Q Takes the Capitol, a New American Journal graphic by artist Walter Simon, depicts this golden calf of the Shaman of Qanon in his bison horn headdress, flying a flag with the slogan, “Quo unus nostrum it, eo universi imus.” The saying is inspired by the coming of age at sea saga “White Squall” using a lame slogan from the Albatross ship’s bell, “Where we go one, we go all.”

By Glynn Wilson –

Can we just keep our eye on the ball here? It’s been 100 days since the violent attack on the Capitol of the United States by armed supporters of former President Donald Trump in what can best be described as an “insurrection,” according to experts.

How is this anniversary being covered by the press and media in this country?

The story is being blown off the front pages of news sites and cable news shows by more gun violence in Indianapolis, Indiana and Minneapolis, Minnesota. The bland coverage of the testimony of Michael Bolton, Inspector General of the Capitol Police, before the House Administration Committee is being buried and summarized in a way that seems to miss the key point. Why?

Would it just be too awful to inform the American people how close we came to a coup and an overthrow of the United States government on Jan. 6? Is there a consensus that the American people “can’t handle the truth?”

While I was on the road on Thursday and not able to follow the hearing live, I took the time to catch up on the hearing on Friday as well as the coverage of the hearing. Not one news story quoted California Democrat Zoe Lofgren, Chairperson of the Committee on House Administration, from her opening remarks.

“I’d like to note that tomorrow marks 100 days from the horrific insurrectionist attack on the United States Capitol on January 6,” she said.

She commented on Inspector General Michael Bolton’s initial findings to congressional oversight committees, which were published on the committee website on Thursday.

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“The purpose of today’s hearing is to hear directly from the Inspector General of the U.S. Capitol Police what he has found about the Department’s preparations for and response to the attack. But as we undertake this review, we must not forget why there was an attack to respond to in the first place,” she said.

“Who said this?” she asked.

“American citizens attacked their own government. They used terrorism to try to stop a specific piece of democratic business they did not like. Fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House. They built gallows and chanted about murdering the Vice President. They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth — because he was angry he’d lost an election. … There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.”

That was Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, she said.

“Who said this?” she asked.

“Former President Trump ‘incited that bloody insurrection for nothing more than selfish reasons … He claimed voter fraud without any evidence, and repeated those claims, taking advantage of the trust placed in him by his supporters and ultimately betraying that trust.’

That was Former Republican House Speaker John Boehner.

“Who said this?” she asked.

“January 6 was clearly an attack that was attempted to stop the counting of electoral votes. … It’s very important for people to realize that a fundamental part of the Constitution, and as who we are as Americans, is the rule of law. It’s the judicial process. The election wasn’t stolen. There was a judicial process in place. If you attack the judicial process, and you attack the rule of law, you aren’t defending the Constitution, you’re at war with the Constitution.”

That was Congresswoman Liz Cheney, Chair of the Republican Conference.

“Former President Trump’s actions – inciting and encouraging the domestic terrorists who attacked the Capitol – are why bipartisan and historic majorities in the House and Senate concluded that it was both constitutional and necessary to impeach and convict former President Trump for those actions, including his false statements, and to disqualify him from holding future office. That proceeding was about accountability for former President Trump,” Lofgren said.

“The Department of Justice is pursuing accountability for the attackers. FBI Director Chris Wray has described the attack as ‘political terrorism.’ So far, hundreds of people have been criminally charged, and federal prosecutors have described this effort as ‘likely the most complex investigation every prosecuted by the Department of Justice’,” she continued.

“But today’s hearing is about accountability for and oversight of the U.S. Capitol Police’s role and performance in responding to the attack and keeping the Capitol safe,” she said. “Unfortunately, as we will hear from Inspector General Michael Bolton, his initial review has found that the Department’s preparations for and response to the attack were deficient in several key respects.

“His initial findings differ significantly from the prior versions of events offered by Department officials, including in congressional testimony, and detail what he believes to be a number of critical shortcomings of the Department and its leadership,” she said.

The deficiencies and inadequacies the Inspector General has identified to date can be categorized in four key themes, she said: (1) Training; (2) Planning, Policies, and Procedures; (3) Intelligence; and (4) Leadership and Culture.

But what was the problem with the culture? No one during the hearing explored the privileged culture of the Capitol Police, a glorified group of building security guards who are paid more than other police officers in the district and chosen for the jobs through political spoils. Clearly many of them — including the leadership — were sympathetic to the white rioters and would have reacted differently if indeed Antifa and Black Lives Matters protesters had not gone into their own stand down mode on that day, knowing they would be blamed for the violence.

Lofgren did point out that Capitol Police officers were viciously beaten with flagpoles – including some displaying “Blue Lives Matter” flags and the American flag.

They were assaulted with powerful bear spray and other chemicals, she said.

An officer was crushed in a heavy door as he was attacked.

An officer who was beaten so badly she lost consciousness.

One officer lost an eye. Another lost fingers.

Another officer had his own Taser used against him – to the point that he suffered a heart attack.

Dozens of officers contracted COVID – an illness that we are still coming to fully understand, but that doctors believe can have serious long-term effects, including significant neurological and cardiac problems.

“The January 6 attack was a horrific, traumatic event – for everyone who was present, their families and loved ones, and those who witnessed it,” she said. “For the whole country …”

But no one in the hearing mentioned that more than 35 Capitol Police officers face an investigation and at least six have been suspended for their role in coming to the aid of the insurrectionists by leading them past barricades, through doors into the Capitol and the House and Senate chambers, and escorting them out safely without even attempting to arrest them.

Related Coverage: Capitol Police Officers Face Investigation for Role in Capitol Insurrection

In one video, obtained by a reporter for The New Yorker who appeared to be embedded with the Qanon shaman, shows a lone Capitol Police officer escorting a small group of the first insurrections to get in the Capitol from the East side in and out of the Senate chamber, where they held a prayer and rifled through documents – while the Capitol Police officer looked on. These Proud Boys did not break windows or doors to get in. They walked right in.

Press Coverage

NYTimes: Lack of Training Led Capitol Police to Temper Riot Response, Watchdog Says

According to The New York Times coverage of the hearing Thursday:

The U.S. Capitol Police’s independent watchdog told Congress on Thursday that a senior official on the force had instructed officers not to use their most powerful crowd-control weapons on Jan. 6 because they had little training with the equipment and the official was afraid they would misuse it and potentially harm or kill people.

The testimony from Michael A. Bolton, the Capitol Police’s inspector general, was the latest in a series of damaging revelations about the missteps and dysfunction that plagued the force’s response to the deadliest attack on the Capitol in more than 200 years.

In his latest investigative report and his comments to the House Administration Committee on Thursday, Mr. Bolton faulted the agency for treating its Civil Disturbance Unit, which is charged with containing crowds and responding to protests, as a side assignment for officers, rather than a dedicated and specially trained force focusing full time on those tasks.

“Training deficiencies put officers — our brave men and women — in a position not to succeed,” Mr. Bolton told lawmakers.

But wait. Then Bolton said an assistant chief had told officers not to use weapons such as sting balls and stun grenades that are commonly used to disperse crowds — but he failed to identify the official, and apparently no one on the committee bothered to ask him who it was.

The story does quote Gus Papathanasiou, the chairman of the Capitol Police union, who called the inspector general’s report “damning.”

“It’s clear our leaders did not have a clear plan to identify threats before Jan. 6, nor did they provide the training, equipment, communication or guidance that officers needed to defend the Capitol that day,” he said in a statement. “The inspector general’s report confirms that U.S.C.P. leadership had actionable intelligence and did nothing with it.”

In the Washington Post report, which is similarly obtuse, there is one telling paraghraph.

“(Steven A.) Sund, the former police chief, has accused the two sergeants-at-arms of refusing his requests to call in the National Guard as a backup force before the riot. Under current rules, the police chief must seek permission from the Capitol Police Board, composed of the sergeants-at-arms and the Architect of the Capitol, before deploying additional resources in response to emergencies.”

Why did they refuse? Perhaps because they were acting on direct orders of the commander-in-chief himself, along with President Donald Trump’s acting Secretary of Defense, Christopher C. Miller, who has yet to be called to testify before any Congressional committee?

In another related story out Friday, the Washington Post is reporting that as the Capitol was breached on Jan. 6, armed supporters of Trump were waiting across the Potomac River in Virginia for orders to bring guns into the fray.

“The Justice Department has repeatedly highlighted comments from some alleged riot participants who discussed being part of a ‘quick reaction force’ with stashes of weapons. Defendants have dismissed those conversations as bluster. But in a detention hearing for Kenneth Harrelson, accused of conspiring with other members of the Oath Keepers militia group to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey S. Nestler said the government has evidence indicating otherwise.”

“This is not pure conjecture,” Nestler said.

In a court filing this week, he noted, prosecutors obtained cellphone and video evidence from the day before the riot showing that Harrelson asked someone about the quick reaction force. He then went to a Comfort Inn in the Ballston area of Arlington for about an hour before driving into D.C., prosecutors said. The day after the riot, surveillance video from the hotel shows him moving “what appears to be at least one rifle case down a hallway and towards the elevator,” according to the court records.

“We believe that at least one quick reaction force location was here and that Mr. Harrelson and others had stashed a large amount of weapons there,” Nestler said. “People affiliated with this group were in Ballston, monitoring what was happening at the Capitol and prepared to come into D.C. and ferry these weapons into the ground team that Kenneth Harrelson was running at a moment’s notice, if anyone said the word.”

Nestler did not detail the number of guns the group is alleged to have stashed.

Judge Amit Mehta called the evidence among the “most troubling and most disconcerting” he has seen in nearly a dozen cases related to Oath Keepers.

In order to prevent confusing the public with these conflicting reports, would it not serve democracy, truth and justice to keep the information at the forefront just how close we came to losing control of our government, so perhaps it won’t happen again?

How can we move on from this if all those responsible are not held accountable, including Capitol Police officers who were complicit, along with Republican members of Congress and their staffs, the Secretary of Defense and the Sergeants at Arms of the House and Senate? All we get are their resignations? What about the commander-in-chief himself? Will he be allowed to run for election again in 2024? Really?

Related Reports

As this story was about to be published, another story broke in The Washington Post.

A founding member of the Oath Keepers arrested in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol pleaded guilty Friday and agreed to cooperate against others in the case — the first defendant to publicly flip in the sprawling domestic terrorism investigation that has led to charges against more than 410 people.

The plea comes exactly 100 days after Jon Ryan Schaffer and hundreds of other supporters of former president Donald Trump allegedly stormed the Capitol hoping to prevent Joe Biden from being confirmed as the next president. Prosecutors hope Schaffer’s plea spurs others to provide additional evidence in hopes of avoiding long prison sentences.

Founding member of Oath Keepers enters first guilty plea in Jan. 6 Capitol breach

The insurrectionists and their right-wing anti-government militia groups should be jailed and destroyed. This is a republic that strives for democracy. There should be no “both sides” for neo-Nazi fascists here.