I don’t know who the first person was to use the word ‘insurrection’ to describe Wednesday’s events. But the word has now become the accepted reference for what took place on Capitol Hill, and It happens not to be true.
What happened last Wednesday was a riot, not an insurrection. Because an insurrection refers not only to a physical attempt to overthrow a government by force, but an effort which is organized and led by an individual or a group with a political agenda calling for some kind of change.
Technically speaking, Wednesday’s mess was planned as a gathering in front of the Ellipse by Women for America First, a pro-Trump group which received a permit from the Interior Department to hold a rally on the Ellipse that was going to attract 30,000 people. The permit was issued to the Executive Director of the group, Kylie Jane Kremer, who describes herself as a Tea Party ‘activist’ and regularly appears on all the usual, alt-right media shows.
Back in 2016, she and her mother, Amy Kremer, formed the Great America PAC to support Trump’s campaign, an organization which has Roger Stone’s footprints all over it and may have served as a conduit for purchasing political ads for Trump on various alt-right media stations carried by DirectTV.
The outfit’s website now carries a frontpage message: “We are saddened and disappointed at the violence that erupted on Capitol Hill, instigated by a handful of bad actors, that transpired after the rally.” Of course, it’s really the Left, which is to blame, because “for months the left and the mainstream media told the American people that violence was an acceptable political tool. They were wrong. It is not.”
The good news is that thank God you can still buy a t-shirt, a hat, or a coffee mug on the group’s website store. I mean, let’s face it. How can you organize any kind of political activity and not sell a t-shirt?
One of the groups which played something of an outsized role in Wednesday’s event was the Proud Boys, another alt-right bunch of schmucks (oops! – I mean patriots) who have operated hand-in-glove with Roger Stone for the last several years. The current leader of the Proud Boys is Nick Ochs, who was arrested for ‘unlawful entry’ when he returned home.
Want the good news about the Proud Boys? Thank God you can also go to their website and buy a t-shirt – I particularly like the shirt pictured above. Too bad the Proud Boys don’t yet sell coffee mugs, keychains, or other crap.
Incidentally, while the Wednesday rally at the Ellipse drew all the attention because that’s when Trump showed up and basically delivered the same spiel he gave in Georgia on Monday night. But guess who addressed the early arrivals on Tuesday night? None other than George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, and Roger Stone.
What do these three political grandstanders have in common? They have all received pardons from the guy currently sitting in the White House and trying to figure out if he can pardon himself.
Know why none of these diehard patriots haven’t stood up and identified themselves as the leaders of the insurrection of 2021? Because if you take a look at the Federal Code, you’ll learn that 18 USC Section 2383 says: “Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
On the other hand, there’s no law prohibiting the sale of t-shirts before, during or after a public event. Which is what MAGA and groups like the Proud Boys and Women for America First represent – the vanguard of a marketing strategy which unfortunately went out of control on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, D.C.