“You have the right not to wear T-shirts incriminating yourself, you… you fucking moron.” https://t.co/pDHffn5z3K
— Euan MacDonald (@Euan_MacDonald) September 14, 2023
Do me a favor, Henry: Make this into an ad. Vote Trump, so seditionists can run the streets again! https://t.co/PdkJnVvhjU
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) September 14, 2023
I wrote up a piece for @ArcDigi about some of the MAGA responses to the Tarrio sentence. Sarah Palin asked “what’s the point of being a good guy?” And the likes of Matt Walsh and Michael Knowles naturally talked about child traffickers and rapists. https://t.co/pXDbnc5NO8
— Alan Elrod (@aselrod) September 8, 2023
If Tarrio showed up unannounced in her nice suburban neighborhood, Palin would either call out the neighborhood watch or ask him where his landscaping equipment was.
Sarah Palin went on Eric Bolling’s Newsmax show this week to express her displeasure at Enrique Tarrio being sentenced to 22 years for his involvement in the January 6 insurrection. For Palin, Tarrio’s sentence is an outrage for a fairly simple reason: he and other January 6 defendants are the good guys…
Palin’s argument is perfectly in step with how extremist nationalism operates. The people acting on behalf of the nation cannot be doing wrong. They’re by definition heroic figures. If they’re not that, they’re redeemed by their sheer everydayness.
This is typical of January 6 apologia. The insurrectionists were some combination of patriotic, harmless, and understandably outraged people, united by being normal Americans.
At worst, they were people who got carried away and committed some minor offenses like scuffling with officers and damaging property. At best? It was 1776.
What’s important is that these are the good Americans, the good guys. Their actions don’t deserve or necessitate the use of the state’s powerful capacity to apply justice. In fact, doing so delegitimizes the state because no good government would treat them like the real criminals who are deservedly punished by our police and courts every day…
Matt Lewis, at the Daily Beast:
… Former Arizona Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake took the opportunity to revisit an old trope, calling it a “staged riot,” and saying that “many of the people were encouraged to go in by FBI informants.”
Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested that, as president, he would pardon rioters who were handed “excessive sentences.” Like others on the right, DeSantis went out of his way to argue that “a lot of people with the BLM riots… didn’t get prosecuted at all.”…
… Likewise, presidential candidate and tech bro Vivek Ramaswamy lamented that “Antifa and BLM rioters roam free while peaceful Jan. 6 protesters are imprisoned without bail.” As such, Ramaswamy pledged to pardon “all peaceful, nonviolent Jan. 6 protesters who were denied their constitutional due process rights.”…
Regardless of the sentencing, it seems likely that the fate of the Capitol rioters will ultimately be determined based on which party wins next year’s presidential election. So while their prosecution wasn’t politically motivated, their pardoning most certainly would be.
This is an open secret that is already being used to encourage MAGA voters to get-out-the-vote…
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee declared this week that “People in power use their police agencies to arrest their opponents for made-up crimes in an attempt to discredit them bankrupt and imprison them, exile them, are all of the above. And if you’re not paying attention, you may not realize that Joe Biden is using exactly those tactics to make sure that Donald Trump is not his opponent in 2024.”
“If these tactics end up working to keep Trump from winning or even running in 2024,” Huckabee continued, “it is going to be the last American election that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets.” (Regarding Huckabee’s dangerous rhetoric, it’s unclear where the warning of violence stops and the inciting of violence begins.)…
Every woman, too…
“Don’t take me seriously, I’m a fucking blowhard” is true of 99.995% of these people. They’re just unserious fucking blowhards.
The problem, of course, is the remaining 0.005%. https://t.co/i7gkmkElMF
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) September 11, 2023
JUST IN—
Ashli Babbitt’s mother was captured on video making a death threat against Nancy Pelosi.
Again.
She claimed it wasn’t a threat because she wasn’t going to follow through on it. https://t.co/BVD43UmC2n
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) September 11, 2023
Micki Witthoeft, the mother of January 6th insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt, once again called for Nancy Pelosi to be hanged in another sick violence-laden rant this weekend…
“Being an equal opportunity rope swinger, I think Nancy Pelosi belongs at the end of a rope,” Witthoeft said to deafening cheers from the crowd of terrorists. She went on, “again these are not threats because I don’t want to get hit with seditious conspiracy or some other charge. So while you’re writing the indictment FBI get that straight. I said they deserve it, not that I’m going to do it.”
Witthoeft: “I’m not a vigilante, and I don’t plan on stringing Nancy Pelosi or [Capitol Police Officer] Michael Byrd up. So I will have to wait for God to give them their justice, or the American people. Because it’s within our power.”
Just to note: the FBI, just like any agency of the DOJ, or Jack Smith, or any DA or prosecutor, doesn’t have indictment capability. That power rests with citizen grand juries.
The FBI does, however, have the ability to investigate the increasingly violent calls for terrorism on the right.
Also the charming Ms. Witthoeft:
Great story by @ArthurDelaneyHP, including this… interesting exchange https://t.co/TzcbnT7GOo pic.twitter.com/BjnDVbW5D4
— Joe Perticone (@JoePerticone) August 19, 2023
Meanwhile, at the Justice Department…
Justice Dept is stacking up more Jan 6 guilty pleas (650+ so far)
Tyng Yang of Illinois has pleaded guilty to civil disorder.
Prosecutors said, "When.. officers attempted to clear the crowd, Yang forcibly interfered by physically grabbing hold of an officer’s baton"— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) September 14, 2023
A growing wave of new Jan 6 arrests. Feds have now charged Billy Gober of Texas. They allege Gober confronted officers as police line collapsed & “Gober charged at another MPD officer, grabbed the officer’s baton, and attempted to take it.”
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) September 14, 2023
![On The Road - way2blue - TORRES DEL PAINE, CHILE, MARCH 2023 [2 of 2] 5](https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/11-Lago-Gray-5-80x80.jpg)
Alison Rose
Narrator: It was definitely an ode to Hitler.
Shalimar
@Alison Rose: She correctly points out that we kicked Hitler’s ass in that war. Despite that, I am guessing you only have to listen to her conversations for a little while to hear her admire Hitler.
BlueGuitarist
Meanwhile in Brazil, first person sentenced for their Jan. 8 coup attempt storming Capitol sentenced to 17 years. 1,500 arrested….
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/brazils-supreme-court-sentences-rioter-stormed-capital-17-years-prison-rcna105109
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@Shalimar:
he was a good painter. could paint an entire apartment in one afternoon (two coats)
eclare
These people are so scary. Let’s hope they are all as incompetent as the guy who wore the “I was there” t-shirt when he was arrested.
Tony Jay
Just those quotes above should give Democratic ad makers so much material they can pile it up in warehouses and spend next Autumn sunning themselves on Copa Cabana.
Imagine those quotes playing over images of the insurrectionist mob storming the Capitol, beating Police and strutting around in their Plus-size-Xtra tactical cosplay. Hell, throw in the footage from Charlottesville as well, it’s all the same thing. Ask America the question; do you want to vote for candidates who think this is what patriotism looks like?
Oh, and Huckabee is straight up calling for a campaign of political terrorism if and when Trump gets beaten next November. No ifs, no buts, that’s what he’s saying.
JWR
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
I guess this would make him Alois “Two Coats” Schicklgruber.
(Monty Python reference.)
SpaceUnit
I feel sorry for these people.
Also, fuck them.
JWR
About what one would expect from a Chuck Todd mentee and number one fan.
Samesad as it ever was.sab
@JWR: Pretty much what I expected of Welker after years of watching her as NBC White House correspondant.
TriassicSands
Well, in that case they really had no choice at all, did they? Everyone is required to follow the encouragement of people they don’t know who suggest they do stupid, violent, illegal things. Hey, makes sense to me.
If breathing required conscious thought Lake, Palin, etc. would all suffocate.
JWR
@sab:
Yep, especially after her performance with Todd last Sunday. It left me gagging (in the old meaning of the word.) But what really struck me about the brief clips of the Welker/TFG interview on the NBC home page was that TFG not only looks worse for wear, but sounds pretty bad, too. Why, he even looks, dare I say it, old?
Baud
@JWR:
She supposedly asked him if he would pardon himself but I don’t know if she asked him whether he would pardon everyone else involved in J6.
JWR
This has always bugged me, it’s the media constantly using the phrase, “no evidence of widespread voter fraud“. No, media, you have no evidence of “voter fraud”, widespread or otherwise. It’s as if the word “widespread” is automatically appended to the phrase “voter fraud”, and assumes that some measurable voter fraud actually exists. (Yes, I know it exists, but I wouldn’t call it that easily measurable.)
And now they’re doing the same thing with this Biden impeachment malarkey by writing “despite having no concrete evidence” or “despite having no direct evidence”.
Another example, from NPR’s Amna Nawaz: “Despite having no public evidence…”
And from CBS’s Skyler Henry earlier today, “despite having no hard evidence.”
So we have widespread, concrete, direct, public and hard. Why do they do this to us? (I know why they do this to us.)
Relatedly, it’s the same way I felt back when the Rs started regularly using “Democrat” party.
mrmoshpotato
I can’t insult this Trump-trash insurrectionist dumbass shitstain more than this Trump-trash insurrectionist dumbass shitstain’s actions insulted himself.
Oh, wait, tattoo it on your face, dumbass!
Baud
@JWR:
The widespread voter fraud is necessary because there are isolated pockets of voter fraud by Republican voters.
ETA: But your general point stands.
Other MJS
@Alison Rose: “We’re also taking back the swastika.”
mrmoshpotato
@SpaceUnit: LOL! Hilarious dichotomy.
I just go with “Fuck ’em!”
mrmoshpotato
I see Sarah Palin is palling around with terrorists.
Maybe she should go suck a moose’s ass and shut up forever – about 16 years ago.
lowtechcyclist
@TriassicSands:
I know, right? And these were mostly middle-aged people, with their values well formed, for better or worse. What they did that day is a reflection on who they are, what sort of people they’ve chosen to be over the years and decades of their adult lives.
Maybe while in prison, they’ll have time to realize that they didn’t just make a bad choice that one day, but that who they’d chosen to be all along had turned them into the sort of person who might choose that way on January 6, 2021.
ETA: Which is to say, I don’t feel sorry for them in the least. I don’t hate them, but they need to repent of what they’ve done and who they’ve been. And they need to be treated in a way that discourages others from making choices like these.
Tony Jay
@Other MJS:
“And those swell uniforms. So classy. We won the war so they’re ours now. And the Camps, so efficient, so useful, we could do a lot with them. Plus the Laws, the Nuremberg ones, not the ones from after we won the War, those were downer ones, witchhunty. I mean the ones from before the War. Really clear Laws about who could and couldn’t be citizens. We need them. Basically all of it. We won the War, its ours now.”
eclare
@Tony Jay:
Goose stepping is fun and great exercise!
Baud
@Tony Jay:
eclare
@Baud:
Hehehe…
JWR
@Baud:
Oh, definitely! It’s either that, or someone not sure of their polling place, or even one not sure they’re even allowed to vote, (Hello, Floriduh!), or the Repub deliberate fraudsters. I was gonna put that “Repubs committing voter fraud” stuff in there, but got tired of commenting. ;)
lowtechcyclist
OK, fine. Identify people who committed crimes in the BLM ‘riots’ and pass that info on to the appropriate authorities. There was a bunch of crowdsourcing done to ID the January 6th rioters and seditionists. Let’s see you guys do the same with the BLM protests.
(I’ll be amused when they mostly find white supremacists who used the BLM marches as an opportunity to smash stuff and discredit the BLM protests. Assuming they ever try to do anything like this at all, which I doubt.)
Baud
@JWR:
But back to your point, I feel like the media does use subtle cues and inflection that are negative towards Dems. But it’s the kind of thing that’s hard to demonstrate and people will just dismiss it as viewer sensitivity (not an illegitimate reaction).
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Since Watergate, the political media has desperately tried to rebut charges of bias against republicans by being biased against democrats. which is why we get endless false equivalencies and fake scandals (tan suit, mustard on hamburgergate)
Tony Jay
@eclare:
Damn it! I didn’t think of that one.
@Baud:
“Under-fire conservative provocateur James O’Keefe became embroiled in yet another scandal today when his self-produced debut album ‘100% JO’K’ had to be pulled from shelves in DollarDays after lawyers for almost twenty established artists, including Justin Timberlake, Barry Manilow and Barney the Purple Dinosaur, accused him of plagiarising their work.“
Baud
@Tony Jay:
I hate you.
You hate me.
We’re each other’s enemy…
Kathleen
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: American media have entered the “Hitler was fondly remembered by his former customers as quiet, polite and efficient; Frau Gingrich chuckled while recounting how the future fuhrer gobbled her cream filled pastries when taking a rare break” chat room.
Soprano2
@lowtechcyclist: I wish they’d point to any BLM “riot” where the police let everyone leave without arresting anyone. They can’t do it.
Soprano2
@Baud: They use the word “try” a lot when they talk about things Joe Biden has done, which implies failure.
Baud
@Soprano2:
I’ve noticed that too.
Tony Jay
@Baud:
But the donors split,
And his partners say they’ll sue
What will the white George Santos do?
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@lowtechcyclist: Yeah NPR did a segment on the protests in Minneapolis following the George Floyd murder a few days back and mentioned that a historic police precinct and other historic buildings were burned down, without noting that it was a white supremacist who started the fire.
The story was mostly about how they’ve rebuilt and new businesses are opening in the space. But if you’re going to mention the fires you could at least lay the blame where it belongs rather than imply by omission that it was the BLM protestors who started the fires.
This is exactly why those white supremacist goons show up and destroy things. They know the peaceful black protesters will get the blame and it’ll de-legitamize the protests. The media doesn’t have to help perpetuate it though.
TriassicSands
@lowtechcyclist:
Complaining is far more satisfying to those people than actually following up. They are, after all, a part of the most victimized group in the history of the world. Everyone else gets to commit crimes and walk away without repercussions. But not these poor downtrodden, beleaguered folks. No, life is a non-stop witch hunt looking for things to persecute them for, even when those things are really just good-natured, constructive acts like trashing the Capitol and trying to overturn an election.
If they think it is too difficult to find all the “criminals” who participated in BLM protests and were allowed to skate, then at least they could come up with a single shred of believable evidence that shows that the election of November 2020 was rigged, fixed, whatever and Donald Trump actually won.
JWR
@Baud:
100% agree. I suppose this is the price we pay for the Repubs so successfully working the refs for so long. :(
mrmoshpotato
@Tony Jay: I’m very confused, but will they also take back being charged, tried, convicted, and hanged until dead at Nuremberg?
16 October 1946 was a good day.
ETA – can they not find a way to satisfy their sexual fetishes without all of the crimes against humanity baggage? These sad sacks.
Tony Jay
@mrmoshpotato:
They don’t want – that – Nuremberg. They want ‘heritage’ Nuremberg.
Parfigliano
@JWR: At least Tim Russert had the decency to die leaving MTP. What’s the toddler’s excuse?
TheTruffle
Here is an idea for a T-Shirt!
“My dad stormed the US Capitol and I didn’t even get a lousy T-shirt. Didn’t matter, because I still turned him into the FBI.”
Paul in KY
@Shalimar: The Soviet Union and their great army did the lion’s share of Nazi ass kicking in WW II.
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: It sounds so reasonable, when you write it that way…
RaflW
Looking at that photo of Garret Miller, I continue to insist that the term ‘incel’ is flat wrong.
It’s a choice to have such poor hair, beard and clothes styling. Women won’t go out with you because you’re a schlub who doesn’t respect yourself enough to pay for a decent haircut or a well-fitting Tee.
They’re v-cels. Totally volunteering to be home alone.
Eolirin
@Paul in KY: They were only able to do that because of lend lease and American industrial prowess though.
cain
I bet Gober has a blue line flag sticker on his car!
whatsleft
@Baud: chef’s kiss re Barney