Posts posted by bolverk
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An investigation of the financing for Trump's golf courses in Scotland is being called for by one of their MPs and a debate is being held today on whether their parliament will start up an inquiry.
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1 hour ago, Sawbonz said:
In which countries is the head of the executive determined by popular vote?
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7 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:
Well, there's a serious question whether a President leaving office moots an impeachment/conviction.
That's procedural, but about 50-75% of the "rule of law" is based on procedure.
The entire 4th amendment is basically procedural, as are the 5th, 6th, and 7th.
It doesn't have anything to do with the merits of the articles of impeachment, true, but it can't be casually dismissed.
Here's some good reading on the constitutionality of impeachment after office.
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Legal Pressure on Trump Increases With Judge’s Order in Fraud Inquiry
The order, answering a demand for documents by New York’s attorney general, rejected a bid to shield the records with attorney-client privilege.A New York judge on Friday increased pressure on former President Donald J. Trump’s family business and several associates, ordering them to give state investigators documents in a civil inquiry into whether the company misstated assets to get bank loans and tax benefits.
It was the second blow that the judge, Arthur F. Engoron of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, had dealt to Mr. Trump’s company in recent weeks.
In December, he ordered the company, the Trump Organization, to produce records that its lawyers had tried to shield, including some related to a Westchester County, N.Y., property that is among those being scrutinized by the New York State attorney general, Letitia James.
On Friday, Justice Engoron went further, saying that even more documents, as well as communications with a law firm hired by the Trump Organization, had to be handed over to Ms. James’s office. In doing so, he rejected the lawyers’ claim that the documents at issue were covered by attorney-client privilege.
The ruling was a fresh reminder that Mr. Trump — who left office about a week ago under the cloud of impeachment and who is headed for a Senate trial on a charge of “incitement of insurrection” after his supporters stormed the Capitol in a violent rampage — faces significant legal jeopardy as a private citizen.
The most serious threats confronting the former president include a criminal investigation by the Manhattan district attorney and the civil inquiry by the attorney general into possible fraud in Mr. Trump’s business dealings before he was elected.
SpoilerMs. James’s investigation began in March 2019, after Michael D. Cohen, the former president’s onetime lawyer, told Congress that Mr. Trump had inflated his assets in financial statements to secure bank loans and had understated them elsewhere to reduce his tax bill.
Investigators in Ms. James’s office have focused their attention on an array of transactions, including a financial restructuring of the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago in 2010 that resulted in the Fortress Credit Corporation forgiving debt worth more than $100 million.
Ms. James’s office has said in court documents that the Trump Organization — Mr. Trump’s main business vehicle — had thwarted efforts to determine how that money was reflected in its tax filings, and whether it was declared as income, as the law typically requires.
An analysis of Mr. Trump’s financial records by The New York Times found that he had avoided federal income tax on almost all of the forgiven debt.
Ms. James’s office is also examining whether the Trump Organization used inflated appraisals when it received large tax breaks after promising to conserve land where its development efforts faltered, including at its Seven Springs estate in Westchester County.
Accusing the Trump Organization of trying to stall the inquiry, lawyers with Ms. James’s office sought a judge’s order in August compelling the company to turn over documents related to the Seven Springs estate and other properties, and requiring the former president’s son Eric Trump, a company vice president, to testify in the inquiry. (Eventually, he did.)
In December, Justice Engoron ordered the Trump Organization to turn over to Ms. James’s office an engineer’s documents related to a conservation easement at the Seven Springs property.
Ms. James’s office is examining whether the easement is legitimate and whether an improper valuation of the estate allowed the Trump Organization to take a $21 million tax deduction it was not entitled to.
Lawyers for the company had tried to keep the engineer’s documents from investigators by claiming the materials were privileged because lawyers for the Trump Organization relied on them in valuing the property. Justice Engoron rejected that argument.
In the order issued on Friday, Justice Engoron again found that the Trump Organization lawyers had invoked attorney-client privilege for documents to which it did not apply.
Some communications that had been marked as privileged, he wrote, were “addressing business tasks and decisions, not exchanges soliciting or rendering legal advice.” He also said that communications related to public relations were not of a legal nature and that privilege was waived in some circumstances where third parties were involved in the discussions.
Justice Engoron did not specify in the order which documents were to be provided to Ms. James’s office, but he gave the Trump Organization until Feb. 4 to turn them over.
A spokesman for the attorney general declined to comment. A representative of the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Seven Springs estate is also now at issue in the long-running inquiry being conducted by the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Prosecutors involved in the inquiry, the only known active criminal investigation of Mr. Trump, have subpoenaed records related to the Westchester property, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Vance’s investigation has largely been stalled since last fall, when Mr. Trump sued to block a subpoena for his tax returns and other records, sending the bitter dispute to the U.S. Supreme Court for a second time. A ruling is expected soon.
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Edited by bolverk
so far as I know, the subject was unfortunately never found.7 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:Or somebody who got lost on the way to a Renfest.
About a dozen years ago, I bought my daughter a kick-ass sword at the RenFest NW of Houston. It's lying about here somewhere. Guess that makes me a sword-hoarder.
7 hours ago, Beau Vine said:I want young wenches in bustier corset dresses.
Every time I see/read the word "bustier", I kind of crack up. Many years ago, in the early '90s, I was a 911 dispatcher/parking fine collector/all around communications officer for the Texas Tech PD.
One late night, I received a 911 call from a student living in a girl's dorm. She told me there was a male subject/peeping tom, wearing a pink bustier, who was peeking in the window of her ground-level dorm room.
I called it out on the radio to the 2-3 cops who were on duty. "There's a male subject wearing a pink bustier who has been spotted on the east side of XXX Hall."The response I got from one of the redneck cops was "A pink boostie whut?"
The only thing I could do was to blurt out "You know, like, what Madonna wears!"
/csb -
4 minutes ago, Wally Pryor said:
May want to check the math on the above unless the bums are doubling up in each room.
And FWIW the newest property we bought for $6.7MM has just 65 rooms. So that's really going to mess with your hotel inventory assessment.
I get that sounds like a lot of money, and it IS. But, bear with me here, property is really fucking expensive in Austin.
So, let's do the maths on this amount. It comes out to a one-time cost of a little more than $100,000 per room to house the homeless. How many potential occupants will live in each room over how much time? What's the turnover? I honestly don't know.
Can they get someone off the street, into a room for six months, set them on a path for recovery, and back into society in that time? Again, I honestly don't know.
What's the expected useful life of the hotel? How many folks will it help out over the years? Again and again, I don't know.
What I do know is that the federal government spent about $36,000 per year to house its inmates in 2017, but I don't know what the costs are for Travis County inmates.
Seen in that light and compared to other potential unpaid expenses at ERs for overdoses/accidents and visits to the county lockup, that $6.7 million might actually not be that terrible IF the folks living temporarily in these hotels get the counseling/social services they need to become contributing members of society again.
I'm no expert on policies geared toward helping the homeless, but it sort of makes sense to get them sheltered first and then provide services like Maslow's hierarchy of needs would suggest.

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Happy to report my 79yo mom got her first Moderna shot yesterday (she came down with Covid in early December after catching it from my dad, who as y'all know did not survive). She sounded relieved and elated when I talked to her last night and urged me to get the vaccine ASAP, which I obviously plan to do.
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23 minutes ago, dcar00 said:
No one has a vested interest in reporting the actual number because then people will figure out you can't buy a few hotels that house 150 people each and fix it.
I've stayed out of this homeless debate and agree that accurately counting the homeless must be an incredibly difficult task, but I do take issue with the bolded. There is absolutely a vested interest in counting them as it affects the amount of federal $ that Austin could receive to help deal with this population.
Census takers work to count homeless population
AUSTIN (KXAN) — This week, U.S. Census Bureau enumerators will work to make sure Travis County and the surrounding area’s homeless population is counted.
Enumerators will visit people experiencing homelessness living along Interstate 35, U.S. Highway 290 and 183. Since October, Integral Care has been laying the groundwork for Census officials by working to provide support, mapping and information. The health authority has also been working to get the word out within the homeless community.
Integral Care is just one of the many local groups, along with the City of Austin, working to ensure every person experiencing homelessness is counted. Austin’s Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, or ECHO, is also helping, providing mapping to guide census officials.
In January, ECHO conducted its annual Point-In-Time count. At that time, 2,506 people were counted as experiencing homelessness.
An 11 percent increase from last year with a 45% spike in unsheltered homelessness. While ECHO officials said the jump in numbers was more than likely due to a more accurate count thanks to volunteers and better technology. ECHO officials added it is a hard-to-reach population, and counting those experiencing homelessness is crucial.
“The great risk is that we lose federal funding for things like shelters and services and housing programs and things like that, that are very critical to helping serve this population and helping keep people off the streets,” said Sarah Duzinski, ECHO’s vice president of quality assurance.
“For us to ensure that we are able to move people off the streets and into housing we need those federal dollars and that support of the federal government,” added Ellen Richards, Integral Care’s chief strategist.
Census officials cannot use the Point-In-Count numbers because census enumerators must be the ones to conduct the count. Enumerators will also visit homeless shelters and food bank lines to make sure they get as many people counted as possible.
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On 1/27/2021 at 11:01 PM, DalTxHornFan said:
Never let a crisis go to waste, eh Lloyd?
It's odd you somehow omitted his follow up tweet he posted within the same minute of the one you're complaining about.
But you know what? He at least gives a shit about expressing his condolences to those in his district who may have been effected by this - even though her offices are not in his district and it seems she wasn't a resident of it either. He apparently does give a shit about the broader Austin community.
I challenge you to see what the responses were from the other representatives purportedly "serving" and "representing" Austin from their gerrymandered districts.
You're welcome to visit any of their Twitter accounts or even do a google news search.
- TX-21 Chip Roy: @chiproytx ; @RepChipRoy
- TX-25 Roger Williams: @RepRWilliams
- TX-31 John Carter: @JudgeCarter
- TX-17 Pete Sessions: @PeteSessions
- TX-10: Michael McCaul: @RepMcCaul
But I made it easy for you and have done the work. None of them have said a gotdam thing to console the community or even acknowledge this tragedy, but I don't know why you would even give a shit since you apparently live in Dallas.
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11 minutes ago, Lagunamadre said:
Sorry if I missed it upthread if previously discussed, but what is to become of the 300 Colorado building now that Parsley is no longer a company?
Good question. I found the below article from December in the ABJ, and it looks like they simply terminated their lease. I went to the leasing page on the tower's website, and it looks like there are only three floors (out of 30) and a single suite that are currently available. https://www.coloradotower.com/leasing-
So, maybe it'll fill up more quickly than we might expect. Of course, who knows exactly what's in store long-term for demand for office space now that companies know they can still function pretty well with so many folks working from home.
Parsley Energy announces hundreds of layoffs, closure of Austin offices
It was once the biggest oil company in townAustin is losing one of its few name-brand oil drillers.
Parsley Energy Inc. plans to lay off 234 employees in Austin by early February and close its office in the Texas capital, according to a filing with the Texas Workforce Commission.
In a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letter submitted Dec. 7, Parsley (NYSE: PE) notified TWC that the majority of its Austin employees will be terminated in connection with its $4.5 billion acquisition by Irving-based Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (NYSE: PXD), which was announced in October.
Parsley Energy has been focused on oil and gas production in West Texas' Permian Basin. The company moved its headquarters to Austin from Midland in 2014. For years it was a prolific driller in the Permian, with average daily net sales of 114,902 barrels of oil equivalent in 2019 and revenue that year of $1.96 billion, according to securities filings.
But Parsley, like many other drillers, has been walloped this year by a precipitous slump in demand for oil. In March, the company announced plans to reduce its number of development rigs in operation, pare down its hydraulic fracturing equipment and revise cash flow expectations. In May, Parsley reported a first-quarter loss of $3.4 billion in the face of “unparalleled global oil demand destruction resulting in a sharp drop in near-term oil prices,” said Matt Gallagher, Parsley president and CEO, in an earnings call at the time.
Representatives from Parsley Energy could not immediately be reached for comment.
The offices that will be closed are at 303 Colorado St. and 301 Congress Ave., according to the letter. Two employees working at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport will also lose their jobs.
Earlier this year, Parsley paid $2.8 million to terminate the majority of its lease at 303 Colorado, vacating 74,000 square feet of office space. It was not immediately clear what will become of the 302,000 square feet Parsley leased at the under-construction 300 Colorado tower, which is being developed by Cousins Properties, Riverside Resources Corp. and Ironwood Real Estate.
The layoffs for the majority of employees will occur on Feb. 8, according to the letter. That's right around the time Pioneer is expected to close its deal for Parsley.
When the merger was announced, Gallagher was said to be joining the board of Pioneer Natural Resources.
Some of the affected employees will be given the opportunity to transfer to Pioneer offices in Las Colinas and Midland.
Parsley had 496 employees at the end of 2019, making it the largest oil company in Austin’s relatively small energy sector.
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![A 64-story mixed-use tower planned at the foot of Rainey Street is slated to have a hotel, apartments and condominums.[Skidmore, Owings & Merrill]](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2021/01/27/NAAS/b041656d-c475-454b-a135-4b0879bb628f-M2_tower_1.jpg?width=660&height=372&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
New Austin high-rise: Proposed 64-story tower would be city's second-tallest
A 64-story tower that could become Austin's second tallest high-rise is being planned for a site overlooking Lady Bird Lake, in the booming Rainey Street District on downtown's southeast side.
The cost to build the tower, including land and all other associated costs, is estimated at $540 million, according to the developer, M2 Development Partners, an international real estate development and investment company.
M2 is targeting an April 2022 groundbreaking for the project, and said a name for the tower will be announced in the coming weeks. The project's anticipated opening date is the third quarter of 2025.
Timothy Morris, M2's managing principal, said the skyscraper is planned for 1.2 acres at 80 Red River Street. That is next to another proposed residential tower called the Travis being developed by Dallas-based Genesis Real Estate Group.
M2's tower, which would be along Waller Creek, has a proposed height of 802 feet. If built, that would make it the second-tallest building in Austin after 6 X Guadalupe, a 66-story mixed-use tower under construction at West Sixth and Guadalupe streets whose developers say will be more than 840 feet tall when completed.
Austin's current tallest building is the Independent, known as the "Jenga tower" for its offset design. The Independent is 58 stories and 690 feet tall.
M2 executives said their planned tower would have about 1.1 million square feet of space, with 250 hotel rooms, 150 for-sale condominiums and 170 apartment units.
Morris said the project's hotel will be operated by one of the world's leading luxury brands, but declined to say which one because the paperwork hasn't been finalized yet.
"We have our luxury hospitality brand selected and we are finalizing documents at the present time," Morris said in an email.
The project's plans also include a parking garage with 550 spaces, 10,000 square feet of retail space, a rooftop restaurant and 30,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space.
The tower would be built on half of the site that formerly housed the Villas on Town Lake. The Villas was a older condominium project that previous developers purchased several years ago, and since has been torn down, setting the stage for the site's redevelopment.
Within the past 15 years, the Rainey Street area has evolved into its own district, after the Austin City Council rezoned the area for high density development in the mid 2000s. The area has transformed with new development, with apartment and condo towers and new hotels cropping up alongside the district's numerous bars and restaurants
M2's new tower is being designed by architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP. The Chicago-based firm also is involved in the master plan to transform the site of the American-Statesman's offices on the south shore of Lady Bird Lake into a mixed-use project.
M2 is in discussions with several potential equity partners who view the proposed new tower as "a compelling investment" opportunity, and "is open to discussions with other interested financial partners," the company said in a news release.
Charles Heimsath, an Austin-based real estate development consultant, said the site is one of the few remaining locations that will have unimpeded lake views.
Its proposed mix of uses, Heimsath said, "will allow for a larger building that will appeal to several market segments and thus assure a more rapid absorption of the entire project. This in turn will make the project more appealing to the lenders and equity investors who are likely to see this as a terrific development opportunity."
![A 64-story mixed-use tower planned at the foot of Rainey Street is slated to have a hotel, apartments and condominums.[Skidmore, Owings & Merrill]](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2021/01/27/NAAS/d83e8a63-3fb4-4978-a2bf-e9e99dbc800c-M2_tower_2.jpg?width=300&height=389&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
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3 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:
it's not just that it turns these people into morons, but the way fox coordinates its message across all their different shows is really remarkable and either impressive or horrifying, depending on how you look at it.
when i watch cnn, especially their opinion shows, the main topics might all be the same (the news of the day) but the takes are all different, and the guests all provide their own insight. their correspondents and contributors which make up 10-15 min per hour basically update throughout the day. but that's it.
fox news finds their angle, and everybody parrots it, which is why it's so effective in its penetration. their hosts say it, their guests say it, the gop congressmen say it - they know their talking points, and they hit them hard, which is why every conversation you have with a right-winger/trumper sounds the same. did you know donald trump is the first president to never start a foreign war? please.
i used to work for a company that made commercials and informercials and we sold our product via "direct response" which is the not very fancy way of saying there's a phone number on the screen to call and order the product. we had consultants come in and tell us in a 30/60/90 second commercial, to make sure to say the number 5-7x. in a 30 minute infomercial, you need to have 7 commercials, and at least 25x you need to have the phone number on the screen and have the v.o. guy say it out loud.
these numbers were not guesses. there's a certain amount of time people need to hear something and see something before they mentally agree to it. it's all calculated.
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23 minutes ago, Hookah Horns said:
One initiative that we really need to protect this country's future is intensive education of school children - in, say, junior high - about media propaganda, bias, reliable and unreliable sources, and how to research facts and consume news critically.
Don't see it being part of the prescribed curriculum in an age where people can't agree on what facts are, but barring that, teachers should take it upon themselves.
They started doing that in France a few years ago.
In France, School Lessons Ask: Which Twitter Post Should You Trust?
VAULX-EN-VELIN, France — A group of teenagers recently swarmed into a room at Collège Henri Barbusse near Lyon, France, for a class typically dedicated to learning Spanish. But on that Wednesday, an unusual lesson awaited them.
Five posts from Twitter were up on the board. The assignment: Decipher whether they were trustworthy or suspect.
The ninth graders quickly focused on a post by the far-right politician Marine Le Pen, related to a headline-grabbing incident in France when a teenager had threatened a teacher. One student said Ms. Le Pen’s post could be trusted because her account had been verified by Twitter. But Samia Houbiri, 15, piped up that Ms. Le Pen simply wanted attention.
“She picks a topic, she exaggerates things, and then people will say, ‘She’s right, I should vote for her,’” Ms. Houbiri said.
At the front of the class, Sandra Laffont, a journalist teaching the workshop, nodded and said, “Politicians may sometimes exaggerate reality because their goal is to convince people that their ideas are the right ones.”
The class was part of a novel experiment by a government to work with journalists and educators to combat the spread of online misinformation. France is coordinating one of the world’s largest national media and internet literacy efforts to teach students, starting as early as in middle school, how to spot junk information online.
SpoilerSince 2015, the French government has increased funding for courses about the downsides of the online world. About 30,000 teachers and other educational professionals receive government training on the subject every year. In some places, the local authorities require young adults to complete an internet literacy course to receive welfare benefits, such as a monthly stipend.
The French Culture Ministry has doubled its annual budget for the courses to 6 million euros (about $6.8 million), and the Education Ministry is adding an elective high school course on the internet and the media to the national curriculum, making it available to thousands of students. Some educators are calling for the courses to be mandatory, taught alongside history and math.
“The younger you start, the better,” said Serge Barbet, who heads Clemi, the main program within the Education Ministry coordinating the effort. “That’s why we’ve been pushing for more media education in recent years. It’s become a vital need and a threat.”
France saw the need for expanded media and internet literacy before many countries. In 2015, the deadly attack on the satire magazine Charlie Hebdo exposed a deep distrust of the media and vulnerability to conspiracy theories online.
The efforts have taken on new urgency after the most recent American and French presidential elections were targeted by Russian misinformation campaigns, and after the spread of conspiracy theories in the wake of terrorist attacks in Paris and Nice. Violent protests across France over income inequality in recent weeks have also been organized through Facebook and other online platforms, where misleading posts or distorted videos were “liked” and shared thousands of times.
Outside France, internet literacy programs are also growing, but have largely been left to groups, such as the News Literacy Project in the United States, that are funded by foundations and companies like Facebook and Google. European Union officials this month called on countries in the bloc to expand education programs as part of a push against misinformation and election interference.
France’s centralized strategy is “quite unique” and “absolutely noteworthy,” said Renee Hobbs, a professor at the University of Rhode Island who specializes in media literacy.
Ms. Laffont, a journalist for Agence France-Presse in Lyon, became involved in the effort after she co-founded an organization called Entre Les Lignes, or Between the Lines, in 2010. The group taught students about journalism, but evolved to include social media and internet misinformation.
The government points to Ms. Laffont’s program as a model and has provided an annual injection of tens of thousands of euros since 2017 to help it grow. Now 155 journalists volunteer, including many from Le Monde, France’s leading newspaper, and the group held about 500 workshops with students this year.
Ms. Laffont keeps lessons simple. She incorporates Twitter and YouTube, and shares links to websites that students can use as references to check facts. She also explains the basics of how journalists gather and confirm facts, hoping that may help reverse some students’ mistrust of the media, as well as help them develop a more critical eye for what they see online.
“We realized that we had to go back to the fundamentals before even mentioning fake news and conspiracy theories: what’s news, who makes it, how do you check the sources,” Ms. Laffont said.
There is little research to gauge whether these lessons work. Technology trends move fast, and courses can quickly become outdated. Even basic infrastructure can be a problem: Before the class at the Henri Barbusse middle school, teachers struggled to get the internet access working.
Guillaume Chaslot, a French engineer who helped develop YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, said the efforts were worthwhile but wondered how effective they would be against Facebook and Google. Their algorithms put a priority on engagement, he said, meaning false and sensationalistic content from questionable sources can spread quickly.
“I don’t think you solve the problem with these trainings,” Mr. Chaslot said. “The power is the platforms. It’s a mismatch.”
But educators said the workshops helped people realize they must take responsibility for their online behavior, particularly in lower-income areas where young people are more vulnerable.
At a recent internet literacy workshop outside Paris, students were asked to write their own false news article. One participant paused as he finished a post that exaggerated police brutality, realizing many of his friends would believe it.
“That’s so scary,” said the student, Faycal Ben Abdallah, 20.
“Many young adults don’t look for news today — they just come across it,” said Baptiste Larroudé-Tasei, a community worker at Groupe SOS in Paris who specializes in prevention of radicalization. “If all of a sudden they are interested in something, they feel a need to learn more about it without always knowing how to do it properly.”
At the Henri Barbusse class, most of the 24 students came from housing blocks in Vaulx-en-Velin, a predominantly low-income neighborhood with a large immigrant population. On that Wednesday, Ms. Laffont began by asking the teenagers if they used Facebook. No hands went up.
“Facebook is for old people,” one student shouted, followed by laughter. They said they favored Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp. (Facebook owns Instagram and WhatsApp.)
Some students said that the class was helpful, but that they weren’t sure how they would apply the new information.
Yacine Saidi, 14, who spends most of his internet time on YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram, said the class should be longer. “I’m not sure how useful it can be when I’m back home on my phone,” he said.
A group of girls including Ms. Houbiri said they mainly got their news from Snapchat and YouTube. “We’re not aware enough of how journalists work, how fake news is created or why such or such thing lands in our social media feeds,” Ms. Houbiri said. “School can be the place where we become more aware of all this.”
Then the lunch bell sounded, and the two-hour class drew to an end. Ms. Laffont was energized by the teenagers’ engagement and interest.
“It’s your role to sort things out online,” she told them. “Be attentive to all the subtleties we’ve seen today.”
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10 minutes ago, DDD Dad said:
Anyone remember the singing dentist up here in Dallas?
NAMBLA member.
That one hit REALLY close to home (wife played tennis with his wife).
https://www.prweb.com/releases/darlene/ellison/prweb2033244.htm
Well, it appears she at least got a book deal out of it.
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Actual news on the attack:
The acting chief of the Capitol Police apologized to Congress on Tuesday for the agency’s massive security failures on Jan. 6, acknowledging during a closed-door briefing that the department knew there was a “strong potential for violence” but failed to take adequate steps to prevent what she described as a “terrorist attack.”
Yogananda D. Pittman, the acting chief of police, also confirmed that the Capitol Police Board, an obscure panel made up of three voting members, had initially declined a request two days earlier for National Guard troops and then delayed for more than an hour as the violence unfolded on Jan. 6 before finally agreeing to a plea from the Capitol Police for National Guard troops, according to prepared testimony obtained by The New York Times.
In an extraordinary admission, Chief Pittman, who was not the acting chief at the time of the siege, told members of the House Appropriations Committee, which oversees funding for the agency, that the Capitol Police “failed to meet its own high standards as well as yours.” She added, “I am here to offer my sincerest apologies on behalf of the department.”
Her comments offered the fullest detailed account to date about police preparations for Jan. 6, when thousands of angry protesters, believing false claims that the election had been stolen, marched on the Capitol at the behest of former President Donald J. Trump.
Speaking by video conference in a virtual briefing, Chief Pittman told the committee that the department “should have been more prepared for this attack,” according to the remarks.
Chief Pittman said that her department knew Jan. 6 would be unlike previous protests. She said her department knew that militia groups and white supremacists organizations would descend on Washington.
“We also knew that some of these participants were intending to bring firearms and other weapons to the event,” she said. “We knew that there was a strong potential for violence and that Congress was the target. The department prepared in order to meet these challenges, but we did not do enough.”
She said the Capitol Police had 1,200 people working on site when the attack occurred, which was “no match” for “the tens of thousands of insurrectionists.”
Two days before the attack, Steven Sund, then the chief of the Capitol Police, requested that the Capitol Police Board declare a state of emergency and authorize a request to secure National Guard support. The board denied the request, according to Chief Pittman, but encouraged Chief Sund to contact the National Guard to determine how many guardsmen could be sent to the Capitol on short notice, which he did.
As the protesters became an increasing threat to the Capitol on Jan. 6, Chief Sund asked for more help from federal agencies and law enforcement agencies in the area. “He also lobbied the board for authorization to bring in the National Guard, but he was not granted authorization for over an hour,” Chief Pittman said.
Two of the board members at the time of the attack have already resigned: Paul D. Irving, the House sergeant-at-arms, and Michael C. Stenger, the Senate sergeant-at-arms. The third member, J. Brett Blanton, the Architect of the Capitol, is still on the board. Mr. Blanton was nominated by Mr. Trump in December 2019 and confirmed by the Senate that same month. The chief of the Capitol Police serves in an ex-officio, non-voting capacity.
“In my experience, I do not believe there was any preparations that would have allowed for an open campus in which lawful protesters could exercise their First Amendment right to free speech and at the same time prevented the attack on Capitol grounds that day,” Chief Pittman said.
In the aftermath of the attack, many officers are suffering from PTSD, she said, “particularly after the loss of two of our officers directly and indirectly as a result of the events of January 6th.” Officers also have been an experiencing an increase in coronavirus infections.
During the briefing, the acting House sergeant-at-arms, Timothy P. Blodgett, also said it was “clear there was a failure of preparation,” citing poor communications and a weak perimeter defense of the Capitol.
“Whether it was insufficient or conflicting intelligence, lacking ability to translate that intelligence into action, insufficient preparation or an inadequate ability to mobilize partner agencies for immediate assistance, a series of events, once thought unfathomable, unfolded allowing our most sacred halls to be breached,” Mr. Blodgett said.
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Several shot during 3rd night of Kenosha riots
in Cloak Room
Somehow we missed out on this story from mid-January:
https://www.nbcnews.com/video/kyle-rittenhouse-seen-flashing-white-power-sign-drinking-alcohol-while-out-on-bail-99456581654
A more restrictive bond agreement is being sought for Kyle Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old accused of shooting two people to death during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Prosecutors say Rittenhouse visited a bar where he drank alcohol, flashed a white power symbol while being photographed and was serenaded with the "Proud Boys" theme. WTMJ's Tom Durian reports.