How close we came to a bloody coup. Only a few yards and a few minutes separated the terrorists from their targets, the leaders of Congress and the Vice-President. Thanks to the overwhelmed Capitol Police who did their jobs, many lives were saved when a mob of thousands of people, stirred up by Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric, attacked the U.S. Capitol. The FBI has been investigating those who planned the siege of Congress. Did Trump know? Did his aides know?
When die-hard supporters of President Donald Trump showed up at rally point “Cowboy” in Louisville on the morning of Jan. 5, they found the shopping mall’s parking lot was closed to cars, so they assembled their 50 or so vehicles outside a nearby Kohl’s department store. Hundreds of miles away in Columbia, S.C., at a mall designated rally point “Rebel,” other Trump supporters gathered to form another caravan to Washington. A similar meetup — dubbed “Minuteman” — was planned for Springfield, Mass.
That same day, FBI personnel in Norfolk were increasingly alarmed by the online conversations they were seeing, including warlike talk around the convoys headed to the nation’s capital. One map posted online described the rally points, declaring them a “MAGA Cavalry To Connect Patriot Caravans to StopTheSteal in D.C.” Another map showed the U.S. Congress, indicating tunnels connecting different parts of the complex. The map was headlined, “CREATE PERIMETER,” according to the FBI report, which was reviewed by The Washington Post.
“Be ready to fight. Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in,” read one posting, according to the report.
The Post obtained hours of video footage, some exclusively, and placed it within a digital 3-D model of the building. (TWP) FBI agents around the country are working to unravel the various motives, relationships, goals and actions of the hundreds of Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Some inside the bureau have described the Capitol riot investigation as their biggest case since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and a top priority of the agents’ work is to determine the extent to which that violence and chaos was preplanned and coordinated.
[Self-styled militia members planned days in advance to storm the Capitol, court papers say]
Investigators caution there is an important legal distinction between gathering like-minded people for a political rally — which is protected by the First Amendment — and organizing an armed assault on the seat of American government. The task now is to distinguish which people belong in each category, and who played key roles in committing or coordinating the violence.
Video and court filings, for instance, describe how several groups of men that include alleged members of the Proud Boys appear to engage in concerted action, converging on the West Front of the Capitol just before 1 p.m., near the Peace Monument at First Street NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Different factions of the crowd appear to coalesce, move forward and chant under the direction of different leaders before charging at startled police staffing a pedestrian gate, all in the matter of a few minutes.
An indictment Friday night charged a member of the Proud Boys, Dominic Pezzola, 43, of Rochester, N.Y., with conspiracy, saying his actions showed “planning, determination, and coordination.” Another alleged member of the Proud Boys, William Pepe, 31, of Beacon, N.Y., also was charged with conspiracy.
Minutes before the crowd surge, at 12:45 p.m., police received the first report of a pipe bomb behind the Republican National Committee headquarters at the opposite, southeast side of the U.S. Capitol campus. The device and another discovered shortly afterward at Democratic National Committee headquarters included end caps, wiring, timers and explosive powder, investigators have said.
[Pipe bombs found near Capitol on Jan. 6 are believed to have been placed the night before]
Some law enforcement officials have suggested the pipe bombs may have been a deliberate distraction meant to siphon law enforcement away from the Capitol building at the crucial moment.
This video, taken at 8:15 p.m., is the last known sighting of the suspect before they alleged placed the bomb. (Obtained by The Washington Post)
“Ready for war’
The FBI is also trying to determine how many people went to Washington seeking to engage in violence, even if they weren’t part of any formal organization. Some of those in the Louisville caravan said they were animated by the belief that the election was stolen, according to interviews they gave to the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Much of the discussion of potential violence occurred at TheDonald.win, where Trump’s supporters talked about the upcoming rally, sometimes in graphic terms, according to people familiar with the FBI investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an open matter.
After the riot, a statement posted on the website said moderators “had been struggling for some time to address a flood of racist and violent content that appeared to be coming primarily from a small group of extremists who were often brigading from other sites,” leading to inquiries from the FBI.
[FBI report day before riot warned of ‘war’ at Capitol]
One of the comments cited in the FBI memo declared Trump supporters should go to Washington and get “violent. Stop calling this a march, or rally, or a protest. Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die.” Some had been preparing for conflict for weeks.
Prosecutors say Jessica Marie Watkins — an Ohio bartender who had formed her own small, self-styled militia group and had joined Oath Keepers, according to prosecutors — began recruiting and organizing in early November for an “operation.”
Days after the election, Watkins allegedly sent text messages to a number of individuals who had expressed interest in joining her group, which called itself the Ohio State Regular Militia.
“I need you fighting fit by innaugeration,” she told one recruit, according to court papers.
The same day, she also asked a recruit to download Zello, an app that allows a cellphone to operate like a push-to-talk walkie-talkie, saying her group uses it “for operations.”
In conversations later that month, Watkins allegedly spoke in apocalyptic terms about the prospect of Joe Biden’s being sworn in as president on Jan. 20.
“If he is, our way of life as we know it is over. Our Republic would be over. Then it is our duty as Americans to fight, kill and die for our rights. . . . If Biden get the steal, none of us have a chance in my mind. We already have our neck in the noose. They just haven’t kicked the chair yet.”
In December, prosecutors say, Donovan Ray Crowl, a 50-year-old friend of Watkins’s, attended a training camp in North Carolina, while another friend, Thomas E. Caldwell, a 66-year-old Navy veteran from Berryville, Va., booked a room at an Arlington hotel, where Watkins also had a reservation for the days surrounding the Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally.
Prosecutors say Caldwell had written earlier to Watkins that “I believe we will have to get violent to stop this, especially the antifa maggots who are sure to come out en masse even if we get the Prez for 4 more years.”
In the week leading up to the rally and riot, Watkins and Caldwell were in regular contact as they talked about various groups of people meeting up on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, according to an indictment filed this past week against them.
At different points, according to court filings and people familiar with the investigation, Watkins and Caldwell indicated a degree of impatience with Stewart Rhodes, the national leader of Oath Keepers, for not providing more direction.
Watkins messaged Caldwell that if Rhodes “isn’t making plans, I’ll take charge myself, and get the ball rolling,” according to the indictment. Caldwell replied that he was speaking to another person who expected a bus with 40 people to come from North Carolina. Caldwell allegedly told her that person, identified only as “Paul” in other court papers, “is committed to being the quick reaction force [and] bringing the tools if something goes to hell. That way the boys don’t have to try to schlep weps on the bus” — an apparent reference to weapons.
Caldwell added in a subsequent message that he didn’t know whether Rhodes “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 crew,” according to court papers and the people familiar with the investigation.
On New Year’s Eve, according to the indictment, Watkins “responded with interest to an invitation to a ‘leadership only’ conference call” for what was described as a “DC op.”
The leaderless resistance concept
Such exchanges are critical early clues in the planning and coordination that went on before, during and after the riot. Videos from the Capitol show Oath Keepers such as Watkins dressed in military-type gear, moving in coordination with Crowl through the crowds around the building.
Watkins used the walkie-talkie app to tell others she was part of a group of about 30 to 40 people who are “sticking together and sticking to the plan,” according to court documents.
Caldwell, for his part, posted images to Facebook, writing: “Us storming the castle. Please share. Sharon is right with me. I am such an instigator!” Sharon Caldwell, his wife, has not been charged with any crime; Caldwell, Crowl and Watkins are accused of conspiring to obstruct Congress and other violations.
Thomas Caldwell’s lawyer has said his client expects to see the charges dropped or to be acquitted at trial. Caldwell, the lawyer said, is not a member of Oath Keepers.
Watkins has previously denied committing any crimes. “I didn’t commit a crime. I didn’t destroy anything. I didn’t wreck anything,” Watkins told the Ohio Capital Journal, adding that the riot was a peaceful protest that turned violent.
Crowl’s lawyer has described his client as a law-abiding citizen who helped protect people during the riot.
In a phone interview this month, Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, told The Post that he gave no direction or signals to members of his group to storm the Capitol, and that he considers the entry by rioters a mistake that played into the hands of critics.
Rhodes said the only “mission” the Oath Keepers had organized to undertake in D.C. on Jan. 6 was dignitary protection for far-right personalities who had traveled to the city to participate in “Stop the Steal” events.
At the time of the riot, Rhodes said, he had just escorted one of the VIPs to a nearby hotel. Rhodes said one of his deputies “called and said, ‘People are storming the Capitol.’ I walked back over and found” fellow Oath Keepers, Rhodes said, but did not enter the building.
Rhodes disavowed any meaningful connection to Caldwell or Crowl. Rhodes said Watkins had played an important part in the group’s mobilization in opposition to demonstrations around police abuse in Louisville last year.
Former domestic terrorism investigators say the alleged discussion by Watkins and Caldwell about the group’s leader points to a longtime pattern among such extremists.
“Historically, within the right-wing extremist movements, leadership has produced rhetoric to spin up their members, increase radicalization and recruitment, and then stand back and let small cells or individual lone offenders follow through on that rhetoric with violent action,” said Thomas O’Connor, a former FBI agent who spent decades investigating domestic terrorists. “Domestic terrorism actually developed the leaderless resistance concept, taking the potential blame away from the leadership and putting it down into small groups or individuals, and I think that is what you’re starting to see here.”
Current law enforcement officials said they have not reached any conclusions about the interactions between leaders of extremist groups and their members or followers.
Investigators are examining who may have joined Caldwell and Watkins’s group, and whether any of those individuals, “known and unknown,” had links or communications with others at the Capitol that day or elsewhere.
Colin Clarke, a domestic terrorism expert at the Soufan Group, said the Jan. 6 attack represents a “proof of concept” for dangerous extremists. “They talk about things like this in a lot of their propaganda, and the fact that the Capitol Police allowed this to happen, you can call it a security breach, or intelligence failure, but these people do not look at this as a failure, they look at it as an overwhelming success, and one that will inspire others for years.”
Julie Tate and Alice Crites contributed to this report.
Devlin Barrett writes about the FBI and the Justice Department, and is the author of “October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election.” He was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for National Reporting, for coverage of Russian interference in the U.S. election.
Spencer S. Hsu is an investigative reporter, two-time Pulitzer finalist and national Emmy Award nominee. Hsu has covered homeland security, immigration, Virginia politics and Congress. Aaron Davis is an investigative reporter who has covered local, state and federal government, as well as the aviation industry and law enforcement. Davis shared in winning the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2018.
The inquiry should also examine any connection any members of Congress had with the insurrectionists. There was a report that some members of the legislature were giving tours of the Capitol to some of the extremists the day before the assault. We do not know if representatives had any foreknowledge of what was planned for the following day. Investigators should follow the evidence to where it leads in case any elected representatives were assisting those that attacked the Capitol. No leads should be off limits.
Yes!
Yes, absolutely.
As disturbing as this report is, let’s not forget this is why the impeachment trial is so important. Never has there been a more apt example of the aphorism “A fish rots from the head down.” The impeachment trial is the last stand to save this nation’s legitimacy, more in the eyes of the world than here at home. But as we see in the accelerated attacks against decency like the privatization of public education and many state legislative initiatives to restrict voting and indeed give legislatures the power to overturn election, we’re on the precipice here at home. The timidity of Senate and House Republicans is proof of this thesis.
The news that the Idiot’s entire legal team has resigned because they refuse to continue to feed the deadly ruse that the election was stolen is instructive. My wish is for the bloviating Idiot to stand in the well of the Senate and defend himself. I can already see and here him plead, “Is you is or is you ain’t my constituency?!” (You have to have see O Brother, Where Art Thou? to get that last remark.)
Trump’s impeachment legal team-
One of them defended an associate of Dylan Root, another one allegedly prevented black people from serving on juries and cited negative stereotypical views about black people and, a third one is a graduate of a private school named after the biggest New Orleans benefactor to the Confederacy- a New Orleans university with 8% black enrollment in a city with a 60% black population.
Thanks for this! I am embarrassed to admit, as much as I pride myself in knowledge about New Orleans history, it never occurred to me to figure out who Tulane was named after. I’ve only known it as a highly overrated university, a real cupcake of a school. It’s also where Newt got his master’s in history. And it is good to know that those attorneys have some standards, however low they are.
This is the one that deserves approbrium, if backed with evidence: “allegedly prevented black people from serving on juries and cited negative stereotypical views about black people.”
Not one who “defended an associate of Dylan Roof.” Every accused deserves court defense. Demonizing lawyers who defend criminals undermines the legitimacy of our justice system. And concluding anything from someone who simply attended Tulane is a major stretch.
Bethree-
The objective of most of my comments is for readers who are interested to seek info. on their own in order to minimize the likelihood of confirmation bias. Huffpo and other media posted articles like the following, “Trump impeachment lawyer (Greg Harris) removed a black juror he said, ‘shucked and jived’.
Others of my comments are to inform. Tulane received $10 mil. from
Betsy DeVos when she was Ed Secretary to promote charter schools. Initial money that funded Prof. Harris’ ERA Center was a gift from privatizer, John Arnold. The campaign to destroy public pensions has disproportionate adverse impact on black people. The most well known campaign against public pensions is funded by John Arnold. The Baltimore Sun reported about John Arnold’s funding of a police aerial surveillance program of Baltimore communities about which elected officials had no knowledge.
Racist Georgia Gov. Talmadge first proposed school privatization to avoid court-mandated integration. Tulane was a public university until the donation from Conferderacy-supporting Paul Tulane at which time it became private. Bethree, you and I can agree to disagree about
whether the reputation of a university which a person may consider when selecting a college should reflect on the graduates. Legacy admission rates and demographically unrepresentative enrollment are attributes that suggest privilege. The phrase, “having it both ways”, comes to mind.
Unless an attorney is in a rotation for pro bono cases and is assigned a case for a client with complicity in the murder of 9 black people who were praying in church, yes, I will express my disdain for that lawyer. While I don’t know Dershowitz or Michael Cohen personally, I loathe both of them because of clients they have chosen to represent. Trump is having difficulty getting lawyers. Media cite legal firms’ unwillingness to associate their reputations with him. Perhaps Justice Roberts will need to assign a pro bono lawyer to Trump. Or, Trump can find a sympathetic lawyer through crowd sourcing on GiveSendGo.
Linda Nice note, and some truth in it.
On the other hand, lies, misinformation, innuendo, red herrings, relevant omissions, and vague untruths have a way of riding into the conversation on the back of truth. It’s kind of like a horse-and-rider thing; it’s why people write books and essays on the logical fallacies in the first place; and it’s why the use of such fallacies is one of Hannah Arendt’s points in her work on the methods of totalitarianism.
Bethree’s points to you and GregB in an earlier note stand . . . your notes often have some truth in them, but you often need a weedwhacker to get to them.
We do truth no good by surrounding it with smears and innuendo rooted in our own biases . . . which is why I have criticized so many of your notes so often here. CBK
Trump found two lawyers: one represented Jeffrey Epstein, the other help Bill Cosby avoid conviction.
The claim that I make arguments is largely a mischaracterization. My preference is to present information previously posted by legitimate organizations which has been corroborated by multiple sources. The saying, “shoot the messenger”, when people don’t like the information they hear is well known for a reason. Personal insults serve no purpose as refutation, facts do.
Off-topic- the Information from Poland about the attack on abortion rights, the prominence of anti-abortionists at the Capitol riots and, the fervor of the anti-abortion campaign in the extreme right wing of the GOP won’t be changed by shooting the messenger.
Blog and media censorship of information about Koch network links to conservative religion serves to enable its continuance.
Breaking with my usual pattern, the following is the initiation of a discussion argument directed at a general audience, no individual in particular. Is the big tent defense a distraction when the leadership faction is highly active in the political arena and controls the tent’s coffers. When the right wing factions in the tent have been highly successful in achieving public policy e.g. SCOTUS appointments and, the Biel and Espinosa cases, does the big tent argument undermine
efforts to fight a powerful right wing power broker.
Linda “The claim that I make arguments is largely a mischaracterization. My preference is to present information previously posted by legitimate organizations which has been corroborated by multiple sources. The saying, ‘shoot the messenger’, when people don’t like the information they hear is well known for a reason. Personal insults serve no purpose as refutation, facts do.”
I hate to resort to cliche’s, but what is that old saying about denial? Also, I hear the truth you tell as I hope others here do; but the criticism still stands: I’m not talking about one or two notes . . . I’m talking about the entire time I’ve been on this site, but mainly but not exclusively about the Catholic Church or religion in general. It’s commonly hard to tell which is the horse and which is the rider, the truth or the innuendo.
BTW, below is a recent WAPO article that discusses Biden and the Catholic Church. The link in the article is to a Commonweal article and letter that reveal exactly the schism that’s been going on in the Catholic Church (between right wing and progressive factions) and that is finally coming to a head not only in the Church, but in the public and political spheres as well, via Biden. I was glad to read it and will bne glad to see some circulation of it. CBK
COMMONWEAL article:
https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/lots-politics-little-legitimacy?utm_source=Main+Reader+List&utm_campaign=30c8f9828e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_03_16_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_407bf353a2-30c8f9828e-92562883
WAPO article
https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fopinions%2Fjoe-biden-and-the-struggle-for-american-catholicism%2F2021%2F01%2F27%2F2ea5c278-60df-11eb-9430-e7c77b5b0297_story.html%3Futm_campaign%3Dwp_week_in_ideas%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Dnewsletter%26wpisrc%3Dnl_ideas%26carta-url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fs2.washingtonpost.com%252Fcar-ln-tr%252F2f0177a%252F60169bf39d2fda4c88cdb35a%252F597c3073ade4e26514d23e47%252F57%252F82%252F60169bf39d2fda4c88cdb35a&data=04%7C01%7C%7Cdcde72a2eb1748bf5ab008d8c6423d99%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637477335092598035%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=a4IT96Ao1VggfV9Zei6B7xzy5i%2FfCdf3EezUhugKW%2BE%3D&reserved=0
BTW Linda I’m not “attacking” you. I’m attacking arguments that over-and-over again hold some truth, but that are too-often also riddled with innuendo, over-generalized smears, half-truths, and omissions.
Here’s an example of a personal attack: I think you show evidence of blindness about your own biases and methods of purveying them . . . on the backs of some truth that you also write. But I’ve gained the habit of getting out my mental weedwhacker whenever I see your name on this site.
My guess is that you cannot see the difference. CBK
“your notes often have some truth in them, but you often need a weedwhacker to get to them.”
Please be specific as to what you claim I obscure.
GregB My comment about weedwhackers was to Linda. My reference to your note was the same as Bethree commented on earlier. CBK
Trump invited them to the Capitol, and the told them to march on it. He was quite clear that they “wouldn’t take back [the] country with weakness.” So, clear enough to be marching orders. Vague enough for him later to try to deny it. And then there were all his associates who did the dirty work of organizing this Beer Hall Putsch for them.
But that’s Trump’s m.o., isn’t it.
If she weren’t my daughter, I’d probably be dating her. Oh, I was joking. [Sorry, Don. Sick, not funny]
Grab ’em by the ******. Oh, I was joking.
Russia, if you’re listening [incitement to theft of a political opponent’s emails by a foreign government]. Oh, I was joking.
Buy Greenland! Oh, I was joking.
Stealth airplanes are actually invisible. Oh, I was joking.
Frederick Douglass is doing a great job. Oh, I was joking.
I’d like for you to do me a favor, though. Oh, I was ???? Well, it was a PERFECT [phone call]
Send astronauts to the sun! Oh, I was joking.
Inject disinfectants! Oh, I was joking.
Biden stole the election. I wasn’t joking. I was just so far in denial and afraid of being prosecuted that I would do anything, including inciting treason among my millions of followers.
I have the best people. (He wasn’t joking. LOL. He seriously said and believed this.)
We’re going to march to the Capitol. I’ll be with you. . . . take back our country. Oh, that’s not what I meant.
Throw a stick at any transcript of any Trump public statement. This weasel language. Let me see. I’ll say this but pretend I’m not saying it.
And, of course, this is mobster talk from the Don, Cheeto “Littlefingers” Trumpbalone.
“No, officer. I wished the very best to his family.”
“You didn’t say, ‘Gee, it would be a real shame if something happened to those beautiful kids and that wife of yours’?”
“Yeah. That’s what I said. I expressed my wishes for their continued well-being. People call me up, they say, ‘Sir, what do you think?’ And I say, ‘Well, it would be a shame if anything happened to such a lovely family.'”
The Beer Hall Putsch is an apt analogy. Let’s not forget what it led to: a sham trial in which parliamentary government became the defendant, a sham verdict that did not punish Hitler proportionately, and a sham prison sentence that was basically a sabbatical to plan to assemble followers and take power. And it further weakened and delegitimized the Weimar legal justice system, which was instrumental to the Republic’s demise.
Exactly. Who is writing Trump’s Mein Kampf for him right now?
TRUMP: The Bible. My favorite book. Right after My Struggle to Take Back the Country from the Socialist Democrat Enemy WIthin and The Art of the Deal.
REPORTER: So, do you have a favorite quotation from the Bible you would like to share?
TRUMP: No. No. That’s very personal to me. Very personal.
REPORTER: Just a line? Something that really stands out for you? Words to live by?
TRUMP: I’m not going to get into it. Two Corinthians. That’s a good one.
REPORTER: The story about Lot and his daughters, perhaps?
And it is quite possible that is what we shall see, a sham verdict, some sham punishments for Trump’s many crimes, Trump’s book, the rallying of his base base. What were Trump’s last words his base after the failed putsch?
“And to my supporters, I want you to know that our incredible journey is just beginning.”
Only it will be called Mein Trumpf
Siege Hall!
Mine Furor!
It’ll take me awhile as I can only read it upside down.
So, Trump says, when called out, “I was joking.” And when he can’t say that, he says, fake news, that’s not what I said.
TRUMP: Well, you know, grass is pink.
INTERVIEWER: But, respectfully, grass is green.
TRUMP: That’s what I said.
INTERVIEWER [reads back transcript]:
TRUMP: I never said that. You people. From day one, anything to get Trump.
Then, later:
A lot of people don’t know this, but grass is green. Yeah. That’s right. Have this from the best people. Not something everybody knows. But I had this uncle at MIT. Smartest guy. Incredible. Good genes.
Trump’s defense team just left him. It should be interesting to see what happens next as he does not have much time before his Senate trial.
Trump wanted the lawyers to defend him by repeating his lie that the election was stolen. They said no.
I so would love to see him defend himself.
The fool for a lawyer
Diane “Trump wanted the lawyers to defend him by repeating his lie that the election was stolen.”
There’s no talking with someone like Trump or the Republicans who are still supporting him. And yet, I have a neighbor who is so happy and hopeful that Biden wants to “work across the aisle.”
Bi-partisanship doesn’t work with that kind of mentality. They just think you are weak and then take as much advantage of you as they can. Bipartisanship at present is like inviting a kidnapper into your house and introducing them to your children.
Reason has left the building. CBK
Trump’s behavior on January 6th indicates he knew what was going on when he was staring at the TV watching it go down, and his staff couldn’t get him to do anything else. Several hours later, Trump issued a statement that was mostly cover for himself since his coup had failed.
It is obvious to me that Trump was waiting as he stared at the TV in fascination for his Loyalists to kill off anyone in Congress that was not supporting him to become president, even Pence, his VP.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/01/07/jan-6-was-9-weeks-and-4-years-in-the-making-455797
After all, that was Trump’s job as a Russian/Putin asset, to destroy the U.S. Constitutional Republic and its democracy.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/kgb-groomed-trump-as-an-asset-for-40-years-former-spy-says/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/piling-up-incriminating-information-about-trumps-russian-connections/2021/01/28/a0b53b80-5029-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/29/trump-russia-asset-claims-former-kgb-spy-new-book
In response to the Supreme Court’s throwing out the Trump lawsuit brought by Republican AGs asking them to overturn the election results, the Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, Allen West, wrote this: “Perhaps law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution.”
Sounds like a pretty clear call for secession, doesn’t it?
But West must have gone to the Trump University School of Rhetoric, for the next day he denied that that was what he meant.
So, when I read the denial, I went to the Texas Republican Party Facebook page. It featured a huge splash banner reading “We are the Storm.” Where did that phrase come from? Well, it is the phrase used by QAnon supporters, the Boogaloo Bois, and other extremist groups to describe a) the moment when the coming revolution takes place or b) the persons who will carry out that insurrection against our government. And the comments on that Facebook page–hundreds of them–were literally, explicitly, calling for Civil War, using precisely those words.
All this was before the attempted putsch at the Capitol. Pretty obvious what was happening. Like Trump’s treasonous relationship with Russia, it was right out there in the open where anyone could see it.
I think he misspoke. Was supposed to be “law-defiling.”
It’s time to stop using weasel language to describe what happened at the Capitol. This was not a riot, though there were rioters. This was an attempted putsch. E.g.,: There is video of one of these storm troopers saying, just after they burst into the Senate chamber, “Let’s sit down and start making some laws.”
A planned, attempted putsch.
By incredibly stupid and incompetent people, but an attempted putsch nonetheless. Some carried weapons. Some carried ZIP ties. They were quite literal and vocal in their threats against the lives of the VP, Senators, and Representatives.
.
You and Greg save me a lot of typing.
Had Trump flipped just one state the attempted coup would have had the effect of the Brooks Brothers riots . Calling the entire election result into question.
yup
More of a botch than a putsch.
Luckily, Trump and his minions are completely incompetent.
They could call it The Bear All Botch after the QAnon Shaman with the bear fur hat
Bare All works too since he bared (almost) all.
If the fellow with the zip ties had used them, he would have managed to tied himself up. No doubt about it.
lol
Bob and Greg When I hear those morons talk about respecting the Constitution, things really go down the rabbit hole. Nothing makes sense anymore. (Defile the law is correct.)
And now some of the state judges have been conciliatory in their treatment of those who, THEY KNOW, violently broke into the Capitol. I understand the federal judges are being more stern.
Like hoping that Trump is convicted and punished, however, one need not be vindictive or a never-Trumper to understand the need to punish these empty-headed deranged people . . . everyone has to know that actions have consequences, one of which is a loooonnnggg-time to think about it . . . sitting in a jail cell. CBK
Greg nailed it. After the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler was slapped on the wrist. No major consequences. We know how that turned out. Stephen “Goebbels” Miller is even now doing the right-wing talk show circuit. The message from the Trump fascists: you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Bob “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” Until we ALL realize that Trump won’t quit until WE (Congress) stop him, or he keels over on his own, our suffering will continue to balloon at the behest of Trump’s tsunami personality. CBK
Rachel Maddow did a feature the other night about armed invaders of the Capitol who went home, appeared before a local judge, who sent them home to await trial.
The FBI has gone to DC courts to get orders locking up those who were most violent and predatory in their attack, overriding the local lenient judges.
The guy who put his boots up on Pelosi’s desk brought a stun gun with him, with 950,000 volts of power. He meant to harm or kill her.
He went home, disposed of the stun gun, was released by the local judge. But the FBI searched his house and found the empty box for the stun gun and arrested him.
He is in jail.
Diane Yes, I saw the Maddow show and I was glad to hear it. I guess some judges thought those plastic ties were for securing tomato plants in the hallways of the Capitol building. CBK
It appears you’re referring to Mogelson’s report in the New Yorker. In that same video, one of the insurrectionists tells a police officer in the Capitol that for their own safety he & his fellow officers should stand down, as there are “4 million people” coming behind them. This isn’t said with bravado, in an angry or threatening tone, but rather in the character of sincerely friendly, helpful advice. (“We love you guys!”) They really thought they were just the vanguard of an overwhelmingly massive hoard that was about to overwhelm completely any authorities in their way, that perhaps (certainly?) they’d be revered by history as something like “the new Founding Fathers.”
They didn’t consider their violent, intrusive actions to be even a dramatically stated protest, to be duly noted by authorities & followed by return to business as usual. They honestly believed they were in the process of deposing the government of the US, & replacing it with one they’d establish, with Trump as president (king?/dictator?/supreme ruler?). That’s why they had no hesitation about showing their faces clearly on video; they were unconcerned about subsequent arrest & prosecution because they expected that, by the time they finished, the laws under which they would have been prosecuted under would no longer be in effect.
Oops — that 2nd “under” in my final sentence is unnecessarily redundant!😀👨🏻🎓 (See what I did there?) — A major transgression when posting to a teachers’ site!😳🤭
Lenny Rothbart Yes, and as it turns out, jail is a good place to think. CBK
Consider this phrase, “Stop the Steal,” used by Trump, Giuliani, Powell, Eric and Don Jr., and all these extremists. What does it assert? That the election was stolen and so the democratically elected government about to take over is illegitimate. What does it ask for? For people to stop this democratically elected government from taking over.
So, the phrase itself–the rallying cry of “the Big Lie” here–is a call to overthrow the duly elected government. It is a call to insurrection. It is treason.
One of the arrested Capitol rioters from Wilmington, Ohio, wears the face of poverty (a young man who has had no dental care). The government that he’s been taught to loathe will likely have to provide him with an attorney. If he has children, I’m curious if the government has assisted them with meals.
The GOP preys on and exploits the poor.
Yes, “The GOP preys on and exploits the poor.”
The GOP also preys on the ignorant and the mentally impaired.
The orders from Christopher Miller to the DC National Guard for January 6 included in linked article— is a must read. The DC guard were allowed no helmets, no body armor, no weapons. They were not allowed to stop or arrest protesters. Letter orders no interference with rioters.
Were they really from Christopher Miller or Russian hackers?
Were the orders drafted at the meeting that Michael Flynn’s brother participated in? The Pentagon initially denied his presence/participation in the meeting.
Commenter Greg described the privatization of public education as an attack against decency.
Hedge funder Steve Cohen (charter schools) bailed out the hedge funder who lost money short selling on Wall Street. A small group of Main Street investors (“Reddit kids”) were leveling the playing field and the predators didn’t like it. Cohen has been quoted as saying he and his family received personal threats. Let Cohen hire Erik Prince’s hired guns for protection and meantime, I’ll cry a river for him. In 2024, Trump won’t be in a position to pardon those who kill innocents.
Cohen gave $1 mil. to trump’s 2017 inauguration.
Trump comes back from his holiday vacation one day early and the media doesn’t know why…Trump tweets encouragement to come to Washington on January 6th…”It will be wild” he tweets…On January 5th a crowd of Trump stool pigeons, including Michael Flynn, Don Jr. and Tommy Tuberville, meet to go over plans for 1/6…Trump’s family and friends party in their bunker while the Capitol is stormed…McCarthy screams at Trump on the phone to get help while this is taking place and Trump says no…This isn’t a smoking gun, it’s and arsenal…
The Guardian’s 1-31-2021 article, “It’s endemic: state level Republican groups lead party’s drift to extremism”, is worth a read.
Well said, Paul!
Regardless of calls for unity and time for Senators to walk while chewing gum, the Senate impeachment trial is needed to name and number those so-called mainstream Republicans who are willing to let Trump’s behavior stand on the books as acceptable for future presidents.
Great reporting on the insurrection by New Yorker reporter Luke Mogelson, who was on the scene, as well as at other Trump events leading up to the attempted coup.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/01/25/among-the-insurrectionists
It’s notable that Mr. Mogelson’s usual beat is “war correspondent.”
*“At different points, according to court filings and people familiar with the investigation, Watkins and Caldwell indicated a degree of impatience with Stewart Rhodes, the national leader of Oath Keepers, for not providing more direction.
“Watkins messaged Caldwell that if Rhodes ‘isn’t making plans, I’ll take charge myself, and get the ball rolling,’ according to the indictment.”
What does it say for the Proud Boys leader to be insufficiently radical for you?