The US left, the January 6 Capitol riot, and the threat from far-right terrorists (2 of 2)

This is second of two posts on the far right threat in the aftermath of the Capitol riot of January 6.

Daryl Johnson has been sounding the alarm about violent rightwing terrorism from within the government and in the public.

He talks about his own experience and how he view the current threat in this interview with Michael Moore, Ep. 154: How To Stop The Coup Klux Klan (feat. Daryl Johnson) | Rumble 01/14/2021

In this interview, Johnson also addresses the problem He Saw the Storm Coming Slate 01/14/2021 (Podcast) Transcript here.

The interviewer, Mary Harris, gives a quick roundup of Johnson's experience at the Department of Homeland Security during the Obama-Biden Administration:

I wanted to talk to Daryl about what took place [on Wednesday, January 6], because in some ways he predicted this, not the details, but the coming wave of anti-government sentiment and where it could lead. Back in 2009, a report he wrote about the risks of right wing extremism got leaked to conservative media. It was the beginning of the end for his career at Homeland Security. But with each passing year, Darrell’s work seems more prescient. Since leaving the federal government. Darrell has tried to avoid the darker corners of the Internet. He knows what’s lurking in there. But this week he’s gone back just a little to see what the groups he used to monitor are saying. It turns out they are already creating their own narrative about what went down on Wednesday.

Jonathan Stevenson looks at Trump’s Lingering Menace New York Review of Books 01/09/2021, making this observation on Trump's position during the Capitol invasion:

Trump’s tactical forbearance does not absolve him. Quickly calling in the National Guard to aid the undermanned police and prevent the siege would have been a legitimate, non-political use of military force designed to preclude illegal interference with the political process. Instead, the administration appears to have ensured that the Pentagon was disposed to be non-responsive, leaving the pro-Trump protesters greater freedom of action.

In less that 24 hours from when I am writing this, Joe Biden will be inaugurated President, so these following two article about the danger that Trump as a lame-duck President has posed will (hopefully!) be out of date: Susan Matthews, It’s Almost Over. That’s the Problem. Slate 01/09/2021; Abigail Esman and Dahlia Lithwick, from three weeks before the January 6 invasion of the Capitol, America Is Attempting to Exit an Abusive Relationship Slate 12/15/2020

Dahlia Lithwick also has a good piece on Republican diversionary whining in connection with the Capitol attack,(Republicans Still Don’t Get It Slate 01/13/2021):

It is, quite frankly, beyond belief that the very same people who could have died in the United States Capitol just last week have somehow persuaded themselves that they’ve in fact experienced a more acute First Amendment injury than even insurrection itself—and that any effort to impose liability for the property destruction, terror, and death that resulted from the storming of the government is a monstrous encroachment on their right to talk. [emphasis in original]