2020 Election Results 12: Riots, Social Media Banning, And The Longest Election Cycle In History

[feministxtian]

Like many of you, I'm finding it quite hard to "get past" the events of January 6. I grew up hearing the stories of the Nazi rise to power and the communist take over of Cuba. My dad had a front row seat to the Cuban Missile Crisis. I'm personally fucking terrified that the stories I heard as a child are about to come true here and now in the USA. 

9/11 scared me, given where I was and where I worked. It took me a LONG time to work past that fear...now 20 years later, I'm pretty much right back where I was then. 

[Black Aliss]

7 hours ago, clueliss said:

I need something stronger than WTF and not disgust (green emoji) that is not the angry emoji of the negative points to the poster.  (or the angry emoji needs to be neutral).  Because WTF is currently not cutting it. 

 

 

Agreed. I think only the "downvote" and the "fuck you" emojis should carry a negative point to the poster. Maybe also the "dead parrot" one. I tend to use just the neutral emojis, specifically "sad" and "WTF" but it would be nice to express disgust or anger with the content of a post without slamming the poster.

Edited January 12, 2021 by Black Aliss

[TuringMachine]

50 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

It's a good thing Parler had crappy developers:

 

I realize this is something that no one else but me is bothered by, but I can't resist

Quote

A key reason for her success: Parler’s site was a mess. Its public API used no authentication.

This is a serious flaw, and common amateur mistake. They're relying on the client (the website and mobile apps) to handle making sure the user is signed in correctly and allowed to access the data. This doesn't work with someone who knows how to make a request to the server (where the API and data live) directly.

Twitter ran into a similar problem when they introduced their freeform gender field. They validated the character length on the form (client side), but not on the server side. Someone made an entire book their gender.

Quote

When users deleted their posts, the site failed to remove the content and instead only added a delete flag to it.

I touched on this in the last thread, but leaving the content as is and simply flagging it as deleted is not a mistake. That's best practice. Otherwise having to recover the data would be really unpleasant. Some platforms might decide to do it for privacy sake, but I would say that it's not the norm. Unless you submit a GDPR request, assume a platform still has records of everything you've done on it.

Quote

Oh, and each post carried a numerical ID that was incremented from the ID of the most recently published one.

This is the one that made feel the need to comment. That's not amateur coding. That's how databases work. The security flaw is exposing those internal ID's to outside requests. Best practice is to generate a UUID for them to use that is not incremental, then internally mapping it to the incremental database one.

 

tl;dr yes Parler made some amateur programming mistakes, but the article did a bad job reporting them.

[47of74]

Yeah good luck with that Kevin 

Quote

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told members of his GOP conference on a call Monday that the riot at the Capitol was not caused by antifa, urging lawmakers not to further spread misinformation about the pro-Trump mob that stormed the House and Senate last week.

“McCarthy told all members on the call that he has been receiving FBI briefings and it is clear that antifa was not behind this,” one source familiar with the call said. “That it was in fact right-wing extremists and QAnon adherents, and he urged members to stop spreading false information to the contrary.”

McCarthy’s comments come in the wake of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who made the unsubstantiated claim on the House floor that antifa was behind the violence that broke out at the Capitol on Wednesday after the riot took place in an attempt to delay the official count of Electoral College votes. 

 

[Black Aliss]

5 hours ago, Spock said:

I have a conservative friend on Facebook saying she's moving to something called mewe...is that similar to Parler? 

Yes. I was on MeWe briefly last year, hoping it would turn out to be an alternative to FB,  but only two friends of mine were there and it was definitely being overrun by MAGAts

[47of74]

32 minutes ago, TuringMachine said:

I realize this is something that no one else but me is bothered by, but I can't resist

This is a serious flaw, and common amateur mistake. They're relying on the client (the website and mobile apps) to handle making sure the user is signed in correctly and allowed to access the data. This doesn't work with someone who knows how to make a request to the server (where the API and data live) directly.

Twitter ran into a similar problem when they introduced their freeform gender field. They validated the character length on the form (client side), but not on the server side. Someone made an entire book their gender.

I touched on this in the last thread, but leaving the content as is and simply flagging it as deleted is not a mistake. That's best practice. Otherwise having to recover the data would be really unpleasant. Some platforms might decide to do it for privacy sake, but I would say that it's not the norm. Unless you submit a GDPR request, assume a platform still has records of everything you've done on it.

This is the one that made feel the need to comment. That's not amateur coding. That's how databases work. The security flaw is exposing those internal ID's to outside requests. Best practice is to generate a UUID for them to use that is not incremental, then internally mapping it to the incremental database one.

I wonder how much of the Parler posts still live in Amazon's server backup media or are being kept on an isolated server for states and the Feds to request so kindly of Amazon. 

Like I said before I imagine all of the fuck-knob's twitter rants still exist and are being kept by Twitter for when (not if) the states or the Feds start requesting them as evidence.  

[Ticklish]

3 hours ago, KWLand said:

I’m struggling moving on after last weeks events and the responses.  How can anyone defend the actions, how did thousands of people stand on Capitol Hill and watch/listen to this happen and say it was a peaceful riot, how is anyone still supporting Trump?

I find myself spending the day just reading everything. Refreshing the news late into night/early morning just certain that there is something I’m missing.

I want to take my kids and find a town and church where there are no Trump supporters.  I want someone to explain to me why it was okay, why any of it was okay from declaring voter fraud to still posting about Trump as if nothing happened.

why is there comparison to BLM, why are they crying over a private business saying no you can’t be here and why are people going back to their lives as if the world is the same today as it was a week ago.

So thank you all for sharing and talking. And think you for posting all the info of arrests and charges and job losses.  It gives me hope that soon the pro-Trump voice will be silenced.

 

Me too. 

43 minutes ago, Black Aliss said:

Agreed. I think only the "downvote" and the "fuck you" emojis should carry a negative point to the poster. Maybe also the "dead parrot" one. I tend to use just the neutral emojis, specifically "sad" and "WTF" but it would be nice to express disgust or anger with the content of a post without slamming the poster.

Wait, does the disgust reaction reflect on the poster?? I'm so sorry, people, I've been using that one a lot lately as a reaction to the news! I'll switch to WTF instead! 

[Coconut Flan]

Discussion of reactions properly belongs in Community Discussion.  Could I ask you'll pretty please to take it over there?  Thank you.  

Latest reaction thread:

 

 

Edited January 12, 2021 by Coconut Flan

[clueliss]

28 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

I wonder how much of the Parler posts still live in Amazon's server backup media or are being kept on an isolated server for states and the Feds to request so kindly of Amazon. 

Like I said before I imagine all of the fuck-knob's twitter rants still exist and are being kept by Twitter for when (not if) the states or the Feds start requesting them as evidence.  

My guess is the official paperwork for that has already been sent.

[AmazonGrace]

Apart from the videos and retweets of other deleted posts, most of Trump tweets are still viewable at https://twitter.com/UnfollowTrump

Edited January 12, 2021 by AmazonGrace

[fundiefan]

3 hours ago, KWLand said:

I’m struggling moving on after last weeks events and the responses.  How can anyone defend the actions, how did thousands of people stand on Capitol Hill and watch/listen to this happen and say it was a peaceful riot, how is anyone still supporting Trump?

I find myself spending the day just reading everything. Refreshing the news late into night/early morning just certain that there is something I’m missing.

I want to take my kids and find a town and church where there are no Trump supporters.  I want someone to explain to me why it was okay, why any of it was okay from declaring voter fraud to still posting about Trump as if nothing happened.

why is there comparison to BLM, why are they crying over a private business saying no you can’t be here and why are people going back to their lives as if the world is the same today as it was a week ago.

So thank you all for sharing and talking. And think you for posting all the info of arrests and charges and job losses.  It gives me hope that soon the pro-Trump voice will be silenced.

 

Same. Our lives & situations are different, but I have been unable to move on. I'm angry, scared, overwhelmed, confused as hell. What's more, I'm appalled at the lack of anyone talking about it. I mean, like, my FB feed is full of fluff - and you can tell everyone is going fluff to intentionally avoid it. I don't have a lot of trumpers on my feed - I unfollowed or unfriended all over the past four miserable years. So, those I do see posts from are hiding from it. Mostly, cool, I guess; do what you gotta' do but I am flummoxed about how many are willing to bury their head in the sand. I've been hand slapped by people wanting to keep the peace. To that I say - F*ck you. I've been silent for four years to keep the peace & not piss anyone off or start anything or blah, blah, blah. Now is not the time for silence or for keeping the peace among people who want to whine that you are opposed to trump & insurrections. I don't think anyone should start being like trumpers have been the past four years and get in your face and bully others - but jesus effing christ, people, these people tried - and will continue to try - to kill people & destroy our democracy and you have nothing to say about it because it might hurt a trumper's feelings? 

I mostly spend my social media time on Twitter because there are actual conversations happening there. 

 

 

[AmazonGrace]

Haven't watched this yet but apparently the person who had 11 Molotov cocktails has been indicted by a grand jury.

 

[AmazonGrace]

The Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Troops:   Joe Biden will be your president. Please do not coup. It is against the law. Please do not coup. Okay thanks bye?

 

[GreyhoundFan]

An interesting read: "With big budget but little accountability, long-troubled Capitol Police face questions after siege"

Quote

It was the spring of 2015 and the U.S. Capitol Police had suffered a string of embarrassing incidents.

Officers who protected Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and then-House Speaker John A. Boehner had left their guns in bathrooms in the Capitol in January and March. Another unattended gun was found by a janitor cleaning police headquarters in April. That same month, a Florida postal worker protesting the influence of money in politics was able to land a small aircraft on the West Lawn in broad daylight.

By May, members of the House Administration Committee were asking pointed questions. The police chief said he was addressing the problems.

And then, Congress moved on.

“What that hearing really showed was the ineptness in the organizational hierarchy, the inability to get a handle on the agency, their lack of transparency and accountability to anybody,” said former congressman Richard B. Nugent (R-Fla.), a retired county sheriff  who served in Congress from 2011 to 2016. “If you let things like that go, there’s larger questions to be asked — what else are you sweeping under the rug or not paying attention to?”

Lawmakers considered changes five years ago and periodically over the past 15 years. Yet they left the Capitol Police largely impervious to public scrutiny, despite its ample funding and its prominent presence at the seat of U.S. government.

The force of about 2,100 sworn officers, which patrols a hallowed but tiny area, boasts a $516 million budget. That is more than twice the spending on police in Atlanta, 1½ times the spending in Detroit and approaches the $545 million budget for the District of Columbia, budget documents show. Yet reports by the force’s Office of Inspector General, tasked with rooting out waste and fraud, are kept under wraps. The Capitol Police, like Congress, is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

Unlike other law enforcement agencies, the police force releases little public information, even after calamitous incidents.

Six days after a pro-Trump mob overran the U.S. Capitol, the department still has not held a news conference to explain the enormous security breach or to highlight the heroism of individual officers. And it has not released the name and employment records of the officer who fatally shot Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt.

On Monday, a member of Congress first disclosed that two officers had been suspended and others were being investigated because of suspected involvement with or inappropriate support for the rioters.

Congress could require the Capitol Police to operate more like a government agency and less like a private security detail. But such demands for transparency might force awkward questions about Congress’s own exemption from public records laws.

“There hasn’t been a willingness to open it up to scrutiny by an institution that is reticent to do that,” said Terrance W. Gainer, who served as chief of the Capitol Police from 2002 to 2006. “Congress hasn’t made the rules apply to the department, so we didn’t have to meet the expectations that a state or city police agency have.”

He added, “If we are not transparent with the public for whom we are responsible, then what we are doing is suspect.”

Capitol Police spokeswoman Eva Malecki did not respond to detailed questions from The Washington Post about whether the department needed to be more transparent or receive stricter oversight.

The department reports to a little-known board that dates to the 1800s. It has three voting members: the sergeants at arms for the House and Senate, and the Architect of the Capitol. The archaic structure is established in federal law and means that the police chief has three unelected bosses, none of whom answers directly to the public.

“You have a lot of bosses, and I had to learn as chief how to deal with that,” said Gainer, the only person to serve as both police chief and Senate sergeant at arms. “If you have a process that doesn’t allow you to exercise your expertise, that’s a problem.”

Members of Congress are now calling for a full-scale investigation into what went wrong on Jan. 6, as a joint session met to count electoral college votes while an angry crowd incited by President Trump descended on the Capitol.

The police chief and the House and Senate sergeants at arms all have resigned. In an interview with The Post on Sunday, outgoing Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund blamed his bosses on the police board for not promptly approving multiple requests to put the D.C. National Guard on standby.

“The arrangement needs to be changed,” Sund said. “I think ultimately it would really be good if the chief could make certain decisions; it would make the job a little easier.”

Neither House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving nor Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger has commented.

Five deaths have been linked to the riot, including that of Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who was injured in the confrontations. Officer Howard Liebengood, who was also at the Capitol, took his own life days later, a spokesman for Liebengood’s family told The Post.

Charles H. Ramsey, who worked with the Capitol officers as D.C. police chief from 1998 to 2007, said the federal force already should have provided a detailed accounting of its actions.

“The public has a right to know,” said Ramsey, who also led the Philadelphia Police Department. “There are a lot of unanswered questions. That is everybody’s Capitol. It belongs to all of us.”

Now, the upheaval that the Black Lives Matter movement has brought to law enforcement departments nationwide has arrived in the Capitol.

Some law enforcement experts say change at the Capitol Police has been elusive and may continue to be so because, unlike other police departments, it doesn’t have customary constituents.

“They don’t have residents. They serve congressional members,” said J. Thomas Manger, former police chief in the neighboring counties of Fairfax, Va., and Montgomery, Md. “One of the things that encourages police to evolve is community pressure, but a big part of what the Capitol Police do is provide personal security for the members.”

Congress recently awarded an additional $50 million to the department for the 2021 fiscal year — extending a funding run that has seen the Capitol Police budget grow by more than 50 percent in the past decade, budget documents show. Lawmakers stopped short of requiring greater transparency, only suggesting that the Capitol Police “explore the possibility” of releasing more comprehensive arrest data and share information that “follows the spirit of the Freedom of Information Act.”

The department also does not use body cameras, another tool increasingly used by police forces to capture and share details of police work with the public.

Daniel Schuman, who tracks federal spending for Demand Progress, one of the few advocacy groups that acts as a watchdog on Capitol Police, said the department did not start disclosing weekly arrest reports until 2018. It still doesn’t provide aggregated information about its activities.

“If we were grading them, I would give them an F-minus,” Schuman said. “Why is so much [money] going to the Capitol Police, and what do they do with it?”

Since 1998, when a mentally ill man entered a checkpoint reserved for members of Congress and killed two officers, lawmakers have struggled to balance security concerns with the desire for an open door to the house of U.S. democracy.

Over the years, lawmakers have asked Capitol Police to secure the complex against all manner of threats, but they also feared making the building appear militarized or inaccessible to the public.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks led to sweeping security upgrades in government buildings. By 2005, however, members of the House grew concerned about how Capitol Police were managing a $19 million contract to prevent vehicles from getting close to the complex. Lawmakers successfully pushed to include language in a budget document indicating that they had “serious concerns over the lack of stewardship of the taxpayer dollars and how this exemplifies pervasive management issues and lack of asset accountability.” 

Past investigations, few public details

When the Capitol Police force has been embroiled in heated controversies, the investigations that followed were released only in part or not at all.

After 12 people were killed in a 2013 mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, the BBC reported that an armed Capitol Police tactical team was nearby when initial reports came in about an active shooter. The team requested permission to enter the building where the violence was underway but was denied and directed to return to the Capitol, according to the BBC.

A review by the Capitol Police Board concluded the reporting was unfair because the unit had been redeployed to address threats to the Capitol building. Only a two-page summary of the report was released.

James Konczos, then the head of the police union for the force, rejected the findings at the time and said last week that had the team stormed the building where the shooting was underway, “that situation would have been neutralized a lot quicker.”

Capitol Police faced tough questions again in 2013 when officers, along with members of the U.S. Secret Service, fired into the car of a Connecticut woman driving erratically on Capitol Hill. Miriam Carey, 34, was killed with her infant daughter in the back of the car. Her family has said police did not have to resort to violence, arguing that Carey — who was unarmed and had no criminal record — panicked while driving on unfamiliar streets.

The names of the officers who fired at her car were never divulged. An investigation into the incident was not made public by the department. A two-page news release by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington announced “insufficient evidence” to charge the officers.

In an interview last week, Carey’s sister, Valarie Carey, said Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol by a mostly White mob “resurrected” the anger she has felt since the death of her sister, who was Black. The department’s lack of transparency made it difficult to learn basic details about officers’ response to her sister, their training and any reforms, she said.

“They have not been brought to justice. They haven’t even had to answer for their actions,” she said. “If the public, including families, aren’t given information, who’s to say what exactly happened?”

Gainer, who was serving as the Senate sergeant of arms in 2013, said he now regrets that the Capitol Police were not more responsive to the public after Carey’s death and the Navy Yard shooting.

“Those were the rules we had grown up with, but there’s no reason to continue doing that,” he said. “Over the past few years, police departments have been expected to release videos and reports and had to adapt. We should have had to explain why we did or didn’t use deadly force, just like the Capitol Police should have to do for January 6th.”

Capitol Police leadership faced a rare grilling on Capitol Hill in 2015. During a House Administration Committee hearing, lawmakers said they never would have found out about the guns left unattended if it hadn’t been leaked to the news media.

In the same hearing, members wondered how Capitol Police could have been so unprepared that same year for a gyrocopter landing on the West Lawn. The postal worker piloting the small aircraft had live-streamed the flight, and a Florida newspaper reporter had emailed the police agency about it a half-hour before the landing. “To me, it just seems like it would be all hands on deck when you get an email like this,” Nugent told Kim C. Dine, the Capitol Police chief at the time.

Lawmakers wanted to know how the agency prepared for attacks, how it filtered daily online threats and whether the police board was getting in the chief’s way — questions gaining new relevance in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot.

“It was pretty disturbing to be honest,” Nugent said this week. He spent 38 years in law enforcement before his election to Congress, including a decade as the sheriff of Hernando County, Fla. “It just seemed like they took things for granted instead of saying, ‘What’s the worst thing that could happen?’ and preparing for it. Which is how you need to look at things.”

Nugent drew a line between the lack of preparedness for the gyrocopter stunt and the underreaction to calls on social media to swarm Congress. In his six years in Congress, Nugent said, he does not remember ever seeing an inspector general report or an internal investigation of the Capitol Police.

Dine defended his record in an interview this week and said decisions about releasing information to the public typically were made by the Capitol Police Board.

The incidents with the misplaced guns were “addressed internally and swiftly,” he said. The gyrocopter pilot was arrested immediately, he said, and no property was damaged. And he noted a number of changes on his watch, such as putting the entire agency through active-shooter training and creating a board to review investigations into employee misconduct.

“Stuff happens when you’re the chief, and leadership depends on how you handle it,” he said. “We were interested in trying to raise the bar and hold people accountable as best we could.”

Congress’s inconsistent oversight of its own police force has been a source of frustration to the union, which has clashed with the leadership over the years.

Konczos, the former union chief, who retired in 2016 after 30 years as a Capitol Police officer, said the union repeatedly told leadership that top managers were not qualified, that too much training was online and that the chief lacked power under the police board.

“We would explain how dysfunctional the department was. No one ever listened,” said Konczos, who served for a decade as chairman of the labor committee’s executive board.

The current union leader, Gus Papathanasiou, echoed those complaints and blamed police officials for poor planning for the Jan. 6 session of Congress.

“I want to highlight that the lack of communication with the officers on January 6th was not an anomaly,” he said. “It is part of a pattern we have seen from the current USCP leadership.”

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who chairs the House committee that provides funding for the department, said at a news conference Monday that Congress needs to step up oversight “1,000 percent.” He said he had urged the acting police chief, Yogananda D. Pittman, to engage with the press in the future because “there’s been an issue with the Capitol Police around transparency.”

About four hours later, Pittman sent out a news release saying that several officers had been suspended and that “the investigation of the January 6 riot is continuing.”

 

[WiseGirl]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"White House moving day packed with taxpayer-funded Covid-19 cleanings and shifting sports equipment"

Quote

(CNN)A thorough cleaning is part of the every-four-years tradition that comes with the outgoing president and his family swapping White House living with the incoming president and family.

The delicate and highly choreographed event of packing up and moving out, and unpacking and moving in, done by dozens of prepped and trained staff and movers, typically occurs in the six-hour window when both the exiting and entering presidents and their spouses attend Inauguration Day ceremonies on Capitol Hill. By the time the new president and first lady return to the White House, all of their stuff will have been moved in and ready to go -- down to a refrigerator stocked with their favorite foods and the master bathroom equipped with their preferred shampoo.

But, like most things Trump administration, this January 20 won't be very traditional.

Before the Bidens move in, the White House will first undergo a Covid-19 cleansing, top to bottom, from East Wing to West Wing. According to federal contract data reviewed by CNN, the total for the amplified White House inauguration deep clean right now hovers near a half-million dollars.

This includes $127,000 for what one government order refers to as "2021 Inaugural Cleaning," bid out to Didlake, a Virginia-based business that employs people with disabilities for jobs including janitorial and housekeeping services. That's separate from a $44,000 order for carpet cleaning and the $115,000 purchase agreement for "2021 Presidential Inauguration and Transition Carpet Replacement and Installation to correct the current floor condition of selected interior floors for various offices," within the East Wing, West Wing and Executive Office Building, according to the description.

In traditional administration-swaps, the bulk of the cleaning, while thorough, is done predominantly by White House staff -- housekeepers, butlers, ushers -- and upkeep such as electrical fixes and small maintenance jobs completed by White House workers, of which there are typically 90 to 100 in roles that range from pastry cooks to florists to plumbers.

However, this time around, the incoming Biden administration wanted to ensure that 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, which has been a hot spot of at least three Covid-19 breakouts, gets the sort of scrub-down a pandemic deserves, according to a White House official who spoke with CNN on the condition of anonymity.

"The idea that they would just move in seems unlikely," said the official, who was not aware of the specific contract numbers but was aware there were additional measures being taken after the Trumps leave the White House.

The big day

President Donald Trump tweeted last week that he will not attend President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration and CNN has reported the Trumps are scheduled to leave Washington the day prior, on January 19. Biden is planning to spend the night before his inauguration in a Washington hotel, people familiar with the plans say, and will move to the White House after the thorough clean.

"People tend to forget how big this building is," said the official; the White House is some 55,000 square feet.

The Biden transition team did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment about the additional cleaning contracts.

Additional inaugural cleaning contracts, which were all made though the Public Building Service within the General Service Administration, include more than $29,000 to clean the curtains in the East Wing, West Wing and Eisenhower Executive Office Building and $53,000 for painting and wall coverings.

Typically, the window of time on Inauguration Day is not enough for updating paint and wallpaper around the house, but as there is more time now, thanks to what appears to be the Trumps' early departure on January 19, the walls will get refreshed. A contract for $37,975 was awarded to an Annapolis, Maryland, company for the removal of trash and recycling, "per the scope of work in relation to the 2021 Inauguration."

Another $50,000 has been contracted for overtime pay for the movers.

Melania Trump already making moves

Melania Trump has been moving items for almost two months, according to multiple sources. She has already completed several shipments to Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach, Florida, private club where the first couple is expected to reside. She has also put much of the family's furniture and décor into storage. One of the sources estimates Trump is "about 50%" packed from the White House, a job she began in earnest in the weeks following Election Day.

Despite the national turmoil, two sources confirm to CNN that much of her attention has been on her photo album collection, a hobby she has maintained for more than a decade, clipping and creating large, leather-bound albums embossed with the dates and occasions of each of the contents.

One of the sources familiar with her penchant for photo albums said the first lady has utilized the services of her official White House photographer, Andrea Hanks, to help her complete the personal projects. Hanks is a government employee and her request for overtime hours has riled colleagues in the White House photo office.

The East Wing did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.

The first lady's chief of staff and spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, resigned last Wednesday following the insurrection at the Capitol. Melania Trump has not been seen publicly since returning from her Florida home to the White House on December 31.

Bidens moving in

Meanwhile, the Biden transition team has already been in touch with White House chief usher Timothy Harleth, two sources told CNN. Harleth was hired by Melania Trump in June 2017; he was previously working at the Trump International Hotel Washington as manager of rooms. One White House source said Harleth is covertly helping the Biden team navigate the moving-in process, as the tradition of the current first lady welcoming the incoming first lady never happened under Trump -- Melania Trump still has yet to reach out to Jill Biden.

As such, communication between staffs on the two opposing sides is nonexistent, where prior administrations, even those on opposite sides of the political aisle, have by now had lengthy and in-depth discussion about moving logistics.

It is not clear, for example, whether the Biden family's moving trucks will be allowed to haul the President-elect's beloved Peloton from his Wilmington, Delaware, home into the White House residence. The standalone bikes typically have video cameras that connect to the internet, which could be one of few minor hiccups.

Past presidents' high-tech gadgets have typically required security vetting and retrofitting -- especially when they connect to the internet or cell networks. The Washington Post reported in February 2019 that Trump had a $50,000, room-sized golf simulator installed in the White House -- replacing a less sophisticated simulator installed by President Barack Obama. At the time, the price for the fully set-up Trump simulator from TrackMan, which has golf simulators at multiple Trump properties, started at around $50,000.

High-end simulators such as TrackMan's often connect to the internet and have sensors or cameras. Emails from the US Secret Service obtained by CNN through the Freedom of Information Act show that agency personnel, including a protective detail liaison for the Secret Service's Technical Security Division, exchanged "notes" and "tech info" on the TrackMan golf simulator in the months prior to its reported installation.

Previous presidents didn't have such high-tech problems. President George W. Bush asked for workout equipment, including an elliptical machine and dumbbells, to be installed in a poolside cabana steps from the Oval Office, and a fold-up treadmill to be placed aboard Air Force One. Old-school enough not to raise security flags.

No word whether Biden's Peloton will get the same scrutiny.

 

[church_of_dog]

7 hours ago, AprilCameron said:

Seems to be.

So we’re doing lots of reading because COVID. Even more than usual. 

While I’ve enjoyed the Kay Scarpetta series I need something new (and less murdery) to explore. Preferably fiction and not serial. 

Any ideas? Thank you very much, in advance.

If you like the category of psychological thrillers, I enjoyed many of Lisa Scottoline's standalone novels.

[Satan'sFortress]

8 hours ago, AprilCameron said:

Anyone notice how the majority of the MAGA crowd don’t seem to have adequate & appropriate mastery of written English? Misspellings of common terms abound. And it annoys me to no end! If they had any sense they would engage in receiving literacy tutoring instead of humping Trump’s leg.

Yes. They would call us elitist for noticing or caring.  Has this gem been posted yet? My son wants to name his fake band "The Electric Collage" now.

 

Edited January 12, 2021 by Satan'sFortress

[AprilCameron]

12 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"White House moving day packed with taxpayer-funded Covid-19 cleanings and shifting sports equipment"

 

After they bleach they better sage the hell outta the place. Like til the smoke is pouring out the windows.

[kpmom]

6 minutes ago, Satan'sFortress said:

Yes. They would call us elitist for noticing or caring.  Has this gem been posted yet? My son wants to name his fake band "The Electric Collage now.

 

And why is her friend against steel?

7 minutes ago, AprilCameron said:

After they bleach they better sage the hell outta the place. Like til the smoke is pouring out the windows.

And get every priest in DC to bless the place!

[AmazonGrace]

 

Oh they think Trump won't burn the house down when he leaves. How quaint.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/chilling-security-tightens-around-capitol-ahead-biden-inauguration-amid-increased-n1253914?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma

Spoiler

 

Jan. 12, 2021, 10:30 PM EET / Updated Jan. 13, 2021, 12:30 AM EET

By Kasie Hunt, Alex Moe and Dareh Gregorian

WASHINGTON — House Democrats briefed on security preparations ahead of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration said Tuesday there is an "increased threat" to the Capitol — and that officials are working to combat it.

A member who was on the call late Monday with U.S. Capitol Police and other security officials described it to NBC News as "chilling and horrific."

"There isn't much that I can share, but what I think is important for the public to know is that there is an increased threat. What we experienced Wednesday could potentially be repeated and there are proper steps being taken," Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., told MSNBC on Tuesday.

"There is more coordination with national security and federal law enforcement to make sure that the Capitol is not breached, that members of Congress and their staff and everyone who is going to be at the Capitol will be safe the next, you know, 10 or so days until the inauguration," she said.

Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., provided some details to CNN on Tuesday morning, saying, "They're talking about 4,000 armed patriots to surround the capitol and prevent any Democrat from going in. They have published rules of engagement, meaning when you shoot and when you don't."

"So, this is an organized group that has a plan," he said. "They are committed to doing what they're doing because I think in their minds, you know, they are patriots and they're talking about 1776, and so this is now a contest of wills. We are not negotiating with or reasoning with these people. They have to be prosecuted. They have to be stopped. And, unfortunately, that includes the president. Which is why he needs to be impeached and removed from office."

The briefing comes days after supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol in protest of the election results, leading to five deaths as well as widespread damage throughout the building. In the days since then, Trump supporters with extremist views have vowed to return to Washington for the upcoming inauguration.

In a statement issued after they received another security briefing on Tuesday, several top House Democrats said more needed to be done to prepare.

“Based on today’s briefing, we have grave concerns about ongoing and violent threats to our democracy. It is clear that more must be done to preempt, penetrate, and prevent deadly and seditious assaults by domestic violent extremists in the days ahead," said the statement by the group, which included Oversight chair Carolyn Maloney and Judiciary chair Jerrold Nadler, both of New York, and Homeland Security chair Bennie Thompson of Mississippi.

They said they would be "working closely with our leadership in Congress and all appropriate federal, state, and local authorities."

On Monday, the FBI sent a memo to law enforcement agencies across the country warning about possible armed protests at all 50 state capitals starting Saturday and saying an armed group has threatened to travel to Washington, D.C. the same day to stage an uprising if Congress removes Trump from office, according to a senior law enforcement official.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., notified senators that they would receive a briefing Tuesday afternoon on inauguration security, a Senate source told NBC News. Briefers will include representatives from the Secret Service, the Dept. of Defense and Homeland Security. "Very simply: we will do everything in our power to prevent such an attack from ever happening again," Schumer told his colleagues in a letter.

Later Tuesday, House Republicans are expected to receive a security briefing similar to the Democrats' Monday briefing, two sources said.

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Additional security measures were also put in place inside the Capitol. The acting House sergeant-at-arms announced metal detectors were being installed outside the House Chamber, and that even members would have to use them. The announcement said the precautions were being instituted to "ensure compliance with the Capitol Police Board regulations concerning firearms and incendiary devices, as well as to provide a safe and secure environment in which to conduct legislative business."

The officials in the Monday House briefing also provided updates about the newly constructed perimeter around the Capitol and the increasing number of National Guard troops securing it. They also answered questions regarding security for lawmakers traveling from their districts but also their travel within Washington, D.C., to the Capitol, according to a source on the call.

Videos that went viral on social media in the past week showed angry Trump supporters haranguing Sens. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., for not fighting to overturn the election results.

There were also questions about increased threats that members may face as a result of the upcoming impeachment vote on Wednesday. Democratic members were reminded by the House Administration Committee that they can use government money to protect themselves, which is included in the Members' Congressional Handbook. "The purchase of a bulletproof vest is a reimbursable expense,” the guidance reads.

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser had asked that a state of emergency be declared in her city ahead of the inauguration, a request Trump signed off on in an order on Monday night. The move will help the city pay for extra expenses related to the inauguration.

Bowser has also asked the federal government to rescind or deny all permits for public demonstrations through the inauguration. She told ABC News Tuesday morning she had yet to receive a response to her request, which she acknowledged was "extraordinary."

Bowser also urged residents to stay away from the inauguration.

"I want to continue to ask all of our residents to stay away from the downtown to enjoy the inauguration activities virtually and let our law enforcement keep peace," she said.

Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., told MSNBC the threats of further violence must be taken seriously.

"After a deadly attack on the Capitol, where these mobs incited by the president viciously attacked the Capitol Police resulting in death and destruction, and an attack on our democracy, we can't take these reports about the threats for next week as anything less than utterly serious," Deutch said.

"The threat is real and we have to treat it that way," he said.

 

 

[KWLand]

I don’t understand the forget/ignore/forgive and move on mindset.

a) most of them seem to be self proclaimed Christians and that is not the teaching Christ.  Acknowledging our sins and asking for forgiveness is Christianity 101.  Growth and Change is necessary

b) discussion of the past brings healing and change.  Yes you can sweep things under the rug and ignore it happened, but rarely does that build healthy relationships 

My brother is a child molester.  It was done when he was a teen and he was immediately removed from the home and his victims out in counseling when it was discovered.  He was placed in a home, juvie and then a home again.  Years ago he reached out trying to have a relation.  I told him the boundaries and that we had to discuss his actions because even thought I wasn’t a first hand victim my life will never be the same.  He refused. He wanted me to forget it happened and used the “I’m saved now and as a Christian you are suppose to forgive me.”   He has relationships with his birth family and last year I finally asked mom (his adopted mom) how they could forgive him and have a relationship.  They swept it under a rug and deny that it happened.  The relationship was more important than the truth.   It reminds me a lot of people’s reactions here.  Admitting that it happened is admitting our country is broken and they played an active part.  It was broken before (always) but this brought it to the forefront.

when my kids apologize they have to say why they are sorry and how they will fit it.  Today the 3 year old said “I’m sorry I put my hands down my undies and didn’t wash my hands.  Next time I wash hands.”  If a 3 year old can form a sincere apology, grown adults can.  To expect the country to move on and forget it happened is  ignoring responsibility.

I tried to talk to DH today about it.  He is the most easy going guy and so middle of the road about life.  He doesn’t support Trump but also doesn’t want to talk about Politics (partly because I’m still learning so until March, I didn’t even know the difference between liberal and conservative.  They were anti-trump/Reagan or pro both.  I didn’t know why.  I’ll be voting in my first election in April if I feel educated enough so he’s heard me yammer for ten parts.  Also if he’s going to focus on something it’ll be worrying about my health and that would get overwhelming so I’m glad I have a safe place so I can stop asking him.  And if I send DD one more link or meme she may block me ?.)

[47of74]

I hope the state invites her to find new employment

Quote

An Iowa Department of Public Safety worker who traveled to Washington, D.C., to support President Donald Trump’s push to overturn the election says she understands the rage that fueled the riot, writing online that it “had to happen.”

Hollie Davidson, an administrative assistant at the Iowa Statewide Interoperable Communications Systems Board, said she participated in two days of “Stop the Steal” rallies but was not among the mob that entered the Capitol. Five people were killed during the rampage, which delayed Congress' certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the November election.

Reached at her state office phone, Davidson said Tuesday that she witnessed “exactly what happened" outside the building and that the media unfairly blamed pro-Trump protesters for the violence.

“Unfortunately, a few bad people got mixed in there, whether they be antifa or someone else," she said. Federal officials have said there is no evidence that the far-left-leaning militant group was a catalyst.

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

Adam Kinzinger is also a yes on the impeachment. Not surprised about that one.

Lectern guy is out with an ankle brace because he's Mr. Dad.  https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article248423305.html

[WiseGirl]

My state is sending National Guard troops to help out with the Inauguration and has Air National Guard  on standby.

I had to watch Lester Holt/evening news for some reason he calms me and right now I will take that.  Maybe the yoga helped too.

Now I remember what else I wanted to say. It was reported that McTurtle would be fine with impeaching 45 because he wants 45 ousted from the repug party. A little late buddy. You should've done it long ago.

Edited January 13, 2021 by WiseGirl
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