The “Perfect” Phone Call BY HEATHER COX RICHARDSON Today’s news starts yesterday, when Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to demand he overturn the results of the presidential election in Georgia and deliver the state to Trump. Raffensperger apparently recorded the call, keeping it handy in case Trump misrepresented it publicly. This morning, Trump did exactly that, tweeting: “I spoke to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger yesterday about Fulton County and voter fraud in Georgia. He was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the ‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters’, dead voters, and more. He has no clue!” Raffensperger retweeted the president’s accusation with the comment: “Respectfully, President Trump: What you’re saying is not true. The truth will come out[.]” https://billmoyers.com/story/the-perfect-phone-call/
Resources for teachers on the days after the attack on the U.S. Capitol. https://beyondthestoplight.com/2021/01/06/resources-for-teachers-on-the-days-after-the-attack-on-the-u-s-capitol/
Rioters calling for “heads on pikes” https://www.instagram.com/tv/CJz4jlDFTl9/?igshid=3kujmqmrvn74
Thousands of rioters storm U.S. Capitol, forcing lockdown A swarm of President Trump supporters intent on blocking President-elect Joe Biden’s victory stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, forcing a lockdown and a large police response. https://www.cbsnews.com/video/thousands-of-rioters-storm-u-s-capitol-forcing-lockdown/
Phone footage reveals chaotic scenes inside US Capitol When Trump supporters stormed the Capitol they took out their cameras to record the chaos inside. The BBC looked through hours of phone footage to paint a picture of what happened.https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-55582886
Shocking Photos of the Violent Riots Occurring at the U.S. Capitol https://people.com/politics/dc-protest-photos-us-capitol-pro-trump-riots/?slide=12c34d98-86fe-4216-a5bc-8ca32d255e6b#12c34d98-86fe-4216-a5bc-8ca32d255e6b
Republican Ana Navarro https://youtu.be/zQYlH2wQM6k
Reminder: the President supports a Minimum TEN YEARS in prison for this type of behavior https://twitter.com/teddunne/status/1346935727460904961
Possibility of life imprisonment charges “Having spearheaded a massive conspiracy to obstruct the lawful business of the U.S. Congress via a mob attack on the U.S. Capitol by his followers who, armed with guns, bats, sledgehammers, and other weapons, carried out an hours-long siege that resulted in five deaths, https://twitter.com/delavegalaw/status/1347741151214915586?s=21
“Every, single one of these DOMESTIC TERRORISTS must be arrested and prosecuted! Immediately. Easy to identify so many of them. Imagine these were BLM protesters?!! And how the hell can they just stroll around like this??! Serious investigations of Capitol Police required https://twitter.com/philcuff/status/1347014390705344512?s=21
BREAKING: U.S. CAPITOL POLICE INTENTIONALLY TURNED DOWN HELP FROM DOD AND THE FBI TO SECURE THE CAPITOL FROM TERRORISTS https://twitter.com/ericgarland/status/1347307258066182149?s=21 https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-riots-police-coronavirus-pandemic-9c39a4ddef0ab60a48828a07e4d03380
Confirmed that some police were involved in the Capitol attack yesterday https://twitter.com/bumbera_steven/status/1347270969988173825?s=21 https://twitter.com/bumbera_steven/status/1347354274599215105
Some among America’s military allies believe Trump deliberately attempted a coup and may have had help from federal law-enforcement officials https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-attempted-coup-federal-law-enforcement-capitol-police-2021-1
‘We Know What To Do’: Far-Right Figures Across Eastern Europe Applaud U.S. Capitol Violence. Many took time away from marking the Orthodox Christmas holiday on January 7 to signal their solidarity with the U.S. rioters, many of whom waved flags of the racist Confederate States of America.https://www.rferl.org/a/far-right-figures-across-eastern-europe-applaud-us-capitol-violence/31038085.html
Impeachment Analogy for eviction https://twitter.com/pinyoungactress/status/1347291244699951105?s=21
David Rothkopf “If Murdoch & Fox & Breitbart & OANN & an army of commentators had not let partisanship and self-interest supplant their decency and ethical obligations to the truth, the mobs storming the Capitol would have known Trump, Hawley, Cruz & the others were lying about the elections. https://twitter.com/djrothkopf/status/1347540092299210752?s=21
FBI requests for identities in riots pointed back to DT https://toofab.com/2021/01/07/fbi-asked-for-help-identifying-capitol-hill-invaders-and-it-went-as-expected/
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) had blamed antifa for causing the pro-Trump rioters to storm the Capitol in a floor speech early Thursday, but he cited the since-retracted Washington Times report. The antifa canard was also popular on conservative cable news networks. https://theweek.com/speedreads/959681/washington-times-corrects-widely-cited-story-claiming-antifa-infiltrated-capitol-siege-says-neonazis-idd
Congressman Tim Ryan “As for disturbing videos we’ve all seen that seem to show some officers letting rioters behind barricades & taking selfies with them: I can assure you these videos are being thoroughly investigated & there will be consequences for any deviations from proper training & protocols.” https://twitter.com/reptimryan/status/1347907999562670080?s=21
Inciting Insurrection: It Wasn’t Just Trump https://billmoyers.com/story/inciting-insurrection-it-wasnt-just-trump/?fbclid=IwAR0DKS9Ml4CBvCE9tswAU5TGEIP_5L9i8tkRcGj5gJue5y-hwQ1KDQcTElM
“On Far-Right Websites, Plans To Storm Capitol Were Made In Plain Sight The mob violence that descended on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday was the culmination of weeks of incendiary rhetoric and increasingly feverish planning – much of which took place openly on websites popular with far-right conspiracy theorists. https://www.npr.org/sections/congress-electoral-college-tally-live-updates/2021/01/07/954671745/on-far-right-websites-plans-to-storm-capitol-were-made-in-plain-sight
FBI, Homeland Security, White House Advisers Foresaw Possible Riots, Looked the Other Way It was clear that the very law enforcement and security people who in theory were responsible for maintaining order in our capital city weren’t ready, weren’t well led, weren’t organized properly, and weren’t impartial.
How did we get here? There are multiple causes for this historic failure. https://www.newsweek.com/fbi-homeland-security-white-house-advisers-foresaw-possible-riots-looked-other-way-1559535
Pentagon placed limits on D.C. Guard ahead of pro-Trump protests due to narrow mission the Pentagon prohibited the District’s guardsmen from receiving ammunition or riot gear, interacting with protesters unless necessary for self-defense, sharing equipment with local law enforcement, or using Guard surveillance and air assets without the defense secretary’s explicit sign-off, according to officials familiar with the orders. The limits were established because the Guard hadn’t been asked to assist with crowd or riot control. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-protests-washington-guard-military/2021/01/07/c5299b56-510e-11eb-b2e8-3339e73d9da2_story.html
‘Premeditated’: Video emerges of Trump family party before Capitol riots
Footage circulating online shows the Trump family and senior White House members partying in a jovial mood in the hours before Trump-inspired rioters besieged the Capitol building at his behest.
The footage was filmed by Donald Trump Jnr and shows him partying with his girlfriend, sister Ivanka, brother Eric, the president and other senior officials including White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
The video appears to be taken right before Trump spoke at a rally for his supporters, calling on them to march on the Capitol building. https://au.news.yahoo.com/premeditated-video-emerges-trump-family-party-capitol-riots-075718517.html
The American Abyss “A historian of fascism and political atrocity on Trump, the mob and what comes next. “When Donald Trump stood before his followers on Jan. 6 and urged them to march on the United States Capitol, he was doing what he had always done. He never took electoral democracy seriously nor accepted the legitimacy of its American version.
Even when he won, in 2016, he insisted that the election was fraudulent — that millions of false votes were cast for his opponent. In 2020, in the knowledge that he was trailing Joseph R. Biden in the polls, he spent months claiming that the presidential election would be rigged and signaling that he would not accept the results if they did not favor him. He wrongly claimed on Election Day that he had won and then steadily hardened his rhetoric: With time, his victory became a historic landslide and the various conspiracies that denied it ever more sophisticated and implausible.” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/magazine/trump-coup.html?referringSource=articleShare&fbclid=IwAR0Hik9ZnNUPqz2UHndwe7Lu9cKF-sVFKKH1TPHfe0vsmtL251l9T7IU_BU
Romney decries state of America’s ‘vile, vituperative, hate-filled’ politics, puts blame largely on Trump “Romney said he’s “troubled” by U.S. politics having “moved away from spirited debate to a vile, vituperative, hate-filled morass” unbecoming of America. “I have stayed quiet with the approach of the election,” Romney said in a statement posted to Twitter. “But I’m troubled by our politics, as it has moved away from spirited debate to a vile, vituperative, hate-filled morass that is unbecoming of any free nation — let alone the birthplace of modern democracy.” https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/romney-decries-state-america-s-vile-vituperative-hate-filled-politics-n1243154
From Al Qaeda to QAnon: Rebecca Solnit on the Inside Job at the Capitol Another American Day That Will Live in Infamy https://lithub.com/from-al-qaeda-to-qanon-rebecca-solnit-on-the-inside-job-at-the-capitol/?fbclid=IwAR3ouqnZ6b0R5lM24lmS7ZKTeblfhvbnpVw52lwi1PL4UuwXkJqWVO_rWmg
In Capitol Riot, Communications Between Agencies Hampered Forceful Response. Calls for some reinforcements took hours to approve as police and federal agents tried to squelch uprising https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-capitol-riot-communications-between-agencies-hampered-forceful-response-11610242709
Instigation sequence https://twitter.com/jivedurkey/status/1349732479440048135?s=21
Trump’s History of Inciting Violence
Longtime Trump advisers connected to groups behind rally that led to Capitol attack
Capital security. Why were extremists able to just walk out?
The Capitol mob: A raging collection of grievances and disillusionment
Did Biden win by a little or a lot? The answer is … yes.
House impeachment managers play explicit video of Capitol riot during impeachment trial
Trump’s political operation paid more than $3.5 million to Jan. 6 organizers
I Was Inside the Capitol Riot. This Week’s Haunting New Footage Changed Everything.
The Capitol riot, Everytown’s report notes, “was a continuation of a pattern of extreme right wing intimidation and violence that has grown unchecked during the Trump presidency.”
Throughout 2020, the report continues, “the extreme right used guns as tools of intimidation and violence in increasingly open ways, most notably by taking advantage of weak state gun laws to brandish weapons at anti-government protests and to intimidate peaceful protests for racial justice.”
From May 2020 to January 2021 there were at least 100 instances of armed demonstrators with guns at protests in the capital cities of 28 states, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project and the Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton University.
Right-wingers brandishing big guns gathered by the thousand in Richmond, Virginia, for a gun-rights rally; they entered the state Capitol building of Michigan to demonstrate against coronavirus lockdown measures; and they repeatedly turned up to harass and intimidate Black Lives Matter demonstrators.
In the days after the election, police arrested two Trump supporters for traveling to Philadelphia’s vote-counting center with an AR-15 rifle and roughly 160 rounds of ammunition.
How The NRA Helped Foment An Armed Insurrection At The Capitol
Off the rails: Inside the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency
Quaking Interlude 