It’s January 6, a day that will forever be tainted with the infamy of the storming of the Capitol in 2021. It was an attempted coup, the culmination of a wide-ranging seditious conspiracy that became by far the largest investigation ever undertaken by the US Department of Justice.

That the coup failed does not mean it is over. While DoJ has worked its way from the gullible foot soldiers at the bottom of the sedition pyramid up to the heavy battalion that surrounded – and was in direct contact with – those at the top of the hierarchy, the leaders of the insurrection have yet to be held accountable. I have every faith they will be, that 2023 will be the Year of Accountability, especially since Jack Smith was appointed Special Counsel. But until then, they are free.

They are free to scheme, to plot a second coup to mark the anniversary of the first. As scholars of these events have noted, when conspiracists are at liberty to do so, they use what they learned from their first attempt to make their next attempt more likely to succeed. These will include doing things they didn’t or couldn’t do the first time, like removing all the magnetometers from the entrance to the House chamber…

…and reducing the number of Capitol Police on duty.

A coup would also be more likely to succeed if the House had no leadership, specifically no Speaker to call for armed reinforcements and coordinate an evacuation of staff and… …and non-members because no one has been sworn in yet. Officially, the US House of Representatives has only the one Member currently and that is the Congresswoman from Puerto Rico, Jenniffer González-Colón, who is halfway through a 4-tear term.

So coup plotters and supporters would be powerfully incentivised to prevent a Speaker from being elected…

So which Republicans are blocking McCarthy’s attempt to become Speaker and where do their alliances lie?

In How Far Right Are the 20 Republicans Who Voted Against McCarthy? the New York Times noted:

The Republicans who voted against the bid by Representative Kevin McCarthy of California for House speaker include some of the chamber’s most hard-right lawmakers. 

Their research found that most of them had denied the results of the 2020 election and 19 – including 4 of the 5 Reps-elect – are members of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus. It’s notable that after every congressional election, this group set about recruiting new members as soon as the votes are counted.

The New York Times analysis also looked at where they’re from and found that nearly half represent districts in just three states: Arizona, Florida and Texas.

Former House Rep and Jan 6 Committee researcher, Denver Riggleman, was asked how many Members of Congress (House and Senate) were involved in the 2021 insurrection. Riggleman promptly replied, “40”. When the same person asked a friend in the FBI, the agent responded, “Interesting. We put the number at 41.” I’ve wondered ever since who those 41 are on the FBI’s list. I’m willing to bet that at least a third of this group of 20 is on it. As lawyer Tristan Snell observes, another group of suspects is comprised of those who’ve been nominated in opposition to McCarthy.

If they’re also coup plotters and supporters, then they may well have an ulterior, and very dangerous, motive to slow-walk the Speakership election, have metal detectors removed and the Capitol Police force reduced. There have been whispers in the wind over the last year that the extremists will try again to seize power by force.

But not on January 6. That date is too obvious for a second attempt. The horrific actions of the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol 2 years ago are too fresh in the minds of too many people. Today is a day for remembrance.

But never forget:
“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”
~attributed to Thomas Jefferson

 

 

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5 COMMENTS

  1. I’m hoping you’re right about this year being the one they are held accountable. It’s just outrageous they are free and continuing to undermine our country and generally be a-holes.

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  3. If the LAW had actually honored the rule of law, Trump would have never been able to steal the election in 2016, which has resulted in over a million dead citizens, and thousands of children destroyed illegally at the border, in Yemen, Syria and other places run by dictators. If the LAW really honored their code, we wouldn’t be witnessing the seditious members of congress jacking up our democracy. Fact. When I find myself agreeing with Glenn Kirshner, who was a federal prosecutor for 30 years, I tend to ignore those who think they know better. He believes the DOJ has dropped the ball on speedy prosecutions of the more obvious crimes because of the timidity of Garland. We are still witnessing the coup by the same people who participated in the first one.

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    • Would you please explain your initial sentence? Exactly HOW would the “LAW” have been able to keep Trump out of office in 2016 by honoring “the rule of law?”

      You keep on with your screed but you veer wildly from your lead statement and NEVER explain how the “LAW” could have kept Trump out of the White House. What SPECIFIC law did Trump violate in 2016 to steal the election?

      Hindsight is NOT the “LAW.” All the actions you highlighted had been addressed during Trump’s first impeachment; it wasn’t the “LAW” that failed–it was Mitch McConnell who refused to allow the first impeachment trial to proceed under normal rules and then the failure of a dozen more GOP Senators who refused to find Trump guilty in the second impeachment proceedings. But in 2016, ABSOLUTELY NONE of the stuff you kvetch about had happened (and since we don’t live in “Minority Reports” times, we don’t put people in jail BEFORE they commit crimes).

      But, again–and I’ve written this many times before to you–when YOU have actual, verifiable EVIDENCE of any of these crimes, then YOU need to send it the DOJ and other authorities. YOU need to send it to the media (especially if DOJ fails to act). As long as YOU have this evidence and YOU do nothing with it, then YOU are just as complicit as the criminals you rant against.

      As for your “federal prosecutor” and his beliefs, would you care to provide his stats? How many prosecutions did he handle that led to successful convictions in those 30 years? The only thing that comes from “speedy prosecutions” is a “speedy acquittal” because the prosecution has either trampled on the rights of the accused or completely bungled the case in their haste to get it to court.

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  4. He committed a lot of law breaking while in New York. Some recently prosecuted, yet to be resolved. He committed campaign violations galore including one that sent his attorney to jail. What the hell makes YOU the expert? So now YOU think you have more expertise than Mr. Kirchner? You continue to provide excuses for decades of criminality and now YOU know more than a guy that worked as a federal prosecutor in the DC office. I bet YOU have NEVER been a victim of legal injustice. The word arrogance fits you well. This blog is a nice little echo chamber.

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