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Msg ID: 2690930 General Michael Flynn should still be in jail.  +3/-0     
Author:TheCrow
6/1/2021 10:53:36 AM

 January 6 was just a hint of what is to come with Trumpists.



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Msg ID: 2690931 General Michael Flynn should still be in jail.  +2/-0     
Author:TheCrow
6/1/2021 10:59:59 AM

Reply to: 2690930

Coups and Rumors of Coups

The threat is no joke.

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Let’s stipulate that any talk about coups is crazy. Our traditions and institutions — both in and out of the military — are simply too strong, and the very idea of a coup is so profoundly un-American that it is unthinkable.

And yet, we spent the Memorial Day weekend thinking about it, because a three-star general who was also the National Security Advisor to the President of the United States seemed to suggest that a military coup might be good idea here.

A questioner asked the retired general: “I’m a simple marine. Why can’t what happened in Minimar[sic] happen here?” He is clearly referring to a military coup and the audience clearly understands him — and cheers.

“No reason,” says Flynn. “It should happen here.”

Nicholas Kristof reminds us that the Myanmar coup involves “overturning elections, shooting protesters, torturing students, destroying the economy -- and it's fresh off a genocide of the Rohingya.” As many as 800 people have been killed in the junta’s crackdown.

Flynn is now furiously backtracking, denying that he was endorsing a coup, but you can watch the tape here.

This is not the first time that Flynn has appeared to dance on the ragged edge of insurrection. Late in December, Flynn told Newsmax that Trump could “take military capabilities, and he could place them in those [swing states], and basically re-run an election in each of those states.”

“These people out there talking about martial law like it’s something that we’ve never done. Martial law has been instituted 64 — 64 — times,” Flynn said.

Flynn met with Trump at the White House, and during one meeting, Trump asked about the idea of using the military to keep him in power.

**

So should any of this merit more than a eye-roll now? Maybe.

Michael Gerson warns that “American politics is being conducted under the threat of violence.”

This is not a joke. This is not a myth. This is not a drill. According to a survey last year, a majority of Republicans agreed with the statement: “The traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it.”

This includes at least arm-chair contemplation of the idea of military coups. Just last month, the uber-Trumpy site, American Greatness, published a piece by retired U.S. Army Colonel Douglas A. Macgregor openly speculating about the prospect.

“Is a military coup really feasible in democratic France?” Macgregor asks. “If France wants to remain a sovereign nation, the answer may be yes. What does that mean for America?”

Macgregor is clearly a coup fetishist.

He calls the French army “the last, true repository of national identity and French value.”

Ideology notwithstanding, the destiny of a great nation frequently rests on the shoulders of the few who lead it. In France, it seems that destiny now lies in the hands of its national military leadership.

Then he makes the pivot to the idea of a coup here, imagining how the “guardians of national and order and security” in the United States would react to urban disorders. Here’s what he wrote:

What Americans should be asking themselves as we watch the unfolding disaster from across the Atlantic is when (in all likelihood), not if, we will face the same predicament.

It’s painfully obvious that many, if not most, of the senior military leaders like Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley are committed to globalism and multiculturalism, but one wonders what the majority of patriotic American soldiers, sailors, airman, and Marines, along with the courageous police officers and firefighters across the country, really think. What will these guardians of national order and security do when they confront more chaos and disorder on the scale of last summer’s criminal violence against American symbols, citizens and property in the months and years ahead?

Lest you quickly dismiss Macgregor as merely another crackpot itching for a putsch, it’s worth remembering Trump had appointed him as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany.

And, as Axios reported in detail, last November Trump also personally tapped Macgregor to be senior adviser to the acting secretary of defense, in charge of overseeing the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other places around the globe.

He had met Trump for the first time at an hour-long Oval Office meeting in April 2020. The two men bonded instantly. When the meeting ended, Trump told Macgregor, "I want you working for me. We will find a way."

Trump had warmed to Macgregor through his frequent appearances on Fox News, where the colonel blasted the U.S. military's presence overseas, called congressional leaders "idiots," and ridiculed Pentagon policies on diversity and transgender troops.

[General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] considered Macgregor "irrational edging on all-out lunacy."

It didn't take long for Macgregor to agree to McEntee's offer to come onboard. ..

**

But it is not just Macgregor and Flynn who toy with the idea of martial law and coups. In the run-up to the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Trump surrounded himself with MAGA leaders who openly called for him to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy troops to overturn the election.

Specifically, Trump considered ordering the military or the Department of Homeland Security to seize voting machines from some swing states.

Meanwhile, the White House devolved into a swamp of seditious crazy. Trump met with attorney Sidney Powell, and reportedly considered appointing Powell as a special counsel to investigate election fraud. At one point she tweeted:

Dear Mr. President, We will not stand by and watch Foreign and Domestic enemies further destroy our Constitutional Republic. Eighty and more million of us request that you use the Insurrection Act, Suspend the December Electoral College Vote, and set up Military Tribunals immediately, to properly investigate and resolve the cyber warfare 11-3-20 issue. Further, we request you suspend the Jan 6 GA Runoff Race, and the January Inauguration until this issue is resolved. Respectfully, We The People.”

Trump ally Roger Stone also pushed the idea of invoking the Insurrection Act.

“The president's authority is the Insurrection Act and his ability to declare martial law,” he told host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Stone added that Trump could also use the law to arrest anyone from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for election interference, to Democratic power couple Bill and Hillary Clinton…

**

None of this was remotely possible. But here is where the story moves from troubling to alarming.

Even Administration officials were rattled, with one telling Axios that when Trump is "retweeting threats of putting politicians in jail, and spends his time talking to conspiracy nuts who openly say declaring martial law is no big deal, it’s impossible not to start getting anxious about how this ends."

Military officials took the notion of martial law and coups seriously enough that they felt they had to say something.

In early January — days before the attack on the Capitol — all 10 living former defense secretaries signed an open letter warning that “Involving the military in election disputes would cross into dangerous territory.”

As senior Defense Department leaders have noted, “there’s no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of a U.S. election.” Efforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory. Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic.

This is worth emphasizing. They. Felt. The. Need. To. Say. This.

**

As we know now, support for insurrection spread among the president’s supporters with deadly consequences. According to new indictments, groups like the Oath Keepers began agitating for a forceful and violent response shortly after Trump’s defeat. Six days after the election, a leader of the group declared:

“We’re going to defend the president, the duly elected president, and we call on him to do what needs to be done to save our country. Because if you don’t, guys, you’re going to be in a bloody, bloody civil war and a bloody — you can call it an insurrection or you can call it a war or fight.”

“I’m willing to sacrifice myself for that,” [Stewart] Rhodes allegedly also told followers. “Let the fight start there. That will give President Trump what he needs, frankly. . . . We want him to declare an insurrection, and to call us up as the militia.”

**

The Senate GOP has killed the prospect of an independent, bipartisan January 6 Commission, and they clearly hope that it will fade into the mists our of short attention spans.

But support for insurrection has not evaporated. If anything, activists have been emboldened.

Are some of them in the military? Retired Brigadier General Thomas Kolditz is worried.

But Trump’s supporters in the military who think that what happened [on Jan. 6] was a good thing need to be managed out of the military as soon as possible.  And it’s a duty obligation of the defense leadership to make sure that there are no, essentially, sleeper cells, people in the military who, for whatever reason, think an insurgency is a good idea or justifiable.

 



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Msg ID: 2691092 General Michael Flynn should still be in jail.  +1/-3     
Author:obumazombie
6/2/2021 9:17:29 PM

Reply to: 2690931

You libz complain about hare brained conspiracy theories.

This one is pizzagate on steroids.

Nothing of importance happened on Jan 6, other than an unarmed female military vet was shot to death . You libz used to call that police brutality, and excessive use of force.

I guess your standard is another double standard yet again.

Remember what Hitlery openly and publicly told Biden, "Don't concede under any circumstances".

That's real sedition offered and accepted.

 

Your carping is producing nothing productive, or of any betterment to any American.

With the possible exception of the enrichment and empowerment of corrupt libz.

That is somewhat redundant, and redundant.

As redundant as a...

 

Good job Goodlibs!



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Msg ID: 2691160 Interesting that Michael Flynn thinks Myanmar politics provide a useful mod +1/-1     
Author:TheCrow
6/3/2021 1:42:50 PM

Reply to: 2691092

Interesting that Michael Flynn thinks Myanmar politics provide a useful model for American Trumpists.

If and when y'all feel froggy, frog-boys- jump. It will be very loud for a little while but America will heal.

Talk of overturning the 2020 election on new social media platforms used by QAnon followers sparks fears of further violence

article video

 

(CNN)Online conversation among Trump supporters and QAnon followers on new and emerging social media platforms is creating concern on Capitol Hill that President Donald Trump's continued perpetuation of the falsehood that the 2020 election was stolen could soon incite further violence, three congressional sources tell CNN.

The social messaging platform Telegram has emerged as a particular source of concern among law enforcement officials, the congressional sources say. Groups on the platform dedicated to QAnon and pro-Trump conspiracy theories have tens of thousands of members -- many of whom hang on every word the former President says.

Trump's comments to right-wing media outlets in recent weeks have played directly into the false belief among some of his supporters that he will be reinstated as president in the coming months.

Federal law enforcement officials say there is an overall concern about rhetoric on the election in general, both online, on Telegram and other sites, and offline.

Officials are careful to stress that much of it falls under First Amendment free speech protections. But officials are worried about how the talk can encourage and inspire people to act. They are continuing to monitor extremists and others who at times have shown intentions of violence.

Major social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter suspended the accounts of influential peddlers of election conspiracy theories after the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, including Trump himself.

That resulted in a surge of downloads for alternative social media apps, and many Trump supporters have found a home on Telegram, where there are fewer rules against misinformation and conspiracy theories like QAnon.

Congressional sources tell CNN that Trump's comments about the highly questioned Republican-led audit in Arizona and his reported comments about returning as president in August are of particular concern.

One clip that circulated widely in some Telegram groups was part of an interview Trump gave to OAN in May. In a response to a question about a potential 2024 candidacy, Trump said that "something has to be done" before 2022 to stop the Democratic agenda.

"He doesn't have to wait until 2024 people, he's coming back this year, everything is going to be reversed," one Telegram user commented on the clip.

"It's a great day when we start seeing evidence of the plan coming together! He just told us it won't be long now," wrote another.

In another May interview with a right-wing radio host, Trump falsely suggested the controversial Republican-led audit in Arizona and audits elsewhere would show he didn't lose the election.

"It's going to be a very interesting time in our country," he said. "How do you govern when you lost?"

"We The People will take action," one Telegram user commented in reaction to a clip of the interview.

"Trump knows what happens. Biden administration will be removed," commented another, while one warned, "He just told us things are about to get very ugly all over America. These thugs aren't going to take this news very well! Be prepared!"

Over the weekend, when former national security adviser Michael Flynn appeared to endorse a coup in the United States, one influential QAnon peddler who has more than 70,000 followers on Telegram commented, "General Flynn says the quiet part out loud." Flynn later denied he had endorsed a coup. But for months, some Trump supporters have celebrated the violent coup in Myanmar and looked to it as a possible inspiration for a similar push here.

Telegram was founded in Russia in 2013 and quickly became popular as a propaganda and organizing tool for members of ISIS. The company did take some steps to tackle ISIS content.

Telegram did not respond to CNN's request for comment.

While Trump himself does not appear to have a public Telegram account, his son Donald Trump Jr. joined the platform earlier this year and now has more than 1 million followers.

Some other major perpetrators of the "big lie" that the election was stole from Trump have also found an audience on Telegram.

Ron Watkins is a former administrator of 8Kun (formerly 8chan) a hate-filled online forum that is the home of QAnon. The forum has been linked to multiple atrocities, including the El Paso and Christchurch shootings in 2019.

Watkins had made a name for himself on Twitter in the months between the election and the insurrection by posting conspiracy theories about voting machines.

In the days before the insurrection, Watkins was retweeted multiple times by Trump. He was suspended by Twitter after January 6.

Now, Watkins posts daily to his 200,000 followers on Telegram in Arizona -- continually casting doubt on the election result.

CNN's Evan Perez contributed to this report.


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Msg ID: 2691170 General Michael Flynn should still be in jail.  +1/-1     
Author:TheCrow
6/3/2021 2:45:12 PM

Reply to: 2691092
yesterday
 
 
FILE - In this Aug. 17, 2019, file photo, Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio rallies in Portland, Ore. Outside pressures and internal strife are roiling two far-right extremist groups after members were charged in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Former President Donald Trump’s lies about a stolen 2020 election united an array of right-wing supporters, conspiracy theorists and militants on Jan. 6. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)
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FILE - In this Aug. 17, 2019, file photo, Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio rallies in Portland, Ore. Outside pressures and internal strife are roiling two far-right extremist groups after members were charged in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Former President Donald Trump’s lies about a stolen 2020 election united an array of right-wing supporters, conspiracy theorists and militants on Jan. 6. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

Former President Donald Trump’s lies about a stolen 2020 election united right-wing supporters, conspiracy theorists and militants on Jan. 6, but the aftermath of the insurrection is roiling two of the most prominent far-right extremist groups at the U.S. Capitol that day.

More than three dozen members and associates across both the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers have been charged with crimes. Some local chapters cut ties with national leadership in the weeks after the deadly siege. The Proud Boys’ chairman called for a pause in the rallies that often have led to clashes with anti-fascist activists. And one Oath Keeper has agreed to cooperate against others charged in the riot.

Some extremism experts see parallels between the fallout from the Capitol riot and the schisms that divided far-right figures and groups after their violent clashes with counter-protesters at the “Unite the Right” white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. The white supremacist “alt-right” movement fractured and ultimately faded from public view after the violence erupted that weekend.

“I think something kind of like that is happening right now in the broader far-right movement, where the cohesive tissue that brought them all together — being the 2020 election — it’s kind of dissolved,” said Jared Holt, a resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.

“Like ‘Unite the Right,’ there is a huge disaster, a P.R. disaster, and now they’ve got the attention of the feds. And it’s even more intense now because they have the national security apparatus breathing down their necks,” he added.

But others believe President Joe Biden’s victory and the Jan. 6 investigation, the largest federal prosecution in history, might animate the militia movement — fueled by an anti-government anger.

“We’re already seeing a lot of this rhetoric being spewed in an effort to pull in people,” said Freddy Cruz, a Southern Poverty Law Center research analyst who studies anti-government groups. “It’s very possible that people will become energized and try to coordinate more activity given that we have a Democratic president in office.”

The insurrectionists who descended on the nation’s capital briefly disrupted the certification of Biden’s presidential win and sent terrified lawmakers running for their lives.

 

The mob marched to the Capitol and broke through police barricades and overwhelmed officers, violently shoving their way into the building to chants of “Hang Mike Pence” and “Stop the Steal.” Some rioters came prepared with pepper spray, baseball bats and other weapons.

Members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers make up just a small fraction of the more than 400 people charged so far. Prosecutors have narrowed in on the two extremist groups as they try to determine how much planning went into the attack, but authorities have said they’re intent on arresting anyone involved in the riot.

More than two dozen Proud Boys leaders, members or associates are among those arrested. The group of self-described “Western chauvinists” emerged from far-right fringes during the Trump administration to mainstream GOP circles, with allies like longtime Trump backer Roger Stone. The group claims it has more than 30,000 members nationwide.

In the sustained protests last summer over police brutality, their counter demonstrations often devolved into violence. Law enforcement stepped in during a protest in Michigan. Members were accused of vandalizing property in Washington, D.C. Then, during a presidential debate with Biden, the group gained greater notoriety after Trump refused to condemn white supremacist groups and told the Proud Boys directly to “stand back and stand by.”

Chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio hasn’t been charged in the riot. He wasn’t there on Jan. 6. He’d been arrested in an unrelated vandalism case as he arrived in Washington two days before the insurrection and was ordered out of the area by a judge. Law enforcement later said Tarrio was picked up in part to help quell potential violence.

Tarrio insists the criminal charges haven’t weakened or divided the group. He says he has met with leaders of chapters that declared their independence and patched up their differences.

“We’ve been through the wringer,” Tarrio said in an interview. “Any other group after January 6th would fall apart.”

But leaders of several local Proud Boys chapters, including in Seattle, Las Vegas, Indiana and Alabama, said after Jan. 6 that their members were cutting ties with the organization’s national leadership. Four leaders, including national Elders Council member Ethan Nordean, have been charged by federal officials with planning and leading an attack on the Capitol. One of Nordean’s attorneys said he wasn’t responsible for any crimes committed by other people.

The Las Vegas chapter’s statement on the instant messaging platform Telegram in February didn’t mention Jan. 6 directly, but it claimed the “overall direction of the organization” was endangering its members.

The Alabama group expressed concern about reports that Tarrio had previously been a federal informant. It was revealed in court records recently that Tarrio had worked undercover and cooperated with investigators after he was accused of fraud in 2012.

“We reject and disavow the proven federal informant, Enrique Tarrio, and any and all chapters that choose to associate with him,” the Alabama group posted online in February.

Tarrio said he suspended national Proud Boy rallies shortly after Jan. 6 in part to focus on helping members facing criminal charges. Tarrio described Jan. 6 as “horrible” but said authorities overcharged his jailed lieutenants and are politically persecuting them.

Meanwhile, 16 members and associates of the Oath Keepers — a militia group founded in 2009 that recruits current and former military, police and first responders — have been charged with conspiring to block the certification of the vote. The group’s founder and leader, Stewart Rhodes, has said there were as many as 40,000 Oath Keepers at its peak, but one extremism expert estimates the group’s membership stands around 3,000 nationally.

Rhodes has not been charged, and it’s unclear if he will be. But he has repeatedly come up in court documents as “Person One,” suggesting he’s a central focus of investigators.

Days after the election, Rhodes instructed his followers during a GoToMeeting call to go to Washington to let Trump know “that the people are behind him,” and he expressed hope that Trump would call up the militia to help the president stay in power, authorities say. Rhodes warned they could be headed for a “bloody, bloody civil war, and a bloody — you can call it an insurrection or you can call it a war or fight,” according to court documents.

On Jan. 6, several Oath Keepers, wearing helmets and reinforced vests, were seen on camera shouldering their way up the Capitol steps in a military-style stack formation. Rhodes was communicating that day with some Oath Keepers who entered the Capitol and was seen standing with several of the defendants outside the building after the riot, prosecutors say.

Rhodes has sought to distance himself from those who’ve been arrested, insisting the members went rogue and there was never a plan to enter the Capitol. But he has continued in interviews with right-wing hosts since Jan. 6 to push the lie that the election was stolen, while the Oath Keepers website remains active with posts painting the group as the victim of political persecution.

Messages left at numbers listed for Rhodes weren’t immediately returned.

Court documents show discord among the group as early the night of the attack. Someone identified in the records only as “Person Eleven” blasted the Oath Keepers in a Signal chat with Rhodes and others as “a huge f—n joke” and called Rhodes “the dumbass I heard you were,” court documents say.

Two months later, Rhodes lamented in a message to another Oath Keeper that the national team had gotten “too lax” and “too complacent.” He pledged to “tighten up the command and control” in the group — “even if it means losing some people,” according to court documents.

After the riot, the North Carolina Oath Keepers branch said it was splitting from Rhodes’ group. Its president, who didn’t return messages from the AP, told The News Reporter newspaper it wouldn’t be “a part of anything that terrorizes anybody or goes against law enforcement.”

A leader of an Arizona chapter also slammed Rhodes and those facing charges, saying on CBS’ “60 Minutes” that the attack “goes against everything we’ve ever taught, everything we believe in.”

The Oath Keepers’ leader has also suggested the group may be facing financial pressures. In an interview posted on the Oath Keepers’ website, Rhodes said it has been difficult for the group to raise money as it’s been kicked off certain websites.

The group also lost the ability to process credit card payments online after the company demanded that Rhodes disavow the arrested members and he refused, Rhodes said in a March interview for far-right website Gateway Pundit. The Oath Keepers website now says it cannot accept new memberships online because of “malicious leftist attacks” and instructs people to mail in applications and dues.

A member of the Oath Keepers was the first defendant to plead guilty in the riot. Jon Ryan Schaffer has also agreed to cooperate with the government’s investigation. The Justice Department has promised to consider putting him in the witness security program, suggesting it sees him as a valuable cooperator in the Jan. 6 probe.



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Msg ID: 2691273 General Michael Flynn should still be in jail.  +1/-2     
Author:obumazombie
6/4/2021 12:21:20 AM

Reply to: 2691170

So far, except for the shooting of an unarmed female protester, you have a nothingburger. 
Even Biden disagrees with you.

He is not appointing a commission.

Maybe all the billions of damage, looting, rioting, attempted murder and actual murder by BLM, Antifa, and the occupoop crowd would yield you some fruitful investigation.

Or even investigating a...

 

Good job Goodlibs!



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