#SeditionHunters - today's arrest of former Green Beret & Florida Congressional candidate Jeremy Brown suggests that FBI now has a strategy for going after the semi-organized groups who arrived armed and ready on Jan 6, but remained on the edges waiting. 1/
Brown's Signal chat (L) shows intent to storm the Capitol; he called his group "Ground Force One". But, on Jan 6, while he was on the E. Plaza, he didn't attack. (The pic at R is him shoved BY police). How to avoid a defense of `selective prosecution'? 2/ extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/…
Brown's charging documents start with 11 pages describing the Capitol attack in detail as an attempt to stop certification of the election. Only on p. 12 do "facts specific" to him appear. He's quoted as telling police they're "violating the laws"... 3/
..but documents spend more time on intent, pre-planning, & coordination than on Jan 6 actions. He met beforehand with someone who pled guilty to conspiracy (likely an Oath Keeper since he is #GoatOK, h/t @bennybryant17 ). Watch his March interview... 4/
Brown aka #GoatOK was interviewed by FBI already in early Jan; he claimed his role was to "provide[] security for VIPs at the 'Stop the Steal' rally." By Oct., FBI's made it clear that excuse doesn't wash. Pre-planning, knowledge of the attack, presence on grounds seem enough. 5/
Brown / #GoatOK's interview was posted by @visionsurreal in July in thread exploring links between 1AP and groups like the Oath Keepers. By now it is very clear that many groups were at the Capitol, with coordination and some view of a larger plan. 6/
At end of day, a frustrated Jeremy Brown, like many other Capitol 'hard men', was sulking on the NE path, fuming over the police pushback. Hear him shout about "tyrants all over the world". (h/t @OSINTyeti, & journo @sandibachom for great footage). 7/
Track Jeremy Brown throughout the day on Jan 6 w/ help from @OSINTyeti. In the morning he's at the Ellipse rally wearing a baseball cap (L), in the afternoon on the E. Plaza in tactical vest and bike helmet (top R), then at end of day on the NE path with gear off (bottom R). 8/
Photographer Yuri Gripas caught Jeremy Brown aka #GoatOK at the morning rally with other Oath Keepers. The OKs are one of the few militia groups at the Capitol in full-blown logo gear; even Brown has his shirt with gold lettering on - you can see it peeking out of his jacket. 9/
For an interesting perspective on Brown's presence at the Capitol (& on political grandstanding by servicemembers in general), here's a Connecting Vets article by journalist @JackMurphyRGR, who served with Brown & saw his radicalization in recent years 10/ audacy.com/connectingvets…
Another interesting article by @JackMurphyRGR from Aug. 2020 mentions the now-arrested Jeremy Brown (his "team sergeant") as an example of a veteran falling for conspiracy theories after leaving the service. 11/ audacy.com/connectingvets…
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Reminder: Trump has tried this before. It's part of his dream of control, to send in the National Guard against the will of a state or mayor. On May 29, 2020, he Tweeted the threat: "Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.." 1/
Trump has also overtly sought a Secretary of Defense willing to order the National Guard to shoot at protestors. In 2020 he fired Mark Esper and put in Chris Miller for that reason. Pete Hegseth may face a terrible test now. 2/
On Jan 6, the National Guard arrived late likely because sane heads in the Pentagon delayed them til local police had regained control, out of fear of what Trump might order. There are fewer sane heads now. Hegseth is already failing his test. 3/
Howard Lutnick, our Sec. of Commerce, shows a disconnect from material reality that will make Americans die. A weather forecast cannot be "automated" or MADE AT ALL without data. And Trump is cutting the satellites and weather stations that provide that data. 1/
Lutnick, who is in charge of NOAA and its National Weather Service, seem to think that if you say "web" and "cloud" and "computer" and "AI" then by some magic knowledge appears. But weather forecasts depend on MEASUREMENTS. Which Lutnick is cutting. 2/ kcci.com/article/propos…
The proposed NOAA budget cuts both current satellite operations and planned future satellites meant to make better predictions. Lutnick's testimony suggests: people have forgotten that not everything is a simulation, that reality exists (and bites). 3/ spacenews.com/omb-suggests-n…
Since Frank Luntz is defending Elon Musk, a recap: Luntz, like Roger Stone, was one of "Arthur's boys", mentored by Arthur Finkelstein, the dark lord of negative campaigns who (tho gay and Jewish), pushed homophobic far-right extremists - and gave us Orban, Netanyahu, & Trump. 1/
It was the Jewish Arthur Finkelstein who created the antisemitic George Soros conspiracy, to propel Victor Orban to power. Anything to get his clients elected. Everything Luntz says now is shaded by that history. 2/ buzzfeednews.com/article/hnsgra…
It was Arthur Finkelstein who brought in Roger Stone's partner Paul Manafort - who had been working for a pro-Russian politician in Ukraine - as Trump's first campaign manager. 3/
Exactly as predicted, now that DOGE has scraped all your personal data from government agencies, it is being given to Peter Thiel's Palantir. It was always going to be Peter, who dreamed of dictatorship for decades, patiently built up his "political project" to seize power. 1/
The NYT doesn't say HOW it was decided to give Palantir all your personal data, only that it was a no-bid contract directed by "Elon Musk's DOGE". (DOGE was always a project of Peter's too.) But Thiel had installed a protege to do just this. 2/ nytimes.com/2025/05/30/tec…
One of Trump's first actions as president was to install Greg Barbaccia, a longtime Palantir employee, as US Federal Chief Information Officer, with power to direct US software systems. This account called it: he was there to give Palantir your data. 3/
NOTUS: RFK Jr's big "Make America Healthy Again" report cites non-existent studies and looks written by AI. These people now say they will override scientists to determine what is and is not "gold-standard science". Brace for public health disasters. 1/ notus.org/health-science…
Trump is waging war on knowledge. Trump's Executive Order of last week was a bid to seize control of the science agencies, under the pretext that most science data is falsified: "a reproducibility crisis". It's projection - accuse others of what you do. 2/ whitehouse.gov/presidential-a…
Whatever is going on is coordinated from the top, since JD Vance amplified the "reproducibility" message the day after the EO. Vance throws in the phrase "particularly in biology", like this is aimed at medical science in particular. And Trump is canceling vaccine contracts. 3/
Today Trump froze ALL student visa applications. Let's be clear on what this is - it's an attack on knowledge. About half the graduate students who power U.S. research are foreign. (Compare dark blue & dark red in chart.) No students = no advances in science, medicine, tech. 1/
Politico missed this point today, writing that revoking student visas would hit universities because "many... rely heavily on foreign students for funds". What it hits most is research: those visas go mostly to PhD-student researchers working in labs. 2/ politico.com/news/2025/05/2…
Nearly half of STEM PhD students in the US are foreign. They do not pay tuition - they are paid by their labs for their work. The ROI on research is so big, each yields over $10K/yr net benefit to the US. Foreign talent helps the US lead in innovation. 3/ csis.org/analysis/innov…