Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

People are complicated. Love is not.

I really should read my own blog.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Republicans in disarray!

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Let’s finish the job.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Good Cops

Good Cops

by | 258 Comments

This post is in: ,

It’s not surprising that as the feds roll up insurrectionists, they’re finding cops who participated in the Beer Gut Putsch (and stupidly posted evidence of their crimes online). Police and military organizations have had an unaddressed right-wing extremism problem forever. Here’s hoping the Biden-Harris admin’s police reform initiatives include a robust de-Nazification component.

There are also stories of police heroism emerging from the failed coup, including the quick thinking of Officer Eugene Goodman, who at great personal risk lured the violent mob up a staircase and away from an unguarded door to the Senate chamber, possibly saving lives. Goodman will probably receive a Congressional Gold Medal for his bravery.

And here’s another brave cop, Officer Daniel Hodges, in a clip that includes one of the most disturbing images from that day. Incredibly, he wasn’t badly injured:

I’m grateful for Hodges’ bravery in the face of that mob and also thankful that he called the insurrection by its proper name. If we’re to pull this country back from the precipice, we’ll need to tell the truth about what brought us to this point.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

258Comments

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    ‘I had no qualms’: The people turning in loved ones for the Capitol attack

    When Alison Lopez discovered her uncle’s sister had been part of the mob that breached the Capitol doors on 6 January, she immediately reported her to the FBI. “I had no second thoughts,” she said.

    Lopez found out about her in-law’s participation when the woman in question called her aunt from inside the Capitol to brag about “taking back the election”. Lopez, who is 42, said she had known the relative her whole life but had “no qualms” about reporting her.

    “If I saw my grandmother making bombs in her basement, or my aunt breaking into a home, I would have to intervene as well – it’s just about doing what’s right,” she said.

    In the week after the attacks on the Capitol, there has been a concerted effort to “unmask” rioters online, with self-styled detectives investigating who’s who in videos and photos posted from the attack. Outing family members – either online or to authorities – has marked a new frontier of the rift Trumpism has created in the US.

    Lopez said she was horrified but not surprised to see a loved one participate in the riot. Over the last four years she has watched helplessly as members of her family became increasingly entrenched in the world of hateful rightwing conspiracy theories.

    “These are people who never really identified with politics before, and now they have just let this consume their lives,” Lopez said, adding she does not consider herself a Democrat and has voted for Republican candidates in the past.

    ‘Nuff said.

  6. 6.

    raven

    Lotsa insurrectionist getting let go.  Does anyone know if the Capitol Police keep stashes of zip ties in storage somewhere in the building?

  8. 8.

    raven

    @Baud: If these fuckers can prove that’s where they got them there are going to be some big holes in the prosecution’s case, right IMM?

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Wikler isn’t worried:

    “Jen O’Malley Dillon made the fundamental decision to treat state parties as partners,” said Ben Wikler, chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party. “All of our conversations with her and the DNC give me great confidence that the DNC and the Biden leadership will keep upgrading the local and state infrastructure as we go into 2022 and 2024.”

    That’s good enough for me.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    @raven:

    Depends what they ultimately get charged with.  Just because they were on site, the guy still took them for some reason.

  14. 14.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: Alison Lopez discovered her uncle’s sister

    Why not “her aunt”?  It may be some form of OCD, but I always try to figure out why phrases like that are used. Like, maybe the man married her biological aunt, so gets called uncle, but that doesn’t extend to the sister.

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: Right after the riot, there was a picture of an abandoned CP bag full of zipties and other stuff. So yes, the perps could have stumbled across them and said, “These might come in handy.”.

  18. 18.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: I almost wish the DNC would seize control of Florida’s state party. After the 2020 debacle, which followed the 2018, 2016, 2014, 2012, etc., debacles, the state party ousted its consultant-driven leadership and installed new…consultant-driven leadership. We’ve got Rubio and DeSantis up for reelection in 2022!

  20. 20.

    Immanentize

    @raven: the ties alone were never really enough for that charge.  I think it will be posts, emails, maps, words they said inside like “where the fuck us nancy?” (While humorously standing in the Senate chamber).  These things are called “non-act intent evidence.” Often all a prosecutor has is “acts” from which to prove a case — here, carrying flexcuffs is one “act.” But statements and confessions are super helpful in identifying what the goal of an act is.

  21. 21.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: No. A mob takes on a life of it’s own, animalistic in thought. Premeditation is not possible. (I got caught in a riot once) This is not to say that there were not individuals or small groups that went in there for specific reasons, there probably were, but if those people were coherent I doubt very much they planned any kidnappings.

  23. 23.

    Gin & Tonic

    After last night’s thread, I am now being bombarded with ads for those ugly-ass shoes whose name I’m afraid even to type. I’m thinking of driving to Meffa to slash somebody’s tires.

  25. 25.

    raven

    Tommy Raskin Memorial Fund for People and Animals
    The Raskin family has created the Tommy Raskin Memorial Fund for People and Animals. This family fund will distribute all money raised on a semiannual basis to causes and charities championed and advanced by Tommy Raskin, such as Oxfam, Give Directly, the Helen Keller Institute, and Animal Outlook. The Fund has been launched with a contribution of $50,000.

  26. 26.

    Immanentize

    @raven: Also, there is the son of the Brooklyn Judge wearing a bullet proof vest who said he just found it lying on the floor.  I think a lot of stuff ended up available.  Some of it came from rooms and lockers they broke into.  Supposedly, they were looking for guns, but found gear and distributed it.

  29. 29.

    different-church-lady

    Glad to see this post. Last night I was thinking, “I’m so old I can remember when all cops were rotten fascists.”

  31. 31.

    RandomMonster

    @Ken: I imagine the writer is highlighting the fact that she isn’t a blood relative. ETA: Totally misread it. Never mind.

  34. 34.

    germy

    “If it wasn’t my job I would do it for free. It was absolutely my pleasure to crush a white nationalist insurrection,” he said. “And we’ll do it as many times as it takes.”

    When you love upholding democracy, you’ll never work a day in your life. https://t.co/qaBGR6di48

    — Michael Gerber (@mgerber937) January 16, 2021

  35. 35.

    p.a.

    The coming actions/inaction on the charge and prosecution front will possibly be a bigger ‘tell’ on how widespread the rot is than police/military/retired military actions up to now.  Good thing several of regulars here are ‘esq’.

  36. 36.

    different-church-lady

    @OzarkHillbilly: Huh. Not how my famly considered it. Which is why every family gathering I was introduced to seventeen “relatives” I hadn’t met before.

  38. 38.

    debbie

    I love seeing the videos of the insurrectionists crying when being arrested or finding out they’re on no-fly lists. //

  39. 39.

    catclub

    I thought it kind of amusing that a cop who was nearly crushed in a doorway by mob, used that expression.

  40. 40.

    Immanentize

    @debbie: I think the Airforce dude did not bring the flexcuffs he was carrying, but “zip tie guy” and his mom did come prepared with a bunch.  Hence the “conspiracy charges” against them if I am reading the initial charges right.  Early reporting, though.

  41. 41.

    p.a.

    @OzarkHillbilly: I was in a brief riot on a picket line 1989 and it really was like a switch flicked and we all (me included) lost it.  Mounted cop then charged the crowd and people went flying.  Horses be big!

  42. 42.

    debbie

    @Immanentize:

    Maybe so, but that shouldn’t serve to let him off the hook. I can’t imagine a current or former member of the military not knowing the consequences of stealing police property.

  44. 44.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Ken:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    @RandomMonster:

    “Your cousin is English, then?”

    “Oh, yes. We are not what you call first cousins,” she explained as Richard came back. “The sister of my father’s father married his mother’s father.”

    “In simpler words,” Richard said, “our grandparents were brother and sister.”

    “It may be simpler, but it is not explicit,” Desterro said, with all the scorn of a Latin for the Saxon indifference to relationships.

    — Josephine Tey, Miss Pym Disposes

  45. 45.

    Gin & Tonic

    Unfortunately with a by-line by the odious Ken Vogel, but an interesting story about John Dowd selling pardons. That seems … illegal?

    EXCLUSIVE: Trump allies — like a former campaign staffer and even his former personal lawyer, John Dowd — have sold their access to Trump, taking $$$ from wealthy felons to lobby Trump and White House aides, like Jared Kushner, for pardons. w/@kenvogel https://t.co/AlxdmrFVn0
    — Michael S. Schmidt (@nytmike) January 17, 2021

  46. 46.

    Immanentize

    @germy: DC cops understand their city.  Capital Police do not.  Did you see the Metro DC officer with the big spider web and four aces neck tattoo (clearly a vice duty regular).  He was pulled from the crowd by some other insurrectionists after pleading for his life saying he had a wife and kids.  He thought they were going to kill him.

    They asked him what he had to say to the people who pulled him to safety and he said, “I guess, thank you?  But fuck you for being there.”

  48. 48.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: I’m particularly pissed about Florida because IMO, they had a great candidate for the job — a woman with tons of experience who turned things around in the county where I used to live. That would have been change. This looks like more of the same. Oh well.

  49. 49.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @debbie: Why would you think that having been in the military would make people more aware of the consequences of stealing police property than anyone else?

  51. 51.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think state parties are more invisible because everyone focuses on the national agenda.  That has improved us nationally but hurt us locally. I’m as guilty of it as anyone else.

  53. 53.

    Immanentize

    @Omnes Omnibus: I thought that Debbie was giving the officer a benefit of doubt.

    But I’m willing to adopt your view that Airforce officers are dumb as rocks about property, law enforcement, criming, etc.

  54. 54.

    Immanentize

    @debbie: me too.  I know what it would mean in a prison — both ex-military and likely a heroin user.  Never saw the one overlaid on the other before, tho.

    Ever see the movie Rush?  Such a great film.  His thinness and tattoo made me think of Rush.

  55. 55.

    germy

    Lots of jokes about the My Pillow guy but ask yourself this: does anyone know who Biden’s pillow guy is? we’re about to have a president who has no advisors from the pillow industry, let that sink in

    — Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) January 16, 2021

  56. 56.

    raven

    @Omnes Omnibus:

     

    @debbie:

    You should have seen the institutionalized theft of property in Korea and Vietnam.  See William O Wooldridge, Top Soldier of the US Army

    n 1969, while command sergeant major of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, Wooldridge was accused in a congressional inquiry of fraud and corruption related to the military club system, amounting to more than $150 million annually.[2] In 1973 the Department of Justice and Wooldridge reached an agreement whereby Wooldridge pleaded guilty to accepting stock equity from a corporation engaged in providing merchandise to the non-commissioned officers’ clubs in Vietnam. The government did not find any wrongdoing on his part while serving as the Sergeant Major of the Army.

    Wooldridge had earlier been awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal, but it was withdrawn following this episode. In Robin Moore’s novel Khaki Mafia, a fictional character in a criminal cartel is based on Wooldridge in Vietnam.

  57. 57.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @debbie: Because you are assuming that they have a higher level of legal knowledge than they probably have.  I was wondering on what you based that assumption.

  58. 58.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    Locally the town democratic committee complained about OFA using the combined campaign office and having more volunteers, etc.  They were accusing us of somehow stealing their volunteers, too. The town committee members were making a stink about it at an after campaign meeting until the combined campaign field organizer mentioned that the OFA volunteers made more local phone calls than the Democratic committee members.  My personal experience was a lot of sour grapes because we outhustled the regulars.

  59. 59.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Immanentize: Without even making Air force jokes, I would say that this is a place where you should assume then military experience gives a person any extra knowledge.  So assume that they are just as dumb about what they were doing as Dances With Karens.

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @p.a.: My only thought (and calling it a thought is being generous) was, “I want to live.” and I was capable of doing anything towards that goal. Mostly I was just trying to get the fuck out of there, but if somebody got in my way I was more than capable of doing whatever it took to get them out of my way, up to and including killing them. Fear will do that to a person.

  64. 64.

    raven

    So Tapper just said the second doses won’t be available because of the second shipment fubar. Phizer says it’s bullshit.

  66. 66.

    Immanentize

    @raven: WHICH REMINDS ME!!!

    I saw a paragraph somewhere that explained that the old ARVN flag being waived by some at the Capitol were supposed to signify their deep anti-communism feelings.  Meant to tell you yesterday, but forgot.

  70. 70.

    Zinsky

    I know this isn’t a “PC” (patriotically correct) viewpoint to hold but I blame the right-wing bent of many urban police departments on a decades-long glorification of the military and a society brutalized and emotionally stunted by years of endless war.  The US has been at war basically continuously since WWII.  A few breaks here and there, but essentially endless war.

    Social psychologists and sociologists have noted the strong correlation between domestic violence, violent crime, child abuse and murders of passion in societies that are constantly at war.  A recent article in that vein:

    https://www.pnas.org/content/115/37/9181

    Violent governments lead to violent populations.

  77. 77.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly.    M&M Enterprises.

     

    People have no idea how dee seated it was. In Korea if you wanted a part for something you one to the Ville where they had part warehouses that had everything cataloged and ready for purchase. If you went through channels the shit took forever. Ask me how I know.

  83. 83.

    danielx

    @raven:

    Corrupt supply sergeants? Say it ain’t so!

    Of course, it does make you wonder how many Claymores and Barrett rifles have been “found to be defective and removed from inventory”.

  85. 85.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: Field expediency. They even have fun with it in the stupid right wing “The Green Berets”. People who could steal shit have been glamorized in the military for years.

  86. 86.

    Barbara

    @raven:

    If these fuckers can prove that’s where they got them there are going to be some big holes in the prosecution’s case, right IMM?

    It depends on what they are charged with.  If the person is charged with breaking into the Capitol with the intent to kidnap or do violence to a person, then the fact that they found the cuffs would make it hard to use the cuffs as evidence of their intent prior to breaking into the building.  However, if it turns out that that they opened up a container and took the cuffs or even if they picked them up and held on to them, that could be used as evidence to bolster statements or other indicia of their intent to do harm to members of Congress.

  87. 87.

    Frank Wilhoit

    Elsewhere someone posted a comment that began “Cops are just people….”  The rest of it made exactly the points that one would predict.  My reply:

    “No, police are not “just” people. They are unaccountable people, who have internalized (consciously or subconsciously) their unaccountability. And they have power, which even in theory is only ambiguously defined, and in practice is not defined at all.

    These facts have very far-reaching consequences. Everyone — literally exactly everyone — is familiar with those consequences, even though many people deny them, most of whom do not even have incentives to do so.

    It is no more informative to pick good apples than bad ones.

    And the problem with allocating ‘… awards or penalties according to what they do’ is that by the time they’ve done it, it is too late.”

  88. 88.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @danielx: FWIW supply sergeants don’t run the armories.  Of course, there is no reason to assume that there aren’t corruptible armorers….  Although, the amount of paperwork is different.

  89. 89.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    The New Yorker has shared some stunning new video from the violent storming of the Capitol on January 6th, captured by reporter Luke Mogelson.

    Mogelson followed people who were angrily clashing with police outside and went into the building.

     

    One individual inside the building told an officer, “You’re outnumbered. There’s a fucking million of us out there, and we are listening to Trump, your boss!”

     

    Mogelson captured footage of people chanting “treason” at least twice, and even caught one person saying, “Where the fuck is Nancy?”

     

    h/t https://www.mediaite.com/news/where-the-fck-is-nancy-the-new-yorker-shares-stunning-new-capitol-mob-footage/

  94. 94.

    danielx

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    And sometimes done for survival purposes. My dad was stationed in New Guinea at an evac hospital, what would later become known as a MASH. He and his compatriots found out in short order that the only thing wearing a red cross on your sleeve did was make you a better target for Japanese marksmen. After appealing for self defense weapons and being denied, they ended up stealing m1 carbines from a local ordnance depot.

    ETA: I asked him about getting caught. He said they thought about that and the consensus was “what are they gonna do, send us to New Guinea?”. Which was and remains one of the most miserable places in the world.

  98. 98.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Baud: I remember reading somewhere that the Capitol police keep a stash in a locked box in the gallery so they’re convenient if visitors are disruptive. I don’t know if that’s accurate but, even if it is and the rioters got them out of that box, the rioters must have committed criminal damage, at least, to get the box open.

    Unless it was already open, which raises a whole new set of questions. And, if it was locked, did the rioters know what it contained when they forced it open, or just destroy it out of a general sense of wanting to rip everything up and then think, cool, I could use these?

  102. 102.

    Barbara

    I keep reading Josh Marshall retweeting himself about the possibility of mass pardons of those involved in the insurrection as a bar to investigation and prosecution.  Citing Mussolini having done something similar.  This is one of those times when I really do hate Twitter.  Josh isn’t an attorney, much less an expert in constitutional pardon law and I really hate the fear mongering quality that comes with lobbing what seems like a very unexamined thought.

  103. 103.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Immanentize:

    The “inside” job suspicion would lead me to wonder about materiel that got planted either during the tours or by staff/capitol hill cops/members of Congress.

  105. 105.

    raven

    @danielx: I took my dad to the opening of the Pacific Wing of the D-Day Museum (now the WW2 Museum) in New Orleans and he and two other guys discussed the misery of New Guinea over a coffee in the Cafe Du Monde!

  107. 107.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: I’m pretty sure I told you about the time my old man’s crew stole a jeep from some pacific isle to replace the one their co-pilot lost?

  111. 111.

    RSA

    @raven:

    People who could steal shit have been glamorized in the military for years.

    Kat, for example, a sympathetic character in All Quiet on the Western Front. That was more what I’ve heard called scrounging, though (by Bill Mauldin in Up Front).

  117. 117.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Interesting, the word is Trump blew off the My Pillow guy Friday, if true sounds like Trump decided Qanon has betrayed him. I wonder how those depsters will react with they figure that one out.

  118. 118.

    debbie

    @debbie:

    They’re so fucking stupid they think Cruz’s objection is his being a sell-out.

    That horned dude sitting in Pence’s chair calling him a fucking traitor should be fed nothing but tater tots for the rest of his life.

  120. 120.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: The old man said the look on the supply sergeants face as he compared serial #s was priceless. He kept looking at the jeep, than his clipboard then the jeep… The numbers weren’t even close. He finally accepted it because the copilot kept saying, “What the fuck do I know? You guys gave it to me!”

  121. 121.

    Sloane Ranger

    @raven: In the British Army a degree of “redistribution” is traditional. I remember watching a news report when we were deploying to either Afghanistan or Iraq where a senior officer said, with an amused and long suffering look on his face, that all the toilet rolls in the officers mess and quarters had disappeared!

  123. 123.

    zhena gogolia

    @rikyrah: Great!

    I am sitting here so pissed today that instead of being able to revel in the joy of Biden-Harris and getting rid of Drumpf, we all have to be shivering in fear about his fucking army of assholes.

  124. 124.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The look on the captain’s face in the wrecked bank when he saw the Kilroy drawn on the wall was priceless – he knew….

  129. 129.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Zinsky: It’s endless war, but carried out by an increasingly small and set-apart fraction of the population.

    I often think about how a lot of the reason Hitler was able to get so much and such effective paramilitary support was that they were all World War I veterans (Hitler included).

  131. 131.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @zhena gogolia: Howdy! Catching up from yesterday’s thread (and dodging the horror of white insurrectionists for a moment), I was wondering if your husband and I might have coincided in college. Are you willing to share his class year?

  132. 132.

    Subsole

    @Immanentize: But…why an ARVN flag? They do remember who ended up owning Saigon, right?

    I mean, why not use a ROK flag instead? Same signifier, less unpleasant historical connotations.

  137. 137.

    Tenar Arha

    @p.a.: I was essentially kettled once while the NYC police blocked off streets to redirect people when I went to see the Halloween Parade. This was just a jolly yet confused crowd, & I was squashed, lifted off my feet a couple times, & almost fell down as the crowd tried to shift around. It was utterly terrifying.

    That one experience is probably why when I went to one demonstration & saw the bicycle & motorcycle cops pushing forward & blocking off egress, I crossed the street before they blocked it to get into the subway immediately.

  139. 139.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I always like to pint out that Hitler, unlike Trump, actually served his country in uniform and did so with courage.

  144. 144.

    Subsole

    @Matt McIrvin: Yeah. I suppose. Just seems weird to me. I mean, yeah it was a lost cause (in a far more honest sense than the Confederacy) but not in a way that reflects well on the principals involved… Dolchstosse by hippies, I guess??

    I mean, shit. You may as well carry a 40’s era KMT flag.

  146. 146.

    The Moar You Know

    I always like to pint out that Hitler, unlike Trump, actually served his country in uniform and did so with courage.

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I’ve read testimony from some of his fellow unit members.  They hated him.  Never complained, never would bitch about the officers, one of those absolutely gung-ho motherfuckers asking for more trenches to jump into.  The kind of guy who reminds the teacher on Friday that they didn’t assign homework over the weekend.

    The Army was so impressed with Herr Hitler that after the war was over they made him a spy on civilian political groups.  Which is how he found the six-member club that ended up becoming the Nazi party.

  147. 147.

    sdhays

    @rikyrah: No. The Democrats could elect a new Speaker. There would be a new Senate Pro-Tempore, and the Biden inauguration would still happen on January 20th. It was never going to make Donnie Dump “Monarch”.

    If it had worked out that way, there’s even a decent chance on the Democrats and Republicans agreeing on a caretaker to elect as Speaker and temporary President and then impeach and convict Dump so fast he would have been gone in days.

  150. 150.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Subsole: American right-wingers love the KMT too. Witness “Unleash Chiang!” becoming this disconnected bit of mystical Orientalism.

    Some notion of Dolchstoss is usually involved.

  151. 151.

    Baud

    @sdhays:

    The assumption is always that our side will just sit back and take whatever happens to us, because we don’t engage in daily displays of toxic masculinity.

  152. 152.

    Salty Sam

    @raven: I had a neighbor who was a WWII vet, a Navy “Sea Bee” who built airstrips on Pacific islands.  He said their specialty was “re-procurement” from other services and branches.  He was especially proud of stealing re-procuring  a couple of Cat D-9’s from the Marines…

  153. 153.

    Steeplejack

    Enjoying little bits of happiness where I find them . . .

    It’s good that Donald Trump is friends with Scott Baio and James Woods.

    From their own experience, they will be able to help him transition to obscurity.

    — Don Winslow (@donwinslow) January 16, 2021

  154. 154.

    debbie

    Hey everyone…just finished delivering hot stews to some of the National Guard & others on this rainy night in DC. I know there’s a lot of concern about the Guard…but our city & many restaurants are making sure everyone is taken care of! One Guardsman had a message to share… pic.twitter.com/IeZcFcoywD— Please wear a mask! Do it for the World please… (@chefjoseandres) January 16, 2021

  155. 155.

    The Moar You Know

    He said their specialty was “re-procurement” from other services and branches.

    @Salty Sam:  I have read that one of the major WWII mechanized battle groups came home with more vehicles that they started out with. The reason for this was real interesting; most other nation’s combatants, especially the Germans, had no civilian experience with automobiles or any kind of motor vehicle at all. Something like 1 in 50 troops for the Europeans. The Americans were 1 in 3. They’d grown up with cars and tractors, which was not the case for any other society in the world at that time.

    And having grown up with them, they knew how to steal them.

  156. 156.

    Elizabelle

    Phil Spector has died, aged 81.

    I want Trump to follow the same trajectory.  Indicted, convicted, years long prison sentence, die in prison.  The prison photo, without the elaborate hair and vanity grooming.

    Phil Spector had served about 11-12 years at his death for the shooting death of Lana Clarkson in 2003.

    Trump has so much more blood and crime on his tiny hands.

  157. 157.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @raven: Milo Minderbinder and the corruption in the ETO was not conjured up out of thin air, just taken to its logical conclusion.

  166. 166.

    Elizabelle

    @Omnes Omnibus:   Oh yeah.  Phil Spector had it.

    He has done more good for the world than trump ever will. Sad that Phil went off the deep end; sadder still that a woman lost her life because of it.

    One can respect Phil more because, even unwillingly, he was repaying his debt to society for taking a life.

  170. 170.

    gwangung

    @raven: True.

    But folks should know that Vietnamese Americans are showing the same behavioral patterns as Florida Cuban Americans.

    And I wasn’t surprised at all at those flags.

  171. 171.

    catclub

    @BruceFromOhio: Rita Katz sees it too.

     

    I just realized a great pun:  Rita Katz’s organization is SITE : Search for

    International Terrorist Entities  vs  SETI : Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

    The SITE website is essentially still frozen in 2007.

  174. 174.

    raven

    @gwangung: I flew from Atlanta to LA with a young Vietnamese couple and they could have given a shit less about the ARVN. Fuck, when I was there most Vietnamese I knew didn’t either.

  175. 175.

    Amir Khalid

    @raven:

    For high-end automobiles. But WW2 ended before the Third Reich managed to deliver a single Volkswagen to the general public.

  180. 180.

    gwangung

    @raven: Younger generation way more liberal and way less attached to South Vietnam. They’re much more in line with other ethnic groups with more generations of US born
    (which, coincidentally, was the reason why the term “Asian American” was created.

  182. 182.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Elizabelle: And the NYT writes in his obit “was serving a prison sentence for the murder of a woman who was fatally shot in his home.” Are they paid by the word? Did they have an extra half-inch to fill? Why not “was serving a prison sentence for murdering a woman in his home.”

  185. 185.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Amir Khalid:

    Unlike Hitler’s insistence on and midwifery of the Volkswagen, Donald Trump failed to really encourage or facilitate the development of any useful consumer product.

  186. 186.

    cmorenc

    @raven:

    @Baud: If these fuckers can prove that’s where they got them there are going to be some big holes in the prosecution’s case, right IMM?

    Nope, because the intent of the individuals carrying the zipties can be inferred from these facts:

    1. they were knowing participants in a forceful insurrection / criminal invasion of the capitol
    2. the purpose for which they obtained the zipties from whomever can be inferred from fact #1, even if they got them from a capitol policeman (who is then no longer acting as lawful authority, but becomes a participant in the insurrection).

    Point is, evidence of the above circumstances is sufficient for a valid conviction, including the state of mind or intent element.  The defendant(s) are of course permitted to try to show evidence they took the zipties from the cop in good faith thinking he was seeking their assistance in restraining arrested invaders – but the jury is neither bound nor likely to buy the story.

  188. 188.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @raven: I remember hearing on 1/6 that zip tie guy went straight to a locker where they keep them. He knew where they were stored.

  190. 190.

    Betty Cracker

    @JPL: Honestly, I don’t think Ivanker would be any worse than Rubio. Her family is more odious, obviously, but she and Micro are both power-mad, shape-shifting treason weasels who talk like semi-sentient PowerPoint presentation notes.

  193. 193.

    Ohio Mom

    Just watched the New Yorker reporter’s video of the insurrectionists.

    Stunning how juvenile they are. The painted faces and chanting reminded me of rabid football fans. Though I don’t doubt the masterminds were careful to stay off camera while they did their dirty work.

    I’m sure it has already been noted, apparently the revolution will be televised. From many angles.

  195. 195.

    debbie

    @Ohio Mom:

    Judging by his performance in the Senate chamber, I don’t think that horned guy is much of an actor. No wonder he’s living with his mom.

  199. 199.

    NotMax

    @WaterGirl

    FYI, 520 error interruption for an extended time (unsure how long it lasted*) began overnight about 4:40 a.m. blog time.

    *Judging by timestamps on last comment before interruption and first comment after, more than an hour.

  200. 200.

    Elizabelle

    @Gin & Tonic:   Saw that.  Like there was some question who shot Lana Clarkson (NYT: she had a name).

    I think Phil might have gotten a lesser sentence if he’d stayed with “I shot her by accident” rather than claiming she was a suicide in his home and then dragging his victim through the mud.

    Knew about the guns and isolation of Ronnie; had not realized he suffered from mental illness, especially in his later years.

  201. 201.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @oatler.:

    I saw one at Hilton Head last fall, visiting the father-in-law. Hadn’t seen one of the damned things in 30 years. It was clearly stock, which impressed me.

  202. 202.

    germy

    OPSEC SHAMING MISSES THE TERRORISTS FOR THE FOREST OF BOZOS THEY HID BEHIND
    Yes, let’s have our fun. Let’s use the ease with which some have been caught as a way to scare the terrorism tourists from showing up on Inauguration Day or in their state capitals, to say nothing of exposing them to shame in their communities.

    But let’s remember that, to a significant extent, the people taking selfies and trophies from the Capitol building were largely the camouflage behind which more dangerous men appear to have hidden.

  204. 204.

    Ohio Mom

    debbie:
    I imagine there is a page or two in the DSM that describes Viking Guy. He is a sad case though he undoubtably knows right from wrong.

    I’ve said this before, I hope arresting the low-hanging fruit like Viking Guy does not distract the authorities from thoroughly rooting out the real organizers.

    Not that all those whooping it up for the camera don’t deserve to face the consequences of what they did. And that their arrests won’t serve as a deterrent, because they surely will among the crowd of those boat owners acting out their mid-life crises by waving Trump flags.

  206. 206.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @different-church-lady: Glad to see this post. Last night I was thinking, “I’m so old I can remember when all cops were rotten fascists.”

    I can remember one good-cop story over the last few years about a “existing while black” 911 call. As I recall, the cops were called because of the black guy who was looking over the house he’d just bought. Cops were a white male and black female. They did NOT shoot or even mace the home buyer, but instead chewed out the neighbor who had called them.

    Hope there are more of those stories out there.

  207. 207.

    UncleEbeneezer

    On De-Nazifying US Police, I think that most of the work needs to be done from the local level up. I don’t believe there’s a ton that a President or Congress can do about it. I found this excellent article with some scholarly suggested practices. I would urge people to reach out to their local Police/Mayors and ask what they do to screen/review potential and current officers, and push them to do more. It’s also worth trying to push for State laws (in Blue states) that would make this stuff mandatory for all depts, though many states have pretty strict Bill of Rights protections for LEOs so you’d definitely need a good lawyer to help draft a bill:

    • Screening interview questions
    • Tattoo checks
    • Unconscious Bias Testing
    • Deep Investigation (FBI background check)
    • Current Officers screened for extreme racial views
    • Internet and social media investigations should be performed periodically at random
    • Monitor emails and texts

    https://law.lclark.edu/live/files/28080-lcb231article2johnsonpdf

  208. 208.

    catclub

    Jan 17 was going to be another big day for RW demonstrations.  Is there any evidence that is still happening?

    My impression is that there will be zero today and very few or none on Wednesday.

     

    Another US case of locking barn door after the horse has knocked over the wall.

  212. 212.

    catclub

    @debbie: That also sounds like all the suckers who lose money in Facebook ‘games’. Facebook knows how to find them and take em for as much as they can.

  213. 213.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Chris Stein @chrissteinplays 9m
    When we went to Phil Spector’s house in the 70s he came to the door holding a bottle of diet Manischewitz wine in one hand and a presumably loaded 45 automatic in the other. Long story. I thought he was nuts.

    The Ramones story I remember was that when they were recording he’d be in the control room with the lights off so they couldn’t see him and sometimes he’d just leave without telling them and they’d just be standing there

    Stein was the guitarist in Blondie, who is I assume the “we”
    Given what we know about him now, I find the concept of “diet” wine more surprising than Phil Spector answering the front door with a  pistol in his hand

  214. 214.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Salty Sam: I had a neighbor who was a WWII vet, a Navy “Sea Bee” who built airstrips on Pacific islands.  He said their specialty was “re-procurement” from other services and branches.  He was especially proud of stealing re-procuring  a couple of Cat D-9’s from the Marines…

    I’ve seen this depicted in WW2 movies, where I think they call it “midnight requisition”.

    There’s a Bill Mauldin cartoon with a couple GIs being surprised by a German guard as they are in the process of stealing booze from a warehouse marked “For Officers Only” in German. The guard is smiling and saying “Please go ahead, gentlemen. I wouldn’t dream of stopping you.”

  215. 215.

    germy

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    I see good cop stories every night on the national TV news.  They’re usually run right after a story about a cop murdering an innocent person.  I guess they run the copaganda pieces immediately afterward for Balance.

    My local news is usually full of good cop stories, too.  I think the police union has a public relations officer who does nothing but feed video stories about dog rescues, etc., to media outlets.

    My sinclair affiliate will often (in the middle of their local stories) run a story about cop pulling a woman out of a burning car, even if it happened six months ago on the other side of the country.  It’s treated as Breaking News.

  216. 216.

    Kathleen

    @Frank Wilhoit: Have you seen any of the ODP Executive Committee interviews with the 2 candidates for Director position? I saw one interview and it sounds like the 2 candidates understand the problems and have a plan to strengthen the party.

  217. 217.

    germy

    Exactly 60 years ago, on 17th January 1961, the first prime minister of the newly-independent Democratic Republic of the Congo, 35-year-old Patrice Lumumba, was tortured and then assassinated by members of the Belgian Secret Service. Four months earlier, he had been ousted in a coup that was led by Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, his former Chief of Staff of the Army, and backed by Belgium, the United States, and the United Nations. Shortly before he was killed, Lumumba wrote the following letter to his wife, Pauline Opango:

    https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/i-prefer-to-die-with-my-head-unbowed

  218. 218.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: & @Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’ll be interesting to see who emerges. We need two great candidates, one for governor and one for the US Senate. I like Demings a lot for either job. Don’t know if she’s interested but I hope she is.

    The only statewide elected Dem is Nikki Fried, currently ag commissioner. She’ll probably run for governor. I have reservations about her, but she may have a leg up on any competitors.

    Gwen Graham, former US House rep and daughter of former Gov. Bob Graham, may also take another crack at the governorship. I voted for her in the 2018 primary, but she came in second to Gillum in a fairly crowded field. She’d be a good governor and has proven she can win in red areas, though the climate has  changed.

  219. 219.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: as I recall, those were major plot lines on both the Phil Silvers Show (Sgt Bilko) and McHale’s Navy. And MASH, come to think of it, though Radar was a hustler, not a thief. Henry Blake might’ve looked the other way at some pilfering, but Colonel Sherman T Potter was Regular Army, by god!

  221. 221.

    J R in WV

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I can’t for the life of me understand why Nance is considered an authority.

    Maybe because he represents himself as an authority, and sounds and looks authoritative as he speaks? For some appearance is nearly everything!

  224. 224.

    germy

    @Baud:

    Phil has an eternity to wait for a posthumous pardon.  I wonder if it’s too late for Trump, though.  Maybe he can rush one through on Monday.

  231. 231.

    germy

    “[T]he president has told supporters he wants to raise $2 billion for the library — a far greater sum than has been raised for past presidential libraries — and thinks he can collect it in small-dollar donations from his grass-roots supporters” https://t.co/TSKXV34I3u

    — Dan Eggen (@DanEggenWPost) January 16, 2021

    I still can’t imagine what the library would contain.

  232. 232.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @germy: I wonder how many lawyers are involved in setting up the fund-raising so he can skim enough to pay the interest on his loans.

    And his criminal defense lawyers. Those would be different lawyers, I assume.

  234. 234.

    germy

    “Mr. Kiriakou was separately told that Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani could help him secure a pardon for $2 million. Mr. Kiriakou rejected the offer, but an associate, fearing that Giuliani was illegally selling pardons, alerted the FBI” https://t.co/GyGJWYJimQ— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) January 17, 2021

    Rudy will get paid no matter what.

  236. 236.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @germy: I often think the people around trump are either smart lawyers who left no fingerprints on criminal stuff (Conway, Barr) or have paid smart lawyers to tell them where to be careful about what they touch with their own hands (Mnuchin, even JarVanka). OTOH, I cannot imagine that sloppy old drunk Rudi! could withstand a criminal investigation of his books.

  239. 239.

    Kathleen

    @debbie: THANK YOU! Did you see any of the video interviews? I thought Walters was stronger candidate. What did you think of Pepper? I wasn’t thrilled.

    Side note – the Chair of the Hamilton County Democratic Party is a Black woman and she’s done a hell of a job.

  241. 241.

    Ken

    @germy: I envision his presidential library as a porta john in the middle of an empty field.

    Which will be about the most that can be afforded, after he finishes skimming that $2 billion library fund.

  243. 243.

    debbie

    @Kathleen:

    I thought Pepper was an improvement over Redfield, but he still wasn’t what the party needed. We need a networker, an organizer, and a cheerleader.

    That Sherrod likes her is also significant.

     

    ETA: I’d really like to see her being upfront and vocal about redistricting.

  244. 244.

    Warren Senders

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    One of my oldest friends is my Father’s Sister’s Ex-Husband’s Second-Wife’s Brother’s First-Wife’s Daughter.  We describe ourselves as being “cousins by double divorce.”

    It may be the only familial tie for which there is no dedicated kinship term in Hindi; I dunno.

  246. 246.

    Ruckus

    @debbie:

    There are all kinds of people in the military. Smart, and not. Loyal, and not. Selfless, and not. Selfish, and not. And on, and on, and on. Just like in every other walk of life. There is nothing special that the military instills in you, but it can bring out the good, and the bad that is already there. It is a microcosm of society at large, not a special place to become a better or worse human being, even though that happens all the time. It often asks people to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do, it sometimes has to restrict people from doing things that they would do if not stopped – and will do when no longer in the military. It’s life, with structure and rules different than outside the military. It’s life, with people the same as outside the military. Some stay the same, some get better and some get worse from the experience.

  247. 247.

    Low Key Swagger

    I’ll put this here knowing this thread is likely dead.  I am ex-military, former police.  The academy I attended to become P.O.S.T. certified made my Army infantry training seem like recess at elementary school.  Back then, it was referred to as full stress.  Very very physically and mentally demanding.  Some would paramilitary even.  The most insidious thing they do is instill not just fear…but terror into you, because each and every encounter with the public could be your last.  You are fearful from day one.  You are taught that the lives of you and your fellow officers was all that mattered.  Yes, there was rampant racism, but back then, it wasn’t out in the open.  In contrast, my son is about to enter the academy, and it’s curriculum and overall environment looks to be a walk in the park.

  248. 248.

    Zinsky

    @germy:  I’m sure the Trump presidential library will have the world’s most extensive collection of Stormy Daniel’s porn movies, Kid Rock and Ted Nugent albums and 8-tracks and soiled bedsheets from son Diaper Don’s collection of classic bedwetting episodes.  They could have interactive games where you match up one of 18 women’s pictures to the location where Trump sexually assaulted them and Kim Jong Un’s love letters to The Donald.

    Hey, and they could have endless loops playing of Donald Trump saying, “You’re fired!” from The Apprentice.

    It sounds like one of the circles of Hell from Dante’s Inferno.

  250. 250.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:

    l hate to say this, because it sounds so, horrible, but I’m glad my parents were too old, that they lived out their natural lives well before Covid. My dad lived most of the last decade of his life in care homes, because of Alzheimers. Mom only spent the last year or so in a care home and lived 94 yrs 364 days. People my age or older grew up and lived with the fear of many diseases that crippled or worse because there were not vaccines for them. And even people half my age still lived with chicken pox and have the fun of shingles, for which there is now an effective vaccine, of course after I had a go round. Fun times. It makes the concept that so many think Covid is a lark, something to live through, far, far more infuriating for their stupidity. But I guess that they, and a lot of their families didn’t have to see all that or have forgotten all that, or that they lived through it unscathed so they can get through this as well. I knew/know 4 people with polio, and 3 lived within a mile and one about 5 miles away. Life is different today, and yet, not so different. We know more and yet many are even more ignorant. And something new to have experienced, an insurrection and attempted overthrowing of our government, and all to keep an absolutely worse than useless ass as a worse than useless president because of our national illness – racism. Where is the vaccine for that?

  251. 251.

    There go two miscreants

    @Ruckus: …I’m glad my parents were too old, that they lived out their natural lives well before Covid.

    Same here. My father could have withstood the isolation — he always was a sit-around-and-read kind of guy, although he had hobbies as well. But we would have worried all the time. My mother could never have put up with it — she had to get out of the house/apartment. It would have driven her nuts!

  254. 254.

    Aleta

    (The Post this a.m. + other media)

    The fiery rallies that preceded the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 were organized and promoted by an array of established conservative insiders and activists, documents and videos show.

    The two days of rallies were staged not by white nationalists and other extremists, but by well-funded nonprofit groups and individuals that figure prominently in the machinery of conservative activism in Washington.
    The Republican Attorneys General Association was involved, as were the activist groups Turning Point Action and Tea Party Patriots. At least six current or former members of the Council for National Policy (CNP), an influential group that for decades has served as a hub for conservative and Christian activists, also played roles in promoting the rallies.

    In recent days…promoters and participants of the rallies have denounced the violence and sought to distance their events from the events that followed.
    …
    But before the rallies, some used extreme rhetoric, including references to the American Revolution, and made false claims about the election to rouse supporters to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory

    Unless Congress responds to the protests, “everyone can guess what me and 500,000 others will do to that building,” tweeted Ali Alexander, a former CNP fellow who organized the “Stop the Steal” movement. “1776 is *always* an option.”
    On Jan. 5, at Freedom Plaza in D.C., Alexander led protesters in a chant of “Victory or death.”
    …

    A little-known nonprofit called Women for America First, a group run by Trump supporters and former tea party activists, got approval to use space on the Ellipse for what they called a “March for Trump,” according to the “public gathering permit” issued on Jan. 5.

  255. 255.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Warren Senders: And here I was trying to figure out what my mother-in-law’s wife’s grandnephew is to me. “Some kind of distant cousin by marriage” is probably the best I can do.

  258. 258.

    ballerat

     

     

    @OzarkHillbilly: Abandoned or placed?

    That might seem far-fetched if only we didn’t know a number of Capitol police and very likely others on the inside actively supported and aided the insurrectionists.

Comments are closed.