Several questions about protecting the inaugural, put to me by @ShawnAndersonDC and @bhaseltonWTOP on the air @wtop today.

1. How is Secret Service planning to protect the Inauguration from the violence that occurred last week?

Planning is the key word. They’ve been planning this inauguration for more than a year. And it’s important to note that comparing security around the Capitol on an ordinary day and an inauguration are like comparing an Apple to an entire Orange tree.
On Inauguration Day there are many thousands of people involved in protection that we don't see. There are technological capabilities, military and cyber assets, There are #WMD assets. The air, water and land are covered like a blanket.
2. What kind of threats are you hearing about...not just for the 20th...but other days too?
Many looking to engage violence in the run up to or during the inaugural are really upset because some of their social media sites are being taken offline, but plenty of others are still active and they are STILL talking about violence on those sites.
Here in the NCR and around the country. Some of the conversations involve going after Democratic and Republican politicians and the “mainstream media. There’s talk of a “civil war”.
3. We've been talking about the 7-foot tall fence put up around the Capitol after Wednesday's attack...but what will prevent Biden and Trump supporters from gathering outside that fence and possibly clashing with each other?
Where there’s a will there’s a way, but I can tell you, based on my experience with inaugurals, even if there is the will, the way is going to be awfully hard for them get into it down there.
There are going to layers and levels of police/military personnel barriers that’s going to make it awfully hard to cause any problems anywhere down there –now in other locations around the city, it might be easier, but down there –it will be really hard. @threadreaderapp unroll

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As usual, @C_Stroop is right that we need to get ready to roll up our sleeves. This doesn't end on inauguration day. Christian Nationalism needs to be in the spotlight it must be exposed to be fought. Small town Christo-fascism is on the rise, and my hometown is an example. 1/


My hometown is Alamogordo, New Mexico. It's a military town. Holloman Air Force base is nearby, and so is the Army's White Sands Missile Range. It's also a hotbed of White Evangelical Christian Nationalism. 2/

Currently, the most notorious Christian Nationalist from Alamogordo that I can think of is Couy Griffin (no relation to me). He's a former pastor, turned County Commissioner, and founder of the group "Cowboys for Trump." I've talked about him before.


Couy Griffin and his Cowboys for Trump attended the the Coup Klux Klan in D.C. I'm not surprised. They went prepared for extremism. Here's a quick video of them outside the kitschy "Running Indian" trading post just outside Alamogordo. 4/


Notice what they say. "Give me liberty or give me death" and "We've god God on our side, and we've got the Truth on our side." Probably every Ex-evangelical I know has heard those words in church. 5/
More severe police injuries and deaths on that one day of rampaging Trumpers than in five years of Anti-Police protests.


You can tell a lot about the stance of a angry crowd by whether they come with shields or pitchforks.

If people protesting police brutality for years had wanted to use their large numbers to attack, maim and kill police, they damn well could have.

But they came to resist police.

Which is completely different.

Why did the police suffer more at the hands of those who claimed to support them and waved their flags than at the hands of those who think they should be defunded or abolished?

Because one group is literally arguing for human dignity and the other glorifies violence.

The people who uncritically support police brutality are those who believe that instrumental violence should be a standard tool in response to those standing opposed to you.

Once you accept that... WHO is standing opposed to you doesn't matter much.

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