Capitol

Right-Wing Blames US Capitol Riot On Notorious Instigator

January 15, 2021 Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone. Educate! Agent provocateur, Capitol, Proud Boys, Violence

The most dramatic footage to emerge from the far-right storming of the US Capitol on January 6 depicted the lethal shooting of Ashli Babbit, a pro-Trump activist and military veteran, by a Capitol Police officer. The man responsible for capturing that video was John Sullivan, a self-styled activist who has operated under aliases “Activist X,” “Activist John,” and “Jayden X.” Since an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who described him as a “left-wing activist,” Sullivan has become Exhibit A in the right-wing’s conspiratorial case claiming Antifa was responsible for the violence in the Capitol. Through interviews with Sullivan, his brother, a video-journalist documenting his exploits, and Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists who...

The Country Where Liberty Is A Statue

January 15, 2021 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! Capitalism, Capitol, US military, wealth inequality

On 6 January, the world witnessed an interesting spectacle, an assortment of what appeared to be characters from fantasy television shows taking possession of the US Capitol, where the legislature sits. Despite spending more than $1 trillion on its military, intelligence services, and police, the United States government found itself overrun by a horde of Donald Trump’s supporters. They came without any precise programme and were not able to elicit a serious revolt around the country. What they showed clearly is that there is a serious divide in the United States, which weakens the ability of the US elites to exercise their domination over the world.

Capitol Riot Brings US Foreign Policy Home

January 15, 2021 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Capitol, Sanctions, Trump, US Regime Change

The attack on the United States Capitol was yet another trauma created by the election of Donald Trump to the presidency. The scenes of his supporters literally breaking down the doors and causing members of Congress to flee or seek shelter were not the images that Americans want to connect with their country. Of all the reactions created by the riot, defense of American exceptionalism is the most pervasive but unfortunately the most damaging. Many of the people and institutions now bemoaning the state of the republic have given Trump and his predecessors the green light to subvert democracy around the world.

Against A Domestic Terrorism Law

January 15, 2021 Alex Pareene, The New Republic. Educate! Capitol, Joe Biden, Police, Terrorism

On Monday, Opposite Office, an “activistic architecture studio” based in Munich, released design materials for what it called “Capitol Castle,” a plan that would encircle the entire U.S. Capitol with 36-feet-thick brick walls. The concept was not serious—or, at least, it was “serious” but not intended to be built. It was, depending on how charitable you feel about “activistic architecture studios,” a design meant to spark a debate on democracy and division, or one meant to get written up by the architecture press and shared widely on social media. But even if these German architects don’t sincerely propose physically walling off the Capitol after right-wing insurrectionaries stormed the building on January 6, it is far too easy to...

Black Cops Warned About Racist Capitol Police Officers For Years

January 15, 2021 Joshua Kaplan and Joaquin Sapien, Pro Publica. Educate! Accountability, Capitol, Police, Racism

When Kim Dine took over as the new chief of the U.S. Capitol Police in 2012, he knew he had a serious problem. Since 2001, hundreds of Black officers had sued the department for racial discrimination. They alleged that white officers called Black colleagues slurs like the N-word and that one officer found a hangman’s noose on his locker. White officers were called “huk lovers” or “FOGs” — short for “friends of gangsters” — if they were friendly with their Black colleagues. Black officers faced “unprovoked traffic stops” from fellow Capitol Police officers. One Black officer claimed he heard a colleague say, “Obama monkey, go back to Africa.”

America Condemns One Violent Mob While Celebrating Another

January 14, 2021 Lee Camp, ScheerPost.com. Educate! Capitalism, Capitol, Corporatism, Violence

Most rational Americans have correctly criticized and denounced the violent insurrection in the Capitol last week. Those moments of attack by a racist, disgusting mob have not lacked for condemnation and denunciation. They were violent. They were reprehensible. They called for the killing of lawmakers, demanded the hanging of Congress members. The liberal media and even most of Fox News have not held their tongues when it comes to excoriating the morally bankrupt people who took part. And I agree with those thoughts. BUT – why don’t we see an equal amount of disgust and condemnation for the violence done by our ruling class, the courtesans of corporate destruction?

Capitol Police Show Why We Need To Defund The Police

January 13, 2021 D. A. Bullock, In These Times. Educate! Capitol, Defund the police, Police, White Supremacy

On January 6, we witnessed the vast double standard for how Black Lives Matter protest is treated versus how white-supremacy-as-mob is treated. This wasn’t just a matter of police refraining from mass beating and arresting participants in the pro-Trump storming of the Capitol: Numerous police appear to have actively supported the mob, and to have defended it after the fact. First, it’s important to clarify that what happened on January 6 was not a protest. Protest is about seeking redress for wrongdoing — this was backlash. Redress was the November 3 democratic process and recrimination of a criminal president. January 6 was payback and mob rule.

Corporations #Resist Trump By Cutting Funding For Republicans

January 13, 2021 Tatiana Cozzarelli, Left Voice. Educate! Campaign Finance, Capitol, Corporations, Republicans

Dozens of large corporations are stopping all donations to the political parties and their politicians in the wake of the right-wing storming of the Capitol last Wednesday. In many cases, they’ve targeted specifically the 147 Republicans who refused to certify the Electoral College vote. The latter group includes MasterCard, American Express, Dow Chemical, and others Even Blue Cross Blue Shield, whose PAC has supported Republicans in every election since 1996, withdrew money from members of Congress who challenged the election results. And it’s going even further: an internal email reveals that the PAC will pull its yearly donation to the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican National Committee.

History Teaches Us Three Critical Steps To Stopping Fascism

January 11, 2021 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast Capitol, Congress, Fascism, Trump

On January 6, 2021, thousands of Trump supporters rallied in Washington, DC at the White House with President Trump and then marched to the Capitol as the presidential election was being certified. Some of them entered the Capitol illegally, either with the assistance of police, as the police passively allowed them to enter or by breaking in through windows and doors. Some of them sought out and threatened lawmakers and ransacked offices. I speak with longtime DC organizer, Brian Becker, who is the national coordinator for the ANSWER Coalition about the events of January 6, the rising extreme right wing movement in the United States and what can be done to turn the current dangerous situation around.

People’s Movement Is Faced With A Serious Threat

January 11, 2021 US Peace Council. Educate! Capitalism, Capitol, coup, Trump

The deep political and social contradictions of the U.S. capitalist system, which were becoming increasingly visible to the people during the past few decades, and had come to the surface with the election of Donald Trump in 2016, found their most glaring manifestation in the open riot of Trump supporters and the takeover of the Congress Building on January 6 th . The right-wing riot in Washington, DC on 6 January 2021 was a manifestation of the deepening economic and social crisis in the United States. High levels of social inequality and economic disarray engulfing the whole society, for which the U.S. ruling class has no solutions within the framework of the dominant capitalist order, has resulted in the loss of legitimacy of the state and its institutions.

The Rioters Weren’t All ‘Blue Collar MAGA’

January 11, 2021 Erin Corbett, Refinery29. Educate! Capitol, Fascists, Trump, Wealth

In the aftermath of the violent siege of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, the FBI and D.C. Police are asking the public to help identify people who planned and participated in the attack. Like clockwork, many people have been quick to assume that those involved in the attack were either rural white working class people, or antifascists pretending to be Trump supporters. Of course, neither of these assumptions could be farther from the truth, and the actual rioters were a varied group of people — all galvanized by President Donald Trump. While some liberals have either ridiculed the rioters they call “blue collar MAGA” — blaming the white working class, without ever contending with the fact that the majority of Trump voters were actually wealthy...

On Contact: America’s Existential Crisis

January 10, 2021 Chris Hedges, RT. Resistance Report Capitol, Chris Hedges, Cornel West, Trump

On the show this week, Chris Hedges discusses with moral philosopher Dr. Cornel West what we can learn about America's existential crisis after witnessing enraged supporters of Donald Trump storming the Capitol to try and halt Congress's counting of the electoral votes to confirm the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. Dr. Cornel West, professor of the practice of public philosophy at Harvard University, and the author of numerous books, including ‘Race Matters’.

Upheaval In The Government As US Capitol Riot Fallout Spreads

January 10, 2021 John Zangas, DC Media Group. Resistance Report Capitol, Police, Right wing extremism, Trump

Washington, DC — Dozens of Legislators led by House Majority Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D), called for the Vice President to remove Executive powers from the President as the country reeled from the Wednesday riots at the U.S. Capitol. Lead Democratic Lawmakers said they would start impeachment proceedings against President Trump on Monday if Vice President Pence did not act quickly to remove the President under provisions of Section 4 of the 25th Amendment. Some Legislators are calling the riots an attempted coup while others are demanding those involved be charged with sedition.

Capitol Incident A Dress Rehearsal

January 10, 2021 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. Educate! Capitol, Congress, Trump, Violence

With the normalization of mass shootings in the United States it is more than understandable that members of Congress feared for their lives when they learned protestors had forced their way into the Capitol in unknown numbers and were roaming around at will. But by the time it was over we knew that: only five weapons were seized by police so most of the intruders were probably unarmed; the only shots fired were by police who killed an unarmed female protestor; video and photos showed the demonstrators taking pictures of chambers and art work like they were tourists; and the occupiers were peacefully led out of the Capitol six hours later.

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