Capitol Rioter Threatened to Shoot His Kids If They Snitched: Feds

BAD DADS

“Guy Reffitt was allegedly a member of the militia group “Texas Freedom Force,” a pro-Confederate group tied to the Capitol assault.”

By Kelly Weill Jan. 18, 2021

https://www.thedailybeast.com/capitol-rioter-guy-reffitt-threatened-to-shoot-his-kids-if-they-snitched-feds?ref=home

“According to prosecutors, Reffitt was part of the Texas Freedom Fighters, a militant group that lobbies to protect Confederate symbols, and has spent the past weeks on Twitter accusing the left of being the real rioters.

Reffitt allegedly admitted to his family that he’d participated in the attacks, telling the family that “we” (likely the TFF, according to a criminal filing) had “stormed the Capitol.” He also allegedly told family that he’d brought a gun with him to D.C.

Reffitt’s children allegedly were “disturbed” by his “extreme” statements. When they expressed alarm, he allegedly told them that “if you turn me in, you’re a traitor and you know what happens to traitors...traitors get shot.”

His wife provided information on the fight to investigators.”

Steve Thomas

In ancient Egypt. succeeding Pharaohs sought to erase any mention of their forbears by chiseling their names off of monuments and deleting their names from official scrolls. I predict that we will see the same effort applied here. The name Trump will become an anathema. You will have to go into the dusty archives to find any mention of what he did in his time here. Mothers will invoke his name to terrorize their children into obeying.

Steve Thomas

This guy is a menace to society.

Far-Right Rep. falsely claims 'Democratic machine' paid insurrectionists – after urging them to threaten lawmakers

By David Badash, January 18, 2021

https://www.rawstory.com/madison-cawthorn/

“U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn claims "the Democratic machine" paid the Capitol insurrections who attempted a coup on January 6 to overt urn the election, after having told Trump supporters to "lightly threaten" lawmakers. The North Carolina freshman Republican made his false claim in the middle of the insurrection, when he took the time to call in to the radio show of a top Trump ally, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

“I believe that this was agitators strategically placed inside of this group — you can call them antifa, you can call them people paid by the Democratic machine — but to make the Trump campaign, the Trump movement, look bad," said Congressman Cawthorn, a far right grenade thrower who has already aligned himself with the QAnon crop of incoming House Republicans. "And to make this look like it was a violent outrage, when really the battle was being fought by people like myself and other great patriots who are standing up against the establishment and standing up against this tyranny that we see in our country."

Barely weeks before the insurrection Cawthorn told supporters they could "lightly threaten" lawmakers.”

Steve Thomas

2 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

6)  A bathroom with the famous golden throne, and a golden shower.

7) A Baby Trump blimp in diapers.

2 hours ago, Andrew Prutsok said:

There will be Trump Presidential Library. The National Archives and Records Administration is out of the brick and mortar presidential library business. Just as there will be no Obama Presidintial Library.

 

I have no doubt Trump will grift the rubes for millions to build one — and it will be a big obnoxious flashy building with nothing in it except wax figures of the Trump and a giant gift shop. And people will go to it and buy the junk.

 

Andrew,

i have it on good authority that it will be on the second floor of the Four Seasons.

Total Landscaping business.

Steve Thomas

Trump is asking donors for $2 billion for his Presidential Library.

That's $150K for materials and $1.5 billion to pay off his debts.

Steve Thomas

4 hours ago, Vince Palamara said:

JFK's body flew back in another plane?! - YouTube

Vince,

I can't believe that no one questioned that at the time.

I guess that this late in time, it would be impossible to find out where he got his information.

Steve Thomas

Yup. That old "impeachment hoax" stuff. That's all Fake News you know.

Steve Thomas

Republicans knew they were making a deal with the devil — now they're paying for it

Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute January 16, 2021

https://www.rawstory.com/gop-is-2649959826/

“After the Capitol riot, an unnamed senior Trump official appeared shell-shocked, saying to a reporter, "This is confirmation of so much that everyone has said for years now—things that a lot of us thought were hyperbolic. We'd say, 'Trump's not a fascist,' or 'He's not a wannabe dictator.' Now, it's like, 'Well, what do you even say in response to that now?'"

But this late-breaking realization that many Republicans are expressing publicly or feeling privately is not enough to absolve the dirty deal that they made with Trump to further their agenda. The GOP and Trump deserve one another and have maintained a symbiotic relationship that has devastated the nation. Whether leading GOP figures like McConnell try to distance themselves from Trump at this late-breaking hour, or like Cruz, remain loyal to him until the very end, is irrelevant. The party has lost credibility and is lying in a bed of its own making. They have edged us far too close to the abyss of Hitlerism, and like political parties in other nations that have flirted with or enabled fascism, Republicans need to answer for what they have done.”

In two short years, they lost the House, the Senate and the Presidency. Their leader was impeached twice. Their Party has become synonymous with conspiracy-laden Q-Anon madness and white supremacy Aryan race fascism.

Was it worth it?

Steve Thomas

This is who we have had as our Acting Secretary of Defense:

Oh my God.

Steve Thomas

They sacked the Capitol. Now the pillaging begins.

Steve Thomas

- Tucker Carlson -

“It was not an act of racism. It was not an insurrection. It wasn’t an armed invasion by a brigade of dangerous white supremacists. It wasn’t. Those are lies,” Carlson exclaimed..."

Okee Dokey.

Steve Thomas

How Trump Wins Impeachment, Again

By MICHAEL KRUSE 01/13/202

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/01/13/trump-impeachment-accountability-459151

“Trump, judging from his whole life, not only could play the victim but has and does and will.

“He’s a grievance machine,” said Pete Ditto, a psychology professor at the University of California, Irvine. “Victimization seems like a form of weakness, but it can also be a source of power.”

“What he represents to those who follow him,” said Sheinkopf, the Democratic strategist, who’s known Trump for decades, “is a very simple phrase, which is: ‘Look what they did to us again.’ And Trump is the guy that says, ‘Look what they did to me—now help me finish them off.’”

“To his followers, he will be a victim of the powerful.”

Hank Sheinkopf

This will be true, Sheinkopf said, regardless of whether or not Trump is still the president, regardless of whether he was impeached twice, and perhaps in some twisted way because he’s no longer the president and because he was impeached twice.

“He will continue to have this power,” he said. “Because to his followers, he will be a victim of the powerful, who are now turning this into a racially diverse, non-white-male-dominant, non-blue-collar environment. He will be the hero of the put-upon who have been stabbed in the back … by those who run government. Which is how shame and disgrace become honor and a battle cry.”

Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, speaking in defense of the president during Wednesday’s debate, made a version of this very point. He warned the Democrats, “even if you are successful today, and were the Senate to convict President Trump, yours will be a Pyrrhic victory. For instead of stopping the Trump train, his movement will grow stronger, for you will have made him a martyr.””

Shades of Napoleon returning from the Isle of Elba, or Adolf Hitler in 1930's Germany.

Steve Thomas

The 14 Words

In following the Capitol riot, I kept running across reference to something called The 14 words.

About David Lane

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/david-lane

“A member of the terrorist group The Order, which was responsible for the 1984 assassination of Jewish radio host Alan Berg and many other crimes, Lane became even more of a movement icon after penning what rapidly became the best-known slogan of the U.S. white supremacist movement, the so-called "14 Words" ("We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children."). Sentenced to a total of 190 years for his crimes as a member of The Order, Lane spent his time in prison industriously pumping out racist tracts and other propaganda.”

What covering heavy metal taught me about spotting Nazis

By Kim Kelly January 12, 2021

https://www.cjr.org/first_person/heavy-metal-capitol-spotting-nazis.php?utm_source=digg

“A bare-chested, wild-eyed white man in bearskin furs and a horned helmet stood at the podium of the Senate chambers, his fists raised in triumph, as fellow Trump-supporting rioters laid waste to the Capitol. The man, a QAnon cultist from Phoenix named Jacob Anthony Chansley, who goes by the name Jake Angeli, has since been arrested alongside a few dozen others, but not before the far-right social mediasphere tried to paint him as an “antifa spy” planted among the insurrectionists. The efforts at misdirection were in vain, however—Angeli is a notorious pro-Trump presence at rallies in his home state, and he’s pleaded publicly for recognition as a true “patriot.” In case there remained any uncertainty, a close look at his hairy torso made Angeli’s leanings clear: when I zoomed in on his tattoos, I noticed white power symbols—Angeli was quite literally wearing his fascist sympathies

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/qanon-shaman-maga-capitol-riot-rune-pagan-imagery-tattoo-1111344/ on his heart. I knew what I was seeing because I recognized some of the same iconography hidden in the margins of black-metal albums.

For the uninitiated, black metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music distinguished by its aggression, over-the-top theatricality, and affinity for the occult, as well as its unfortunate history as a hotbed for white supremacy.

“Just last week, for instance, a couple of days before the attack on the Capitol,[Marjorie Taylor] Greene tweeted from her official account, “I’m here to fight for my children’s future and the next generation’s American Dream.” The sentence immediately felt strange to me; upon reading it again, I realized that it held a striking similarity to the white supremacist “Fourteen Words”: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” Greene’s message was fourteen words long. Was it a coincidence, or a dog whistle? Given Greene’s QAnon connections and strong white nationalist support base, it bears closer examination—and a fluency with the extensive literature of white supremacist symbology.”

Steve Thomas

1 hour ago, Bob Ness said:

I kinda liked "The Keystone Coup" myself but hey, this is good too.

Don the Mafia Don Mob Boss.

I like it.

Steve Thomas

35 minutes ago, Douglas Caddy said:

Sedition Laws Give Prosecutors Powerful Tool for Capitol Riot

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/sedition-laws-give-prosecutors-powerful-tool-for-capitol-riot/ar-BB1cKNgf?ocid=UE07DHP&li=BBnb7Kz

Trump supporter who brought Confederate flag into Capitol arrested in Delaware

Sky Palma January 14, 2021

https://www.rawstory.com/kevin-seefried-arrested/

“Kevin Seefried was arrested after being wanted by the FBI, which circulated images of him in a campaign to have the public help identify those who breached the Capitol.”

Now there's a case for the Sedition Law.

Steve Thomas

How the Senate Could Speed Up the Impeachment Trial

Senators could borrow a trick from civil cases to shorten the trial.

By RONALD KROTOSZYNSKI 01/13/2021

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/01/13/senate-impeachment-trial-biden-presidency-shorten-459052

“In an ideal world, McConnell would call the Senate back into session as soon as possible, but according to recent news reports, the Senate is not likely to reconvene until a day before Biden’s inauguration. At the post-inauguration trial, then, a member of the Senate, presumably Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, would move for summary judgment by suspending the regular impeachment trial rules. The motion could provide that the Senate would hear a few hours of legal arguments from the House managers and Trump’s lawyers, followed by an opportunity for senators to put questions to them, with a vote on the motion for summary judgment to take place after the allotted time for legal arguments. If the motion permitted a few hours to both legal teams, and a few hours for senators’ questions, the entire process could take place in the course of a day or two, rather over two or more weeks.”

Steve Thomas

A Brief History of Donald J. Trump State Park

By Eric Goldschein May 8, 2017

https://www.outsideonline.com/2181686/brief-history-donald-j-trump-state-park

“Just 45 miles north of Trump Tower in New York City lies a dagger-shaped swath of land dominated by thick brush and brambles almost indistinguishable from other forested areas of upstate New York. It’s lush and green in summer, barren and brown in winter, dotted red and pink by occasional apple trees or dogwoods. There’s little unique or notable about it, except its name: Donald J. Trump State Park.

The park is a short ride away from a popular state park named for another New Yorker-turned-president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Not surprisingly, it was originally supposed to be another Trump golf course. But Trump donated the land to New York State over a decade ago—an act of philanthropy doubling as a tax write-off. Since then, the park hasn’t just gone undeveloped—it’s practically rotting.

Follow signs promoting the park, as a tourist might, and you’ll find an overgrown, unmanaged piece of property: a barely paved road seems to lead nowhere; asbestos-filled buildings covered in graffiti are crumbling; parking lots are overrun with weeds. There are no staff or amenities, no trails or campsites. It is a park in name only.”

Steve Thomas

It's moving day at the White House.

Reuters photographer Erin Scott captured a truckload of unfolded boxes arriving at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House, presumably to be filled with stuff as Trump staffers make their exists:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-white-house-boxes_n_5fffbe22c5b691806c4f2e58

Steve Thomas

Someone pointed out the irony of Donald Trump's presidency ending the way it began, with a reference to female genitalia.

It started out with him claiming he could grab women's (female genitalia) whenever he wanted and he's ending it by telling Mike Pence that he could go down in history as either a hero or a (female genitalia).

Poor Donald. Brought down by his own sexual obsessions.

Steve Thomas

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ushome/index.html

"Republican House members are raging about the newly-installed metal detector they need to pass to get onto the chamber floor after being warned not to bring firearms with them when they come to vote. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who has bragged about her desire to carry her glock pistol into the Capitol, got into a standoff with police and wouldn't let them search her bag after she set off the security alarm. Boebert, who supports QAnon theories and made a name for herself carrying her fire arm on the campaign trail, walked through the screening process with her bag, which set off the magnetometer. She refused to hand the bag over to be searched. Capitol Police eventually let her in the House chamber and it appears her bag was not searched before they did so. 'I am legally permitted to carry my firearm in Washington, D.C. and within the Capitol complex,' Boebert tweeted (inset) after the incident. 'Metal detectors outside of the House would not have stopped the violence we saw last week — it’s just another political stunt by Speaker Pelosi.' Congresswoman Debbie Lasko tweeted: ‘For members of Congress to enter the floor of the U.S. House, we now have to go through intense security measures, on top of the security we already go through. These new provisions include searches and being wanded like criminals. We now live in Pelosi’s communist America!’ Pictured above top right speaker Pelosi is seen going through the metal detectors when she entered the House floor. She, too, set them off but stopped for Capitol Police to wand her. "

Boebert was the one who was tweeting out Nancy Pelosi's location to the mobsters.

Steve Thomas

Trump-supporting Christian leaders and their Sunday messages

MARIAM FAM, ELANA SCHOR, and DAVID CRARY 1/10/21

https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-brian-gibson-capitol-siege-d6db3d71658bfad778f3cc4be1b5f984

OWENSBORO, Kentucky

Brian Gibson, pastor and founder of HIS Church, spoke to his Christian congregation and online viewers

““So now I know some, some bad actors went in and I believe potentially there were antifa up there. I think more and more I know there were antifa up there, insiders up there that started that action.”

SACRAMENTO, California

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference who delivered a prayer at Trump’s inauguration and has also advised him, told his congregation Sunday that America needs to hear a message of repentance.

““We must repent for making the person who occupies the White House more important than the one who occupies our hearts. We must repent for permitting the donkey and the elephant to divide what the Lamb died for on the cross,””

SAN ANTONIO

The Rev. John Hagee of Cornerstone Church, a staunch supporter of Trump, did not mention the president by name but criticized the assault on Congress by what he called “a rebellious mob.”

“This is what happens when you mob the police. This is what happens when you fire the police.”

“This is what happens when you watch a policeman shot and belittle his sacrifice for the public,” he continued. “Wake up, America! America and democracy cannot function without the rule of law. We back the blue.”

COEUR, D’ALENE, Idaho

The Rev. Tim Remington, the conservative Christian pastor of The Altar church, avoided specific references to Trump and the attack on the Capitol, but offered plenty of politically charged warnings.

“He targeted the media in particular for criticism.

“I rebuke the news in the name of Jesus,” Remington said. “We ask that this false garbage come to an end. ... It’s the lies, communism, socialism. I don’t know how we’ve put up with it this long.””

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio

The Rev. Darrell Scott, the Black senior pastor of New Spirit Revival Center, did not mention the events in Washington.

Steve Thomas

24 minutes ago, Joseph McBride said:

The DPD had been tracking Oswald for quite some time and knew

his Beckley address.

 

Joseph,

I would like to know who knew. and how, and why.

Steve Thomas

Justice Department warns of national security fallout from Capitol Hill insurrection

By NATASHA BERTRAND 01/07/2021

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/07/capitol-hill-riots-doj-456178

““We have to do a full review of what was taken, or copied, or even left behind in terms of bugs and listening devices, etc.,” said Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), raising the possibility that foreign adversaries could have easily infiltrated the crowd that encircled the Capitol.”

Steve Thomas

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdb1i4l8w--1XfdJaDEiEgqGClX5u0zsGqIbUh_M1HVD-ypYg/viewform

Petition to Disbar Senators Hawley & Cruz

As of January 10, 2021 at 4PM ET, over 3,700 lawyers and law students have signed this petition, including Professor Laurence Tribe, Judge H. Lee Sarokin, and Valarie Kaur.

******

We, the undersigned members and students of the legal profession, call on the Missouri, Texas, and District of Columbia Bars to immediately begin disbarment proceedings against Senator Josh Hawley and Senator Ted Cruz. [1]

In leading the efforts to undermine the peaceful transition of power after a free and fair election, Senators Hawley and Cruz attacked the foundations of our democracy. Nearly 160 million Americans exercised their right to vote in the November 2020 election. Dozens of courts rejected unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud, and the Electoral College formally ratified President-elect Biden’s victory on December 14, 2020. Despite these clear expressions of the will of the people—and with full knowledge of the implications of their actions—Senators Hawley and Cruz publicly announced their intentions to object to Congress’s certification of the Electoral College’s votes set for January 6, 2021.

In doing so, Senators Hawley and Cruz directly incited the January 6th insurrection, repeating dangerous and unsubstantiated statements regarding the election and abetting the lawless behavior of President Trump. A violent mob attacked the U.S. Capitol. Five people have died. The nation and the world watched as rioters took over the very halls and chambers that embody our democracy. Yet after the violence and terror of the day’s events, Senators Hawley and Cruz still chose to stand in the chamber of the U.S. Senate and persist in their baseless objections to the will of the people.

These actions prove Senators Hawley and Cruz fundamentally unfit for membership in the legal profession. Both have flagrantly violated some of the most elementary ethics rules governing the legal profession. In inciting and encouraging a violent insurrection against the U.S. government, they have potentially committed “a criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer in other respects.” [2] And by fanning the fury of aggrieved constituents through false claims of voter fraud, all for their own political gain, they have engaged in “conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.” [3]

Most importantly, lawyers who betray the very democratic institutions they are charged with protecting and improving as “public citizens” [4] are definitionally unfit for the legal profession. Senators Hawley and Cruz have shown that they have no respect for the courts by deliberately ignoring that judges across the country and the ideological spectrum have rejected President Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. They have shown that they have no respect for the Constitution by violating its words when, as members of Congress, they arguably “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the United States. [5] Worst of all, they have shown that they have no respect for the American public and our democracy by working tirelessly to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters.

Such egregious breaches of integrity matter. The very existence of our profession is symbiotic with the preservation and furtherance of the American republic. If Senators Hawley and Cruz’s actions do not result in any repercussions for their professional status as lawyers, that silence will send an unmistakable message to the rest of the legal community, to aspiring lawyers, and to the American public: that lawyers cannot be trusted with the task of protecting, let alone improving, our sacred democracy, and that lawyers can denigrate democratic institutions with impunity.

The Missouri, Texas, and D.C. Bars must begin disbarment proceedings against Senators Hawley and Cruz and send the message that the legal profession stands firmly in defense of our democratic institutions. They must do so whether or not Senators Hawley and Cruz plan to assume the roles of advocate and counselor ever again, as private or public lawyers. It is the least our profession can do to protect and defend our most cherished ideals and institutions.

Steve Thomas