On January 6
Aquilino Gonell had this to say in a NYT column.
I never wanted to be a whistle-blower or a troublemaker. I grew up poor in the Dominican Republic, came to this country legally at age 12 and became the first in my family to finish high school and college. I lived in Brooklyn, just a few miles from where Mr. Trump grew up in Queens, yet the metaphoric distance between us was vast. My dad was a taxi driver who could give me only $100 to help pay for college. Mr. Trump’s father was a real estate developer who bequeathed him at least $413 million over the years. While Mr. Trump escaped the Vietnam draft with a medical exemption for bone spurs and never served in the military, I finished my degree with the help of the G.I. Bill after I enlisted and served in the Middle East. What I experienced defending the Capitol against rioters was worse than the combat I saw in Iraq.
[snip]
Although I don’t blame all Trump supporters — some of my own relatives support him — I do detest what MAGA extremism did to me and my team on Jan. 6. I resent the ongoing whitewashing of the barbarity and the collective amnesia of right-wing politicians who aren’t willing to hold Mr. Trump accountable. I can’t bear to hear Republicans describe themselves as the “law and order” party.
Mr. Trump is returning to the presidency at 78, while I had to leave the career I’d worked for my whole life at 42 as a result of injuries suffered while doing my job. I sometimes wonder why I risked my life to defend our elected officials from a mob inspired by Mr. Trump, only to see him return to power stronger than ever. It’s hard to witness a rich white man get rewarded for treachery while I’m punished for fulfilling my duty. Maybe that’s why so many people don’t do the right thing — because it’s hard and it hurts.
Michael Fanone shared some bitterness with Brandi Buchman.
Fanone said his experience as a police officer has taught him that accountability is what actually keeps people in line. The threat of going to jail, he said, or the threat of monetary fines can be meaningful deterrents.
But now, he said, “we have a situation where, openly, a political party says, ‘If you’re with us, there’s no accountability.’ That’s proven with those promises for pardons. Just be a Trump supporter, and ’we got your back,” Fanone said. “Well, that’s not fucking law and order.”
[snip]
Today, Fanone said he’s looking for work and often is told that he’s a hero and that he’s loved.
But, he said, he’s also told by prospective employers that they don’t want “potential workplace distraction” or “fallout” and are worried that they too will be targeted simply because they employ him.
Turning to the future, Fanone said he “doesn’t think so highly of myself to impart some life lesson on the American people,” but he could share, unfiltered, what he’s learned in the last four years.
“I no longer believe in American exceptionalism. I certainly did before Jan. 6. I don’t any longer. I think there’s a lot of decent Americans ― I’ve served with them in the police department, known them in the military and in other areas, that are deeply devoted to this country and the Constitution and to just being decent humans. But I don’t think those are the prevailing characteristics of the average American. I think the average American is cowardly and selfish.”
I linked this yesterday, but NYT’s report on how Trump retconned January 6 is quite good.
Don Moynihan describes all the Republican failures to hold Trump to account.
There was nothing inevitable about where we are today. In key moments key Republicans said, essentially, that Jan. 6 was not a big deal, or even a positive event. It is hard not to conclude that the people who occupy key institutions in newer democracies were simply less willing to take those democracies for granted. By contrast, American democracy seems to be of such little value to many of its leaders that they did nothing to defend it.
Merrick Garland pays tribute to the investigators who’ve fought for accountability for January 6.
The public servants of the Justice Department have sought to hold accountable those criminally responsible for the January 6 attack on our democracy with unrelenting integrity. They have conducted themselves in a manner that adheres to the rule of law and honors our obligation to protect the civil rights and civil liberties of everyone in this country.
Tom Joscelyn and Norm Eisen catalog Kash Patel’s conspiracy theories about January 6.
The role that the Proud Boys played instigating the January 6th attack has long been known. There is no credible evidence that suggests they were somehow duped into storming the Capitol. Yet Patel has repeatedly attempted to shift blame away from then President Donald Trump and rightwing extremists and onto the FBI.
For instance, Patel advocated for this conspiracy theory during a March 2023 interview with rightwing YouTuber Tim Pool. Brandishing his law enforcement credentials, Patel explained how he and others could “defeat the insurrection narrative” by pointing to the presence of FBI informants on January 6th.
“I think, as a former federal prosecutor and a public defender who defended a lot of these types of cases, what you need to show is whether or not the FBI and government agents were using undercover operatives and informants on the day of January 6th,” Patel said. Patel implied that the FBI’s conspiracy was long in the making, arguing it takes “a six-month buildup” at a minimum to place operatives or informants in extremist groups.
CNN confirms earlier NYT reporting that prosecutors chased leads between Trump and the crime scene in 2021, which ended up being dry holes. (Note, CNN gets the dates on overt grand jury activity wrong: subpoenas started going out in May 2022 and the Executive Privilege fight began in June 2022.)
Thank you, Marcy, and LOLGOP too–this entire set of podcasts is a heroic effort to pull together all the bits and pieces, and lay them out with a concise commentary, before the clampdown can ‘retcon’ them out of existence. We’re going to need to have unimpeachable sources of information like this, what with the legacy media memory-holing the crimes this crew has, and is certain to continue to, commit. Many thanks.
There is the horrendous (and should have been disqualifying for Trump) January 6th Coup, but also, it looks like there is a November 5th Coup.
Kamala Harris, what do you say to your disempowered voters?
What do democrats say to their disempowered voters?
What do disempowered voters say to GOP devotees of criminal, anti-democracy, Russian asset, & predatory psycopath Trump? The GOP and Trump intend to tank the U.S. dollar and economy to enrich themselves and empower Russia, and ruin all the rest of us.
I think that rural conservatives and even maga devotees wouldn’t go along with losing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and the GOP tanking our dollar for cryptocurrency while raiding Fort Knox as some predict, which would cause money inflation and a great depression.
We could all be impoverished in a flash. Left dumbfounded.
I like what Greg Palast is doing:
https://mastodon.online/@GregPalast/113765389784244409
GregPalast
@[email protected]
We’re working feverishly to get the data to calculate the effect of racist voter suppression trickery on the election’s outcome. Not unexpectedly, we are getting stonewalled by red-state officials about the number of provisional ballots uncounted (> 42.3% we find from well-hidden data), the number of mail-in ballots discarded (> 2 million), and the number of vigilante challenges to legit voters (> 852,000).
Here’s what the numbers are telling us so far : https://www.gregpalast.com/carter-the-kochs-and-the-donald/
The U.S. media will write about vote suppression tactics during an election. But never would the media report on the effect of suppression on the November 5 vote count.
But the Palast Team does, with precision, based on data and facts. And here’s what the numbers are telling us so far. Absent vote suppression tactics,
“The wholesale attack on votes and voters cost Kamala Harris Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia — which would have brought her to a winning 286 Electoral votes.”
As Gerald Griggs, President of the Georgia NAACP told me, “Vote suppression and voter intimidation won.”
Thanks for highlighting the Qanon presence at Jan 6. Also, the influence of the Turner diaries. In the HBO Qanon documentary, the owner of 8 chan bragged at that Qanon presence.
I’ve been really fascinated with Qanon and it’s role there at January 6. A fake internet spy was able arouse people to drive across the country to storm the capitol. Coincidentally or not, they may also have impacted Jan 6 failing. Doug Jensen was let to the front because he had the big Q on his shirt. Then he proceeded to be led astray by officer Goodwin, while presumably other people more familiar with planning, would have known the correct route.
I don’t think that is incidental either, that Qanon ended up being influential towards Jan 6. Q was an anonymous internet leader who peaced out just before Jan 6, like the work has been done, the seeds have been planted.
There’s reason to believe, that the movement which the world knows as Qanon, was originally planned by the military/civilian intelligence, over the prior decade as means to regime change in Iran and/or Syria. In the wake of the disaster of Iraq, the plan was to use social media to change the hearts and minds to carry out the change. As similarly, hearts and minds ended up being influenced on social media to participate in Jan 6.
The origins of Qanon is a no-go, black hole for main stream journalists who do cover Qanon. They just focus on how Qanon has played out in the world, and don’t care where it came from. They may cite 4 chan culture of secret govt insiders ,and finally one secret govt insider jumped to normie social media. And Posobiec/OANN came up with the narrative that Microchip and other trolls started it.
What about Jim Watkins and his son Ron? They came later?
Q started on 4 chan. Then within a couple of months switched to 8 chan, which is where Watkins was the owner and the son the administrator.
Once moved over to 8 chan, the Watkins were in position of control. There is compelling case that they did have control of the actual Q drops, particularly in that documentary. But no way they came up with Q, no way they were responsible for the origins.
“I don’t think that is incidental either, that Qanon ended up being influential towards Jan 6.”
Incidental, or coincidental, I’ve always wondered what became of Aleksandr Kogan’s research work culled from Facebook in 2013. Did it happen to identify who could be persuaded to take violent action and how?
Some additional reporting by Greg Palast from last year on Jan 6th illegal march.
https://www.gregpalast.com/the-secret-history-of-a-riot/
The Secret History of a Riot
• by Greg Palast
• January 6, 2023
The 800-page gorilla of a report from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the Capitol seems strangely silent on a few matters that, apparently, were a bit too uncomfortable for the Committee to take on.
Bless you and Marcy, Rayne!
Not too long ago, I posted the below discussion between Anthony Davis and Dr. Stephen Hassan on a thread here.
https://youtu.be/xYf7F66AwDo
Although I haven’t read his book, “The Cult of Trump,” I’ve seen him interviewed numerous times about his own work on escaping cults, and also in conjunction with Dr. Bandy Lee and her work on the dangers of allowing TFG to run for elected office beginning in 2016.
This very informative dialogue between the two is well worth the listen.
P.S. At about 1:00:30, he gets into particulars, and calls out the “Opus Dei” Trump sub-cult. Russian Psy-Ops strike again.
Whatever the origin, QAnon is different than ordinary textual or graphic media. In terms of game theory. Normal journalistic or scientific writing is a cooperative game, but QAnon is a non-cooperative game. The authors or designers construct “puzzles” like learning goals in a spiraling curriculum, hidden symbols or meanings that reveal themselves like déjà vu or synchronicity to the unbalanced or delusional mind. QAnon appears to be designed to inculcate delusions of reference. It follows a script, the way the bipolar 1 mind makes sense of the world as unconscious dream-work during a manic phase. I believe QAnon represents a very sophisticated weapon of psychological warfare, whatever its ostensible “origins”. I believe QAnon is designed to generally undermine our democracy, but with a kind of protected speech, activate the unbalanced and motivate them for insanity like Jan 6.
I’ve long thought such a sophisticated attack, expertly designed to cultivate emotional buy-in, had to come from an intelligence service. One guess.
Thanks, Marcy, for the roundup.
“Post-truth is pre-fascism”, as Timothy Snyder has written. “When we give up on truth, we concede power to those with the wealth and charisma to create spectacle in its place.”
More from Prof. Snyder (On Freedom, p. 215):
The ‘free market’ only exists as a slogan covering senseless contradictions and justifying political bullying. There is no such thing as a ‘free market’ in the world, nor can there be. Capitalism minus norms and laws is murderous conquest. If someone invades your country, seizes your home, enslaves your children, and puts your kidneys up for sale, that is the magic of the unregulated market at work”
Thank you. Just stunning to watch supporters following like sheep ending up in jail for an exploiter of humanity.
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire
On the eve of 2025’s Jan6 a violent attack by collective and intentioned violent persons dressed for attack mode upon the Minnesota Vikings resulted in great reputational damage that can only be repaired by victims bringing the A game in the playoffs. Congrats to the Lions. They won big this time.
OT, but it was what it was. Moderation may let a Vikings fan give this indirect hat tip. It was a game many of your commentators likely enjoyed. It was a whipping. Ground game working. Passing game working. Defense working.
No disrespect to the posted topic intended. Just saying what happened.
Kudos to the Detroit Lions. They played an excellent game against a very good Viking team. The Lions deserve the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
All said, Go Chiefs !!
Joe Biden, in a guest opinion piece at the WaPo:
What was it James Taylor sang, as he recounted the story of the Magi and King Herod? Oh, yes . . .
Herod is coming to town, folks, and Joe Biden gave one final reminder of just that.
Thanks for copying part of Biden’s op-ed, Peterr…I tried to find it on the WH site, but it’s not there [yet?]. Also, I very much appreciate again, your post from 2022.
Biden’s column was at the WaPo, and not behind their paywall. As a political piece, it won’t appear on the White House website.
And thanks for your kind words about my earlier post on the first J6 anniversary.
Maybe someone, Michael Moore or any number of other lesser known or aspiring documentarians, can make the film. Maybe it would be instead a big screen awards drama with actors who will tell the true tale that US residents will finally see.
The testimonies of Gonell and Fanone will then be known. Their articulate expression and interpretation of the events are urgent now, and then forever.
I appreciate the roundup and links above by others, for broadening the opportunities for increasing numbers of people to witness statements being made (or making statements ourselves) as we “transition” to what comes next. This needs amplification.
Linking it all together will be our job in the resistance/opposition. I guess we will have to show others what it means to “do the right thing” and show our fierce hearts.
Thank you again, Marcy, and contributors for always being here. I appreciate you.
The DOW closed at a then record high on Jan 6, 2021. The deal had already gone down is the approximate thought I had that day. No court cases were going to matter and it wasn’t going to effect elections. Stock indexes are up 30 to 60 percent more now. The vast inflation of asset prices is the engine of our moment. The mechanisms of which were institutionalized by Clinton and Obama. Then by Biden’s time it was far too late.
The financial markets are all you need to watch to find if fascism has gone off the rails. If horrible things unfold and markets continue to operate smoothly, it’s speeding down the tracks. Period.
I can’t live without hope. I think people have power over money, rather than money being the power.
I do see that our task is going to be quite difficult, because moneybags seems to be all about mal-influencing democracies worldwide. It’s stunning.
We need effective strategies to attract listeners, with alternative messages that will capture the public not paying attention or who gave in or gave up in the recent election.
If the markets go up as the fortunes of the people continue to go down (let’s get rid of income tax, woo hoo!), we may get an opening we can use. I did think the issue of health/denial of care could be an opening move, and it may yet be. But we do have to pull together. The US is not going to lead the world on the issue of health care. That will be a domestic activity. The world has been leading on extinction/climate for example. And some are inspired by Syria, even in the US. The horrors of Gaza are widespread, but young/campus activists have been largely de-platformed.
We do have some choices moving forward. For the record, the most successful revolutions are non-violent.
Oscar-worthy performances by Mitch and Lindsey in 2021:
https://apnews.com/article/mitch-mcconnell-donald-trump-impeachment-c9a38d7492feea56821f4e0930914b61
https://www.wbtv.com/2021/01/06/lindsey-graham-count-me-out-enough-is-enough/
I totally believed they had spines.
1/6/21 12:45 PM Conversation between Cassidy HUTCHINSON and Tony ORNATO:
“Patel implied that the FBI’s conspiracy was long in the making, arguing it takes “a six-month buildup” at a minimum to place operatives or informants in extremist groups.”
I hope someone asks Ka$h at his confirmation hearing how (assuming linear time) the supposed FBI J6 conspiracy knew to conceive itself, when it wasn’t until 19 December 2020 that Trump issued his “be there, will be wild” invitation. Does he imagine an FBI sitting around on its collective ass, imagining longterm-future ways to maybe make DJT look bad? If so, what is his brain-genius plan for reorienting the ship? (Or, as I’m guessing our Ka$h might say it, “reorientating.” Because there’s nothing like throwing extra syllables into latinate words to make you sound super smart.)
Linear time is for losers.
When Johnson took the gavel on the 3rd and gave a speech, he elaborately described Thomas Jefferson’s pious evangelical mindset. https://www.thedailybeast.com/mike-johnson-attributes-prayer-to-thomas-jefferson-but-theres-a-problem/
George Orwell will be next, to be recast as a FOX News personality, I predict. Who’s to say what he really thought, after all: nobody who knew him is alive anymore.
1:00 PM [approx]
1] TRUMP [Rabble Rousing speech]:
2] While standing at the front of the crowd in the West Plaza, opposite law enforcement in riot gear, NORDEAN and BIGGS exchange a hug and handshake, and BIGGS takes another video, in which he announces: “we’ve just taken the Capitol.”
3] [BERTINO and WOLKIND], on NMOSD-LG: “Push inside! Find some eggs and rotten tomatoes!” [] “They deploy the mace yet.” // DONOHOE: “We are trying.”
1:01 PM Parler [VIDEO]: https[:]//d2hxwnssq7ss7g[.]cloudfront.net/tb76lsT2Wakl_cvt.mp4
[Capitol West Front, Joe BIGGS on his phone at [0:03-0:04], and there’s PEZZOLA too, at [0:04 and again at 0:18, at 0:18-0:19 PEZZOLA, and Joe BIGGS’ hat/glasses at bottom of screen, still looks like he’s looking down at his phone, and Proud Boy/Three Percenter hand signal GUY behind him]
1:02 PM RHODES to MINUTA Call 1:48
1:02 PM PENCE tweets letter to CONGRESS
1:03 PM Capitol Police find [Lonnie COFFMAN’s] unoccupied red pickup truck with Alabama tags containing a trove of weapons, including an M4 carbine assault rifle, loaded magazines of ammunition, and components to make 11 molotov cocktails.
1:15 PM [approx.] PENCE/family are escorted from Senate Chamber, through back hallway to Ceremonial Office
1:19 PM TRUMP is back at the WH
1:21 PM Unnamed WH Valet informs TRUMP that live coverage of his speech had been cut off in order to show the “rioting down at the Capitol” and says that TRUMP then went to the Oval dining room to “go see” and “s[aw] it” “for himself”.
1:22 PM [Freedom Plaza] [bullhorn] JONES:
1:25 PM RHODES to Leadership Signal Chat: “Pence is doing nothing. As I predicted.”
1:27 PM NORDEAN, BIGGS, and others then move further away onto the Capitol lawn. BIGGS films a selfie video with NORDEAN and others who had marched with them to the Capitol in which BIGGS declares, “So we just stormed the fucking Capitol. Took the motherfucking place back. That was so much fun.” [] “January 6 will be a day in infamy.”
IN CONTRAST to ALL THAT:
TODAY at 1:33 PM Kamala HARRIS finalizes the Electoral College vote:
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3lf3rpxhxws23
January 6, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Class act. And that’s a fact.
While I was watching the January 6 invasion of the Capitol, I thought, “This is our storming of the Bastille.” Perhaps Trmp is our Robespierre.
But then I also have the feeling that 9/11 (which I thought should have been more aptly called 911) was our Reichstag fire.
Brandi Buchman’s interview with Michael Fanone says it all. I don’t think he is sharing bitterness, more likely the brutal honest truth as he sees it
when did that interview occur? Link?
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/michael-fanone-jan-6-anniversary-donald-trump-immunity_n_6778641ce4b03c84a28dacc5
Brandi Buchman’s, Memories of an Insurrection, from New Year’s Eve, 2021. Still a good read.
There will be many more in government come January 20th.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/12/31/2070342/-Memories-of-an-insurrection-A-reporter-s-perspective
Donnie’s lawyers (and some others) are trying to keep Jack Smith’s report secret.
(from Joyce Vance, via GottaLaff: https://mas.to/@[email protected]/113784863857579788 )
The world witnessed it, can’t unsee it.
We’re still looking at you. We don’t live with the Republican gaslighting, we’re your witnesses forever.
So reach out to allies, think Solidarity. :-)
It’ll never stop disappointing and astonishing me how much attention and honor has been given to these cops over the past years while absolutely none has been given to the protestors in DC who showed up at every fascist rally leading up to Jan 6. These cops were perfectly happy defending and escorting and protecting the white supremacists who showed up for months in DC, and were perfectly happy brutalizing or condoning the brutalization of protestors in 2020. Gonell and Fanone aren’t noble defenders of democracy, they’re just shocked and appalled that the violence they spent their careers directing was turned on them for once.
Jan 6 could have been prevented by the people of DC who are actually committed to multiracial democracy, but instead the Democrat leaders of the city sided with the cops, brutalized us throughout the summer, and told us to stay home with words and threats at the rallies in November and December leading up to the insurrection.
Trump urges Garland to block release of Jack Smith’s final report Meanwhile, his two former co-defendants want Judge Aileen Cannon to order the Justice Department to keep the report secret. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/06/trump-garland-jack-smith-filing-00196786
Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein 01/06/2025 09:59 PM EST Updated: 01/06/2025 10:56 PM EST
Marcy:
https://bsky.app/profile/emptywheel.bsky.social/post/3lf4xe25qwk2b
January 7, 2025 at 12:50 AM
LINK: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.648652/gov.uscourts.flsd.648652.679.0.pdf
The letter at the Politico link begins at p29/40 of Marcy’s document.
What’s the over and under on the response time of Cannon to Nauta and De Oliviera informing them to direct their motion to 11 Circuit as Cannon dismissed the case, and Appellate Court is seized of the Government appeal?
And a Post here:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/01/07/yes-trump-is-trying-to-prevent-the-release-of-jack-smiths-report/
Here’s Kyle Cheney’s THREAD:
https://bsky.app/profile/kyledcheney.bsky.social/post/3lf4nz6bne22k
January 6, 2025 at 10:03 PM