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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.

Jericho Steve assaults @SatireAP twice, tries to gaslight her then mouths off to Marshall who, instead of arresting him, only asked him to move away from her. Nice people you got there #J6Vigil #FreedomCorner. pic.twitter.com/xm3lS85A0J

— Rosemary (@Rosemary_426) September 8, 2023

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.

#flagperv makes his entrance back at #freedomcorner after being found guilty earlier today #notahero #maga #cult hi LA-4 pic.twitter.com/qa3f618q3j

— B$$$ (@Bossmoney8444) August 7, 2024

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.

#FreedomCorner alum Jericho Steve didn’t even realize he had been stream-sniped by @joeflood in front of the DC federal courthouse this afternoon until it was over.

Bravo, sir. 🤘 pic.twitter.com/Z4UBfTy2l1

— Baldy Banks (@BaldyBanks) September 1, 2023

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.

 

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.

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.

---

“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.

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.

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.

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.

Imagine.

You lead a comfortable life. You have a job in a city, friends, a busy social life. On the weekends, you like to ride your bike and go out to bars. You have plans for the future – foreign trips, a bigger place to live, maybe even a family.

The politics in your country are a bit of a mess. The President is sinking in popularity and regarded as an unserious figure. But you live in a democracy with a free press – unlike the much bigger nation next door.

There’s talk of war. But those kinds of threats are nothing new. Bellicose language from your bully of a neighbor – that’s just the way things work in your part of the world.

But a ground war? Madness. Something like that hasn’t happened in 80 years.

Your President tells everyone to remain calm. Life goes on in your city. Christmas shopping. Holiday parties. Work drama.

Embassies begin to close. Your foreign coworkers are evacuated. Satellite photos show troops massing on the border.

You don’t know it, but your comfortable life, with 24/7 electricity, shops crammed with goods and the freedom to pursue a future – all that is about to end.

Illia Ponomarenko shares his experience in I Will Show You How It Was: The Story of Wartime Kyiv.

It is brilliant and disturbing.

As Americans, we are used to war happening to other people far away. And typically, we’re the ones who brought it.

Hiding in bomb shelters, seeing your friends go off to the front, scrambling for bare necessities – that’s something that we find hard to imagine.

Ponomarenko makes it real, for the war on Ukraine is a war on the kind of free, democratic, capitalist society that we all recognize and enjoy. Missiles slam into apartments. Bombs fall on cafes. Tanks roar in the suburbs.

This isn’t happening in the 1940s, but is happening today, in Europe.

Ukraine is on the front line in the battle against dictators. It is all one fight, from the streets of Washington to the trenches in the Donbass. Either we’ll be free or trapped forever under the thumb of Putin and Trump.

Ukraine fights for us, for the kind of freedom that we enjoy and take for granted in the West. I Will Show You How It Was: The Story of Wartime Kyiv demonstrates how precious – and fragile – that freedom is. We owe it to Ukraine to give them everything they need in this struggle.

Slava Ukraini!

I was at a Mission BBQ when it happened. As I sat down with with a brisket sandwich, the music suddenly stopped and there was an announcement.

“Please stand for the National Anthem…”

Around me, the servers stopped their frenetic activity and stood at attention. Patrons rose from their seats, hands on their hearts, and turned to face the American flag hanging from the mock warehouse ceiling.

I remained seated. Why is this restaurant asking me to stand for the National Anthem? This is not July 4th. I am not at a sacred memorial. I am in Roanoke.

“Performative crap,” a friend of mine called it, these rote and meaningless gestures in the direction of patriotism from organizations trying capitalize on our love of country.

Mission BBQ is chain of restaurants that are all decorated the same. A half-ton Army truck is parked outside while the indoors is covered with photos of American soldiers throughout history and other military memorabilia. Walking in, I passed a picture of a pre-9/11 World Trade Center.

In the mood for barbecue, I didn’t think much about all this carefully-scripted nostalgia as I walked to the counter. But sitting there, with people around me standing and singing the National Anthem (who were they pledging allegiance to? A company?) it all seemed a little gross.

Veterans should be applauded for their service. But this wasn’t about that; it was about a company wrapping itself in the flag to sell more stuff.

The Flag of Occupation

Also, your view of the military changes when it’s used against you.

This time four years ago, during the last chaotic summer of the Trump administration, I watched military helicopters thunder by the window of my seventh floor apartment. They were so close that I could see the pilots and their American flag patches.

Trump was mad at Black Lives Matter so he sent in the military to crush their protest. And then he walked across Lafayette Park (with General Mark Milley) to hold an upside-down Bible in an ill-conceived demonstration of strength.

A curfew was in effect that night as the National Guards of various states ran amok in the city, buzzing protesters with helicopters and assisting the police as they kettled students.

For weeks afterward, troops in fatigues and AR-15s garrisoned the Lincoln Memorial and other monuments (where were they on January 6th?). Men and women with guns, but no identification, stood on street corners downtown.

Staying in some of the nicest hotels in the city, they left after Mayor Bowser refused to pay their hotel bills.

Senator — until they are recalled home — which I have formally requested from the President, your troops are in DC hotels. However, DC residents cannot pay their hotel bills. The Army can clear that up with the hotel today, and we are willing to help. https://t.co/WZypXMubxl

— Muriel Bowser (@MurielBowser) June 5, 2020

This was 2020, the fucked-up year that America is determined to send down the memory hole. But I remember what I saw.

Freedom Corner Flag Wave

Right-wing fanatics have seized the flag with white-hot devotion. Trump literally fondles it.

And you see it at the nest of traitors called Freedom Corner in Washington, DC. This nightly vigil outside the DC Jail wants to free the January 6th prisoners who tried to end democracy. They begin every evening with the Pledge of Allegiance, facing the flag, before moving on to their demands for the hanging of Nancy Pelosi.

Referring to each other as patriots (we call them chuds), you get nonsense from them like, “He has evidence that January 6th was a setup. A a real patriot.”Or, “All he did was push some cops. A patriot.”

Waving flags at their lonely vigil, they use Old Glory as cover for treason.

There’s an inverse relationship to the amount of American flags displayed to actual patriotism. Real patriots don’t storm the Capitol in the name of a wannabe dictator.

Trump supporters use the American flag as a weapon. During the failed coup attempt, they beat police officers with them.  On January 7th, a rioter shoved me with a flag pole after I called him a disgrace. Earlier this year, a Freedom Corner chud assaulted local counterprotester Anarchy Princess with a flag pole outside the US Court House. He goes on trial this summer.

Unlike 2020/21, the failed Trump movement can’t attract a crowd anymore. Freedom Corner is lucky to get six people at their vigil outside the DC Jail.

Instead, they encourage their elderly YouTube followers to do flag waves.

Something anyone can do, it’s a uniquely American (and pointless) activity – standing on a busy road or highway overpass waving an American flag. The occasional driver honks, perhaps getting a glimpse of the red, white and blue at 60 mph. A patriotic response that the chuds misinterpret as support for their anti-democratic project.

The flag is held upside-down, a recent gesture made fashionable among right-wing circles by the neo-fascist Supreme Court.

“I hate that they’ve taken the flag from us,” another friend told me.

When I’m outside the Beltway, I have to recalibrate my paradigm. A cluster of American flags does not mean chuds, like it would in DC. It could just be a Memorial Day celebration.

It’s time to take back the American flag from traitors. It belongs to all of us.

But I’m not standing for the National Anthem in a restaurant. As the Star Spangled Banner played, I remained seated while everyone else stood, facing the Stars and Stripes. I’ve seen how the flag has been used and abused to justify insurrection.

And then everyone resumed eating, the moment forgotten and meaningless, a bit of patriotic kitsch in Southwest Virginia.

What is Bike to Work Day in this age of telework?

Most of white-collar Washington has been on a hybrid schedule since the covid epidemic. That means people go into the office for a few days a week and are remote the rest of the time.

I work from home full-time. So I never bike to work. Or am I always biking to work?

I wasn’t going to get caught up in semantics when there were free donuts available. Bike to Work Day 2024 saw me at 7 AM rolling across the Key Bridge to Virginia

Rosslyn  is trying to rebrand itself as more than just corporate office buildings. The concrete “skyway” system which old-timers might remember is being torn down. They want you at street level now, as jets roar overhead on approach to National Airport. Rosslyn got in early with a food hall, opening with spectacularly bad timing in 2020. It’s been redone, with a new slate of restaurants, and new name: Upside on Moore.

To me, Rosslyn will always be associated with covid. In 2020/21, when DC was saddled with maddening covid restrictions, freedom was available across the Potomac. I went there to do forbidden things like sit indoors and put milk in my own coffee. It’s where I wrote big chunks of LIKES and, later, HOW I BECAME RED BIKE GUY. It’s my happy productive writing place.

So, I’m probably the only Washingtonian with positive feelings about Rosslyn.

Gateway Park in Rosslyn hosted one of the many Bike to Work Day pit stops in the DC region. If you drive, Gateway Park is probably just a glimpsed concrete island as you rush to get to I-66 or the George Washington Parkway. Marooned by four-lane roads and speeding cars, it is not the most inviting prospect for a visit.

But they had free donuts. Lots of them! Plus, coffee from McDonalds and snacks for riders.

I registered here to pick up my trademark scratchy Bike to Work Day t-shirt and got a bike mirror, too. A mechanic from Trek did a safety check on my bike and I browsed tables from Arlington organizations such as the Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail, who volunteer tirelessly to maintain the trail.

Then I was back across the river, riding past the Kennedy Center, the White House and to Franklin Park.

This is another redevelopment project, in which the city took over maintenance of the park from the federal government. They ripped out everything, regraded it and added a new fountain, benches, a Children’s Garden and bathrooms. Unlike forlorn Gateway Park, Franklin Park is easy to access and hosts events all year, including concerts and fairs.

Bike to Work Day in DC used to be huge. Pre-pandemic, hundreds of people would gather for speeches, music and raffles. These were veteran bike commuters and newbies, organized into rides from the suburbs.

2024 is more low-key. Commuters don’t come downtown on Fridays, even the bike ones. It’s everyone’s telework day.

At Franklin Park, there was less than a hundred people but the DC Public Library brought their book bike, there was a selection of Bromptons to look at and I got some DC Circulator freebies. Plus, I saw a lot of my bike friends, part of the rolling community in DC.

That’s the state of Bike to Work Day in 2024 in Washington, DC. Commuting patterns are different now. There’s not the 9-5, Monday to Friday influx of commuters anymore.

I went home to get online before 9 AM. I had biked to work, after all.

Mayor Bowser didn’t want to be embarrassed as she testifies before Congress today, so she sent in the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to clear the Gaza Encampment at George Washington University.

I visited the camp, located in the University Yard, the night before, just hours before the police would move in.

A couple hundred people had gathered to protest Israel’s attack on Rafah. A professor gave a speech on the need to divest from American companies that supplied bombs and weapons to Israel.

The atmosphere was chill in the Yard filled with blue, orange and green tents. Toddlers played as “Free Palestine!” was chanted. Food was available nearby while medics were on hand in case of emergency. Campus police intermingled with the protesters; I saw one of them warn a protester about attaching a hammock to a lamp post because it was wobbly.

There wasn’t much to photograph so I just sat with Anarchy Princess, legendary tormenter of chuds, and watched the crowd.

The only interesting moment for us came when we spotted the right-wing live-streamer known as Corringe, who peddles conspiracy theories and MLM products on YouTube. She had claimed that she needed a bodyguard to visit the encampment but there she was, wandering through the demonstration, interviewing folks and filming signs. No one cared.

After we left, things heated up, with students marching to University President Ellen Granberg’s home on F Street, chanting “Granberg, Granberg you will see, Palestine is almost free.”

At 4 AM, the police moved in. Using batons and pepper-spray, they forced the protesters out of the University Yard with more than a dozen arrested.

Why now?

Because Mayor Bowser testifies before the House Oversight Committee this afternoon and didn’t want to be embarrassed by questions from House GOP members.

Think this is too cynical? You don’t know Muriel. She’s been Mayor since 2015 and rules the city with irritate pique, annoyed at residents with their complaints about murders and pedestrian deaths, and unfettered by a powerless City Council.

Slapping her name on everything that DC residents pay for, “Mayor Muriel Bowser Presents” has become a kind of rueful joke, as we taxpayers see her name on street improvement projects, music festivals and flyers that she mails using our money to flaunt her accomplishments.

Will she put her name on this? Mayor Muriel Bowser Presents Crackdown at GW?

I visited the camp this morning. The police have blocked off H St. Scores of them. Squad cars fill the campus. Bike cops are lined up on 20th St. You can’t even see the University Yard, the police keeping the press away.

Yet, ordinary life continues, like it has this entire time. Western Market is open – police officers were getting bagels there. Neighbors walked by to gawk. Commuters arrived at their offices.

Last night, I talked to a photographer. He had just returned from a vigil for a three-year old who was shot and killed.

The police were not there for her, this child in Southeast. Instead, they were across town, in Northwest, crushing a peaceful student protest so that Mayor Muriel Bowser wouldn’t face embarrassing questions as she testifies before Congress today.

Someone should ask her about that. Why were hundreds of officers sent to arrest demonstrators? How come they’re not in Southeast and other neighborhoods where they are needed?

The crackdown at GW was a colossal waste of resources and proof that city services operate at the whim of one person and one person only: Mayor Muriel Bowser.