How Right Wing Lies Spread

Late yesterday, the Washington Examiner rushed out a story that claimed that technology from an obscure facial recognition technology company had been used to identify known "antifa" members in the mob that invaded the United States Capitol building yesterday.  

As Capitol Police struggled to clear the congressional complex on Wednesday evening, Times reporter Rowan Scarborough published a story claiming that obscure facial recognition company XRVision had proof that some of the rioters were in fact left-wing antifa agitators, including one “Stalinist sympathizer.”

“Facial recognition firm claims Antifa infiltrated Trump protesters who stormed Capitol,” the headline on the story read.

Scarborough’s article was based entirely on an interview with an anonymous “retired military officer” who claimed to have seen XRVision data that proved two of the rioters were members of “Philadelphia Antifa.” The story didn’t include any pictures of the supposed antifa infiltrators or other evidence.

The story was immediately broadcast throughout the right wing media.  It moved so quickly that it was parroted by Trump's right wing Congressional allies when the business of the American people was able to proceed late last night.

...Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) even cited the Washington Times story on the House floor during the electoral vote count.

"I don't know if the reports are true, but The Washington Times has just reported some pretty compelling evidence from a facial recognition company that some of the people who breached the Capitol today were not Trump supporters,” Gaetz said. “They were masquerading as Trump supporters and, in fact, were members of the violent terrorist group antifa.”

That "evidence" was so "compelling" that XRVision demanded and received an immediate and complete retraction from the Washington Examiner.  

The company, XRVision, demanded the article be taken down and alleged that it was completely false, according to an email statement sent to The Hill. The article appeared to be taken down Thursday afternoon.

"XRVision takes pride in its technology's precision and deems the Washington Times publication as outright false, misleading, and defamatory," the statement read.

The Examiner quickly complied, but interestingly, the retraction failed to mention that XRVision technology had provided  tentative identities for some members of the mob.

...In a statement provided by the company’s attorney, XRVision said its facial recognition software had in fact identified two neo-Nazis and a QAnon supporter.

“We concluded that two of [the] individuals (Jason Tankersley and Matthew Heimbach), were affiliated with the Maryland Skinheads and the National Socialist Movements,” the statement reads. “These two are known Nazi organizations, they are not Antifa. The third individual identified (Jake Angeli) was an actor with some QAnon promotion history. Again, no Antifa identification was made for him either.”

The Examiner ran an anonymously sourced story that allowed Trump's political allies and the right wing noise machine to broadcast a complete lie.  Once that lie is out there it has a life of its own and the Examiner's pitiful retraction has no power to stop the spread of that lie.  

Coward In Chief - UPDATED

UPDATE - The often incorrect, rightwing rag, the Washington Times reports that Trump will be hiding out in the White House instead of running off to Camp David.  Apparently, he is needed to inspect the bunker again.

Trump is running off to hide at Camp David.  He is the a coward.  Do you think he believed that his MAGA fascists were going to overthrow the government and hand him a second term or possible make him our glorious leader for life?  His haphazard putsch yesterday symbolizes his behavior throughout his life.  When Hitler attempted his putsch in 1923, he was arrested and jailed (his sentence was for five years, but some relatives for Hawley and Cruz apparently felt he deserved a pardon after just nine months).  

Less than 24 hours after armed insurrectionists seized the U.S. Capitol at the president's urging, Donald Trump fled the city to Camp David.

The weekend vacation comes amid reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Vice President Mike Pence to request a move to invoke the 25th Amendment, which removes the president from office if there is a belief he cannot continue his role.

American Right Tells More Lies

 "The Big Lie" is a propaganda technique used by totalitarian regimes all over the world.  It was a fundamental aspect of fascist power in Nazi Germany.  It is also an important tool for American fascists.  

The insurrection was put down mere hours ago and these bastards have already settled on a narrative that absolves them of responsibility -- and then every one of your right-wing relatives and friends will be reciting as gospel truth in the next 48 hours. Note what's happening here: A mob stormed the Capitol based on a series of lies, and Hume, Palin, Paxton, and others are responding with more lies.

But I give them credit. If they're confronted with a mass shooting that resulted from their gun laws, they'll instantly blame mental health professionals or the lack of prayer in schools or the fact that there wasn't a "good man with a gun." Give them a financial crash on their watch, like the one in '08, and they blame it on mortgage programs supported by Democrats that had nothing to do with the problem. They can always divert blame. They can always rewrite the narrative.

They're fast and ruthless, and all they care about is their own survival. And it always works. They're never held accountable.

If you just keep telling lies, people never have to face reality.  

Trump Must Go Now! Right Now!

Read all of Charles Pierce on what has to happen RIGHT NOW.

...He's a traitor to his oath and to his country. He needs to be forced out, either through the provisions of the 25th Amendment or through an accelerated impeachment process. Any elected officials who do not agree with this simple and obvious fact dishonor the offices they hold with every second they decline to do it hereafter.

He is responsible for all of it. He is responsible for the assault on the Capitol and for the incredibly lax response from the Capitol Police. He created an atmosphere in which the worst impulses in the worst cops all over the country are inflamed and encouraged until the Capitol Police refused to defend...the Capitol. He has to go. Now. This moment.

He is responsible for all of it. He is responsible for everything that comes of it in the future, too. He is responsible for whoever the next authoritarian who comes along is, and that person is likely to be a smarter and more competent authoritarian than this dangerous charlatan. He has to go. Now. This moment.

The Price We Are Paying For Trump

Four years of the bloodiest war in our history kept this flag out of the United States' capital.  Four years of Trump allowed it and his fascist followers free reign in our capital.

Just Disgusted

It's hard to be optimistic about the future of our country.  Optimism is difficult when I think about the fact that 73 million American voters and virtually every elected Republican think that Trump deserved four more years as President of the United States.  

Think about that.  The most incompetent, corrupt president in our history, the individual directly responsible for hundreds of thousands of needless American deaths, the man who has actively solicited and willingly accepted the help of our country's enemies in order to gain and potentially remain in office, that piece of shit has the allegiance of tens of millions of Americans and one complete political party. 

Republicans in both Houses of Congress are actively engaged in the most divisive possible behavior with their challenges to the outcome of the Electoral College.  Their willingness to indulge Trump's election fraud fantasy and encourage Trump's lazy and haphazard coup.  Their behavior is very close to the behavior of Southern members of Congress before those men at least had the courage to openly declare war on the United States itself.

It's a hard thing to consider that the traitors who declared war on our country in 1861 as more honorable than the current Republican members of Congress, but those men were willing to put their lives on the line for their racist beliefs.  Today's Republicans traitors are putting virtually nothing personal on the line as they shred American's faith in our election process to curry favor with Trump's base of racist and fascist deplorables for nothing more than a small measure of political leverage.  An ambition that makes them even more dishonorable and unforgiveable.  Their selfish actions will have tragic consequences for our country far into the future.

Republicans have all the evidence they could ever need to realize that Trump's presidency has been a disaster for our country.  He has gifted the right unqualified judges (all the way to the Supreme Court), demolished environmental protections, shredded our most critical alliances, handed the richest (people and corporations) tax cuts that will have devastating impacts on our economy and degraded the political environment in our country in ways that may take generations to reconcile.  Yet, he is their spiritual and emotional leader.

The American that Trump has encouraged is ripe for a competent authoritarian to step into the Trump mold and with the support of the Republican Party destroy our Constitutional Republic.  Trump has exposed the flaws in our democracy, opened the doors to our enemies to exploit those flaws and shown the way for a brighter, more ambitious, group of right wing politicians to end the American experiment.   

Ring In The New - 2021

 Out with the old, in with the new.