One Year Later

It has been one year since the Insurrection. It has been one year since the bloody culmination of the Republican coup attempt to steal the 2020 election.

I will remember that day for the rest of my life.

On that day and the days that followed I spent every waking moment reading every available article, trying to make sense of the insanity that I had watched play out on live broadcast. As my blog posts from that time period demonstrate, on January 6th and the days immediately following it, it was already obvious that the Insurrection was an inside job and part of the much larger coup attempt that Republicans had set in motion months prior when they began sabotaging the Postal Service to rig the election. Although I have not made any updates to the large compilation posts since January 2021 (and much new information has come out since then--ranging from the presentation created by the House impeachment managers for Trump's 2nd impeachment trial in the Senate, to information being uncovered by the January 6th Select Committee, to many pieces of investigative journalism digging deeper into the identities of the insurrectionists), I still think those blog posts are some of the most comprehensive articles written on the Red Coup and the Insurrection.

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Even more shocking than watching a livestream of the coup attempt has been watching the coverup over the past year.

None of the coup organizers have been arrested or faced any consequences at all. None of the coup supporters and participants in Congress have been arrested or faced any consequences at all. What has happened as a result?

General Michael Flynn has urged for another military coup.

John Eastman has boasted his plan for a Vice President to overthrow an election is still "solid".

Steve Bannon has promised that he will ensure Republicans control the entire "election apparatus" by the next elections.

Peter Navarro confessed to planning the Coup Vote and insisted it is still legal.

Representative Madison Cawthorn has promised literal "bloodshed" against us in the near future.

Representative Matt Gaetz boasted that "We’re ashamed of nothing. We’re proud of the work we did on Jan. 6."

None of them have any faced punishment and so they have continued to organize another coup. Not only that, but they are doing so publicly and proudly.

Out of the 147 Republican politicians who voted to overthrow the government, none of them have faced punishment for their crimes. None of them have even been removed from office, despite the clear language of the 14th Amendment! (At least Representative Cori Bush has not given up hope on enforcing the 14th Amendment.)

The Republican politician(s) who held literal "reconnaissance tours" days before the Insurrection have not faced any consequences. The Republican politicians (e.g. Brooks, Biggs, Gosar) who were directly implicated as working with insurrection-organizer Ali Alexander have not faced any consequences.

Rudy Giuliani has not faced any consequences for telling an angry mob to march to the Capitol and have a literal "trial by combat".

Donald Trump has not faced any consequences for anything at all. Not the election fraud where he repeatedly pressured Georgia election officials to fraudulently "find 11,780 votes" so he could steal the state (nor has Senator Lindsey Graham been punished for his role in this election fraud conspiracy either.) Nor has Trump faced consequences for the multiple crimes meticulously investigated and documented by the Mueller Report. Not even the campaign finance crime that was serious enough to send his lawyer, Michael Cohen, to jail.

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Why not?

At this point, the only explanation that makes any sense is that the so-called Justice Department and the Democratic Party want Republicans to attempt another coup.

Over 700 insurrectionists have been arrested, many of them for nothing more than "parading" in the Capitol without a permit. Trespassing was a severe enough crime to warrant their immediate arrest, and cell phone GPS data was solid enough evidence to take them to court.

But INCITING and DIRECTING the insurrectionists is not a severe enough crime to merit any arrests? Spending months publicly organizing a coup on live TV and Twitter is not solid enough evidence to merit any arrests? A video tape of a FORMER GENERAL saying a military coup needs to take place is not enough to merit his immediate arrest?

Investigations take time, but how much time do you need when all of the smoking guns and confessions were recorded on live TV? Garland has tried to reassure us that it is normal for investigations into crime networks go from the bottom up, yet how long can you conscionably allow the bosses to walk free when each passing day they continue to do unspeakable damage? When each passing day they and their over 40 million followers become bolder and more determined to continue the crime spree at any cost? The crime that happened is not a "normal" crime. Legally speaking, it is one of the highest crimes ever committed in this country, arguably second only to the Civil War. The organized crime network under investigation is not just a "typical" network. It consists of over 147 members of one of our two major political parties--who are still in the House and Senate making our laws as we speak.

By delaying justice for a year, irreparable damage has been done. The coup organizers have had a year continue organizing for future elections. They have proudly said as much, and some--like General Flynn--have committed additional, clear-cut crimes in the process... Public trust in the bureaucratic institutions has reached a new low, from which it is unlikely to ever recover.

This miscarriage of justice by sweeping the coup under the rug and shielding its organizers is what we would have expected to happen if Republicans had retained power... We were instructed to "vote blue no matter who" as our only chance to bring Trump and his co-conspirators to justice. Yet, by doing literally nothing, Democrats have essentially legalized coup attempts. ("Low class" people trespassing remains illegal, though.)

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We are not safe when one of the major political parties remains openly insurrectionary, supportive of coup attempts, and a safe haven for terrorism, and when the other political party refuses to uphold the most basic of laws.

We are not safe when the organizers of the Red Coup are publicly boasting about how they are planning the next coup. We are not safe when the far-right terrorist cells who participated in the Insurrection are publicly announcing their intentions to incite a civil war. We are not safe when sitting Republican politicians, in no uncertain terms, publicly promise that there will be literal "bloodshed" against us in the near future.

Every non-treasonous American needs to get armed, train, and organize within our communities so we can defend ourselves against the terrorists who are warning us, in no uncertain terms, that their next coup attempt will be much better organized and much more bloody than the last.

Hopefully justice will be dealt to all who were involved in organizing the coup attempt and the carnage that the far-right gleefully wishes to inflict will never occur. But that seems more and more unlikely each passing day...

We must prepare now, or else it will be too late. Few seriously believed Trump would launch a bloody coup attempt to hold on to power, but he did. Even fewer believed a majority of the Republican Party would go all in and commit treason, but they did. Had they actually succeeded, it would have been too late for us. The people behind the coup attempt are telling us there will be an even more deadly one in the near future, and we must heed their warnings. this time around.

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The one year anniversary of the Insurrection should have been marked with tangible accomplishments to show the American people that there will be justice for this evil. It should have been marked with renewed vigor to demonstrate to us and the world that this will never happen again.

Instead, we have drifted further into darkness.