3/ Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes is in the crowd, wearing a plate carrier and black baseball hat and generally looking stupid.
4/ Trump is now speaking, an hour late.
He claims that the "fake news media" has stolen the election.
5/ "We will stop the steal," Trump tells the crowd. "This was not a close election.... I've been in two elections, and the second one I won much bigger than the first."
6/ "Take third-world countries. Even their elections are more honest than what we have in this country," Trump tells the crowd.
"Fight for Trump!" the crowd chants.
This is what the start of an attempted coup looks like.
7/ "Just remember-- you're stronger, you're smarter... and you're the real people, the people who built this nation," Trump tells the crowd vis a vis Democrats.
This is straight out of the ultranationalist playbook, creating a myth of "real" citizens versus traitors.
8/ Fantastic ongoing thread from @HamptonStall sighting members of the far-right present at today's Stop the Steal rally in DC.
9/ "The American people do not believe the corrupt fake news anymore.... It's called suppression, and that's what happens in a Communist country. Hunter Biden, they don't talk about him," Trump says.
Notable theme is the constant assault on both the media and democracy itself.
10/ "We love the Proud Boys," a Trump attendee says to Proud Boy livestreamer Eddie Block. "God bless the Proud Boys."
Pay attention to the close relationship between Trump's base and hate groups like the Proud Boys. The mask is off.
12/ Proud Boys are on the march chanting "Where's antifa? Fuck antifa!"
Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes is there-- despite claiming that he quit the group in 2018-- as is Proud Boys Elder Ethan Nordean, who was fired by his own father from Wally's Chowderhouse for being a PB.
13/ That's Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes in the black baseball hat, classes, and plate carrier.
Beside him is Proud Boys Elder Ethan "Rufio Panman" Nordean.
14/ "We're storming the Capitol!" attendees shout.
Police lines have been reportedly breached, and mace has been deployed, but MAGA ralliers are not inside the building.
At 1:00 p.m., Congress is set to confirm the election results.
15/ A Stop the Steal attendee has been pepper-sprayed and is being ministered to by several members of the crowd, as others livestream.
16/ Meanwhile, an attendee in a skull mask worn by Neo-Nazi accelerationists confers with a police officer.
Completely normal.
17/ Fights are breaking out as attendees try to push past the cops.
There's a not insignificant amount of blood on the ground.
18/ "Move back," shout the police, as riot cops try to push the crowd back from the Capitol Building.
19/ Police are deploying pepper spray and the crowd is pepper-spraying them back.
20/ The air's a little foggy with pepper spray and pepper balls being launched at the crowd.
"You work for us!" the crowd screams at the police.
21/ Police continue to mace the crowd as a chant of "Whose House? Our House!" breaks out, and Stop the Steal ralliers attempt to push forward.
This is what an attempted coup looks like.
22/ Ralliers wrestle with police, who are attempting to hold their barriers in place.
"You're a fucking traitor to your country!" one man shouts at the police.
23/ Police continue to pepper-spray the crowd.
My screenshot wasn't fast enough, but I'm pretty sure I just saw Proud Boy Kenny Lizardo, who accompanied PB leader Enrique Tarrio in court yesterday, near the front of the line.
24/ Capitol grounds are basically covered in tear gas as Stop the Steal ralliers continue to try to push past police.
25/ Right now, the cops continue to push the crowd back, setting off what sounds like flashbangs to disorient the crowd, then hitting them with pepper-spray and periodically moving the barricades forward, making occasional arrests.
26/ Ironically, one Stop the Steal rallier wearing weighted-knuckle fighting gloves is putting his hands up, like he's not specifically dressed to fucking hurt someone.
27/ "What do you think it's gonna do for race relations when they make me pay you reparations?" one Stop the Steal rallier asks a Black cop.
I mean, probably couldn't get any worse than the attempted white nationalist coup currently happening, amirite?
28/ Compared to leftist protests I've been at, the cops are comparatively chill.
They're not smashing people in the head, and no one's kettling the Stop the Steal ralliers. They can just turn around and leave at any point.
Except.... they're not doing that.
29/ Ralliers have broken through the police lines and are occupying the scaffolding outside the Capitol building.
30/ Police appear to be holding the Capitol steps.
31/ "You're a dick, you fucking pussies," this man in the red MAGA hat screams at the cops, which is..... interesting.
32/ Yellow Gadsden flags representative of the militia movement are flying alongside at least one Confederate flag (not pictured).
33/ Reports say that Capitol staff are being evacuated by police.
34/ While GOP members of Congress claim that the election was stolen inside the Capitol building, a crowd of Trump supporters and hate group members are *actually* attempting to steal the election, and have broken past four layers of police security to occupy the Capitol steps.
35/ Stop the Steal ralliers are now at the doors of the Capitol building.
36/ The Senate has been recessed and Pence has been removed from the grounds, as per reports.
37/ Protesters are inside the Capitol building, outside the Senate chambers now.
41/ Protesters outside the Capitol building have breached a second door, allowing more of them to enter the building. They now effectively control the Capitol building.
"Take our country back!" some are screaming. "Forward!"
42/ The city of DC has instituted a 6:00 p.m. curfew for tonight.
Meanwhile, @RepMoBrooks is spreading disinformation about antifascists in backwards MAGA hats, when this is clearly a far-right coup, top-to-bottom.
43/ Livestreamers are now inside the Capitol Building, documenting the attempted coup.
44/ Reports of live rounds being shot inside the Capitol Building. Masses of Stop the Steal ralliers are just leaving. A cop is even holding the door for them.
45/ Neo-Nazi livestreamer Baked Alaska is inside the Capitol Building.
46/ I'd be remiss if I didn't mention all the liberals who told people to stay away from DC.
This is what happens when antifascists don't confront the far-right-- they're allowed to literally storm the Capitol Building.
The police are not handling it.
47/ The success of this rally is going to be an animating force for the far-right for quite some time, and only antifascists are prepared to handle that.
We know what the fuck we're talking about.
Listen to us next time.
48/ Police are nowhere in sight. People are entering the Capitol again.
"This is our country. We're not going to let the globalists take it," one rallier says.
"Globalists" is a dogwhistle used by Neo-Nazis to refer to Jews, a replacement for "rootless cosmopolitan."
49/ Neo-Nazi livestreamer Baked Alaska has occupied a Senate office. He is now shouting "Fuck globalists!"
50/ "America first!" shouts Neo-Nazi livestreamer Baked Alaska from inside a Senate office.
"I told you to trust the plan," he says, referencing the QAnon conspiracy theory recently mainstreamed by the GOP.
51/ If you're not familiar with Mussolini's March on Rome, now's a good time to get acquainted.
In 1922, thousands of Blackshirts stormed Italy's capital, and Mussolini was appointed Prime Minister in the hopes of appeasing them.
The police are still trying to de-escalate.
52/ In other parts of the country, far-right protesters have stormed the Statehouse in Kansas. ksnt.com/news/local-new…
53/ Meanwhile, the Department of Defense has reportedly denied a DC request for assistance from the National Guard.
56/ Whatever the outcome of today, this has been hugely galvanizing for the far-right.
Indiana Proud Boys President and former KKK member Brien James claims that "We are loading up and headed out" after being inspired by the Capitol Building takeover.
57/ Inevitably, there's going to be calls for peace and bipartisanship in the wake of the attempted coup.
Now is not the time for that.
The far-right must be ground into dust, and the state has shown it will allow a coup before it will actually fight them.
It's up to us.
58/ If you're anywhere near the left, now is the time to get organized and fight the far-right, before they can find a leader to replace Trump, who just called the National Guard on the same people he incited this morning.
59/ The New York Times reports that a pipe bomb was destroyed by DC police outside the RNC building.
Trump supporters are upset with Mike Pence because they believe he has the power to repudiate the election results.
65/ Remember when I said that Trump's speech was the beginning of an attempted coup?
I was right about that.
So listen to me now-- this won't be over today.
This is going to galvanize the far-right, and we'll have to fight harder than ever.
66/ With Trump calling in the National Guard, there's going to be a power vacuum, and any far-right grifter that may have demobilized suddenly has a new incentive to fight for the crown.
We're going to see similar actions to what happened today all over the US.
67/ It's time to stand up, fight back, and get organized.
If you ever wondered what you'd be doing while the Nazis rose to power, you're doing it right now.
Which side of history do you want to be on?
It's time to fight back.
❤️🖤✊
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1/ Let’s talk. torchantifa.org/concerning-ant…
I’m being stalked by Elizabeth King and “Codi,”an abusive ex-girlfriend who stole $4000 from me in Sept. 2020, then started claiming I was abusive in Nov. when I wouldn’t get back together. These allegations are literally made up.
2a/ I hate talking about my personal life, so I’ve always demurred to speak publicly. But this has reached the point where I’m getting death threats from leftists, and one of them tried SWATting an old address of mine, hoping the police would murder me.
I can’t live like this.
2b/ It’s worth noting here that @TorchAntifa has known all along that they were provoking death threats against me and others based on completely invented allegations.
Anyone who's not noticing literal Nazis and far-right disinfo grifters like Mike Cernovich rabidly tweeting in support of the GameStop squeeze is a fucking dumbass, and as usual, @lilsarg is correct.
Nazis will try to co-opt *any* movement that's mostly disaffected white people.
It doesn't matter if it's punk rock or furry culture or 4chan or video gaming or the GameStop squeeze.
Any time Nazis see a movement of disaffected (mostly) white people that is not explicitly anti-racist, they come like moths to a flame.
Here's the real test-- will they get any pushback?
Are the GameStop squeezers actually committed to real social change, or are they just angry and lashing out and don't care if Nazis want to lash out with them and declare the whole operation a war on the Jews?
2/ To some of us, this looked a *lot* like GamerGate, a misogynistic harassment campaign whereby a collection of creeps and incels pretended that they were the victims of a liberal gaming press, and leveraged that position to attack feminists.
3/ For people watching the far-right, we saw exactly how hate groups used that to recruit.
In September 2014, alt-right personality Milo Yiannopoulos, then Breitbart's Tech Editor, published the private emails of a games journalist listserv, as evidence of their liberal agenda.
2/ Fuentes' American First followers were among the most enthusiastic who stormed the Capitol Building, and they were egged on by their leader, who livestreamed encouragement throughout the day.
3/ Fuentes himself was on the scene, but I don't have any evidence that he actually entered the Capitol Building himself.
1/ Georgia III% Security Force leader Chris Hill admitted in a since-deleted livestream that the militia ambushed a group of protesters at their cars.
@afainatl just exposed that Hill works as a paralegal at the Brannen Law Firm in Morrow, GA.
Call them at 770-474-0847.
2/ @afainatl has provided a sample script here, as well as a blog post detailing Hill's violent activities as the leader of a far-right militia: atlantaantifa.org/2020/12/22/tel…
Use *67 if you're concerned about privacy.
3/ On Friday, I exposed Justin Daniel Gibson, aka "Operator," a III% Security Force member who took part in the assault.
Hill claims that Gibson was subsequently fired from his job training police and military at a private tactics company.