CORRECTION: first link below has been corrected; previously both links pointed to the ArsTech story, which linked to the Parler letter, online here:
The letter only is online - exhibits referenced in letter footnotes are absent
................................end correction............................
Puzzling evidence presented by Parler, highlighted by ArsTech.
The focus is Parler's lawyers' twelve page letter in response to a House committee inquiry request.
Without cause to disbelieve any assertions in the lawyers' letter, there is a question of who knew what when and what communication within government happened, leading to what planning decisions to act or forebare; that uncertainty touching governmental agency to agency recognition, be it either generically kicking the can, or with specificity about Jan. 6 anticipations.
And why was Parer tarred and feathered as a take-down social media target, but not Facebook, nor Twitter, with the lawyers' having asserted the latter two mega social media giants were left unscarred.
A few screenshots from the twelve page letter; See, especially, letter p.2 at fns.5 and 6, (and accompanying text re AWS - Amazon Web Services - with each of the two footnotes giving a web link). You can click any of the image thumbnails to enlarge and read:
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| p,2 |
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| p.6 |
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| p.7 |
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| p.8 |
Troubling evidence? The lack of any widespread coverage of this follow-up to earlier very widespread accusatory posting seems troubling, possibly leaving a widespread misunderstanding.
Ask yourself, do you suppose a widespread airing in the House of this follow-up will happen? Then, wait and see.
All this notice, and too little protection mounted in advance of the Jan. 6 Trump rally and the scheduled certification of the Biden victory - scant Capitol Police with National Guard requests delayed and handled strangely. And if memory serves correctly, one single always holstered handgun was the only firearm captured among the Jan. 6 people strolling within the Capitol, (with the owner's claim it was carried for self-protection and not aggression) - so that the "insurgency" was without firearms displayed at all in multiple posted video, and without even spray paint - there was no graffiti reported to have been left on paintings, statuary, walls, doors, podiums, desks, floors, carpeting, or seats. Broken glass is broken glass, yet they certainly in general were orderly "insurrectionists" in those other regards. Tidy. Was any arson attempt reported? It seems not. No flammables carried into the Capitol or put to use is the recollection here of online contemporaneous and subsequent reporting.
It has trappings of a staged event, not chaos, not mayhem, and certainly not "armed insurrection" in the generally serious meaning that term carries.
So, if staged - who staged it, under what motivation, toward what anticipated usages and outcomes, short term or long term?
With Trump saying he now wants to start his own great, beautiful, best-ever, super social media outlet; having Parler out of the way as a competitor is a convenience.
Would Rebekah Mercer be putting money behind a Trump effort, do you think? As she did to launch Parler? Having a big piece of the action? Switching from Parler to Trump's apprentice? She's already shifted from Cruz to Trump. Or might Deutsche Bank finance it, these days?
Who else would loan Trump seed money?
Would AWS host it?
______UPDATE______
A social media outlet. Trump. Steve Bannon did video. Steve Bannon did Breitbart. With Rebeckh Mercer money invested, Bannon did Breitbart. When Cruz lost the nomination Mercer money went to Trump's effort. Steve Bannon was an early Trump ally. Steve Bannon was a White House insider. Steve Bannon was arrested and charged with a "wall-building" cash solicitation fraud but was pardoned via Trump's lame ducking.
Is Steve Bannon out of work? This day? This hour?
Can you imagine Steve Bannon running a Trump social network?
Rudy a FOX-style show host and commentator? With Sidney Powell? Roger Stone? Bill Barr? Fallwell Jr.? Trump family, each a host of multiple forums? Sean Spicer as a news reader? Wilbur Ross doing CNBC manage-your-money type content or hosting a call-in? Mike Pence with a Sunday Face the Prayer interview show? James Dobson on Sunday postings? All the trappings of the worse of cable.
Then the forum opportunities. Reddit, look out. Trump's coming.
_________FURTHER UPDATE_________
Making a mountain out of a molehill? Try as I might, this does not
look like a pair of insurrectionists. There has been no reporting the
one individual holding the bullhorn ever tried to gore anybody, while the individual in the
tan hoodie appears to be asking directions of an officer not appearing to be in fear for his life.
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| Strib published image |
Give me a break. The Pelosi characterization of things just does not ring true. A protester sitting in her office chair feet up on her desk, yes, arguably disrespectful, perhaps enough to fire up Pelosi's extremist rhetoric, but by far not insurrection. Not as I understand that word's meaning. Window unsmashed, files and items on her desk left untouched [and untorched], framed pictures unmoved and unbroken, desk drawers not being ransack-searched for souvenirs, not even mud on the shoes. Just a good ol' boy mocking haughty surroundings. Of a salaried public servant. With reported survey results on the public's respect for how well Congress is doing its job, what's to say?
________FURTHER UPDATE________
Reliable documented evidence of post-entry property damage within the Capitol seem hard to find online. One photo of clean-up efforts online, here. Two conflicting reports, here and here. The latter item from claimsjournal.com, from insurers, quotes a spokesman:
Civil unrest has caused catastrophe-level losses — $25 million or more — only a dozen times since 1950, Johansmeyer said. Until the George Floyd riots, violence that erupted in Los Angeles in connection with the police beating of Rodney King in 1991 held the record for insured losses.
“What we’re looking at is an event in D.C. of significant symbolic importance and obvious cultural significance as well,” he said.
But Johansmeyer said while the assault on the U.S. Capitol is significant for society, the event so far doesn’t appear to be especially significant in terms of property losses. The Capitol building is not located near any shopping district or residential area, he said. And the damage — while shocking to witness — appeared primarily superficial.
[italics added] All I know is what I find in web searching. Was not there, did not make a giant effort to pin down online reporting of any magnitude of property damage facts. Make of those two reports what you will. "Superficial" is an unambiguous word; and from an insurance expert on claims damage, it carries some weight; meaning insubstantial by expert observation and opinion.
Fencing cost was advanced as part of the "damage" cost by the Architect of the Capitol office personnel. Sending in National Guard personnel was not without cost. Delay in that step needs to be fleshed out, to the public.
There being a dearth of after-the-fact damage evidence online is itself a mystery. What really was the outcome of this "insurrectionist mob," (using Pelosi's wording), in terms of property damage? That needs to be pinned down for the public to have a grasp of what actually happened - apart from rhetoric which can easily exaggerate. What is the true extent of physical damage caused, as shown unequivocally by post-entry visual evidence? Why it is not already factually established online is a question lawmakers should answer.
_________FURTHER UPDATE_________
Wikipedia, here, posts this image as part of this post; the image captioned in the post: "Ken Cuccinelli, acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, touring the Capitol after the attack to survey damage." Two undamaged working chandeliers and what looks to be an antique "grandfather clock" are shown in patrolled hallways in a photo op showing, strangely enough, no damage, no "handwriting on the walls." A nice, quiet photo-op hallway, in a photo staged to be characterized as inspection of damage?
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FURTHER: It is admitted that Ken Cuccinelli, acting as a Trump DHS top official might choose a photo-op location less damaging to the Trump Administration than a possibly massively damaged other Capitol location; and perhaps this location was apart from areas the entrants traversed; but it's what's online, take it or leave it.
FURTHER: denverpost.com - images