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She displayed "a round metallic object later identified as a Military Police Challenge Coin" and said she was part of law enforcement, police said.
By Ben Kesslen

A woman pretending to be "part of the presidential Cabinet" was arrested at an inauguration checkpoint in Washington, D.C., on Saturday morning. The woman, Linda Magovern, 63, was charged with impersonation of a law enforcement officer, failure to obey and fleeing a law enforcement officer after she presented herself at the checkpoint while in a car, NBC Washington reports. Magovern displayed "a round metallic object later identified as a Military Police Challenge Coin" and said she was part of law enforcement, according to a police report. After she initially complied when asked to park her car, Magovern drove off when she was then asked to provide her license, according to a police report obtained by NBC News. Officers eventually stopped her and took her to a hospital to be evaluated, police said. more...
By Donie O'Sullivan and Paul LeBlanc, CNN

Washington (CNN) Twitter on Sunday temporarily suspended the account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for repeated violations of new rules the social media platform put in place following the violent US Capitol riot earlier this month, a company spokesperson told CNN. "The account referenced has been temporarily locked out for multiple violations of our civic integrity policy," the spokesperson said. As a result, the congresswoman will be locked out of her account for 12 hours. Greene, who has a track record of incendiary rhetoric and ties to the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory, had tweeted a conspiracy-laden thread earlier Sunday about the Georgia Senate elections. Some of the tweets earned labels from Twitter noting: "This claim about election fraud is disputed, and this Tweet can't be replied to, Retweeted, or liked due to a risk of violence." The Georgia Republican bemoaned her suspension in a statement Sunday calling on Congress to "act swiftly" to "protect free speech in America." more...
By Brian Fung, CNN Business

Washington (CNN Busness) Parler's website suddenly reappeared online Sunday afternoon with a message from its CEO, John Matze: "Hello world, is this thing on?" The message, dated January 16, implies that the social network popular with members of the far right has found a new online hosting platform, after Parler was booted from Amazon Web Services on January 10 in the wake of the Capitol siege. Parler now appears to be hosted by Epik, according to a WHOIS search. Epik is a hosting platform that supports Gab, 8chan and other services often used by members of the far-right. Prior to hosting Parler, Epik issued a lengthy statement blasting what it said was a "kneejerk reaction" by major companies of "simply deplatforming and terminating any relationship that on the surface looks problematic or controversial." more...
As part of the investigation, the FBI is examining payments of $500,000 in bitcoin to key figures and groups in the alt-right before the Jan. 6 riot.
By Ken Dilanian

WASHINGTON — The FBI is investigating whether foreign governments, organizations or individuals provided financial support to extremists who helped plan and execute the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, one current and one former FBI official told NBC News. As part of the investigation, the bureau is examining payments of $500,000 in bitcoin, apparently by a French national, to key figures and groups in the alt-right before the riot, the sources said. Those payments were documented and posted on the web this week by a company that analyzes cryptocurrency transfers. Payments of bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, can be traced because they are documented on a public ledger. Separately, a joint threat assessment issued this week by the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and various other federal and D.C.-area police agencies noted that since the Jan. 6 riot, "Russian, Iranian, and Chinese influence actors have seized the opportunity to amplify narratives in furtherance of their policy interest amid the presidential transition." more...
Daniel Pipes

The world is fascinated by Donald Trump, but I am not. Trump is Trump: a hyper-well-known, mostly transparent and utterly mundane personality. I am fascinated by his supporters, those astonishing Republicans who chose a sketchy and flamboyant real-estate developer to be president of the United States in 2016, stuck close by him through thick and thin and now endorse his claim of an international plot to steal the 2020 election. As the Trump presidency ends, it is clear that a majority of Republicans have abandoned their party's historic policies and temperament. Policies: As then-House speaker Paul Ryan put it, Trump won in 2016 because he "heard a voice out in this country that no one else heard." Trump rejected significant elements of the previously dominant movement conservatism in favor of a folk nationalism in the tradition of Andrew Jackson. Nicholas M. Gallagher explains in National Review: "Jacksonians characteristically emphasize anti-elitism and egalitarianism while drawing a sharp distinction between members of the folk group and those outside it." more...
By Gregory Korte

President-elect Joe Biden plans an early blitz of executive action to reverse some of President Donald Trump’s most contentious policies and address the coronavirus pandemic, according to an outline of Biden’s first 10 days in office. The plan, spelled out in a memo Saturday by Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain to incoming White House advisers, will address what Klain called “four overlapping and compounding crises.” They are the Covid-19 pandemic that has claimed close to 400,000 U.S. lives, the resulting economic downturn, climate change, and a national reckoning over racial equity in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. “In his first 10 days in office, President-elect Biden will take decisive action to address these four crises, prevent other urgent and irreversible harms, and restore America’s place in the world,” Klain wrote. “President-elect Biden will take action -- not just to reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration -- but also to start moving our country forward.” more...
Rebecca Falconer

President-elect Joe Biden will roll back some of President Trump's most controversial policies and address "four overlapping and compounding crises" in his first 10 days in office — the pandemic, the economic downturn, climate change and racial inequity.

Driving the news: The plan is outlined in a memo from incoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain Saturday. Following Biden's inauguration Wednesday, he'll "sign roughly a dozen actions to combat the four crises," Klain said.

Zoom in: Biden's actions on day one of his presidency will include rejoining the Paris climate agreement, extending a pause on federal student loan payments, reversing Trump's ban on travel to the U.S. from several Muslim-majority countries and issuing a coronavirus mask mandate. more...
By Christina Maxouris, CNN

(CNN) Just days ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, the entire country is on edge. The FBI has warned of indications that "armed protests" are being planned at all 50 state capitols and the US Capitol in Washington in the days leading up to January 20. A joint bulletin from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and eight other agencies says domestic extremists pose the most likely threat to the presidential inauguration -- particularly those who believe the incoming administration is illegitimate. Online, calls for violence have intensified. And experts warn the perceived success of the deadly insurrection earlier this month may be motivation for another attack. "As somebody who worked on al Qaeda-related terrorism throughout the 2000s at the Justice Department and worked extensively on counterterrorism investigations and cases, there were several times where we were anticipating a follow-on attack to a world event," Carrie Cordero, a CNN legal and national security analyst, said Saturday. "I have that same feeling now." "It feels like there is a substantial threat that exists," Cordero added. In response, state leaders across the US are ramping up security around their capitol grounds -- pulling in National Guard members for help, erecting barriers, boarding up windows, asking residents to avoid the area and some even closing down capitol grounds altogether. more...
Tom Porter

Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska has warned that the QAnon conspiracy theory movement is destroying the GOP in a blistering op-ed for The Atlantic. In the article, Sasse describes how devotees of the movement played a prominent role in the Capitol's January 6 riots. "The violence that Americans witnessed—and that might recur in the coming days—is not a protest gone awry or the work of "a few bad apples." It is the blossoming of a rotten seed that took root in the Republican Party some time ago and has been nourished by treachery, poor political judgment, and cowardice," writes Sasse. He praises Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman for luring a mob led by a man wearing a QAnon shirt away from a chamber where senators and Vice President Mike Pence were present during the unrest. more...
As the FBI warns of violence, anti-government extremists are ready to get in on the chaos.
Story by Michael J. Mooney

In the menagerie of right-wing populist groups, the boogaloo bois stand out for their fashion, for their great love of memes, and, to put it plainly, for the incoherence of their ideology. Which is saying a lot, considering that the riot at the Capitol last Wednesday featured partisans of the long-gone country of South Vietnam, Falun Gong adherents, end-times Christians, neo-Nazis, QAnon believers, a handful of Orthodox Jews, and Daniel Boone impersonators. The boogaloos weren’t a huge presence in that mob. But according to federal officials, the attack on the Capitol has galvanized them and could inspire boogaloo violence in D.C. and around the country between now and Inauguration Day. The FBI warned earlier that boogaloos could launch attacks in state capitols this Sunday, January 17. The boogaloos don’t appear interested in fighting for Donald Trump—they tend to despise him, mostly because they think he panders to the police. But for the past year, boogaloo bois all over the United States have been cheering on the country’s breakdown, waiting for the moment when their nihilistic memes would come to life and the country would devolve into bloody chaos. more...
Jay Reeves and Julie Carr Smyth - Associated Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — War-like imagery has begun spreading in Republican circles after the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters, with some elected officials and party leaders rejecting pleas to tone down rhetoric calling for a second civil war. In northwestern Wisconsin, the chairman of the St. Croix County Republican Party was forced to resign Friday after refusing for a week after the siege to remove an online post urging followers to “prepare for war.” The incoming chairwoman of the Michigan GOP and her husband, a state lawmaker, have joined a conservative social media site created after the Capitol riot where the possibility of civil war is a topic. Phil Reynolds, a member of the GOP central committee in California’s Santa Clara County, appeared to urge on insurrectionists on social media during the Jan. 6 attack, declaring on Facebook: “The war has begun. Citizens take arms! Drumroll please….. Civil War or No Civil War?” more...
By Benjamin Fearnow

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, considered by many to be the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, said his colleagues should consider expelling Republican Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley for their alleged roles in inciting the January 6 "insurrection" at the Capitol. In a Friday interview on PBS' Firing Line with Margaret Hoover, Manchin said that while he has a good personal relationship with Cruz and Hawley, their alleged violation of the 14th Amendment's rule against inciting an insurrection and holding public office should be investigated. Both Hawley and Cruz have been widely condemned for challenging the Electoral College results during certification, especially after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in hopes of derailing President-elect Joe Biden's impending move into the White House. Manchin said he personally confronted Hawley to "change his mind" and think about the wider repercussions of his and Cruz's attempt to block the January 6 vote, but there was essentially zero meaningful response. more...
By JAY REEVES and JULIE CARR SMYTH - Associated Press

BIRMINGHAM, ALA. — Warlike imagery has begun spreading in Republican circles after the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters, with some elected officials and party leaders rejecting pleas to tone down rhetoric calling for a second civil war. In northwestern Wisconsin, the chairman of the St. Croix County Republican Party was forced to resign Friday after refusing for a week after the siege to remove an online post urging followers to “prepare for war.” The incoming chairwoman of the Michigan GOP and her husband, a state lawmaker, have joined a conservative social media site created after the Capitol riot where the possibility of civil war is a topic. Phil Reynolds, a member of the GOP central committee in California’s Santa Clara County, appeared to urge on insurrectionists on social media during the Jan. 6 attack, declaring on Facebook: “The war has begun. Citizens take arms! Drumroll please….. Civil War or No Civil War?” more...
Zignal Labs charts 73 percent decline on Twitter and beyond following historic action against the president
By Elizabeth Dwoskin and Craig Timberg

Online misinformation about election fraud plunged 73 percent after several social media sites suspended President Trump and key allies last week, research firm Zignal Labs has found, underscoring the power of tech companies to limit the falsehoods poisoning public debate when they act aggressively. The new research by the San Francisco-based analytics firm reported that conversations about election fraud dropped from 2.5 million mentions to 688,000 mentions across several social media sites in the week after Trump was banned from Twitter. Election disinformation had for months been a major subject of online misinformation, beginning even before the Nov. 3 election and pushed heavily by Trump and his allies. Zignal found it dropped swiftly and steeply on Twitter and other platforms in the days after the Twitter ban took hold on Jan. 8. more...
Almost 30 police officers attended the Capitol rally. It should come as no surprise.
By Anna North

As investigations of last week’s riot at the US Capitol continue, one thing has become abundantly clear: The people involved were not just “fringe” elements, disconnected from the mainstream of society. Prominent among the rioters was a group with a lot of institutional and social power — police officers and other law enforcement officials. Indeed, nearly 30 sworn officers have been identified so far as attendees to the rally leading to Wednesday’s riot, according to NPR. That includes Virginia police officer Thomas “T.J.” Robertson, who was arrested this week in connection with the insurrection. “CNN and the Left are just mad because we actually attacked the government who is the problem and not some random small business,” Robertson reportedly wrote on Facebook after storming the Capitol. Those arrested also include his colleague Jacob Fracker, a Virginia police officer as well as a corporal in the state’s National Guard. “Lol to anyone who’s possibly concerned about the picture of me going around,” Fracker apparently wrote on Facebook. “Not like I did anything illegal.” more...
By Dan Merica, CNN

(CNN) President-elect Joe Biden plans to sign roughly a dozen executive orders, including rejoining the Paris climate accord and ending the travel ban on predominantly Muslim countries, on his first day in office, according to a memo from incoming chief of staff Ron Klain. He'll also sign orders halting evictions and student loan payments during the coronavirus pandemic and issuing a mask mandate on all federal property in an effort to either roll back moves made by the Trump administration or advance policy in a way that was impossible in the current administration.

One of Biden's most common campaign trail promises was to tackle an issue on his first day in office -- a pledge he usually made to either contrast himself with President Donald Trump or highlight just how important he believed an issue to be. These promises were made on everything from climate change to immigration to foreign policy, and many are reflected in Klain's Saturday memo, which was first reported by the New York Times.

"During the campaign, President-elect Biden pledged to take immediate action to start addressing these crises and build back better," Klain writes. "As president, he will keep those promises and sign dozens of executive orders, presidential memoranda, and directives to Cabinet agencies in fulfillment of the promises he made." more...
BBC

National Guard troops from across the country are being sent to Washington DC, to discourage any repeat of the deadly riot that unfolded on 6 January. The FBI has warned of possible armed marches by pro-Trump demonstrators at all 50 state capitols. The National Mall in DC has been shut. Barricades are lining the streets of the capital amid tightened security. Police confirmed on Saturday that a Virginia man had been arrested a day earlier with two handguns and 509 rounds of unregistered ammunition, as he tried to pass through a Capitol Police checkpoint. He was carrying a "non-government issued credential", police said. Responding on Twitter, Representative Don Beyer of Virginia said "the danger is real", and urged people to avoid the Capitol area. more...
Complaint could stop top NRA executives from discharging a substantial portion of the organisation’s debts
Ed Pilkington in New York

A major donor to the National Rifle Association is poised to challenge key aspects of the gun group’s bankruptcy filing, in an attempt to hold executives accountable for allegedly having defrauded their members of millions of dollars to support their own lavish lifestyles. Dave Dell’Aquila, a former tech company boss who has donated more than $100,000 to the NRA, told the Guardian on Saturday he was preparing to lodge a complaint in US bankruptcy court in Dallas, Texas. If successful, it could stop top NRA executives discharging a substantial portion of the organisation’s debts. It could also stop Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s controversial longtime chief executive, avoiding ongoing lawsuits that allege he defrauded the pro-gun group’s members to pay for luxury travel to the Bahamas and Europe and high-end Zegna suits. LaPierre has denied the allegations of financial impropriety, insisting in a letter to NRA members that the group is “well-governed, financially solvent and committed to good governance”. more...
Arrested supporters say they were ‘listening’ to the president
Oliver Milman

Jenna Ryan, a Texas real estate broker who took a private jet to Washington to join the attack on the US Capitol, has pleaded with Donald Trump to pardon her after she was arrested by federal authorities. After surrendering to the FBI on Friday, Ryan said: “We all deserve a pardon.” “I’m facing a prison sentence,” she told CBS11 at her home. “I think I do not deserve that.” Turning to look into the camera, she said: “I would ask the president of the United States to give me a pardon.” On Wednesday, Trump was impeached for inciting the attack on 6 January that left five people dead, including a police officer, and sent lawmakers fleeing for their lives. Ryan said she had been “displaying my patriotism”, adding: “I listen to my president who told me to go to the Capitol.” Ryan left a trove of information online. Court papers show she posted a picture of herself taking a private jet to Washington DC the day before the riot, subsequently posing on the steps of the Capitol and beside a window smashed as the pro-Trump mob broke in. more...
BBC

National Guard troops from across the country are being sent to Washington DC, to discourage any repeat of the deadly riot that unfolded on 6 January. The FBI has warned of possible armed marches by pro-Trump demonstrators at all 50 state capitols. The National Mall in DC has been shut. Barricades are lining the streets of the capital amid tightened security. Police confirmed on Saturday that a Virginia man had been arrested a day earlier with two handguns and 509 rounds of unregistered ammunition, as he tried to pass through a Capitol Police checkpoint. He was carrying a "non-government issued credential", police said. Responding on Twitter, Representative Don Beyer of Virginia said "the danger is real", and urged people to avoid the Capitol area. more...
The suspect, Wesley Allen Beeler, 31, was stopped in a Ford pick-up truck with gun-related decals.
By Dennis Romero and Suzanne Ciechalski

A Virginia man was arrested at a Washington checkpoint near the Capitol with an "unauthorized" inauguration pass, a gun and more than 500 rounds of ammunition, according to Capitol police. The suspect, identified as Wesley Allen Beeler, 31, was stopped at the checkpoint near Lower Senate Park about 6:30 p.m. Friday, an arrest report said. An unregistered gun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were found inside the truck that was adorned with gun decals days ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, according to Capitol Police. Beeler, of Front Royal, Virginia, allegedly presented an "unauthorized Inauguration credential" to a Capitol Police officer. They did not describe what sort of document he showed that raised suspicion. The arrest comes after the violent Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol where supporters of President Donald Trump and his unfounded claims of election fraud stormed the building in a violent siege that left five people dead and many more injured. more...
By Michael Warren, CNN

Washington (CNN) Donald Trump may be leaving the White House in a few days, but the umbrella of conspiracy theories he inspired is only just arriving in Washington. The chief theory known as QAnon -- that the US government is run by a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles only Trump can expose -- began nearly four years ago as a fringe movement in the dark corners of the internet. Now QAnon has adherents in positions of power within the Republican Party and in the halls of Congress. The January 6 domestic terror attack on the US Capitol was the violent manifestation of that movement and its attendant theories -- including that the 2020 election was stolen. Thousands of its adherents, steeped in years of conspiracy theories espoused by Trump, stormed the Capitol ready for violence -- seemingly certain they were the ones liberating the country. Many displayed clothing and paraphernalia associated with the movement. One of the more conspicuous rioters, wearing a horned helmet and carrying a six-foot spear, is known online as the "QAnon Shaman." "There is a violent anarchy to QAnon that is baked into it," said Mike Rothschild, the author of a book examining and debunking some of the most prominent conspiracy theories. How deep into the GOP's infrastructure QAnon has penetrated is an open question. So too is how Trump's departure from the presidency and banishment from most social media will affect the reach of conspiracy within the Republican Party. more...
Loews Hotels announced it would not play host to an already scheduled event for the Missouri senator.
By EVAN SEMONES

Loews Hotels announced Saturday that it won’t host a planned fundraiser next month for Sen. Josh Hawley at one of its Florida properties. “We are horrified and opposed to the events at the Capitol and all who supported and incited the actions,” the company said in a statement posted to Twitter. “In light of those events and for the safety of our guests and team members, we have informed the host of the Feb. fundraiser that it will no longer be held at Loews Hotels.” While the statement doesn’t mention the Missouri Republican by name, a political action committee affiliated with Hawley’s re-election, Fighting for Missouri PAC, was scheduled to hold a Valentine’s Day weekend fundraiser for the senator Feb. 12-15 at the Loews Portofino Bay Hotel in Orlando, Fla., near the Universal Orlando theme park. more...
*** Republicans, Fox news and right wing media enabled the big lie if they had been honest with American people the Trump insurrection would not have happened and the capital would not have been sacked. ***

Melissa Block

Last Wednesday, just before a mob of pro-Trump extremists stormed the U.S. Capitol in an insurrection that left five dead, the president stood before a huge crowd gathered in front of the White House for a so-called "Save America" rally. Trump whipped up his supporters, repeating a false claim that he has made over and over in the weeks since Nov. 3: "We won this election, and we won it by a landslide," he insisted. "This was not a close election!" "They say we lost," the president went on. "We didn't lose." Among the thousands of falsehoods Trump has uttered during his presidency, this one in particular has earned the distinction of being called the "big lie." It's a charged term, with connotations that trace back to its roots in Nazi Germany. Hitler used the phrase "big lie" against Jews in his manifesto Mein Kampf. Later, the Nazis' big lie — claiming that Jews led a global conspiracy and were responsible for Germany's and the world's woes — fueled anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. more...
By Molly Crane-Newman New York Daily News

Under fire in New York on charges of misspending members’ money, the National Rifle Association filed for bankruptcy Friday and announced plans to reincorporate in gun-friendly Texas. The nation’s biggest pro-gun group said it will restructure as a Texas nonprofit “to exit what it believes is a corrupt political and regulatory environment in New York,” a statement on the NRA’s website reads. “This strategic plan represents a pathway to opportunity, growth and progress,” NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre said in a statement. “Obviously, an important part of this plan is ‘dumping New York.’” more...
KPIX CBS SF Bay Area

San Francisco police along with FBI agents have shut down a neighborhood near Candlestick Point after finding chemicals used to make explosives. video...
Lindsay Schnell, Cara Richardson, Joel Shannon, Jordan Culver - USA TODAY

Man in Pelosi desk photo barred from using Internet; house arrest denied A federal judge in Washington on Friday night halted a plan to release and put on house arrest the Arkansas man photographed sitting at a desk in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during last week’s riot at the U.S. Capitol. Richard Barnett will instead be brought to Washington, D.C., immediately for proceedings in his case, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ordered Friday night, staying a decision by another judge to confine Barnett to his home in Gravette, Arkansas, until his trial. Howell’s ruling came hours after U.S. Magistrate Judge Erin Wiedemann in Arkansas set a $5,000 bond for Barnett and ordered that a GPS monitor track his location. Wiedemann also prohibited Barnett from using the internet or having contact with anyone else who participated in the Jan. 6 violence. more...
By Lexi Lonas

Former Oklahoma GOP Congressman Mickey Edwards said that he is leaving his party because it has become a “cult” led by President Trump. Edwards was critical of Republicans questioning the results of the presidential election, and of Republicans who voted to throw out Electoral College votes of two battleground states after a mob invaded the Capitol building last week to stop their work. “This has become a cult. It’s no longer a political party. It’s a cult,” Edwards told Oklahoma's News 4 on Thursday. "It’s the kind of a cult that when the leader of the cult does anything, no matter what it is, or how awful it is, they voted. “They voted to question the election results even after people came into the Capitol, tried to kill them and killed a police officer who was trying to protect them. And they did that.” more...
CBS New York

The gun rights group says it will move its headquarters from New York to Texas and restructure as a non-profit there. video...
*** The  people who committed insurrection, sedition, sacked our capital and wanted to capture and kill those who they disagree with do not deserve a pardon. ***

Jacob Chansley, a 33-year-old man from Phoenix, was one of the most recognizable perpetrators of the Capitol siege.
By QUINT FORGEY

The lawyer for the “QAnon shaman” who was part of the deadly siege of the Capitol last week publicly petitioned President Donald Trump on Thursday to pardon his client. In an interview on CNN, attorney Albert Watkins said his client, Jacob Chansley, “felt like he was answering the call of our president” when he stormed the nation’s seat of government last Wednesday during a riot that resulted in the deaths of at least five people. more...
N'dea Yancey-Bragg USA TODAY

In early October 2013, Miriam Carey was shot to death after what police described as a brief high-speed car chase from the White House to near the U.S. Capitol that was captured in part on video. Law enforcement has said that she was mentally unstable and that there was not enough evidence to prove the officer's use of deadly force was excessive. Her older sister, Valarie Carey Reaves-Bey, doesn't believe that. "They shot an unarmed woman who wasn’t a threat to anyone," she said. "She was treated unjustly. Her life was taken away from her." She remembers Miriam as a high achiever who was beautiful "inside and out" and loved to cook, travel and entertain. She said the 34-year-old dental hygienist, one of five sisters, lived in Connecticut but spent her weekends visiting family in Brooklyn, New York, where each sibling would sometimes bring a different dish to their mother's home. It's an image in stark contrast to the one painted by police. more...
By Nicole Chavez, CNN

(CNN) Hours before President Donald Trump was impeached for his role in inciting last week's deadly attack, several lawmakers described the rioters as White supremacists. "Let us be clear, this was a domestic terror attack perpetrated by riotist mobs of White supremacists, armed equipped and many skilled in police and military tactics who came to overturn an election in which their candidate Trump lost," Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus said in the group's hearing. During the impeachment debate Wednesday to excoriate Trump, Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri, who was a veteran BLM activist before becoming a legislator, called the President "White supremacist in chief."

"Madam Speaker, St. Louis and I rise in support of the article of impeachment against Donald J Trump. If we fail to remove a White supremacist President who incited a white supremacist insurrection, it's communities like Missouri's First District that suffer the most," Bush said during her speech. Rioters stormed the US Capitol building last week, unleashing a wave of comparisons to last year's Black Lives Matter protests. The difference in police response was striking and there's more that sets them apart. People marched by the thousands in both after believing that a wrong had been done to them. The calls for racial justice across America over the summer were backed by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and the pain of following generations of anti-Blackness sentiment. Unlike BLM protests, the insurrection at the Capitol was triggered by lies and deeply rooted racist stereotypes, experts say.

Convinced that the presidential election was stolen, rioters touted themselves as "patriots" and repeatedly chanted "USA, USA" while vandalizing and destroying the building at the heart of America's democracy. Trump, who has embraced dog whistle tactics such as calling Mexicans "rapists" and called the words Black Lives Matter a "symbol of hate," incited them. "Once something like that feels true, you can't dissuade them with the facts," said Ian Haney López, the author of "Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class." more...
By Valerie Edwards For Dailymail.com

Delta Air Lines has banned passengers who heckled Utah Sen Mitt Romney and South Carolina Sen Lindsey Graham ahead of their flights last week and will be prohibiting all guns in checked baggage on flights to Washington, DC, until after President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration next week. Romney, the lone Republican senator to vote to oust President Donald Trump after he was impeached, was on a flight from Salt Lake City to DC when he was first harassed by a Trump supporter while waiting on his flight. A second video showed dozens of people on a flight yelling ‘traitor’ at Romney, though he isn’t seen in that clip. On Friday, Graham was preparing to leave DC when Trump supporters confronted him at the Reagan International Airport and also called him a ‘traitor to the country’. Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said that the company has now placed 880 people on its no-fly list for not complying with its mask requirements and others were banned from flying with the airline for harassing passengers or unruly behavior related to the US election results. more...
*** Gaetz’s  is using the Republican standard operating procedures (SOP) lie, deny, deflect, blame others, alternative facts, attack  and when all else fails use apples to oranges whataboutism. ***

By Lauren Giella

The mob attack on January 6 at the Capitol caused a firestorm on social media, as right-wing pundits and conspiracy theorists claimed that the rioters were not Trump supporters, but members of antifa in disguise. The theory spread through Facebook, Twitter and into Congress.

The Claim
During his post-raid election-certification speech in which he objected to Arizona's electoral votes, Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)advanced the theory that some people who invaded the Capitol were antifa, according to a Washington Times story that was later retracted. "I don't know if the reports are true, but The Washington Times has just reported some pretty compelling evidence from a facial recognition company that some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters—they were masquerading as Trump supporters and, in fact, were members of the violent terrorist group antifa," he said. more...
Charges stem from "the largest criminal investigation in the history of the state of Michigan," the attorney general says.
By David K. Li and Erin Einhorn

Nine former Michigan officials, including ex-Gov. Rick Snyder, were charged Thursday for their roles in the Flint water crisis in a case one prosecutor said was about "finally, finally, finally holding people accountable." Snyder, 62, and eight others who worked under him face a host of charges stemming from a water supply switch in 2014 that exposed Flint residents to dangerous levels of lead and Legionnaires' disease. "Let me start by saying the Flint water crisis is not some relic of the past," Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud told reporters. "At this very moment the people of Flint continue to suffer from the categorical failure of public officials at all levels of government who trampled upon their trust and evaded accountability for far too long." State Attorney General Dana Nessel appointed Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to investigate the case, throwing out earlier charges brought by her predecessor, Bill Schuette. more...
Bill Chappell

New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against the New York City Police Department, citing "a pattern of using excessive force and making false arrests against New Yorkers during peaceful protests" that sought racial justice and other changes. The Black Lives Matter movement and other activists organized large protests in New York and other states last year, after the Memorial Day death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. Demonstrations grew over similar incidents, including the killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky. James' office says it has received "more than 1,300 complaints and pieces of evidence" about the police response to the protests in New York City. It's now seeking a court order "declaring that the policies and practices that the NYPD used during these protests were unlawful." Along with the court order, the attorney general is asking for policy reforms, as well as a monitor to be installed to oversee the NYPD's tactics and handling of future protests. more...
Rebecca Morin USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – Rep. Peter Meijer, one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach President Donald Trump Wednesday, said he and some of his colleagues are buying body armor and altering their daily routines due to fear of violence. “It’s sad that we have to get to that point, but you know our expectation is that someone may try to kill us,” Meijer, R-Mich., said Thursday in an interview on MSNBC. Meijer said the body armor is a reimbursable purchase. “We don't know what's going to happen next. We weren't expecting for the Capitol to get overrun for the first time in 200 years,” he said. “And so in this unprecedented environment with an unprecedented degree of fear of divisiveness and hatred, we have to account for every scenario.” more...
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