Author: Joe Flood

Joe Flood is a writer, photographer and web person from Washington, DC. The author of several novels, Joe won the City Paper Fiction Competition in 2020. In his free time, he enjoys wandering about the city taking photos.

Our Dystopian Future: The World of 2034/2054

2034In our current American dystopia, all our problems are domestic. Unlike during the Cold War, we face no major power challenges.

A single encounter thousands of miles from our shores and that could all change. That is the message of 2034: A Novel of the Next World War.

Written by Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis, it’s a brisk page-turner that depicts how China and United States stumble their way into a devastating war, following a clash between naval forces in the South China Sea.

While the book at times reads like an advertisement for “Fifth-Generation Fighters” (brought to you by Boeing), it’s ultimately about the decisions that government officials and military commanders make during times of extreme stress, when all the options are bad.

“America used to end wars. Now it starts them,” a character from a rising nation says late in the book, meaning that we joined World War I/II after the great powers of the day were exhausted, and accrued the benefit of global dominance. Now, we’re the great power, with military bases, commitments and troops in nearly every corner of the world.

2054

2054: A Novel picks up twenty years after the war. This time, there is a new threat: Artificial Intelligence.

Including many of the characters from 2034, and their children, it’s a techno-thriller in which a variety of countries in a multipolar world work toward the Singularity, a melding of computer and human minds that will fast-forward our technological evolution.

The country that reaches the Singularity first will be able to dictate humanity’s future.

While the stakes are much, much bigger than 2034, AI is more of a nebulous, hard to explain and hard to depict kind of a danger, not as dramatic as fleet actions in the Pacific.

2054 doesn’t grip you as much as 2034, though, for me, it did have its moments, like learning that the Metro is still running in 2054. Washington will always need a subway.

What I like about both books is that they get the DC geography right, a pet peeve of mine. The authors know that Columbia Heights is on the Green Line, where Lincoln Park is and that going across town during rush hour is impossible.

2034 will get you thinking about the benefits of being a superpower, and how quickly that can disappear while 2054 will make you realize that technology is something that we, as citizens, should control before it controls us.

What The New Yorker Got Wrong About Freedom Corner

Freedom Corner, the nightly vigil outside the DC Jail

The Vigil Keepers of January 6th is the latest puff piece on Freedom Corner, the nightly pro-insurrectionist meetup outside the DC Jail.

It’s not the first, nor the last, article seeking to “both sides” January 6th terrorists and find some sort of common humanity in their struggle to escape criminal accountability.

As Americans, we suffer from the naive belief that “it can’t happen here.” Many can’t face the truth that American citizens attacked their own government to install a dictator. That happens in other countries, not here – except that it did.

Since we find the truth so difficult to accept, you get desperate acts of apologia such as The Vigil Keepers of January 6th, which seeks to portray terrorist supporters as worthy of our sympathy.

The New Yorker takes their claims without any investigation, printing them as if they’re fact. The magazine didn’t talk to the people of DC who have been victimized by Freedom Corner.

Let’s learn the truth about this so-called vigil.

Freedom Corner Celebrates Violence

Every night outside the DC Jail, cult leaders Micki Witthoeft and Nicole Reffitt lead a small group to read out the names of the men and women who attacked the Capitol on January 6th. After each name, they chant, “Hero.”

Their heroes include:

  • Brian Jackson, a Neo-Nazi from Texas with a lengthy criminal record, who pled guilty to felony assault on police officers.
  • David Dempsey, recently sentenced to 20 years in prison for attacking the police with pepper spray, a crutch and pieces of furniture.
  • John Banuelos, described as “mind-numbingly dangerous,” who fired a gun on January 6th and, later in the year, stabbed a teen to death in Utah.

These are men that the Freedom Corner activists would set free to commit more crimes.

Freedom Corner Indulges in Violence

But the vigil keepers do more than just applaud the violent insurrectionists of January 6th; they also engage in violence.

Micki Witthoeft, mother of Ashli Babbitt, has called for the lynching of Michael Byrd, the black Capitol Police officer who shot her daughter to death as she attempted to break into the Capitol.

The vigil keepers and their followers do more than just make violent threats; they have assaulted DC residents on multiple occasions.

Witthoeft was arrested for assault and destruction of property after attacking a counterprotester. She was “no papered” i.e., not charged, which has encouraged Freedom Corner followers to engage in more attacks on the people of Washington.

Steven Girard, a regular at the vigil, was recently found guilty of Misdemeanor Sexual Abuse for shoving a flag pole between a woman’s legs. The assault occurred outside the United States Court House in Washington, DC, during the trial of Trump aide Peter Navarro.

This is part of their extreme disrespect for the law. Tami Perryman, wife of Brian Jackson, dismissed her husband’s admission of guilt in court as so much “wordsmithing.”

Freedom Corner is counting the days until November 5, believing that Trump will free the January 6th prisoners once elected. And then they promise revenge against the legal system and others that have wronged them.

The vigil keepers should be judged by their actions, not the sweet words they whisper to a reporter. They have used violence before and will use it again, if given the opportunity.

The Anarchy Princess Trial: Unanswered Questions

Steven Girard was found guilty of Misdemeanor Sexual Abuse on August 7, 2024, for his assault on Brianne Chapman aka Anarchy Princess during a Peter Navarro press conference outside the US Court House.

Questions remain from that day.

Did Peter Navarro Instigate the Attack?

Peter Navarro, former chief economist for Donald Trump, had reason to hate Anarchy Princess (AP). She humiliated him in a viral moment seen around the world, when he attempted to grab her sign and AP coolly responded, “Bro, you’re already facing charges.”

This classic clip, seen first on C-SPAN and then around the world, catapulted Anarchy Princess to fame and overshadowed Navarro’s courtroom fight against Contempt of Congress charges.

When he spoke to the press on September 7, 2023, things were different. This time, he brought along a couple of bodyguards and a former aide: Joanna Miller Wischer.

Seen above in the orange dress, she was caught on video before the assault thanking Steven Girard for coming to the press conference. He said, ominously, that he knew all about Anarchy Princess.

This was the only time Girard ever showed up for a Peter Navarro press conference. During his trial, he had to be reminded that he was a Peter Navarro supporter.

Girard was also caught on tape threatening another protester, “Whistle Guy.”

How close was Miller to Navarro? He thanked her for helping him with his chapter in Project 2025.

The Girard Motive

While not being familiar with Peter Navarro or his trial, Girard had motive to attack Chapman. She regularly protested Freedom Corner, the pro-January 6th vigil, that he was a part of. He regarded her as a nuisance and didn’t believe that she had the right to free speech. He’s stated repeatedly that AP is a demon and antifa.

Freedom Corner vigilgoers refer to themselves as “patriots” and everyone who disagrees with them is either paid by George Soros or demonically possessed. There’s no room for disagreement in their universe.

Freedom Corner Uses and Celebrates Violence

This wasn’t the first time a Freedom Corner vigilgoer had employed violence to “solve a problem.” They use and celebrate violence.

The leader of the pro-January 6th vigil, Micki Witthoeft (mother to Ashli Babbitt), was arrested on May 29, 2023 for assaulting Anarchy Princess. Despite pushing her and smashing her megaphone, the case was “no-papered” meaning that no charges were filed.

Other members of the vigil have been arrested and no-papered including Tommy Tatum, who crumpled a woman’s glasses like a schoolyard bully and walked free after a night in jail. This January 6er, who also doxxed me, was recently charged for his role in the riot.

Every night, in their cult-like vigil outside the DC Jail, they read out the names of arrested January 6th rioters and chant, “Hero.” This includes celebrating men who sent Capitol Police Officers to the hospital and nearly killed Officer Michael Fanone. Those are their heroes.

The chuds also regularly call for the hanging of Nancy Pelosi and others:

The Meatwad Factor

After watching people get “no-papered” after assaults, Girard must’ve been surprised when he was arrested. He was arrested live on Freedom Corner by the US Park Police, the assault having occurred in John Marshall Park.

And they also seized his flag pole in a comedic moment reminiscent of Reno 911.

“I want my flag back,” Girard demanded.

“I know what you want and I’m telling you: no,” the officer replied.

And it was all filmed by the chud we call Meatwad, who, ironically, inspired Chapman to her moment of viral fame as Anarchy Princess when he performed a similar stunt.

Disrespect for the American Legal System

One theme of the Freedom Corner vigils is that DC juries are not legitimate. Over and over, Witthoeft and others claim that Washington, DC, is not America and that the legal system is skewed against them.

The “machine,” as they call it, has no right to prosecute January 6th rioters who attacked the police. They offer a variety of excuses for the events of that day, from “the police started it” to blaming Nancy Pelosi for setting them up to some kind of antifa conspiracy.

The January 6th prisoners who call into Freedom Corner believe (with good reason) that Donald Trump will set them free if elected.

During the trial of Steven Girard on August 7th, the chuds of Freedom Corner displayed their typical disrespect for the rule of law. In the courtroom, they stared down Brianne Chapman on the stand, made faces at her friends in the gallery and stormed out during the victim statement.

They have said in their livestreams that Chapman was “crying wolf” and that she’s made it harder for women who have been assaulted. And that someone being “in your space” allows you to hit them, especially if they are an antifa demon.

Because he wasn’t put in jail, they have acted like he was found innocent.

If any of them are reading this, here’s the proof of his guilt. Steven Girard is a convicted criminal.

 

Anarchy Princess Goes to Court

Anarchy Princess goes to court

Imagine being in court, facing the man who assaulted you, while his friends snicker and make faces.

That was what Brianne Chapman aka Anarchy Princess had to endure in her pursuit of justice.

She was assaulted live on national TV. On September 7, 2023, Chapman went to protest Peter Navarro, who was on trial at the US Court House for Contempt of Congress.

As Navarro began to speak to the assembled media, she slipped through the crowd to get behind him with a homemade sign that read: Bro, should’ve plead the Fifth. Peter 4 Prison.

When she did so, Chapman was assaulted by Steve Girard aka Jericho Steve (his YouTube streaming name), who was there to support Navarro. After she passed in front of him, he lifted his flag pole, with the American flag on it, and rammed it between her legs from behind.

For this, he was charged with one count of Misdemeanor Sexual Abuse.

Justice grinds slowly. After being arrested in November 2023, the trial was delayed as Girard strung things out by contemplating and rejecting a plea deal. A pro bono attorney was appointed for him but his lawyer had another case which added months to schedule.

The People vs Steven Girard

On August 7th the case finally came to trial. It was a bench trial, meaning that a judge would hear the evidence and make a verdict.

In the courtroom watching were close to a dozen Girard supporters from Freedom Corner, the weird pro-Trump J6 cult that waves flags outside the DC Jail.

Why were so many of them there? It’s an intimidation tactic. They do the same thing for the J6 trials, filling the courtroom to “keep the judges honest” as they say, while they scowl at witnesses and try to appear threatening.

Also present were several of Chapman’s friends.

I was watching on WebEx – you can do that in DC.

After their opening statements, the People began by showing two videos, which showed the incident.

The first, and most definitive, was filmed by one of the Freedom Corner chuds: Rebecca. She was there on September 7 to harass Chapman at the news conference and was following her around, cursing her in Chinese.

Ironically, this friend of Girard’s captured the best view of the assault. In it, you can see Girard look down at Chapman’s rear and then deliberately lift his flag pole between her legs.

Rebecca watched from the gallery as her video was run again and again, frozen and analyzed, the evidence that would convict Girard.

The next video was from CNN. It showed a head-on view. Navarro starts to speak and there’s a commotion in the background as Girard assaults Chapman and she yells, “That’s assault!”

Chapman then took the stand, recounting the shock and horror of being violated on national TV. This assault has made her reluctant to exercise her First Amendment rights, concerned for her physical safety and feeling that the courts and the police will not protect her.

The defense then put on their case. Unable to argue the evidence, Girard’s attorney tried to impeach Chapman’s credibility.

At first, he questioned her about her YouTube views by trying to say that she made money from being provocative. Chapman corrected him: she’s not monetized, meaning she doesn’t make money from YouTube.

She does make money, however, from supporters who Cash app and Venmo her, inspired by her stand against Trump tyranny.

After a break, this line of inquiry was abandoned. Instead, he showed YouTube videos of her protesting the chuds. Girard’s lawyer played a scene from outside the Supreme Court, where she was arguing with Freedom Corner supporters, one of whom elbowed her. In the video, she’s holding up a sign documenting the violent, Nazi past of Brian Jackson, a J6 rioter who was recently sentenced to three years in prison.

Girard and his supporters call Jackson a hero. They chant his name and the names of other J6ers every night at Freedom Corner. It’s a cult.

Bringing up a video from a Trump event in Philly, at which Anarchy Princess protested, the defense lawyer asked:

“Did you chant ‘Small penises for Trump?'”

“Yes, I have referred to the small penises of Trump supporters.”

Again and again he asked about this. Thank god I was on WebEx and not in court because I was howling.

His argument seemed to be that she’s obnoxious and deserved it – something Girard and the chuds have said many times.

Jericho Takes the Stand

And then, to my surprise, Steve Girard aka “Jericho Steve” took the stand.

He’s 61, but looks older, like many of the chuds do. He put on an act in court. No longer was he the spry, active man who waves a flag for hours at Freedom Corner. Instead, he pretended to be old and deaf, requiring court-provided headphones, though he seemed to hear just fine.

On the stand, he gave his version of events. That he was trying to get out of the way and accidentally shoved the flag between her legs. And that she was in “his” space.

This claim was rapidly demolished by the prosecution during cross as they played Rebecca’s video again (she had left the gallery by this point) showing that he made no attempt to get out of the way and deliberately assaulted her with a flag pole.

“You claim it was an accident,” one of the prosecutors asked. “If it was one, why didn’t you apologize?”

There was a long pause. He had no answer to this question.

We Have the Video

 And then the judge made her decision. But first she talked about John Marshall Park, where the assault occurred, and what a special place it is to her. The park is a block from the DC Court House.

“No one deserves to be assaulted for using their First Amendment rights,” she said, dismissing the defense lawyer’s arguments. Then she took apart Girard’s excuse, saying if you go to a protest, you should expect people to be in your space.

“This isn’t a he said/she said,” the judge said. “Because we have the video.” 

GUILTY

Steven Girard was found guilty of Misdemeanor Sexual Abuse on August 7, 2024.

Chapman then gave a victim impact statement which was heartbreaking to watch. It hurts to see a friend of yours in fear and forced to curtail her life due to threats. Many of the Freedom Corner chuds, who are responsible for those threats, flounced out of the court at this point.

The Sentence

Girard has no criminal history, so incarceration would not be appropriate at this point, the judge said. So she sentenced him to:

  • 180 days suspended
  • 18 months supervised probation; non-supervised after 6 months if community service is satisfactory and good behavior
  • 60 hrs community service in his home of Lancaster, PA
  • Protective Order so that he has to stay away from Chapman

As the victim, Chapman was asked if these terms were agreeable to her.

If he violates the terms of his probation, he’ll be sentenced to the DC Jail.

Girard is still the same smirking asshole, unaffected by the humiliation of a court trial and nearly losing his liberty. On the way out of the court, the WebEx was still on and I heard him say to the prosecution, “Touche.” He thinks this is some kind of a game.

And that night, he joined his buddies on Freedom Corner, outside the DC Jail in which he narrowly avoided being confined. Hearing aids gone, he was suddenly young again, waving a flag in support of violent January 6th insurrectionists. Cake was served. His friends called him a hero.

While the chuds may think it is a joke, being convicted of Misdemeanor Sexual Abuse is a serious matter, as Girard’s own lawyer said during court.

Justice was served, even if it took a long time to arrive.

One Final Note

Girard and the other chuds used to wave flags and hold “Free J6ers” signs outside the US Court House during the trials of J6 insurrectionists.

Counterprotesters drew chalk messages for them on the sidewalk. Chalktifa, they called it. Things like Trump 4 Prison, all J6ers are going to jail and pentagrams, just to screw with the chuds, who complained to the police that they had been libeled by chalk.

One day, I happened to be taking photos of the chalk when Girard approached me. This video demonstrates the kind of entitlement, arrogance and stupidity common to the chuds. An attitude that will most certainly lead him into more trouble in the near future.

Kamala Harris: For the People

For the People. A very cool poster of Kamala seen in DC

By mid-July, I had reached the acceptance phase of grief.

After the disastrous Biden debate on June 27 in Atlanta, I cycled through the phases: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

Acceptance. You are here. Trump was going to win this thing and impose fascism on the country.

When friends asked for my opinion, I would simply say, “We’re fucked.”

The noise of the political debate slipped away. My task now was to figure out how to survive the upcoming tyranny.

No way could I be chronically online. I could scarcely bare to watch the news, especially after the attempt on Trump’s life on July 13 and the iconic images that resulted from it. His cult now thought him immortal. Instead, I would have to go offline, to blind myself to the terrible summer of 2024.

To pull myself away from the online world, I decided to read more. Big fat history books full of horror. The more awful, the better, for they provided a much needed sense of perspective. No matter how bad things got in this timeline, at least I wasn’t enslaved in the silver mines of Potosi for the Spanish King.

As Democratic elites clung to Biden, insisting that everything was fine (don’t believe the polls!), I was engrossed by 1493 by Charles C. Mann, the panoramic account of the world Columbus made when he sailed across the ocean blue. In his wake, empires fell, plagues claimed millions and the climate itself was changed.

Hopelessly, I went to the Pass the Torch demonstration on July 20th, snapping photos in the rain, as people begged for Biden to quit the race. He wasn’t in DC and had barely appeared in public, spending most of his time at his Delaware beach house.

As a Gen Xer, I knew one thing for sure: Baby Boomers don’t give up power. Doom overwhelmed me.

The next day, I retreated into the calamitous world of 1493, finding comfort in the horrors of history.

And then I got a text: Biden was dropping out.

July 21, 2024. Less than a month after his disastrous debate, a Boomer had done the unthinkable: pass the torch.

Kamala Harris came out swinging. Gone was the gloom of the doddering Biden campaign, replaced with an unmistakeable energy and a new message: FREEDOM! Belted out by Beyonce in a glorious moment of joy.

We are the freedom party. Republicans are the ones who want to control women’s bodies, ban books and take away your right to vote. Democrats want you to be happy, prosperous and free.

It’s such a delightful inversion of tropes. For years, I’ve listened to chud groups in DC shout “Freedom!” as they conspire to end democracy.

But, wait, there’s more. Mockery. In my viral moment as Red Bike Guy, when I roasted the Patriot Front for being sloppy, I had seen how powerful mockery can be, for it communicates that we’re not afraid of you, we think you’re a joke.

The Harris campaign embraced this tactic, pointing out the essential weirdness of Trump and his movement, something I had seen with the bucket-pooping 1776 Restoration Movement and Ashli Babbitt death cult outside the DC Jail known as Freedom Corner. These people with their strange costumes, ritualized chanting and Qanon beliefs, were just plain weird. And Democrats were gleefully pointing it out.

I was energized – as were millions of other Americans – my acceptance phase vaporized by a new-found hope on a warm Sunday in Washington, DC.

Trump is a weak man. Facing the prospect of defeat, he’s lashing out with overt racism, like saying that Kamala Harris just recently became black. He will drag the entire Republican Party into the abyss and leave his followers behind, broken and abandoned.

Posters have appeared on the streets of DC, like the one pictured above. “For the People,” it reads, referencing Kamala Harris’s days as a prosecutor.

But it’s more than that. Kamala Harris gave us what we needed: a champion. Someone to lead the fight. A happy warrior fighting for the people.

We can win this thing.

 

Wide Awake

Wide Awake

America in 1860 was an oligarchy, controlled by a minority of a minority.

Slave Power was unassailable. You couldn’t even discuss it in Congress, which had a standing rule that resolutions dealing with slavery were automatically shelved. The Supreme Court reinforced the power of the peculiar institution by forcing Northerners to cooperate with slave catchers. Enslaved people, despite living in this country for centuries, were not people, according to the Court; they were property.

With the power of the federal government behind them, slave owners talked of expanding slavery across the country and beyond – even to Cuba and Mexico.

To be an abolitionist meant dodging mobs of Democrats who tarred and feathered anti-slavery speakers. Newspapers who criticized slavery, even in the most oblique terms, were destroyed, with their printing presses tossed into the river.

The Wide Awakes stood up to the mobocracy. Founded in March of 1860 by five law clerks, some of them too young to vote, this was a youth movement that confronted Slave Power and elected Abraham Lincoln.

Jon Grinspan tells their story in Wide Awake.

Dressed in black cloaks and carrying whale-oil torches, they marched under their “open eye” banner symbolizing their political awakening to the threat of slavery.

They were a popular sensation that spread across the North, a marching group, as they were called back then, that protected Republican speakers during a violent election year.

The elite class that ruled the country dismissed these Wide Awakes as so much theater; young people play-acting in the streets with their costumes, organized chants and military precision.

Theater matters. I’ve seen it in DC, with pro-Palestinian protesters staging mock scenes from Gaza; the pro-Putin right-left crazy town of Rage Against the War Machine; and even my experience as Red Bike Guy heckling the Patriot Front.

These moments, especially if they go viral, are both communication and inspiration, getting important messages out into the media and motivating others to take up the cause.

That is why the Wide Awakes grew from five to hundreds of thousands in just a few short months in 1860.

Theater matters. Or as, Grinspan puts it:

What the Wide Awakes wanted mattered less than how they tried to show it. Those skinny nineteen-year-olds drilling for war proved to be better forecasters of what was coming than all the august orators or party platforms.

We look back on all of this through a century and a half of mostly viewing political spectacle as hoopla, just a matter of elephants and donkeys and confetti and balloons. People often dismiss performative politics as empty, a collection of stock gestures going nowhere, the work of self-interested politicians or high-priced consultants. But our own era reminds us of the power of spectacle and bluff, costume and prop. They can be intellectually richer, and better indicators of what is to come, than forms of political expression we traditionally consider more substantive. Perhaps one of the central lessons of recent American politics is that, while the chattering classes parse phrases, and conspiracists hunt for hidden meanings, key plotlines take place out in the open. 

In this election year, Republicans are open about their plans to end democracy, take away our rights and make Trump a king. It’s all in Project 2025, their guide to the coming dystopia.

They promise it will be bloodless – as long as we don’t resist.

Failed coup
Democrats talk the issues as if we’re in the soft and gentle world of 1996, with moderates on both sides willing to play by the rules and graciously accept defeat.

But as the recent Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity told us, we’ve entered into a no-compromise era, much like 1860.

The protesters on the streets of DC, with their signs and bullhorns, all that easily-mocked theater, are more clear-eyed about the peril.

They are Wide Awake.

Records of Rights, RIP

interactive table at the Records of Rights

The day before the Supreme Court made Trump a king, I visited the National Archives.

It was my first visit in more than a decade. What’s to see other than that Declaration of Independence?

A lot. After peering at the faded words of the Constitution in the Rotunda, I went downstairs.

There I found Records of Rights, an exhibit that highlights how Americans have debated about and fought for rights like free speech, religion, and equality.

The first thing you see is a rare copy of the Magna Carta that David Rubenstein paid $21 million for and then donated to the Archives.

Signed in 1215, it is the first document to put into writing the principle that the king and his government was not above the law.

It’s what separates us from the despots of the past – or at least, that’s what I was taught. We do not have absolute rulers in Western world. Every person is equal before the law.

Rubenstein should add a giant asterisk to the Magna Carta now, for the Supreme Court gave Trump something no English King or American President ever had: immunity from prosecution. He can literally shoot someone in Fifth Avenue, call it an official act, and walk free.

The rest of the Records of Rights depicts history in the style of American exceptionalism. There’s a section on how women won the vote. Civil rights gets a shout-out and marriage equality.

Inside, you’ll find this moving quote from Barbara Jordan, the Watergate-era congresswoman who grew under segregation in Texas.

“We, the people.” It’s a very eloquent beginning. But when that document was completed on the seventeenth of September in 1787, I was not included in that “We, the people.” I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in “We, the people.”

The theme is progress, that notion that the long arc of history bends toward justice, to paraphrase President Obama paraphrasing Martin Luther King.

Yet, even in this temple to American democracy, there are discordant notes. In a panel on the 14th and 15th Amendments, passed after the Civil War and intended to give black Americans equal rights, there’s a mention of how the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013.

Barbara Jordan became a member of Congress in the 1970s because of the Voting Rights Act. Now, Southern states can return to the discriminatory practices of the past without federal interference.

The centerpiece of Records of Rights is an interactive display table, where you can scroll through documents of our rights, neatly organized by categories including privacy, equality, speech, etc…

Included in the digital collection is a copy of Roe v Wade and a note that it was repealed in 2022. With it an absurd quote from Samuel Alito, of upside-down flag fame:

“the Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.”

The Constitution doesn’t mention a lot of things (women, cars, the internet) but does talk a lot about enslaved humans and keeping British troops out of your house.

Records of Rights describes how the American people took these archaic documents and evolved them to meet the needs of a dynamic, free country.

The Supreme Court has crumpled up these documents, from the Magna Carta onward, and thrown them in the trash. With an absolute monarch at the helm, no right is safe.

Records of Rights is an exhibit infused with American exceptionalism, that we aren’t like Russia, Germany or other countries that have fallen into barbarism.

This is a dangerous and naive idea.

As Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny, put it:

This is something that Americans often get wrong. We think that because we’re America, everything will work itself out. This is exactly what the founders refused to believe. They thought human nature is such that you have to constrain it by institutions. They preferred rule of law and checks and balances. They were the opposite of American exceptionalists.

The men who signed the Constitution loathed monarchs (that’s the whole point of America, remember?).  They set up three equal branches of government to prevent the rise of tyrant, something that the Supreme Court has willfully overturned.

The curators of Records of Rights were smart to make the interactive table of documents a digital display, one that can be easily updated as the Supreme Court takes ours away.

Celebrating the Arrest of Tommy Tatum

Tommy Tatum, traitor, speaks at the J6 rally

Live your life in a way so that the entire Internet doesn’t celebrate your arrest.

It began with a tweet, one that was rapidly retweeted, favorited and shared. Texts began to fly among people. Discord servers buzzed with expletive-filled reactions, photos and so many potato-based memes. A Twitter Space popped up and rapidly filled with laughter and mockery from around the country. Outside the DC Jail, Anarchy Princess and the Commish arrived, bullhorns in hand, to taunt the chuds of Freedom Corner with the news:

Tommy Tatum had been arrested.

A loathsome insurrectionist who bragged that he was “untouchable,” Tatum was more than just a January 6th rioter. He spent almost two years in DC harassing police officers and victims of the Trump-inspired attack on the Capitol.

Claiming that he knew the truth about that day, he was a figure of some note in the conspiracy universe who appeared on podcasts and YouTube shows to spread the lie that antifa caused the insurrection, despite the fact that he had filmed himself attacking the police.

Tatum was also a key figure in the pro-insurrection vigil outside the DC Jail which calls itself “Freedom Corner.” Bald and well over 300 pounds, he was the muscle of the group who took it upon himself to bully and stalk counterprotestors, most of whom were women a fraction of his size.

I wrote about the insurrectionist shitshow known as Freedom Corner. In response, he doxxed me.

This is my story. It’s an excerpt from my memoir, How I Became Red Bike Guy.

So, You’ve Been Doxxed


March 26, 2023

I was doxxed on a rainy afternoon. I was at home, doing work, and occasionally checking in on the drama at Freedom Corner.

It was a big day for them. Marjorie Taylor Greene and a Congressional delegation were touring the J6 prisoner facilities at the DC Jail. The chuds expected major press coverage when the “shocking truths” about the jail were revealed.

The DC Jail is an aging facility stuffed beyond capacity where deaths are common. But the J6 prisoners are kept in their own wing, in individual cells, and they have access to iPads and the internet so that they can contact attorneys, research their cases – and make nightly calls to Freedom Corner.

Representative Jasmine Crockett, Democrat of Texas, called the J6 wing one of the nicest she’s ever seen and in no way comparable to prisons in her home state.

Marge, of course, had complaints. But when the Georgia Representative began to speak outside the jail, a man began blowing a whistle. He was wearing a jacket with a hood and had a mask over his face. Every time Marge began spreading conspiracy theories (“they painted the jail before we visited!”) he blew his whistle.

I watched, amused, as Defender of Ants (DOA) livestreamed the event and sparred with the chuds, who were big mad at “Whistle Guy” as he was soon known on Twitter.

So mad that they followed him back to the Metro, Ashli Babbitt’s mom Micki and another woman Sherri, stalking him as he left to go home.

And following them was DOA, filming as he wondered what Micki and Sherri were up to.

As Whistle Guy got to the Metro, he attempted to get on the elevator to take him down to the station. Micki and Sherri followed him into the elevator and blocked the doors so that they wouldn’t shut.

DOA then arrived, framing the scene: Micki and Sherri standing in the door with the older gentleman trapped inside as an alarm began to ring. Sherri was smoking a cigarette.

“Do you need help, sir?” DOA asked.

“Yes, they won’t let me go!” Whistle Guy said.

“C’mon, Micki, this is a really bad look,” DOA said. “This is kidnapping.”

Seeing that they were being filmed, they let Whistle Guy go, Sherri flicking her cigarette at DOA as they left.

When this clip made it to Twitter, I shared it, thinking it was nuts. Micki and Sherri looked like high school bullies, except that they’re in their 50s.

And then came the accusation that I was Whistle Guy. “You’re him!” came the cry, a slur that rapidly spread through the chudoverse.

Within minutes, I was receiving hateful replies on Twitter, accusing me of damaging Marge’s hearing with my whistle.

And then the real doxxing began.

Tommy Tatum, a J6er, put my name, face and contact information on his website, describing me as an agitator. He was 99.9% sure that I was Whistle Guy.

Why me? Chuds can only dox people they know. I had written about Freedom Corner on my blog. They hated hearing the truth about their squalid, violent movement. I had become a kind of boogeyman to them. They talked about me in their chats, accused me of somehow manipulating Google search results to give my posts prominence, and saw me everywhere.

There were at least three different people they identified as me. In addition to Whistle Guy, there was a man who regularly visited Freedom Corner in a motorcycle helmet. He had an electric guitar and sang a song of his own creation called, “Tommy Tatum has no butthole.” And there was another guy who came by with a camera, like I did sometimes.

All these people became Joe Flood.

Anarchy Princess tried to tell them that Whistle Guy was not me. “You idiots are terrible at this! He’s older than Joe and the ears are all wrong. Look at the ears!”

It didn’t matter. The online mob had been activated.

I received threatening emails. I tried to tell them that they had the wrong guy but soon gave up. Nasty notes came in through Facebook; I soon made it private, along with all my other social media channels. This continued for a couple days. I received dozens of messages.

It’s scary when your name and photo appears on a conspiracy-laden web site calling you a traitor. I was targeted.

Thankfully, my LinkedIn was out of date. I had never gotten around to adding my new job to the site.

Doxxing is a favorite chud tactic. I am far from the first person who they doxxed. They’ve also doxxed “Whistle Girl” (who also blows a whistle) revealing where she worked and flooding her company with demands that she be fired.

The chuds called another one of the counterprotestors a “drug addict” and shared her account of overcoming addiction. It’s a powerful, inspiring story that they tried to paint as shameful.

And they tried dox Biketifa but, since they’re terrible at it, doxxed the wrong person, claiming that he is a disbarred attorney named Grant. Biketifa’s name is not Grant and he’s not a lawyer, or a “bard lawyer” as they called him online, conjuring images of a poet writing verse as he attends trials. They posted a photo of Grant who looks vaguely like Biketifa in the sense that they’re both white people.

How did they find Grant? He’s the husband of a bike advocate in Arlington. That’s chud logic for you – how many people could be riding bikes? It has to be him!

Anarchy Princess has also been doxxed, and in a far more sinister fashion. They revealed her personal information online and sent people by her home to threaten her. She had to move due to the threats.

The morning after I was doxxed, I went to play soccer like I normally do. Leaving my apartment building, I took a good look around, scanning for suspect vehicles, like trucks with out-of-state tags. I was on my bike and figured I could easily get away, knowing the city better than they did.

But there was no one. Everyone is brave online but these keyboard warriors weren’t going to do shit.

Doxxing does not work. After the shock wore off, it just pissed me off. And left me wanting revenge.

If you liked this, check out How I Became Red Bike Guy, my memoir of life in DC during the turbulent Trump years.

Trump is Not Good for Business

walk-up window at Mia's
The good ol days of the Trump administration, when toilet paper was a scarce commodity.

“Trump would be better for my business.”

The words were spoken at the end of my doctor’s visit. We we were scheduling my next appointment, six months in the future.

“December. God knows what could be happening then,” I laughed.

My doctor bemoaned Trump but stated that he would be better for his finances.

Would he though? Is chaos good for business?

I’m a government contractor, like many consumers in the DC region. If Trump gets elected, my agency may not exist. It’s one of those pesky ones that spoke the truth to the petulant dictator.

Even if it does exist, would my company have the contract? Trump would probably redirect it to Jared Kushner or one of his cronies. I’d lose my job and health insurance.

Assuming I kept my job and health insurance, going to regular doctor visits might not be my priority.

I am Red Bike Guy

Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation guide to the upcoming terror, calls for using the military to imprison the opposition.

I am Red Bike Guy. I mock fascists, including the J6-loving chuds of Freedom Corner. They hate me. I am on an enemies list. If Trump gets elected, I could end up in a camp, on the run or exiled from my country.

This kind of chaos would ripple across the United States, with Trump mobs emboldened and ordinary citizens forced into action. No one and no where would be safe.

Businesses large and small need predictability. Stable markets, laws that don’t change on a whim and consumers happily spending their money.

That would not be Trump II.

“Are you better off than you were four years ago?” Trump asks.

The summer of 2020 gives us a preview of what a second Trump administration would be like. An economy in ruins due to the government’s failure to handle covid, with Trump in complete denial as he spreads the disease across the country with campaign rallies. Toilet paper is in short supply as supply chains are disrupted.

The police and the military get corrupted by Trump as he uses them to crush Black Lives Matter protesters in Lafayette Park. DC is boarded-up following the disturbances, with block after block of shuttered restaurants and offices.  The country roiled by Trump’s random tweets, stocks rising and falling, with every utterance from the deranged Boomer who just can’t put the phone down.

How is this good for business?

Trump Will Not Leave Your Business Alone

My doctor, too, should worry about government’s interference in health care. They spell out their plans for medicine in Project 2025. It’s a hard anti-science, anti-vax document that would make draconian changes to healthcare in the United States, making it impossible for women and the poor to access the care that they need.

If elected, Trump promises revenge. Not growing the economy. Instead, he and his allies will go after their enemies, including companies like Apple and Google, sending this country down a spiral of vengeance.

“We really want to burn it down,” Trump supporters have said, again and again.

Believe them. Look at what they did on January 6th.

And it would be economically calamitous. Moody’s predicts increased inflation and a recession if Trump wins.

I think they understate the impact. Consumers preoccupied with chaos are not going to be spending money – or going to their annual checkups.

Another Trump administration would be disastrous for businesses and the economy. And democracy.

A Biden victory means stability. Declining inflation. A government that respects freedom and the rule of law.

Vote your wallet. Vote Biden.

Late-Stage Cult: Trump at the Capitol Hill Club

Failed coup

Waiting outside the Capitol Hill Club for Trump to show up, a parade of pasty septegenuarians in suits traipsed by to kiss the ring of the aspiring dictator.

Gray hair, blue suit, red tie. All vaguely familiar, once-powerful men who had reduced themselves to being bit players in our nation’s psychodrama. What’s the point of being elected to Congress if all you do is follow orders?

I waited with my camera, careful not to block the sidewalk (this was Capitol Police territory) and trying to stay out of the way of the professional media.

A car pulled up and a scrum of reporters surrounded it. Someone important, though I couldn’t see who, as they disappeared amid a crowd into the Capitol Hill Club.

“Who was that?” I asked.

A photographer showed me the back of his camera. On the screen was a stooped figure with a mess of gray hair. Newt Gingrich, this 90s-era mediocrity trying to reinvent himself as a statesman.

Bill Christesen, a local protester (you’ve seen his signs at Trump trials and Supreme Court hearings), was standing by the entrance to the club, with a message for the supplicants.

FAILED COUP, it read, big black letters on white posterboard.

Another protester arrived, holding signs that she had cleverly made out of cardboard bags. They read:

Is this the meeting of felonious sex offenders and their enablers?

GOP is to Putin as Squeaky Fromme is to Manson.

And then there was the bear. A climate change demonstrator in a bear costume, adding a surreal touch to the background of photos of Republicans arriving to meet their master.

Tim Burchett and Matt Gaetz

Members of Congress began to show up, including some I recognized. Troy Nehls, a Texas blowhard, famous for his Trump socks and now infamous for stolen valor. Tim Burchett from Tennessee, whose folksy demeanor hides a firm commitment to fascism. Matt Gaetz with his puffed-up hair, almost as if he’s trying to live out the Butthead meme.

And then, appearing in my viewfinder, a face that made me gasp: Marjorie Traitor Greene.

Marjorie Traitor Greene

As they went inside for their ritual show of devotion, Bill warned: “Don’t drink the Koolaid.”

“Haha, you got me,” Burchett replied. He’s the witty one of the House GOP, known for losing verbal battles to Jared Moskowitz from FL.

But it was a very low-key affair, held in voices barely above a whisper. No crowds of Trump supporters. No MAGA hats. None of the local chuds who demonstrate outside the DC Jail, despite Trump’s vow to free violent January 6ers.

I couldn’t stay and left before Trump’s arrival. Not that I missed anything – they brought him in through the alley, avoiding reporters and protesters alike.

At the Capitol Hill Club, he gave a talk that even his supporters described as rambling, with praise for Hannibal Lecter and weird asides about Nancy Pelosi.

They must know it’s almost over, that the life force of this shared delusion is dissipating as its supporters age and die, that the cult leader is befuddled and confused, that the whole thing is going to end badly, most likely with a crushing defeat in November.

It would require an act of courage and independence to leave now. It would be the end of their careers – and possibly their lives.

So they cling to the fantasy, like the followers of Jim Jones and Charles Manson once did, intending to win or bring the whole world down around them.