DC Unrest Megathread

[brucejoel99]

If it's a non-freshman member, my money's on Andy Biggs.

[Crumpets]

https://twitter.com/davidalexander5/status/1352607314298216448

[Progressive Pessimist]

https://twitter.com/davidalexander5/status/1352607314298216448

Seems innocent enough. It's like the time I broke into the bank because I needed a pen.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

If it's a non-freshman member, my money's on Andy Biggs.

Haven't Paul Gosar and Mo Brooks already been implicated?

[ProudModerate2]

A rioter from Texas threatened to shoot his children if they told the FBI that he participated in the riots at the Capitol.

A Texas man with ties to a right-wing extremist group threatened to shoot his children if they told the FBI he traveled to Washington to storm the Capitol with other President Trump supporters, according to court documents.

Guy Reffitt threatened his daughter and son while arguing with them about his role in the Capitol siege, his wife told an FBI agent, according to the court papers filed in Washington, DC.

“If you turn me in, you’re a traitor and you know what happens to traitors … traitors get shot,” Reffitt allegedly said to his kids.

Update on this story ...
CNN's Chris Cuomo talks to 18-year-old Jackson Reffitt's decision to tip-off the FBI about father attending Capitol riot.

Watch interview here ... https://us.cnn.com/videos/us/2021/01/23/teen-jackson-reffitt-capitol-riot-intv-full-cuomo-cpt-vpx.cnn

[ProudModerate2]

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1352987356622680064


What do you guys think about this particular incident regarding this social studies teacher.
I have mixed feelings, but I do feel it strange that someone knowing (or should know) so much about politics/government, would fall for trump's antics about all the "election fraud" hogwash?

[Calthrina950]

Pennsylvania social studies teacher Jason Moorehead was suspended for attending the protest. He and his lawyer speak with CNN's Michael Smerconish.

Watch video here ... https://us.cnn.com/videos/tv/2021/01/23/teacher-suspended-for-attending-capitol-stop-the-steal-rally.cnn

What do you guys think about this particular incident regarding this social studies teacher.
I have mixed feelings, but I do feel it strange that someone knowing (or should know) so much about politics/government, would fall for trump's antics about all the "election fraud" hogwash?

It's shocking, but not too surprising, if you give additional consideration to it. As I've alluded to myself before, and as has been noted by other posters on this forum, many genuinely intelligent people, who have substantive academic credentials and legitimate professional careers, have allowed themselves to be suckered in by Trump and by the crazy conspiracy theories which have been circulating. Humans seem to have a mechanism by which they allow their emotions to dominate over reasonable and logical thought.

[Frodo]

Pennsylvania social studies teacher Jason Moorehead was suspended for attending the protest. He and his lawyer speak with CNN's Michael Smerconish.

Watch video here ... https://us.cnn.com/videos/tv/2021/01/23/teacher-suspended-for-attending-capitol-stop-the-steal-rally.cnn

What do you guys think about this particular incident regarding this social studies teacher.
I have mixed feelings, but I do feel it strange that someone knowing (or should know) so much about politics/government, would fall for trump's antics about all the "election fraud" hogwash?

It's shocking, but not too surprising, if you give additional consideration to it. As I've alluded to myself before, and as has been noted by other posters on this forum, many genuinely intelligent people, who have substantive academic credentials and legitimate professional careers, have allowed themselves to be suckered in by Trump and by the crazy conspiracy theories which have been circulating. Humans seem to have a mechanism by which they allow their emotions to dominate over reasonable and logical thought.

Indeed, just look at Fuzzy Bear. 

[Calthrina950]

Pennsylvania social studies teacher Jason Moorehead was suspended for attending the protest. He and his lawyer speak with CNN's Michael Smerconish.

Watch video here ... https://us.cnn.com/videos/tv/2021/01/23/teacher-suspended-for-attending-capitol-stop-the-steal-rally.cnn

What do you guys think about this particular incident regarding this social studies teacher.
I have mixed feelings, but I do feel it strange that someone knowing (or should know) so much about politics/government, would fall for trump's antics about all the "election fraud" hogwash?

It's shocking, but not too surprising, if you give additional consideration to it. As I've alluded to myself before, and as has been noted by other posters on this forum, many genuinely intelligent people, who have substantive academic credentials and legitimate professional careers, have allowed themselves to be suckered in by Trump and by the crazy conspiracy theories which have been circulating. Humans seem to have a mechanism by which they allow their emotions to dominate over reasonable and logical thought.

Indeed, just look at Fuzzy Bear. 

That is correct. Fuzzy Bear persists in his belief that the election was stolen, in spite of the mountains of evidence he's been provided which rebut that belief. And it's especially perplexing given that he is very well-versed about 20th century American history, and doesn't seem to be able to understand how the events of the past influenced those of the present.

[Frodo]

Pennsylvania social studies teacher Jason Moorehead was suspended for attending the protest. He and his lawyer speak with CNN's Michael Smerconish.

Watch video here ... https://us.cnn.com/videos/tv/2021/01/23/teacher-suspended-for-attending-capitol-stop-the-steal-rally.cnn

What do you guys think about this particular incident regarding this social studies teacher.
I have mixed feelings, but I do feel it strange that someone knowing (or should know) so much about politics/government, would fall for trump's antics about all the "election fraud" hogwash?

It's shocking, but not too surprising, if you give additional consideration to it. As I've alluded to myself before, and as has been noted by other posters on this forum, many genuinely intelligent people, who have substantive academic credentials and legitimate professional careers, have allowed themselves to be suckered in by Trump and by the crazy conspiracy theories which have been circulating. Humans seem to have a mechanism by which they allow their emotions to dominate over reasonable and logical thought.

Indeed, just look at Fuzzy Bear.  

That is correct. Fuzzy Bear persists in his belief that the election was stolen, in spite of the mountains of evidence he's been provided which rebut that belief. And it's especially perplexing given that he is very well-versed about 20th century American history, and doesn't seem to be able to understand how the events of the past influenced those of the present.

This entire experience we have had with Donald Trump's presidency does give you a window, though, into how fascist dictators like Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler managed to hoodwink entire populations (including those you'd think would know better) into following them into the abyss.    

[GeneralMacArthur]

One time I went to a KKK rally just because I wanted to see history.  I was in the crowd when they were shouting "kill Obama! Kill all the n****rs!" but I thought it was a just a joke.  When the actually lynching happened and 4 black men were tortured and burned alive, I was nowhere near.

Why are people looking at me funny?  I swear I had no idea this would happen and had nothing to do with the lynching.  I just wanted to see history.

[ProudModerate2]

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1352987356622680064


What do you guys think about this particular incident regarding this social studies teacher.
I have mixed feelings, but I do feel it strange that someone knowing (or should know) so much about politics/government, would fall for trump's antics about all the "election fraud" hogwash?

It's shocking, but not too surprising, if you give additional consideration to it. As I've alluded to myself before, and as has been noted by other posters on this forum, many genuinely intelligent people, who have substantive academic credentials and legitimate professional careers, have allowed themselves to be suckered in by Trump and by the crazy conspiracy theories which have been circulating. Humans seem to have a mechanism by which they allow their emotions to dominate over reasonable and logical thought.

What I don't get, is that in the video the teacher blames the school district for, as he says, "my reputation and character have been destroyed."
The school district did none of that. It was his stupidity for posting his face and commenting on social media that "destroyed his character."

... And he wants "an apology" from the school district. Forget it. If I was the principal, I would tell him to go suck an egg, and just feel lucky he still has a job. And probably one where many future students would refuse to attend his class, or where parents would demand to have their child assigned to another social studies teacher. Basically the rest of his teaching profession is going to be hell, because he wanted to believe in the ignorant concept called "MAGA."

[Crumpets]

https://twitter.com/TheSoufanCenter/status/1352624560361844737

[Ferguson97]

Pennsylvania social studies teacher Jason Moorehead was suspended for attending the protest. He and his lawyer speak with CNN's Michael Smerconish.

Watch video here ... https://us.cnn.com/videos/tv/2021/01/23/teacher-suspended-for-attending-capitol-stop-the-steal-rally.cnn

What do you guys think about this particular incident regarding this social studies teacher.
I have mixed feelings, but I do feel it strange that someone knowing (or should know) so much about politics/government, would fall for trump's antics about all the "election fraud" hogwash?

It's shocking, but not too surprising, if you give additional consideration to it. As I've alluded to myself before, and as has been noted by other posters on this forum, many genuinely intelligent people, who have substantive academic credentials and legitimate professional careers, have allowed themselves to be suckered in by Trump and by the crazy conspiracy theories which have been circulating. Humans seem to have a mechanism by which they allow their emotions to dominate over reasonable and logical thought.

Indeed, just look at Fuzzy Bear.  

That is correct. Fuzzy Bear persists in his belief that the election was stolen, in spite of the mountains of evidence he's been provided which rebut that belief. And it's especially perplexing given that he is very well-versed about 20th century American history, and doesn't seem to be able to understand how the events of the past influenced those of the present.

This entire experience we have had with Donald Trump's presidency does give you a window, though, into how fascist dictators like Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler managed to hoodwink entire populations (including those you'd think would know better) into following them into the abyss.    

It isn't a hoodwink. He's just no a very good person.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Pennsylvania social studies teacher Jason Moorehead was suspended for attending the protest. He and his lawyer speak with CNN's Michael Smerconish.

Watch video here ... https://us.cnn.com/videos/tv/2021/01/23/teacher-suspended-for-attending-capitol-stop-the-steal-rally.cnn

What do you guys think about this particular incident regarding this social studies teacher.
I have mixed feelings, but I do feel it strange that someone knowing (or should know) so much about politics/government, would fall for trump's antics about all the "election fraud" hogwash?

It's shocking, but not too surprising, if you give additional consideration to it. As I've alluded to myself before, and as has been noted by other posters on this forum, many genuinely intelligent people, who have substantive academic credentials and legitimate professional careers, have allowed themselves to be suckered in by Trump and by the crazy conspiracy theories which have been circulating. Humans seem to have a mechanism by which they allow their emotions to dominate over reasonable and logical thought.

Indeed, just look at Fuzzy Bear.  

That is correct. Fuzzy Bear persists in his belief that the election was stolen, in spite of the mountains of evidence he's been provided which rebut that belief. And it's especially perplexing given that he is very well-versed about 20th century American history, and doesn't seem to be able to understand how the events of the past influenced those of the present.

This entire experience we have had with Donald Trump's presidency does give you a window, though, into how fascist dictators like Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler managed to hoodwink entire populations (including those you'd think would know better) into following them into the abyss.    

Eventually they'll be a doorstopper academic analysis of Trump administration entitled It Happened Here with a subtitle of "And It Can Happen Again".

[ProudModerate2]

Army vet who tended bar accused by FBI of conspiring in Capitol insurrection.

Video and article here ... https://us.cnn.com/2021/01/24/us/ohio-army-veteran-capitol-riot/index.html

Who would have thought this innocent looking, short woman, would be a monster?

[ProudModerate2]

38 Capitol Police officers test positive for Covid-19 after Capitol riot.

More than three dozen Capitol Police officers have tested positive for coronavirus since the Capitol riot on January 6, the union representing the Capitol Police told CNN Sunday.

It's unclear how many of the 38 officers may have been on duty during the attack or when they contracted the virus. But health officials have worried that the mass of largely unmasked people, many shouting and pushing, would result in the spread of the virus. Several police officers were directly assaulted during the insurrection.

https://us.cnn.com/2021/01/24/politics/capitol-police-riot-coronavirus/index.html

They should include the charge of attempted murder on all these trump cultists they are rounding-up.
POS bastards.

[pbrower2a]

A rioter from Texas threatened to shoot his children if they told the FBI that he participated in the riots at the Capitol.

A Texas man with ties to a right-wing extremist group threatened to shoot his children if they told the FBI he traveled to Washington to storm the Capitol with other President Trump supporters, according to court documents.

Guy Reffitt threatened his daughter and son while arguing with them about his role in the Capitol siege, his wife told an FBI agent, according to the court papers filed in Washington, DC.

“If you turn me in, you’re a traitor and you know what happens to traitors … traitors get shot,” Reffitt allegedly said to his kids.

Update on this story ...
CNN's Chris Cuomo talks to 18-year-old Jackson Reffitt's decision to tip-off the FBI about father attending Capitol riot.

Watch interview here ... https://us.cnn.com/videos/us/2021/01/23/teen-jackson-reffitt-capitol-riot-intv-full-cuomo-cpt-vpx.cnn

This is obstruction of justice at its worst.

[afleitch]

https://mobile.twitter.com/ZoeTillman/status/1353792976800129024

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

The problem for D's they don't have to convince Mcconnell, Sasse, Romney, Collins, Murkowski, Toomey, they have to get 17 votes and Daines, Ernst and Rick Scott aren't convicting Trump based on what Ernst said last time about Hunter Biden

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1354163145850429442

[Badger]

https://twitter.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1354163145850429442

"pleaseTrumppleaseTrumppleaseTrump......."

[Frodo]

How does a Navy Seal trained on disinformation warfare fall for this?

From Navy SEAL to Part of the Angry Mob Outside the Capitol
The presence in Washington of a longtime member of the Navy SEALs who was trained to identify misinformation reflects the partisan politics that helped lead to the assault.

But none of it has shaken his belief, against all evidence, that the presidential election was stolen and that people like him were right to rise up.

It is surprising because Mr. Newbold’s background would seem to armor him better than most against the lure of baseless conspiracy theories. In the Navy, he was trained as an expert in sorting information from disinformation, a clandestine commando who spent years working in intelligence paired with the C.I.A., and he once mocked the idea of shadowy antidemocratic plots as “tinfoil hat” thinking.

Even so, like thousands of others who surged to Washington this month to support President Donald J. Trump, Mr. Newbold bought into the fabricated theory that the election was rigged by a shadowy cabal of liberal power brokers who had pushed the nation to the precipice of civil war. No one could persuade him otherwise.

By the late fall of 2020, he was spending time on private Facebook pages where far-right chatter proliferated. He posted long, often angry video soliloquies about how the country was being stolen. He seemed to become increasingly convinced that people were plotting not just against Mr. Trump but against the Constitution, and as a veteran it was his duty to defend it.

Mr. Newbold began holding private meetings at his shooting club with other like-minded members, according to a former member who said he quit because he was alarmed at the growing extremism.

“It became super cultlike,” said the former member, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was afraid of retaliation. “I tried to reason with him, show him facts, and he just went nuclear.”

[VAR]

https://twitter.com/HotlineJosh/status/1354788564379308034

[Badger]

How does a Navy Seal trained on disinformation warfare fall for this?

From Navy SEAL to Part of the Angry Mob Outside the Capitol
The presence in Washington of a longtime member of the Navy SEALs who was trained to identify misinformation reflects the partisan politics that helped lead to the assault.

But none of it has shaken his belief, against all evidence, that the presidential election was stolen and that people like him were right to rise up.

It is surprising because Mr. Newbold’s background would seem to armor him better than most against the lure of baseless conspiracy theories. In the Navy, he was trained as an expert in sorting information from disinformation, a clandestine commando who spent years working in intelligence paired with the C.I.A., and he once mocked the idea of shadowy antidemocratic plots as “tinfoil hat” thinking.

Even so, like thousands of others who surged to Washington this month to support President Donald J. Trump, Mr. Newbold bought into the fabricated theory that the election was rigged by a shadowy cabal of liberal power brokers who had pushed the nation to the precipice of civil war. No one could persuade him otherwise.

By the late fall of 2020, he was spending time on private Facebook pages where far-right chatter proliferated. He posted long, often angry video soliloquies about how the country was being stolen. He seemed to become increasingly convinced that people were plotting not just against Mr. Trump but against the Constitution, and as a veteran it was his duty to defend it.

Mr. Newbold began holding private meetings at his shooting club with other like-minded members, according to a former member who said he quit because he was alarmed at the growing extremism.

“It became super cultlike,” said the former member, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was afraid of retaliation. “I tried to reason with him, show him facts, and he just went nuclear.”

Because any so-called expert, especially in a field such as what he administered in the Navy, is a human being with their own deeply-held partisan beliefs. I'm sure the " disinformation" he separated from "facts" were highly colored by his beliefs, and our intelligence suffered as a result. And in the pre Trump Armed Forces where there was a lot more open conservative partisanship, it would have probably required a clear-cut and demonstrable harmful failure on his part for any consequences to Result.