Afternoon Tea 1.7.21 - Transfer of Power

You don't see piranhas eating each other.

January 07, 2021

Assorted looks at the funders of the Sedition Caucus, takes on the last 24hrs from historical, snarky, and 1619-framed perspectives, fake news about antifa traced to a facial recognition company, a thread on the ITSecurity ramifications of yesterday, and a WV state delegate was part of the VisiGOPth insurrectionists that sacked the Capitol building yesterday, It’s Thursday, January 7th 2021, and this is the Tea.

Yesterday, we witnessed the first time a peaceful transfer of power, since the founding of the United States was disrupted. While the evacuated Senators were eventually able to certify the election of Biden & Harris to the highest office in the land, and the swearing in ceremony may not be marred with further violence, nothing of the sort has happened before. r/AskHistorians took time out of its day to extol in exquisite detail just how truly unprecedented it was. House lawmakers almost engaged in fisticuffs this morning, before certifying the election.

The chickens come home to roost (Popular Information) & Capitol Rioters Planned for Weeks in Plain Sight. The Police Weren’t Ready (ProPublica) & The Corporations Funding the End of Democracy (The New Republic) Anyone who tells you they didn’t know this is coming must still think all of the neo Nazis are on Gab…or maybe Friendster. The politicians stoking this are well funded, and have been for years. The Insurrectionists not only broadcast their intentions as widely as possible thanks to Zuckbook & Twitter, but they made merch?

Police Need Help Identifying Famous QAnon Guy Named Jake Angeli From Arizona (Motherboard) The DC Police have no idea how to find a QAnon persona that has been covered so extensively over the last 24hrs, the artist he kinda looks like, Jamiroquai, had to take to Twitter to remind everyone that he isn’t about that life.

W.Va delegate, just sworn in, was among the mob storming the US Capitol (WV MetroNews) When you swear to uphold the Constitution in December, but sack the Capitol Building in January.

Claims Antifa Embedded in Capitol Riots Come From a Deeply Unreliable Facial Recognition Company (OneZero) No of course Antifa wouldn’t be at this stupid thing. What, so the Nazis & the Proud Boys could beat them up while the cops watched and/or ticketed them? This was such a trash story, the company ended up disavowing before the Washington Times did. 

A physical breach is a nightmare for infosec (ThreaderApp - @jacobian) This thread is so important I’m linking ThreaderApp, which I loathe for its rent-seeking on other people’s creations, but this whole thing needs to be shared. The Incident Response to what happened to the Capitol Building will take weeks if done poorly, and years if done correctly. If you know anyone associated with IT for that building or any member of Congress, buy them a large number of drinks.

The insurrection is happening at state capitols, too (Vox) Coming to a governor’s mansion or state capitol building near you!

3 impeachable acts in 100 hours is the new Scaramucci. It’s also the name of the tour my ska & metal band took through Appalachia in 1998.

‘This Must Be Your First’ (The Atlantic) & The Violent Crescendo of the MAGA Conspiracies (The New Republic) From December and yesterday, the take-home for everyone isn’t just that “this isn’t who we are” is and has always been wrong. But the temperature in the water has been steadily rising for years now. Talia Levin is one of the most bad ass women in the world, for her work catfishing nazis and alt right lunatics to gain access to their networks. She’s written a book about it. Maybe the DCPD can check with her next time.

‘Payment Status Not Available’: IRS says some won’t receive second stimulus check automatically (ABC11) Did you think that $600 stimmy was actually going to make it to you? From the administration that redefined “check’s in the mail” when the buildings weren’t infested with MAGAts?

On this day, massive raids during the Red Scare (Constitution Daily) During the night of Jan 2nd, 1920, where anywhere between 3,000 and 10,000 alleged Communist, socialist, labor, or activist sympathizers were arrested.

The department said the arrests were lawful because the suspects advocated the overthrow of the United States government.  Specifically, the department said their alleged membership in the Communist Party or the Communist Labor Party qualified them for deportation, subject to final decisions made by immigration officials.

The above thread by Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times hits all the right marks better than anyone I’ve seen so far this week. Like all Americans, I was taught essentially none of our history between 1865 and 1913. I am poorer for it, even today after years of study and reading. As are we all.

This Is How America Works (Discourse Blog) Probably repetitive at this point, but, this paragraph got to me:

I love a good death rattle, the last strained breath of all of the things that made the Trump administration and the people who staunchly supported them such a threat to the safety of everyone else. But this isn’t a death rattle. It is a result of all of the things that the people in power have done to try and cling to their power: enabling the active racism in policing by local and federal police; feeding into conspiracies that the election was stolen from Trump for months on end; and doing everything to show support for the people who don’t have the actual power to do anything about it. What we’re seeing at the Capitol is but a virus festered, just the beginning of what might come from the right during the coming years of a Biden administration.

The Most Cynical Campaign Ever Couldn’t Win Kelly Loeffler An Election (Defector) The first piece of good news from yesterday, framed in the way we didn’t get a chance to savor.

I want to make sure to leave you with a reminder that the people of DC are just as sick of this as we are.

Song of the Tea: Rudimental’s “Not Giving In,” because British Drum & Bass seems to fit the last 24hrs somehow.

Take your hands away from your eyes, and step unassailably into what you can be.

Yours,T