TallGuyJohninBKK

Democrats Spend $46 Million to Expose ‘Satanic’ Election Deniers — and More "In one ad, Minnesota secretary of state nominee Kim Crockett is shown calling herself the “election-denier-in-chief.” In Michigan, an ad shows secretary of state nominee Kristina Karamo saying that casual sex can lead to demonic possession. And in Arizona, an ad highlights Mark Finchem’s ties to QAnon, a conspiracy theory about a Satanic-worshipping cabal." https://news.yahoo.com/democrats-spend-46-million-expose-140550262.html

You forgot to mention about the zip ties, along with the guns, for tying up congress members if they'd been able to reach them. Armed Jan. 6 rioter had zip ties during Capitol attack, friend testifies at trial Rocky Hardie testified that he and Guy Reffitt drove to D.C. from Texas armed with firearms and both believed the 2020 election was stolen. "WASHINGTON — Guy Reffitt was armed with a handgun and zip ties when he tried to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, a friend and fellow member of a right-wing group testified at the first Capitol riot trial on Friday. Rocky Hardie, a former member of the Texas Three Percenters, testified that he and Reffitt traveled to D.C. from Texas in Reffitt’s Chevy Equinox, that was loaded up with their rifles, their handguns, and ammo. ... Reffitt and Hardie, the latter testified, both believed Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and joked about dragging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi down the stairs of the U.S. Capitol. (more) https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/armed-jan-6-rioter-zip-ties-capitol-attack-friend-testifies-trial-rcna18733

They (presumably all good Republicans) didn't: Yes, Capitol insurrectionists were armed. Here are the weapons prosecutors say they used A review of the federal charges against the alleged rioters shows they had a variety of weapons: stun guns, pepper spray, baseball bats and flagpoles wielded as clubs. "But a review of the federal charges against the alleged rioters shows that they did come armed, and with a variety of weapons: stun guns, pepper spray, baseball bats and flagpoles wielded as clubs. An additional suspect also allegedly planted pipe bombs by the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties the night before the riot and remains at large." . https://www.witf.org/2021/03/19/yes-capitol-insurrectionists-were-armed-here-are-the-weapons-prosecutors-say-they-used/ "Facts First: While it’s impossible to know precisely how many firearms were brought to the Capitol on January 6, it’s already clear that at least some of the people present were carrying guns that day." "So far, with the investigation still ongoing, three individuals have been charged for allegedly bringing a gun onto Capitol grounds on January 6. At least two other individuals have also been charged with gun crimes in relation to the events of that day, though they are not accused of carrying on Capitol grounds." https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/28/politics/armed-insurrection-january-6-guns-fact-check/index.html And then there was these guys, who seem to be believers in the philosophy of democracy at gunpoint. Oath Keeper testifies about mass of guns allegedly stored near DC on January 6 A veteran and member of the Oath Keepers testified Wednesday that the far-right group amassed more weapons outside Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021, than he had seen since his days in the military. Terry Cummings told the jury during the second week of the historic seditious conspiracy trial that he traveled to Washington with several members of a group from Florida, bringing his own AR-15 rifle and ammunition box to contribute to the Quick Reaction Force (QRF) allegedly established by the group in a hotel outside the city. “I have not seen that many weapons in one location since I was in the military,” Cummings, who showed his rifle and ammunition to the jury during his testimony, said. https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/12/politics/oath-keeper-guns-dc-january-6/index.html

State governors and secretaries of state elected by the public have a lot of influence over how elections are administered in their states. And many observers believe that's exactly what this Republican gubernatorial candidate was talking about lately: "In Wisconsin, Republican gubernatorial nominee Tim Michels suggested at a campaign stop Monday that his election would result in permanent GOP control in the state. “Republicans will never lose another election in Wisconsin after I’m elected governor,” Michels said. ... His spokesman later said he meant only that he would do a good job and voters would reward his party, but Democrats feared he was hinting at an overhaul of how state elections are administered." https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/02/biden-warning-democracy-midterms-election-gop/

The Fake Electors Scheme, Explained The plan to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election by creating slates of electors pledged to Donald Trump in states he had lost was expansive, long-running and often confusing The brazen plan to create false slates of electors pledged to former President Donald J. Trump in seven swing states that were actually won by Joseph R. Biden Jr. was arguably the longest-running and most expansive of the multiple efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It was also one of the most confusing, involving a sprawling cast of pro-Trump lawyers, state Republican officials and White House aides in an effort that began before some states had even finished counting their ballots. It culminated in the campaign to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to use the false slates to subvert congressional certification of the outcome on Jan. 6, 2021 — and in the violent attack on the Capitol that unfolded as he refused to do so. (more) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/27/us/politics/fake-electors-explained-trump-jan-6.html

Nearly 300 Republic election denying candidates are on the ballot this year: "Election deniers will be on the ballot in 48 of 50 states and make up more than half of all Republicans running for congressional and state offices in the midterm elections. Nearly 300 Republicans seeking those offices this November have denied or questioned the outcome of the last presidential election, according to a Washington Post analysis. ...More than 170 election deniers are running in districts or states where Republicans are expected to win, according to Cook Political Report race ratings and Partisan Voter Index." https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/interactive/2022/election-deniers-running-for-office-elections-2022/

Why would any American who believes in the country's democracy vote for lawmakers from a Republican party that in effect condoned (by not impeaching Trump) an armed insurrection he fomented attempting to overthrow the presidential election? Why would any American who believes in the country's democracy vote for candidates from a Republican party whose party leaders in multiple states tried to subvert the country's presidential election with a scheme to promote fake presidential electors? Why would any American who believes in the country's democracy vote for candidates from a Republican party where a large share of them continue to deny the legitimacy of an elected president and election outcome, even after dozens of courts and judges across the land, including those appointed by Trump, found their claims entirely without merit? Etc etc etc. The Big Lie is alive and well in the Republican Party at large, and not just among MAGA extremists. And Biden is right when he says, those kind of people and candidates are threats to the American democracy.

"Capitol Police said the agency has launched a review of security in the wake of the Pelosi incident. “We believe today’s political climate calls for more resources to provide additional layers of physical security for Members of Congress," Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said in a statement. "This plan would include an emphasis on adding redundancies to the measures that are already in place for congressional leadership." https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/how-pelosi-attacker-evaded-cameras-security-police-to-get-inside-her-home-beat-husband/ar-AA13ETfr

For the good of all concerned, hopefully the authorities involved/Capitol Police had better re-think their narrow assumptions...

And he also believed Donald Trump and Mike Lindell's lies about the outcome of the presidential election. Not surprising that the suspect here also would be talking to faeries and angels.

The suspect had been living in the Bay Area community of Richmond -- not Berkeley -- in recent years, as detailed in the FBI affidavit supporting the federal criminal charges against him. And, his motivation has been pretty clearly established as well, again from the same charging documents and his own statements to authorities. To wit: "In the course of the interview, DEPAPE articulated he viewed Nancy as the “leader of the pack” of lies told by the Democratic Party. DEPAPE also later explained that by breaking Nancy’s kneecaps, she would then have to be wheeled into Congress, which would show other Members of Congress there were consequences to actions. DEPAPE also explained generally that he wanted to use Nancy to lure another individual to DEPAPE." https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1548106/download Along with his recent postings and writings showing his true MAGA colors. He was checking all the key boxes, as per CNN below.... "The man who allegedly attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband early Friday posted memes and conspiracy theories on Facebook about Covid vaccines, the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, and an acquaintance told CNN that he seemed “out of touch with reality.” ... Last year, David DePape posted links on his Facebook page to multiple videos produced by My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell falsely alleging that the 2020 election was stolen. Other posts included transphobic images and linked to websites claiming Covid vaccines were deadly." https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/alleged-paul-pelosi-attacker-posted-multiple-conspiracy-theories/ar-AA13uLaM

Actually, as Candide has posted above, the FBI affidavit in support of the federal charges on page 7 quotes DePape as saying it was Pelosi who opened the door, similar to what other news accounts and officials have reported. Again, this is DePape's account as reported by the FBI: "The police arrived and knocked on the door, and Pelosi ran over and opened it. Pelosi grabbed onto DEPAPE’s hammer, which was in DEPAPE’s hand. ... f. DEPAPE stated that he pulled the hammer away from Pelosi and swung the hammer towards Pelosi." The narrative description by the DOJ in announcing the federal charges has a more general description: "According to the complaint, minutes after the 911 call, two police officers responded to the Pelosi residence where they encountered Paul Pelosi and DePape struggling over a hammer. Officers told the men to drop the hammer, and DePape allegedly gained control of the hammer and swung it, striking Pelosi in the head." https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/man-charged-assault-and-attempted-kidnapping-following-breaking-and-entering-pelosi-residence Pelosi Charges-Affidavit - Depape says Pelosi opened door.pdf

And of course, it's not just lunatic members of the public, but elected (Republican) officials as well, as with the following example: Republican Confronted Over Shooting Video Tweet With 'Fire Pelosi' Hashtag "Representative Tom Emmer was confronted on Sunday over a video of him firing a gun that he posted on Twitter with the hashtag "fire [Nancy] Pelosi," a couple days before the House Speaker's husband was violently attacked inside the couple's San Francisco home. Emmer, a Minnesota Republican, said in the Wednesday tweet that he was firing shots with Republican Representative Jack Bergman of Michigan and Kelly Cooper, who is the GOP candidate in Arizona for the U.S. House, in this year's midterm election. "Enjoyed exercising my Second Amendment rights with @KellyCooperAZ & General @JackBergman_MI1. 13 days to make history. Let's #FirePelosi," the Republican tweeted." (more) https://www.newsweek.com/republican-confronted-over-shooting-video-tweet-fire-pelosi-hashtag-1755661 Image from the above-linked Newsweek article:

1 in 3 Americans say violence against government can be justified, citing fears of political schism, pandemic The Post-UMD poll, coming a year after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, marks the largest share of Americans to hold that view since the question was first asked more than two decades ago. January 1, 2022 ... A year after a pro-Trump mob ransacked the Capitol in the worst attack on the home of Congress since it was burned by British forces in 1814, a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll finds that about 1 in 3 Americans say they believe violence against the government can at times be justified. ... While a 2015 survey found no significant partisan divide when it comes to the question of justified violence against the government, the new poll identified a sharper rise on the right — with 40 percent of Republicans and 41 percent of independents saying it can be acceptable. The view was held by 23 percent of Democrats, the survey finds." https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/01/1-3-americans-say-violence-against-government-can-be-justified-citing-fears-political-schism-pandemic/

Don't think the MAGA violent extremists like this guy need any help in going off the deep end, certainly not like they're going to be any further stirred by factual discussion of the current case. The rise of domestic extremism in America Data shows a surge in homegrown incidents not seen in a quarter-century April 12, 2021 "Domestic terrorism incidents have soared to new highs in the United States, driven chiefly by white-supremacist, anti-Muslim and anti-government extremists on the far right, according to a Washington Post analysis of data compiled by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The surge reflects a growing threat from homegrown terrorism not seen in a quarter-century, with right-wing extremist attacks and plots greatly eclipsing those from the far left and causing more deaths, the analysis shows. The number of all domestic terrorism incidents in the data peaked in 2020." (more) https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2021/domestic-terrorism-data/

History of threats against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "It's here; we shouldn't be surprised" Per USA Today: ... "Arrests made for other threats against Pelosi have resulted in prison time for at least five men in the last two years. Last year, a North Carolina man was sentenced to 28 months in prison for threatening to shoot the speaker. A Georgia man who drove across the country with a rifle and threatened to kill Pelosi was sentenced to 28 months in prison last December." and further details of the other cases beyond what I'm allowed to quote via fair use. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/history-of-threats-against-house-speaker-nancy-pelosi-it-s-here-we-shouldn-t-be-surprised/ar-AA13BhtA If you read into the details of the longish article above, it's particularly interesting because it also recited several cases where the FBI during Trump's time as president wanted to prosecute people making serious threats against Pelosi and several other current and former Democratic politicians. But the U.S. Attorney's Office prosecutors -- mostly during the 2017-2020 years Trump's appointees ran the Justice Department -- declined to file charges in those several such cases, according to the article.

And, the FBI affidavit filed in connection with the criminal charges against DePape also confirms that he had been living in Richmond, and not the Berkeley commune type place, for at least the past two years: "On October 29, 2022, law enforcement determined that DEPAPE lived in the garage of a residence on Shasta Street in Richmond, California, by interviewing the owner of the premises who confirmed that DEPAPE has resided in the garage for approximately two years." "On October 29, 2022, law enforcement searched the garage at the Shasta Street residence pursuant to a federal search warrant. ... The agents also found evidence that DEPAPE lived in the garage, including DMV paperwork, IRS letters, and Paypal credit cards." https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1548106/download So, all the originally reported in some circles nonsense about what signs were or weren't on display at a commune-type place in Berkeley were just that.... irrelevant nonsense that never had any current-time connection to the suspect.

Why??? The answer is in the OP report: "76% of the fatalities were unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated and did not wear face masks while participating in group activities."

From the above document: "According to the complaint, minutes after the 911 call, two police officers responded to the Pelosi residence where they encountered Paul Pelosi and DePape struggling over a hammer. Officers told the men to drop the hammer, and DePape allegedly gained control of the hammer and swung it, striking Pelosi in the head. ... As set forth in the complaint, once DePape was restrained, officers secured a roll of tape, white rope, a second hammer, a pair of rubber and cloth gloves, and zip ties from the crime scene, where officers also observed a broken glass door to the back porch."

When I was at the 90 day report counter at BKK CW lately, I had an English speaking IO, and I specifically told her I wanted to make sure they updated my new passport info in their system so that I'd be able to do online reports for all my future reporting. She assured me I'd be able to do online reporting next time and thereafter. We'll see a couple months down the road whether that promise was reliable or not.

CNN did a good job of summarizing where the suspect's self-professed MAGA political views had been prior to the attack on Pelosi. There's no disputing all of that since it's his own posts and his own words, even though he had held long since discarded different liberalish views MANY years prior. CNN: "DePape’s posts on Facebook from last year endorse a litany of right-wing falsehoods. He posted multiple videos produced by My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell falsely alleging that the 2020 election was stolen, linked to websites claiming Covid vaccines were deadly, and shared videos questioning the January 6, 2021 attack. CNN reviewed the posts before the social media company took the page down, and several of DePape’s relatives confirmed the page belonged to him." https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/31/politics/pelosi-attack-right-wing-conspiracy-theories-invs/index.html The San Francisco Chronicle also did a good job of summarizing his political conversion history: "More than a decade ago, DePape joined a coalition of nudist activists who swarmed San Francisco streets in 2012, protesting restrictions on public nudity that the Board of Supervisors approved that year." ... "But later, he seemed to go through a political metamorphosis, recasting himself as an evangelist for alt-right conspiracy theories. He published multiple blogs laced with statements about the QAnon mass delusion, whose adherents believe former President Donald Trump stands against an alliance of Satan-worshipping Democratic pedophiles." The cited article then goes on into more details of the guy's MAGA type obsessions... but this forum's quoting policy prevents me to quoting any more here... And by the way,,. The Chronicle article also says the suspect lately had been living in Richmond, a different Bay Area community, and not the Berkeley commune place with buses and such where he reportedly had hung out in the past. https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/What-we-know-about-David-DePape-man-accused-of-17542056.php

FWIW, I got a new passport recently, about 6 weeks before my annual retirement extension was due. So, then with the new passport in hand, I went to BKK CW Immigration, had my stamps transferred to my new passport, and then on a separate visit then got my new retirement extension stamp in the new passport. That last visit was a week or so before my extension expired, and also about a month before my next 90-day report was due. That last day, when I got the new extension in the new passport, I tried to get the 90-day report counter at BKK CW to accept an early 90-day report based on my new passport since I was already there, but they refused, saying I had to wait until later (which was going to mean another in-person trip out to BKK CW). Then once I was about 2 weeks prior to my 90-day reporting date, just to test the system, I tried to do an online reporting with my new passport using the Immigration website. My application was initially accepted for submission, but about 3 days later, I got another Immigration email saying my application had been rejected. So, as I expected, I did indeed have to make another wasted in-person trip out to BKK CW to do an in-person report, just because I had a new passport.

Republican Senate staff tout lab-leak theory of the pandemic’s origin Report cites circumstantial evidence and suspicious patterns ... "“Based on the analysis of the publicly available information, it appears reasonable to conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic was, more likely than not, the result of a research-related incident,” the minority staff concludes in its 35-page report. That conclusion stands in sharp contrast to those of other panels, including from the World Health Organization and U.S. intelligence agencies, which have deemed a zoonotic jump more likely or remained neutral given the lack of direct evidence on the origin of the virus." https://www.science.org/content/article/republican-senate-staff-tout-lab-leak-theory-pandemics-origin

Is New Senate GOP Covid-19 Pandemic Origin Report More About Politics Than Science? "when the office of Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.) dropped “An Analysis of the Origins of the COVID-19 Pandemic Interim Report,” just two weeks before the midterm election, you’ve gotta wonder whether this report was more about politics than actually determining what really happened." ... "Plus, this interim report drew some pretty strong conclusions that usually would require a lot more supporting scientific evidence than the report actually provided." ... "And Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, wrote, “My view: a total load of antiscience [bleep],” in the following tweet..." Graphic from the above cited Forbes article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2022/10/29/is-new-senate-gop-covid-19-pandemic-origin-report-more-about-politics-than-science/

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