...Ms. Hayden, Mr. McGee and Mr. Panayides shared an entrepreneurial streak. They expressed a desire for connection with others and sought to achieve it online. But their attempts at conventional influencing (via modeling, reality television, running a small business and sharing motivational content) brought only modest attention.

It wasn’t until they tapped into an ecosystem charged by hyperpartisan politics that they were able to access the levels of engagement they desired. In each case, these newfound influencers recognized the opportunity and had the digital savvy to siphon off a portion of the attention and outrage generated by the news cycle for themselves. Quickly, they seized on hashtags and refined their messages, occasionally posting the same thing numerous times — testing their language to see what would take off. Most realized that the same post on a personal page generated only scant attention compared with the likes, shares and comments it could get on a group page.

Facebook groups for like-minded people are where lies begin to snowball, building momentum, gaining backers and becoming lore. Organizers refine their messages and titillate followers with far-fetched predictions and analysis, often recasting Mr. Trump’s loss as part of a master plan to get re-elected.

They’re also a way to bring together disparate conspiracy factions into a larger movement. Not long after his group took off, on May 6, Mr. Panayides laid out what was, essentially, his growth strategy to his followers. “This is not a group for socialising,” he said. “I don’t care if you’re a 5G person, you come from QAnon, you’re a mad super believer in all this stuff that’s happening, or you’re just new to the group, you’ve just had your eyes open, you have to understand, we’re a mixed bag.”

Much more at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/opinion/facebook-far-right.html

A group of former administration officials and anti-Trump Republicans said they would make a $50 million commitment to support the re-election of Republican lawmakers who join Democrats in supporting impeachment of the president.

The financial commitment by the group, the Republican Accountability Project, is designed to incentivize Republicans who have appeared open to voting in favor of the new article of impeachment that is expected to be considered by the House on Wednesday.

“Donald Trump has made it clear he is going to try and politically punish anyone who stands against him,” said Sarah Longwell, a prominent Never Trump Republican who is behind the new group. “His ability to to do that is diminishing by the minute, but we want to provide a counterweight to say there is real money to back people who do the right thing.”

...The Republican Accountability Project will be headed up by two former Trump administration officials: Olivia Troye, a former aide to Vice President Mike Pence, who served on the coronavirus task force, and Elizabeth Neumann, who served as a deputy chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security. During the election, both Ms. Troye and Ms. Neumann became outspoken critics of the administration. The group will operate under the umbrella organization of Defending Democracy Together, an advocacy group aimed at fighting Trumpism within the Republican Party.

Nine weeks before invaders violently took siege on the U.S. Capitol, President Donald Trump’s zealous supporters swarmed a Joe Biden presidential campaign bus driving through Central Texas, waving “Make America Great Again” flags, shouting profanities and ultimately frightening those on board enough that Democrats canceled multiple campaign events that evening.

Former Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, who was on the bus, said that law enforcement authorities didn’t take that incident seriously enough and now sees it is an example of how Trump supporters have become dangerously emboldened to act lawlessly, fueled by some Republicans who either tacitly or explicitly encouraged the sort of violence that culminated with last week’s attack.

“This is a symptom of a broader problem that is not going away. This truly is the birth of a domestic terrorist unit. And I think that the FBI and local law enforcement need to see it this way,” said Davis, who spoke publicly about the October incident for the first time on Monday to The Texas Tribune. “It’s no surprise that we see things like Wednesday of last week in our nation's Capitol, when people who are behaving aggressively like that are rewarded and praised by their quote-unquote leader for that kind of behavior.”

...The bus incident, which resulted in a minor collision between a Biden volunteer driving behind the bus and a Trump supporter, was caught on video and made national headlines just days before the November election. It also garnered praise from Republican leaders.

A day after the incident, Trump tweeted a video of the Trump supporters following the Biden bus saying, “I LOVE TEXAS!” and falsely claimed his supporters were “protecting” the bus.

More at https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/11/wendy-davis-us-capitol-riot-texas/?utm_campaign=trib-social-buttons&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social