THE LITERARY LIONESS

Item: Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System
Rating: 4.5
Author: The Literary Lioness

A Busy Time Working on 2024 Elections, Reading Great Books, and Writing Posts | Sunday Wrap-Up

The Literary Lioness — Sun, 03 Nov 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Photo by Arnel Hasanovic on Unsplash

A Busy Time Fighting For Democracy

I will be linking to:

Sunday Salon by ReaderBuzz

Sunday Post by Caffeinated Reviewer.

Why I Have Been Busy

Since I last posted on a Sunday Wrap-Up three weeks ago, I have:

My husband and I voted early for Kamala Harris for President, Andy Kim for Senator, and Mikie Sherrill for the House.
Just read this wonderful article: There’s a Postcard Stamp Shortage in NYC — and Kamala Harris Is the Reason Why.
Wrote Fighting Fascism in 1944 and 2024 – Watch Some Powerful Videos And Read Compelling Articles!
Wrote Letter From A Birmingham Jail (1963) – A Powerful Message Of Resistance!
Wrote Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System by Ryan J. Reilly (2023) | Book Review.
Everyone on Team Trump is evil.
Continued working for Democratic campaigns by text banking and phone banking! These text banking teams have sent MILLIONS of texts – literally!
Struggled with carpal tunnel syndrome because I have been text banking so much! This is something I have struggled with for years! Planning to take some time off from excessive amounts of computer work to rest my poor arms.
Planning to work on my other blog, New Jersey Memories, after my arms get some rest.
If Trump “wins” the election I will continue to RESIST him. There is no alternative. I absolutely refuse to support fascism. There are many non-violent ways to do this.

The Lincoln Project And The West Wing

This video brought me to tears. It is narrated by actors from the classic television show The West Wing:

Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System by Ryan J. Reilly (2023) | Book Review

The Literary Lioness — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 13:38:49 +0000

Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System by Ryan J. Reilly
Genres: History, Non-Fiction
Original Publication Date: 2023
Source: I purchased this book
Goodreads
Find the Author: Goodreads, Amazon

Sedition Hunters: The attack on the Capitol building following the 2020 election was an extraordinarily large and brazen crime. Conspiracies were formed on social media in full public view, the law-breakers paraded on national television with undisguised faces, and with outgoing President Donald Trump openly cheering them on. A mass of online tipsters–“sedition hunters”–have mobilized, simultaneously providing the FBI with valuable intelligence and creating an ethical dilemma. Who gets to serve justice? How can law enforcement still function as a pillar of civil society? As the foundations of our government are questioned, the FBI and Department of Justice are the first responders to a crisis of democracy and law that threatens to spread, and fast.

Sedition Hunters

After the terrorist attack at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, the FBI was overwhelmed.

This book details how members of the public started to help identify the January 6th terrorists. These various individuals and groups became known as “sedition hunters.”

The FBI

They already had thousands of other cases they were investigating before January 6th.

The FBI had been warned that there might be a violent attack on the government on January 6th, egged on by the narcissistic President who simply could not tolerate losing the election.

There were thousands of participants in the attack on the Capitol. The FBI’s technology was hopelessly outdated and made it difficult to identify those who entered the Capitol and those who violently assaulted police and others:

To keep up with twenty-first-century threats, the FBI needs to beef up its tech teams. But as a government employer, they can’t compete with the salaries that tech companies can offer.

Another severe problem for this “elite” law enforcement agency:

SOME FBI MEMBERS DON”T BELIEVE THAT JANUARY 6TH WAS A CRIME BECAUSE THEY SUPPORT TRUMP.

This is the BEST video I have seen about sedition hunting groups.

You will see one of the online sleuths (her identity is hidden) and the author of this book discussing the online sleuth community:

Citizen Sleuths

There have been online sleuthing communities for decades. The most famous is probably Websleuths.

But had been no crime that could compare to January 6th.

Many online sleuths were determined to identify these criminals.

They noticed how overwhelmed the FBI was and they decided to help.

They do this because they believe it is necessary. They don’t get paid.

They spend thousands of hours scouring January 6th footage and use facial recognition software to possibly identify suspects.

It was indeed lucky that many of the rioters did NOT wear face masks!

They also use many other methods to track down these criminals.

One of them using a dating platform to track down some of the men involved!

Here is a typical tweet from the Sedition Hunters group:

There are multiple accounts on Twitter and other social media doing this. This really helped the FBI to identify suspects.

Word about the various “sedition hunter” groups grew.

This video from October 2021 shows the author of this book and how he came to write it:

This was posted in December 2021:

This was posted by CBS Mornings on the one-year anniversary of the attack:

Final Analysis

This is an absolutely wonderful book, even though I had to grit my teeth throughout because it made me so ANGRY.

Ryan J. Reilly was a major reporter on the January 6th attack for NBC News. He became very interested in the various ways the J6 attackers were caught.

This book goes into detail about the various groups helping the FBI, and the author also spoke to some of the January 6th defendants and also some police officers who were viciously attacked.

You also find out why the FBI and other government entities need their technological capabilities completely overhauled.

Letter From A Birmingham Jail (1963) – A Powerful Message Of Resistance!

The Literary Lioness — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 18:25:32 +0000

Photo by Luke Zhang on Unsplash

Letter From A Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther KIng wrote this moving speech in response to eight white clergymen from Alabama.

King had led peaceful protests in Birmingham, Alabama against racial injustice.

“A Call For Unity” had been been published on April 12, 1963.

The clergy members had been been upset by civil rights demonstrations in the city. They felt “outsiders” (civil rights activists) and that civil rights issues should be handled in the courts, not by demonstrations, even if they were peaceful. They were worried that protests and demonstrations would not solve the problem.

A Call For Unity

Martin Luther King responded with what is now mostly known as Letter From A Birmingham Jail.

You may read it here:

Letter From A Birmingham Jail

It was published in 1963 as “The Negro Is Your Brother” in The Atlantic.

You may listen to it here:

Fighting Fascism in 1944 and 2024 – Watch Some Powerful Videos And Read Compelling Articles!

The Literary Lioness — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 20:41:00 +0000

Crowds of French patriots line the Champs-Élysées after Paris was liberated on August 26, 1944. Public domain photo.

Fighting Fascism: The Liberation of Paris

The 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Paris was held in August.

I am currently reading a book about the Liberation of Paris. It is a very interesting book.

D Day had occurred on June 6, 1944. So many people thought that the war in France was basically over, but it took over two months of ferocious fighting just to get to Paris.

Dwight Eisenhower originally did NOT want to spend the time to liberate Paris.

According to the National WWII Museum:

In August 1944, as the Allies gained the upper hand in the battle of France, Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower had to decide what to do about Paris. When the Allies invaded France on June 6, 1944, they intended to bypass the historic city. Engaging in a protracted urban battle in Paris would risk destruction of the city’s key historical and cultural sites, slow down the advance toward Germany, and require significant resources to secure and sustain the civilian population. Bypassing Paris and its garrison would leave the German soldiers in the city isolated, with no outside support and few options. From a military standpoint, liberating Paris offered no advantage to the Allies.

The French people, however, saw it differently.

Watch History As It Happened

Much as I love to read books, sometimes the best way to see what happened is to watch films.

This great film explains the journey from D Day in June 1944 to the Liberation of Paris in late August 1944.

This following film below has no narration but there are divided into chapters with titles, which you can see at the bottom of the screen.

At 2:44 you can see the great French Resistance fighter Simone Segouin. She lived to be 97 years old!

I find this film astonishing. You can actually see French Resisters fighting in the streets of Paris!

Fighting Fascism In The United States

Here are some great articles on the troubling rise of American fascism.

Fascism shattered Europe a century ago — and historians hear echoes today in the U.S.

The scenario is historically accurate, but to which country does it apply? Italy in 1923? Germany in 1933? Or the United States today, nine weeks before the presidential election?

The answer, according to some UC Berkeley scholars, is that the scenario applies generally to all three: Italy during the rise of Benito Mussolini, Germany as Adolph Hitler maneuvered his way into power, and the United States, deeply polarized and tense as the MAGA movement led by former president Donald Trump moves to reclaim the White House.

Is Fascism Coming to America? | Opinion

Yale University professor and author of the bestseller How Fascism Works, Jason Stanley, recently put it this way: “We have a classic fascist situation in this country right now. Trump is a fascist leader who intends to overthrow the country and democracy—and he’s very good at it.” Leading commentator and former United States Labor Secretary Robert Reich likewise asserted there are “alarming parallels between Nazism and MAGAism” and concluded that “Donald Trump is a fascist.”

‘Infested,’ ‘Bloodbath, ‘Vermin’: A Guide to Trump’s Fascist Rhetoric

Donald Trump has embraced fascist rhetoric and made bald declarations of his desire for dictatorial powers as he seeks a return to the White House in 2024. This is not politics as usual. The inflammatory language puts Trump a world apart from any major-party nominee in modern American memory. And it’s getting worse.

THE BEST WAY TO FIGHT FASCISM IN THE UNITED STATES IS TO VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS.

THE LITERARY LIONESS

A Busy Time Working on 2024 Elections, Reading Great Books, and Writing Posts | Sunday Wrap-Up

Table of Contents

A Busy Time Fighting For Democracy

Why I Have Been Busy

The Lincoln Project And The West Wing

Further Reading

Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System by Ryan J. Reilly (2023) | Book Review

Table of Contents

Sedition Hunters

The FBI

Citizen Sleuths

Final Analysis

Further Reading and Viewing

About Ryan J. Reilly

Letter From A Birmingham Jail (1963) – A Powerful Message Of Resistance!

Table of Contents

Letter From A Birmingham Jail

Further Reading and Viewing

More posts from The Literary Lioness

Fighting Fascism in 1944 and 2024 – Watch Some Powerful Videos And Read Compelling Articles!

Table of Contents

Fighting Fascism: The Liberation of Paris

Watch History As It Happened

Fighting Fascism In The United States

Further Reading