IS THERE AN ECHO IN HERE? (updated with more on the source of the disinformation)

These people are fast and shameless.

Do not be surprised if we learn in the days ahead that the Trump rioters were infiltrated by leftist extremists. Note: this is not to excuse any of them.

— Brit Hume (@brithume) January 7, 2021

Sarah Palin on Fox just now begins by blasting “fake patriot” protestors, then blames the media and suggests Antifa was behind the mob

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) January 7, 2021

These are not Trump supporters. pic.twitter.com/ptcNp2lzrG

— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) January 6, 2021

The insurrection was put down mere hours ago and these bastards have already settled on a narrative that absolves them of responsibility -- and then every one of your right-wing relatives and friends will be reciting as gospel truth in the next 48 hours. Note what's happening here: A mob stormed the Capitol based on a series of lies, and Hume, Palin, Paxton, and others are responding with more lies.

But I give them credit. If they're confronted with a mass shooting that resulted from their gun laws, they'll instantly blame mental health professionals or the lack of prayer in schools or the fact that there wasn't a "good man with a gun." Give them a financial crash on their watch, like the one in '08, and they blame it on mortgage programs supported by Democrats that had nothing to do with the problem. They can always divert blame. They can always rewrite the narrative.

They're fast and ruthless, and all they care about is their own survival. And it always works. They're never held accountable.

*****

UPDATE: This allegation surfaced in a Washington Times story:

Trump supporters say that Antifa members disguised as one of them infiltrated the protesters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

A retired military officer told The Washington Times that the firm XRVision used its software to do facial recognition of protesters and matched two Philadelphia Antifa members to two men inside the Senate....

One has a tattoo that indicates he is a Stalinist sympathizer. Antifa promotes anarchy through violence and wants the end of America in favor of a Stalinist-state. “No more USA at all” is a protest chant.

XRVision also has identified another man who, while not known to have Antifa links, is someone who shows up at climate and Black Lives Matter protests in the West.

At OneZero, Dave Gershgorn tells us:

XRVision’s claims are implausible and nearly impossible to verify, as the company does not seem to have any relationship to the facial recognition industry or academia. Unlike many other companies operating in the space, it has not published research publicly, it has not seemed to appear at recent academic conferences, it does not appear to have public federal government contracts, and it does not list any information about clients or its technology online.

The only evidence of the company’s alleged facial recognition system is an image posted to CTO Yaacov Apelbaum’s personal website, which claims that the company can collect images for facial recognition from social media, CCTV cameras, and body cameras.

Yet XRVision has not submitted its facial recognition algorithms to be tested by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a testing procedure that many biometrics firms, regardless of size, use to legitimize their technology....

The company appears to have two LinkedIn accounts. One account, called XRVision, only lists three employees, and has consistently posted conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden over the last year. These posts link to Apelbaum’s personal blog, home to numerous other conspiracy theories. The other LinkedIn account, called XRVision.ai, lists seven employees and has made no public posts.

... There is no evidence to support that XRVision has any comprehensive database of images of protesters, “antifa” or otherwise.

*****

UPDATE: It's a lie.

A facial recognition company says a viral Washington Times story claiming it identified antifa members among the mob that stormed the Capitol on Wednesday is completely false.

XRVision told BuzzFeed News it has asked the conservative outlet for a retraction and apology over the story, which was cited in the House of Representatives after the riot late Wednesday by Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, an ardent Trump supporter....

The statement said XRVision’s software actually identified two members of neo-Nazi organizations and a QAnon supporter among the pro-Trump mob — not antifa members.

Too bad the damage is done. (And no, I don't believe the new claim either, given the apparent fly-by-night nature of this company, but at least the firm is abandoning the old claim.)