capitol

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IMPACT, POLITICS

Proud Boys Indicted For Conspiracy Over January 6 U.S. Capitol Riots

A Washington D.C. grand jury today indicted Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, former chairman of the Proud Boys, and four other members of the far-right U.S. organization on charges of seditious conspiracy regarding the January 6, 2021 insurrection. On that day, a large crowd of Donald Trump supporters stormed into the United States Capitol to prevent the US Congress from certifying the votes from the 2020 United States presidential election. The charges state the riot was not a spontaneous or impromptu act but rather deliberately planned. Tarrio has faced other charges related to January 6 before, but today's are the most serious: the charges state Tarrio and fellow Proud Boys Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola criminally conspired to prevent then-President-elect Joe Bi...

We Didn’t Believe It Before The Capitol Insurrection – American Support For Conspiracy Theories And Armed Rebellion Isn’t New

6Jan

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS, POLITICS

We Didn’t Believe It Before The Capitol Insurrection – American Support For Conspiracy Theories And Armed Rebellion Isn’t New

Americans had to confront a new reality when an angry mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021: Some of their fellow citizens were in the grips of a false reality and had resorted to violence to support it. Conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election and the strange alternate universe of QAnon helped drive the attack, which has prompted concerns about further domestic upheaval. In the year since, a flurry of studies and analyses have tried to gauge the American appetite for conspiracy theories and the likelihood of more violence – even civil war. As someone who has studied the conspiracy theories that followed the December 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, I keep revisiting a May 2013 poll about gun control that found widespread doubts about that shoot...

Capitol Police Prepare For A Return Of Insurrectionists – More On The Symbols They Carried On Jan. 6 Washington

16Sep

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS

Capitol Police Prepare For A Return Of Insurrectionists – More On The Symbols They Carried On Jan. 6 Washington

Jeff Inglis, The Conversation A rally in Washington, slated for Sept. 18, 2021, is being billed as an effort to support people who face criminal charges for their involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Many of the same groups who participated in January are expected to return to the nation’s capital for this demonstration. Capitol Police are reportedly preparing for violence and erecting protective fencing around the building. The groups involved in January’s attack on the Capitol carried a variety of political and ideological flags and signs. The Conversation asked scholars to explain what they saw – including ancient Norse images and more recent flags from U.S. history – and what those symbols mean. Here are five articles from The Conversation’s coverage, explain...

For The Attack On The Capitol – Don’t Blame Fox News

29Jan

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

LIFESTYLE

For The Attack On The Capitol – Don’t Blame Fox News

In the days following the attack on the Capitol, The New York Times, in its print edition, ran an op-ed titled “Yes, You Should Blame Fox For Whipping Up Radicals.” The Washington Post ran an article with the headline “Trump Couldn’t Have Incited Sedition Without the Help of Fox News.” But our analysis tells a different story. We studied the official YouTube channels of six U.S. cable news networks. We looked at cable news powerhouses CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. But we also focused on three fringe networks – Newsmax, One America News Network (OANN) and Blaze TV – that have a relatively homogeneous audience, relatively extreme opinions and limited reach. Our unique dataset – which consisted of all the comments made by viewers of those six networks from Nov. 3, the date of the presidential e...

Longer-Term Threat To Biden Presidency Armed Groups From Capitol Riot

20Jan

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

Longer-Term Threat To Biden Presidency Armed Groups From Capitol Riot

Details continue to emerge about the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol incursion. Exactly what happened – including the degree of planning involved and rioters’ possible connections with Capitol police or even members of Congress – may not be known for some time. But there are looming threats of more possible violence, not just in Washington, D.C., but in all 50 state capitals. As a scholar of American militants, I see the groups behind the Jan. 6 events looking beyond Inauguration Day toward broader opposition to the Biden administration. Different groups, different goals Among the insurrectionists were members of various groups with a wide range of generally right-wing views, including neo-Nazis, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters and militia members. There were also supporters of Donald Trum...

A New Face Of Corporate Political Power – Big Tech’s Swift Reaction To Capitol Rioters And A Threat To American Democracy

20Jan

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

BUSINESS

A New Face Of Corporate Political Power – Big Tech’s Swift Reaction To Capitol Rioters And A Threat To American Democracy

Big Business and Big Tech both reacted swiftly to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, punishing and condemning those they deemed responsible for the riot or for creating the conditions that led to it. But there was a big difference in how each group acted. Dozens of U.S. companies as diverse as Walmart, General Motors, McDonald’s and Nike at least temporarily shut off the cash spigot to politicians who voted against certifying the results of the presidential election. While the reaction was unprecedented, the next congressional election is almost two years away, leaving erstwhile donors the option to change their minds. Big Tech, however, responded more directly and consequentially. Twitter and Facebook banned former President Donald Trump, Apple and Google removed Parler – the prefer...

People Who Attacked The US Capitol Building Are Being Track Down By Law Enforcement Using Technology

20Jan

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

People Who Attacked The US Capitol Building Are Being Track Down By Law Enforcement Using Technology

After rioters flooded the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, there was an immediate call for those who overran officers on the scene and swarmed the House and Senate floors, as well as congressional members’ personal offices, to be identified, arrested and prosecuted. The coordinated law enforcement response to this incident is massive. As researchers who study criminal justice, we see that law enforcement agencies are accessing large amounts of information via technological sources to investigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol building. High-definition security cameras, facial recognition technology, location services acquired from cellphones and third-party apps, and accessing archival evidence on social media are all used to identify perpetrators of crimes and tie them to specific places...

Favored By Trump Supporters – And Used By Participants In The US Capitol Insurrection, Big Tech’s Rejection Of Parler Shuts Down A Site

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL MEDIA

Favored By Trump Supporters – And Used By Participants In The US Capitol Insurrection, Big Tech’s Rejection Of Parler Shuts Down A Site

Early in the morning of Jan. 11, the social media platform Parler went offline after Amazon withdrew the platform’s web hosting services. Parler sued Amazon in response. Amazon’s move followed Google and Apple’s banning the Parler app from their app stores. The tech companies cited the platform’s inability or unwillingness to block calls for and threats of violence. Amazon’s move shut the platform down, at least until the company can find an alternative web hosting service. Parler had a surge in new users following Twitter’s ban of President Donald Trump on Jan. 8. Since the November election, when it saw a spike in usage, Parler has contributed to the widening gap between the different perceptions of reality held by the polarized public. Competitor Gab was similarly forced offline afte...

During The US Capitol Riot, A Scholar Of American Anti-Semitism Explains The Hate Symbols Present

11Jan

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

During The US Capitol Riot, A Scholar Of American Anti-Semitism Explains The Hate Symbols Present

One of the many horrifying images from the Jan. 6 rampage on the U.S. Capitol shows a long-haired, long-bearded man wearing a black “Camp Auschwitz” T-shirt emblazoned with a skull and crossbones, and under it the phrase “work brings freedom” – an English translation of the Auschwitz concentration camp motto: “Arbeit macht frei.” Another image, more subtle but no less incendiary, is of a different man whose T-shirt was emblazoned with the inscription “6MWE” above yellow symbols of Italian Fascism. “6MWE” is an acronym common among the far right standing for “6 Million Wasn’t Enough.” It refers to the Jews exterminated during the Nazi Holocaust and hints at the desire of the wearer to increase that number still further. These and related images, captured on television and retweeted on soc...

Once A Pipe Dream On Capitol Hill, Legalizing Marijuana Takes An Important Step Forward

3Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS

Once A Pipe Dream On Capitol Hill, Legalizing Marijuana Takes An Important Step Forward

In early December, the House of Representatives passed the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, or the MORE Act. The bill sought to decriminalize marijuana nationally by removing cannabis from the federal government’s Schedule I controlled substance list. That category indicates the drug has high potential for abuse and no therapeutic value. It also includes drugs like methamphetamine and heroin. The bill is a long way from passage. With a new Congress just seated, it would need to be reintroduced and pass again in the House. Even if that happens, it is unlikely to get through the Senate. Still, the initial success of the MORE Act is an important sign that sentiment in Washington is changing, guided by increasing public backing for cannabis reform. Two-thirds of Ameri...