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Ready to try an old approach to a New Year’s resolution? Saint Ignatius may provide some guidance

Making and breaking New Year’s resolutions is a familiar and discouraging annual ritual for many people.

Almost inevitably, in a few short weeks, many find they are unable to meet their goals of self-improvement, be it keeping a positive attitude, improving one’s health or looking for the best in people. Some might even feel diminished as a result of this failure.

The problem, as I see it, is that most people set out with their resolutions often without identifying a practical path for the journey.

As a scholar of systematic theology, I believe that Saint Ignatius of Loyola, a 16th-century Spanish courtier, provides insightful guidance. He managed to reverse his life’s direction to pursue a spiritual path.

Who was Ignatius?

Born in 1491, Iñigo, later known as Ignatius, was the youngest son of a minor noble family in the Basque region of Spain who left home at the age of 18 to win his place at the royal court.

Over a decade later, as he lay confined to bed recuperating from injuries suffered in the Battle of Pamplona against the French, he daydreamed about potential future exploits at court or service to God and humanity.

It was at that time that he started to notice the subtle development of his feelings. When he dreamed about courtly heroism he later felt depleted, but when he reflected about serving God he felt a deep, lasting and energizing peace.

Reflection about his growing self-awareness led him to make a radical change in the direction of his life. He chose to put aside his quest for glory to serve God and creation, especially his fellow humans, whether friends or strangers.

He met a group of university students who became his companions. In 1540, they together founded the Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits, a community of priests and brothers that became known throughout the world for spiritual development, preparatory and university education and justice advocacy.

Challenges before Ignatius

This path was not smooth for Ignatius. In the course of his work, he suffered many setbacks, such as suspicion and rejection by church authorities, but he came to a better understanding of himself and his path through those challenges.

As Ignatius narrates in an account of his life, which he related just before his death to a fellow Jesuit, the key is not to become suddenly perfect but to learn how to walk patiently and deliberately to grow in love and service despite imperfection.

Ignatius relates his self-driven determination to preach to pilgrims in Jerusalem. His intention, however, was not well received by church authorities, who thought he was poorly prepared. This rejection led him to further his education and become more flexible about how he understood his role in serving God.

He writes about how he was easily provoked to self-righteous anger. Once he took offense when a fellow traveler made an insulting comment about the Virgin Mary. Only the stubborn donkey he was riding saved him from pursuing the other traveler and acting on a murderous rage.

In the sharing of his story, Ignatius does not want his biography to become the center of attention. He provides an example of moving beyond the isolated facts of his life journey to reflect about their interconnected meaning and a way of looking beyond.

As the scholar of renaissance rhetoric Marjorie O’Rourke Boyle suggests, Ignatius is using the story about himself to redirect his readers’ attention to God and a higher purpose. Unflinching about relating his own faults, Ignatius encourages individuals to reflect on their desires, resources and vulnerabilities as a way to grow.

Practical guidance from Ignatius

In the “Spiritual Exercises,” his manual for prayer guides, Ignatius suggests a five-step daily process, known as the “Examen,” as a way to tell and retell life-transforming stories. These, I believe, are practical recommendations that could help people realize their resolutions in the New Year.

  • Start with a realistic, accurate and encouraging assessment of your current situation. Ignatius would always begin his moments of reflective self-assessment by reaffirming his gratitude for life and opportunities to serve in a project larger than himself. Acknowledge strengths, vulnerabilities, positive and negative feelings, and areas of encouragement and discouragement as gifts.

  • Be open to the light of a larger perspective. Call upon the assistance of a higher power to reveal the big picture that holds together the pieces of the journey through the day. Expect to be surprised by new insights.

  • Focus on the events of today. Create a story that links the episodes of the day and your goals together. Ignatius would move beyond just listing strengths, weakness and feelings to discover how they advanced or impeded his goal to serve God and others.

  • Identify the moments of darkness and discouragement that resist being drawn into your story. Ask what episodes disrupt your understanding of yourself and the world. Find new perspective by deepening your commitment to a higher purpose.

Much like the beliefs in other religions, Ignatius turns to his faith to find a new perspective during difficult moments. Christianity and other religious traditions such as Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism help find purpose in a compassionate and merciful love that inspires and guides day-to-day actions, each in their own way.

As a Christian, Ignatius looked especially to the example of compassionate self-sacrifice in Jesus’ death on the Cross to hold difficult moments in a higher faith perspective. By committing to accept the cost of positive action in the face of his own failings or opposition by others, Ignatius was able to move through obstacles and find encouragement and strength to advance his story.

Finally, reflect on how your story offers direction and energy to move forward to the next day. By incorporating discouraging moments into the flow of a larger story, Ignatius learned how to move beyond the shame and confusion caused by failure and misdeeds to a healthy sense of sorrow. It helped Ignatius find a higher purpose.

Like Ignatius, many of us may need to revise our resolutions and reflect on how we may proceed, even when we feel discouraged.

Regis College is a member of the Association of Theological Schools.

The ATS is a funding partner of The Conversation US.

Gordon Rixon, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Regis College, University of Toronto

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

Mitch McConnell’s Senate memo shows how difficult a swift Trump impeachment trial would be

President Donald Trump’s “Save America” rally led to complete chaos on Capitol Hill putting lawmakers’ lives in danger as they attempted to do their jobs to complete the Electoral College certification. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the rest of the Senate Republicans still appear to be hesitant to move forward with a second impeachment of the president.

On Friday, Jan.8, McConnell released a memo obtained by The Washington Post that reiterated the Senate’s adjournment until Jan.19, seemingly dismissing the possibility of holding a special Congressional session. The Kentucky lawmaker also emphasized that a total of 100 senators would have to agree to pro forma sessions prior to their return on Jan. 19.

“Again, it would require the consent of all 100 Senators to conduct any business of any kind during the scheduled pro forma sessions prior to January 19, and therefore the consent of all 100 Senators to begin acting on any articles of impeachment during those sessions,” McConnell reiterated.

While the Senate does have two pro forma sessions scheduled for Jan. 12 and Jan. 15, the problem is they have no authority to conduct “any kind of business during those days — including “beginning to act on received articles of impeachment from the House” if all 100 senators consent with moving forward.

Based on the Electoral College certification proceedings on Jan. 6, there is a high likelihood that there are several pro-Trump senators who will oppose the idea of moving forward with impeachment despite the president’s actions which put their lives in danger.

In fact, on Friday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) took to Twitter with a relatively warped perspective on all that has occurred as he criticized President-elect Joe Biden for his rebuke of those who participated in the disturbing siege on the U.S. Capitol.

“Really sad,” he tweeted, “At a time of deep national division, President-elect Biden’s choice to call his political opponents literal Nazis does nothing to bring us together or promote healing. This kind of vicious partisan rhetoric only tears our country apart.”

Cruz’s remarks are a clear example of how Republicans are continuing to miss the mark. However, Democratic lawmakers are fighting to move forward with Trump’s impeachment to make a strong statement: no one is above the law. Leading an insurrection on the U.S. government will not be tolerated.

Coronavirus variant found in South Africa worries scientists

Naturally, the coronavirus mutates as it spreads. But scientists are more concerned about some mutations more than others, and there’s one in particular that’s worrisome because it could throw a wrench in future vaccine efficacy.

Specifically, variant 20C/501Y.V2 — also known as B.1.351 lineage — which has emerged in Durban, South Africa, is alarming because the mutation of the virus is at the SARS-CoV-2 Spike, disguising its appearance to the immune system which can make it easier to bypass immune protection. Think of it like someone putting a wig on to go to a party they weren’t invited to, and tricking the bouncer by changing their appearance to enter.

“The concern is that it has a structural change that may change the shape of the Spike protein in a way that it may not be as easily recognized by the immune system, which means the antibodies that we raise through vaccination, as well as naturally occurring antibodies following a following infection,” explained Dr. George Rutherford, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco. “That’s the concern with that strain.”

Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases and associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, Davis, agreed.

“We need to be immune to that spike protein to prevent infection. If it changes, if it mutates too much, then maybe we might lose immunity that we’ve achieved via either infection or immunization,” Blumberg said.

Variant 501Y.V2 is believed to be behind a fast-growing coronavirus outbreak in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. Researchers first identified the variant in October 2020 in Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa. In December 2020, it was also identified in Zambia and appeared to be the dominant strain in the country. According to a preliminary data on the strain, samples of the variant carry up to 9 changes to the spike protein. One mutation of 501Y.V2  that is of concern is N501Y because of how the portion of the spike is mutated. A second mutation, dubbed E484K, appears to have changed the shape of the protein in a way that is making it harder for some antibodies to neutralize the virus.

“There are preliminary studies that suggest that people who’ve previously been infected with previous strains, they may neutralize the virus up to 10 times less,” Blumberg said. “So that’s a real concern, and that would suggest that maybe vaccine induced immunity may be escaped by this new variant in South Africa.”

Indeed, a paper published about this specific mutation this week echoed those concerns. One author of the paper told STAT News that, despite findings that that the virus was harder to neutralize with antibodies from other strains, the variant would have to have very specific mutations in certain spots to have a big impact on vaccine efficacy.

According to a separate report published this week, scientists tested the Pfizer vaccine against N501Y using blood samples from 20 people. Fortunately, the vaccination worked on them, but the sample size was far too small to say definitively that it would be true for the general population. 

Does this strengthen the case that COVID-19 vaccines will be similar to the flu vaccine, in the sense that they will be tailored to different strains and more frequent?

“Maybe yes, maybe no,” Rutherford said. “But it would be quite unusual if we had to go in and change it this rapidly.”

The Centers for Disease and Control (CDC) has warned that the potential consequence of these mutations could be that these variants could evade vaccine immunity, but that it would not be an immediate impact.

“Both vaccination against and natural infection with SARS-CoV-2 produce a ‘polyclonal; response that targets several parts of the spike protein,” states the CDC. “The virus would likely need to accumulate multiple mutations in the spike protein to evade immunity induced by vaccines or by natural infection.”

Masking and social distancing still work to protect people from this strain, which hasn’t been identified in the United States yet. According to the BBC, it has been identified in Austria, Norway and Japan. Notably, there is no evidence to suggest that any of the mutations of this variant cause more serious illness.

“Currently, there is no evidence that these variants cause more severe illness or increased risk of death,” the CDC states. “New information about the virologic, epidemiologic, and clinical characteristics of these variants is rapidly emerging.”

Could Trump pardon himself if charged for the Capitol siege? Here’s what legal experts say

In the aftermath of the siege on the U.S. Capitol, President Donald Trump started having more conversations with his aides and lawyers about the extent of his presidential pardon power. Now, there are questions about whether or not Trump could pardon himself or others in the wake of the latest calls for him to be held accountable for the violence that ensued.

Legal experts and law observers have revealed timing will be an important factor in the outcome, according to Law & Crime. Many have pointed to Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution as they noted that it states: “The President … shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.”

In a nutshell, the text “means that pardons may only be issued for federal offenses (not civil wrongs or state crimes), and a pardon cannot override the Congress’s impeachment power. The plain text of the Constitution makes that clear.”

As for timing, with Trump having only 11 days left in office, legal experts insist it is highly unlikely that the president will be charged in such a short period of time. If Trump is charged, it will likely occur after he leaves office.

The publication outlined the three ways Trump could be pardoned: “by (1) President Joe Biden (after he takes office); (2) President Mike Pence (in the event that Trump is impeached, convicted, expelled from office or resigns and is succeeded by the Vice President before Jan. 20th); or (3) himself, while he is still president, but before criminal charges are brought.”

While the idea of Biden pardoning Trump is the most impossible, it could be likely that Pence may move forward with the initiative.

If scenario (2) occurred, Pence may have the power to pardon his predecessor just as President Gerald Ford pardoned then-former President Richard Nixon for every federal offense Nixon had “committed or may have committed” while in office.

But even if Trump does opt to pardon himself, Preet Bharara, a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, noted that a self-pardon as extraordinary as this one would not go without criticism and heightened scrutiny. During an interview with CNN, Bharara laid out his arguments.

I think (if) the President decided he was going to pardon himself, I think that’s almost self-executing impeachment. Whether or not there is a minor legal argument that some law professor somewhere in a legal journal can make that the President can pardon, that’s not what the framers could have intended. That’s not what the American people, I think, would be able to stand for.

The latest ordeal has also led to discussions about possibly changing the legal parameters of self-pardons to avoid similar occurrences in the future.

Health benefits brokers will have to disclose what they receive from the insurance industry

Like a lot of big federal spending bills, the new coronavirus relief package is a grab bag of unrelated legislation.

And one provision in the 5,593-page measure passed last month could lead to revealing conversations between employers and the brokers they rely on to find them the best deals on health insurance and other benefits.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, the much-debated legislation that authorized a new round of stimulus checks for many U.S. households, mandates that brokers disclose to employers how much they make from insurance carriers and vendors.

Health benefits brokers are trusted advisers to employers, who sponsor health plans for about 150 million Americans. But ProPublica showed in 2019 how the insurance industry influences the consultants behind the scenes with cash and gifts — from six-figure bonuses to swanky island getaways. Critics called it “a classic conflict-of-interest” that may cause brokers to put the industry’s interests above those of their employer clients, which drives up costs. In response to the ProPublica story, senators proposed legislation to require disclosure of the perks and payments.

Companies provide an array of services to employer sponsored health plans, including traditional health insurance, vision and dental products, pharmacy benefits, third-party administration, claims review and more. Each service provider may provide payments to brokers that might be unknown to the employer. For example, a pharmacy benefit manager might pay a broker a fee for every prescription filled under a health plan. Or a third-party administrator might give the broker a payment for each employee on a health plan.

Under the newly passed requirement, brokers and consultants must tell employers the various forms of direct or indirect compensation they receive from vendors associated with a health plan. The disclosures must take place at the time the employer enters into the agreement with the broker or when it’s renewed. The act also requires brokers to disclose their compensation to individuals who purchase insurance plans.

“It is a game changer,” said Doug Aldeen, a Texas attorney who specializes in law and regulations related to health plans. The requirement goes into effect in December, a year after the bill was signed into law, but Aldeen said employers should demand the “big reveal” now. “Frankly, it’s big money.”

A broker’s base commission can be 3% to 6% of the total health insurance premium, ProPublica found. That means the broker makes more as premiums go up. Commissions for some supplemental products can be as high as 40%, and bonuses could be as high as $150,000 for a single employer group. Bonuses may be based on the size of employers with a carrier or on keeping employers with an insurer when it comes time to renew. In addition to money, the industry treats brokers to bucket-list experiences, like batting against retired Yankee Mariano Rivera or taking a trip to the Super Bowl or a luxury resort.

Aldeen’s clients include the small but growing movement of brokers who have stopped taking industry cash. Instead, they get paid directly by employers, which eliminates the conflict of interest and gives them an incentive to deliver better value.

Adam Berkowitz, a St. Louis broker who has transitioned to having employers pay him directly, wrote about the Appropriations Act disclosure requirement on his company blog. He pointed out that industry payments to brokers are not illegal and have been considered the cost of doing business. But requiring their disclosure will at least alert employers of the potential conflicts of interest, he wrote.

Berkowitz told ProPublica he started his career working for an agency that was funded by industry money. He said emails would come from his bosses, urging brokers to push a particular policy or plan to employers because the agency was close to hitting bonus thresholds. “It’s absolutely front and center,” he said of the influence of industry commissions and bonuses, “and it doesn’t get disclosed to the employers.”

In contrast, getting paid directly by employers “allows us the freedom to be truly independent and work on behalf of the employers,” Berkowitz said.

Some of the big broker agencies are worth more than $1 billion, including Marsh & McLennan and Willis Towers Watson. Those two companies declined to comment for this story. The National Association of Health Underwriters, the broker trade group, said in a statement posted on Twitter that it supports transparency, but feels the legislation is redundant, and that the requirements “could be a financial burden on carriers, employers, agents and brokers.”

Michael Thompson, president of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, which represents employers, called the new disclosure requirements an encouraging “step in the right direction.” Knowing about the payments “is critical for plan sponsors if they are to interpret the advice they are getting day to day from their advisers,” he told ProPublica.

In 2019, ProPublica sent the country’s largest broker agencies a list of questions, asking if they took various types of bonuses and commissions from the insurance industry players. None of them would answer, but employers may soon be asking their brokers some of the same questions. Health Rosetta, an organization that certifies brokers and already requires them to disclose to employers all their sources of income, uses this disclosure form. It includes 17 types of vendors that may be paying a broker, including medical, disability, wellness, disease management and more.

Dave Chase, a Washington businessman, created Rosetta to transform how employers buy benefits. For employers, learning how much their brokers have been making from the health benefits industry may be “the business equivalent of finding out your spouse was cheating on you,” Chase said.

Chase said the next step is to reform the contracts that employers sign with the insurance companies and vendors that provide their benefits. They often limit an employer’s ability to access the data they need to analyze their spending, or restrict an employer’s ability to audit the claims, to make sure they are paid properly, a problem ProPublica has also covered.

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Capitol siege sparked pro-Trump protests nationwide, several statehouses stormed

While a violent horde of Trump supporters waged an insurrection on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, pro-Trump protesters also stomped on state grounds across the country to protest President-elect Joe Biden’s victory –– a fate officially sealed by the Electoral College later that day. Thousands took to their city and state government buildings in solidarity with the attempted uprising on Capitol Hill, displaying their outrage beyond just D.C.

In California, hundreds assembled in front of the Capitol in Sacramento, waiving Trump flags and clashing with counter-protestors. According to the Sacramento Police, eleven people were arrested, with one report of an assault. A “large police presence will remain in the area throughout the night,” the Sacramento Police Department wrote on Twitter. Protesters also gathered at the Los Angeles City Hall, according to the LAPD. Six people were arrested for unlawful demonstration, and three people were apprehended for possessing unpermitted items.

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A group of protestors gained access to grounds of the Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s Mansion in Olympia, breaking through the Governor’s security gates, but were deterred from making entry into the building. “They did not make access to the entrance itself, just to the grounds,” said State Patrol spokesman Darren Wright. Just outside the building, far-right group Patriot Prayer’s leader, Joey Gibson, put on a fervid speech parroting Trump’s election conspiracy and decrying pandemic restrictions.  

More demonstrations surfaced in the Pacific Northwest with altercations erupting in Salem, Oregon just outside the Capitol building, where protestors burned an effigy of Governor Kate Brown. Oregon Republican Rep. Mike Nearman was caught on video opening a door to protestors who rushed in and some then sprayed six law enforcement officers with a chemical substance and violently attacked journalists. When counter-demonstrators arrived on the scene hours later, physical violence broke out between the two groups, after which the Oregon State police declared the demonstration an unlawful assembly and dispersed the crowd. Two arrests were made for harassment and trespassing with a gun.

In Georgia –– where Republican State Secretary Brad Raffensberger recently released a damning phone call recording of Trump asking elections officials to “find” more votes in his favor –– a group of protestors convened outside the State Capitol. Several attendees were members of a Georgian militia armed with assault-style weapons –– including on former leader of the KKK. Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs told The New York Post, “We heard reports of threats and left immediately.” Secretary Raffensberger, along with his staff, were forced to evacuate from the building.

A New Mexico statehouse containing the Governor’s office in Santa Fe was also evacuated in response to swarms of Trump supporters who descended upon the building. Hundreds of flag-waving Trumpsters arrived in a vehicle caravan, honking their horns and yelling over a megaphone about Trump’s “rightful” victory, despite Biden’s 11% winning margin in New Mexico.

In Lansing, Michigan, about 800 protestors came together outside the State Capitol, clinging to the hope that Trump will be vindicated. Attendees held flags that read “Stop the steal” and “Fake virus,” while organizers blasted a video feed of Trump’s speech Wednesday in the Ellipse. The demonstration proved more innocuous than last year’s back in March when an armed state militia attempted to make their way inside the Capitol in protest of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order.

Morning Joe calls Josh Hawley “dumbest man in America” after he complains about canceled book deal

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough did not hold back when he scorched Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) after revered book publisher Simon & Schuster announced its plan to sever ties with the senator and drop his book deal due to his involvement in President Donald Trump’s post-election coup which led to the disturbing breach of the U.S. Capitol. 

On Jan. 7, the publisher released its statement confirming Hawley’s book deal had been canceled. The publisher also criticized Hawley’s actions on Capitol Hill. 

“We did not come to this decision lightly,” said Simon & Schuster in a statement. “As a publisher, it will always be our mission to amplify a variety of voices and viewpoints: At the same time we take seriously our larger public responsibility as citizens, and cannot support Senator Hawley after his role in what became a dangerous threat.” While Simon & Schuster has severed ties with the junior Senator from Missouri, conservative publisher Regnery has already expressed interest in Hawley’s book, with president and publisher Tom Spence saying that if Simon & Schuster canceled Mr. Hawley’s book deal, “

After the publisher announced its intent, an angry Hawley took to Twitter with a statement addressed to the “woke mob at Simon & Schuster” as he described their decision as “Orwellian.”

In his statement, he wrote, “Simon & Schuster is canceling my contract because I was representing my constituents, leading a debate on the Senate floor on voter integrity, which they have not decided to redefine as sedition.”

However, Scarborough has a different perspective on the whole ordeal. On Friday, Jan. 8, he weighed in with his critical opinion of Hawley. The MSNBC host insisted that the Republican senator “just may well be the dumbest man in America,” despite having degrees from both Stanford University and Yale Law School.

Scarborough also argued the Hawley apparently cannot decipher the difference between the federal government and the private sector. 

He added, “He keeps confusing the actions of private industry, of private enterprises, with the federal government. He keeps confusing the fact that if you are a profit-making center, you can do what the hell you want to do as far as publishing. Because the first amendment grants you that right. You can do what the hell you want to do with who you sign up to write a book.”

Scarborough also offered a hypothetical example of how a contract could be canceled saying: “Then I decide to commit treason against the United States of America. I decide to commit acts of sedition as Josh Hawley did. I decide to lead an insurrection against the United States of America and inspire actually the ravaging of the United States…I think my publisher has the right to cancel my contract. That’s free enterprise at work.”

“Arrest the president”: Accountability demanded after fascist mob incited by Trump storms Capitol

Demands that President Donald Trump be fully held to account for inciting the fascist mob that rampaged through the U.S. Capitol Building proliferated Wednesday as all hell broke loose in Washington, D.C., with members of Congress and journalists forced to seek shelter as the lame-duck incumbent’s supporters shattered windows and clashed with law enforcement.

“Arrest the president,” tweeted New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie. “I’m not joking. He incited a riot to try to sack the Congress and install himself in office. Our laws mean nothing if he can continue to live a free man.”

Progressive activist Kai Newkirk echoed Bouie, declaring that “Trump must be impeached, removed from office immediately, and arrested.”

“Enough,” said Newkirk. “The Constitutionally-mandated course of our presidential election has been disrupted by a violent insurgency directly incited by a sitting president.”

The breach of the Capitol Building by Trump supporters came after the president delivered a characteristically deranged speech near the White House, falsely claiming that the election was stolen and vowing to “never concede.”

Following the president’s remarks, his backers proceeded to march en masse to the Capitol and eventually stormed the building. After his fans began wreaking havoc, Trump tweeted,  “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful!”

At one point, Capitol police drew their guns as the president’s supporters attempted to break into the House chamber.

“Donald Trump is responsible for the coup that is unfolding at the Capitol,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). “He is a fascist and a direct threat to our country.”

The mob of Trump supporters forced Congress to pause the process of officially certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory as the Capitol was locked down and lawmakers were ordered to seek shelter.

“Trump called on his supporters to march to U.S. Capitol,” tweeted Ari Berman of Mother Jones. “He shouldn’t just be impeached or removed from office. He should be in jail.”

Pro-Trump protester who was crushed to death in Capitol riot carried “Don’t tread on me” flag

Rosanne Boyland, 34, was among four of President Donald Trump’s supporters who died Wednesday inside the Capitol after breaking inside to disrupt the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s win, and her family blames the president she fervently backed, reported WGCL-TV.

“Rosanne was really passionate about her beliefs like a lot of people,” said her brother-in-law Justin Cave. “I’ve never tried to be a political person, but it’s my own personal belief that the president’s words incited a riot that killed four of his biggest fans [Wednesday] night, and I believe that we should invoke the 25th Amendment at this time.”

Boyland was knocked to the ground and crushed as crowds breached the Capitol, according to Axios, and suffered a fatal medical emergency.

“As we watched these awful events unfold we hoped that Rosanne was not among the crowd,” Cave said. “Tragically she was there and it cost her life. We have little information at this time and we are waiting with the rest of the world to uncover the specifics.”

The Kennesaw woman was photographed walking Washington, D.C., streets before the breach carrying a Revolutionary War-era flag that shows a timber rattlesnake coiled and ready to strike, threatening, “Don’t tread on me.”

“People were in there to start stuff, but it wasn’t supposed to be a violent event,” said friend Justin Winchell. “They basically created a panic, and the police, in turn, pushed back on them, so people started falling.”

“I put my arm underneath her and was pulling her out and then another guy fell on top of her, and another guy was just walking [on top of her],” Winchell added. “There were people stacked 2-3 deep…people just crushed.”

Friends and family say Boyland had become consumed with QAnon conspiracy theories and hatred for Biden, and they lamented they’d been unable to stop her from going to Washington or obsessing about online conspiracies.

“I hope this is a wake-up call to everybody, check in on your friends,” said friend Sarah Lewis. “We’ve all watched her decline, and go on these rabbit-trails. I can tell you that she had some demons (in the past) and she had some problems, but she found her purpose in taking care of her little nieces, and she’s been good to them. And she’s been real good to my children…. I don’t know why she did this, it don’t make a lot of sense, if you know her you know how little sense this makes.”

Rioters fatally beat Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick with a fire extinguisher, and three other Trump supporters died during the unrest.

Officers shot and killed 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt, Huntingtown, Maryland, as she tried to enter a broken window in the House chamber, and 50-year-old Benjamin Phillips, of Ringtown, Pennsylvania, and 55-year-old Kevin Greeson, of Athens, Alabama, also died from medical emergencies during the riot.

Republican lawmakers caught helping pro-Trump mobs at U.S. Capitol, Oregon statehouse

“We’re in! Let’s go, keep it moving, baby!” shouted Derrick Evans, a newly elected Republican member of West Virginia’s House of Delegates, as he is seen pushing his way through the rotunda at the U.S. Capitol with a throng of violent Trump supporters in a video live-streamed on Facebook.

“Trump, Trump, Trump!” he chanted as attackers rushed the doors.

The video, deleted by Evans after circulating Twitter, shows him donning a helmet and military gear, shouting, “Derrick Evans is in the Capitol […] Patriots inside, baby!”

Evans, 34, won his first term as a state lawmaker in November and was charged by the Department of Justice on Friday for illegally entering the Capitol. He is one of several elected Republican lawmakers across the country who have been identified as either participating in or aiding violent pro-Trump attacks on legislative bodies this week.

Virginia state Sen. Amanda Chase, who describes herself as “Trump in heels,” spoke at the rally that preceded the riot on Wednesday. She later praised the rioters and blamed the violence on “antifa or BLM agents of destruction,” for which her Facebook account was suspended on Friday. After Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem posted photos of himself at Trump’s rally, he continued to push a baseless conspiracy theory — that anti-fascist activists, not Trump supporters, broke into the Capitol — which had already been debunked by the Department of Justice.  

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Missouri state lawmaker Rep. Justin Hill skipped his own swearing-in ceremony to travel to Trump’s coup, where he admits he sat back and watched as an angry mob descended on the U.S. Capitol. Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a retired military colonel who said he helped organize a bus ride to the demonstrations, posed for photos with former Republican state representative Rick Saccone, who served for 18 years in the U.S. Air Force. 

“We’re storming the Capitol!” Saccone said in a video he posted to Facebook. “They broke down the gates!” he continued. “They’re macing them up there. We’re trying to run out all of the evil people and all the RINOs that have betrayed our president. We’re going to run them out of their offices!” 

Oregon Republican Rep. Mike Nearman was caught on video opening a door to protestors who rushed into the state Capitol in Salem on Dec. 21. Some rioters then sprayed six law enforcement officers with a chemical substance and others violently attacked journalists. 

In light of his actions, West Virginia officials are now calling for Evans’ hasty prosecution and resignation.

The West Virginia Democratic Party declared in a statement, “[Evans] must be held accountable for participating in an act of insurrection against the United States government and risking the lives of lawmakers and Capitol police.” The Party added, “The West Virginia Democratic Party calls for his immediate resignation from the House of Delegates and that he be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” A Change.org petition, with over 50,000 signatories, has also called for Evans’ immediate removal from office. 

Roger Hanshaw, the speaker of the West Virginia’s House of Delegates, said Evans will have to “answer to his constituents and colleagues regarding his involvement in what has occurred today.”

Evans responded to sharp rebukes online by claiming that he did not participate in any violence or destruction of property, and defended his involvement in the riot as “an independent member of the media.” He added, “I want to assure you all that I did not have any negative interactions with law enforcement.” 

Evans’ attorney John H. Bryan told NBC that his client “did nothing wrong.” Bryan explained, “He was exercising his First Amendment rights to peacefully protest and film a historic and dynamic event […] He engaged in no violence, no rioting, no destruction of property, and no illegal behavior.”

Bidding a final, poignant adieu to “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek amidst our nation’s chaos

Win and loss. Confirmation and concession. In normal times and in those falling into the category of the new normal, these would be the dualistic terms by which we’d define this week. Right-wing extremists had other plans. Now the dualities themselves occupy one end of the spectrum, and chaos, terrorism, violence and death spinning wildly on the other. In eye of it all, as ever, there is “Jeopardy!”

Friday marks the final episode hosted by Alex Trebek, whose 36-year run ended in November 2020. Trebek died after a public battle with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer; he was 80 years old. According to a recent report in Deadline, Trebek’s last episode doesn’t include a farewell or special message to viewers that makes it stand apart from the others.

He didn’t intend to leave the show’s loyal audience that way. A year ago he shared his plan with reporters, saying he’d time his farewell message for 30 seconds before the end of his final half hour with the show. As for which show and when that would happen, Trebek genuinely couldn’t say, explaining that he decided a long time ago that he’d make that call “on a whim, on that particular day.”

But “Jeopardy!” executive producer Mike Richards explained that not even Trebek thought that his finale episode on Friday actually would be his last. He filmed the episode 10 days before he passed away, expecting to return for a few more tapings. Because of this, Richard says the words marking Trebek’s last moments on the show that he made an institution are the same that close every episode: “See you next time.”

Watching this week’s “Jeopardy!” series while madness seized the nation’s Capitol and shocked people around the world into near-paralysis emphasizes why the show transcends eras and, yes, even hosts. The simple answer is that it is a beacon of stability, a bastion of indisputable fact.

Of course this also leads into a longer discussion of why it must stand, in some form, as an island of sanity in a world being unraveled by chaos and ignorance. “Jeopardy!” offers half an hour each night of a gracious test of general knowledge suitable for all ages, whose contestants come from a variety of backgrounds and occupy every kind of profession.

It would be wrong to say anyone can make it to one of those podiums; by now we know better than to ignore the impact educational inequality and economic advantage has on the contestant pool. But if this week has taught us anything, it is that ignorance sure isn’t limited to lower tax brackets.

As reporters and law enforcement identify more individuals who breached the Capitol in their terrorist act I’m wagering we’ll discover that many of them are well-educated or at least what one would describe as “comfortable.” Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, one of the riot’s main instigators, is an alumnus of Stanford and Yale Law School. None of these degrees prevented him from championing benightedness or learning from the failures of despots past.

This is relevant to the “Jeopardy” conversation because on the same day that storm raged, viewers could turn on “Jeopardy!” and watch Trebek deftly guide contestants through the responses he was looking for . . . and appreciate the physical effort it took for him to be in their presence, to fulfill the awkward banter segment, to congratulate each small victory along the way to final “Jeopardy!”

A cloudiness dimmed his voice on Tuesday’s telecast but not his acuity, and seemed even brighter on Wednesday. Contestants were as determined and cool under pressure as one would expect. There was the woman whose funny story involved missing an appearance by David Sedaris, which earned a laugh from Trebek, and from me, and made me appreciate the fact that none of the producers though that Sedaris’ identity would require explaining. People watching “Jeopardy” are either familiar with the author or they know to look him up.

There’s an unspoken understand that if you’re watching this show, you are curious and hungry; it serves the learned and the eager to learn equally. People who excel at trivia might contest this idea by pointing out that the best player excels at rote learning and memorize facts without much emphasis on context, and there’s some truth to that.

I’d also point out that maybe if you determined enough to know that the correct response to the answer “this Incan citadel resides in Andes Mountains in Peru” is “What is Machu Picchu?” you’re already far more open to experiencing other parts of the world and ways of being, not to mention expanding your knowledge of history, world events and other subjects, than the average closed-minded person.

Trebek did his part to improve our smarts by maintaining a gentle kindness, even when a contestant answered a question incorrectly. I cannot recreate the experience better that my colleague and Trebek super-fan Mary Elizabeth Williams does in the tribute she wrote to him:

There’s that little pause of Canadian restraint, as if to say, “I thought it was obvious,” before his devastating, “I’m sorry but of course we were looking for James Monroe/Liechtenstein/igneous rock.”

He isn’t punitive. He doesn’t tease or linger. He treats it like a blip and moves to the next tile on the board, and maybe the person at home who didn’t know the answer either resolves to fill in that gap in their mental library.

Long before America stopped agreeing upon the same set of facts our culture skittered into a tendency to equate edification with snobbery and inquisitiveness with elitism, and yet Trebek’s humble embodiment of those two virtues is precisely why his fandom transcends partisanship.

Seeing him take the “Jeopardy!” stage these final times, and knowing that it could not have been easy or painless to do so, further reinforces our memory of him as an intellectual stalwart.

Trebek was our placid, beloved guide in an endless tour of knowing and learning for all these years. That makes him a very difficult act to follow, a lesson “Jeopardy!” champion Ken Jennings may learn when he steps in next week as the show’s first interim host (and in the direct aftermath of a controversy). So far producers haven’t named a permanent inheritor to Trebek’s position or even publicly announced the next guest host.

Whoever ends up in either role assumes a mantle as important to us as a leader’s calming words. They will remind us that we will go on in the same way that “Jeopardy!” endures, even neither the game nor the audience will ever be the same.

Twitter permanently bans Donald Trump: He incited violence, and now he’s gone

Update: Trump began tweeting from the official presidential account on Wednesday and Twitter responded by limiting his account.

Mark the day in your calendars: On January 8, 2021, Twitter gave President Donald Trump the proverbial heave-ho, banning him permanently.

“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter wrote in a post. Earlier in the week on Wednesday, the social media site had locked the president’s account for 12 hours for violating its rules on Civic Integrity and Violent Threats. Twitter noted that they told him then that “additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action.” It then quoted the two tweets posted by Trump which it deemed to have violated those rules.

“The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future,” the first tweet proclaimed. “They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”

The second tweet added, “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”

Twitter explained that those tweets have to be viewed in the context of the recent coup attempt by far right Trump supporters, who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday. The company “determined that they were highly likely to encourage and inspire people to replicate the criminal acts that took place at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021,” ultimately deciding to permanently suspend Trump’s account.

Many took to Twitter to react to the fact that the president — who directly incited the violent mob that stormed the US Capitol building — was finally being held accountable by the powerful social media platform for his violent rhetoric.

Canadian author and illustrator Jonny Sun tweeted, “i will always remember where i was when donald trump was suspended from twitter. i was on twitter”

Jason O. Gilbert, who works for “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” tweeted that “well, it took 4 years but the #BeBest campaign finally vanquished an online bully,” referencing the public initiative by First Lady Melania Trump opposing cyberbullying.

Notably, Trump’s presidential Twitter account, @POTUS, is still active, although a reporter from The Verge claims that a Twitter spokesperson told her that the company will remove any postings by Trump through the @POTUS account.

“Donald Trump is such a narcissistic psychopath that I reckon he’ll be more devastated at losing his Twitter account than he is about losing the presidency,” Irish journalist Andrew Quinn observed.

Others concurred. “Genuinely unsure whether impeachment/conviction or a Twitter ban is in Trump’s mind a worse punishment,” tweeted Elaina Johnson, editor-in-chief of the conservative website The Washington Free Beacon.

The lateness of the action — only 13 days before his term ends — prompted some wry comments. Another comedian, Sam Morril, tweeted that “banning Trump from Twitter right now is like kicking out a heckler when there’s 2 min left in the show.”

Some on the right were displeased. Mark Levin, a right-wing radio personality who supports Trump, tweeted that he has “suspended my own Twitter account in protest against Twitter’s fascism. I ask all my followers to join me now on Parler and Rumble.” Parler is an alternative social media site with a no-moderation policy that many Trump supporters have flocked to. While Trump is not officially on Parler, many in his family and in his campaign are. It is unclear whether joining Parler would significantly help Trump, given the platform’s much smaller reach. Incidentally, Apple threatened to ban Parler’s app unless the site implements a moderation policy while Google has already suspended it for not having “robust moderation.”

Trump used Twitter to fuel his rise to power, crafting tweets that, as Amanda Hess observed for Slate in 2016, “manage to hit upon all three of Aristotle’s modes of persuasion: logos (the appeal to logic), ethos (the appeal to credibility), and pathos (the appeal to emotion).” Although many of Trump’s tweets were perceived as hateful and incendiary, the company justified keeping him there by arguing that it is in the public interest to see what powerful politicians have to say.

The social media giant began to draw the line in May, however, when they included fact-check labels on two of his tweets after Trump used those posts to falsely claim that mail-in ballots were fraudulent. Trump responded by attacking Twitter’s free speech rights, saying that he would “strongly regulate, or close” down social media platforms that he perceived as hostile to himself and his supporters. He later followed through on that threat by signing an executive order that instructed the Federal Communications Commission to draft a regulation to exempt social media platforms from certain liability protections.

Legal experts were skeptical of his ability to do this. “The threat by Donald Trump to shut down social media platforms that he finds objectionable is a dangerous overreaction by a thin-skinned president. Any such move would be blatantly unconstitutional under the First Amendment,” Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe told Salon by email at the time.

But those who supported Trump cheered on his attempts to punish social media platforms. Raheem Kassam, who co-hosts a podcast with fellow Breitbart alumnus and Trump’s former senior counselor Steve Bannon, told Salon at the time that “Twitter must and will be brought to heel as a public menace.”

There is no evidence whatsoever that President-elect Joe Biden stole the 2020 election from Trump. The president has lost every case he has brought to court alleging fraud — and roughly five dozen cases overall — as more than 90 federal and state judges have rejected his various legal claims, including many Republicans (some appointed by Trump himself). His own attorney general, William Barr, announced after an investigation that there was no evidence of Biden winning the election through fraud, prompting Trump to fire him. The Supreme Court unanimously declared that there was no merit to Trump’s claims of a stolen election, including six conservative judges (three of whom were appointed by Trump himself). Further undermining Trump’s credibility, he has claimed as far back as 2016 that he will only accept an election’s results if he is the winner.

Biden will release all vaccine doses when he takes office: report

When President-elect Joe Biden takes office, he will aim to release almost every available dose of the coronavirus vaccines, according to a CNN report.

The plan is at odds with President Donald Trump’s plan of holding half of the US vaccine production to guarantee second doses are available. However, by releasing all vaccine doses, more people will have access to the first dose immediately once Biden takes office.

“The President-elect believes we must accelerate distribution of the vaccine while continuing to ensure the Americans who need it most get it as soon as possible. He supports releasing available doses immediately, and believes the government should stop holding back vaccine supply so we can get more shots in Americans’ arms now,” said TJ Ducklo, a spokesman for Biden’s transition team, to CNN. “He will share additional details next week on how his Administration will begin releasing available doses when he assumes office on January 20th.”

According to the report, Biden’s team noted that they might hold back a small number of doses in the event of unforeseen circumstances.

The move comes after eight Democratic governors wrote a letter pleading that the Trump administration release all available doses as soon as possible as the virus surges. On Thursday, the U.S. recorded 4,085 coronavirus deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker; it topped the previous record of 3,865 on Wednesday.

“While some of these life-saving vaccines are sitting in Pfizer freezers, our nation is losing 2,661 Americans each day, according to the latest seven-day average,” the governors wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The New York Times. “The failure to distribute these doses to states who request them is unconscionable and unacceptable; we demand that the federal government begin distributing these reserved doses to states immediately.”

As Salon previously reported, the vaccine roll-out has been a rocky one. According to the Centers for Disease and Control (CDC), 22,137,350 doses have been distributed, but a little over 6.6 million doses have been administered, as of Jan. 8. Supply and vaccination goals are falling behind, in part because healthcare settings don’t have the resources and staff to fight a surging pandemic and inoculate their workers.

“Healthcare settings have to deal with the fact that they’re taking care of coronavirus patients at the same time that they’re running vaccination clinics,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, in an interview earlier this week. “People who are vaccinating have other positions and they’re being pulled, there’s no such thing as a full-time COVID-19 vaccinator.”

By releasing all the doses, there could be a risk that the second doses won’t all be available at the same time. According to the New York Times, it’s a risk the Biden administration will be willing to take as they reportedly have faith that manufacturers will deliver the second round of doses before they’re needed.

Michael Pratt, a spokesman for Operation Warp Speed, sharply criticized Biden’s approach to release mostly all of the vaccine doses.

“If President-elect Biden is calling for the distribution of vaccines knowing that there would not be a second dose available, that decision is without science or data and is contrary to the F.D.A.’s approved label,” Pratt said, via the New York Times. “If President-elect Biden is suggesting that the maximum number of doses should be made available, consistent with ensuring that a second dose of vaccine will be there when the patient shows up, then that is already happening.”

“It’s time to get violent”: Far-right extremists are promising more violence after Capitol siege

When both branches of Congress met during a joint session on Wednesday to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, many journalists, law enforcement officials and national security experts feared that violence would occur in the streets of Washington, D.C. But it came as a major shock when a violent mob of pro-Trump extremists stormed the U.S. Capitol, a disturbing series of events recounted by reporters Andrew Egger and Audrey Fahlberg in an article published by The Dispatch the following day.

On January 6, President Donald Trump and his allies — including Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, Kimberly Guilfoyle (Trump, Jr.’s girlfriend and the ex-wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom) and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani — spoke at a demonstration on the National Mall. They called their event the “Save America March,” and Trump, Sr. continued to promote his debunked claims that widespread voter fraud occurred during the 2020 presidential election. Extremists who showed up in support of Trump included the Proud Boys, militia members, neo-Confederates and supporters of the conspiracy cult QAnon.

“The people most determined to start a riot at the Capitol were the ones who were there first,” Egger and Fahlberg explain. “As Trump’s speech dragged on, first a trickle, then a stream of rally-goers peeled off and started to march down the Mall. But by the time the first of them arrived, the mayhem was already underway. Protesters who had forgone the speech had pushed through a series of police barriers onto the lawn and had even scaled a tall scaffold near the steps of the Capitol itself.”

The journalists go on to note that the “tension” in Washington, D.C. on January 6 “ratcheted higher still once news trickled out that Vice President Mike Pence, in defiance of Trump’s repeated requests and threats, had announced he did not have the power to unilaterally throw out electoral votes.” One angry Trump supporter, in response said, “Pence sold us out” — and two young women began chanting, “Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!”

Egger and Fahlberg note some of the things that extremists had to say about the storming of the Capitol Building. Ron Russell, a Trump supporter from Ohio, told The Dispatch, “I see justice being done. This is our house, our house. We’re taking it back. May not be today, but we will take this house back, guaranteed.”

Robert Unterzuber, a friend of Russell, predicted that future attacks on the Capitol Building will be even more violent — telling The Dispatch, “We’re coming to the Capitol, and we’re going to tear her down if necessary and drag them people out of there.”

Similarly, Christopher Alberts, a Trump supporter from Maryland, told The Dispatch, “The people that were here today are going to come back even more, and we’re not coming back peacefully — and we’re not coming back unarmed. America’s long overdue for revolution.”

Anthony Maffei, another Trumpista, told The Dispatch, “If we have to get violent, then it’s time to get violent.”

Vox reporter Aaron Rupar pointed out that there are other signs of continued violence from pro-Trump extremists:

Time flies: The Earth is rotating faster than expected

Did you ever wish that 2020 — the year which brought us a worldwide plague, a massive economic recession and the potential fall of American democracy — could have gone by a little more quickly?

According to scientists, it actually did: The Earth rotated on its axis at an unusually fast speed throughout the year, with 28 of the planet’s fastest days on record since 1960 all occurring in 2020.

We know this because atomic clocks developed in the 1960s are able to measure time with extreme precision and, as such, determine how the length of an average solar day can vary right down to the millisecond, according to Time and Date. The Earth generally rotates on its axis, relative to the Sun, once every 86,400 seconds, which is why each of our solar days equals 24 hours. Yet in 2020 there were 28 separate occasions in which a solar day occurred from anywhere between 1.0516 milliseconds and 1.4602 milliseconds less than that period. All of those days were shorter than the previous shortest day on the atomic record (which, for the record, was July 5, 2005).

There are a number of factors that affect the speed at which the Earth rotates. These include the movements of its atmosphere, ocean and molten core, and man-made dams.

None of the natural processes listed above pose any direct threat to human life, but they do create potentially major inconveniences for scientists responsible for tracking time. If the Earth’s rotation continues to accelerate, scientists may be required to add a negative leap second to our clocks. This means that our clocks would lose one second in order to keep up with the increase in the planet’s rotation.

“It’s quite possible that a negative leap second will be needed if the Earth’s rotation rate increases further, but it’s too early to say if this is likely to happen,” Peter Whibberley, a physicist at the National Physics Laboratory in the U.K., told The Telegraph. “There are also international discussions taking place about the future of leap seconds, and it’s also possible that the need for a negative leap second might push the decision towards ending leap seconds for good.”

The speeding of the Earth is perhaps unexpected given that the rotation of the Earth has been slowing down ever since the formation of the solar system. That’s because the tides on Earth send gravitational potential energy to the Moon, which results in the Moon slowly drifting further away from Earth. Around the time of the Earth’s formation out of the protoplanetary disk, 4.5 billion years ago, the length of a day was about 4 hours, and the moon was much closer. The Moon continues to recede by about 3.8 centimeters per year, which slows the rotation of the Earth and thus lengthens the day.  

I found solace in scream hotlines (and you can too)

In the 1957 musical romantic comedy “Funny Face,” Audrey Hepburn plays Jo Stockton, a shy bookstore employee and amateur philosopher who is discovered by photographer Dick Avery, played by Fred Astaire. The two have a gentle love-hate relationship and end up in a spat at a bohemian club where Dick looks overdressed in a roomful of men in tight striped shirts, while Jo is the epitome of chic in black cigarette capris. Before launching into an iconic dance routine, Jo chides Dick for how his adherence to outdated social mores inhibits his expressiveness. 

“As a matter of fact, I rather feel like expressing myself right now,” she says. “And I could certainly use a release.”

I distinctly remember first seeing the movie when I was probably 15, right at the height of adolescent angst, and that line resonated with me in a serious way; I had a whole bunch of emotions coursing through my body, and it seemed like they would always get stuck in the space right between my heart and throat. I, too, could have certainly used a release. 

Eventually, I found ways to achieve it. I mean, we all do, especially as people living with big feelings in a society that often seems to prioritize android-like productivity, even in the face of both everyday and unprecedented stresses. Some of the tactics are a holdover from my teenage years, like listening to a mixtape (or Spotify playlist) that I designed to make myself sob at a later date, or going for a run that leaves my legs feeling like jelly. Some came with adulthood —having good sex, breathlessly laughing with someone you love in a crowded bar while nursing a bourbon, occasionally watching Pixar movies while high. 

But for the past several months, all I’ve wanted to do is scream. 

I’m not alone. Christopher Gollmar, the creator of the website Just Scream!, describes screaming as “part of the zeitgeist of 2020.”  The concept behind Just Scream! is simple. Users are directed to a landing page with a phone number, which they are encouraged to call and leave an anonymous message where they just — well, scream. Since launching in November, just before the election, over 20,000 people have called in. He uploads the messages to a series of playlists daily. 

“There are definitely repeat screamers,” Gollmar told me over the phone, not screaming. “Now, it’s all anonymous. I don’t download the phone numbers or anything. But I recognize people’s voices and some have distinct catchphrases. I get a number of messages, too, like, ‘Oh, I’m calling once a week. Is that okay?'” 

As I dig through Gollmar’s scream playlists, I hear the repeat callers, too, interspersed with one-off screamers. Some issue a nervous giggle before or after they launch into their scream (most of those are categorized under the website’s “LOL” tab) , but many are just so uninhibited. It made me consider whether I had ever actually screamed before. I mean, I know that I’ve kind of yelped in fear or pain, or loudly exclaimed in delight. A full-on scream, though? I don’t think so. Wouldn’t want to disturb the neighbors. 

Psychotherapist Arthur Janov, who popularized “primal scream therapy” in the 1970s, would argue that the state of being is void of catharsis. While the efficacy of his methods have largely been debunked as sustainable treatment for anxiety or trauma — all release, no processing — they became popular with a certain celebrity set including the likes of John Lennon, Yoko Ono and James Earl Jones. 

There’s no denying, however, the idea is freeing, especially in times of deep stress, though it’s not always considered socially appropriate to emotionally let loose in public. That’s why I’m not surprised that Kelly Dobson, a researcher at MIT’s Media Lab, once created a device called a ScreamBody, a polyurethane chamber that you wear around your body, almost like a backwards backpack. When you scream into it, it absorbs the sound of your despair. 

There’s a video circulating on YouTube of Dobson using the ScreamBody in 2007, and she introduces it by saying: “Do you ever find yourself in a situation where your really have to scream, but you can’t because you are at work, or you’re in a classroom, or you’re watching your children? Well, ScreamBody is a portable space for screaming.” 

It reminds me of this summer’s statement from the organizers of Fuji-Q Highland amusement park near Tokyo, in which they asked visitors to refrain from screaming on roller coasters to limit viral spread, and instead asked, “Please scream inside your heart.” The request went viral simply because it so succinctly encapsulated how living through the stress of the pandemic and Trump presidency felt. All day, every day, we’re just screaming in our hearts. 

Months prior, another scream-related video gained online traction. A music teacher, who posts on TikTok under the name makeshift.macaroni, tells viewers in a 27-second video that “one of the best ways that I can process the whole transition to online learning and teaching is to write a song.” That song consists of a few ukulele chords, and then just a full-on scream, followed by a quick cut to black. Pandemic Scream TikTok took off in its wake, with users posting similar videos. 

Across the globe, therapist Zoe Aston and Visit Iceland, launched “Looks Like You Need to Let It Out,” a website this summer where users could record a scream and then select a remote Icelandic vista for it to play over. 

“Part of the beneficial effect of screaming comes from being able to make a loud noise into a wide, open, undisturbed space,” Aston wrote on the site. “This literally allows your amygdala to release the stress stored there and move forward.” 

Catharsis, both for the caller and listener, was a motivating factor for Gollmar in creating his project. People call in and talk about their relationships (one woman called in with three screams dedicated to three bad exes, for instance), about COVID, about everyday stress. 

“There’s a sense of, ‘I just got to get this out there,'” Gollmar said. “I think that’s why there are so many screams with laughter, too. People call in and scream and then they’re like, ‘Oh my goodness, I just did it.'” 

Listening back through the Just Scream! playlists, I could hear it on some of the calls — that palpable relief that comes after scream. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it, until finally it had to happen. On Wednesday, as footage of alt-right rioters breaching the U.S. Capitol played on loop across my television and Twitter feed, I grabbed my phone and walked out to my car. 

Shaking from the stress of the afternoon, I turned up the radio, dialed Gollmar’s hotline number, took a deep breath and screamed. I needed the release.

Pro-Trump rioters stole Nancy Pelosi’s and other top lawmakers’ laptops and iPads, Democrats say

Numerous computers and electronic devices were stolen during the pro-Trump Capitol riot on Wednesday, potentially posing a national security risk, according to the Justice Department.

A laptop belonging to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was stolen during the riot, an aide told Reuters on Friday. Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s chief of staff, said the laptop was from a conference room and was “only used for presentations.” House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said his iPad was also stolen during the riot, according to CNN. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., previously said in a video that rioters stole his laptop after breaking into his office as well.

Merkley posted a video showing the “trail of destruction” the pro-Trump mob left in his office. He said the rioters “smashed the door almost off its hinges” even though it was “unlocked” and they could have simply opened the door.

Journalists previously captured the moment that pro-Trump rioters invaded Pelosi’s office and ransacked her belongings. One of the men later bragged to a reporter that he stole an envelope from the speaker’s desk.

“I wrote her a nasty note, put my feet up on her desk,” Richard Barnett told the New York Times.

Barnett was charged with unlawful and violent entry and theft of public property on Friday, according to CBS News.

Another photo showed a man gleefully walking around the halls of Congress with Pelosi’s podium. The Bradenton Herald identified the man as Adam Johnson, a 36-year-old stay-at-home father of five from Florida.

A video recorded by ITV showed protesters walking with pieces of a wooden plaque that marked the entrance to Pelosi’s office.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the rioters also stole a tribute to the late civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis.

The office of Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough was also completely ransacked.

Michael Sherwin, the acting U.S. Attorney in Washington, told reporters on Thursday that there was a “large amount of pilfering at the Capitol” that “could have potential national security equities.”

“This is probably going to take several days to flesh out exactly what happened, what was stolen, what wasn’t,” he said. “[But] electronic items were stolen from senators’ offices. Documents, materials were stolen, and we have to identify what was done [and] mitigate that.”

CBS News reported on Thursday that a laptop “possibly containing sensitive national security information” was among the items stolen on Wednesday.

National security experts also worry that rioters could have planted devices to spy on lawmakers.

“A lot of planning goes into an installation of a bug even though it may only take seconds to install,” a former FBI official told BuzzFeed News. “I think it’s unlikely just based on my opinion the breach wasn’t premeditated to the point where someone could have done proper advanced planning for an install, but something crude could have been left behind.”

“What you’re really looking for is something from those people who might be on an interesting committee — Foreign Affairs or whatever — who might have some documents,” added Mark Galeotti, a senior associate fellow at Royal United Services Institute in London. “But also you might have someone with budgetary documents that might give some sense of where money is going for various projects or agencies.”

The Chief Administration Officer of the House told lawmakers on Thursday that staff took “several actions to ensure the House network and devices remained secure and to protect sensitive information.” The statement said that the office issued commands to “lock computers and laptops” and shut down “wired network access to prevent inappropriate access to House data.”

“At this time, there have been no indications that the House network was compromised,” the CAO said, warning lawmakers that “any removable media device that may have been subject to unauthorized access should be treated as potentially compromised and should not be used to store House sensitive data.”

Senate aides were able to preserve the boxes of Electoral College ballots before rioters invaded the Senate chamber.

“Electoral College ballots rescued from the Senate floor,” Merkley said on Wednesday. “If our capable floor staff hadn’t grabbed them, they would have been burned by the mob.”

Sherwin said that 40 cases had already been filed in D.C. Superior Court, with charges including theft and illegal firearm possession. Fifteen federal charges have been filed as well, including unlawful entry, firearm possession, and theft.

One man was charged with possession of a semiautomatic rifle and 11 Molotov cocktails that were “ready to go,” he said.

“Make no mistake about this: It was a very dangerous situation,” Sherwin said. “We are aggressively trying to address these cases as soon as possible.”

Sherwin also did not rule out charging President Donald Trump for his role in fomenting the riot.

“We are looking at all actors, not only the people who went into the building,” he said, adding, “If the evidence fits the elements of a crime, they’re going to be charged.”

Melania Trump had a White House photo shoot for her book while the Capitol was under siege: report

According to a report from CNN, while fanatical supporters of Donald Trump were storming the halls of Congress in an effort to stop the certification of former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential win, first lady Melania Trump was busy hosting a photoshoot at the White House — reportedly for a book she hopes to publish after she departs Washington, D.C.

On Wednesday, Trump spoke at a “Stop the Steal” rally and encouraged the crowd to march to the U.S. Capitol where lawmakers were doing the official count of the Electoral College votes.

That march ended with supporters of the president overwhelming Capitol Police and breaking into the building, which sent Democratic and Republican lawmakers — as well as staffers — fleeing the extremists, who proceeded to trash the place.

While this was going on, CNN reports the president’s wife was engaged in the photoshoot in the East Wing where she exhibited various items to be photographed and filmed.

The report states, “Professional lighting, the sort used for photography and videography, could be seen through the windows of the White House.”

A source told CNN, “Photos were being taken of rugs and other items in the Executive Residence and the East Wing,” with CNN adding, “Trump — who, as CNN has reported, has expressed interest in writing a coffee table book about decorative objects she has amassed and had restored in the White House — was overseeing the photo project, said the source, with her remaining time in the White House dwindling.”

The report pointedly added, “Just blocks away, domestic terrorists were swarming the US Capitol in a riot that her husband had incited earlier that day at the rally. While images of the mob breaking into the Capitol consumed the airwaves, the first lady was focused — with the White House chief usher, Timothy Harleth — on getting the shoot completed.”

According to The Cut, “Trump is said to be toying with writing a photo-centric coffee table book about White House hospitality history, or one perhaps centered on the design projects she has completed while first lady, according to a source in the publishing industry familiar with preliminary discussions.”

You can read more here.

The Pentagon denied multiple requests to send National Guard during Capitol siege, GOP governor says

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said federal officials repeatedly denied his requests to deploy the state’s National Guard to quell the deadly Capitol riot on Wednesday as members of Congress pleaded for assistance.

Hogan told reporters on Thursday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called him from an “undisclosed bunker” and were “pleading” for assistance as Congress was overrun by Trump supporters after the president urged them to go to the Capitol during a speech falsely claiming the election was stolen.

“[Hoyer] said that the U.S. Capitol Police was overwhelmed, that there was no federal law enforcement presence and that the leaders of Congress were pleading with me, as the Governor of Maryland, for assistance from Maryland’s National Guard and State Police,” he said.

Hogan said he mobilized 200 “specially trained” state troopers and “immediately” offered support but the Defense Department “repeatedly denied” approval for him to send in the state’s National Guard. The Republican governor said that after an hour and a half he received a call “out of the blue, not from the secretary of defense, not through what would be normal channels,” but from Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, who said the guardsmen could “come as soon as possible.”

“I was ready, willing and able to immediately deploy [National Guard] to the Capitol, however we were repeatedly denied approval to do so,” he said.

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Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, called up the National Guard after he received calls from Pelosi and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser asking for help. A spokeswoman for Northam told The Washington Post that the governor called up the National Guard immediately and worked with the Defense Department “only after the fact,” though the administration was “able to reach the necessary agreements before guardsmen crossed state lines.”

While governors control the National Guard, they have to receive approval from the Pentagon to deploy. Since D.C. is not a state, only the Pentagon has the authority to deploy the D.C. Guard. Bowser complained that the Defense Department took far too long to deploy guardsmen after the Capitol came under attack and CNN and The New York Times reported that Trump resisted deploying troops, prompting acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller to reach out to Vice President Mike Pence instead.

Some National Guard troops were stationed around the city but not at the Capitol. The Pentagon disputed reports that it denied or delayed requests, claiming that Miller immediately called up 1,100 members of the D.C. Guard after receiving a call from Bowser at 2 pm. though the White House did not announce that additional troops were activated until after 3:30 pm and a Pentagon spokesman did not make the same announcement until 3:52 pm. Those troops had to travel to an armory to gear up and load vehicles and arrived shortly before 6 pm, according to the Defense Department.

Defense officials also disputed that Trump did not sign off on the mobilization. Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters that Trump signed off on National Guard support days earlier and any contact between Pence and Miller was more a courtesy to keep the White House apprised of the situation.

Pentagon officials blamed the Capitol Police, which rejected its offers of support. The Associated Press and other outlets also reported that Capitol Police officials turned down an offer to send National Guard troops ahead of Wednesday’s violence and later rebuffed an offer from the Justice Department to send FBI agents after the Capitol was overrun.

McCarthy told reporters that 340 National Guardsmen were assigned mostly to traffic control but “no other requests were made” until Bowser called the Pentagon. Hoffman told reporters that the Capitol Police and the Justice Department “believed they had sufficient personnel and did not make a request” for additional assistance before the riot.

Kenneth Rapuano, the assistant defense secretary for homeland defense, said that Capitol Police officials turned down assistance on Tuesday and Wednesday.

But The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon placed “tight limits” on the DC Guard, issuing memos on Monday and Tuesday in response to an earlier request from Bowser prohibiting guardsmen from receiving any ammunition or riot gear and interacting with any protesters unless it was in self-defense. “The limits were established because the Guard hadn’t been asked to assist with crowd or riot control,” the outlet reported.

Bowser told the Post that Capitol Police “made it perfectly clear that they needed extraordinary help, including the National Guard. There was some concern from the Army of what it would look like to have armed military personnel on the grounds of the Capitol.”

It took roughly three hours for the National Guard to mobilize to the Capitol, at which point rioters had already forced lawmakers to evacuate in gas masks and ransacked the Senate chamber and lawmakers’ offices. The Pentagon left it to law enforcement agencies to clear the building “amid the hesitancy about sending Guard units into the building itself,” according to the Post.

McCarthy told reporters officials did not in their “wildest imagination” believe rioters would breach the Capitol.  

Many DC and federal officials questioned why the National Guard was not more prepared to assist quickly, noting their overwhelming preemptive deployment ahead of Black Lives Matter protests in the nation’s capital. A former Trump Cabinet member told The Military Times that there needs to be an investigation into why guardsmen were not ready earlier.

“Why wasn’t the D.C. National Guard, and perhaps Guard troops from Maryland and Virginia, there ahead of time?” the former Cabinet member said. “It makes absolutely no sense that they were not there ahead of time. This was not an intelligence failure. The president invited these folks to Washington. He met with them and incited them. Everyone knew they were coming for a significant period of time.”

McCarthy told reporters that intelligence ahead of the riot was “all over the board.”

“There were estimates of 80,000 there were estimates around 20 to 25 [thousand]. So getting back to just the pure intelligence. It was all over the board,” he told reporters. “It was very hard to make that determination of what you’re dealing with.”

D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee claimed on Thursday that there was “no intelligence that suggested there would be a breach of the U.S. Capitol” even though many of the rioters plotted the assault publicly on social media. Capitol Police and the Justice Department also believed they had enough resources and appropriate intelligence to handle the crowd, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the Wall Street Journal.

“They were flat wrong,” he said. “Yesterday was an embarrassment to their response.”

The chief of the Capitol Police and the House and Senate sergeant-at-arms announced they would resign after the widely criticized riot response.

One law enforcement official sent to the Capitol during the riot told the Journal he was surprised there was no tight police perimeter around the Capitol.

“The whole thing felt woefully underprepared. It was like ‘get there and figure it out,'” the official said. “There wasn’t command and control. This is not how these things are supposed to go down.”

Some lawmakers and Capitol Hill staffers have argued that the law enforcement response would have been very different if the crowd in question was not white Trump supporters.

“The fact is that it’s explicitly because they were white dudes with the support of the president that law enforcement basically did nothing,” one staffer told Politico.

“If Black people were storming the Capitol, they would have been treated so much differently than they were today,” Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, told the outlet. “I don’t think there’s any question that communities of color would have been handled much, much differently.”

Some Capitol Police officers were seen allowing rioters through security gates and posing for selfies with the mob. One rioter told CNN that the “cops were very cool.”

“It’s really crazy, you could tell that some of them were on our side,” he said.

Another rioter told The New York Times that a Capitol Police officer tried to help them find Schumer’s office as they hunted for the top Democrat in the halls of the Capitol. Meanwhile, a DC police officer said in a public Facebook post that off-duty police officers who were among the rioters “flashed their badges” as they tried to overrun the building, according to the outlet.

“If these people can storm the Capitol building with no regard to punishment,” the officer wrote, “you have to wonder how much they abuse their powers when they put on their uniforms.”

Ignore Trump’s manipulative damage control: He must be impeached again

Thursday night, a clearly reluctant Donald Trump released a video, promising, “My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power.”

Of course, his focus just the day before was on stoking a violent insurrection, making any hope of an “orderly” — much less a “seamless” — transition of power impossible. It was a little like throwing someone’s pet off a balcony, and then promising that, from here on out, you’re going to be the most responsible of dog sitters. 

Still, there is no doubt many will be tempted to believe Trump, especially as it’s only 10 days until the inauguration of Joe Biden removes him from office. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has threatened to impeach trump if Vice President Mike Pence doesn’t remove him through the 25th Amendment procedure. The latter is doubtful to happen, the former likely, but in either case, it takes time. The promise that Trump is done acting out and will be a good little sociopathic narcissist is appealing, because any effort to hold him accountable in this short amount of time is a logistical nightmare. That, however, is what Trump is counting on.

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Trump’s video, was not an earnest promise to finally behave, at this late date in his presidency, like a responsible statesman. (Also, too late!) He made no mention of the president-elect nor uttered any variant of the word concession. It was yet another manipulation from Trump, who is trying to avoid paying the piper for inciting an insurrection. This is the political equivalent of the wife-beater pleading with his battered spouse to give him another chance, and promising never to do it again. But they always do it again. And Trump cannot be trusted to keep his word about “a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power.”

There are many reasons that impeachment must go forward, of course, starting with the fact that it’s important to take a stand, even if it’s just symbolic, against politicians fomenting anti-democratic insurrections. The death of Brian Sicknick, a Capitol police officer who appears to have been murdered by an insurrectionist armed with a fire extinguisher, only heightens the moral necessity of impeachment. 

Impeachment is also a matter of prevention.

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Trump, as Pelosi said in her press conference Thursday, is “a very dangerous person” and “any day could be a horror show for America.” As Biden’s inauguration grows nearer and the fact that he really is going to have to leave becomes more real to Trump, he will grow more frantic. And his impulse — to lash out, to insist that he’s the real winner, and to stoke more violence — will rear its head again. 

We’ve been down this road countless times with Trump: He escalates and escalates until things get really bad enough to get politically dodgy for him. And then he pulls the wife-beater-brings-roses act, giving in to pressure from aides and other Republicans to at least pretend to be presidential and do the right thing. He then sits and stews in anger at the supposed humiliation for a few days, or even hours. Eventually, he lashes out, returning to his desire to push conspiracy theories or incite nonsense or otherwise be the same tedious asshole he was before the brief bout of acting “presidential.”  

How many variations on this theme did we get from the coronavirus pandemic alone? Trump would ride some hobbyhorse — suggesting it was being exaggerated to hurt him politically, denying that masks were effective, insisting that people should ignore stay-at-home recommendations, hyping hydroxychloroquine as a miracle cure. Eventually, the political heat would build-up and his aides would persuade him to pay some lip service to reality, by wearing a mask in public or reading a statement asking people to follow health recommendations. But it was only ever a temporary effort to manipulate the press into giving him good coverage — he always regressed right back to where he wanted to be, raving about how it’s all a hoax and masks are unmanly. 

He followed this predictable pattern even when he himself got COVID-19. After a brief bout of submitting to pressure to take it seriously, Trump went right back to his denialist antics, staging a White House event meant to imply that the disease, which resulted in his hospitalization and has killed 365,000 Americans so far, is no big deal. 

Trump’s statement must be assumed to be more of the same: An effort to lull the press, the public, and various D.C. officials into complacency. But there is no reason to believe a word of it. For one thing, he still refuses to admit he lost the election to Biden. For another, he is refusing to take responsibility for what he did. And for yet another reason, he told likely lies in the video, such as taking credit for calling the National Guard, when reports suggest that Pence was the one who did it, against Trump’s wishes. 

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Indeed, the first signs of the predictable Trump backslide are emerging. Twitter, in an idiotic move, let Trump have his account back and sure enough, he’s already raving about how many votes he got and how his voters “will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!” Less than 24 hours after he disingenuously acknowledged “this moment calls for healing and reconciliation,” Trump tweeted that he would break with a centuries-old custom and not attend the inauguration. 

Trump is, above all other things, a liar. His assurances he will oversee an orderly transition should not be believed. Indeed, when Trump says a thing, it’s wise to assume that the opposite is true. He’s just trying to buy time to avoid facing consequences. It’s possible he’s even anticipating some other stunt, even though his last one led to the deaths of five people, including a police officer guarding the Capitol. Nothing has changed. As Pelosi said on Wednesday, if Pence and Cabinet will not remove Trump, he must be impeached. 

Arrested Proud Boys chairman has history of business failure, apparently lives with mom

Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boy leader who toured the White House last month and was arrested Tuesday in Washington on vandalism and weapons charges, appears to have direct ties to the owner of a landmark Washington nightspot popular among conservatives and right-wing extremists. Tarrio, the neofascist group’s chairman and a convicted felon, also failed to file federally mandated financial disclosures related to his brief, unsuccessful congressional campaign last year, and appears connected to a number of businesses, most of them defunct and none of them apparently profitable.

Despite the Harrington Hotel’s efforts to distance itself from the Proud Boys, who in November brawled on the streets of the nation’s capital with counter-protesters and police, the owner of Harry’s, the downtown landmark bar, was one of the first donors to Tarrio’s ill-fated 2020 congressional campaign.

From Politico:

In a city known for its high-powered, wood-paneled eateries, Harry’s can seem out of place. Housed on the ground floor of the Hotel Harrington, Washington’s self-proclaimed “tourist hotel” where rooms begin at $95 per night, Harry’s is a rare dive bar in the middle of the city’s expense account district, an oasis of $6 Bud Lights in an ocean of $18 Manhattans. Hundreds of police patches hang on the walls of the narrow bar, which is filled with old-school red vinyl stools and faux-Tiffany lamps, while black-and-white tiled floors gives the place a sort of fun-house feel. The food is cheap, and the atmosphere is casual. “Don’t eat the fish,” counsels a top review on Yelp.

But what for years was a low-key haunt for off-duty police officers and busloads of tourist groups has, during the Donald Trump presidency, attracted a brand-new clientele. In the past four years, Harry’s has become the de-facto D.C. headquarters of the Proud Boys, the all-male extremist group known for its members’ thinly veiled racism, penchant for street violence and unwavering support for the president. When they’re in town for rallies or protests, the Proud Boys and other rank-and-file MAGA loyalists toast Trump and down beers among the vinyl stools here, or on the patio, under the eerie technicolor glow cast by the pub’s neon signs.

On election night last November, a group of Proud Boys, Tarrio among them, were reportedly assaulted while leaving a watch party at Harry’s. Right-wing provocateur Bevelyn Beatty was stabbed in the back in the attack. The next month, Harry’s was ground zero for more stabbings after the pro-Trump Million MAGA March on Dec. 12, resulting in four hospitalizations, according to district police.

Anticipating further violence ahead of this Wednesday’s right-wing rally against the election results — which led to an unprecedented uprising and assault on the U.S. Capitol — the Harrington Hotel shut its doors, and in doing so, shut Harry’s as well.

“While we cannot control what happens outside of the hotel, we are taking additional steps to protect the safety of our visitors, guests, and employees,” the century-old hotel said in a statement, without offering further reason or specifying the widely suspected true target: the attached street-level bar.

While the bar’s longstanding association with the Proud Boys is well known, the relationship between the bar’s owner, John Boyle, and the white nationalist group’s chairman has not attracted attention.

In February, one month after Tarrio kicked off his bid to represent Florida’s 27th congressional district with a 250-plus person soiree at the Trump National Doral club near Miami, Boyle, a D.C. resident, gave the Tarrio campaign $250, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. Records show that it was the third donation Tarrio collected in his brief run — and also the first and so far only federal campaign contribution Boyle has ever made.

A few weeks later, Tarrio’s Telegram account posted a plea for donations from his fellow Proud Boys.

“I need to come up with $10,440 to be put on the ballot. There’s 130 chapters in the presidents chat … if a fraction of those will give $200 by April 18th we will have a Perry in Congress,” Tarrio wrote, referencing the brand of polo shirt often sported by members. “There is no bigger ‘fuck you’ to the establishment than getting one of our own elected into high office,” he added, then pointed his colleagues to a donation link created “just for us.”

“Share it only on Proud Boys chats,” the chairman told his charges. “I need to fill that bar.”

Tarrio ultimately failed to make the ballot, but because his campaign raised and spent more than $5,000, he was required by law to file a financial disclosure form with the House of Representatives. Tarrio never submitted the form, which would have revealed information on his assets, debts and possible business ties. A filing with the Florida secretary of state’s office shows that Tarrio is the registered agent for a company called WARBOYS LLC, which lists as managers fellow Proud Boys Joe Biggs and Ethan Nordean.

Further, Tarrio’s given name, Henry Tarrio Jr., is connected in filings with the inactive businesses SPIE SECURITY, PROUD BOYS and FUND THE WEST. (The Proud Boys self-identify as “Western chauvinists.”) According to FEC records, a Florida company called Spie Surveillance & Automation received $215 for a security system in 2019 from New Jersey Republican Hirsh Singh’s Senate campaign. (Singh unsuccessfully challenged his primary defeat in court, and in November turned his sights on the governor’s mansion.) While Tarrio’s LinkedIn profile lists him as having been CEO of Spie Surveillance & Automation Technologies since 2006 — a Miami company that provides “the ultimate experience in residential and commercial security solutions,” according to its website — no business is registered under that name in Florida.

In 2019, Tarrio told the Daily Beast that he was the “business owner” of a website called 1776 Shop, but the company declined to confirm that claim in an email. The outlet noted that the email came under the name “fundthewest,” a name shared by the now-defunct business Tarrio had registered the previous October. Florida state records obtained by Salon show that Tarrio’s mother, Zuny Duarte, a Cuban immigrant, owns the fictitious business name 1776 Merchandise, which runs the 1776 Shop website. (It appears that Tarrio, 36, legally resides with his mother at that company’s Miami address.)

Tarrio’s name is also associated with Lunar GPS Solutions LLC, which cites the same address as Spie but was run by Tarrio’s younger sister as well as another relative in Sugar Land, Texas. In 2016, Tarrio launched a Kickstarter for a proposed joint venture between Lunar GPS and his company, Spie, for a pet surveillance system called the Halo Collar. The product was equipped with a tracking device and a camera designed to stream a first-person view of what the wearer — presumably a domestic animal — was seeing, and allowed two-way remote communication between pet and owner.

The Kickstarter video shows Tarrio demonstrating the collar on a French bulldog, but his name was not associated with the campaign itself, which listed only Ernesto Maldonado, Tarrio’s Sugar Land relative. The campaign was canceled after 26 backers pledged a combined $4,330 — $75,670 short of its $80,000 goal.

As Salon previously reported, Tarrio still has not paid the $1.2 million in restitution he owes to Abbott Labs for stealing and reselling diabetes test strips, a crime for which he was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison in 2014. The conviction raises new questions about how Tarrio was cleared for a White House tour last month, when he posted photos from inside the gates ahead of a violent pro-Trump rally, claiming he had received a “last-minute invite to an undisclosed location.”

The White House later said that Tarrio was not personally invited, but had instead taken part in a public tour. A routine White House background check, however, would have noted the felony conviction — which a former senior White House official told Salon would have disqualified any visitor for such a tour, unless an administration official personally intervened.

Tarrio did not reply to Salon’s request for comment. Boyle and Webster could not be immediately reached for comment.

Capitol Police officer dies after being “injured while physically engaging” pro-Trump mob

A Capitol Hill police officer died from injuries he sustained after “physically engaging” with the pro-Trump mob that stormed the halls of Congress on Wednesday, officials said, raising the number of deaths from the riot to five.

Officer Brian Sicknick passed away Thursday night from injuries sustained while on-duty, the Capitol Police said in a press release. The officer “was responding to the riots” and “was injured while physically engaging with protesters.” Sicknick, who joined the force in 2008, returned to his division office where he collapsed, the statement said. The death is under investigation by the Capitol Police; Washington, D.C., homicide detectives; and federal agencies.

Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said on Thursday that the rioters attacked officers with “metal pipes, discharged chemical irritants, and took up other weapons against our officers.”

“The violent attack on the U.S. Capitol was unlike any I have ever experienced in my 30 years in law enforcement,” Sund said in a statement. “These mass riots were not First Amendment activities; they were criminal riotous behavior.”

D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee said during a news conference that 56 officers were injured in the riot.

Though there were few arrests at the Capitol on Wednesday, D.C. police arrested 70 people in the unrest and federal prosecutors in Washington filed charges against at least 55 members of the mob on Thursday as investigators continue to search for additional suspects. “We will bring the most maximum charges we can based on the conduct,” acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin told reporters on Thursday when asked if he was considering sedition, rioting, and insurrection charges.

It’s unclear why Capitol Police were quickly overwhelmed by the rioters. The Pentagon asked the Capitol Police if it needed help ahead of Wednesday’s events and the Justice Department reached out to offer FBI support after the crowd already stormed the Capitol, but both offers were denied, according to the Associated Press. President Donald Trump also resisted activating the National Guard after the chaos ensued, according to CNN, and Pentagon leaders placed strict limits on National Guard capabilities to assist with riot control, according to The Washington Post. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Thursday that federal officials repeatedly denied the state’s requests to send support. Sund, along with the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms, announced they would resign following widespread condemnation of the riot response.

Sicknick is the fifth person to die in the riot, which came immediately after Trump addressed his supporters at the National Mall and urged them to go to the Capitol. Ashli Babbitt, a 14-year Air Force veteran and an avowed supporter of Trump and the QAnon conspiracy theory, was shot by a Capitol Hill police officer after she smashed a glass pane and tried to breach the House chamber, according to The Washington Post.

D.C. police said that three others died in separate medical emergencies. Kevin Greeson, a 51-year-old Alabama Trump supporter who called for a “war” against Democrats, died of a heart attack amid the chaos, according to the Montgomery Advertiser. Ben Phillips, a 50-year-old Pennsylvania Trump supporter who brought a group of protesters to Washington, died of a stroke during the riot, though there is no indication he participated in the siege, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Rosanne Boyland, a 34-year-old Georgia Trump supporter, was “potentially crushed to death” during the breach at the Capitol, according to a D.C. police spokesman and a friend who was with her.

“I personally feel like the president’s words and rhetoric incited a riot last night that killed four of his biggest fans, and one of them happened to be my sister-in-law,” her brother-in-law, Justin Cave, told WXIA. “And I believe that we should invoke the 25th Amendment, to remove the president immediately.”

Dozens of Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have called for Trump’s Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, though Vice President Mike Pence opposed the move, according to The New York Times and Business Insider. Democrats are now planning to impeach Trump for a second time, with a vote potentially “as early as mid-next week,” Assistant House Speaker Katherine Clark, D-Mass., told CNN.

Trump was “pleased” when his supporters stormed the Capitol, The New York Times reported, and refused to listen to advisers and Republican allies who pleaded for him to intervene. Instead, Trump released a video telling the rioters “we love you” and “you’re very special.”

Trump on Thursday released another short video acknowledging his election defeat and condemning the violence. Trump initially “resisted taping the video” and agreed to do so only after “he appeared to suddenly realize he could face legal risk for prodding the mob,” according to the Times. White House counsel Pat Cipollone warned Trump on Wednesday that he could face legal liability.

Sherwin on Thursday pointedly did not rule out bringing charges against Trump and others who incited the riot.

“We are looking at all actors, not only the people who went into the building,” he said. “We’re looking at all actors,” he repeated when asked if that included Trump. “If the evidence fits the elements of a crime, they’re going to be charged.”

A growing number of Democrats have also faulted Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who led the objections to the Electoral College results during the joint sessions of Congress targeted by the mob.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., a close ally of President-elect Joe Biden, said both Hawley and Cruz “should resign” on Thursday.

“Sen. Cruz, you must accept responsibility for how your craven, self-serving actions contributed to the deaths… And how you fundraised off this riot,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said on Twitter. “Both you and Senator Hawley must resign. If you do not, the Senate should move for your expulsion.”

Donald Trump won’t survive this American carnage of his own making

Donald Trump has two basic talents. The first is for self-promotion and the second is a strong, feral survival instinct. Those two things were really all it took for him to rise to become the most famous man in the world with the most important job on the planet. (That should tell you something about American culture but it’s too depressing to contemplate.)

The talent for self-promotion has snowed everyone from sophisticated investment bankers, who kept loaning him money year after year despite repeated business failures, to small-town business owners who thought that he was a great real estate developer and later a great president just because he told them so. They all believed his lies.

The survival instinct is probably the more important characteristic because it spared him repercussions for failure after failure. It didn’t hurt, of course, that for most of his life he had a rich father he could tap whenever things got rough. Nonetheless, for someone who isn’t very smart, charming or interesting, Donald Trump has shown amazing resilience. His survival instinct got him to the White House and it sustained him through four years in a very difficult job for which he was uniquely unfit. Any one of the dozen scandals that have engulfed him since he started running for the presidency in 2015 would have finished off any other politician. But Trump survived all of them, just moving like a shark through the water from one self-induced crisis to another.

I had assumed that his survival instinct would kick in with this electoral defeat and he would see it for the opportunity it was. He could leave office whining that the election was stolen from him but use it as a springboard to make more money by promising a big rematch in 2024. He would leave office gracelessly, of course, because it would make better TV to stand on the White House steps making a Douglas MacArthur style “I shall return!” promise before flying off in Marine One for the last time. Who wouldn’t tune in to that spectacle?

But something went wrong. His instinct failed him and he believed his own hype. Maybe it was the pomp and the power of the office overwhelming him or the addiction to his ecstatic crowds but, for the first time, he couldn’t see how to turn his failure into a win and his personality fractured under the weight of his frustration. I don’t know if he came to believe the absurd conspiracy theories he spun about the election or if they were just a frantic web of lies he wove to keep himself from coming apart. But his only two talents have let him down and it’s led him to a moment of ignominy from which I don’t think he’ll be able to recover.

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Trump’s manic insistence that he could persuade, strongarm and coerce various Republican officials around the country to reverse the election results in his favor seemed to be based upon the idea that if he just wanted it enough it would happen. Perhaps that’s how he’s talked to himself all his life and good timing and fortunate circumstances made it so. But his luck has run out. The people he needed to buy his line of bullshit just didn’t buy it this time.

By the time he was reduced to cajoling and threatening the Georgia secretary of state to “find” the votes he needed to win the state, he was so unglued he didn’t seem to realize that it wouldn’t make a difference even if he managed to persuade the man to do it. This week’s last-ditch fantasy that Vice President Mike Pence and some of his congressional henchmen could magically hand Trump the second term and make everything alright finally took him to the dark place where he incited thousands of his delirious followers to a full-fledged violent insurrection.

To be clear, such events had been in the back of his mind already.

Trump posted that the “protest” scheduled for the day Congress was going to finally certify the election would be “wild.” He expected them to be confrontational and he egged them on at the rally just before the vote was to take place. He’d been reassured that a substantial number of collaborators in Congress, led by his MAGA maniacs in the House and Josh Hawley, R-Mo, and Ted Cruz, R-Tx, in the Senate, might just pull off the miracle and he clearly believed that a big crowd of angry Trump supporters in the Capitol would help the cause.

He sent them there to start a riot during a joint session of Congress presided over by Pence and that is what they did. People everywhere watched in horror as pictures of this violent insurrection were beamed live all over the world.

Congress rightly decided to reconvene that night and finish the Constitutionally mandated job that had been interrupted by Trump’s mob. You might have thought the level of terror they’d experienced, along with the global disapprobation, would have dissuaded the Republicans from following through on their plot to object to the vote based upon lies about voter fraud. But they inexplicably kept to their plan, apparently believing that appeasing Trump and his violent supporters was still their ticket to higher office.

Their survival instincts failed them too. None other than George Will said of Hawley and Cruz, “everything they say or do or advocate should be disregarded as patent attempts to distract attention from the lurid fact of what they have become. Each will wear a scarlet “S” as a seditionist.” By late Thursday even the oleaginous Ted Cruz was backtracking as fast as he could while Hawley whined on Twitter about his book on Big Tech being canceled due to his actions.

The Democrats are demanding that Mike Pence evoke the 25th Amendment or they will make Trump the first president to be impeached twice. Members of Trump’s cabinet and top staff are resigning and even the Wall St. Journal opinion page is demanding that Trump resign or be removed. Prosecutors are suggesting that Trump could be criminally liable for some of the violence that took place and talk of self-pardon and pardons of his family and inner circle are reportedly becoming more serious.

Whether Trump leaves before the inauguration is unknown, but his post-presidency is looking less like a shadow presidency and more like permanent exile. The Republican party is collapsing. The MAGA insurrectionists blame Republicans as much as Democrats for Trump’s loss and the establishment is being forced by these events to repudiate their own base. It is likely that this schism is going to divide the GOP for some time to come.

Until now, Trump was the hands-down front-runner for the nomination if he wanted it in 2024. And even if he decided not to follow through he had years of lucrative grifting on the possibility. But he couldn’t accept that he would have to admit he lost, even if he could say it wasn’t legitimate. His narcissism finally defeated his survival instinct and it has brought him low. It’s brought the country even lower.

The fictional “American Carnage” of Trump’s inaugural address four years ago is now reality with hundreds of thousands of Americans dead, an economic catastrophe for millions more and a violent political faction so addled with lies and conspiracy theories that this week they attacked the US Capitol to intimidate lawmakers into reversing a free and fair election. The knowledge that Donald Trump may have destroyed himself in the process is hardly comforting. He’s left America in shambles.

Capitol rioters planned for weeks in plain sight. The police still weren’t ready for their siege

The invasion of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday was stoked in plain sight. For weeks, the far-right supporters of President Donald Trump railed on social media that the election had been stolen. They openly discussed the idea of violent protest on the day Congress met to certify the result.

“We came up with the idea to occupy just outside the CAPITOL on Jan 6th,” leaders of the Stop the Steal movement wrote on Dec. 23. They called their Wednesday demonstration the Wild Protest, a name taken from a tweet by Trump that encouraged his supporters to take their grievances to the streets of Washington. “Will be wild,” the president tweeted.

Ali Alexander, the founder of the movement, encouraged people to bring tents and sleeping bags and avoid wearing masks for the event. “If D.C. escalates… so do we,” Alexander wrote on Parler last week — one of scores of social media posts welcoming violence that were reviewed by ProPublica in the weeks leading up to Wednesday’s attack on the capitol.

Thousands of people heeded that call.

For reasons that remained unclear Wednesday night, the law enforcement authorities charged with protecting the nation’s entire legislative branch — nearly all of the 535 members of Congress gathered in a joint session, along with Vice President Mike Pence — were ill-prepared to contain the forces massed against them.

On Wednesday afternoon, a thin line of U.S. Capitol Police, with only a few riot shields between them and a knot of angry protesters, engaged in hand-to-hand combat with rioters on the steps of the West Front. They struggled with a flimsy set of barricades as a mob in helmets and bulletproof vests pushed its way toward the Capitol entrance. Videos showed officers stepping aside, and sometimes taking selfies, as if to usher Trump’s supporters into the building they were supposed to guard.

A former Capitol policeman well-versed in his agency’s procedures was mystified by the scene he watched unfold on live television. Larry Schaefer, a 34-year Capitol Police veteran who retired in December 2019, said his former colleagues were experienced in dealing with aggressive crowds.

“It’s not a spur-of-the-moment demonstration that just popped up,” Schaefer said. “We have a planned, known demonstration that has a propensity for violence in the past and threats to carry weapons — why would you not prepare yourself as we have done in the past?”

A spokesperson for the Capitol Police did not respond to a request for comment.

In recent years, federal law enforcement agencies have stepped up their focus on far-right groups, resulting in a spate of arrests. In October, the FBI arrested a group of Michigan extremists and charged them with plotting to kidnap the state’s governor. On Monday, Washington police arrested Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the far-right group the Proud Boys, on charges of burning a Black Lives Matter banner.

Conversations on right-wing platforms are monitored closely by federal intelligence. In September, a draft report by the Department of Homeland Security surfaced, identifying white supremacists as the biggest threat to national security.

The warnings of Wednesday’s assault on the Capitol were everywhere — perhaps not entirely specific about the planned time and exact location of an assault on the Capitol, but enough to clue in law enforcement about the potential for civil unrest.

On Dec. 12, a poster on the website MyMilitia.com urged violence if senators made official the victory of President-elect Joe Biden.

“If this does not change, then I advocate, Revolution and adherence to the rules of war,” wrote someone identifying themselves as I3DI. “I say, take the hill or die trying.”

Wrote another person: “It’s already apparent that literally millions of Americans are on the verge of activating their Second Amendment duty to defeat tyranny and save the republic.”

The easily overpowered police force guarding the Capitol on Wednesday posed a stark contrast to the tactics deployed by local police during this summer’s Black Lives Matter protests. Then, the city felt besieged by law enforcement.

On June 1, following a few days of mostly peaceful protests, the National Guard, the Secret Service and the U.S. Park Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a nonviolent crowd in Lafayette Square outside the White House to allow Trump to pose with a Bible in front of a nearby church.

“We need to dominate the battlespace,” then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said on a call with dozens of governors, asking them to send their National Guard forces to the capital.

On June 2 — the day of the primary election in Washington — law enforcement officers appeared on every corner, heavily armed in fatigues and body armor. Humvees blocked intersections. Buses full of troops deployed into military columns and marshaled in front of the Lincoln Memorial in a raw show of force. Police kettled protesters in alleys. Choppers thudded overhead for days and sank low enough over protesters to generate gale-force winds.

Such dominance was nowhere in evidence Wednesday, despite a near-lockdown of the downtown area on Tuesday night. Trump supporters drove to the Capitol and parked in spaces normally reserved for congressional staff. Some vehicles stopped on the lawns near the Tidal Basin.

The contrast shook Washington’s attorney general, Karl Racine, who seemed to be almost in disbelief on CNN Wednesday evening.

“There was zero intelligence that the Black Lives Matter protesters were going to ‘storm the capitol,'” he remembered, after ticking down the many police forces present in June. “Juxtapose that with what we saw today, with hate groups, militia and other groups that have no respect for the rule of law go into the capitol. … That dichotomy is shocking.”

The question of how law enforcement and the national security establishment failed so spectacularly will likely be the subject of intense focus in coming days.

David Carter, director of the Intelligence Program at Michigan State University, said that sometimes, the best intelligence in the world doesn’t translate into adequate preparedness. Perhaps the security officials responsible for protecting the Capitol simply could not envision that a crowd of Americans would charge through a police line and shatter the glass windows that stood as the only physical barrier to entering the building.

“I go back to the 9/11 commission report,” Carter said. “It was a failure of imagination. They didn’t imagine something like this. Would you imagine people were going to break into the Capitol and go into the chambers? That failure of imagination sometimes makes us drop the ball.”

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This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between ProPublica and FRONTLINE that includes an upcoming documentary.