Sunday, January 10, 2021

Trump's Lifetime Banishment From Twitter Was Because Of His "Glorification Of Violence" And The Fear He "Could Inspire Others To Replicate Violent Acts" (Additional Attacks On The Capitol (And State Capitol Buildings) Are Planned For Jan. 16, 17, And 19)

Twitter permanently suspended Donald Trump's personal account "due to the risk of further incitement of violence". Twitter cited significant evidence that Trump's supporters see his tweets as inspiration, encouragement, and support for their violent actions, which led to the deaths of five people last week.

Twitter determined that Trump violated its Glorification of Violence policy and should be permanently suspended, based on several factors: Trump's statement that he would skip Joe Biden's inauguration is being read as further confirmation that the election was illegitimate and that he refuses to be part of an "orderly transition". His announced absence could also be a signal that the Inauguration is a safe target for additional violence.

Trump's description of the rioters as "American Patriots" (a term which Ivanka Trump also used before cowardly hitting the delete button) is clear support for the murders and insurrectionists. Trump's tweets have prompted talk of future armed protests, including a proposed second attack on the Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17.

Chris Krebs, the former US Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (fired by Trump): "There's going to be more violence. There is going to be violence in the run-up to the inauguration. This is not over. There will be more."

A Parler poster has promised: "Many of us will return on January 19, 2021 carrying Our weapons. We will come in numbers that no standing army or police agency can match."


Don't Negotiate With Terrorists


Have Another Box Of Wine, Dear

Looks Like A Job For "Infrastructure Week"


A ProPublica-FRONTLINE review of the insurrection at the Capitol reported the attendance of several white supremacists who also participated in the 2017 white power rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, a militia group that has pledged to start a civil war on behalf of Donald Trump. One soon-to-be identified man wore a "Camp Auschwitz: Work Brings Freedom" sweatshirt and another wore a shirt with "6MWE" across the chest (which is shorthand for "6 Million Wasn't Enough"). 

Some far-right activists are looking for revenge for the death of Ashli Babbitt, the woman who tried to crawl through a smashed window into a restricted area of the Capitol and was shot. "If we gotta come back here and start a revolution and take all these traitors out — which is what should happen — then we will."

One of the organizers of the riot has been banned from Paypal and Venmo. He says the news has made him sick to his stomach and he wants you to pray for him.

CNN's Brian Stelter notes that as more videos, photos, and testimonials emerge from the riot:
As heinous as the attack looked in real time, on live TV and in our social feeds, it was even worse than we knew at the time. It was even more violent ["Feds say police found a pickup truck full of bombs and guns near Capitol insurrection as wide-ranging investigation unfurls"]. It was even more treacherous. And Trump's behavior was even more disturbing ["As riot raged at Capitol, Trump tried to call senators to overturn election"]. . . . 

[I]n the fog of chaos it was impossible to see the full picture in real time. . . . A handful of chaotic videos on social media stunned the world, and immediately confirmed that the police had lost control, but the fuller videos that came out on Wednesday night and Thursday and Friday provided much more detail. Just now on CNN, Don Lemon showed another appalling video of attackers trying to break into the Capitol — another angle I hadn't seen yet. Sometimes audio clips of the assault are even scarier than video, as The Daily podcast demonstrated. . . .

Something else that was even worse than we knew at the time: The attacks against members of the media. Erin Schaff of The New York Times later described what happened when the mob saw her NYT ID. "They threw me to the floor, trying to take my cameras. I started screaming for help as loudly as I could," she said. "No one came. People just watched. At this point, I thought I could be killed and no one would stop them. They ripped one of my cameras away from me, broke a lens on the other and ran away." She fled and found a place to hide.
Elle Reeve covered the Charlottesville rally in 2017 for Vice and was at the Capitol working for CNN last Wednesday. She joined Stelter on the "Reliable Sources" podcast to discuss what she witnessed:
People say Donald Trump plus the Internet brings out the extremists. But I think the reality is an inversion of that: that Donald Trump plus the Internet brings extremism to the masses. . . . I don't think as a culture, we've grappled with the way social media is a brainwashing machine. . . .

Most of the people here do not think of themselves as white nationalists. Do not want to be seen as racist. . . . [But] . . . when this huge swarm of people who've been active online finally get to meet each other in person . . . there's this thrill of it and it's very high energy — but they've also been anonymous for so long — it kind of relieves them of the responsibility for their actions. . . .

I don't think there are enough words in English to describe the way emotion works in a mob like that. It's like an electrical current. It's joy, but it's menacing. And there's also this forward momentum that's just unstoppable. . . .

Most people I talked to said they expected Trump to be sworn in for a second term. Some people I talked to even said they expected military tribunals of Joe Biden and other Democrats for election fraud. . . . They really see us [the media] as working in concert with Democrats to try to destroy the president.
Randall Lane, chief content officer and editor of Forbes, has an announcement:
Let it be known to the business world: Hire any of Trump's fellow fabulists above [Sean Spicer, Kellyanne Conway, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Stephanie Grisham, Kayleigh McEnany], and Forbes will assume that everything your company or firm talks about is a lie. We're going to scrutinize, double-check, investigate with the same skepticism we'd approach a Trump tweet. Want to ensure the world's biggest business media brand approaches you as a potential funnel of disinformation? Then hire away.

This isn't cancel culture . . . There’s surely a nice living for each of these press secretaries on the true-believer circuit. Nor is this politically motivated, as Forbes' pro-entrepreneur, pro-growth worldview has generally placed it in the right-of-center camp over the past century — this standard needs to apply to liars from either party.
Jake Tapper of CNN reports that "the White House flag is not at half staff in memory of Capitol Police Officer Sicknick", who was attacked by the mob on Wednesday, struck with a fire extinguisher, and later died of his injuries. (So much for the mob's claim of #BlueLivesMatter.)

Houston Chronicle: "U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz lied to Americans about widespread voter fraud that never existed. He should resign and deliver Texans from the shame of calling him our senator."
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