All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Zelena]

1) That's not the same thing.

2) Even in that speech, Trump doesn't officially say that "Joe Biden won the election", or say that he lost fair and square. All he said is that there will be a transition to the next government, which is the most he can confess. And the entire speech was obviously a hostage video forced on him by lawyers and everyone.

He will probably never say the words… So what?

The twitter blog post about banning him pointed out that Trump saying he's not going to attend the inauguration hinted at a tacit call for violence on that day since Trump wouldn't be there.

It has already happened in American history that the former president didn’t attend the ceremony of inauguration of the new one. It’s not a necessity, just a tradition.

Well initially on twitter and some places yes, but the lack of sincerity didn't fool anyone. Not on the left, and certainly not on the right. We shouldn't assume the right is totally without sophistication or that they can't see this. I mean the big right-wing conspiracy this Q thing is all about Trump being some secret whistleblower and so on.

I mean the Democrats knew well that when Obama congratulated Trump and welcomed him to start the transition including having a personal meeting with Trump at the WH where you could see Obama barley conceal his personal disgust for the man...that he was just doing his job and that he didn't really think that Trump was a great Prez all of a sudden. So we shouldn't expect the Trumpists don't know what will happen either.

Sure, Trump will try to continue to exist politically… in the media. When he will stop being the president, he will lose a lot of his legitimacy and his appeal. It will be about pictures… Biden in the Oval office… Trump’s supporters will get used to it.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Good point. It’s possible he was suffering from survivors guilt or developed post-traumatic stress disorder and depression from what happened Wednesday leading to commit suicide because of it.

And how many more good men and women in the Capitol Police who got caught up in that disaster might follow him to the grave? And that’s on Trump and the GOP too.

[Iron Maiden]

Kevin McCarthy should be charged with sedition or treason

whichever applies

it was probably someone in his office who gave these terrorists maps to the Capitol building

The ones you see on wiki just have room #s on the map like H-301 or S-343. They don't label what the office is for but I assume S would be a Senate member or H for the house. Someone would have to have knowledge of which floor and which room a person's office would be located. I've never toured there but I kind of doubt they have one of those directory boards like you see in the lobby of office buildings, etc.

[SquirrelMan]

The ones you see on wiki just have room #s on the map like H-301 or S-343. They don't label what the office is for but I assume S would be a Senate member or H for the house. Someone would have to have knowledge of which floor and which room a person's office would be located. I've never toured there but I kind of doubt they have one of those directory boards like you see in the lobby of office buildings, etc.

Nancy Pelosi's daughter said on twitter you could not easily find her mother's offices.

[MajorHoy]

And how many more good men and women in the Capitol Police who got caught up in that disaster might follow him to the grave? And that’s on Trump and the GOP too.

I thought it was still unclear as to whether there was any direct connection between the latest officer's death and what happened at the Capitol on Wednesday, so perhaps it's a bit premature to say "that's on Trump and the GOP too".

It might just be a depressing coincidence when all is said and done.
But we should wait for all the facts to be announced before placing any blame.

[Jack Dracula]

It's very possible someone knew someone who's relative worked there.
It's not top-secret knowledge. The janitorial staff could probably draw you a pretty reliable map including the emergency routes in case of terrorist attacks.

[Kirby101]

AZ Congressmen implicated.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news...dc/6603721002/

Gosar is particularly dangerous.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news...ot/6609381002/

Your modern GOP people.

[MiddleMan]

one of the Capitol police officers who died was beaten with a fire extinguisher

pretty much just solidifies that the "Blue Lives Matter" movement is just racist horses**t

[Kirby101]

one of the Capitol police officers who died was beaten with a fire extinguisher

pretty much just solidifies that the "Blue Lives Matter" movement is just racist horses**t

Remind me how many police were killed in the BLM protest?

[Iron Maiden]

One of the insurgent mob that was photographed in military style gear and carrying zip ties in his hand has been identified as retired Air Force veteran Lt. Colonel Larry Brock Jr.

Carrying zip-tie handcuffs, he was captured in photographs and videos on the Senate floor and with a group that descended on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office suite. In a video shot by ITV News, he is seen standing against a wall adjacent to Pelosi’s office, his face covered by a bandana. At another point, he appears to exit the suite, face exposed, pushing his way through the crowds of demonstrators.

A day after the riots, John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, at the University of Toronto’s Munk School, notified the F.B.I. that he suspected the man was retired Lieutenant Colonel Larry Rendall Brock, Jr., a Texas-based Air Force Academy graduate and combat veteran. Scott-Railton had been trying to identify various people involved in the attack. “I used a number of techniques to hone in on his identity, including facial recognition and image enhancement, as well as seeking contextual clues from his military paraphernalia,” Scott-Railton told me. Brock was wearing several patches on his combat helmet and body armor, including one bearing a yellow fleur de lis, the insignia of the 706th Fighter Squadron. He also wore several symbols suggesting that he lived in Texas, including a vinyl tag of the Texas flag overlaid on the skull logo of the Punisher, the Marvel comic-book character. The Punisher has been adopted by police and Army groups and, more recently, by white supremacists and followers of QAnon. Scott-Railton also found a recently deleted Twitter account associated with Brock, with a Crusader as its avatar. “All those things together, it’s like looking at a person’s C.V.,” Scott-Railton said.

Two family members and a longtime friend said that Brock’s political views had grown increasingly radical in recent years. Bill Leake, who flew with Brock in the Air Force for a decade, said that he had distanced himself from Brock. “I don’t contact him anymore ’cause he’s gotten extreme,” Leake told me. In recent years, Brock had become an increasingly committed supporter of Donald Trump, frequently wearing a Make America Great Again hat. In the days leading up to the siege of the Capitol, Brock had posted to social media about his plans to travel to Washington, D.C., to participate in Trump’s “Save America” rally. Brock’s family members said that he called himself a patriot, and that his expressions of that identity had become increasingly strident. One recalled “weird rage talk, basically, saying he’s willing to get in trouble to defend what he thinks is right, which is Trump being the President, I guess.” Both family members said that Brock had made racist remarks in their presence and that they believed white-supremacist views may have contributed to his motivations.

In an interview, Brock confirmed that he was the man in the photos and videos. He denied that he held racist views and echoed Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud, saying that he derived his understanding of the matter principally from social media. He told me that he had gone to Washington, D.C., to demonstrate peacefully. “The President asked for his supporters to be there to attend, and I felt like it was important, because of how much I love this country, to actually be there,” he said. Brock added that he did not identify as part of any organized group and claimed that, despite the scenes of destruction that day, he had seen no violence. When he arrived at the Capitol, he said, he assumed he was welcome to enter the building.

Brock denied that he had entered Pelosi’s office suite, saying that he “stopped five to ten feet ahead of the sign” bearing her title that insurrectionists later tore down and brandished. However, in the ITV video, he appears to emerge from the suite. Brock said that he had worn tactical gear because “I didn’t want to get stabbed or hurt,” citing “B.L.M. and Antifa” as potential aggressors. He claimed that he had found the zip-tie handcuffs on the floor. “I wish I had not picked those up,” he told me. “My thought process there was I would pick them up and give them to an officer when I see one. . . . I didn’t do that because I had put them in my coat, and I honestly forgot about them.” He also said that he was opposed to vandalizing the building, and was dismayed when he learned of the extent of the destruction. “I know it looks menacing,” he told me. “That was not my intent.”


Legal experts said that people who breached the Capitol could face a range of criminal charges, from disorderly conduct to seditious conspiracy. “Presumably this person broke into Congress in order to stop or intimidate or interfere with the counting of the Electoral College certification, a fundamental feature of the peaceful transition of power in the United States,” Alan Rozenshtein, a professor of law at the University of Minnesota, said.

Brock, a fifty-three-year-old father of three who lives in an affluent suburb of Dallas, graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1989, with a major in international relations and affairs. In a LinkedIn profile that Brock recently deleted, he described himself as having served as a chief operations inspector and flight commander with the 706th Fighter Squadron, at one point leading more than two dozen pilots. Brock told me that he served in Afghanistan and, in a non-combat capacity, in Iraq, and that for his service he received three Meritorious Service Medals, six Air Medals, and three Aerial Achievement Medals. In a statement, Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokesperson, said, “This individual is no longer serving in the Air Force Reserve. He retired in 2014. As a private citizen, the Air Force no longer has jurisdiction over him.” Brock now works for Hillwood Airways, a Texas-based private aviation company.

Brock’s family members and his friend said that his service in the Air Force was central to his identity. Several of Brock’s e-mail addresses and social-media accounts featured his call sign and military nickname, Torch. One family member said that Brock derived “this weird sense of power” from his time as a military pilot, along with a Manichean world view. “He used to tell me that I only saw the world in shades of gray, and that the world was black and white,” the other family member said. “He doesn’t understand the fallout and the people he’s hurting. And I can’t imagine what he was doing there with zip ties, or what he thought he was going to accomplish.”

That part where he says he found the zip ties on the floor is like "the dog ate my homework" level of excuse. The article goes on to say that among other symbols on his clothing there was a Punisher skull emblem. It states that the Punisher logo has become very popular with police and army groups and more recently white supremacists and QAnon. There's a discussion about this started by poster babyblob on the Marvel Comics forum. I don't know what Marvel can do about this except maybe stop any merchandising using this symbol. I have no idea why white supremacists would use this symbol. I am not a fan of the Punisher and personally I think Marvel should have retired him long ago. But I've never viewed that character in that light. I think they just like the vigilante vibe of the character.

[Kirby101]

I think the Punisher thing came from the movie American Sniper, which became a right wing Cause Celeb.

[babyblob]

Sure, Trump will try to continue to exist politically… in the media. When he will stop being the president, he will lose a lot of his legitimacy and his appeal. It will be about pictures… Biden in the Oval office… Trump’s supporters will get used to it.

Discounting Trump and his followers is what led to the 6th happening. Maybe nothing more happens. I think that would be great. But the fact that two days after terrorists attacked the capital armed men stood for hours outside the Kentucky capital demanding the governor resign and the election be over turned. All this bs that they were armed for self defense when several talked about how they can talk the government back any time they want. This people are not going to go away just because Trump is not on Twitter.

[Amadeus Arkham]

Republicans largely silent about consequences of deadly attack and Trump’s role in inciting it

[Farealmer]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...ation-n1253546

They are getting ready for round 2.

[SquirrelMan]

one of the Capitol police officers who died was beaten with a fire extinguisher

pretty much just solidifies that the "Blue Lives Matter" movement is just racist horses**t

I hear Sicknick was a trump supporter himself.

Can you imagine voting a man for president just to have him rile up the mob that murders you?