It’s becoming pretty clear now that the attack on the Capitol on Wednesday was not just some spontaneous demonstration by wild eyed Trumpists that got out of hand.  Evidence is emerging of a coordinated attack on our government with the intent of insurrectionists to not only stop the Electoral College vote certification, but to also kidnap and even kill US officials to take control of the US government and hand it to Trump in a coup.  Fortunately the coup failed and our democracy endured, but that’s not the end of the story, not by a long shot.

Despite the rightwing media blitz of bullshit that the rioters were “infiltrated by Antifa and BLM”, well known Nazis, white supremacists, Qanon nutbags, and radical gun nuts were at the front of the line.  One such radical is retired Air Force Lt. Colonel Larry Rendell Brock, Jr. who’s family and friends have described him as increasingly unhinged and radical.  He was photographed in the well of the Senate chamber on Wednesday wearing body armor, a military issue combat helmet and carrying zip tie handcuffs.  He was also photographed enter Nancy Pelosi’s office and then quietly pushing past the mob and out.  Here he is in the chamber:

Other disturbing videos and photos have been posted online of other radicals carrying zip ties and weapons.  The video of the shocking scene of radicals smashing doors and the ultimate shooting of a Trump radical was the entrance to the Speaker’s lobby just outside of the House chamber.  The person shot and killed was trying to climb through the window of the door.  Her name was Ashli Babbitt, another Air Force vet, Qanon conspiracy nut, and extremist who’d become more and more radicalized.  The target of the violence?  House members who were evacuating through the lobby down a secure elevator.  The intent is clear.

Even worse, it is now pretty apparent that someone, or some persons, at the Pentagon either overtly or tacitly supported this attempted coup by confusing or delaying military and Capitol Police response.  As we talked about yesterday, governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan, announced yesterday that he was denied clearance numerous times to deploy National Guard troops to the Capitol.  Dithering/stonewalling from the Pentagon caused loss of control at the Capitol resulting in numerous injuries and 5 deaths including a Capitol Hill Police officer who was beaten to death with a fire extinguisher.

On top of all this evidence, security experts in allied countries are now speaking out about the apparent conspiracy to support the attempted coup by Trump.  These experts, speaking anonymously, said what we all know, that keeping a building like the Capitol secure is not a secret.  The techniques that keep bad actors out of secure buildings all over the world are the same, and well known by security experts who share information and regularly train together.  One NATO official interviewed said to Business Insider, “Today I am briefing my government that we believe with a reasonable level of certainty that Donald Trump attempted a coup that failed when the system did not buckle.  I can’t believe this happened.”  Now THAT, kids, is a scary but also very likely correct conclusion.

In the coming days I believe that there will be, and should be, criminal conspiracy charges against individuals in US government agencies including in the Pentagon, Homeland Security, and even the White House.  Then, we’ll have to grapple with the conclusion that millions of Americans still support the person who tried to steal our government from us.  I’m not hopeful we can pull out of this.

Republican Larry Hogan, governor or Maryland, announced today that the Pentagon refused repeated requests from him to mobilize the Maryland National Guard on Wednesday to give relief to Congress in the Capitol that was being inundated by insurrectionist Trumpists determined to kidnap/kill members of Congress and which sacked the Capitol in the process.  The Pentagon has been totally unresponsive to questions from Congress and the press since the incident.  Remember that after the election, Trump fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper right after the election, installing sycophant Chris Miller and other Trump loyalists.  There’s little doubt that criminal investigations will begin on January 21.

Breaking – Twitter has just announced that it has banned Trump permanently due to his continued abuse of their terms of service.  Their statement: “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter’s official “Safety” account tweeted.  That’s only about 5 years late.

General Russel Honore needs to be put in charge of everything.  I swear to goodness that if we put him in charge of vaccines, we’d all have a shot by next Thursday.

Here’s a shot from last night where he uses words like “super stupid” and “complicity.”

On MSNBC last night, he said the FBI and the Pentagon were complicit in this. That takes a ton and half of guts.

By the way, different topic – they pooped and urinated on the floor of the capitol. Thanks for the DNA, you jumbo jerks.

Written by Elizabeth Moon.

4,012 Americans died of COVID-19 on Thursday, January 7.  Or, more accurately, 4,012 deaths from COVID were *reported* and showed up on this morning’s national COVID-death. Probably more were reported but too late to make the cut.  Our national death-from-COVID total is now over 365,000.

On Wednesday, when Tuesday’s count had brought the deaths up to around 361,000, with a daily increase of 3,964, and a violent mob broke into the Capitol, disrupted the reading of the Electoral College votes, trashed Congress members’ offices, urinating on the carpets of many, stole uncounted items (a podium from the Capitol showed up on e-Bay), murdered a Capitol Police officer, injured others…at least 50 Republicans in Congress, after being moved to a safer place to finish that reading, refused to wear masks.  Still. 

They showed the same stubborn unconcern for the welfare of their colleagues as the mob showed for the welfare of Congressmembers and staff.  They continued with their obdurate resistance to the results of the general election, insisting on slowing down the process–even in the midst of an emergency–to voice their asinine objections to what has heretofore been a routine part of an election cycle.  Hours and hours of talking angrily (emotion spreads more virus farther.) Maskless and spreading a dangerous virus, if they happened to be contaminated (which they have been before.)

A mandatory COVID test should be given to every person who refused to mask, every day for the next 14 days, whether they’ve received the vaccine or not.  Every one who tests positive should be immediately placed in mandatory quarantine under the observation of police.  

Yeah, I know that won’t happen.  It should, though. Moving on, selfie videos put on social media by the insurgents include a gal from Carolina who wants someone to shoot Joe Biden “between the eyes”, and it’s clear in the video she’s all for it and eager to watch.  Others who want to “find Mike Pence and hang him.”  (Personally, I’d like to find Mike Pence, lock him up in the same prison as Trump, and throw away the key, but since I’m committed to defending the Constitution, that option is a no-go. Funny thing about oaths of office: some of us take them seriously.)

We now know that Trump’s Pentagon purge and insertion of his agents resulted in the National Guard being barred from interrupting Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol.  Maryland was willing to have their National Guard help…but they were refused.  Capitol Police’s reasons still not clear, but obviously they were not briefed on the clear and known dangers and left out in the wind. How much of that was internal (Trump agents within the department) and how much from Congress itself (idiots like Hawley and Cruz) or from Trump down the chain of command, we don’t yet know, and must learn, down to every single name in every single chain of command.

Since Pence is unwilling to initiate Article 25, and Trump’s cabinet is fleeing away to cover their own butts and plot their return to power, while coordinating more skullduggery from a distance, I strongly urge including Pence in impeachment processes…if he cannot see, or doesn’t care, that Trump is now a clear and present danger to everyone’s security, worldwide, he’s either stupid or complicit.  In either case he could do damage in the remaining days.

And in the meantime, a secure, private, but very well documented Inauguration is more appropriate than one on the Capitol steps with known assassins running around loose and security demonstrably as full of holes as the screen on the window beside me.

Paxton tweeted this today —-

My question:  can we include him in that 25th Amendment deal?