Trump’s Insurrection

It’s one thing to be attacked from the outside, from those who want to destroy us. It’s one thing to engage in horrific rioting and looting in the streets, destroying people’s homes, businesses and lives. It’s one thing to make terrible decisions which, at the moment, seemed to some to be in the national interest. We are not a nation without flaws that have resulted in terrible consequences for a great many people.

But January 6, 2021, was different. The person who holds the office of President of the United States incited a relatively small group of his deluded believers by perpetuating lies, stoking fears and inflaming hatred, to attack the Capitol of the United States as Congress was in session to perform its constitutional duties.

Spare me the excuses, the comparisons, the rationalizations. There is no excuse. Trump incited an attack on Congress. The Capitol was breached with the cooperation of the police. The House and Senate were ransacked by people carrying Trump and confederate flags. It’s not about the building, but about the integrity of our Republic.

I am outraged. I cannot believe this happened in the United States of America, not so much because I didn’t believe Trump was capable of this, but because I refused to believe that anyone could do such a thing. There was an insurrection on January 6, 2021. President Donald Trump was responsible. This cannot stand.

Edit: Some of the images of what Trump wrought. Which one is you?

91 thoughts on “Trump’s Insurrection

  1. Jamison

    I took a perverse pleasure in the events from yesterday. They laid bare for all to see what we already knew.

    To black and brown people who loot a CVS: You will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. You will be shot.

    To white Trump supporters who invaded the U.S. Capitol building: We love you. Go home in peace.

    1. SHG Post author

      Had the Capitol been breached by BLM rioters or looters, I can’t imagine that it would not have resulted in massive bloodshed. But then, it wasn’t BLM (or Antifa as some of the idiots claim), and so we will never know if those fears are correct. That said, taking “perverse pleasure” because it furthers your collateral agenda has no place here, any more than comparisons about things America has done which are “worse” than this insurrection. Don’t do it.

    2. Gregory Prickett

      From a post on my blog about her death: “At the time [Ashli Babbitt] was killed, she was not a patriot, she was a felon. She’s not a martyr nor a hero.” And I cannot speak for Scott, but in this case, the Capitol Police did their job to protect the Congress Critters that she was trying to reach. Babbitt, at that time, wasn’t a protestor, she was a threat.

      1. Mike

        Good post.

        As I said to someone on twitter yesterday. Sadly it’s easier for police to overreact to peaceful protest then to react legitimately to violent discourse. This was legitimate and should be realized as much. The fact people are calling her a martyr is sick.

        1. SHG Post author

          Every needless death is a tragedy, even if the person was killed as a product of their delusional beliefs. She’s no martyr, but her death is another tragedy of this nightmare.

          1. Onlymom

            I agree. Yes once she forced her way past the barricades law enforcement put out she was a criminal. But she was also a victim a self inflected one. She contracted a lethal infection…. TRUMP.

  2. Chris Van Wagner

    These off-based nit pickings by the above commenters are offensive, ignorant. The question is, who are we as a people, as a nation, not which of us is the lesser or greater sinner. Yesterday was inconsistent with our nation’s principles. And the blame resides in the utter lack of leadership from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, with complicity from every spineless oxygen-sucker who kissed the hinder of POTUS every step of the way. That includes my own GOP senator, R. Johnson, who seemed as shocked as Captain Renault in Casablanca. But this was real life and real death. May those GOP handmaidens burn in hell for paving this road.

    1. SHG Post author

      I’ve been asked by the commenter to delete his comment and I have. I’ve trashed others for the same reason. I’ve had enough of the finger pointing and tuquoque crap that small minds find necessary to avoid confronting their hypocrisy and ignorance. Today is not the day to test how well I suffer fools.

    2. B. McLeod

      Twice during the last three years, Trump had our country on the brink of hostilities with another nuclear power. He has been the loosest of loose cannons, before he even hatched the storming of the Capitol Building. It is and has been baffling to me how he managed to bully so many career politicians to do his bidding. But he did. It also makes no sense that so many ordinary people are willing to put themselves in harm”s way for him, especially given the clear absence of any reciprocal regard. But they do. It is crazy.

  3. LocoYokel

    The attackers, if they can be identified, and any law enforcement or capitol security personnel who aided them need to prosecuted to whatever extent the law provides. Much as I distrust a Biden/Harris presidency, this simply has no place in a country governed by law. Right now, if this not opposed and resolved, we are no better than any “strongman” government that we oppose in “less developed” countries.

    As for Trump, if there are charges that can be brought, when he exits office on the 20th they need to be filed. Whatever may have gone before, this cannot be allowed to stand.

    Joe Biden will probably never be my president, as his stated polices and goals preclude that, but he is (or will be soon) THE president. I just hope the country survives the transition and next 4 – 8 years.

    Not that you need my permission, but delete this if it is inappropriate. I sat a long time thinking before hitting submit and am still not sure it needs to be read, I just had to get it out.

    1. LocoYokel

      Thinking about my 3rd paragraph some more and I realize that, at this point in American politics, there can be no “President for everybody”. You have 3 groups that are diametrically opposed that you must pick one to represent. You have the moderates in the middle (both right and left leaning, but that’s effectively no distinction at this point), the people on the far right and the people on the far left. The latter two groups will always hate anybody not pandering to them exclusively and completely while the first one is stuck with no real representation and being hated by the two extremes.

      Trump chose the far right and Biden is signaling that he will support the far left. I want the one for the middle who will govern the nation evenly.

      1. SHG Post author

        There is no actual middle, LY, but rather people who can still disagree and argue with each other without the need to destroy. Should the time come when the stupid and violent of both sides go back under their rocks (as they’ll never really do away), the middle will then be in a position to fight tooth and nail over the right way to accomplish goals that they believe serve the nation. That’s hard enough to accomplish.

        1. LY

          There’s the group that’s in the middle of the two sets of stupids on either extreme. That’s close enough and what I meant. Yes they might fight and argue over vision and direction but it stops when they leave the debate table and I don’t see any calls from them to deny basic protections and rights.

          I sincerely hope that in a few weeks or months, that that as a nation, we look back at past few years and realize that is not where we want to go ever again and both parties take steps within themselves and the nation as a whole to prevent it ever recurring. Unfortunately, I don’t realistically see that happening any time soon.

        2. Onlymom

          I would disagree there is a middle. 20 yesrs or more ago it was called the silent minority nobody talks about them now. They are afraid too. Look at the numbers between both parties they accounted for about 155 million people this is the group holding the whiney far right and far left it also holds the not so far left and right.

          Nobody talks about the 170-175 million. Because they don’t vote. Total usa population is between 331 – 335 million. One of these days thy are gonna decide it’s clobbering time and come out swinging and the first group will run for the rocks they crawled out of.

          1. casey bell

            Your comment is pretty unhinged from realitiy, Onlymom. First, I’m old enough to remember Nixon’s appeal to the great “silent majority”, but I’ve never heard of a “silent minority”. Second, your estimate of 155 million combined dems and republicans is irrelevent to the existance of a “middle”, because party affiliation does not define where one stands on the political spectrum. One can be a democrat or a republican and still be in the “middle”.

            Next you suggested that the 170-175 million who are not repbulicans or dems don’t vote. Well actually many of them are registered with smaller
            parties or as independent and they do actually vote. And it’s my
            guess that at least 70% of the rest are under 18 years old, felons, or non-citizens and thus not eliglible to vote.

            To me, the “middle’ refers to the segment of the voting population that is
            put off by both the far left and the far right but whose views tend not to be represented in our two party system.

  4. The Real Kurt

    It seems we have stepped, as a nation, into the antechamber of becoming a third world country.

    I hope we can step back out.

    The Real Kurt

    1. Onlymom

      True. Been saying it for years. Look at this country and go back and look at the 1920-1950 so called banana republics in South America you can’t see a difference. We have the same incomplete government and the same broken down public infrastructure.

  5. Howl

    “America! America!
    God mend thine every flaw
    Confirm thy soul in self-control
    Thy liberty in law!”

  6. Ray

    Shocking scenes. Disgraceful. No leadership. We look like fools to the rest of the world. If you listen carefully you can hear Vladimir Putin still laughing from across the ocean. He predicted this all along, right? But the Republic will survive. The Republican Party will have to reinvent itself. Senator Ted Cruz has done lasting damage to his political career (at least as he aspires to greater office-and he may face stiff opposition in his district when he runs again). Good bye Ted, you did this to yourself. Others have done the same to their political futures. Despite yesterday’s nonsense the election results were certified. There will be a successful transition and transference of power. Maybe a few statesmen will finally step forward to fill the vacuum. There has to be someone.

  7. B. McLeod

    Perhaps we should be grateful for the educational value of the event. Today, January 7, 2021, suddenly the refined gentlefolk who frequent the Capitol Building can see there is a problem. It isn’t that they haven’t been complicit in creating it. It isn’t that they haven’t cultivated extremist elements or tacitly supported their parties’ lumpen paramilitary cadres for their own purposes. Is isn’t even that they give a rat’s ass about the republic, or democracy. No. The problem is that they have been disrespected by angry, unwashed proles, riffling congressional papers and meddling with congressional office furnishings. This is an affront to congressional dignity, which (as you mention) obviously cannot be permitted to stand. No doubt they are even now in the process of reeducating the Capitol Police so that they will understand how attacks on congressional facilities are fundamentally different from attacks on post offices, judicial buildings or federal agency offices. Yes, some good may yet come of yesterday’s events, in the form of a few important lessons.

    1. SHG Post author

      No, everybody doesn’t send their “cadres” to storm the Capitol. No, storming the Capitol to prevent Congress from doing its duty is not the same as randomly attacking other federal buildings. No, this is horseshit.

      1. B. McLeod

        Awaiting law enforcement identification of the components of the mob. This did not prevent and did not have real potential to prevent the certification.

        1. SHG Post author

          That it was an incompetently executed insurrection that failed doesn’t make it any less of an insurrection.

          1. B. McLeod

            In retrospect, it might even have been a mistake for members of Congress to accept Trump’s tactics and ignore his lumpen street forces until the mob came to their own door.

  8. Austin

    “The Capitol was breached with the cooperation of the police….It’s not about the building, but about the integrity of our Republic.”

    Exaggeration. It’s just the Capital police, who knew it had nothing to do about the “integrity of our Republic.” Every year some fringe group wants to run inside. Blame Trump if he told the police to let the protestors run inside and take silly photos. Otherwise, blame the police and relax.

      1. B. McLeod

        When one speaks of the Capitol being breached with the cooperation of the police, that highlights another of the contributing problems. Notions of deescalation, imposed in some instances by political instruction and in others by court orders, have resulted in a police tactical theory that we just let things go, so long as there is only property damage, and go after the rioters later, working from video-based ID. As apparent in this case, that approach doesn’t always produce satisfactory results. To their credit, when Capitol police found themselves in the spot of having to protect trapped members of Congress, they stood to the barricades and did what they had to do. In retrospect however, it might have been a mistake to forego an earlier show of force actually contesting the entry of the rioters.

        1. SHG Post author

          I’ve heard pundits explain tactical choices made in the handling of the breach yesterday. It would make more sense had some cops not resisted their breach while others moved barriers and opened door to let them in. That said, whatever the planned tactics might have been, if any, the Capitol Police were grossly overwhelmed. That should never have been possible.

          1. B. McLeod

            Their shop was not in order, and it certainly looks like they lacked a clear and consistent understanding of their rules of engagement.

          2. Onlymom

            I agree. The question is. If they look will they find some little trumpets that were seeded into the right places to throw some monkey wrenchs into things to clear his thugs and the suckers he used for cover to try and force Congress to shut down and postphone the certification.

  9. Hunting Guy

    Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

    “The thing that critics of activists don’t get is that they tried playing the ‘polite language’ policy game and all it did was make them easier to ignore. It wasn’t until they made folks uncomfortable that there was traction to do ANYTHING even if it wasn’t their full demands.”

    1. Bob S.

      If your demands are that we undo our nation because you don’t like outcomes, you are welcome to get fucked.

      1. SHG Post author

        I probably shouldn’t have posted HG’s AOC quote, knowing that it’s more tu quoque nonsense, but I did because the sentiment permeates all people taken with their radical beliefs, that they are going to fix everything by extreme measures because they believe hard enough and they cannot possibly be completely unhinged, incompetent or delusional.

        AOC is nothing like Trump. That doesn’t mean her childish clry for revolution isn’t just as foolish, wrong and dangerous.

    2. B. McLeod

      It is not mere impolite language, but acceptance of physical violence in place of language that is at issue here.

  10. Kathryn M Kase

    I share your outrage, Scott. Among its many effects, this insurrection will now cause Capitol perimeters to be moved way back and the establishment of greater security zones that will make it even more difficult for the public to observe, in person, the legislative part of our democracy at work. Which will only feed into the paranoia and misinformation that stoked yesterday’s attack.

  11. Ed

    Millions view our government as illegitimate, populated by the deceitful and self serving. What transpired on the sixth was just a harbinger of things to come and ,may develop into a state split. We have become two very different peoples.

    1. SHG Post author

      Millions on the right. Millions on the left. Many more millions between the two warring tribe of unduly passionate fools don’t care what insanity they believe. There will always be stupid and violent people, believing whatever nonsense some schemer tells them to believe, and lashing out because they are stupid and violent. Go find an island and beat the crap out of each other to your heart’s content, but do not believe you are entitled to fuck up this nation for the rest of us.

  12. PseudonymousKid

    Traitors attacked the Capitol building during a joint session of Congress presided over by the Vice President in person. One person was shot in the process. I’m ashamed that I’ve wondered why my fellow citizens weren’t treated as enemies and killed. I’m also afraid that my knee-jerk reaction to want them lined up and shot is the very thing that’s pulling our country apart. Above all I want some answers from those in charge, but I don’t think any will be forthcoming.

    1. norahc

      Yesterday we got what we deserved. This has been a long time coming, fueled by intolerance and a deep seated belief that the other side is the epitome of Evil on both sides.

      I hope we learn from this so that we don’t make the same mistakes of the past but I’m not hopeful. History has too many examples of people not learning from the past.

      1. Luke G

        “… a deep seated belief that the other side is the epitome of Evil…”

        I think you’re exactly right. I’m already seeing people gearing up to explain why every one of yesterday’s rioters deserved to be summarily shot, or to explain why they were actually justified by the perceived wrongs of the left, or to claim that the real bad actors were false-flag agitators. So many people are working so hard to cover their ears and their eyes and to blame everything on “they.”

      2. B. McLeod

        Acceptance by both major parties of violence as a form of political expression is and will continue to be a big problem.

      3. PseudonymousKid

        I don’t feel like we deserved this. I took the pilgrimage as a middle schooler to the capital and was in awe of the Capitol building and the solemn respect it engendered as much as all the other monuments. I don’t understand how this could have happened and am with our host in his disbelief.

        The Capitol building is sacred, and in sacking it the Trumpists have crossed the Rubicon. The die is cast. What happens now is important. Every single one of them all the way up to Trump must be held accountable to the fullest extent before we can try to heal whatever caused this. When Caesar made his move, his Republic was irretrievable. Is ours? I hope not.

        1. norahc

          What I meant when I said we got what we deserved is that we’ve been tolerant of intolerance far too long. We’ve let the extremes on both side influence where the seesaw balances out, and that will require a lot of hard work to reverse.

          The line was crossed yesterday, but the journey to get there started years ago. Crisscrossing the country as I do, I’ve got to admit yesterday didn’t surprise me, and quite honestly it seemed almost inevitable no matter who won the election. Leading up to the election, there were rumblings on both sides of the spectrum advocating something like this but this time there seemed to be a little bit more meat behind them.

          What we do going forward matters very much, but we’ve got to be careful not to fan the flames of persecution syndrome and lasting resentment. A wise blogger has repeatedly stated that real solutions are hard, and he is correct.

  13. Jay

    Oh no Greenfield, you don’t get off that easy. Sitting in your blue city in your blue state, with your blog that specializes in attacking the left. You had your hand in creating this mess. And you will pay no price, while those of us who live in red states continue to be surrounded by millions who think what happened at the Capitol was something to be celebrated and are ready for more violence.

    If you really are as outraged about this as you say- how about you start nitpicking at the seditious, malignant madness on the right? Instead of creating a home for rightwingers on your page.

    1. SHG Post author

      You are nothing if not a paragon of consistency, Jay. A foolish consistency, but consistency nonetheless. All true believers perceive anyone who doesn’t pray at their altar to be on the other team. With the tiniest nudge, you would have stormed the Capitol yesterday, Jay, instead of demanding I pray to your god.

    2. Gregory Prickett

      Jay, what a load of horsesh*t, which I’m familiar with, as my first job in college involved mucking out stalls.

      I’ve written dozens of articles for his blog and for Fault/Lines, and I can guarantee you that I almost always came down on the right of him. And he wasn’t hesitant to tell me when he thought that I was dead-wrong. He also didn’t hesitate to defend me from those on the left when I wrote something that offended the liberal elite or whomever.

      Here’s a better suggestion–why don’t you try to look at his posts neutrally, instead of through the lens of your own biases?

    3. paleo

      Jay, you spent the summer standing up for the riots of the left. So you don’t have the moral high ground from which to criticize this. If next week your side did it, you’d think it was the greatest thig since sliced bread. But that’s not how ethics and logic and integrity work.

      Our host, and myself, and the vast majority of the other posters criticized those riots, not because we’re of the right, but because we think that rioting and destroying and putting innocent people at risk is simply wrong. So we can criticize yesterday with our integrity intact because we’re applying standards and logic consistently. We’re judging stuff out of logic, you’re judging stuff by team jersey.

      And don’t pull out the trope that we’re saying that the BLM riots were as bad as the capital riot. Scott clearly says this is worse, most others really haven’t compared. It’s almost like one thing can be worse than another thing, and both can still be awful.

  14. Sandia

    It’s sad, but clearly shows the decline of respect for the institutions of government. Whether is a loss of true civics education, or a loss of civic pride as a fundamental part of being a citizen of this country, these idiots don’t respect the institution of congress, not just the people who make it up. When it gets to that point, the voting booth no longer feels like the place to make change. This is certainly an issue on both sides as we’ve seen this play out now on the left and the right.

    The pictures look more like idiots cosplaying at revolution… the first one of the guy from AR with his feet up on Nancy’s desk, he clearly thinks this is a joke.

    Ugh, as sad as I am at some elements of this country, I still hold with pride my naturalization certificate. Let’s hope that the middle finally wakes up from our stupor and starting bringing the country back to the center.

  15. Jake

    Yesterday, having taken my lumps at different protests, I found myself trapped in the horror of understanding the violence on the ground, disbelief at the utter failure to protect the Capitol building, and outrage at a brazen, deliberate attack on Democracy. It was not a good day. May today be a better day.

    1. SHG Post author

      Since you know that I know what you’re talking about, I know that you know what you’re talking about. I argued that the feds are entitled to defend a federal courthouse from attack. This is far worse and more significant, even as its apologists will claim otherwise.

  16. Sgt. Schultz

    Since most of the comments are either excuses for this insurrection or attempts to parlay it into some alt left agenda, despite your efforts to prevent it, I can’t imagine how many you trashed today.

    Like you, I am outraged. Like you, I see no way this isn’t at Trump’s door. And like you, I see all that might go horribly wrong when the next admin takes office. Happy New Year, Admiral

    1. Grant

      “[…] to use one of your metaphors, we are all floating in the same boat.

      We may certainly try to push one another over the side, but only a maniac […] would make a hole in the bottom.”

      Terry Pratchett, The Fifth Elephant (The Low King explaining the importance of smooth transfers of power in cases of disputed succession).

  17. Skink

    Since before he was elected, nearly everything Trump has said has been either a lie or incorrect. He takes credit for all sorts of accomplishments his office lacks the power to obtain or did not happen. He started crying election foul before the first election, claiming if he didn’t win, then it could only be because of fraud. It carried over, multiplying like a downhill snowball throughout his time in office. All the while, a set of folks took his nonsense as truth. When it became truth, it was accepted by others. When outed as lies, they held to their truth. They pledged fealty to the person, an utterly incomplete one, over country, logic and plain evidence.

    If Trump was an accountant, he’d be the one advising clients to not worry about taxes because taxes are illegal. He adds nothing to any conversation. Yet, he has these followers willing to ransack the Capitol as part of his bidding. They don’t do it because they disagree with the function of the government or unfairness. They don’t do it because of taxes. They don’t do it because of oppression. They do it for Trump.

    When you try to discuss the magnitude of the lies and the harm done to the country through this act, you get:

    But last Summer.
    But the media was unfair to him.
    But “deplorables.”
    But democrat judges.
    But the Boston Tea Party.
    But it isn’t a big thing.
    Butbutbut

    There’s a pathology to this I don’t understand. This caricature, not just of a president, but of a person, holds sway with a subset of the population. He has been enabled by his party, which today has to wonder of its future. He caused a horrific act yesterday, and despite what the dopes bray, it was a big wrong. A sitting president, his lawyer and his family encouraged the rabble to loot another arm of government. That can’t happen, so it can’t go without sanction.

  18. Brady Curry

    Trump has been the best thing to ever happen to the Democrats. He has single handedly destroyed the Republican Party. I don’t expect that another Republican president will be elected during the remainder of my lifetime and then some. I can only hope that Trump’s presidency gives rise to a viable third party.

    1. ppnl

      You must be young. The last best thing to ever happen to democrats was Nixon. Wonder how that turned out.

      I fear we are all destined to be destroyed by our tribal loyalties.

      1. Brady Curry

        Excluding Ford, since he backed into the job, after Nixon the Democrats have held the presidency for 20 years and Republicans have held the presidency for 24 years. Not equal, but a fair split. Directly following Nixon you have one term of Carter then 12 years of Reagan and Bush #1. Seems as though the Nixon curse didn’t last too long. Time will tell how much damage Trump has done to the Republicans. (By the way I’m 60).

  19. Pedantic Grammar Police

    I was there, and I didn’t see any evidence that the police were cooperating. They were shooting tear gas canisters, squirting people with pepper spray, beating them with batons, arresting them, and they even killed someone. It appeared that they were doing their best to defend the Capitol, but they were overwhelmed. As I was driving back through Virginia I saw about 100 police cars speeding toward DC. They probably should have called in the Virginia State police (or some kind of reinforcements) earlier in the day, but failure to anticipate the size and aggressiveness of the crowd doesn’t really count as cooperating.

      1. Alex A

        The person who took the video most say shows the Capitol Police opening the barriers disputes that conclusion. See the Twitter thread I attached in the Website field.

        Also, one of the more than 50 officers injured in the attack has died from their injuries.

        1. SHG Post author

          I’ve heard from a number of people who were there saying the same thing. If the video doesn’t reflect what it appears to reflect, then I stand corrected.

  20. Stephanie

    I often think you are way to generous toward Trump. However, in this moment I am glad for that. As it gives you more credibility as you call out Trump’s unamerican treasonous conduct.

    1. SHG Post author

      There is a tendency for those who hate Trump to rationalize why anything remotely connected to him is invariably bad. There is plenty of bad, tons of it, but each stood or fell on its own merit. It’s no different than the ad hominem fallacy, and has nothing to do with being generous toward Trump or hating Trump.

  21. MGould

    I have to compliment you for being able to write coherently about what happened. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the enormity of a sitting President encouraging a mob to attack Congress in session. People can talk all they want about Brandenburg, but that is what he did. It is unprecedented, as far as I know. If there are no consequences, it becomes incredibly hard to be optimistic for the future of our country as a functioning democracy.

      1. PseudonymousKid

        Pops, it was, but I don’t blame you or anyone else who can’t make complete sense of this. I abhor the death penalty, but wanted people shot summarily for their seditious activity if even for a moment. This should be a day of reckoning for all of us one way or the other. I look forward to your developing thoughts on this and its inevitable consequences.

    1. Pedantic Grammar Police

      “it becomes incredibly hard to be optimistic for the future of our country as a functioning democracy”

      You can leave out the if. It appears that both sides are working as hard as they can to make us hate each other, and they are succeeding.

  22. Ken Hagler

    I’m afraid it’s too late to be concerned about the integrity of our Republic. President Bush (Jr.) seized the power to arbitrarily imprison and torture people. President Obama seized the power to arbitrarily execute people. Since March politicians throughout the country have seized the power to dictate when you can leave your home, what you have to wear when you do, whether you can have a job, what you can buy, whether you can worship your gods, and who you can have in your own home.

    We have no Republic.

    1. SHG Post author

      Had this comment come earlier, I would have trashed it. This isn’t a perfect Republic now, and wasn’t before, and probably never will be, but this Republic has provided opportunity, success and happiness despite its failings to a great many, and while it will continue to be a fight to do better, I think it’s worth fighting for. If I thought there was a better place to live, I would live there. Instead, I’m an Americam.

  23. John Barleycorn

    Looking forward to reading what you follow up with, via your concluding paragraph.

    Ripe ground for for some non-aggregated, original marble chip material to splinter forth from the marbles of your mind.

  24. Chris Halkides

    Reason’s Peter Suderman drew a parallel, not an equivalence, between this insurrection and campus cancel culture. Initially I thought that it was a facile comparison, but I think he is correct.

  25. Joseph Masters

    Isn’t there a direct line between the State Capitol invasion in Lansing, Michigan in April 2020 and the same on 6 January 2021 in Washington, D.C.?

    Was Trump any less complicit in egging on the “Liberation” insurrections? Why did the U.S. Capitol Police have the same nonchalant attitude at first as the Michigan Police to armed insurrection in the capitol building they were “guarding” nine months ago?

    Sorry, but this did not surprise me much, other than the fact that when my Australian colleague informed me that “they stormed the capitol and someone was shot” he was talking about D.C., not Canberra in the face of the NSW border closures down here…and Greg Prickett should ask whether the video that is being splashed across Australian TV screens showing police officers in my home country opening barricades and taking selfies with the insurrectionists is all absolved because they shot one of the rioters.

    I am extremely ashamed for my home country, but not surprised. The contention that the 6 January 2021 invasion was instigated by “leftists” and Biden voters is already spilling out of Murdoch’s media here and apparently everywhere, and I at first feared the U.S. Capitol insurrection would be memory-holed like the “successful” Michigan Capitol invasion back in April.

    Except for CSPAN. Thankfully, the U.S. Capitol building is studded with video cameras, especially on the House and Senate floor. There is hope that the B.S. and lies that accompanied the “Liberate” insurrections will finally be recognized for what they were–the same as what occurred yesterday.

    Who am I kidding, the conservative narrative will swallow the truth by next week. We all live in Rupert Murdoch’s world, no matter what hemisphere one resides in.

  26. Patrick Henry, the 2nd

    This was not an insurrection and Trump did not incite this – unless words have no meaning now.

    It was a simple riot. Spare me the wailing. Should they have done that? No. But they have been taught that that is how they get their voice heard.

    Trump is the symptom here, not the cause.

    1. Rengit

      While cries of “treason” are far overwrought, given that these people honestly believed they were defending the Constitution and that the election was fake, not to mention that setting this as treason would be a disastrous precedent for many other causes and would be unfair considering tolerance of past violent movements whose goal was to overthrow or strongly intimidate the government, denying this as an insurrectionary act, even a poorly planned and unserious one, is nonsense.

      That doesn’t mean everyone deserved to be shot or that it would have even been legally justified to do so, but when a crowd of rioters storm a building to mob duly elected officials (none of them dispute that the current reps or Senators are not legitimately elected) to alter the results of an election, or even something lesser like a vote on a piece of legislation, they’re outside the bounds of mere riotous lawlessness (still a serious thing) because they are making the political and legal structure on which the whole system is based come to a halt. I don’t have evidence for it, but I have a strong intuition that the people attending this were screaming for Trump to declare an insurrection when the CHAZ happened last summer, and it would have likely been justified given the stated goal of secession and the violent overthrow of all the normal public, political, and legal structures; while there was no goal of secession here, the effect and likely the intent of overthrowing the system was the same. If that’s not insurrectionary, I don’t know what is.

  27. Rich Janney

    Did Yale lose its law school accreditation? How could any graduate buy into such patently seditious nonsense? Hawley be gone damn spot.

  28. Dov Lazarus

    Telling half the population that their choice is illegitimate, tearing down status, and burning cities down is just as damaging, (perhaps more so), as what happened in DC. Its just that the effects take longer to manifest themselves.

    At this point, Congress and Biden would be wise to show some grace. Lincoln managed under much worse circumstances.

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