An Act of Resistance on J6: My Latest ‘Hot Type’ Column in Byline
My weekly Hot Type column in Byline Supplement resumes today with reflections on J6's fourth anniversary from The Capitol
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In today’s Hot Type column for Byline Supplement, I offer a personal memoir on J6 from inside The Capitol, where I spent the week celebrating the swearing in of a friend, a true public servant, while also reflecting on the fourth anniversary of the Insurrection.
Thank you as always to everyone who supports my work here and at Byline. I believe the work of independent investigative reporters exposing the transnational crime wave has revealed the failing of corporate media in stark contrast.
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Below is an excerpt from today’s Hot Type:
An Act of Resistance Against Trump’s Attempts to Send the January 6 Insurrection Down the Memory Hole
On the fourth anniversary of the Insurrection, Heidi Siegmund Cuda visits the US Capitol to investigate how Trump attempted to decapitate our democracy
Walking toward the US Capitol on Friday in Washington DC, I collapsed with a sudden sorrow. I wept as I made my way inside the building where I had been invited to bear witness to a friend being sworn in.
I hadn’t anticipated my emotional collapse as I laid eyes on the site where four years ago this profound symbol of democracy was desecrated.
I was there in June of this year, my heart still hopeful we could thwart the organized crime ring plotting this decapitation strike on democracy. I was there in 2016, marching with hundreds of thousands of pink-hatted women, confident that we’d oust the out-of-work actor who to Vladimir Putin was just another Viktor Yanukovych.
But as I saw the American flag waving at half mast, to honor the death of President Jimmy Carter at 100 years old, I felt an overwhelming sorrow, as if the death of Carter not only embodied the end of American democracy but also of decency. I thought of Carter’s words from June 28, 2019: “I think a full investigation would show that Trump didn't actually win the election in 2016. He lost the election, and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf.”
I thought about Trump crony Mike Flynn taking the Fifth over and over again when interviewed by the January 6 Committee. I thought about Roger Stone in the film A Storm Foretold admitting his role in organizing the Insurrection and stating that he knew Trump had lost. I think about how both Stone and Flynn are revealed in the film to be on a phone call. In the film, we witness Stone calling Mike Flynn, a disgraced retired Lieutenant General fired by two presidents, to get his aide bringing retired military on board to promote the Stop the Steal lie.
I thought about how Trump – in the role of the ringleader – encouraged his true believers to show up with his ‘will be wild’ tweet. And how none of these men were ever held accountable for their role in this violent, awful day. And because they were never held accountable, a felon gets another shot at demolishing our nation.
For my friend, former Capitol police officer Aquilino Gonell, the trauma is ongoing. On the eve of the fourth anniversary of January 6, he tweeted: “I can’t help feeling betrayed by those we protected, the failures of the DOJ, the Supreme Court negligence to hold a president accountable, and those who claim to support the rule of law and the police while supporting a violent attack on our democracy and police officers.”
In his testimony to the January 6 Committee in 2021, he described that savage day.
“This is how I’m going to die,” he said, certain he would not be able to contain the violence. He lived through it, but his injuries forced him to resign from a job he loved. Sergeant Gonell told of being beaten in what he described as a “medieval battle.”
My podcast co-host High Fidelity, a Silicon Valley technologist who also did a stint in the Marines, told Byline Supplement: “What people fail to realize about January 6 is that it was a large, complex paramilitary operation. An assault on The Capitol is not an organic thing. It didn’t just happen.
“Right-wing extremists Enrique Tarrio and Stewart Rhodes are in prison for seditious conspiracy, but are they really the masterminds of a multi-layered plot or are they simply useful tools? Who funded the psychological operations that drove Americans to become mad enough to do that? It’s not Joe Schmoe with his MAGA face paint hitting a cop with a flag pole, no. It’s billionaire technological oligarchs pushing his buttons and making him dance, and we failed to recognize that.”
As we have proven over and over again, multiple billionaires worked together to create an information environment that drove people mad and caused them to attack their Capitol, and for the billionaires’ efforts, surely more tax breaks.
“Our three-letter agencies have two weeks to act, and if they don’t, we are in a world of hurt,” said High Fidelity.
He described January 6 as a reality-fracturing event…
In his upcoming regime, Donald Trump is promising to release the J6 prisoners, and historian of fascist Italy Ruth Ben-Ghiat predicts Trump will declare January 6 a national holiday to further erode reality.
But reality lives on in my bones. I am not memory-holing any of it. Billionaires and millionaires paid for an attempted coup, and the halls of The Capitol are still haunted by the ghosts of that violent day.
After Friday’s swearing-in events, I went on a tour of The Capitol. I was able to spend time in a room that had housed the Supreme Court in 1810, and I had the chance to marvel at the Rotunda and its portraits of key moments in US history – among them, the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I studied the magnificent statues of such iconic Americans as Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, President Eisenhower and the busts of four suffragettes, who protested until women were granted the right to vote.
When our tour guide was asked about January 6, his face drained of color and his eyes began to water up.
“They caused $30 million in damages, they defecated in the building, they are not patriots…” his voice drifted quietly away.
Four years later, and no one above the level of Proud Boy has been held accountable, and no one can explain why.
The entire experience of being at The Capitol on the fourth anniversary was bittersweet. There were public servants being sworn in, devoted to advocating for their states and for democracy. But when I was riding the underground tram, I also saw those who could have prevented this devastation.
I saw Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, looking very much alone. I saw Texas Senator Ted Cruz, and hissed at him like a vulture displeased with his performance. I want them to know I am not memory-holing any of it. History will be kind to neither of these men…
I felt a need to get up early on Saturday and watch the sunrise from the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial. I have never seen such neon pink clouds as those hovering over the Potomac River moments before the sun came up.
I read all the beautiful quotes inscribed at the memorial, and made my silent apologies to Dr King for losing the war.
He deserved a better America. We deserved a better America.
One quote inscribed at the base of the monument read:
“Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.”
As the golden light from the sunrise reflected on the memorial, a little ruffled starling busied itself on the pathway.
I recall my first tweet after Roe was overturned.
“Birds still sing under fascism.”
I made my way back to the hotel and watched snow flurries, moving back and forth and swirling in all chaotic directions.
The above is an excerpt from my Hot Type column. As always, I ask those who can afford to support a small global team of investigative reporters to please take out a subscription to Byline Supplement.
I also understand that if you are not able to do so at this moment, the good chaps at Byline allow me to send the column to Bette members upon request, as I noted above. Just zip a request to bettedangerous/gmail. New members will also find they are invited to unlock one report at the Byline site.
To my Bette members who support both publications, a heartfelt thank you. Please forward the column to your allies. It means the world to me. We do not have a media machine the way right-wing extremists do, so we have to be our own organic media machine.
I am so glad you are here and so glad we are together.
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More info about Bette Dangerous - This magazine is written by Heidi Siegmund Cuda, an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter/producer, author, and veteran music and nightlife columnist. She is the cohost of RADICALIZED Truth Survives, an investigative show about disinformation and is part of the Byline Media team. Thank you for your support of independent investigative journalism.
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Begin each day with a grateful heart.
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