January 8

This is a comment left on one of the blogs I read.  It was left yesterday. People talk about unity and healing and all of that stuff, but how does that happen when people don't even agree on basic facts?

Oh my. This requires a little more research. It was not Trump supporters but ANTIFA carrying Trump flags. You can't believe everything you see on the news any more. That lady was a veteran standing outside on the lawn and was shot by the police by mistake. Where is the outrage about that? What about all the killings, looting and burning in Portland and Seattle? Where was the outrage then? News stations used to tell the truth. Now they tell you what they want you to believe. Sadly, people do believe it without further investigation.

Several law enforcement agencies have quite clearly stated there was no involvement on the part of Antifa.  The people who did the destruction were supporters of the orange ectoplasm.  Jake Angeli is also on record as saying that there was no Antifa - it was them!

This is funny.

Awhile back I posted about the Bellingcat organization.  They're the ones that proved that Russians shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17 over Ukraine.  Bellingcat has done a bang up job of tracing Ashli Babbit's steps to radicalization and then through the Capitol.   Ashli morphed from an Obama supporter to a rabid follower of QAnon.  Using cell phone records and many videos they have the route she took to her death.  She was killed in the Capitol by a plain clothes police officer as she was trying to get through a window to the Speaker's Lobby where congress people were hiding.  It's sad that she died, but there was no way the mob could be allowed to breach that window.  The article is here and is worth reading.  Update to post:  WAPO has done an article about Bellingcat.

The are discrepancies in the stories of why the security breach happened in the first place. From WAPO we have this account from Larry Hogan, governor of Maryland.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) offered new details Thursday about the delayed response to assist law enforcement at the Capitol, saying the Maryland National Guard was ready to help but was “repeatedly” told they did not have the authorization needed to join the effort. Hogan received a panicked call from House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md)., who pleaded with him to send in troops from Maryland, the governor said. Hoyer told him that he was calling from a secure location with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).

“I was actually on the phone with Leader Hoyer who was pleading with us to send the guard,” Hogan said. “He was yelling across the room to Schumer and they were back and forth saying we do have the authorization and I’m saying, ‘I’m telling you we do not have the authorization.' ”

Hogan said Maj. Gen. Timothy Gowen, the adjutant general of the Maryland National Guard, was repeatedly rebuffed by the head of the National Guard at the federal level.

Gowen “kept running it up the flagpole, and we don’t have authorization,” Hogan said. “We don’t have authorization.”

Ninety minutes later, Hogan said, he received a call “out of the blue, not from the secretary of defense, not through what would be normal channels,” but from Ryan McCarthy, the secretary of the Army. McCarthy asked if the Maryland guardsmen could “come as soon as possible,” Hogan recounted.

“It was like, yeah, we’re waiting, we’re ready,” Hogan said.

We've also been told that Capitol police turned down offers of backup, three days before the riots. Apparently they believed it would be a peaceful first amendment covered protest, despite the fact that on Parler, chat rooms and Facebook the planning had been going on for months.  AP has a particularly scathing article about the lack of readiness, which you can find here.  This is a complete and total failure on the part of the national security infrastructure.  This was knowable, and they either chose to be idiots or to be complicit.  The Pentagon has countered with they don't do domestic surveillance, so how were they to know?

In news of the very good, twitter has permanently suspended the orange ectoplasm's account.  It's about time.  You can read their reasoning here.  The most chilling words are:

• Plans for future armed protests have already begun proliferating on and off-Twitter, including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17, 2021. 

As such, our determination is that the two Tweets above are likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021, and that there are multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as encouragement to do so.

I think Fiona Hill has made one of the most cogent statements about the whole shameful episode.

 Meanwhile, Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has said she's not sure she can remain a member of the Republican party if the orange ectoplasm does not resign.  This was placed on Twitter in response to her statement.

 

So, that was today.  All we have to do is get through to the inauguration and hopefully they don't hurt the president and vice-president.  I wish they would do the swearing in inside.

Finally!  This day is over.