Texts from the edge

Prime example of our upside down world from today’s Washington Post:


The day before a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, William Robert Norwood III texted a group of friends and family to boast that he had traveled to D.C. with a plan to fool the police.
“I’m dressing in all black,” Norwood texted a group chat on Jan. 5, according to screenshots included in a federal criminal complaint filed last week. “I’ll look just like ANTIFA. I’ll get away with anything.”
Then, after joining in the mob, assaulting police officers and storming the Capitol rotunda, federal agents said, Norwood texted the group again to boast that his ploy had been a success.
“It worked,” Norwood texted, along with photos of himself wearing a police officer’s vest that he allegedly took from the Capitol. “I got away with things that others were shot or arrested for.”
Norwood was arrested in Greer, S.C., on Feb. 25 and charged with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, obstruction of justice and Congress, theft of government property, and other charges. He does not yet have an attorney listed in court records.
Federal agents buttressed the criminal complaint against Norwood with text messages he allegedly sent about joining in the riot — including contradictory messages taking credit for attacking police, while also blaming the violence on antifascists.
[continues]

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85 thoughts on “Texts from the edge”

  2. AP via MSN:

    WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Chris Wray is set to testify for the first time since the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, with lawmakers likely to press him on whether the bureau adequately communicated with other law enforcement agencies about the potential for violence that day.
    Questions about the FBI’s preparations for the riot, and investigations into it, are expected to dominate Wray’s appearance Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He’s also likely to be pressed on how the FBI is confronting the national security threat from white nationalists and domestic violent extremists and whether the bureau has adequate resources to address the problem.
    […]
    Wray has kept a notably low profile since a violent mob of insurrectionists stormed the Capitol two months ago. Though he has briefed lawmakers privately and shared information with local law enforcement hearings, Tuesday’s oversight hearing will mark Wray’s first public appearance before Congress since before November’s presidential election.
    The FBI is facing questions over how it handled intelligence in the days ahead of the riot and whether warnings it had of potential violence reached the correct officials.
    [continues]

  4. more from the texting nutball at wapo link:

    In texts sent on Jan. 7 allegedly recounting his role in the riot, Norwood claimed that he “fought 4 cops” and “got a nice helmet and body armor off a cop for God’s sake and I disarmed him.” He then sent a selfie that allegedly showed him posing in a stolen tactical vest.
    He told the FBI that the text messages were sent to make him “sound tough.”
    “Norwood repeatedly claimed that he only attempted to help law enforcement, not hurt them,” the complaint said.
    Despite Norwood’s story that he had pretended to be “antifa,” he and some other members of the group chat also later blamed the fatal violence at the Capitol riot on leftist activists, according to screenshots of the conversation in the federal complaint. Apparently alone in his frustration, Norwood’s brother told the group chat that he wasn’t buying those excuses.

  5. hear not-so-favorite niece dump on uncle dearest and her psychologist’s view of why the gop cult. sample:

    “he’s going to pretend to [run again] for sure ..  figure how much money he’s made in the last few months. he’s made much more money since president biben won the election than he’s made in his entire life. so i don’t think he’s going to let that grift go quite so soon.”

  6. Imagine voluntarily calling yourself part of a “proud boys” group.  Kind of like joining a “He-man Woman Haters Club”. 

  7. Vernon Jordan died, always thought he was cool.

    One of my favorite stories ever: “As a college student in the 1950s, Vernon Jordan went home to Atlanta one summer and was a chauffeur for Robert Maddox, a bank president and former Atlanta mayor. Jordan would often visit Maddox’s home library while his employer napped. One day, the boss found him there and demanded an explanation. Jordan surprised the white man by telling him he went to a predominantly white college and intended to be a lawyer. That evening, Maddox halted conversation at the dinner table as Jordan was serving food. “Vernon can read,” he announced. “And he’s going to school with white children.” Maddox’s grown children sat silent and uncomfortable as their father went on: “I knew all this was coming, but I’m glad I won’t be here when it does.”

    “Vernon Can Read” became the title of his autobiography

  8. On May 29, 1980, Jordan was shot and seriously wounded… Then-president Jimmy Carter visited Jordan while he was recovering, an event that became the first story covered by the new network CNN.

  9. Craig… thanks for that story on Vernon Jordan…   may he Rest In Peace.
     
    I agree with Mary Trump…  trumpy is saying he will run again only to get the money.  And I’m fine with him staying in the news for now.  IMO, he’s the gift that keeps on giving to Democrats.

  11.  

    JIMMY CARTER

    39th President of the United States: 1977 ‐ 1981

    Statement by the President on the Shooting of Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.

    May 29, 1980

    I was shocked and saddened to learn of the shooting of Vernon Jordan, president of the National Urban League. Vernon is a valued leader and a personal friend. All of us are praying for his speedy and full recovery.

  12. msn news:

    “My view on all this business about race is never to get angry, no, but to get even,” Jordan said in a July 2000 New York Times interview. “You don’t take it out in anger; you take it out in achievement.”

  14. robert maddox any kin to lester?

    accordian to wikidpedia, apparently not
     
     
     
     

  18. Was just enjoying the memory of a funny moment I experienced with Jordan and Julian Bond when I was working for the Mondale campaign in Georgia. The three of us were standing off to the side at a swanky Atlanta fundraiser I had organized with wealthy black business leaders. There was one attendee I didn’t recognize and asked them who it was. Bond, a really witty dude I so loved getting to know, immediately said, “Oh you know, all these black millionaires look alike”. Jordan laughed so hard he almost choked on his cocktail.

  19. Craig – I hope you’re writing your autobiography.  You’ve got some good stories. 

  20. Just heard John Kennedy (Q, LA) questioning Christopher Wray.  Hard to believe he went to Vandy, UVA and Oxford., and I’m not talking about his accent.

  21. pogo, my theory is that their cult leader is really a dementor and has sucked all intelligence, soul and commonsense from them

    See the source image

  22. You know, most of those goobers who went to the prestige schools…..there’s nothing to indicate that they actually studied and learned any about all the subjects they were in classes for…….those kinds of people are the kinds of people who pay others to take their SAT tests, write their term papers;  you know, they did the same things then that they’re doing now……cheating, bullying, lying, and stealing.  There is no indication that they are learned, intelligent, or to any degree perspicacious about anything.

  23. what’s up with senators lee and hawley obsession with FBI using geolocation to find jan. 6th perps and trying to find out what wray has ? 

    any chance they’re worried about a few calls they were making that day? 

  25. BiD, ha but who would read it? Think I’d open with one of my first memories, watching Oswald shot live on TV. Didn’t see live murder again until on the scene as a reporter watching Haitians chop off the heads of Baby Doc’s secret police and carry them around on poles. 

  26. Craig

    Still vividly remember seeing Oswald killed.  It happened so fast that networks couldn’t clean it up. I would love to read your memories of the era. Several years later my son and I wrote about the year he was born:

    Her child was ten months old now, but for three days he slept almost constantly as if he understood that this was no time for a baby to cry. The tears fell uncontrollably from much older eyes. The drums of November marked a national tragedy.  “Where were you when you heard?” would become the question a generation could answer. Kennedy dead and two days later his accused assassin died “live” on TV. On the television: the flag, the riderless horse, and the constant pictures of a nation stunned by grief. She hovered over the sleeping infant, her tears dropping on the blond curls. What have we done to you? What will become of you? Was there any hope left for the world or this new person? They would have to wait and see – together.

     

  27. Sen Kennedy was being particularly barf inducing.  This whole “whataboutism” in connection with the attack by the Trump cult is hard to take.

     

  28. “there’s nothing to indicate that they actually studied and learned any about all the subjects they were in classes for” -Mr S.

     
    A. Colleges don’t make money by failing people out
     
    B. These Congressional QAzis are playing to their dumb constituencies- they’ll say anything they feel is necessary to assuage the base

  29. thanks for the info, sturge, i’m not a twit habitué so don’t know what’s raging there unless it’s reported elsewhere.

    does that geolocation uproar have anything to do with those encrypted two-way radio communications of the proud boys reported in wapo or just run of the mill cell phone contacts:

    U.S. alleges Proud Boys planned to break into Capitol on Jan. 6 from many different points

    […] 

    The prosecutors also asserted that Nordean led the group by positioning Proud Boys members — carrying encrypted two-way Chinese-made Baofeng radios and wearing military-style gear — at an entrance to the Capitol grounds that was guarded by only a handful of Capitol Police officers and spreading out others to different locations to avoid triggering police interest.

    “By blending in and spreading out, Defendant and those following him on January 6 made it more likely that either a Proud Boy — or a suitably-inspired ‘normie’ [nonmilitant Trump supporter] — would be able to storm the Capitol and its ground in such a way that would interrupt [Congress’s] Certification of the Electoral College vote,” prosecutors said.

  30. ??? “normie” ???

    nothing normal about those inspired worshipers of the gilt-headed grifter 

  31. bink, yeah places like hahvahd milk all the alums they can get to contribute for annual fund drives and grants. 

  32. Oaky where does everyone stand on Cuomo.  From complaints thus far, I don’t see his actions as all that serious, possibly offensive to someone, but not resignation level.

     

  33. @RexHuppke

    ·
    3h

     

    Josh Hawley: “Director Wray, let’s say, hypothetically, a lawmaker did something to encourage these insurrectionists. And perhaps that lawmaker, we’ll call him Tosh Mawley, made calls to people involved. The FBI couldn’t get….phone records showing that, right? Hypothetically?”

  34. An Orange-friendly NY governor who had state pardoning power sure would be welcomed by the cult, if you know, LIKE FRANKEN, the current governor had to like resign for some reason…….

  35. MizCoretta

    ·
    15m

     

    Andrew Cuomo is being set up.The Former Guy wants New York State charges against him dropped.

  37. Think
    Focus. 
    Eye of the Tiger.  
    So he can be a creep.   Guess who is a Bigger Creep. 

  40. Craig  –
    From Veron choking on a cocktail  to –Haitians chop off the heads of Baby Doc’s secret police 
    You may be right ,  sounds pretty dull.
     

  44. Yeah…….severed heads on poles…….yikes…..Not something you’d expect to see in the 20th C.

  48. Doesn’t surprise me OM, I’ve got yellow flowers that have bloomed in the back yard (Crocus I assume, but it’s been too muddy to go down and check) and the tulips have pushed leaves up about 4″ already.  I can’t recall that happening this early in March before, but then again, I can’t recall a whole bunch of shit these days.

  49. Been watching this saga for years , ” The Halley research station” was on the wrong side of this fissure when they first spotted it,  They had to drag it across the crack , It was 12 miles  from the  edge when the birth happened Friday.
     
    The whole thing looks like  a “Jetson’s Condo”,  at Ft. Meyers .  They only man it in summer.

  50. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/02/greg-abbott-texas-announcement/

    Just in time for spring break.
    Governor Abbott is trying to make folks forget about the power and water debacle. Idiot!

    That means my office is going to be a really, terrible place to be, as the anti-maskers start going out more and then back to work.

    In lieu of the standard t-shirt:
    I Went To Padre Island For Spring Break And I’ll I Got Was Covid—which I then took home and ended up making my family sick and killing a few of them.

  51. Interviewing East Germans in West Berlin after the Wall collapsed desperately buying their first decent underwear and shampoo at Walgreens, which had to hire bouncers to control the crowd. An editor once told me I was the real Forrest Gump. 

  52. Sun tanning with Joe Biden by the pool at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1987 talking about how difficult it is to keep track of sunglasses. 

  53. Jamie – I think Cuomo is being set up, too.  It stinks to high heaven.   I hope they can find fingerprints all over this from tRUMPsky’s team.

  54. Craig – You’ve seen so much and you have a very relatable way of telling stories.  Start writing. 

  55. So , I have been watching the “roll-out”  here , and  now it’s about time to get the shot.  But there is only one way here , a trip to the civic center.  And walking  around large buildings , after a trip from the parking  lot is not my best move these days. 
     

  57. Girls, men are pigs.  And old powerful men hitting on young women , is one of the saddest parts of “Porkville”. 

  58. Why now, though?   Why now?  I tell you, it stinks.
     
    OM – The National Guard was supposed to be deployed to help get vaccines to those who can’t do the big arena thing. Maybe check with your county health department.
    I’m in the same boat, as I have driving anxiety.

  59. County judges can put covid restrictions in place if a county has 15% of hospital admissions due to the virus. Yep, light that fire and to hell with anyone who gets sick and dies.

    It’s too bad POTUS Biden couldn’t tie FEMA help to common sense handling of the virus.

  60. OK BiD, maybe I’ll post a chapter here for group think. Dunno, I’m really lazy. But I am getting to that point where I remember ancient history better than what I had for dinner last night. 

  62. Once changed shirts in front of Bill Clinton as he changed his after sweating like pigs at a basketball gym crowd event. Bare chested with the President of the United States as we compared our man boobs. Too creepy? 

  63. He’s not Harvey, Epstein,  or Cosby,  that much is true . 
    Trump brags about grabbing women’s pussies , and he’s king of the powdered doughnut party. 
    As we re-engineer  a 100 centuries  of male behaviour.  I miss Al Franken. 

  64.  Bare chested with the President of the United States as we compared our man boobs. Too creepy? 

    So far all these anecdotes make me wonder if you can hold the reader’s attention. 

  70. All of these fun and interesting anecdotes can be woven into a bigger story of how politics have changed (or not) over the years.

    You quarantined yourself in a cabin to write a book. Whelp, you’re already sort of in quarantine for awhile longer.

    You could open with the story of your mom coming home to find you doing a stump speech in your yard.

  72. Sorry.  Didn’t mean to be pushy.  I just am, I guess.
    So…a relative isn’t concerned about things opening up for spring break, but the real point is that they don’t call it Easter break anymore.     Huh?   

  73. On March 6, 1836, after 13 days of intermittent fighting, the Battle of the Alamo comes to a gruesome end, capping off a pivotal moment in the Texas Revolution. Mexican forces were victorious in recapturing the fort, and nearly all of the roughly 200 Texan defenders—including legendary frontiersman Davy Crockett—died.

    My hippie nephew  is named after  the guy  that lost this battle,  I wonder about this night 185 years ago. 

  74. Standing on the wall of the Alamo looking at death,  is nothing like  hiding from a bug  you can not see. 

  75. The modern right believes  that the virus can bend to their will . 
    The virus doesn’t give a rats fuzzy butt  about their views. 

  76. The largest and oldest   viruses   man has ever seen  are melting out  the permafrost. 
    Live, and viable,and floating  
      into the Arctic Ocean .
    The entire “sliver lining”  here …………..
    These new shots  are based on a totally new way  of making  a shot. 
     
    This will some into play the next time. , and that time is coming. 

  79. We all live alone , even if we sleep with a lover. 
     
    That will never change. 

  82. Hey Old, so you’re the other guy who bought Blodwyn Pig in the US?  I’ve wondered who for 50 years. I bought it for the album cover (red, yellow blue with the pig’s tail on the back cover) but dug the music when I got it home. Mick Abrahams was a decent guitarist (understatement) in an age when you couldn’t swing a dead cat and not hit a great guitarist. Of course he started in Jethro Tull so who’d expect anything else?

  84. Oh well then, OK. If you can’t win without cheating we suppose it’s fine. Jesus fucking Christ. 

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