The anxiety will not subside until the current occupant of the Oval Office leaves it. News hounds who keep refreshing wire service pages looking for news of new Trump/Proud Boy/Oath Keeper/boogaloo boys/neo-Nazi/QAnon attacks across the country know the feeling. What beside issuing pardons Donald J. Trump might do in his final hours as president adds to the sense that a Damoclean sword still hangs over the United States.
We are all a little on edge. With reason (Reuters):
Protesters are expected to descend on statehouses across the United States on Sunday in support of baseless claims that electoral fraud robbed President Donald Trump of a second term, as law enforcement officials girded for possible violence.
More than a dozen states have activated National Guard troops to help secure their capitol buildings following an FBI warning of armed protests, with right-wing extremists emboldened by the deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6.
There were scattered demonstrations on Saturday, but statehouses remained mostly quiet. Security officials have eyed Sunday as the first major flashpoint as that is when the anti-government “boogaloo” movement made plans weeks ago to hold rallies in all 50 states.
Downtown Washington, D.C. is filled with National Guard soldiers and the streets are virtually empty. Several states have secured their Capitols with fencing and barriers through Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, Jan. 20 (Associated Press):
“The Texas Department of Public Safety is aware of armed protests planned at the Texas State Capitol this week and violent extremists who may seek to exploit constitutionally protected events to conduct criminal acts,” said Steve McCraw, the agency’s director.
More than 100 troopers in riot gear were stationed outside the Capitol in Austin earlier this week as lawmakers began a new legislative session.
Georgia state police and National Guard troops stand guard around the state Capitol on Atlanta. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) warns American Muslims and other minority groups to avoid state Capitols and to exercise caution “due to threat of far-right, White supremacist violence.”
Reports of an 11th-hour order by Christopher Miller, Donald Trump’s acting defense secretary, for the director of the National Security Agency to install a Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) ally as the agency’s general counsel raised eyebrows overnight (Washington Post):
In November, Pentagon General Counsel Paul C. Ney Jr. named Michael Ellis, then a White House official, to the position of general counsel at the NSA, a career civilian post at the government’s largest and most technologically advanced spy agency, The Post reported. He was selected after a competitive civil service competition. He has not taken up the job, however, as he needed to complete administrative procedures, including taking a polygraph test.
Reached by phone Saturday, Ellis said, “I don’t talk to the press, thank you,” and hung up.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow’s tweet about Miller’s order drew anxious unrelated replies from followers:
An irregular Twitter user in rural northern Wisconsin replied with a photo of an American flag flown upside down, a distress signal: “Central WI, 1.16.21. This is one if 4 like this I saw during a 2 hour trip.” (See top.) Other flags have been spotted flying upside down in central Florida in apparent reaction to Congress certifying the presidential election victory of former Vice president Joe Biden.
If all Trump fans do from here on is fly their flags upside down, while improper it is not illegal. Nor is it violent.
I’ll be doing a lot of refreshing on news sites today.