#SeditionHunters - as Canada tries to clear its invading trucker convoys, they're gearing up in the US. A year after Jan 6, reporters are savvier about the scale of organized disinfo campaigns used to mobilize crowds. Good thread & article from NBC... 1/ nbcnews.com/tech/internet/….
Here's a thread about it by NBC's Ben Collins, who emphasizes the fake and foreign Facebook accounts, the disinfo campaigns pushing conspiracy theories, the grifters and the political interests, the fact that "truckers" are largely not in fact truckers. 2/
As we saw for the Capitol attack, once a date is chosen - this year it's Mar 5 - the influence machine rolls into action quickly. Several rally promoters are now pushing parallel campaigns to mobilize people on that one selected day. 3/
If the parallel of this year's blockades with Jan 6 still seems unclear, see social media from Jan 6 rally organizer Amy Kremer: she's now pushing the new "Freedom Convoy" using the same crowd-creating language (h/t @hunterw of Rolling Stone). 4/
Still more reporting on the Jan6 / trucker convoy parallels: here's Jordan Green of Raw Story, who notes Posobiec's relentless promotion, also that Capitol #SeditionVIP Leigh Dundas has been pushing for truck-based 'protests' since November 2021. 5/
Yale Prof. Timothy Snyder has an essay now: Jan 6 and Ottawa are not 'protests'; are attempts sow chaos, overthrow governments. And this morning in Windsor suggests another language correction: guys in pickup trucks blocking bridges are not 'truckers'. 6/
#SeditionHunters have watched hours of Capitol attackers screaming "traitors" to US police; the same now happening in Canada. Video from Global News, at the Ambassador Bridge 10:13 AM Sat. The tactical vehicle is apparently Ontario police, not military. 1/
10:39 AM, police try to sweep the bridge. No riot gear, but at least two tactical teams in back. The Ambassador Bridge is (normally) the busiest international crossing in N. America and a key conduit for automobile manufacturing. 2/
As of today Ford's Ohio Assembly Plant (1600 workers, medium-duty trucks) is shut for lack of parts. GM sent shifts home early on Friday. 3/ clickondetroit.com/news/local/202…
#SeditionHunters - a chilling dispatch from Canadian reporter @mattgurney shows parallels between 'protests' in Ottawa now and DC Jan 6. In both cases: 'useful idiots' up front, grabbing press attention, & a harder, more purposeful group waiting behind. 1/ theline.substack.com/p/dispatch-fro…
Read this essential reporting. Gurney thinks the city of Ottawa has lost control: that harder elements ("disciplined, organized, and alert for outsiders") are now entrenched in a 2nd location, a group separate from the unwitting protestors, with a goal of disrupting the state. 2/
It's the Jan 6 playbook, eerily similar. Gurney says Ottawa police cannot move now without bloodshed ("dead cops, dead truckers"), short of military help. On Jan 6, Capitol/DC police miraculously called it right, found the only path out. But they faced bear spray, not trucks. 3/
#SeditionHunters - this week's Capitol attack court schedule, with some famous names in it coming up for status hearings: the Proud Boys leaders, rally speaker Simone Gold, the joint indictment of tunnel fighters. 1/
As a reminder that we have a full house on the "9 Leaders Leading" page of the Christmas VIP thread, with the entire top row arrested by FBI and the entire bottom row subpoenae'd by the Jan 6 Committee. The Biggs/Nordean/Rehl/Donohoe group has their status conference today. 2/
Simone Gold and John Strand, up for a status conference on Wednesday, also made the Christmas thread, on the "5 Anti-vaxxers" page. (Note one update: we had forgotten about Ty Bollinger, so he's now replaced Kennedy Lindsey who just can't make it into the A-list). 3/
#SeditionHunters - the Jan 6 Capitol attack required a crowd. A new timeline of the people who brought that crowd shows: the building blocks for Jan 6 were laid early, before the election. But the attack itself - in some form - was green-lit late, on the night of Dec. 18. 1/
A year’s work showed us the pipeline of #SeditionVIPs who streamed from rallies to Capitol grounds. Collecting a year’s notes into one timeline (and adding a 1500-page FOIA) makes the path to Jan 6 more clear. Read thread for a walkthrough - it’s a lot. 2/ docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
We focused on about 50 VIPs associated with rallies and crowd-building propaganda - maybe a quarter of the public figures at the Capitol on Jan 6. This walkthrough sticks to 2020, but the timeline includes their origins & back-stories... 3/
#SeditionHunters - Alex Jones finally appeared for his deposition yesterday, mostly pleading the 5th. To remind: on Jan 6 Alex began trekking to the Capitol exactly when needed to bring crowds, seemingly on instructions, and the whole InfoWars crew seemed to expect the attack. 1/
Alex did not rush to the Capitol - instead he leads a crowd there only about 1:34 PM, when the attack had stalled. It's the same moment Proud Boy Zach Rehl texts "We’re at a standstill, cops are dropping concussion bombs and pepper spraying..." 1/
You can see the sequence in our agency response timeline. Breaches are in red. Notice after an initial swift attack, there's a blank: for nearly an hour, officers held off the attack on the W. Plaza. That's when Rehl texts, and Alex Jones and Ali Alexander head to the Capitol. 2/
#SeditionHunters - now that his sentencing’s over, let’s talk MAGAfluencer Brandon Straka's role in the Capitol attack. Straka (500K on Twitter) led his “WalkAway” campaign since 2018, widely flagged as a Russian asset. On Jan 6, left the VIP section with Michael Flynn & co..1/
Straka’s story has an hour gap, then he arrives at the E. Capitol just as invaders wrest open the Columbus Doors, races up the steps. Claims he stayed just “a few minutes”, never saw violence. Watch the sync: his video is at L. Full footage at link: 2/
Straka was listed as a speaker for the Lot 8 Stop the Steal rally (never happened), but didn’t go there - instead ran up the steps where Proud Boy leader Joe Biggs was queuing. There's a clear view of Biggs' group just before someone tells Straka "Senators are running out!" 3/