Best part of 60 min stop watch, is that it stops.
Tick, tick, tick tick END
The Lost Hours: How Confusion and Inaction at the Capitol Delayed a Troop Deployment
WASHINGTON — At 1:09 p.m. Jan. 6, minutes after protesters had burst through the barricades around the U.S. Capitol and began using the steel debris to assault the officers standing guard, the chief of the Capitol Police made a desperate call for backup. It took nearly two hours for officials to approve the deployment of the National Guard.
New details about what transpired over those 115 minutes on that dark, violent day — revealed in interviews and documents — tell a story of how chaotic decision-making among political and military leaders burned precious time as the rioting at the Capitol spiraled out of control.
Communication breakdowns, inaction and confusion over who had authority to call for the National Guard delayed a deployment of hundreds of troops who might have helped quell the violence that raged for hours.
This period is likely to be a focus of a congressional hearing Tuesday, when lawmakers will publicly question Steven A. Sund, the Capitol Police chief at the time, and other current and former officials for the first time about the security failures that contributed to the violence on that day.
“Capitol security leaders must address the decision not to approve the National Guard request, failures in interagency coordination and information sharing, and how the threat intelligence they had ahead of Jan. 6 informed their security decisions leading up to that day,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.
Some American officials have said that by the time the urgent request came to the Pentagon on the afternoon of Jan. 6, it was long past the time National Guard troops could have deployed quickly enough to prevent the storming of the Capitol. But law enforcement officials pointed out that during a melee that lasted hours, every lost minute was critical.
Sund did not hear back for 61 minutes after he called for help from the National Guard. And even then, there was a catch: Although Capitol security officials had approved his request, the Pentagon had the final say. During a tense phone call that began 18 minutes later, a top general said that he did not like the “visual” of the military guarding the Capitol and that he would recommend the Army secretary deny the request.
Pentagon approval finally came at 3:04 p.m. The first deployment of National Guard troops arrived at the Capitol 2 1/2 hours later.
Video evidence and interviews show the Capitol Police and supporting police units were overwhelmed for several hours after the first members of the pro-Trump mob breached the outer perimeter of the complex.
One snapshot of the violence: At 4:25 p.m., rioters outside the Capitol building beat police officers using American flags. Two minutes later, a mob outside the House chamber dragged the first of two officers from the city’s Metropolitan Police down a flight of stairs. Elsewhere, on the Capitol grounds, one protester who collapsed in the crush of bodies was trampled by the mob. She was later pronounced dead.
“In every emergency, timing is important. In this particular case, when we’re talking about the Capitol, we’re talking about lives,” said Brian Higgins, the former police chief in Bergen County, New Jersey, and an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Sund made the urgent request for the National Guard to Paul D. Irving, the House sergeant-at-arms at the time, minutes after the gavel dropped to begin the solemn congressional ritual of certifying the presidential election results.
By then, just after 1 p.m., it had become clear to some Capitol security officials that the protesters could pose a threat to the lawmakers — and Vice President Mike Pence — gathered in the House chamber. But Irving said he needed to run Sund’s request for National Guard troops “up the chain of command,” according to a letter the former police chief wrote to Congress this month.
more
https://www.yahoo.com/news/lost-hours-confusion-inaction-capitol-125745896.html
Italian ambassador killed in Congo kidnap attempt
The Italian ambassador to Democratic Republic of Congo was killed in a botched kidnapping on Monday in an attack on a United Nations convoy in the east of the country.
Italy's Foreign Ministry confirmed in a statement that the Italian ambassador to Congo, Luca Attanasio, was killed.
The convoy was attacked near the town of Kanyamahoro at around 10:15 a.m. (0815 GMT) and was part of a kidnap attempt, the Virunga National Park told Reuters.
An Italian carabiniere officer also died in the ambush, who was identified as Vittorio Iacovacci.
The two men were travelling in a car as part of a MONUSCO convoy - the UN mission for the stabilisation of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mr Attanasio, was evacuated after park rangers intervened, the park said. However, he was declared dead shortly afterwards.
Many armed groups operate in and around Virunga, which lies along Congo's borders with Rwanda and Uganda, and they have repeatedly attacked Virunga rangers.
Luigi Di Maio, Italy's minister for foreign affairs, expressed "immense sorrow" over the incident.
"The circumstances of this brutal attack are not yet known and no effort will be spared to shed light on what happened," Di Maio said, paying tribute to the victims as "two servants of the state".
Mr Attanasio was 43 and had represented Italy in Kinshasa since 2017. He joined the diplomatic service in 2003 and served previously in Switzerland, Morocco and Nigeria.
Mr Di Maio was in Brussels for a Foreign Affairs Council meeting but was due to return to Italy early after news of the attack broke.
The DRC's army said its troops were searching the area for the assailants.
A vast country the size of continental western Europe, the DRC is grappling with numerous conflicts, especially in its remote, mineral-rich east.
Scores of militias roam the four eastern provinces, many of them a legacy of wars in the 1990s that sucked in countries around central-southern Africa and claimed millions of lives.
Monday's attack occurred north of Goma - a region that includes the UNESCO-listed Virunga National Park, which has also been troubled by violence.
The UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR, said last week that more than 2,000 civilians were killed in North and South Kivu and Ituri last year.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/italian-ambassador-one-three-killed-110455094.html
It's the slide that keeps sliding. She was in her 20's. MARRIED!
It's not a murky dig. It's been dug. It's a slide
Jim Carrey Makes Major Announcement In 'Truman Show' Style
Actor and artist Jim Carrey announced he’s stopping his cartoon takedowns of Donald Trump in a Twitter post inspired by his 1998 movie “The Truman Show.”
A self-portrait from the film shows the actor as the title character about to walk through a door to the outside world near the end. “In case I don’t see ya,” goes the caption, mimicking some of Truman’s farewell. (“Good afternoon, good evening and good night,” he added in the movie.)
“For the past 4yrs, among other commitments, I put considerable effort into this collection of political protest cartoons,” the comic star wrote in a link. “It truly feels as though you and I have crossed an ocean of outrage together … but something tells me it’s time to rest my social media gavel and reclaim a little neurological bandwidth.”
Carrey’s often grotesque caricatures of Trump became a must-see for fans and were featured regularly on HuffPost.
The “Sonic the Hedgehog” star, who played Joe Biden for several weeks on “Saturday Night Live,” emphasized that he undertook the cartoon critiques of Trump as a passion project.
“I just assumed that a radicalized America is a threat to us all,” he wrote. “When a madman grabs the wheel of the bus loaded with innocent passengers and threatens to drive it off a cliff, it tends to steal everyone’s focus.”
https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/jim-carrey-retires-cartoons-142912288.html
Whelp, based on how this "show" has gone so far, he'll be there until the DS off's him, blames Patriots, puts Kamhala in, for however long, until they do a switcharoo on her too.
Vaguely remember he was the "temp", but can't find the drop.