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Joshua James, 34, of Arab, Alabama, pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy charges on Wednesday as part of deal with prosecutors contingent on his cooperation with the U.S. government in their ongoing prosecution of defendants who were involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The plea deal is the first of its kind for a Jan. 6 defendant and comes nearly a year after James was charged with impeding and obstructing Congress’ affirmation of the Electoral College vote in the 2020 presidential election.
The seditious conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and was the most serious to date brought by federal prosecutors in the nearly 14 months since the riot at the Capitol.
Oath Keeper pleads guilty to seditious conspiracy for Jan. 6 attack
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @12:02AM (54 children)
B-b-but I was told by the little runaway and khallow that there was no evidence of sedition! I was led to believe that this was a legitimate protest! How could this have happened?!?
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @12:15AM (2 children)
Well that's what he gets for taking his guns there in an SUV instead of a proper truck.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @12:20AM (1 child)
Ya mean Joshua James or that runaway dude?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @12:34AM
Yes
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @12:23AM (15 children)
A guilty plea is a guilty plea, no evidence needed, just a little squeeze will suffice. If he held out, he would probably walk away free.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @12:38AM (14 children)
No, a guilty plea is an admission of guilt. At the very least it means that the defendant recognizes that prosecutors likely have enough to convict.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @12:47AM
I think it should go to trial anyway. Don't give the fuckface the option of claiming his confession was obtained under duress. We've been needing to outlaw plea bargaining, so let's start here.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @01:00AM (12 children)
You are wrong on all counts. The reasons have been posted too many times to be worth repeating to someone whose mind is set in stone... The guy is a pansy, that's why he pleaded out. They have no real evidence to bring before a judge and jury because there isn't any
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @01:07AM (1 child)
I think the judge, the prosecutor, the defendant and his attorney would disagree with you at this point.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 06 2022, @05:12AM
(Score: 5, Touché) by Bloopie on Thursday March 03 2022, @01:33AM (9 children)
FTFY.
(Score: 1, Troll) by khallow on Thursday March 03 2022, @05:46AM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @08:29AM
He's cooperating. This should give pause to Little Runaway and Squishy Khallow, since the could be implicated in seditious conspiracy by posting dis-information on SoylentNews! Not that SoylentNews would be legally liable, unless they censored opinions critical of say Little Runaway and Mushy Khallow, . . . oops!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @02:48PM (5 children)
Sorry, no actual evidence has been revealed, it's all hearsay by the prosecutors to scare the ignorant defendants into "confessing", and that also needs collaborating evidence, and there is none. It was a riot, that's all it was. This is all just more "Russia! Russia! Russia!" bullshit, because the dems still have no effective platform other than "We're not Trump". As usual what we have from the dems are broken promises
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @03:04PM (1 child)
FTFY.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @11:51PM
s'alright.. your gang of war mongers win the internet again, no surprise. You still have not shown evidence, apparently hearsay is good enough when it agrees with your politics, just another day in paradise
(Score: 5, Informative) by https on Thursday March 03 2022, @04:54PM (1 child)
From the filing [courtlistener.com]:
That's a strong suggestion that there's additional evidence and/or confessions up the prosecutor's sleeve, because how else would they know that? To put it bluntly, operational security is hard and incompatible with machismo.
Offended and laughing about it.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @11:59PM
I see, so our "rules" are more like suggestions, eh? They will never get a conviction without a "confession" or "admission". If anybody holds out and demands to see real evidence, they will walk, like so many other times the case will be dropped or reduced to rioting, destruction of government property, etc. That is all they have evidence for
(Score: 2) by drussell on Saturday March 05 2022, @06:21PM
It was not bullshit, nor was it a hoax. The facts are summarized well in David Frum's article in The Atlantic from back in November:
Multiple people were even found guilty of various criminal charges relating to these shenanigans, yet many of them were pardoned. Receiving a pardon does not make them any less guilty of the actual offense! (In fact, accepting a pardon in and of itself is an admission that you are guilty!)
Furthermore, it is exceedingly disingenuous to try the argument:
To say that the democrats have no platform when it is the Republicans who literally have no platform and have blatantly stated for more than a decade that their sole legislative agenda is to completely block absolutely anything and everything the Democrats try to do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @03:55PM
contingent on his cooperation with the U.S. government in their ongoing prosecution of defendants who were involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Stop The Squeal!
(Score: 4, Informative) by khallow on Thursday March 03 2022, @12:51AM (33 children)
And you will still be. This is a plea deal. The defendant is avoiding worse charges and sentencing. Plea bargaining is quite the scourge in the US. Even SN has commented [soylentnews.org] on it before.
This guy isn't a teenager, but it won't be hard to get someone to plea to anything in order to reduce their jail time and fines.
While researching this, I found the indictment [justice.gov] that provides a timeline of the events that Joshua James and a group of Oath Keepers pushed into the Capitol building as well as transcripts of communications. Some notable aspects: planning to bring firearms in a separate vehicle and bring them to the protest "if something goes to hell" (text message from a Thomas Caldwell, pg 11); frequent cellphone calls between members including James - no transcripts for those (throughout the document); two "stacks" of people (about 30 each) push into the Capitol building from the same entry point on the east side of the building (James was in the second group which went in 25 minutes later) in an "organized and practiced fashion" (pp 20-21); James entered the building around 3:15pm and his group entered the Capitol Rotunda (pp 20-21); there was some further cellphone communication involving members of the group including James; everyone leaves the building around 4pm; Zello recordings (it's apparently a radio-like internet app) record what probably is the money quote "You are executing citizen's arrest. Arrest this assembly, we have probable cause for acts of treason, election fraud." While the source is unknown, the protesters who were on Zello didn't react unusually to the statement. A Watkins then states "We are in the main dome right now. We are rocking it. They are throwing grenades, they are fricking shooting people with paint balls. But we are in here." A possibly different unknown individual states "Get it, Jess. Do your fucking thing. This is what we fucking [unintelligible] up for. Everything we fucking trained for." (pg 20)
So sure, this could be sedition. Or it could be some organized protesters trash talking. We'll see what comes of the trials. But if all we get are some plea bargain deals, that's not really saying much unless they have some good evidence to go with it. A lot of people would plead to plotting to blow up the Moon if it gave them less jail time.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @01:23AM (32 children)
Quite true. It's very likely that they have much more dirt on him but they brought the charges down to get a quick plea deal.
My, my, my...what a breakthrough! khallow can see that Joshua James--at 34 years of age, no less--is not a teenager.
The reason why he is taking the plea deal is because he can see (or his attorney has advised) that he will likely be convicted if they go to trial.
My, that is some rather stunning mental gymnastics you got going there. Are you really trying to equate this to pleading to "blow up the Moon if it gave them less jail time"? Are you really saying that you would plead to trying to blow up the moon to avoid a trial? You really don't think you could beat that rap and walk? Seriously?!?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday March 03 2022, @02:02AM (9 children)
How quickly we forget. When government wants you, they'll pile up charges, relevant, irrelevant, fantastical and imaginary, until the potential sentencing is in the thousands of years. When you are overwhelmed, you break and take whatever deal offered, if it means you might live long enough to see the light of day again.
https://newrepublic.com/article/112418/aaron-swartz-suicide-why-he-broke-jstor-and-mit [newrepublic.com]
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/aaron-swartz-suicide_n_2462819 [huffpost.com]
https://www.cnn.com/2013/01/12/us/new-york-reddit-founder-suicide/index.html [cnn.com]
What about Julian Assange? It seems that every month or two, the "authorities" add something to the pile of charges against him. The last I heard, there is video of him wearing pink boxers with a brown racing stripe, an obvious crime against humanity.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @02:34AM
Shut the fuck up, khallow and Runaway! You are treasonous fellow travellers! You will be dealt with, in the appropriate way, at the appropriate time.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @07:20PM (3 children)
Just because the government sometimes prosecutes badly doesn't mean that happened here. It is clear to everyone but Q crazies like yerself that the 1/6 insurrection was instigsted by Trump to illegally stay in power. If you have any doubts just remember the gallows as they chanted to hang Mike Pence because he refused to attempt subverting democracy. Still have trouble? Try all of trump's covid cures, specially getting a lightbulb all up yer butt!
What gets me is how you use issues of persecution when convenient, and you couldn't care less about them at any other time. Pretty shitty behavior, really tips your propagandist hand.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @08:05PM (1 child)
Basically, you're saying that your brand of crazy Trumps the other brand of crazy because your guy is in the White House. Oh - how did that capital T get there on Trump? As opposed to little j for little joe and little h for the little hoe.
FYI, most people are realizing that the government always prosecutes badly. Plea bargaining is the most obvious symptom of bad prosecutions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @09:13PM
Incorrect, go elsewhere troll.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 06 2022, @02:55PM
In other words, you're just going to hope that the feds are playing honest this time.
Indeed. A sloppy prop [yimg.com] that's too flimsy to do the job. And the mean trash talk! Can't forget that.
I find people care most about freedom when it's their freedom on the line. Does that mean that they shouldn't have freedom because they're being moderately hypocritical?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @09:57PM
Hint: The number of charges--whether irrelevant, fantastical, imaginary, or otherwise--and the potential number of years of sentencing are not the important metric. Rather, it is what they can actually prove in court that is the important metric. Threats are cheap, convictions come much harder.
What you "last heard" from the imaginary voices in your head means nothing to me. And bad sartorial taste is not a crime, even for Assange.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @02:03PM (2 children)
That Runaway is still walking around free means that nobody wants him.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @02:21PM (1 child)
And what have you contributed to the site lately?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @08:23PM
A demand that Runaway1956 be banned? Site will not improve until this happens.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 03 2022, @04:10AM (17 children)
I'll try to slow down next time so you can keep up.
Convicted of worse. It need not be sedition in order for the plea deal to look attractive.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @04:39AM (4 children)
Sheeeiiiiittt son, you must have been there to be trying this hard to deny every video of the seditious bastsrds. Be happy you're still walking free, and stop consorting with white supremacists ya hear?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 03 2022, @04:56AM (3 children)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @05:02AM (2 children)
I think assaulting the capitol on the orders of a loser is clear enough lol. Sad rightwing traitor is sad.
(Score: 1, Troll) by khallow on Thursday March 03 2022, @05:40AM (1 child)
It weren't much of an assault either. For example, Joshua James of the story moved in with a group of about 30 and left an hour later. There supposedly were some kind of assaults involved, but not with flagpoles.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @07:01AM
Except the guy smearing shit on the Capitol walls. That sounds like toilet-training level insurgency. If they had reached the House Chambers, or were not repelled by Capitol Police and National Guard, they would have overthrown the Constitution of the United States of America, and the rest of us would have had to kill them all, instead of putting them in prison for up to 20 years. How are your future plans, khallow? Where were you on Jan. 6 of last year? Not a lot of business in Jellystone that time of year, eh?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @05:13PM (11 children)
You need have no worries. I understand you just fine, thank you very much. I'm just amused at the rhetorical twists and contortions you are willing to put yourself through in order to avoid admitting the obvious: Joshua James has pleaded guilty in court to seditious conspiracy for his involvement in the January 6 "protest". I just have to wonder why you are so emotionally invested in denying what even Joshua now admits to.
OK, so it is possible that he could have been convicted of much worse if he had proceeded to trial. And, your point is?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday March 04 2022, @01:54AM (6 children)
How did I "avoid" that? Instead, I pointed out the obvious, that there is a many decades long failure of the judicial system whereby people, even innocent ones, will plea guilty to anything the prosecution wants in order to avoid more serious jail time.
This isn't something that just showed up right as DeathMonkey posted his journal, or in the year since the Capitol protests, or since the Russian collusion investigation. It's been around a long time.
My point is that there's a political faction desperately seeking any evidence of "sedition", "coup", "treason", etc that they can scrape up. My guess is that this is as a counter to a Trump campaign in 2024. So there political points to gain from getting anyone to plead guilty to sedition.
It was similarly big news when someone was discovered [soylentnews.org] actually having brought a handgun into the Capitol building, for example. This plea bargaining theater is the best they've managed so far. Just look at what was put forth in this discussion - it's just bluster about unnamed videos.
Even in my earlier post, the most actionable quote from the indictment (the "Arrest this assembly" one) isn't attributed. That means it could have been introduced by law enforcement informants (which also has a history of decades of abuse) or running of the mouth by a zealous idiot rather than a legitimate expression of intent by the alleged conspirators.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @01:31AM (5 children)
Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much. Seriously. If, as you say, this has been "a many decades long failure of the judicial system", why is this the hill you have chosen to take your last stand on? And, I will point out that, in exchange for his cooperation, the judge is considering a reduced offense level. From TFA [go.com]:
While the maximum penalty could have been 20 years, James will likely get a much reduced sentence. In fact, I won't be surprised if he gets sentenced to time already served plus probation. So, what is this talk of "serious jail time", considering that he will likely get a much reduced sentence?
Frankly, whether the problem has been around for a long time or not is irrelevant. The only important question is whether he is guilty of the crime or not.
And can you not see that there's another political faction desperately seeking to deny any evidence of "sedition", "coup", "treason", etc? What's your point? Should we dismiss all criminal cases because there are some who will use this as political fodder? Where is the justice in that?
Sorry, but your orange hero will have to just take his lumps if he decides to closely align himself with insurrectionists in 2024. Thems the breaks.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 05 2022, @01:53AM (4 children)
You just answered the question. Because he cooperates with the prosecution's narrative of sedition, he gets a reduced sentence. That's my point.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @07:02AM (3 children)
So--let's see--you have no point. You are just shitposting for the sake of shitposting. Why am I not surprised? I suppose we should thank you for at least finally coming clean and being honest with us. But, frankly, I'm not feeling all that thankful.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 05 2022, @04:10PM (2 children)
Similarly, the prosecutors can be under political pressure to deliver a particular sort of criminal conviction like here - yet another thing that has happened for decades. Notice how so many people in this thread so desperately needed the January 6 protest to be a "coup", "sedition", or "treason".
Thus, it isn't evidence of a coup or whatever that someone pleads guilty to a sedition-like crime (even weaker when you consider that "seditious conspiracy" covers more than conspiracy to commit sedition). This kind of thing happens all the time with even innocent people sometimes caught in the vise pleading guilty.
Here, the prosecution has put together a moderately sexy story for a small group of 11. But most of it is just evidence of coordinating protesters with really juicy bits not attributed to anyone at all. Now they have one person out of that group pleading guilty, which could happen whether or not that person actually did the crime in question. That remains pretty damn weak.
Now let's look at the opposing evidence:
My take is that this remains a non-story. There's been plenty of time to find the evidence for this alleged coup. These haven't been found. Meanwhile we have evidence of propagandizing of a police officer's death right up to the moment when that death could no longer be exploited to support this narrative, demonstrating that the authorities (and perhaps media) had interests a year ago in the sort of propagandizing that I'm worried about now.
My take is that this is all an attempt to thwart a 2024 run by ex-President Trump (and maybe hurt some Trump allies in the 2022 mid-season elections). That's the driver for this circus.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 06 2022, @04:53AM (1 child)
I think you really could have shortened this screed down to "I don't believe it because it clashes too much with my narrative". Just sayin'.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 06 2022, @05:09AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @05:11PM (3 children)
Khallow never gives a straight answer when it would be "I'm a partisan hack full-in on capitalism and the oil industry." He is capable of critical thinking, just never on topics that show oil companies are evil, climate change is real and primarily due to emissions, or the topic goes against the GOP narrative. Anything outside those realms and he can almost be normal. Sometimes he even starts inching down the truth on those forbidden topics but if you point it out he realizes and doubles down on them. Asking for reasons returns a slew of bullshit and misinformation.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday March 04 2022, @08:19PM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @09:54PM (1 child)
Khallow has finally lost it. All that sucking up to richies finally included The Former Guy! And he is hallucination "evidence".
Attempt? Thwart? So the entire insurrection was a pre-counter-insurrrection to stop the sneaky Dems from getting the Trump supporters to do something stupid? Khallow, you really need to just give it up. You are only talking to yourself. It is getting painful to watch.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 05 2022, @10:54PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @11:32PM (3 children)
The exact opposite is true. Prosecutors are allowed to lie to get a deal. And, despite what you democrats want to think, this is a big one. And to the democrat moderators downmodding my comments, Good evening, ladies!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @12:59AM (2 children)
Are prosecutors actually allowed to lie( i.e., bluff) when trying to get a plea bargain? I'm aware that the police can use such tactics, but is that permissible for the prosecuting office? The point you seem to have missed, though, is that once they are in court they must prove their case. They are not allowed to lie under oath.
I'm not a democrat. Don't make assumptions.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 05 2022, @02:12AM
Yes. For example, they can lie about how successful they think the case is, or what charges they would actually bring, if it were to come to trial.
While the prosecutor isn't under oath, they are subject to various laws and ethical rules. The problem with that is that courts routinely don't catch violators [soylentnews.org] - link is to a case where some Oklahoma prosecutors with several dozen death penalty convictions were caught in various criminal/unethical acts (false statements to jurors, concealing or falsifying evidence, pressuring witnesses to lie under oath). While the story doesn't say, the judge in question was aware of other cases involving these prosecutors and yet the prosecutors were still in their jobs.
Here, the problem is that with the plea bargain, James only gets the benefits of the deal, if his testimony supports the prosecution. That's heavy pressure to deliver what the prosecution wants rather than the truth. It may turn out that the two are the same and that there's a genuine case for sedition here, but this is a huge conflict of interest that routinely appears in court cases.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @10:13PM
Precisely, that's why they want to keep it from going to court, with an admission they don't have to prove anything. So, they have to convince the guy that they have evidence, with or without any, which here, they don't have any all they have are admissions and hearsay from the defendants trying to lighten their sentence. If they just keep their mouths shut, the prosecutors will have to do all the work and these guys will walk with creating a disturbance and destruction of property.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @02:13PM
Only Ukrainians know how to do legitimate protests.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @01:56AM (8 children)
The only sedition I see around here, are Dimmocrats.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @03:41AM (7 children)
Well, it's pretty hard to see clearly when your head is stuffed up Cucker Tarlson's butt. Or the butt of some other lying propagandist.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @04:36AM (5 children)
Tell us more about having your head stuffed up Biden and Pelosi's aged asses.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @05:06AM (2 children)
The saddest part is that liberals have no problem criticizing those two geriatric corrupt shitheads while you can't even muster a mean word towards your beloved dicktater criminal conman pedophile who also tried to overthrow democracy in the US.
Quick question, WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION PYLE?
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @12:44PM (1 child)
You're right, liberals have no problem criticizing the corrupt pieces of shit in DC, so why do Democrats find it so difficult?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @09:16PM
Fair point, yet even rank file dems have higher moral standards than gop critters. Sad rightwing douche is sad, keep your tribal politics to yourself or better yet grow up ;^)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @02:15PM (1 child)
Runaway has his head stuffed up his own butt.
(Score: 3, Informative) by DannyB on Thursday March 03 2022, @03:52PM
I am reminded of Bester saying: Anatomically impossible, Mr. Garibaldi. But you're welcome to try. Anytime. Anywhere.
(quoting from memory, but I did recently see that episode.)
The episode did not make clear exactly which option Mr. Garibaldi was thinking of:
The anti vax hysteria didn't stop, it just died down.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday March 04 2022, @04:30PM
People call them shills but it's way worse than that. They crawled up that Tuck-hole for free!
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @04:37AM (4 children)
Catching all the aspiring nazis!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @06:52AM (3 children)
Wait, I thought that was the mission of Voldemort Poutine and his invasion of Ukraine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @08:34AM (2 children)
Red Flag notice on one already in place; Possible terrorist watch on the other. Don't imagine either will be flying anywhere anytime soon. In a time of insurrection, one must be careful who one sides with.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @03:37PM (1 child)
I see that you have no problem flying. Does your broom have an extra seat?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @03:39PM
The broom has extra seats, but the pilot has that red flag firmly stuck up his ass, leaving no room for passengers.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by DannyB on Thursday March 03 2022, @04:00PM (17 children)
It may take years to deal with all these traitors.
There was this one time when I pointed out that a lot of *cough* er, um . . . shall we just say "crazy talk" about topics like this and guns were preserved right here on SN for posterity. Not long after, there was a major resignation followed by a lost database without a restorable backup. It's all coincidence I'm sure. I didn't foresee that happening.
The anti vax hysteria didn't stop, it just died down.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday March 03 2022, @05:25PM (16 children)
Perhaps not entirely lost :) Screenshots are a magical thing~!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 5, Informative) by DannyB on Thursday March 03 2022, @05:48PM (15 children)
It never occurred to me to make screenshots.
Someone with enough time to waste on screenshots could fake them.
The posts that were on SN were not something just anyone could fake.
It was discussion about keeping bare arms and how overthrowing the government is our sacred duty, supporting the Jan 6 traitors, including the armed ones. Various hand waving naysaying about their level of planning, radios, marching in a column, etc. Because "I believe" the election was stolen. I say, good for you and your belief without any evidence.
The anti vax hysteria didn't stop, it just died down.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @07:14PM (3 children)
Was that why the great database wipe happened, to clear the evidence of domestic terrorist activity? Or are you just being siily.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @07:23PM (1 child)
As much, if not more, evidence for that, as there is of aristarchus sockpuppeting. Just saying.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @09:18PM
Dumbass.
The database wipe of 3 months was publicly announced. Now whether there was incriminating comments planning for a coup against the US government we may never know.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday March 03 2022, @08:26PM
I'm NOT being silly about that.
The database and my post could be coincidence. There was some number of days between the two. I don't remember. It was now long ago. And at the time, I never would have expected the database to have to be restored to something weeks old.
Take this anecdotal coincidence for whatever you think it might mean. Also, I have no evidence to back it up. I never bothered to mention it until today. I didn't expect it to get much interest.
The anti vax hysteria didn't stop, it just died down.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @01:23AM (7 children)
A friend of mine used to copy SN data to use as a data set. He accidentally re-downloaded the comments from the beginning instead of just the latest batch. But then his processing script returned different results. After rechecking against the old version, the old results returned. Eventually, I had the idea to dump both versions to NFCed UTF-8 and diff them to narrow down where the problem could be. Turns out that a number of comments were different in the dumps. After that, I lost all confidence in this site. I understand that changing and deleting comments is needed on occasion to deal with exploits and other issues, but doing it so someone else "wins" an argument" or to keep yourself from looking like a fool is something else.
Don't trust the comments you see today, they can be different tomorrow.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday March 05 2022, @06:28AM (1 child)
Dump the data somewhere for us in plaintext, please? A diff of the two would be much welcomed as well :)
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 17 2022, @08:02AM
I asked and they declined. Between the legitimate removals that occurred, its incomplete status, large size, inability to authenticate, liability issues, and general lack of desire, they couldn't really see a good reason to go to all the trouble.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 05 2022, @11:02AM (4 children)
Don't forget that this site also had a different journal disappear and the finger of blame get pointed at a particular admin. I think the alleged motive was similar in its content. But that particular investigation was considered closed after a rudimentary but fancy sounding report about the state of the database. Even though it left some quite obvious gaps including who was logged in over ssh at the time and what open sessions existed. When even the investigator had to admit that they were obviously over their head, sort of makes you wonder if they did so on purpose. Not that we will ever know since the whole thing quietly fell out of the spotlight and into the recesses of memory.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 06 2022, @06:03AM (3 children)
This is an excellent example. AthanasiusKircher [soylentnews.org] (AK) wrote up a journal criticizing The Mighty Buzzard
(TMB), an admin who was handling code maintenance at the time. But it didn't appear and AK complained [soylentnews.org]. Admin martyb did a serious search [soylentnews.org] for the journal (and for database logs that would indicate tampering of the sort that AK was complaining about) and turned up nothing. That was already too late for AK who last posted the very next day after posting that complaint, certain that TMB and the alt-right had silenced him.
Basically, AK lost his shit after fumbling and losing a journal post (a thing I've done multiple times with both posts and journals - laziness is its own reward) and blamed an admin unjustly that he didn't like. He then emoragequit without bothering to see if SoylentNews could resolve the truth of his accusations or rewriting the missing journal.
This is the real history of SoylentNews ne'er-do-welling of which you speak. It's a non-story created by a hysterical poster who already failed to deal with the fact that there were people with different viewpoints on his internets, attributing his failure to post a single journal to nefarious enemy action, and spread by people who demand ridiculous standards of evidence because they're looking for an angle that the admins haven't covered yet. Notice the fallacy here - martyb looked for evidence of meddling with the database which he didn't find, but he didn't look at the ssh logs - which wouldn't have shown evidence of the alleged meddling that martyb was looking for. You have no serious complaint. It's just another attempt to undermine SoylentNews' reputation with libel.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 07 2022, @02:22AM
So khalliw is TMB's "polite" account and is now his main account. Explains a lot, didn't think TMB would truly ragequit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 08 2022, @12:58AM (1 child)
LOL. Claiming SSH and the auth logs wouldn't show evidence of meddling either way is a hoot. I'd say "nice try" if it wasn't as stupid as your conspiracy claim.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday March 08 2022, @03:21AM
Indeed. I sense unwarranted sarcasm. How do you show that someone who logs in frequently was logging in for nefarious purposes rather than legitimate purposes?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday March 04 2022, @12:56PM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @02:53PM (1 child)
These people can't stop using the word insurrection for over a year. Of course they will fantasize about ratting out other users.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @05:13PM
Say goodnight runaway.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @05:19PM
Two traitors making excuses for other traitors. Well, Runaway is not a traitor. Gotta be a US citizen for that! Khallow is just one sad sack that is having a very hard time coming to grips with being allied with the baddies.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday March 03 2022, @05:35PM (6 children)
Better Russian than Democrat.
Happy to do everything possible to overturn a peaceful legitimate election. An election that Republican officials called the most secure in history. After many failed lawsuits -- without evidence. After recounts. And re-recounts. And cyber nitwits that can't maintain the chain of custody of voting machines and cause them to be decertified requiring spending millions to replace them. Because they don't care about the will of the people or their voice.
Gerrymandering. Because they don't care about the will of the people or their voice.
Doing anything possible to deny (certain) people the right to vote. Or at least make it as difficult as humanly possible. Because they don't care about the will of the people or their voice.
The GOP version of America would be more like Putin's Russia. But draped in a flag and carrying a cross.
The anti vax hysteria didn't stop, it just died down.
(Score: 5, Informative) by DannyB on Thursday March 03 2022, @06:25PM (5 children)
Marjorie Taylor Greene spent last weekend speaking at a conference organized by a pro-Putin white nationalist.
The GOP is nothing if not white nationalist and pro Putin.
Whatever happened to all the adoration of Kim Jong Un? Did they lose interest? Blame the Federal Reserve?
The anti vax hysteria didn't stop, it just died down.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @07:17PM (4 children)
Kim worship was just trolling to piss off libs, not sure if "pretending" to be fascists is the flex they think it is.
(Score: 3, Funny) by cmdrklarg on Thursday March 03 2022, @10:29PM (2 children)
Oh yes, they were just PRETENDING! No way they might actually think that way, no sir...
Answer now is don't give in; aim for a new tomorrow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 03 2022, @11:55PM
I would say yes, they pretended to like the NK dictator. Doesn't mean they aren't fascists that actually love their tinpot dictator Don the Con.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 06 2022, @03:01PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @08:59AM
Did anyone really worship Kim, I mean sure she looked great in a pair of yoga pants but her ex-presidential candidate squeeze, Kanye never seemed like the sharpest tool in the shed.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Thursday March 03 2022, @11:42PM (6 children)
I've looked at this journal entry a couple times, and sort of presumed that dude pleaded guilty to sedition. I finally looked up "seditious conspiracy". Hmmmm . . .
https://definitions.uslegal.com/s/seditious-conspiracy/ [uslegal.com]
Yeah, sure, there are better, more authoritative sources, but this is good enough.
The charge cited might cover outright sedition and mutiny. But, it works downward to far less serious acts. Two guys agreeing to steal a package of zip ties that are the lawful property of the government would be guilty of "seditious conspiracy".
Key to all the acts described is "by force". The clowns in the basement of the Capitol building who were clubbing and beating on cops were probably seditious. Those people in the upper floor who were ushered in by Capitol Police, not so much.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @12:00AM (5 children)
As has always been the reply, yes it is probably just to hand lighter sentences to the milling MAGA sheep, however anyone that entered the capitol still participated in the insurrection. Save the long prison sentences for the ones intending violence.
As usual you're a coward incapable of self reflection or humility so we won't be getting an apology journal for the year plus of you denying the insurrection while making dumbass jokes and spreading more dangerous fake news. You are a terrible human being driven primarily by hate and fear. Never too late to change, but seems unlikely you'll even try.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Friday March 04 2022, @12:48AM (4 children)
Those people who walked between two smiling Capitol police, politely holding the doors, are almost certainly guilty of - NOTHING. An individual who later broke into an office, or damaged or stole some paraphernalia, can be convicted of the crime he committed. Entering the Capitol is not participation in an insurrection.
Guilt by association, huh? Someone broke and entered into a business in the county seat last night. I suppose that I'm guilty by association, because I was at home, sleeping, in the same county at the same time the B&E took place.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @01:20AM (2 children)
Except seditious conspiracy, collusion, trespass, and general Republican treasonous dumbfuckery. Yes, you are guilty by association, Runaway, and guilty by thought. And guilty by mendacity. That's three different guilts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @01:52AM (1 child)
You're dumber than a box of dirt. Possibly dumber than a box of vacuum.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @02:10PM
At least he's not dumber than Runaway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 04 2022, @07:15AM
Sir Runaway1956, Esq., A tourney at Lough. Fine est legal advice and Democrat trashing this side of the Rockies! His legal knowledge exceeds, easily, that of Elmer Rhodes, founder of the Oaf Keeblers and soon to be convicted felon.