It's rioting, according to the media; and the scary footage from inside the Capitol appears to bear that out. 

But the media's tight focus on that scene (I use the word advisedly) blacks out the (so far) peaceable, though resolute, assembly in the streets, as captured here by Lynn Landes, a longtime ally in the election integrity movement. Some few are reported to be breaking windows, though whether they're protesters or Antifa (who are there, too) isn't clear. 

In other words, what's happening appears (so far) to be rather like the German media's coverage of Bobby Kennedy's historic speech in Berlin, which the "free press" over there largely ignored, in favor of sensational reports about the band of "neo-Nazis" who "stormed" the Reichstag. That bit of theater made it easy to portray the peaceful multitudes out in the streets as "neo-Nazis," too.

Two points:

(1) Any such mass demonstration, involving sincere protesters, is likely to be hijacked by professional saboteurs, as happened after the George Floyd incident. We therefore need to take the bloody details of this day, as reported by the media, with a grain of salt.

(2) Those who showed up to protest what they see as election theft (justifiably, in my view) have every right, and even are obliged, to do so---just as, I thought, and still think, the Democratic masses should have done in 2000 and 2004 (when that too would have been entirely justified). If there are grounds for doubting that the outcome was legit (grounds that "our free press" has totally blacked out---just as it did back then), it's a betrayal of democracy to let it go.

Our voting system is completely rotten (like the "free press" that has long refused to say a word about it). Until that system is reformed, from top to bottom, our elections will be nothing more than tribal rituals that each leave one side happy (for no good reason), and the other side justifiably aggrieved.


Live report from
Lynn Landes
 on Pennsylvania Avenue:
Huge numbers of people. Everyone going to the capital. Mostly regular people, middle age or older, many seniors. Many who look like hunters, large, robust men. But equal numbers of men & women.
Many from the Carolinas. Looked like middle America. We spoke with many of them: They were not there so much for Trump. But what’s really riled them is the absence of election integrity … Stolen elections.
We walked towards the capitol building. Massive crowds, Hundreds of thousands. The police thought they were going to keep people off the lawn. But those fences got ripped right down immediately.
Police fired sound cannons that sounded like fireworks up close. And used massive amounts of tear gas. We tasted it even from a long distance. Thousands of people pressed up against us. Sounds of the crowd were overwhelming. Collectively a huge noise. They had to hear it inside. It sounded like a revolution.
Most everyone was not looking for a fight. But they were determined not to accept a steal. There was talk of yesterday’s election [in Georgia]. No one trusted yesterday’s result either. Republican candidates count went down on air. How can that happen?
All in all, there is a sense of people taking their rights to heart. Overthrow a tyrannical government, like in the Declaration of Independence. They’re not going to roll over and allow it to happen.
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