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Protestors storm capital

www.theguardian.com

US Capitol riot: police have long history of aiding neo-Nazis and extremists

Experts were not surprised that officers were part of the mob, given the ties between some police and white supremacist groups in recent years
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com


In June 2016 in Sacramento at least ten people were stabbed and injured at a rally of the Traditionalist Workers Party (TWP), a group that extremism experts have classified as neo-Nazis.

The subsequent investigation, led by the California Highway Patrol (CHP), focused on the anti-fascist counter-protesters injured in the stabbings, with records showing that police worked with white supremacists to identify leftist activists and pursue criminal charges against the stabbing victims.

The lead CHP investigator, Donovan Ayres, repeatedly stated in police records that he viewed the neo-Nazis as victims and the anti-fascists as suspects. In court, he repeatedly called TWP the “permitted party”, since it had a permit for a rally, and in a phone call with a TWP leader, he said, “We’re looking at you as a victim.”

Records show that Ayres formally recommended Cedric O’Bannon, a Black journalist who was filming the events and was stabbed during the demonstration, face criminal charges for conspiracy, rioting, assault and unlawful assembly noting he was “among the protesters”. The officer did not recommend anyone face charges for the stabbing. O’Bannon ultimately was not charged.
 
I just want to point out that Thriller called me a racist on page 8, mentioned me on page 15 and 16 and called me alt right before I ever mentioned him.

I must be obsessed with him and should never mention him after calling me a racist and alt right.

**** that guy. He's delusional.
 
Eenie-Meenie said:
Not being from Utah but having lived here a short time, I think anyone who has grown up here has been unconsciously indoctrinated by views of White Privilege more than many other places (probably not as bad as the solid South, I don't think) because LDS was originally very racist. Even in more liberal eastern sections of the U.S., it is hard to overcome. So, maybe Archie (who I believe is a native of Utah) is triggered by this. He seems to have good intentions and a good heart, so I think he will eventually come around.
Click to expand...

What do you mean I'll come around? Seriously...
 
New footage of insurrectionists inside the chamber of the US Senate, rummaging through papers on senators desks, etc...

Warning, I see there is some strong language at times, as they look for information they can use against senators.

“I think Cruz would want us to do this. I think we’re good”.

www.newyorker.com

A Reporter’s Footage from Inside the Capitol Siege

Luke Mogelson followed Trump supporters as they forced their way into the Senate chamber, using his phone’s camera as a reporter’s notebook.
www.newyorker.com www.newyorker.com
 
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Eenie-Meenie said:
Not being from Utah but having lived here a short time, I think anyone who has grown up here has been unconsciously indoctrinated by views of White Privilege more than many other places (probably not as bad as the solid South, I don't think) because LDS was originally very racist. Even in more liberal eastern sections of the U.S., it is hard to overcome. So, maybe Archie (who I believe is a native of Utah) is triggered by this. He seems to have good intentions and a good heart, so I think he will eventually come around.
Click to expand...
Good points. I’ve seen this a lot with family members and friends from high school who haven’t come around yet. They still don’t have the ability to think outside their LDS bubble or see things from the perspective of a nonmember or POC. Hopefully some day.

I think a lot of it depends on what they read. One of the first books to challenge my preconceived views was the book “Black Like Me.” It’s a book written by a white author who disguised himself as a black person. Fantastic. Recently I’ve read “White Rage”, “The New Jim Crow”, and “Fault Lines”, which has really helped. I think reading from different perspectives helps us to empathize with others. What do you think? What helps people change? I wonder if some of these concepts can help deprogram family members and friends who’ve become brainwashed by Trump and Qanon?
 
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Red said:
New footage of insurrectionists inside the chamber of the US Senate, rummaging through papers on senators desks, etc...

www.newyorker.com

A Reporter’s Footage from Inside the Capitol Siege

Luke Mogelson followed Trump supporters as they forced their way into the Senate chamber, using his phone’s camera as a reporter’s notebook.
www.newyorker.com www.newyorker.com
Click to expand...
That’s haunting. The violence and brutality is just incredible. Had that mob been able to get ahold of members of Congress, we would’ve seen a live streaming slaughter of House Democrats and Mitt Romney.

and once again, the “Big Lie” is behind some much of this:
Mogelson, a veteran war correspondent and a contributing writer at The New Yorker, had spent the previous ten months reporting on the radical fringe of Trump supporters, from anti-lockdown militias to fascist groups such as the Proud Boys. After Election Day, he interviewed Trump supporters who showed up at ballot-tabulation sites, and who believed the President’s lies that the results had been “rigged” and his victory “stolen.” At one post-election pro-Trump rally in D.C., Mogelson witnessed racist violence against Black residents of the nation’s capital. At another event, he watched the host of the white-supremacist Web program “America First” declare, “Our Founding Fathers would get in the streets, and they would take this country back by force if necessary. And that is what we must be prepared to do.”
Click to expand...
And as you’ve pointed out many times @Red the Big Lie has consumed the GOP. Look at this survey:


“How Democracies Die” authors talk about the importance of political parties working together. You cannot have a functional democracy when one party rejects reality. And Tim Snyder has made it clear, post truth is pre-fascism. We are living in precarious times.
 
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I had read that right wing groups were hanging low this weekend knowing that police were in high alert. It’ll be interesting to see what terrorist acts they commit in a few months after Biden has been inaugurated and the focus shifts elsewhere:

 
Qanon going nuts right now. Claiming that Marshall law about to be declared keeping Trump in power.
 
The Thriller said:
And as you’ve pointed out many times @Red the Big Lie has consumed the GOP.
Click to expand...
This complete disconnect from reality, for reasons that I would think any rational human being would instantly recognize as ludicrous, with but a cursory look at the evidence, on the one hand is incomprehensible to me, and, on the other hand, makes me realize this episode in our history will be a field day for social scientists forever. And it’s not a complimentary appraisal of human nature that can possibly emerge from an examination of Trumpism via the lens of social science.

Repeat a lie often enough, the more people simply believe it. Repeat a lie that people want to believe is true, and they will be in lock step with you. Well, I guess we’re not living in the Age of Enlightenment anymore, lol. Irrationality triumphs over reason every time? Can it really be this easy to manipulate and control people? Damn, just beneath the surface of civilization. We are one very, very flawed species.


“This will be the face of the opposition to the Biden presidency, an incarnation that will make the tea party look civil and restrained. It is enraged and unhinged, consumed with lunatic conspiracy theories and, most important, utterly opposed to the fundamental precepts of a democratic system, especially the one that says sometimes your side wins and sometimes it loses”.

“Here’s the core of what brought us to this point: With the enthusiastic help of his party, Trump spent four years convincing his followers that the American political system is irredeemably corrupt and any election that does not produce the result they want is fraudulent by definition. Once they accepted that belief, Trump’s defeat would inevitably produce violence, as at least some of them conclude that ordinary politics — voting, organizing, lobbying, peaceful protest — will never give them what they want, and violence is the only alternative.

We’ve only begun to feel the consequences. This is going to be a very dark time for our country”.
 
The Thriller said:
Good points. I’ve seen this a lot with family members and friends from high school who haven’t come around yet. They still don’t have the ability to think outside their LDS bubble or see things from the perspective of a nonmember or POC. Hopefully some day.

I think a lot of it depends on what they read. One of the first books to challenge my preconceived views was the book “White Like Me.” It’s a book written by a white author who disguised himself as a black person. Fantastic. Recently I’ve read “White Rage”, “The New Jim Crow”, and “Fault Lines”, which has really helped. I think reading from different perspectives helps us to empathize with others. What do you think? What helps people change? I wonder if some of these concepts can help deprogram family members and friends who’ve become brainwashed by Trump and Qanon?
Click to expand...
White Like Me? I read Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin and actually saw him speak in person. One of the most unforgettable speeches I ever heard in my life because he thought he was dying of skin cancer at the time from the skin treatments he underwent to change the color of his skin. He later died of something else, however.
 
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