Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

Reporter reveals the moment Peter Navarro realized he may have landed in hot water: 'Oh no, I've said too much'



Peter Navarro appeared to realize he said too much at one point in an interview where he told a reporter that he and Steve Bannon plotted an attempted coup to keep Donald Trump in the White House.

The former White House trade adviser revealed in his new memoir that he and Bannon coordinated an effort with Republican lawmakers to stop the certification of Joe Biden's election win, which spun into the violent Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, but he told The Daily Beast they had lined up 100 lawmakers, including some senators, to complete their coup -- which ultimately failed.

"This House select committee that's investigating the events of Jan. 6 aren't just looking at the mob that attacked the Capitol," Daily Beast reporter Joe Pagliery told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "They're also looking at the attempt to rip apart the fabric of our republic using the legislative branch, and what we've got here is Peter Navarro saying, 'Look, we had nothing to do with the violence, it didn't work in our favor because it stopped us from what doing what we really wanted to do, which was stop the certification of President Biden's win.'"

"But here's the thing," Pagliery added. "The way to think about this is, there was an attempted coup, but that's the hard coup. Someone called this, on the record, the soft coup. We have a former active White House official saying while he was in the administration was using his power there to put this into play, which I think is absolutely fascinating."

After the rioters were cleared from the Capitol, 147 Republican lawmakers voted against certifying Biden's election win, but Pagliery said Navarro became cagey when he asked which ones conspired with him and Bannon to halt the process.

"I don't have that list," Paglery said. "When I asked Mr. Navarro to talk to me about who he spoke with, he seemed reticent to do so. I think at that point he may have been realizing, 'Oh no, I've said too much.' The book and the conversation with me he details how he got text messages from Steve Bannon, he woke up to messages from people who were on board with this plan and he was in communication with them that morning, before a morning run around the National Mall."

"It's right there," he added. "If the committee investigators want to look into this, the guy is saying he's got communications and, as far as we know, he hasn't been subpoenaed yet or asked to turn over documents. That might change after this reporting."

[Rick Plant]

Pentagon keeps trying to stamp out extremism — and keeps failing: report

Despite decades of efforts by the Pentagon to end extremism within its ranks, a new Associated Press investigation found that "racism and extremism remain an ongoing concern in the military."

"The investigation shows the new guidelines do not address ongoing disparities in military justice under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the legal code that governs the U.S. armed forces. Numerous studies, including a report last year from the Government Accountability Office, show Black and Hispanic service members were disproportionately investigated and court-martialed," the AP reported. "The AP investigation also shows the military’s judicial system has no explicit category for bias-motivated crimes – something the federal government, at least 46 states, and the District of Columbia have on the books – making it difficult to quantify crimes prompted by prejudice."

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin instituted a one-day stand-down in February to address extremism.

"The new National Defense Authorization Act signed into law by President Biden on Monday directs the Secretary of Defense to make a recommendation to Congress within 180 days if a new statute is needed to address violent extremism, but does not address hate crimes or racial disparities in military law," the AP reported. "The new Pentagon rules do not outright ban service members from being members of extremist organizations, such as the Ku Klux Klan, Oath Keepers, or other right-wing and white nationalist groups. The regulations, like the previous ones, only prohibit 'active participation,' in such groups, a murky policy that civil rights organizations have raised concerns about for years."

The Ku Klux Klan, in particular, has been a problem for the Pentagon.

"In the 1970s, extremism in the military gained national attention when the Ku Klux Klan was found to be operating openly at Camp Pendleton, a U.S. Marine Corps base in southern California. White Marine klansmen openly distributed racist literature on the base, pasted KKK stickers on barracks doors, and hid illegal weapons in their rooms," the AP reported. "In June of 1986, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Klanwatch Project issued one of the first of many warnings to the DOD about white supremacists in its ranks and urged then-Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger to bar active duty service members from belonging to Ku Klux Klan factions. The center at that time alleged it had evidence, including photos, of active-duty U.S. Marines who had participated in the Confederate Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a North Carolina-based Klan faction that changed its name last year to the White Patriot Party."

Pentagon officials did not respond to dozens of questions from the AP on how it plans to implement the new guidelines.

Read the full report:

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2021/12/29/decades-of-dod-efforts-fail-to-stamp-out-bias-extremism/

[Rick Plant]

'They left us': Mike Lindell whines after Verizon bans him from sending election conspiracy text messages



MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell revealed on Wednesday that Verizon has banned his FrankSpeech platform from sending text messages filled with conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election.

During a broadcast on FrankSpeech.com, Lindell explained why viewers were no longer receiving text messages from him.

"If you haven't been getting text marketing or any texts from FrankSpeech and you're wondering why that you've been taken off a list," Lindell said, "No, it's just because Verizon has stopped us from doing our text marketing. Just another big platform that went -- I don't know -- that went south on us, that went left on us. They left us."

Lindell also revealed that his team had completed revisions to a "Supreme Court case" that he previously predicted would be accepted 9-0 by the high court at the end of November. But the lawsuit fizzled after it failed to garner the support of any state attorneys general.

"The changes have been made and they're going out this week to the AGs and we'll get the ones that want to sign," he said.

According to Lindell, details of the lawsuit could not be revealed at the request of some attorneys general who are considering joining the effort.

During an appearance on Steve Bannon's War Room podcast earlier in the day, Lindell predicted that the Supreme Court would accept the revised lawsuit 9-0.

"The evidence that's there now would overturn and bring down everything," he said of the 2020 presidential election.

Watch the video below from FrankSpeech:

https://www.rawstory.com/mike-lindell-verizon/

[Rick Plant]

'Used car salesman' Trump ridiculed on CNN for his 'deeply offensive' endorsement stunt



Donald Trump was slammed on CNN on Wednesday night for a conditional endorsement Trump offered as he continues to seek retribution against Republicans he views as insufficiently loyal.

"The former president is endorsing Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy for re-election, as he did four years ago, but this time a very important catch," CNN's Jim Acosta reported. "In a statement released Tuesday, the former president said Dunleavy 'has my Complete and Total Endorsement but, this endorsement is subject to his non-endorsement of Senator Lisa Murkowski who has been very bad for Alaska, including losing ANWAR, perhaps the most important drilling site in the world, and much else. In other words, if Mike endorses her, which is his prerogative, my endorsement of him is null and void, and of no further force or effect!'"

Acosta said the statement "sounds like the lease on an apartment I rented back in the 1990s."

He said Trump sounds like a "used car salesman. You know, got to read the fine print here in this endorsement, I suppose."

"Have you ever heard of this kind of conditional endorsement before?" Acosta asked for Rep. Scott Rigell (R-VA). "This is the kind of thing I suppose that happens behind the scenes with the former president, but he -- he did kind of say the quiet part out loud, this is how he operates."

"He has a track record of using intimidation to advance his political goals, but this is clearly the most egregious example of basically a quid pro quo in the negative. That is, if you do something, I will take something away," he explained.

"It's really deeply offensive to me and I think it's -- it will breach the governor's conscience if he -- if he lets Trump influence him in this decision," he said.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

At this time last year, the Jan. 6 Capitol attack was being plotted – and was predicted



On December 23, 2020 I wrote a piece in this newsletter, sent out on email just like the hundred or so since then, and posted to social media. It was headlined, “The GOP's January 6th assault on democracy.”

https://signorile.substack.com/p/the-gops-january-6th-assault-on-democracy

That was followed up a week later, on December 28th, with a piece headlined, “More on the GOP's alarming Jan. 6th assault on democracy.”

The subhead of that one was: “Trump is encouraging protests that could lead to violence, after which he might invoke the Insurrection Act and bring in the military.”

To some that sounded like it was a stretch. But Donald Trump did in fact incite violence — a full-blown insurrection which resulted in death and destruction — and we’ve now learned, via a Powerpoint that has surfaced, that there was indeed a plan to declare a state of emergency and use the National Guard to, as Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows said, “protect the pro-Trump people.”

By far, I wasn’t the only one writing things like this, and I was in fact following the lead of the reporting and analysis of people like the prescient John Nichols of The Nation, who comes on my SiriusXM program every Monday and who’d warned of the dangerous actions underway for January 6th back on December 15th. Barton Gellman at The Atlantic had of course predicted what might happen as far back as September (and he’s predicting it’s going to happen again), and many other reporters and pundits tried to get the message out, even as much of the rest of the media seemed to dismiss it as hyperventilating.

As the date came closer though, even some of in the establishment media became worried. But we were well into the holidays and too many people were checked out.

David Ignatius in the Washington Post, in a column on December 26th, literally began his column with, “Not to be alarmist,” before going on to say that, “the United States will be in the danger zone until the formal certification of Joe Biden’s election victory on Jan. 6, because potential domestic and foreign turmoil could give President Trump an excuse to cling to power.”

The truth is that we’re still in danger because Trump, promoting the Big Lie, is still trying to cling to power.

The point I’m making is that many people tried to warn about a domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol. The Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers and other extremists groups were organizing, and those who track them, like Jared Holt, then at Right-Wing Watch, were trying to get the word out. Progressive political analysts were highlighting the dangers of what various GOP members of the House and Senate were plotting — not just in supporting the “Stop the Steal” rally but in refusing to certify the election of Joe Biden.

And it just seems, looking back, that too many people, including many political leaders, didn’t take it seriously.

When we now have warnings of Republicans planning an authoritarian takeover right before our eyes, passing laws to keep people from voting and gerrymandering to rig all elections, will our political leaders get the message this time?

Sadly, for an entire year we’ve been hoping they would. Yet here we are with the January 6th anniversary approaching, and the filibuster has survived. The Supreme Court has done enormous damage, but any thoughts of expanding it have been snuffed out.

Trump and his gang of thugs are running out the clock on the January 6th select committee, and the Justice Department doesn’t seem to be investigating on its own. And voting rights legislation, which was the priority of so many in electing Democrats and Joe Biden in order to save democracy, languishes.

I’m still hoping that the system holds up and that those bringing justice are doing so with greater speed than we currently see. But if the worst case scenario plays out — and we’ll know a year from now if we’re on that track — no one will be able to say it wasn’t predicted.

https://signorile.substack.com/p/last-year-this-week-16-was-being

[Rick Plant]

Capitol cop rips 'pathetic' Mike Pence for downplaying Jan. 6 -- and he fears Trump fans will riot again

A U.S. Capitol police officer injured in the Jan. 6 insurrection fears that chaotic assault could become a regular occurrence.

Sgt. Aquilino Gonell told Congress in July that he believed he would be killed by angry Donald Trump supporters during the riot, and he told NPR that he and his colleagues are worried it will happen again -- and again.

"A lot of the officers have in mind the possibility of this being a recurring annual or every four-year thing, which is why officers like myself are being outspoken about it, because we don't want to go through this again," Gonell said. "It's mind-boggling to hear some of the things that are coming from some of these elected officials. But at the end of the day, our job is to make them safe and make their work environment safer, regardless of our opinion or political affiliation."

Gonell returned to work 10 months after the riot in an administrative role due to a shoulder injury he suffered in the assault, but he said the memories of that day still haunt him -- as they did recently, when he was stopped in his tracks by the sounds of a construction crew taking down some scaffolding.

"Every time that those metal rods hit the ground, it triggered me," Gonell said. "It brought me back to Jan. 6. That particular sound was something I was hearing when they were breaking the barriers to use as projectiles to hit us."

He's still angry with the members of Congress who voted against the certification of President Joe Biden's election win and continue to promote Donald Trump's election lies.

"We risked our lives to give them enough time to get to safety and, allegedly, some of them were in communication with some of the rioters and with some of the coordinators or in the know of what would happen," Gonell said, "and it makes you question their motives and their loyalty for the country, as we were battling the mob in a brutal battle where I could have lost my life and my dear fellow officers, as well."

Gonell bitterly noted that some of the rioters were sentenced to less jail time than it took him to recover from his injuries, and he's angry that former vice president Mike Pence has downplayed the insurrection that could have cost his own life.

"We did everything possible to prevent him [Pence] from being hanged and killed in front of his daughter and his wife," Gonell said, "and now he's telling us that that one day in January doesn't mean anything."

READ: Trump is mentally deteriorating -- and his 'sadistic' rhetoric has hit a dangerous new level: psychiatrist

"It's pathetic," he added. "It's a disgrace. He swore an oath to the country, not to Donald Trump."

https://www.rawstory.com/sgt-aquilino-gonell/

[Rick Plant]

Former Attorney General Bill Barr did 'not appear happy' when served summons in Michael Cohen case



Former Attorney General Bill Barr was reportedly served a summons on Thursday at his home in the pricy Washington, D.C. suburb of McLean, Virginia.

The summons requires that Barr respond to a suit brought by Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen regarding the alleged violation of his First Amendment rights in 2020.

According to Cohen's lawyer Andrew Laufer, Barr was "wearing shorts and did not appear happy."

The lawsuit is part of a case against both Barr and Trump alleging that they were personally involved in his release to house arrest during the COVID-19 crisis that was spreading through prisons. As a non-violent offender, Cohen would have been released to house arrest, but was required to sign a statement that he would not do interviews or publish a book. Such a request would violate Cohen's First Amendment rights, his lawyer argued.

Cohen took the suit up the chain to a judge who shot down the demand, agreeing that the move was retaliation.

"I make the finding that the purpose of transferring Mr. Cohen from furlough and home confinement to jail is retaliatory, and it's retaliatory because of his desire to exercise his First Amendment rights to publish the book and to discuss anything about the book or anything else he wants on social media and elsewhere," said US District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein.

Hellerstein said that in his 21 years on the bench, he has "never seen such a clause. How can I take any other inference but that it was retaliatory?”

See the tweet from the attorney below:
https://www.rawstory.com/bill-barr-michael-cohen-summons/