Not that we’re surprised, but the FBI confirmed there was ZERO Antifa presence during the insurrection at the capitol – it was all virulently angry Trump supporters.
The more videos that emerge showing the horrific violence, the more we realize the true scale of the armed insurrection that endangered lives & our democracy.
This is harsh. Cynical. Unreal.
THreats from Republicans are impactful as seen in AP article, shifting party status in state legislatures and for voters in PA, AZ, IA etc.
WTF
And here’s Lindsey Graham as two-faced as they come.
Officials are seeing similar scenes unfold elsewhere.
In Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, 192 people have changed their party registration since the Jan. 6 riot. Only 13 switched to the GOP — the other 179 changed to Democrat, independent or a third party, according to Bethany Salzarulo, the director of the bureau of elections.
In Linn County, Iowa, home to Cedar Rapids, more than four dozen voters dropped their Republican Party affiliations in the 48 hours after the Capitol attack. They mostly switched to no party, elections commissioner Joel Miller said, though a small number took the highly unusual step of cancelling their registrations altogether.
The party switching pales in comparison to the more than 74 million people who voted for Trump in November. And it’s unclear whether they’re united in their motivations. Some may be rejecting politics altogether while others may be leaving a Republican Party they fear will be less loyal to Trump.
But they offer an early sign of the volatility ahead for the GOP as the party braces for political fallout of the riots that Trump incited.
“I do think there’s a palpable shift, from knee-jerk defense of the president to ‘wow, that was a bridge too far,’” said Kirk Adams, the former Republican speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives.
Adams said he knew several people, including once-solid Trump supporters, who are switching their registrations. He said it may be weeks or months before the full impact of the insurrection is clear.
“Minds are being changed,” he said. “But you can’t go overnight from ‘I think the president’s right and the election is being stolen’ to ‘I guess he was wrong about everything.’”
Party registration doesn’t always preview how voters will actually cast their ballots, especially when the next major national elections are nearly two years away. But party leaders across the country are expressing concern that the riots could have a lasting impact.
New York City is considering canceling the Trump Organization’s contracts with the city after last week’s deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday.
Mr. de Blasio, who has repeatedly condemned President Trump’s role in the violent siege, said his legal team was assessing the city’s options.
“We are looking at that very, very carefully and very quickly,” Mr. de Blasio said when asked about the contracts at a news conference. “The president incited a rebellion against the United States government — clearly an unconstitutional act and people died. That’s unforgivable.”
It is not the first time the city has examined the Trump Organization’s contracts with the city, which include running two ice skating rinks at Central Park and The Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point, a city-owned golf course in the Bronx. Mr. de Blasio reconsidered those contracts after Mr. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance laws in 2018.
Yes. Book him.
# House Democrats Briefed On 3 Terrifying Plots To Overthrow Government
One plot includes surrounding the Capitol and murdering Democrats to allow Republicans to take control of the government.
At least several users of the far-right social network Parler appear to be among the horde of rioters that managed to penetrate deep inside the U.S. Capitol building and into areas normally restricted to the public, according to GPS metadata linked to videos posted to the platform the day of the insurrection in Washington.
The data, obtained by a computer hacker through legal means ahead of Parler’s shutdown on Monday, offers a bird’s eye view of its users swarming the Capitol grounds after receiving encouragement from President Trump — and during a violent breach that sent lawmakers and Capitol Hill visitors scrambling amid gunshots and calls for their death. GPS coordinates taken from 618 Parler videos analyzed by Gizmodo has already been sought after by FBI as part of a sweeping nationwide search for potential suspects, at least 20 of whom are already in custody.
The siege on January 6, which lasted approximately two hours, resulted in five deaths, including that of a Capitol police officer whom authorities say was bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher and later succumbed to his injuries. Windows were smashed, tables overturned, and graffiti scrawled and scratched into the walls of the 220-year-old building—some calling for the murders of journalists sheltering in place nearby.
Illustration for article titled Parler Users Breached Deep Inside U.S. Capitol Building, GPS Data ShowsGizmodo has mapped nearly 70,000 geo-located Parler posts and on Tuesday isolated hundreds published on January 6 near the Capitol where a mob of pro-Trump supporters had hoped to overturn a democratic election and keep their president in power. The data shows Parler users posting all throughout the day, documenting their march from the National Mall to Capitol Hill where the violent insurrection ensued.
The precise locations of Parler users inside the building can be difficult to place. The coordinates do not reveal which floors they are on, for instance. Moreover, the data only includes Parler users who posted videos taken on January 6. And the coordinates themselves are only accurate up to an approximate distance of 12 yards (11 meters).
As more violent images emerged on Tuesday from the mayhem wrought by the rioters, including of the brutal attack that ultimately killed a Capitol Police officer, and as lawmakers were briefed about threats of more attacks on the Capitol, rank-and-file Republican lawmakers grew angrier about the president’s role in the violence.
Yet as they attempted to balance the affection their core voters have for Mr. Trump with the now-undeniable political and constitutional threat he posed, Republican congressional leaders who have loyally backed the president for four years were still stepping delicately. Their refusal to demand the president’s resignation and quiet plotting about how to address his conduct highlighted the gnawing uncertainty that they and many other Republicans have about whether they would pay more of a political price for abandoning him or for continuing to enable him after he incited a mob to storm the seat of government.
FFS. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who bragged about wanting to carry a gun into congress and live-tweeted the location of Pelosi, is in a standoff with Capitol Police RIGHT NOW because her bag set off the new metal detectors.
Trump is losing backers and affiliates who handle his real estate business - Cushman & Wakefield who handle his rentals/leases in all his properties.
The Trump Organization was already struggling, hurt by political backlash and coronavirus-related closures, facing huge unpaid loans. Barrack told Trump that he could help that business — as well as his aides, and the country itself — by ensuring a peaceful transition, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
An “elegant” exit, Barrack said, could preclude what could be a painful future: millions of dollars in legal costs, rampant investigations and more boycotts of his businesses.
Trump did not follow Barrack’s advice.
Now, the Trump Organization is facing the consequences: In the past week, it has lost a bank, an e-commerce platform and the privilege of hosting a world-famous golf tournament, and its hopes of hosting another have been dashed. In the future, the Trump Organization also could lose its D.C. hotel and even its children’s carousel in Central Park, if government landlords in Washington and New York reevaluate their contracts with Trump.
Trump lost a much bigger broker relationship Tuesday night when real estate giant Cushman & Wakefield told The Washington Post it would no longer work with him. The company has handled an array of business for Trump for many years, including office leasing at Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street, and retail leasing in Chicago. It means that Trump’s company will quickly have to find someone else to handle lease negotiations at some of his most prominent properties.“Cushman & Wakefield has made the decision to no longer do business with The Trump Organization,” the company said in a statement.
By refusing to acknowledge that he would be returning to private life, Trump appears to have sabotaged what could have been his best chance at success in that realm — a rebound of the battered Trump brand
“Most financial institutions and investors avoided doing business with him before he ran for president, and the situation now has only gotten worse,” said Kathryn Wylde, the leader of the Partnership for New York City, an influential group that includes the leaders of banks and Fortune 500 companies.
Wylde was able to secure support for an open letter against Trump’s efforts to overturn the election from almost 200 major companies — including most of the major banks and real estate firms in New York — within 36 hours, a sign of how angry many are with his actions. That was before Jan. 6.
“If he remains a visible player, no one will want to be associated with him in any kind of public way, because he is going to symbolize the destabilization of the American political system,” Wylde said.
The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. The White House declined to comment.
adding 1/13/21
Militiamen showed up proudly bearing the emblems of their groups — American flags with the stars replaced by the Roman numeral III, patches that read “Oath Keepers.” Alt-right types wore Pepe the Frog masks, and QAnon adherents could be seen in T-shirts urging people to “Trust the Plan.” White supremacists brought their variant of the Crusader cross.
And then there were thousands of Trump supporters with MAGA gear — flags, hats, T-shirts, thermoses, socks. One flag portrayed President Trump as Rambo; another featured him riding a Tyrannosaurus rex and carrying the kind of rocket-propelled grenade launcher seen on the streets of Mogadishu or Kandahar.
The iconography of the American far right was on display on Jan 6. during the violence at the Capitol. The dizzying array of symbols, slogans and images was, to many Americans, a striking aspect of the unrest, revealing an alternate political universe where violent extremists, outright racists and conspiracy theorists march side by side with evangelical Christians, suburban Trump supporters and young men who revel in making memes to “own the libs.”
Uniting them is a loyalty to Mr. Trump and a firm belief in his false and discredited insistence that the election was stolen. The absurdity of many images — the patches that read “Zombie Outbreak Response Team," for instance — only masked a devotion that inspired hundreds from the crowd to mount a deadly attack on Congress.
“It’s often all a caricature — it looks like military fan fiction — until it’s not and it crosses a very dangerous line,” said Joan Donovan, the research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
“It’s funny until it’s scary,” she said.
These are some of the groups and their insignia.
Video (watch - within article)
Out in force were right-wing militias like the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters, whose symbol, the Roman numeral III, could be seen on patches and flags. Both groups are anti-government, pro-guns and, nowadays, devoted to Mr. Trump.
Others on the right who share the militia’s anti-government views often signal their beliefs with the Gadsden flag, a yellow banner dating to the American Revolution with a rattlesnake and the phrase “Don’t Tread on Me.” Dozens were waved at the Capitol last week.
And then there is the Confederate battle flag. A man carried the banner of secession and slavery through the halls of the Capitol on Jan. 6.
video (within article)
The Boogaloos marked themselves by wearing their signature Hawaiian shirts. A group of Proud Boys showed up in orange hats.
Both the Boogaloos and the Proud Boys include racists and anti-Semites, though the outright white supremacists tend to keep a lower profile. Some wear Crusader crosses or Germanic pagan imagery that has become popular on the racist and anti-Semitic fringes. Others have adopted an “OK” hand-gesture as their own.
Pepe the Frog, the smirking cartoon amphibian that has become a widely recognized symbol of the alt-right crowd, was a common sight.
Also on display were the green-and-white flags of Kekistan, the fictional country that is home to the deity “Kek.” In the meme-driven culture of the alt-right, a satirical religion has sprouted up around Kek “as a way to troll liberals and self-righteous conservatives,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups. “He is a god of chaos and darkness, with the head of a frog, the source of their mimetic ‘magic,’ to whom the alt-right and Donald Trump owe their success.”
The flag is partly derived from the Nazi flag, a design that is treated as a provocative joke in alt-right circles.
video (in article)
This conspiracy theory falsely claims that there is a cabal of Democrats, deep-state bureaucrats and international financiers who use their power to rape and kill children, and that Mr. Trump was elected to vanquish them.
The canard is convoluted and confusing, but its iconography is clear and was plentiful: There were shirts with the letter “Q” or slogans like “Trust the Plan”; signs saying “Save the Children”; and flags with the abbreviation “WWG1WGA,” which stands for “Where We Go One, We Go All.”
Alongside the violent, the overtly racist and the paranoid were thousands of devoted Trump supporters, some of whom even brought young children. The crowd was filled with people in MAGA regalia, and Trump flags were everywhere. Most just said “Trump”; others were a bit more outlandish.
The skull-like symbol of the Punisher, a crime-fighting Marvel comic book antihero, was a common sight. It has become a popular emblem on the far right in recent years and is sometimes used by police officers to signal one another without having to wearing badges.
There were people waving the South Vietnamese flag, which disappeared decades ago when the North won the war. But now it lives again, adopted by some on the American right as a symbol of anti-communist resistance.
Then there was the Zombie Outbreak Response Team. A man wearing a sticker with its emblem was photographed inside the Capitol. His face is obscured in the picture, and he has not been identified. But the zombie team’s website describes its members as “preppers and survivalists preparing for all worst case scenarios.”
Impeachment proceedings 1/13/21 9am - 2p approx EST
You can watch a livestream here on Deadline. Check it out above.
CNN is taking down its paywall for a free livestream from 9 a.m.-7 p.m. ET, so the hearing can be viewed for free at its website and app. CBS News also is providing a livestream on its digital outlets and on YouTube.
Cable news nets Fox News Channel and MSNBC also are expected to go live with their coverage on TV, the internet and their apps. Social-networking outlets including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube also will provide live coverage.
Elsewhere, PBS NewsHour will air The Second Impeachment of President Trump, A PBS NewsHour Special starting at 9 a.m. ET, which will include live coverage of the proceedings. Managing editor Judy Woodruff will anchor the programming with contributions from White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, Capitol Hill correspondent Lisa Desjardins and guests. The coverage will extend to PBS NewsHour’s digital and social platforms.
Impeachment commentary
On McConnell’s change of position with Trump - it’s the money that supports the party
Republicans who hold onto Trump/Trumpism
Run up to the Jan 6th 2021
Republicans voting against Trump
Preparing for next week’s inauguration…
Good move on AirBnB…
Airbnb, one of the biggest players in the short-term rental market, will cancel all reservations made in the Washington area next week and block new rentals, the company announced in a statement on Wednesday.
The decision came after the police and elected officials warned Americans not to travel to Washington for the inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., citing the risk of the spread of the coronavirus and the threat of another attack similar to last week’s violent siege at the Capitol.
Law enforcement authorities have warned of threats of violence ahead of the inauguration on Jan. 20, and National Guard troops have flooded Washington in response. On Monday, the leaders of the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland issued a joint statement telling potential visitors not to travel to the area, citing both the coronavirus pandemic and the riot.
Already, 16 groups — some of them armed and most of them supporters of President Trump — have registered to stage protests in Washington, though Mayor Muriel Bowser has asked federal officials to cancel any public gathering permits issued.
This week, Airbnb said it would review reservations in the Washington area and cancel those it determined were made by members associated with extremist or hate groups. On Wednesday, it said it would take the broader step of canceling all reservations in response to pleas for people not to attend.
Ms. Bowser and the governors of Virginia and Maryland “have been clear that visitors should not travel to the D.C. metro area for the Inauguration,” the company said in a statement. “Additionally, we are aware of reports emerging yesterday afternoon regarding armed militias and known hate groups that are attempting to travel and disrupt the inauguration.”
Airbnb said it would refund guests for their reservations and reimburse hosts at its own expense.
The company declined to say how many reservations would be canceled, the dates the cancellation policy would be in effect or how far from Washington its policy would apply.
But two Airbnb hosts who contacted the company about the status of existing reservations were told by customer service representatives that Airbnb was canceling reservations that started on or after Jan. 15 and ended by Jan. 21, according to screenshots provided to The New York Times.
Airbnb also said it had banned “numerous individuals” associated with known hate groups or otherwise involved with the mob at the Capitol. It declined to provide more details.
As a mob raided the Capitol, a Capitol Police officer gave them directions to Chuck Schumer’s office, per this Times report: “But they could not find Mr. Schumer’s office. He said they asked a Capitol Police officer, who tried to direct them.”
DJT…issues statement during his Impeachment trial. Just WORDS. All empty. CYA only.
As Wednesday’s floor debate was underway, Trump issued a statement calling for there to be no violence at any of the protests that are expected to take place during the week of Biden’s inauguration.
“In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind,” Trump said in the statement, which was first reported by Fox News. “That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for. I call on ALL Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers. Thank You.”
According to Fox News, the White House will “attempt to post the statement to all of Trump’s official social media accounts.”
Twitter and Facebook have banned Trump from their platforms indefinitely, citing the risk of violence after last week’s riot at the Capitol.
Jan. 13, 2021 at 12:33 p.m. PST
The House was poised Wednesday to impeach President Trump for “incitement of insurrection,” as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) left open the possibility of voting to convict at a trial. The Senate leader made clear that any trial would occur after Trump leaves office next week.
During debate on the House floor, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Trump “bears responsibility” for last week’s takeover of the Capitol but argued against impeachment so close to the end of his term. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called Trump “a clear and present danger” and said “he must go.”
More than 30 House Democrats are demanding information from Capitol security officials about “suspicious” visitors at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 5 — a day before violent insurrectionists swarmed the building — that would only have been permitted entry by a member of Congress or a staffer.
"Many of the Members who signed this letter … witnessed an extremely high number of outside groups in the complex on Tuesday, January 5,” wrote the lawmakers, led by Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), in a letter to the acting House and Senate sergeants-at-arms, as well as the acting head of the Capitol Police.
The lawmakers, some of who “have served in the military and are trained to recognize suspicious activity,” noted that Capitol tours have been prohibited since March as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and they said the tours were so unusual that they were reported to security on Jan. 5, ahead of the following day’s violence.
“The visitors encountered by some of the Members of Congress on this letter appeared to be associated with the rally at the White House the following day,” they wrote. “Members of the group that attacked the Capitol seemed to have an unusually detailed knowledge of the layout of the Capitol Complex. The presence of these groups within the Capitol Complex was indeed suspicious.”
They are asking the security officials to reveal whether any logbooks of visitors are available and if they include names of those admitted to the building by lawmakers. They also ask whether any law enforcement agencies have requested similar information and what limits Capitol security officials apply to visitors brought in by members.
Sherrill first raised alarms Tuesday that some members of Congress may have provided “reconnaissance” tours to would-be insurrectionists.
In a 13-minute Facebook video billed as an address to her constituents about the House’s efforts to hold President Donald Trump accountable for inciting the riot, Sherrill included the allegation as part of a call to hold Trump’s allies in Congress accountable as well.
"I also intend to see that those members of Congress who abetted him — those members of Congress who had groups coming through the capitol that I saw on Jan. 5 for reconnaissance for the next day — those members of Congress who incited the violent crowd, those members of Congress that attempted to help our president undermine our democracy, I’m going see that they’re held accountable," Sherrill said.
Sherrill did not identify the lawmakers she was referring to, how she was able to describe their activities as “reconnaissance” and how she knew they were connected to the riots that consumed the Capitol the following day. She told POLITICO on Wednesday that she’s referred her information to authorities.
We’re requesting an investigation right now with certain agencies," she said.
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) said he’s aware of “a couple” names of colleagues who are being eyed as potentially giving tours to the would-be insurrectionists. But he said he wouldn’t name them yet.
“I’m going to wait to make sure we get verification,” Ryan told a reporter at the Capitol Wednesday.
Ryan said the information was passed to authorities as early as last Wednesday night. He said it involved “handfuls” of people who were escorted through the Capitol. Enough to know that these weren’t “one-on-one” tours or “a small family.”
“You look back on certain things and you look at it differently,” he added.
The startling allegation comes as lawmakers are still seeking answers about the extent of planning and coordination behind the Jan. 6 Trump rally that became the violent assault on the Capitol. Federal investigators say they’re pouring enormous resources into unearthing details of a potential “seditious conspiracy” and that some of the undisclosed evidence about what happened inside the Capitol will be “shocking.”
Some Democrats, like Sherrill, are also calling for punishment for the Republicans who — like Trump — delivered incendiary remarks that preceded the violence at the Capitol, as well as others who joined Trump’s effort to delegitimize the 2020 presidential election.
Letter sent to the Sargeant-at-Arms
https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000176-fd5c-d6f5-a376-ffddae400000
