UPDATE 2: The Boston Globe is reporting that Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley and her husband retreated to her office during the attack and staff barricaded and bolted the door.  When she went to her panic button (every office has one) she found that it had been ripped out.  Capitol Hill Police moved her several times to keep her away from the mob.

UPDATE 1:  New Jersey Rep. Mikie Sherrill told constituents on a live stream last night that she witnessed certain representatives actually giving tours of the Capitol on January 5th that she’s now realized were actually reconnaissance for the attack the following day.  She didn’t name them publicly, but is going to make sure that they are brought to justice along with other complicit representatives as well as Trump.  She does know what she’s talking about, being a Navy helicopter pilot and member of flag staff for a decade.  This story just piles more evidence on the emerging narrative that the attack was most certainly carefully planned and executed from the highest levels of the government.

ORIGINAL STORY: Seth Abramson, a NYTimes bestselling author and analyst for several networks, has compiled over 250 reports on last Wednesday and a seriously disturbing pattern is emerging about what events led to an invasion of the Capitol.  The punch line is that this entire sordid episode was planned and executed with the specific intent of disrupting the certification of the Electoral Vote long enough for violent extremists to actually stop the certification.  I won’t post the entire thread here, but you can read it here on Threadreader.  It is required reading to begin to understand what happened on January 6th.

To set the scene, here were the main players:

Trump
Giuliani
Rep. Biggs (R-AZ)
Rep. Gosar (R-AZ)
Rep. Brooks (R-AL)
Sen. Tuberville (R-AL)
Arizona Proud Boys
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall

Assisted by:

Ali Alexander, far-right activist
Roger Stone, friend and advisor to the president
Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign manager
Donald Trump Jr., son of the president

Roger Stone is in the center of this conspiracy (sound familiar?), is close to the Proud Boys, and coordinated the effort.  Alexander originally organized a “Stop the Steal” rally for January 6.  Stone had coined the term.  The event was eventually combined with another event, “Save America” which had been organized by a Trump dark money group.  Since the election, Trump has raised over $300 million from loyalists for “election defense” but much of the money apparently went to Stone and Manafort to organize the insurrection.  Stone recruited Biggs, Gosar, and Brooks in the house to object to the Arizona electoral vote, and got Tuberville to join in the Senate.

Here’s the money line:  THE ONLY REASON THEY WERE TO OBJECT TO THE ELECTORAL VOTE WAS TO DELAY THE CERTIFICATION LONG ENOUGH TO GIVE THE MOB, LED BY THE PROUD BOYS, TIME TO BREACH THE CAPITOL AND STOP THE CERTIFICATION COMPLETELY. 

Here are the Arizona Proud Boys at the Capitol.  They wore the orange hats to distinguish members during the invasion:

That, boys and girls, is chilling.  Seth Abramson has compiled public data that reveals a narrative that the President of the United States, one US Senator, three US Congressmen, a state attorney general, Trump’s insane attorney, two convicted felons, Trump’s shitbag son, and a violent far right group of extremists hatched a plan IN THE WHITE HOUSE to actually overturn a free and fair election, overthrow the US government, and hand it to Donald Trump, Dictator.  Apparently, idiots like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley were unwitting accomplices to the overthrow plot just trying to stay on the Crazy Train to 2024.

Read Abramson’s thread.  It will give you cold chills about how close the United States government actually came to collapsing on Wednesday, January 6, 2021.

Mitch McConnell signaled the end of the Trump presidency today by telling associates that he’s “pleased” that the Dems are impeaching Trump and that impeachment will make it easier to purge him from the party.  Said associates immediately leaked the comment to the press.  That’s McConnell’s way of communicating to Trump to pack his shit and get out. Clearly the money stream is drying up due to Trump’s attempted coup last week, and McConnell now sees him as a liability.  Folks, it’s over.

Looking into my Crystal Bourbon Bottle, I predict that Trump will be gone by Friday.  Republican resistance to the impeachment effort in the house is tepid at best, coming mostly from Drooler Caucus, and even McCarthy is backing away from Trump.  Having lost McConnell’s support Trump is toast.  Now it’s just a matter of how Trump leaves, and I predict he will try to resign rather than face a conviction and removal from the Senate.  The thing is, though, to purge Trump, they’ll have to convict, then vote again to disqualify him from holding any other federal offices.

“Turn out the lights, the party’s over…”

I heard it with my own two ears.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is working to build sedition and conspiracy charges against some of the rioters who stormed the Capitol last week, the top federal prosecutor for Washington, D.C., said Tuesday.

Michael Sherwin, the acting U.S. Attorney for D.C., says he’s putting together a team – a strike force – to begin investigation for the high possible crimes on people who tried to pull off a coup while advertising it on social media.  They have already charged 70 cases and are currently investigating 170 more.

Hey, it looks like they are taking this seriously.  I hope it’s just not Show for Joe.

A new truth: if I shoot somebody, you better not punish me because that’ll just make me mad enough to shoot somebody else.

Texas Republican Rep. Kevin Brady (R) put it this way: “Those calling for impeachment or invoking the 25th Amendment in response to President Trump’s rhetoric this week are themselves engaging in intemperate and inflammatory language and calling for action that is equally irresponsible and could well incite further violence.”

Okay, so Brady isn’t known for being smart, but up until now he wasn’t known for being a wife beater either. So now responsibility, rule of law, duty and accountability are intemperate and inflammatory language?

Lindsey Graham said, “If Speaker Pelosi pushes impeachment in the last days of the Trump presidency it will do more harm than good.”  He’s obviously not weighing harm and good on the scales of justice.  And it vaguely sounds to me like Lindsey is threatening.

And Trump, who refuses to shut the hell up, had this to say …

“This impeachment is causing tremendous anger,” he said. “I think it’s causing tremendous danger to this country. … I want no violence.”

So if there’s violence, it’s our fault.

It must get mighty tiresome and weighty for Republicans to carry around that load of caca del toro everywhere they go.

Thanks to Epp for the heads up.

Oh no. I just snorted all over my computer screen.

Fox News Anchor Bill Hemmer asks Trump National Press Secretary Hogan Gidley if the president feels emasculated from "the social media crackdown." pic.twitter.com/lIirtRXWhN

— The Recount (@therecount) January 11, 2021

He said that.  He really said that.  I looked it up other places just to be sure he wasn’t misquoted or something.

Or, maybe he doesn’t know what masculine means.

Or maybe he’s drunk or lost.

Or maybe WTF.

Rumor has it that they are all cuddly this morning.