As chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Capitol Police, I want to offer a few updates on the investigation taking place into Capitol Police and the violent insurrection that took place on Wednesday at our nation’s Capitol.
 
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First and foremost, I am very upset and heartbroken over the murder of Officer Sicknick who passed away after an altercation with violent protesters on Weds. It’s become increasingly clear that rank &file members of the Cap Police were lead into an incredibly dangerous situation.

The vast majority of Capitol Police officers bravely defended our nation’s Capitol and put their lives on the line to protect Members of Congress and our historic Capitol building.

Meanwhile, there was an epic failure of intelligence/ preparation among leadership in the department. The Capitol Police Chief & House Sergeant at Arms have resigned, an important step to fully uncover the failures of this event & reestablish trust in the security on Cap. Hill.

As for disturbing videos we’ve all seen that seem to show some officers letting rioters behind barricades & taking selfies with them: I can assure you these videos are being thoroughly investigated & there will be consequences for any deviations from proper training & protocols.

Every Republican active in politics during the Trump era should be remembered based only on where they drew the line.

Did they draw the line at his openly racist immigration platform?

Did they draw the line when Trump mocked a disabled reporter?

Did they draw the line when he was sued for fraud?

Did they draw the line when he said a Hispanic judge can't be fair because of his race?

Did they draw the line when he urged his supporters to shoot Hillary Clinton?

Did they draw the line when he boasted about assaulting women?

Did they draw the line when he encouraged violence against journalists?

Did they draw the line over his ties to Russia?

Did they draw the line when he tore up every global treaty that keeps the world safe?

Did they draw the line when he banned flights from Muslim countries?

Did they draw the line when his administration shredded civil rights for workers, rape survivors, and disabled students?

Did they draw the line when he banned transgender military service because Fox said he should?

Did they draw the line when he forced a tax bill that gave trillions to the rich despite public opposition?

Did they draw the line when he tried to strip 20 million of health care?

I suspect Repubs are only pantomiming because they know it won’t work & Biden will be sworn in

Like kids playing with the stove, eyeballing Mom the whole time, knowing she’ll stop them

If it worked, they’d have to be responsible for the results of their choices. Can’t have that

Republicans have spent decades successfully blaming Democrats for the bad results of their policies & putting forward none of their own beyond tax cuts.

If they pulled off a coup they would have to stand by it & every fruit of that poisoned tree.

They literally don’t know how.

A coup ends the whole idea of an opposing party. It leaves Republicans in full control

Even with their full time propaganda network, they can’t pretend jettisoning the whole-ass Constitution doesn’t mean they’re in charge.

They haven’t had to stand by a choice since Eisenhower

If there was any chance at all of the Sedition Caucus pulling this coup off, they would never do it.

Their grift, their prestige, their safety, their rhetoric all depend on a functioning system not stomped into chaos by civil war against the majority they would disenfranchise.

Any given Republican would rather eat their own face on live TV than make a public decision & be held responsible for its consequences

That’s why McConnell is their savior. He blocks everything so they never even have to vote, their names are attached to no actual choices, ever.

Immediately after the 2016 election, I wrote a piece on Trump's victory. Like other JOCs, I pointed to racism as the center. It's striking to me how so many mainstream journalists 4 years later still struggle to deal with the realities of this country.

FROM 2016: "Trump clearly sensed the fragility of the coalition that Obama put together — that the president's support in heavily white areas was built not on racial egalitarianism but on a feeling of self-interest."

"A recent study by sociologists from Harvard and Tufts found that white Americans believed that they experienced more discrimination than black Americans. Trump spoke openly to those Americans, articulating what many Iowans felt but could never say. It was liberating."

"There has never been a moment in America in which black people’s gains have not been perceived by some white p as their loss. History is littered with ex of how economic and racial anxieties can create a wedge with which to destroy interracial political and economic alliances."

"White supremacists overthrew the biracial fusion party in NC in the late 1800s and, with the support of the white population in the state that had once supported the sharing of power, worked to disenfranchise black North Carolinians and usher in seven decades of Jim Crow."

In 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring, thousands of union members occupied the Wisconsin state capitol - shutting down the legislature in an effort to stop anti-union legislation. Months later, the Occupy movement exploded. A thread on how this relates to #DC + why it matters.

Mass demonstrations of upwards of 100,000 union members, community groups, and their supporters broke out in early 2011 against the Wisconsin Act 10, which attacked collective bargaining, health care and pensions. By February 20th, a physical occupation of the capitol began.

"In Wisconsin, public sector workers, students, and others more generally occupied the Capitol building to stop it from functioning. They prevented the legislative process, the transition from paper, to voting quorum, to the laws taking effect, and thus manifested a force..."

In early March, after being locked out of the capitol, union protesters re-occupied the building while chanting "general strike!"

Inside the occupied capitol, assemblies were held and food was shared communally. On the outside, strikes were called and solidarity occupations broke out at universities. Talk of a general strike filled the air.

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Lin Wood posted on Parler last night that Trump flew to the National Defense Command Center near Abilene, TX.

https://t.co/6lJSwWQlsb

I see a lot of fantastic discussions, papers, threads, and op-eds about the insurrection from experts from various fields.

As a social scientist, I want to add that it's important to understand that collective action like we saw yesterday is due to *many* factors.

Yes, the leadership of Donald Trump played the central role in instigating the anti-Democratic effects--from his initial attempts to dismiss and discredit state votes to fomenting the insurrection yesterday.

Leadership matters a great deal for motivating collective action.

Of course, leadership doesn't occur in a vacuum. Trump was supported, enabled, validated and empowered by Republican elites for his entire term.

This came to head with the concerted efforts by GOP members of the Senate and House who tried to overturn the election certification.

The main attempt to overthrow a democratic process was by spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories.

This was primarily spearheaded on social media, which is why freezing Trump's social media accounts is such a big deal.

These social media account accounts were used to spread misinformation and organize, but this misinformation was laundered and legitimized by right wing media figures to millions of people.

From Fox to OAN to Newsmax, these false messages were spread to millions of homes.

(Thread) Before the whole #ForceTheVote spectacle disappears in the usual ways that these things do in the Eternal Sunshine of the Very Online Left, something it might be worth taking a beat to think about:

So much of the discourse about this has treated it as a debate between insidery incrementalism and something more outsidery and confrontational--I've seen a few people describe it as a challenge to "electoralism"--but that stops making sense if you think about it for 5 seconds.

I know that some sort of spark to grassroots action was allegedly on the other end of the parliamentary Rube Goldberg machine:

"play hardball" in bargaining about the leadership vote --> get a floor vote that would have been defeated in a landslide making voters take M4A less seriously than ever as a real world possibility --> supposedly somehow get ammunition for this for primary challenges

...but about the most generous thing you can say about that is that it's *extremely* speculative.

Took leave from work to take care of myself (as much as I could, all considered) this week for the first time in as long as I can remember. To see everything I’ve worked on for years — fighting disinfo and the radicalization of veterans — with death of vets in the Capitol... 1/x

It’s been crippling. It’s all that I can think about. And I’m angry. Angry at those who didn’t listen — particularly those on the Hill who I’ve been warning for years. Angry at those who avoided responsibility, could have been proactive, and refused to seek solutions. 2/x

After a two-year investigation on behalf of @VVAmerica, I wrote and published a report on the way veterans were being targeted online. My mandate at the time was to focus on foreign entities seeking to take advantage of, defraud, and radicalize troops, vets, and our families. 3/x

I discovered during my investigation that Macedonians stole "Vets for Trump" FB pages, and were using them to spread hateful, racist, and xenophobic rhetoric **MORE EFFECTIVELY THAN THE ORIGINAL OWNERS.** 4/x

As @craigtimberg explained: The saga of Vets for Trump is a case study in how misinfo +political activism can become intertwined, and how the line between domestic and foreign actors can blur in an online world where social media accounts can be bought, sold and even hijacked 5/x

#DEEPSTATE Freaked Out #Trump 's Not Giving Up
1. The DS #Democrat #globalists never imagined Trump would fight this hard against the massive #electionfraud that made #Biden the pretend president.
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In light of GA's election results, and what's likely a flipping of the Senate, a quick thread recapping some key provisions of the Biden Tax Plan...

(No GIFs. Proposals don't get those)

On the income tax side, the Biden tax plan sets a clear, bright-line mark at $400k...

2/

If you're below that, you'd be pretty 'safe' from seeing your tax rate(s) increase under his plan.

For those w/ income of $400k or more, he proposed returning the top rate to 39.6% (though whether this is for single filers, joint filers, or both, was never made clear)...

3/

Biden also proposes eliminating the QBI deduction for anyone with income more than $400k (today, non-specified service biz owners may be able to continue to benefit from the deduction if they have sufficient wages or property).

The $400k mark is also the proposed cut off...

4/

for taxpayers who want to do a 1031 exchange. Income higher than that? You wouldn't be able to do one under the plan.

Deductions for high earners would also take a hit under Biden tax plan, as the max benefit would be capped at 28% instead of at the taxpayer's actual rate...

5/

Biden also proposes replaced IRA and 401(k) deductions w/ a flat credit. Would be a big benefit for those w/ more modest incomes, while hurting those with higher incomes.

Would also flip SOP for high earners, making Roth accounts FAR more likely to be the better option...

Some folks seem to think the rift w/ a lot of leftists and D*A is bc of this force the vote issue.

Its foolish to assume this outcry stems from ONE issue that people are divided on.

There are a plethora of real issues with the org, that predate the current discourse.

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Many leftists have grown disenchanted with D*A based on their experiences.

Every chapter is different,so the intention of this thread isn't to target any one specific chapter, or to generalize. It is to elucidate on REAL, counter-revolutionary issues within the org.

Buckle in.

#1: D*A still has anti-communist bylaws nationally, that could result in those of us who are further left than "social democrat" to be expelled from membership. In spite continous pleas to have the bylaw stricken, national has not done

#2: D*A constantly asks membership to water down policies that are BASIC NEEDS for survival moving forward, literally for the comfort of liberals/moderates.

Many leftists believe that anyone who asks you to water down your basic needs is not your ally.

#3: D*A has a long & documented history of ignoring abuse within their organizing spaces, and for not holding abusers accountable.
They mishandle disclosure of abuse (for accused & accuser) frequently enough, that many ppl leave the DSA over abuse & never return.

One Facebook worker to me on Trump's indefinite suspension from the platform: "All it took was an armed insurrection of the cap building and two weeks left of his presidency."

1. Thread.

In light of tomorrow's congressional session to record the electoral votes, and for conservatives and Republicans who claim to look for guidance to the Founders, a short thread from Federalist #68.

2. "It was desirable that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of the person to whom so important a trust was to be confided. This end will be answered by committing the right of making it, not to any pre-established body...

3. "...but to men chosen by the people for the special purpose, and at the particular conjuncture...It was also peculiarly desirable to afford as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder...But the precautions which have been so happily concerted...

4. "...in the system under consideration promise an effectual security against this mischief...As the electors, chosen in each state, are to assemble and vote in the state in which they are chosen, this detached and divided situation will expose them much less...

5. "...to heats and ferments, which might be communicated from them to the people, than if they were all to be convened at one time, in one place. Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption...

#Presidementia #TrumpLiesAmericansDie #TrumpBrainDroppings (7) After an incoherent ramble about his plan to march to the Capitol, an agitated & impaired Trump returns to Space Force, VA Cares, the stale old lines from 2019 super-spreader rallies."

#Presidementia #TrumpLiesAmericansDie #TrumpBrainDroppings (8) Trump is switching subject from grievance to grievance, from "bad things" to "it was a setup," & "Hillary Clinton is very unhappy because they didn't change votes for her." Unhinged, paranoid, delusional.

#Presidementia #TrumpLiesAmericansDie #TrumpBrainDroppings (9) Trump shouts out that the Georgia Senate election last night was rigged, fixed, corrupt, "and Kelly & David didn't have a chance." Then he repeats for 3rd time how he won every state in a landslide, but was robbed.

#Presidementia #TrumpLiesAmericansDie #TrumpBrainDroppings (10) Trump yells that "if we had just won 3 of the 7 states in question, we would be President, & the only backline we have's the veto of the President of the United States." No telling what he meant. Incoherent, strange.

#Presidementia #TrumpLiesAmericansDie #TrumpBrainDroppings (11) Trump continues his jacked up rant, falsely claiming Loeffler & Perdue were cheated because of the rigged voting machines. Says he has hundreds of pages of evidence he wants to read. He's out of touch with reality.

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I'm supposed to be taking a break right now from Twitter. I was getting really frustrated by the Left, and the things they were saying about us, and more specifically about Ashi Babbitt. It seemed that once the vote happened, something clicked... the Left realized ⤵️

Trump is speaking but the mic isn't working.

Trump: "We will never give up. We will never concede--it doesn't happen. You don't concede when there is theft involved."

Trump: "Rudy, you did a great job."
Narrator: But, in fact, Rudy went 0-60.

Trump: "If Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election."

The “ebb and flow” analogy of the 2020 Presidential election. On election night we all knew the red title wave came in (flow). In that moment, we felt all the hard work, prayers and faith paid off. Only to be disappointed as the wave went out (ebb).