Happy J6!

[Smit]

I know this is a happy day for many of our MAGA "patriot" citizens so I want to recognize it so we can all celebrate together!

It seems there are many people who are "misremembering" what really happened so it's important we never forget. Kinda like 9/11 right? Another day that will live in infamy. Never forget.

And this link has pictures! Lots of pictures so our Alabama friends can enjoy it (if not understand it) too!

'This is not a peaceful protest!'

Excerpt:

In the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, American political leaders almost universally condemned the riot as an act of domestic terrorism that threatened democracy. Now, President Trump calls Jan. 6 a "day of love" and the rioters "great patriots." And since he issued mass pardons to the rioters, his administration has been trying to rewrite history.

NPR has tracked every Jan. 6 prosecution in a public database, and, drawing on thousands of hours of footage and years of reporting, created a front-line account of the riot. The evidence vividly shows the planning for "revolution" and the brutality of violence on a day that continues to shape American politics.

Explore the database and coverage, or scroll to read the full narrative.

[beej]

lots of things to celebrate today.

national wear your buffalo hat to work day
national empty chair day
national first female president of the united states day
national first violent protest the media has ever seen day
national first time a fascist just walked away from the job day
national ice cream cone day
national run like a Hawley day
national self righteous anger day

oh and Feast of the Epiphany day......wise men still seek him.

 

[SuperHoneyBadger]

It seems there are many people who are "misremembering" what really happened so it's important we never forget. Kinda like 9/11 right?

You really went for the can of worms on this one.

WTC 7 collapsed 100% due to fire in your timeline, didn't it?

[Bucky Cornstarch]

I know this is a happy day for many of our MAGA "patriot" citizens so I want to recognize it so we can all celebrate together!

It seems there are many people who are "misremembering" what really happened so it's important we never forget. Kinda like 9/11 right? Another day that will live in infamy. Never forget.

And this link has pictures! Lots of pictures so our Alabama friends can enjoy it (if not understand it) too!

'This is not a peaceful protest!'

Excerpt:

NPR? Are you fucking kidding me? Everyone with half a brain knows that is fake news!

[Smit]

NPR? Are you fucking kidding me? Everyone with half a brain knows that is fake news!

Well, I did go to Fox news first but it was strangely lacking any remembrances of J6.

Here's a nice article from the AP though.

:edit: Sorry, not many pictures in this link.

Fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack brings fresh division to the Capitol

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Five years ago outside the White House, the outgoing President Donald Trump told a crowd of his supporters to head to the Capitol — "and I'll be there with you" — in protest as Congress was affirming the 2020 election victory for Democrat Joe Biden.

A short time later, the world watched as the seat of U.S. power descended into chaos, and democracy hung in the balance.

On the fifth anniversary of Jan. 6, 2021, there is no official event to memorialize what happened that day, when the mob made its way down Pennsylvania Avenue, battled police at the Capitol barricades and stormed inside, as lawmakers fled. The political parties refuse to agree to a shared history of the events, which were broadcast around the globe. And the official plaque honoring the police who defended the Capitol has never been hung.

Instead, Trump will meet privately with House Republicans at the Kennedy Center, which the president has rebranded to carry his own name, for a policy forum. Democrats will hold a hearing with witnesses to the violence and later gather on the Capitol steps to mark the memory of what happened.

[neurosis]

Well, I did go to Fox news first but it was strangely lacking any remembrances of J6.

You mean the release of the Jack Smith deposition wasn't front page news? 

[beej]

NPR? I thought the democrats said they were going out of business if the government quit funding them? are they still in operation? odd.

[Smit]

You mean the release of the Jack Smith deposition wasn't front page news? 

Surprisingly, no. But that didn't get as much press from anywhere as I would have expected.

The Repugs dismissed it ASAP and are doing everything they can to not bring it up again.

Here is a good article though:

Capitol riot 'does not happen' without Trump, Jack Smith told Congress

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON — The Jan. 6., 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol "does not happen" without Donald Trump, former special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers earlier this month in characterizing the Republican president as the "most culpable and most responsible person" in the criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee released on Wednesday a transcript and video of a closed-door interview Smith gave about two investigations of Trump. The document shows how Smith during the course of a daylong deposition repeatedly defended the basis for pursuing indictments against Trump and vigorously rejected Republican suggestions that his investigations were politically motivated.

"The evidence here made clear that President Trump was by a large measure the most culpable and most responsible person in this conspiracy. These crimes were committed for his benefit. The attack that happened at the Capitol, part of this case, does not happen without him. The other co-conspirators were doing this for his benefit," Smith said, bristling at a question about whether his investigations were meant to prevent Trump from reclaiming the presidency in 2024.

"So in terms of why we would pursue a case against him, I entirely disagree with any characterization that our work was in any way meant to hamper him in the presidential election," he added.

The Dec. 17 deposition was conducted privately despite Smith's request to testify publicly. The release of the transcript and video of the interview, so far Smith's only appearance on Capitol Hill since leaving his special counsel position last January, adds to the public understanding of the decision-making behind two of the most consequential Justice Department investigations in recent history.

Trump was indicted on charges of conspiring to undo the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, and of willfully retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Both cases were abandoned after Trump's 2024 election win, with Smith citing Justice Department policy against the indictment of a sitting president.

Smith repeatedly made clear his belief that the evidence gathered against Trump was strong enough to sustain a conviction. Part of the strength of the Jan. 6 case, Smith said, was the extent to which it relied on the testimony of Trump allies and supporters who cooperated with the investigation.

"We had an elector in Pennsylvania who is a former congressman, who was going to be an elector for President Trump, who said that what they were trying to do was an attempt to overthrow the government and illegal," Smith said. "Our case was built on, frankly, Republicans who put their allegiance to the country before the party."

Accounts from Republicans willing to stand up against the falsehood that the election had been stolen "even though it could mean trouble for them" created what Smith described as the "most powerful" evidence against Trump.

When it came to the Capitol riot itself, Smith said, the evidence showed that Trump "caused it and that he exploited it and that it was foreseeable to him."

Asked whether there was evidence that Trump had instructed supporters to riot at the Capitol, Smith said that Trump in the weeks leading to the insurrection got "people to believe fraud claims that weren't true."

"He made false statements to state legislatures, to his supporters in all sorts of contexts and was aware in the days leading up to Jan. 6th that his supporters were angry when he invited them and then he directed them to the Capitol," Smith said.

"Now, once they were at the Capitol and once the attack on the Capitol happened, he refused to stop it. He instead issued a tweet that without question in my mind endangered the life of his own vice president," he added. "And when the violence was going on, he had to be pushed repeatedly by his staff members to do anything to quell it."

Some of the deposition focused on Republican anger at revelations that the Smith team had obtained, and analyzed, phone records of GOP lawmakers who were in contact with Trump on Jan. 6. Smith defended the maneuver as lawful and by-the-book, and suggested that outrage over the tactic should be directed at Trump and not his team of prosecutors.

"Well, I think who should be accountable for this is Donald Trump. These records are people, in the case of the senators, Donald Trump directed his co-conspirators to call these people to further delay the proceedings. He chose to do that," Smith said. If Donald Trump had chosen to call a number of Democratic senators, we would have gotten toll records for Democratic senators."

The communications between Trump and Republican supporters in Congress were an important component of the case, Smith said. He cited an interview his office did with Mark Meadows in which Trump's former chief of staff referenced that Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican and current chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, had been in touch with the White House on the afternoon of the riot.

"And what I recall was Meadows stating that 'I've never seen Jim Jordan scared of anything,' and the fact that we were in this different situation now where people were scared really made it clear that what was going on at the Capitol could not be mistaken for anything other than what it was," Smith said.

Smith was also asked whether his team evaluated former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's explosive claim that Trump that grabbed at the steering wheel of the presidential SUV when the Secret Service refused to let him go to the Capitol after a rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021.

Smith told lawmakers that investigators interviewed the officer who was in the car, "who said that President Trump was very angry and wanted to go to the Capitol," but the officer's version of events "was not the same as what Cassidy Hutchinson said she heard from somebody secondhand."

[YoDoug]

"Mostly peaceful Protestors"

Isn't that what we are allowed to say.......

[mowens]

Is this the same Jack Smith that tried unsuccessfully to prosecute Trump?
Well, at least he's un-biased.

[Smit]

Is this the same Jack Smith that tried unsuccessfully to prosecute Trump?
Well, at least he's un-biased.

Bwahahahaha!

Unsuccessfully? Or who ran out of time because the orange guy (inexplicably) won an election?

Methinks you should do a little more investigating if you think he was merely "unsuccessful."

I would give you my opinion but I expect you "might" consider me biased. 

[mowens]

I would have to give more of a shit than I do right now to investigate. Anytime someone mentions something like "the Jack White testimony" I always assume it's biased one way or the other. Smith was appointed during the Biden administration to investigate Trump; most of those investigations, I believe, were vindictive, therefore, I give his testimony almost no credence, in the same way that I believe almost nothing Trump says.
Like I said, though. I'd have to give a shit a whole lot more than I do to investigate any further. Because, like I have said for a long time, we're fucked no matter who is in power.

[Smit]

Because, like I have said for a long time, we're fucked no matter who is in power.

Well ain't you a ray of fkn sunshine! 

I don't disagree with you in this statement though.

Personally I'd rather not be fucked for as long as we can avoid it rather than as soon as possible, which is what we're getting with Trump and his coalition.

Now maybe if Harris had won we'd still have masked secret police running around major cities, maybe we'd still be shooting ships in international waters, maybe Maduro would still have been "arrested", maybe we'd still have antivaxxers and "influencers" in charge of medicine, maybe we'd still have upper level aids advocating for attacking NATO allies, maybe the presidents family would still be raking in cash, maybe the legal departments would still be manned by youtube bloggers, maybe maybe maybe.

But I'm thinking not likely. And I think we're much better off going into the future with a strong NATO alliance and that is falling apart very quickly.

But all that is a downer. This thread is about celebrating J6!

[ghuns]

Ah yes... January 6th.

Every bit as bad as 9/11 and when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

[Smit]

Maybe not as bad as 9/11, the Germans bombing Pearl Harbor, or the Japanese driving their Panzer tanks in a Blitzkrieg through Europe.

Or maybe it is. It's certainly a black stain on our nations history.