Kansas City Star on Josh Hawley (et al.)

Trump did not manage this madness on his own. Far from it.

[...]

No one other than President Donald Trump himself is more responsible for Wednesday’s coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol than one Joshua David Hawley, the 41-year-old junior senator from Missouri, who put out a fundraising appeal while the siege was underway.

[...]

No longer can it be asked, as George Will did recently of Hawley, “Has there ever been such a high ratio of ambition to accomplishment?” Hawley’s actions in the last week had such impact that he deserves an impressive share of the blame for the blood that’s been shed.

Hawley was first to say that he would oppose the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College win. That action, motivated by ambition, set off much that followed — the rush of his fellow presidential aspirant Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and other members of the Sedition Caucus to put a show of loyalty to the president above all else.

[...]

Among those Hawley got to emulate him was Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, whose very first act as a member of the world’s greatest deliberative body was to sell out his country by attempting to overturn the outcome of a legitimate election.

This revolt is the result, and if you didn’t know this is where we’ve been headed from the start, it’s because you didn’t want to know.

“The Frankenstein just tore down the doors to the palace,” U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat from Missouri, told The Star. Which happened because, as he said, “One-third of the nation has bought into a bald-faced lie, and they are living in a fact-free America.”

[...]

Just before the putsch began, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said sadly that we need to once again work from an agreed upon set of facts. Only now has he noticed that lying to the public on a daily basis poisons democracy.

“People have taken this too far,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Fox News. Until he had to run for cover, McCarthy was fine with this sick stunt.

U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, a Republican from Kentucky, said in a statement, “Today’s events at the U.S. Capitol are tragic, outrageous, and devastating. They are wholly inconsistent with the values of our constitutional Republic.” Yes, they are. But they are wholly consistent with Trump’s calls to overturn this election to address nonexistent fraud. And they are wholly predictable, given the willingness of most Republicans to repeat these baseless claims.

[...]

When we wrote that Hawley’s actions were dangerous — and that those of Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt and others were too, in their pretending for far too long that the election wasn’t over — some readers found that absurd.

[...]

No doubt plenty of Americans will see even this free-for-all in the temple of democracy as defensible. And those of you who have excused all of the brazen lawlessness of this administration can take a little bit of credit for these events, too. They couldn’t have done it without you.

[...]

Hawley, Marshall and other Republicans who upheld Trump’s con about widespread fraud knew all along that his claims were bogus. Now that they’ve seen exactly where those lies have landed us, decency demands that they try to prevent further violence by making clear that Joe Biden did not win by cheating. Please, gentlemen, surprise us.

[...]

We lost something precious on Wednesday, as condolence notes to our democracy from our friends around the world recognize.

  KC Star

UPDATE:

The weasels club.  

Are they bypassing Trump now?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Melania's chief of staff resigns over riot in the capitol

Melania Trump’s White House chief of staff Stephanie Grisham has resigned after violent rioters supporting President Donald Trump attacked the Capitol building, according to reports, submitting her immediate resignation as the demonstrations erupted on Wednesday.

[...]

In a statement released after the news broke, the former chief of staff said she was proud of the Trump administration and its work.

“It has been an honor to serve the country in the White House,” Ms Grisham said. “I am very proud to have been a part of Mrs. Trump’s mission to help children everywhere, and proud of the many accomplishments of this Administration.”

  UK Independent

Then why are you leaving?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The whole damned family

The president’s children were likewise in damage-control mode, with first daughter Ivanka Trump deleting a tweet in which she labeled the rioters “American patriots.” (Her brothers, who tweeted their own disavowals, had stood in front of the same mob earlier that day, riling them up and threatening lawmakers who didn’t support their father.) A former friend of Ivanka’s predicted that this moment, as well as so many other moments, would haunt her after her dad leaves office. “It follows them because it is them,” this person said Wednesday afternoon. “It is who they are now.”

  Vanity Fair

“American Patriots,” she wrote, referring to domestic terrorists, “any security breach or disrespect to our law enforcement is unacceptable. The violence must stop immediately. Please be peaceful.” Later, apparently having realized that describing violent fascists as “patriots” might not be great for the ole brand, Ivanka deleted her tweet and tried to claim she abhors the behavior on display today, in an absurd attempt to distance herself from the monsters unleashed by her family.

  Vanity Fair

That little prick should be arrested for incitement to insurrection.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

On Fox!

One good thing: I'm pretty sure Trump won't be getting close to the presidency again anyway.

National Guard to DC

He has to go. NOW.

That sounds like an admission that he is the leader of an attempted coup.

And so is Trump.  Watching as they burn it all down at his direction.

The leader of the insurrection:

They're going for it

And, of course...

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Trump called on them to march on Congress.

And people don't think Trump will call these dogs to barricade him in the White House.

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

And there it is:

“This is not America,” a woman said to a small group, her voice shaking. She was crying, hysterical. “They’re shooting at us. They’re supposed to shoot BLM, but they’re shooting the patriots.”

  The Nation

Nobody could have predicted

A masked man who was seen in a viral video smashing the windows of a south Minneapolis auto parts store during the George Floyd protests, earning him the moniker “Umbrella Man,” is suspected to be a member of the Hell’s Angels biker gang seeking to incite racial tension in a demonstration that until then had been peaceful, police said.

A Minneapolis police arson investigator said the man’s actions at the AutoZone on East Lake Street set off a chain reaction that led to days of looting and rioting. The building was later burned to the ground.

[...]

At least two people died in the subsequent riots, which eventually spread as far as north Minneapolis and South St. Paul, and caused an estimated $500 million in damage.

[...]

The man has so far not been charged with a crime, which is why the Star Tribune is not naming him.

[...]

A subsequent investigation revealed that the man was also an associate of the Aryan Cowboy Brotherhood, a small white supremacist prison and street gang based primarily in Minnesota and Kentucky. Several of its members were present at the Stillwater incident.

  Star Tribune

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Far-right arrests in Vegas

Three far-right followers have been arrested at Las Vegas protests over the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by police and charged with inciting violence.

The plot was reportedly foiled with help from an informant.

Stephen Parshall, 35, Andrew Lynam, 23, and William Loomis, 40, who allegedly belong to the "boogaloo" movement, all live in Las Vegas where they were arrested on Saturday by an anti-terrorism unit headed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

[...]

Reports of far-right activists, sometimes heavily armed, infiltrating the protests over the past week have included several claiming to be part of the "boogaloo" movement.

[...]

If convicted on federal charges, the men face up to 30 years in prison. They were also indicted on state conspiracy to commit terrorism and other charges, which carry heavier sentences.

  alJazeera

The boogaloo movement?

The "boogaloo" movement, which has adopted Hawaiian shirts as a uniform, promotes "a coming civil war and/or collapse of society", said the Nevada US Attorney's Office on Wednesday.

Trump's wearing a Hawaiian shirt under his suit at all times, isn't he?  His pajamas are Hawaiian print.

According to a report by the Network Contagion Research Institute, the group wants a second civil war organised around the word "boogaloo".

The Boogaloo Wars.

A charge sheet said the three men's initial plan was to "firebomb" a power station to distract authorities as they incited a riot. They also intended to take Molotov cocktails to a Black Lives Matter protest.

I have a feeling the plan would have failed to get the Boogaloo war they want. These aren't the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree.

Also, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right?

Ohio has history

Also:  unconstitutional?

Less than a month from the 50th anniversary of the Ohio National Guard massacre of students at Kent State.

UPDATE:

Another view of the NYPD cruisers

That looks perfectly intentional.

A law enforcement source told CBS News that the vehicles in the video were "trapped" and that the crowd was throwing bricks and rocks, and that there was a bag on fire sitting on top of one of the vehicles. The source said the officers did not "ram" the protesters, but that they were "trying to go forward and escape."

  CBS

Utter bullshit. There was no burning bag. And there was plenty of room to back up if they wanted to "escape".

At a late-night news conference, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio addressed the video, saying that although it was "upsetting," it's also "inappropriate for protesters to surround a police vehicle and threaten police officers."

"That's wrong on its face," de Blasio said. "I'm not going to blame officers who are trying to deal with absolutely impossible situation ... If a police officer is in that situation, they have to get out of that situation. The video was upsetting, and I wish the officers hadn't done that, but I also understood that they didn't start the situation."

Recall DeBlasio.

NY & Minneapolis bus drivers won't transport arrested protesters

“TWU Local 100 Bus Operators do not work for the NYPD. We transport the working families of NYC , all TWU Operators should refuse to transport arrested protestors,” the New York chapter of the Transportation Workers Union tweeted Friday evening.

The New York TWU sued the New York Police Department in 2011 for ordering buses and forcing city drivers to transport arrested Occupy Wall Street protesters.

Unionized bus drivers in Minneapolis also refused requests by local police to transport arrested protesters, according to CityLab.

  The Hill

The quiet part out loud

“Looters deserve to be shot. But not by government. #2A” state Rep. Tony Lovasco (R) wrote on Friday afternoon, referring to the Second Amendment.

Twitter has since taken down the tweet for violating its guidelines but screenshots began circulating on social media.

[...]

Missouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade (D) said in a statement that while anyone who commits a crime should be prosecuted, “an elected official who advocates for extrajudicial murder is just as lawless as those he condemns and is unfit to hold public office.”

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) called the tweet “sickening,” and said the rhetoric is “what Trump has unleashed.”

[...]

Lovasco attempted to clarify his point in a follow-up tweet, saying people have “missed my point.”

“1) Trump was wrong to threaten looters with being shot. 2) If you loot & a property owner shoots you*, I have no sympathy. 3) I'm not telling anyone to shoot anybody, just saying what I think people deserve.”

  The Hill

"Probably."

Lovasco condemned Floyd's killing and praised Chavin's arrest, having spent several days calling for criminal charges to be brought against the officer.

"It's impossible for people to trust law enforcement when obvious abuses of power are ignored, as is sadly often the case," Lovasco wrote on Tuesday.

Yeah, you've got some cleaning up to do, buddy.

Blood lust

I don't want to excuse the NYPD, but that vehicle charging the crowd looks like it might have been unintentional.  Or it could have been a miscue.  Or simply intentional.  We'll have to wait and see.

UPDATE: Another view makes this look absolutely intentional.  And horrible.

Way back, nothing changes

1978

Double Down Despicable Don

That hidden tweet is from the "president".  And then it was retweeted by the official WH account.

Protests have erupted across the country over the killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis, that was captured on cellphone video. The city has seen large-scale demonstrations and unrest, as protesters call for the officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck and the three officers who were there during the incident to be criminally prosecuted. Protests, some marred by violence, have also broken out elsewhere in the US.

But, tweeting about an hour after midnight in Washington, Trump launched a Twitter attack on Minneapolis’s mayor, Jacob Frey.

The president wrote: “I can’t stand back and watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right.”

  The Guardian

Absolute prick. The National Guard is sent in to help, not to "take control" as a punishment. At least it was until now.

In a second tweet, Trump wrote: “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen … Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”

Abolute prick.

Twitter has since hidden the second tweet behind a warning that it violated “Twitter rules about glorifying violence”, fanning the president’s anger toward the social media company.

Frey responded to the attack when a reporter read aloud Trump’s tweets directed at him and the protests. “Let me say this: weakness is refusing to take responsibility for your own actions. Weakness is pointing your finger at somebody else at a time of crisis,” Frey said.

Weakness is Donald J Trump.

“Donald Trump knows nothing about the strength of Minneapolis. We are strong as hell. This is a difficult time, yes, but you better be damn sure that we’re going to get through this.”

[...]

Late on Thursday night, the protests took a dramatic turn as a police precinct was set alight by demonstrators. Police officers working in the precinct fled the building after unconfirmed reports that gas lines had been cut and explosives were in the area. Although no explosions went off in the night, the building continued to burn into the early hours of the morning.

[...]

Frey also denounced the riots that were taking place in the context of the demonstrations.

He said: “What we have seen over the past several hours and past couple of nights is unacceptable. These are banks that people rely on to get cash, grocery stores that people rely on to get food. They are essential to our community.”

Earlier, Frey called on the district county attorney to arrest the officer who suffocated Floyd.

“If most people, particularly people of color, had done what a police officer did late Monday, they’d already be behind bars,” Frey tweeted on Wednesday.

Truth.

Note:  The crew were black.

UPDATE:  ALWAYS!  He always claims he meant something else when called out.