Trump loyalists in Congress to challenge Electoral College results in Jan. 6 joint session (Update: Insurrectionists storm Congress)(And now what?) (12 Viewers)

Womp, womp... Sending tots and pears...

nolaspe said:

Womp, womp... Sending tots and pears...

Click to expand...

Terrifying stuff
===============

As we approach the first anniversary of the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, we — all of us former senior military officials — 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.

In short: We are chilled to our bones at the thought of a coup succeeding next time.

One of our military’s strengths is that it draws from our diverse population. It is a collection of individuals, all with different beliefs and backgrounds. But without constant maintenance, the potential for a military breakdown mirroring societal or political breakdown is very real.

The signs of potential turmoil in our armed forces are there. On Jan. 6, a disturbing number of veterans and active-duty members of the military took part in the attack on the Capitol. More than 1 in 10 of those charged in the attacks had a service record.

A group of 124 retired military officials, under the name “Flag Officers 4 America,” released a letter echoing Donald Trump’s false attacks on the legitimacy of our elections.

Recently, and perhaps more worrying, Brig. Gen. Thomas Mancino, the commanding general of the Oklahoma National Guard, refused an order from President Biden mandating that all National Guard members be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Mancino claimed that while the Oklahoma Guard is not federally mobilized, his commander in chief is the Republican governor of the state, not the president.

The potential for a total breakdown of the chain of command along partisan lines — from the top of the chain to squad level — is significant should another insurrection occur.

The idea of rogue units organizing among themselves to support the “rightful” commander in chief cannot be dismissed……..

Longest sentence so far
============
A man who watched and cheered the Capitol riot, then moved to the front of the mob and hurled a fire extinguisher, a plank and a long pole at officers, was sentenced Friday to more than five years in federal prison, the longest sentence given so far to someone charged in the Jan. 6 attack.


Robert S. Palmer, 54, of Largo, Fla., pleaded guilty in October to assaulting law enforcement officers with a dangerous weapon, and his original plea agreement called for a sentencing range of 46 to 57 months.

But after his plea, and his entry into the D.C. jail, Palmer arranged to make an online fundraising plea in which he said he did “go on the defense and throw a fire extinguisher at the police” after being shot with rubber bullets and tear gas.


That was a lie, Palmer admitted Friday. He had thrown a fire extinguisher — twice — a large plank and then a four- to five-foot pole at police before he was struck with one rubber bullet.

The falsehood indicated a failure to accept responsibility for his actions, prosecutors argued, and when U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan agreed, she increased his sentencing range to 63 to 78 months, ultimately imposing a 63-month term……

almost put his on EE, but probably too political for it
=============================
Actor Jay Johnston, who voices Jimmy Pesto Sr. on Fox’s Bob’s Burgers, has reportedly been “banned” from the series after he was spotted at the January 6th attack on the Capitol.

According to The Daily Beast, top staff at the animated series will not allow Johnston to voice the fan-favorite character after people who had previously worked with him identified him in pictures of the insurrection.

“One of the sources described it as a ‘ban,'” reported the Beast. “The other individual familiar with the matter described the situation similarly, adding that the Bob’s Burgers cast and crew, as well as Fox, were not looking to make ‘a big deal’ about the current blacklisting of the apparent insurrection-attendee.”

In March 2021, the FBI took to Twitter to ask if anyone could identify a photograph of a Jan. 6 rioter:

Actress Cassandra Church, who worked alongside Johnston on the show Harmontown, commented saying, “I’m no detective, but I do know Jay. He said he was there. And that’s him in the picture. So…”..........

Optimus Prime said:

Terrifying stuff
===============

As we approach the first anniversary of the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, we — all of us former senior military officials — 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.

In short: We are chilled to our bones at the thought of a coup succeeding next time.

One of our military’s strengths is that it draws from our diverse population. It is a collection of individuals, all with different beliefs and backgrounds. But without constant maintenance, the potential for a military breakdown mirroring societal or political breakdown is very real.

The signs of potential turmoil in our armed forces are there. On Jan. 6, a disturbing number of veterans and active-duty members of the military took part in the attack on the Capitol. More than 1 in 10 of those charged in the attacks had a service record.

A group of 124 retired military officials, under the name “Flag Officers 4 America,” released a letter echoing Donald Trump’s false attacks on the legitimacy of our elections.

Recently, and perhaps more worrying, Brig. Gen. Thomas Mancino, the commanding general of the Oklahoma National Guard, refused an order from President Biden mandating that all National Guard members be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Mancino claimed that while the Oklahoma Guard is not federally mobilized, his commander in chief is the Republican governor of the state, not the president.

The potential for a total breakdown of the chain of command along partisan lines — from the top of the chain to squad level — is significant should another insurrection occur.

The idea of rogue units organizing among themselves to support the “rightful” commander in chief cannot be dismissed……..

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/17/eaton-taguba-anderson-generals-military/

Click to expand...

This is very possible. Trump has been successful at doing what ISIS, al-Qaida, the Soviets and others have not been able to do. He, along with his Republican Party enablers, has delegitimized democracy and the institutions established by the constitution that the Republicans claim to revere.

bird said:

This is very possible. Trump has been successful at doing what ISIS, al-Qaida, the Soviets and others have not been able to do. He, along with his Republican Party enablers, has delegitimized democracy and the institutions established by the constitution that the Republicans claim to revere.

Click to expand...

From the same piece. Its conclusion:

In addition, all military branches must undertake more intensive intelligence work at all installations. The goal should be to identify, isolate and remove potential mutineers; guard against efforts by propagandists who use misinformation to subvert the chain of command; and understand how that and other misinformation spreads across the ranks after it is introduced by propagandists.

Finally, the Defense Department should war-game the next potential post-election insurrection or coup attempt to identify weak spots. It must then conduct a top-down debrief of its findings and begin putting in place safeguards to prevent breakdowns not just in the military, but also in any agency that works hand in hand with the military.
The military and lawmakers have been gifted hindsight to prevent another insurrection from happening in 2024 — but they will succeed only if they take decisive action now.

Click to expand...

The biggest weak spot is the method by which electoral votes are counted. Then it moves to the state level, but perhaps a federal mandate could address the recent state legislation that allows the popular vote in those states to be overridden.

I’m not sure any current proposed legislation would address either of these issues.

The existence of the EC is the issue. Winning an election with fewer votes is not a democratic process.

True, but we’re stuck with it.

MT15 said:

True, but we’re stuck with it.

Click to expand...

The more and more shenanigans that go on year after year makes me think we need to do an overhaul of the Constitution to make it relevant for the times we actually live in. Not 1787. Some amendments need amending since their current day definitions couldn't have possibly been imagined by the framers.

insidejob said:

The more and more shenanigans that go on year after year makes me think we need to do an overhaul of the Constitution to make it relevant for the times we actually live in. Not 1787. Some amendments need amending since their current day definitions couldn't have possibly been imagined by the framers.

Click to expand...

Except that amending the Constitution to cure cancer wouldn't stand a chance of passing. Much less an amendment that would hurt either major party.

Good, I know there were active military there, wonder how many law enforcement personnel were there to, involved in, or chanting for the beating of fellow officers?
====================================================

Texas sheriff's lieutenant who was at the Capitol on January 6 and who called the insurrection one of the best days of her life has been fired, the local news outlet KSAT reported on Tuesday.

Bexar County Sheriff's Office Lt. Roxanne Mathai, 47, was placed on administrative leave in January after she posted photos on Facebook that showed her near the Capitol, KSAT reported.

Sheriff Javier Salazar fired Mathai in June, but she appealed his decision, according to KSAT. When the case was brought before an arbitrator, she argued that she'd been present for a historic event and was wrongfully terminated, the report said.

Since Mathai said she didn't enter the Capitol, she also argued that she was not involved in the siege, the local CBS affiliate KENS 5 reported.

In an interview with KSAT on Monday, Salazar called Mathai's defense "ridiculous."

"It's not like you're standing there for the signing of the Declaration of Independence. That's a historic event," Salazar said. "You're there when fellow Americans lost their lives. That's nothing to be proud of."............

Good article debunking the false narratives surrounding the 6th
================
……..An examination of some of the top falsehoods about the Capitol riot and the people who have spread them:

CLAIM: THE RIOTERS WEREN’T TRUMP SUPPORTERS

In fact, many of those who came to the Capitol on Jan. 6 have said — proudly, publicly, repeatedly — that they did so to help the then-president.

Different versions of the claim suggest they were FBI operatives or members of the anti-fascist movement antifa.

“Earlier today, the Capitol was under siege by people who can only be described as antithetical to the MAGA movement,” Laura Ingraham said on her Fox News show the night of Jan. 6, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. “

They were likely not all Trump supporters, and there are some reports that antifa sympathizers may have been sprinkled throughout the crowd.”

The next day, Ingraham acknowledged the inaccuracy when she tweeted a link to a story debunking the claim…….

CLAIM: THE RIOTERS WEREN’T VIOLENT

Dozens of police officers were severely injured. One Capitol Police officer who was attacked and assaulted with bear spray suffered a stroke and died a day later of natural causes.

Former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who rushed to the scene, said he was “grabbed, beaten, tased, all while being called a traitor to my country.”

The assault stopped only when he said he had children. He later learned he had suffered a heart attack. Fanone resigned from the department in December 2021.

Rioters broke into the Senate chamber minutes after senators had fled under armed protection. They rifled through desks and looked for lawmakers, yelling, “Where are they?” In House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, staffers hid under desks while rioters called out the name of the California Democrat.

That’s not how some Republican politicians have described the insurrection.

Appearing on Ingraham’s show in May, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said he condemned the Capitol breach as well as the violence, but said it was wrong to term it an insurrection.

“By and large it was a peaceful protest, except for there were a number of people, basically agitators, that whipped the crowd and breached the Capitol,” Johnson said…….

CLAIM: TRUMP DID NOT ENCOURAGE THE RIOTERS

Trump may now want to minimize his involvement, but he spent months sounding a steady drumbeat of conspiracy theory and grievance, urging his followers to fight to somehow return him to power.

“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Trump tweeted on Dec. 19, 2020. “Be there, will be wild!”

Immediately before the mob stormed the Capitol, Trump spoke for more than an hour, telling his supporters they had been “cheated” and “defrauded” in the “rigged” election by a “criminal enterprise” that included lawmakers who were now meeting in the Capitol.

At one point, Trump did urge his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voice heard.” The rest of his speech was filled with hostile rhetoric.

“We fight. We fight like hell,” he told those who would later break into the Capitol. “And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Now, Trump says he had nothing to do with the riot.

“I wasn’t involved in that, and if you look at my words and what I said in the speech, they were extremely calming actually,” Trump said on Fox News in December…….

Findings to be made public soon

I’m sure Fox texts just the tip of the iceberg
==============

WASHINGTON (AP) — They’ve interviewed more than 300 witnesses, collected tens of thousands of documents and traveled around the country to talk to election officials who were pressured by Donald Trump.

Now, after six months of intense work, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is preparing to go public.

In the coming months, members of the panel will start to reveal their findings against the backdrop of the former president and his allies’ persistent efforts to whitewash the riots and reject suggestions that he helped instigate them. The committee also faces the burden of trying to persuade the American public that their conclusions are fact-based and credible.

But the nine lawmakers — seven Democrats and two Republicans — are united in their commitment to tell the full story of Jan. 6, and they are planning televised hearings and reports that will bring their findings out into the open.


Their goal is not only to show the severity of the riot, but also to make a clear connection between the attack and Trump’s brazen pressure on the states and Congress to overturn Joe Biden’s legitimate election as president.

“The full picture is coming to light, despite President Trump’s ongoing efforts to hide the picture,” said Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chairwoman and one of its two Republican members.

“I don’t think there’s any area of this broader history in which we aren’t learning new things,” she said.

While the fundamental facts of Jan. 6 are known, the committee says the extraordinary trove of material they have collected — 35,000 pages of records so far, including texts, emails and phone records from people close to Trump — is fleshing out critical details of the worst attack on the Capitol in two centuries, which played out on live television…….

Interesting Sunday show news:

During the ABC interview, Cheney reiterated her strong reservations about Trump's fitness for future office.
"Any man who would not do so, any man who would provoke a violent assault on the Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes, any man who would watch television as police officers were being beaten, as his supporters were invading the Capitol of the United States, is clearly unfit for future office," Cheney said. "Clearly can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again."
Asked if she believes the committee's investigation and report can change minds, Cheney said she has hope because the work is being done on a bipartisan basis.
"It is very much one that brings together a group of us who have very different policy views, but who come together when the issues have to do with the defense of the Constitution, and so that does give me hope," she said.

Click to expand...

Cheney certainty is an optimist to think that the committee's investigation and report can change minds.

I admire that spunk because I'm an optimist too.

I found this story about Ashli Babbitt interesting. I had seen a video clip just after she was killed of her ranting angrily about election fraud. I knew she had some anger issues from seeing that video she had posted on social media. This just illuminates these issues further, and shows how the right, led by Trump, have no regard for the truth. They only care about furthering their own “victim” narratives, facts be damned.

Is this the new date for the indoctrinated?