One of the most significant of these falsehoods was the tale — endorsed over and over without any caveats by the media for more than a month — that Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick was murdered by the pro-Trump mob when they beat him to death with a fire extinguisher. That claim was first published by The New York Times on January 8 in an article headlined “Capitol Police Officer Dies From Injuries in Pro-Trump Rampage.” It cited “two [anonymous] law enforcement officials” to claim that Sicknick died “with the mob rampaging through the halls of Congress” and after he “was struck with a fire extinguisher.”. . .
After publication of these two articles, this horrifying story about a pro-Trump mob beating a police officer to death with a fire extinguisher was repeated over and over, by multiple journalists on television, in print, and on social media. It became arguably the single most-emphasized and known story of this event, and understandably so — it was a savage and barbaric act that resulted in the harrowing killing by a pro-Trump mob of a young Capitol police officer.
It took on such importance for a clear reason: Sicknick’s death was the only example the media had of the pro-Trump mob deliberately killing anyone. In a January 11 article detailing the five people who died on the day of the Capitol protest, the New York Times again told the Sicknick story: “Law enforcement officials said he had been ‘physically engaging with protesters’ and was struck in the head with a fire extinguisher.”
But none of the other four deaths were at the hands of the protesters: the only other person killed with deliberate violence was a pro-Trump protester, Ashli Babbitt, unarmed when shot in the neck by a police officer at close range. The other three deaths were all pro-Trump protesters: Kevin Greeson, who died of a heart attack outside the Capitol; Benjamin Philips, 50, “the founder of a pro-Trump website called Trumparoo,” who died of a stroke that day; and Rosanne Boyland, a fanatical Trump supporter whom the Times says was inadvertently “killed in a crush of fellow rioters during their attempt to fight through a police line.”
Got it? The only person to die as a consequence of a deliberate act of violence (i.e., shooting a pistol) was Ashli Babbitt, an unarmed Trump supporter shot by a still unnamed cop.
I understand why the Democrats embrace the lie of an insurrection as a pretext to destroy all vestiges of Trump and his supporters. They want us dead. But I am damned if I understand why so many Republicans are playing along with this perfidy and embracing the deceit of an insurrection that did not happen. People entering the U.S. Capitol at the invitation of some of the U.S. Capitol police is not the breakout of a violent revolution.
But Biden, the Democrats and much of the media are committed fully to using this falsehood, this damnable prevarication, as a weapon to bludgeon anyone who tries to speak the truth about what really happened. If you do not denounce the insurrection then you are a domestic terrorist and must be dealt with.
What should really scare the hell out of you and out of every honest civil libertarian are the subsequent actions of America’s GESTAPO aka the FBI. (And yes, they have become an American version of the Gestapo–carrying out partisan political attacks and ignoring the Constitution.) Ken Klippenstein, writing at the Intercept, is the only one so far to report this:
Within hours of the storming of the Capitol on January 6, the FBI began securing thousands of phone and electronic records connected to people at the scene of the rioting — including some related to members of Congress, raising potentially thorny legal questions.
Using special emergency powers and other measures, the FBI has collected reams of private cellphone data and communications that go beyond the videos that rioters shared widely on social media, according to two sources with knowledge of the collection effort.
In the hours and days after the Capitol riot, the FBI relied in some cases on emergency orders that do not require court authorization in order to quickly secure actual communications from people who were identified at the crime scene. Investigators have also relied on data “dumps” from cellphone towers in the area to provide a map of who was there, allowing them to trace call records — but not content — from the phones.
And the FBI did not limit its illegal searches to just your average Trump supporter strolling around the Capitol grounds on January 6. The Bureau also grabbed phone records of members of Congress, but only Republicans. (I recommend you read the rest of Ken’s story to appreciate how dangerous this situation is and will become.) Congressman Matt Gaetz understands. He tweeted out Klippenstein’s excellent report:
This story is jaw-dropping.
We should hold hearings in the House Judiciary Committee to review how and why the FBI was gobbling up phone data from their critics.
The vast majority of Trump voters and supporters are law abiding, peaceful folks. The rabid, radical left now in charge of the Democrats mistakes this silence for stupidity and weakness. But we are not going to acquiesce to such bullying and abuse. Most importantly, we are not going to accept the tsunami of lies sweeping over the airwaves and the internet.
We know what a real insurrection looks like. We remember the burned out stores and restaurants in Minneapolis, Atlanta, New York, Oakland, Seattle, Portland and Saint Louis. We remember the White House being besieged by Antifa and BLM hordes hurling bricks and frozen water bottles. We remember that more than a hundred police and Secret Service were wounded in these frays. We remember the monsters who set fire to St. John’s Church, which sits across Lafayette Park from the White House. We saw actual insurrection and we also saw the Democrats and the media insist that this was mere peaceful protesting.
This is the line in the sand separating decent Americans from depraved animals keen on destroying this Republic. The Trump supporters who gathered in Washington on January 6 are not racists nor insurrectionists. They are patriots who love this nation and what it is supposed to stand for. But they also are men and women who witnessed a fraudulent Presidential election and the subsequent abdication of the very institutions of law enforcement and justice that were supposed to uphold the rule of law.
We will fight to preserve equitable, fair justice. We will fight to preserve the right of each and every person to speak his or her mind. And this fight starts with rejecting the vile whopper that Trump and his supporters are guilty of insurrection. No. We are guilty of loving America.
Good work, Larry! We can’t let them gaslight us into believing that Trump caused some sort of failed ‘coup,’ when in actuality he was the victim of a successful one on Nov. 3, 2020.
Naturally they knew. How could they not? The leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers were both FBI assets!
No, it was not a riot. It was the podium-theft heard ’round the world!
For all we know, Babbitt’s death might have been staged, too:
Everything Wrong With the Capitol Shooting In 21 Minutes Or Less
Ashli Babbitt’s martyrdom being staged would require a conspiracy and conspirators, every one of which you’d need to be certain would never speak out. There is only one way to guarantee that, so Babbitt is certainly dead either way.
That said, there are troubling aspects to what certainly looked to me like a pre-planned execution. One not highlighted in the video: I have never seen anyone shot at close range in the neck, but a bullet of that caliber fired from a few feet away would surely have passed clean through a woman’s neck. There is no bullet hole (or any sign of blood) on the wall behind, as can clearly be seen at 15:27 in the video footage. Who did the autopsy, was it Dr. Michael Baden by any chance?
To paraphrase Sherlock Holmes: to truly understand what happened is to understand what didn’t happen — the objections and arguments about certification.
As soon as I heard the news I understood — what a brilliant counter move. And, for the majority, it has been entirely successful
Larry,
That is not a lie, it is the very definition of “disinformation” that the democrats want their allies to spread but not be held accountable for when facts actually see the light of day.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/02/22/congressional-democrats-pressure-companies-to-censor-fox-news-and-conservatives/
As another issue of concern, the latest summary of AG nominee Marrick Garland’s testimony:
“After all, how can anyone expect an Attorney General-designate to know enough facts about attacks on the federal judicial system that kept happening night after night?
It was after his bedtime.” Quoting Steve Sailor, the man banned by FB.
Mitch McConnell, you bastard! Thanks for keeping this man off the Supreme Court.
Larry, Larry, Larry……..
Why do the Republicans acquiesce in perpetuating these massive lies?
Because they’re Republicrats.
They hate Trump, and his voters just as much as the Democrat-media party does.
They’re all members of the REAL political party – the Swamp Party – with their supporting cast of the SCOTUS, the bureaucracy and the top military “leaders.”
Example A: Mitch McConnell.
Obviously the story has been rigged and exaggerated 10 different ways to make the situation appear more dramatic and significant than it was.
I would caution, however, about blaming “Antifa and BLM agitators disguised as Trump supporters”, this was illogical when lefties said it during summer riots and no better here. How many are you suggesting there were? If the notion that a few lefty agitators was able to manipulate a much larger group into attacking, then the conservatives there are both suckers and still wrong to do what they did. And if suggestion is that most of the crowd and damage was done by agitators, that would have been very apparent in the aftermath.
Almost certainly, it was a bunch of conservatives and Trump supporters storming the capital, and if agitators were there they were basically incidental.
Congress debating that there was a rigged election? What rigged election. The most heavily armed civilian population in the history of man staged an “insurecton” by “storming” the capital building where an as yet unnamed police officer fired the only fatal bullets of the whole thing. Perhaps the only bullets fired at all. Oh, and Buffalo Hat Man got a selfie and so did the guy behind Pelosi’s desk and the one that got a picture of himself walking while holding her podium. People killed: Ashley Barrett. Heart attacks, strokes a day later or other medical issues: 4. Disinformation, still happening daily. Figuring out where the illegal votes were casts, not happening in Congress but happening elsewhere:
https://gunfreezone.net/mintruth-continues-its-election-news-labor/
Just like “covid”, every advantage of this melee accrued to the Democrats. Nancy Pelosi plays hardball. Hr daughter warned us. Nancy Pelosi can fatally wound you, and you will not even know you are bleeding.
Let me know when Nancy ‘fatally wounds” AOC and the squad.
It seems pretty clear that BOTH parties are complicit in this, albeit one actively and one tacitly. The media has become complicit in these “tales from the deep state” to the point that the only information delivered to the populace is disinformation. The FBI and DOJ are fast becoming our stazi, delivering up people they dupe into stupid actions as ‘terrorists’ and releasing statements that are either outright false or simply further disinformation.
It has been proven that we cannot vote our way back to something resembling a republic, as the vote counting is corrupted in every way possible. Our nations capitol is now surrounded by multiple layers of fencing replete with razor wire and we have a NG presence there, yet there are zero ‘enemies’ on the ground.
I cannot tell you what is transpiring behind that fencing, or transpiring within our own government because it is shrouded in secrecy. Edicts are issued from the executive branch, and legislation is written by God knows who and rubber stamped through both houses of congress and the executive.
I have written off national, centralized efforts to return us to something resembling normal operations – the swamp is too concentrated and inter-married in DC. If this is going to be sorted out, it will have to be done at the county and state levels, regardless of the edicts issued from national government. It is rapidly becoming apparent that we do not have a functional government or representation at the national level – they are all captured and we are merely witnessing a false struggle abetted by media.
Do we need national government where we send money and they wash it and pocket it in return for voting themselves raises and voting us more taxation and ever tightening restrictions on most everything we value?
No – we do not.
No – I will not.
The only way to win this one is not to play.
JFK never should have unionized government employees – led to the highly centralized and highly disciplined deep state, that can no longer be defanged nor dislodged. Command and control of our government is now in the hands of unelected government employee union bossses, who have only a self-serving agenda. I am reminded of HAL in the movie 2001.
I have not seen federal unions as that powerful, except as vehicles for collecting money/dues and buying politicians, like any other interest group. Maybe in some agencies with a large blue collar or administrative collar work force. Now in my day we did have Algore who mandated union/management council so the union could tell management what to do. Since fed unions have no bargaining authority over pay nor right to strike my experience is they mostly got excited about little things, like where smokers could hang out.
WSJ just this morning in a “news” article …without supporting evidence …. yet again lays the entire incidence blame on a ….. “mob of former President Trump’s supporters that included members of far-right extremist groups. Five people died including a rioter shot by police and a Capital Police officer who succumbed a day later”.
Who makes the editorial decisions to allow this unbalanced and false narrative driven agenda to pass for “news” at the WSJ? This is still a fact-devoid and misleading opinion at best, and should have been labeled as such.
That is a beautiful picture you put there. Heartwarming and stirring. The crowd had the proper colors. When you get that many people in a crowd you know there are some good-old-boys who are gonna cause some trouble. Only 250 out of what 10,000 not bad.
The question not asked in the hearing was ” So you had how many LEO’s there to control the crowd (less that the BLM/ANTIFA crowds), so how many more would you have needed to control the crowd and why were they not there and don’t give me that poor intelligence crap, your LEO’s looked like a bunch of Barney Fife’s with piss poor leadership.”
The propaganda will continue, FBI & Justice will make a big show, lives will be ruined but remember they stole the election-we know it- they know it- and if it is done again it will be like a sunday european soccer game aftermath. Those were AMERICAN citizens, our Brothers and Sisters, so move on and find something else to occupy your time as you have pushed a little to far and I’m afraid of what will happen next.
When four (?) LEO’s die from suicide, strokes or heart attacks within a few days of this spontaneous exertion, what does that say about their overall fitness for the job description?.
Why do I keep getting flashbacks to the Benghazi investigation – and ultimately landing in the same place – no one really did anything before, after or during regardless of prior warnings and on the ground observations.
And ultimately no one was accountable for anything. Yet the media had a feeding frenzy over intentionally false narratives, planted for political gain. Yet four people did die too. Another “election year” misinformation campaign in 2012, with tragic consequences. Just like this massive “election year” annus horribilus in 2020.
John Sullivan, aka Jayden X, is the adopted son of a retired AF major general and it’s claimed he had prior information days ahead of time that there was talk of storming the Capitol building!
https://www.opindia.com/2021/01/john-sullivan-storming-of-capitol-hill-fbi-donald-trump-antifa-blm/
“We remember that more than a hundred police and Secret Service were wounded in these frays.”
Clearly the insurrection of last summer flared all across the country and included plenty of demonstrations, marches and occupations along with the destruction of businesses and at least one police station. There indeed was real violence and real destruction, but injuries at the hands of these insurrectionist were spread nationwide and over a time frame of several months. Injuries to demonstrators at the hands of police were far more than a hundred. The violent insurrection of 6 January resulted in 81 Capitol Police officers and 65 DC police officers wounded in a matter of a few hours. Don’t tell me those Trump supporters weren’t violent.
“there was no wanton, massive destruction of art work, furniture or signs inside the building.”
It’s true this was not a standard riot. Trashing the Capitol wasn’t the goal. The goal was to disrupt the workings of a constitutional election and insure their preferred god-emperor was installed as leader of the US. Did they think this through? I don’t know. The only way I can see this possibly working was to dispose of enough Democratic congressmen and senators and possibly the VP to ensure Republican control of the certification process with the goal of declaring Trump the winner. All they needed was the right quorum. Whether the remaining Republican senators and congressmen would have fallen in line for this coup gambit is an open question. I believe kidnapping or holding hostages were real possibilities. Outright assassination was unlikely. I firmly believe the vast majority of Trump supporters are unwilling to go that far. That’s why I don’t see a violent civil war starting anytime soon.
How close were they? The last barrier to the mob quickly entering the House chamber was the door that Ashli Babbitt was trying to breach when she was shot. She was shot while vaulting through the broken door window. Senators and congressmen were still in the chamber when that happened. That’s why that unidentified officer shot Babbitt. The final barrier was about to be breached before senators and congressmen were spirited away to safety. If you want to be the forlorn hope, you take your chances.
Why was the authorities so unprepared for this coup attempt? That’s my number one question. Was it just across the board incompetence? Did Trump officials hinder preparations? They sure did a fine job of defending the White House when it was under siege. Why not the Capitol? Was there really a plan to thwart the constitutional confirmation of the election or was it just a crowd that got carried away by the excitement of the moment? All these indictments and eventual trials will shed some light on what really happened. There definitely should be congressional investigations and an independent commission to answer the deeper questions.
The same goes for the claims of a stolen election. The Dominion and Smartmatic lawsuits offer a golden opportunity to lay out the evidence. It’s got to be better than the mypillow guy’s lame ass video. If that’s what he presents at trial, his shit is weak. I’m surprised by the reluctance of Giuliani, the mypillow guy and the kraken to jump at this opportunity. The discovery process should be revealing. Instead, the three did everything in their power to evade the summons short of hiding in rat holes. Heh, it’s time to nut up or shut up.
“resulted in 81 Capitol Police officers and 65 DC police officers wounded” What is your source for this?
Those figures came from a WaPo aticle of 27 January. Police Union Chair Papathanasiou also issued a statement saying “Between USCP and our colleagues at the Metropolitan Police Department, we have almost 140 officers injured.” According to Acting Chief Pittman, 125 Capitol Police officers were assaulted on Jan. 6, and 70 sustained injuries.
USA Today: ….. D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee said the chaotic day included four fatalities: a woman who was shot by the U.S. Capitol Police, as well as three others — two men and one woman — who died in “separate medical emergencies.” Police had made “in excess of 52 arrests,” including 26 on U.S. Capitol grounds, he said.
At least 14 Metropolitan Police Department Officers were injured during the demonstrations, Contee said. Two pipe bombs — one from the DNC and one from the RNC — were also recovered by police, he said. …….
The WaPo as a source ???
Badly written fiction.
About as good as those Democrat-media “fact” checkers like Politifact and Snopes.
Agree – WaPo is completely unreliable source. Their retractions are almost equal to their articles…
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If I hear much more hype – and I do mean HYPE – about Jan. 6 it’s going to be a challenge not to smash our TVs. Are the Regime Media f-ing kidding? Leftists burned, vandalized, looted, assaulted and even killed for MONTHS this past year and not only were excuses made for the millions/billions it cost, it was ENCOURAGED by hacks like our current Vice President, Kamala Harris. AND to top it off, gigantic “B L M” (for Black Lives Matter) letters were allowed to be painted on major streets in places like New York City and Washington, DC, letters that are symbols (like scalps) commemorating all of the successful destruction that occurred. That anyone is proud of such behavior is absolutely psychotic.
What happened at the Capitol building was not a planned attack. The vast majority were not threatening nor dangerous. The officers hurt that day were for the most part crushed as people tried to enter through.
The media and Democrats have disingenuously claimed there was a “deadly attack.” Only Ashli Babbit, an unarmed Trump supporter and veteran, was killed as a consequence of any violence that day. She was shot and killed by a police officer. The other deaths cited in the media were; heart attacks to Trump supporters, a possible stroke to a police officer, and the suicide of a police chief. There’s no evidence to suggest a Trump supported killed anyone.
There is no evidence to suggest anyone went into the building in the hopes of kidnapping politicians or holding them at ransom. The man pictured carrying zip ties actually found them in the building and he only took them to ensure they wouldn’t be used against his fellow Trump supporters.
The Democrats and their allies have grossly exaggerated what happened that day in order to paint the invasion as something more sinister than it actually was.
That does not excuse what happened nor does that excuse Trump’s irresponsible claims of a stolen election, but he did not instruct his supporters to invade the Capitol building.
I do not believe the election was stolen. Fraud took place, but no evidence supports the theory that enough fraud took place to defraud Trump of the presidency.
In saying that, Trump and his supporters have every reason to feel cheated. There was a conspiracy to deny him the presidency and this is admitted fact. Not only that, but for the past four years, in the whole of Trump’s presidency, the Democrats and their allies did everything possible to undermine and cripple his ability to lawfully and democratically exercise the powers of his office via their bogus investigations and smears.
What I see is a failure of Trump or his people to mange Jan 6. From what I’ve seen, the rally had a large organic component to it — people who felt shafted by how the vote was conducted heard about the rally and self-organized. But once it was clear there was going to be a big rally, it needed some organization which doesn’t seem to have happened. Typically at these things you get some “red meat” thrown out to get people motivated, then at the end there is the call to action, often pulling out of wallets but sometimes other things, like a march. As near as I can tell, there was no “call to action” so people were left to their own devices, which is how you get mob action.
Two different versions of the delay in getting National Guard troops to the Capital on 1/6 to reestablish order,
one from the CG of the DCNG, and one from a senior DoD civilian:
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/03/dc-national-guard-chief-capitol-attack-473266
From that article:
Robert Salesses, a top Pentagon official who handles homeland defense, plans to push back against [DCNG CG] Walker’s account when he testifies later Wednesday.
In written testimony, Salesses said Miller approved “full activation” for the D.C. National Guard at 3:04 p.m. Guardsmen were ordered to depart for the Capitol at 4:32 p.m., Salesses added.
Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is also backing up the Pentagon’s version of events.
He told reporters Tuesday that the Pentagon reacted at “sprint speed” to the request for aid to Congress.
Mobilizing a large force of guard troops in a few hours amounts to lightning quickness in military terms, he emphasized.
A nine page PDF of the written statement of Salessas is here:
https://www.rules.senate.gov/download/robert-salesses
It contains a review of the relevant relatiions between DoD and various civilian agencies, including the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and the Capital Police.
A detailed timeline for DoD involvement with the Capitol disturbances is here:
https://media.defense.gov/2021/Jan/11/2002563151/-1/-1/0/PLANNING-AND-EXECUTION-TIMELINE-FOR-THE-NATIONAL-GUARDS-INVOLVEMENT-IN-THE-JANUARY-6-2021-VIOLENT-ATTACK-AT-THE-US-CAPITOL.PDF
Trump’s claims of a stolen election were not irresponsible. Nor his request to peacefully and patriotically support those meeting in the Capitol to carry out their lawful election review duties. Founders were wise not to elect by direct popular vote, declare a winner on election day and provide some time and distance between the election day and final certification of the winner.
Ironically, it was the Founders fear of mobs that led to insertion of this indirect and delayed certification for the office of POTUS. Ironic too it was the Democrats/Biden/anarchists who were the mobs who wanted to obstruct this careful distance and review of the 2020 electoral process.
When the deep state has become as patently partisan as we have today, they should not be in charge of the election processes and vote counting. We learned a lot in 2020. May this highly flawed election system we saw in action this past year never happen again – covid or no covid.