Poor Stallman

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/end-child-marriage-u-s-you-might-be-surprised-who-n1050471 ✞🐘✞ End child marriage in the U.S.? You might be surprised at who's opposed ✞🐘✞ Sept. 8, 2019 ✞🐘✞ Conservatives have found some surprising allies as they fight efforts to raise the marriage age. ✞🐘✞ A bill that would have ended child marriage in Idaho — which has no minimum age for couples who want to wed — died in the Statehouse this year. Republican lawmakers, who control the Legislature, opposed it, including state Rep. Bryan Zollinger, who said it "went too far." ✞🐘✞ >>328

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection -- Psychological projection is a defense mechanism in which the human ego defends itself against unconscious impulses or qualities (both positive and negative) by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others.[1] For example, a bully may project their own feelings of vulnerability onto the target. It incorporates blame shifting and can manifest as shame dumping.[2] Projection has been described as an early phase of introjection.[3]

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-nov-feb.html#5_January_2021_(Proud_Boys_leader_arrested) -- The head of the right-wing intimidation group, the Proud Boys, has been arrested for threatening actions in a rally. -- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/04/enrique-tarrio-rightwing-proud-boys-arrested -- Enrique Tarrio, leader of rightwing Proud Boys, arrested ahead of rallies -- Tue 5 Jan 2021 -- He was charged with destruction of property – related to his role in burning a Black Lives Matter banner – and a firearms offense -- >>554

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/end-child-marriage-u-s-you-might-be-surprised-who-n1050471 ✞🐘✞ End child marriage in the U.S.? You might be surprised at who's opposed ✞🐘✞ Sept. 8, 2019 ✞🐘✞ Conservatives have found some surprising allies as they fight efforts to raise the marriage age. ✞🐘✞ A bill that would have ended child marriage in Idaho — which has no minimum age for couples who want to wed — died in the Statehouse this year. Republican lawmakers, who control the Legislature, opposed it, including state Rep. Bryan Zollinger, who said it "went too far." ✞🐘✞ >>328

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-nov-feb.html#5_January_2021_(Lies_for_disenfranchisement) -- Georgia's lawyers lied to a Federal court to justify their arbitrary and unjustified disenfranchisement of almost 200,000 black voters. Palast's team may win in the end, but it will be too late for them to vote in the crucial Jan 5 senate runoff. In charge of this is same Brad Raffensperger who continues to resist the conman's pressure to declare the Georgia presidential election (which he was in charge of) to be fraudulent and overturn it. Doing the right thing once when it is difficult does not make up for doing wrong on several other occasions. However, it makes me wonder why Raffensperger stubbornly defends democracy on one occasion while trashing it eagerly on others. -- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/04/trumps-phone-call-to-brad-raffensperger-five-key-points -- Trump's phone call to Brad Raffensperger: six key points -- Mon 4 Jan 2021 -- Conversation between president and Georgia’s secretary of state laid bare Trump’s determination to cling on to power -- >>552

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-nov-feb.html#8_January_2021_(Supporters_of_the_wrecker_broke_into_the_capital_by_force) -- The wrecker spoke to crowd of his supporters in DC and sent them to attack the Capitol. They broke in by force and interrupted Congress, and tried to take over the building. Violence against the US under a Confederate flags declares treason as well as racism. Rebecca Solnit: * I call it a coup attempt because, though I assume that it will not prevent the Biden presidency, it certainly intended to.* I agree. Using rioters in the streets alongside action by insiders is common practice in coup attempts. That worked, temporarily, in Bolivia in 2018. I think it was employed in Czechoslovakia in 1948. I am sure there are other examples that don't come to my mind now. I criticize Solnit on one point. She repeatedly describes the actions of the coup supporters as "white male rage." That is an unjust racist/sexist generalization: it falsely imputes that attitude to all white males. Bernie Sanders is a white male; so are various other progressive leaders. So is Biden. They do not participate in that "white male rage". I am not of Sanders's stature, but I too have rejected that attitude all my life. This stereotype is just as wrong as the hostile stereotypes about blacks and about women, which I am sure Solnit would call out. -- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/06/us-capitol-trump-mob-election-democracy -- Maga mob's Capitol invasion makes Trump's assault on democracy literal -- Wed 6 Jan 2021 -- Hundreds of the president’s supporters stormed the Capitol in the most dramatic challenge to US democracy since the civil war

The US Capitol, the seat of American democracy, has been stormed by a pro-Donald Trump mob, egged on by the president in a desperate and violent effort to overturn the results of the election. Minutes after the news spread that the vice-president had announced he would not do the president’s bidding and reverse Trump’s defeat to Joe Biden at the ballot box, hundreds of pro-Trump rioters broke down the barriers around the Capitol building, and surged forward. Footage from inside the building showed that some pro-Trump rioters had reached one of the doors to the Capitol and smashed out the glass. A group managed to make their way to the atrium of the Senate Rotunda, carrying Confederate flags. The Capitol police were outnumbered and seemed to melt away. One female rioter was shot and later died of her injuries, according to the DC police. Three other people experienced “medical emergencies” throughout the day and died. Explosive devices were found near the offices of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee. Several police officers were also injured.

It was the most dramatic challenge to the US democratic system since the civil war and it forced the suspension of a joint session of Congress that had convened to certify the results of November’s presidential election. Members of Congress were told to put on gas masks after teargas was fired in the Rotunda of the US Capitol, and the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and other senators were led out, escorted by staff and police. A 6pm curfew was declared in the capital, and the Pentagon said about 1,100 DC national guard would be deployed to help support law enforcement agencies. And a few hundred miles away in Georgia, votes were being counted in runoff elections.

Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff both won their races, giving Democrats control of the Senate for the opening of Joe Biden’s presidency in a unmistakable renunciation of Trump and Trumpism in the deep south. The crowds in Washington, however, had been told by their leader that the votes against him had been rigged, and told to march on the Capitol to “stand strong for the integrity of our elections” and to “save our democracy”. Trump told them to converge on Congress “peacefully and patriotically” but order broke down just minutes after he spoke. The mob, in Make America Great Again caps, rushed up the Capitol steps, forcing the police to withdraw, firing flash-bangs and paintballs from higher balconies in an effort to keep them at bay.

The massed ranks of national guard and federal agencies who had driven peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters off the streets around the White House over the summer were nowhere to be seen. In the eyes of the rioters, the democratic procedures and traditions of which the US has thus far been so proud, had been transformed, by their leader’s insistent oratory, into the mere trappings of betrayal. As protesters took selfies inside the Senate chamber and offices, Trump tweeted “Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue.” But the outgoing president came under increasing pressure – from allies and foes – to condemn the violence.

Joe Biden lamented the “assault on the rule of law” in Washington, a “citadel of liberty”. “The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect a true America, do not represent who we are,” the president-elect said. “What we’re seeing is a small number of extremists dedicated to lawlessness.” Biden said the violence at the Capitol “borders on sedition” and “must end now”. “I call on President Trump to go on national television now, to fulfill his oath and defend the constitution and demand an end to this siege,” Biden said. “It’s not a protest; it’s insurrection. The world is watching.”

Trump’s vice-president called on the rioters to leave the Capitol immediately, going further than Trump who merely called for his supported to “remain peaceful”. In a tweet on Wednesday afternoon, Pence said, “This attack on our Capitol will not be tolerated and those involved will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” Hours after his supporters had stormed the Capitol, Trump released a video telling them: “Go home, we love you, you’re very special,”. But he also used the video to repeat his baseless claims about the “fraudulent” vote which he lost. At the other end of the national mall, half an hour before the Capitol was besieged, the defeated president had painted a stark picture. Those Republicans who voted to upturn the election were the patriots, and the others were “weak” and “pathetic” allowing Democrats to destroy the country.

Trump singled out his vice-president, Pence, who until Wednesday had been loyal to a fault. “Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us, and if he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country,” Trump yelled from a stage that had been set up a block from the White House, for a crowd that had gathered on the grassy Ellipse below the national monument. As the president was speaking, Pence was, for the first time, doing the opposite of what he was been told by his boss. He formally notified Congress that his role was a ceremonial one, to read out the election results, not to change them. Trump had promised his supporters he would accompany them on their walk to the Capitol, but instead drove in his motorcade the hundred metres back to the White House, from where he fired off a tweet disowning Pence who he alleged “didn’t have the courage” to protect the country and the constitution. The day had begun seemingly like any other American political carnival, with bright flags, exuberant costumes and vendors selling T-shirts and hotdogs. It was only with a closer look, that something it became apparent far more dystopian was at hand, with a seething potential for violence.

“Fuck Your Feelings, Trump 2020,” was the message on the fastest-selling T-shirt. Some of the flags declared: “Fuck Biden”. The crowd that sprawled across the Ellipse was a mix of families and the elderly, men and women, young and old. Only about one in 10 was wearing camouflage gear, though that was more than the percentage wearing masks. A young couple, Kasey and Mike, were sitting under one of the ornamental cherry trees planted along the mall, having traveled down from Rhode Island to witness the climactic day. They spoke with the dreamy smiles of two people in love, sharing a moment in history, but their message was one of looming conflict. “People here are mad. They’ve watched so many people destroy our country like that. I don’t think they’re just gonna sit back any more,” Kasey said, convinced that a Biden win would lead to a bleak, socialist state. “I think Trump’s only option he really has left is to call military action into it because he has the right to do that.”

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-nov-feb.html#8_January_2021_(Report_on_the_insurrection) -- Reporting on the insurrectionist mob at the Capitol. Some of the insurrectionists attacked journalists. -- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/07/capitol-attack-trump-targeted-journalists -- 'We're the news now': Pro-Trump mob targeted journalists at US Capitol -- Fri 8 Jan 2021 -- Pro-Trump rioters wrote ‘Murder the media’ on a Capitol door and attacked a group of reporters and their camera equipment

The violent mob of Donald Trump supporters that stormed the US Capitol >>563 on Wednesday targeted journalists and the press during the rampage, incited by a president who has branded the news media [ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/03/trump-enemy-of-the-people-meaning-history ] an “enemy of the people”. “Murder the media,” >>542 was the message scrawled on a door of the Capitol during the attack. Outside, the Bloomberg News reporter William Turton captured on video the moment that part of the mob began to attack a group of reporters and their camera equipment while yelling, “Fuck the mainstream media.” As one man brandished a flag pole as a weapon and others menaced, the journalists abandoned their equipment to retreat. “We are the news now,” said one of the rioters, according to the BuzzFeed News reporter Paul McLeod. The sentiment has become common among adherents of QAnon >>411 and other rightwing conspiracy movements, who have worked to create an alternative disinformation ecosystem that is impervious to reality or evidence-based reporting. The group subsequently fashioned a noose from the abandoned camera equipment, McLeod reported.

Paul McLeod (@pdmcleod) They made a noose from the camera cord and hung it from a tree. pic.twitter.com/M9KC7odLAm January 6, 2021

The mob was not the only threat to journalists in Washington DC on Wednesday. Two reporters for the Washington Post were briefly detained by police while reporting on Tuesday night, an echo of the extensive targeting of reporters [ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/31/george-floyd-protests-reporters-targeted-by-police-and-crowds ] by law enforcement that was seen throughout the Black Lives Matter uprisings [sic re:theguardian] of 2020. The reporters, Zoeann Murphy and Whitney Leaming, said on Twitter that they were released quickly and were safe. Leaming referred obliquely to the strain and trauma of reporting under such conditions, however, tweeting, “I have heard from so many journalist friends/colleagues who were at or around the Capitol today that they are ‘fine’. This is a lie. They are not fine but they push aside their physical safety and mental health to focus on the story at hand [because] one of the most important rules of journalism is that the story is not about you. Just please remember that and maybe not threaten their life, I beg you.”

Many reporters ended up sheltering alongside members of Congress as the Capitol came under attack. The Los Angeles Times reporter Sarah D Wire wrote [ https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-01-06/im-in-a-roomful-of-people-panicked-that-i-might-inadvertently-give-away-their-location ] about hiding in the House gallery during an armed standoff. Norma Torres, a congresswoman from southern California, used her Twitter account to send a photo of Wire to the LA Times. The message: she is safe. Advocates for freedom of the press condemned the day’s events, noting that the Capitol building is the workplace not just for the country’s lawmakers, but for those who report on them. “Yesterday’s attack on the US Capitol posed a grave threat to our democracy,” said Bruce Brown, the executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom [ https://www.rcfp.org/rcfp-us-capitol-attack-statement/ ] of the Press, in a statement.

“Rioters at the Capitol called for violence against members of the news media, destroyed news equipment and verbally harassed journalists as the ‘enemy of the people’ – actions that not only pose a dire threat to those working tirelessly to bring information to our communities, but also to the press freedom that is a bedrock value of our nation. “These actions are the direct result of years of this language stoking fear and hate for one of our most vital institutions. Our free press is crucial to democracy, and indeed, one of the pillars that will help keep it standing beyond this moment.”

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#9_December_2020_(Millionaire_tax) -- Argentina Passes "Millionaire's Tax" to Fund Covid-19 Recovery. -- https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/06/argentina-passes-millionaires-tax-fund-covid-19-recovery -- Argentina Passes "Millionaire's Tax" to Fund Covid-19 Recovery -- Sunday, December 06, 2020 -- "We're coming out of this pandemic like countries come out of world wars, with thousands of dead and devastated economies," said one senator. -- >>519

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-nov-feb.html#8_January_2021_(Domestic_terrorists) -- Biden called the Capitol insurrectionists "domestic terrorists" and condemned the wrecker as the enemy of the Constitution. This suggests he has dropped the idea of letting the wrecker off the hook. I am very glad. Democratic politicians and progressive groups are calling for Pence and the cabinet to declare the wrecker unfit and remove him from office, which they have the power to do. I would support this call, except for one thing: Pence would become president and might pardon the wrecker straightaway. If Pence were committed not to pardon him, then I would support it. Impeaching the wrecker now would run into similar problems. Appropriate though it would be in principle, prosecuting him later is more important than whatever we do to him for the next 12 days. -- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/07/joe-biden-trump-mob-domestic-terrorists -- Biden decries Trump mob: 'Don't call them protesters. They were domestic terrorists' -- Thu 7 Jan 2021 -- President-elect condemns one of America’s ‘darkest days’; Trump condemned for inciting violence that took place

President-elect Joe Biden condemned as “domestic terrorists” >>411 the violent mob of Donald Trump supporters that stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, calling the assault on the seat of American government “one of the darkest days in the history of our nation”. “They weren’t protesters – don’t dare call them protesters,” Biden said in remarks from Wilmington, Delaware, on Thursday. “They were a riotous mob. Insurrectionists. Domestic terrorists. It’s that basic. It’s that simple.” Biden spoke hours after Congress formally certified his victory in the November presidential election, a constitutionally mandated ritual that was disrupted by rioters seeking to keep Trump in power.

In his remarks, Biden blamed Trump for inciting the violence that had transpired in his name. “For the past four years we’ve had a president who has made his contempt for our democracy, our constitution, and the rule of law clear in everything he has done,” Biden said. “He has unleashed an all-out assault on the institutions of our democracy.” For hours, loyalists of the president roamed the halls of Congress as law enforcement struggled to respond. Some waved Trump flags, others carried Confederate flags. They broke windows and trampled through the Senate chamber.

As the events unfolded on Wednesday, Biden said he received a text from his granddaughter, Finnegan, with a photo of the police presence outside the Lincoln Memorial last summer when Black Lives Matter activists demonstrated against the police killing of George Floyd. Pointing to the strikingly different response from law enforcement to Wednesday’s largely white mob, she wrote: “Pop, this isn’t fair.” Biden agreed. “No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesters yesterday, they would have been treated very, very differently than the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol,” Biden said, his voice swelling with indignation. “We all know that’s true. And it’s unacceptable. Totally unacceptable.”

In labeling the rioters “domestic terrorists”, Biden was reflecting his commitment to combating far-right >>314 extremism, a growing threat the current administration has largely ignored. His remarks came as he introduced his nominee for attorney general, Judge Merrick Garland, as well as three other officials to lead the justice department. Biden said the attorney general would serve as the “people’s lawyer” and that his nominees would help restore judicial independence to the department. “Your loyalty is not to me,” he told his intended nominees. “It’s to the law, the constitution, the people of this nation, to guarantee justice.”

Garland, who currently serves as a judge on the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, said Wednesday’s assault on Congress was a reminder that “the rule of law is not just some lawyer’s turn of phrase. It is the very foundation of our democracy.” Speaking after Biden, Garland recalled the history of the justice department, which was created in 1870 during the period of Reconstruction to protect the civil rights of newly emancipated Black citizens against the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups. “These principles ensuring the rule of law and making the promise of equal justice under law real are the great principles under which the Department of Justice was founded and for which it must always stand,” Garland said, speaking after Biden. “They echo today in the priorities that lie before us, from ensuring racial equity in our justice system to meeting the evolving threat of violent extremism. If confirmed, those are the principles to which I will be devoted as attorney general.”

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-nov-feb.html#10_January_2021_(Anti-reality_extremists'_call_for_violence) -- Anti-reality extremists were calling for violence in DC on Jan 6 for weeks before that date. *Extremists intensify calls for violence ahead of Inauguration Day.* -- https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/01/09/far-right-activists-social-media-telegraphed-violence-weeks-advance-attack-us -- Far-Right Activists on Social Media Telegraphed Violence Weeks in Advance of the Attack on the US Capitol -- Saturday, January 09, 2021 -- The siege was consistent with their openly expressed hopes and plans.

The attack on the U.S. Capitol [ https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/06/us/trump-mob-capitol-building.html ] building on Jan. 6 was shocking, but no one following right-wing activity on social media should have been surprised. The attempt by President Donald Trump’s far-right supporters to violently stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote and formalizing Joe Biden’s election victory was consistent with their openly expressed hopes and plans. As a researcher of far-right extremism, I monitor right-wing social media communities. For weeks in advance, I watched as groups across the right-wing spectrum declared their intentions. On Facebook, Twitter, Parler and other platforms, influencers, politicians, activists and ordinary people focused on Jan. 6 as their final opportunity to prevent what they claimed was corruption on a monumental scale. To most of these activists, there was no possible resolution other than Trump emerging victorious. In the open, they discussed how they were preparing to force Congress and Vice President Mike Pence to nullify the election results and declare Trump the victor.

The buildup - Since the election in November, Trump and his allies had spread baseless conspiracy theories alleging that Democrats, some Republicans and the “deep state” had committed widespread voter fraud to elect Biden. In this myth, Trump had won the election in a landslide, and only corrupt politicians stood in the way of his victory. These conspiracy theories sparked fury in all corners of the right-wing ecosystem, and the certification process for the Electoral College votes became a symbol of both corruption and opportunity. Conservative groups began organizing for a large-scale protest in Washington, D.C., following a tweet from President Trump posted on Dec. 18. “Big protest in D.C. on Jan. 6. Be there, will be wild!” he wrote. His instructions were taken seriously by mainstream supporters and far-right extremists alike. Stymied repeatedly in their efforts to overturn the election, Trump supporters and right-wing extremists searched for another avenue to reverse election results. For Trump and his supporters, Jan. 6 became a desperate, last-ditch effort. As social media posts showed, this desperation led them to express the righteousness of using violence to force Congress to act in their favor.

Out in the open - In the days preceding the events of Jan. 6, right-wing social media communities frequently discussed preparations, travel plans and hopes for the demonstrations. Across Twitter and Facebook, people began speaking of Jan. 6 in near-mystical terms. By surveying social media data from mid-December to Jan. 5, I discovered thousands of posts referring to the planned protests as if they were a coming revolution. In some circles, the event became synonymous with a final battle – the moment when all of the supposed crimes of Democrats would be laid bare, and when ordinary Americans would take back the government. “On January 6, we find out whether we still have a constitutional republic,” one user wrote on Twitter on New Year’s Eve. “If not, the revolution begins. I’d rather fight and die than live in a socialist society. Pretty sure 80 million Americans feel the same way.” Specific references to storming the Capitol also appeared, although infrequently. As one Twitter user put it, “Roberts is the Corrupt-in-chief. January 6. We need to storm Congress and @SCOTUS and arrest Roberts, McConnell, Pelosi, Schumer, McCarthy just to begin the swamp’s draining! >>228 >>230 >>531 #RobertsCorruptInChief.”

More frequently, QAnon >>411 adherents [ https://theconversation.com/qanon-and-the-storm-of-the-u-s-capitol-the-offline-effect-of-online-conspiracy-theories-152815 ] zeroed in on Jan. 6 as the beginning of a chain of events that would lead to apocalyptic cleansing they refer to as “The Storm.” Some even believed that The Storm would arrive during the demonstration itself, and that Trump would, far beyond any reasonable expectation, arrest members of the Democratic and global elite for treason while also winning the election. Although posts on Facebook and Twitter hinted that more than just protests were possible, nowhere was the coming violence as obvious as on Parler. The site, which has attracted millions of new conservative [ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/technology/parler-rumble-newsmax.html ] users in the past year, has positioned itself as a bastion for right-wing conspiracy theories and organizing efforts. From my research, hundreds of Parler users expressed their sincere belief, and even desire, that the demonstrations would spark a physical battle, revolution or civil war. “We are ready to fight back and we want blood,” a Parler post from Dec. 28 declared. “The president need to do some thing if Jan. 6 is the day then we are ready.” Another user stated, “January 6 will either be our saving grace or we will have another civil war that should end very quickly!! Either way Trump will be our POTUS!! Anything less is unacceptable!!” Using tools that allow me to monitor large-scale social media data, I found evidence that right-wing activists had been explicit and open with their intentions for the Jan. 6 demonstrations since at least mid-December. I have no doubt that the demonstration was specifically designed to force Congress to overturn the election. Although the act of storming the Capitol may not have been planned, the demonstrators had prepared for weeks to use at least the threat of physical violence to intimidate Congress and Pence during the certification process.

A pattern of planning and calls for violence - The profound transparency with which right-wing activists planned their demonstrations indicates both that extreme, anti-democratic thought has become normalized on Parler, and that Twitter and Facebook still struggle to moderate open calls to violence. This is not the first time. Right-wing activists have made a habit of organizing in the open and galvanizing supporters to express their desire for violent confrontation. Far-right activists have also engaged in online fundraising, including while livestreaming [ https://www.wired.com/story/dlive-livestreaming-site-extremist-haven/ ] the attack on the Capitol building. Since the attack, I’ve observed users on Parler, Facebook and Twitter simultaneously celebrating the occupiers and spreading unfounded, dangerous conspiracy theories that the instigators of the violence were actually antifascists and leftists. On Parler, many users have turned on Pence, and calls for the execution of politicians have increased. Law enforcement and intelligence services should learn from what happened and the apparent lack of preparedness [ https://www.wsj.com/articles/capitol-police-werent-prepared-for-rioters-authorities-say-11609978798 ] on the part of Capitol police, because this is likely to happen again. It’s impossible to know what will happen next. However, the communities that caused the events of Jan. 6 organized for it openly on social media – and they show every intention of acting again.

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-nov-feb.html#11_January_2021_(Actively_aiding_insurrectionists) -- The Capitol Police went way beyond being gentle with Wednesday's rioters. Some of them actively aided >>314 the insurrectionists to enter. -- https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/07/unacceptable-probe-demanded-after-footage-shows-capitol-police-standing-aside-pro -- 'Unacceptable!': Probe Demanded After Footage Shows Capitol Police Standing Aside for Pro-Trump Mob -- Thursday, January 07, 2021 -- "The images of police officers calmly allowing barricades open, letting the crowd enter, and taking selfies inside the building with those who have stormed it cannot go without investigation and penalty."

Images and videos of U.S. Capitol Police officers taking selfies with members of the pro-Trump mob that invaded the halls of Congress Wednesday fueled growing calls for an investigation into law enforcement's conduct during the assault, with members of Congress and advocacy groups accusing the cops of actively assisting the coup effort. The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, a free speech and civil rights organization, called for a "fully public investigation into the federal and local police planning and response to today's events, and termination and prosecution of all officers and officials found to have condoned or colluded with the violent mob that attacked the Capitol today." "What happened at the nation's Capitol today could only have occurred because law enforcement allowed it to happen. Far-right mobs smashed windows and doors, stormed the Capitol behind a traitorous, terrorist Confederate flag, and broke into the Senate chamber," the group said. "The images of police officers calmly allowing barricades open, letting the crowd enter, and taking selfies inside the building with those who have stormed it cannot go without investigation and penalty."

As mayhem engulfed Washington, D.C. Wednesday, footage circulated showing officers removing barricades that were keeping the crowd of frenzied Trump supporters away from the Capitol Building. Shortly thereafter, the mob swarmed the building, smashed windows, and entered the halls of Congress as law enforcement did little to prevent the invasion. Footage showed law enforcement officials taking selfies with Trump supporters: "If the federal police did not want far-right protesters to be inside the Capitol, they would not be inside the Capitol," Peter Gowan, a member of the steering committee of Metro D.C. Democratic Socialists of America, wrote for Jacobin on Wednesday. "Last summer, the police and National Guard attacked peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstrators who dared get too close to federal buildings. Countless people, including me, were injured."

"Authorities offered minimal resistance to the mob sent by the president to prevent the counting of electoral votes," Gowan added. "With few exceptions, the response has simply been to let the far-right mob pass, to wait and see rather than to prevent the violence and seizure of federal property that is occurring." When asked why they were not forcibly removing those who stormed the Capitol, one officer said, "We've just got to let them do their thing now." According to [ https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.huffpost.com/entry/us-capitol-riots-four-dead_n_5ff689bdc5b6ef6b15836370 ] the Associated Press [sic], four people died as Trump supporters rampaged through the halls of Congress and vandalized the building. Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) was among the Democratic lawmakers demanding a probe into the law enforcement response, telling the Washington Post that if those who swarmed the Capitol Building "had been Black, they would have been gunned down before they got inside." "My feelings about this are bolstered by the footage of law enforcement agents taking selfies with these domestic terrorists who had breached security, and of security removing metal barricades in order to allow the mob to get closer to the capitol," said Jones.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) echoed Jones' call: In a statement late Wednesday, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) noted that "since May of last year, D.C. police have brutally punished protesters for demonstrating against the state, police violence, and white supremacy." "This is in sharp contrast to the police response to white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, VA in 2017, where right-wing operatives and loyalists rioted in attempt to reverse a city council decision to remove racist monuments," the group said. "Today, police stood down yet again—as is expected of such an inherently white supremacist institution." "These right-wing operatives are their friends, family, and political >>314 brethren," NLG continued. "The difference between the police response to protesters of color just a few months ago and all throughout American history, and the current response to white Trump supporters instigating a coup, lays bare the priorities of U.S. law enforcement."

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-nov-feb.html#11_January_2021_(Rioters_attacking_reporters) -- The rioters at the Capitol menaced and sometimes attacked reporters. They said they hated all reporters. Sometimes they stole reporters' equipment and destroyed it. -- https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/07/murder-media-pro-trump-insurrectionists-target-journalists-covering-attack-us -- 'Murder the Media': Pro-Trump Insurrectionists Target Journalists >>564 Covering Attack on US Capitol -- Thursday, January 07, 2021 -- The takeover followed an inflammatory speech in which the president, yet again, called the press "the enemy of the people."

In the hours after President Donald Trump yet again declared the press the "enemy of the people" in speech that incited his supporters to storm the halls of Congress on Wednesday, the pro-Trump mob chased journalists covering the chaos, destroyed their equipment, and even carved "murder the media" into a door at the U.S. Capitol. Reporters took to social media during and after the siege to share the alarming attacks, which were forcefully condemned by industry colleagues, union leaders, and journalism advocacy groups that have long condemned the president's "media-bashing" and warned of its negative impacts on press freedom both within the United States and around the world. "Protesters swarmed and mobbed my team at the Capitol after figuring out who we are. Extremely aggressive, had to get out fast," tweeted CNN senior national security correspondent Alexander Marquardt. "After I called them rioters just now on air, the crowd converged on the area press had gathered so we took off. This is a mob of violent rioters, no other way to put it."

NBC4 Washington reporter Shomari Stone said Trump supporters swarmed journalists while yelling, as Trump does, that "the media is the enemy of the people." Along with tweeting a video of the insurrectionists destroying equipment, he said, "I've never seen anything like this in my 20 year career." Other reporters and media outlets also circulated footage of what journalists endured while working in the midst of what some lawmakers and political commentators have called a terrorist attack and attempted coup incited by a president who still refuses to accept his legitimate loss to President-elect Joe Biden in the November election. As some journalists reported on the mayhem inside and outside the Capitol, others who had been in the building to cover the joint congressional session and debates over electoral votes "were forced to shelter in secure locations for hours," the New York Times [ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/business/media/media-murder-capitol-building.html ] noted while sharing additional accounts from members of the media:

A video taken by William Turton, a Bloomberg News reporter, showed a crowd outside the building advancing on a camera crew, yelling, "Get out of here," and smashing equipment. Paul McLeod, a BuzzFeed News reporter, shared a photo of a noose the group had fashioned out of a camera cord and hung from a tree.
Some in the mob chanted "CNN sucks" as they stomped on cameras, though the equipment was labeled with stickers from the Associated Press. (A spokesman for the AP confirmed that its equipment had been stolen and destroyed, adding that none of its staff members had been injured.)

Turton told the Times that the mob targeted a media pen after the police had pushed them out of the Capitol. "After that happened, they chased anyone with a camera out of there," he said. "I saw this Italian TV crew they chased out, and I knew they were Italian because I actually took the Amtrak down with them." According to Playboy senior White House reporter Brian Karem, open hostility from Trump supporters toward journalists on Wednesday started even before the hours-long takeover of the Capitol—which delayed certification of Biden's Electoral College victory by Congress until the early hours of Thursday.

As I walked on campus today, a Trump supporter asked me if I was the @Playboy reporter. When I said yes, he replied “F-you. I hope you die soon.” “Have a good day,” I replied. An hour later @realDonaldTrump says the press is the enemy of the people. pic.twitter.com/H0jvJ6mTNs — Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) January 6, 2021

The day of violence drew sharp condemnation from the media industry leaders, including National Writers Union president Larry Goldbetter, who declared [ https://www.ifj.org/media-centre/news/detail/category/press-releases/article/united-states-violent-mob-attacks-the-media-during-capitol-assault.html ], "It is no coincidence that the racist stormtroopers who attacked an election that 160 million people participated in, would also attack media workers." "Elections and a free press are two of the foundations of a democratic society," Goldbetter said. "Trump and his terrorist minions are violently opposed to both. What's worse is that they had free reign for the entire day, whereas protesters against racist police violence were arrested by the tens of thousands over the summer." Communication Workers of America (CWA) president Chris Shelton said, "Two images from their failed attempt to violently invalidate the votes of millions of Americans make their motives absolutely clear: the sight of the confederate flag being paraded through the halls of the Senate and a message scrawled on a door, 'Murder the media.'"

Advocates for free expression from around the world emphasized that the violence at the Capitol was not speech protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution but rather a coup attempt that comes after four years of Trump's lies—which have included declarations of "fake news" in response to any critical reporting. Critics of the attack of the Capitol and the targeting of reporters continued to place blame on the president, whose actions provoked calls for his arrest, impeachment, and removal from office via the 25th Amendment. As CWA's Shelton put it:

Freedom of the press is the first target of fascists everywhere, as they seek to silence opposition and suppress any information that contradicts the alternate reality that their narcissistic leader creates to support his racist fantasy world. This freedom is enshrined in our Constitution because a healthy democracy is not possible without a free press.
There is no doubt that each day that Donald Trump continues to hold the powers of the presidency presents a grave threat to the safety of millions of American and to the stability of our country. He organized an insurrection while ignoring a pandemic. Legislators and members of the Cabinet have taken an oath to defend our Constitution and they must act to remove him from office immediately before he does greater harm to our country and democracy.

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) general secretary Anthony Bellanger said that "we are appalled by the violent attacks against media workers who were just doing their job." "This is the final result of a long process of demonization and hate-speech narrative against the media in the United States by Donald Trump," he added. "We stand in solidarity with our American colleagues. You are not alone." Jon Schleuss, president of the NewsGuild-CWA, an IFJ affiliate, took aim at Trump and the rioters in a pair of tweets:

This shameful assault was the direct result of the rhetoric spewed by politicians incapable of accepting the truth, or cynically relying on falsehoods to inflame division for political gain. The president and lawmakers who spread these lies have blood on their hands. — Jon Schleuss (@gaufre) January 7, 2021

"My thoughts are with all the amazing journalists covering this moment," Schleuss added in a statement. "Stay safe, by God, you are our light. We are only free and informed people because of our free press."

I’d rather fight and die than live in a socialist societyBritish colony.

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-sep-dec.html#9_December_2020_(Millionaire_tax) -- Argentina Passes "Millionaire's Tax" to Fund Covid-19 Recovery. -- https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/06/argentina-passes-millionaires-tax-fund-covid-19-recovery -- Argentina Passes "Millionaire's Tax" to Fund Covid-19 Recovery -- Sunday, December 06, 2020 -- "We're coming out of this pandemic like countries come out of world wars, with thousands of dead and devastated economies," said one senator. -- >>519

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-nov-feb.html#11_January_2021_(The_insurrectionist_who_was_killed) -- One of the insurrectionists was killed trying to break down a door in the Capitol. Normally, cops should not shoot someone just for breaking down a door. They should first try to restrain per, and will normally succeed. But in that situation there may have been no easy option. She was part of an armed mob bent on violence, and allowing her to break down a door might have enabled the mob to attack people. Some of the insurrectionists had guns, and bombs >>563 were found too. -- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/07/ashli-babbitt-woman-shot-and-killed-in-storming-of-us-capitol-named -- Woman shot and killed in storming of US Capitol named as Ashli Babbitt -- Thu 7 Jan 2021 -- Police shot Babbitt, 35, a military veteran and Trump supporter, reportedly as she tried to break through door

A woman shot and killed by police during the storming of the US Capitol [ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/06/congress-certify-election-biden-republicans-object ] by a pro-Donald Trump mob [ https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=txh_cfzl-0M -- https://invidious.kavin.rocks/watch?v=txh_cfzl-0M ] has been named as a 14-year veteran of the US air force and of four foreign military tours, including to Iraq and Afghanistan. Ashli Babbitt, 35, had travelled to Washington DC from San Diego, her husband told the local news station KUSI, adding that she was a passionate Trump supporter. Three other people died from “medical emergencies” during Wednesday’s siege of the Capitol, according to the Washington DC police chief, Robert Contee.

Contee has confirmed to reporters a woman was shot by Capitol police – a federal law enforcement agency responsible for protecting the US Congress – but has not released further details. Less than a day before she joined the Trump loyalist protest, Babbitt, an avowed and public Trump supporter as well as a subscriber to a number of alt-right conspiracy theories, had vowed the insurrectionist movement could never be halted. “Nothing will stop us … they can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours … dark to light!” she wrote on Twitter. Babbitt, 35, was reportedly shot as she and other rioters tried to break through a barricaded door in the building where Capitol police officers were armed on the other side.

On video footage circulating on social media, a single gunshot is heard during an attempt to storm the barricaded door. Other footage shows police attempting to perform emergency first aid on a woman lying on the floor bleeding. Babbitt was taken to hospital with a gunshot wound but later pronounced dead. On Twitter, Babbitt described herself as a veteran and a libertarian. Her social media account is filled with declarations of support for Trump and condemnation of November’s presidential election, which Trump lost.

Babbitt also apparently supported many of the conspiracy theories shared by alt-right groups, including one about a vast network of high-profile and powerful paedophiles. She regularly retweeted the controversial lawyer and conspiracy theorist Lin Wood, a high-profile Trump supporter who has litigated several of the president’s failed lawsuits contesting the election result. She had also called on the vice-president, Mike Pence – who has split with Trump in refusing to oppose the certification of Joe Biden’s election win – to resign and face charges of treason. Babbitt’s mother-in-law, Robin Babbitt, told the New York Post [ https://nypost.com/2021/01/06/protester-killed-in-capitol-was-air-force-vet-from-california/ ]: “I’m numb. I’m devastated. Nobody from DC notified my son and we found out on TV.”

Everything was “pretty surreal”, Babbitt’s brother-in-law Justin was quoted as saying. “It’s hard, because we haven’t been officially notified.” One of the other people who died on Wednesday was Kevin D Greeson, 55, from Alabama, who had a heart attack outside the Capitol building. His widow Kristi Greeson told the New York Times [ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/us/politics/an-alabama-man-who-suffered-a-heart-attack-outside-the-capitol-is-among-the-dead.html ] that he had been excited to attend the rally, believing that the election had been stolen. At least 56 Washington police officers were injured, Contee said. One was taken to hospital after being dragged into a crowd and assaulted, another suffered “significant facial injuries” after being hit by a projectile.

Contee said at least 68 people had been arrested. Only one of those people were from Washington and eight were women. Contee said his department was working “to identify and hold each and every one of the violent mob accountable”. “We have collected numerous images of persons of interest that we are asking the community to help us identify,” he added. A cooler packed with molotov cocktails was also found on US Capitol grounds. Police recovered two pipe bombs at the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee offices.

The mayor of Washington DC, Muriel Bowser, declared a citywide public emergency until 21 January, the day after Biden’s inauguration as president. Bowser called the attack on the Capitol an “affront on our American democracy” and urged city residents to abide by the city’s curfew. “I urge anyone who is not in place in your home or your hotel – and if you mean to cause trouble in the streets of DC you will be arrested,” she said. Bowser said Trump held ultimate responsibility for the violent protests. “We saw an unprecedented attack on our American democracy incited by the United States president. He must be held accountable. His constant and divisive rhetoric led to the abhorrent actions we saw today.”

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-nov-feb.html#13_January_2021_(How_far_the_US_Senate_is_from_democratic) -- Measuring how far the US Senate is from democratic. According to the figures in the spreadsheet in that article: Population the 50 Republican senators represent: 142,991,983 (44%) Population the 50 Democratic senators represent: 184,541,791 (56%) -- https://www.vox.com/2021/1/6/22215728/senate-anti-democratic-one-number-raphael-warnock-jon-ossoff-georgia-runoffs -- America’s anti-democratic Senate, in one number -- Jan 6, 2021 -- 41,549,808.

Well, it’s official. Georgia Democratic Senators-elect Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff [ https://www.vox.com/22216028/georgia-senate-results-ossoff-loeffler-perdue-warnock ] are going to Washington. The Senate will be evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. That means that, with Democratic Vice President-elect Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaking vote, Democrats will have the narrowest possible majority in the Senate. If the Senate were anything approaching a democratic institution, however, the Democratic Party would have a commanding majority in Congress’s upper house. The Senate is malapportioned to give small states like Wyoming exactly as many senators as large states like California — even though California has about 68 times as many residents as Wyoming. Because smaller states tend to be whiter and more conservative [ https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/17/21011079/senate-bias-2020-data-for-progress ] than larger states, this malapportionment gives Republicans an enormous advantage in the fight for control of the Senate. Once Warnock and Ossoff take their seats, the Democratic half of the Senate will represent 41,549,808 more people than the Republican half.

I derived this number by using 2019 population estimates from the United States Census Bureau. In each state where both senators belong to the same party, I allocated the state’s entire population to that party. In states with split delegations, I allocated half of the state’s population to each party. I coded Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Angus King (I-ME) as Democrats. Although both men identify as independents, they caucus with the Democratic Party. You can check my work using this [ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1N4xCSR5NgoQykK_nQhkbdGd2WzLISD_t-DmUbfTFPfs/edit#gid=1455062047 ] spreadsheet. It’s worth highlighting just how much of an advantage Republicans derive from Senate malapportionment. In the 25 most populous states, Democratic senators will hold a 29-21 seat majority once Warnock and Ossoff are sworn in. Republicans, meanwhile, have an identical 29-21 majority in the 25 least populous states.

The 25 most populous states contain nearly 84 percent of the 50 states’ total population. So 16 percent of the country controls half of the seats in the United States Senate (and that’s not accounting for the fact that DC, Puerto Rico, and several other US territories have no representation at all in Congress). American democracy, in other words, is profoundly undemocratic. And it is undemocratic in large part because our Constitution does not provide for free and fair elections in the Senate. A commanding majority of the nation elected a Democrat to the United States Senate, but half of all senators will be Republicans. Worse, because of the filibuster, virtually no legislation will pass Congress unless it wins the approval of at least 10 Republicans. If Senate Democrats all hang together, they will be able to pass an occasional spending bill through a process known as “reconciliation.” But no voting rights legislation, no legislation reforming the courts, and no legislation regulating business — or regulating much of anything else, for that matter — will pass Congress without at least some Republican approval.

Meanwhile, if Republicans want to block any of President-elect Joe Biden’s nominees to any court or to any executive branch position, they will only need to convince one Democrat to oppose that person and the nomination will fail. This way of governing does not reflect the fact that Democrats represent nearly 42 million more people than Republicans do in the Senate. But due to Senate malapportionment, it’s what we’ll end up with anyway.

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-nov-feb.html#8_January_2021_(Mobs_with_guns) -- Mobs of Republicans assembled around various state Capitols, often with guns, and threatened the state officials. -- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/06/trump-rally-protest-statehouses-capitols-state-capitals -- Trump supporters gather outside statehouses across US as mob assails Capitol -- Thu 7 Jan 2021 -- Officials evacuate state buildings as demonstrators falsely claim Trump won re-election

Supporters of Donald Trump massed outside statehouses across the US on Wednesday, leading to some evacuations as cheers rang out in reaction to the news that a pro-Trump mob had stormed [ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/06/us-capitol-lockdown-senate-trump-supporters-protesters-police ] the US Capitol in Washington. Hundreds of people gathered in state capitals from Georgia to New Mexico on the day US lawmakers were scheduled to certify Joe Biden’s electoral victory over Trump in November’s presidential election. In scenes that echoed those in the US capital, Trump supporters waved signs that read “Stop the Steal” and “Four more years”. Most eschewed masks and some carried guns in places like Oklahoma, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Washington state. Despite some scuffles in states including Ohio and California, with instances of journalists or counter-protesters being pepper-sprayed or punched, many demonstrations remained peaceful.

In Georgia, the secretary of state and his staff were evacuated from their offices at the state Capitol after about 100 protesters gathered, some armed with long guns. Gabriel Sterling, a top official with the secretary of state’s office, said it was a precautionary decision made by Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, for his team to leave. Trump has focused much of his ire on Raffensperger in the weeks following his loss of the state by about 12,000 votes. “We saw stuff happening at the Georgia Capitol and said we should not be around here, we should not be a spark,” Sterling told the Associated Press.

The chaotic events in Washington DC came as Congress tried to affirm Biden’s electoral college victory. A pro-Trump mob entered the Senate chamber and forced lawmakers to flee. One woman >>576 was shot and killed. Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, slammed the storming of the US Capitol, calling it “a disgrace and quite honestly un-American”. Kemp said he was extending an executive order from protests over the summer activating the national guard in case they were needed to protect the state Capitol on Monday, when the legislative session begins. In New Mexico, hundreds of flag-waving Trump supporters arrived in a vehicle caravan and on horseback. Police evacuated staff from a statehouse building that included the governor’s office and the secretary of state’s office as a precaution.

Demonstrators sang God Bless America, honked horns and declared Trump the rightful election winner, despite Biden winning the vote in New Mexico by a margin of roughly 11%. Brian Egolf, New Mexico’s Democratic house speaker, described it as a “shameful moment”. “It’s the first time in the history of the United States that the peaceful transfer of power has been slowed by an act of violence,” Egolf said. “I hope that the Congress can recover soon.”

Elsewhere, Trump supporters circled the state Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin, in cars and trucks adorned with Trump and US flags, blaring their horns. In Colorado, the Denver mayor, Michael Hancock, ordered city agencies to close buildings after hundreds gathered in front of the Capitol building to protest against the election results. And in South Carolina, protesters supporting Trump came to the statehouse but left before the US Capitol was breached.

In Washington state, protesters broke through a gate at the mansion of the state’s governor, Jay Inslee, and dozens of people gathered on the lawn before being cleared from the area. The crowd, some of whom were armed, repeated baseless allegations of election fraud. Earlier, dozens of people gathered at the state Capitol, demanding an election recount. In Utah, the staff of Governor Spencer Cox was sent home as several hundred people gathered in Salt Lake City, the lieutenant governor, Deidre Henderson, tweeted. A Salt Lake Tribune photographer said he was pepper-sprayed by a demonstrator who taunted him for wearing a mask and shoved him as he was shooting video of the protest.

At least one person was arrested at the Oregon Capitol in Salem on suspicion of harassment and disorderly conduct as police in riot gear tried to get people, many of them armed, to leave. Video showed protesters and counter-protesters clashing and riot police moving in. In Honolulu, about 100 protesters lined the road outside the state Capitol waving American and Trump 2020 flags at passing cars. Sheryl Bieler, a retiree in the blue state, said she had come out to “support our president and support the integrity of the elections”.

https://www.stallman.org/archives/2020-nov-feb.html#15_January_2021_(Big_tech_crack_down) -- Big Tech companies decided to crack down on right-wing mobs set on overthrowing the US government (or worse) just after they learned that Democrats would control the Senate. It could be a scheme to convince them not to break up those Big Tech companies. I would guess that Big Tech is also working on acquiring a few Democratic senators to block anything that might reduce their power. -- https://theintercept.com/2021/01/13/big-tech-antitrust-biden-ftc/ -- Behind Big Tech’s Crackdown on the Right Is a Fight Over Biden Antitrust Policy -- January 13 2021 -- Silicon Valley is currying favor with the Biden transition. Whether the Biden administration will be as friendly as Obama’s is another question.

Big Tech, staring down the barrel of the one gun it has always feared — federal antitrust enforcement — pinned its hopes throughout 2020 on the possibility a new administration would take a gentler approach. Early signs were good, like when Democratic nominee Joe Biden named Apple’s top lobbyist [ https://theintercept.com/2020/12/02/biden-transition-cynthia-hogan/ ] to his four-person committee in charge of vetting and recommending the vice presidential nominee. The lobbyist left her job running Apple’s Washington operation for the assignment in April. And, throughout the transition, Big Tech and its allies in Washington have been pushing the incoming Biden administration to stack the Justice Department’s antitrust division and the Federal Trade Commission with operatives sympathetic to Silicon Valley. The problem for Big Tech, however, is that politics have shifted on the issue, as the valley’s monopolistic dominance has grown impossible to ignore. Whereas the Obama administration’s antitrust division and FTC looked into whether to come down hard on the major platforms for anticompetitive behavior, the current administration finally did so, launching the landmark case United States v. Google, which promised to be the first of several major suits checking the power of Big Tech.

In the wake of the January 6 storming of the Capitol, Big Tech has moved swiftly to ban President Donald Trump from social media platforms, suspend and ban the accounts of tens of thousands of QAnon conspiracy theorists, and crush the upstart right-wing Twitter alternative Parler. The crackdown was condemned as overreach by conservatives and some civil libertarians, but they were celebrated by Democrats across the political spectrum — precisely the audience Big Tech now needs to please. Democratic operative Jennifer Palmieri, an alum of the Obama administration, noticed the connection. “It has not escaped my attention that the day social media companies decided there actually IS more they could do to police Trump’s destructive behavior was the same day they learned Democrats would chair all the congressional committees that oversee them,” she posted on Twitter, referring not to Biden’s certification but to Jon Ossoff’s victory in his Georgia runoff, which put Democrats over the top in the Senate. Whether it’ll work — whether the Biden administration will be as friendly to Silicon Valley as Obama’s was — is another question. “Too little, too late from tech platforms like Facebook and YouTube,” said Sarah Miller, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, an anti-monopoly organization. “I think it’s well and widely understood that these platforms rely on garbage, dangerous, and false content to addict people and keep the billions rolling in from targeted ads. I don’t think they can climb back from being seen as complicit in a near-massacre at the Capitol by booting right-wingers or finger-pointing.”

At stake is the structure of the technology industry, and America’s ability to compete globally. As currently constituted, tech monopolies have the power to crush or buy any new company, stalling what had been an explosion in innovation that made the U.S. dominant in the world’s emerging industry. Unless the monopolies are checked and broken up, that era could be over, as power continues to be consolidated into the hands of a few tech oligarchs. On Monday evening, Politico reported [ https://www.politico.com/newsletters/transition-playbook ] that three names were in the general mix now for assistant attorney general in charge of antitrust enforcement, and in many ways they perfectly encapsulated the politics of the incoming Biden era: The first an old-guard loyalist, the second a corporate-friendly candidate strongly opposed by anti-monopolists, and the third a progressive hope. It’s a familiar pattern already, and Biden has consistently gone with the less-bad-but-not-great choice. The leading candidate in this case is said to be Terrell McSweeny, a Biden loyalist and longtime aide who served as a commissioner on the FTC from 2014 to 2018. From 2012 to 2014 she served as chief counsel for competition policy and intergovernmental relations for the Department of Justice’s antitrust division. Those were not impressive years when it came to antitrust enforcement, though McSweeny was not an ultimate decision-maker.

People who know McSweeny say she has an institutionalist bent, much like her longtime boss Biden, who she served under as counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee and as deputy chief of staff in Biden’s Senate office. A new report out Tuesday from Miller’s Economic Liberties knocks McSweeny for defending Uber in a recent case. “Commissioner Terrell McSweeny, an Obama-appointed Democrat, joined the Trump Justice Department in filing a legal brief explicitly backing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in opposing a Seattle law that empowered Uber and Lyft drivers to bargain collectively for higher wages. McSweeny’s position is especially notable, since hers was the deciding vote on an FTC that had only two commissioners at the time,” it reads. Since her time at the FTC, McSweeny has done some signaling that she is now more closely aligned with the anti-monopoly movement. That kind of evolution is what Miller’s group has been pushing for, she said, and why her team titled its report “Courage to Learn,” recognizing that Biden is likely to pick from Obama-era officials who failed their last test against Big Tech.

“Not only conservative but progressive antitrust enforcers oversaw a growing crisis of monopoly power over the last 12 years,” Miller said. “Our position is that any enforcer must reject the consumer welfare ideology that was the root cause of decades of severe institutional failure, as the report shows, and also embrace the historic recommendations for reforming antitrust that were published [ https://archive.is/E9HlJ ] by the House Antitrust Committee over the summer.” Politico noted Susan Davies is also in the running. Davies, a former Senate Judiciary Committee aide who also served in the Obama White House, has spent a considerable amount of time in the private sector representing Big Tech clients and others pushing for mergers or fending off antitrust complaints. At the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, where Davies is a partner in the antitrust department, she represents “multiple Fortune 100 companies” facing federal investigations and “regulatory, legislative, intellectual property, and appellate litigation.” Davies “frequently interacts with regulators and policy makers on behalf of corporate clients,” her bio adds. When Facebook was sued for violating federal antitrust and California unfair competition laws, Davies represented Facebook. When the FTC came after a chemical company, Tronox, for a merger with a Saudi-owned chemical mining company, Davies represented Tronox.

When the FTC came after global hospitality company Wyndham for sloppy data security and multiple data breaches, Davies represented Wyndham, while her firm argued (unsuccessfully) that “Congress had never intended for the commission to be able to use its unfairness authority” to enforce rules around data security. At the White House, Davies was in charge of selecting and vetting federal judicial nominations, which skewed heavily corporate. Fewer than one in 20 had a public interest background. Davies previously worked under incoming Attorney General Merrick Garland during the Clinton administration and shepherded his Supreme Court confirmation (which was blocked by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell). The progressive hope is Jonathan Kanter. Naming Kanter would signal to Big Tech that Biden doesn’t just plan to continue the current antitrust cases in the works, but is gearing up for a full-scale confrontation. Kanter formerly headed the antitrust department at the firm Paul Weiss and now runs his own firm. As Politico noted, he’s a prominent Big Tech antagonist and “represents opponents of Google, Apple and Amazon, and is the intellectual powerhouse behind many of the theories in the Google antitrust cases now filed.”

Other names in the mix for high-level jobs include Jon Leibowitz, who was chair of the FTC under Obama and is still held responsible by anti-monopoly advocates for backing off the suit against Google, and otherwise approving mergers that allowed concentration to tighten. Dave Gelfand, Fiona Scott Morton, Debbie Feinstein, Renata Hesse, Steven Sunshine, and Sonia Pfaffenroth are also being floated by Big Tech allies in Washington. Gelfand advised Google on its acquisition of DoubleClick, a key moment in the company’s growth. Feinstein was the head of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition during the Obama era in which it backed off of enforcement. Scott Morton has worked for Amazon and Apple recently. Hesse has also done work for Google and Amazon. Sunshine has worked on a number of high-profile mergers as a corporate attorney, including T-Mobile and AT&T. Pfaffenroth, like the rest of the candidates, has gone back and forth between corporate work and antitrust enforcement. Leibowitz, Gelfand, Scott Morton, and Hesse declined to comment. Feinstein, Sunshine, and Pfaffenroth did not respond to requests for comment. Skeptics of Big Tech, meanwhile, are hoping that Lina Khan, a law professor at Columbia University who has been on the leading edge of the push to rein in anticompetitive practices, will be given a prominent role.

The transition process is being overseen by Bill Baer, one of those Obama officials who reformers hope has learned from the previous administration’s — and his own — reticence to enforce antitrust laws. He has alluded to such rethinking himself, telling Congress in testimony last year that enforcers were too timid, worried about courts that are too willing to side with corporations, and therefore new legislation could help strengthen the hand of antitrust prosecutors. Baer said: "In my view, the fear of getting it wrong warped antitrust enforcement. Antitrust jurisprudence today is too cautious, too worried about adverse effects of 'over enforcement' (so called Type I errors). Bias against enforcement has caused many courts to demand a level of proof that is often unattainable. That chills enforcement, limits our ability to challenge conduct or acquisitions of potential rivals — especially in the technology sector where firms benefiting from network effects can acquire enduring market power." Asked to comment on who he was recommending for the antitrust division position, Baer said he was “on mute regarding any and all transition issues.” Heather Hippsley, a career FTC employee who served as chief of staff and deputy general counsel, is also helping advise the transition, a reminder of one of the FTC’s weaker moments over the past decade. In the spring of 2015, the FTC accidentally released a 160-page staff report [ https://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-the-u-s-antitrust-probe-of-google-1426793274 ] to the Wall Street Journal as part of an open records request. The Journal’s resulting story revealed that agency staff had strongly recommended two years earlier that the government sue Google for unfair and monopolistic trade practices that were harming consumers. Yet the government had declined to do so.

The Journal story was a shot in the arm for the growing anti-monopoly movement, which could now prove its suspicions that the political actors on the FTC board had overruled the staff attorneys. Google wanted the FTC to issue a strong statement, clearing the firm of wrongdoing, and so a Google lobbyist reached out to then-FTC Chief of Staff Hippsley, urging the commission to defend Google’s honor and its own in an email that was itself later obtained by BuzzFeed News [ https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/williamalden/how-googles-lobbyists-get-things-done-in-washington ] as part of a separate open records request. Two days later, the FTC did just that.