of his false election claims. “They say, ‘well it is unsubstantiated and the big lie.’ The big lie. The big lie is a lot of bullshit. That’s what it is.” “If an election were held today, we would trounce them so badly in a landslide in every way, just as we really did on Nov. 3. We trounced them. If we had an honest press, the election would have been much different,” Trump said, spreading more falsehoods about the election he lost by over 7 million votes. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/15/trump-kicks-off-midterm-year-still-stuck-on-last-election-527197

MAGA hats and QAnon: Inside Trump’s first rally of 2022. The former president hit all the notes in his rally in Arizona on Saturday. The question is: Is this a precursor to a reelection bid? https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/16/trump-first-rally-2022-maga-527206

Civil War

Jan. 6 witness Rusty Bowers says Constitution ‘hanging by a thread’ after election loss. “The Constitution is hanging by a thread,” Bowers told The Guardian. “The funny thing is, I always thought it would be the other guys. And it’s my side. That just rips at my heart: that we would be the people who would surrender the constitution in order to win an election. That just blows my mind.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/20/rusty-bowers-interview-trump-arizona-republicans https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3609531-jan-6-witness-rusty-bowers-says-constitution-hanging-by-a-thread-after-election-loss/

The FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago unleashed the latest barrage of threats of violence, on top of a wave of threats against election workers and rising weapons sales. Dr Garen Wintemute used to laugh off warnings of a civil war coming to America as “crazy talk”. Then the emergency room doctor in California saw the figures for gun sales. Wintemute, who founded a centre to research firearms violence after years of treating gunshot wounds, had long observed that the rush to buy weapons came in waves, often around a presidential election. Always it fell back again. “Then in January of 2020 gun sales took off. Just an unprecedented surge in purchasing and that surge continued,” he said. “We were aware that, contrary to prior surges, this one wasn’t ending. People are still buying guns like crazy.” Many were buying a weapon for the first time. Wintemute wanted answers and they stunned him. A survey for his California Firearm Violence Research Center released last month showed that half of Americans expect a civil war in the United States in the next few years. One in five thought political violence was justified in some circumstances. In addition, while almost everyone said it was important for the US to remain a democracy, about 40% said that having a strong leader was more important. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.15.22277693v1.full https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/20/us-political-violence-civil-war

Primaries & special elections

Democrat Mary Peltola won the special election for Alaska’s only U.S. House seat on Wednesday, besting a field that included Republican Sarah Palin, who was seeking a political comeback in the state where she was once governor. Peltola’s victory, coming in Alaska’s first statewide ranked choice voting election, is a boon for Democrats, particularly coming off better-than-expected performances in special elections around the country this year following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. She will be the first Democrat to hold the seat since the late U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, who was seeking reelection in 1972 when his plane disappeared. Begich was later declared dead and Young in 1973 was elected to the seat. https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-sarah-palin-voting-government-and-politics-f9855f1138a922ab1147da7900819fa8

2024 Election

Sasse inflames GOP with anti-Trump video. If the GOP’s fervor for the former president fades to any degree, Sasse will be better positioned than anyone to capitalize. Sen. Ben Sasse's political prospects rest on a longer view of the Republican Party — and an uncertain bet that eventually it will shift away from former President Donald Trump. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/05/ben-sasse-2024-466424 https://youtu.be/-jCnUHNeTkg

GQP, Trump

Defiant Trump drops hint he STILL wants to run in 2024 - hours after FBI raid: Says America is 'in decline' and 'the best is yet to come' as MAGA supporters line streets by Mar-a-Lago and Republicans warn of revenge Donald Trump posted the ad to Truth Social late Monday night, calling America 'a nation in decline' The former president promised a political future for himself where he proclaimed that 'the best is yet to come' The ad was posted just hours after the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago residence and just after he was spotted leaving Trump Tower in New York City Lara Trump appeared on Fox News on Monday and said Trump could 'announce any day' his 2024 bid The FBI raid Monday is reportedly part of an investigation regarding Trump taking classified documents from the White House to his Florida residence Supporters gathered outside Mar-a-Lago to protest the raid and show supporter for the former president https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11094125/Trump-posts-apocalyptic-ad-calls-America-nation-decline.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11094125/Trump-posts-apocalyptic-ad-calls-America-nation-decline.html#v-1301251556321899799

Navarro urges Trump to skip planned DC speech: I had to fight ‘Brother Larry’ Kudlow on daily basis. The former Trump White House adviser slammed members of America First Policy Institute AFPI’s think tank and leadership, including former Energy Secretary Rick Perry, former National Security Council Chief Fred Fleitz and former economic adviser Larry Kudlow. Navarro also called those associated with AFPI “grifters” and claimed that their “broader agenda” might be to “hijack the political attractiveness of Trumpism but replace Trump with an AFPI-anointed RINO.” https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/3574324-navarro-urges-trump-to-skip-planned-dc-speech-i-had-to-fight-brother-larry-kudlow-on-daily-basis/

America First Policy Institute (AFPI) At the beginning of 2020, a small group of President Donald Trump’s top advisers huddled at the White House to craft a second-term policy agenda for the next administration. Brooke Rollins, the domestic policy adviser, Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, and Robert O’Brien, Trump’s national security adviser, initially teamed up, sometimes working from white boards in the West Wing. They were joined at times by Ivanka Trump, Kellyanne Conway and Russ Vought, Trump’s Office of Management and Budget director, along with various policy aides. By the summer of 2020, the group produced a two-page document called “Vision 2025,” reviewed by POLITICO, that outlined 10 priorities. Some of those goals include job creation and low unemployment, expansion of affordable housing, eradicating Covid-19, reducing federal bureaucracy, cracking down on crime and illegal immigration, passing congressional term limits, and ending foreign war and reliance on China. There are social and cultural issues, too. But it doesn’t take on a central focus, at least not to the degree that has animated the right since Trump left office. Rollins, for one, did not want to get ahead of AFPI when asked about endorsing a national abortion ban in the wake of the striking down of Roe, but applauded the high court for giving the decision to the states. Rollins, Kudlow and others haven’t discarded their project, though. Instead, they turned it into a blueprint for a new non-profit, the America First Policy Institute, often described as a “White House in waiting.” https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/25/trump-america-first-policy-institute-think-tank-00047634

Trump Has Floated Giving MAGA Extremists — Including Lou Dobbs — Cabinet Gigs if He Wins in 2024. The former president is considering gutting the government and installing loyalists like the former Fox Business lackey should he win back the White House. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-plotting-stock-government-loyalists-lou-dobbs-1387008/

‘Trump 2025’ Plan Would Bring in Jan. 6 Allies, Gut Everyone Else if He Is Re-Elected, Axios Reports. Ex-president is preparing to turn the federal government upside down to serve his own political agenda if he is re-elected, according to an Axios investigation. After speaking with close allies of the former president, Axios reports Trump would purge staff at the Justice Department, State Department, and Pentagon in his early days back in the Oval Office in 2025. The outlet’s investigation says the plan would be based around an executive order called “Schedule F,” which was secretly developed and then publicly launched in October 2020 before being rescinded by President Biden. The order established a new category of employment for federal workers. Trump would resurrect the order if he returns to the White House, which would see thousands of workers who have an influence on policy reassigned as “Schedule F” employees. After being reassigned, the staff would lose their employment protections. An estimate from a Trump official who worked on the order said that as many as 50,000 workers could be subject to such a reassignment. If he became president again, Trump could theoretically fire tens of thousands of them without the employees having any ability to appeal their sacking. He could then fill the vacancies with people he deems more loyal to him and his “America First” program. Such a plan would completely gut the American civil service and could potentially burden future presidents with the decision of bringing in their own partisans to replace those of their predecessors. While Trump allies say they wouldn’t need to fire all 50,000 workers, sacking a cohort of particular “bad apples” at every agency affected would achieve the desired “behavior change” from the federal government. They said they believe the implementation of Schedule F will finally curtail the “farce” of Republican presidents being sabotaged by an ostensibly nonpartisan civil service, which is, in their belief, staffed by liberals. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-2025-plan-will-gut-govt-with-mass-firings-bring-in-jan-6-allies-if-re-elected-axios-reports

Trump Tells Team He Needs to Be President Again to Save Himself from Criminal Probes. The former president is planning on running for the White House — and away from the law. In recent months, Trump has made clear to associates that the legal protections of occupying the Oval Office are front-of-mind for him, four people with knowledge of the situation tell Rolling Stone. Trump has “spoken about how when you are the president of the United States, it is tough for politically motivated prosecutors to ‘get to you,” says one of the sources, who has discussed the issue with Trump this summer. “He says when [not if] he is president again, a new Republican administration will put a stop to the [Justice Department] investigation that he views as the Biden administration working to hit him with criminal charges — or even put him and his people in prison.” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-2024-criminal-probes-jan6-1384379/

Trump Says He ‘May Have To’ Run in 2024 During Rambling, Lie-Filled South Carolina Rally Speech. “In 2024 we are going to take back that beautiful, beautiful White House,” the former president said. “I wonder who will do that. I wonder. I wonder.” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/donald-trump-florence-south-carolina-rally-1320483/

Trump told GOP donors that North Korea's Kim Jong Un had ability to make his advisers 'cower,' jokingly saying he also wants his staff to 'act like that'. https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-wishes-staff-obedient-kim-jong-uns-nkorea-wapo-2022-3 "We will see a Republican president reclaim that beautiful White House in 2024. I wonder who that might be." https://twitter.com/politicoalex/status/1500315410750709760

The Republican National Committee is considering a change in its bylaws that would prohibit GOP presidential candidates from participating in presidential debates put on by the Commission on Presidential Debates. "So long as the CPD appears intent on stonewalling the meaningful reforms necessary to restore its credibility with the Republican Party as a fair and nonpartisan actor, the RNC will take every step to ensure that future Republican presidential nominees are given that opportunity elsewhere," RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel wrote in a letter Thursday to Frank Fahrenkopf and Kenneth Wollack, co-chairs of the debate commission. McDaniel said the party would initiate the rules change at its upcoming winter meeting, slated for February in Salt Lake City. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/rnc-threatens-bar-candidates-participating-official-presidential-debates-n1287427

Trump’s 2024 veep tryouts get underway. The question of Trump’s prospective choice of running mate is surfacing with increasing frequency. “A lot of times, a presidential candidate will pick a running mate to balance out wings of the party. But with Trump, that’s not the issue. He is the party, basically. It’s so united behind him,” said John McLaughlin, one of Trump’s campaign pollsters. “So his choice, if he runs, will come down to what he wants. It would be a much more personal decision this time.” Trump hasn’t made his 2024 bid official. He’s expected to make a decision after the 2022 midterms. But he has been building a campaign-in-waiting that is already laying groundwork, and the question of a running mate is surfacing with increasing frequency. He’s name-dropped Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as one possible running mate. Veepstakes speculation rose among insiders who saw him interact recently with South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at his Mar-a-Lago club. “They’re all begging me. They all come here,” Trump boasted to one adviser, who shared the account anonymously with POLITICO. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/29/trump-vice-president-choice-2024-523429

Pence says he looked to James Madison as he certified the 2020 election for Biden. The Des Moines Register reported that Pence also compared Trump favorably to former President Ronald Reagan, describing both men as “one of a kind.” https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/01/politics/mike-pence-james-madison-2020-election/index.html

Grisham thinks Trump will run in 2024 and have no 'guardrails'. “I think he is going to run again and you know that's why I'm speaking out the way I am. I don't want him to run again,” Grisham told “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd on NBC. “I think people aren't remembering that if he does run again in 2024, he'll have no guardrails because he will never have to worry about reelection, so he will do whatever he wants. He will hire whomever he wants, and I think that includes people of the January 6 mind,” she said, referring to the mob attack on the Capitol that led to Trump's second impeachment. https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/576124-grisham-thinks-trump-will-run-in-2024-and-have-no-guardrails

Thoughts on Trump's rally in Des Moines, Saturday, October 09, 2021 and the value of Trump coverage more broadly. You may be done with Trump. But Trump is not done with you. https://aaronrupar.substack.com/p/trump-rally-des-moines-iowa-grassley

Bannon fires up 'shock troops' for next GOP White House. Trump often railed publicly about career civil servants and Obama administration political appointee holdovers whom he saw as obstacles to his agenda, referring to them collectively as the "deep state." Bannon said he wants to see pre-trained teams ready to jump into federal agencies when the next Republican president takes office. For the most part, that means the tiers of presidential appointees whose postings don't require Senate confirmation. "We’re going to have a sweeping victory in 2022 and that’s just the preamble to a sweeping victory in 2024, and this time we’re going to be ready — and have a MAGA perspective, MAGA policies, not the standard Republican policies," he said, referring to Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan and describing a 2024 electoral victory as a "second term." The launch party Wednesday drew a crowd of roughly 200 former officials from multiple Republican administrations — though mostly Trump appointees — according to a person who attended and is not one of the organizers of the group. Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, a former Broadcasting Board of Governors official who is one of the organizers of the group said organizers are still trying to determine who will lead the association, but he said the need for institutional memory is apparent. "What we’re hoping to do is build a base of people that can be available as a support system for political appointees who are coming in for the first time," he said. "It’s easy, if you know the rules, to accomplish your objective." https://news.yahoo.com/bannon-fires-shock-troops-next-083009240.html

Trump on what would prevent 2024 bid: 'I guess a bad call from a doctor' https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/573918-trump-on-what-would-prevent-2024-bid-i-guess-a-bad-call-from-a-doctor

Trump’s Long Campaign to Steal the Presidency: A Timeline The insurrection was a complex, yearslong plot, not a one-day event. And it isn’t over. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-campaign-steal-presidency-timeline.html

President Trump said that his one-time close ally and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley can't decide how she feels about him. 'Every time she criticizes me, she uncriticizes me about 15 minutes later,' the former president told Vanity Fair. Haley, who hadn't spoken to Trump since that the riot, was doubtful that he would ever run again. 'I think he's going to find himself further and further isolated,' Haley said. 'I think his business is suffering at this point. I think he's lost any sort of political viability he was going to have. I think he's lost his social media, which meant the world to him. I mean, I think he's lost the things that really could have kept him moving.' Haley is now stuck in limbo along with every other Republican considering a run for the presidency. 'It's a holding pattern,' a frustrated Haley adviser told Vanity Fair. 'It's unlike any previous race.' Trump refuses to say whether he'll run in 2024, but told Fox News' Sean Hannity in August: 'Let me put it this way, I think you’ll be happy and I think a lot of our friends will be very happy.' Insiders believe he is basking in the 'will he or won't he' agony other prospective Republicans are grappling with. 'Knowing Trump, he’ll dangle it right up to the New Hampshire primary filing deadline,' one Trump confidant said. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9952619/Trump-tears-ex-ally-potential-2024-rival-Nikki-Haley.html

Donald Trump coming to Alabama for rally in Cullman on Aug. 21. The event at York Family Farms begins at 2 p.m. with music and speakers. The former president is scheduled to speak at 7 p.m. York Family Farms 1872 County Road 469 Cullman, AL 35057 https://www.al.com/news/2021/08/reports-donald-trump-coming-to-alabama-for-rally-in-cullman-on-aug-21.html https://goo.gl/maps/H92RVdm1vjtUNrpc8

Pence flatlines as 2024 field takes shape. “There are some Trump supporters who think he’s the Antichrist,” said one Iowa GOP official. Mike Pence was met by a respectful, even warm, crowd in his first trip back to Iowa since the election. Republicans at a picnic in the northwestern corner of the state stood and clapped for him on Friday. In Des Moines later that afternoon, a ballroom full of Christian conservatives did the same. He was “honorable,” a “man of faith,” attendees at the annual Family Leadership Summit said. Evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats called him “a very consistent conservative voice in Congress and then as governor, and then as vice president.” Six months after he left the vice presidency, that is the prevailing view at the grassroots and among the GOP political class. By most accounts, both here and nationally, Pence is dead in the early waters of 2024. Stuart Spencer, the famed Republican strategist who advised Ronald Reagan, said he concluded that Pence was a “sincere guy and has a belief system” when Pence refused to be cowed by Trump on Jan. 6. But he doubted that will do him any good in 2024. “The Trump people don’t like him, and all the people who were anti-Trump don’t like him,” Spencer said. For Pence, he said, “That’s not a big Lincoln Day dinner.” https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/19/pence-flatlines-2024-499919

Donald Trump May Already Be Violating Campaign Laws “Trump—if you believe what he’s saying—has already decided. So if he ends up getting in the race, that would mean he had made the decision as of now, and should be filing FEC reports as a candidate.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-may-already-be-violating-campaign-laws

Biden

Watch Biden's grinning response to whether he'd be up for a rematch against Trump https://boingboing.net/2021/12/23/watch-bidens-grinning-response-to-whether-hed-be-up-for-a-rematch-against-trump.html

Warnings

‘Slow-motion insurrection’: How GOP seizes election power. In battleground states and beyond, Republicans are taking hold of the once-overlooked machinery of elections. While the effort is incomplete and uneven, outside experts on democracy and Democrats are sounding alarms, warning that the United States is witnessing a “slow-motion insurrection” with a better chance of success than Trump’s failed power grab last year. They point to a mounting list of evidence: Several candidates who deny Trump’s loss are running for offices that could have a key role in the election of the next president in 2024. In Michigan, the Republican Party is restocking members of obscure local boards that could block approval of an election. In Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, the GOP-controlled legislatures are backing open-ended “reviews” of the 2020 election, modeled on a deeply flawed look-back in Arizona. The efforts are poised to fuel disinformation and anger about the 2020 results for years to come. All this comes as the Republican Party has become more aligned behind Trump, who has made denial of the 2020 results a litmus test for his support. Trump has praised the Jan. 6 rioters and backed primaries aimed at purging lawmakers who have crossed him. Sixteen GOP governors have signed laws making it more difficult to vote. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll showed that two-thirds of Republicans do not believe Democrat Joe Biden was legitimately elected as president. The result, experts say, is that another baseless challenge to an election has become more likely, not less. https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-united-states-elections-electoral-college-election-2020-809215812f4bc6e5907573ba98247c0c

Generals Warn Of Divided Military And Possible Civil War In Next U.S. Coup Attempt. “With the country still as divided as ever, we must take steps to prepare for the worst,” wrote former Army Major Gen. Paul Eaton, former Brigadier Gen. Steven Anderson and former Army Major Gen. Antonio Taguba. As the nation nears the first anniversary of the Capitol riot, the generals are “increasingly concerned about the aftermath of the 2024 presidential election and the potential for lethal chaos inside our military, which would put all Americans at severe risk,” they wrote in The Washington Post. The “lack of military preparedness for the aftermath of the 2020 election was striking and worrying. Trump’s acting defense secretary, Christopher Miller, testified that he deliberately withheld military protection of the Capitol before Jan. 6,” the generals noted. That can’t happen again, they emphasized. Military leaders can’t wait for elected officials to take adequate action to prepare for the next time. “Not a single leader who inspired” the last attempt has even been “held to account,” the generals noted. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/2024-election-coup-military-participants_n_61bd52f2e4b0bcd2193f3d72

117th Congress, 2021-2022

117th Congress, 2021-2022

Leadership

Democrats

Republicans

none

Elaine Chao's Excuse For Using the DOT As Her Father's Personal PR Agency: I'm Asian! https://theslot.jezebel.com/elaine-chaos-excuse-for-using-the-dot-as-her-fathers-pe-1846405101

Revealed: DOJ declined to investigate Mitch McConnell's Transport Secretary wife Elaine Chao after inspector general probe said she used her office for personal tasks and to promote her family's shipping firm. A report made public on Wednesday said Chao used her staff and office for personal tasks and to promote her family's shipping company. The report also said DOT staff assisted in the marketing of Chao's father's biography and edited his Wikipedia page. It was given to the Justice Department who declined to open a criminal investigation, but said there 'may be ethical and/or administrative issues to address' regarding Chao's actions detailed in the report. Chao has denied wrongdoing, saying promoting her family was an appropriate part of her official duties. Chao is the wife of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9325009/DOJ-declined-investigate-ex-transport-chief-Elaine-Chao-report-claimed-misused-role.html

Senate Judiciary Committee

Incoming Senate Judiciary chairman wants to hold Garland hearing Monday. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the incoming chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he wants to hold confirmation hearing for Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland on Feb. 8, a day before the impeachment trial of former President Trump begins in the Senate. https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/congress-trump-impeachment-2-03-21/h_bb0b9b9967fca5ff70ef7561ba6c6c00

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) rejected a Democratic request on Monday to schedule a confirmation hearing next week for Merrick Garland, President Biden's pick to be attorney general. Though Democrats have the Senate majority, Graham is still the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman because the chamber hasn't yet passed an organizing resolution for the 117th Congress. https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/536874-graham-shoots-down-request-for-feb-8-merrick-garland-hearing

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/about/members

Senate Judiciary Committee, January 2021

REPUBLICAN MEMBERS	DEMOCRATIC MEMBERS
Lesley Graham (SC)	Dianne Feinstein (CA)
Chuck Grassley (IA)	Patrick Leahy (VT)
John Cornyn (TX)	Dick Durbin (IL)
Michael S. Lee (UT)	Sheldon Whitehouse (RI)
Ted Cruz (TX)	Amy Klobuchar (MN)
Ben Sasse (NE)	Christopher A. Coons (DE)
Joshua D. Hawley (MO)	Richard Blumenthal (CT)
Thom Tillis (NC)	Mazie Hirono (HI)
Thom Tillis (NC)	Cory Booker (NJ)
Joni Ernst (IA)	Kamala Harris (CA)
Mike Crapo (ID)
John Kennedy (LA)
Marsha Blackburn (TN)

Republican/Nazi Party/Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Threat to Democracy

'A Crisis Coming': The Twin Threats to American Democracy. The first threat is acute: a growing movement inside one of the country’s two major parties — the Republican Party — to refuse to accept defeat in an election. The second threat to democracy is chronic but also growing: The power to set government policy is becoming increasingly disconnected from public opinion. The run of recent Supreme Court decisions — both sweeping and, according to polls, unpopular — highlights this disconnect. Although the Democratic Party has won the popular vote in seven of the past eight presidential elections, a Supreme Court dominated by Republican appointees seems poised to shape American politics for years, if not decades. And the court is only one of the means through which policy outcomes are becoming less closely tied to the popular will. Two of the past four presidents have taken office despite losing the popular vote. Senators representing a majority of Americans are often unable to pass bills, partly because of the increasing use of the filibuster. Even the House, intended as the branch of the government that most reflects the popular will, does not always do so because of the way districts are drawn. “We are far and away the most countermajoritarian democracy in the world,” said Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard University and a co-author of the book “How Democracies Die,” with Daniel Ziblatt. https://news.yahoo.com/crisis-coming-twin-threats-american-165338461.html

Republican/Nazi Party/Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, archived September 17, 2022

Teenage kicks! Shocking moment Marjorie Taylor Greene strikes Gen Z gun control activist with her foot after the girl walked in front of her at Capitol Video shows the Georgia Republican leaving a news conference as a pair of activists heckle her on gun violence At one point, an activist walks in front of her and Greene kicks the 18-year-old to get her out of the way 'Excuse me,' Greene says, appearing to step on Pecora's heel. 'Excuse me,' she says again, appearing to take aim at the back of Pecora's leg 'Did she literally just tweet out the video of her kicking me?' Pecora wrote on Twitter when Greene posted the exchange Greene blasted the teenager on Twitter while the heckler threatened legal action https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11219737/Shocking-moment-Marjorie-Taylor-Greene-kicks-teenage-activist-walked-her.html

Rep. Issa Splits with San Diego Delegation in Votes on Assault Weapons, Wildfires https://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2022/07/30/rep-issa-splits-with-san-diego-delegation-in-votes-on-assault-weapons-wildfires/

Callous GOP Fist-Bump After Holding Up Aid For Burn-Pit Veterans Sparks Fury. The gloating was particularly hard to take after Republicans blocked medical help for vets, many of whom are suffering from cancer. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ted-cruz-steve-daines-fist-bump-blocking-burn-pit-veterans_n_62e4b68ae4b0c60a5668673d

Video resurfaces of Rand Paul admitting ‘misinformation works’ amid Dr Fauci accusations. Republican advised medical students that ‘misinformation works, so try to trick your opponents’ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/rand-paul-dr-fauci-misinformation-b1991603.html

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/boebert-wears-drill-baby-drill-outfit-sotu-message-biden

Lauren Boebert Heckles Biden as He Honors Dead Soldiers During State of the Union. “You put them in, 13 of them,” the Colorado lawmaker yelled, referring to service members who died in Afghanistan last summer, as the president spoke of his late son. Trashing Biden as he spoke about the death of his son wasn’t the only time Boebert heckled the president on Tuesday night. She and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) kicked off the night by turning their backs on Biden’s Cabinet. Later, they chanted “Build the Wall” as Biden pushed for immigration reform. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/lauren-boebert-marjorie-taylor-greene-joe-biden-state-of-the-union-1314969/

Republican Reps Issa and Green mock Biden’s absence from DC – while he was known to be attending funeral. EXCLUSIVE: Two Republican members of the House Foreign Relations Committee laughed and joked about Mr Biden being safe from a theoretical attack on Washington during an impromptu interview with The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ukraine-russia-biden-gop-delaware-b2024486.html

Stop the Steal’ Congressman Suddenly Worried About Will of the Voters. Madison Cawthorn, who voted against certifying the 2020 election Donald Trump lost, is losing it over a lawsuit designed to kick him off the ballot. https://www.thedailybeast.com/madison-cawthorn-of-north-carolina-suddenly-worried-about-will-of-the-voters

‘Cheap fakes’: Viral videos keep clipping Biden’s words out of context https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/feb/14/cheap-fakes-viral-videos-keep-clipping-bidens-word/

U.S. Capitol Police rejects GOP congressman’s claim that check of his open office is illegal investigation. Chief Tom Manger said a Capitol Police officer entered Rep. Troy E. Nehls’s office in November because the door was left 'open and unsecured’. Nehls accused Capitol Police leadership after one of the officers entered his office in the Longworth House Office Building with no prior notice Nov. 20, 2021, ahead of the Thanksgiving break, and took pictures of a whiteboard. The officer filed a report raising concerns about the contents of the whiteboard, which included mentions of “body armor” and a poorly drawn map of the Rayburn House Office Building — which is also part of the Capitol complex — that had an X at one of the building’s entrances. Nehls explained that the writing on the board — which included reports of faulty Chinese-made body armor — was related to legislation his office was working on, while the map of the Rayburn Building, which Nehls said “looked like it was done by my 9-year-old,” was drawn for an intern who was sent on a mission to find the ice machine. The X marked the spot. Nehls noted that he’s been a “very, very vocal” critic of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, and said he thinks he was being targeted by Capitol Police leadership because of this. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/08/capitol-police-nehl-investigation/

The original quote from Strom, an American white nationalist and Holocaust denier, has been used previously online and paraphrased in a variety of ways. In a 1993 radio broadcast, Strom said: “To determine the true rulers of any society, all you must do is ask yourself this question: Who is it that I am not permitted to criticize?” according to an internet archive containing his full remarks. U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, shared the incorrectly attributed quote in a tweet Sunday to his more than 320,000 followers, with a caption criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert. https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-business-media-elections-9631403283708d1f46bba768bddde779 @RepThomasMassie You mustn’t question Fauci, for he is science. https://twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1487872940431527941

The Republican National Committee Censured Liz Cheney And Adam Kinzinger. A move to admonish the two members of Congress despised by Trump passed an RNC vote on Friday. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kadiagoba/rnc-cheney-kinzinger-censure

8 interesting facts about Rep. Lauren Boebert https://boingboing.net/2022/01/06/7-interesting-facts-about-rep-lauren-boebert.html GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert and husband racked up arrests in home district https://nypost.com/2021/01/16/gop-rep-lauren-boebert-and-husband-have-racked-up-arrests/

'Twitter is an enemy to America': Marjorie Taylor Greene's hits out as her Twitter account is PERMANENTLY suspended after 'fifth strike' which saw her lash COVID rules and vaccine mandates. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10362503/Marjorie-Taylor-Greenes-personal-Twitter-account-permanently-suspended.html

Cristina Cawthorn is divorcing her husband Madison, a notorious pathological liar, racist insurrectionist, and alleged sex pest after having been married for just 8 months. Cawthorn, who likens women to "earthen vessels," blames his hard work on the Capitol for the break. https://boingboing.net/2021/12/23/earthen-vessel-is-divorcing-madison-cawthorn-after-8-months-of-marriage.html

A warning from Tim Gosar: Paul Gosar is "dangerous" and "needs to be expelled". https://boingboing.net/2021/11/17/a-warning-from-tim-gosar-paul-gosar-is-dangerous-and-needs-to-be-expelled.html

Watch: Paul Gosar's hard-to-understand statement about being "censored" by Congress. https://boingboing.net/2021/11/18/watch-paul-gosars-hard-to-understand-statement-about-being-censored-by-congress.html

House censures Rep. Gosar for violent video in rare rebuke. The House voted Wednesday to censure Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona for posting an animated video that depicted him killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a sword, an extraordinary rebuke that highlighted the political strains testing Washington and the country. Calling the video a clear threat to a lawmaker’s life, Democrats argued Gosar’s conduct would not be tolerated in any other workplace — and shouldn’t be in Congress. The vote to censure Gosar and also remove him from his House committee assignments was approved by a vote of 223-207, almost entirely along party lines, with Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois the only Republicans voting in favor. Gosar showed no emotion as he stood in the well of the House after the vote, flanked by roughly a dozen Republicans as Speaker Nancy Pelosi read the censure resolution and announced his committee penalty. He shook hands, hugged and patted other members of the GOP conference on the back before leaving the chamber. Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called the vote an “abuse of power” by Democrats to distract from national problems. He said of the censure, a “new standard will continue to be applied in the future,” a signal of potential ramifications for Democratic members should Republicans retake a majority. https://apnews.com/article/technology-entertainment-marjorie-taylor-greene-censures-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-854fd412b7a1049c8fb9a83fe2c56b8f https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-resolution/789/text

WATCH: Rep. Ocasio-Cortez on censure against Rep. Gosar who tweeted altered video showing her death https://youtu.be/HYjXOm9DCWs

WATCH: Rep. Gosar on censure vote for tweet of altered video showing Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s death https://youtu.be/9lf7rsyu3W0

Pelosi Calls Gosar 'To The Well' Of The Floor To Announce Censure Vote https://youtu.be/c_nP4NpmEIo

Cheney's Consultants Are Given an Ultimatum: Drop Her, or Be Dropped. In response, The Morning Group, a fundraising firm she hired to help prepare for a primary next year against a challenger endorsed by former President Donald Trump, informed her last month they could no longer work on her campaign, according to Republicans familiar with the matter. https://news.yahoo.com/cheneys-consultants-given-ultimatum-drop-121619186.html

'She Started Screaming': Controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Spars with Liz Cheney on House Floor. According to CNN, Greene, 47, could be heard speaking in a raised voice to Cheney, 55, and Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin, both of whom voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for his role in supporting the rioters. "This is a joke," said Greene, a fierce ally of Trump, later telling Raskin: "Why don't you care about the American people?" Raskin, 58, replied to Greene: "You represent the American people." Cheney, meanwhile, responded to Greene by calling her a "joke" and referencing to a 2018 comment Greene made about "Jewish space lasers." CNN reports that Greene yelled "I never said that!" when Cheney mentioned the lasers. https://news.yahoo.com/she-started-screaming-controversial-rep-165935743.html

Greene heckles Democrats and they fire back on Capitol steps https://thehill.com/homenews/house/573836-greene-heckles-democrats-and-they-fire-back-on-capitol-steps

QAnon Rep. Rips GOP Colleagues in Bonkers 38-Part Twitter Thread Railing Against 'Dictator Biden' https://secondnexus.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-twitter-thread

@mtgreenee Dear Colleagues, Since Dictator Joe Biden started phase 1 of the Dems’ Communist takeover of America yesterday & I don’t have a GOP Conference call on my calendar or an email in my inbox from leadership to stop this insanity, well I’m going to be more direct than usual. https://twitter.com/mtgreenee/status/1436364437007523845?s=20

‘Predatory Enterprise of Perversion’: Lawsuit Claims Prominent GOP Donor Was ‘Sexual Ringmaster’ of Child Sex Trafficking Ring. The complaint, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Minnesota, claims that Anton “Tony” Lazzaro, 30, led a sex trafficking ring that targeted minor girls, then tried to use his wealth to buy their silence. As previously reported by Law&Crime, on Aug. 13, Lazzaro was arrested along with his alleged accomplice 19-year-old Gisela Castro Medina for obstruction of justice, sex trafficking, and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. Medina—who had recently been elected chair of University of St. Thomas College Republicans chapter—allegedly acted as a recruiter for Lazzaro. Prosecutors say Medina targeted girls and young women on social media, established a personal relationship with them, then received a fee when she introduced them to Lazzaro, who allegedly sought to exploit them sexually. https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/predatory-enterprise-of-perversion-lawsuit-claims-prominent-gop-donor-was-sexual-ringmaster-of-child-sex-trafficking-ring/

How Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans learned to stop worrying about a Biden victory and love the infrastructure bill. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/infrastructure-biden-mcconnell-trump/2021/08/10/239eae72-f959-11eb-8a67-f14cd1d28e47_story.html

In wild talk, Marjorie Taylor Greene claims Fauci paid China to create Covid, suggests audience should use guns to defend against vaccine workers https://boingboing.net/2021/08/06/in-wild-talk-marjorie-taylor-greene-claims-fauci-paid-china-to-create-covid-suggests-audience-should-shoot-vaccine-workers.html

The Trumpist right drifts toward fascism. It’s frustratingly typical for conservatives to fraudulently cloak themselves in the mantle of Abraham Lincoln and the Union. But what Fox News host Ben Domenech did on Tuesday night -- describing the progressive left as “the inheritor” of “slave power” with its “fixation on the hierarchy of race and caste” and his viewers as ideological descendants of the paramilitary pro-Lincoln “Wide Awakes” of 1860 -- wandered perilously close to a call for a new Civil War. Domenech presented U.S. politics as an existential fight between “the enemies of everything this nation has ever been” and “the patriots, the Americans, the men and women who will do anything to preserve it, because they know what civilization requires.” The host closed by directly addressing his millions of viewers. “You are the heart of a nation that has slept for so long,” he said. “But now at last, you are wide awake. So now I ask you again: What are you willing to do?” Domenech didn’t give an answer to the question -- but his rhetoric suggests that it isn’t casting votes for candidates who share your values. https://www.mediamatters.org/voter-fraud-and-suppression/trumpist-right-drifts-toward-fascism

McCarthy says 'it will be hard not to hit' Pelosi with gavel if he becomes House speaker. https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/01/politics/kevin-mccarthy-nancy-pelosi-gavel/index.html

Republican congressman bulldozes cannabis grows of Hmong farmers in California. Outdoor grows are illegal in that county and often lack sewage systems and other environmental safety measures. But advocates for local farmers say the timing of the videos — weeks after law enforcement officers fatally shot a 35-year-old Hmong man during a mandatory wildfire evacuation — is problematic, as is the congressman's language. “I love the smell of diesel power in the afternoon. It smells like victory,” LaMalfa says in one of the videos, playing off a quote from the Vietnam War movie "Apocalypse Now." https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2021/07/22/republican-congressman-bulldozes-cannabis-grows-of-hmong-farmers-in-california-1388879

Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene hoped the third time might be the charm for finding a California venue to host their “America First” rally on Saturday night. But instead of speaking to a packed arena, the pair were left with the sidewalk outside the Riverside City Hall. Greene used the “Peaceful Protest Against Communism” to hawk vaccine hesitancy. She urged the crowd, “Don’t let them force your kids to wear masks at school. Don’t let your kids be forced to take a vaccine that’s not FDA approved.” Meanwhile, coronavirus cases in California are surging as the more contagious Delta variant rips through the unvaccinated population. Gaetz, who is currently under federal investigation for sex trafficking and abuse of a minor, railed against “the corrupt forces in the Department of Justice and the FBI” and complained that the private venues’ refusals to host the pair amounted to an infringement on their freedom of speech. “They may try to cancel us online, they may try to pursue us in real life, they may shut down our venues, but we will take this fight to them in the courts, in the halls of Congress, and if necessary in the streets,” he said. In Riverside, city council members had voiced their concern with the two representatives, with council member Ronald Fierro saying, “The hateful and racist rhetoric that will be perpetrated at this event by these two well-known extremists has absolutely no place in our City.” The M3 Live Anaheim Event Center had canceled on Gaetz and Taylor Greene Saturday afternoon, just hours before the event was scheduled to begin. This came after two separate venues, the Pacific Hills Banquet & Event Center in Laguna Hills and the Riverside Convention Center, canceled on the pair after protesters flooded the respective owners with complaints. https://www.thedailybeast.com/no-one-wants-to-host-matt-gaetz-and-marjorie-taylor-greenes-rally

Matt Gaetz Is Blowing Piles of Cash on Scandal—and on Roger Stone. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is bringing in massive amounts of money, but he’s spending even more than he’s raising. https://www.thedailybeast.com/matt-gaetz-is-blowing-piles-of-cash-on-scandaland-on-roger-stone

Ted Nugent tells the tale of his night with Trump and Kid Rock. The menu featured lobster salad and lamb chops. The conversation ranged from "rock 'n' roll and hunting" to "military strength and Supreme Court justices." And everybody at the table was certainly on board with the politics. That's how Ted Nugent tells the tale of his night with Kid Rock as personal guests of President Donald Trump. The world awoke Thursday morning to learn the president had spent his evening with the Detroit-bred rockers, two outspoken Trump supporters who were invitees of fellow dinner guest Sarah Palin. https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/music/2017/04/20/ted-nugent-kid-rock-trump/100710306/

Judi Hershman, a former advisor of the conservator attorney Ken Starr, is ready to get some shit off her chest.. Hershman’s lays out the receipts of Starr’s deviousness quite plainly, beginning with an anecdote about Starr and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh was just a lawyer when Hershman met him 20 years ago, when they were both working with Starr on the investigation into President Clinton’s relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Hershman, who helped prep Starr present his findings before Congress, recalled an incident in which a furious Kavanaugh began “badgering” her and “invading” her space, pointing his finger in her face and seething. https://jezebel.com/after-20-years-former-ken-starr-advisor-reveals-her-bo-1847285867

Ken Starr, Brett Kavanaugh, Jeffrey Epstein and Me Judi Hershman As a former professional partisan, I never thought I’d look back decades to my political beginnings and find the map that points to our current moment, when there is serious doubt whether the democracy we took for granted at the time will continue to exist. Despite all the posturing and gamesmanship and at times skullduggery back then, political opponents shared an understanding that the process enforced by our Constitution would prevail, no one would get everything they wanted every time, and the state of the union would remain strong. As it turns out, too many people like me stuck our heads in the sand, swallowed our doubts, let the unacceptable slide, convinced ourselves it was in the interest of the greater good, and never dreamed that we would look back and realize that a failure to say “Enough!” had led to our country’s biggest existential crisis since the Civil War. https://medium.com/@judihershman/ken-starr-brett-kavanaugh-jeffrey-epstein-and-me-ba2dbf77b0da

Newt Gingrich says Biden's attacks on GOP state voting reforms are the 'greatest threat to the nation since the Civil War' as Greg Abbott accuses President of spreading 'misinformation'. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9786339/Newt-Gingrich-says-Bidens-attacks-voting-reform-greatest-threat-Civil-War.html

Ken Starr helped Jeffrey Epstein with ‘scorched-earth’ campaign, book claims. Book by Miami Herald journalist details extraordinary efforts by special prosecutor who hounded Bill Clinton to aid sex trafficker. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/13/ken-starr-jeffrey-epstein-book

Of course Mel Gibson would dramatically salute Donald Trump https://boingboing.net/2021/07/12/of-course-mel-gibson-would-dramatically-salute-donald-trump.html

Secret filming shows GOP congressman saying party wants ‘18 months’ of disruption leading up to 2022 midterms. Chip Roy was recorded admitting that Republicans would try to ‘slow down’ the Democrat’s legislative agenda ahead of the elections for Congress. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/gop-chip-roy-secret-filming-b1879617.html

CNN's Jim Acosta asks GOP lawmakers about their continued support for former President Donald Trump and his unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen. https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/07/04/jim-acosta-gop-lawmakers-support-trump-vpx.cnn

Column: U.S. Capitol insurrection so disturbed a former San Diego mayor, he quit the GOP. Jerry Sanders, now chamber of commerce president, never cared for Trump and was alarmed at the direction of the GOP. The assault on Congress was the last straw. On Jan. 7, the 71-year-old former San Diego mayor and chief of police decided to quit the Republican Party he had joined as a young man when he first registered to vote. His current view of the state of affairs may be dark, but Sanders believes things will get brighter. However, he said for that to happen, Trump has to be moved to the sidelines — especially if the Republican Party is to get back on track. He especially has faith in potential future leaders who come from “a smart, young generation that’s accepting of others.” https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/columnists/story/2021-07-02/the-capitol-insurrection-so-disturbed-jerry-sanders-he-quit-the-gop

McCarthy Unveils Republican Task Forces, Announces Leaders and Members. Rep. Kevin McCarthy: "When we are in the majority in January 2023 we will be much different than the Democrats." https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1410697466895273984 https://www.republicanleader.gov/mccarthy-unveils-republican-task-forces-announces-leaders-and-members/

Nearly 40 House Democrats are demanding House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy take what they call "immediate action" to address the behavior of GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, whose actions, they say in a Thursday letter obtained by CNN, "could lead to violence against members of Congress." The group chose to take this step after Greene spoke as a warmup act for former President Donald Trump at his rally in Ohio last weekend, an aide familiar with the letter's origins told CNN. Greene, without evidence, repeatedly claimed Trump won the 2020 election and viciously attacked Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Greene described Ocasio-Cortez as the "little communist from New York City," and nodded in agreement with the crowd when they started shouting "lock her up." Ocasio-Cortez has signed on to the letter, which is led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington and is signed by a diverse list of House Democrats, including fellow progressives like Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and more moderate members like Reps. Gerald Connolly of Virginia and Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania. https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/01/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-kevin-mccarthy-house-democrats/index.html

Republicans offer lots of excuses for not voting to give medals to the cops who saved their ass during the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, but simply put honoring people who put their lives in the way of an angry mob looking to hang the Vice-President and Speaker of the House is too much for them. CNN put together this wonderful video that goes one-by-one through the cowardly Q-publicans who appear to back the insurrection, more than the Capitol Police who defended our nation. https://boingboing.net/2021/06/16/video-destroys-back-the-blue-republicans-who-voted-against-medals-for-capitol-police.html

GOP congressman refuses to shake hands with D.C. police officer who protected the Capitol on Jan. 6, lawmakers say. Rep. Andrew S. Clyde (R-Ga.), who voted against awarding police officers the Congressional Gold Medal for their bravery in protecting the U.S. Capitol against violent, pro-Trump rioters on Jan. 6, refused to shake hands with D.C. police officer Michael Fanone on Wednesday. Fanone was beaten unconscious after he voluntarily rushed to the Capitol to help defend it from those who breached the building. He suffered a concussion and a mild heart attack. In the months since, Fanone has been one of the leading voices pushing back against Republicans who have sought to downplay the severity of what happened Jan. 6. Fanone, joined by Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, returned to the Capitol on Wednesday, the day after 21 House Republicans voted against the Gold Medal resolution, in an effort to meet them and tell his story. He said he recognized Clyde at an elevator and that he and Dunn hopped in with the congressman. “I simply extended my hand and said, “How are you doing today, Congressman.’ I knew immediately he recognized me by the way he reacted. He completely froze. He just stared at me,” Fanone said in an interview. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/jan-6-riot-capitol-police-house-republicans/2021/06/16/3ba60b7c-cee4-11eb-8cd2-4e95230cfac2_story.html

Regarding Blunt, Manchin appears to be suggesting — without, perhaps, quite explicitly saying so — that the wealthy executives on the call could dangle future financial opportunities in front of the outgoing senator while lobbying him to change his vote. Senate ethics rules forbid future job negotiations if they create a conflict of interest or present even the appearance of a conflict of interest. Manchin, notably, doesn’t suggest that the donors discuss a job, but rather says that people who Blunt may later be working with would be likely to have significant influence, reflective of the way future job prospects can shape the legislative process even when unspoken. https://theintercept.com/2021/06/16/joe-manchin-leaked-billionaire-donors-no-labels/

GOP senator: I want to make Biden a 'one-half-term president'. Republican Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.) last week said he wants to make President Biden a “one-half-term president” in 2022 by ensuring that Democrats no longer have complete control in Washington. “I’m looking forward to a very successful 2022,” Barrasso said during a breakfast discussion hosted by The Ripon Society on Thursday. “I want to make Joe Biden a one-half-term president, and I want to do that by making sure they no longer have the House, Senate and White House,” he added. When asked if Barrasso was advocating for removing Biden from office before his first term is up, Laura Mengelkamp, the senator's communications director, told The Hill he was referring to the GOP winning the House and Senate next year, which would take away Democratic control of Washington and help Republicans win the White House in the next general election cycle. https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/558597-gop-senator-i-want-to-make-biden-a-one-half-term-president

Marjorie Taylor Greene Says She’s ‘Removing’ Holocaust Comparisons From Her Past Rebukes Of Covid Measures. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) held an impromptu press conference on Monday, shortly after a visit to the Holocaust Museum, to apologize for repeatedly comparing coronavirus precautions to the oppression of Jews by Nazi Germany last month, declaring that she is “removing” those comparisons to her condemnations of mask mandates. “And I have made a mistake and it’s really bothered me for a couple of weeks now. So I definitely want to own it. This afternoon, I visited the Holocaust Museum. The Holocaust is—there’s nothing comparable. It happened, you know, over 6 million Jewish people were murdered. More than that, there were not just Jewish people, Black people, Christians, children, people that the Nazis didn’t believe were good enough, perfect enough. The horrors of the Holocaust are something that some people don’t even believe happened, that some people deny, but there is no comparison to the Holocaust. There are words that I have said, remarks that I’ve made, that I know are offensive. And for that I want to apologize.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-finds-out-how-bad-the-holocaust-was https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/06/14/marjorie-taylor-greene-says-shes-removing-holocaust-comparisons-from-her-past-rebukes-of-covid-measures/ https://twitter.com/AndrewSolender/status/1404561740365537283

Watch: Caitlyn Jenner won't say whether she thinks Biden won the election https://boingboing.net/2021/06/11/watch-caitlyn-jenner-wont-say-whether-she-thinks-biden-won-the-election.html

McConnell: 'The era of bipartisanship is over' 06/08/2021 05:02 PM EDT https://www.politico.com/video/2021/06/08/mcconnell-the-era-of-bipartisanship-is-over-266283

Greene says her remark about "gas chambers in Nazi Germany" was not referring to the Holocaust. "We can look back in a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens — so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany, and this is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about." https://boingboing.net/2021/05/28/greene-says-her-remark-about-gas-chambers-in-nazi-germany-was-not-referring-to-the-holocaust.html

Emerging from two years of relative silence, former House Speaker Paul Ryan has joined the fight against Donald Trump, urging fellow conservatives to reject the former president’s divisive politics and those Republican leaders who emulate him. Ryan made his remarks during a Thursday evening address at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. He was critical of both Republicans and Democrats, though he saved his sharpest barbs for Trump, who is by most measures the leader of the modern-day Republican Party. “It was horrifying to see a presidency come to such a dishonorable and disgraceful end,” Ryan said, referring to the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol that Trump inspired on Jan. 6. “Once again, we conservatives find ourselves at a crossroads,” Ryan continued. “And here’s the reality that we have to face: If the conservative cause depends on the populist appeal of one personality, or on second-rate imitations, then we’re not going anywhere. Voters looking for Republican leaders want to see independence and mettle. They will not be impressed by the sight of yes-men and flatterers flocking to Mar-a-Lago.” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/paul-ryan-donald-trump-message-to-republicans_n_60b099e1e4b0c5658f9228a6

Republican/Nazi Party/Brotherhood of Evil Mutants archived May 28, 2021

Toxic Marjorie Taylor Greene says she and Matt Gaetz are "taking charge" of the Republican party https://boingboing.net/2021/05/27/toxic-marjorie-taylor-greene-says-she-and-matt-gaetz-are-taking-charge-of-the-republican-party.html

House GOP lawmakers fined after defying mask mandate. The brave protesters were Reps. Brian Mast (R-FL), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), Beth Van Duyne (R-TX), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Chip Roy (R-TX), Bob Good (R-VA), Mary Miller (R-IL), and Louie Gohmert (R-TX). After the protest, Greene posted a selfie of her and her grinning colleagues with the caption: “Masks are oppressive and nothing but a political tool. End the oppression!” Reps. Brian Mast of Florida, Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa and Beth Van Duyne of Texas all received $500 fines for second offenses of the mask mandate, the official said. Additional offenses of the mandate would result in $2,500 fines. https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/18/politics/house-gop-mask-fines/index.html

MTG v AOC: Marjorie Taylor Greene shouts 'stop being a baby' and 'get rid of your diaper' through AOC's office mailbox during 2019 visit with friend who was arrested for storming Capitol. Marjorie Taylor Greene was a conservative activist when she visited Congress in February 2019. Facebook Live video shows her urging AOC to 'Get rid of your diaper' through locked door. She was accompanied by Anthony Aguero, who was part of the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6. Greene has repeatedly sought out AOC for confrontation. Wednesday she accused the New York congresswoman of supporting 'terrorists'. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9579273/Unearthed-video-shows-Marjorie-Taylor-Greene-harassing-AOCs-office-2019-visit.html

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene aggressively confronted Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday and falsely accused her of supporting “terrorists,” leading the New York congresswoman’s office to call on leadership to ensure that Congress remains “a safe, civil place for all Members and staff.” Two Washington Post reporters witnessed Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) exit the House chamber late Wednesday afternoon ahead of Greene (Ga.), who shouted “Hey Alexandria” twice in an effort to get her attention. When Ocasio-Cortez did not stop walking, Greene picked up her pace and began shouting at her and asking why she supports antifa, a loosely knit group of far-left activists, and Black Lives Matter, falsely labeling them “terrorist” groups. Greene also shouted that Ocasio-Cortez was failing to defend her “radical socialist” beliefs by declining to publicly debate the freshman from Georgia. “You don’t care about the American people,” Greene shouted. “Why do you support terrorists and antifa?” Since asking earlier this year to debate Ocasio-Cortez, Greene has confronted her one other time on the House floor, when she approached the New York congresswoman last month to try to schedule a date for a debate over the Green New Deal, a set of environmental policies intended to combat climate change. In a video posted to social media a day later, Greene criticized Ocasio-Cortez for not debating her. “If she chickens out, then she shows who she really is: a scared little girl that is pretty stupid and doesn’t know anything about the economy or economics,” Greene said. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/greene-ocasio-cortez/2021/05/12/fd61d664-b37e-11eb-a3b5-f994536fe84a_story.html

Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney was ousted from House Republican leadership on Wednesday. In a closed-door meeting in the basement of the Capitol, Republicans voted her out in less than 15 minutes. The move cements Donald Trump's hold on Republican Party. In comments after the vote, Cheney said: 'I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again, is anywhere near the Oval Office'. After the vote, Trump said of Cheney: 'Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being'. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9570721/Liz-Cheney-Republicans-remove-Wyoming-representative-leadership.html

Oregon lawmaker who opened state Capitol to far-right protesters faces criminal charges. State Rep. Mike Nearman, a Polk County Republican, has been charged with official misconduct and criminal trespassing following the Dec. 21 incident. https://www.opb.org//article/2021/04/30/oregon-rep-mike-nearman-criminal-charges-state-capitol-breach/

Fox contributor Newt Gingrich: Biden administration is “attacking people of traditional values who are appalled that this administration would fly the gay flag at American embassies” https://www.mediamatters.org/newt-gingrich/fox-contributor-newt-gingrich-biden-administration-attacking-people-traditional https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt_Gingrich#Marriages_and_children

“John Bolton has never recovered from being fired. President Trump used Bolton’s idiocy to the benefit of Americans in negotiating deals with other countries because they knew Bolton was a crazed lunatic, and if he was in the room, they’d be concerned,” Miller said. While Bolton predicted that Trump would not run for president in 2024, he said that he would not either. “My hope,” he said, “is that if [Trump] is upset with this poll and he and his pollsters go into the field and whatever they find they release with the same kind of transparency we have.” https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/20/john-bolton-trump-gop-poll-483459

Trump Curses Out ‘Son of a B*tch’ McConnell at GOP Donor Event for Not Completely Destroying Democracy. During this weekend’s Republican National Committee donor retreat in Florida, attendees headed to Donald Trump’s private club Mar-a-Lago on Saturday evening to hear prepared remarks from the twice-impeached former president on the future of his party. Predictably, Trump at times veered wildly off-script from his prewritten speech, the text of which was reviewed by The Daily Beast earlier in the day. While at the private event, he inveighed against Republican, Democratic, and celebrity enemies, and again denounced the 2020 presidential election outcome as “bullshit,” according to those in the audience. “[Trump began] swearing and telling everyone about the stolen election,” according to one such attendee. The 2020 election, of course, was not stolen from Trump, and President Joe Biden decisively beat the GOP incumbent in both the Electoral College and popular vote counts. Trump’s anti-democratic blitz following Election Day and the lies he and much of the mainstream GOP spread about the election culminated in the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, which Trump is now accused in court papers of inciting. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-curses-out-son-of-a-btch-mcconnell-at-gop-donor-event

Barr and the Office of the Attorney General received multiple briefings on the Gaetz probe, beginning in the summer of 2020, a second person familiar with the probe said. They encouraged Florida prosecutors to move as quickly as they needed to and take whatever steps were appropriate. The briefings were consistent with Barr's memo requiring notification to department leadership on probes of candidates. The briefing was important because — among other reasons — Barr didn't want to accidentally appear anywhere with Gaetz, the person said. At one point, Barr was scheduled for a meet-and-greet with Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee. But DOJ canceled his appearance at the event when they saw that Gaetz, a member of that committee, had RSVP'd for it. https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2021/03/31/gaetzs-father-backs-up-son-matts-claims-of-extortion-over-doj-probe-of-involvement-with-teen-1370695

Rep. Matt Gaetz was allegedly being extorted over 'compromising pictures' showing him in a sex orgy with underage prostitutes to help rescue American hostage Robert Levinson from Iran, according to newly-obtained documents. Bombshell text message screenshots, an email and a printout with the heading 'Project Homecoming' detail an alleged scheme involving former DOJ official David McGee and former Air Force intelligence officer Bob Kent. The alleged plot tries to enlist Gaetz's financial backing - to the sum of $25 million - to pay to free Levinson, who was captured 14 years ago in Iran and whose family said they were told he was dead. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9425215/Gaetz-extorted-sex-orgy-underage-prostitutes-rescue-hostage-Iran.html

Marjorie Taylor Greene's 'Mark Of The Beast' Theory Receives Holy Hell On Twitter. https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/marjorie-taylor-greene-mark-of-the-beast-090016763.html

The Matt Gaetz allegation, explained. “The Justice Department is investigating Rep. Matt Gaetz — a Florida Republican considered a close political ally of former president Donald Trump — over an alleged sexual relationship with an underage girl,” The Washington Post’s Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett explain. That relationship allegedly included paying for the girl to travel, potentially across state lines, adding the complexity of potential federal charges related to sex trafficking, according to the Times. Both The Post and Times stories are constrained for fairly obvious reasons, including the limits of available information and the need to accurately convey the potential risk Gaetz faces. The investigation apparently spun out of another sex-trafficking probe in Florida. That one focused on a former county official named Joel Greenberg, who was charged in the summer with a number of federal offenses, including sex trafficking of a minor. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/31/matt-gaetz-allegation-explained/

Inside the Koch-Backed Effort to Block the Largest Election-Reform Bill in Half a Century. On a leaked conference call, leaders of dark-money Facist groups and an aide to Mitch McConnell expressed frustration with the popularity of the legislation—even among Republican voters. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/inside-the-koch-backed-effort-to-block-the-largest-election-reform-bill-in-half-a-century

Stephen Miller to launch a new legal group to give Biden fits. America First Legal will focus on a few things: executive branch issues and giving Joe Biden headaches. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/26/stephen-miller-legal-group-478167

The Republican Freshman Class Is a Tribute to Our Nation’s Notorious Local Bozos. A guide to the GOP’s ascendant congressional wing of bullshitters, cranks, zealots, and personal-life disasters. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/03/republican-freshman-class-notorious-local-bozos.html

Dozens of Trump appointees 'burrow' into Biden government. Roughly two dozen Trump administration appointees remain in civil service jobs or on government advisory boards roughly two months into the Biden administration, according to a new report from a government watchdog group obtained by The Hill. Accountable.US, a left-leaning watchdog, found that at least 24 Trump appointees have "burrowed" into civil service jobs. The appointments mean that Trump-era officials will remain in those posts for the foreseeable future. The report cited four individuals who are believed to have burrowed into national security roles, nine who have taken up roles in environmental regulation and three officials at the Department of Justice. The allegations mirror those made frequently during the Trump administration about a so-called deep state of career officials who were obstructing the former president's agenda. Among those listed in the report as potentially burrowing into the Biden administration are acting U.S. Attorney Prerak Shah, Brandon Middleton in the Department of Energy and Robert G. Cameron at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Biden administration has taken some steps to intervene in the appointments. Biden's Defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, in early February ousted hundreds of members from the Pentagon's advisory committees, removing last-minute appointees by the Trump administration that included former Trump campaign advisers Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie. https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/542324-dozens-of-trump-appointees-burrow-into-biden-government

Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren quietly releases massive social media report on GOP colleagues who voted to overturn the election. https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/05/politics/lofgren-social-media-report-gop-lawmakers/index.html https://lofgren.house.gov/socialreview

Donald Trump trashes Mitch McConnell calling him 'a dour, sullen and unsmiling political hack,' claiming he is 'destroying' GOP, is compromised on China by wife Elaine Chao and tells senators to FIRE him - after GOP leader blamed him for MAGA riot. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9267659/Donald-Trump-trashes-Mitch-McConnell-dour-sullen-unsmiling-political-hack.html

Shortly after taking his seat in Congress last month, Madison Cawthorn emailed his Republican colleagues to tell them of his intended role. “I have built my staff around comms rather than legislation,” he wrote, using the slang word for public relations. An Esquire magazine headline offered this translation of the freshman congressman’s words: “It’s not about legislating, or fixing problems. It’s about the show.” If so, the show is not designed to appeal to Western North Carolina’s mainstream Republicans, independents or Democrats, despite Cawthorn’s post-election promise to be the congressman for all his constituents. A new and featured attraction of Cawthorn’s “comms” is his own channel on a Dubai-based social-media platform, Telegram Messenger. Telegram was relatively unknown in the United States until after the Jan. 6 Capitol pro-Trump insurrection, when Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other services stepped up restrictions against disinformation, including debunked claims that President Biden “stole” the election, delusional conspiracy theories, and reckless assertions that the pandemic is a hoax. https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/2021/02/15/cawthorn-joins-firebrand-gop-colleagues-far-right-media-asheville-watchdog/6743530002/

A guide to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s conspiracy theories and toxic rhetoric. https://www.mediamatters.org/congress/guide-rep-marjorie-taylor-greenes-conspiracy-theories-and-toxic-rhetoric

How Lindsay Graham’s Petty Partisan Decision Stalled the DOJ. At the center of the imbroglio is a figure who is accustomed to being collateral damage of partisan warfare on Capitol Hill: Merrick Garland. While the AG nomination has no bearing on the court project, it’s been an ominous way to begin the task at hand for Democrats and for Durbin, who is replacing Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) as chairman. Graham is ceding the top spot on the GOP side to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), so he will no longer be his party’s chief instigator on judicial matters, but his final move as chairman has made some Democrats concerned about the path forward for the next two years. “It’s a bad first step,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a member of the panel, told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. “It’s a bad way to begin the journey.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-lindsay-grahams-petty-partisan-decision-stalled-the-doj

Marjorie Taylor Greene finally partially apologizes for backing QAnon - then says 'I am NOT sorry' for harassing David Hogg and flees press conference when she is asked about wanting Nancy Pelosi executed. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9228375/Marjorie-Taylor-Greene-calls-lawmakers-voted-away-panel-assignments-morons.html

Eleven Republicans voted with House Dems. to strip GA's Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments: 230-199

1. Adam Kinzinger
2. Nicole Malliotakis
3. John Katko
4. Fred Upton
5. Brian Fitzpatrick
6. Carlos Gimenez
7. Chris Jacobs
8. Young Kim
9. Maria Salazar
10. Chris Smith
11. Mario Díaz-Balart

Marjorie Taylor Greene's altercation with Democratic rep Cori Bush and claim Ruth Bader Ginsburg was replaced by a body double are revealed - as White House slams her and she talks about the 'electric chair' for media. QAnon Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene got into an altercation with fellow freshman lawmaker, Rep. Cori Bush, the St. Louis Democrat revealed Friday. Additionally, another conspiracy theory of Greene's was revealed: that she said Ruth Bader Ginsburg was replaced by a body double. Greene has dominated the headlines from Capitol Hill since Tuesday when CNN reported she had shown support on Facebook for executing top Democrats. The White House has been forced to weigh in twice, with Jen Psaki saying Friday, 'We don’t want to elevate conspiracy theories further in the briefing room' https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9202899/Today-Marjorie-Taylor-Greene.html

Marjorie Taylor Greene warned before the election that Americans would have to shed blood to 'get your freedoms back' if Trump lost. https://www.businessinsider.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-warns-bloodshed-freedoms-trump-election-video-2021-1

A local TV reporter said she was threatened with arrest and removed from a town-hall meeting with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia for asking a question. Meredith Aldis, a reporter with the Chattanooga, Tennessee, station WRCB, tweeted that she attended the meeting in Dalton, Georgia, on Wednesday and was told she was not allowed to ask questions to Greene or anyone else in the building. https://www.businessinsider.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-town-hall-reporter-kicked-out-threatened-arrest-2021-1

Marjorie Taylor Greene tried to force Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to retake their oaths on a Bible in a resurfaced video. In the footage, Ms Greene claimed it was the ‘law’ for the representatives to use a Bible when taking their oaths. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-omar-tlaib-bible-b1793806.html

Video Shows QAnon Congresswoman Harassing Parkland Teen. The conspiracy theorist lawmaker has falsely claimed that Parkland and other school shootings were not “real.” Georgia congresswoman and QAnon believer Marjorie Taylor Greene was filmed chasing after Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg and berating him in a video that re-surfaced on social media Wednesday. Greene was apparently so proud of her creepy conduct that she posted the video to her YouTube page a year ago. It has re-surfaced amid reports that she claimed school shootings weren’t real and reports that she “liked” Facebook posts about executing Democrats. https://www.thedailybeast.com/qanon-congresswoman-marjorie-taylor-greene-berated-parkland-teen-david-hogg-on-capitol-hill-video-shows

Marjorie Taylor Greene indicated support for executing prominent Democrats in 2018 and 2019 before running for Congress. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-democrats-violence/index.html

Before Capitol Riot, Republican Lawmakers Fanned the Flames. A “1776 moment”: Several of the president’s closest allies in Congress used bellicose language to urge their supporters to attend the Jan. 6 rally that turned into a deadly riot. “Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass,” said Mr. Brooks, Republican of Alabama. “Are you willing to do what it takes to fight for America? Louder! Will you fight for America?” Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, first-term lawmakers who ran as outspoken defenders of Mr. Trump, referred to the day as Republicans’ “1776 moment.” Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona, who for weeks promoted the Jan. 6 protest and other “Stop the Steal” events across the country more than a dozen times, repeatedly referred to Mr. Biden as an “illegitimate usurper” and suggested that Mr. Trump was the victim of an attempted “coup.” “Be ready to defend the Constitution and the White House,” Mr. Gosar wrote in an op-ed titled “Are We Witnessing a Coup d’État?” https://www.revolver.news/2020/12/congressman-paul-gosars-open-letter-to-arizona-are-we-witnessing-a-coup-detat/ Their comments have raised questions about the degree to which Republicans may have coordinated with protest organizers. In a since-deleted tweet, Representative Pete Sessions, Republican of Texas, wrote that he “had a great meeting today with the folks from Stop The Steal,” one of the leading groups that organized last week’s rally. And in a separate video, Ali Alexander, a far-right activist and conspiracy theorist who emerged as a leader of Stop the Steal, claimed that he, along with Mr. Brooks, Mr. Gosar and Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona, had set the Jan. 6 event in motion. “We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting,” Mr. Alexander said in a since-deleted video, “so that who we couldn’t rally, we could change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body, hearing our loud roar from outside.” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/politics/republicans-capitol-riot.html

Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) are facing a possible vote on a censure resolution in the Senate as Democrats and some Republicans blame them for the mob that attacked the Capitol last week. Several Democratic senators have called on Hawley and Cruz to resign and Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) have called for them to be expelled if they don’t step down voluntarily. Democratic aides say there is a discussion about censuring the two lawmakers for helping to incite protesters who temporarily halted the counting of the Electoral College last week after overrunning Capitol Police. https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/533740-hawley-cruz-face-rising-anger-possible-censure

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Bonsall, said on Fox Business on Monday that Democrats are overplaying Wednesday’s violence at the U.S Capitol and are using the incident to kick President Donald Trump while he’s down. Issa, responding to a question about the Democratic effort to impeach Trump a second time, accused liberals of seizing on a political opportunity presented by the riot. “It’s kicking him when he’s down,” Issa said of Trump. “There’s no question at all, I think the liberals saw an opportunity, a misstep by the president that they’re going to overplay and they’re overplaying it as we speak.” https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2021-01-11/rep-issa-democrats-overplaying-trumps-role-in-capitol-riot-associated-deaths

Cruz, AOC exchange blows on ‘Nazi’ accusations. Biden says voters should decide if GOP lawmakers who objected the election results should hold office "I think the American public has a good clear look at who they are. They're part of the Big Lie," Biden told reporters Wednesday, following the attacks that resulted in five dead, including a Capitol Police officer. "Goebbels [said] in the Great Lie -- you keep repeating the lie, repeating the lie." "By the way, Trump said that before he ran. 'If you say it enough, I'm going to convince you. I'll say it enough: The press is bad, the press is bad, the press is bad, the press is bad'." "If he's the only one saying it, it's one thing. But the acolytes that follow him are as responsible as he is," the president-elect continued. "There are decent people out there who actually believe these lies, because they've heard it again and again." Cruz took to Twitter to respond to Biden’s comparison and said, "President-elect Biden’s choice to call his political opponents literal Nazis does nothing to bring us together or promote healing." https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cruz-aoc-exchange-blows-nazi-accusations

After Capitol Stormed, Issa and Most California Republicans Still Rejected Biden’s Victory. California Republicans who voted to reject the Electoral College results from the two states — after being delayed for hours when a far-right, pro-Trump mob vandalized the Capitol — were House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, Doug LaMalfa of Richvale, Jay Obernolte of Big Bear Lake, Devin Nunes of Tulare, Darrell Issa of Vista, Ken Calvert of Corona, and Mike Garcia of Santa Clarita. “My colleagues and I spoke out in support of ballot integrity and the sacred right to vote,” said Issa after the votes. “The process is now complete and a peaceful and orderly transition of power will occur, as it should.” But one Republican voted to accept the votes from both states: Rep. Tom McClintock of Elk Grove. Newly elected representative Young Kim from Orange County did not vote on the Arizona question but voted to accept the Pennsylvania results. https://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2021/01/09/after-capitol-stormed-issa-and-most-california-republicans-still-rejected-bidens-victory/

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has condemned newly seated Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) for saying earlier this week that Adolf Hitler was “right” about the value of influencing a nation’s youth. Appearing at a Tuesday rally on Capitol Hill calling for the 2020 presidential election to be overturned, Miller said, “Hitler was right on one thing, that whoever has the youth has the future. Our children are being propagandized.” https://thehill.com/homenews/house/533089-newly-sworn-in-republican-lawmaker-condemned-by-holocaust-museum-for-hitler

Republican Congressional group opposing "The Squad" names themselves after X-Men villains. Beginning in Uncanny X-Men #199, the shape-shifting mutant anti-hero Mystique blackmails the US government into pardoning her and the other members of her on-the-nose named Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and then granting them legal authority as the rebranded Freedom Force. During this time, the so-called Freedom Force tries to frame the X-Men for several international terrorist attacks while Magneto is on trial at the UN, and even ignores the Mutant Massacre—literally a genocide of ugly mutants who live underground—just so they can persecute the X-Men and X-Factor (who, at the time, are the original 5 X-Men, pretending to be bigoted mutant hunters as a PR deflection so they can help mutants, because comics). In defense of Utah congressman-elect Burgess Owens, "Freedom Force" without context sounds like a pretty uncontroversial name. But that's ironically what the X-Men comics were counting on some 35 years ago, too. It is worth noting: Owens is a Black man. The rest of his "Freedom Force" includes Nicole Malliotakis (NY), Michelle Steel (CA), Stephanie Bice (OK), Victoria Spartz (IN), Carlos Giménez (FL), Maria Elvira Salazar (FL), and Byron Donalds (FL). In their defense, this is a diverse group. Then again, so was Mystique's Freedom Force, which included her wife, Destiny; the non-mutant Spider-Woman Julia Carpenter; the obese Texan mutant known as the Blob; as well as 3 immigrants: Pyro from Australia, Avalanche from Greece, and Spiral from the Mojoverse. And despite that range of diversity, they were still literally the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. https://boingboing.net/2020/12/01/republican-congressional-group-opposing-the-squad-names-themselves-after-x-men-villains.html

The 'Freedom Force': Republican group takes on the Squad and 'evil' socialism. Utah representative-elect Burgess Owens rails against the Democrats’ ‘radical agenda’ Calling themselves the Freedom Force, the Republicans say they will combat the “evil” of socialism and Marxism. “We love our nation. This group will be talking against and giving a contrast to the hard left. We have the Freedom Force versus Squad; we have a group of people who believe in our country, believe in God, family, respect for women and authority, and another group who hates everything I just mentioned,” the Utah congressman-elect Burgess Owens told the Fox News host Laura Ingraham, speaking as a representative of the Freedom Force. Owens said the group would aim to protect small business owners and the middle class. “Business ownership is the foundation of our freedom,” he said on Fox & Friends Weekend. “It’s where our middle class comes from.” He added that the middle class got its power from small businesses, while the left got its power “from misery”. During the interview, Owens – a former Super Bowl champion – also railed against NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem and against the Green New Deal. He pointed to the diversity within his new coalition. “South Korea, Cuba, Iran, Greece, I grew up in Tallahassee, Florida … We’ve all dealt with the harshness, the evil of socialism and Marxism, and so we can talk from experience,” he said. As a final warning to Democrats, he added: “You’re collateral damage if you run a business and you want to go to church and you want to put your kids in school; you’re collateral damage – that’s the way the evil Marxists and socialists roll.” The coalition of Republican lawmakers includes New York’s Nicole Malliotakis; Michelle Steel of California; Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma; Victoria Spartz of Indiana; and Carlos Giménez, Maria Elvira Salazar and Byron Donalds of Florida. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/30/republicans-freedom-force-squad-burgess-owens

Incoming GOP congresswoman to take aim at AOC with conservative 'squad' Nicole Malliotakis expects to form an alliance with other Republican women. Rep-elect Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) floated the idea during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” saying “a natural alliance is occurring among members” of the new freshman class of Republicans. “I think what you're going to see is a group of individuals who are going to serve as a counterbalance to the values of the socialist squad,” Malliotakis told CNN’s Dana Bash. “We don't believe we should be dismantling the economy. We don't believe we should be destroying free market principles. We don't believe in 'Green New Deal.' We don't believe in packing the courts.” Malliotakis, who frequently attacked Ocasio-Cortez during her campaign against Democratic Rep. Max Rose, took aim again at her New York counterpart when asked about the future of the Republican Party. “I think one of the reasons why we were so motivated to run is seeing the Democratic women being elected in 2018 that don't necessarily reflect our values, particularly those who are self-described socialists,” Malliotakis said. “I think there's just a stark contrast between what we're offering and what people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are offering. And that's something that needs to be debated in Washington.” https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/29/house-women-conservative-squad-malliotakis-441149

DINOs

Dianne Feinstein May Be ‘Mentally Unfit’ for Congress, and Others Probably Are, Too. Reports raising questions about Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) mental fitness to serve in Congress have been bubbling up on occasion for a couple years now. On Thursday, an explosive new report claimed “four U.S. senators, including three Democrats, as well as three former Feinstein staffers and [a] California Democratic member of Congress,” have said the California Senator’s memory is “rapidly deteriorating.” Per one specific anecdote, the California member in question told the San Francisco Chronicle that at a recent meeting to discuss policy with Feinstein, 88, they had to reintroduce themselves to the Senator multiple times over the course of several hours. https://jezebel.com/dianne-feinstein-may-be-mentally-unfit-for-congress-1848794181

Sinema Reminds Biden He’s Wasting His Time on the Filibuster. Kyrsten Sinema took to the Senate floor just moments before Joe Biden arrived on Capitol Hill to let him know he can’t change her mind on the filibuster for voting rights. https://www.thedailybeast.com/kyrsten-sinema-reminds-joe-biden-hes-wasting-his-time-on-the-filibuster

9 Moderate Democrats Threaten To Derail Pelosi's Infrastructure And Budget Plan. The letter is signed by Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Carolyn Bourdeaux of Georgia, Filemon Vela of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Henry Cuellar of Texas, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Ed Case of Hawaii, Jim Costa of California and Kurt Schrader of Oregon. https://www.npr.org/2021/08/13/1027371749/moderate-house-democrats-infrastructure-budget-vote-pelosi

The Democrats who want to destroy the Biden presidency. The "Suicide Squad" is taking the party agenda hostage to get tax cuts for the rich. Led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, the Suicide Squad presented an argument for their position in a short op-ed at The Washington Post, which bears close examination. They say the reason the infrastructure bill must pass immediately is because America simply can't wait a single moment longer to start repairs, and that it's illegitimate to hold the bill hostage: https://theweek.com/politics/1004024/the-democratic-suicide-squad-that-wants-to-destroy-bidens-presidency

News, Budget, Infrastructure

Senate Democrats passed their signature climate, tax and health care package Sunday afternoon, handing a long-sought victory to President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer even as the bill hit some last-minute snags. In a 51-50 vote, Senate Democrats approved their party-line package after an amendment process that spanned more than 15 hours. Democrats fought off most GOP efforts to change their fragile deal but did make a change just before the bill’s final passage that adjusted the corporate minimum tax provisions. Democrats’ failure to keep a cap on insulin prices on the commercial market in the bill was the most notable blow during a fusillade of GOP amendments. Those efforts by Senate Republicans were some of a few setbacks in Democrats’ mostly successful plans to pass their climate, tax and health care package. Though the GOP effectively stripped out a $35 monthly cap on insulin prices in the private market, Democrats’ goal to lower insulin prices for Medicare is now expected to become law. They also endured a partial defeat to their signature effort to lower prices on some prescription drugs in the commercial market. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/07/democrats-senate-reconciliation-votearama-00050222

America’s anti-democratic Senate, in one number: 41,549,808 https://www.vox.com/2021/1/6/22215728/senate-anti-democratic-one-number-raphael-warnock-jon-ossoff-georgia-runoffs

Stunning stat: 48 Democrats who supported reforming filibuster to pass voting rights bills represent 34 MILLION more Americans than 52 senators (all Republicans + Sinema/Manchin) who opposed it. 48 senators who voted to reform filibuster represent 182 million Americans, 55% of US. 52 senators who upheld filibuster represent 148 million Americans, 45% of US. https://twitter.com/AriBerman/status/1484005724682391555

After deal with moderates, House Democrats move forward on $3.5 trillion budget. The House moved forward on a $3.5 trillion budget plan Tuesday, as the Democratic leadership tries to keep its members united around President Biden’s agenda. The 220-212 vote was delayed after a group of 10 moderate Democrats said they would not vote yes on the budget until House Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure deal that passed the Senate earlier this month. After negotiations, Pelosi said she was committed to passing the bipartisan deal by Sept. 27. Every House Democrat voted in favor of the bill, including the holdouts. https://news.yahoo.com/after-deal-with-moderates-house-democrats-move-forward-on-35-trillion-budget-212245072.html

The 19 GOP senators who voted for the $1T infrastructure bill. Roy Blunt (Mo.) Richard Burr (N.C.) Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) Bill Cassidy (La.) Susan Collins (Maine) Kevin Cramer (N.D.) Mike Crapo (Idaho) Deb Fischer (Neb.) Lindsey Graham (S.C.) Chuck Grassley (Iowa) John Hoeven (N.D.) Mitch McConnell (Ky.) Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) Rob Portman (Ohio) James Risch (Idaho) Mitt Romney (Utah) Dan Sullivan (Alaska) Thom Tillis (N.C.) Roger Wicker (Miss.) https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/567158-the-19-gop-senators-who-voted-for-the-1t-infrastructure-bill

Uphill: AOC's January 6 Account. Plus: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is removed from her committees. https://uphill.thedispatch.com/p/uphill-aocs-january-6-account

America’s anti-democratic Senate, in one number: 41,549,808. Because smaller states tend to be whiter and more conservative than larger states, this malapportionment gives Republicans an enormous advantage in the fight for control of the Senate. Once Warnock and Ossoff take their seats, the Democratic half of the Senate will represent 41,549,808 more people than the Republican half. https://www.vox.com/2021/1/6/22215728/senate-anti-democratic-one-number-raphael-warnock-jon-ossoff-georgia-runoffs

Dianne Feinstein's Staff Suggests Her Age Is Becoming a Problem. https://theslot.jezebel.com/dianne-feinsteins-staff-suggests-her-age-is-becoming-a-1845850560 Dianne Feinstein’s Missteps Raise a Painful Age Question Among Senate Democrats https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/dianne-feinsteins-missteps-raise-a-painful-age-question-among-senate-democrats

Goodbye and Thanks for Nothing. California Senator Dianne Feinstein announced on Monday that she plans to step down from her top Democrat spot on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Feinstein said in a statement that she would instead focus more on the natural disasters ravaging her state, “existential threats” that urgently need her attention, according to The Hill. But there are a few other reasons why it’s high time for Feinstein to vacate her position on the committee, many of which have to do with her love of civility politics and institutional norms at the expense of actually leading the party during critical moments. https://theslot.jezebel.com/goodbye-and-thanks-for-nothing-1845745147

Impeachment

Decoding Donald Trump's statement on his Senate acquittal. Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun. In the months ahead I have much to share with you, and I look forward to continuing our incredible journey together to achieve American greatness for all of our people. There has never been anything like it! We have so much work ahead of us, and soon we will emerge with a vision for a bright, radiant, and limitless American future. Together there is nothing we cannot accomplish. https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/14/politics/donald-trump-acquittal-statement/index.html https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1360696984907239428 http://static.c-spanvideo.org/files/pressCenter/Trump-Statement-on-Impeachment.pdf

Donald Trump learns his fate tomorrow with senators voting after impeachment trial turns into an angry shouting match as his defense attorneys call Democrats liars and hypocrites and they hit back: 'Get your client here to testify!' https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9255811/Trump-learns-fate-tomorrow-senators-voting-trial-turns-angry-shouting-match.html

Senator Mitt Romney was seen running for his life after Proud Boys and other rioters smashed their way into the US Capitol in previously unseen video footage played at Donald Trump's impeachment trial. The video, taken from the Capitol security footage and containing no sound, showed the Utah senator running down a corridor, having been told to flee by Capitol Hill police officer Eugene Goodman. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/mitt-romney-video-capitol-proud-boys-impeachment-b1800642.html

Here is Rep. Jamie Raskin's full 13-minute video montage of the Capitol insurrection https://youtu.be/2KVUB4L1LyI

Democrats Showed A Stunning Video Of Trump's Supporters Using His Own Words As They Attacked The Capitol In His Impeachment Trial. House Democrats opened Trump's historic second impeachment trial Tuesday with a video documenting how the former president's words kicked off violence. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sarahmimms/impeachment-trial-video-trump-capitol-riot https://video-player.buzzfeed.com/embed?transcoder_path=%2Fhive-binaries%2Fbinaries%2F35f37464450f494ab21fe5b9bf7c85d6%2FImpeachment_2.0_2_9-1_00_PM_-_2_00_PM-impeachment_2_day_1_long_clip-2021-02-09.mp4

Trump’s lawyers say he was immediately ‘horrified’ by the Capitol attack. Here’s what his allies and aides said really happened that day. But that revisionist history conflicts with the timeline of events on the day of the Capitol riot, as well as accounts of multiple people in contact with the president that day, who have said Trump was initially pleased to see a halt in the counting of the electoral college votes. Some former White House officials have acknowledged that he only belatedly and reluctantly issued calls for peace, after first ignoring public and private entreaties to do so. “As this was unfolding on television, Donald Trump was walking around the White House confused about why other people on his team weren’t as excited as he was as you had rioters pushing against Capitol Police trying to get into the building,” he said, indicating that he had learned of Trump’s reaction from “senior White House officials.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-actions-capitol-attacks/2021/02/09/6dada250-6a3b-11eb-9ead-673168d5b874_story.html?utm_source=reddit.com https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-was-loving-watching-the-capitol-mob-white-house-official-2021-2

Whitehouse, The Presidency

Despite what Republicans want to tell you, President Joe Biden is making America great. https://news.yahoo.com/despite-republicans-want-tell-president-142641120.html

“I ask every elected official in America: How do you want to be remembered?..Do you want to be the side of Dr. King or George Wallace? Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?” Biden, Jan 11 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/01/11/remarks-by-president-biden-on-protecting-the-right-to-vote/

From ‘Huckleberry Capone’ to ‘Turd Blossom’: A History of White House Nicknames. Presidents and their aides have long bestowed nicknames on each other — often to undermine their rivals. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/12/05/huckleberry-capone-turd-blossom-white-house-nicknames-523723

Joe Biden Has Deadpan Response To Jimmy Fallon's Low Approval Ratings Question. Biden also countered the narrative that "Armageddon’s on the way" during his first late-night TV interview as president. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-jimmy-fallon-approval-ratings_n_61b47c02e4b04ae319ffa4d4

PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIANS SURVEY https://www.c-span.org/presidentsurvey2021/?page=overall

'Something's seriously wrong with Joe': Ex-White House physician Ronny Jackson says he believes the president, 79, will be forced to resign or will face the 25th Amendment because he is NOT fit for office. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9821135/Former-White-House-physician-said-believes-Biden-forced-resign-fitness.html

How Conservative Lawyers Accidentally Helped Biden De-Trumpify the Government. The Supreme Court left Biden with two options: unilateral disarmament or hardball politics. He chose the latter. On Friday, President Joe Biden fired Andrew Saul, the Donald Trump nominee leading the Social Security Administration. Saul’s removal marked the latest chapter in Biden’s ongoing efforts to expel Trump holdovers from leadership positions in the executive branch. Beginning on Jan. 20, the new president has sacked Trump appointees from agencies both powerful and obscure, preventing the dead hand of the previous administration from governing the current one. The conservative legal movement has long advocated for the president’s power to fire executive officials at will. This theory of the “unitary executive” has gathered widespread support on the right and scorn from the left. But it is Biden who has first reaped its rewards, exploiting the theory’s ascendence at the Supreme Court to de-Trumpify the government. The radical nature of Trump’s nominees, combined with the Supreme Court’s conservative tilt, have allowed Biden to become the first unitary executive. An idea promoted by conservatives has created a windfall for Democrats. If Trump had put regular, competent Republicans in charge of the government, Biden might have put up with them until their terms ran out. But Trump put arsonists in charge of the firehouse, nominating extreme partisans eager to sabotage the agency they led. For instance, Peter Robb, Trump’s general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, relentlessly sought to undermine unions. Michael Pack, whom Trump placed at the head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, tried to turn Voice of America and its sister networks into pro-Trump propaganda machines. And Kathleen Kraninger, Trump’s director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, authorized predatory lending and abusive debt collection practices. By tradition, a new president allows these officials to serve out their terms. But Biden did not wait for them to burn down the firehouse. He fired all three on Jan. 20. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/07/joe-biden-andrew-saul-trump-unitary-executive.html

Trump debuts at 41st in C-SPAN presidential rankings. His predecessor, Barack Obama, moved up to the No. 10 spot. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/30/trump-cspan-president-ranking-497184 https://www.c-span.org/presidentsurvey2021/?page=overall

The Bidens' beloved pet dog Champ dies, as Jill pays tribute to their companion of 13 years who supported 'us in our most joyful moments and on our most grief-stricken days' The German Shepherd passed away peacefully aged 13 at his home. The Bidens released a statement saying their 'hearts are heavy' and paying tribute to their 'loving companion'. Jill and Joe Biden got Champ as a puppy in 2008 after Joe was elected Barack Obama's Vice President. His name was chosen by their grandchildren, in a heart-warming family reference to one of their grandfather's popular speeches. Champ moved with the Bidens to the White House in January along with three-year-old rescue pup Major. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9704025/Joe-Bidens-beloved-pet-dog-Champ-dies.html

Climate Change

Six key lifestyle changes can help avert the climate crisis, study finds. Research shows that governments and individuals making small changes can have a huge impact in reducing emissions.

1. Eat a largely plant-based diet, with healthy portions and no waste
2. Buy no more than three new items of clothing per year
3. Keep electrical products for at least seven years
4. Take no more than one short haul flight every three years and one long haul flight every eight years
5. Get rid of personal motor vehicles if you can – and if not keep hold of your existing vehicle for longer
6. Make at least one life shift to nudge the system, like moving to a green energy, insulating your home or changing pension supplier

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/07/six-key-lifestyle-changes-can-help-avert-the-climate-crisis-study-finds

Greta Thunberg makes first cover of Vogue Scandinavia. https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/567068-greta-thunberg-makes-first-cover-of-vogue-scandinavia https://www.voguescandinavia.com/tags/greta-thunberg

"Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people, to give them hope, but I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is." World Economic Forum, Davos, January 2019 https://www.voguescandinavia.com/articles/10-of-greta-thunbergs-most-memorable-quotes https://www.voguescandinavia.com/articles/greta-thunberg-on-friends-her-first-pet-and-who-makes-her-laugh

OPEN LETTER AND DEMANDS TO WORLD LEADERS #FaceTheClimateEmergency You must stop pretending that we can solve the climate- and ecological crisis without treating it as a crisis. https://climateemergencyeu.org

Greta Thunberg's message to world leaders at #DavosAgenda https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/01/greta-thunberg-message-to-the-davos-agenda/

@GretaThunberg "Right now more than ever we are desperate for hope. But what is hope? For me, hope is the feeling that keeps you going, even though all odds may be against you. For me hope comes from action not just words. For me, hope is telling it like it is." #wef2021 #DavosAgenda https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1354029885619118084

The United States is the #1 worst G20 nation when it comes to climate change. https://boingboing.net/2020/11/25/the-united-states-is-the-1-worst-g20-nation-when-it-comes-to-climate-change.html

behavior

1. obsession with words, what they mean, and how they are said
2. secrecy
3. dissociation from reality, fantastical thinking
4. use of code words

Education, schools

REVEALED: 'Shame on you!' Video mocking teachers continues to draw condemnation across Tennessee. Voices of condemnation and outrage continue to reverberate across Tennessee in the wake of a hidden-camera video showing Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee chatting with an education adviser at an invitation-only reception as that adviser denigrates public school teachers and the education programs that train them. Several school boards have passed resolutions condemning the provocative comments from Larry Arnn, president of Michigan's ultraconservative Hillsdale College, with some also offering harsh criticism for the Republican governor. Some of those critiques are coming from staunching conservative pockets of Tennessee. Among other remarks, Arnn said teachers come from "the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges," that "diversity" candidates get education degrees because "you don't have to know anything" and that no expertise is required to teach a child because "anybody can do it." https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/revealed/revealed-shame-on-you-video-mocking-teachers-continues-to-draw-condemnation-across-tennessee

School shootings, guns, murder rate

Artist Barry Blitt drew his latest sketchbook about the shooting by depicting such political leaders as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). (Barry Blitt for Air Mail Weekly) https://airmail.news/issues/2022-5-28/barry-blitts-sketchbook

Murder map: Deadliest U.S. cities https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/murder-map-deadliest-u-s-cities/43/

Cities With Most Murders 2022 https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-city-rankings/cities-with-most-murders

1. St. Louis, MO (69.4)
2. Baltimore, MD (51.1)
3. New Orleans, LA (40.6)
4. Detroit, MI (39.7)
5. Cleveland, OH (33.7)
6. Las Vegas, NV (31.4)
7. Kansas City, MO (31.2)
8. Memphis, TN (27.1)
9. Newark, NJ (25.6)
10. Chicago, IL (24)
11. Cincinnati, OH (23.8)
12. Philadelphia, PA (20.2)
13. Milwaukee, WI (20.0)
14. Tulsa, OK (18.6)
15. Pittsburgh, PA (18.4)
16. Indianapolis, IN (17.7)
17. Louisville, KY (17.5)
18. Oakland, CA (17.1)
19. Washington D.C. (17.0)
20. Atlanta, GA (16.7)

Eight warnings behaviors of a potential mass shooter: here's what to look for. https://news.yahoo.com/eight-warnings-behaviors-potential-mass-102503126.html

1. Pathway: This is where individuals are planning and preparing the details of their attack, like accumulating ammunition, buying firearms in secret and not telling people about them or building bombs or other incendiary devices in their garage.
2. Fixation
3. Identification: In Parkland, Florida, the shooter posted on YouTube six months prior to shooting the high school that he was going to become a "professional school shooter."
4. Energy burst: You may see an acceleration of "on the ground' behavior and a decrease in online behavior in the hours before an attack as the attacker prepares.
5. Leakage: This is the most common warning sign, where an individual communicates their intent to attack to a third party. It occurs in 60 to 90% of targeted attack cases, usually in the days or hours before the attack.
6. Directly communicated threat
7. Novel aggression: A potential attacker tests their ability to be violent ahead of time in their preparation for an attack, engaging in one-off unusually aggressive behavior that is a test of their resolve to carry out a homicidal act. This could include picking a fight or killing an animal.
8. Last resort: The potential attacker says things that indicate an urgent need to act violently within a specific time. They might say that it's up to them or use other words to communicate that they must act.

COPS DIDN’T STOP THE UVALDE SCHOOL SHOOTING. And they won’t stop the next. https://theintercept.com/2022/05/25/texas-uvalde-shooting-school-police/

Beto O'Rourke confront Gov. Greg Abbott during Texas shooting update https://news.yahoo.com/beto-orourke-confront-gov-greg-175642550.html

Uvalde, TX elementary school shooting: conspiracy trolls say it's a "psy-op" https://boingboing.net/2022/05/24/uvalde-tx-elementary-school-shooting-conspiracy-trolls-say-its-a-psy-op.html

Racism

Staff allegedly took down an Escambia County teacher's posters of Black heroes. He quit. The teacher, Michael James, emailed a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis and Escambia County Superintendent Tim Smith in which he wrote that a district employee removed pictures of historic Black American heroes from his classroom walls, citing the images as being "age inappropriate." Images that were removed from the bulletin board at O.J. Semmes Elementary School included depictions of Barack Obama, Martin Luther King Jr., Harriett Tubman, Colin Powell and George Washington Carver, James said. https://www.pnj.com/story/news/local/escambia-county/2022/08/10/escambia-county-florida-teacher-said-pictures-black-american-leaders-removed-his-class/10276112002/

Critical race theory is a way of thinking about America’s history through the lens of racism. Scholars developed it during the 1970s and 1980s in response to what they viewed as a lack of racial progress following the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. It centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society. The architects of the theory argue that the United States was founded on the theft of land and labor and that federal law has preserved the unequal treatment of people on the basis of race. Proponents also believe race is culturally invented, not biological. https://apnews.com/article/what-is-critical-race-theory-08f5d0a0489c7d6eab7d9a238365d2c1

Corruption, current Hunter Biden, Rep. Darrell Issa and former Rep. Duncan Hunter

Analysis of Hunter Biden's hard drive shows he, his firm took in about $11 million from 2013 to 2018, spent it fast. A representative for Biden says all of his tax responsibilities to the IRS are now satisfied. Two sources familiar with the matter have confirmed to NBC News that Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris began advising Biden in 2020 and arranged to pay off the approximately $2 million Biden owed the IRS. Legal experts say, however, that paying the bill won’t relieve Biden of criminal liability or necessarily erase his debts. While Republicans have suggested that Biden’s reference in an email to needing money for his “family” refers to the larger Biden clan, nothing in the Senate documents or on the hard drive indicates he was earning money expressly to share with other family members, including his father. https://news.yahoo.com/analysis-hunter-bidens-hard-drive-082903699.html

How the stench of corruption from Trump’s administration persists to the present day. The Trump administration may be gone from Washington, but the acrid stench of corruption lives on. Case in point: An allegation that former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt pressured agency personnel to approve a controversial Arizona housing development in return for political donations to then-President Trump by the builder and his associates. The allegation came in a request issued Wednesday by House Democrats for a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice into whether the approval by the Interior Department and the contributions to Trump represent “a potentially criminal quid pro quo.” https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-05-12/david-bernhardt-interior-house-committee-criminal-investigation

New Hunter Biden revelations raise counterintelligence questions. Patrick Ho hardly seemed the profile of a big-time international fixer. A short, pudgy man, affectionately known to friends as “Fat Ping,” Ho had been a Harvard-trained ophthalmologist and a Hong Kong government minister. Yet in the fall of 2017, after landing at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City, he was arrested by FBI agents and charged in an audacious plot to dole out millions of dollars in bribes to African leaders in exchange for major energy contracts that appeared to advance Chinese government interests. What emerged in his indictment and later trial and conviction in federal court was a revealing portrait of Chinese influence peddling that included allegations that Ho arranged to broker arms deals — including the sale of rocket and grenade launchers — to countries in war zones in Africa and the Middle East. There was one noteworthy detail, however, about Ho’s global wheeling and dealing that went unmentioned in federal court documents or Justice Department press releases at the time. During the same period that he was being pursued by the FBI for his role in the global bribery scheme, Ho and his boss, Ye Jianming, a billionaire oil tycoon with past ties to a front for the People’s Liberation Army, had entered into a business relationship with two members of the Biden family — President Biden’s son Hunter Biden and the president’s brother, James Biden. As Yahoo News first reported, when Ho was arrested by agents at JFK, the first call he made was to James Biden. (The president’s brother later told the New York Times that he believed the call was intended for his nephew Hunter.) At the time, Ho’s connection to the Bidens was unclear. But emails on a damaged laptop that Hunter Biden left at a computer repair store in Wilmington, Del. — many of which have since been authenticated by the Washington Post and the Times — as well as bank records and other documents uncovered by Senate Republican investigators, reveal a high-dollar money trail that flowed from Chinese interests to Hunter and James Biden and which now appears to be at the heart of an ongoing Justice Department criminal investigation. (George Mesires, a lawyer for both Hunter and James Biden, did not respond to requests for comment from Yahoo News. A lawyer for Ho declined to comment.) https://news.yahoo.com/new-hunter-biden-revelations-raise-counter-intelligence-questions-090046438.html

U.S. Congressman Fortenberry found guilty of lying to FBI about funds. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-congressman-fortenberry-found-guilty-lying-fbi-about-funds-2022-03-25/

Another Republican ensnared? Rep. Darrell Issa may be implicated in Fortenberry scandal. Longtime House Republican Darrell Issa — worth $250M — may have been target of DOJ sting over $30,000 donation. One public official in question, who is identified in court filings only as "Candidate C," is Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican who is now the apparent target of a DOJ investigation — and may indeed have been the object of a sting operation. Issa retired from Congress in 2018 after serving nine terms from a Southern California district, but then moved to an adjoining district in San Diego County and was narrowly elected in 2020. The former CEO of an after-market auto accessories company called Directed Electronics, Issa has an estimated net worth of $250 million and is one of the richest members of the House. https://www.salon.com/2021/11/10/another-ensnared-rep-darrell-issa-may-be-implicated-in-fortenberry-scandal/

Trump’s interior secretary misused position and lied to ethics official, watchdog says. Ryan Zinke lied to agency ethics official about his involvement with foundation to advance project in his Montana home town. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/16/ryan-zinke-trump-interior-secretary-misused-position-watchdog

The federal case against Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb. — who was indicted last month on charges of lying to federal investigators and concealing information about illegal campaign donations — appears to have ensnared another Republican congressman. The Department of Justice stated last week that a protective order was "necessary" in the Fortenberry case to protect "evidence related to sensitive and ongoing investigations, including those related to public officials." One public official in question, who is identified in court filings only as "Candidate C," is Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican who is now the apparent target of a DOJ investigation — and may indeed have been the object of a sting operation. Issa retired from Congress in 2018 after serving nine terms from a Southern California district, but then moved to an adjoining district in San Diego County and was narrowly elected in 2020. The former CEO of an after-market auto accessories company called Directed Electronics, Issa has an estimated net worth of $250 million and is one of the richest members of the House. https://www.salon.com/2021/11/10/another-ensnared-rep-darrell-issa-may-be-implicated-in-fortenberry-scandal/

When Kevin Faulconer was San Diego's mayor, his administration failed to follow best practices and conduct due diligence when spending hundreds of millions of dollars on real estate purchases, a city audit found. The audit released Thursday, reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune, explores four real estate deals totaling $230 million the city entered into under Faulconer's leadership. The auditors wrote "a serious lack of policies and oversight caused the City to miss or skip key steps in the acquisition process" and that Faulconer's administration left out or misrepresented key information. https://www.kpbs.org/news/2021/jul/23/san-diego-audit-faults-real-estate-deals-faulconer/

California conservatives rebuke Trump pardon of Duncan Hunter. Republican Carl DeMaio, who unsuccessfully ran for Duncan Hunter's 50th congressional district seat, issued a statement saying Trump's action "sends absolutely the wrong message that politicians can break the law, but can easily avoid any punishment when they do." While Duncan Hunter's pardon was upsetting to many Republicans, Darrell Issa, who won the election to take the 50th congressional district seat, congratulated him via Twitter. "I'm pleased that all of the Hunter family can spend this Christmas together with a fresh outlook on life," he said.

Trump Pardons GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter, Who Covered Up Campaign Fraud with Faith. https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2020/12/23/trump-pardons-gop-rep-duncan-hunter-who-covered-up-campaign-fraud-with-faith/

Estranged wife of former Rep. Duncan Hunter files for divorce. The divorce filings do not include any details about the “irreconcilable differences” that ended the marriage. An attorney for Margaret said she had no comment. A spokesman for Duncan did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday. The indictment and other court records prosecutors filed in Duncan Hunter’s case before he pleaded guilty last year suggested Duncan carried on extramarital affairs with at least five women — three lobbyists, a staff member and a congressional aid — and used his campaign money to pay for weekend getaways and other outings with them, starting in 2009. None of the women were named in court records. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2020-12-09/estranged-wife-of-former-rep-duncan-hunter-files-for-divorce

Reparations

Nathan Bedford Forrest statue along I-65 being removed after more than 2 decades. After more than two decades, the controversial Nathan Bedford Forrest statue along Interstate 65 is being removed. This comes one year after Bill Dorris — the owner of the statue and the property where it stood — passed away. Dorris’ will left his estate to three parties: The Sons of Confederate Veterans. The Battle of Nashville Trust. And his border collie Lulu. The executor of the will is in the process of finalizing the distribution of assets and made the decision to remove the statue. It will be held in storage and possibly be put up for sale. For now, the flags will remain at the site. https://www.newschannel5.com/news/nathan-bedford-forrest-statue-along-i-65-being-removed-after-more-than-2-decades

Full text of Lt. Col. Kemter’s Memorial Day speech https://www.legion.org/honor/252713/full-text-lt-col-kemter’s-memorial-day-speech

I want a monument to Trump where I can shit on his head. https://twitter.com/bob_smith_42/status/1351214456458633234 It could be a larger than life statue of Trump with one of his shit eating smirks on his face and two thumbs up gesture, the statue would be in a pit sculpted like a bomb crater so his head is below ground level. There would be a platform above his head that viewers could step out to where there would be privy seats so that you could shit or piss on the statue.

Waiting for the American Khrushchev: Who will deliver the “Cult of Personality” speech to Americans? Yale historian and student of tyranny Timothy Snyder defines the Big Lie as one which requires believers to reject evidence and commit to a vast conspiratorial story. Hitler’s chief propagandist Joseph Goebbels was one of the craft’s best practitioners. “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it,” he wrote, “people will eventually come to believe it…the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” A few years after his death, Stalin’s Big Lie was revealed to be just that by none other than one of his former enablers — Nikita Khrushchev who delivered the famous “On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences” speech at a closed meeting of the 20th Congress of the Soviet Union in 1956. Who in Trump’s inner circle has the trust of his followers and the guts to do this? Tucker Carlson? Don Jr? Hannity? Ivanka? Is there an American equivalent of the 1956 Soviet Politburo — a group of high-level Trump supporters and enablers who can sense their own destruction on the horizon and for reasons of pure self-preservation will be willing to reveal the Big Lie for what it is to Trump’s supporters and the American public? Is there an American version of Nikita Khrushchev for this moment? I am waiting for him or her to speak up. https://medium.com/institute-for-the-future/waiting-for-the-american-khrushchev-78f59504fb6f

Black Farmers Have Been Robbed of Land. A New Bill Would Give Them a “Quantum Leap” Toward Justice. “This is the Black Farmers Civil Rights Act of 2020, and it’s long overdue.” https://www.motherjones.com/food/2020/11/black-farmers-have-been-robbed-of-land-a-new-bill-would-give-them-a-quantum-leap-toward-justice/

Coronavirus crisis, tracking

Johns Hopkins Department of Civil and Systems Engineering, CSSE dashboard https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

San Diego Wastewater Surveillance https://searchcovid.info/dashboards/wastewater-surveillance/

This site was created by Avi Schiffmann. I am a high schooler in Washington State, USA. https://ncov2019.live/data https://ncov2019.live/data/unitedstates

County https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/hhsa/programs/phs/community_epidemiology/dc/2019-nCoV/status.html

Here’s Where COVID-19 Outbreaks Have Happened In San Diego County https://www.kpbs.org/news/2020/dec/21/covid-19-outbreak-locations-san-diego-county/

Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html

https://myturn.ca.gov

https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/hhsa/programs/phs/community_epidemiology/dc/2019-nCoV/vaccines/COVID-19-VaxEvents.html#grossmont

Coronavirus crisis, HealthCare, political, economy, masks

Nine Omicron symptoms affecting the fully vaccinated - and signs you may have it. Fainting and fatigue may signal onset of variant, experts say. Sunday, August 28, 2022 According to the findings published in the infectious disease and epidemiology journal Eurosurveillance, there were eight key symptoms experienced by the group of fully-vaccinated partygoers. These were: a persistent cough, runny nose, fatigue, sore throat, headache, muscle pain, fever and sneezing. The mild nature of the symptoms makes it hard for people to distinguish the virus from a common cold. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/covid-vaccine-omicron-symptoms-fatigue-b2154418.html

Since the early days of the COVID pandemic, health officials have warned to watch for a number of symptoms, including the loss of smell. A study of those who tested positive for COVID shows that symptom may not be felt if you become infected by the omicron variant. 07/24/22 While a loss of smell has been a common symptom among earlier COVID variants, the ZOE Covid Study – a joint effort with researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, King’s College London, Stanford University School of Medicine and the health app ZOE – found fewer than 20% of participants reported the symptom after omicron became dominant. If it was reported, it didn’t occur until days after other symptoms had appeared. “Many other more serious symptoms — like brain fog, eye soreness, fever, and headaches — were all significantly less prevalent in omicron cases, though they can still occur,” an update to the ZOE Covid Study reads. A sore throat and hoarse voice were “consistently more prevalent” among participants with omicron than those with delta. https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/3566526-is-covid-still-causing-people-to-lose-their-sense-of-smell/

San Diego Health Officials Urge Masking in Crowds Amid COVID Infections Spike. Monday, July 11, 2022 San Diego County is seeing spikes in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, prompting local public health officials to encourage residents to be more vigilant and consider wearing masks in crowded situations. According to the county’s Health and Human Services Agency, lab-confirmed coronavirus cases remain near 10,000 per week, a number which does not include at-home tests. The HHSA also reported it has also seen an increase in reinfections — San Diegans who have tested positive for COVID-19 several times throughout the pandemic. Prior infection does not necessarily prevent reinfection with some of the newer virus variants, according to national data. Additionally, hospitalizations for COVID-related illness are also on the rise, up 66% in the last 30 days. New ICU admissions rose 68% during that same time frame. https://timesofsandiego.com/health/2022/07/09/san-diego-health-officials-urge-masking-in-crowds-amid-covid-infections-spike/

New coronavirus mutant raises concerns in India and beyond. The quickly changing coronavirus has spawned yet another super contagious omicron mutant that’s worrying scientists as it gains ground in India and pops up in numerous other countries, including the United States. Scientists say the variant – called BA.2.75 – may be able to spread rapidly and get around immunity from vaccines and previous infection. It’s unclear whether it could cause more serious disease than other omicron variants, including the globally prominent BA.5. “It’s still really early on for us to draw too many conclusions,” said Matthew Binnicker, director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “But it does look like, especially in India, the rates of transmission are showing kind of that exponential increase.” Whether it will outcompete BA.5, he said, is yet to be determined. https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-india-united-states-e461b0c0db39707aab884378c24292ae

For red and blue America, a glaring divide in COVID-19 death rates persists 2 years later. Cumulative death rates in red states 30% higher. https://news.yahoo.com/red-blue-america-glaring-divide-103237097.html

#8. San Diego County – Population that is fully vaccinated: 80.0% (2,670,929 fully vaccinated) https://fox5sandiego.com/news/coronavirus/counties-with-the-highest-covid-19-vaccination-rate-in-california-3/

US 'excess deaths' during pandemic surpassed 1 million, with covid killing most but other diseases adding to the toll. Although the vast majority of the excess deaths are due to the virus, the CDC mortality records also expose swollen numbers of deaths from heart disease, hypertension, dementia and other ailments across two years of pandemic misery. "We've never seen anything like it," Anderson said. In 2019, before the pandemic, the CDC recorded 2.8 million deaths. But in 2020 and 2021, as the virus spread through the population, the country recorded roughly a half-million deaths each year in excess of the norm. https://news.yahoo.com/us-excess-deaths-during-pandemic-215337856.html

My Mom passed a year ago today from COVID. She took pics of her progression while in the hospital. https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/sma6zr/my_mom_passed_a_year_ago_today_from_covid_she/

‘The case for masks became hugely stronger’: scientists admit their Covid mistakes. Prof Susan Michie, director of the centre for behaviour change at University College London, changed her mind on the usefulness of masks. Early on, my reading was that the evidence on the effectiveness of face masks in community settings was equivocal. The emphasis on droplet transmission raised a concern that infected people may touch their face masks and then touch surfaces, thus providing a transmission route. The possibility of people behaving less cautiously as result of wearing face masks was also raised. Two things changed. When evidence showed that the major route for transmission was via aerosol rather than droplet, the case for masks became hugely stronger. There was also persuasive evidence from real-world studies, including one from German towns and one on cruise ships. This changed my mind from sitting on the fence to being strongly in favour of masks. I was asked on a TV programme how long we’ll be wearing masks. I said “for ever, to some extent”, and was cut off before I could elaborate that this would depend on the context and risk of infection. I had months of being trolled and attacked for saying this. But science continues to generate good evidence that masks reduce infection for Covid-19, an airborne virus. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/04/i-didnt-think-vaccines-would-work-scientists-admit-their-covid-mistakes?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Good Grief, We’re Doing Throat Swabs Now? The mouth method might be better at detecting omicron. If you’re so inclined, you can swab your throat with a standard test kit by opening wide in front of a mirror and sticking the thing to the very back of your mouth, behind the arch. (A strep test, basically.) Then, stick the swab in each of your nostrils, as the instructions on the rapid test explain. https://slate.com/technology/2021/12/throat-swab-rapid-testing-omicron-effective.html

Right-Wing Podcaster Reportedly On Ventilator For COVID After he attended the right-wing “ReAwaken America” event in Dallas early this month, according to his podcast network and conspiracy theorist attorney Lin Wood.. Doug Kuzma posed with supplies of ivermectin, which the FDA and CDC have warned against using to treat COVID-19. A number of individuals who developed COVID-like symptoms after attending the Dallas event have claimed without evidence that they were somehow poisoned with anthrax. The Dallas event was part of a national tour paid for by right-wing funders featuring guest speakers including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, as well as Flynn. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/doug-kuzma-covid-ventilator-reawaken-america_n_61c7c6e4e4b0bb04a6308680

Watch: Trump says the Covid vaccines he "came up with" are "all very, very good" A wizardly Donald Trump is on a tear this week, taking cues from a mysterious new playbook that leaves followers scrambling to catch up. Rather than touting bleach as the miracle Covid fix, he's now, finally, getting behind the vaccine. Not only did he admit to receiving the booster last Sunday, but he has actually disclosed the fact that he alone created not one, but all three vaccines. "I came up with a vaccine, with three vaccines, all are very, very good," he explained to right-wing Daily Wire host Candace Owens on Tuesday. "Came up with three of them in less than nine months. It was supposed to take 5–12 years." Yes, we laugh now. But don't think the master manipulator doesn't know what he's doing. https://boingboing.net/2021/12/24/watch-trump-says-the-covid-vaccines-he-came-up-with-are-all-very-very-good.html

During the COVID-19 pandemic’s early days, it wasn’t crystal clear how well face masks were preventing coronavirus infections or severe disease among wearers. Now, a new study reveals an association between mask policies and reduced COVID-19 deaths long before vaccines were added to the picture. Research on 44 countries in Asia and Europe including nearly one billion people shows nations that enacted face mask policies at the start of the pandemic had significantly lower COVID-19 deaths per million people than those that did not enforce any mask rules. https://www.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/2021/12/do-face-masks-work-against-covid-19-heres-what-new-study-of-44-countries-found.html

Select Subcommittee Releases Further Evidence of Trump Officials’ Pursuit of ‘Herd Immunity’ Strategy, Interference in Public Health. Then-President Trump held a meeting at the White House with a “fringe group” that advocated for a dangerous herd immunity strategy embraced by then-White House Special Advisor Dr. Scott Atlas. Dr. Birx and former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Principal Deputy Director Dr. Anne Schuchat detailed a series of early missteps that contributed to the Trump Administration’s ineffectual coronavirus response. The Trump White House intentionally “softened” CDC’s public health guidance for faith communities. A new Select Subcommittee analysis found that nearly 97 percent of Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) fraud prosecutions have involved fraudulent applications submitted during the Trump Administration’s implementation of the program. https://coronavirus.house.gov/news/press-releases/select-subcommittee-s-year-end-staff-report-highlights-oversight-work-releases

Former president Donald Trump knowingly put at risk the lives of Gold Star families, wealthy donors at a Minnesota fundraiser, then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden, White House staff, the crews of Air Force One, White House reporters, and others, according to a new book from his former chief of staff. Trump finally admitted he had contracted COVID-19 just after midnight on Oct. 2, barely 24 hours following a campaign rally in Minnesota where he looked peaked and cut short his typically 90 minutes of rambling remarks to just 45. That, though, was actually almost six days after Sept. 26, when he had originally tested positive, according to former chief of staff Mark Meadows in his new memoir, as reported by the Guardian. In those intervening days, Trump held a reception for families of fallen service members, hosted a gathering of business leaders at the White House, attended a presidential debate with Biden, visited reporters in the press section of Air Force 1, and interacted with multiple flight crews on both Marine helicopters and Air Force planes. “The whole episode demonstrates a total disregard for public health and the well-being of others,” said Alyssa Farah Griffin, Trump’s former communications director who left the White House when Trump would not stop lying about the 2020 election results. https://news.yahoo.com/trump-may-infected-gold-star-195616565.html

@atrupar Trump won't tell Hannity if he's had a negative coronavirus test. He just ignores the question and starts ranting. https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1314379349781553152

Trump tested positive for Covid few days before Biden debate, chief of staff says in new book. Mark Meadows makes stunning admission in new memoir obtained by Guardian, saying a second test returned negative. Meadows says Trump’s positive result on 26 September was a shock to a White House which had just staged a triumphant Rose Garden ceremony for the supreme court nominee Amy Coney Barrett – an occasion now widely considered to have been a Covid super-spreader event. Despite the president looking “a little tired” and suspecting a “slight cold”, Meadows says he was “content” that Trump travelled that evening to a rally in Middletown, Pennsylvania. But as Marine One lifted off, Meadows writes, the White House doctor called. “Stop the president from leaving,” Meadows says Sean Conley told him. “He just tested positive for Covid.” the stunning revelation of an unreported positive test follows a year of speculation about whether Trump, then 74 years old, had the potentially deadly virus when he faced Biden, 77, in Cleveland on 29 September – and what danger that might have presented. Trump announced he had Covid on 2 October. The White House said he announced that result within an hour of receiving it. He went to hospital later that day. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/01/trump-tested-positive-covid-before-biden-debate-chief-staff-mark-meadows-book

A federal agency that was run by a college friend of Jared Kushner and assigned $100 million to spend on fixing the Covid supply chain crunch has so far failed to invest a single dime, according to a new government watchdog report. In 2020, the Trump administration directed the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to loan out $100 million in Pentagon funds through the CARES Act to "finance the domestic production of strategic resources needed to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, and to strengthen any relevant domestic medical supply chains." Companies were encouraged to apply for financial backing to help increase U.S. distribution of ventilators, vaccines, medical testing supplies, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other relevant products. According to a new Government Accountability Office report, 178 applications flooded into the agency’s downtown Washington office but no money flowed out. Adam Boehler, briefly a college roommate of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, ran the International Development Finance Corporation starting in fall 2019. The DFC had been created with bipartisan support in 2018 to help steer private investment to government-funded projects in the developing world. Adam Boehler, briefly a college roommate of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, ran the International Development Finance Corporation starting in fall 2019. The DFC had been created with bipartisan support in 2018 to help steer private investment to government-funded projects in the developing world. https://news.yahoo.com/trump-gave-agency-100-million-160020402.html

'He is egregiously incorrect': Fauci fires back at Rand Paul for claiming the NIH changed gain-of-function definition on their website and now he's 'trying to cover his a**' https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10166185/He-incorrect-Fauci-fires-Paul-claiming-NIH-changed-gain-function-definition.html

Moscow will reintroduce COVID-19 lockdown measures from Oct. 28, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Thursday, with supermarkets and pharmacies the only shops allowed to stay open in an effort to cut soaring infections and deaths. The decision came a day after President Vladimir Putin approved a nationwide week-long workplace shutdown from Oct. 30 to Nov. 7 and said regional leaders could introduce tighter measures at their discretion. The partial lockdown in the capital, the first since June of last year, will also run until Nov. 7. Sobyanin said all shops would close except those selling essential goods, such as supermarkets and pharmacies. Schools and kindergartens will shut too, while bars and restaurants can only operate takeaway and delivery services. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/moscow-reintroduce-lockdown-measures-covid-19-cases-deaths-soar-2021-10-21/

U.S. COVID-19 death toll hits 700,000 October 1, 2021 https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-covid-19-death-toll-hits-700000-2021-10-01/

San Diego County Supervisors Declare COVID-19 Misinformation A Public Health Crisis. Tuesday night's vote was 3-2, with Supervisors Jim Desmond and Joel Anderson voting no. The final result came after hours of debate featuring testimony from hundreds of residents, many who opposed the measure. Fletcher characterized them as "mostly right-wing, anti-vaxxers." https://www.kpbs.org/news/2021/sep/01/san-diego-county-supervisors-covid-misinformation/

KN95 MASKS VS PM2.5 FILTERS. KN95 (N95) is the rating given to a mask that can filter out 95% of PM2.5 such as dust, pollen, pollution, viruses and particulates in the air. PM2.5 describes the size of the fine particulate matter that people are concerned about. These tiny particles could be pollution, smoke or airborne virals. SARS-CoV-2 is an enveloped virus ≈0.1 μm in diameter, so N95 masks are capable of filtering most free virions, but they do more than that. A micrometer (also called a micron) is 1000 times smaller than a millimeter. ... Nanometer A nanometer is 1000 times smaller than a micrometer. 1 micrometer (μm) = 1000 nanometers. https://www.medicalmasksuperstore.com/kn95-masks-vs-pm2-5-filters/

3rd conservative radio host who condemned vaccines dies of Covid. Marc Bernier was a mainstay on talk radio in Daytona. On Aug. 4, another Florida conservative radio host who had criticized the coronavirus vaccine, Dick Farrel, died from Covid-19 complications. Farrel, whose given name was Farrel Austin Levitt, had worked at several radio stations in Florida, including WIOD in Miami and WPBR in Palm Beach, and had served as a fill-in anchor on Newsmax. He had strongly condemned the coronavirus vaccine, posting on Facebook on July 3, “why take a vax promoted by people who lied 2u all along about masks, where the virus came from and the death toll?” He also criticized Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infection disease doctor, calling him a “power tripping lying freak,” according to The Washington Post, which reported on his death. But the Post also reports that Farrel had changed his stance on vaccines after he became infected with Covid-19. He had reportedly urged a longtime friend to get the vaccine and regretted not getting it himself. Last week, Phil Valentine, a 62-year-old conservative radio host in Nashville, Tenn., who had questioned the necessity of vaccines, also died from the virus. Valentine, the son of former six-term Rep. Tim Valentine (D-N.C.), had a nationally syndicated show. “The people who instinctively believe that the government is the solution to everything are already talking vaccination mandates. This should be a personal choice,” he wrote on his blog in December. “I’m not an anti-vaxxer. I’m just using common sense.” But like Farrel, he had reportedly changed his position on vaccines after contracting Covid-19. The radio station he was affiliated with, 99.7 WTN, posted a statement on July 23 that Valentine had been hospitalized and “regrets not being more vehemently ‘Pro-Vaccine.’” https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2021/08/29/3rd-conservative-radio-host-who-condemned-vaccines-dies-of-covid-1390555

Watch: violent attacks at anti-vax protest in Los Angeles. https://boingboing.net/2021/08/16/watch-violent-attacks-at-anti-vax-protest-in-los-angeles.html

People who contracted Covid may have "substantial" drop in intelligence, according to The Lancet https://boingboing.net/2021/08/03/people-who-contracted-covid-may-have-substantial-drop-in-intelligence-according-to-the-lancet.html

General Information about Candida auris. Healthcare facilities in several countries have reported that a type of yeast called Candida auris has been causing severe illness in hospitalized patients. In some patients, this yeast can enter the bloodstream and spread throughout the body, causing serious invasive infections. This yeast often does not respond to commonly used antifungal drugs, making infections difficult to treat. Patients who have been hospitalized in a healthcare facility a long time, have a central venous catheter, or other lines or tubes entering their body, or have previously received antibiotics or antifungal medications, appear to be at highest risk of infection with this yeast. Specialized laboratory methods are needed to accurately identify C. auris. Conventional laboratory techniques could lead to misidentification and inappropriate management, making it difficult to control the spread of C. auris in healthcare settings. https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/candida-auris/candida-auris-qanda.html

Sen Rand Paul says he's asking DOJ for 'a criminal referral' into Fauci. Paul claims Fauci lied to Congress about gain-of-research funding. https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/564112-sen-rand-paul-says-hes-asking-doj-for-a-criminal-referral-into

The Other Victims Of The Pandemic: Workers Killed In Fights Over Masks. Essential workers have borne the brunt of a pandemic poisoned by politics. BuzzFeed News found at least four frontline employees who died in fights over masks. Here are their stories. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/clarissajanlim/workers-killed-fights-masks

Tennessee's former top vaccine official said she was sent a muzzle one week before she was fired. Dr. Michelle Fiscus was fired from the Tennessee Department of Health on Monday after facing scrutiny from Republican state lawmakers over TDH's outreach efforts to vaccinate teenagers against COVID-19. "They must not know me, this is for a beagle, but I'm a pit bull," Dr. Fiscus said in reaction to the muzzle. Dr. Fiscus believes she was fired to appease lawmakers after she sent out information on the Mature Minor Doctrine, which allows doctors to treat teenage patients without parental consent. https://www.newschannel5.com/news/tennessee-vaccine-official-says-she-was-sent-muzzle-one-week-before-firing

Coronavirus crisis, HealthCare, political, economy, masks archived July 14, 2021

The Tennessee Department of Health will halt all adolescent vaccine outreach – not just for coronavirus, but all diseases – amid pressure from Republican state lawmakers, according to an internal report and agency emails obtained by the Tennessean. If the health department must issue any information about vaccines, staff are instructed to strip the agency logo off the documents. The health department will also stop all COVID-19 vaccine events on school property, despite holding at least one such event this month. The decisions to end vaccine outreach and school events come directly from Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey, the internal report states. Additionally, the health department will take steps to ensure it no longer sends postcards or other notices reminding teenagers to get their second dose of the coronavirus vaccines. Postcards will still be sent to adults, but teens will be excluded from the mailing list so the postcards are not “potentially interpreted as solicitation to minors,” the report states. https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/health/2021/07/13/tennessee-halts-all-vaccine-outreach-minors-not-just-covid-19/7928701002/

On Monday, July 12, the Tennessee Department of Health fired Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the top vaccine official in the Tennessee state government. Fiscus said she was scapegoated to appease Republican state lawmakers who are angry about efforts to vaccinate teenagers. After losing her job, Fiscus released a 1,200-word statement about the ordeal. Below is her statement in its entirety. https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/health/2021/07/12/covid-19-tennessee-fired-vaccine-official-michelle-fiscus-fears-state/7945291002/

Tennessee fires top vaccine official as COVID-19 shows signs of new spread. Fiscus said she was a scapegoat who was terminated to appease state lawmakers angry about the department's efforts to vaccinate teenagers against coronavirus. The agency has been dialing back efforts to vaccinate teenagers since June. "It was my job to provide evidence-based education and vaccine access so that Tennesseans could protect themselves against COVID-19," Fiscus said in a written statement. "I have now been terminated for doing exactly that." https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/health/2021/07/12/tennessee-fires-top-vaccine-official-covid-19-shows-new-spread/7928699002/

Fox News’ Anti-Vaccination Hysteria Has Reached a Disturbing New Level. Right-wing media is melting down over President Biden’s push to … inoculate people against a virus that has killed more than 600,000 Americans. Kilmeade is correct in noting that the U.S. has done a good job tamping down Covid-19, and even that the virus is now “on the run.” The reason for this is simple: People are getting vaccinated. A recent Associated Press analysis of government data found that 98.9 percent of Covid-related hospitalizations are among the unvaccinated. Same goes for 99.2 percent of Covid-related deaths. This is a reason to keep vaccinating people, not to stop vaccinating people, especially as the highly contagious Delta variant is spreading around the world. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/fox-news-anti-vaccination-hysteria-1195003/

GOP and Fox News rush to turn vaccine door-knockers into terrifying straw men. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/07/09/gop-fox-news-rush-turn-vaccine-door-knockers-into-terrifying-straw-men/

Five clusters of unvaccinated Americans making up 15 million people across 12 states are putting the entire country at risk of another surge in COVID-19 cases, analysis finds. Five clusters of unvaccinated Americans could be putting the entire country at risk of future COVID-19 surges, a new analysis finds. COVID-19 vaccination is extremely uneven across the US, with some counties at rates above 70 percent while others are below 30 percent. The clusters of counties - which make up 15 million Americans - all have vaccination rates under 30 percent and stretch across 12 states including Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9770273/Five-clusters-unvaccinated-Americans-putting-entire-risk-COVID-19-surge.html

Group of scientists argues COVID-19 lab theory without evidence. https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/561633-group-of-scientists-argues-covid-19-lab-theory-without-evidence

Nearly all COVID deaths in US are now among unvaccinated. Thursday June 24, 2021. Nearly all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. now are in people who weren’t vaccinated, a staggering demonstration of how effective the shots have been and an indication that deaths per day — now down to under 300 — could be practically zero if everyone eligible got the vaccine. https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-941fcf43d9731c76c16e7354f5d5e187

Inside the extraordinary effort to save Trump from covid-19. His illness was more severe than the White House acknowledged at the time. Advisers thought it would alter his response to the pandemic. They were wrong. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/24/nightmare-scenario-book-excerpt/

Among the thousands of pages of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s emails obtained recently by The Washington Post and BuzzFeed News, a short note from Kristian Andersen, a virus expert at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, has garnered a lot of attention. Over the past year, Andersen has been one of the most outspoken proponents of the theory that the coronavirus originated from a natural spillover from an animal to humans outside of a lab. But in the email to Fauci in January 2020, Andersen hadn’t yet come to that conclusion. He told Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, that some features of the virus made him wonder whether it had been engineered, and noted that he and his colleagues were planning to investigate further by analyzing the virus’s genome. Furin cleavage sites are found all across the coronavirus family, including in the betacoronavirus genus that SARS-CoV-2 belongs to. There has been much speculation that patterns found in the virus’s RNA that are responsible for certain portions of the furin cleavage site represent evidence of engineering. Specifically, people are pointing to two “CGG” sequences that code for the amino acid arginine in the furin cleavage site as strong evidence that the virus was made in the lab. Such statements are factually incorrect. While it’s true that CGG is less common than other patterns that code for arginine, the CGG codon is found elsewhere in the SARS-CoV-2 genome and the genetic sequence[s] that include the CGG codon found in SARS-CoV-2 are also found in other coronaviruses. These findings, together with many other technical features of the site, strongly suggest that it evolved naturally and there is very little chance somebody engineered it. https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientist-opens-early-email-fauci-114537695.html

Transcript: Lawrence Wright, Author, “The Plague Year: America in the Time of COVID”. I feel particularly warm about Matt Pottinger because he began his career as you and I did, as a reporter. And that turned out to be an exceptionally important fact. He speaks fluent Mandarin, and so he was covering SARS-1 in China for The Wall Street Journal. And when the Chinese were issuing statements in early 2020 saying that this was not a human disease, it wasn't transmissible and we've got it under control, some alarm bells went off in Matt Pottinger's mind--evidently not in the minds of people in our intelligence community because very little information was coming from that corridor. And so, Matt was the deputy national security advisory and he--in that capacity he began acting like a reporter once again. He started calling sources in China. And the reports he was getting were pretty alarming. This was community spread. In other words, it was out of control in China. And so even American public health authorities weren't taking it nearly as seriously as Matt was. And one of the things that he instituted was the coronavirus taskforce. He brought agents from across the government together to talk about this. And he also was the one who promoted the use of masks at a time when he was the very first person to wear a mask in the White House, and he said he felt like he was wearing a clown nose. And the president asked if he was ill, and he said, no, I just don't want to be the first person to knock off a president with a communicable disease. He was almost alone in his warnings in the White House about the threat that COVID-19 posed. https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2021/06/08/transcript-lawrence-wright-author-plague-year-america-time-covid/

What went wrong with Covid-19 response in the US? Author and journalist Lawrence Wright has been writing about pandemics for decades. So when Covid-19 struck the US, he was ideally placed to report on the political response. At the beginning of 2020 the author Lawrence Wright published a novel in which he imagined a deadly virus outbreak that swept the globe. He couldn’t have predicted that as that book hit the shops real life was eerily mimicking his plot. As a reporter for the New Yorker, Wright had been reporting on pandemics for decades and was ideally placed to chart the spread of Covid-19. He tells Anushka Asthana that what unfolded was to become America’s deadliest year, with half a million people lost to the virus. Inside the White House, there were experts desperately trying to influence the president to change course on key decisions. But the story of the initial Covid response, argues Wright, was one of a significant political failure. https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2021/jun/14/what-went-wrong-with-the-us-covid-19-response-podcast

QOP Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn't believe in evolution or 'so-called science'. In case you had any doubts, the Right Hand of Q, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, does not believe in science, research, or anything that gets in the way of her claiming anything she'd like at any time. What she's saying: Greene leaned on religion to explain the origins of the coronavirus. "Why is there any need to create a virus that could spread rapidly to a population, to make people sick and kill them? That is a bioweapon," she said. Greene noted she doesn't support so-called "gain-of-function research," in which lab technicians modify a virus to develop vaccines and other medications. "I don't buy it because I don't believe in evolution," the freshman Republican from Georgia added. "I don't believe in that type of so-called science. I don't believe in evolution, I believe in God." https://boingboing.net/2021/06/14/qop-marjorie-taylor-green-doesnt-believe-in-evolution-or-so-called-science.html

Trump's State Department Officials Fought Over Whether The Coronavirus Was A Chinese Bioweapon. In an open letter posted on Medium on Thursday, Christopher Ford, former assistant secretary for international security and nonproliferation, said he intervened to prevent the US government from “embarrassing and discrediting” itself by accusing China of having deliberately engineered the coronavirus — despite there being no evidence to make that case. Sourcing his account to emails put into the public domain through reporting by Fox News and Vanity Fair, Ford’s Medium post detailed his increasingly fraught relationship with David Asher, a contractor in the State Department who was running its investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, and Thomas DiNanno, former acting head of the department’s Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance (AVC). According to Vanity Fair, Asher and DiNanno viewed Ford as pushing a preconceived conclusion that the virus had a natural origin. In the Medium post, Ford said that DiNanno signaled that the investigation was focusing on “China allegedly having violated the Biological Weapons Convention by creating the virus.” He added: “They seemed to believe that COVID-19 was a biological weapons (BW) effort gone awry — or perhaps even a BW agent deliberately unleashed upon the world.” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/peteraldhous/coronavirus-state-department-lab-leak-bioweapon

The COVID lab-leak hypothesis: what scientists do and don’t know. Nature examines arguments that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a lab in China, and the science behind them. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01529-3

Liberals' Bizarre Fear of an Unmasked Nation. By Ted Rall https://www.creators.com/read/ted-rall/06/21/liberals-bizarre-fear-of-an-unmasked-nation There's still flu, common cold, ragweed, car/diesel exhaust, industrial pollution, and my neighbors stinky barbecue. What's my long term health outcome if I wear an N95 outdoors vs not? I can see the freeway from my front porch. Last year that ship burned in the harbor smelled it https://twitter.com/bob_smith_42/status/1401547964212940805

Watch angry Jim Jordan blast Dr. Fauci as if he's responsible for Covid. The doctor never loses his cool https://boingboing.net/2021/04/15/watch-an-angry-jim-jordan-blast-dr-fauci-as-if-hes-responsible-for-covid-the-doctor-never-loses-his-cool.html

'A small victory. Yippee!' Emails reveal how Trump officials celebrated when the CDC altered their guidelines to align with the president's plan to reopen the US. The report, released by congressional investigators, found that as career scientists worked to combat the disease, a group of Trump-appointed officials were attempting to blunt the scientific messaging with their own set of alternative facts lies. At the Department of Health and Human Services, then-science adviser Paul Alexander wrote to then-public affairs chief Michael Caputo on Sept. 9, 2020, pointing to a report where CDC leaders allegedly changed the opening sentence about the spread of the virus among younger people after Alexander pressured them. In his email, Alexander called it a 'small victory but a victory nonetheless and yippee!!!' 'Dr. Fauci has no data, no science to back up what he is saying on school reopen, none … he is scaring the nation wrongfully,' Alexander wrote to 11 senior HHS officials on Aug. 11. Alexander enlisted then-White House adviser Scott Atlas to help him interfere with the document in relation to data on children's death, which came about as the Trump administration was pushing schools to reopen. Alexander also praised Nina Witkofsky, the acting CDC chief of staff, after numbers in the MMRW dropped. Witkofsky had previously been a contractor helping plan events for Seema Verma, the Trump administration's Medicare and Medicaid chief. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9455283/Yippee-Trump-officials-celebrated-CDC-altered-guidance.html

Fauci Slams ‘Bizarre’ Right-Wing Critics in Fox Interview. “Peter Navarro saying I created the virus. I mean, how bizarre is that?” the doctor said while responding to attacks from the former Trump aide. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/fauci-bizarre-fox-news-interview-1150791/

@NikkiMcR Peter Navarro calls COVID-19 the "Fauci Virus" calling Fauci "the father of" the virus and accusing him of allowing China and the People's Liberation Army to "genetically engineer" COVID-19. Host Rachel Campos-Duffy lets it slide. https://twitter.com/NikkiMcR/status/1377044643133730818

Trump lashes out at Fauci and Birx after CNN documentary. The former president released a fact-challenged statement criticizing the former advisers after they criticized his administration’s pandemic response. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/29/trump-fauci-birx-cnn-documentary-478422

The coronavirus jab's most tantalising side effects? It may help fight cancer, chronic pain... and even Alzheimer's. Scientists have documented the unexpected benefits of vaccines for decades. Some experts suggest vaccines can 'train' the immune system, strengthening it. Others say increased stress hormones affect cells' ability to target infections. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9307203/Coronavirus-jab-help-fight-cancer-chronic-pain-Alzheimers.html

Israeli hospital says it may have found Covid-19 cure as all treated patients make full recovery. The medication, called EXO-CD24, is a targeted drug that was reportedly developed as a cure for certain types of cancer. EXO-CD24 is relatively inexpensive and must be given once a day for a period of five days. It fights the cytokine storm, a potentially lethal immune overreaction as a result of a coronavirus infection, which is believed to be responsible for many Covid-related deaths. The drug uses so-called ‘exosomes’ – tiny carrier pouches that shuttle materials between cells – to deliver a protein called CD24 to the lungs, which Arber has been studying for decades. “This protein is located on the surface of cells and has a well-known and important role in regulating the immune system,” researcher Shiran Shapira, who is part of Arber’s research team, told the Times of Israel earlier today. https://www.cityam.com/israeli-hospital-says-it-may-have-found-covid-19-cure-as-all-treated-patients-make-full-recovery/

Meet the Bizarro Crew That Shut Down a Los Angeles Vaccine Site. At least two filmed themselves at the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Omar Navarro, a perennial political candidate who was previously convicted of attaching a tracking device to his wife’s car, stood outside Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Saturday and warned that the coronavirus vaccines being distributed there were part of a mind-control project. “What they’re doing here is a massive, massive, massive indoctrination. They want to basically hurt people because this vaccination is definitely not good,” Navarro said in a Facebook Live video, telling viewers the location of his protest. “Basically what the left is doing is using Dodger Stadium to mass-vaccinate people.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/meet-the-bizarro-crew-that-shut-down-an-la-vaccine-site

County’s two largest nursing homes have largest outbreaks in region. The Shores Post-Acute in the Birdland neighborhood of San Diego continues to have the greatest number of cases among both its residents and health care workers. California Department of Public Health data show that 245 residents and 108 staff had tested positive for the virus at The Shores since the beginning of the pandemic. Of those cases, there were 41 residents and 33 staff who had active cases on Friday, down from 77 and 35 active cases reported to CDPH on Wednesday. The second-largest outbreak among skilled nursing residents is at Country Hills Post Acute in El Cajon. As of Friday, 202 residents and 111 health care residents had tested positive at the facility, but there were no active cases among residents and 43 active cases among staff. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/health/story/2021-01-16/countys-two-largest-nursing-homes-have-largest-outbreaks-in-region

Maskholes like Jim Desmond want us dead. https://www.escondidograpevine.com/2020/11/17/maskholes-like-jim-desmond-want-us-dead/ San Diegans take part in 'Let Them Play' rallies. “It just isn’t fair when the science supports us.,” Riley Merrigan, a student-athlete, said. “Wearing masks and distancing (makes) it safe for us to play. I feel like we have the opportunity, and we can take advantage of it.” Dr. Michele Ritter, an infectious disease specialist at UC San Diego Medical Center, says it is still too risky to resume youth sports. “I think sports are great, but I think we are just at the most challenging time with COVID-19,” Ritter said. “The best way parents can help their kids right now is to help us get through this,” she added, “which means hunker down, stay away from people, try to get our numbers down as much as possible until we can get people vaccinated.” https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/san-diegans-take-part-in-let-them-play-rallies

Trial of COVID-19 blood plasma finds no benefit in severely ill patients. An international trial testing convalescent blood plasma on COVID-19 patients with moderate and severe illness has halted enrolment of severely ill COVID-19 patients requiring intensive care after it found no benefit, trial investigators said on Monday. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-plasma-idUSKBN29G1JZ

Two more life-saving Covid drugs discovered. The UK government is working closely with the manufacturer, to ensure the drugs - tocilizumab and sarilumab - continue to be available to UK patients. As well as saving more lives, the treatments speed up patients' recovery and reduce the length of time that critically-ill patients need to spend in intensive care by about a week. Both appear to work equally well and add to the benefit already found with a cheap steroid drug called dexamethasone. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55574662

Black doctor in Indiana dies of COVID-19 after publicly complaining of racist treatment at hospital. "I don't trust this hospital," Dr. Susan Moore said from her hospital bed in Indiana, an oxygen tube hooked up to her nose. "That is not how you treat patients." Moore, an Indianapolis physician who was being treated for COVID-19 at Indiana University Hospital North, died of the virus this week. Earlier this month, she posted a video to Facebook to share that she believed she was not receiving proper medical care because she was Black. https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/24/us/black-doctor-susan-moore-covid-19/index.html

The City of El Cajon and Reopen San Diego present the “All I Want For Christmas is Freedom” rally. Posted: December 21, 2020 Mayor Bill Wells, State Senator Brian Jones, Congressman Darrell Issa, Pastor Reta, and Peggy Hall were among some of the officials who spoke at the rally. https://www.kusi.com/the-city-of-el-cajon-and-reopen-san-diego-present-the-all-i-want-for-christmas-is-freedom-rally/

White House canceled plans to mail face masks to all American homes because Trump hates Amazon's Jeff Bezos & feuded with USPS. https://boingboing.net/2020/12/19/white-house-canceled-plans-to-mail-face-masks-to-every-american-home-because-trump-hates-amazons-jeff-bezos-and-was-feuding-with-usps.html

Fox News' 'Utterly Insane' Lies About COVID-19 Slammed In Searing Supercut. Veteran radio host Chip Franklin warns in the three-minute spot for Really American, an anti-Trump PAC, that the conservative network will end up getting people killed with its falsehoods. “That’s what a superspreader event looks like. You know it as Fox News and its viewers can’t get enough and some even watch it from their hospital beds as they die from COVID,” Franklin says in the clip, which includes footage of its hosts, including prime-time stars Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, downplaying the threat of COVID-19 and railing against lockdowns and mask mandates aimed at combatting its spread. “Look, 40 million people watch these shows and only these shows and follow their edicts about no masks, no distancing, hydroxychloroquine and other utterly insane shit,” Franklin adds. “Then Trump repeats Fox and Fox repeats Trump.” https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/fox-news-coronavirus-dangerous-really-american-075058431.html https://youtu.be/Erx6lIFaebo

As COVID-19 surges in its ranks, LBPD warns officers to wear masks or face discipline. https://lbpost.com/news/long-beach-police-mask-photo-convention-center-not-wearing-face-coverings Long Beach police orchestrated a coronavirus super-spreader event, complaint alleges. An outbreak of coronavirus at the Long Beach Police Department, following a training session where hundreds of officers reportedly gathered indoors without masks, has some residents charging that police held a super-spreader event. A complaint filed this week with the Citizen Police Complaint Coalition centers on a large gathering of police officers Nov. 5 at the Long Beach Convention Center. Police had just completed a series of training exercises to prepare for potential unrest around the time of the election, Chief Robert Luna said in an interview last week. The chief stopped by to address the officers for about 10 minutes, praising them for working “their butts off this year.” “As police chief, I needed to get in front of my men and women,” Luna said. “I wanted to thank them for their commitment, their personal sacrifice. … Not only for that week but everything they had been through that year.” Many of the hundreds of officers gathered at the center didn’t wear masks, according to a photo the Long Beach Post published about a month later — alongside the Police Department’s official photo of the group, all wearing masks. The story sparked criticism, including from the two activist groups People of Long Beach and Long Beach Reform Coalition that signed the complaint. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-12-17/long-beach-police-orchestrated-a-coronavirus-super-spreader-event-complaint-alleges

'Like a Hand Grasping': Trump Appointees Describe the Crushing of the CDC. Kyle McGowan, a former chief of staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and his deputy, Amanda Campbell, were installed in 2018 as two of the youngest political appointees in the history of the world’s premier public health agency, young Republicans returning to their native Georgia to dream jobs. But what they witnessed during the coronavirus pandemic this year in the CDC’s leadership suite on the 12-floor headquarters here shook them: Washington’s dismissal of science, the White House’s slow suffocation of the agency’s voice, the meddling in its messages and the siphoning of its budget. https://news.yahoo.com/hand-grasping-trump-appointees-describe-133636121.html

White House security director lost foot, lower leg in battle against coronavirus: Crede Bailey, director of White House security, contracted virus in September. Bailey’s friend Dawn McCrobie organized a GoFundMe page to raise money for his medical expenses. “First let me say that Crede will NOT be happy I've done this as he is a proud man who is the first to help everyone else but would never ask for help himself,” she wrote in the Nov. 13 post. “But the reality is this. His family has staggering medical bills from a hospital stay of 2+ months and still counting in the ICU and a long road ahead in rehab before he can go home. When he does make it home there will be major changes necessary to deal with his new, and permanent, disability,” McCrobie continued. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-security-director-lost-foot-lower-leg-covid-19

Biden will have White House disinfected after Trump leaves. With President-elect Joe Biden set to be sworn into office in 41 days, precautions are being taken to prevent any infections among new White House staff. The General Services Administration will deploy a team that will “thoroughly clean and disinfect” every part of the White House touched by human hands, including furniture, doorknobs, handrails and light switches, before Biden settles into the Oval Office, Politico reports. A private contractor will also provide “disinfectant misting services” to remove any lingering droplets. https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/529660-biden-will-have-white-house-disinfected-after

Trump tweet: 'I just want to stop the world from killing itself!'

I just want to stop the world from killing itself! The Swine Flu (H1N1), and the attempt for a vaccine by the Obama Administration, with Joe Biden in charge, was a complete and total disaster. Now they want to come in and take over one of the "greatest and fastest medical miracles in modern day history." I don't think so! While my pushing the money drenched but heavily bureaucratic @US_FDA saved five years in the approval of NUMEROUS great new vaccines, it is still a big, old, slow turtle. Get the dam vaccines out NOW, Dr. Hahn @SteveFDA. Stop playing games and start saving lives!!! https://boingboing.net/2020/12/11/trump-tweet-i-just-want-to-stop-the-world-from-killing-itself.html

Older adults should avoid making trips to the grocery store during the pandemic and instead use curbside pick-up or food delivery, new data shows. https://www.futurity.org/older-adults-grocery-store-covid-19-2480642-2/

The staggering cost of the Scott Atlas debacle. Trump picked a coronavirus adviser because he liked his Fox hits, and now a lot of Americans are dead. Dr. Scott Atlas resigned from his post on the White House’s coronavirus task force on Monday, ending an experiment in governance by Fox News that has caused skyrocketing COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, with even darker weeks ahead. https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/staggering-cost-scott-atlas-debacle

Drugs hyped as coronavirus treatment linked to psychiatric disorders, says EU agency. EU’s drug regulator issues warning about chloroquine and a related compound, hydroxychloroquine. Chloroquine and a related compound, hydroxychloroquine, have been associated with cases of psychiatric disturbances and suicidal behavior after being given to COVID-19 patients, warned the EU's drug regulator today. The two medicines were some of the first drugs put forward as possible treatments for the coronavirus, and were famously promoted by controversial French doctor Didier Raoult and U.S. President Donald Trump. However, since then, they haven't shown to be effective in clinical studies. https://www.politico.eu/article/drugs-hyped-as-coronavirus-treatment-linked-to-psychiatric-disorders-says-ema/

Americans defy pandemic, political leaders to travel for Thanksgiving. Deaths from COVID-19 surpassed 2,000 in a single day for the first time since May on Tuesday and hospitalizations reached a record 88,000 on Wednesday as the country recorded 2.3 million new infections in the past two weeks. Spiraling infections typically result in a rising death toll weeks later. Coronavirus deaths reached 2,157 on Tuesday - one person every 40 seconds - with another 170,000 people infected, as millions of Americans disregarded official warnings and traveled for Thanksgiving. https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-usa/u-s-hits-highest-death-toll-since-may-with-hospitals-already-full-idUSKBN2851R6

Jury duty? No thanks say many, forcing trials to be delayed. Within the past month, courts in Hartford, Connecticut, San Diego and Norfolk, Virginia, have had to delay jury selection for trials because too few people responded to jury duty summonses. The non-response rates are much higher now than they were before the pandemic, court officials say. https://apnews.com/article/trials-coronavirus-pandemic-hartford-courts-california-de849f632364e81c69e4a7a67d72073f

New Study Shows When You're The Most Infectious With COVID-19. Here's how quick and how long asymptomatic and symptomatic people with the coronavirus may spread the illness. By Rachel Moss 11/20/2020 10:05am EST https://www.huffpost.com/entry/new-study-infectious-covid-19_l_5fb7d332c5b6f6adf949e42d

Economy

China bought none of the $200 billion it promised from the U.S. under ‘Phase 1’ trade deal, study reveals. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-bought-none-of-the-200-billion-it-promised-from-the-u-s-in-phase-one-trade-deal-study-reveals-11644505449

Musk tanks TSLA 10% to pay his taxes, then pauses to malign a US Senator. https://boingboing.net/2021/11/15/musk-tanks-tsla-10-to-pay-his-taxes-then-pauses-to-malign-a-us-senator.html

Donald Trump Built a National Debt So Big (Even Before the Pandemic) That It’ll Weigh Down the Economy for Years. The “King of Debt” promised to reduce the national debt — then his tax cuts made it surge. Add in the pandemic, and he oversaw the third-biggest deficit increase of any president. The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration, according to a calculation by a leading Washington budget maven, Eugene Steuerle, co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. And unlike George W. Bush and Abraham Lincoln, who oversaw the larger relative increases in deficits, Trump did not launch two foreign conflicts or have to pay for a civil war. https://www.propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump

Trump Leaving Office With 3M Less Jobs Than When He Entered, Worst Record Since Depression. https://www.newsweek.com/trump-leaving-office-3m-less-jobs-when-he-entered-worst-record-since-depression-1562737

FedEx just painted a disturbing picture of the job market. FedEx (FDX) said its quarterly results were drilled by $450 million due to labor shortages alone, notably at its ground segment. The company estimated a shocking 600,000 packages across the FedEx network are being rerouted because of the inability to find labor. Those processing bottlenecks stand to wreak havoc on the holiday season if FedEx is unable to address the worker shortage, which increasingly appears unlikely. https://news.yahoo.com/fed-ex-just-painted-a-disturbing-picture-of-the-job-market-160422695.html

Congress averts shutdown; fight continues over pandemic aid. Congress passed a two-day stopgap spending bill Friday night, averting a partial government shutdown and buying yet more time for frustratingly slow endgame negotiations on an almost $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package. Democrats on Friday came out swinging at a key obstacle: a provision by conservative Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., that would close down more than $400 billion in potential Federal Reserve lending powers established under a relief bill in March. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is shutting down the programs at the end of December, but Toomey’s language goes further, by barring the Fed from restarting the lending next year, and Democrats say the provision would tie Biden’s hands and put the economy at risk. “As we navigate through an unprecedented economic crisis, it is in the interests of the American people to maintain the Fed’s ability to respond quickly and forcefully,” said Biden economic adviser Brian Deese. “Undermining that authority could mean less lending to Main Street businesses, higher unemployment and greater economic pain across the nation.” https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-pandemics-coronavirus-pandemic-bills-mitch-mcconnell-e3247d049ee1cac7a7ab4230cbfbf060

The Fed programs at issue provided loans to small and mid-sized businesses and bought state and local government bonds, making it easier for those governments to borrow, at a time when their finances are under pressure from the pandemic.

A huge study of 50 years of tax cuts for the wealthy suggests 'trickle-down' economics makes inequality worse. https://www.businessinsider.com/tax-cuts-rich-trickle-down-income-inequality-study-2020-12

Gripped by the accelerating viral outbreak, the U.S. economy is under pressure from persistent layoffs, diminished income and nervous consumers, whose spending is needed to drive a recovery from the pandemic. A flurry of data released Wednesday suggested that the spread of the virus is intensifying the threats to an economy still struggling to recover from the deep recession that struck in early spring. The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid rose last week for a second straight week to 778,000, evidence that many employers are still slashing jobs more than eight months after the virus hit. Before the pandemic, weekly jobless claims typically amounted to only about 225,000. Layoffs are still historically high, with many businesses unable to fully reopen and some, especially restaurants and bars, facing tightened restrictions. https://apnews.com/article/pandemics-jobless-claims-unemployment-coronavirus-pandemic-economy-01d54b8c5f65a813a09df482aa4b6786

★ Insurrection Index

Below is a curated selection of key profiles of individuals and organizations who participated in, or directly supported the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. They are in positions of public trust or are actively campaigning for elected office.. State:California Elected Status:Elected Official https://insurrectionindex.org/records/?_record_type=persons&_states=california&_elected_status=elected

Trump incited Insurrection January 06, 2021, Qanon, MAGA Zombies

The Oath Keepers’ Jan. 6 Trial Is Here. And It’s Going to Be Weird. Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, and four others are facing seditious conspiracy charges for their role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The Oath Keepers’ trial for their role in the Jan. 6 insurrection kicks off Tuesday. Rhodes’ alleged co-conspirators set to stand trial alongside him in the Washington federal courthouse are Thomas Caldwell, 68; Kelly Meggs, 53; Kenneth Harrelson, 41 and Jessica Watkins, 40. “[They] have greater criminal exposure because of the alleged agreement and plan from the leader of a national group on down to participate, allegedly acting as a larger cohesive unit,” Levin said. Lewis said it will be interesting to see how the three defendants who already pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy — Joshua James, Brian Ulrich and William Todd Wilson — will play into the government’s case at trial, if at all. According to Wilson’s plea agreement, he left the Capitol grounds around 5 p.m. and went to a private suite at the Phoenix Park Hotel where Rhodes gathered him and others and called an unnamed person on speaker phone. "Wilson heard ... Rhodes repeatedly implore the individual to tell President Trump to call upon groups like the Oath Keepers to forcibly oppose the transfer of power," according to his plea. The person reportedly denied Rhodes's request to speak directly with Trump and after the phone call ended, Rhodes told the group, "I just want to fight." According to the indictment, at one point during the evening on Jan. 6, Rhodes and others are said to have gone to an underground parking garage in Washington where they met for about 30 minutes with a group of people including Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the right-wing Proud Boys group who is also charged with seditious conspiracy in connection with the riot. Jury selection is slated to begin on Monday in the Oath Keepers case. A second jury trial for four of the accused Oath Keepers defendants is set for Nov. 27, roughly one month before the Proud Boys’ will be tried for Capitol riot-related seditious conspiracy. Three other Oath Keepers defendants - Joshua James, Brian Ulrich and William Todd Wilson - pleaded guilty this year to engaging in seditious conspiracy in connection with the attack. They are awaiting sentencing and could potentially be called as witnesses at the trial. https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5vwxw/oath-keepers-jan-6-trial https://www.courthousenews.com/justice-department-gears-up-for-oath-keepers-seditious-conspiracy-trial/ https://www.reuters.com/legal/oath-keepers-facing-seditious-conspiracy-trial-us-capitol-attack-2022-09-20/

Three key questions Ginni Thomas must answer in January 6 panel interview. Was Mr Thomas involved, even tangentially through occaisional discussions, with his wife’s efforts? Did she seek to use her very personal connection to him as a means to convince lawmakers that their efforts would be upheld as lawful by the Supreme Court? Did Mr Thomas know anything about his wife’s activities before ruling on a case (or cases) related to White House communications on January 6? https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ginni-thomas-questions-jan-6-b2173167.html

A Capitol rioter who dressed up as Adolf Hitler, and whose case has been championed by former President Donald Trump, has been sentenced to four years in federal prison for participating in the attack. Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, 32, of New Jersey, is a former Army reservist who participated in the Capitol riot. He was convicted in May after trying — and failing — to convince a jury he was unaware that Congress was in session at the Capitol. He was facing a charge of obstruction of Congress. “I know this sounds idiotic, but I’m from New Jersey,” he told the jury. “I feel like an idiot, it sounds idiotic, and it is.” Hale-Cusanelli admitted that he someties says ‘ugly’ and "repugnant’ things. Despite Hale-Cusanelli's admission that he says things that offend the general population, he does have at least one fan — Mr Trump. At a recent rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Hale-Cusanelli's aunt was invited on-stage to plead for sympathy for her nephew. “Tim went to the nation’s capitol to hear his president speak,” she said. “He dressed in a suit and tie and his favorite hat. Tim wanted to take part in what he thought was going to be a historical event. Instead, he witnessed a horror show.” She left out the detail that he was an active participant in the "horror show." It's unclear why Mr Trump chose to give time to this particular Capitol riot defendant. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/capitol-rioter-hitler-mustache-sentenced-b2173409.html

A perennial political candidate from Montana who was once denied admission to the bar because of his criminal record and “connections to white supremacy groups” has been playing a behind the scenes role in the defense of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, one of the alleged organizers of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Lawyer Roger Roots, who has mounted long shot libertarian bids for office in Montana in every election since 2012, has been assisting a lawyer newly tapped by Rhodes to mount a last-ditch drive to postpone Rhodes’ looming trial for seditious conspiracy, slated to begin Sept. 26. U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta swiftly turned aside Rhodes’ effort and chastised the new attorney, Ed Tarpley of Louisiana, for appearing just weeks before trial and creating uncertainty around the complicated proceeding. Rhodes, in the same motion, attempted to fire his attorneys and replace them with Tarpley, but the Oath Keepers’ founder ultimately opted to maintain his legal team, which has handled his case for the last eight months. However, Roots’ involvement escaped mention during last week’s court hearing, during which Mehta attempted to keep the complex, five-defendant trial on track. POLITICO located Roots’ name in metadata associated with Tarpley’s initial court filing seeking a delay and change of counsel. In an interview, Tarpley acknowledged that Roots advised him in writing it. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/14/oath-keepers-jan-6-trial-stewart-rhodes-roger-roots-00056707

Among the Insurrectionists. The Capitol was breached by Trump supporters who had been declaring, at rally after rally, that they would go to violent lengths to keep the President in power. A chronicle of an attack foretold. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/01/25/among-the-insurrectionists Luke Mogelson

A judge refused to delay the upcoming trial of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes. Judge Amit Mehta said arguments for the delay were "incorrect" and "bewildering." Mehta also declined to allow Rhodes to fire his lawyers, creating a potentially awkward arrangement. But Mehta said that, until Tuesday's filing, he had not heard a "peep" from Rhodes about any "disenchantment" with his defense team. The judge said Rhodes' defense lawyers for the past nine months, James Lee Bright and Phillip Linder, have displayed not only competence but also leadership in helping other Oath Keepers and their lawyers ahead of the trial, which is expected to last several weeks. "Not once has he complained one iota about his lawyers," Mehta said. https://news.yahoo.com/judge-ripped-far-oath-keepers-002003898.html

A New Mexico state district court judge has disqualified county commissioner and Cowboys for Trump cofounder Couy Griffin from holding public office for engaging in insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. State District Court Judge Francis Mathew issued a ruling Tuesday that permanently prohibits Griffin from holding or seeking local or federal office. Griffin was previously convicted in federal court of a misdemeanor for entering Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, without going inside the building. He was sentenced to 14 days and given credit for time served. https://news.yahoo.com/mexico-bars-commissioner-office-insurrection-155047248.html

Jan. 6 select panel asks Newt Gingrich to testify. Panel chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) cited an email Gingrich sent to senior advisers to Trump including Jared Kushner and Stephen Miller about an advertisement where he said the goal was to arouse anger among Americans about debunked claims of voter fraud. “The goal is to arouse the country’s anger through new verifiable information the American people have never seen before,” Gingrich wrote in a Dec. 8, 2020 email obtained by the select panel. “... If we inform the American people in a way they find convincing and it arouses their anger[,] they will then bring pressure on legislators and governors.” Gingrich sent one message on Nov. 12, 2020, to then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone and then-chief of staff Mark Meadows asking about the coordination of electors. “Is someone in charge of coordinating all the electors? Evans makes the point that all the contested electors must meet on [D]ecember 14 and send in ballots to force contests which the house would have to settle,” Gingrich wrote. And on the evening of Jan. 6, after the attack on the Capitol, Gingrich emailed Meadows and asked: “[a]re there letters from state legislators about decertifying electors[?]” https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/01/jan-6-select-panel-asks-newt-gingrich-to-testify-00054594

The House January 6 select committee on Thursday asked former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich to testify about his repeated contacts with White House aides in Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, even in the evening after the Capitol attack had taken place. The request to Gingrich was for voluntary cooperation – though the select committee showed it now appears to believe he was involved in a potential conspiracy planned ahead of time to lay the groundwork that would lead to reversing Trump’s defeat on January 6. Congressman Bennie Thompson, the committee chair, said in a letter to Gingrich that investigators were interested in him counseling Trump aides to make TV ads about debunked election fraud conspiracies to pressure state legislators into decertifying Biden electors. The letter detailed that it had communications that showed he tried to liaise with former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone about the fake elector scheme, asking whether anyone was coordinating Trump slates to Congress so that he could be declared the winner. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/01/house-capitol-attack-panel-newt-gingrich-testify

Capitol Breach Cases. Below is a list of defendants charged in federal court in the District of Columbia related to crimes committed at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C, on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. Every case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Following arrests, or surrender, defendants must appear before district court magistrate/judge where the arrest takes place, in accordance with the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/capitol-breach-cases

Ask the ‘Coupologists’: Just What Was Jan. 6 Anyway? Without a name for it, figuring out why it happened is that much harder. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/08/19/jan-6-coup-authoritarianism-expert-roundtable-00052281

Secret Service knew of threats against Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, and Mike Pence for days before the Capitol riot: CREW. The Secret Service knew of threats made to Nancy Pelosi days before the Capitol attack. But Capitol Police weren't alerted of the threats until 5:55 p.m. on January 6, 2021. Documents obtained by CREW reveal that the Secret Service was aware of threats against Biden and Pence. A post on the Parler account had a list of "enemies," including Pelosi, that had been shared on December 31, 2020. "January 6 starts #1776 all over again…Fight for EVERYTHING," the post said. CREW also found accounts under the same name, which the organization didn't disclose, on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, MeWe, and Bichute. Posts included warnings and "tips" for the "brave and courageous patriots going to DC to force Congress to refuse Biden's rigged election." Rioters were also advised to hide their MAGA gear while checking in at hotels and to "be wary" of DC police officers, while Washington, DC, was decried as a "hotbed for ANTIFA/BLM." https://www.yahoo.com/news/secret-knew-threats-against-nancy-204718608.html

GOP Rep. Scott Perry says FBI seized his cell phone. Perry has been the subject of scrutiny by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol. The committee issued a subpoena to Perry, but he has refused to cooperate with the panel. The committee’s subpoena said that Perry was “directly involved” with efforts to make Department of Justice attorney Jeffrey Clark the acting attorney general. Clark was a key figure in Trump’s election fraud probes that other administration officials balked at. The committee has also said that Perry was one of several House Republicans who sought a pardon from Trump, which he has denied. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3595073-gop-rep-scott-perry-says-fbi-seized-his-cell-phone/

@BeschlossDC If you have seven minutes available, please watch "A Night at the Garden" (2018), the Academy Award-nominated documentary by Marshall Curry on the chilling 1939 Nazi-organized rally in Madison Square Garden, attended by 22,000 people. Here's your link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=MxxxlutsKuI https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/1555980937267134465

The U.S. Secret Service has given the House Jan. 6 committee a listing of agency-issued cell phone numbers belonging to agents based in Washington, D.C., for the period the panel is investigating, according to sources familiar with the matter. The committee can now determine which agents' call records they may want to review and, if they decide to do so, could either request them directly or conceivably issue subpoenas to their cell phone providers, an official familiar with the situation explained. At the same time, the inspector general responsible for the Secret Service has obtained a listing of personal cell phones as part of its own investigation connected to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. https://www.yahoo.com/gma/secret-hands-agents-phone-numbers-220621895.html

The Jan. 6 panel is gathering evidence Trump may have broken these 5 federal laws https://news.yahoo.com/jan-6-panel-gathering-evidence-201425017.html

1. Conspiracy to defraud the government
2. Obstructing an official proceeding
3. Wire Fraud: fund raising
4. Witness tampering
5. Inciting a rebellion

At least 884 people have been charged in the Capitol insurrection so far. This searchable table shows them all. https://www.insider.com/all-the-us-capitol-pro-trump-riot-arrests-charges-names-2021-1

Steve Bannon Calls On '4,000 Shock Troops' To 'Deconstruct' The Government 'Brick By Brick'. He wants to see people “stepping forward, say[ing], ’Hey, I want to be one of those 4,000 shock troops,” Bannon said on his “War Room” podcast Monday. “This is taking on and defeating and deconstructing the administrative state,” he added. Bannon was responding to an Axios report last week that Trump and his allies are already plotting to replace all federal officials and civil service workers with those whose key qualification would be slavish devotion to Trump if he retakes the White House in the 2024 election. Bannon hailed the radical plot for Trump to take control of the nation. Former Trump campaign adviser Steve Cortes vowed on the podcast that Trump’s “next” term would be “far more consequential” than his last one. Both men were clearly familiar with the game plan. https://news.yahoo.com/steve-bannon-calls-4-000-001203809.html

Marc Short, a former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, said during a Monday interview that he believed there would have been a "massacre" on January 6, 2021, if the rioters who breached the US Capitol that day had gotten closer to the vice president, according to ABC News. Short — who was with Pence when rioters broke into the Capitol complex and interrupted the counting of electoral votes — said he testified before a grand jury investigating the January 6 riot. "I think that having the Capitol ransacked the way that it was, I think, did present liability and danger," he told ABC News. "And I think the Secret Service did a phenomenal job that day." https://news.yahoo.com/pences-ex-chief-staff-marc-140716938.html

He added: "I think that the bigger risk and despite the way perhaps it was characterized in the hearings last week, candidly, is that if the mob had gotten closer to the vice president, I do think there would have been a massacre in the Capitol that day."

Jan 6 mountain men rioters stalk Pence. Secret Service radio traffic reveals how perilously close rioters came to Mike Pence on Jan. 6 https://youtu.be/kLkpsV5B6fc

Jan. 6 rioters came within feet of Pence, new evidence shows | Jan. 6 hearings https://youtu.be/_JBdSYWu7F8

Steve Bannon convicted of contempt of Congress for defying Capitol attack subpoena. Jury finds former Trump adviser guilty on two counts of criminal contempt for refusing to appear before House committee. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/22/steve-bannon-trial-trump-contempt-congress-charges

Trump incited Insurrection January 06, 2021, Qanon, MAGA Zombies, archived July 22,2022

What Was Trump Up to While His Superfans Stormed the Capitol? Here's a Timeline. https://news.yahoo.com/trump-while-superfans-stormed-capitol-100000944.html

William J. Olson, a right-wing lawyer, sent a memo in December 2020 to President Donald J. Trump on how to seek to overturn the election. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/07/16/us/politics/olson-memo-trump-election.html https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/olson-memo-trump-election/e59dca011b5db8c5/full.pdf

Two New York men wept as a judge handed down prison time for their participation in the Capitol riot last year. Cody Mattice, 29, and James Mault, 30, both received 44 months of prison time on Friday, according to records from the Justice Department. In April, the two pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers during the Capitol riot, a Justice Department release says. After breaching the Capitol, Mattice "reached out to another rioter and grabbed a small object appearing to be a canister," the release says. "He then sprayed chemical spray at police officers." "Mault also got a second canister from the crowd and provided it to another rioter," the release says. https://news.yahoo.com/2-men-pepper-sprayed-officers-135057105.html

A Washington, DC, police officer has corroborated to the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, details regarding a heated exchange former President Donald Trump had with his Secret Service detail when he was told he could not go to the US Capitol after his rally, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN. The officer with the Metropolitan Police Department was in the motorcade with the Secret Service for Trump on January 6 and recounted what was seen to committee investigators, according to the source. https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/14/politics/trump-secret-service-january-6-metropolitan-police-officer/index.html

Secret Service erased text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021 -- after oversight officials asked for them, watchdog says https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/14/politics/secret-service-text-messages-erased/index.html

'I'm the winner. Game over. Suck on that!' Leaked audio from October 2020 captures Steve Bannon touting Trump's plan to declare victory on election night even if he LOST Donald Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon was secretly recorded while hosting a meeting with associates of exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui Bannon accurately predicted that primarily Democratic mail-in ballots being counted after in-person votes would give Trump an early lead in the race Trump wound up declaring an early victory and making accusations of fraud in a speech from the White House in the early hours of November 4, 2020 Bannon had predicted in the audio tape: 'When you wake up on Wednesday morning, it's going to be a firestorm' But Bannon said Trump would do 'some crazy s***' if Biden ended up being ahead of him on election night. https://youtu.be/OxNoUnxN_cs https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11010115/Steve-Bannon-said-Trump-claim-victory-election-night-lost-Report.html

Leaked Audio: Before Election Day, Bannon Said Trump Planned to Falsely Claim Victory. “That’s our strategy. He’s gonna declare himself a winner.” "If Trump is losing by 10 or 11 o'clock at night, it's going to be even crazier. No, because he's gonna sit right there and say, ‘They stole it. I’m directing the attorney general to shut down all ballot places in all 50 states. He’s not going out easy. If Biden is winning, Trump is going to do some crazy sh*t." https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/07/leaked-audio-steve-bannon-trump-2020-election-declare-victory/

The Justice Department released new details Friday evening of the alleged extensive planning by the Oath Keepers to prepare for violence in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021, including lessons to conduct "hasty ambushes," a "death list" of Georgia election officials and attempts to acquire homemade firearms. The details, many of which have not been alleged publicly before, were revealed in a court filing from the government, which includes a list of evidence that prosecutors intend to use against the Oath Keepers during their trial in September. Prosecutors will attempt to prove that nine Oath Keepers charged with seditious conspiracy -- Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel, Thomas Caldwell, and Edward Vallejo -- extensively prepared for violence and plotted to stop Joe Biden from assuming the presidency. All nine have pleaded not guilty and have denied allegations of preparing for or participating in violence on January 6. CNN has reached out to their attorneys for comment. The Justice Department has also secured at least seven cooperation agreements from members of the Oath Keepers, three of whom pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy. A number of the cooperators are named in the new filing and had close contacts with the Oath Keepers heading to trial. https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/08/politics/oath-keepers-explosives-death-list-january-6/index.html

Trump’s possible ties to far-right militias examined by January 6 committee. Stone and Flynn. Stone has repeatedly denied he had anything to do with the Capitol attack, but he would have been a natural choice for Trump to try to reach on 5 January 2021 had he sought to get a sense of what extremist groups might have been planning for the next morning. The far-right political operative based in Florida, for instance, had close ties to the Proud Boys and its ex-national chairman, Enrique Tarrio, who lived in Miami before his arrest for seditious conspiracy, well before Trump lost the 2020 election to Biden. When Stone travelled to Washington DC before 6 January 2021, he was accompanied by a man named Jacob Engels, a member of the Proud Boys from Florida who served as something of a lieutenant for him on the day before and the day of the Capitol attack. Through Engels in particular, Stone appeared to maintain his ties to the Proud Boys, even though during his stay at the Willard hotel on those two days, it was a small group of the Oath Keepers who acted as his personal security detail, pictures and court records show. The people that guarded Stone included Joshua James, an Oath Keepers member indicted for seditious conspiracy and is cooperating with the government, and Michael Simmons, codenamed “Whip”, who served as the “operations leader” for the Oath Keepers for January 6. Meanwhile, Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn would have been another natural choice for the former president to try and reach in order to learn what extremist groups interested in stopping Joe Biden’s election win certification might be planning. Flynn was also connected to the Oath Keepers through his own security detail called the 1st Amendment Praetorian, after the two groups guarded him as early as 12 December 2020, when Flynn took part in a Women for America First-affiliated march and rally. The 1st Amendment Praetorian, though, appeared to serve both a security function and an intelligence-gathering function for Flynn – a former director for the Defense Intelligence Agency – according to multiple people who worked directly with the group. Flynn’s operatives were involved in election fraud conspiracies from the outset, 1AP’s leader Robert Patrick Lewis and others have said, including working to gather intelligence about the claims cited in lawsuits filed by former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell. The members of the 1st Amendment Praetorian do not appear to have stormed the Capitol like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, but at least one of its operatives, Geoffrey Flohr, circled the Capitol as the attack was underway talking covertly with an earpiece. While Flohr walked around the Capitol seemingly relaying information, another member of the 1st Amendment Praetorian, Philip Luelsdorff, was observing proceedings in the Trump “war room” led by Giuliani and then Trump lawyer John Eastman at the Willard hotel. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/07/next-jan-6-hearing-trump-far-right-militias

‘We Know Where You Live’: Jan. 6 Committee Member Shares Compilation of Threatening Voicemails. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the panel investigating the Capitol attack, has received a rash of vulgar messages from Trump supporters. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/adam-kinzinger-jan-6-committee-voicemails-1378260/

@RepKinzinger Threats of violence over politics has increased heavily in the last few years. But the darkness has reached new lows. My new interns made this compilation of recent calls they’ve received while serving in my DC office. WARNING: this video contains foul & graphic language. https://twitter.com/RepKinzinger/status/1544327335830327301

Don Jr. says 'we'll make liberals cry again', Ivanka worries about her dress and Jared adjusts his tie in trailer for documentary from filmmaker subpoenaed by January 6 committee for Trump family interviews https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10983721/Don-Jr-says-make-liberals-cry-trailer-Trump-doc-subpoenaed-January-6-committee.html

Kinzinger: Hutchinson’s Bombshell Testimony Is ‘Inspiring’ Others to Come Forward. “Every day, we get new people that come forward,” the congressman said in an interview Sunday. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/kinzinger-hutchinson-jan-6-witnesses-1377772/

New details of Jan. 6 panel's mystery messages emerge. Former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson told the committee she was contacted by an intermediary for Mark Meadows, according to a person familiar with her final deposition. Meadows is the person whose name was redacted in that slide. Contents of that final deposition were described to POLITICO, which could not independently corroborate the identity of the intermediary or that Meadows directed any message be delivered to Hutchinson before her second deposition. The other slide the Capitol riot committee unveiled at the end of its hearing with Hutchinson this week quoted an unnamed witness, now known to be the former Trump White House aide herself, describing multiple phone calls she received from allies of the former president. “What they said to me is as long as I continue to be a team player, they know I’m on the right team,” the slide said. “I’m doing the right thing. I’m protecting who I need to protect, you know, I’ll continue to stay in good graces in Trump World. And they have reminded me a couple of times that Trump does read transcripts.”https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/30/jan-6-hutchinson-meadows-mystery-messages-00043638

Jan. 6 committee may make criminal referral on witness tampering. Cheney on Tuesday displayed messages sent to an unidentified witness that said: “A person let me know you have your deposition tomorrow. He wants me to let you know that he’s thinking about you. He knows you’re loyal, and you’re going to do the right thing when you go in for your deposition.” https://sports.yahoo.com/jan-6-panel-member-messages-150700521.html

Oath Keepers will tell a jury they believed Donald Trump would turn them into his own personal militia on January 6. "Do NOT concede, and do NOT wait until January 20, 2021," Inauguration Day. "Strike now," the Oath Keepers leader and founder, Elmer Stewart Rhodes, urged in an open letter to Trump on December 14, 2020. "You must call us up and command us." https://news.yahoo.com/oath-keepers-tell-jury-really-224643818.html

‘Take me up to the Capitol now’: How close Trump came to joining rioters. Trump’s demands to lead a march to Capitol Hill sheds new light on his mindset as the siege began. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/01/trump-capitol-riot-march/

@alexjholder The Trumps did not have editorial control. Full stop. [Trump staging shot] https://twitter.com/alexjholder/status/1540034384014807043

Based on my interactions with him — I don’t claim to be a psychologist or psychiatrist, but in those moments, the position he gave to me is someone who was utterly irrational, someone living in an alternate reality, and that there was no way to have a coherent, rational conversation with him. It’s very scary when people start to believe in their own lies, and when you can’t have a rational conversation with them — that’s when things become very dangerous. And we’ve seen that play out in history, when very dangerous people start to believe in their own rhetoric and are able to get their supporters to believe. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/06/alex-holder-trump-was-utterly-irrational-after-january-6.html

On Dec. 8, 2020, a few weeks after Joseph R. Biden was elected president, “Q” — the anonymous online account that set off the QAnon conspiracy movement — posted a link to a video with scenes of cars burning on the streets, fighter jets over a stadium and Donald J. Trump with his hand on a Bible, being sworn in as president. The images played over a song by Twisted Sister, “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” The Q account has not posted since, and its major predictions have not come to pass. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/20/technology/qanon-conspiracy-movement.html

A Single Text Exchange Tells Us Everything We Needed to Know About Melania Trump https://jezebel.com/a-single-text-exchange-tells-us-everything-we-needed-to-1849123971

Inside John Eastman’s California rise from GOP ‘happy warrior’ to Jan. 6 firebrand. He brought in high-profile conservatives such as Thomas, and invited his friend John Yoo, a former lawyer in George W. Bush’s administration and a tenured professor at UC Berkeley, to come teach, offering Yoo a break from blowback over his involvement with what came to be known as the torture memos. Eastman became a public face of the National Organization for Marriage, a group that promoted 2008’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California. He led the organization‘s years-long battle to keep its donor list private, which resulted in a string of court losses and fines for violating state disclosure laws. Fred Karger, a gay Republican activist who doggedly sought the group’s financial records, said he saw a pattern in Eastman’s actions then and in the current congressional investigation. “He has a history of lying and undermining our election laws as best he can,” Karger said. That cataclysmic viewpoint spilled into the Jan. 6 hearings, when former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann said in a deposition that he had warned Eastman his scheme to have the vice president invalidate the election would “cause riots in the streets.” “And [Eastman] said words to the effect of, ‘There has been violence in the history of our country, Eric, to protect the democracy or protect the republic,” Herschmann said. Eastman was so committed to this line of thinking that he continued to seek avenues to overturn Trump’s loss, even in the immediate aftermath of the attack on the U.S. Capitol. He unsuccessfully sought a pardon from Trump and now finds himself potentially in criminal jeopardy. “Unfortunately, he drank the Kool-Aid that President Trump was selling — that the election was a fraud,” Yoo said. https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-06-26/trump-lawyer-john-eastman-jan-6-notoriety

These 7 House Republicans aren't cooperating with the January 6 committee and here's how they've justified blowing off the investigation. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jim Jordan of Ohio, have offered varying reasons for not participating — ranging from complaining about the committee's public outreach to assailing the "baseless witch hunt." Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona. Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama. Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas. Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia. Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. https://news.yahoo.com/7-house-republicans-arent-cooperating-110100522.html

Key facts to know about the Jan. 6 insurrection. Rally organizers told the National Park Service that they anticipated 30,000 people would attend. Law enforcement said the crowd size ahead of the protest was possibly as much as 80,000, according to then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. The crowd size at the rally was at least 10,000, according to the Associated Press. https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-01-05/by-the-numbers-jan-6-anniversary

Donald Trump Called Mike Pence “The P-Word” For Not Illegally Overturning The Election, According To Jan. 6 Committee Testimony Both Ivanka Trump and a former Trump attorney described the conversation as “heated.” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kadiagoba/donald-trump-pence-pussy-jan-6

How the Proud Boys Breached the Capitol on Jan. 6: Rile Up the Normies https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000008392796/rile-up-the-normies-how-proud-boys-breached-the-capitol.html

Rep. Loudermilk whips up amusing excuses on why Capitol "tourists" took pictures of the stairwell (video). https://boingboing.net/2022/06/15/rep-loudermilk-whips-up-amusing-excuses-on-why-capitol-tourists-took-pictures-of-the-stairwell-video.html

January 6 committee releases video of Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk giving Capitol tour on January 5 to rioter who hours later warned AOC and Nancy Pelosi mob was 'coming' for them and would pull speaker 'out by your hairs' The House's select committee on January 6 released a video Wednesday of Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk giving a January 5 tour of the Capitol One of the men with the Georgia Republican was captured snapping pictures of tunnels, hallways and security checkpoints The committee said in the video's introduction that it was the same man who made 'detailed and disturbing threats against specific Members of Congress' 'There's no escape Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler - we're coming for you,' the individual is heard saying on January 6. 'We're coming to take you out' He also name-dropped AOC and suggested he would pull Pelosi out of the U.S. Capitol by her hair 'You may as well make yourself another appointment. When I get done with you. You're going to need a shine up on top of that bald head,' the man said https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10920021/Jan-6-committee-releases-video-GOP-Rep-Loudermilk-giving-tour-people-taking-photos-tunnels.html

January 6 committee has footage that challenges Capitol Police findings over alleged role of GOP congressman. https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/15/politics/barry-loudermilk-tour-january-6/index.html

Trump releases 12-page response to Jan. 6 hearing. https://thehill.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/06/Statement-by-Trump-1.pdf https://thehill.com/news/administration/3522080-trump-releases-12-page-response-to-jan-6-hearing/ https://news.yahoo.com/trump-releases-12-page-response-230344723.html

Documentarian who testified about Jan. 6 says crew was aware they had filmed ‘multiple crimes’ Nick Quested told NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd that he saw crimes “on the steps of the Capitol” and “inside the Capitol.” https://thehill.com/news/sunday-talk-shows/3520369-documentarian-who-testified-about-jan-6-says-crew-was-aware-they-had-filmed-multiple-crimes/

Jared Kushner Wasn’t Just Involved in Trump’s Push to Overturn 2020. He Helped Start It. “Jared helped create what then morphed into the Rudy clown show,” one source tells Rolling Stone. According to four people familiar with the matter, in the week following Election Day in early November of that year, Kushner took charge in overseeing the development of plans to keep Trump in office — Kushner just wasn’t publicly ostentatious about it in the way Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others were. During that first week, Kushner repeatedly met with Trump and other high-ranking aides to the then-president to discuss and map out possible strategies for multi-pronged legal battles and a scorched-earth messaging war against the victorious Biden campaign, the knowledgeable sources tell Rolling Stone. “Jared was directly involved,” one of these sources, a former senior Trump aide who worked on the effort to nullify the election outcome, said. “There was a [brief] window…when it seemed like he was positioning himself to be the Jim Baker of this fight … It didn’t last long. He backed away from it, but he was there and got his hands dirty like everyone else did.” (Baker, a towering figure in the Republican Party, helmed the legal team for George W. Bush during the chaotic Florida recount that ultimately handed Bush the presidency.) https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/jared-kushner-trump-jan6-2020-election-1365654/

Pence team couldn't verify Trump campaign's election fraud claims, new memo shows. In a previously unseen memo obtained by POLITICO, the former vice president's legal team called most of the fraud allegations minor and unverifiable. The memo shows Pence’s legal team didn’t just track the barrage of wild legal arguments from former President Donald Trump’s lawyers and allies, but also meticulously monitored the allegations of election fraud and mismanagement. It specifically includes charges leveled by the Trump campaign itself in court. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/10/pence-team-election-fraud-memo-00038921

Trump throws IVANKA under the bus after she told January 6 committee she didn't believe the 2020 election was stolen: Furious ex-president says his daughter had 'long-since checked out' and was not involved in looking at votes Donald Trump turned on his daughter Ivanka Trump on Friday morning Her testimony to House committee investigating January 6th attack showed she did not think the 2020 election was rigged 'Ivanka Trump was not involved in looking at, or studying, Election results. She had long since checked out,' Trump posted on Truth Social Former president also attacked Bill Barr, his attorney general who said Trump's claims the election was rigged were 'bull****' 'The Democrats hit pay dirt with Barr, he was stupid,' Trump said Trump also denied he ever said his VP Mike Pence 'deserved' to be hanged Trump was furious with his vice president for his ceremonial role in overseeing the certification of the 2020 election results https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10904155/Trump-turns-IVANKA-said-long-checked-election.html

FBI: Navarro called arresting agents 'Nazis'. Prosecutors dispute the former Trump trade adviser’s claims he was shackled and denied food and water following his arrest on a charge of defying a subpoena. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/09/fbi-navarro-called-arresting-agents-nazis-00038610

Five members of the Proud Boys street gang — including their leader, Enrique Tarrio — were indicted Monday on seditious conspiracy charges for their role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., returned the rare indictment, which charges that Tarrio and four other members of the Proud Boys — Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — played an outsize role in the planning and execution of the insurrection. A sixth Proud Boy, Charles Donohoe, wasn’t included because he’d already pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in a plea deal that will force him to testify against his fellow gang members. Dozens of Proud Boys were among the thousands of people who stormed the U.S. Capitol that day in an effort to stop the certification of Joe Biden as president. Prosecutors say that Tarrio and his fellow defendants were instrumental in the planning stages of the attack; Tarrio allegedly looked over a document titled “1776 Returns” on Dec. 30, 2020, detailing plans to occupy several buildings in Washington on Jan. 6, including six House and Senate office buildings. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/proud-boys-leaders-indicted-seditious-conspiracy-charges-capitol-riot_n_629e5618e4b0c184bdd3f0ed

Former acting defense secretary testifies he was trying to avoid another Kent State on Jan. 6. He said he wanted to avoid fanning fears of a military coup or martial law. Former Acting U.S. Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller testified Wednesday that he was concerned in the days before the Jan. 6 insurrection that sending troops to the Capitol would fan fears of a military coup or fuel conspiracies that advisers to the president were advocating martial law. He said doing so could cause a repeat of the deadly 1970 Kent State University shooting in which Ohio National Guard troops fired at demonstrators and killed four American civilians. "Historically military responses to domestic protests have resulted in violations of American civil rights, and even in the case of the Kent State protests of the Vietnam War tragic deaths," he said. "I fervently believe the military should not be utilized in such scenarios, other than as a last resort, and only when all other assets had been expended on January 6." https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/house-oversight-committee-chair-testify-government-unprepared-capitol/story?id=77639074

@WestWingReport Two days ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on your Capitol, the pro gun Trump administration issued orders - the net result of which was that the DC National Guard would not be allowed to properly defend itself or public property. https://twitter.com/WestWingReport/status/1533793385068253184

Before Jan. 6, Aide Warned Secret Service of Security Risk to Pence. New details flesh out how the pressure campaign by Donald J. Trump and his allies to block certification of the 2020 election left the vice president’s staff fearing for his safety. By Maggie Haberman The chief of staff, Marc Short, had a message for the agent, Tim Giebels: The president was going to turn publicly against the vice president, and there could be a security risk to Mr. Pence because of it. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/03/us/politics/trump-pence-safety-jan-6.html

Committee provides timeline of Jim Jordan’s collaboration with Trump White House effort to question the 2020 presidential election results. The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol on Tuesday gave Champaign County’s Jim Jordan until June 11 to answer its questions about his role in former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. In doing so, it provided a timeline of Jordan’s “meetings, calls and communications” with Trump administration officials to pursue that goal. A May 31 letter from Committee Chair Bennie Thompson. a Mississippi Democrat, disputes Jordan’s claims that the committee lacks authority to subpoena him and lays out the most complete chronology supplied so far of Jordan’s collaboration with White House staffers and Trump campaign officials. https://www.cleveland.com/news/2022/06/committee-provides-timeline-of-jim-jordans-collaboration-with-trump-white-house-effort-to-question-the-2020-presidential-election-results.html

Read the Trump-world legal memo that a judge ruled was likely part of a criminal effort to overturn the election. An attorney sketched out a plan for then-Vice President Mike Pence to halt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. https://www.politico.com/minutes/congress/06-1-2022/jan-6/ https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840.350.2.pdf

Jury finds alleged Nazi sympathizer guilty of 5 charges ranging from obstruction to disorderly conduct in Jan. 6 case. The former Army reservist was charged with obstructing an official proceeding. Thomas Hale-Cusanelli, an alleged Nazi sympathizer and Army reservist who prior to his arrest was working as a private contractor who lived on the base with security clearance at the Naval Weapons Station in New Jersey, was found guilty on five charges ranging from obstruction to disorderly conduct in the Capitol riot case. The jury in this case, however, did not see images of Hale-Cusanelli impersonating an Adolf Hitler-style mustache. However, they were shown video, audio and social media images, as well as text messages involving his actions on and before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jury-finds-alleged-nazi-sympathizer-xx-jan-case/story?id=85025366

Trump 'approved' of Capitol rioters' chants to hang Mike Pence and 'complained' that his VP was being taken to safety, according to January 6 committee testimony Leaked testimony on Wednesday revealed what Trump was doing on Jan 6 Mark Meadows, his chief of staff, left colleagues with the impression that the then president approved of the idea of hanging Vice President Mike Pence Meadows told other staff that Trump had complained that Pence was being rushed to safety Rioters called for Pence to hang for refusing to try to overturn the election. The newspaper said it was confirmed by Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Meadows. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10854597/Trump-approved-Capitol-chants-hang-Mike-Pence-according-leaked-January-6-testimony.html

Trump expressed support for hanging Pence during Capitol riot, Jan. 6 panel told. The Jan. 6 select committee has heard testimony indicating that then-President Donald Trump — after rioters who swarmed the Capitol began chanting “hang Mike Pence” — expressed support for hanging his vice president, according to three people familiar with the matter. The White House chief of staff at the time, Mark Meadows, was in the dining room off the Oval Office with Trump at one point during last year’s Capitol attack, the committee has been told. Meadows then left the dining room and informed other people nearby that Trump had signaled a positive view of the prospect of hanging the vice president, the panel heard. Meadows’ account as it was described to the committee came after some members of the mob converging on the Capitol had broken into chants of “Hang Mike Pence!” Those chants were a reaction to Pence's decision to accept electoral votes that indicated Joe Biden had won the presidency. POLITICO could not independently verify the veracity of the claim regarding Meadows’ comments. Two of the people who spoke for this story said the committee has heard testimony on this topic from more than one person. All three people spoke on condition of anonymity. Reached for comment, Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich blasted the committee. https://news.yahoo.com/trump-expressed-support-hanging-pence-173510960.html

Trump incited Insurrection January 06, 2021, Qanon, MAGA Zombies, archived May 25, 2022

Former thinker Naomi Wolf says WHO forces will occupy the US next week. The invasion of the body snatchers in Q-land has devoured yet another human mind. The once widely respected thinker Naomi Wolf is now sounding the alarm about a WHO takeover, which will be occupying the United States by next week. Yes, the Beauty Myth author and former campaign advisor to Bill Clinton warned YouTube's Charlie Kirk about the impending coup d'état with a straight face yesterday (see clip below). But she does have hope, thanks to the millions of gun owners who will be ready for the civil war that is about to break out. "A war is being waged on us, and we have to face the fact. … Thank god for the second amendment," she said. The only reason we are not "enslaved" the way Australia and Singapore are is "because we have millions of owners of guns. … it is harder to subjugate an armed population." "I really hope that it doesn't devolve into civil war, which is really what the next thing is in history when you have an occupying force," she said, "which is what the WHO will be, you know, by next week." https://boingboing.net/2022/05/24/former-thinker-naomi-wolf-says-who-forces-will-occupy-the-us-next-week.html

QAnon gains mainstream appeal with tens of millions in GOP funding. According to a new investigation by Grid, there are at least 78 QAnon candidates, backed by tens of millions of GOP dollars (20 million in this cycle, over 30 million since 2018), running for state or federal office — including governorships, secretaries of state, state legislature seats, and federal house and senate seats — in more than 26 states in this upcoming election cycle. Grid concludes, "QAnon appears to be a growing political movement with increasing clout and significant mainstream appeal." https://www.grid.news/story/misinformation/2022/04/12/qanon-candidates-are-on-the-ballot-in-26-states/ https://boingboing.net/2022/05/24/qanon-gains-mainstream-appeal-with-tens-of-millions-in-gop-funding.html

Cheney warns of ‘threat we have never faced’ in jab at Trump during award speech. In a speech as a recipient of the JFK award, Cheney highlighted the contrasts between past presidents who honored the “sacred obligation” of the transfer of power after an election loss to what happened on Jan. 6, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol in a bid to overturn certification of the 2020 election. “This sacred obligation to defend the peaceful transfer of power has been honored by every American president except one,” Cheney said. “The question for every one of us is in this time of testing, will we do our duty, will we defend our constitution, will we stand for truth, will we put duty to our oath above partisan politics? “Or will we look away from danger, ignore the threat, embrace the lies and enable the liar?” Cheney continued. “As we face a threat we have never faced before — a former president attempting to unravel our constitutional republic — at this moment we must all summon the courage to stand against that.” In her Sunday speech, Cheney repeated that the honorable transfer of power was the cornerstone of democracy. She said after the U.S. won its independence from England after the revolutionary war, George Washington handed over the power of the continental army over to Congress. “With this noble act, George Washington set the indispensable example of the peaceful transfer of power in our country,” Cheney said. “In our Republic, some things have to matter.” https://news.yahoo.com/cheney-warns-threat-never-faced-134949822.html

Oracle’s Larry Ellison joined Nov. 2020 call about contesting Trump’s loss. The Nov. 14 call included Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.); Fox News host Sean Hannity; Jay Sekulow, an attorney for President Donald Trump; and James Bopp Jr., an attorney for True the Vote, a Texas-based nonprofit that has promoted disputed claims of widespread voter fraud. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/20/larry-ellison-oracle-trump-election-challenges/

Ginni Thomas' emails deepen her involvement in 2020 election. Newly discovered emails show that Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was more deeply involved in baseless efforts to overturn the 2020 election than previously known. Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and a conservative political activist, urged Republican lawmakers in Arizona after the 2020 presidential election to choose their own slate of electors, arguing that results giving Joe Biden a victory in the state were marred by fraud. The revelations first published by The Washington Post on Friday show that Thomas was more involved than previously known in efforts, based on unsubstantiated claims of fraud, to overturn Biden's victory and keep then-President Donald Trump in office. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/clarence-thomas-ap-joe-biden-arizona-donald-trump-b2084011.html

Group Chat Linked to Roger Stone Shows Ties Among Jan. 6 Figures. The roster of participants highlights how Mr. Stone, the pro-Trump political operative, was involved with a strikingly large number of people who sought to overturn the 2020 election. There were “Stop the Steal” organizers, right-wing influencers, Florida state legislative aides and more than one failed candidate loyal to former President Donald J. Trump. One participant ran a website that promoted disinformation about the Capitol attack. Another was an officer in the Army Reserve allied with Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser. "Owen Shroyer, the right-hand man of the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones; Enrique Tarrio, the onetime chairman of the Proud Boys; and Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia." Pete Santilli, a veteran right-wing radio host. Named on the list are activists like Marsha Lessard and Christina Skaggs, leaders of a group called the Virginia Freedom Keepers who helped to organize an anti-vaccine rally scheduled for the east side of the Capitol on Jan. 6. Ms. Lessard and Ms. Skaggs worked with another anti-vaccine activist, Ty Bollinger, who was also on the list. Ali Alexander, one of the most prominent Stop the Steal organizers who planned his own event at the Capitol that day, was on the list as well. Bianca Gracia, the leader of a group called Latinos for Trump. At least one of Mr. Stone’s Oath Keeper bodyguards, Joshua James, has pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy charges in the Capitol attack and is cooperating with the government’s inquiry. Kellye SoRelle, a lawyer for the Oath Keepers, was part of the Friends of Stone chat as well and is also said to be cooperating with prosecutors in the riot investigation. Nayib Hassan, Mr. Tarrio’s lawyer, declined to comment on his client’s role in the chat. two other Florida Proud Boys whose names appear on the Friends of Stone membership list: Jacobs Engels and Tyler Ziolkowski. Ivan Raiklin, an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel who promoted a plan after the election to pressure Vice President Mike Pence not to certify electors from several disputed swing states. This plan, which Mr. Raiklin called the “Pence Card,” was ultimately taken up by Mr. Trump and some of his legal advisers, like the lawyer John Eastman. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/20/us/politics/roger-stone-jan-6.html

President Donald Trump was so deeply involved in the desperate, last-ditch effort to overturn the 2020 election results that he hand-wrote strategy notes, hired at least ten lawyers to work on just one court case, and spoke regularly with one of his lead lawyers both directly and through six conduits. John Eastman, the law professor tapped by Trump to craft a legal strategy to keep him in power, detailed those extensive communications in a new court filing late Thursday as he argued it should all be shielded from the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection because of attorney-client privilege or attorney work product protections. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-hand-wrote-strategy-notes-for-overturning-the-election-lawyer-john-eastman-reveals-in-court-filing

QAnon’s Chief Enabler Ran a Website Where He Brushed Off Concerns About Pedophilic Content. A little-known archive unveils a dark irony behind the right’s child protection conspiracy. 8chan’s proprietor is Jim Watkins—an American but often Philippines-based pornographer, pig farmer, and internet forum entrepreneur. Over the years, Watkins and his team took special steps to keep the Q posts coming and purportedly verify their provenance, ensuring the poster’s continued access to their followers. While 8chan’s historic association with child sexual abuse material is familiar to close observers of the QAnon conspiracy, Mother Jones has reviewed a little-known archive documenting conversations in the moderation channel of Pink, an earlier internet forum, that capture Watkins, the site’s administrator, pushing for a hands-off approach to the moderation of child porn-related content there. Entries in the archive, created between 2004 and 2018, show he was slow to address concerns about child pornography and sometimes dismissed advice from moderators seeking to stop the spread of potentially illegal content. They repeatedly record moderators of Watkins’ forum coming to him for advice on how to handle issues related to child sex abuse material and pedophilic content, and Watkins responding with blasé indifference. Fredrick Brennan, the original founder of 8chan, alerted Mother Jones to the logs’ existence and put me in touch with researchers at the QOrigins Project, who have made a more user-friendly backup of the archive. “Ali we probably need to talk,” Brennan, a former associate and now adversary of Watkins, first messaged me on Signal in March, explaining that he had been looking back at Pink records housed on the Internet Archive. “I was investigating Jim for something I thought was innocuous today, helping somebody who makes memes of him find more of his old photos. While doing that I discovered a few things…long conversations from circa 2009 and before between Jim Watkins and the Japanese users of BBSPINK. Almost all of the discussion keeps going back to child porn.” BBSPINK, or just “Pink,” is a text-only not-safe-for-work bulletin board system that started in 2001 as an offshoot of 2channel—the very popular Japanese precursor of both 4chan and 8chan. Pink was created as a place to divert 2channel users’ lewder content and presented as separate forum, but was run off the same servers as 2channel and managed by an overlapping team that included Watkins. He became the admin of the NSFW forum in 2002, and started hosting both Pink and 2channel on his servers in 2004. Brennan started working as the technical lead of 2channel in 2016, holding the position until departing in 2018. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/05/qanon-jim-watkins-pink-pedophilic-links/

John Eastman, Trump's former lawyer, asked Pennsylvania lawmakers to throw out absentee ballots to overturn Biden win. "For example, depending on how many ballots were counted that were received after the statutory deadline (say 10,000 for example's purpose), those 10,000 votes need to be discarded, and you can take the absentee ballot ratio for each candidate in the counties were late-received ballots were illegally counted and deduct the pro-rated amount from each candidate's total," Eastman wrote to Pennsylvania Republican state Rep. Russ Diamond on Dec. 4, 2020. "Then, having done that math, you'd be left with a significant Trump lead that would bolster the argument for the Legislature adopting a slate of Trump electors — perfectly within your authority to do anyway, but now bolstered by the untainted popular vote," he continued. "That would help provide some cover." The Colorado Ethics Institute obtained the Eastman emails via a Freedom of Information Act request for Eastman's communications while he was employed by the University of Colorado-Boulder from August 2020 until May 2021. The Denver Post first reported on the emails, which were later obtained by ABC News. https://www.yahoo.com/gma/john-eastman-trumps-former-lawyer-202350760.html

Evidence mounts of GOP involvement in Trump election schemes. In early December 2020, several lawmakers attended a meeting in the White House counsel’s office where attorneys for the president advised them that a plan to put up an alternate slate of electors declaring Trump the winner was not “legally sound.” One lawmaker, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, pushed back on that position. So did GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Louie Gohmert of Texas, according to testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former special assistant in the Trump White House. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia testified in a hearing in April that she does not recall conversations she had with the White House or the texts she sent to Meadows about Trump invoking martial law. Gohmert told AP he also does not recall being involved and that he is not sure he could be helpful to the committee’s investigation. Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia played down his actions, saying it is routine for members of the president’s party to be going in and out of the White House to speak about a number of topics. Hice is now running for secretary of state in Georgia, a position responsible for the state’s elections. Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona didn’t deny his public efforts to challenge the election results but called recent reports about his deep involvement untrue. In a statement Saturday, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona reiterated his “serious” concerns about the 2020 election. “Discussions about the Electoral Count Act were appropriate, necessary and warranted,” he added. In another meeting about Pence’s potential role, Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis were joined again by Perry and Jordan as well as Greene and Lauren Boebert, a Republican who had also just been elected to the House from Colorado. https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-biden-presidential-elections-electoral-college-mark-meadows-296ddf04ffaacec07f548a2a997af448

Watch this chilling 5-minute recap of Trump's coup attempt, and the ominous aftermath. Yale historian Timothy Snyder spelled out the GOP fascist takeover plan in July 2021: The scenario then goes like this. The Republicans win back the House and Senate in 2022, in part thanks to voter suppression. The Republican candidate in 2024 loses the popular vote by several million and the electoral vote by the margin of a few states. State legislatures, claiming fraud, alter the electoral count vote. The House and Senate accept that altered count. The losing candidate becomes the president. We no longer have "democratically elected government." And people are angry. No one is seeking to hide that this is the plan. It is right there out in the open. The prospective Republican candidates for 2024, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Josh Hawley, are all running on a big lie platform. If your platform is that elections do not work, you are saying that you intend to come to power some other way. The big lie is designed not to win an election, but to discredit one. Any candidate who tells it is alienating most Americans, and preparing a minority for a scenario where fraud is claimed. This is just what Trump tried in 2020, and it led to a coup attempt in January 2021. It will be worse in January 2025. https://boingboing.net/2022/04/29/watch-this-chilling-5-minute-recap-of-trumps-coup-attempt-and-the-ominous-aftermath.html @MeidasTouch There is only one party that has been hijacked by extremists. https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1520054450320121864

Meadows's texts show Trump supporters workshopping January 6 lies during Capitol attack. Antifa didn’t show up, but Republicans got busy trying to blame them anyway. The right-wing echo chamber has spent nearly 17 months trying to reframe the January 6 attack on Congress as an inside job, the fault of Nancy Pelosi, the work of antifa, or really anything other than what it actually was — an attack on Congress incited by Trump, perpetrated by Trump supporters, and representing a last-ditch attempt to effectively end US democracy to install a racist former gameshow host as dictator. The most recent revelations from the House committee investigating the attack provide fascinating insight into the origins of Trumpworld’s campaign of lies. A new batch of texts shows Trump supporters brainstorming to rewrite history in real time, and planting the seeds for a year-plus of gaslighting. According to texts to and from Mark Meadows (published Monday by CNN and representing the entire tranche of messages Meadows turned over to the January 6 committee), on the same day Trump supporters ransacked the Capitol, Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Louie Gohmert, and Trump’s aide and son-in-law Jared Kusher all texted Meadows with evidence-free ideas about how blame could be shifted to antifa. https://aaronrupar.substack.com/p/mark-meadows-texts-january-6-antifa

Kevin McCarthy, the senior Republican in the House of Representatives, privately accused one of his colleagues of “putting people in jeopardy” in the wake of the January 6 insurrection, according to a leaked audio recording. In a phone call with Republican leaders on 10 January 2021, McCarthy said that Matt Gaetz, a Florida congressman and ardent Trump supporter, was putting Americans at risk with his comments after the assault on the US Capitol that left five people dead. The New York Times obtained a recording of the call, in which McCarthy and Republicans including Steve Scalise, the No 2 House Republican, discussed an interview Gaetz had given where he attacked GOP members who had criticized Trump. “He’s putting people in jeopardy,” McCarthy said of Gaetz. “And he doesn’t need to be doing this. We saw what people would do in the Capitol, you know, and these people came prepared with rope, with everything else.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/27/kevin-mccarthy-capitol-attack-accusations-republicans

Marjorie Taylor Greene discussed martial law to keep Trump in power, text messages show. "In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall law [sic]," Greene texted Trump's then-chief of staff, Mark Meadows, on Jan. 17, 2021, 11 days after a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol to try to stop the certification of the vote. The messages were revealed Monday by CNN, which said it obtained all 2,319 text messages that Meadows selectively handed over to the House select Jan. 6 committee in late 2021 before he decided not to cooperate with the panel. The authenticity of the messages was confirmed to ABC News by people who have seen them. MORE: Marjorie Taylor Greene testifies under oath about Jan. 6. "I don’t know on those things," Greene continued in her exchange with Meadows. "I just wanted you to tell him. They stole this election. We all know. They will destroy our country next. Please tell him to declassify as much as possible so we can go after Biden and anyone else!" Last Friday, Green became the first member of Congress to publicly testify under oath about the events surrounding the Capitol attack. When asked specifically about martial law and whether or not she discussed the idea of using it to keep Trump in power with either the former president, his chief of staff, or anyone else in the administration, Greene repeatedly said, "I don't recall." https://www.yahoo.com/gma/marjorie-taylor-greene-discussed-martial-011300381.html

An ‘exhilarated’ McConnell said Trump ‘totally discredited himself’ with Jan. 6: book. McConnell reportedly felt “exhilarated by the fact that this fellow finally, totally discredited himself.” The exchange was reported by The Washington Post, The Independent and a number of other outlets who obtained excerpts of the book. The conversation reportedly took place early on Jan. 7, 2021, just hours after the Capitol was ransacked by a group of Trump’s supporters. “He put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger,” McConnell said, according to the book. “Couldn’t have happened at a better time.” Martin and Burns also write that the Republican senator asked them “What do you hear about the Twenty-Fifth Amendment?” and said he was “eager for intelligence about whether his fellow Republicans were discussing removing Trump from office,” the Post added. They added in the book that the Kentucky politician “seemed almost buoyant” and that he said Trump was “pretty thoroughly discredited”. https://thehill.com/news/senate/3463473-an-exhilarated-mcconnell-said-trump-totally-discredited-himself-with-jan-6-book/

The Strangest Exchanges From the Mark Meadows Text Dumps. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/04/mark-meadows-trump-chief-of-staff-strangest-texts.html

Pence Refusing to Get in Secret Service Car on Jan. 6 'Chilling': Raskin. This moment was previously reported during an interview for the book I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year, by Washington Post reporters Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig. According to Tim Giebels, the lead agent inside of Pence's security on January 6, Pence repeatedly refused to be evacuated from the Capitol until the election results were certified, The Washington Examiner reported. "I'm not getting in the car, Tim," Pence said, in response to Giebels' insistence that he enter the armored vehicle. "I trust you, Tim, but you're not driving the car. If I get in that vehicle, you guys are taking off. I'm not getting in the car." https://www.newsweek.com/pence-refusing-get-secret-service-car-jan-6-chilling-raskin-1700341

Jan. 6 Committee Findings Are So Explosive They Will ‘Blow the Roof Off the House,’ Rep. Jamie Raskin Says. “This was not a coup directed at the president,” the panel member said on Thursday. “It was a coup directed by the president against the vice president and against the Congress.” Raskin, who serves on the committee, said hearings are expected in June, with a comprehensive report about the committee’s findings to be released by late summer or early fall. The timing and content of the report could aid Democrats in the run-up to the midterm elections. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/jamie-raskin-jan-6-committee-explosive-findings-1341898/

Marjorie Taylor Greene forced to admit she called for Pelosi to get death penalty. ‘Oh no, wait, hold on now’. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-hearing-jan-6-b2063431.html

GOP lawmakers were deeply involved in Trump plans to overturn election, new evidence suggests. Deposition excerpts filed by the Jan 6. select committee underscore the expansive cast of elected Republicans who had enlisted themselves in Trump’s effort to cling to power. Lawmakers who attended meetings, in person or by phone, included Reps. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and numerous members of the House Freedom Caucus, according to Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Meadows who provided key testimony about the conversations and meetings Meadows had in December 2020. The committee also indicated it has come to believe Trump did not attempt to contact any federal law enforcement agency amid the riot, pointing to testimony from former Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, former Acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen and his deputy Richard Donoghue, who indicated he never connected with Trump that day. “I never spoke to the President that day,” Donoghue told the panel. “He was not on any calls that I was on.” The panel concluded: “It is also now clear that Mr. Trump never telephoned his Secretary of Defense that day to order deployment of National Guard, and never contacted any federal law enforcement agency to order security assistance to the Capitol Police.” https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/22/gop-lawmakers-deeply-involved-in-trump-plans-to-overturn-election-new-evidence-suggests-00027340

A day before the 2020 presidential election, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas mugged for the camera wearing a Trump baseball cap with her friend Connie Hair, chief of staff to GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, at an event supporting the then-President in pictures posted on Facebook at the time. A month later, in her now-infamous texts to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, referred to Hair and claims about election fraud while urging Meadows to fight the election result. Around that same time, Hair’s boss, Gohmert, filed or supported two lawsuits challenging the election that eventually landed before the Supreme Court. Ginni Thomas’ years-long relationship with Hair, including social outings that Clarence Thomas attended, as well as her texting with Meadows add another dimension to an ongoing debate over whether her husband should recuse himself from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6 insurrection, especially when his wife is closely aligned to people who advocated overturning the election. https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/20/politics/ginni-thomas-mark-meadows-connie-hair-texts-january-6/index.html

Text message trove shows Oath Keepers discussing security details for Trump associates. Top members of the Oath Keepers now facing seditious conspiracy charges chatted for days about providing security for some of the highest-profile figures associated with Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the election, according to a newly released trove of text messages. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and top allies like Florida Oath Keeper Kelly Meggs discussed plans to provide security for figures like Roger Stone, Alex Jones, Ali Alexander and Michael Flynn on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, describing potential partnerships with other groups and security details. https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000180-3f0c-de92-addf-ff5fb1390000 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/18/oath-keepers-security-trump-jan6-00026157

Phil Waldron, a retired Army colonel who helped allies of Donald Trump promote false claims of election fraud, is suing to block the Jan. 6 select committee from obtaining his phone records from AT&T. Waldron initiated the lawsuit in Collin County, Texas, courts in late February, records show, but AT&T transferred the matter to federal court on Friday. In his filings, Waldron describes himself as a “consultant” hired by Texas-based attorneys “to assist in the investigation of matters related to the Election for clients of [the] Attorneys.” Waldron is represented in the lawsuit by William Bundren, who also served as the attorney for a handful of pro-Trump activists who tried to sue former Vice President Mike Pence and claimed to be the legitimate presidential electors from states Biden won. The select committee subpoenaed Waldron himself for testimony and documents in December but has revealed little about its interactions with him since. Bernard Kerik, an ally of Trump and Rudy Giuliani who also testified to the Jan. 6 select committee, told lawmakers that it was Waldron’s idea for Trump to sign an executive order to seize voting machines. Trump discussed the idea with advisers in mid-December but never approved the order. Waldron is represented in the lawsuit by William Bundren, who also served as the attorney for a handful of pro-Trump activists who tried to sue former Vice President Mike Pence and claimed to be the legitimate presidential electors from states Biden won. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/18/phil-waldron-jan-6-committee-subpoena-00025977

QAnon, the ‘People’s Convoy,’ and Neo-Nazis Mingle at L.A. Anti-Vaxx Rally. It was billed as a rally against vaccine mandates. I witnessed something much darker, and much more frightening. As a journalist covering QAnon and fascism in Los Angeles, I’ve seen a lot in the past couple years. I’ve seen danger and violence, heard crazy conspiracies and angry confrontations, and tracked a movement as it spirals deeper and deeper into insanity. It has worn on me, and there are things I’ve seen that I’d like to forget, like people yelling “save our children,” a chant that drones on and on like an endless scream inside your mind. I went to see it all again last Sunday, April 10th, at a mass anti-vaxx rally in downtown L.A., where the movement faithful gathered for a “Defeat the Mandates” rally at Grand Park near City Hall. The rally, at least in its stated purpose, was a protest against city and county requirements that require most public workers to either get vaccinated against a disease that has killed 987,000 Americans. The rally had a full 6 hours worth of speakers — a mix of local anti-vaxxers with a few national figures — and I thought I was ready for it. But what I witnessed during those hours was one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen. I saw an unholy, dark alliance best described as “festival fascism” — where QAnon, the People’s Convoy, and Dr. Robert Malone can fuse together in ways which make them more powerful than they’ve ever been. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/qanon-antivaxx-rally-los-angeles-covid-1338549/

FBI Documents Expose Bureau‘s Big Jan. 6 ‘Lie‘. The bureau says it lacked the authority to monitor social media activity ahead of the pro-Trump insurrection, but it did exactly that during 2020 racial justice and police violence protests. The documents refer to teams of employees engaged in what law-enforcement agencies call “social-media exploitation,” or SOMEX. According to the documents, SOMEX teams gather reams of data from social media and distribute that information to special agents and other law-enforcement representatives. The documents show SOMEX data included in situation reports, or “sitreps,” distributed within the bureau. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/jan6-fbi-social-media-privacy-black-lives-matter-1337565/

Trump incited Insurrection January 06, 2021, Qanon, MAGA Zombies. archiver April 15 2022

In a D.C. jail, Jan. 6 defendants awaiting trial are forming bitter factions. Inside the Washington, D.C., jail, where a group of defendants charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol have been held for as long as a year or more, a bitter divide is growing, current and former inmates say. Some ended up scattered in jails close to their homes. But a few dozen (the precise number has fluctuated) were incarcerated in the city where the Jan. 6 attack took place, in Washington, D.C.'s Correctional Treatment Facility. The District's Department of Corrections decided for the inmates' "own safety and security" to detain all of the Jan. 6 defendants in just one part of the facility, a section known as C2B. The main driver of this conflict, according to C2B inmates, along with their attorneys and family members, is the growing pool of money donated in the name of the Jan. 6 defendants. An alphabet soup of groups has sprung up to support the Jan. 6 defendants — from A4J (Americans For Justice Inc.), to CAPP (Citizens Against Political Persecution), to PFP (Patriot Freedom Project) and PMP (Patriot Mail Project). As donations have grown, so have resentments. And the conflict that has built inside the jail has been amplified outside by a kind of power struggle over who speaks for the so-called political prisoners. When Brandon Fellows first arrived in C2B in the summer of 2021, he hoped to find camaraderie with his fellow "patriots," as he calls them. He said the government had made an "enemy" by prosecuting him and that he rejected a plea offer from the government that would have resulted in a sentence of time served — meaning, he would go free. "I just don't negotiate with terrorists," he said. But then Fellows said he found out the group, led by Cynthia Hughes of New Jersey, was going to pick and choose which defendants and families to support. "The people that gave to Patriot Freedom Project believed that they were giving to help with the legal and financial cause for the men and women themselves. It wasn't for [Cynthia Hughes] to select and choose," said Troy Smocks. Smocks' photo was also featured on the group's website until recently, even though he said the group has not given him any money. Hughes is personally close to one defendant, Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, whom she has described as an "adoptive nephew." Hale-Cusanelli's defense attorney is actually court-appointed, and so the government — not Patriot Freedom Project — pays for Hale-Cusanelli's defense. But other inmates said they were concerned they had to "suck up" to Hale-Cusanelli to get access to donations. Federal prosecutors have accused Hale-Cusanelli, a former Army reservist, of being a white supremacist and Holocaust denier. Hale-Cusanelli allegedly breached the Capitol on Jan. 6 but has not been accused of violence or property damage. He has pleaded not guilty but was detained before trial because a federal judge found that he posed a danger to the community. https://www.npr.org/2022/04/14/1092580753/capitol-riot-january-6-insurrection-defendants

Guilty: Jury quickly convicts Capitol rioter who blamed Trump for January 6. A judge ordered him behind bars before sentencing. A jury found Capitol rioter Dustin Thompson guilty Thursday on charges he obstructed a congressional proceeding and stole a coat tree from a Senate office on January 6, 2021, rejecting a defense argument that attempted to shift blame for the day's violence onto former President Donald Trump. After just a few hours of deliberations, the jury convicted Thompson, 38, on all six charges he faced in connection with January 6, including obstruction of an official proceeding, trespassing on restricted Capitol grounds, and theft of government property. On the obstruction charge alone, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, but he's likely to receive a lighter punishment. Judge Reggie Walton ordered Thompson detained ahead of his July 20 sentencing, in a decision that appeared to surprise the now-convicted Capitol rioter and his defense lawyer. Walton raised concerns that Thompson posed a flight risk and said that, if released before his sentencing, Americans would wonder, "Why is he still walking free?" https://news.yahoo.com/guilty-jury-quickly-convicts-capitol-195741268.html

One week before an angry mob stormed the Capitol, a communications expert named Jason Sullivan, a onetime aide to Roger Stone, joined a conference call with a group of President Donald Trump’s supporters and made an urgent plea. After assuring his listeners that the 2020 election had been stolen, Sullivan told them that they had to go to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021 — the day that Congress was to meet to finalize the electoral count — and “descend on the Capitol,” according to a recording of the call obtained by The New York Times. While Sullivan claimed that he was “not inciting violence or any kind of riots,” he urged those on the call to make their presence felt at the Capitol in a way that would intimidate members of Congress, telling the group that they had to ensure that lawmakers inside the building “understand that people are breathing down their necks.” in the recording of the call, Sullivan can be heard telling his listeners that the lawmakers inside the Capitol “need to feel pressure.” “If we make the people inside that building sweat and they understand that they may not be able to walk in the streets any longer if they do the wrong thing, then maybe they’ll do the right thing,” he said. “We have to put that pressure there.” As the Justice Department widens its inquiry, federal prosecutors are using a grand jury in Washington to gather information on political organizers, speakers and so-called VIPs connected to a series of pro-Trump rallies after the 2020 election. One prominent planner of those rallies, Ali Alexander, received a subpoena from the grand jury and said last week that he intended to comply with its requests. In the run-up to Jan. 6, Alexander publicly discussed a pressure campaign against lawmakers that was meant to stop the final electoral count, saying he was working with Reps. Mo Brooks of Alabama and Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar of Arizona, all Republicans. https://news.yahoo.com/conference-call-riot-plea-descend-114920602.html

Trump Gives An Interview That Will Have Investigators Licking Their Chops. In an April 7 interview in the Washington Post, he said at least three things that investigators have already disproven or will look to quickly disprove. False stories are commonly cover-ups for truths we wish to hide. Even for someone like Trump, who lies gratuitously, false statements that one goes out of one’s way to publish—as by arranging an interview with the most prominent newspaper in Washington—are special cases.

1. “I thought it was a shame. I hated seeing it. I hated seeing it.” Trump was speaking of the Capitol siege. But within two days of it, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) told radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt that he’d heard from White House aides that Trump was “delighted” by the attack.
2. “I kept asking why isn’t . . . Nancy Pelosi doing something about it? And the mayor of D.C. also. The mayor of D.C. and Nancy Pelosi are in charge. And I said, ‘It’s got to be taken care of,’ and I assumed they were taking care of it.” Again, multiple Trump aides have testified before the select committee. You can bet that we would know about it if they had said that the former President “kept asking why Nancy Pelosi isn’t doing something about” the attack.
3. “I don’t remember getting very many [telephone calls that day]. . . . Why would I care about who called me? If congressmen were calling me, what difference did it make?” Trump says he talked to “other people” besides the two men who have disclosed their calls, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH). But he says he “could not say exactly who he talked to that afternoon, or when.”

https://verdict.justia.com/2022/04/08/trump-gives-an-interview-that-will-have-investigators-licking-their-chops

The Arizona Republican Party was jubilant at the news, delivered in Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s interim report on the findings of the Maricopa County election audit. https://www.azag.gov/sites/default/files/2022-04/2022-04-06%20Fann%20letter.pdf There are the six felons who somehow allegedly managed to vote while in Pima County jail. And there are three women who returned their recently deceased mothers’ early ballots. Two of them live in Maricopa County, one in Cochise County. So. Nine cases of election fraud. Out of 3.4 million votes cast. State GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward was practically orgasmic. https://news.yahoo.com/finally-arizonas-election-fraud-found-203003858.html

Text From Donald Trump Jr. Set Out Strategies to Fight Election Outcome. Former President Donald Trump’s eldest son sent the White House chief of staff a text message two days after Election Day in 2020 that laid out strategies for declaring his father the winner regardless of the electoral outcome, people familiar with the exchange said Friday. The text, which was reported earlier by CNN, was sent two days before Joe Biden was declared the winner of the election. The recipient, Mark Meadows, turned a cache of his text messages over to the House committee investigating the events leading up to the deadly riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as the Electoral College results in Biden’s favor were being certified. “It’s very simple,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote to Meadows on Nov. 5, 2020. He wrote at another point, “We have multiple paths We control them all.” The message went on to lay out a variety of options that the elder Trump or his allies ultimately employed in trying to overturn the results of the election, from legal challenges to promoting alternative slates of electors to focusing efforts on the statutory date of Jan. 6 for certification of the Electoral College results. Trump and a number of his advisers pressured Vice President Mike Pence to use his ceremonial role in the Electoral College certification to upend the process, something Pence was adamant was beyond his authority. The text message that Donald Trump Jr. sent to Meadows acknowledged that scenario, which was championed by a lawyer advising the president, John C. Eastman. “We either have a vote WE control and WE win OR it gets kicked to Congress 6 January 2021,” the text message said. https://news.yahoo.com/text-donald-trump-jr-set-140356229.html

Trump says Secret Service blocked him from joining Jan. 6 march to the Capitol. The “Secret Service said I couldn’t go. I would have gone there in a minute," the former president said. In a wide-ranging interview at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida with Post reporter Josh Dawsey, Trump spoke about the Jan. 6 insurrection, repeated claims of a stolen election and weighed in on the possibility of a 2024 presidential campaign. On at least a dozen occasions throughout their conversation, Dawsey wrote, Trump blamed the events of Jan. 6 on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “I thought it was a shame, and I kept asking why isn’t she doing something about it? Why isn’t Nancy Pelosi doing something about it?” Trump said. “And the mayor of D.C. also. The mayor of D.C. and Nancy Pelosi are in charge.” Trump repeatedly said in his Wednesday interview with The Post that he deserved more credit for the size of the crowd he drew to the “Stop the Steal” rally on the Ellipse, just outside the White House. “The crowd was far bigger than I even thought. I believe it was the largest crowd I’ve ever spoken to,” Trump said. “I don’t know what that means, but you see very few pictures. They don’t want to show pictures, the fake news doesn’t want to show pictures. But this was a tremendous crowd.” https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/07/trump-secret-service-capitol-riot-00023737

Documentary by Frontline and ProPublica Reveals Plot to Overturn the Election Origins of the Stolen Election Myth. Part of the Frontline and ProPublica project focuses on a group that gathered in the weeks after the 2020 election on a South Carolina plantation owned by conservative defamation attorney Lin Wood. Using the property as a temporary headquarters, a team of lawyers and cybersecurity experts gathered and synthesized what they claimed was evidence of election fraud. This group, which included Michael Flynn, the retired three-star Army general and former national security adviser to Trump, and Patrick Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock.com, became a key originator of the since-discredited idea that foreign communist governments had hacked voting machines made by Dominion Voting Systems. The belief was central to justifying the efforts of Trump and his allies to reverse the results of the election. https://www.propublica.org/article/new-documentary-by-frontline-and-propublica-reveals-origins-of-the-stolen-election-myth https://youtu.be/90O-q7dgS-I https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/plot-to-overturn-the-election/transcript/ I noticed similarities between content that We_Have_Risen had posted and information that was included in an affidavit submitted by a firm in Texas called Allied Security Operations Group. Dallas-based company Allied Security Operations Group, or ASOG. A public face of the company is a retired Army colonel named Phil Waldron. ASOG’s report claimed that the voting machines in Antrim, made by a company called Dominion, were intentionally designed to produce fraud and to alter the election’s result. Doug Logan was Lin's "cybersecurity expert." Like Lin said, "This is my cybersecurity expert, Doug Logan," right? "From Cyber Ninjas," or whatever. Josh Merritt had been an early employee of ASOG, and Hancock tells me he was an important contributor to the Dominion conspiracy theory. In presenting their findings, Logan and his colleagues don’t dwell on the fact that based on their recount, Biden still won. Instead, Logan reels off a litany of misleading claims. An in-depth analysis of the audit produced by Maricopa County said that "nearly every finding included 'faulty analysis, inaccurate claims, misleading conclusions and a lack of understanding of federal and state election law.'" Logan wouldn't go on camera for an interview, but in an email he stood by his work, saying it was the first “forensic election audit” ever conducted and that he had experts working alongside him. Bill Gates, a member of Maricopa’s board of supervisors and a lifelong Republican. Gates and his colleagues commissioned the 93-page analysis of the audit. This audit is a sham. They're sending out misinformation, half-truths, and then that is being seized upon by the president and others to perpetuate the "big lie." SEN. WENDY ROGERS (R), Arizona Senate

Trump’s 8-hour gap: Minute-by-minute during Jan. 6 riot. At 4:08 p.m. Trump went out to the Rose Garden. At 4:17 p.m. he released a scripted, pre-recorded video, which included a call for “peace” and “law and order” and finally told his supporters “you have to go home now.” But they didn’t. Things were still wildly out of control. In fact, the Capitol building was not secured until 5:34 p.m. At 6:01, Trump’s message was back to indignant: “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long,” he wrote. “Remember this day forever!” At 6:27, he went back to the residence, and started calling his lawyers. https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-elections-donald-trump-presidential-elections-election-2020-3315609c4152b4429930a17191b5a217

Inside Pence-world's preparation for a Jan. 6 legal showdown. The former vice president asked his top lawyer to draft a memo — first obtained by POLITICO — a month before the Jan. 6 Capitol attack that laid out the history of counting electoral votes. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/30/pence-jan-6-legal-showdown-00021864 https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000017f-daf9-d522-ab7f-def9bf4d0000 https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840.132.2.pdf

Revealed: Trump used White House phone for call on January 6 that was not on official log. Trump’s call to Republican senator should have been reflected in presidential call log on day of Capitol attack but wasn’t. The former president called the phone of a Republican senator, Mike Lee, with a number recorded as 202-395-0000, a placeholder number that shows up when a call is incoming from a number of White House department phones, the sources said. The number corresponds to an official White House phone and the call was placed by Donald Trump himself, which means the call should have been recorded in the internal presidential call log that was turned over to the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack. Trump called Lee at 2.26pm on January 6 through the official 202-395-0000 White House number, according to call detail records reviewed by the Guardian and confirmation by the two sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. The call was notable as Trump mistakenly dialed Lee thinking it was the number for Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville. Lee passed the phone to Tuberville, who told Trump Mike Pence had just been removed from the Senate chamber as rioters stormed the Capitol. But Trump’s call to Lee was not recorded in either the presidential daily diary or the presidential call log – a problem because even though entries in the daily diary are discretionary, according to several current and former White House officials, the call log is not. The presidential daily diary is a retrospective record of the president’s day produced by aides in the Oval Office, who have some sway to determine whether a particular event was significant enough to warrant its inclusion, the officials said. But the presidential call log, typically generated from data recorded when calls are placed by the White House operators, is supposed to be a comprehensive record of all incoming and outgoing calls involving the president through White House channels, the officials said. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/30/trump-used-white-house-phone-call-capitol-attack-jan-6-not-official-log

Who Is Behind QAnon? Linguistic Detectives Find Fingerprints. Using machine learning, separate teams of computer scientists identified the same two men as likely authors of messages that fueled the viral movement. “Open your eyes,” the online post began, claiming, “Many in our govt worship Satan.” That warning, published on a freewheeling online message board in October 2017, was the beginning of the movement now known as QAnon. Paul Furber was its first apostle. The outlandish claim made perfect sense to Mr. Furber, a South African software developer and tech journalist long fascinated with American politics and conspiracy theories, he said in an interview. He still clung to “Pizzagate,” the debunked online lie that liberal Satanists were trafficking children from a Washington restaurant. He was also among the few who understood an obscure reference in the message to “Operation Mockingbird,” an alleged C.I.A. scheme to manipulate the news media. As the stream of messages, most signed only “Q,” grew into a sprawling conspiracy theory, the mystery surrounding their authorship became a central fascination for its followers — who was the anonymous Q? Now two teams of forensic linguists say their analysis of the Q texts shows that Mr. Furber, one of the first online commentators to call attention to the earliest messages, actually played the lead role in writing them. Sleuths hunting for the writer behind Q have increasingly overlooked Mr. Furber and focused their speculation on another QAnon booster: Ron Watkins, who operated a website where the Q messages began appearing in 2018 and is now running for Congress in Arizona. And the scientists say they found evidence to back up those suspicions as well. Mr. Watkins appears to have taken over from Mr. Furber at the beginning of 2018. Both deny writing as Q. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/19/technology/qanon-messages-authors.html

White House phone logs turned over to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot show an unexplained seven-hour gap, according to a bombshell report out Tuesday morning. Records obtained by Bob Woodward of The Washington Post and Robert Costa of CBS News show a gap in Donald Trump’s phone records from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m.—the period when thousands of his supporters were invading the Capitol in a violent bid to prevent a joint session of Congress certifying Joe Biden’s election victory. The 11 pages of notes obtained by the Post and CBS News included five pages with the header “THE DAILY DIARY OF PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP” that outlined some of his activities that day—although not in much detail. The diary notes Trump addressing supporters at a “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse at midday and his return to the White House at 1:19 p.m. before meeting "with his Valet" at 1:21 p.m. The riot started shortly after 2 p.m. when as many as 2,500 Trump supporters, some of them armed, forced their way into the Capitol, but the next entry on the White House diary is not until 4:03 p.m., when Trump went to the Rose Garden to record a message for the mob. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-phone-logs-from-jan-6-have-a-seven-hour-gap-says-report

Federal judge: President Trump likely violated two criminal statutes in connection w/Jan 6. If “President Trump’s plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the Constitution.” In the months following the election, numerous credible sources–from the President’s inner circle to agency leadership to statisticians–informed President Trump and Dr. Eastman that there was no evidence of election fraud. One week after the election, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency declared “[t]he November 3rd election [] the most secure in American history” and found “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”17 An internal Trump Campaign memo concluded in November that fraud claims related to Dominion voting machines were baseless.18 In early December, Attorney General Barr publicly stated there was no evidence of fraud, and on December 27, Deputy Attorney General Donoghue privately told President Trump that after “dozens of investigations, hundreds of interviews,” the Department of Justice had concluded that “the major allegations [of election fraud] are not supported by the evidence developed.” https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840.260.0_4.pdf

Ginni Thomas pressed for GOP lawmakers to protest 2020 election results. The conservative activist and wife of a Supreme Court justice said in a November 2020 email that Republicans weren't doing enough to help Trump and needed to be "out in the streets." Ginni Thomas pressed for GOP lawmakers to protest 2020 election results The conservative activist and wife of a Supreme Court justice said in a November 2020 email that Republicans weren't doing enough to help Trump and needed to be "out in the streets." https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/ginni-thomas-pressed-gop-lawmakers-protest-2020-election-results-rcna21644

QAnon's 'Great Awakening' failed to materialize. What's next could be worse. Believers who were stymied by Trump’s exit could turn to white nationalism and other extremist beliefs, experts say. hortly before Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, Dave Hayes – a longtime QAnon influencer who goes by the name Praying Medic – posted a photo of dark storm clouds gathering over the US Capitol on the rightwing social media platform Gab. “What a beautiful black sky,” he wrote to his 92,000 followers, appending a thunderclap emoji. The message was clear to those well-versed in QAnon lore: “the Storm” – the day of reckoning when Donald Trump and his faithful allies in the military would declare martial law, round up all their many political enemies, and send them to Guantánamo Bay for execution by hanging – was finally here. 20 January 2021 wouldn’t mark the end of Trump’s presidency, but the beginning of “the Great Awakening”. Instead, Trump slunk off to Florida and Biden took the oath of office under a clear blue sky. Now QAnon adherents are left to figure out how to move forward in a world that, time and time again, has proven impervious to their fevered fantasies and fascistic predictions. And while some seem to be waking up to reality, others are doubling down, raising concerns among experts that the movement is ripe for even more extreme radicalization. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/20/qanon-biden-inauguration-trump-antisemitism-white-nationalism

First on CNN: January 6 committee has text messages between Ginni Thomas and Mark Meadows. The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 riot has in its possession more than two dozen text messages between former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, a conservative activist and the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, according to multiple sources familiar with the messages. These text messages, according to sources, took place between early November 2020 and mid-January 2021. Thomas recently revealed that she attended the pro-Trump rally that preceded the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, but says she "played no role" in planning the events of that day. The content of the text messages may be of interest to the committee's investigation, because it asked Meadows in a subpoena to turn over "both documents and your deposition testimony regarding these and other matters that are within the scope of the committee's activity." https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/24/politics/ginni-thomas-mark-meadows-text-messages/index.html

A federal judge on Tuesday convicted an elected official from New Mexico of illegally entering restricted U.S. Capitol grounds but acquitted him of engaging in disorderly conduct during the riot that disrupted Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden heard one day of testimony without a jury on Monday before handing down a verdict in the misdemeanor case against Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, a 48-year-old former rodeo rider who helped found a group called Cowboys for Trump. McFadden, an appointee of then-President Donald Trump, said there was ample evidence that Griffin knew he was in a restricted area and didn’t leave. Griffin crossed over three walls, needing help from others or a ladder to get over them, the judge noted. “All of this would suggest to a normal person that perhaps you should not be entering the area,” McFadden said from the bench. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/couy-griffin-guilty-jan-6-riots_n_6239fcf8e4b019fd81338a62

Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff and a national campaign spokesperson were involved in efforts to encourage the president’s supporters to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. That’s according to a person who says he overheard a key planning conversation between top Trump officials and the organizers of the Jan. 6 rally on the White House Ellipse — and has since testified to House investigators about the phone call. Trump and his allies have tried to minimize his role in calling his supporters to the Capitol and argue he was simply participating in a lawful, peaceful demonstration. Scott Johnston — who worked on the team that helped plan the Ellipse rally — says that’s just not so. He claims that leading figures in the Trump administration and campaign deliberately planned to have crowds converge on the Capitol, where the 2020 election was being certified — and “make it look like they went down there on their own.” Johnston, who says he described the phone call to House select committee investigators, detailed his allegations in a series of conversations with Rolling Stone. Johnston says he overheard Mark Meadows, then-former President Trump’s chief of staff, and Katrina Pierson, Trump’s national campaign spokeswoman, talking with Kylie Kremer, the executive director of Women for America First, about plans for a march to the Capitol. Johnston said the conversation was clearly audible to him since it took place on a speakerphone as he drove Kremer between the group’s rallies in the final three days of 2020. Johnston says that, in the key phone conversation he overheard, the group settled on ordering a march without an official permit. “Nobody wanted to do it because they didn’t want to pay for it,” Johnston says of obtaining a permit. “They didn’t want to have to provide security and all the other expenses.” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/jan6-trump-mark-meadows-capitol-attack-republicans-1324218/

“1776 Returns,” a nine-page document federal prosecutors have obtained as part of its case against former Proud Boys head Enrique Tarrio, may give us a window into the group’s plans to storm government buildings on Jan. 6, 2021. Though it does not specifically mention the Capitol building, the document reportedly offers a five-point plan ahead of Jan. 6 for group members to appear “unsuspecting” and to “not look tactical” while occupying government buildings, and to chant “We the People” and “No Trump, No America” to blend in with protestors. According to the New York Times, it included a section that was apparently intended to instruct the public how to act. It shows a lot of forethought, that it’s deliberate, that this wasn’t just, as a lot of people claimed, something spontaneous that just happened. For some of the Capitol stormers, I think they were swept up in the moment. But for many people, especially the leaders of groups like the Proud Boys, this was premeditated. This was a very deliberate decision to go there and to cause real upheaval. That was the point, to dredge up some instability. If all things worked well, they would be able to turn the election. Because it failed, I hear a lot of people dismissing it, but the intentions were real. These people legitimately wanted to overthrow the government and overturn the election. We can’t forget that that was the overarching objective here, by any means necessary, frankly, even if that meant killing lawmakers. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/03/capitol-riot-trial-prosecution-enrique-tarrio.html

The second trial stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol is shaping up to be a lot less of a slam dunk for the Justice Department than the first. The case of Couy Griffin, a New Mexico county commissioner and founder of Cowboys for Trump, looks to be among the most marginal of hundreds of prosecutions stemming from the unrest and violence that broke out as lawmakers were seeking to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. Unlike the vast majority of the nearly 800 people charged in connection with Jan. 6, Griffin didn’t go inside the building, nor is he accused of violence or property destruction. His trial is expected to last only about a day. Griffin, 48, faces just two misdemeanor charges: entering a restricted area at the Capitol and disruptive or disorderly conduct while in such a place. Both carry a one-year maximum sentence. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/21/capitol-riot-trial-tests-justice-department-strategy-00018968

Using Facebook’s Own Data to Understand the Platform’s Role in Jan. 6 A team of reporters from ProPublica and The Washington Post have obtained a unique dataset on Facebook groups, providing the clearest evidence yet that the social platform was an important source of misinformation that led to the Jan. 6 attack. https://www.propublica.org/article/using-facebooks-own-data-to-understand-the-platforms-role-in-jan-6

Trump incited Insurrection January 06, 2021, Qanon, MAGA Zombies: archived March 21, 2022

How did a Proud Boys leader with a felony record get into the White House? Enrique Tarrio claims he visited the White House on Saturday, hours before a major pro-Trump rally. DECEMBER 15, 2020 Enrique Tarrio revealed that he visited the executive mansion on Saturday after receiving a "last-minute invite to an undisclosed location." The White House later said that Tarrio had not been invited, but had instead taken part in a holiday tour. "He was on a public White House Christmas tour," White House spokesperson Judd Deere said over the weekend. "He did not have a meeting with the president, nor did the White House invite him." White House public tours are self-guided, and anyone who wants one, including Christmas tours, must apply no fewer than 21 days ahead of their booking date because the application includes a security form and background check. Hopefuls with a felony are generally denied, a former Trump White House official told Salon, unless a senior member of the administration intervenes. In 2013, Tarrio, also known as Henry Tarrio Jr, was convicted of two class C, one class D and one class E felonies for stealing and reselling $1.2 million worth of diabetes test strips from Abbott Labs, and served 16 months in federal prison. Court records show that he was released in December 2014 with two years probation, and ordered to pay restitution for the full $1.2 million. On Saturday, Tarrio was accompanied to the executive mansion by other members of Latinos for Trump, including Bianca Garcia, the president of the group, and her son, Armani Garcia, a former intern for Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga. It is unclear if or when Latinos for Trump applied for its White House tour, and unclear why Tarrio received a security pass. https://www.salon.com/2020/12/15/how-did-a-proud-boys-leader-with-a-felony-record-get-into-the-white-house/

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio jailed pending trial in Jan. 6 Capitol attack. U.S. Magistrate Judge Lauren F. Louis of Miami ordered Tarrio to be held after federal prosecutors argued that he and co-defendants “directed and encouraged” the actions of Proud Boys members who formed “the tip of the spear” in the breach of the U.S. Capitol. Tarrio poses a risk of flight and danger to the community, prosecutors said, citing his purported efforts to evade law enforcement and discourage witnesses from cooperating. “There is overwhelming evidence that Tarrio organized a plot to corruptly obstruct, influence, and impede the certification of the electoral college vote, an offense that strikes at the heart of our democracy,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason McCullough argued in court filings. Even as Congress’s proceedings were still suspended Jan. 6, Tarrio posted to other members, “They’ll fear us doing it again,” prosecutors said. When a member asked, “So what do we do now?” he allegedly answered at 4:14 p.m., “Do it again.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/03/15/tarrio-proud-boys-jailed-jan6/

DOJ: Film crew was present at Jan. 5 meeting between leaders of Proud Boys, Oath Keepers. The details provide new evidence of the encounter between the two groups, whose leaders played a key role in the breach of the Capitol the following day. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/14/film-crew-january-5-meeting-proud-boys-oath-keepers-00017107

Proud Boys leader had plans to ‘storm’ government buildings on 6 January. Enrique Tarrio possessed document titled ‘1776 Returns’, with details to invade and occupy seven buildings, New York Times says. Enrique Tarrio, the group’s former chairman who was arrested last week and charged with conspiracy over the deadly attack, had a nine-page document entitled “1776 Returns”, named for the year of American independence, the New York Times reported. The document, mentioned only in general terms in Tarrio’s indictment, contained details of a complex plan for supporters of Donald Trump to invade and occupy at least seven House and Senate office buildings on the afternoon Congress met to certify Joe Biden’s election victory, according to Times sources. The document features five sections, the Times reported: infiltrate, execution, distract, occupy and sit-in. The plan called for the recruiting of at least 50 Proud Boys and other Trump supporters to enter and occupy each building, “causing trouble” for security personnel who tried to stop them. Once inside, the instructions stated, the activists would be encouraged to chant slogans such as “We the People” and “No Trump, no America”. Supporters unable to gain access to the buildings would be encouraged to distract law enforcement and other authorities by “pulling fire alarms at nearby stores, hotels and museums”. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/15/proud-boys-leader-enrique-tarrio-document-january-6

Another Jan. 6 mystery revealed: Pence's second script rewrite. The never-before-told backstory of why the then-vice president made a change not seen since Al Gore — as a rebuttal to Trump allies' fringe theories. Pence’s decision to craft and employ his own unprecedented language as he presided over the final step of the 2020 election reflected his resistance to a pressure campaign by then-President Donald Trump to subvert the process. Pence’s rewrite has since drawn the attention of congressional investigators. He also made a second, subtler, but no less significant change to the script on Jan. 6, 2021, according to newly released documents and testimony. This previously unreported adjustment, further illustrating his pushback to the Trump-led gambit, involved a simple question that he asked each time a state’s electoral vote results were introduced: “Are there any objections?” https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/15/mike-pence-january-6-script-change-00017294

How Pence used 43 words to shut down Trump allies' election subversion on Jan. 6. The then-vice president and his top aides rewrote the script long used to certify elections, making clear that false elector slates wouldn't fly.

"After ascertaining that the certificates are regular in form and authentic the tellers will announce the votes cast by the electors for each state, starting with Alabama that the parliamentarians have advised me is the only certificate of vote from that state, and purports to be a return from the state, and that has annexed to it a certificate from an authority of that state purporting to appoint or ascertain electors."

Under the Electoral Count Act, electors picked by the party of the winning candidate in each state are required to meet in mid-December to formally cast their ballots. In seven states won by Biden, however, the Trump campaign worked with state Republican parties to assemble their own elector meetings and cast ballots for Trump. Those false electors then signed certificates and mailed them to Washington. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/11/pence-jan-6-election-certification-script-00016539

New clues emerge about the money that might have helped fund the Jan. 6 insurrection. The committee's Feb. 23 subpoena of Salesforce emphasized its interest in the company's hosting of Trump emails asking for new donations that included false claims of election fraud. OpenSecrets has also identified these groups with financial ties to the so-called "March to Save America":

• Rule of Law Defense Fund - a 501(c)(4) nonprofit affiliated with the 527 Republican Attorneys General Association
• Black Conservatives Fund - a hybrid PAC
• Moms for America - a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
• Peaceably Gather - a 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by First Liberty Institute
• Phyllis Schlafly Eagles - a 501(c)(3) nonprofit

"There are powerful indications that have surfaced and every day that passes we get more testimony shedding light on what exactly was taking place," Raskin said. "We should not discount the financial motive and imperative in the events leading up to Jan. 6." https://www.npr.org/2022/03/11/1085783310/new-clues-emerge-about-the-money-that-might-have-helped-fund-the-jan-6-insurrect

Trump lawyer knew plan to delay Biden certification was unlawful, emails show. John Eastman conceded that scheme represented violation of Electoral Count Act but urged Mike Pence to go ahead anyway. The admission that the scheme was unlawful undercuts arguments by Eastman and the Willard war room team that they believed there was no wrongdoing in seeking to have Pence delay the certification past 6 January – one of the strategies they sought to return Trump to power. It additionally raises the prospect that the other members of the Willard war room – including Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani and Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon – were also aware that the scheme to delay or stop the certification was unlawful from the start. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/10/trump-lawyer-plan-john-eastman-mike-pence

The former chairman of the U.S. right-wing group the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, was arrested on Tuesday on a conspiracy charge for his alleged role in plotting the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol in a bid to block certification of President Joe Biden's election. Tarrio, 38, appeared in a virtual Miami-based federal court hearing from a cellblock in a nearby local jail, and prosecutors said they were seeking to have him detained pending trial because they believe he is a danger to the community and poses a risk of flight. Tarrio told the judge he has "absolutely" no savings, and that he only recently got a job printing T-shirts that earns him $400-500 per week. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/former-proud-boys-chairman-tarrio-charged-with-conspiracy-washington-post-2022-03-08/

The Defense In The First Jan. 6 Trial's Closing Argument: Maybe The Evidence Is Fake. The jury is set to begin deliberating in Guy Reffitt's case on Tuesday. After three and a half days of testimony and evidence from government witnesses in the trial of Guy Reffitt, the first person charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection to stand trial, the defense on Monday made a brief appeal to the jury: Key witnesses — Reffitt’s son and a former fellow militant group member — weren’t reliable. Video showing Reffitt at the Capitol couldn’t be trusted. And Reffitt himself was full of it. Monday’s proceedings featured the final government witnesses and the defense’s pushback to the overarching prosecution theory that Reffitt planned well in advance to storm the Capitol, brought guns and other equipment to carry out that plan, and tried to lead the mob in the initial breach of the Capitol and resisted a barrage of projectiles shot at his body by police officers before being finally thwarted by chemical spray. The jury is set to begin deliberating first thing Tuesday. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/guy-reffitt-capitol-riot-trial-defense

A Former Texas Militant Group Member Testified About Bringing Rifles And Handguns To DC For Jan. 6. Rocky Hardie received partial immunity to testify for the government against defendant Guy Reffitt. A former member of the Texas Three Percenters militant group testified Friday that both he and Guy Reffitt — the first Jan. 6 defendant to stand trial — traveled to Washington, DC, with rifles and handguns, carrying the latter with them as they made their way to the US Capitol during the insurrection. The jury heard Friday from Rocky Hardie, who signed an immunity agreement with the government for his testimony; the prosecutor had him explain that he understood he could still be prosecuted for his actions on Jan. 6, but the deal meant that any charges couldn’t be based on information he’d given the government or testified about as part of the agreement. Late in the day, the jury then saw the weapons that the FBI seized from Reffitt’s house and that Hardie said Reffitt brought to Washington: a Smith & Wesson .40-caliber handgun and an AR-15-style rifle. The prosecutor showed a zoomed-in image of Reffitt’s back while he was on a stairway in front of the Capitol, and an FBI agent identified a dark object near Reffitt’s waist as a matte black holster, with a “silvery metallic linear object” that the government has alleged was the handgun. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/guy-reffitt-january-6-guns-trial

A Jan. 6 Defendant Texted And Recorded His Way Through Jan. 6. The Jury Got To See It All. “Multiple clay bullets and a battle cry like in Braveheart. The insurrection began immediately after,” Guy Reffitt wrote, according to the government’s evidence. The day ended with testimony from Reffitt's son, Jackson Reffitt, who bolstered the government's case with firsthand testimony about his father's messages and mindset around the time of the insurrection — and who described the emotional and familial fallout of his decision to cooperate with federal authorities. Reffitt cried when Jackson took the stand, according to a pool reporter in the room. The 19-year-old Jackson said he didn't regret his decision to share information with the FBI, but also spoke about the guilt and sadness he felt. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/reffitt-capitol-riot-trial-testimony

Court documents reveal Pence team's exasperation with Trump. “He came in and said, ‘I'm here asking you to reject the electors.’ That's how he opened at the meeting” on Jan. 5, Pence counsel Greg Jacob said of Eastman, according to his deposition before investigators for the House select committee. “I said, ‘If this case got to the Supreme Court, we'd lose 9-0, wouldn't we, if we actually took your position and it got up there?’ And he started out at 7 to 2. And I said, ‘Who are the two?’ And he said, ‘Well, I think maybe Clarence Thomas,’” Jacobs said, before Eastman eventually relented the case would be unlikely to get any votes. Jacobs and Eastman would go on to have a heated email exchange, with Jacobs criticizing him for forwarding legal advice that “functioned as a serpent in the ear of the President of the United States.” But the two men were able to end the discussion on a hopeful note. “When this is over, we should have a good bottle of wine over a nice dinner someplace,” Eastman responded later in the chain. https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/596743-court-documents-reveal-pence-teams-exasperation-with-trump

The ‘Overwhelming’ Evidence That Trump & Co. Committed Conspiracy. We talked to a prominent prosecutor who's laid out the way the DOJ could charge Trump and John Eastman for trying to overturn the election. “Conspiracy to defraud the United States” is when two or more people agree to obstruct or impede the proper functioning of government. Congress, by Constitution and statute, is supposed to show up at the Capitol on Jan. 6, count the votes, and certify the winner of the presidential election. Trump and others knowingly conspired to interfere with the peaceful transfer of presidential power, for reasons Trump knew to be false. That’s fraudulent. I also theorize that when Trump tried to get Mike Pence to abuse his authority as vice president, he and his co-conspirators were conspiring to obstruct a federal proceeding. That’s also a crime. https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7wkbe/the-overwhelming-evidence-that-trump-committed-conspiracy

Roger Stone will have some serious explaining to do next time he sees Donald Trump. Stone, Trump’s most trusted adviser for decades, was reportedly caught talking trash about the former president, going so far as to call him the “greatest single mistake in American history.” The Washington Post has obtained extraordinary documentary footage of Stone as he worked to overturn the 2020 election. In one section, filmed on Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day, the Post reports that Stone can be seen in a car with the filmmakers when he lets rip on Trump. After describing his ally as America’s worst ever mistake, Stone said Trump would regret failing to pardon himself, saying: “A good, long sentence in prison will give [Trump] a chance to think about it, because the Southern District is coming for him, and he did nothing.” After his rant, Stone is reported to have turned to the filmmakers and said: “Obviously if you use any of that, I’ll murder you.” In an interview with The Daily Beast on Friday morning, Stone pushed back on the Post recounting of the documentary and said it contained several errors. https://www.thedailybeast.com/roger-stone-distances-himself-from-stop-the-steal-and-insurrection-as-a-storm-foretold-footage-emerges

Roger Stone Distances Himself From ‘Stop the Steal’ and Insurrection After WaPo Documentary Bombshell. The Trump adviser pushed back as footage emerged showing him appearing to launch “the Big Lie” in the hours after the election and rushing to leave DC as the Capitol riot unfolded. “I really want to get out of here,” Stone told an aide, as they were filmed at the hotel by a Danish camera crew for a documentary on the veteran Republican operative. Stone said he feared prosecution by the incoming attorney general, Merrick Garland. “He is not a friend,” Stone said. https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/roger-stone-documentary-capitol-riot-trump-election/ https://www.thedailybeast.com/roger-stone-distances-himself-from-stop-the-steal-and-insurrection-as-a-storm-foretold-footage-emerges

For most of his life, J. Michael Luttig has operated behind the scenes at the top of the conservative legal world. He started his career as a young aide at the U.S. Supreme Court, worked as an attorney in the Reagan White House, clerked for Judge Antonin Scalia before he was a legal icon, helped guide the appointment of two other Supreme Court justices and was appointed to a federal judgeship by former President George H.W. Bush. https://news.yahoo.com/untold-story-former-judge-beat-100000623.html

@judgeluttig https://twitter.com/judgeluttig The only responsibility and power of the Vice President under the Constitution is to faithfully count the electoral college votes as they have been cast. https://twitter.com/judgeluttig/status/1346469787329646592

Pence: Trump is ‘wrong’ to say election could be overturned. Former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday directly rebutted Donald Trump’s false claims that Pence somehow could have overturned the results of the 2020 election, saying that the former president was simply “wrong.” In a speech to a gathering of the conservative Federalist Society in Florida, Pence addressed Trump’s intensifying efforts this week to advance the false narrative that, as vice president, he had the unilateral power to prevent Joe Biden from taking office. “President Trump is wrong,” Pence said. “I had no right to overturn the election.” https://apnews.com/article/mike-pence-donald-trump-election-2020-84ff467d9ff5bfaad084e274f69ac521

WHEREAS, Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger are participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse, and they are both utilizing their past professed political affiliation to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power for partisan purposes, therefore, be it https://context-cdn.washingtonpost.com/notes/prod/default/documents/0bdaba1c-a2a6-4aa5-8acd-62d782590c54/note/c71c8a31-8623-4236-94ec-ce99dac1a51e.#page=1

Republicans in Congress were in on Trump's coup plot. They knew that Donald Trump was plotting a coup and they said nothing. By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 4, 2022 https://www.salon.com/2022/02/04/in-congress-were-in-on-coup-plot/

The New York Times' front-page profile of "defiant" Jan. 6 "marchers" is a taste of what comes next. https://boingboing.net/2022/01/24/the-new-york-times-front-page-profile-of-defiant-jan-6-marchers-is-a-taste-of-what-comes-next.html

Trump campaign officials, led by Rudy Giuliani, oversaw fake electors plot in 7 states. Giuliani and his allies coordinated the nuts-and-bolts of the process on a state-by-state level, the sources told CNN. One source said there were multiple planning calls between Trump campaign officials and GOP state operatives, and that Giuliani participated in at least one call. The source also said the Trump campaign lined up supporters to fill elector slots, secured meeting rooms in statehouses for the fake electors to meet on December 14, 2020, and circulated drafts of fake certificates that were ultimately sent to the National Archives. Trump and some of his top advisers publicly encouraged the "alternate electors" scheme in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada and New Mexico. But behind the scenes, Giuliani and Trump campaign officials actively choreographed the process, the sources said. One fake elector from Michigan boasted at a recent event hosted by a local Republican organization that the Trump campaign directed the entire operation. "We fought to seat the electors. The Trump campaign asked us to do that," Meshawn Maddock, co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, said at a public event last week that was organized by the conservative group Stand Up Michigan, according to a recording obtained by CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/20/politics/trump-campaign-officials-rudy-giuliani-fake-electors/index.html

Wife of Supreme Court justice who praised Capitol rioters wants Cheney and Kinzinger out of GOP for investigating it. Virginia ‘Ginny’ Thomas is a veteran conservative activist whose political activities have often concerned matters before the Supreme Court. The wife of one of the Supreme Court justices who could be charged with deciding whether the House January 6th select committee can view Trump administration White House records has signed on to an open letter calling for the committee’s two Republican members to be ousted from the House GOP conference. Virginia “Ginny” Thomas, a longtime conservative activist and the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, was one of more than 60 signatories to the open letter, which was organised by the pro-Trump Conservative Action Project and asks House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to “act immediately to remove” Reps Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger from the Republican conference “due to their egregious actions as part of the House of Representative’s January 6th Select Committee”. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ginny-thomas-cheney-kinzinger-jan-6-b1995752.html

Capitol rioters called Nancy Pelosi's office looking for a 'lost and found' for items they left behind on January 6, according to Rep. Jamie Raskin. Rioters were calling "asking whether there was a lost and found because they forgot their phone there, or they left their purse or what have you," Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told Insider on Friday in a Q&A. Police officers swiftly took down information from the callers, Raskin said. "The officers quickly got on the phone and said, yeah, just give us your name, your address, your social, you know, and we'll tie up those loose ends," Raskin said. "But what's so fascinating to me about that there really were people who felt as if they had been summoned to Washington by the president." "And when they were told that they were trespassing and invading the Capitol, they said the president invited them to be there," he said. "They didn't have any kind of subtle understanding of the separation of powers. They just thought that the number one person in the US government had invited them to be there, and therefore they had a right. https://www.businessinsider.com/capitol-rioters-called-pelosis-office-for-lost-and-found-raskin-2022-1

Yale law graduate founder of far-right Oath Keepers group is charged - along with ten others - with seditious conspiracy: Faces 20 years in prison for organizing Jan 6th riot and instructing his members from OUTSIDE Capitol building. Stewart Rhodes, founder of Oath Keepers, and 10 alleged accomplices charged with seditious conspiracy stemming from January 6 Capitol riots. Rhodes and more than a dozen members and associates of far-right militia are suspected of planning and carrying out attack to stop Biden's certification. Rhodes was in restricted area of Capitol grounds and directed the attack from there, indictment claims. Another eight suspects named in indictments charged with corruptly obstructing an official proceeding. It is largest conspiracy case brought by federal prosecutors as a consequence of the January 6 insurrection Seditious conspiracy charge carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Rhodes, a former US Army paratrooper and Yale Law School graduate, started the Oath Keepers in 2009. He is known for his eye patch: a former firearms instructor, he dropped a loaded handgun when he was 28 and it shot him in the face, blinding him in his left eye. Rhodes and Edward Vallejo, 63, of Phoenix, Arizona, were arrested on Thursday. The others who were charged were already facing criminal charges related to the attack. Those include Thomas Caldwell, 67, of Berryville, Virginia; Joseph Hackett, 51, of Sarasota, Florida; Kenneth Harrelson, 41, of Titusville, Florida; Joshua James, 34, of Arab, Alabama; Kelly Meggs, 52, of Dunnellon, Florida; Roberto Minuta, 37, of Prosper, Texas; David Moerschel, 44, of Punta Gorda, Florida; Brian Ulrich, 44, of Guyton, Georgia and Jessica Watkins, 39, of Woodstock, Ohio. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10399809/Oath-Keepers-founder-charged-organizing-January-6-riot.html

Congressional Staff Pressed Justice Department Officials For Safety Plans Before The Capitol Riot. “Soooo this has taken a turn for the worse,” one congressional staffer wrote to federal law enforcement agencies during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. At least two congressional staffers from House and Senate committees reached out to the FBI and the Justice Department concerned about security at the Capitol ahead of the Jan. 6 riots, according to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News. The inquiries support accusations that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies were not prepared for the pro-Trump mob that stormed the US Capitol despite direct warnings and calls for help. BuzzFeed News is publishing another cache of documents turned over by the Justice Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the agency and the FBI related to events around Jan. 6. Emails released last November revealed that top Justice Department officials were told there were “no credible threats” hours before the riot. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kadiagoba/congress-staff-january-6-email-justice-department

In prison interview, QAnon Shaman shares paranoid fantasies about the Deep State's "two-tiered slavery system". On Trump's legacy: "He was trying to create peace in the Middle East, you know, he released the JFK file, he created the space force. There was also during the Trump administration, there was a declassification of a zero-point energy engine and inertia propulsion or anti-gravity craft that the Navy put out there. Okay, I'll put it this way. Q is the only major movement in history, as far as I can tell, that is working to disclose the full truth about, say government Special Access Programs, top secret information and technologies, the truth about things like aliens are interdimensional beings and their role here on the planet. https://boingboing.net/2022/01/06/in-prison-interview-qanon-shaman-shares-paranoid-fantasies-about-the-deep-states-two-tiered-slavery-system.html

The Jan. 6 Defendants Are Getting Off Easy. We reviewed all 733 criminal cases connected to the insurrection. Here is what we found. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/01/jan-6-capitol-riot-criminal-prosecutions-status.html

Biden’s blistering speech on Trump praised by supporters, calling it his ‘best’. Speech described as ‘forceful’, ‘passionate’, ‘riveting’, and a ‘hinge moment in his presidency’. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/joe-biden-trump-capitol-riot-speech-b1988097.html

Biden eviscerates Trump for holding a 'dagger to the throat of Democracy' by watching Jan 6 riot live on TV and doing nothing to stop it: Donald hits back and calls Joe's speech 'political theater' https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10375211/Biden-heads-Capitol-January-6-speech-blame-Trump-chaos-carnage.html

Election Falsehoods Surged on Podcasts Before Capitol Riots, Researchers Find. Researchers at the Brookings Institution reviewed transcripts of nearly 1,500 episodes from 20 of the most popular political podcasts. Among episodes released between the election and the Jan. 6 riot, about half contained election misinformation, according to the analysis. In some weeks, 60% of episodes mentioned the election fraud conspiracy theories tracked by Brookings. Those included false claims that software glitches interfered with the count, that fake ballots were used, and that voting machines run by Dominion Voting Systems were rigged to help Democrats. Those kinds of theories gained currency in Republican circles and would later be leveraged to justify additional election audits across the country. The biggest offender in Brookings’ analysis was Steve Bannon, Trump’s former adviser. His podcast, “Bannon’s War Room,” was flagged 115 times for episodes using voter fraud terms included in Brookings’ analysis between the election and Jan. 6. “You know why they’re going to steal this election?” Bannon asked on Nov. 3. “Because they don’t think you’re going to do anything about it.” https://news.yahoo.com/election-falsehoods-surged-podcasts-capitol-125322535.html

A photographer’s helmet cam captured the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-01-04/photographers-point-of-view-of-the-capitol-riot-jan-6-anniversary

More than 1,000 US public figures aided Trump’s effort to overturn election. Insurrection Index identifies those who acted as accomplices by participating in 6 January attack or spreading Trump’s ‘big lie’. Among them are 213 incumbents in elected office and 29 who are running as candidates for positions of power in upcoming elections. There are also 59 military veterans, 31 current or former law enforcement officials, and seven who sit on local school boards. When the index goes live on Thursday, it will contain a total of 1,404 records of those who played a role in trying to overturn the 2020 election. In addition to the 1,011 individuals, it lists 393 organizations deemed to have played a part in subverting democracy. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/05/trump-capitol-attack-democracy-election-insurrection-index

Trump incited Insurrection January 06, 2021, Qanon, MAGA Zombies. archived January 05, 2022

New Texts Show Sean Hannity Panicking About Trump’s State of Mind After Jan. 6. The committee investigating the attack on the Capitol is asking the Fox News host to answer questions about his communications with Trump and Mark Meadows. The Jan. 6 committee is requesting voluntary cooperation from Sean Hannity, Chair Bennie Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney wrote in a letter released Tuesday. The letter cites previously unreleased text messages obtained by the committee, including one sent on Jan. 10 in which the Fox News host appears to express concern over what Trump might do ahead of Biden’s inauguration. “Guys, we have a clear path to land the plane in 9 days,” Hannity wrote to then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). “He can’t mention the election again. He can’t mention the election again. Ever. I did not have a good call with him today. And worse, I’m not sure what is left to do or say, and I don’t like not knowing if it’s truly understood. Ideas?” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/jan-6-committee-sean-hannity-request-cooperation-1278476/

We Know Exactly Who the Capitol Rioters Were. A year later, a fuller picture of who really drove the riot is clear. The lessons for 2022 and beyond are sobering.We’ve now studied nearly 700 who have been arrested, and we’ve brought the study up to date as of early December. What we see is, over half of those who have been arrested are business owners, CEOs from white-collar occupations, doctors, lawyers, and architects. If you look at extremist group membership, again, 13 percent of those nearly 700 arrested as of early December are members of militia groups like the Oath Keepers or extremist groups like the Proud Boys. As I said, this is very different than about half that we normally find. If you look at their ages, two-thirds of those arrested for Jan. 6 are over the age of 34. They’re concentrated in their 40s and 50s. Normally for right-wing extremists, it’s two-thirds under the age of 34. Typically, only 10 percent have a college degree. Here, the Jan. 6 arrestees, 25 percent have a college degree, which is close to the national average of the U.S. electorate at 30 percent. About 15 percent of those on Jan. 6 had prior U.S. military service, but that compares with what we usually see in right-wing extremists at 40 percent. About 10 percent of the U.S. electorate has prior military service, so it’s a little higher than that, but much closer to the U.S. mainstream than to the usual right-wing extremists. What if we look at criminal history? Well, 30 percent of those arrested on Jan. 6 had prior criminal history, mostly for misdemeanors like marijuana charges, but with other right-wing extremists, it’s 64 percent have prior criminal history. The U.S. electorate overall has 20 percent with criminal history. When you look at this, it’s just one category after another after another that shouts out mainstream. The Jan. 6 insurrectionists really are best understood as a product of the mainstream. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/01/january-6-capitol-riot-arrests-research-profile.html

Trump cancels Jan. 6 event amid GOP complaints. Republican senators said the press conference wasn't a "good idea" hours before the former president canceled it. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/04/gop-trump-jan-6-speech-526487

Secret commandos with the authority to 'shoot-to-kill' were at the Capitol on January 6 under Trump's orders over fears of a terrorist attack or a plot to attack Pence or a member of Congress, report claims. Ex-Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who ran Donald Trump's Justice Department at the time of the Capitol riot, reportedly acted alone in deciding to activate the elite units. FBI teams reportedly arrived on Capitol Hill early that day to collect evidence on explosives found near the Republican and Democrat national headquarters. The agency's snipers and other SWAT members provided cover to nearby Congressional buildings. And when violent Trump supporters breached the Capitol's parameters, members of the Hostage Rescue Team were among the first law enforcement officers in the building. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10365429/Secret-commandos-authority-shoot-kill-Capitol-January-6-Report.html

Ashli Babbitt a martyr? Her past tells a more complex story. The attack on Norris is an example of erratic and sometimes threatening behavior by Babbitt, who was shot by a police officer while at the vanguard of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Former President Donald Trump and his supporters have sought to portray her as a righteous martyr who was unjustly killed. In the months before her death, Babbitt had become consumed by pro-Trump conspiracy theories and posted angry screeds on social media. She also had a history of making violent threats. The Capitol Police officer who shot Babbitt, Lt. Michael Byrd, said in a televised interview in August that he fired as a “last resort.” When he pulled the trigger, he said, he had no idea whether the person jumping through the window was armed. https://apnews.com/article/ashli-babbitt-capitol-siege-a15c7e52a04d932972b7a284c7a8f7df

At time of Capitol prayer service Jan. 6, Trump will deliver remarks doubling down on the ‘Big Lie’. The riot at the Capitol briefly looked like it had broken Trump's hold on the GOP. Instead, he has reaffirmed his dominion over the party. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/02/trump-capitol-riot-aftermath-526277

Retired General Steven M. Anderson blasts Trump supporters in the military, calling them a 'threat from within' and advising them to stop listening to 'The Pillow Guy' Mike Lindell. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10361869/Retired-Gen-Steven-M-Anderson-blasts-Trump-supporters-military-calls-threat-within.html

Some Of The Biggest Lies Being Spread About The Jan. 6 Insurrection. The events from last Jan. 6 in Washington unfolded on live television but they've since been up for debate.

1. Claim: The Rioters Weren’t Trump Supporters
2. Claim: The Rioters Weren’t Violent
3. Claim: Trump Did Not Encourage The Rioters
4. Claim: Ashli Babbitt Was Killed By An Officer Working For Democrats
5. Claim: The Jan. 6 Suspects Are Political Prisoners And Are Being Mistreated

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ap-us-capitol-riot-misinformation-lies_n_61d05615e4b0bb04a6398a8f

Conspiracy theories paint fraudulent reality of Jan. 6 riot. Millions of Americans watched the events in Washington last Jan. 6 unfold on live television. Police officers testified to the violence and mayhem. Criminal proceedings in open court detailed what happened. Yet the hoaxes, conspiracy theories and attempts to rewrite history persist, muddying the public’s understanding of what actually occurred during the most sustained attack on the seat of American democracy since the War of 1812. By excusing former President Donald Trump of responsibility, minimizing the mob’s violence and casting the rioters as martyrs, falsehoods about the insurrection aim to deflect blame for Jan. 6 while sustaining Trump’s unfounded claims about the free and fair election in 2020 that he lost. Spread by politicians, broadcast by cable news pundits and amplified by social media, the falsehoods are a stark reminder of how many Americans may no longer trust their own institutions or their own eyes. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/conspiracy-theories-paint-fraudulent-reality-of-jan-6-riot

So You Admitted To Storming The Capitol. Now What? Judges are figuring out in real time what the consequences should be for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/capitol-riot-judges-accountability-trump-insurrection

Trump Adviser Peter Navarro Lays Out How He and Bannon Planned to Overturn Biden’s Electoral Win. A former Trump White House official says he and right-wing provocateur Steve Bannon were actually behind the last-ditch coordinated effort by rogue Republicans in Congress to halt certification of the 2020 election results and keep President Donald Trump in power earlier this year, in a plan dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep.” In his recently published memoir, Peter Navarro, then-President Donald Trump’s trade adviser, details how he stayed in close contact with Bannon as they put the Green Bay Sweep in motion with help from members of Congress loyal to the cause. But in an interview last week with The Daily Beast, Navarro shed additional light on his role in the operation and their coordination with politicians like Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX). https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-advisor-peter-navarro-lays-out-how-he-and-steve-bannon-planned-to-overturn-bidens-electoral-win

The clear and present danger of Trump's enduring 'Big Lie' https://www.npr.org/2021/12/23/1065277246/trump-big-lie-jan-6-election

Movie at the Ellipse: A Study in Fascist Propaganda. Scholars on the Nazis and anti-Semitism have seen this before. https://www.justsecurity.org/74504/movie-at-the-ellipse-a-study-in-fascist-propaganda/

New January 6 video shows three hours of violent and chaotic assault on police. The Justice Department this week released a three-hour video of a battle between rioters and the police at the US Capitol Building on January 6 where rioters brandished weapons, officers were viciously beaten, and a member of the mob died on Capitol steps. The assault on the Lower West Terrace was one of the most violent confrontations between Capitol Police and the crowd. Officers held the line until the building was cleared without letting rioters inside. Some officers have since said they did not know the Capitol had already been breached in other areas. The video, taken from a Capitol security camera, does not have sound. It starts as officers retreat, helping each other as they stumble inside and washing their eyes out with water from chemical spray. Rioters crowd in behind them, coordinate efforts to attack and push through in infamous moments that have haunted the public, and officers, ever since. The Justice Department released the videos after CNN and other outlets sued for access. It is the longest video from the riot released by the government thus far. https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/24/politics/january-6-video-capitol-hill-riot/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a3RGlu5yLs

People Got Sick at a Conspiracy Conference. They’re Sure It’s Anthrax. The fact that the conference was likely a COVID outbreak and superspreader event has been almost entirely ignored. This far-right conspiracy claim began after a dozen people spent time together in a confined space at the ReAwaken America tour event in Dallas over the weekend of Dec. 10. And the fact that this was likely a COVID outbreak and superspreader event has been almost entirely ignored. https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7wz5a/people-got-sick-at-a-conspiracy-conference-theyre-sure-its-anthrax

New York Man Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy and Obstruction Charges Related to Jan. 6 Capitol Breach. Wednesday, December 22, 2021 Defendant Planned Activities as Member of Proud Boys Chapter in Central New York. A New York man pleaded guilty today to crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, which disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was in the process of ascertaining and counting the electoral votes related to the presidential election. According to court documents, Matthew Greene, 34, of Syracuse, conspired with fellow members of the Proud Boys, a self-described “pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world; aka Western Chauvinists.” Greene pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of obstruction of an official proceeding this afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Greene was arrested on April 21, 2021, following his indictment along with two other individuals in this case, Dominic Pezzola, 44, of Rochester, New York, and William Pepe, 32, of Beacon, New York; they have pleaded not guilty to charges. According to court documents, Greene officially joined the Central New York Proud Boys chapter in December 2020. In advance of Jan. 6, he and other members of the Proud Boys planned to come to Washington and coordinate their activities through various communication methods they had previously obtained, including programmable radios. On Jan. 6, they met up at the Washington Monument, intentionally dressed in clothing that concealed their membership as Proud Boys. Greene and other Proud Boys members then marched from the Washington Monument to the Capitol, where Greene witnessed the tearing down of barricades and advanced with others into the restricted area. Greene was among the first wave to cross a downed police line and advance into the West Plaza. He later advanced to a set of stairs that ran from the West Plaza to the Upper West Terrace. He witnessed rioters assault the police and overrun them. Greene followed others up the stairs moments after the police line was breached. Finally, after exiting the stairs, he participated with other rioters, including members of the Proud Boys, in moving additional police barricades. https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/new-york-man-pleads-guilty-conspiracy-and-obstruction-charges-related-jan-6-capitol

Syracuse Proud Boy pleads guilty to conspiracy, will cooperate with prosecutors. On Monday, 34-year-old Syracuse man and accused Proud Boy Matthew Greene pleaded guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of official proceedings for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection on the Capitol; Greene also said he will cooperate with federal prosecutors. https://cnycentral.com/news/local/syracuse-proud-boy-pleads-guilty-to-conspiracy-will-cooperate-with-prosecutors

What we've learned from the Meadows documents.

1. Waldron could help fill in the gaps. Subpoenaed this week was a man otherwise not on the radar of many: a retired U.S. Army colonel and distillery owner who helped distribute a PowerPoint on plans for Jan. 6 and who briefed lawmakers on the plans for the day. The committee on Thursday demanded testimony from Phil Waldron, who was among those present at the Willard Hotel “war room” for the Trump campaign and appeared to play a key role in pushing forward the strategy to contest the election.
2. Text messages show it was a two-way street. The committee this week also released numerous text messages sent to Meadows to suggest the plan laid out by the Trump campaign and those such as Eastman and Waldman not only resonated with Republicans but left them encouraging the White House to follow through. Numerous text messages sent to Meadows show ideas about how to block the election were flowing from Trump's inner circle to Capitol Hill and the GOP back to the White House as they mulled how to undermine Biden’s victory.
3. GOP publicly downplayed attack while privately panicking. For the better part of a year, prominent conservative allies have followed Trump’s lead and downplayed the violent rioters who attacked police officers with bear spray, flag poles and baseball bats. They’ve been described as “peaceful patriots,” normal tourists and victims. But as mayhem and violence erupted that January day, text messages show a trio of popular Fox News personalities, GOP lawmakers and even Donald Trump Jr. were frantically trying to reach the president — through Meadows — to have him stop the attack and send his supporters home.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/586389-what-weve-learned-from-the-meadows-documents

“He's got to condemn this shit ASAP,” the president’s eldest son texted Meadows as the attack unfolded on live TV. “It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.”

Meadows Jan. 5 email indicated Guard on standby to ‘protect pro Trump people,’ investigators say. The context for the message is unclear, but it comes amid scrutiny of the Guard’s slow response to the Jan. 6 violence at the Capitol. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/12/meadows-jan-6-national-guard-trump-524133

‘He’s got to condemn this …’: Panel releases urgent Jan. 6 texts from Donald Trump Jr., lawmakers and Fox hosts. House investigators held Mark Meadows in criminal contempt after releasing a trove of messages aimed at getting President Donald Trump to take stronger action amid the Capitol riot.

• “He’s got to condemn this [shit] Asap. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough,” Donald Trump Jr. texted, one of a series of messages Meadows provided to the Jan. 6 select committee investigating the former president’s effort to overturn the election.
• “Hey Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home … this is hurting all of us … he is destroying his legacy,” Laura Ingraham wrote.
• “Please get him on tv. Destroying everything you have accomplished,” Brian Kilmeade wrote.
• “Can he make a statement? … Ask people to leave the Capitol,” Sean Hannity urged.
• “The president needs to stop this ASAP,” an unnamed lawmaker texted Meadows on Jan. 6
• Another unidentified lawmaker told Meadows after the attack: “Yesterday was a terrible day. We tried everything we could in our objection to the 6 states. I’m sorry nothing worked.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/13/hes-got-to-condemn-this-shit-panel-releases-urgent-jan-6-texts-from-trump-jr-lawmakers-524188

Retired Army colonel circulated proposal to challenge the 2020 election. A retired U.S. Army colonel who circulated a proposal to challenge the 2020 election, including by declaring a national security emergency and seizing paper ballots, said that he visited the White House on multiple occasions after the election, spoke with President Donald Trump's chief of staff "maybe eight to 10 times" and briefed several members of Congress on the eve of the Jan. 6 riot. Philip Waldron, the retired colonel, was working with Trump's outside lawyers and was part of a team that briefed the lawmakers on a PowerPoint presentation detailing "Options for 6 JAN," Waldron told The Washington Post. He said his contribution to the presentation focused on his claims of foreign interference in the vote, as did his discussions with the White House. A version of the presentation made its way to the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, on Jan. 5. That information surfaced publicly this week after the congressional committee investigating the insurrection released a letter that said Meadows had turned the document over to the committee. "The presentation was that there was significant foreign interference in the election, here's the proof," Waldron said. "These are constitutional, legal, feasible, acceptable and suitable courses of action." Waldron, 57, who is based in Dripping Springs, Texas, told The Post that before the election, he started working with the Texas company Allied Security Operations Group (ASOG). Russell J. Ramsland Jr., ASOG's leader, was also photographed at the Willard in the days before the riot, and Eastman told The Post that he met Ramsland around that time. Over the previous two years, the firm promoted claims about the dangers of electronic voting to a procession of conservative lawmakers, activists and donors, The Post has reported. The Arizona graph appeared, with the same design, text and font, in a Dec. 1 affidavit from Ramsland that pro-Trump lawyerSidney Powell included as purported evidence of fraud in a lawsuit seeking to "decertify" Arizona's election results. Arizona Senate President Karen Fann consulted Waldron in deciding to hire the Florida firm Cyber Ninjas to conduct that review, according to text messages that the nonprofit American Oversight obtained through a public records request. Waldron was named in a 2020 state corporate filing as the chief executive of PointStream Inc. of Dripping Springs, which bills itself as a discreet cybersecurity firm. Specialties that PointStream touts on its website include "deep access to the Internet of Things, Social Media, and Dark Web," conducting untraceable "cyber lurking," and providing data sets "virtually unknown" to either private industry or the U.S. government. PointStream was awarded a little over $60,000 in federal contracting in 2018. Spending records show the award was for "highly adaptive cybersecurity services" for the Defense Department's U.S. Southern Command. Waldron also has worked as a firearms instructor and owns a distillery, according to a company website and a state corporate filing. https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2021-12-11/retired-army-colonel-circulated-proposal-challenge-2020-election-3936120.html

Donald Trump attempted to spin his inflammatory speech ahead of the Jan. 6 insurrection into something much more mellow and measured on Friday night. The former president, during an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, claimed the incendiary address that whipped his supporters up into storming the U.S. Capitol in a bid to overturn the 2020 election was “extremely calming.” “Honestly, I have nothing to hide,” Trump told Ingraham during a conversation about a federal appeals court’s refusal to let him block the release of records to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 violence. “I wasn’t involved in that,” Trump declared. “And if you look at my words and what I said in the speech, they were extremely calming, actually.” Instead, Trump claimed, the insurrection took place on Election Day, and the attack on the Capitol was just a protest. https://news.yahoo.com/donald-trump-defies-belief-spin-082555407.html

Kanye West publicist pressed Georgia election worker to confess to bogus fraud charges. Weeks after the 2020 election, a Chicago publicist for hip-hop artist Kanye West traveled to the suburban home of Ruby Freeman, a frightened Georgia election worker who was facing death threats after being falsely accused by former President Donald Trump of manipulating votes. The publicist knocked on the door and offered to help. The visitor, Trevian Kutti, gave her name but didn’t say she worked for West, a longtime billionaire friend of Trump. She said she was sent by a “high-profile individual,” whom she didn’t identify, to give Freeman an urgent message: confess to Trump’s voter-fraud allegations, or people would come to her home in 48 hours, and she’d go to jail. https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/kanye-west-publicist-pressed-georgia-election-worker-confess-bogus-fraud-charges-2021-12-10/

Trump’s White House Passed Around a PowerPoint on How to End American Democracy. Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows handed over a trove of pre-Jan. 6 documentation. It’s damning stuff. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/mark-meadows-overturn-election-results-jan-6-committee-1269532/

'Absolute liars': Ex-D.C. Guard official says generals lied to Congress about Jan. 6. In a 36-page memo to the Capitol riot committee, Col. Earl Matthews also slams the Pentagon's inspector general for what he calls an error-ridden report. Matthews' memo, sent to the Jan. 6 select committee this month and obtained by POLITICO, includes detailed recollections of the insurrection response as it calls two Army generals — Gen. Charles Flynn, who served as deputy chief of staff for operations on Jan. 6, and Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt, the director of Army staff — “absolute and unmitigated liars” for their characterization of the events of that day. Matthews has never publicly discussed the chaos of the Capitol siege. Matthews' memo levels major accusations: that Flynn and Piatt lied to Congress about their response to pleas for the D.C. Guard to quickly be deployed on Jan. 6; that the Pentagon inspector general’s November report on Army leadership’s response to the attack was “replete with factual inaccuracies”; and that the Army has created its own closely held revisionist document about the Capitol riot that’s “worthy of the best Stalinist or North Korea propagandist.” https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/06/jan-6-generals-lied-ex-dc-guard-official-523777

‘Handful of fanatics’ to blame for Capitol riot, Trump ally Meadows says in book. Ex-chief of staff downplays Trump involvement in insurrection and says mob had ‘absolutely no urging’ from the president. Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows claims in his new book that a “handful of fanatics” is to blame for the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot, accusing Donald Trump’s critics of selectively focusing on what he described as a few bad apples. “No one would [focus] on the actions of… those supporters of President Trump who came [to Washington on January 6] without hate in their hearts or any bad intentions,” he writes in the upcoming book The Chief’s Chief, per The Guardian. “Instead, they would laser in on the actions of a handful of fanatics across town.” More than 700 people have so far been charged in connection with the attempted insurrection, which left five people dead. While Trump called on his supporters to “fight like hell” and “take back our country” just before the mob stormed the Capitol building, Meadows insisted that the rioters had “absolutely no urging from President Trump.” Meadows recently became the highest-ranking former White House official to cooperate with congressional investigators in a probe of the Jan. 6 attack. The move came after he faced the threat of a contempt of Congress charge for defying a subpoena. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/02/trump-capitol-attack-mark-meadows-memoir-book

New FBI video shows interrogation of Jan. 6th defendant accused of tasing officer. A federal judge ordered the release of the interrogation video of Jan. 6th defendant Danny Rodriguez accused of tasing Officer Fanone. Ryan Reilly joins Lawrence O’Donnell to discuss his behavior during his interrogation, including what Reilly describes as an “ongoing theme” in which these defendants espouse “machismo heated rhetoric” until they face consequences and “suddenly we see them break down and that veil falls.” https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/new-fbi-video-shows-interrogation-of-jan-6th-defendant-accused-of-tasing-officer-127588421984

Trump fan accused of tasing police officer at Capitol riot cries and calls himself ‘piece of s***’ in FBI interview. Daniel Rodriguez told agents he was radicalised by InfoWars and online right-wing pundits and comedians. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/maga-daniel-rodriguez-capitol-riot-b1939984.html

Roger Stone, an ally of former President Donald Trump, claimed this week that former Trump aide Katrina Pierson was "deeply involved" with the violence of the January 6 attack targeting the U.S. Capitol. Posting to Telegram early Thursday morning, Stone appeared to suggest that Pierson deserved a great deal of blame for the pro-Trump attack against the legislative branch of government. Stone also seemed to be unaware that Pierson—like himself—has been subpoenaed by the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack. "Given what I know, I am perplexed as to why the January 6 committee has not issued a subpoena to Katrina Pierson, in other words, someone deeply involved in the violent and unlawful acts of January 6, rather than me, given that I was not there and have no advance knowledge or involvement whatsoever in the events at the Capitol That day #Jan6Cmte," Stone wrote in a message to his Telegram channel subscribers. Pierson served as a national spokesperson for Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. The longtime Trump ally was brought in to arrange with the White House who would share the stage with the then-president during the January 6 rally event just ahead of the Capitol attack. FEC records show that the Trump campaign paid Pierson $10,000 every two weeks for her work from September 2019 to December 2020, the Associated Press previously reported. Although Trump and his allies continue to claim that the November 2020 election was "rigged" or "stolen" in favor of Biden, they have not brought forward evidence substantiating this extraordinary allegation. Dozens of election challenge lawsuits have failed in state and federal courts. Even judges appointed by Trump and other Republicans have rejected the claims. Meanwhile, audits and recounts across the country have consistently reaffirmed Biden's victory. https://www.newsweek.com/roger-stone-claims-ex-trump-aide-katrina-pierson-deeply-involved-jan-6-violence-1653368

Texts Show Kimberly Guilfoyle Bragged About Raising Millions for Rally That Fueled Capitol Riot. Text messages reviewed by ProPublica represent the strongest indication yet that members of the Trump family inner circle were involved in financing and organizing the Jan. 6 “Save America” rally, which immediately preceded the Capitol riot. In a series of text messages sent on Jan. 4 to Katrina Pierson, the White House liaison to the event, Guilfoyle detailed her fundraising efforts and supported a push to get far-right speakers on the stage alongside Trump for the rally, which sought to overturn the election of President Joe Biden. A House select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6 has subpoenaed more than 30 Trump allies for testimony and documents, including Pierson and Caroline Wren, a former deputy to Guilfoyle. But Guilfoyle herself has so far not received any official scrutiny from Congress. "Literally one of my donors Julie at 3 million,” she added. Guilfoyle was referring to Julie Jenkins Fancelli, a Publix supermarket heir who Guilfoyle had developed a professional relationship with during the campaign. Until now, Wren has been the only person identified as having worked with Fancelli. As ProPublica reported last month, Wren also boasted in private conversations with colleagues of raising $3 million for the events of Jan. 6. https://www.propublica.org/article/texts-show-kimberly-guilfoyle-bragged-about-raising-millions-for-rally-that-fueled-capitol-riot

Trump incited Insurrection January 06, 2021, Qanon, MAGA Zombies. archived November 18, 2021

WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced the U.S. Capitol rioter nicknamed the "QAnon Shaman" for his horned headdress to 41 months in prison for his role in the deadly Jan. 6 attack by former President Donald Trump's followers. Prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth to impose a longer 51-month sentence on Jacob Chansley, who pleaded guilty in September to obstructing an official proceeding when he and thousands of others stormed the building in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's election. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-seeks-four-years-prison-capitol-rioter-qanon-shaman-2021-11-17/

Trump cannot shield White House records from Jan. 6 committee, judge rules. “Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President,” Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/09/trump-executive-privilege-court-ruling-kings-520512

House Jan. 6 panel subpoenas 10 former White House aides. The 10 former officials who were subpoenaed Tuesday either could not be reached or did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The panel said Tuesday that it had issued subpoenas for Miller, who Thompson said had “participated in efforts to spread false information about alleged voter fraud” and McEnany, who the committee said was present at times with Trump as he watched the insurrection and spoke at a rally that morning. The panel is also demanding documents and testimony from Keith Kellogg, former Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser, writing in the subpoena that it wants to hear from him because “you were with President Trump as the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol unfolded and have direct information about the former president’s statements about, and reactions to, the Capitol insurrection.” His subpoena says that according to several accounts, Kellogg urged Trump to send out a tweet aimed at helping to control the crowd. Other former Trump White House aides subpoenaed Tuesday include personal assistant Nicholas Luna, who the panel said may have witnessed a phone call from Trump to Pence pressuring him not to certify Biden’s win; special assistant Molly Michael, who the committee said sent information about election fraud to “various individuals at the direction of President Trump”; deputy assistant Ben Williamson, a senior adviser to Meadows; deputy chief of staff Christopher Liddell, who was in the White House on Jan. 6 and considered resigning, according to reports; and personnel director John McEntee and special assistant Cassidy Hutchinson, who the committee said were also in the White House that day and at the rally. The panel also subpoenaed Justice Department official Kenneth Klukowski, who Thompson said communicated with former senior Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark about a letter Clark sent to Georgia election officials urging them to delay certification of the voting results in that state because of purported fraud. The letter said Clark and Klukowski spoke before a Jan. 3 meeting at the White House in which Trump contemplated replacing acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen with Clark. Rosen and other leaders at the department had pushed back on the false fraud claims. The committee has also subpoenaed Clark, who appeared for a deposition last week but declined to testify, partly based on Trump’s claims that documents the committee is trying to obtain from the National Archives are privileged. Trump has sued to shield the documents from the panel but Biden has so far said he will allow the release of most of them. On Monday, the panel issued subpoenas to Bill Stepien, manager of Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign; Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the campaign; Angela McCallum, national executive assistant to the campaign; John Eastman, a lawyer who advised the former president; Michael Flynn, a former national security adviser to Trump who talked with Trump ahead of the insurrection; and Bernard Kerik, who the committee says paid for hotel rooms that served as command centers ahead of Jan. 6. https://apnews.com/article/steve-bannon-joe-biden-donald-trump-stephen-miller-capitol-siege-cd795b70e428f2306e73ac23a7abe02e

Movie at the Ellipse: A Study in Fascist Propaganda. Scholars on the Nazis and anti-Semitism have seen this before. On January 6, Trump supporters gathered at a rally at Washington DC’s Ellipse Park, regaled by various figures from Trump world, including Donald Trump Jr. and Rudy Giuliani. Directly following Giuliani’s speech, the organizers played a video. To a scholar of fascist propaganda, well-versed in the history of the National Socialist’s pioneering use of videos in political propaganda, it was clear, watching it, what dangers it portended. In it, we see themes and tactics that history warns pose a violent threat to liberal democracy. Given the aims of fascist propaganda – to incite and mobilize – the events that followed were predictable. Before decoding what the video presents, it is important to take a step back and discuss the structure of fascist ideology and how it can mobilize its most strident supporters to take violent actions. https://www.justsecurity.org/74504/movie-at-the-ellipse-a-study-in-fascist-propaganda/

'Off the rails': New Tucker Carlson project for Fox embraces conspiracy theories. The network's top host is now leading them to an examination of the violent Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol in a three-part series called Patriot Purge, which was released this week on the network's right-wing streaming service Fox Nation. In the series, Carlson strongly suggests that the insurrection was not orchestrated by former President Donald Trump's fans but by his foes, including violent leftist antifa groups and even the FBI and other national security divisions. He plants the idea that the siege was a "false flag" operation to discredit Trump supporters. Carlson is promoting the series on his own prime-time show on Fox News — which is the top-rated program in all of cable news — and on the popular Fox & Friends morning show. "These kinds of conspiracy theories about Jan. 6 used to be relegated to weird blogs and known conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones," says Jared Holt, who monitors extremism on social media for the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab. https://www.npr.org/2021/11/03/1051607945/tucker-carlson-fox-news-insurrection-conspiracy-new-show

Key findings of The Post’s Jan. 6 investigation: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/jan-6-insurrection-capitol/#key-findings

CONTAGION: Threats and disinformation spread across the country in the wake of the Capitol siege, shaking the underpinnings of American democracy. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/what-happened-trump-jan-6-insurrection/

BLOODSHED: For 187 harrowing minutes, the president watched his supporters attack the Capitol — and resisted pleas to stop them. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/what-happened-trump-jan-6-insurrection/

RED FLAGS: As Trump propelled his supporters to Washington, law enforcement agencies failed to heed mounting warnings about violence on Jan. 6. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/what-happened-trump-jan-6-insurrection/

The FBI Received Highly Specific Tips About Violence Set for Jan. 6—But Declined to Act. A blockbuster new investigation by the Washington Post details previously unreported “red flags.” https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/10/washington-post-january-6-red-flag-warnings-fbi/

Lindsey Graham urged police to use their guns during the Capitol riot, report says. The Post described Graham as "irate that senators were forced to flee their own chamber." "He yelled at the Senate sergeant-at-arms. 'What are you doing? Take back the Senate! You've got guns. Use them,'" the report said, citing a Republican senator with knowledge of the exchange. The report said Graham repeated himself. "We give you guns for a reason," he said. "Use them." The report also said Graham and other Republican senators tried to contact President Donald Trump and urge him to call off his supporters. https://news.yahoo.com/lindsey-graham-urged-police-guns-110313579.html

WaPost won't publish full Trump response due to 'unrelated, inflammatory claims'. https://thehill.com/homenews/media/579355-washington-post-decides-not-to-publish-full-trump-response-to-series-due-to

On Oct. 31, The Washington Post published a three-part investigation that found that law enforcement officials failed to heed mounting red flags that there would be violence when Congress formalized the electoral college vote on Jan. 6. The project documented the consequences of President Donald Trump’s inaction during the Capitol siege and examined how his false claims of election fraud helped incite the attack and, in the ensuing months, fostered a deep distrust of the voting process across the country. The Post investigation was based on interviews with 230 people and thousands of pages of court documents and internal law enforcement reports, along with hundreds of videos, photographs and audio recordings. The Post provided Trump a list of 37 findings reported as part of its investigation. His spokesman Taylor Budowich provided a lengthy written response that included series of unrelated, inflammatory claims that The Post is not publishing in full. In response to the investigation’s findings, Budowich said that the former president “greatly objected” to all of them. He disputed The Post’s investigation as “fake news” and falsely cast people who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 as “agitators not associated with President Trump.” The statement repeated Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was rigged. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/10/31/response-trump-jan-6-insurrection/

GOP candidate: Michael Flynn trying to run extortion plot on U.S. officials to reinstall Trump. Pennsylvania Senate candidate Everett Stern made the bombshell accusation in a press conference Saturday. Because of his intelligence background, Stern claims at least two people representing a Flynn-linked group called "Patriot Caucus" approached him earlier this year after a speech with an offer to hire his firm to gather "dirt" on officials and recruit others to assist in the plot. At one point, one of the men allegedly told Stern that they had retained the services of active intelligence officials "both domestic and foreign." https://www.salon.com/2021/10/31/candidate-michael-flynn-trying-to-run-extortion-scheme-on-us-officials-to-reinstall/

‘A roadmap for a coup’: inside Trump’s plot to steal the presidency. A startling memo, a surreal Oval Office encounter – just some of the twists in the unfolding story of Trump’s bid to cling to power, which critics say was no less than an attempted coup. The 2020 presidential election was the largest in US history, with a record 156 million votes cast and the highest turnout of eligible voters since 1900. By all official accounts, it was also among the most secure and well-conducted in US history. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/30/trump-2020-election-steal-presidency-coup-inside-story

EXCLUSIVE: Jan. 6 Protest Organizers Say They Participated in ‘Dozens’ of Planning Meetings With Members of Congress and White House Staff. Two sources are communicating with House investigators and detailed a stunning series of allegations to Rolling Stone, including a promise of a “blanket pardon” from the Oval Office. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/exclusive-jan-6-organizers-met-congress-white-house-1245289/

All Democrats and 9 Republicans vote to hold Steve Bannon in CONTEMPT of Congress for defying January 6 subpoena: Biden's DOJ will now decide whether to criminally charge Trump adviser https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10117815/All-Democrats-9-Republicans-vote-hold-Steve-Bannon-CONTEMPT-Congress.html

What is Tommy Tuberville doing here? The college football coach-turned-U.S. Senator objected to Biden’s victory on Jan. 6. He’s not looking back. “I have no regrets,” he says. Tommy Tuberville had a decision to make. So did the other Republican senators huddling with him in the storage closet. It was Jan. 6, right-wing rioters were ransacking the U.S. Capitol, but these lawmakers were already in a secured part of the complex and had been milling about a hearing room with a larger group of senators. They weren’t hiding from the mob. They were hiding from their colleagues. The group, led by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), had planned to object to the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential campaign — a gesture of solidarity with President Donald Trump, who had spent months trying to overturn his loss. The siege of the Capitol by Trump’s supporters, however, had some lawmakers thinking that formally objecting to Biden’s victory might be a bad look. So into the closet they went, for privacy’s sake — around a dozen Republicans, including the Alabama newbie known as “Coach.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/10/19/tommy-tuberville-senator-coach/

Jan. 6 Committee To Seek Criminal Charges Against Steve Bannon. The select committee will vote next week on "adopting a contempt report," triggering a process that could end with Bannon paying a fine or behind bars. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/capitol-riot-committee-steve-bannon_n_61686ac5e4b0f26084f221a5

Black flag: Understanding the Trumpists' latest threatening symbol. Trump zealots have begun flying black U.S. flags, which signal no quarter for enemies. It's a threat of violence. My neighbor has one of these. OCTOBER 12, 2021 https://www.salon.com/2021/10/12/black-flag-understanding-the-trumpists-latest-threatening-symbol/

Trump enjoyed watching Capitol riot and boasted of crowd size, new book claims. Ex-president reportedly argued with aides who wanted him to put out a message calling off his supporters. Former President Donald Trump boasted about the size of the crowd on 6 January as rioters attacked the US Capitol, a new book claims. Mr Trump watched on a television in the White House private dining room as a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol and chanted “hang Mike Pence”, writes ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl in his new book Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show. He reportedly enjoyed what he saw and argued with aides who wanted him to put out a message to his supporters to stop rioting. “Trump had to tape the message several times before they thought he got it right,” an aide who was present said. Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy allegedly spoke to Mr Trump spoke during the riot, and told him: “I just got evacuated from the Capitol! There were shots fired right off the House floor. You need to make this stop.” According to a source familiar with the call, Mr Trump responded by saying, “They are just more upset than you because they believe it more than you, Kevin,” referring to the “Big Lie” that the presidential election had been stolen. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-capitol-riot-enjoyment-book-b1936451.html

In a video, Trump wished Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt a happy birthday and called for a 'fair and nonpartisan' investigation into her death. Babbitt, an Air Force veteran and endorser of QAnon conspiracy theories, was shot by a US Capitol Police officer when she and other rioters tried to enter a door that led to the House of Representatives on January 6, which Trump described in the video as a "horrible day." "Together, we grieve her terrible loss," Trump said. "There was no reason Ashli should've lost her life that day. We must all demand justice for Ashli and her family. So on this solemn occasion, as we celebrate her life, we renew our call for a fair and nonpartisan investigation into the death of Ashli Babbitt." https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-capitol-riot-ashli-babbitt-happy-birthday-video-doj-investigation-2021-10

GOP leader won't say if election was stolen under questioning from Fox's Chris Wallace. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) on Sunday repeatedly avoided answering whether or not believes the 2020 presidential election was "stolen," after Fox News' Chris Wallace pressed him on the matter. Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Scalise blasted the Biden administration's handling of the economy, the COVID-19 pandemic and the two major bills that have stalled in Congress. After Scalise's numerous condemnations of the White House, Wallace specifically asked the GOP leader if he believed the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump and whether such claims undermines American democracy. "Well Chris, I've been very clear from the beginning. If you look at a number of states, they didn't follow their state passed laws that govern the election for president. That is what the United States Constitution says. They don't say that the states determine what the rules are, they say the state legislature determined that," said Scalise. https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/576109-foxs-chris-wallace-presses-gop-leader-on-whether-he-believes

‘Can you believe this?’: key takeaways from the report on Trump’s attempt to steal the election. The former president and his chief of staff pressed top department of justice deputies to investigate allegations of fraud in the 2020 election. For weeks after the November election, Trump and Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, pressed acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and top Department of Justice deputies to pursue fanciful allegations of election fraud, according to the report. Jeffrey Clark was willing to carry out Trump’s wishes and tried to pressure the acting attorney general. Jeffrey Clark was willing to carry out Trump’s wishes and tried to pressure the acting attorney general. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/08/department-of-justice-report-key-takeaways-trump

Jan. 6 rioters exploited little-known Capitol weak spots: A handful of unreinforced windows. Four major access points that Jan. 6 rioters used to break into and overtake the U.S. Capitol had something unusual in common: They were among a dozen or so ground-floor windows and glass-paned doors that had not been recently reinforced. The majority of the Capitol’s 658 single-pane windows were quietly upgraded during a 2017-19 renovation of the historic building. The original wooden frames and glass were covered with a second metal frame containing bomb-resistant glass. But planners skipped about a dozen ground-floor windows, including some located in doors, because they were deemed to be low risk in the event of implosion, largely due to their discreet or shielded location, or because the building couldn’t structurally handle the load of the heavier frames. And whether by sheer luck, real-time trial and error, or advance knowledge by rioters, several of those vulnerable windows and two glass-paned doors — protected with only a thin Kevlar film added after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — became easy entry points for hundreds of Trump supporters who overran and ransacked the building on Jan. 6. Video shows some of the first rioters to break through the police line running past 15 reinforced windows, making a beeline for a recessed area on the Senate side of the building, where two unreinforced windows and two doors with unreinforced glass were all that stood between them and hallways leading to lawmakers inside who had not begun to evacuate. https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-10-04/jan-6-rioters-exploited-little-known-capitol-weak-spots-a-handful-of-unreinforced-windows

Police Radio Calls Reveal Pro-Trump Mob Overwhelmed Cops Hours Before Capitol Riot. U.S. Park Police radio recordings raise new questions about why law enforcement was so unprepared for Jan. 6 violence. One call announced the beginning of the day’s true nightmare: “The Capitol has been breached. Protestors have entered the building.” Officers were so outnumbered by then that police couldn’t even risk making arrests when an officer was attacked with a pipe. “We cannot afford to lose the personnel up here,” said a person on one of the calls. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/park-police-radio-calls-capitol-riot_n_61568891e4b050254230d5ab

Jan. 6 investigators subpoena organizers of rallies that preceded Capitol attack. The subpoenas come as the panel accelerates its investigation into the insurrection. The Jan. 6 select committee has subpoenaed Katrina Pierson, a veteran Trump campaign operative who helped organize the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the insurrection at the Capitol. The subpoena was one of 11 issued to organizers of the events of Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, which drew thousands of Trump supporters — including those who turned violent at the Capitol — to Washington. Targets also included top organizers Amy Kremer and Caroline Wren, as well as Maggie Mulvaney — the niece of former Trump chief of staff Mick Mulvaney — who was described in official paperwork as the “VIP Lead” for the rally. The panel specifically is asking Pierson about a reported Jan. 4 meeting she had with then-President Donald Trump at which he asked about a separate event featuring speakers like Ali Alexander and Roger Stone. Pierson reportedly informed Trump about a Jan. 5 rally organized by a group called the Eighty Percent Coalition, whose leader Cindy Chafian also received one of the 11 subpoenas. Other subpoena targets include Tim Unes, the leader of a company called Event Strategies, which was affiliated with the Jan. 6 event; Unes’ associate Justin Caporale, who is listed as a “project manager” for the event; Megan Powers, listed on paperwork as an “operations manager” for the event; Kylie Jane Kremer, who is listed as a point of contact for the event; Hannah Salem Stone, who is listed as an operations manager for the event; and Lyndon Brentnall, listed as an “on-site supervisor” for the event. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/29/jan-6-committee-subpoenas-capitol-514756

Jan. 6 panel subpoenas four ex-Trump aides Bannon, Meadows. The special committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol on Thursday sent subpoenas to four former advisers to President Trump, including Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and strategist Steve Bannon. The letters were also sent to Dan Scavino, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for communications, and Kashyap Patel, chief of staff to then-acting Secretary of Defense Chrishoper Miller. All four have all been asked to appear for a deposition in mid-October. https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/573743-jan-6-panel-subpoenas-four-ex-trump-aides-bannon-meadows

Bannon says he discussed how to 'kill this administration in the crib' with Trump before Jan. 6. "We said and told President Trump. 'you need to kill this administration in the crib early on just by its own incompetence and its illegitimacy,'" Bannon said on Wednesday's episode of his podcast. "It killed itself," Bannon continued. "Just let this go with what this illegitimate regime is doing. It killed itself. We told you from the very beginning. Just expose it. Just expose it. Never back down. Never give up. This thing will implode.” Bannon's comments follow reporting from the new book "Peril," by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward and The Washington Post's Robert Costa, in which Bannon expresses similar sentiment to then-President Trump ahead of the Jan. 6 insurrection. "He's also someone who we realized was talking to President Trump in the final days of the Trump presidency," Costa said on MSNBC, speaking of Bannon. "Talking to President Trump even on Jan. 5, the eve of the insurrection and saying to president Trump, based on our reporting, to kill the Biden presidency in the crib." https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/573617-bannon-says-he-discussed-how-to-kill-this-administration-in-the-crib

Memo shows Trump lawyer's six-step plan for Pence to overturn the election. Under Eastman's scheme, Pence would have declared Trump the winner with more Electoral College votes after the seven states were thrown out, at 232 votes to 222. Anticipating "howls" from Democrats protesting the overturning of the election, the memo proposes, Pence would instead say that no candidate had reached 270 votes in the Electoral College. That would throw the election to the House of Representatives, where each state would get one vote. Since Republicans controlled 26 state delegations, a majority could vote for Trump to win the election. The plan was first proposed to Pence when Eastman was with Trump in the Oval Office on January 4, during one of Trump's attempts to convince Pence that he had the authority to stop the certification of the election. "You really need to listen to John. He's a respected constitutional scholar. Hear him out," Trump said to Pence at that meeting, Woodward and Costa write in "Peril." In the memo, Eastman went so far as to suggest Pence should take action without warning. "The main thing here is that Pence should do this without asking for permission -- either from a vote of the joint session or from the Court," Eastman wrote. "The fact is that the Constitution assigns this power to the Vice President as the ultimate arbiter. We should take all of our actions with that in mind." https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/20/politics/trump-pence-election-memo/index.html

A brief guide of spotting militia members in your area https://militia.watch/resources/birdspotting-01/

The Capitol Police Granted Permits For Jan. 6 Protests Despite Signs That Organizers Weren’t Who They Said They Were. The chief of the Capitol Police and its top intelligence officer personally approved permits for six demonstrations to be held on Jan. 6, 2021, despite signs that one of the applications was filed for an organization that didn't exist and that five of them were a proxy for a group staging large, violent protests across the country. Capitol Police documented concerns that organizers had attempted to conceal their affiliation with Ali Alexander, the right-wing activist behind the group Stop the Steal, in a secret effort to coordinate their protests against the results of the 2020 presidential election. Despite those concerns, and COVID-19 policies that capped demonstrations at 50 people each, the Capitol Police force’s intelligence assessment said there were “no plans for participants to enter the buildings” and noted “no adverse intelligence related to the upcoming event.” It assessed “the Level of Probability of acts of civil disobedience/arrests to occur” during the demonstration “as Highly Improbable.” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/the-capitol-police-said-jan-6-unrest-on-capitol-grounds

6 Capitol Police officers facing discipline for Jan. 6 actions, dozens absolved. Three of those six officers, who the department did not identify, were flagged for "conduct unbecoming." https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/11/capitol-police-officers-discipline-jan-6-511352

Judge Refuses to Let Jacob Chansley Out of Jail Ahead of Sentencing, Calls Him a ‘Mascot’ for QAnon and ‘Hopes’ He’s Really Had a Change of Heart. https://lawandcrime.com/u-s-capitol-breach/judge-refuses-to-let-jacob-chansley-out-of-jail-ahead-of-sentencing-calls-him-a-mascot-for-qanon-and-hopes-hes-really-had-a-change-of-heart/

January 5 Pipe Bomb Investigation: Route and Video of Suspect. Sep 8, 2021 This virtual map depicts the approximate route an unknown suspect walked on January 5, 2021, while placing two pipe bombs in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The map also features video of the suspect at various points along the route. More at https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/seeking-info/suspected-pipe-bombs-in-washington-dc https://youtu.be/DVGedQ17XqI

@thehill Rep. Kevin McCarthy: "You can't put politics before people." https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1433422205967294464

Rep. McCarthy threatens tech and telecom firms that comply with Jan.6 committee’s request. “If these companies comply with the Democrat order to turn over private information, they are in violation of federal law and subject to losing their ability to operate in the United States,” McCarthy said. “If companies still choose to violate federal law, a Republican majority will not forget and will stand with Americans to hold them fully accountable under the law.” It is not clear what law McCarthy is asserting the companies would be breaking if they comply with the panel’s request. McCarthy’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/jan-6-riot-mccarthy-trump-telecom-companies/2021/09/01/cad1753c-0b1d-11ec-9781-07796ffb56fe_story.html

Trump’s political operation paid more than $4.3 million to Jan. 6 organizers but questions remain about the full extent of its involvement. The House subpoena names Caroline Wren, a veteran GOP fundraiser who received at least $170,000 from the Trump political operation as the campaign’s national finance consultant with the joint fundraising committee. Wren was listed as a “VIP Advisor” on the permit granted by the National Park Service for the Jan. 6 rally. Megan Powers, one of two operations managers listed on the rally permit, is not listed in the House request but was paid around $300,000 as the Trump campaign’s director of operations. And Make America Great Again PAC paid around $20,000 more to Powers for “recount administrative consulting” in 2021. https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2021/08/trumps-political-operation-paid-more-than-4-3-million-to-jan-6-organizers-questions-remain-about-full-involvement/

GOP Congressman Says He Wants to Bust Out Jan. 6 ‘Political Prisoners’ “The reason why they have taken these political prisoners is they’re trying to make an example,” said Rep. Madison Cawthorn. “The big problem is we don’t actually know who all the political prisoners are, and so if we were actually to go and try to bust them out—and let me tell you, the reason why they have taken these political prisoners is they’re trying to make an example, because they don’t want to see the mass protest going on in Washington,” he said at a Macon County Republican Party event on Sunday. Someone in the audience then asked, “When will you call us to Washington again?” “We are actively working on this,” Cawthorn responded. “We have a few plans in motion I can’t make public right now,” he said, before calling those facing charges for their role in the January 6 insurrection “political hostages”—for the second time. The speech was streamed live on Facebook by the Macon County Republican Party on Sunday. His comments were first noticed by a local anti-Cawthorn activist: https://www.vice.com/en/article/88n3ev/madison-cawthorn-gop-jan-6-political-prisoners

Trump incited Insurrection January 06, 2021, Qanon, MAGA Zombies. archived August 31, 2021

Records rebut claims of unequal treatment of Jan. 6 rioters. Some people charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and their Republican allies claim the Justice Department is treating them harshly because of their political views. An Associated Press review of court documents in more than 300 federal cases stemming from the protests sparked by George Floyd’s death last year shows that dozens of people charged have been convicted of serious crimes and sent to prison. The AP found that more than 120 defendants across the United States have pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial of federal crimes including rioting, arson and conspiracy. More than 70 defendants who've been sentenced so far have gotten an average of about 27 months behind bars. At least 10 received prison terms of five years or more. The dissonance between the rhetoric of Capitol rioters and their supporters and the record established by courts highlights both the racial tension inherent in their arguments — the pro-Donald Trump rioters were largely white and last summer’s protesters were more diverse — and the flawed assessment at the heart of their claims. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/records-rebut-claims-unequal-treatment-jan-rioters-79718704

A lawsuit was filed today by Capitol Police Officers against Donald Trump, Roger Stone, Ali Alexander, Brandon Straka, Proud Boys Inc, and several other insurrectionists. https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21049557/8-26-21-smith-v-trump-complaint.pdf

The leader of the Proud Boys extremist group was sentenced to more than five months in jail on Monday for burning a Black Lives Matter banner that was torn down from a historic Black church in downtown Washington and bringing two high-capacity firearm magazines into the nation's capital days shortly before the Jan. 6 riot. Enrique Tarrio told the court he was "profusely" sorry for his actions, calling them a "grave mistake." https://www.npr.org/2021/08/23/1030430809/proud-boys-enrique-tarrio-sentence

Timeline: Rep. Jim Jordan, a Systematic Disinformation Campaign, and January 6. https://www.justsecurity.org/77852/timeline-rep-jim-jordan-a-systematic-disinformation-campaign-and-january-6/

Floor staffers were a quiet force on Jan. 6. Now they’re getting an award. ‘Democracy Awards’ recognize staffers who toiled behind the scenes. https://www.rollcall.com/2021/08/18/floor-staffers-quiet-force-jan-6/

A bodybuilding Trump fan photographed dragging a police officer during the Capitol riot has been arrested after a months long hunt by internet sleuths. Logan Barnhart, a 40-year-old Michigan bodybuilder, faces multiple charges, including assaulting federal officers with a dangerous weapon, the FBI said. https://www.businessinsider.com/bodybuilder-photographed-dragging-officer-during-capitol-riot-arrested-2021-8

The Four Tortured, Pathetic Arguments Republicans Use to Downplay January 6th. GOP pols went from holding Trump “responsible” for the insurrection to blaming… Nancy Pelosi? It Wasn’t That Bad! The Insurgents Weren’t Trump Supporters! Black Lives Matter Demonstrations Were Worse! It Was Nancy Pelosi’s Fault! https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/jan-6-trump-republicans-1211749/

GAO today released 28-page report on the January 6th attacks on the US Capitol: "Special event designations could have been requested for January 6, 2021, but not all DHS is clear," requested by House Democrats. https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-21-105255.pdf

DHS concerned about violence tied to Trump reinstatement conspiracy theory. "[D]HS is providing awareness of reports regarding an increasing but modest level of activity online calling for violence in response to unsubstantiated claims of fraud related to the 2020 election and the alleged 'reinstatement' of former President Trump," the notice said, according to CNN, which cited a source. "As public visibility of the narratives increases, we are concerned about more calls to violence. Reporting indicates that the timing of these activities may occur during August 2021, although we lack information on specific plots or planned actions," the notice added, according to CNN. https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/566843-dhs-concerned-about-violence-stemming-from-trump-reinstatement

Why did Lauren Boebert lead a late-night Capitol tour three weeks before Jan. 6? Before she became a member of Congress, Boebert led a family tour that appeared to break all the Capitol's rules. https://www.salon.com/2021/08/04/why-did-lauren-boebert-lead-a-late-night-capitol-tour-three-weeks-before-jan-6/

Trump Administration Brings Federal Charges Against Portland Protesters. September 30, 2020 5:08 AM ET https://www.npr.org/2020/09/30/918572968/trump-administration-brings-federal-charges-against-portland-protesters

Justice Dept.: Sedition charge may apply to protest violence. September 17, 2020 Attorney General William Barr has been pushing his U.S. attorneys to bring federal charges in protest-related violence whenever they can, keeping a grip on cases even if a defendant could be tried instead in state court. Federal convictions often result in longer prison sentences; sedition alone could lead to up to 20 years behind bars. The memo cited as a hypothetical example “a group has conspired to take a federal courthouse or other federal property by force,” but the real thing took place in Portland, Oregon, during clashes that erupted night after night between law enforcement and demonstrators. https://apnews.com/article/state-courts-violent-crime-arson-violence-crime-cbca8672a70f9f170a086a7a252a751e

READ: Notes From Top DOJ Official On Trump’s Conspiracy To Overturn 2020 Election. The House Oversight Committee released handwritten notes on Friday authored by former Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, who recorded two late-December meetings in which former president Trump tried to use the DOJ to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The notes also show that Trump praised both Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) as a “fighter” and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) for having “done a great job getting to the bottom of things.” https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/read-notes-from-top-doj-official-on-trumps-conspiracy-to-overturn-2020-election

GOP lawmaker Mo Brooks says he wore body armor at the January 6 Trump rally and was tipped off to 'risks'. Republican Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama said he wore body armor to Donald Trump's January 6 rally in Washington, DC, after being tipped off about "risks" in the days leading up to the event, Slate reported. "I was warned on Monday" — January 4 — "that there might be risks associated with the next few days," Brooks told the Slate politics writer Jim Newell. "And as a consequence of those warnings, I did not go to my condo," he added. "Instead, I slept on the floor of my office. And when I gave my speech at the Ellipse, I was wearing body armor. "That's why I was wearing that nice little windbreaker. To cover up the body armor." https://www.businessinsider.com/gop-lawmaker-mo-brooks-wore-body-armor-to-jan-6-trump-rally-2021-7

The DOJ Won't Defend Rep. Mo Brooks In Court Against Claims He Incited The Jan. 6 Riot. The Justice Department says Brooks was engaged in campaign activity when he participated in the rally. That is not within the scope of his duties as a member of Congress, so he doesn't qualify for legal immunity for his actions, the department said. https://www.npr.org/2021/07/28/1021611663/the-doj-wont-defend-rep-mo-brooks-in-court-against-claims-he-incited-jan-6-riot

Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz abandon their own Capitol riots presser as it descends into chaos. Republicans were complaining about treatment of Capitol riot suspects as committee hearings into 6 January insurrection were beginning near by. Rep Louie Gohmert, one of the members of Congress to speak at the news conference, briefly returned to speak to reporters after the news conference dissolved into chaos but was drowned out by a large brass band, DC Critical Condition, which was apparently contracted by demonstrators to show up and drown out the news conference with music. The band could still be heard playing a while after the presser ended, as demonstrators celebrated and danced outside of the Justice Department building while still waving their signs and the Trump effigy. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/gaetz-taylor-greene-brass-band-b1891648.html

What did Jim Jordan know about the insurrection and when did he know it? Sidney Blumenthal I have some questions for the Republican congressman about events at the US Capitol on 6 January. Jim Jordan is a wiry, hyperactive bundle of nerves who tosses off his suit jacket, coiled to leap into the ring and twist the arms of his opponents. The former college wrestling champion in the 134lb class represents the locker-room jock culture in the House of Representatives, snapping his towel in committee hearings to show off his primacy as an alpha big man on campus. Jordan’s political moves are drawn from his wrestling repertoire: the leg shot, the half-nelson and the slam. From 1987 to 1995, Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach at the Ohio State University, where many athletes claim he knew about and turned a blind eye to Dr Richard Strauss’s sexual abuse of at least 177 students. Jordan has denied that he engaged in a cover-up. One of the abused wrestlers, Mark Coleman, who was a close friend and roommate of Jordan and became an Ultimate Fighting Champion, told the Wall Street Journal (in comments he would later retract): “There’s no way unless he’s got dementia or something that he’s got no recollection of what was going on at Ohio State.” Another abused wrestler, Dunyasha Yetts, said: “If Jordan says he didn’t know about it then he’s lying.” Jordan refused to cooperate with the university’s investigation: goodbye, Columbus. On 11 January, the same day an article of impeachment was filed in the House against Donald Trump for “incitement of insurrection”, Trump awarded Jordan the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a closed ceremony at the White House. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/27/jim-jordan-republican-capitol-attack-insurrection-house-select-committee

Jim Jordan: It’s Pelosi Who Needs To Answer Questions About Jan. 6. Accuses Democrats of normalizing anarchy. That’s when hundreds of people, many of whom had been at a rally led by President Trump, went to the building. Evidence suggests Trump’s opponents also were embedded in the crowd. There were dozens who broke windows or doors to get in and then vandalized parts of the building. Hundreds of others simply walked into the building, sometimes as security officers held the doors open for them. “The fundamental question is why wasn’t there a proper security posture that day? It wasn’t like we didn’t know there was a rally in town. It wasn’t like we didn’t know it would be a big rally, after all it was a President Trump rally,” he explained. “Why wasn’t there a proper security presence? That is a question that only the speaker of the United States House of Representatives can answer,” he said. “My guess is the reason she didn’t have the proper presence there is because – think about what happened last year. The Democrats normalized anarchy. They said ‘Oh, if you are a rioter or a looter, you are attacking police that we are defunding and you are destroying small business we are going to raise money to bail you out of jail.’ So with that background, she couldn’t have the presence that you need that day.” Jenna Ellis, who served as an attorney for Trump, slammed Pelosi’s rejection of Jordan and Banks. “This is NOT about getting to the truth,” she wrote on Twitter. “It’s political persecution from Democrats. “They will stop at nothing to take down Trump.” https://www.citizensjournal.us/jim-jordan-its-pelosi-who-needs-to-answer-questions-about-jan-6/

Rep. Jim Banks unloads on Pelosi, vows to get Jan. 6 answers via GOP panel. Banks alleged that Pelosi and Democrats on the committee are hesitant to look into potential shortcomings that could reflect poorly on the speaker, with Republicans questioning whether she played a role in delaying the deployment of the National Guard that day. “If you want to study what happened at the Capitol, you’ve got to study the political violence that happened in big cities around the country. And I think you’ve got what happened on Good Friday with the Capitol Police officer that was killed by a left-wing extremist,” he said. “I think all of it deserves attention, because again it gets back to leadership and it gets back to protocols. And I’ll tell you what the leader of the Capitol Police union told us today said, on Jan. 6, the leadership of the Capitol Police didn’t prepare them for what was going to happen even though they had three weeks to prepare with legitimate intelligence,” Banks said. “They didn’t train them for what was going to happen on Jan. 6. They didn’t equip them for what was going to happen on Jan. 6, so why aren’t we talking about that? It’s serious.” https://nypost.com/2021/07/21/banks-unloads-on-pelosi-vows-to-get-jan-6-answers-via-gop-panel/

Jim Jordan among McCarthy picks for Jan. 6 panel. The others , sources said, are Rep. Jim Jordan (Ohio), the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee and the co-founder of the far-right Freedom Caucus; Rep. Rodney Davis (Ill.), the top Republican on the Administration Committee; and Reps. Kelly Armstrong (N.D.) and Troy Nehls (Texas), a former county sheriff. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/563789-jim-jordan-tops-mccarthy-picks-for-jan-6-panel

In addition to Cheney, Pelosi's other picks include Democratic Representatives Bennie Thompson, Elaine Luria, Jamie Raskin, Stephanie Murphy, Pete Aguilar, Adam Schiff and Zoe Lofgren. Thompson, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, will chair the January 6 panel. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/january-6-committee-liz-cheney-pelosi-members/

Pence refused to leave the Capitol during the January 6 riot despite Secret Service agents urging him to evacuate, saying, 'I'm not getting in the car': book. The protective detail then ushered Pence, along with his wife, Karen, daughter Charlotte, and his brother Rep. Greg Pence of Indiana, down a staircase to his armored limousine, the book says. Pence refused to get in the car. "I trust you, Tim, but you're not driving the car," Pence told Giebels, the book says. "If I get in that vehicle, you guys are taking off. I'm not getting in the car." Pence and his family then waited out the riot from an underground but undisclosed location inside the Capitol, the authors write. He was adamant that Congress finish its work that same night, the book says. "We need to get back tonight," Pence told top lawmakers and defense officials on a call, according to the book. "We can't let the world see that our process of confirming the next president can be delayed." "We're going back to the Capitol," Pelosi said on a call, according to the book. "You just tell us how long it will take to get rid of these people." "I want it cleared out now. The Senate needs to get its business done," McConnell said, according to the book. Congress reconvened, and Pence returned to the chamber at 8:06 p.m., the authors write. The lawmakers certified President Joe Biden's 2020 victory at 3:24 a.m. on January 7. Trump did not personally check in on Pence at any point during the riot, the book says. https://www.businessinsider.com/mike-pence-refused-to-leave-capitol-during-riot-book-2021-7

Trump on Jan. 6 insurrection: 'These were great people'. The former president described the participants as loving and patriotic, and said Democrats could be blamed for any violence. Echoing his rhetoric about the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Trump said, “These were peaceful people, these were great people.” He added: “Too much spirit and faith and love, there was such love at that rally, you had over a million people,” inflating the size of his rally crowd. After Trump’s speech, the Capitol was invaded by backers of his seeking to disrupt the Electoral College count. On the way in, they battled with police officers; according to the Department of Justice, approximately 140 police officers were assaulted. Hundreds of those who entered the Capitol have been charged with various crimes, including more than 50 who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer. Referring to his remarks to the crowd before they stormed the Capitol as “a very mild-mannered speech,” Trump also suggested that the blame for any violence that day could be placed on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats because they didn’t take the potential for violence seriously. “They are the ones that were responsible,” he said. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/11/trump-jan-6-insurrection-these-were-great-people-499165

Rep. Andy Kim bought a blue wool suit off the rack during post-holiday sales. J.Crew, cobalt blue, standard cut. He looked forward to wearing the suit to President Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20. But first Kim, a Democrat who represents New Jersey's 3rd District, wore his new suit to work in the halls of Congress on Jan. 6, to count and certify the ballots from the Electoral College. He was on his way to the House chamber around 1 p.m. that day when the U.S. Capitol was invaded by a mob trying to overturn the election by force. Kim made it back to his office, where he and his staff barricaded their doors. They stayed there for 8 hours, until the Capitol had been secured, and Congress resumed its constitutional duties after a foiled insurrection. "It was the most emotional experience I've ever had on any job," he told us, and before being elected to Congress, Kim worked under both Republican and Democratic administrations at the Pentagon, State Department and National Security Council. "There was broken glass when I got to the Rotunda," he remembers. "Garbage, litter, bottles and cigarette butts people put out on statues. I felt heartbroken. The Capitol is the physical form of Article 1 of the Constitution," he told us. "'All legislative powers ... vested in a Congress...' So I found a roll of trash bags, got down on my knees, and just started trying to clean up a place I love." AP photographer Andrew Harnik came across him, and pictures of Rep. Kim on his knees, cleaning up after a mob that tried to disrupt democracy, were seen around the world. Perhaps because he wore a face mask, he became known as "the blue suit" on social media. Rep. Kim got tweets, cards and letters from people who said his pointed, simple response gave them hope. He wore the suit once more, a week later, to vote for the impeachment of Donald Trump. "The dust of cleaning up was still on my knees," he told us. "Then I put the suit in the back of my closet. I didn't want to see it again." But when the Smithsonian National Museum of American History called to ask for his blue suit, as an artifact of what happened on Jan. 6, Kim said he was glad to hand it over for display. He hopes his sons, August and Austin, now 3 and 5, will see it there one day. He says he'll tell them, "When something you love is broken, you fix it." https://www.npr.org/2021/07/10/1014848654/opinion-blue-suit-dusted-by-insurrection-goes-to-smithsonian

The Rise and Fall of the Proud Boys. The far-right extremist group helped mount an insurrection. Then it began to splinter. By EJ DICKSON JUNE 15, 2021 https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/proud-boys-far-right-group-1183966/

‘So, So Angry’: Reporters Who Survived the Capitol Riot Are Still Struggling. The reporters who survived the insurrection are still covering Congress. But things don’t feel normal. https://www.vice.com/en/article/4avqqn/reporters-survived-capitol-riot-struggling

Videos show ally of Marjorie Taylor Greene among mob inside Capitol during January 6 riot. By Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, CNN Updated 12:08 AM ET, Thu March 25, 2021 Footage from the January 6 riot at the US Capitol shows a close ally of Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene inside the building. CNN previously reported that Anthony Aguero, a conservative live-streamer, activist and associate of Greene, said on video following the riot that he had been among those who entered the building. https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/24/politics/kfile-marjorie-taylor-greene-ally-us-capitol/index.html

The FBI’s Washington Field Office has released 11 new videos of suspects in violent assaults on federal officers during the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and is seeking the public’s help to identify them. The 11 new videos depict suspects seen forcefully attacking law enforcement officers. https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/washingtondc/news/press-releases/fbi-washington-field-office-releases-new-videos-of-suspects-in-violent-assaults-on-federal-officers-at-us-capitol-seeks-publics-help-in-identifying-them-070621#Videos

Nancy Pelosi Announces Liz Cheney Will Serve On Jan. 6 Committee. Cheney was ousted from her leadership role in the Republican Party for supporting Trump’s impeachment after the Capitol riot. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nancy-pelosi-liz-cheney-january-6-commission_n_60ddd37ae4b0b94d34df4de6

Online activism is spilling into the streets of Southern California, sparking a post-Trump movement. "A year from now, I don't want to be back at this board demanding they repeal a requirement to donate a kidney," local activist Peggy Hall said into a microphone at the passport protest in May. "What's next? You're going to be sterilized for the common good?" "This is a humanitarian issue," said Jason Lefkowitz, a Los Angeles-based organizer behind the Dodger Stadium anti-vaccine protest and others. Like others here interviewed by The Post, he said he was motivated to became an activist during the pandemic, after losing his job and other freedoms. "It is about our civil liberties being taken away over a made-up pandemic. It is a global war over everything." Alan Hostetter, a former local police chief and yoga teacher as well as a speaker at the June rally attended by The Post, was indicted on a charge of his alleged role in the insurrection June 10. Shortly after, he went back on Facebook Live, YouTube, Spotify, Rumble and several other services, filming himself walking on the beach in San Clemente in a "Free Man" baseball cap. He decried the Jan. 6 riot as a "false flag staged event" and a "fakesurrection" because he believed infiltrators were in the crowd. https://www.yahoo.com/news/online-activism-spilling-streets-southern-144141393.html

NEWS: House Democrats introduce a resolution to create a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Speaker shall appoint 13 Members to the Select Committee, 5 of whom shall be appointed after consultation with the minority leader. https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/BILLS-117hres503ih.pdf

New Capitol Riot Bodycam Footage Shows What An Hour Looked Like For Police On Jan. 6. The video begins with a view from the back of a moving van. It’s timestamped in the corner Jan. 6, 2021, 1:53 p.m. There are at least three police officers seated up front; two are wearing helmets. There’s no sound. From the vantage point of a camera attached to the uniform of an officer in the back, the viewer can see his hands as he adjusts his gear and straps on gloves. Two minutes in, after the officers have exited the van at a trot and clustered with other police on the street with the Capitol in the background, the sound suddenly turns on. Another officer is yelling at the group to make sure their cameras are working. The camera picks up the sound of sirens and the low roar of a crowd in the distance. The 52-minute video is one of a series of clips of police body camera footage that depict the frontline experience of officers who responded to the riots on Jan. 6 and were released over the past week. These videos had been referenced in court filings and played in court in some of the cases brought in connection with the assault on the Capitol, but they hadn’t been available to the public. They were finally released after a coalition of media organizations, including BuzzFeed News, petitioned judges. The latest cache offers new, up-close perspectives of the situation outside the Capitol as an angry mob surged forward to try to break through police lines, hurling flag poles and other projectiles; deploying pepper spray; and lobbing insults, obscenities, and threats at the officers. The clips were cited by prosecutors and defense lawyers in different cases, but they all fell within the same one-hour window, starting just before 2 p.m. — minutes before the first rioters broke into the Capitol. This is what officers saw: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/capitol-riot-police-body-cam-footage

New Details Suggest Senior Trump Aides Knew Jan. 6 Rally Could Get Chaotic. Text messages and interviews show that Stop the Steal leaders fooled the Capitol police and welcomed racists to increase their crowd sizes, while White House officials worked to both contain and appease them. Women for America First, led by Amy Kremer, a Republican operative who helped found the tea party movement. The group initially wanted to hold a kind of extended oral argument, with multiple speakers making their case for how the election had been stolen. On the other was Stop the Steal, a new, more radical group that had recruited avowed racists to swell its ranks and wanted the President to share the podium with Alex Jones, the radio host banned from the world’s major social media platforms for hate speech, misinformation and glorifying violence. Stop the Steal organizers say their plan was to march on the Capitol and demand that lawmakers give Trump a second term. https://www.propublica.org/article/new-details-suggest-senior-trump-aides-knew-jan-6-rally-could-get-chaotic

DHS official told lawmakers there's concern about Trump August reinstatement conspiracy theory. Sources familiar with the exchange said top DHS counterterrorism official John Cohen shared these concerns while speaking in a members only briefing with the House Homeland Security Committee. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) reportedly asked Cohen how DHS is monitoring the spread of disinformation and conspiracy as well as how they fuel violence, specifically pointing to the Trump reinstatement conspiracy theory that has become popular among QAnon followers. According to Politico's sources, Cohen said that DHS had not found anything linking violence to the conspiracy theory that Trump will be reinstated, though he did say the department was following online discussions in extremist communities. Cohen said that DHS was highly concerned about the conspiracy theory, however, as it fuels the narrative that the election was rigged, which could in turn spark violence among extremists. https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/560096-dhs-official-told-lawmakers-theres-concern-about-trump-august

Famous QAnon Couple Featured In Documentaries Arrested In Capitol Attack. Jamie and Jennifer Buteau face charges in connection with the Jan. 6 attack. The feds say Jamie Buteau threw a chair at officers. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jamie-jennifer-buteau-qanon-couple-trump-capitol_n_60d4b7b5e4b053314757931a

Capitol rioter allowed to go on vacation after making "divine special appearance" in court. https://boingboing.net/2021/06/24/capitol-rioter-allowed-to-go-on-vacation-after-making-divine-special-appearance-in-court.html

No jail time in 1st riot sentence; Oath Keeper pleads guilty. Graydon Young, who was accused alongside 15 other members and associates of the Oath Keepers of conspiring to block the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory, pleaded guilty to two counts: conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding. It was the first guilty plea in the major conspiracy case brought against members of the group. Another Oath Keepers member, Jon Ryan Schaffer, has also pleaded guilty in the riot, but was not charged in the conspiracy case. Schaffer has agreed to cooperate with investigators and potentially testify against other defendants. Anna Morgan Lloyd, 49, of Indiana, was ordered by a federal judge to serve three years of probation, perform 120 hours of community service and pay $500 in restitution after admitting to unlawfully entering the Capitol. She pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge under a deal with prosecutors. After the riot, Lloyd described Jan. 6 on Facebook as the “best day ever.” Robert Maurice Reeder of Maryland, admitted to entering the Capitol, but his lawyer said he didn’t force his way inside and didn’t damage any property or hurt anyone. Tennessee resident Brian Wayne Ivey, who pleaded guilty on Tuesday, entered the Capitol through a window that somebody else broke with a riot shield and spent roughly 30 minutes inside the building. Joshua Bustle of Virginia, who pleaded guilty alongside his wife, will also be seeking probation, his lawyer said. Jessica Bustle’s attorney described them as “good, decent, hardworking people,” who were urged to come to Washington by “very powerful people and groups.” “They are not criminals or insurrectionists or rioters. They were not looking to break laws when they came to DC on the 6th. They violated minor laws on the 6th and they have accepted responsibility and accountability for doing so,” Jessica Bustle’s attorney, Nabeel Kibria, wrote in an email. https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-capitol-siege-government-and-politics-87122373383f8d3f3c9f0b2ba3fa57d6

Ex-Florida GOP Governor Urges DeSantis to Probe Ties to Capitol Riot As State Leads in Arrests. Former Republican Florida Governor Charlie Crist has called for Governor Ron DeSantis to investigate the state's ties to the Capitol riot after numerous Floridians were arrested in connection to the incident. Crist, a Democratic Florida representative who's running for governor in 2022, made the remarks during a press conference at the Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg on Friday. Crist previously served as the 44th governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011 as a Republican. "The unprecedented attack on our nation's Capitol on January 6th was an assault on our very democracy, our Constitution, and our fundamental right to vote," he said. "And we've recently learned that, unfortunately, Florida leads the nation in people facing criminal charges related to that insurrection." https://www.newsweek.com/ex-florida-gop-governor-urges-desantis-probe-ties-capitol-riot-state-leads-arrests-1602307

Trump incited Insurrection January 06, 2021, Qanon, MAGA Zombies, archived June 20, 2021

DOJ Releases Graphic New Video While Republicans Try to Gaslight America About the Insurrection. “We see what I would describe as a look of pure rage,” one U.S. attorney said describing footage of a rioter. “His teeth are gritted. This is a man about to unleash some kind of violence”. https://twitter.com/politicsvideo23/status/1405947047841349633 https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/doj-new-graphic-insurrection-video-1186360/

Mike Pence is called a 'TRAITOR' at faith conference: Hecklers drown out VP with boos at Faith & Freedom Coalition event where Ted Cruz called critical race theory 'as racist as the Klansmen'. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9701813/Mike-Pence-called-TRAITOR-faith-conference.html#v-8378792159922570396 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9701813/Mike-Pence-called-TRAITOR-faith-conference.html

Tucker Carlson hosts guest who attended a white supremacist conference to rewrite the events of January 6. On the June 15 broadcast of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson hosted Darren Beattie, who left Donald Trump’s White House after reporting emerged that he attended a white nationalist conference, to discuss a “report” published on far-right outfit Revolver that suggests the January 6 attack on the Capitol may have been orchestrated by FBI operatives. During the episode, Carlson claimed, without presenting any tangible proof, that “in potentially every single case,” unindicted co-conspirators referenced in legal cases related to January 6 “were FBI operatives.” https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/tucker-carlson-hosts-guest-who-attended-white-supremacist-conference-rewrite

@MacFarlaneNews ALERT: Court orders release of more video in Jan 6 case of Patrick McCaughey, who's accused of assaulting police on frontline I'm sharing *some* ... just listen to the audio in this clip... as the mob coordinates its attack on the police line ==> https://twitter.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1405306368928714755

US intel report warns of more violence by QAnon followers. https://www.cleveland19.com/app/2021/06/14/us-intel-report-warns-more-violence-by-qanon-followers/

Diamond and Sulk: A Weekend With Mike Lindell and the MAGA Zombies. In a small Wisconsin town, the gang reunited to keep the MAGA 2020 dream alive. There were … some hiccups. “The park where we’re going to be once had 40,000 for a concert, and we’re going to try and break that record. I’ll see you there. All I ask is you watch my videos.” He pauses a moment. “And visit my freedom-of-speech website: frankspeech.com.” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/mypillow-mike-lindell-2020-election-1183676/

O.C. Stop the Steal organizer Alan Hostetter indicted on Capitol riot conspiracy charges. Two Orange County extremists — a former police chief and his partner in organizing Stop the Steal rallies — have been indicted along with members of the Three Percenters militia for their roles in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Alan Hostetter, the former chief of the La Habra police department, was indicted along with fellow Californians Russell Taylor, Erik Scott Warner, Felipe Antonio “Tony” Martinez, Derek Kinnison and Ronald Mele on multiple charges. Though all are charged with being in restricted areas of the Capitol, Warner is the sole indictee to be accused of entering the building, via a broken window. Kinnison and Warner are charged with destroying evidence, while Taylor also faces a weapons count for carrying a knife with a blade longer than 3 inches. The grand jury indictment, unsealed Thursday, alleges the men conspired on social media prior to the riot — including on a Telegram channel dubbed Answer the Call and via text messages — creating travel plans that included discussion of bringing weapons to the Capitol. On the day of the riot, they breached the Capitol and encouraged others to do so as well, posting videos and pictures as they went, the indictment says. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-06-10/orange-county-extremist-leader-indicted-in-capitol-riot

Mike Pence Saved The Republic On Jan. 6 – And No One Is Talking About It, Not Even Him. His refusal to carry out Donald Trump’s demands staved off a constitutional crisis at the very least, and possibly national violence unseen since the Civil War. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mike-pence-trump-jan-6-hero_n_60c0eb74e4b059c73bd4eef5

In Exclusive Jailhouse Letter, Capitol Riot Defendant Explains Motives, Remains Boastful. The material obtained by ProPublica sheds light on the radicalization of a Jan. 6 defendant whom prosecutors have characterized as a “serious danger ... not only to his family and Congress, but to the entire system of justice.” The letter is signed “the 1/6ers” and expresses no remorse for the assault on the Capitol, in which five people died. While no names appeared on it, ProPublica was able to determine, through interviews with his family and a review of his correspondence from jail, that it was penned by Guy Reffitt, a member of the Three Percenter right-wing militant group accused of participating in the riot. The letter said the inmates arrested for their role in the attack regularly recite the Pledge of Allegiance inside the Washington, D.C. jail and sing the national anthem “all in unison, loud and proud most everyday.” “January 6th was nothing short of a satirical way to overthrow a government,” said the letter, written by hand on yellow lined paper. “If overthrow was the quest, it would have no doubt been overthrown.” https://www.propublica.org/article/in-exclusive-jailhouse-letter-capital-riot-defendant-explains-motives-remains-boastful

Facebook first suspended Trump’s account for 24 hours on Jan. 6 in response to two posts he sent out during the Capitol Riot. One was a post reading, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love in peace. Remember this day forever!” The other was a video addressed to the rioters in which he said, “We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You’re very special.” The next day, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the suspension would continue until at least after Inauguration Day due to his belief that Trump was intent on undermining “the peaceful and lawful transition of power.” https://slate.com/technology/2021/06/trump-facebook-ban-two-year-oversight-board.html

UPDATED LIST OF JANUARY 6 ASSAULT DEFENDANTS https://www.emptywheel.net/2021/04/18/updated-list-of-january-6-assault-defendants/ https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/capitol-violence https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/capitol-breach-cases

January 6 Conspiracy Case Deepens Against Oath Keepers. Sixteen are now charged, and the feds appear to be closing in on the group’s founder. The cadre of accused Oath Keepers connects in multiple ways to longtime Trump ally Roger Stone. At least eight people charged in the conspiracy acted as “security” for Stone at events in Washington, DC, on January 5 and 6, or did so previously at “stop the steal” events in Florida where Stone promoted Trump’s lies about election fraud, according to videos and other documentation. One of the four men newly charged on Sunday, Paul Hackett, 51, whom the Washington Post identified as a Florida chiropractor, appeared in video footage from a December “stop the steal” rally in Miami, where he could be seen guarding Stone. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/06/january-6-conspiracy-congress-insurrection-oath-keepers-trump-roger-stone/

QAnon's cowboy-themed "Patriot Roundup" sure sounds like it was full of horseshit. https://www.avclub.com/qanons-cowboy-themed-patriot-roundup-sure-sounds-like-1847008484

Four additional members of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia group that took part in the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January, have been indicted for participating in the event. Court documents unsealed on Sunday named three individuals living in Florida – Joseph Hackett, 51, of Sarasota, Jason Dolan, 44, of Wellington, and William Isaacs, 21, of Kissimmee. The three appeared last Thursday before US magistrates in Tampa, West Palm Beach and Orlando. A fourth person’s name was hidden. The four new defendants are charged with conspiring to obstruct Congress’s confirmation of the 2020 presidential election results in a joint session of Congress that was interrupted by the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. Five deaths were ultimately linked to the attack. The four Oath Keepers are each accused of forcing entry through the Capitol’s East Rotunda doors after marching up the steps wearing combat uniforms, tactical vests, helmets and Oath Keepers insignia. The new indictment is part of a larger criminal conspiracy case that now includes 19 members of the far-right group. Members previously charged in the government’s case have pleaded not guilty. According to prosecutors, members of the group attended a 9 November meeting during which the Oath Keeper’s founder Stewart Rhodes, referred to in government documents as Person One, described the attack as an insurrection. “We’re gonna be posted outside DC, awaiting the president’s orders. … We want him to declare an insurrection,” according to documents. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/31/capitol-attack-four-more-oath-keepers-indicted

Senate Republicans KILL bill to create a Capitol riot commission despite SIX GOP rebels voting in favor with the Democrats. Senate Republicans tanked the House-passed bill that would create a 9/11-style commission to investigate the January 6 Capitol attack. Democrats were unable to override a Republican filibuster placed on the bill during a Friday vote of 54 to 35, with 60 votes needed. Republican Sens. Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Bill Cassidy, Lisa Murkowski, Rob Portman and Ben Sasse joined the Democrats. 'Shame on the Republican Party for trying to sweep the horrors of that day under the rug because they're afraid of Donald Trump,' Sen. Chuck Schumer said Chaos in the Senate prevented the bill from getting a vote Thursday, when it was expected . https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9630163/Senate-Republicans-KILL-bill-create-Capitol-riot-commission.html

Here Are The Big Questions A Capitol Riot Commission Could Answer. The House approved a plan for a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. What could it uncover? What did, or didn’t, Trump do to stop the riot? How did Republicans respond? How did the attack come together, and who planned it? What did Capitol police and the National Guard do to prepare? Republicans have questions, too. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/capitol-riot-commission-questions_n_60a8018fe4b0d56a83e97e1e

Rep. Issa Votes Against Jan. 6 Probe, Says Questions Were ‘Asked and Answered’. East County Rep. Darrell Issa said: “Over the last four months, essential inquiry and important questions regarding the events of January 6th have been asked and answered, while individuals responsible for breaking the law have been held to account.” In a statement, he continued: “I believe the essential and ongoing bipartisan oversight work of Congress should be allowed to continue, and there is no reason that the current framework is insufficient to answering any legitimate questions that may remain.” https://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2021/05/19/rep-issa-votes-against-jan-6-probe-says-questions-were-asked-and-answered/

Marjorie Taylor Greene defends ‘abused’ Capitol rioters and Ashli Babbitt in House floor speech. Republican congresswoman demands investigation into Black Lives Matter protests as GOP rejects bipartisan investigation into pro-Trump assault. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-speech-capitol-b1849580.html

Watch GOP reps claim Capitol riot was a "normal tourist visit" CNN showed footage of the January 6 domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol side-by-side with Big Lie GQP representatives telling whoppers that would make a cow laugh. Of course, Reps. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) and Ralph Norman (R-SC) don't expect anyone to believe their lies about "people in an orderly fashion staying in between the stanchions and ropes taking videos and pictures" like a "normal tourist visit" when they were actually pepper spraying police, breaking windows and doors, assaulting police, and hunting for "traitors" like Pence and Pelosi to hang them on the gallows they erected outside. No, Clyde and Norman are telling these obvious lies to demonstrate their fealty to their god-emperor-in-exile at Mar-a-Lago, because it will get them re-elected. When Clylde was later asked to explain his comments that the rights looked like a "normal tourist visit," Clyde said "you didn't take what I said in context," then got into a pickup truck in a hideous shade of maroon. https://boingboing.net/2021/05/13/watch-gqp-reps-claim-capitol-riot-was-a-normal-tourist-visit.html https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/05/13/republican-andrew-clyde-ralph-norman-capitol-riot-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/

In a letter sent from behind bars, a key defendant in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol said he and fellow inmates have bonded in jail, and boasted that those attacking the building could have overthrown the government if they had wanted. The letter is signed “the 1/6ers” and expresses no remorse for the assault on the Capitol, in which five people died. While no names appeared on it, ProPublica was able to determine, through interviews with his family and a review of his correspondence from jail, that it was penned by Guy Reffitt, a member of the Three Percenter right-wing militant group accused of participating in the riot. The letter said the inmates arrested for their role in the attack regularly recite the Pledge of Allegiance inside the Washington, D.C. jail and sing the national anthem “all in unison, loud and proud most everyday.” The family shared group text message chats from the past year and some of their correspondence with Guy Reffitt during his more than three months in jail. The material sheds light on the radicalization of Reffitt, whom federal prosecutors characterized in a court filing as a “serious danger ... not only to his family and Congress, but to the entire system of justice.” https://www.propublica.org/article/in-exclusive-jailhouse-letter-capital-riot-defendant-explains-motives-remains-boastful

Interesting raw data on who stormed the capitol. https://cpost.uchicago.edu/research/domestic_extremism/

The Capitol Rioters Aren’t Like Other Extremists. We analyzed 193 people arrested in connection with the January 6 riot—and found a new kind of American radicalism. First, the attack on the Capitol was unmistakably an act of political violence, not merely an exercise in vandalism or trespassing amid a disorderly protest that had spiraled out of control. The overwhelming reason for action, cited again and again in court documents, was that arrestees were following Trump’s orders to keep Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the presidential-election winner. Dozens of arrestees, court records indicate, made statements explaining their intentions in detail on social media or in interviews with the FBI. “I am incredibly proud to be a patriot today,” wrote a 37-year-old man from Beverly Hills, California, “to stand up tall in defense of liberty & the Constitution, to support Trump & #MAGAforever, & to send the message: WE ARE NEVER CONCEDING A STOLEN ELECTION.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/the-capitol-rioters-arent-like-other-extremists/617895/

The Secrets of QAnon's Appeal. Here's what QAnon documentaries reveal about how conspiracies flourish. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/04/18/review-qanon-documentary-hbo-into-the-storm-politics-482694

What We Know About The Suspect Who Planted Bombs Before The Capitol Riot April 14, 2021 Here's what is known: The suspect was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, a COVID-19 mask and expensive sneakers — Nike Air Max Speed Turf with a distinctive yellow logo. Sometime between 7:30 and 8:30 p.m., the suspect placed one pipe bomb on a park bench near the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and another behind the Republican National Committee headquarters. https://www.npr.org/2021/04/14/986457987/what-we-know-about-the-suspect-who-planted-bombs-before-the-capitol-riot

Capitol Riot Suspect Wore ‘I Was There' Shirt When Arrested. On Feb. 12, a grand jury in the District of Columbia indicted Miller on 12 counts, including civil disorder. Garret Miller didn't speak to the law enforcement officers who arrested him on charges he stormed the U.S. Capitol in January, but the T-shirt he was wearing at his Dallas home that day sent a clear and possibly incriminating message. On a recorded call immediately after his arrest, Miller told his mother, “I don’t feel that I’ve done anything wrong and now I’m being locked up,” according to prosecutors. https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/national-international/capitol-riot-suspect-wore-i-was-there-shirt-when-arrested/2562768/

New Proud Boys Busted for Capitol Riot Have Wild Police Ties. From an allegedly violent North Carolina Proud Boy appearing in a disturbing photo op with a D.C. cop to the son of a Philly officer, the connections keep getting worse. In late September 2019, Charles Donohoe took to the encrypted messaging app Telegram with a call to arms. “We need to stop fighting antifa in the streets where the cops are and start fighting them in bars and alleys,” Donohoe, a member of the far-right streetfighting group the Proud Boys, wrote. “We need to stomp them. We need to ruin their lives physically like they have ruined ours financially with doxxing. We need to rack up their hospital bills. We need to use special operations tactics and lightning strike them.” During a July 2019 Proud Boys demonstration in Washington, D.C., Donohoe ran into Collin Cole, a Metropolitan Police Officer with whom he had previously served in the Marines. The pair shook hands and the image soon circulated in Proud Boys circles as evidence that the group was not racist. (Cole is Black.) https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-proud-boys-charles-donohoe-and-zach-rehl-busted-for-capitol-riot-have-wild-police-ties

@page88 In late 07, I wrote abt Ron Paul’s neo-Nazi ties. His supporters hit me w/a vast & vicious trolling campaign. Stewart Rhodes, a Paul aide, then smeared Paul’s enemies on his blog. Then he founded the Oath Keepers. Online & offline terrorism are linked. https://twitter.com/page88/status/1375278194618740736 https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/oath-keeper-communications-stewart-rhodes-capitol/2021/03/25/792e8b7e-8d65-11eb-a730-1b4ed9656258_story.html

Prosecutors Are Accusing A Member Of The Oath Keepers Of Lying About His Paramilitary Training. Kelly Meggs had a 97-second phone call with the Oath Keepers' founder, Stewart Rhodes, on the day of the Capitol insurrection, prosecutors said. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kenbensinger/prosecutors-accuse-oath-keeper-of-lying-about-paramilitary

FBI Washington Field Office Releases Videos of Assaults on Officers at U.S. Capitol, Seeks Public’s Help to Identify Suspects. March 18, 2021 https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/washingtondc/news/press-releases/fbi-washington-field-office-releases-videos-of-assaults-on-officers-at-us-capitol-seeks-publics-help-to-identify-suspects

F.B.I. agents have arrested two organizers for the Proud Boys in Philadelphia and North Carolina, and prosecutors filed new charges against two other prominent members of the far-right group in Florida and Washington State as federal authorities continued their crackdown on its leadership ranks, three law enforcement officials said on Wednesday. With the new conspiracy indictment, prosecutors have now brought charges against a total of 13 people identified in court papers as members of the Proud Boys. Federal investigators have described the group, which appeared in force in Washington on Jan. 6, as one of the chief instigators of the riot at the Capitol that left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer. In the indictment, prosecutors accused Charles Donohoe, a Proud Boys leader from North Carolina, and Zach Rehl, the president of the group’s chapter in Philadelphia, of conspiring to interfere with law enforcement officers at the Capitol and obstruct the certification of President Biden’s electoral victory. Two other high-ranking Proud Boys who were already facing similar charges — Ethan Nordean of Auburn, Wash., and Joseph Biggs of Ormond Beach, Fla. — were also implicated as part of the conspiracy. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/us/politics/proud-boys-charges-capitol-riot.html

Two men who allegedly assaulted Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick with bear spray as thousands of MAGA rioters breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 have been arrested. Julian Elie Khater, a 32-year-old resident of Pennsylvania, and George Pierre Tanios, a 39-year-old from West Virginia, were arrested Sunday for their roles in the siege, The Washington Post first reported. Both men are expected to appear in federal court Monday. Authorities allege the pair is seen in videos discharging a canister of bear spray into the face of Sicknick and two other officers. Sicknick died two days after defending the building during the siege. https://www.thedailybeast.com/julian-khater-george-tanios-accused-of-spraying-bear-mace-in-capitol-cop-brian-sicknicks-face-before-he-died

6 Questions Officials Still Haven’t Answered After Weeks of Hearings on the Capitol Attack. More than 15 hours of testimony failed to answer fundamental questions about the Capitol attack. Among them: Why national security officials responded differently to BLM protesters than to Trump supporters. https://www.propublica.org/article/6-questions-officials-still-havent-answered-after-weeks-of-hearings-on-the-capitol-attack

Officers maced, trampled: Docs expose depth of Jan. 6 chaos https://apnews.com/article/docs-expose-depth-january-6-capitol-siege-chaos-fd3204574c11e453be8fb4e3c81258c3

Threats to Capitol prompt House to cancel Thursday votes https://thehill.com/homenews/house/541485-threats-to-capitol-prompt-house-to-change-vote-schedule

QAnon believers think Trump will be inaugurated again on March 4. Law enforcement is preparing for potential threats, but there’s no evidence of mass mobilization yet. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22280323/qanon-march-president-trump-inaugration-conspiracy-theory

A close ally of Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene took part in the January 6 mob at the Capitol and said he was among those who eventually made their way into the building. Greene, a freshman congresswoman with a history of promoting dangerous and violent conspiracies and comments, encouraged the big lie that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump by voting to object to the election certification and fanned the flames of the insurrection by telling her supporters to "fight for Trump." In tweets after the Capitol insurrection, Greene falsely suggested that those who had broken into the Capitol were not Republicans and instead falsely implied so-called "Antifa" dressed as Trump supporters were to blame. In fact, Anthony Aguero, a conservative livestreamer, activist and associate of Greene, said on video following the January 6 assault on the Capitol that he had been among those who entered and attacked those who falsely claimed it was done by "Antifa." "We were all there. It was not Antifa and it was not BLM. It was Trump supporters that did that yesterday. I'm the first to admit it, being one myself," said Aguero in a video posted on January 7. "I walked amongst all those people," he added, later defending entering the Capitol. https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/24/politics/kfile-marjorie-taylor-greene-close-ally-in-capitol-mob/index.html

9 Oath Keepers charged with sweeping conspiracy for role in Capitol insurrection. The Justice Department accused the nine militia members of coordinating efforts to storm Congress. In addition to Caldwell, Meggs and Watkins, prosecutors indicted Donovan Crowl, 50, of Champaign County, Ohio, Sandra Parker, 60, and Bennie Parker, 70, of Warren County, Ohio; Graydon Young, 54, of Englewood, Fla.; Laura Steele, 52, of Thomasville, N.C.; and Meggs’ wife Connie, 59, of Dunnellon, Fla. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/19/oath-keepers-capitol-insurrection-470308

Guns, knives, bombs and bear spray: Here are the weapons Trump supporters brought to DC on the day of the Capitol attack https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/17/politics/capitol-insurrection-weapons-ron-johnson/index.html

‘I’m running for my life. I cannot talk to you right now’: 23 women in Congress recall the Capitol riot. https://19thnews.org/2021/02/women-in-congress-capitol-riot/

Trump's 5 Hours at the White House on Jan. 6: What We Know So Far. Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Martin https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-5-hours-white-house-160708543.html

Large bitcoin payment made to far-right individuals before U.S. Capitol attack: report. Nick Fuentes, who was permanently suspended from YouTube last year for hate speech, received 13.5 bitcoins, worth about $250,000 at the time of the transfer, making him by far the biggest beneficiary of the donation, according to the blog post. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-cryptocurrency/large-bitcoin-payment-made-to-far-right-individuals-before-u-s-capitol-attack-report-idUSKBN29J2PM

Inside the Capitol Riot: What the Parler Videos Reveal. The trove of more than 500 videos recovered from a largely pro-Trump social platform provides a uniquely immersive account of the violence and confusion as seen from inside the insurrection. https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-the-capitol-riot-what-the-parler-videos-reveal

“I Don’t Trust the People Above Me”: Riot Squad Cops Open Up About Disastrous Response to Capitol Insurrection. Interviews with 19 current and former officers show how failures of leadership and communication put hundreds of Capitol cops at risk and allowed rioters to get dangerously close to members of Congress. It was only through Pittman’s testimony at a closed Congressional briefing on Jan. 26 that most Capitol Police officers learned that the force did in fact have intelligence warnings of possible violence. She admitted that the department failed to adequately act on it. The officers said they are still waiting for an apology. Many are looking for new jobs. “Let’s face it. Now the whole world knows where the vulnerabilities of the Capitol are,” said one officer. “I don’t trust the people above me to make decisions to bring me home safe.” https://www.propublica.org/article/i-dont-trust-the-people-above-me-riot-squad-cops-open-up-about-disastrous-response-to-capitol-insurrection

An Oath Keeper Extremist Who Stormed The Capitol Kept A ‘Death List’ Prosecutors say Thomas Caldwell researched weapons, kept a “death list” of his enemies, and talked about mutilating the corpses of his political opponents.“ Caldwell also discussed and organized plans to attend the Jan. 6 rally with other extremists who would later storm the Capitol. Messages between Caldwell and militia members Donovan Crowl and Jessica Watkins include discussions of logistics for attending the rally and talk of other Oath Keepers who would attend. Watkins, a military veteran and member of the Oath Keepers, also texted Caldwell about how they could sneak weapons into Washington, D.C., and discussed having Oath Keepers waiting outside the city to deliver them guns. Trump wants all able bodied patriots to come,” Watkins messaged, adding that she would “hate to miss it” if Trump invoked the insurrection act ― a reference to a QAnon conspiracy theory claiming that Trump was planning to authorize a military takeover of the government at the time. Prosecutors charged Caldwell, Watkins and Crowl last month with a series of offenses that include conspiracy to injure or impede an officer, violent entry or disorderly conduct, and obstruction of an official government proceeding. They are part of a growing number of rioters associated with far-right groups and anti-government militias who have been charged in connection with the insurrection. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/caldwell-capitol-riot-oath-keepers_n_6025a319c5b6591becd7859e

Trump impeachment: What the Proud Boys did before president's speech https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55959134

The Plan: Another theory posited that Trump’s comments on Thursday about a “smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power” were not about an incoming Biden administration but about imminent military rule led by Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, whose Twitter account was suspended last week as part of the platform’s widening ban on QAnon content. Most theories converged on a key point for QAnon, which over years of missed deadlines for an impending conquest by Trump has hinged on promoting and anticipating some new blockbuster event: that Trump was going to drop reality-shifting intelligence in the days and weeks ahead. “The reason we had to go through all this drama,” one user posted on Telegram, “was for people to become aware, angry and ready to look at the evidence and demand justice.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/13/qanon-capitol-siege-trump/

The January 6, 2020 siege on the US Capitol should not come as a surprise. Rather, it was preceded by a month-long frenzy of incitements, strategizing, and embrace of violence against lawmakers—fueled by Trump’s December 19 tweet promising that the event "will be wild." Many of the president’s supporters interpreted his words as "marching orders," declaring, “[Trump] can’t exactly openly tell you to revolt…This is the closest he’ll ever get.” The movement behind the siege on the Capitol building has only become more emboldened in the event’s aftermath. Trump-supporting extremists have already praised the siege as a “stunning success” and announced further armed protests, including the day of Biden’s inauguration. As a member on TheDonald threatened: “No matter how all this plays out, its only the beginning.” https://ent.siteintelgroup.com/Far-Right-/-Far-Left-Threat/how-a-trump-tweet-sparked-plots-strategizing-to-storm-and-occupy-capitol-with-handcuffs-and-zip-ties.html

Trumpism Coup, archived February 10, 2021

Wren was no ordinary event planner. She served as deputy to Don Jr.’s girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle at Trump Victory. In a text about the budget of the Jan. 6 event, she mentions Justin Caporale, a former top aide to Melania Trump. Text Messages Show Top Trump Campaign Fundraiser’s Key Role Planning the Rally That Preceded the Siege. Caroline Wren, a Trump fundraiser, is listed as a “VIP Advisor” in a National Park Service permit for the Jan. 6th rally at the Ellipse. Text messages and a planning memo show the title downplays the active role she played in organizing the event. https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-campaign-fundraiser-ellipse-rally

Liz Cheney: Trump's Pence Tweet During Riot Could Be 'Premeditated Effort to Provoke Violence'. Cheney also said that Republicans “are mistaken” to believe that BLM and antifa were responsible for the violence at the Capitol riot. The tweet in question, sent by Trump as the insurrection raged out of control, said: “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!” https://www.thedailybeast.com/liz-cheney-says-trumps-pence-tweet-during-riot-could-be-premeditated-effort-to-provoke-violence

Congress launches investigation into movements of Trump allies the day of the Capitol siege as new video emerges of Roger Stone surrounded by Oath Keeper militia members hours before the riot https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9231289/Roger-Stone-claims-never-left-DC-hotel-insurrection.html

We’re Not Saying This MAGA Video Is Identical to Nazi Propaganda, but Look for Yourself. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/02/maga-nazi-propaganda-january-sixth-ellipse-video.html

How one billionaire family bankrolled election lies, white nationalism — and the Capitol riot. Rebekah Mercer is “one of the chief financiers of the fascist movement,” says longtime GOP insider Steve Schmidt. https://www.salon.com/2021/02/04/how-one-billionaire-family-bankrolled-election-lies-white-nationalism--and-the-capitol-riot/

REVEALED: Heir to Publix Super Markets chain bankrolled MAGA rally before Capitol riot with $300,000 donation alongside Alex Jones who gave $50,000 to event that was organized by Trump supporter who charged $730,000. Julie Jenkins Fancelli, heiress to the Publix Super Markets Inc. chain, has been revealed as the top donor to the January 6 MAGA rally in D.C.

• She gave $300,000 in a deal orchestrated by Alex Jones.
• The money was donated through Trump fundraising official Caroline Wren
• Wren and her firm were paid $730,000 by the Trump campaign and a joint GOP committee in the 2020 election cycle
• Jones himself gave $50,000 in seed money to the event in exchange for a top speaking slot, which was eventually used for another rally

Fancelli's donation funded most of the event, which cost $500,000 in total to run. Fancelli previously donated more than $980,000 to the Trump campaign and Republican Party during the last election cycle. She is a heir to Florida-based Publix Super Markets, established by her father in 1930, making her a member of one of the richest families in America. Several pro-Trump groups had organized various events around D.C. that day with the main Ellipse event led by Women for America First. None of the groups involved had received a permit to march. Wren has now been identified among the main organizers, alongside Ali Alexander, a far-right activist and leader of the 'Stop the Steal' movement. Women for America First had applied for the permit to hold the rally, listing Wren as 'VIP coordinator'. According to the permit and Federal Election Commission records acquired by the Wall Street Journal, Wren and at least five former Trump campaign staffers were involved in the organization of the Ellipse rally. A spokesperson for the Trump campaign told the publication that it had no involvement in fundraising for the event. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9204875/The-woman-bankrolled-Capitol-riot-MAGA-rally.html

After being harassed by Marjorie Taylor Green, Cori Bush moves her office out of safety concerns. https://boingboing.net/2021/01/29/after-being-harassed-by-marjorie-taylor-green-cori-bush-moves-her-office-out-of-safety-concerns.html

Publix heiress paid for Trump rally preceding Capitol riots, WSJ reports. Julie Jenkins Fancelli, daughter of Publix founder George W. Jenkins, contributed $300,000 to the Jan. 6 rally, just the latest far-right cause financed by Publix heirs or the chain itself. Publix heiress Julie Jenkins Fancelli provided the “lion’s share” of funding for the Washington Ellipse rally preceding the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. It’s only the latest in a series of major contributions to far-right causes by Publix heirs or the popular supermarket chain itself. The Wall Street Journal also reported that Fancelli picked Trump campaign fundraiser Caroline Wren to coordinate funding for the Jan. 6 rally. Wren was listed as “VIP Coordinator” in the event’s permit and played a major role in organizing it. Fancelli is the daughter of Publix founder George W. Jenkins, who died in 1996. https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2021/01/30/publix-heiress-paid-for-trump-rally-preceding-capitol-riots-wsj-reports/

Alex Jones claims he paid for rally that preceded Capitol riot. Jones also said he paid close to $500,000 to book the Ellipse, the park where Trump's supporters initially gathered, and other areas near the Capitol. He said 80% of the money came from an unnamed donor. "By the time I got out there 20 minutes, 30 minutes before Trump finished his speech, there were already hundreds of thousands of people ahead of me marching. https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2021/01/09/alex-jones-claims-he-paid-rally-preceded-capitol-riot/6608721002/

Woman charged in Capitol riot said she wanted to shoot Pelosi ‘in the friggin’ brain,' FBI says. Dawn Bancroft and Diana Santos-Smith were identified by law enforcement after the FBI said it received a tip on Jan. 12 with a video purportedly capturing the two women as they left the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 amid a large mob of people, according to a criminal complaint. “We broke into the Capitol. . . . We got inside, we did our part,” Bancroft said in the video she sent to her children, according to the FBI. “We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin’ brain, but we didn’t find her.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/01/29/dawn-bancroft-capitol-riot-pennsylvania-pelosi/

The two pipe bombs that were discovered on Jan. 6 near the U.S. Capitol shortly before a mob stormed the building are believed to have been planted the night before, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation and video footage obtained by The Washington Post. The explosive devices, which were placed blocks from one another at the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national committees, have been largely overshadowed by the violent attempted insurrection at the Capitol. But finding the person suspected of planting both bombs remains a priority for federal authorities, who last week boosted the reward for tips leading to the person’s arrest from $50,000 to $75,000. https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2021/01/29/pipe-bomb-suspect-video/

Christianity on display at Capitol riot sparks new debate. The rioters who breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, leading to federal charges against more than 130 people so far, included several people carrying signs with Christian messages, and video showed one man in a fur hat and horns leading others in a prayer inside the Senate chamber. They also included multiple current or former members of the U.S. military or law enforcement, as well as a West Virginia state lawmaker. https://apnews.com/article/christianity-capitol-riot-6f13ef0030ad7b5a6f37a1e3b7b4c898

Roger Stone Did Something Wrong. Stone raised funds for “security” for January 6 events, mingled with Oath Keepers, and urged “an epic struggle” for Trump. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/01/roger-stone-did-something-wrong/

Democrats stunned by briefing on Capitol's security before insurrection: 'It was only by pure dumb luck' more weren't killed. https://us.cnn.com/2021/01/26/politics/democrats-stunned-by-capitol-briefing-insurrection/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/politics/capitol-police-chief-apology/index.html

Proud Boys leader was ‘prolific’ informer for law enforcement. Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys extremist group, has a past as an informer for federal and local law enforcement, repeatedly working undercover for investigators after he was arrested in 2012, according to a former prosecutor and a transcript of a 2014 federal court proceeding obtained by Reuters. Law-enforcement officials and the court transcript contradict Tarrio’s denial. In a statement to Reuters, the former federal prosecutor in Tarrio’s case, Vanessa Singh Johannes, confirmed that “he cooperated with local and federal law enforcement, to aid in the prosecution of those running other, separate criminal enterprises, ranging from running marijuana grow houses in Miami to operating pharmaceutical fraud schemes.” In November and December, Tarrio led the Proud Boys through the streets of D.C. after Trump’s loss. Video shows him on December 11 with a bullhorn in front of a large crowd. “To the parasites both in Congress, and in that stolen White House,” he said. “You want a war, you got one!” The crowd roared. The next day Tarrio burned the BLM banner. Former prosecutor Johannes said she was surprised that the defendant she prosecuted for fraud is now a key player in the violent movement that sought to halt the certification of President Joe Biden. “I knew that he was a fraudster – but had no reason to know that he was also a domestic terrorist,” she said. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-proudboys-leader/exclusive-proud-boys-leader-was-prolific-informer-for-law-enforcement-idUSKBN29W1PE

Sacramento Republican leader Jorge Riley forced to resign after involvement in US Capitol siege. Jorge Riley, corresponding secretary of the California Republican Assembly and president of the Sacramento Republican Assembly, resigned from both positions Thursday afternoon. Photos and posts on his personal Facebook page document his participation in the siege. https://www.kcra.com/article/sacramento-republican-leader-forced-resign-involvement-us-capitol-siege/35221426

Oath Keeper Leader Charged With Conspiracy in Capitol Riots. Prosecutors allege Thomas Caldwell helped organize a group of at least eight people who were at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots. According to a criminal complaint first obtained by The Washington Post, prosecutors allege Caldwell helped organize a group of at least eight people, who were seen “aggressively approaching an entrance to the Capitol.” The group was seen wearing military-style gear and helmets as they moved “in an organized and practiced fashion and force[d] their way to the ground of the crowd gathered around a door to the U.S. Capitol.” Prosecutors allege Caldwell began plotting with other Oath Keepers at least five days before the insurrection, citing a Jan. 1 message on Facebook in which he admitted he was looking for housing for several individuals at a Comfort Inn in Ballston, Virginia. The hotel, which is eight miles from the Capitol, “would allow us to go hunting at night if we wanted to,” Caldwell said in a Facebook message to Oath Keepers member Jessica Watkins, according to the affidavit. “I don’t know if Stewie has even gotten out his call to arms, but it’s a little friggin late. This is one we are doing on our own. We will link up with the north carolina [sic] crew,” Caldwell continues in the Jan. 1 post, apparently referring to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes. https://www.thedailybeast.com/thomas-edward-caldwell-oath-keeper-leader-charged-with-conspiracy-in-capitol-riots

Ohio Bartender and Her ‘Militia’ Drove to D.C. to Join the Capitol Breach. A Champaign County bartender who runs a self-identified militia, joined by three others in her unit, drove to Washington D.C. last week to join what descended into a seditious mob invasion of the U.S. Capitol. A still from footage of the riots in Washington D.C. captures Jessica Watkins, 38, seen with several people in Oathkeepers regalia, heading up the Capitol stairs. Footage shows Watkins and several members of the Oathkeepers forming a line with their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them, slicing through the crowd to get up the Capitol stairs. https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2021/01/13/ohio-bartender-and-her-militia-drove-to-d-c-to-join-the-capitol-breach/

Violent words in St. Paul: When does free speech become terroristic threat? Alley Waterbury cheered on the violent insurrection in Washington as she warned Gov. Tim Walz that there would be consequences if he did not meet with her and other protesters at the Minnesota Capitol. Within hours, she was outside the governor's residence shouting through a bullhorn. "Do not underestimate us, because we will cross the line!" the Woodbury activist yelled across the front gate. State officials probing this month's Storm the Capitol rally in St. Paul are confronting a legal challenge that has divided scholars and jurists alike for decades: What is protected speech, and what words should be treated as criminal threats? https://www.startribune.com/violent-words-in-st-paul-when-does-free-speech-become-terroristic-threat/600011557/

A Reporter’s Footage from Inside the Capitol Siege. https://www.newyorker.com/news/video-dept/a-reporters-footage-from-inside-the-capitol-siege

Among the Insurrectionists. The Capitol was breached by Trump supporters who had been declaring, at rally after rally, that they would go to violent lengths to keep the President in power. A chronicle of an attack foretold. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/01/25/among-the-insurrectionists

Episode 1: A premeditated lie lit the fire. Trump had planned for Americans to go to bed on Nov. 3 celebrating — or resigned to — his re-election. The maps they saw on TV should be bathed in red. But at 11:20 p.m. that vision fell apart, as the nation’s leading news channel among conservatives became the first outlet to call Arizona for Joe Biden. Inside the White House, Trump's inner circle erupted in horror. https://www.axios.com/trump-election-premeditated-lie-ebaf4a1f-46bf-4c37-ba0d-3ed5536ef537.html

Democrats point fingers on whether Capitol rioters had inside help. on Dec. 30, Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) spoke on the phone with a Capitol Police captain, warning that the online and social media chatter she was seeing was so violent that she feared Trump supporters would try to storm the Capitol and “kill half of Congress” along with Vice President Pence. She urged police to harden security around the building, as did Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) in a phone call a day later with then-Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund. Rep. Norma Torres (D-Calif.), who signed on to the Sherrill letter, said that on Jan. 5 she saw two groups of Trump supporters in the Rayburn building. That legislative office building, located next to the Capitol, houses nearly 170 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/534468-democrats-point-fingers-on-whether-capitol-rioters-had-inside-help

Longtime Trump advisers connected to groups behind rally that led to Capitol attack. Roger Stone, Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn all promoted the Jan. 6 rally. https://abcnews.go.com/US/longtime-trump-advisers-connected-groups-rally-led-capitol/story?id=75261028

Capitol rioters communicated using military hand signals, law enforcement official says. The identification of individuals using military, small unit tactics is among the "highest priorities" for a Sedition Task Force being run by the D.C. U.S. Attorney's office. The apparent use of "small unit tactics," trained to military and law enforcement, drew immediate scrutiny from investigators. These tactics were witnessed both outside and inside the Capitol Building, CBS News has learned. Federal authorities have charged more than 40 people in connection with the Capitol riot. Among them were two off-duty Rocky Mount, Virginia, police officers, Jacob Fracker and Thomas Robertson, who are each facing one count of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and one count of violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. Fracker is a corporal in the Virginia National Guard, and he is not currently on duty with Virginia National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. The Virginia National Guard will be conducting an investigation. Prosecutors wrote in a complaint that Robertson wrote in a social media post, "CNN and the Left are just mad because we actually attacked the government who is the problem and not some random small business ... The right IN ONE DAY took the f***** U.S. Capitol. Keep poking us." Fracker posted a since-deleted comment on Facebook that read, "Lol to anyone who's possibly concerned about the picture of me going around... Sorry I hate freedom? …Not like I did anything illegal…y'all do what you feel you need to," according to the complaint. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/capitol-riots-military-hand-signal-communication/

Identifying far-right symbols that appeared at the U.S. Capitol riot https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2021/far-right-symbols-capitol-riot/

PELOSI’S PURGE: Speaker Threatens to Prosecute Any Lawmaker Who ‘Aided’ Capitol Hill Rioters “If, in fact, it is found that members of Congress were accomplices to this insurrection — if they aided and abetted the crime, there may have to be actions taken beyond the Congress in terms of prosecution for that,” Pelosi said Friday at a news conference at the Capitol. “Right now, our managers are solemnly and prayerfully preparing for the trial, which they will take to the Senate,” Pelosi added. https://hannity.com/media-room/pelosis-purge-speaker-threatens-to-prosecute-any-lawmaker-who-aided-capitol-hill-rioters/

Chilling Supercut Exposes Violent Pre-Riot Rhetoric From Donald Trump And His Enablers. Shocking and divisive comments from the president and his allies are laid bare in the “Daily Show” montage. Saluting the Heroes of the Insurrection | The Daily Social Distancing Show https://youtu.be/nz-zWeqtVo8

Carlsbad Chiropractor Among Those in D.C. During Capitol Riot. Cordie Williams, a chiropractor from Carlsbad, isn’t shy about posting his views on social media. Known online as the Megaphone Marine and the founder 1776 Forever Free, Williams has Instagram and Twitter accounts with thousands of followers. He encouraged people to join him by going to Washinton, D.C., on Jan. 6 -- the day that pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol -- and since then, his publicly posted videos urge folks to attend weekly Constitution classes, attend protests, run for office and arm themselves. “We’re all about freedom for all,” Williams told NBC 7 in a sit-down interview Tuesday morning. "You want to wear a mask? Great, just don’t tell me I have to. You want to vaccinate your kids? Great, just don’t tell me I have to. You want to get the COVID vaccine? Great, just don’t tell me I have to. And that’s really what this organization is about.” “I think it’s incredibly harmful,” Benavidez said of the language in William’s posts. “It’s misleading and harmful. I think the concern is: What will this inspire people to do?" Williams goes on to say, “We are at war.” https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/marine-carlsbad-chiropractor-among-those-in-d-c-during-capitol-riot/2494764/

Sponsors of the Pre-Attack Rally Have Taken Down Their Websites. Don’t Forget Who They Were. Here are the organizers of the event that led to the assault on the Capitol. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/01/sponsors-of-the-pre-attack-rally-have-taken-down-their-websites-dont-forget-who-they-were/

FBI, NYPD told Capitol Police about possibility of violence before riot, senior officials say. The FBI visited more than a dozen extremists before the rally last week to urge them not to travel to D.C., senior law enforcement officials said. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/fbi-nypd-told-capitol-police-about-possibility-violence-riot-senior-n1253646

Alex Jones says he paid $500,000 for rally that led to Capitol riot. Mr Jones pushed the conspiracy theory that antifa was responsible for Trump supporters attacking the US Capitol. “And so, by the time I got out there 20 minutes, 30 minutes before Trump finished his speech there were already hundreds of thousands of people ahead of me marching. And before Trump ever took the stage, antifa, dressed up - over a hundred of them - as patriots, was there,” he said. Mr Jones was reportedly seen later in the day, standing on top of a car near the Capitol building and shouting into a bullhorn. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/alex-jones-paid-rally-capitol-riot-b1784603.html

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), a gun-toting supporter of the QAnon movement, is facing backlash after she was accused of live-tweeting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) location during the attack on Capitol Hill last week. Boebert shared the tweet soon after President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol with deadly results. "The Speaker has been removed from the chambers," Boebert wrote. https://www.rawstory.com/lauren-boebert-twitter/

Another U.S Capitol Police Officer Has Died After Trump Supporters’ Riot. Officer Howard Liebengood died on Saturday, the department announced. He is the second officer to die since Wednesday’s violent siege of the Capitol. video of chasing cop up stairs https://www.huffpost.com/entry/capitol-police-another-officer-has-died_n_5ffb3544c5b66f3f795eec94

The Capitol siege was far from San Diego. Its fringe ideologies were right at home. DEC’s founder, Justin Haskins, was among those who traveled to Washington for the vote certification. At the same time, some local vocal Republicans and political conservatives doubled down, if anything turning up the heat. “This is Lexington and Concord. First shots fired against tyranny,” said California Assemblyman Randy Voepel, a former Santee mayor who at one point left the Republican party for the tea party movement because he deemed the GOP too “liberal.” “Tyranny will follow in the aftermath of the Biden swear in on January 20th.” https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2021-01-09/capitol-siege-san-diego-roots

Now it's sinking in: Wednesday's Capitol Hill riot was even more violent than it first appeared. Only later did it become clear that lawmakers feared for their lives; that some of the attackers were hunting for congressional leaders; that there could have been a massacre. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/09/media/reliable-sources-january-8/index.html

NEW FOOTAGE: a long, disciplined line of men in body armor moves as a unit up the #CapitolBuilding steps. We need to identify this group. Grateful to @lehudgins for the find. Source: https://instagram.com/p/CJ10So2MqpF/ https://twitter.com/jsrailton/status/1348115530654347266?s=21 https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ3mibDlR3X/

Jake Angeli, who wore fur hat and horns as mob raided U.S. Capitol, arrested and charged. Angeli told the FBI he came to D.C. “as part of a group effort, with other ‘patriots’ from Arizona, at the request of the President that all ‘patriots’ come to D.C. on January 6, 2021,” the statement of facts reads. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/01/09/jake-angeli-qanon-man-fur-hat-horns-capitol-riot-arrested/6609039002/

‘I have guns and ammo’: Virtual trail left behind by Trump supporters killed during Capitol riot. Social media posts left behind by Benjamin Phillips, 50; Rosanne Boyland, 34; Ashli Babbit, 35; and Kevin Greeson, 55; give clues as to the supporters’ mindsets ahead of the riot that would end their lives. https://fox5sandiego.com/news/politics/i-have-guns-and-ammo-virtual-trail-left-behind-by-trump-supporters-killed-during-capitol-riot/

US Capitol riot: 'It was like a zombie movie' https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-55581269

Baked Alaska, the QAnon Shaman … who led the storming of the Capitol? Collection of far-right activists and groups came to Washington DC to enact a familiar playbook. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/07/baked-alaska-the-qanon-shaman-who-led-the-storming-of-the-capitol

Members of Several Well-Known Hate Groups Identified at Capitol Riot https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/several-well-known-hate-groups-identified-at-capitol-riot/

Three Men Charged in Connection with Events at U.S. Capitol. Jacob Anthony Chansley, a.k.a. Jake Angeli, of Arizona. Adam Johnson, 36, of Florida. Derrick Evans, 35, of West Virginia a recently elected member of the West Virginia House of Delegates. https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/three-men-charged-connection-events-us-capitol

Neo-Nazis, QAnon and Camp Auschwitz: A guide to the hate symbols and signs on display at the Capitol riots. https://www.jta.org/2021/01/07/united-states/hate-on-display-your-guide-to-the-symbols-and-signs-on-display-at-the-stop-the-count-insurrection

Do You Know Them? FBI Releases Another ‘Most Wanted’ Poster of Capitol Goons https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/seeking-info/violence-at-the-united-states-capitol-4

Video shows fatal shooting of Ashli Babbitt in the Capitol. Timothy McEntee, Babbitt’s ex-husband, told The Post that his ex-wife owned a pool-cleaning business. “She’s a small business owner in California and felt (much like others) that she was being wronged,” McEntee wrote in a text message. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/nation-world/story/2021-01-08/video-shows-fatal-shooting-of-ashli-babbitt-in-the-capitol

Babbitt — who spent four years on active duty in the Air Force and another 10 years in military reserves, and who had at least eight overseas deployments — was among pro-Trump extremists who stormed the U.S. Capitol. Babbitt’s husband, Aaron Babbitt, told Fox 5 San Diego, that he sent his wife a message about 30 minutes before the shooting, but did not hear back. In recent months, her Twitter account included a photo of her at a Trump boat parade in a shirt reading “We are Q,” and the phrase WWG1WGA — QAnon’s acronym for “Where we go one, we go all.” In one post last year, she referred to COVID-19 as the “controla virus.” “We are being hoodwinked. The sheep need to wake up,” she wrote. In another, she wrote, “TRUMP IS TELLING THE TRUTH. MSM (mainstream media) are liars.” Babbitt spent 14 years in military service. The first four were in the Air Force, from 2004 to 2008, where she achieved the rank of senior airman, and her last job was as a security forces controller at a base in Texas, according to the Air Force press office. Babbitt — whose service records are under Ashli McEntee, the last name of her first husband — went on to serve in the Air Force Reserve for two years and then the Air National Guard for six years. A sign against wearing masks to slow the spread of COVID-19 covers the office door of Fowler’s Pool Services and Supply Inc, in Spring Valley on Thursday. Court records show the business was sued twice, in San Diego and New York, in the past several years over breach of contract issues. In San Diego she was a defendant in a suit filed by EBF Partners over a merchant cash advance agreement. EBF alleged that after buying $65,250 in future business, the company stopped payments. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/story/2021-01-07/san-diego-woman-killed-in-capitol-siege-was-iraq-war-veteran

Police identify woman fatally shot in U.S. Capitol as Ocean Beach resident https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/top-stories/story/2021-01-06/family-says-woman-fatally-shot-in-u-s-capitol-was-ocean-beach-resident

Pro-Trump rioters smeared poop in U.S. Capitol hallways during belligerent attack. https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/ny-trump-capitol-riot-poopers-20210108-prlsqytyabgdhnexushotl4nam-story.html

On Far-Right Websites, Plans To Storm Capitol Were Made In Plain Sight. https://www.npr.org/sections/congress-electoral-college-tally-live-updates/2021/01/07/954671745/on-far-right-websites-plans-to-storm-capitol-were-made-in-plain-sight

Six Republican lawmakers among rioters as police release photos of wanted. Suspects include Holocaust deniers, White supremacists, and conspiracy theorists. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/republican-lawmakers-rioters-capitol-photos-b1784170.html https://mpdc.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/mpdc/publication/attachments/POIs%20of%20Interest_1.7.21.pdf

Violence at U.S. Capitol is only the beginning of ‘Trumpism,’ says California Republican. “It is the Republican Party that stands as the most immediate threat to our institutions.” Mike Madrid, a longtime California Republican operative, wrote these words in an op-ed about “defeating Trumpism” that he submitted to The Sacramento Bee over the holidays. His words proved prescient. https://www.sacbee.com/podcasts/california-nation/article248329695.html

Protests

‘An incredible day’ as Lee statue removed in Charlottesville https://apnews.com/article/charlottesville-robert-e-lee-statue-removed-2efbc5e13b74e2545a0f6642e2384308

Charlottesville Removes Robert E. Lee Statue That Sparked A Deadly Rally Updated July 10, 2021 https://www.npr.org/2021/07/10/1014926659/charlottesville-removes-robert-e-lee-statue-that-sparked-a-deadly-rally

Probe: Protest not broken up because of Trump photo op. The report said that the protesters were cleared by US Park Police last June 1 so that a contractor could get started installing new fencing. https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/nation-world/probe-protest-not-broken-for-trump-photo-op/507-950b08e1-880a-4d80-aea3-f15d4b1709cd

100 photos of protests in Portland in 2020. Taken by Doug Brown in Portland, Oregon, between May 31 - Nov. 4 on behalf of the ACLU of Oregon and in a personal capacity. https://dougbrownmedia.com/portland-protests-2020-photography

Mayor Gloria reacts to Pacific Beach protest, violence. “Stay home," said Gloria. "You don’t need to do this." “After seeing what happened in Washington on Wednesday, what are you doing out on our streets supporting that mess? Racism, fascism, anti-democracy - why would you choose to be out there?” Gloria said. https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/crime/gloria-pacific-beach-protest/509-67a80e95-66aa-4cf7-9cdc-ac149796926d

Unlawful assembly declared as Trump supporters, counter protesters clash in San Diego. https://thehill.com/homenews/533515-unlawful-assembly-declared-as-trump-supporters-counter-protesters-clash-in-san-diego

#breaking trump supporters clash with BLM and antifa on the boardwalk in PB. Heavy police presence some fights and scuffles. Pepper spray etc (not from pd). @fox5sandiego https://twitter.com/heyguyfox5/status/1348032632345432064

combatting online extremism

Working to end online harms, applying evidence, ethics, and human rights https://moonshotteam.com/redirect-method/

Polarization and Extremism and Research Innovation Lab (PERIL) https://www.american.edu/centers/university-excellence/peril.cfm

White supremacist threat remains, but experts see hope in combatting online extremism. https://news.yahoo.com/white-supremacist-threat-remains-experts-090012557.html

Oath Keepers, Militiamen, Vigilantes, Terrorists, Proud Boys

Will Sommer on Trump's increasingly shameless QAnon outreach. "The conspiratorial thinking that QAnon represents has become mainstreamed in the party." What does it say about American politics that the Republican presidential frontrunner is comfortable publicly embracing a deranged conspiracy theory/belief system holding that prominent Democrats are part of a satan-worshiping, child-trafficking cabal that he’ll ultimately vanquish with violence? https://aaronrupar.substack.com/p/trump-qanon-will-sommer

Kyle Rittenhouse’s Online Fundraiser Is Floundering With Few Donations. People are treating this man like he killed somebody. Oh, wait. https://newsone.com/4414281/kyle-rittenhouse-fundraiser/

One thing you won’t see at this trial—Right wing darling Kyle #Rittenhouse punching a girl in the head weeks before he killed people at a protest. @TheTNHoller https://twitter.com/TheTNHoller/status/1458496366578126853

Kyle Rittenhouse has been added as a defendant to a civil lawsuit filed by the parents of Anthony Huber, a Wisconsin man Rittenhouse fatally shot in Kenosha during street protests in August 2020. In a criminal trial last November, Rittenhouse was found not guilty of five charges related to killing Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum and injuring Gaige Grosskreutz with an AR-15-style rifle. A civil trial could replay evidence against the 18-year-old before a jury, in addition to statements he has made in right-wing media since going free. The suit does not specify any monetary damages, but attorneys for the parents filed a $10 million claim notice in December. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/21/rittenhouse-huber-lawsuit/

Proud Boys memo reveals meticulous planning for ‘street-level violence’. Document of 23 pages shows the lengths to which the far-right group goes to prepare for potentially violent encounters and exposes the militaristic structure and language it has adopted. What goes unsaid on the cover and is barely mentioned throughout the 23 pages is that this is the work of one of the most violent political gangs in America, the far-right street fighters told by Donald Trump to “stand back and stand by”: the Proud Boys. The document, published by the Guardian for the first time, gives a very rare insight into the meticulous planning that goes into events staged by the far-right club. If any Proud Boy engages with any potential threat – BLM or Antifa or agitator – ALWAYS watch hands for weapons - especially skateboards, pipes, bats, knives, bottles of urine, and mace! CALL OUT IMMEDIATELY if any weapons are seen, to alert your Brothers!! Recognizing these weapons fast and having time to react could be the difference between having the time necessary to eliminate that threat…or getting seriously hurt! https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/19/proud-boys-document-jan-6-violence

Extremist militia group linked to Nevada public officials and candidates. https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/extremist-militia-group-linked-to-nevada-public-officials-and-candidates

Watch: CNN's 10-minute explainer of the Proud Boys. "The Proud Boys have emerged as both a manifestation of and driver for polarization and political violence in the United States since their inception in 2016… The evolution of the Proud Boys has seemingly culminated in the central role members of the group allegedly played in the storming of the U.S. Capitol… Accelerationist factions of the Proud Boys have been pushing violence within the organization, as well as networking with neo-Nazi terrorist organizations… Emboldened by the relative impunity with which they seemingly continue to operate, the group appears to be using the flashpoint of January 6 as an opportunity to further position themselves as the tip of the spear for extreme far-right political mobilization" https://youtu.be/ccoXEd7q_ME https://boingboing.net/2022/07/29/watch-cnns-10-minute-explainer-of-the-proud-boys.html

Neo-Nazi Marine Plotted Mass Murder, Rape Campaigns with Group, Feds Say. While tasked with protecting the nation, Matthew Belanger was plotting a killing spree against minorities and to rape “white women to increase the production of white children,” according to federal prosecutors. Federal prosecutors say a former U.S. Marine plotted mass murder and sexual assault to “decrease the number of minority residents” in the United States as part of his membership in a far-right neo-Nazi group, “Rapekrieg.” Matthew Belanger was arrested on June 10 in New York and charged with making false statements to a federal firearms licensee in order to make straw purchases of an assault rifle and handgun. Belanger pleaded not guilty to the firearms charges during an arraignment hearing on Monday. Efforts to investigate far-right extremism within the military increased in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection, when a number of veterans were charged with attacking the Capitol. But efforts to root out extremism faced stiff opposition this month. Every House Republican voted down an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act tasking the Departments of Justice, Defense, and Homeland Security to produce a report about extremism within the services. In the Senate, the Armed Services committee demanded that the Pentagon “immediately” stop its Countering Extremist Activity Working Group, as it believes extremism within the military is “exceptionally rare” and the working group’s efforts are “ an inappropriate use of taxpayer funds.” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/marine-murder-rape-plot-rapekrieg-1388238/

Antifa Declares War On Oregon Motorcycle Clubs. This isn’t going to end well. Saturday, July 16 members of Antifa followed through on vows to try disrupting a gathering at the HonkyTonk Bar in Salem, Oregon. Antifa groups began rallying members and supporters to join a “counter demonstration” for the “Take Action Tour” event being held at the HonkyTonk Bar. They characterized the venue’s gathering as “racist” and catering to both “fascists” as well as “white supremacists.” That event was marketed by the bar as “Hero Appreciation Day” complete with a dunk tank, bike show, eating contest, live music, bouncy house, family-friendly karaoke, free hot dogs, etc. https://www.motorious.com/articles/features-3/antifa-oregon-motorcycle-clubs/

Neo-Nazi group outside the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit at day two of the the Tampa Convention Center on July 23, 2022. https://www.cltampa.com/tampa/photos-neo-nazis-gather-outside-turning-point-usa-summit-at-tampa-convention-center/Slideshow/13849084/13850112

‘I mean you no harm’: From troubled teen to neo-Nazi foot soldier. How a global white supremacist movement is recruiting American teenagers. Conor Climo during an interview while walking a Las Vegas neighborhood, heavily armed. Climo, accused of assembling materials to bomb and shoot people at a synagogue, a bar catering to LGBTQ customers or a fast-food restaurant has been indicted on a federal firearm charge. Climo was drawn to The Feuerkrieg Division, which translates into “fire war,” a moniker inspired by the torchlight marches at Nazi rallies in 1930s Germany. FKD is believed to have been established in 2018 in Estonia. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/16/neo-nazi-white-supremacist-teenagers-00045589

https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/patriot-front

What we know about the Patriot Front march through Boston. Among them were U.S. flags, with some being flown upside down and others showing just the 13 stars of the original U.S. colonies. Other flags displayed versions of the symbol used by Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party, per the Herald. Patriot Front flags were also flown, per CNN. https://www.axios.com/2022/07/03/patriot-front-march-boston

Cops in Woodland, Ca., stand by as "Proud Boys" try to force their way into drag show. https://boingboing.net/2022/07/01/cops-in-woodland-ca-stand-by-as-proud-boys-try-to-force-their-way-into-drag-show.html

The Far-Right’s Assault On An Idaho Pride Event Was Meticulously Planned. Details that emerged after the arrest of 31 white supremacists in Coeur D'Alene show how GOP rhetoric is signaling extremists to attack LGBTQ people. At a Republican fundraiser in Stateline, Idaho, a local GOP official named Dan Bell was excited to introduce the next speaker. “He’s definitely not OK with trans or any of that gay shit,” Bell, youth chair of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, said into the microphone as the crowd laughed. “Please give it up for Dave Reilly!” Reilly took the stage that day, April 16, to cheers. “A big round of applause for our Sheriff Norris, who keeps us safe!” Reilly said, pointing to Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris in the crowd, according to video footage obtained by HuffPost. Reilly is a white nationalist who recently moved to Idaho and aims to take over the state political system from the ground up. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/groomer-panic-idaho-white-supremacists-lgbtq_n_62acc960e4b06594c1d6348b

CNN on the origins of the white nationalist gang, Patriot Front. Booking photo montage: Top row, from left, are Jared Boyce, Nathan Brenner, Colton Brown, Josiah Buster, Mishael Buster, Devin Center, Dylan Corio, and Winston Durham. Second row, from left, are Garret Garland, Branden Haney, Richard Jessop, James Julius Johnson, James Michael Johnson, Connor Moran, Kieran Morris and Lawrence Norman. Third row, from left, are Justin O'leary, Cameron Pruitt, Forrest Rankin, Thomas Rousseau, Conor Ryan, Spencer Simpson, Alexander Sisenstein and Derek Smith. Bottom row, from left, are Dakota Tabler, Steven Tucker, Wesley Van Horn, Mitchell Wagner, Nathaniel Whitfield, Graham Whitsom and Robert Whitted. CNN's Anderson Cooper reports on the origins of the new gang. https://youtu.be/4ZlNbXYr0pk

Your Handy Guide to the Absolute Worst People in American Politics. With an array of hate groups forming in recent years, the threat of far-right violence has never been greater. But not all share the same goals and methods. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/all-american-extremism-guide-1361035/

It's No Coincidence That Right-Wing Extremists Are Ramping Up Attacks During Pride Month. Over the weekend, several white nationalists were arrested in incidents across the nation. https://jezebel.com/its-no-coincidence-that-right-wing-extremists-are-rampi-1849054353

The 31 Patriot Front members were arrested with riot gear after a tipster reported seeing people loading up into a U-Haul like “a little army” at a hotel parking lot in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, police said. Among those booked into jail on misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to riot was Thomas Ryan Rousseau of Grapevine, Texas, who has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as the 23-year-old who founded the group after the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. No attorney was immediately listed for him and phone numbers associated with him went unanswered Sunday. Also among the arrestees was Mitchell F. Wagner, 24, of Florissant, Missouri, who was previously charged with defacing a mural of famous Black Americans on a college campus in St. Louis last year. https://apnews.com/article/climate-texas-idaho-government-and-politics-southern-poverty-law-center-4f6b998f83814e8951eef658f44d818d

31 Patriot Front Extremists Aiming To 'Riot' At Idaho Pride Event Arrested: Officials. The white supremacists, who were dressed in nearly identical uniforms and masks, "did not come here to engage in peaceful events," said the local sheriff. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coeur-dalene-pride-event-riot_n_62a52bc1e4b0cf43c849dd90 https://youtu.be/7SlrREP6f5I

'Losers!’: Mob of White Supremacists Busted Near Idaho Pride Event. Police say they foiled Patriot Front’s plans for a riot after a “concerned citizen” reported seeing a bunch of masked men in a U-Haul that “looked like a little army.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/white-supremacists-from-patriot-front-detained-en-masse-near-idaho-pride-event

Proud Boys storm drag queen story hour for kindergarteners at a San Francisco library: Right-wing extremists scream homophobic and transphobic threats at host Proud Boys barged into the San Lorenzo Library near San Francisco around 1:30 p.m. on Saturday The right-wing extremist group yelled homophobic and transphobic threats at the children's story host, Bay Area drag queen Panda Dulce, who was reading to preschoolers and kindergarteners for story hour The disturbance happened during Drag Queen Story Hour in celebration of Pride Month No arrests have been made, no one was physically harmed, authorities say Deputies will be at future story hours at the library 'to deal with any disruptors' https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10911471/Proud-Boys-storm-Drag-Queen-story-hour-San-Francisco-library-shouting-homophobic-threats.html

A U.S. service member has been identified as a possible suspect in an April explosion that injured several U.S. troops at a base in eastern Syria. Patrick Barnes, a spokesman for the Army Criminal Investigation Division, said in a statement that the potential suspect is back in the United States, and the investigation by Army CID and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations is ongoing. Barnes did not release the suspect's name. The U.S. military initially reported that the injuries were caused by artillery or another form of indirect fire. But it later said the April 7 attack was carried out by the "deliberate placement of explosive charges" by one or more individuals at an ammunition holding area and shower facility on the base, known as Green Village. The blasts hit two support buildings and four service members were evaluated for minor injuries and possible traumatic brain injuries. The U.S. has several hundred troops in eastern Syria as part of its effort to counter the Islamic State group. No charges have been filed. https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2022-06-06/us-base-syria-insider-attack-6255858.html

The Satanist Neo-Nazi Plot to Murder U.S. Soldiers. A rogue G.I.’s trial exposes the depths of a murderous far-right ideology — and the FBI’s complicity in spreading hate. Ethan Phelan Melzer’s secret life of hate ran deep. The 24-year-old private in the 173rd Airborne Brigade appeared to be just another young soldier, trying to find his way through military life at Fort Benning, Georgia. However, in his private time, prosecutors allege, Melzer had another, sinister side: He said he liked to perform macabre blood rituals; read obscure, gruesome tracts about torture and child abuse; collected violent iconography; and found like minds in the depths of Telegram, an encrypted messaging app so favored by extremists of all stripes that it is often referred to as “Terrorgram.” His handle was “Etil Reggad” — a near anadrome for “Elite Dagger.” By Melzer’s own account, enlisting in the Army was a ruse — on the encrypted app, he wrote that he had joined up solely to gain knowledge of military weaponry and tactics. “It’s great for training,” he wrote, adding a cryptic remark about his base. “All of these places the vast majority deserve to be burned.” https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-satanist-neo-nazi-plot-to-murder-u-s-soldiers-1352629/

@UR_Ninja Patriot Front wrecked the Olympia pride mural, as planned, in the early a.m. of Oct. 16. The next day, they discussed it in a post-mission debrief held on their self-hosted voice chat server. Full mp3 recording: https://vault.unicornriot.ninja/patriotfrontleaks/2021-recordings/2021-10-17_PNW_Regional_Mumble.mp3… Transcript (pdf): https://vault.unicornriot.ninja/patriotfrontleaks/2021-transcripts/2021-10-17_PNW_Regional_Mumble.pdf https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/1525177716378685440

The ‘People’s Convoy’ Has a New Enemy: Kids with Eggs. The group of conservative truckers did not receive a warm reception in California. The “People’s Convoy” (yes, that is still a thing) has reached the West Coast, where they have been greeted with a less than friendly reception: Bay Area youth tossing raw eggs at the passing vehicles. The incident occurred when the caravan was driving away from the home of Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, where they were protesting her support of an abortion-related bill. According to The San Francisco Examiner, the convoy departed Wicks’ residence after police arrived. While driving away from the house through her residential neighborhood, the convoy passed a Safeway grocery store where a group of kids were gathered, equipped with eggs. Videos of the confrontation show the youth unleashing a flurry of raw egg projectiles at the vehicles in the convoy as they drove by. “We’re fighting for your freedoms, too,” one convoy member can be heard shouting at the kids. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/peoples-convoy-egged-1342326/

A U.S. intelligence community assessment obtained by Yahoo News concluded that the Russian government is providing “indirect and passive support” to neofascist groups operating in the U.S. and elsewhere, but stops short of accusing the Kremlin of supplying financial or material assistance to Western extremist groups. The Kremlin “probably tolerates some private Russian entities’ support” for U.S. and European white nationalist groups “because it aligns with Kremlin efforts to aggravate societal fissures in the West,” states the report. https://news.yahoo.com/us-intelligence-report-details-indirect-russian-government-support-for-western-neo-fascist-groups-233831082.html

Cyclist pedaling slowly holds up People's Convoy as it continues to make daily loops of DC Beltway demanding end to all COVID restrictions and the removal of BLM mural on road leading to White House The convoy now consists of about 100 trucks with some pickups and vans The roving protest against COVID-19 restrictions is still affecting traffic in DC On Friday, organizers called on the crowd to remove the large Black Lives Matter sign painted on a street near the White House One said the protest wouldn't end until the Biden administration does, as organizers face accusations that their list of demands has become bloated COVID rules continue to disappear, with LA lifting its mask mandate for students and Hawaii the only state with an indoor mask mandate https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10632987/Peoples-Convoy-making-daily-loops-DC-Beltway-members-issue-fresh-demands.html

The Pro-Trucker-Convoy Rally Is Another Failure for Far-Right Demonstrators in DC. But after January 6, authorities have little choice but to take these things seriously. Much of the media professionals at these rallies appeared to represent outlets based outside the US, but even domestic outlets face the same conundrum regarding these events that local law enforcement does: how seriously to take them after January 6, 2021. MAGA voices had touted the idea of invading the Capitol before former President Trump encouraged them to march down Pennsylvania Avenue to Congress, which was scheduled to certify Joe Biden’s victory over Trump that day. Still, very few in law enforcement foresaw the at-times medieval fighting that would ensue as several thousand people invaded the Capitol. Indeed, in a city that has seen increasingly organized incursions by far-right people going back to “Pizzagate,” there’s little choice but to take treat these events as possible threats to everyday life until they prove otherwise. Today’s rally may have been a bust, but who knows what will happen next? https://www.washingtonian.com/2022/03/01/the-pro-trucker-convoy-rally-is-another-failure-for-far-right-demonstrators-in-dc/

Trucker convoy protest in Washington DC flops as no-one shows up. Organisers had expected thousands of people to attend Freedom Convoy event. “Where are the trucks?” organiser Kyle Sefcik asked during his speech. Mr Sefcik is an MMA fighter and independent candidate for governor in Maryland, and also the organiser of Freedom Convoy USA 2022, which was due to arrive in DC on Tuesday but was scrapped when just five trucks showed up in Las Vegas. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trucker-convoy-washington-dc-protest-b2026209.html

A Porno-Metal Song About Gay Cowboys Is Disrupting the Anti-Vaxx Trucker Convoy. “Ram Ranch” has become the unofficial anthem of leftist trolling the far-right protests in Ottawa. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/anti-vax-trucker-convoy-porno-metal-ram-ranch-1297926/

They're Burning Books in Tennessee. Greg Locke's zealots set fire to sacred millennial texts like Harry Potter and Twilight. https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pithinthewind/theyre-burning-books-in-tennessee/article_1f8c631e-850f-11ec-bc9f-dbd44d7e14d7.html

Roughly one in five applicants to the white supremacist group Patriot Front claimed to hold current or former military status, according to leaked documents reviewed by Hatewatch. The journalist collective Unicorn Riot leaked archives of Patriot Front’s private chats on Jan. 21. Patriot Front held these conversations on Rocket Chat, an open-source chat program, where they published 87 different applications for membership. The applications show that 18 of those 87 applicants (21%) claimed to be current or former members of the U.S. military. One of the applicants, who claimed to be a former Marine, also stated in his application that he currently works for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2022/02/01/one-five-patriot-front-applicants-claim-military-ties

‘We are desperate for new people’: inside a hate group’s leaked online chats. Chat logs depict Patriot Front as a tiny group reliant on vandalism and fake social accounts to promote its message. Chats indicate the white supremacist group has about 200 members. The messages show a coordinated effort to commit vandalism and intimidate people of color nationwide. The group requires members to deface racial justice murals and monuments to Black Lives Matter in their communities, much like a street gang that requires initiates to “tag” buildings as a form of vandalism and intimidation. Chats show that the group’s leaders regularly reprimand members for failing to meet exercise or participation requirements. It also shows a group fixated on getting more members, a task it has found difficult. “We are absolutely desperate for new people. We’ve been in the 220’s to 230’s membership rut for nearly a full year,” wrote Thomas Rousseau, the founder of Patriot Front. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/28/leaked-online-chats-white-nationalist-patriot-front

The FBI Said It Busted A Plot To Kidnap Michigan’s Governor. Then Things Got Complicated. The case seemed like a lock — until an informant and one FBI agent were charged with crimes, another was accused of perjury, and a third was found promoting a private security firm. And that wasn’t all. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kenbensinger/fbi-michigan-kidnap-whitmer

Oath Keepers, Militiamen, Vigilantes, Terrorists. archived December 18, 2021

Flynn’s Fave Paramilitary Rebrands as Private Security Firm. “The Shepherd Group,” a venture of 1st Amendment Praetorian, went live days before the right-wing group’s leader, Robert Patrick Lewis, was subpoenaed in a Jan. 6 probe. Between Nov. 1 and Nov. 19, multiple social-media accounts associated with a California-based company calling itself “The Shepherd Group” went live, as did a website hawking its “holistic, boutique approach” to digital forensics, physical security, surveillance/counter-surveillance, and corporate intelligence. “Our clients include private individuals and corporations, law-enforcement agencies and the U.S. Government with a focus on missions that strive toward the betterment of the Republic and humanity,” the page reads, although it provides no list of past jobs or customers. But a little digging reveals that the Shepherd Group is not entirely new: rather, it appears to be a front for the militant group 1st Amendment Praetorian, previously a volunteer outfit that has deployed its self-described force of former armed forces and police personnel as security for right-wing leaders and events. The group’s name derives from the elite cadre of Roman soldiers who served as the emperor’s personal retinue. Most prominently, the modern outfit chaperoned the conservative star-studded rally on D.C.’s Freedom Plaza on the eve of the Capitol riot. Experts suggested the pivot to a for-profit business model might represent a bid for legitimacy in the face of public scrutiny. After all, the shift came just weeks ahead of the order for its founder to appear before Congress, though it is unclear whether this timing was deliberate or fortuitous. The address that the Shepherd Group—which also purports to consist entirely of ex-police and service members—lists on its website is the same UPS mailbox in the Los Angeles suburb of Calabasas that 1st Amendment Praetorian LLC used when it filed to become a federal vendor last year. Those same filings identified “The Shepherd Group,” which appears to have never received a government contract, as a trade name for 1st Amendment Praetorian. 1st Amendment Praetorian head Robert Patrick Lewis, a decorated former Green Beret, identifies himself as CEO of the Shepherd Group on his LinkedIn, and his initials adorn posts on the Shepherd Group’s blog. https://www.thedailybeast.com/flynns-fave-paramilitary-rebrands-as-private-security-firm

A white supremacist march in D.C. was pushed by a fake Twitter account, experts say. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/12/06/white-supremacist-dc-march-patriot-front/

Bystanders booed as the far-right Patriot Front staged a rally in Washington DC to 'reclaim America'. The group's leader Thomas Rousseau gave a speech near the Capitol reflecting pool while bystanders booed, The Daily Beast said. "Our demonstrations are an exhibition of our unified capability to organize, to show our strength," Rousseau said, according to the outlet. "Not as brawlers or public nuisances, but as men capable of illustrating a message and seeking an America that more closely resembles the interests of its true people." https://www.businessinsider.com/far-right-patriot-front-rally-in-washington-dc-to-reclaim-america-2021-12

White Supremacists Stage Bizarro Rally in Downtown D.C., Find Themselves Stranded. Though they intended to “reclaim America,” members of Patriot Front had more than enough trouble reclaiming their own ride. The rally by more than 100 members of the “Patriot Front” group, held just blocks from the White House, sparked fear among many bystanders and immediately attracted the attention of law enforcement, who shadowed the group to forestall any conflict. Members wore a uniform: white gaiters, sunglasses, blue jackets, khaki pants, and brown boots and hats. Some donned plastic shinguards, seeming to anticipate violence. As Patriot Front’s leader Thomas Rousseau spoke beside the Capitol reflecting pool, bystanders booed. Asked about the reason for the march, Rousseau said, “Our demonstrations are an exhibition of our unified capability to organize, to show our strength—not as brawlers or public nuisances, but as men capable of illustrating a message and seeking an America that more closely resembles the interests of its true people.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/patriot-front-white-nationalists-stage-bizarro-rally-in-downtown-dc-find-themselves-stranded

Veteran who infiltrated Three Percenters says leaders asked if he was ready to kill. https://www.rawstory.com/veteran-infiligrated-three-percenters/

A close reading of the QAnon Shaman's self-published manifesto. My friend Mark Dery, one of the finest cultural critics alive, read a copy of the QAnon Shaman's self-published polemical new age fascist screed, One Mind at a Time: A Deep State of Illusion. Mark survived to write about it, and how closely the QAnon Shaman's paranoid worldview aligns with today's Republican standard-bearers, on Lit Hub: How RFK Jr., Naomi Wolf, and an NYU Professor Ended Up on the Same Page as QAnon Cultist Jacob Chanley https://lithub.com/a-close-reading-of-the-qanon-shamans-conspiracy-manifesto/ https://boingboing.net/2021/11/15/a-close-reading-of-the-qanon-shamans-self-published-manifesto.html

Newly released FBI tapes show white supremacist members of 'The Base' plotting terror attacks. The two men were sentenced last month to nine years in federal prison. Patrik Mathews, a former Canadian Army reservist illegally in the U.S., and Brian Lemley, a Maryland resident and self-described white nationalist, fantasized about the brutal murders they'd soon carry out against law enforcement and Black people, all with the goal of bringing about the "Boogaloo," or the collapse of the U.S. government in order to prop up a white ethno-state, according to recordings of the pair's discussions. "We need to go back to the days of ... decimating Blacks and getting rid of them where they stand," Mathews said in one recording. "If you see a bunch of Blacks sitting on some corner you f***ing shoot them." https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/newly-released-fbi-tapes-show-white-supremacist-members/story?id=80975917

STATEMENT OF CHRISTOPHER A. WRAY DIRECTOR FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS U.S. SENATE AT A HEARING ENTITLED “WORLDWIDE THREATS” https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Testimony-Wray-2021-09-21-REVISED.pdf

How a Small-Town Sheriff Ended Up on a Crusade to Radicalize American Law Enforcement. Richard Mack is the leader of a growing “Constitutional Sheriffs” movement, which claims sheriffs hold ultimate authority over the federal government. https://www.vice.com/en/article/epnkgn/richard-mack-constitutional-sheriff-movement

Joe Biggs: Today is my 3 month anniversary being locked up, Not allowed to work out. My body feels as of it's aged so much. Can hardly move. Walking has become very difficult. I sleep on a piece of steel welded to a wall with a thin mattress. l now have major lower back issues and shoulder pain from the "bed". l've gotten maybe 10hrs outside all together since being here. I get to go outside maybe 3 times a month. The food here is all soy based. So its weakening our bodies. Hardly any protein. Mostly processed foods and some kind of gelatin dog food looking stuff. No privacy allowed when shitting allowed. You have to be in view of everyone. Each cell has a shelf. You are not allowed to use it. Nothing can be placed on it. Lights go out at 11:45 pm and back on @ 4am for "breakfast". Luckily the showers are only one person allowed at a time. Every cell has a Small window that has been sand blasted so you can never see outside. Breaking any rules can result In losing ability to talk to family or a trip the hole for a few weeks where you are stripped naked a left in a bright freezing room. I have anxiety bad now. Panic attacks so bad I black out. There are actual white supremacist gang members here who hate the fact the media call proud boys white supremacist. They tested me on what it means to be one of them a I failed miserably. Good. I have a

Two Californians charged in plot to blow up Democratic headquarters in Sacramento. Ian Benjamin Rogers, 45, of Napa and Jarrod Copeland, 37, of Vallejo, allegedly unhappy with the outcome of the November presidential election, plotted the attack in the hopes of sparking a “movement” of broader violence, federal prosecutors allege. Days after the election, the two men began discussing attacks on targets they associated with Democrats, including the governor’s mansion and the Bay Area headquarters of Twitter and Facebook, according to an earlier court filing. By the end of November, they had picked their first target: the John L. Burton Democratic Headquarters in a tree-lined residential area of Sacramento, just blocks from the Capitol, according to the indictment. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-07-16/two-californians-charged-in-plot-to-blow-up-democratic-headquarters

UK bans fifth neo-Nazi group under terror laws. An American neo-Nazi group which is led from Russia is to be banned as a terrorist organisation, the Home Secretary has said. Priti Patel condemned "evil white supremacist groups, who target vulnerable people across the world". The Base will be the fifth extreme right-wing group to be proscribed in the UK under anti-terror laws. Last year BBC Panorama exposed the organisation's recruitments efforts in the UK. A BBC investigation also exposed the group's American founder Rinaldo Nazzaro and revealed how he was directing The Base from his St Petersburg home. The Base, formed in 2018, seeks to create terrorist cells in the US and other countries in an attempt to establish fascist, white ethno-states through a "race war". The Home Office said the group shared aims and ideologies with Atomwaffen Division, and its alias National Socialist Order, which was banned earlier this year. The other right-wing extremist groups proscribed as terror organisations are National Action and Sonnenkrieg Division - both created in the UK - as well as Feuerkrieg Division, founded in Estonia. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-57806800

“I Felt Hate More Than Anything”: How an Active Duty Airman Tried to Start a Civil War. Steven Carrillo’s path to the Boogaloo Bois shows the hate group is far more organized and dangerous than previously known. When Carrillo was finally subdued on June 6, cellphone footage captured him shouting at deputies as they led him away, “This is what I came to fight — I’m sick of these goddamn police.” https://www.propublica.org/article/i-felt-hate-more-than-anything-how-an-active-duty-airman-tried-to-start-a-civil-war

Terrified White Supremacists Run Away After Philadelphia March Goes Awry. A Patriot Front march in Philly didn’t go the way the group hoped when they had to flee angry counter-protesters. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/philadelphia-white-supremacists-run-away_n_60e3c7ece4b06fb1a6ee6545?8c9

Kyle Rittenhouse, American Vigilante. After he killed two people in Kenosha, opportunists turned his case into a polarizing spectacle. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/07/05/kyle-rittenhouse-american-vigilante

Revealed: neo-Confederate group includes military officers and politicians. Leaked data shows other high-profile members have overlapping membership in more explicitly racist or violent groups. Leaked membership data from the neo-Confederate Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) organization has revealed that the organization’s members include serving military officers, elected officials, public employees, and a national security expert whose CV boasts of “Department of Defense Secret Security Clearance”. But alongside these members are others who participated in and committed acts of violence at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and others who hold overlapping membership in violent neo-Confederate groups such as the League of the South (LoS). The national membership data was provided to the Guardian by a self-described hacktivist whose identity has been withheld for their safety. The data reveals the names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses of almost 59,000 past and present members of the organization, including 91 who used addresses associated with government agencies for their contact email, and 74 who used addresses associated with various branches of the armed forces. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/28/neo-confederate-group-members-politicians-military-officers

Three Percenters, neo-Nazi group added to Canada's terrorist list. Banks can now freeze assets and police can charge anyone who financially supports them. There are now 77 terrorist entities listed under the Criminal Code — including the Proud Boys, who were added in February after the storming of Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 6. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/terrorist-list-three-percenters-1.6079984

This Militia-Fighting GOP Sheriff Thinks Jan. 6 Was Just the Start. Knezovich’s office is in Spokane, a city of about 220,000 people dotted with turn-of-the-century brick buildings. But he and his deputies enforce the law in the surrounding rural areas, including swaths of rugged, forested mountains that are part of the so-called American Redoubt, where adherents to far-right ideologies and militia members move to get off the grid and away from the government. Knezovich has been especially critical of these movements, which have flourished in Washington and Idaho for decades, and which he accuses of trying to spark a civil war. “These are tyrants, these are true dictators that want to pull our country apart,” he said of paramilitary groups and their supporters. “And they want to hide behind, ‘Well, America was born out of revolution.’” Knezovich doesn’t seem bothered by the criticism. He says what’s keeping him up is what he sees as an existential threat to American democracy. “What happened on January 6 was the worst thing that I think I’ve ever seen happen in my nation, because that threatened the entire stability of this nation,” he said. He says unless moderate voters start showing up to primary elections, we’re only going to see more and more extremists take office, entrenching their once-fringe views deeper into the mainstream. In other words, the sheriff who has had a front-row seat to the resurgence of far-right movements doesn’t have a rosy outlook about the future of extremist-driven instability in America. “We will live through about 10 years of hard times, because that’s the cycle of these things,” he said. “And we’re in at the very beginning of this.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/this-militia-fighting-gop-sheriff-thinks-jan-6-was-just-the-start

Kelly Meggs, Connie Meggs, Zack Meggs, Ashley Cain, Andrew Smrecek, an unidentified man, Harrelson’s wife, Kenneth Harrelson

Exclusive Video: Watch Roger Stone’s Oath Keeper Bodyguards Practice Headshots to “#Stopantifa”. Prosecutors are scrutinizing training that the Capitol attackers performed at Florida shooting ranges. These sessions, held on September 20 and October 25, are notable. In the first, an instructor coached the three militia members and others on how to “drop” adversaries by shooting them in the heart, lungs, or head. The instructor, a Florida resident named Andrew Smrecek, who describes himself as a former Marine Corps rifleman, posted the video and images from this training online with hashtags that include “#stopantifa,” “#stopcommunism,” and “#giveviolenceachance.” Members of the group at the training, including Smrecek, later acted as security guards for Roger Stone at “stop the steal” events where the longtime Trump adviser claimed Donald Trump had been cheated out of an election win in November and urged Americans to fight to keep Trump in office. The material shows that Kelly Meggs, who later claimed to have been named the head of the Oath Keeper’s Florida chapter, and his wife, Connie, as well as Kenneth Harrelson, all of whom were later charged with plotting to storm the Capitol, attended the September 20 training. Prosecutors say that on January 6, the trio were part of a squad of combat fatigue–clad Oath Keepers who formed a tactical formation called a “stack,” a line in which members place their hands on the person in front of them, to push through the crowd outside the Capitol and enter the building. Another man who was at the training also appears to have been among the Oath Keepers who breached the Capitol, according to images published by the New York Times. He has not yet been identified. The training also included the Meggs’ son Zack, who since his parents’ February arrest has been raising money to cover his family’s living expenses. “My parents are good people who love their country and wanted to support their president, Donald Trump, and did nothing wrong,” he wrote in one solicitation. Kelly Meggs and the unidentified man from the training session appear in a video from December 12 guarding Stone at a “stop the steal” rally in Miami. And Meggs is pictured in a photo with Stone taken outside Stone’s Fort Lauderdale home and posted to Facebook on December 13, according to the Washington Post. Meggs was also part of a security detail of Oath Keepers around Stone after he spoke outside the Supreme Court on January 5, Mother Jones previously reported. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/03/exclusive-video-roger-stone-oath-keeper-bodyguards-training-stopantifa/

Burt Colucci, commander of one of the United States' oldest white supremacist groups, was arrested on Monday in a Phoenix suburb for pointing a loaded handgun at a Black man and threatening to kill him and his friends, according to police records. The altercation began outside a hotel in Chandler, Arizona, after Colucci placed trash on the car of the African Americans and used racial slurs against them, according to statements police collected from Colucci, the Black people and an independent witness. Only Colucci was identified in the police report that was made public. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/neo-nazi-leader-arrested-arizona-aggravated-assault-2021-04-20/

In a recent indictment of nine people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, federal prosecutors went to great lengths to describe the magnitude of the day’s events, the alarming threat to democracy their actions posed, and the powerful influence that one charismatic leader had in shaping their beliefs. They took care, however, not to refer to that man by name. Instead, they refer to him as “Person One.” Elmer Stewart Rhodes III — a one-time Army paratrooper, disbarred Yale lawyer, constitutionalist, gun enthusiast, and far-right media star — founded the group called the Oath Keepers in 2009. Since then, he has ridden crosscurrents of American anger and strife that ran from scrubby Western deserts to angry urban protests right into the Capitol rotunda. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jessicagarrison/stewart-rhodes-oath-keepers-early-history-conflicts

Feds now say right-wing extremists responsible for majority of deadly terrorist attacks last year. https://news.yahoo.com/right-wing-extremists-responsible-for-majority-of-deadly-terrorist-attacks-181352019.html

Exclusive: FBI document warns conspiracy theories are a new domestic terrorism threat. August 1, 2019 https://news.yahoo.com/fbi-documents-conspiracy-theories-terrorism-160000507.html

Exclusive: Large bitcoin payments to right-wing activists a month before Capitol riot linked to foreign account. “These extremist groups are probably more well organized and well funded than what was previously believed,” she said. Chainalysis maintains a database of “domestic extremists” who have cryptocurrency accounts, and while the company has traced donations to right-wing groups over the years, the December deposit was “the single biggest month we’ve ever observed” directed toward these causes, the researchers wrote. “This is evidence to show they’re raising money,” Kennedy said. Additionally, the fact that the donor was outside the United States suggests “this has international scope,” she continued, a fact that “law enforcement should be paying attention to.” https://www.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-large-bitcoin-payments-to-rightwing-activists-a-month-before-capitol-riot-linked-to-foreign-account-181954668.html

Black woman describes terrifying attack by Trump mob in L.A.: ‘I’m thinking I’m dead’. They were hurling racial slurs at her and pouring pepper spray, hot like habaneros, into her eyes and ear. Someone or something — perhaps the butt of a metal flagpole carrying a “Don’t tread on me” banner — pummeled her shoulder, leaving a circle-shaped bruise. Another person snatched her wig off. As a violent mob of President Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, a crowd of at least 20 pro-Trump demonstrators, many clad in “Make America Great Again” hats, surrounded 25-year-old Berlinda Nibo on a busy downtown Los Angeles street, she said, feet away from a gaggle of police officers. “It seemed like these people were trying to kill me,” said Nibo, 25. “To use me to make some kind of statement or something.” https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-08/black-woman-describes-terrifying-attack-by-trump-mob-in-l-a-im-thinking-im-dead

Reports identify make of gun recovered from Michael Reinoehl in WA; tests continue to see if same gun used in Portland homicide. The gun found in the pants pocket of self-described antifa activist Michael Reinoehl after he was killed by police in Washington fits the make of the gun likely used to kill a man after a pro-Trump rally in Portland last summer, new reports indicate. Portland police records released this week show that the gun recovered from Reinoehl in Washington was an Inter Ordnance Hellcat .380-caliber pistol – one of three types of .380-caliber guns that ballistics tests indicate likely killed Aaron “Jay” Danielson, an Oregon States Police forensic scientist reported. Yet a full forensic examination of the gun hasn’t been completed yet, Thurston County Sheriff’s Lt. Ray Brady said this week. https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2021/01/reports-identify-make-of-gun-recovered-from-michael-reinoehl-in-wa-tests-continue-to-see-if-same-gun-used-in-portland-homicide.html

FOX 5 has learned that Proud Boys' leader Enrique Tarrio has been arrested in D.C. FOX 5 's Evan Lambert reports Tarrio is facing misdemeanor destruction of property charges in relation to him saying he burned a Black Lives Matter flag that was stolen from a Black church in December during a protest in the District. https://www.fox5dc.com/news/proud-boys-leader-enrique-tarrio-arrested-in-dc-police-say

American Legion removes Escondido post commander from national leadership role over Proud Boys affiliation. Photos shared on two social media accounts show J.B. Clark Post 149 Commander Michael Sobczak, 56, wearing a Proud Boys jacket and marching along with other Proud Boys during a Dec. 12 pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C. that eventually turned violent. In a video shared on a personal Facebook account under the name “Mick Florio,” Sobczak describes a beating he says he gave an anti-Trump activist in self defense during an earlier protest in Yorba Linda in Orange County. Sobczak, an admitted member of the Proud Boys, wears a Defend East County tank top. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/story/2021-01-03/american-legion-investigating-escondido-post-commander-after-street-brawls-and-proud-boy-declaration

After pardon, Blackwater guard defiant: ‘I acted correctly’. The Blackwater rampage marked one of the darkest chapters of the Iraq war, staining the U.S. government reputation and prompting an international outcry about the role of contractors in military zones. The guards have long maintained they were targeted by insurgent gunfire at the traffic circle where the shooting occurred. Prosecutors argued there was no evidence to support that claim, noting that many victims were shot while in their cars or while taking shelter or trying to flee. After a monthslong trial in 2014, a jury convicted the men in the deaths of 14 civilians and of injuring even more. A judge called the shootings an “overall wild thing” that cannot be condoned. https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-shootings-baghdad-only-on-ap-iraq-7b3e202ac353db544180fb2a61d2902c

Proud Boys to attend Jan. 6 DC rallies 'incognito'. Members of the far-right group the Proud Boys will attend Washington, D.C., rallies for President Trump on Jan. 6 "incognito," with leaders of the group saying they will dress in "all BLACK" to mimic the attire of anti-fascist groups and counterprotesters. The group is known for its signature black and yellow clothing during rallies and protests, where they typically appear in large groups. The group's chairman, Enrique Tarrio, announced on social media that group members "might dress in all BLACK for the occasion." Additionally, members of the group will likely branch off into smaller formations to remain "incognito." https://thehill.com/homenews/news/532362-proud-boys-to-attend-jan-6-dc-rallies-incognito

Proud Boys' Hotel Hangout Shutting Down On Jan. 6 'Wild Protest' Day. The Washington, D.C., hotel and bar where the white nationalist Proud Boys hang out when they’re in town for protests has announced it will be closed Jan. 6, the day Congress is scheduled to certify the Electoral College vote for President-elect Joe Biden. It’s also the day of a planned “Wild Protest” in Washington to rail against Donald Trump’s reelection loss. The president is urging his followers to turn out that day in his desperate, last-ditch effort to stay in the White House. A number of people were stabbed, four critically, near the Hotel Harrington in clashes Dec. 12 between the Proud Boys and counterprotesters at the last demonstration in support of Trump. The Proud Boys are known to stay at the hotel and congregate in Harry’s, the hotel bar. The 106-year-old hotel, the city’s oldest, issued a statement Sunday saying it will be closed Jan. 4, 5 and 6 for the “safety of visitors and employees.” https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/hotel-harrington-closed-proud-boys-january-6-052548112.html

Nashville Suicide Bomber Anthony Quinn Warner’s Cop-Hating ‘Hippie’ Past. “He was kind of a hippie. Had long hair, a Magnum, P.I. mustache... He was a smart, cocky kind of guy.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/alleged-nashville-bomber-anthony-quinn-warner-hated-cops-and-loved-weed-former-co-worker

Nashville blast suspect died in explosion, police say. https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-tennessee-blast-idUKKBN2910M8

Anthony Quinn Warner Named as Nashville Bombing Person of Interest. https://heavy.com/news/anthony-quinn-warner/

As lawmakers meet, protesters attempt to storm Capitol building. Roughly 200 protesters gathered outside of the Capitol as lawmakers convened for the year’s third special session to address issues created by the Covid pandemic. A group attempted to forcibly disrupt the session, smashing windows, blocking streets, assaulting journalists and spraying unidentified chemicals on police. https://www.salemreporter.com/posts/3322/as-lawmakers-meet-protesters-attempt-to-storm-capitol-building

How a Trump booster group helped the head of extremist Proud Boys gain access to the White House. Several hours before members of the extremist group the Proud Boys clashed with police and opponents on the streets of Washington, D.C., last weekend, the head of the group was strolling the halls of power. "Last minute invite to an undisclosed location," Enrique Tarrio wrote on the social media site Parler, posting photos on the steps of the White House. Latinos for Trump president Bianca Gracia's Facebook page shows her attending White House events in August 2019, October 2019 and April 2020. A photo from November 2019 shows Tarrio standing, grinning, next to Donald Trump Jr. https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-booster-group-helped-head-110046328.html

MAGA protesters damage historic Black church in DC. https://www.fox5dc.com/news/maga-protesters-damage-historic-black-church-in-dc

After pro-Trump rallies, Proud Boys roam D.C. terrorizing people in mob violence, stabbings reported. XENI JARDIN 6:43 PM SAT DEC 12, 2020. https://boingboing.net/2020/12/12/after-pro-trump-rallies-hundreds-of-proud-boys-roam-d-c-terrorizing-people-at-night.html

Kenosha Shooter Kyle Rittenhouse’s MAGA-Loving Defense Team Implodes. Two of Rittenhouse’s defense attorneys withdrew after complaints from prosecutors. Another Rittenhouse ally has turned his focus to election lawsuits. From the start of the high-profile case, Rittenhouse’s lawyers have attracted nearly as much attention as he has. Now, the 17-year-old’s main lawyer, John Pierce, is off the case, after prosecutors argued that fundraisers for Rittenhouse could act as a “slush fund” for the embattled attorney. Another prominent attorney who has associated himself with Rittenhouse, Lin Wood, also appears to have pivoted away from the case in order to focus his efforts on overturning President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss. https://www.thedailybeast.com/kenosha-shooter-kyle-rittenhouses-maga-loving-defense-team-implodes

Video shows Fairfax resident confronting man pasting swastika stickers around town. An out-of-town visitor wandered through town putting up stickers of swastikas Tuesday until a local, 21 year-old Noah Mohan, confronted him. A video of the encounter has spread on social media. "Let me see your stickers? Why you putting that up in my f---ing town, bro?" he asks in the video. "Putting up Nazi stickers in Fairfax? Let me see your face, bro. You keep putting them up and I will keep ripping them off." Fairfax police confirm the man in the photos and the video is a 19-year-old from Livermore. Despite detaining him, they will not yet release his identity. On Wednesday, the police forwarded charges to the Marin County District Attorney for hate crimes and vandalism. https://abc7news.com/society/bay-area-resident-confronts-man-putting-up-swastika-stickers/8262638/

The QAnon Congresswomen, Who've Threatened the Squad With Physical Violence, Want to Carry Guns At the Capitol. Newly elected members of Congress haven’t even started yet, but that hasn’t stopped QAnon fans Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene from pulling a bit of a stunt—one that’s a good preview of what their wild and, god willing, brief time in Congress may look like. As the Associated Press reported, Boebert—whose successful campaign was built heavily around her outsized love of guns and who owns a gimmicky restaurant in Colorado where staff famously openly carry firearms—has asked officials if she can carry her beloved Glock on Capitol Hill. https://theslot.jezebel.com/the-qanon-congresswomen-whove-threatened-the-squad-wit-1845746200

Kyle Rittenhouse says he used coronavirus stimulus check to buy AR-15 used in fatal shooting. "No, I don’t regret it," Rittenhouse told the Washington Post of the deadly incident in Kenosha. "I feel like I had to protect myself." https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kyle-rittenhouse-says-he-used-coronavirus-stimulus-check-buy-ar-n1248290

Disturbing new details in alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. New filings claim there was a Plan B the militiamen had drawn up, that involved a takeover of the Michigan capitol building by 200 combatants who would stage a week-long series of televised executions of public officials. And, according to government documents now on file in lower Michigan court, there was also a Plan C -- burning down the state house, leaving no survivors. https://abc7chicago.com/michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer-kidnapping-plot-militia/8079861/

Police riots and violence, collaboration, disinformation, propaganda, and lies

Last November, the Claremont Institute hosted its inaugural class of “Sheriff Fellows.” Over the course of a week, eight sheriffs—all white men—chosen from the more than 3,000 in the country stayed at the Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach, California, attending a series of discussions, lectures, and fireside chats steeped in the far-right-wing think tank’s heady intellectualism and radical ideology. While the Claremont Institute restricted public access to the fellowship, a review of the fellowship’s previously unreported curriculum reveals a program that presented for the sheriffs two sets of people in America: those communities sheriffs should police as freely and brutally as they see fit, and those “real” Americans who should be considered virtually above the law. Sheriff Kim Cole of Mason County, Michigan, was recruited through Hillsdale College, whose chairman, Pat Sajak, took controversial positions against stay-at-home orders early in the pandemic and was recently photographed with anti-vaxxer Marjorie Taylor Greene. A Claremont program director explained the reason for the invitation in an email to Cole: “In our research on who to extend invitations to we took recommendations from friend [sic] of the institute and organizations but one thing that I know stood out to us about your leadership in these times has been how you courageously stood up to unconstitutional covid mandates.” During the peak of COVID deaths, Cole appeared regularly on Fox News to critique Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home orders and signed a letter promising not to enforce COVID protections that said, in part, “We believe that we are the last line of defense in protecting your civil liberties.” https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/09/claremont-institute-secret-sheriff-fellowship-curriculum-revealed.html

Police riots and violence, collaboration, disinformation, propaganda, and lies. Archived September 22, 2022

Intervening bystander in Karen Garner arrest recognized as only one who 'did the right thing'. On June 26, 2020 — the day 73-year-old Karen Garner was forcibly arrested by Loveland police officers — Reidesel Mendoza was “the sole person that did the right thing.” Garner was walking home when officer Austin Hopp stopped her. About 30 seconds after Hopp got out of his car, he forced Garner to the ground and tried to arrest her. Another officer — Daria Jalali — arrived shortly after to help Hopp restrain Garner. Sgt. Philip Metzler arrived after the two officers got Garner in one of their patrol cars. Mendoza saw how the officers were treating Garner and decided he needed to intervene. “Do you have to use that much aggression,” Mendoza could be heard saying to Hopp in Hopp’s body camera footage, released to the public by an attorney who represented Garner's family in a civil lawsuit filed against the city. Hopp then told him to “get out of here, this is not your business,” and further explained, “this is what happens when you fight the police.” Later, in a conversation between Mendoza and Metzler on the scene captured on Metzler's body camera footage, Mendoza said, ““when you see a person walking and the next thing you see is a cop throwing them to the ground without her using force or nothing, what’s going to be your reaction?” “I’m not sure but usually I would think that the police have a reason to arrest her,” Metzler replied, and repeatedly told Mendoza he didn’t have all the information so he can’t judge the officers’ actions. https://www.yahoo.com/news/intervening-bystander-karen-garner-arrest-181638909.html

Moment off-duty Chicago cop kneels on 14-year-old boy's back after mistakenly accusing him of stealing a bike The incident saw the unnamed officer press his knee on the kid's back while outstretched on the floor, was caught on film - and has since sparked outrage https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10980597/Moment-duty-police-officer-bodyslams-boy-14-ground-pins-knee-back.html

The Police Are Not Here to Save You. A number of horrifying recent incidents across the U.S. are a grim reminder that cops do not have a constitutional duty to protect people. Three Tempe, Arizona, police officers are on paid leave after body camera footage and a transcript were released showing them standing by as a man drowned in front of them. The police had been responding to a call on May 28 about a dispute between the man, Sean Bickings, who was Black and unhoused, and his wife. Bickings climbed into the lake and began to say he was drowning, to which one cop replied, “​​OK, I’m not jumping in after you.” https://www.vice.com/en/article/akewa8/the-police-are-not-here-to-save-you

https://www.odmp.org/search/year?year=2021

MPD Political Extremism Powerpoint Spotlights Antifa and Boogaloo. Unicorn Riot has obtained documents used to train Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) staff on political extremism. The training presentation is entitled “Political Extremists / Anarchists, a brief summary of groups that border the line between protest and domestic terrorism.” The MPD documents discuss the so-called Boogaloo movement as well as the anti-fascist movement known commonly as Antifa. The training materials prepared by an MPD intelligence analyst reveal their targeting of individuals for expressing political speech. Additionally, the MPD demonstrates a misunderstanding of Antifa as well as the threat posed by Boogaloo members. https://unicornriot.ninja/2022/mpd-political-extremism-powerpoint-spotlights-antifa-and-boogaloo/

Bias, far-right sympathies among California law enforcement going unchecked, audit finds. A state audit of five law enforcement agencies in California found bias among officers toward people of color, immigrants, women and LGBTQ people, as well as a smattering of support for far-right extremist organizations such as the Proud Boys and Three Percenters. The audit also found the agencies had insufficient policies in place to safeguard against such attitudes within their ranks, to investigate them when they are alleged or to address them once identified, according to a report issued by the state auditor’s office this week. “As a result, these departments are at a higher risk of being unaware of and unable to effectively address the ways in which their officers exhibit bias,” the audit found. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-04-28/audit-of-california-law-enforcement-finds-extreme-bias-among-officers-goes-unchecked

A cop thought he could intimidate a bike rider. Big mistake https://boingboing.net/2022/03/18/a-cop-thought-he-could-intimidate-a-bike-rider-big-mistake.html

Police shot dead a record 1,055 people last year - the highest number in SEVEN years: Black people killed at twice the rate as white The Washington Post on Thursday released the latest analysis from its database of fatal police shootings in the United States The number of people killed by officers was the highest since they began keeping records seven years ago, with 1,055 dying in 2021 In 2020 the figure was 1,021, which criminologists say is not a statistically significantly change with 2021 The most affected people were young black men, and 14 percent had known mental health struggles Three quarters of those killed were armed with a gun or a knife - 632 had a firearm, and 154 had a knife California had the most fatal police shootings, with 141, while Rhode Island only had one https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10500759/Police-shot-dead-record-1-055-people-2021-young-black-men-disproportionate-majority.html

Portland police training material included far-right meme. The text on the image known as the “Prayer of the Alt Knight” references violence against a “dirty hippy” and is attributed to “Based Stickman,” an alias of far-right activist Kyle Chapman, who founded a subset of the far-right Proud Boys group, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. The meme “is only coming to light because plaintiffs stood up to the City and sued them,” said attorney Juan Chavez, one of the lawyers representing Don’t Shoot Portland. https://apnews.com/article/police-portland-ted-wheeler-82f27c5a87a3187fc95c4de55f63ce84 https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1299796-based-stickman

The U.S. Cops Suckered by Foreign Spies With Honeytraps, Blackmail and Luxury Vacations. Foreign intelligence agencies around the world are itching to recruit U.S. police officers to do their bidding in America—and they’ve had success doing so in the past. The FBI has spent “two decades trying to warn state local law enforcement,” Evanina said, with the help of national law enforcement organizations. But it’s been an uphill battle, with some 18,000 police departments across the country, most with little clue to the designs of foreign adversaries or the resources to vet them. They’re easy prey for foreign agents pretending to be regular, friendly police officers. “I can no longer count the number of chiefs of police or assistant chiefs in this country I've run into who tell me they've been to Turkey and it's a beautiful place,” Figliuzzi said, ruefully. https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-american-cops-suckered-by-foreign-spies-with-honeytraps-blackmail-and-luxury-vacations

To veteran attorneys, Potter verdict comes as a surprise, hints of change. Lawyers surprised jury convicted Potter on both counts, wonder about possible turning point in policing standards. The convictions will be appealed, but Brown and Gaertner didn't point to any obvious issues that would allow the case to be overturned. Also, Gaertner noted that by law, appellate judges "give great deference to juries with front row seats to the facts." Orput said of the appellate court: "They're going to carefully look at the elements of the crime without a lot of drama imposed." The lawyers agreed the verdict sent a message. "Now cops know if they screw up — and it doesn't have to be death — they can go to prison," Brown said. "It's called the rule of law." https://www.startribune.com/to-veteran-attorneys-potter-verdict-comes-as-a-surprise-hints-of-change/600129974/

‘Oh My God, I’m Scared’: New York Man’s Request for Supervisor Quickly Turned Into Violent Traffic Stop Caught on Video, Now He’s Suing Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. things soon turn took a violent turn when he could not find the registration and the deputies asked him step out of the vehicle. Olivas said in the interview that when he responded by asking to speak to a supervisor the deputies attacked him. His suit says he was hit several times and restrained him to the point that he couldn’t breathe. “After slamming me on the hood of his vehicle, he started to Mace me near my face.” Olivas said, noting that at times he almost lost consciousness. “Oh my God, I’m scared.’ I’m just trying not to do anything to make them think I’m trying to struggle or fight,” he recalled of the incident. The man claims the incident left him with permanent brain and emotional trauma. https://news.yahoo.com/oh-god-m-scared-york-174100874.html

Prosecutor Going After Antifa Peddled Antisemitic George Soros Conspiracies. San Diego DA Summer Stephan, who is bringing a conspiracy case against leftist protesters, once paid for a website that accused George Soros of funding anti-fascists. San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan has brought a sweeping new conspiracy case against left-wing protesters who counter-demonstrated at a pro-Trump rally in San Diego on Jan. 9. The result was a beachside brawl, during which rallygoers on the right flashed a knife and a BB gun and protesters on the left fired pepper spray. But rather than result in simple assault charges, Stephan is pressing conspiracy charges—and only against demonstrators on the left. https://www.thedailybeast.com/san-diego-prosecutor-going-after-antifa-once-peddled-antisemitic-george-soros-conspiracies

A 29-year-old man who was charged in connection with a heated skirmish with San Diego police officers during a protest last year was acquitted of all charges Thursday. A San Diego Superior Court jury found Denzel Draughn not guilty of eight felonies: two counts of using tear gas on officers and six counts of resisting officers. Prosecutors contented that Draughn pepper sprayed 11 officers during the protest against police violence in downtown San Diego on Aug. 28, 2020. One officer was blinded for roughly 40 minutes. Deputy Public Defender Damian Lowe told jurors Draughn sprayed the officers because he saw a group of them tackling a man to the ground, then punching and kicking him. District Attorney Summer Stephan’s office declined to comment Thursday on the acquittal. In early September, after Draughn was charged, Stephan issued a statement that said, in part: “Protesting is an inalienable right recognized by the U.S. Constitution. Rioting, burning down businesses and assaulting peace officers are crimes that will be prosecuted. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/courts/story/2021-12-09/protester-acquitted-on-charges-of-resisting-officers-in-skirmish-with-san-diego-police-officers

“I join community leaders in calling for unity and peace, not violence and chaos, while we work together to build racial equity and destroy hate.”

A U.S. Capitol Police officer has been indicted on obstruction of justice charges after prosecutors say he helped to hide evidence of a rioter’s involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection. The officer, Michael A. Riley, is accused of tipping off someone who participated in the riot by telling them to remove posts from Facebook that had showed the person inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack, according to court documents. https://apnews.com/article/riots-capitol-siege-indictments-obstruction-of-justice-36f12a272f9b955e6524aa1d8e55776e

Between now and November 2022, you will likely hear a lot about an alleged crime wave that is sweeping the country. Many Republicans are already keying in on the issue, including Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), who authored a piece about crime for Breitbart. The article is accompanied by pictures of people committing various property crimes. You might be surprised to learn that, according to FBI data cited by Cotton, property crime declined significantly in 2020. It continues a decades-long trend of fewer property crimes. The same FBI data shows that, overall, crime decreased. But violent crime did go up about 5%. Is that a "crime wave"? Let's put last year's increase in violent crime in context. https://popular.info/p/the-truth-about-crime-in-america

Hacked Oath Keepers Records Show Active Members Of Law Enforcement And The Military Tried To Join The Group After Jan. 6. The records from 2020 and 2021 also reveal a chaotic organization with hundreds of people demanding to cancel their memberships. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kenbensinger/oath-keepers-hacked-emails

Fatal police violence by race and state in the USA, 1980–2019: a network meta-regression. Across all races and states in the USA, we estimate 30,800 deaths (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 30,300–31,300) from police violence between 1980 and 2018; this represents 17,100 more deaths (16 600–17 600) than reported by the NVSS. Over this time period, the age-standardised mortality rate due to police violence was highest in non-Hispanic Black people (0·69 [95% UI 0·67–0·71] per 100,000), followed by Hispanic people of any race (0·35 [0·34–0·36]), non-Hispanic White people (0·20 [0·19–0·20]), and non-Hispanic people of other races (0·15 [0·14– 0·16]). This variation is further affected by the decedent's sex and shows large discrepancies between states. Between 1980 and 2018, the NVSS did not report 55·5% (54·8–56·2) of all deaths attributable to police violence. When aggregating all races, the age-standardised mortality rate due to police violence was 0·25 (0·24–0·26) per 100 000 in the 1980s and 0·34 (0·34–0·35) per 100,000 in the 2010s, an increase of 38·4% (32·4–45·1) over the period of study. We found that more than half of all deaths due to police violence that we estimated in the USA from 1980 to 2018 were unreported in the NVSS. Compounding this, we found substantial differences in the age-standardised mortality rate due to police violence over time and by racial and ethnic groups within the USA. Proven public health intervention strategies are needed to address these systematic biases. State-level estimates allow for appropriate targeting of these strategies to address police violence and improve its reporting. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01609-3/fulltext

What Black People Saw When Border Patrol Whipped Haitians on Horseback. For many Black Americans, images of Border Patrol agents on horseback chasing down Haitian migrants reopened old but familiar wounds. https://www.vice.com/en/article/wx5mnz/border-patrol-whips-haitians-black-community-reactions

Capitol Police officers face discipline for selfies with rioters, internal documents show. A Capitol Police officer facing disciplinary action told investigators that he posed for a photo with a suspect during the Jan. 6 riot in order to identify him later. But the officer never shared that plan with his supervisor, the Capitol Police’s investigations unit or the FBI. It was only when the FBI contacted the Capitol Police about the officer’s photo in Facebook posts they were using to obtain an arrest warrant that the officer filled in his supervisors, according to internal investigation documents obtained by McClatchy. In addition to the cases of unbecoming conduct, a special agent in the department’s Protective Services Bureau faces disciplinary action on an allegation of improper dissemination of information. The allegation stems from a conversation the officer had with a friend the week after the riot in which he allegedly revealed information about the secure location he helped evacuate lawmakers to during the riot. The friend, who is referred to as “ANONYMOUS” in the documents, called the FBI tip line to report the conversation and expressed concerns that the agent subscribed to Trump’s election conspiracy theories. “I don’t want to report a friend of forty years but he’s says enough concerning statements that I feel like I need to do this... he’s just fallen into this cult and these beliefs,” the documents quote the anonymous friend as saying in a subsequent interview with Capitol Police. The agent denied that he was sympathetic to the cause of the rioters, but he acknowledged that he may have inadvertently shared information about the secure location. https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article254245798.html

Philadelphia to pay $2M to Black woman beaten by officers, separated from toddler during unrest. Officers smashed Rickia Young's windows with batons when she unknowingly drove into a protest. The union later claimed on social media that officers rescued her "lost" toddler. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1279134 https://twitter.com/pefrase/status/1437933700973535236

A $3 Million Deal Is Reached In The Rough Arrest Of A 73-Year-Old Woman With Dementia. Then-Officer Austin Hopp arrested Karen Garner after she left a store without paying for about $14 worth of items in Loveland, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Denver. Police body camera video shows that after she turned away from him, he grabbed her arm and pushed her to the ground. A federal lawsuit that Garner filed claimed he dislocated her shoulder by shoving her handcuffed left arm forward onto the hood of a patrol car. City Manager Steve Adams apologized to Garner and her family in the announcement of the proposed settlement, which was confirmed by Garner's lawyer, Sarah Schielke. "The settlement with Karen Garner will help bring some closure to an unfortunate event in our community but does not upend the work we have left to do," Adams said. https://www.npr.org/2021/09/08/1035236585/woman-dementia-colorado-arrest-settlement

Revealed: how California police chased a nonexistent ‘antifa bus’. Authorities in rural northern counties spread misinformation and launched aircraft surveillance in response to false rumors about antifa ‘infiltrators’, according to records obtained by the Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/23/revealed-california-police-antifa-misinformation

San Diego Sheriff Releases Details On Disputed Fentanyl Video, But Questions Remain. https://www.kpbs.org/news/2021/aug/10/sd-sheriff-releases-more-details-disputed-fentanyl/

Emails Reveal Cops Fanned Flames as FBI Debunked Antifa Hoax. On Sept. 11, 2020, the same day the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a statement dismissing rumors that leftist activists were starting wildfires in Oregon, a sheriff in Washington state sent a very different message to other members of law enforcement. “One of the methods Antifa is using to start fire’s,is to take a mason jar with tinder placed inside the jar, put it in brush with the lid open, so the hot sun light will create a slow start which allows them to be out of the area before the smoke appears [sic],” Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer wrote in an email to officials throughout the state. The white bus being driven by suspected Antifa/BLM has been spotted at events in Sequim, Seattle, Coeur d'Alene, Spokane and now Moses Lake. September 2020 email from Sheriff Bob Songer. To his knowledge, he told The Daily Beast in an interview, his department has done nothing to correct the record. https://www.thedailybeast.com/washington-sheriffs-in-counties-like-klickitat-spread-hoax-of-antifa-wildfires-emails-show

Two state legislators sue NYPD over being pepper sprayed, detained during George Floyd protests. State Senator Zellnor Myrie and State Assemblywoman Diana Richardson filed the suit in Brooklyn Federal Court Monday over a May 29, 2020, incident during which the two were pepper sprayed and Myrie was handcuffed and detained during a clash between protesters and cops in Brooklyn. The suit was filed against the city, the mayor, police brass, and five NYPD officers who allegedly took part in the pepper spraying and arrests. Myrie even texted then Commanding Officer of Brooklyn North Jeffrey Maddrey, to give his contact info and say he would be at the protest, the suit says. After Myrie was cuffed, he was not released until an NYPD officer recognized him. Then, Maddrey came over to him and ordered the officers to undo the zip ties that were restraining him, the suit says. https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-zellnor-myrie-diana-richardson-lawsuit-nypd-20210628-r552wptmp5ec5b65wume66ik6y-story.html

Cop Flips Pregnant Woman's Car While She Tries To Pull Over Safely. An Arkansas State Police trooper used a PIT maneuver on a woman who had allegedly been speeding. Dunn says she fled, Harper clams she was trying to find a safe place to stop on a section of interstate that has a reduced shoulder. Dash camera video from Dunn’s patrol car showed Harper pulled into the right lane, slowed down, and turned on hazards. Less than two minutes after turning on his blue lights, Dunn performed a PIT maneuver, which caused Harper’s car to crash into the concrete median and flip. https://jalopnik.com/cop-flips-pregnant-womans-while-she-tries-to-pull-over-1847062704

A new investigation from the Trace shows that the ATF rarely enforces the law. https://boingboing.net/2021/06/04/a-new-investigation-from-the-trace-shows-that-the-atf-rarely-enforces-the-law.html

MPD attorney: Department used tear gas on Lafayette Park protesters in June 2020. Attorney Richard Sobiecki explained for the first time why MPD used tear gas against protesters fleeing federal police, though he did not say what exactly was used. In a federal court hearing Friday, MPD’s attorney gave reasons for why the department used tear gas and other chemical irritants on protesters “The curfew, violence of past nights, chaos created by federal defendants, discharge of tear gas in that direction was not unreasonable," attorney Richard Sobiecki, representing MPD, said. Sobiecki added that because its officers “did not target specific protesters,” their constitutional rights were not violated. "They suggested at various points they were encouraging people to move south on 17th street," Scott Michelman, DC ACLU's lead attorney for the protesters, said. "And that was encouraging via tear gas. That day was scarring in multiple ways, just in terms of the unexpected nature of the attack, the brutality of it, and the betrayal that many of them felt." https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/investigations/mpd-admits-it-tear-gassed-protesters-june-2020/65-b91a5d65-b683-4e22-b30a-7a740e9cf61d

Chauvin guilty of murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death. Chauvin, 45, was immediately led away with his hands cuffed behind his back and could be sent to prison for decades. https://apnews.com/article/derek-chauvin-trial-live-updates-04-20-2021-955a78df9a7a51835ad63afb8ce9b5c1

‘It stood out to me as egregious’: Protesters, others allege LAPD violence at Echo Park sweep. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-30/protesters-others-allege-lapd-violence-at-echo-park-protests

Latino Man Who Escaped Atlanta Spa Shooting Handcuffed for Two Hours While Wife Died Inside. “He kept asking, ‘Where’s my wife? Where’s my wife?’ and nobody would give him an answer,” the niece said. “He didn’t get any answers until a couple hours later.” Others tried to tell the officers that González wasn’t lying about his identity but the cops didn’t seem to care. Someone who worked next door even recognized Mario González. “I know,” is all a police officer said when he was told that González’s wife was inside. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/03/mario-gonzalez-atlanta-spa-shooting-handcuffs.html

Police Shrugged Off the Proud Boys, Until They Attacked the Capitol. Two Proud Boys accused of leading a mob to Congress followed a bloody path to get there. Law enforcement did little to stop them. A protester was burning an American flag outside the 2016 Republican convention in Cleveland when Joseph Biggs rushed to attack. Jumping a police line, he ripped the man’s shirt off and “started pounding,” he boasted that night in an online video. But the local police charged the flag burner with assaulting Mr. Biggs. The city later paid $225,000 to settle accusations that the police had falsified their reports out of sympathy with Mr. Biggs, who went on to become a leader of the far-right Proud Boys. Two years later, in Portland, Ore., something similar occurred. A Proud Boy named Ethan Nordean was caught on video pushing his way through a crowd of counterprotesters, punching one of them, then slamming him to the ground, unconscious. Once again, the police charged only the other man in the skirmish, accusing him of swinging a baton at Mr. Nordean. Now, Mr. Biggs, 37, and Mr. Nordean, 30, are major targets in a federal investigation that prosecutors on Thursday said could be “one of the largest in American history.” They face some of the most serious charges stemming from the attack on the U.S. Capitol in January: leading a mob of about 100 Proud Boys in a coordinated plan to disrupt the certification of President Donald J. Trump’s electoral defeat. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/14/us/proud-boys-law-enforcement.html

The police officer whose head was smashed in a doorway by pro-Trump mob at US Capitol was injured and will be out of work 'for a while'. Video from the riots on Wednesday shows a crazed pro-Trump mob barking as they crushed the head of a law enforcement officer between doors at the US Capitol. The rioters pulled on the officer's gas mask, push him, and hit him in the face. The video was filmed by Jon Farina for the outlet Status Coup. https://www.yahoo.com/news/video-capitol-shows-pro-trump-200949954.html

Rampage Weighs on Congressional Staff Members and Capitol Workers. The violence caused by a pro-Trump mob on Wednesday has shaken many who work at the Capitol. And some people of color say the law enforcement response reopened old wounds. on Sept. 11, 2001, when, he said, the police did not even inform kitchen workers of the terrorist threat to the Capitol, let alone evacuate them. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/us/politics/capitol-rampage-congressional-staff.html

The Collectible Coins That Celebrate the Dark Side of American Policing. Challenge coins have become the dirty currency of the warrior cop. https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2021/01/police-challenge-coins/

Lawsuits: Police beat and falsely arrested marcher and photographer during protests. Denver Foote and Mark 'Ted' Nieters, both of Des Moines, are suing the city and individual officers involved in their arrests, which took place May 31 and June 1 amid widespread protests that in some cases broke into looting and vandalism. Both lawsuits were filed Wednesday in state court by Des Moines attorney Gina Messamer, who has been involved in a number of civil and criminal cases alleging misconduct by local law enforcement officers. Nieters and Foote are seeking compensation for injuries and other losses as well as damages for libel and violations of their constitutional rights. Both were charged with crimes related to the protests that later were dismissed for lack of evidence, according to court records. In an interview, Foote told the Des Moines Register that the attack by the officers left her in fear for her life. "I just remember saying ‘I'm not resisting,’ and they kept hitting me," she said. "I literally thought I was going to be another person who died at the hands of the police, which was really terrifying." https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2020/12/24/des-moines-police-accused-beatings-false-arrests-george-floyd-protests/4038594001/

How Cities Lost Control of Police Discipline. In the chaos of 1960s Detroit, a fledgling police union laid the groundwork for a system that, to this day, constrains discipline for officers accused of misconduct. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/us/police-misconduct-discipline.html

US Police have stolen $68 billion in the past 20 years from American citizens without due process. The nonprofit Institute for Justice has just released the 3rd edition of its Policing For Profit report, examining the abuses of civil asset forfeiture by local police across the United States. According to their data, local police departments have seized more than $68 billion dollars worth of personal property without due process over the last 20 years. In fact, since 2014, police have been stealing more than actual burglars—and most of that came from people who hadn't been convicted of a crime. https://boingboing.net/2020/12/21/us-police-have-stolen-68-billion-in-the-past-20-years-from-american-citizens-without-due-process.html

BODYCAM VIDEO SHOWS ‘MOB MENTALITY’ OF BOSTON POLICE WHO RESPONDED TO GEORGE FLOYD PROTESTS, LAWYER SAYS. Hours of video given exclusively to The Appeal show police officers bragging about attacking protesters and multiple instances of excessive force and the liberal use of pepper spray. Many officers wore body cameras. During the unrest, the cameras recorded hours of footage that the department subsequently stored. That footage was given to attorney Carl Williams, who is representing some protesters arrested that night, as part of a discovery file encompassing 44 videos and over 66 hours of footage. Williams assembled a team of volunteer lawyers and law students to pore over the videos to find exculpatory evidence for his clients. What they found, however, was something more. The hours of video, given exclusively to The Appeal by Williams, show police officers bragging about attacking protesters, targeting nonviolent demonstrators for violence and possible arrest, discussing arrest quotas and the use of cars as weapons, and multiple instances of excessive force and liberal use of pepper spray. “It’s this mob mentality,” Williams said of the police behavior. “And I use ‘mob’ as a sort of a double entendre—mob like the mafia and mob like a group of a pack of wild people roaming the streets looking to attack people.” https://theappeal.org/bodycam-video-shows-mob-mentality-of-boston-police-who-responded-to-george-floyd-protests-lawyer-says/

Woman shot with police beanbag round during La Mesa protest sues the officer who shot her. A woman partially blinded by a police beanbag round during a protest in La Mesa in late May has sued the officer who fired the round, accusing him of battery. In a lawsuit filed in San Diego Superior Court last week, Leslie Furcron also claims Detective Eric Knudson inflicted emotional distress and violated her First Amendment right to protest. Among other allegations, the lawsuit contends Knudson violated the Police Department’s policies and standard law enforcement practices, alleging he fired a beanbag round into a large crowd at a long distance and aimed at Furcron’s head instead of her arms or legs. The city, also named as a defendant, declined to comment on the allegations. City Manager Greg Humora said Knudson, a 12-year-veteran of the police force, remained on administrative leave as of Monday. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/story/2020-12-14/woman-shot-with-police-beanbag-round-during-la-mesa-protest-sues-the-officer-who-shot-her

Addressing Law Enforcement Violence as a Public Health Issue https://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy/public-health-policy-statements/policy-database/2019/01/29/law-enforcement-violence

Religion, Christofascism, Anti Choice American Morality Police

How a Secretive Far-Right Network Attacks Abortion Rights Across the Globe. An unlikely alliance of the U.S. Christian right, militant European Catholics, and even sanctioned Russian oligarchs are working to undermine reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights around the world. CitizenGO is an online community that claims to “promote life, family, and liberty.” It is also the main online outlet for an unlikely coalition of the U.S. Christian right, militant European Catholics, Russian orthodox hardliners and even sanctioned oligarchs, all working in a concerted campaign to undermine reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights around the world. The group was founded in 2013 by Ignacio Arsuaga, a far-right Madrid lawyer. He had previously established HazteOir to promote a hardline Christian agenda in Spain, but CitizenGO was built for a global crusade. The organisation’s key link to Russian oligarchs is Alexey Komov, who has served as a board member and is a leading campaigner against abortion and LGBTQ+ rights in Russia. He has made no secret of his aims, or where his support comes from. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/far-right-network-attacks-lgbtq-abortion-rights-1234587997/

A Pennsylvania anti-abortion protester was arrested Friday for allegedly shoving a 72-year-old volunteer patient escort to the ground, according to an indictment unsealed in Philadelphia federal court. Prosecutors say Mark Houck, 47, was picketing outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Philly last October when he attacked the senior, who was helping two patients into the facility. The extent of the victim’s injuries are not specified, but the indictment states the person “required medical attention.” Houck, whose website describes him as “an author, lecturer, radio host, activist and passionate Catholic” who previously worked as a “full-time chastity educator,” now faces felony charges. He does not have a lawyer listed in court records. https://www.thedailybeast.com/philadelphia-anti-abortion-protester-mark-houck-charged-with-injuring-volunteer-at-planned-parenthood-clinic https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22924312-houck-indictment

A well-known forced-birth author and sidewalk counselor was arrested in front of his children after the Department of Justice ordered a SWAT raid on his house for alleged violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, according to a report from LifeSiteNews. Mark Houck, a father of seven, drove two hours to Philadelphia every Wednesday to speak outside of abortion clinics for six to eight hours at a time, his wife, Ryan-Marie Houck, told the outlet. https://news.yahoo.com/pro-life-activist-arrested-swat-171717669.html

Pagan and witchcraft festivals confront growing Christian harassment. “There were about 30 [evangelists] this year,” said Starr RavenHawk, an elder and priestess of the New York City Wiccan Family Temple and organizer of WitchsFest USA, a street fair held in the city’s West Village in mid-July. The Christian group took up a prominent position on one street corner as the festival began at 10 a.m. and began talking to attendees and preaching into amplification devices. Among them, RavenHawk said she recognized members of the New York City chapter of Christ’s Forgiveness Ministries, a Toronto organization that had sent visitors before. After her security team asked the preachers to leave, RavenHawk called the police as she has done in past years. But, for the first time, the cops did nothing, she said. “The Christians say nobody is being bothered,” RavenHawk was reportedly told by the officers. In past years, officers would relocate the preachers to the far side of Astor Place, where they would continue without the use of speakers, which require a permit. This year, the Christian groups were allowed to remain at the festival with their sound amplification. According to RavenHawk, the officers called the preaching “freedom of speech.” It is unclear whether the groups had permits. One attendee, Soror Da Glorium Deo, said, “When the police had the opportunity to downgrade things by possibly escorting the troublemakers off the area, they chose not to de-escalate.” “[The officers] treated us as if we were invading the Christians’ space, as if they had more rights than we do,” RavenHawk said. “[The preachers] were loud, and they were carrying on. Of course it was disruptive.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2022/08/26/christians-pagans-harassment/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_source=twitter

“I am being attacked by the godless left because I said I’m a proud Christian nationalist,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote in a recent tweet. Two days later, she was hawking merch—a “Proud Christian Nationalist” T-shirt, for sale on her Instagram. “Share your love for our great nation with this shirt, available EXCLUSIVELY at the Official MTG Shop,” the caption said. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/08/christian-nationalist-identity-marjorie-taylor-greene.html https://uncivilreligion.org/home/index

Kenneth Copeland's Christofacist "Watchman Decree" is straight out of The Handmaid's Tale. https://boingboing.net/2022/07/14/kenneth-copelands-christofacist-watchman-decree-is-straight-out-of-the-handmaids-tale.html

Archbishop Cordileone bars Nancy Pelosi from Communion until she ends abortion support. Cordileone said on May 20 that the step was “purely pastoral, not political” and came after Pelosi, D-Calif., who has described herself as a “devout Catholic,” repeatedly rebuffed his efforts to reach out to her to discuss her abortion advocacy. Cordileone said that he sent the notification to Pelosi, “a member of our archdiocese,” on May 19. The Democratic leader did not immediately respond publicly to Cordileone’s announcement after it was released to the media Friday afternoon. In a 2008 interview with C-SPAN, Pelosi said being denied Communion would be “a severe blow,” describing herself at the time as a “regular communicant.” https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251305/archbishop-cordileone-nancy-pelosi-communion-abortion

How a San Diego Church Became a Nexus of Anti-Vaccine, Anti-COVID Lockdown and Right-wing Political Organizing. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Awaken has been at the center of a new movement of conservative activists. Some of the church’s leaders and supporters have become regulars at public meetings and the church itself has allied with political groups looking to recruit like-minded conservatives to run for office. Jurgen Matthesius, the lead pastor of Awaken Church, and his family flew into San Diego on July 4, 2005. As they looked out of the plane’s window they saw fireworks, and Matthesius joked with his sons that the explosions were meant to welcome their arrival. “They want (the United States) to be subject to a new world order,” Matthesius said in his thick Australian accent, but the tide was turning. “God said to me, ‘Do you see what’s happening in America?’” Matthesius claimed, the urgency of his words increasing with each utterance. “Do you see the patriots? Do you see the Trump flags? Do you see the ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ flags? Do you see the school boards?” https://voiceofsandiego.org/2022/05/16/how-a-san-diego-church-became-a-nexus-of-anti-vaccine-anti-covid-lockdown-and-right-wing-political-organizing/

Statement of Faith. In order to preserve the function and integrity of the Answers in Genesis (AiG) ministry (and its various attractions and outreaches, both domestic and international) in its mission to proclaim the absolute truth and authority of Scripture and to provide a biblical role model to our employees and to the global body of Christ, the community, and society at large, it is imperative that all persons employed by the AiG ministry in any capacity, or who serve as volunteers, should abide by and agree to our Statement of Faith and conduct themselves accordingly. https://answersingenesis.org/about/faith/

“Most non-evangelicals are not aware of the culture of evangelicalism and just how influential it is on ordinary evangelicals,” said Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation,” a New York Times bestseller released in 2020. The evangelical world remains confusing to many because it is 'invisible' to them, author says. “There's a whole universe out there that really forms the faith of ordinary evangelicals. And it is largely invisible to people outside this community,” Du Mez said in an interview on “The Long Game,” a Yahoo News podcast. “These sources are really formative for shaping their understanding of what is good and true.” One of the arguments in Du Mez’s book is that evangelical Christians believe that their worldview derives from the Bible, when it has in fact been shaped more by American popular culture. “They primarily identify as Bible-believing Christians. … That’s their brand,” she said, arguing that instead, it is “cultural and political allegiances [that] actually shape the ways in which they understand what is biblical.” https://www.yahoo.com/news/the-evangelical-world-remains-confusing-to-many-because-it-is-invisible-to-them-author-says-090029486.html

The Impatience of Job. The Torah story is perfect for our harrowing times. But we’ve been reading it all wrong. Job then utters a few enigmatic lines of Hebrew that scholars have struggled to translate for millennia: “al kayn em’as / v’nikham’ti al afar v’eyfer.” The King James Version gives those lines as “Wherefore I abhor myself / and repent in dust and ashes.” Historically, most other versions stab at something similar—though, as we will see, modern scholarship suggests some very different alternatives. So, Greenstein says, Job’s final words to God should be read as follows: That is why I am fed up: I take pity on “dust and ashes” [humanity]! Remember, for this statement, God praises Job’s honesty. Absent the book’s likely tacked-on epilogue, the Book of Job teaches that there is no final victory, no ultimate divine deliverance. As I think about how to respond to the concurrent cataclysms threatening the nation and the globe, I at least want to be Job—not a person with divine patience, but one who cares so much for his fellow mortals that he will spit acidic truth into the face of the Lord to the very end. What’s the alternative? Giving up? Waiting for oblivion? Such an attitude is its own kind of submissive patience. It’s understandable—but when things inevitably get even darker than they are today, it will be about as useful as waiting for God to save the day. What Job has given me is not exactly hope. But it’s something. https://slate.com/human-interest/2022/03/job-torah-story-despair-alternative-war-democracy-climate-apocalypse.html

Eric Trump, Flynn and other right-wing figures headline conference at San Marcos church. The national ReAwaken tour combines politics, religion and showmanship, prompting protest by other local faith leaders. Eric Trump, Roger Stone, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and other right-wing figures spoke at a conservative conference held at a San Marcos church this weekend, while other local faith leaders protested the event, calling it an anti-democratic movement that distorts Christianity. The Reawaken America conference, organized by Flynn and Thrivetime Show podcast host Clay Clark, was held at Awaken Church in San Marcos as part of a national tour. Other Awaken church locations made headlines during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when the county issued cease-and-desist notices ordering them to stop holding unmasked indoor services. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2022-03-12/reawaken-tour-san-marcos-church

The Unmaking of the White Christian Worldview. Recent surveys by PRRI, an organization I lead, reveal disturbing realities among white evangelical Protestants today: 61% believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump. And the idea of patriotism has taken a troubling turn: 68% believe Trump is a “true patriot,” and one in three believe that “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.” More than seven in ten deny that the history of slavery and discrimination in the U.S. has any bearing on economic inequalities between white and Black Americans today. White evangelicals are the religious group most likely to refuse COVID-19 vaccines and object to mask mandates. One in four are QAnon conspiracy believers. https://news.yahoo.com/unmaking-white-christian-worldview-110009548.html

A Pro-Trump Billboard with a Bible Verse Didn’t Even Get the Bible Verse Right. The verse on the billboard? That’s Isaiah 9:6. https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2021/09/18/a-pro-trump-billboard-with-a-bible-verse-didnt-even-get-the-bible-verse-right/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Christian prayer group and Native Americans face off at Ohio's Serpent Mound. Deputies were called Sunday when a Christian prayer group and Native Americans faced off Sunday at the Great Serpent Mound, the Native American national historic site in southern Ohio. The Native American leader who was there says they were trying to protect a sacred site that belonged to their ancestors. The leader of the prayer group says the mound is a place where dark energy is released into the world. "I'm not calling the Indians dark," Dave Daubenmire told The Enquirer. "This has nothing to do with the Indians." Led by Daubenmire, the group was there on the Winter Solstice "praying down (the) Satanic serpent mounds," according to the group's YouTube video recording the event titled "PAGANS TRY TO PREVENT PRAYER." https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/12/21/christian-prayer-group-and-native-americans-face-off-serpent-mound/3992503001/

Secular Agenda for the 117th Congress & Biden Administration. https://ffrf.org/uploads/legal/TheSecularAgendaBidenAdministration.pdf

Judiciary, SCOTUS, abortion

Revealed: leaked video shows Amy Coney Barrett’s secretive faith group drove women to tears. Wife of founder of People of Praise says members ‘were always crying’ during discussions about women’s subservience to men. Barrett has never addressed how the reversal of Roe might affect a woman’s life. But during oral argument in Dobbs v Jackson, the supreme court case that ultimately overturned Roe, Barrett referred specifically in questions to the availability of so-called “safe haven” laws across the US, which allow mothers to abandon newborns in designated locations without the risk of punishment. Barrett suggested that the availability of such legal protections for new mothers meant that while women might be forced to give birth if Roe were overturned, they would not necessarily be forced to become parents, or be burdened by parenthood. The line of reasoning was decried as “cruel and dangerous” by pro-choice activists and writers, who said that seeing safe haven laws as a viable replacement for reproductive choice ignored real health risks associated with pregnancy and childbirth, and ignored women’s rights to bodily autonomy. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/26/amy-coney-barrett-faith-group-people-of-praise

4,500 Tips About Kavanaugh Sexual Assault Were Punted to Trump White House, FBI Director Admits. Christopher Wray confirmed Thursday that the FBI sent thousands of tips to Trump's team, who then decided whom the FBI could interview in their probe. Whitehouse previously said in June, when it was first revealed how many tips the FBI actually received about Kavanaugh from its tip line, that it was obvious the investigation into Kavanaugh was fully rigged by Trump. “This long-delayed answer confirms how badly we were spun by Director Wray and the FBI in the Kavanaugh background investigation and hearing,” https://jezebel.com/4-500-tips-about-kavanaugh-sexual-assault-were-punted-t-1849374172

Alito’s Speech Mocking Foreign Leaders Has a Deeper, Darker Message. To the justice, “secular society” poses a threat to religious freedom—and state-sponsored indoctrination is the only solution. Last Thursday, Justice Samuel Alito gave a talk in Rome sponsored by the University of Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Initiative. His remarks, which can be viewed here, were ostensibly about religious liberty, but Alito also used them to showcase his comedy stylings. After a ten-year-old rape victim crossed state lines to terminate her pregnancy, and while miscarrying patients are bleeding out in Texas before being allowed to receive life-saving medical treatment, Alito thought the Rome speech was the right time and place to mock international criticism of his opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. It speaks volumes about Samuel Alito that, in the face of international outrage over the impact of this ruling on the lives of millions of women, he centered himself and his own feelings. His snarky little potshots at Prince Harry and Boris Johnson were not so much “jokes” about world leaders as personal petulance over international criticism, cloaked in the insistence that Alito doesn’t care what these world leaders think of him. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/07/alito-rome-religious-liberty-foreign-leaders-secularism.html

GOP Rep. Jim Jordan deletes tweet calling the story of a 10-year-old girl being raped 'another lie' after Ohio authorities charged a man in the case. On Wednesday, authorities charged Gershon Fuentes, 27, with rape, news that was first reported by The Columbus Post Dispatch. Law enforcement said that Fuentes admitted to raping the child on two occasions. DNA from the aborted fetus is also being tested to confirm if Fuentes forcibly impregnated the girl. The girl reportedly traveled to Indiana to receive the abortion at six weeks of pregnancy because of Ohio's new abortion laws. https://news.yahoo.com/gop-rep-jim-jordan-deletes-213558806.html

‘Operation Higher Court’: Inside the religious right’s efforts to wine and dine Supreme Court justices. A former evangelical leader details his group’s extensive program to influence Justices Thomas, Alito and Scalia through meals and entertainment. Rob Schenck, an evangelical minister who headed the Faith and Action group headquartered near the Supreme Court from 1995 to 2018, said he arranged over the years for about 20 couples to fly to Washington to visit with and entertain Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and the late Antonin Scalia. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/08/religious-right-supreme-court-00044739

SCOTUS Justices ‘Prayed With’ Her — Then Cited Her Bosses to End Roe. A right-wing evangelical activist was caught on tape bragging that she prayed with Supreme Court justices. The court’s majority cited a legal brief that her group filed while overturning Roe v. Wade. Peggy Nienaber, left, the vice president of the Faith & Liberty evangelical group, prays outside the Supreme Court in 2009. Next to her is the Rev. Rob Schenck, who led the group's predecessor organization, Faith and Action, for years before leaving in 2018. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/roe-supreme-court-justices-1378046/

Judiciary, SCOTUS, abortion. archived July 07, 2022

The Federalist Society: Architects of the American dystopia. The US Supreme Court has become nothing but an enforcer of the current conservative agenda – but how did we get here? The Federalist Society, as it is commonly known by the people who are even aware of its existence, started out in the 1980s as a debating society for conservative students at a handful of elite American law schools such as Yale and the University of Chicago. Initially, the main purpose of the organisation was to provide space for conservatives on university campuses to develop arguments against what they saw as domineering liberal interpretations of the law. The Federalist Society instead promoted an approach called “textualism” or “originalism”, which its proponents say interprets laws based on the plain meaning of their wording and the ways in which they were understood at the time they were passed. But as many other groups and societies started in the Reagan era, the Federalist Society quickly grew beyond its original role as a campus-based conservative discussion group. In a matter of a few decades, alongside the NRA, Family Research Council, the Heritage Foundation, and others, the Federalist Society became an expansive and extremely politically influential network counting among its members countless influential judges, attorneys and scholars. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/6/29/the-federalist-society-architects-of-the-american-dystopia

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas told his law clerks in the '90s that he wanted to serve for 43 years to make liberals' lives 'miserable'. In a conversation with his law clerks two years following his confirmation, The New York Times reported Thomas expressed his desire to serve on the court until the year 2034. "The liberals made my life miserable for 43 years," a former clerk remembered Thomas – who was 43 years old when confirmed – saying, according to The New York Times. "And I'm going to make their lives miserable for 43 years." https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/27/us/2-years-after-his-bruising-hearing-justice-thomas-can-rarely-be-heard.html https://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-justice-clarence-thomas-051733128.html

Legal claims shed light on founder of faith group tied to Amy Coney Barrett. Examination of People of Praise comes as supreme court seems poised to reverse Roe v Wade. The founder of the People of Praise, a secretive charismatic Christian group that counts the supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett as a member, was described in a sworn affidavit filed in the 1990s as exerting almost total control over one of the group’s female members, including making all decisions about her finances and dating relationships. The court documents also described alleged instances of a sexualized atmosphere in the home of the founder, Kevin Ranaghan, and his wife, Dorothy Ranaghan. The description of the Ranaghans and accusations involving their intimate behavior were contained in a 1993 proceeding in which a woman, Cynthia Carnick, said that she did not want her five minor children to have visitations with their father, John Roger Carnick, who was then a member of the People of Praise, in the Ranaghan household or in their presence, because she believed it was not in her children’s “best interest”. Cynthia Carnick also described inappropriate incidents involving the couple and the Ranaghan children. The matter was eventually settled between the parties. Barrett, 50, lived with Dorothy and Kevin Ranaghan in their nine-bedroom South Bend, Indiana, home while she attended law school, according to public records. The justice – who was then known as Amy Coney – graduated from Notre Dame Law School in 1997 and two years later married her husband, Jesse Barrett, who also appears to have lived in the Ranaghan household. There is no indication that Amy Coney Barrett lived in the house at the time when the Carnick children were visiting or witnessed any of the alleged behavior described in the court documents. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/06/people-of-praise-accused-child-abuse-amy-coney-barrett

Justice Clarence Thomas on Racial Inequality and the Supreme Court “What happened at the Court is tremendously bad,” remarked Justice Clarence Thomas about the recently-leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion that would strike down Roe v. Wade. Justice Thomas elaborated, saying that the leak does damage to the rule of law and institutions in general. “You can’t have a civil society--a free society--without a stable legal system,” he added. His remarks came during an interview at the Old Parkland Conference in Dallas. He also discussed other issues including free speech at colleges and universities, the influence that his mentor Thomas Sowell had on him, his disagreement on always abiding by legal precedent, and his disapproval of protests that happen near public officials' homes. https://www.c-span.org/video/?517582-1/justice-thomas-leak-supreme-court-opinion-damages-rule-law

A landmark study tracks the lasting effect of having an abortion — or being denied one. For over 10 years, Dr. Foster and her team of researchers tracked the experiences of women who'd received abortions or who had been denied them because of clinic policies on gestational age limits. The research team regularly interviewed each of nearly 1,000 women for five years and found those who'd been denied abortion experienced worse economic and mental health outcomes than the cohort that received care. And 95% of study participants who received an abortion said they made the right decision. We see a couple of areas where their lives dramatically diverge in outcomes [from women who got abortions]. The first is health. Consistent with the medical literature, carrying a pregnancy to term and delivering a child is much more physically risky than having an abortion, even a later abortion. We see much more severe physical health complications from birth, including most tragically, two women who died after delivery — one died of an infection and one died of a very common pregnancy complication. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/05/15/1098347992/a-landmark-study-tracks-the-lasting-effect-of-having-an-abortion-or-being-denied

'I wonder how long we're going to have these institutions': Justice Thomas warns that leak of abortion draft judgment could herald the END of the Supreme Court as he suggests leak came from clerk and takes dig at recent appointees Justice Clarence Thomas told conference for black conservatives that the leak of the Roe v Wade draft opinion was 'tremendously bad' The conservative judge said that despite being at odds politically with the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg: 'She was actually an easy colleague to deal with' Thomas also told the audience that conservatives wouldn't show up to protest at justice's homes Thomas went on to say that he always felt that leaking of opinions was 'verboten' Protests are expected across the country on Saturday, including a rally in DC https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10815579/Justice-Thomas-warns-leak-abortion-draft-judgment-herald-END-Supreme-Court.html

Ted Cruz Said Jan. 6 Wasn’t a ‘Violent Insurrection.’ Now He Labels Peaceful Pro-Choice Protesters ‘Mob Violence’ Can someone get the senator a dictionary? He seems confused about the definition of violence. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/ted-cruz-abortion-protesters-violence-1350436/

Samuel Alito: the abrasive justice taking abortion rights back to the 17th century. Samuel Alito, a conservative Catholic from New Jersey, delivered an abrasively aggressive demolition of Roe v Wade that came as no surprise to those familiar with his work. The man who wrote the draft supreme court opinion overturning Roe v Wade is known for his quick temper and ‘traditional’ values. https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/may/06/samuel-alito-profile-abortion-supreme-court-justice

Pence hits Harris over abortion remarks: ‘How dare you?’. Pence, at a gala for the Carolina Pregnancy Center, responded to Harris’s comments saying “62 million unborn boys and girls ended in abortion” since Roe v. Wade was decided. “Since 1973, generations of mothers enduring heartbreaking and loss that can last a lifetime. Madame Vice President, how dare you?” Pence, like multiple other conservatives, speculated the document was leaked in order to try to change the majority opinion. “The Supreme Court of the United States will not be intimidated, and we will never stop fighting for the sanctity of life,” Pence said. “More than 62 million unborn children in the United States … lives of incalculable promise were ended before they were ever begun and countless young women have experienced sorrow and regret that can last a lifetime.” https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/3479518-pence-hits-harris-over-abortion-remarks-how-dare-you/

Following protests sparked by the leak of a draft U.S. Supreme Court decision indicating the justices are poised to overturn the constitutional right to abortion, Justice Clarence Thomas said on Friday that the court cannot be "bullied." Thomas, one of the most conservative justices on the nine-member court, made only a few passing references to the protests over the leaked draft opinion as he spoke at a judicial conference in Atlanta. As a society, "we are becoming addicted to wanting particular outcomes, not living with the outcomes we don't like," Thomas said. "We can't be an institution that can be bullied into giving you just the outcomes you want. The events from earlier this week are a symptom of that." https://www.reuters.com/world/us/after-abortion-leak-justice-thomas-warns-supreme-court-cant-be-bullied-2022-05-06/

@TheDailyShow These judges make lying fun. It's the Black Robe Comedy Tour! https://twitter.com/TheDailyShow/status/1521979659977588737

We Read Alito’s 98-Page Leaked Opinion. Here Are the Most Shocking Lines. In several passages, the justice adopts the most radical rhetoric of the anti-abortion movement. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/05/the-most-extreme-lines-from-justice-samuel-alitos-leaked-opinion-on-roe.html

Watch: In 1996, George Carlin outed the "pro-life" GOP for what they really are. George Carlin nailed it 26 years ago when talking about the GOP's so-called pro-lifers. "These people aren't pro life," he said in his 1996 HBO special, Back In Town. "They're anti-woman." "Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don't wanna know about you. They don't wanna hear from you," the comedian said in a video that has resurfaced since the Supreme Court's draft opinion that overturns Roe V. Wade was leaked and obtained by Politico. "No neonatal care, no daycare, no Head Start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you're pre-born, you're fine, if you're preschool, you're fucked." https://boingboing.net/2022/05/04/watch-in-1996-george-carlin-outed-the-pro-life-gop-for-what-they-really-are.html https://youtu.be/uHRaUUlD00w

One of the most effective rhetorical weapons that liberals have in their arsenal is the simple and clear statement of “what happens next.” Conservatives have a hard time explaining, for instance, why their abortion ban will kill women, and that’s why they’d much rather spend everyone’s time talking about how a document was leaked rather than the core of the issue. In 1987, Ronald Reagan suffered one of the biggest political defeats of his eight-year presidency. The failed nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court left such a bad taste in the mouths of the right that now, nearly 40 years after Bork’s rejection, the right still waves this failure as a bloody shirt example of the purported perniciousness of liberalism. The blocking of Bork was good for America, as it prevented a radical from obtaining one of the most important jobs in American government. One key element in “Borking,” as it came to be known, is instructive going forward on how conservative ideas and leaders can effectively be defeated. Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is often the only protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy. America is a better and freer nation than Robert Bork thinks. Yet in the current delicate balance of the Supreme Court, his rigid ideology will tip the scales of justice against the kind of country America is and ought to be. https://oliverwillis.substack.com/p/one-weird-trick-to-destroy-conservatives https://youtu.be/Xza0MfDXZlE?t=118

'She is a favorite of the radical left': Lindsey Graham will vote AGAINST Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination to the Supreme Court because of 'judicial activism', record on child porn and her being 'evasive' during their Senate hearing showdown Graham is one of three Senate Republicans who voted to confirm Jackson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit He said she is a person of 'exceptionally good character' But he accused her of 'judicial activism' and 'flawed sentencing' Graham voted for both Barack Obama nominees and all three of Donald Trump's Jackson is likely to be confirmed next week in the 50-50 Senate Graham quizzed Jackson on her faith during her Senate confirmation hearings He also got into tense exchanges with her over child porn and her representation of Guantanamo Bay detainees https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10673205/Lindsey-Graham-vote-AGAINST-Ketanji-Brown-Jacksons-nomination-Supreme-Court.html

Clarence Thomas' wife told Mark Meadows that 'the Biden crime family' and 'ballot fraud co-conspirators' would be 'living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition,' texts show. "Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition," Thomas wrote in a message on November 5, 2020, two days after the presidential election, according to the Post. Adherents of the Q-Anon conspiracy movement spread those and similar conspiracy theories throughout late 2020 and early 2021, falsely claiming online that officials including Hillary Clinton and Rep. Adam Schiff had been rounded up in mass arrests, sent to Guantánamo, and executed for treason. https://www.businessinsider.com/ginni-thomas-thought-biden-crime-family-would-be-sent-to-barges-off-gitmo-2022-3

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said he’s concerned efforts to politicize the court or add additional justices may erode the institution’s credibility, speaking Friday in Utah at an event hosted by former Republican U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch’s foundation. Thomas, the most senior justice on the nine-member court, said he often worries about the long-term repercussions of trends such as “cancel culture” and a lack of civil debate. “You can cavalierly talk about packing or stacking the court. You can cavalierly talk about doing this or doing that. At some point the institution is going to be compromised,” he told an audience of about 500 people at an upscale hotel in Salt Lake City. “By doing this, you continue to chip away at the respect of the institutions that the next generation is going to need if they’re going to have civil society,” Thomas said. Rulings this year will set laws on hot-button political issues, including abortion, guns and voting rights. https://apnews.com/article/voting-rights-ketanji-brown-jackson-us-supreme-court-utah-salt-lake-city-1887c7066a9dc3293099ddb15fdfdc9f

Kavanaugh angry, chokes up during testimony https://youtu.be/A-QpXVV6qLk

Cursing senators, judicial philosophy and document demands: 5 takeaways from Jackson hearing. The Supreme Court nominee's confidence grew as GOP attacks continued on day three. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/23/ketanji-brown-jackson-hearings-takeaways-00019938

Sen. Lindsey Graham interrupted SCOTUS nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson so many times that Sen. Dick Durbin intervened to let her speak. https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-lindsey-graham-interrupts-scotus-nominee-top-democrat-intervenes-2022-3

Lindsey Graham mocked for storming off after ranting at Ketanji Brown Jackson. Senator is irate that Judge Jackson has liberal defenders. “Here's what I would say: Every group that wants to pack the court, that believes this court is a bunch of right wing nuts who are going to destroy America, that consider the Constitution trash, all wanted you pick,” he said. “And … all I can say is the fact that so many of these left wing radical groups that would destroy the law as we know it declared war on Michelle Childs and supported you is problematic for me”. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/ketanji-brown-jackson-lindsey-graham-b2041465.html

Lindsey Graham walked out of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearing Tuesday after arguing with Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin over the release of Guantanamo Bay detainees following his line of questioning of the Supreme Court nominee. Durbin, who was trying to defend President Joe Biden's nominee against Graham following his 30 minutes of questioning, spoke to the recidivism rate of those released. 'If you're going to talk about what I said, I'm going to respond to what you said,' Graham shot back, turning his microphone on. 'If we close Gitmo and move them to Colorado, do you support indefinite detention under the law of war for these detainees?' Durbin said the 31 percent Graham referenced of Guantanamo Bay detainees who were released and then were reoffenders dates back to 2005. 'What does it matter when it goes back to? We had them, and they got loose and they started killing people. If you're one of the people killed in 2005, does it matter to you when we released them? 'I'm suggesting the system has failed miserably and advocates to change the system, like she was advocating, would destroy our ability to protect this country. We;re at war, we're not fighting a crime. This is not some passage of time event. 'As long as they're dangerous, I hope they all die in jail if they're going to go back and kill Americans,' Graham said, starting to raise his voice. 'It won't bother me one bit if 39 of them die in prison,' he continued. 'That's a better outcome than letting them go.' 'And if it costs $500 million to keep them in jail, keep them in jail. Because they're going to go back to the fight. Look at the fricken Afghan government that's made up of former detainees at Gitmo. This whole thing by the left about this war ain't working.' At this point, Graham turned off his microphone, grabbed his water bottle and stormed out of the room. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10639735/Bidens-SCOTUS-pick-Ketanji-Brown-Jackson-rejects-claim-shes-soft-child-pornography-cases.html

Marsha Blackburn Lectures First Black Woman Nominated to Supreme Court on ‘So-Called’ White Privilege. The Republican from Tennessee suggested to Ketanji Brown Jackson that it’s merely a coincidence that only 2 of America’s 114 Supreme Court justices have been Black Blackburn continued to drill down on critical race theory, the GOP’s culture-war topic du jour. “You have praised the 1619 Project, which argues the U.S. is a fundamentally racist country, and you have made clear that you believe judges must consider critical race theory when deciding how to sentence criminal defendants,” she said. “Is it your personal hidden agenda to incorporate critical race theory into our legal system?” if confirmed, Jackson would be the only active Supreme Court justice to have attended an Ivy League law school, clerked for a Supreme Court justice, served as a public defender, served on the sentencing commission, served as a U.S. District Court judge, and served as a U.S. Court of Appeals judge. She seems to be qualified. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/marsha-blackburn-lectures-ketanji-brown-jackson-white-privilege-1324815/

Is Ginni Thomas a Threat to the Supreme Court? Behind closed doors, Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife is working with many groups directly involved in controversial cases before the Court. The claim that the Justices’ opinions are politically neutral is becoming increasingly hard to accept, especially from Thomas, whose wife, Virginia (Ginni) Thomas, is a vocal right-wing activist. She has declared that America is in existential danger because of the “deep state” and the “fascist left,” which includes “transsexual fascists.” Thomas, a lawyer who runs a small political-lobbying firm, Liberty Consulting, has become a prominent member of various hard-line groups. Her political activism has caused controversy for years. For the most part, it has been dismissed as the harmless action of an independent spouse. But now the Court appears likely to secure victories for her allies in a number of highly polarizing cases—on abortion, affirmative action, and gun rights. Many Americans first became aware of Ginni Thomas’s activism on January 6, 2021. That morning, before the Stop the Steal rally in Washington, D.C., turned into an assault on the Capitol resulting in the deaths of at least five people, she cheered on the supporters of President Donald Trump who had gathered to overturn Biden’s election. In a Facebook post that went viral, she linked to a news item about the protest, writing, “love maga people!!!!” Shortly afterward, she posted about Ronald Reagan’s famous “A Time for Choosing” speech. Her next status update said, “god bless each of you standing up or praying.” Two days after the insurrection, she added a disclaimer to her feed, noting that she’d written the posts “before violence in US Capitol.” (The posts are no longer public.) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/is-ginni-thomas-a-threat-to-the-supreme-court

Clarence Thomas, Whose Wife Fought Election Results, Warns Of Political Influence In Supreme Court. Thomas griped about politics in the Supreme Court — but his wife battled to upend the 2020 election and works with groups that have presented cases to the court. “You can cavalierly talk about packing or stacking the court,” Thomas told an audience Friday at a Salt Lake City hotel, the Guardian reported. “You can cavalierly talk about doing this or doing that. At some point the institution is going to be compromised.” “By doing this, you continue to chip away at the respect of the institutions that the next generation is going to need if they’re going to have civil society,” he added, according to the Associated Press. Thomas is one of six conservative justices on the court. His wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, has come under heavy criticism for her involvement in activities leading up to last year’s Jan. 6 insurrection. She has also been criticized for her participation in the battle to throw out results of the presidential election because Donald Trump lost — a fight foes have labeled unconstitutional and one that could have ended up in her husband’s court. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/clarence-ginni-thomas-political-compromise-supreme-court_n_622d1c79e4b0e01d97ac0cf9

Justice Thomas slams cancel culture for not allowing people to make mistakes when they're young and calls out efforts to stack the Supreme Court because it will 'compromise' the institution Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, 73, condemned the idea of 'packing or stacking' the Court at Senator Orrin Hatch's foundation event on Friday 'You continue to chip away at the respect of the institutions that the next generation is going to need if they're going to have civil society,' he said He also insinuated that Democrats were unhappy with the conservative Court and wanted to 'pack or stack' to get their way Democrats believe in and support the Constitution and the Rule of Law and we don't. 'Let’s be honest. This is really about the results they want. They haven’t been able to make the institutions do what they want, to give them what they want,' he said He also blasted the media and cancel culture and said people needed to 'learn to engage like we did when I grew up' He briefly discussed his wife Ginni, who has faced scrutiny recently for her political involvement, but the Justice simply said she was a 'good person' He also did not discuss the upcoming Supreme Court cases, such as the case that could potentially overturn Roe v. Wade or gun rights at the event https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10605259/Justice-Thomas-slams-cancel-culture-packing-Supreme-Court.html

An ex-Trump aide said a White House gathering with Justice Clarence Thomas' wife, Ginni Thomas, was 'the craziest meeting I've ever been to'. Leonard Leo, the former executive vice president of the conservative Federalist Society, told the magazine that Trump sought to cultivate a relationship with Justice Thomas once he realized the immense popularity of the jurist among the Republican base, creating an opening for Ginni Thomas with the then-president. The magazine also detailed newly-reported ties between Ginni Thomas and organizers of a January 6, 2021 rally in support of Trump, along with efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, in which Joe Biden oust the former president in a decisive 306-232 Electoral College victory. In January 2019, Ginni Thomas met with Trump at the White House alongside select members of her conservative group, Groundswell, where a Trump aide described the nature of the conversation in unflattering terms. "It was the craziest meeting I've ever been to," he told the magazine. "She started by leading the prayer." https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-clarence-thomas-wife-ginni-craziest-meeting-white-house-aides-2022-2

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has a "position on, you know, Jews, right?". She asked, "Is there any kind of — I mean, how would you even know if a — if a school taught all religions are bigoted and biased or, you know, Catholics are bigoted or, you know — or we take a position on the Jewish-Palestinian conflict because of our position on, you know, Jews, right?" https://boingboing.net/2021/12/10/supreme-court-justice-amy-coney-barrett-has-a-position-on-jews.html

Details on F.B.I. Inquiry Into Kavanaugh Draw Fire From Democrats. The F.B.I. said some of the 4,500 tips it received about Justice Brett Kavanaugh were given to the Trump White House, leading some Democrats to call the process a sham. In a recent interview with the author Michael Wolff, Mr. Trump put his handling of Justice Kavanaugh into stark terms, asking “Where would he be without me? I saved his life.” But in addition to offering shows of support, the Trump White House carefully controlled the investigations into Mr. Kavanaugh’s past. After Dr. Ford came forward, Mr. Trump’s staff tried to limit the number of people the F.B.I. interviewed as part of that probe. Only after an outcry from Democrats over the president’s approach did the administration say the agency could conduct a more open investigation. Ultimately, 10 witnesses were interviewed by the F.B.I., according to the F.B.I.’s recent letter. Dr. Ford and Mr. Kavanaugh themselves were never interviewed by the F.B.I. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/us/politics/kavanaugh-fbi-investigation.html

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's Rise Continues To Fascinate In 'Dissent'. Donald Trump's administration was marked by unprecedented chaos and drama, with major stories crowding one another out of the news on a daily basis. But one major event — the confirmation hearings of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh — still sticks in the minds of Americans all along the political spectrum. Kavanaugh's ascension to the nation's highest court is the subject of Dissent, the new book from Los Angeles Times White House editor Jackie Calmes. It's not the first book to tackle the rise of the controversial justice — Ruth Marcus did so in Supreme Ambition, as did Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly in The Education of Brett Kavanaugh — but it's a fascinating look not only into the life and career of Kavanaugh, but also into the American conservative movement's successful long-term plan to move the Supreme Court rightward. As Calmes describes it, this was "a forty-year dream, taking control of the nation's highest court with an unquestionably conservative majority." Kavanaugh went on to earn his undergraduate and law degrees at Yale and earned his conservative bona fides early in his career as a lawyer, interning for Ken Starr, then President George H.W. Bush's solicitor general. He would later co-author Starr's famed government report on President Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky, which would lead to the Democrat's impeachment. https://www.npr.org/2021/06/17/1007079892/supreme-court-justice-brett-kavanaughs-rise-continues-to-fascinate-in-dissent

Behind the dark-money web that put Barrett (and Kavanaugh and Gorsuch) on the Supreme Court. Neil and Ann Corkery have a mission: Load up the judicial branch with right-wing Catholics. It's definitely working. https://www.salon.com/2021/03/30/behind-the-dark-money-web-that-put-barrett-and-kavanaugh-and-gorsuch-on-the-supreme-court/

Ginni Thomas apologizes to husband’s Supreme Court clerks after Capitol riot fallout. “I owe you all an apology. I have likely imposed on you my lifetime passions,” Thomas, who goes by Ginni, recently wrote to a private Thomas Clerk World email list of her husband’s staff over his three decades on the bench. “My passions and beliefs are likely shared with the bulk of you, but certainly not all. And sometimes the smallest matters can divide loved ones for too long. Let’s pledge to not let politics divide THIS family, and learn to speak more gently and knowingly across the divide.” Besides the friction there, Thomas has drawn outrage among liberals for public political commentary on her “Ginni Thomas” Facebook page. Her comments there celebrated Trump’s supporters who assembled in D.C. on Jan. 6, hundreds of whom stormed the Capitol, resulting in the deaths of five people. In the early morning post, Thomas encouraged her Facebook followers to watch the day’s events unfold on conservative news media, writing, “LOVE MAGA people!!!!” Thomas seemed to be seeking a peacemaking role in her Jan. 18 message to clerks. “I would ask those of you on the contrary side to have grace and mercy on those on my side of the polarized world, and feel free to call and talk to me individually about where I failed you as a friend here. I probably need more tutoring,” she wrote. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/ginni-thomas-apology-clarence-thomas-clerks-trump-rally/2021/02/02/a9818cce-6496-11eb-8c64-9595888caa15_story.html

Supreme Court blocks NY from enforcing Covid limits on churches. The court said the restrictions violate religious freedom and are not neutral because they “single out houses of worship." The Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and a coalition of synagogues, individuals, and other Jewish organizations brought the complaints that led to the decision. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/supreme-court-blocks-ny-enforcing-covid-limits-churches-n1249079

IRS

Proof the IRS targets the poor for tax audits while leaving millionaires alone. The figures show that the lowest-income wage earners, defined as those eligible for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, were audited at a rate of 13 per 1,000 returns in 2021. For everyone else, the rate was 2.6 per 1,000 returns. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-03-14/who-does-the-irs-audit

The IRS Is Targeting the Poorest Americans. The agency doesn’t track the race of those it audits, but predominantly Black counties have higher audit rates than predominantly white ones. By Dorothy A. Brown https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/07/how-race-plays-tax-policing/619570/

The Number of People With IRAs Worth $5 Million or More Has Tripled, Congress Says. After ProPublica revealed that some wealthy Americans hold Roth IRAs worth hundreds of millions — compared to $39,000 for the average account holder — Democrats requested data. It shows more than 28,000 people with IRAs worth $5 million or more. https://www.propublica.org/article/the-number-of-people-with-iras-worth-5-million-or-more-has-tripled-congress-says

The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax

Lord of the Roths: How Tech Mogul Peter Thiel Turned a Retirement Account for the Middle Class Into a $5 Billion Tax-Free Piggy Bank Yet, from the start, a small number of entrepreneurs, like Thiel, made an end run around the rules: Open a Roth with $2,000 or less. Get a sweetheart deal to buy a stake in a startup that has a good chance of one day exploding in value. Pay just fractions of a penny per share, a price low enough to buy huge numbers of shares. Watch as all the gains on that stock — no matter how giant — are shielded from taxes forever, as long as the IRA remains untouched until age 59 and a half. Then use the proceeds, still inside the Roth, to make other investments. https://www.propublica.org/article/lord-of-the-roths-how-tech-mogul-peter-thiel-turned-a-retirement-account-for-the-middle-class-into-a-5-billion-dollar-tax-free-piggy-bank

DOJ, FBI

Barr: Trump using 'extortion' to control GOP. “The tactic that Trump is using to exert this control over the Republican Party is extortion,” Barr said of his former boss. “What other great leader has done this? Telling the party, ‘If it’s not me, I’m going to ruin your election chances by telling my base to sit home. And I’ll sabotage whoever you nominate other than me.’ It shows what he’s all about. He’s all about himself.” Weiss asked Barr, who also served as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, whether he underestimated “Trump’s disregard for the truth and disregard for the results of the election.” “I underestimated how far he would take it. I thought on Dec. 14, when I tendered my resignation, the states had all certified the votes. To me, that was it. That was the last stop,” Barr said. “There was no process beyond that which would allow him to challenge the election. I thought it was safe to leave at that point. I was wrong. I did not expect him to take it as far as he did with these very wacky legal theories that no one gave any credence to.” Barr told Weiss that he felt Trump had been a victim of a conspiracy theory that posited he was a possible Russian agent during the 2016 presidential campaign, a claim that Barr said was unfairly used as the basis for special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. This week, the Justice Department released the full memo written for Barr that advised him not to charge Trump with any crime in relation to the 2016 election, including firing of the FBI Director James Comey. https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000182-d156-d8f9-ad9e-fd7726100000 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/24/justice-department-mueller-memo-trump-prosecution-00053612 https://news.yahoo.com/barr-trump-using-extortion-to-control-gop-232101391.html

The Humiliation of John Durham. Hired by Bill Barr to investigate the Trump investigators, the prosecutor had little to show for his work even before his defeat in court yesterday. https://www.thebulwark.com/the-humiliation-of-trump-backed-prosecutor-john-durham/

Hillary Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann found NOT GUILTY for lying to the FBI in the Trump-Russia probe in John Durham's first prosecution The lawyer was accused of misrepresenting himself to the FBI in a meeting with a federal agent, not disclosing that he was working with Hillary Clinton He was employed by her campaign when presenting purported links between the Trump Organization and a Russian bank to a federal agent in 2016 It's the only case in Durham's three-year probe to have gone to trial so far https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10871985/Hillary-Clinton-lawyer-Michael-Sussmann-NOT-GUILTY-lying-FBI-John-Durham-probe.html

Former Attorney General William Barr says people have the wrong idea of his service under former President Trump. WILLIAM BARR: The media chose to weave a narrative that I was a toady to the president, and that was false from the beginning because I felt I could be independent, and I was. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1084510375

'I would imagine that if the book is anything like him, it will be long, slow, and very boring': Trump's full three-page letter to NBC's Lester Holt tearing into Bill Barr and saying he fired him because he had 'no backbone' Former Attorney General Bill Barr has appeared on NBC News multiple times over the last week to promote his new White House memoir In both the interviews and book excerpts, Barr shreds Trump's election fraud claims and said the ex-president is 'morally responsible' for the Capitol riot It appears NBC News reached out to Trump for comment, to which he sent back a three-page letter with detailed answers to several questions Trump claims his Democrat rivals 'broke' Barr like 'a trainer breaks his horse' He said Barr was now 'groveling to the media, hoping to gain acceptance' Barr dismissed the letter as 'childish' in a Monday morning interview https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10585869/Trump-sends-letter-NBCs-Lester-Holt-tearing-Bill-Barr-saying-no-backbone.html

House investigators have interviewed a former Justice Department official who drafted -- but never sent -- a resignation letter over what he said were former President Donald Trump's "direct instructions" to use the department to support his false election fraud claims. Patrick Hovakimian, chief of staff to then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, wrote the resignation letter January 3 in anticipation that Rosen would be fired at an extraordinary meeting that day with the former President at the White House, according to people briefed on the matter. It's among a trove of Justice Department documents turned over to House and Senate committees investigating events that led up to the January 6 US Capitol attack by Trump supporters who believed Trump's false fraud claims. https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/04/politics/justice-resignation-threats-trump-election/index.html

Bill Barr told Trump that ‘clownish’ legal team was lying to him about ‘bull***’ voter fraud claims, reports say. Relationship between Barr and Trump fell apart after Trump’s attention overtaken by election fraud conspiracy theories. This was during a December meeting in the White House that Mr Trump had asked Mr Barr to attend after seeing a story by the Associated Press that quoted Mr Barr as saying "we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election". The Washington Post reported in October that over 96 per cent of last summer's Black Lives Matter events were peaceful, involving no property damage or injuries to police officers. Mr Trump wanted to invoke the Insurrection Act and send troops into the street. Mr Barr was the one who ended up having to push back on the president's instincts. Both the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and Defense Secretary Mark Esper did not want the military involved. During a meeting in the Oval Office in the middle of August, Mr Trump told Mr Barr to facilitate a show of strength in Portland where protests raged. Mr Barr didn't budge. Slamming his fist on his desk, Mr Trump yelled "No one supports me. No one gives me any f****** support," Axios writes. Mr Barr looked at chief of staff Mark Meadows, and said: "Well that went well." Mr Barr said: "These things aren't panning out. The stuff that these people are filling your ear with just isn’t true.” Mr Barr told Mr Trump that the Department of Justice was looking at the claims of his legal team. "It's just bull****," Mr Barr said. Mr Barr said that Mr Trump's legal team was doing an awful job, adding: "I'm a pretty informed legal observer and I can't f****** figure out what the theory is here. It's just scattershot. It's all over the hill and gone." "Maybe," Mr Trump said in response. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/bill-barr-trump-fraud-election-b1788956.html

‘I’m Haunted by What I Did’ as a Lawyer in the Trump Justice Department. No matter our intentions, lawyers like me were complicit. We owe the country our honesty about what we saw — and should do in the future. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/20/opinion/trump-justice-department-lawyer.html

‘Under the rug:’ Sexual misconduct shakes FBI’s senior ranks https://apnews.com/article/fbi-sexual-misconduct-investigation-a0d33e4770acef8ff5f4a48f0267202c

CBP, Immigration, Border, Wall

Migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard file class-action suit against DeSantis. The group of Venezuelan migrants flown from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., last week by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) filed a class-action suit against the governor and the state’s transportation secretary on Tuesday. The suit provides a detailed account of how the migrants came to board the two planes allegedly under false pretenses, arguing the relocations violated their Fourth and 14th Amendment rights and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. “These immigrants, who are pursuing the proper channels for lawful immigration status in the United States, experienced cruelty akin to what they fled in their home country,” the suit alleges. “Defendants manipulated them, stripped them of their dignity, deprived them of their liberty, bodily autonomy, due process and equal protection under law, and impermissibly interfered with the Federal Government’s exclusive control over immigration in furtherance of an unlawful goal and a personal political agenda,” it continues. The suit, filed in a federal trial court in Massachusetts, asks a judge to declare DeSantis’s relocations illegal under the Constitution as well as federal and state laws. It also asks the judge to prevent Florida from inducing immigrants to travel across state laws by fraud and misrepresentation. https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/3652494-migrants-flown-to-marthas-vineyard-file-class-action-suit-against-desantis/

After Texas Sent Him to Washington, One Migrant Launches a New Life. “I have nothing,” Alejos, 29, said on his third day in the city, “but I have the will to work and succeed.” Two months later, Alejos is making between $600 to $700 a week, saving up to buy a used car and planning to move out of the shelter. https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-sent-him-washington-one-183737372.html

Popular Information has obtained documentary evidence that migrants from Venezuela were provided with false information to convince them to board flights chartered by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R). The documents suggest that the flights were not just a callous political stunt but potentially a crime. Last Wednesday, two planes landed in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and dropped off about 50 migrants from Venezuela. DeSantis quickly took credit. The migrants were used as political pawns in the hopes of provoking a negative reaction from a liberal community. "When people are brought to their front door, they go berserk," DeSantis said. "Their virtue signaling is a fraud." But the people in Martha's Vineyard did not go berserk. Instead, they rallied together to provide shelter, food, clothing, and other necessities for the group. On Friday, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (R) facilitated their voluntary relocation to Joint Base Cape Cod, which is "a safe temporary accommodation appropriate for the specific needs of families and individuals." https://popular.info/p/the-smoking-gun-in-marthas-vineyard

Lawyer Says The Martha's Vineyard Migrants Were Told To Give Falsified Documents. Officials likely had errors put on the paperwork of those sent to Massachusetts by Florida's governor to ensure their stay would be illegal, the attorney said. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/marthas-vineyard-migrants-falsified-documents_n_6325f09ce4b0ed021dfd81ca They’d been given falsified U.S. addresses by immigration officials, perhaps ensuring that they’d be deemed in the country illegally. https://twitter.com/Sky_Lee_1/status/1570789631570096128

'Fox & Friends' hosts discuss the bussing of migrants around the country as the crisis at the border remains unmitigated https://youtu.be/G4fM_J0Rewk

DeSantis Flying Migrants to Martha’s Vineyard May Have Violated Federal Law, Experts Say. The Florida governor's anti-immigrant PR stunt was needlessly cruel. It may have also been illegal — especially if reports that migrants were misled are true. While the migrant transportation stunt popularized earlier this year by Abbott is predicated on a belief that local residents would undoubtedly be furious at the notion of having migrants in their neighborhood, the reality is quite different. “I’m very proud of our community,” says Father Seadale. Residents of the area have mobilized to provide food, shelter, medical care and support services to the migrants, and are prepared to help them recover from the unexpected relocation. Carla Cooper, head of the Democratic Council of Martha’s Vineyard, told the Cape Cod Times that by the time the migrants arrived in the afternoon, some had not eaten since 6 a.m. “It is disgusting and repulsive that these people were herded like cattle onto a plane,” Cooper said. Another resident of the area posted in a private Facebook group that “on Martha’s Vineyard, we won’t turn our backs on people in need who are being abused by extremist Republican governors for some cheap soundbite on Fox News.” The primary concern right now for those on Martha’s Vineyard, however, is ensuring that the migrants who arrived unexpectedly on Wednesday are able to secure aid and representation. Father Chip Seadale of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, which is assisting in the effort to aid the migrants, tells Rolling Stone that efforts are being made to secure legal aid. “I’ve got lawyers coming from Boston and some on the island who are well versed in this situation with respect to the legal ramifications of being an undocemented refugee in the United States.” Seadale says all of the migrants are meeting with lawyers on an individual basis to ensure “their rights are preserved as best as possible.” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/ron-desantis-migrants-marthas-vineyard-1234594051/

The secret history of the U.S. government’s family-separation policy. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/09/trump-administration-family-separation-policy-immigration/670604/

A Biden administration task force has reunited 400 migrant children separated under Donald Trump with their families, but advocates say more than 1,000 still remain apart. The youngsters were from around 5,000 families separated during the Trump administration as migrants crossing into the United States at the southern border with Mexico. Critics say that the Trump White House did not keep records of which children were separated and where they were sent, which has caused difficulty in identifying families. Now, parents have the chance to return to the US with other dependent members of their family and live and work legally for three years. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/biden-trump-migrant-families-reunited-b2136788.html

CBP Officer Who Asked Mexico to Deny Entry to Some US Citizens Speaks Under Oath. An Inspector General’s report found the request to deny entry was without “genuine basis”. Depositions taken in the lawsuit filed by Pastor Kaji Douša are allowing us, for the first time, to hear directly from a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officer directly involved in those controversial tactics. CBP Officer Saro Oliveri testified he is the one who sent an email to the Mexican government in December 2018, asking them to deny entry to 24 people, including Pastor Douša and 13 other Americans. He called the request “unusual.” “We were requesting for them to deny entry so that once they turned around we would be able to interview them,” Oliveri said during his deposition. https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/investigations/cbp-officer-who-asked-mexico-to-deny-entry-to-some-us-citizens-speaks-under-oath/2835644/

On the evening of Sept. 10, a soldier deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border slid a manifesto under each door in his brigade headquarters and then slipped away. The frustrated Army National Guardsman assigned to the 110th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade headquarters had seen enough. Three soldiers had died in three months, the most recent in an alleged DUI just five days earlier, and more than a dozen troops from the mission had been arrested or confined for drugs, sexual assault and manslaughter. “Someone please wave the white flag and send us all home,” the letter pleaded. “I would like to jump off a bridge headfirst into a pile of rocks after seeing the good ol’ boy system and fucked up leadership I have witnessed here.” https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2021/12/08/death-drugs-and-a-disbanded-unit-how-the-guards-mexico-border-mission-fell-apart/

I'm an evangelical pastor, and I biked 1,600 miles along the US-Mexico border. The only border crisis is America's disgusting treatment of migrants. https://news.yahoo.com/im-evangelical-pastor-biked-1-132800672.html

Border Patrol has a ‘shadow police unit’ that protects agents when they kill, groups say. The letter, written by the Southern Border Communities Coalition and Alliance San Diego, condemns the use of these units, which documentation shows have different names depending on their location, and suggests that the agents who worked for them could even be charged criminally with obstruction of justice. The units “have allowed border agents to get away with nearly everything, including murder,” the letter says. It was sent to leaders of Senate and House judiciary, homeland security and oversight committees. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/immigration/story/2021-10-28/border-patrol-shadow-police

Trump's Border Wall Torn Apart by Arizona Monsoon Rains. Record monsoon rains have blown floodgates off their hinges as Trump's border wall breaks down. https://gizmodo.com/trumps-border-wall-torn-apart-by-arizona-monsoon-rains-1847535174

Kamala snaps at reporter, blames Trump, faces down protesters and is slammed for landing 800 miles AWAY from the real crisis during her first trip to the border as VP - 93 days after she was named immigration 'czar' https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9725007/Kamala-Harris-finally-jets-meet-migrants-Mexico-border.html

DHS

All but one GOP House member voted against Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act. The House voted 222-203 to pass the bill, sponsored by Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), which would create new offices within the Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, and Federal Bureau of Investigation to "monitor, analyze, investigate, and prosecute domestic terrorism." "This bill glaringly ignores the persistent domestic terrorism threat from the radical left in this country and instead makes the assumption that it is all on the white and the right," Rep. Darrell Issa of California said on the House floor. A study conducted by the Anti-Defamation League shows, however, that right-wing extremists have committed the majority of extremism-related killings over the past decade in all years but one, 2016, the year of the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, by an adherent of Islamic extremism. Right-wing extremists committed 75% of the 443 killings from 2021 through 2021 documented by the ADL, and 55% were specifically tied to white supremacists. https://americanindependent.com/house-domestic-terrorism-prevention-act-buffalo-shooting/

Internal investigation of domestic violent extremism reveals four sympathizers inside DHS. March 11, 2022 "I was troubled by the findings, because the findings disclosed significant gaps in this department's ability to detect and respond to domestic violent extremism," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told CBS News in an exclusive interview Friday. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/domestic-violent-extremism-inside-department-of-homeland-security/

• Chad Wolf acting DHS secretary
• Kenneth Cuccinelli, acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/17/892277592/federal-officers-use-unmarked-vehicles-to-grab-protesters-in-portland

Senior Homeland Security leaders pushed unfounded antifa conspiracy at 2020 Portland protests, report states. “The report documents shocking, coordinated efforts by our government to abuse its power and to invade liberty in violation of the Constitution,” said Lisa Hay, Oregon’s federal public defender whose office represents protesters charged by the U.S. Justice Department. “In Portland, we were concerned that the government unconstitutionally collected information, including through the illegal search of protestors’ cellphones last summer. This report confirms that was their intent.” The report shows DHS senior leaders’ attempts at the time to connect the racial justice protests to a centrally organized effort by antifa to commit violence against government institutions — a shocking admission of organizational overreach. “[REDACTED NAME] did make other attempts to controvert the collection-analysis process,” the report states. It goes on to criticize how leadership pushed staffers to describe protests as “Violent Antifa Anarchist Inspired,” or VAAI, actions. Despite those efforts and Trump administration claims, the report says DHS intelligence analysts were unable to prove an ideological conspiracy. “This may have made sense to [REDACTED NAME] based on his own beliefs but (the Office of Intelligence and Analysis) did not have collections evidence to show it,” the report states. For more than a year, Wyden and other members of the Oregon Congressional Delegation have pressed DHS and the Justice Department for details about the Trump administration’s response to Portland’s protests. Wyden said under Trump, DHS officials sought to “politicize and inflame the conflict in Portland.” Oregon’s senior senator called for an overhaul of the agency’s intelligence office. “Independent investigators confirmed that DHS intelligence officials lacked basic knowledge of their authority, what constituted real threats, and when it was appropriate to investigate Americans who were suspected of no crime at all,” Wyden said in a statement Friday. “It documents how untrained analysts investigated journalists. And there is more information that I believe the public deserves to know, but has been redacted. I’ll continue working to make those items public.” https://www.opb.org/article/2021/10/01/senior-homeland-security-leaders-pushed-unfounded-antifa-conspiracy-at-2020-portland-protests-report-states/

DHS Whistleblower: Trump Team Wanted Us to Lie About Russia, the Border, and White Supremacy. “They did not want the public to know that the Russians were supporting Trump,” the whistleblower says. Brian Murphy, the former principal deputy undersecretary in DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, filed a whistleblower complaint last year — as well as a handful of internal complaints and reports — that all painted a frightening picture of how things were running in the department tasked with keeping Americans safe. “From the outset, there were three things that I was told that we would look to manipulate intelligence on and bend the truth about,” Murphy told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week. “And I told them upfront that I wasn’t going to do it.” On Russia, the border, and white supremacy, Murphy said he felt “intense pressure to try to take intelligence and fit a political narrative” — accusing administration officials of demanding information be manipulated to burnish Trump’s image and help his messaging. In his whistleblower complaint, Murphy wrote that senior official Ken Cuccinelli demanded that he “modify the section on White Supremacy in a manner that made the threat appear less severe.” But Murphy says he refused, because doing so “would constitute censorship of analysis and the improper administration of an intelligence program.” Murphy’s reluctance to play along gave him a “target on his back,” he recalled. Former DHS director Chad Wolf accused him of having a credibility problem, and removed him from his position last August, citing claims that he violated legal requirements regarding the collection of information about journalists during riots in Portland, Oregon. Murphy denied those claims. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/brian-murphy-whistleblower-trump-border-russia-racism-1232427/

A former acting chief of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence office has told Congress that DHS leaders pressed him to overstate illegal border crossings from Mexico and overplay the role of far left groups in violence during anti-government protests last summer, his lawyer said. In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, former intelligence chief Brian Murphy accused department leadership of urging him to “blame Far Left groups in an exaggerated fashion” for violence during summer protests in Portland, Oregon, according to lawyer Mark Zaid. In closed-door committee hearings last Friday and Monday, Murphy acknowledged that Far Left protesters were responsible for some of the violence, Zaid said. In a Sept. 8 whistleblower complaint, Murphy accused President Donald Trump’s acting DHS chief, Chad Wolf, of having told him to hold back on circulating assessments of the threat of Russian interference in the approaching Nov. 3 election in part because it “made the President look bad.” Wolf also asked Murphy to play down U.S. white supremacist activity, the complaint said. https://www.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN28R33L

DOD, NSA, US Military, Afghanistan, VA

Trump wanted Pentagon generals to be like second world war Nazis, book says. Ex-president complained to John Kelly ‘why can’t you be like the German generals?’ according to excerpt from the New Yorker. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/08/trump-pentagon-generals-nazis-second-world-war

Many’ Spy Agency Staffers Think Capitol Riot Was ‘Justified,’ Ex-NSA Veteran Says. “Hate speech was running rampant on our applications,” wrote Gilmore, whose identity and credentials have been vouched for by another Pentagon contractor. “I’m not being hyperbolic. Racist, homophobic, transphobic, Islamaphobic [sic], and misogynistic speech was being posted in many of our applications.” Even more startling, Gilmore alleges, “there were many employees at CIA, DIA, NSA, and other IC agencies that openly stated that the January 6th terrorist attack on our Capitol was justified.” https://www.thedailybeast.com/many-spy-agency-staffers-think-jan-6-capitol-riot-was-justified-ex-nsa-veteran-says

Marines investigate reservist for alleged link to White supremacist group. Cpl. Victor Krvaric, son of former county GOP chairman Tony Krvaric, was identified by activists after a leak of a hate-group membership interview. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/military/story/2022-02-04/marine-reservist-neo-nazi-group

@TheActivatedPod ICYMI: Yesterday we identified a Patriot Front prospect as San Diego local Victor Krvaric. Victor is corporal in the Marine Corps Reserve, and he also works as a contracted security guard for the Department of Homeland Security. https://twitter.com/TheActivatedPod/status/1488882551393374211 ?s=20&t=xVNoh8z0wVNaCr8BYErxiQ

One year after a few dozen military veterans took part in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon has responded by tightening regulations to combat extremism in the ranks. But the war has only just begun, according to Defense Department officials, lawmakers and experts on extremist movements. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/04/pentagon-extremism-ranks-jan-6-526441

The Plot Against American Democracy That Isn’t Taught in Schools. In an excerpt from Gangsters of Capitalism, Jonathan M. Katz details how the authors of the Depression-era “Business Plot” aimed to take power away from FDR and stop his “socialist” New Deal. As I looked through history to find the origins of the patterns of self-dealing and imperiousness that mark so much of American policy, I kept running into the Quaker Marine with the funny name. Smedley Butler’s military career started in the place where the United States’ overseas empire truly began, and the place that continues to symbolize the most egregious abuses of American power: Guantánamo Bay. His last overseas deployment, in China from 1927 to 1929, gave him a front-row seat to both the start of the civil war between the Communists and the Nationalists and the slowly materializing Japanese invasion that would ultimately open World War II. A few weeks after the siege, I talked to Butler’s 85-year-old granddaughter, Philippa Wehle. I asked her over Skype what her grandfather would have thought of the events of Jan. 6. Her hazel eyes narrowed as she pondered: “I think he would have been in there. He would have been in the fray somehow.” “Do you think he would have been with the people storming the Capitol?” I asked Philippa, tentatively. This time she answered immediately. “No! Heavens no. He would have been trying to do something about it.” He might have been killed, she added, given that the police were so unprepared. “Which is so disturbing, because of course they should have known. They would have known. They only had to read the papers.” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/coup-jan6-fdr-new-deal-business-plot-1276709/

Decades of DOD efforts fail to stamp out bias, extremism. https://apnews.com/article/business-dona