That Stochastic Thing

There's something to be said for the standard rebuttal that gets thrown around every time someone puts up a social media post that "seems" to promote violence.

Yes, it may be that people are overreacting as a means of politicking the situation.

But when there's a pattern to it, over a period of years, and when a big majority of it comes from one side of our political spectrum in particular, then we have to recognize it as a real danger.

Paul Gosar is the latest Repub Congress Critter to get caught up in this shit. He tweeted an altered version of an anime clip that depicts him killing AOC and attacking Biden.

via The Independent:

This is a basic strategy of Stochastic Terrorism, though it goes a step further because it gets pretty specific - along the lines of, "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest!?"

Paul Gosar is a poster boy for the GOP's version of it, which they've deployed for quite a while, and have, in the last coupla decades, ratcheted up considerably.

What they're doing:

Republicans do all manner of shitty things, and provide themselves some cover with barely veiled, plausibly deniable threats. It's intended to normalize violence - and not just for their followers, but for everyone. The rubes are conditioned to react violently when instructed, and the rest of us become conditioned to expect that violent reaction.

It's all aimed at making all of us less willing to stand up against them, and to accept whatever dictates they care to issue, for fear of retribution.

WaPo: (pay wall)

Rep. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) shared an altered, animated video that depicts him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and swinging two swords at President Biden, prompting condemnation and calls for his Twitter and Instagram accounts to be suspended.

Ocasio-Cortez responded Monday night after arriving in Glasgow, Scotland, as part of a congressional delegation. Gosar, she said, will probably “face no consequences” because House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) “cheers him on with excuses.”

A Gosar staffer defended the video Monday night, dismissing claims that it glorifies violence.

“Everyone needs to relax,” Gosar’s digital director, Jessica Lycos, said in a statement.

A Twitter spokesperson said late Monday that a “public interest notice” had been placed on Gosar’s tweet because it violates the company’s policy against hateful conduct.

Gosar has long drawn criticism for his extremist views, including his spreading of conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob and the deadly white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville in 2017. In February, he appeared at an event whose organizer called for white supremacy. Gosar later distanced himself from the organizer’s remarks.

The congressman’s Sunday night post — which he shared on Twitter and Instagram — appeared to go further than his previous contentious remarks and social media posts, raising the specter of political violence in a manner similar to former president Donald Trump’s frequent allusions to armed revolution.

“Any anime fans out there?” Gosar said in the tweet in which he shared a link to the video.

The 90-second clip appears to be an altered version of the opening credits of the Japanese animated series “Attack on Titan.” The show revolves around a hero who sets out to destroy the Titans, giant creatures that have devoured nearly all of human civilization. In recent years, Internet users have turned the show’s opening credits into a popular meme.

Paul Gosar was a beloved dentist. Now he’s a MAGA congressman. His former patients need a spit bowl.

In the video Gosar posted, the congressman is depicted fighting the Titans alongside Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (Colo.). In one scene, Ocasio-Cortez’s face is edited over one of the Titans’ faces. Gosar flies into the air and slashes the Titan in the back of the neck, killing it.

In another scene, Gosar swings two swords at a foe whose face has been replaced by that of Biden.

The animated scenes of the video are interspersed with real-life footage of Border Patrol officers, some standing shoulder-to-shoulder and others on horseback rounding up migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

In one scene, footage of migrants crossing the Rio Grande is overlaid with what appears to be splattered blood. In another, the words “drugs,” “crime,” “poverty,” “money,” “murder,” “gangs,” “violence” and “trafficking” flash across the screen. The video also features shots of Gosar, the Capitol and migrant caravans.

Ocasio-Cortez responded Monday night, noting that while she was traveling to Glasgow, “a creepy member I work with who fundraises for Neo-Nazi groups shared a fantasy video of him killing me.”

In June, Gosar denied that he planned to attend a fundraiser with a group that promotes white-nationalist ideas, despite an invitation for the event that featured him alongside Nick Fuentes, a far-right operative who leads America First.

The congressman will “face no consequences bc @GOPLeader cheers him on with excuses,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, without naming Gosar.

“Fun Monday! Well, back to work bc institutions don’t protect woc,” she said, referring to women of color.

In a follow-up tweet, Ocasio-Cortez listed several times she was accosted or harassed at the Capitol by GOP members of Congress, including Greene and Rep. Ted Yoho (Fla.).

“All at my job,” she tweeted, along with an upside-down smiley face. “[And] nothing ever happens.”

Twitter spokesperson Trenton Kennedy said late Monday that the company has “placed a public interest notice on this Tweet as it violates our hateful conduct policy.”

“As is standard with this notice, engagements with the Tweet will be limited. People will be able to Quote Tweet the Tweet, but will not be able to Like, Reply or Retweet it,” Kennedy said in an email.

The message placed on Gosar’s tweet reads: “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about hateful conduct. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) criticized Gosar in a tweet Monday morning in which he also tagged McCarthy.

Rep. Gosar denies knowledge of fundraiser with group that promotes white-nationalist ideas despite invitation for the event

“Happy Monday in America, where @GOPLeader McCarthy’s colleague just posted a video of himself swinging two swords at President Biden,” Swalwell said in the tweet. “These blood thirsty losers are more comfortable with violence than voting. Keep exposing them.”

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) also denounced the video, arguing that “in any workplace in America, if a coworker made an anime video killing another coworker, that person would be fired.”

“This is sick behavior from Rep. Paul Gosar,” Lieu tweeted.

Scores of Twitter users also flagged Gosar’s tweet as a potential violation of the social media service’s rules, which prohibit violent threats and the glorification of violence. Instagram’s community guidelines prohibit “credible threats of violence, hate speech and the targeting of private individuals.”

Lycos, Gosar’s digital director, dismissed the criticism in a statement Monday night.

“We made an anime video,” she said. “Everyone needs to relax. The left doesn’t get meme culture. They have no joy. They are not the future. It’s a cartoon. Gosar can’t fly and he does not own any light sabers. Nor was violence glorified. This is about fighting for truth.”

Spokespeople for McCarthy and Facebook, which owns Instagram, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

After tweeting about the lack of repercussions for lawmakers who harass or threaten their colleagues, Ocasio-Cortez added her personal thoughts about Gosar.

“This dude is a just a collection of wet toothpicks anyway,” she said. “White supremacy is for extremely fragile people & sad men like him, whose self concept relies on the myth that he was born superior because deep down he knows he couldn’t open a pickle jar or read a whole book by himself.”

 Leni Riefenstahl ain't got nuthin' 

 on these GOP assholes 

Jan6 Stuff

The most ardent supporters - the ones who'll go anywhere and do whatever they think they've been told to do no matter what, without thinking it through, and with no regard for anything, including themselves or anyone else - those are the guys who personify Hannah Arendt's "banality of evil".

Chris Hayes, MSNBC

Keeping Up The Fight

Between 15 million and 28 million Americans believe Biden is not a duly-elected legitimate POTUS, and that Trump should be "reinstated" by violent means.

CPOST, University of Chicago:

We need a clearer picture of the type of person who attacked the Capitol and what led them to action. Moreover, we need to know how many Americans today support the use of violence to preserve the Trump presidency—the cause most associated with the insurrectionist movement, and who or what most influences this group.

For the past six months, the University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats (CPOST) every two to three weeks has been updating its demographic studies of the nearly 600 Americans arrested for the January 6 attack to build as complete and current a picture as possible of this mass political movement with violence at its core.

One might have expected fires to fade, the FBI arrests to have a chilling impact on violence to support Trump, or the de-platforming of Trump himself from Facebook and Twitter to lower the temperature. But our most recent nationally representative survey of 1,070 American adults fielded by the NORC at the University of Chicago in June, paints a different, if not alarming, picture. We found, most strikingly, that nine percent of Americans—believe the “Use of force is justified to restore Donald J. Trump to the presidency. More than a fourth of adults agree, in varying degrees, that, “The 2020 election was stolen, and Joe Biden is an illegitimate president.”

We also learned that 8.1 percent — that equates to 21 million American adults — share both these radical beliefs. From a statistical point of view, this number is extrapolated from a range between 6% (15 million) to 11% (28 million), where we have 95% confidence that the true number falls within.

There is remarkable consistency in the responses. Specifically, of the roughly one tenth of those who think force is justified to restore Trump, 90% also see Biden as illegitimate, and 68% also think force may be needed to preserve America’s traditional way of life.

Today’s 21 million adamant supporters of insurrection also have the dangerous potential for violent mobilization. Our survey also asked pointed questions about membership and support for militia groups, such as the Oath Keepers, or extremist groups, such as the Proud boys, to which approximately, one million of the 21 million insurrectionists are themselves or personally know a member of a militia or extremist group. Six million showed support for militias and extremist groups. At least seven million of this number own a gun, and three million have prior US military service.

What’s driving people in the insurrectionist movement? Our survey looked closely at the beliefs, news sources, and party affiliations associated with the 21 million adamant insurrectionists.

The research shows, two central beliefs occur among adamant insurrectionists statistically significantly than more commonly found in the general population:

• 63% believe in the Great Replacement: “African American people or Hispanic people in our country will eventually have more rights than whites.”
• 54% believe in the QAnon cabal: “A secret group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles is ruling the US government.”

These two fundamental beliefs do not fully overlap, suggesting complex, multiple pathways into the movement.

This reinforces our previous findings, already showing that we are dealing with a mass movement with violence at its core that does not fit earlier patterns of right-wing extremism. For example, we are not dealing with disaffected and unemployed young men, but mainly highly competent, middle-aged American professionals.

Concerning political affiliation, the adamant insurrectionists are not only Republicans.

While 51% self-identify as members of the Republican Party, 34% see themselves as Independents and 10% as Democrats.

All this tells us is that the insurrectionist movement is more mainstream, cross-party, and more complex than many people might like to think, which does not bode well for the 2022 mid-term elections, or for that matter, the 2024 Presidential election.

Ironically, the solution may be more local than national. Of the ardent insurrectionists, 47 percent see the Federal Government as an “enemy”, 56 percent feel the same way about state governments, but 73 percent see local governments as non-enemy actors. With the latter being the most trusted sources, mayors could have potentially out-sized influence over the future of the movement.

Without a sound risk analysis of the drivers of American political violence, it is hard to see how developing policies, far less strategies to mitigate the risk of future election-related violence, could be genuinely possible.

As the 2022 election season fast approaches — along with the potential for distorting election outcomes — understanding American political violence must surely be a national priority if democracy is to hold the line.

Fearsome Forebodement

6410 Independence Way
Childhood home of the great & powerful Wizard Of eVille

I grew up in Arvada, Colorado. At least, that's where I spent my "developmental years" (age 13 - 21).

It was a sizable place at about 80,000 population back then, but never much more than a bedroom community, where you had the wife and kids stashed in 3-bedroom ranch-style tract home that looked almost exactly like everybody else's joint - Dad carpooled into Denver while Mom either stayed home or did some secretarying for the local insurance company or whatever.

Sleepy and uneventful and exactly the way it should be in a low-stress upwardly mobile middle class white suburban landscape.

But this is USAmerica Inc, where the shit is never far from your own backyard, and will eventually get to your place.

WaPo:

Police officer killed in ‘ambush’ by man who ‘expressed hatred’ of law enforcement, officials say

A veteran police officer and a bystander were gunned down in a Denver suburb on Monday in what authorities now describe as a targeted attack by someone who “expressed hatred” for members of law enforcement.

The episode in Arvada, a city of more than 120,000 people, was at least the third high-profile shooting in Colorado during the past three months. The investigation into the incident is still ongoing, but Police Chief Link Strate said Tuesday that the officer, Gordon Beesley, “was targeted because he was wearing an Arvada police uniform and a badge.” He was a 19-year veteran of the department.

“Officer Beasley was ambushed by someone who expressed hatred of police officers,” Strate said at a news conference.

The shooting was “a deliberate act of violence,” Strate added, but officials “believe this is an isolated incident.” He identified the second victim as 40-year-old John Hurley and described him as a “good Samaritan” who intervened in the violence.

“He is a true hero who likely disrupted what could have been a larger loss of life,” Strate said.

- more behind the pay wall - 

We used to pull some pretty squirrely shit in Jr High and High School - sometimes just to get the cops out for a little exercise. There's still an element of that in some of the crap going on, but the stakes are obviously a lot higher, and there's always that shitty paranoid feeling that somebody wants it this way. Like somebody sees us as scorpions in a jar, and they're going to shake that jar to keep us at each other's throats while "they" profit in some way that's not apparent to us.

Arvada's been around since the late 1800s. Officer Beesley is the first cop ever to be killed by gunfire in the line of duty.

There's just too much that isn't being made public on this one and I've got a real bad feelin'.

HELTER SKELTER,

MOTHERFUCKER

Spontaneous My Ass

The big lie is morphing into denial of the lie itself, and a whole new lie to take its place - that is, that the "demonstration" on Jan6 was just rambunctious kids who let things get out of hand a little bit, and after all, we certainly didn't have anything to do with it - musta been them AntiFa guys.

The new news is that the FBI is on the trail and there could be some pretty bad shit coming down the pike that could definitively put this thing inside Trump's White House - which might explain the GOP's recent insistence on pimping Mr Potato Head and Dr Seuss as national scandals.

NYT: (pay wall)

F.B.I. Finds Contact Between Proud Boys Member and Trump Associate Before Riot

A leader of the far-right group separately said he had been in touch with Roger Stone, but an official said it was not the same contact investigators found through electronic communications records.

A member of the far-right nationalist Proud Boys was in communication with a person associated with the White House in the days just before the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.

Location, cellular and call record data revealed a call tying a Proud Boys member to the Trump White House, the official said. The F.B.I. has not determined what they discussed, and the official would not reveal the names of either party.

The connection revealed by the communications data comes as the F.B.I. intensifies its investigation of contacts among far-right extremists, Trump White House associates and conservative members of Congress in the days before the attack.

The same data has revealed no evidence of communications between the rioters and members of Congress during the deadly attack, the official said. That undercuts Democratic allegations that some Republican lawmakers were active participants that day.

Separately, Enrique Tarrio, a leader of the far-right nationalist Proud Boys, told The New York Times on Friday that he called Roger J. Stone Jr., a close associate of former President Donald J. Trump’s, while at a protest in front of the home of Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida. During the protest, which occurred in the days before the Capitol assault, he put Mr. Stone on speaker phone to address the gathering.


A law enforcement official said that it was not Mr. Tarrio’s communication with Mr. Stone that was being scrutinized, and that the call made in front of Mr. Rubio’s home was a different matter. That two members of the group were in communication with people associated with the White House underscores the access that violent extremist groups like the Proud Boys had to the White House and to people close to the former president.

Mr. Stone denied “any involvement or knowledge of the attack on the Capitol” in a statement last month to The Times.

Mr. Tarrio was arrested in Washington on Jan. 4 on charges of destruction of property for his role in the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner that had been torn from a historic Black church during a protest in Washington in December. He was asked to leave the city, and was not present when the Capitol was attacked. His case is pending.

The Justice Department has charged more than a dozen members of the Proud Boys with crimes related to the attack, including conspiracy to obstruct the final certification of President Biden’s electoral victory and to attack law enforcement officers.

In court papers, federal prosecutors have said groups of Proud Boys also coordinated travel to Washington and shared lodging near the city, with the intent of disrupting Congress and advancing Mr. Trump’s efforts to unlawfully maintain his grip on the presidency.

The communication between the person associated with the White House and the member of the Proud Boys was discovered in part through data that the F.B.I. obtained from technology and telecommunications companies immediately after the assault.

Court documents show F.B.I. warrants for a list of all the phones associated with the cell towers serving the Capitol, and that it received information from the major cellphone carriers on the numbers called by everyone on the Capitol’s cell towers during the riot, three officials familiar with the investigation said.

The F.B.I. also obtained a “geofence” warrant for all the Android devices that Google recorded within the building during the assault, the officials said. A geofence warrant legally gives law enforcement a list of mobile devices that are able to be identified in a particular geographic area. Jill Sanborn, the head of counterterrorism at the F.B.I., testified before a Senate panel on Wednesday that all the data the F.B.I. had gathered in its investigation into the riot was obtained legally through subpoenas and search warrants.

Although investigators have found no contact between the rioters and members of Congress during the attack, those records have shown evidence in the days leading up to Jan. 6 of communications between far-right extremists and lawmakers who were planning to appear at the rally featuring Mr. Trump that occurred just before the assault, according to one of the officials.

The Justice Department is examining those communications, but it has not opened investigations into any members, the official said. A department spokesman declined to comment.

The F.B.I. did, however, say on Thursday that it had arrested a former State Department aide on charges related to the attack, including unlawful entry, violent and disorderly conduct, obstructing Congress and law enforcement, and assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon.

The former midlevel aide, Federico G. Klein, who was seen in videos assaulting officers with a stolen riot shield, was the first member of the Trump administration to face criminal charges in connection with the storming of the Capitol. His lawyer declined to comment on Friday.

Right-wing extremists, including members of the Oath Keepers, a militia group that mainly comprises former law enforcement and military personnel, have been working as security guards for Republicans and for Mr. Trump’s allies, such as Mr. Stone.

Mr. Stone, who was pardoned by Mr. Trump after refusing to cooperate with the investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russian intelligence, has known Mr. Tarrio for some time and used Oath Keepers as bodyguards before and on the day of the assault on the Capitol.

The Justice Department is looking into communications between Mr. Stone and far-right extremists to determine whether he played any role in plans by extremists to disrupt the certification on Jan. 6, according to two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak about the investigation.

Should investigators find messages showing that Mr. Stone had any connection to such plans, they would have a factual basis to open a full criminal investigation into him, the people said.

Mr. Stone said last month that he was “provided voluntary security by the Oath Keepers,” but noted that their security work did not constitute evidence that he was involved in, or informed about, plans to attack Congress. He reiterated an earlier statement that anyone involved in the attack should be prosecuted.

The Justice Department has charged more than 300 people with crimes stemming from the Jan. 6 assault. It has used evidence gathered in its broad manhunt for assailants — including information from cellular providers and technology companies — to help piece together evidence of more sophisticated crimes, like conspiracy.

It is also looking at possible charges of seditious conspiracy, according to two people familiar with the investigation.

The Other Plague

We have multiple problems to contend with, and one of the big ones is that we have a Republican party unwilling to acknowledge any of it, much less pitch in and try to help.

COVID-19 and Racism and Climate Change are daunting in their scope, but now we're also seeing the cycle of ignorance poverty and crime expanding into the suburbs, and beginning to include people who used to be considered "safe" from the worst aspects of this creeping Plutocracy.

It's axiomatic that power and money always gravitate up - more and more wealth (and the power that goes with it) become concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, which means more more people have less and less, because in economics, there's always always always a Net-Zero Balance. Whenever there's a surplus somewhere, there's always a corresponding deficit somewhere else.

Always.

Always.

Always.

So the obvious question is, "Why won't Republican office-holders do anything?", which leads me to ponder the fact that they aren't as dumb as they'd have to be to believe the shit they say, and if that's true, then I have to consider the conclusion that they're doing pretty much exactly what they intend to do.

They know that when people are left with nothing more to lose, they'll rally to the Strong Man and do what he wants.

We're seeing one of the standard plays being run now. The Q-MAGAts are being fed a steady diet of grievance, and told it's the Elite Libtards doing all these horrible things to them, and if they don't rise up and "take back our country", there'll be nothing left and blah blah blah.

Richmond Times-Dispatch: (pay wall)

Police uncover 'possible plot' by militia to breach US Capitol on Thursday

The U.S. Capitol Police say they have intelligence showing there is a "possible plot" by a militia group to breach the U.S. Capitol on Thursday.

The revelation was detailed in a statement from the Capitol Police. It comes at the same time the acting police chief is testifying before a House subcommittee.

The statement differs from an advisory that was sent to members of Congress by the acting House sergeant-at-arms this week, saying that Capitol Police had "no indication that groups will travel to Washington D.C. to protest or commit acts of violence."

The threat comes nearly two months after thousands of supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in a violent insurrection as Congress was voting to certify Joe Biden's electoral win. So far, about 300 people have been charged with federal crimes for their roles in the riot. Five people, including a Capitol Police officer, died.

The threat appears to be connected to a far-right conspiracy theory, mainly promoted by supporters of QAnon, that Trump will rise again to power on March 4, which was the original presidential inauguration day, until 1933, when it was moved to Jan. 20.

Many of the accounts that helped promote and organize the Jan. 6 riots on platforms like Facebook and Twitter have since been suspended, making it more difficult for the groups to organize.

We shall see what we shall see tomorrow.

...or maybe the next time. Or the time after that.

Jan6 Update

It continues to amaze me just how delusional some of these Q Cucks Clan boneheads have become.

That one lady (Elizabeth from Knoxville) made the news whining about been maced.

And, of course, we have some beautiful talented souls on YouTube to make sure she's exposed to the ridicule she deserves.

"We were stormin' the capitol - it's a revolution". 

Like, why would they do that to me - I'm white and middle class, and the president told us to do this - why are they being mean to us?

It's becoming clear that these idiots have had their brains scrambled to the point where reality just doesn't even peek thru once in a while. They're stuck in Wonderland.

But the FBI is fast teaching some of them that reality is a thing after all, and they'll have to face up to it eventually.

And the kicker is that they're beginning to see how the paranoia they've been nurtured with - and manipulated by - can turn around and work against them.

Daily Beast:

From Proud Boys panicked about the revelation that their leader was a snitch to the racist America First crowd, old pals are now enemies.

As federal authorities crack down on the far right after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the movement’s leaders have found new sources of suspicion: each other.

In the Trumpist “America First” movement and the far-right paramilitary group the Proud Boys, alliances are fracturing as extremists brand each other as potential informants. Now racist live-streamers are accusing their former comrades of attempting to turn over followers to law enforcement, while Proud Boys chapters are splintering from the national organization over similar fears.

Until the FBI started closing in, white nationalists Nick Fuentes and Patrick Casey were the two most prominent figures in the racist “America First” movement.

The pair built up shared audiences on live-streaming platforms, and cheered as their fans, nicknamed “groypers” after an obese version of the cartoon Pepe the Frog, heckled more moderate Trump allies at conservative events.

But the federal heat is on after Fuentes received roughly $250,000 in a much-scrutinized bitcoin transfer, then appeared outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot. The FBI is reportedly investigating the bitcoin transfer, though Fuentes has not faced charges over the money or the riot.

On Thursday, Casey distanced himself from Fuentes and America First in a live-streamed video, slamming Fuentes’ decision to gather his followers in Orlando later this month for a conference right as other America First supporters face charges over the riot.

“Some people who were at the Capitol are going to flip,” Casey said in his video.

Declaring the aftermath of the Capitol riot “a million times worse” for the far right than the crackdown that followed the fatal white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017, Casey claimed, without offering evidence, that Fuentes’ bank accounts have been frozen by federal authorities. He also accused Fuentes of planning to drive cross-country, rather than fly, to the Florida conference because he suspected he was on the federal no-fly list, then concealing that possibility from his followers.

Worst of all, Casey argued, Fuentes planned to gather all of his supporters in Orlando, where they could be easily recorded by federal investigators or informants. He went on to suggest America First’s members would see the conference for what he thinks it could be: an FBI trap.

“He wants you to give him your real name, to show up to his event where your face will be visible, where your cellphone data will be in close proximity to his,” Casey said.

Fuentes didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Accusations that one-time allies have become federal informants aren’t uncommon in the extreme right, which has built up an entire lexicon of terms to describe the varieties of real or suspected federal infiltrators. But that paranoia has been ratcheted up in the aftermath of the riot, with the Proud Boys—a group that has seen a slew of members indicted—splintering under accusations that leaders have become informants or otherwise been compromised by the FBI.

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was arrested in Washington, D.C., two days before the riot, and now faces felony charges over the possession of illicit firearm magazines. But a Reuters report on Tarrio’s history as a federal informant cast members’ suspicions on their own leader, even as Proud Boys who allegedly participated in the riot face federal conspiracy charges.

Proud Boys chapters in three U.S. states—including four local chapters in Indiana—now claim to have broken with the national organization over Tarrio’s work as a federal informant. (Tarrio did not return a request for comment.)

“We reject and disavow the proven federal informant, Enrique Tarrio, and any and all chapters that choose to associate with him,” read a statement shared by the Indiana group’s state-level Telegram channel and on the Alabama group’s website, previously reported by USA Today. “We do not recognize the assumed authority of any national Proud Boy leadership including the Chairman, the Elders, or any subsequent governing body that is formed to replace them until such a time we may choose to consent to join those bodies of government.”

Proud Boys in Oklahoma also broke from Tarrio’s leadership, issuing a statement on messaging app Telegram in which they accused him and other national “elders” of “failure to take disciplinary measures [which] have jeopardized our brothers safety and the integrity of our brotherhood.”

Tarrio responded to the Oklahoma chapter’s departure with a series of memes accusing Oklahomans of being rednecks, or having sex with relatives. Anti-Tarrio Proud Boys responded with their own memes accusing their former leader of ratting out members of the group, photoshopping his face on rapper and government witness Tekashi69. Another meme played on the menacing Proud Boys motto “Fuck Around and Find Out,” claiming that Tarrio would instead “Snitch Around and Rat Out.”

But don’t expect Proud Boy splinter groups to morph into peaceful book clubs. The Indiana Proud Boys, for example, are led by Brien James, a longtime member of white supremacist groups with a history of violent brawls. Other white supremacists have previously slammed James as a law enforcement risk (someone “you want to keep away from you because you know he’s going to do something to bring the cops over,” one previously noted). Nevertheless, James took to Telegram this week to blame Tarrio and Ethan “Rufio Panman” Nordean, a prominent Proud Boy who was arrested on Feb. 3 over his own alleged role in the riot, of being untrustworthy.

“Now we have another ‘war boy’ and elder who is trying to snitch on the president? For something he knows damn well the president didn’t do? You made your own choices Rufio,” James wrote, adding that “if you are a Proud Boy I would recommend having your chapter declare full autonomy from the national structure at the very least.” (A public defender listed as representing Nordean did not respond to a request for comment.)

The Capitol riots have been followed by still more rifts internationally.

Anti-fascist activists in Manitoba, Canada, also claim their province’s Proud Boys chapter has dissolved. The CBC reported that, while the chapter had been largely inactive for the past year, the group was confirmed dead this month, when the Canadian government designated Proud Boys as a terrorist organization.

Meanwhile, Jason Lee Van Dyke, who registered the group’s trademark and briefly led the Proud Boys in 2018, filed this week to surrender the trademark to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, legal documents show. Van Dyke previously told The Daily Beast he revoked Tarrio’s license to use the name after a Black church in Washington, D.C., sued the Proud Boys for allegedly burning their flag in a rally weeks before the Capitol attack.

“I don’t want any recourse or anyone thinking I have any control over this group, that I have anything to do with this group, or that I am going to have anything to do with this group in the future,” Van Dyke said in a separate interview this week. He claimed he’d tried to transfer the trademark to another Proud Boy, who got spooked after Canada slapped the group with a terrorist label.

“There was one individual… who contacted me about having the trademark transferred to him,” Van Dyke told The Daily Beast. “After the Canadian government made a determination of the Proud Boys as a terrorist group for whatever reason they did that, that individual told me he was out and he would not be taking over the trademark. My response to that individual and those who had been working with him on acquiring the trademark was that they had seven days to get back to me regarding who was going to take it over, or I was going to surrender it.

“I did not hear back from anybody and the trademark is surrendered.”

As for the America First movement, Casey’s criticism of Fuentes has riled the “groypers,” who have been forced to choose between their two leaders. Fuentes appeared to respond to Casey on Thursday night by tweeting a video of Donald Trump talking about disloyalty.

But Fuentes’ supporters and allies have good reason to believe federal law enforcement is focusing on their group. Anthime Gionet, a Fuentes ally who goes by the alias “Baked Alaska,” was arrested in January after filming himself entering the Capitol. Riot suspect Riley June Williams, who wore an “I’m With Groyper” shirt to the Capitol, allegedly stole a laptop computer from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Casey urged his followers to consider how they would react to Fuentes’ conference if any other far-right leader had been behind it.

“You would be like, ‘Wow, federal honeypot, federal honeypot event,’” Casey said. “You would probably accuse the guy of being a fed.”

Happens every time. "Everybody in the world is fucked up except you and me, and I'm beginning to wonder about you."

Today's Video

In case you missed it - the House managers had a nice little reminder of the extreme shittiness that the Senate Republicans desperately need us to ignore.

Today's Beau

Justin King - Beau Of The Fifth Column

They know what they saw; they know what it was; and they know who's to blame.

Fuck You, Proud Boys

From WSJ

(I don't know how long this stays up, or if it'll get put behind the pay wall or what, but here it is for now)

Continuing The Fight (updated)

It should be hard to imagine a government led by people who think we have a right to Twitter but not healthcare.

It isn't hard to imagine that at all. Not here in USAmerica Inc.

Twitter shut down President Stoopid's account recently because of his insistence on using it to spread the "election fraud" bullshit, and now Amazon has stepped up by kicking Parler off their web services platform because:

And of course, the Q Cucks Clan have reacted with their usual cool and aplomb.

Buzzfeed:

Amazon's suspension of Parler's account means that unless it can find another host, once the ban takes effect on Sunday Parler will go offline.

Amazon notified Parler that it would be cutting off the social network favored by conservatives and extremists from its cloud hosting service Amazon Web Services, according to an email obtained by BuzzFeed News. The suspension, which will go into effect on Sunday just before midnight, means that Parler will be unable to operate and will go offline unless it can find another hosting service.

People on Parler used the social network to stoke fear, spread hate, and coordinate the insurrection at the Capitol building on Wednesday. The app has recently been overrun with death threats, celebrations of violence, and posts encouraging “Patriots” to march on Washington, DC with weapons on January 19, the day before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.

In an email obtained by BuzzFeed News, an AWS Trust and Safety team told Parler Chief Policy Officer Amy Peikoff that the calls for violence propagating across the social network violated its terms of service. Amazon said it was unconvinced that the service’s plan to use volunteers to moderate calls for violence and hate speech would be effective.

“Recently, we’ve seen a steady increase in this violent content on your website, all of which violates our terms," the email reads. "It’s clear that Parler does not have an effective process to comply with the AWS terms of service.”

An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the suspension.

In a post on Saturday evening following publication of this story, Parler CEO John Matze, who did not return a request for comment from BuzzFeed News, said it is possible the social network will be unavailable on the internet for up to a week as we rebuild from scratch."

Update - as of this morning, Parler is homeless.

Radicalization is big business. This shit will always be with us because there's always a double digit percentage of wackos out there who need to live in their fantasies, and there will always be cynical manipulative assholes looking to monetize the crazy.

We can't set ourselves up to fail by insisting that any given way of thinking is illegal, so we have to make it plain that there's a big difference between thought and action. 

We also have to insist on understanding the 1st amendment.

We can only push the culture forward and let the loonies know their deliberate ignorance and  abhorrent behaviors won't be tolerated in a civil society.

They won't be employed. and they won't be invited to the neighbors' for dinner, and they won't be welcome at the tailgates until they learn how to mind their manners.

Wait - What?

Donald Trump fired up his crowd last Wednesday, and sent them up Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol building.

It can come as no surprise to anyone that along the way, a good part of that crowd turned into a lynch mob, loudly voicing their intent to hang VP Mike Pence.

Mike Pence has so far decided he's not going to say or do anything about it.

What are we missing here?

Here's A Fun One

They're starting to sort through the detritus and the data, to get some kind of handle on things.

WaPo:

Several dozen people arrested in the violent chaos at the U.S. Capitol made their first appearances in court Thursday as authorities vowed to track down additional suspects and also determine why the mob that stormed and vandalized the building was able to easily overwhelm the police officers guarding it.

In D.C. Superior Court, 40 defendants were charged with unlawful entry of public property and were notified that prosecutors are reviewing evidence of an additional charge of curfew violation. Most of the defendants came from outside of the Washington region — including Oregon, Florida, Wyoming, Connecticut and Pennsylvania — though some were from the District, Maryland and Virginia.

One person arrested was charged with possessing a “military style automatic weapon” and 11 molotov cocktails, prosecutors said. Another defendant was charged with assaulting a police officer with a hockey stick. Yet another, who needed a Russian interpreter, told a judge, “I don’t know what unlawful entry you are referring to.”

They had been among thousands of demonstrators who marched on the Capitol in support of President Trump’s false claim that he lost the Nov. 3 election because of massive voter fraud. Although prosecutors in some cases sought to have them held in jail pending prosecution, most were released on their own recognizance.

The 40 defendants in Superior Court were accused of violating D.C. law, including being out after a 6 p.m. curfew imposed by the city.

As of early Thursday evening, four other people, charged with federal crimes, appeared in U.S. District Court, including a Maryland man accused of possessing a firearm after curfew on Capitol grounds just outside the Capitol Visitor Center — a 9mm handgun with a round in the firing chamber. Prosecutors said he also was carrying two fully loaded 12-round magazines, wearing a bulletproof vest, and carrying a gas mask and pocket knife in his backpack. Police said in an affidavit that the man told officers that the gun was for personal protection and that he did not intend to hurt anyone.

Meanwhile, D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III vowed that his department would arrest “each and every one of the violent mob,” and said that investigators are circulating information publicly and to FBI offices nationwide, including photos of rioters destroying property inside the Capitol on Wednesday. He said the department is offering a $1,000 reward for any tip leading to the arrest of a rioter.

Contee’s remarks echoed a pledge by acting attorney general Jeffrey A. Rosen.

“The Department of Justice is committed to ensuring that those responsible for this attack on our Government and the rule of law face the full consequences of their actions under the law,” he said in a statement.

Rosen said his office has been working with numerous law enforcement agencies to identify and charge perpetrators.

“We will continue to methodically assess evidence, charge crimes and make arrests in the coming days and weeks,” Rosen said.

The FBI also said that it is asking people in areas where explosive devices were found whether they would share any video recordings of surroundings with investigators. D.C. police and the FBI also released several photos of rioters, hoping the public can help identify them to make arrests.

At a news conference, Michael R. Sherwin, the acting U.S. attorney for the District, voiced “concern” at the relatively small number of rioters who were detained by police in the Capitol. As a result, he said, federal authorities face the daunting task of identifying, locating and obtaining arrest warrants for a large number of suspects, which he said could occupy investigators for months.

“Hundreds of people flooded the Capitol and were not [handcuffed] by police,” Sherman said. “I don’t want to be Monday morning quarterbacking to say why they didn’t do it, but it made our job more difficult.” He said, “I can’t explain why they weren’t” detained.

“We have a lot of lessons to learn from this,” Sherwin said. “I think we are going to learn from this over the next several months, if not years.”

Sherwin said authorities “obviously” anticipate making more arrests as investigators develop information about additional suspects in coming days and months. He said a large amount of government paperwork along with electronic devices and other items were stolen from congressional offices during the disturbance, which “could have national security implications.”

Sherwin also responded to criticism of the perception of how the mob scene was handled at the Capitol versus arrests that were made over the summer during Black Lives Matter protests. Sherwin said that during the summer, federal prosecutors processed 174 criminal cases. He said in just one day, his office charged 55 cases and expect more in the coming weeks and months. “I just want to give you a comparison to show how seriously we are taking this,” Sherwin said. “I don’t want that to get lost.”

U.S. Capitol Police have been heavily criticized by law enforcement experts for the evident lack of preparedness by the 1,700-member department. On Thursday morning, in his first public statement about his department’s performance, Chief Steven Sund described his officers as “heroic” and praised their “professionalism and dedication.” Sund resigned later that evening.

Sund said the mob’s storming of the Capitol was unlike any incident he has experienced in three decades of law enforcement in the Washington area. More than 50 D.C. and Capitol Police officers were injured, with several hospitalized, police said.

Authorities said a Capitol Police officer shot and killed a pro-Trump demonstrator, Ashli Babbitt, 35, of San Diego, who was among a group of rioters trying to break through an interior Capitol door near the House Speaker’s Lobby. The shooting is being investigated by D.C. police, and the officer has been placed on administrative leave.

“The USCP had a robust plan established to address anticipated First Amendment activities,” Sund said. “But make no mistake — these mass riots were not First Amendment activities; they were criminal riotous behavior.”

He said “thousands of individuals involved in violent riotous actions” attacked officers with metal pipes, chemical irritants and other weapons. He said officers responded to reports of two pipe bombs, including one outside Republican National Committee headquarters, and a suspicious vehicle at the 300 block of First Street SE.

After determining that both devices were hazardous, a police bomb unit disabled them and turned them over to the FBI, Sund said.

The suspicious vehicle, reportedly a truck loaded with weapons, ammunition and bomb-making materials, was cleared of any hazards and its owner was arrested, police said.

“The USCP is conducting a thorough review of this incident, security planning and policies and procedure,” Sund said.

D.C. police said they arrested 69 people from at least 20 states and the District on Wednesday afternoon through early Thursday, most on curfew and unlawful entry charges. One is a juvenile.

That brings the number of people arrested by D.C. police since Tuesday afternoon to at least 79. The numbers do not include at least one arrest by the U.S. Park Police for a firearms violation at Freedom Plaza. Capitol Police also announced 14 arrests for charges including assaults on police officers, unlawful entry and firearms violations.

Since Tuesday, D.C. police have arrested at least six people on firearms charges, including several at Freedom Plaza and one aboard a multicolored school bus from North Carolina that police stopped after receiving a tip. Police said they found a rifle, a handgun and ammunition aboard.

Two of the more than 79 people arrested during unrest since Tuesday were accused of illegally processing weapons such as metal knuckles and blackjacks. Twenty-five people were charged with curfew violations and unlawful entry onto Capitol grounds. It is unclear if any of those people were inside the Capitol itself.

“The violence and destruction of property at the U.S. Capitol building yesterday showed a blatant and appalling disregard for our institutions of government and the orderly administration of the democratic process,” FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said, adding that “we will hold accountable those who participated” in the siege.

He said, “Our agents and analysts have been hard at work through the night gathering evidence, sharing intelligence and working with federal prosecutors to bring charges.”

One thing I think is worth pointing out: DC has a pretty restrictive set of gun laws. Most of the insurgents were unarmed, and the ones who were found to be armed were arrested (cuz carrying a gun during a "peaceful protest" makes it pretty easy to identify you as a potential bad guy).

We can continue to argue the philosophy, and the relative merits of possession, and what constitutes a threat etc etc, but in practice, we know that fewer guns means less potential for real harm. It's not quite as simple as that, of course, but some of it's pretty fuckin' simple.

Second - what the fuck is up with that one Russkie? Why does it always come back to having something to do with the Russians when we're talking about anything having to do with Trump?

Every.Fucking.Time!?!

Boogaloo

I love me some Hawaiian shirts. And I've always thought "boogaloo" was a pretty fun word - Boogaloo Down Broadway - "Nobody can do the boogaloo, like I do". 

Everything Trump touches dies, so of course, some assholes have to weasel in and fuck it up for everybody.

Forbes:

Boogaloo Movement Tied To Murder, Violence And Disinformation During Protests

Members of a shadowy movement known as the Boogaloo Boys have been implicated in a series of violent protests and the distribution of misinformation regarding the COVID-19 coronavirus and in violent racial protests in a number of cities in the U.S. In addition, the Boogaloo Boys have been specifically mentioned in charging documents against Steven Carrillo filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Carrillo is charged with killing a member of the Federal Protective Service and wounding another. In addition, he has been charged with killing a sheriff’s deputy in Santa Cruz County, California.

The Boogaloo Boys, of which Carrillo is alleged to be a member, have been deeply involved with disinformation activities following the lockdowns related to COVID-19.

In a report made public on June 17, 2020, Blackbird.AI traces these activities including the armed mob that protested at the Michigan statehouse on May 1, 2020, and the subsequent flood of disinformation to the Boogaloo Boys.

“In the lead-up to these protests and others like it across many other states around the country, there was significant online inflammation of what was characterized as the government's unusual and overbearing reach into private lives in the form of closing down cities and businesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the report says.

“Blackbird.AI’s system uncovered high levels of manipulation within influence campaigns aimed at building momentum and a following behind the Boogaloo movement.”

The Blackbird report, “COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Disinformation Report – Volume 3.0” describes the Boogaloo movement’s efforts using social media to drive influence campaigns to encourage white nationalist rebellions, manipulation of anti-police sentiment and white supremacy. Blackbird says that the movement is closely allied with believers in Qanon, and far right conspiracies.

According to Blackbird, traffic on one of the Boogaloo movement’s prime social network boards, 4Chan, exploded immediately after the death of a black man, George Floyd, in police custody in Minneapolis.

The Blackbird report describes members of the Boogaloo movement as being middle-aged, well-off heavily-armed white men who are engaged in a number of activities such as spreading anti-mask conspiracies. They show up armed at otherwise peaceful protests typically wearing Hawaiian “Aloha” shirts. Several reports say that these groups use peaceful protests to cover their violent activities including arson and looting in an effort to start what they call a second civil war.

The federal complaint, filed by FBI Special Agent Brett Woolard, lists evidence linking Carrillo to the Boogaloo movement, including a ballistic vest with a Boogaloo patch as well as slogans written on the hood of a stolen car in his own blood. Carrillo is currently in federal custody.

Beyond Boogaloo

While the Boogaloo movement is growing in influence, they are not the only group that is pushing disinformation around the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a related group pushing anti-mask conspiracies as well as coordinating disruption around mask requirements. These groups were the origin of fake medical forms, suitable for printing, that seem to give anti-mask conspirators the right not to wear masks where they’re required.

What’s concerning, according to Blackbird.AI CEO Wasim Khaled is that there’s an effort to unite the fringe groups opposing mask requirements, shutdowns and urging a return to opening up regardless of the status of the coronavirus.

“We’re seeing Qanon as a theme in the way that ISIS did bringing Islamic groups together,” Khaled said. “We’re seeing things take root in COVID controversies and now spilling over into real life violence and real life militia.” He said that the groups involved in the misinformation are now creating new medical conspiracies, including one in which the pandemic was intentional, which they’re calling a “plandemic.”

Social media flood

Khaled said that the Qanon groups are flooding social media with accounts that push huge volumes of disinformation which has now grown to include conspiracies related to “Obamagate,” open carry and white nationalism.

In the report, Blackbird said the company used its AI systems to analyze over 74 million Tweets, nearly half of which were highly manipulative. One very successful means of manipulation was a 26-minute video, “Plandemic.” This video claimed that COVID-19 was a plan for unspecified elites to profit and gain power.

“Within a week, this highly conspiratorial video had been viewed eight million times and had tens of thousands of posts discussing it. Plandemic combined Anti-Vax, Anti-Mask, Anti-5G, Anti-WHO, Anti-Lockdown, Anti-Abortion, Anti-Censorship and Anti-NWO together into a synthetically amplified event. Plandemic was the most cohesive and highly manipulated piece of media to date during the COVID-19 pandemic. By platforming Judy Mikovitz (a discredited scientist) under the guise of ‘fighting censorship’, Pandemic created a shared discourse between conspiracy theorists, white power activists, Qanon and anti-vaxxers where their ideologies intersected.”

At this point, the efforts by Qanon related groups to create and ISIS-like coalition seem to be progressing. The social media assault continues, and current moves to open up states, even in the face of an exploding number of coronavirus cases, don’t seem to be slowing it down. Blackbird.AI is already planning a follow-on report covering the even greater changes in June 2020.

Typical - Cult45 (and by extension, the whole fucking GOP) jump right into bed with people nobody wants at the barbecue (nobody wants to admit they invited anyway) because nothing matters but the transaction. Nothing matters but what I can get someone else to do for me that keeps me in a position where I have the power necessary to put money in my pockets

This is nine kinds of fucked up.

Be Nice

... until it's time to not be nice.

Storm Warning

WaPo, Paul Waldman:

Many Americans are terrified of what would happen if Donald Trump won a second term in office. But perhaps we should be nearly as scared of what will happen if he loses in November.

More specifically, a victory by Democrats at the federal and state level could produce a backlash in which Trump’s fervent supporters, not to mention those on the far-right fringe, conclude that the ordinary avenues to political influence are hopelessly corrupted and therefore other, more radical means must be employed.

We may be getting a small window into how things could devolve in that direction in Virginia, a perfect place to witness how frustration at the loss of power can manifest itself in disturbing and even dangerous ways.

- and -

The Oath Keepers are just one of a number of far-right extremist groups taking an interest in Virginia’s gun laws and this protest in particular, so much so that traditional gun-rights groups like the National Rifle Association seem to be growing unsettled about the image being presented by a bunch of camo-wearing cosplay warriors toting AR-15s around the capitol grounds.

For now, those extremists are only trying to intimidate people with the threat of murderous violence, not actually engaging in it (and yes, when you show up at a protest with your AR, you are most definitely threatening violence). But what will happen if 2020 sees Trump turned out of office and Democrats gain more victories on the state level?

There will certainly be a conservative backlash, a new tea party of people angered by the failure of the political system to produce the results they favor. But it will be different this time, because the president has spent years telling them that any outcome they don’t like — in particular, any victory by Democrats — is itself proof that the system is corrupt, perhaps irredeemably so.

I'm a boomer, and I have to acknowledge that I helped get us into this mess.

So if the time comes and it's all on the line, I'll have to stand up and say, "Fuck you guys - here I am - shoot me."

Hoping I have the guts to pull it off.