They Were Not Tourists: The Radicals At The Heart Of The Capitol Riot

[Nevilledog]

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Jennifer Bennon
@jennobenno
July 4th is a celebration of our imperfect, continually evolving democracy.

Jan 6th was the antithesis of that, an attempt to thwart the results of our free & fair election.

But 100 years from now, how will that story be told?

#wtpBLUE
#FreshVoicesRise

They Were Not Tourists: The Radicals At The Heart Of The Capitol Riot
On the six-month anniversary of the insurrection, Republicans are trying to convince America it wasn't that big a deal.
huffpost.com
11:45 AM · Jul 4, 2021

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/capitol-insurrection-six-month-anniversary_n_60e07bf3e4b03f72964accc0?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004

A collection of rightly concerned patriots. Confused tourists. A motley band of hapless, harmless dopes.

In the six months since the dramatic conflict at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, large parts of the Republican Party, working alongside the right-wing media machine, have labored to make the case that what happened that day was no big deal. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) argued that it was not an insurrection, but a “largely peaceful protest.” Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) — who can be seen in photos from Jan. 6 looking horrified as he rushed to barricade the House gallery doors to stop the rioters from entering — called the riot a “normal tourist visit.” Fox News megastar Tucker Carlson has even asserted that perhaps the uprising was a false flag event orchestrated by the FBI.

There were indeed some people at the Capitol who were basically harmless and have claimed they didn’t realize what would happen. A 49-year-old Indiana woman was sentenced this week in federal court on a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge for being inside the Capitol for only 10 minutes, during which she didn’t break anything or assault anyone, prosecutors say. She won’t serve prison time. “I would have never been there if I had known it would turn out that way,” she said at her sentencing, while apologizing to the “American people.”

Later that day, however, another man pleaded guilty to far more serious charges. Graydon Young of Sarasota, Florida, faces up to 78 months in prison for conspiring with members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia to overrun the Capitol and stop electoral votes from being counted. He will cooperate with authorities in cases against his co-conspirators.

*snip*

[moondust]

1. Andrew Clyde needs a psych visit.

He graduated cum laude, got an MBA, spent 11 years on active duty as a commander in the Navy and 17 years in the reserves. He served for 28 years in naval aviation units and the Seabees, including three combat deployments to Iraq and Kuwait. IOW, he wasn't born yesterday.

There has to be something wrong with his brain to personally live through the horror of 1/6, then watch the violent insurrection videos, and then release a deadly serious statement about it being a bunch of tourists behaving in an orderly fashion. Even Orwell would have called that too ridiculous for words.

[UTUSN]

2. K&R

[crickets]

3. This is a great compilation of the RW organizations and their leaders

as well as the cast of GOP state and local players who showed up for the insurrection. Bookmarked big time.