Jan. 6: A day that should live in infamy. Republicans defend, even celebrate it. UPDATE

On #January6th, the former President incited his supporters who used violence to try to nullify the election. His supporters assaulted 140 police officers in an attempt to keep the former President in power.

Those who continue to deny these facts are cowards and traitors. https://t.co/nvSkYQmHhK

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 6, 2022

Congressman Ted Lieu marked today’s anniversary as well as many comments I’ve seen.

The national problem is the resistance to facts, fear of Trump, cowardice or simple lying that characterize the emerging Republican events of the day. Some even want to celebrate it. A remarkable article in the Pine Bluff Commercial on the view of local Republicans about the day illustrates how low Trump has dragged his party. It was no insurrection, they say. The election was stolen, they seem to imply. The riot was enabled, maybe encouraged, by others. One defended Jacon Chansley, the masked rioter serving 41 months for his role in the Capitol attack.

Michael Adam, the Republican chair of the Jefferson County Election Commission, said of Chansley: “Even that guy who wore a funny-looking hat didn’t do anything wrong.”

This guy, the guy who prosecutors said yelled, “Times up, motherfuckers,” and left a note on then-Vice President Mike Pence’s desk that said, “It’s only a matter of time. Justice is coming.”

Jacob Chansley is serving a 41-month prison sentence for his role in the U.S. Capitol riot. https://t.co/TcQ9tYsrF5

— HuffPost (@HuffPost) January 6, 2022

In Arkansas, we have candidates to be the state’s chief election official, notably Mark Lowery and Eddie Joe Williams, who won’t say Joe Biden won the election. Lowery flatly disputes it. Williams isn’t sure. Incumbent Secretary of State John Thurston has thrown in with Trumpers already to the maximum extent possible, including traveling at taxpayer expense to a symposium put on by raving nut Mike Lindell. Many say the rioters were tourists or merely exercising their First Amendment rights. An emerging what-about defense turns attention to Black Lives Matter demonstrations, none of which –whatever the often-contested details — threatened to upend the Constitution and law in a conspiracy encouraged by Trump to reinstall a lying sociopathic autocrat in the White House.

The country is on the precipice. Arkansas has already plunged into the abyss.

UPDATE: Pro Publica has assembled footage from Parler, the right-wing answer to Twitter, of images from within the beast that invaded the Capitol.

ProPublica sifted through thousands of videos taken by Parler users to create an immersive, first-person view of the Capitol riot as experienced by those who were there. https://t.co/oloqcmNdHm

— ProPublica (@propublica) January 6, 2022