Bill Barr, Ginni’s texts, and the Capitol police: Profiles in propaganda, courage, and the lack thereof
This particular rumination starts with NPR’s Steve Inskeep’s interview with Bill Barr, engaged in a grubby new-book tour, asked whether he thought the Jan. 6 rioters would have hung Mike Pence. I mean, really hung him. And, not being the type to dally in hypotheticals as might be the habit of any good attorney except one engaged in a grubby new-book tour, he said no, he didn’t think they would have.
For reasons unlike Barr’s, I don’t know if I disagree with that, mainly because the VP was insulated by a hovering Secret Service cadre. But if the wrong group of fellas in that crowd had run into Nancy Pelosi or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at just the wrong time, that might have been a different story. Not in terms of hanging — the “gallows” I saw in the photos taken outside the Capitol looked more like a bad movie prop than any serious device for execution. But either of those women, in some of those hands — the wrong hands — yeah. And Adam Schiff might not have done so well either.
Then the WaPo story on Ginni Thomas’s texts to Mark Meadows broke. The following is my excerpted selection of the Top Three of those 29 messages:
“Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs. Do not grow weary in well doing. The fight continues. I have staked my career on it. Well at least my time in DC on it.”
“Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition.”
“Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!…You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”
Are people who have capitalization problems somehow more likely to have problems at the Capitol? A question for another day. In any event, Ginni Thomas appears to have attended the Jan. 6 rally at the ellipse, but reportedly left before the end and didn’t take the walk down Pennsylvania Avenue with the then-President leading the way. But then, no one did. Meanwhile, her texts have prompted discussions of her husband’s recusal from future considerations of Jan. 6-related decisions and even his impeachment. Like that’s going to happen.
The climax of this chain of thought was the sudden realization — the living sense, somehow more real than at any moment in over a year since that historic day — of the courage of the Capitol police. What training did those men and women receive vis-à-vis medieval combat? And the handling of mob mentality (for which a definition exists even at WebMD)? Where did they go to be issued the courage and devotion to duty that enabled them to fight for hours, giving elected officials of both parties time to duck and cover? Is there some kind of PX for federal employees where discounts are offered for bravery and dedication, or are those things standard issue?
They served as a last line of defense in staving off the institutional nihilism of Ginni Thomas and friends, who sincerely believed the Biden crime family would face military tribunals on barges outside GITMO after pulling off the greatest Heist of our History.
Do these law enforcement officers have a prayer in fending off the future vicissitudes of the King of Kings? And will they be there for the King of Kings’ redux in the midterms or the 2024 general election?
Ginni Thomas has staked her career on it — at least during her time in DC. Which is a lifetime appointment, if you think about it — an appointment that may last as long as her marriage to a Justice who likely will have the opportunity to further participate in undermining the other two branches of government even as he’s already undermined his own.
As for Bill Barr, he says he didn’t see the day as an insurrection at all, but more as “a riot that got out of control.” And the calls to hang Mike Pence? They were “a propaganda-type thing.”
You might have noticed that the power of propaganda plays a central role in this entire story. Trump’s first impeachment resulted from his attempt to enlist Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s help in generating propaganda about the Biden “crime family.” While Barr thought that effort was “an absurd idea,” he told Steve Inskeep he didn’t think it was criminal then, “and I still don’t think it was criminal.” As for Trump’s second impeachment for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection, Barr “would have voted to acquit the former president because Trump had left office by then.” ( Note: Trump was President of the United States on Jan. 6, 2021.) And, remember, after all, Barr’s position is that it wasn’t really an insurrection.
It looks like I might have to cling to one major hope for the next few years: that as much courage can be found inside the Capitol building as existed outside it Jan. 6, 2021. I’m not optimistic about the elected folks who work there. So I ask the law enforcement officers charged with their protection to continue drawing the courage from whatever PX or armory they drew from that day. That’s good stuff. And God bless. Unfortunately, they may need it.
Originally published at http://kcroes.wordpress.com on March 27, 2022.
