Luke Mogelson in The New Yorker: Among the Insurrectionists. “There was an unmistakable subtext as the mob, almost entirely white, shouted, ‘Whose house? Our house!’ One man carried a Confederate flag through the building. A Black member of the Capitol Police later told BuzzFeed News that, during the assault, he was called a racial slur fifteen times.”
NPR: “Members of the pro-Trump mob that staged an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week intended ‘to capture and assassinate elected officials,’ federal prosecutors say in a new court filing against Jacob Chansley.”
+ AP: Capitol rioters included highly trained ex-military and cops.
+ WaPo: How the rioters who stormed the Capitol came dangerously close to Pence.
+ “If in fact it is found that members of Congress were accomplices to this insurrection, if they aided and abetted the crime, there may have to be actions taken beyond the Congress in terms of prosecution for that.” Pelosi says lawmakers may be prosecuted. Here’s the latest from The Guardian.
If anything positive came out of the Capitol insurrection, it’s that many Americans finally woke up to the threat of Trumpism, his fascist language, his authoritarian tendencies, and more important, the rising threat of violent White Supremacist groups. The people who have been warning you about Trumpism and these trends for several years were not hysterical, they were not liberal snowflakes, they were not rabid partisans. They were people like my parents who had seen this show before and tried to tell us what we were looking at. And, they were right. That reality is certainly a factor in why Trump is leaving office with a 29% approval rating.
Derek Black was a key player in the White Nationalist movement before he moved away from it with the help of friends. In the weeks following the 2016 election, he wrote this op-ed in the NYT. Why I Left White Nationalism. “The wave of violence and vile language that has risen since the election is only one immediate piece of evidence that this campaign’s reckless assertion of white identity comes at a huge cost. More and more people are being forced to recognize now what I learned early: Our country is susceptible to some of our worst instincts when the message is packaged correctly.” For four years we’ve had to listen to the nonsense that Trump wasn’t egging on violent White Supremacists, even though former leaders of the movement, and every signal from social media to the streets, was telling us the opposite.
Rachel Maddow has an amazingly concise look at how Flint and Michigans’s now indicted ex-Gov relate to what happened last week.
. President Trump’s legacy of corruption, four years and 3,700 conflicts of interest later. (Sure glad I bet the over…)
- U.S. News Florida waitress uses subtle signs to save boy, 11, from abusers.
Florida waitress uses subtle signs to save boy, 11, from abusers, police say
Updated 4:42 AM; Today 4:42 AM
Facebook ShareTwitter Share4,323sharesBy Cliff Pinckard, cleveland.com
ORLANDO, Florida — A waitress concerned that a young boy might be being abused secretly flashed notes at him in order to see if he needed help, reports say.
When Flaviane Carvalho flashed a note that said “Do you need help” at the boy, he nodded yes. That’s when Carvalho, a manager and serverat Mrs. Potato Restaurant, called the Orlando Police Department, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Now police are crediting Carvalho with saving the boy from abusive parents, according to USA Today.
“‘Abuse,’ I say lightly,” Detective Erin Lawler said Thursday, according to the Sentinel. “It was torture.”
The boy’s 34-year-old stepfather, Timothy Wilson II, was arrested on charges of child abuse and neglect on the night the waitress called police, according to an arrest affidavit. The child’s 31-year-old mother, Kristen Swann, 31, who was also at the restaurant, was arrested a week later on a child neglect charge.
Police say the incident occurred at the restaurant on Jan. 1, clickorlando.com reports. The boy was at the restaurant with his stepfather, mother and younger sister,
Carvalho said she noticed the boy had scratches and bruises, and that he was the only one who did not receive an order for food.
“When I looked to the boy, I saw a big scratch between his eyebrows,” Carvalho said in a video released by OPD. “I started observing them and I could (see) that he was super quiet and sad.” She says she first flashed a sign at him that asked if he was OK, then another asking if he needed help.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1349852216555958276&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cleveland.com%2Fnation%2F2021%2F01%2Fflorida-waitress-uses-subtle-signs-to-save-boy-11-from-abusers-police-say.html&siteScreenName=clevelanddotcom&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px
SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING: We talked with an Orlando Restaurant Manager who saw a family withholding food from a boy at a table. She noticed bruises on his body and created a sign to secretly ask the child if he needed help. When he signaled “Yes” she called us. pic.twitter.com/U8m9MG1KUN— Orlando Police (@OrlandoPolice) January 14, 2021
The Sentinel reports the boy was examined at a hospital and had bruises on his eyelids, earlobes and arms. He also was 20 pounds underweight.
Police tell the Sentinel the boy said his parents withheld food as punishment and also would make him exercise excessively. The boy said he had been hung upside down from a door while tied by his ankles and neck, and that he had been beaten by objects and closed fists. He also reportedly was handcuffed to a moving dolly.
“That child was destined to be killed,” police Chief Orlando Rolón tells the Sentinel. “That’s how severe the injuries were. That’s how horrific the recollection of the abuse the child shared with us was.”
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