Florida again. https://www.usnews.com/news/us/arti...ith-with-explosives-arrested-near-jan-6-rally excerpt: "ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man with homemade explosive devices was arrested early Friday near a Tampa Bay area rally in support of a man being held in connection with last year's insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, authorities said. Garrett James Smith, 22, of Oldsmar, was arrested and charged with making and possessing a destructive device and loitering, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a news conference. To mark the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the rally was held Thursday night outside the Pinellas County Jail was in support of Jeremy Brown, a member of the rightwing Oath Keepers group. He was being held on charges of participating in the riot. The sheriff said Smith was spotted across the street from the rally in a parking lot. Deputies said he was running away from the area, dressed in all black with his face covered. He was initially detained on the loitering charge, and deputies reported finding a pipe bomb when they searched his backpack. Another explosive was found during a search of Smith's home, officials said."
McCarthy staffer says lawmaker didn’t check in on him after capitol riot excerpt: "A former staffer to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has told CNN that his then-boss didn’t bother to check in on him in the aftermath of the deadly 6 January Capitol riot. Ryan O’Toole, who now works for Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, said that members of Congress were “fearful for their lives” after the Capitol was breached. Mr O’Toole painted a chaotic picture of life inside the building at the time of the insurrection, where he also describes some members – such as Alabama’s Mo Brooks – “cheering on” the rioters."
Prominent QAnon conspiracy theorist dies from Covid excerpt: "A leading figure in the QAnon conspiracy movement who said that only “idiots” get vaccinated has died of Covid-19. Cirsten Weldon, who had tens of thousands of followers on right-wing social media networks, used her influence to drive people away from vaccines. She was a vocal critic of coronavirus mitigation efforts and at one point said that Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, “needs to be hung from a rope”. The Daily Beast reports that in one video, Ms Weldon harassed people waiting in line to get the coronavirus vaccine."
Prominent QAnon conspiracy theorist dies from Covid excerpt: "Ms Weldon began showing symptoms that she had been infected by Covid-19 in late December. Her final video shows her coughing and struggling to get through a rant about patriots overthrowing the US government. During the video she complained that she was exhausted. She was admitted to the hospital three days after the video was posted. During her stay at the California hospital she posted photos of herself wearing an oxygen mask, claiming she had a “bacterial pneumonia”. In one post to the social network Telegram, she said she had refused to take “Dr Fauci's Remdesivir”. On Friday, it was revealed that she had died."
Steve Bannon Sought Bizarre Loan as His Jan. 6 Woes Spiraled excerpt: "The materials, addressed directly to Bannon at the $1.5 million stone estate in the plush suburban town of Wilton, do not reveal the amount of money sought, nor what Bannon sought it for. They do, however, date the loan application to Dec. 2, 2021, roughly three weeks after a grand jury indicted Bannon for refusing to testify before the House committee probing the Jan. 6 riot and around two weeks following his initial appearances in federal court. They also indicate Bannon attempted to borrow the dough from a Phoenix branch of KS Statebank, a Kansas-based lender, via a Delaware limited liability company named for the home’s address."
Evangelist lays hands on cardboard cutout of Trump and prays: ‘Please relieve him of the sting of having the election stolen’ excerpt: "During a recent livestream video, Christian evangelist and die-hard Trump supporter Lance Wallnau reached out and touched a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump and prayed to God that he relieved of the sting of having the 2020 election “stolen” from him. “I pray, Lord, that you give [Trump] a revelation that he is nothing but an instrument of yours, and as your instrument, you have your hand on him so that, Lord, he won’t be moving in anger or bitterness or rage, but you’ll take that away from him and show him that he is but an instrument and that he’s being used by the hand of providence,” Wallnau prayed."
Upon reading this too fast, I first got the notion that Lance Wallnau had relieved himself on a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump. Guess I succumbed to the Republican tendency of reading messages in the manner of what they want it to say instead of what it actually says.
Arizona Republican slams Cyber Ninjas after it shuts down, refuses to release documents excerpt: "A Republican official from Maricopa County slammed Cyber Ninjas—the controversial Florida-based company behind a partisan audit of Arizona's 2020 election results—after it said it was "insolvent" and confirmed it would shut down on Thursday. Republican leaders of Maricopa County—the most populous in Arizona—have long rejected baseless allegations that President Joe Biden's victory over former President Donald Trump there was fraudulent. They repeatedly criticized Cyber Ninjas, which was hired by Arizona Senate Republicans in late March 2021 to conduct the controversial audit. On Thursday, a spokesperson confirmed to The Guardian and NBC News that the company would be shutting down after it refused to release documents to an Arizona newspaper despite a judge's order. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah had said he would impose a $50,000 per day fine on the company until it released the documents related to the audit. "As a friend just told me: 'hope the [Cyber Ninjas] spokesperson asked for a significant retainer because Ninja payment history isn't great!' Stephen Richer, a Republican who serves as the Maricopa County recorder, tweeted Thursday evening."
Now that the company has done a disappearing act, the court will have to pursue individuals of the former Cyber Ninjas if it wants answers Arizona Republican slams Cyber Ninjas after it shuts down, refuses to release documents excerpt: "An empty piñata is a pretty accurate description of the "audit" as a whole. Our point-by-point response debunking 74 of their 75 claims and 53,217 of the 53,304 of the ballots they claimed were questionable is available for review at http://JustTheFacts.vote. Judge: “they've described Mr. Logan as the former CEO of Cyber Ninjas, which adds to the body of facts suggesting here that there's an intention to leave the Cyber Ninjas entity as an empty piñata for all of us to swing at”"
The mother of Ashli Babbitt is still confused. She thinks climbing through a smashed window of the Speaker's Lobby door at the Capitol that was barricaded and guarded by police to pursue members of Congress seen on the other side is a 1st Amendment right. I would've chained my daughter up if I'd known she'd go to Capitol & get shot excerpt: "If I knew she was going to be killed, I would've chained her to a chair," Witthoeft said. "But I would never talk my daughter out of doing something she believed in. She had a right to be at the rally," she added. She said that she believed her daughter, who was shot by a police officer as Trump supporters broke into the Capitol building last year, was a "proud patriot," who was killed while "exercising her first amendment right." Witthoeft gathered outside Capitol buildings with friends on Thursday and held a picture of her daughter as she claimed that the cop who shot Babbitt should be "held accountable."
Babbitt's mother and others should consider themselves in a position where an angry crowd of people are trying to break through the barricaded doors of their house and enter through a smashed window.