I first learned of the Trump terrorists’ plans to capture, “try” and execute members of Congress this evening from my friend Dusty, who posted it on Facebook. I was skeptical, but Dusty is very, very reliable. I found some info on Twitter, including a post of the horrifying picture above that was taken earlier today.
Then Mark Sumner of the Daily Kos confirmed its validity. I have my problems with DK, but Sumner is one of the most valuable, insightful, and, most importantly, reliable writers for that blog. If Mark says it, I take it very seriously.
Let’s talk about that. But first…do you remember the Montana Freemen? I do. I did extensive research on their ignorant asses for the History Commons, back when that site was a thing.
Starting around 1983, a group of far-right knuckeheads in Montana formed an “organization” called the Freemen. They combined their failures to run their family farms with interests in the anti-tax and “sovereign citizens” movements, spent a lot of time bitching and pissing at one another’s kitchen tables, started issuing fraudulent “liens” on property they had no legal claim to, and, for even more fun, made themselves “law enforcement officers” in order to issue “arrest warrants” and enforce “legal” punishments against people they didn’t llke. U.S. Attorney Sherry Matteucci said at the time:
I think their purpose is to intimidate people and to cause chaos in governmental operations.
See where this is going?
In January 1994, a group of heavily armed Freemen stormed into the tiny town of Jordan, Montana and took over the local government. They stomped into the courthouse and set up their own “common law” court. One of them named himself the presiding judge, and said,
We’ve opened our own common law court and we have the law back in the county now.
Sure they did.
They posted “Wanted” posters around the town, offering a $1 million bounty (money they did not have) for the “arrest” of Garfield County sheriff Charles Phipps. Phipps asked if he would get the money if he turned himself in. The Freemen said he wouldn’t live long enough to spend it, as they intended to try him, convict him, and hang him from a local bridge. They also threatened to a number of local judges and law enforcement officials. They even announced their intention to “annex” a large part of Montana because, well, reasons.
Naturally, their plans to carry out some good old-fashion “frontier justice” didn’t end well for them. By late 1995, two local prosecutors declared the Freemen in “open insurrection,” and in March 1996, federal authorities surrounded the ranch of the Freemen leaders and began an 81-day standoff that ended with them trudging out of their “compound” with their hands upon their heads. Lawyer Matthew Sisler said:
What we saw was a bunch of sad, middle-aged men who had lost their homes, who had not paid loans back or taxes, and wanted someone to blame.
So. What we saw tonight was a funhouse mirror version of the Montana Freemen strutting around for a couple of heady hours inside the U.S. Capitol. One of them parked his lardass in an office used by Nancy Pelosi’s staff, had a picture taken of himself with his feet on the desk, and left after stealing documents from the desk. Another waved at a camera while carrying a lecturn from either the Senate or House chambers. (Not sure whether he was allowed to leave with it.) All just harmless fun, right?
Take a look at the photo above. They also erected a ramshackle gallows, complete with a hangman’s noose, that they intended to use to murder lawmakers who drew their ire, just like the Freemen intended to do to some local LEOs. Some of them entered the Capitol with large numbers of zipties to restrain kidnapped lawmakers while they frogmarched them to the gallows they had erected and strung them up.
They also left behind multiple IEDs in the Capitol and the two adjoining office buildings.
They weren’t worried about being caught. As TPM’s Josh Marshall posted:
Insurrectionists telling journalists they're planning to get violent tonight. The passive response to storming the capitol has clearly encouraged it. They're not worried about repercussions since they're showing their faces on camera.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) January 6, 2021
Insurrectionists telling journalists they’re planning to get violent tonight. The passive response to storming the capitol has clearly encouraged it. They’re not worried about repercussions since they’re showing their faces on camera.
Malcolm Nance tweeted:
WARNING: This massive national security failure at the Capitol could have led to massive hostage situation ending in executions and/or deaths. THESE STORMINGS WILL LIKELY OCCUR IN DEM STATEHOUSES IN NEXT 24-48 hours.
— Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) January 6, 2021
WARNING: This massive national security failure at the Capitol could have led to massive hostage situation ending in executions and/or deaths. THESE STORMINGS WILL LIKELY OCCUR IN DEM STATEHOUSES IN NEXT 24-48 hours.
They were planning to take hostages. pic.twitter.com/oDHllrF93h
— Rebexem (@Rebexem) January 6, 2021
See the zipties? And the 24-48 hour timeframe Nance cited has barely begun.
Tonight, Sumner wrote:
The idea of capturing members of Congress and executing them as “traitors” for failing to recognize Trump as the rightful ruler, has been widespread on far right sites since the election. It’s absolutely clear that these people came to the capital with not just the intention of overturning the results of the election, but of conducting show trials and executing those they found inadequate supporters of Trump.
The definition of treason in the U.S. Constitution is constrained to only a few meanings. This easily meets that definition.
He’s totally correct. Was this a well-thought out plan that had a high probability of success? Not hardly. It’s hard to conceive of a situation where the DC police would allow them to drag Congressional members out of the Capitol and over to a gallows erected hundreds of yards away from the building — even if these selfsame police officers welcomed them into the building, posed for selfies with them, and calmly walked most of them out of the building without bothering to arrest them.
INSIDE the Capital. Joining with a terrorist a taking selfies.
LOOK AT THIS.
In another scenario there would be black bodies on the floor.#CoupAttempt pic.twitter.com/ECaUyrRym2
— Debra Messing✍🏻 (@DebraMessing) January 6, 2021
Regardless. This was an act of insurrection, inspired by and directed by Donald Trump. We will hold him, and his brownshirts, accountable.
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61 Comments on "Terrorists Planned on Kidnapping and Executing Congressional Members"
Well, Republicans are filth. What can I say.
I can’t help but wonder if the Capitol Police were ordered to stand down. If not, we have a massive security problem at the Capitol building……it wasn’t like everyone didn’t know this was planned.
I saw a video from tik tok, showing the police removing barricades to allow the rioters through. Something was up between cops and rioters.
SOME of the cops…don’t forget a good many others took some heavy blows today holding back the tide.
It could also be a case of subconscious bias.
Not every LEO is a bad cop. Yesterday things went wrong. Mistakes were made. The proverbial heads will roll-folks will lose their jobs and they should-this was horribly mishandled. There is a great deal of video/photographic evidence of this cluster-%^@k. I would imagine the officers acting in ways that endangered the people working in the Capitol Building will not only be out of jobs, they might even be in some trouble themselves.
They better have not been on social media… and left … well …
I don’t think they were really aware of what was really going down. The look of terror on some of the police faces, especially that poor bloke who was trying to stand up, and not be chased up the stairs. I don’t reckon they were forewarned. Having said that , I also agree with the poster following about this. I feel a few of them MAY have been complicit, but only a few.
There are videos of the police opening the barricades and letting them through. There are videos of them walking with them into the Capitol. Doesn’t mean the entire police force was complicit, but some of them were.
I saw those videos too, Max. It’s just I’ve also heard and seen other folks standing their ground against the human tide to buy Congress enough time to GTFO. As for the former, well, what moron participates in a criminal conspiracy and posts a freaking selfie?!
A moron who thinks they’ll get away with it.
Some were complicit – and some of the insurrectionists were off-duty cops and military, with their IDs on them.
Basic lynch mob play…kill the “traitors”, act like it’ll magically solve the problem and then wear out their welcome when the adults come back into the scene. They may have come for the party but they’ll be staying for the funeral of what their lives could have been.
Sounds like typical DK stuff — you like Sumner? Fine, I’ll agree he is one of the more rational folk writing there. Should anyone take anything there as gospel truth?
Heck no!
Something was up between the rioters and cops. Unless someone has better info then somebody at DK says…
Extraordinary claims demand some type of real evidence, otherwise we are no different than the rioters today.
Sumner has a strong body of work behind him. Did you read his article? Examine his sources? I did. How you get to saying that we’re no different than the terrorists who attacked the Capitol building is beyond me. Don’t compare me, Sumner, or anyone at PZ to those traitors.
I stated he was one of the better writers there. I read the article. Extraordinary claims demand more than Sumner got — we’ll see how this shakes out.
Sumner nor anyone else there does not actually break big stories — they blog about it for Kos (who i will call out as a shifty character and not someone to take at face value)
Piss on Markos. DK still has some excellent writers, regardless. Sumner, Hunter, Dartagnan (who isn’t a front pager but should be), Pennyfarthing, Eleveld when she takes the notion, others. DK isn’t a news site per se, so it can’t be expected to break big stories. That isn’t what that site does.
Except they’ve got evidence. What you saw today is the effect of no one in the courts being willing to even hear it. People tend to get pretty pissed when they feel like they have no voice
Who’s got “evidence?” Rudy? Maybe it’s on Hunter’s laptop? Lin Wood? Sidney Powell? Bullshit. What we saw yesterday was treason and insurrection, pure and simple. If you support it, then you, little MAGAt, are also a traitor and insurrectionist. Take your bullshit to Parler, where the other traitors hang out. Real Americans want nothing to do with the likes of you.
Treason is repugs and demonrats denying the pro-freedom true American voice of Libertarians
You mean the people who want rules for others, but not themselves. F*ck that shit.
Ursula, this guy is a troll. I tossed half a dozen of his comments — almost identical horseshit with variants of his name — into the spam. I’d recommend sending this one out the airlock.
You obviously have no idea of what the word means– look it up
Laughable– we have heard what they say is “evidence” and it’s utter nonsense– a collection of blog posts by con artists (which Powell called “affadavits” LOL) and third-hand maybe-could-have-been guesses at things they didn’t understand!
The judges found the “evidence” to be laughable, and some of the “witnesses” as well.
I know you’re a strong advocate for bringing Trumpists to justice even if it might be politically inconvenient. I think we will have millions more behind that sentiment after today. It’s more evident than ever that we cannot let Trumpism slink off into the dark in two weeks…its wrongdoing must be investigated, indicted and prosecuted.
After this BS? I’m fairly confident that examples will be made of MANY folks who participated in this stupid-as-hell display. The minnows will go first, of course. My question is if the sharks at the top go next.
That is a good question. We can’t let it be just arrests of the mob members. That feels too much like the Civil War, where a great mistake was made in refusing to prosecute the traitors.
In this insurrection, the instigators need to be prosecuted even more than the participants.
Mark always does his homework and gets it right. And the images that are emerging are revealing just how serious these goons were. There is one person dead and several in hospital. Their blood is on Trump’s hands. Tomorrow he may be forced out of office.
The dead person was an unarmed woman shot by dirty cops. Why weren’t the blm commies shot? It’s all staged.
I’m sure the FBI would like a word with you, baka.
The dead person was a raging, crazed Trumpster in the process of committing a felony by breaking into the Capitol. Do you even know what a “commie” is or is it just a way to avoid saying “n****r”?
GFY, liar.
TROLL ALERT. Ursula, would you please shitcan this guy?
Five dead – one of the injured cops died. Three of the insurrectionists died of “medical emergencies” – that’s heart attacks.
One major difference between then and now, Simon: GOP Congress critters just got to see this up close and personal. Even if they’re onboard with the American Apartheid Project, they realize Trump will never EVER be able to pull it off. So either he plays nice over the next few days or it’s a mortal lock that they’ll hurry up and finish him off now.
Lou Dobbs is an idiot on the order of Ted Cruz. Trump blew his one and only chance to make this work, going by the mass resignations currently taking place. And he was never going down while he was in office, which is why people suddenly want him OUT of office, including folks on his side. So, in summary, kindly refrain from mistaking your outrage for logic.
I for one won’t be surprised if Trump on the 19th invites 3000 of his “wonderful” MAGA “patriots” to stay camped out on the WH lawn with their AR-15’s to “save the republic and find those lost votes” for Trump.
I would be surprised if he’s in office that long.
Thank you, have been saying the same for months! I have posted every damn day for six weeks that Trump WILL call on his supporters for violence when he realizes the military will NOT back his coup
Interesting how DC cops were so deferential to these white boys. Same as with that punk-ass Kyle Shittenhouse. Had the “protestors” been POC, they would’ve been shot on sight.
I have to believe that there will be some major firings and possible criminal charges brought against the cops who let those assholes in. Four people are dead because of that incursion. There are going to be massive lawsuits. The Capitol Police and DC Police will be defendants.
I think I read someplace that the DC police are responsible for everything around the capital (streets, etc.), and Capitol police are responsible for everything on the grounds.
There is evidence coming through that Trump’s minions in the Pentagon were keeping the National Guard from being authorized to act.
Seeing the full picture of what happened emerge over the next few days is going to kill some careers as well as put people in jail.
Where were all the defenders of public buildings when this BS went down?
Making israel great again
Absolutely true. Followed by martial law & trump going into whatever it took to stay in power.
Staged by democucks, they wanted to let the repugs in to look good on fake news. Only Libertarians are sane as usual
Wherever you are, start running. Find a place. Pray no one ever finds you. Because from here, it only gets worse for your kind.
I hope ur right on this one.
Sideways, with a cholla segment.
The reporters want things to go back to How They Think They Were.
At least one member of Congress is going for expulsion of the leaders in Congress.
Those zipties they had were heavy-duty, too – not the kind that cops use on wrists. The gallows is rickety and would have collapsed fairly quickly – but the intent is clear.
Those gallows might’ve been rickety, but they could’ve been reinforced well enough to start running a few of the Trump gang up those steps. And they better do it fast along with those who planned that fucking disaster. And don’t tell me one agency or another doesn’t know who they are. Anytime the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and thugs like them have a meeting, don’t tell me Wrays phone isn’t wringing….
I’ve thought about some of the same things, but we don’t do drumhead trials and instant executions.