The January 6th Committee's Damage to National Security
The Committee's Report Doesn't Realistically Address Homeland Security, National Security, & Law Enforcement Issues Related to January 6 Even As Domestic Threats Rise
Howdy all! Here we are in the midst of the biggest crazy weather systems to hit the whole US in a generation… and on the eve of a major holiday celebrated by many.
Why not do a post noting that the January 6 Committee’s Report did a total crap job on addressing weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and failures on January 6, 2021 when it comes to national and homeland security? Also, we just announced 39 new events starting next week to help us all navigate this intensifying era.
Dr. Donell Harvin does an excellent job hitting the highlights of what the January 6 Committee appears to have deliberately missed. Or rather — the lowlights:
Dr. Harvin hits the essence of the problem in that interview. He did a second video interview later yesterday, but I haven’t found a link for it yet.
Since it’s a holiday for some, I won’t write a whole great big analysis on this today — but rather just a few thoughts. Let me know if you’d like to see more exploration on this subject next week… especially after we’ve all had more time to check out the January 6 Committee Report. We can get into it in a daily call, or in another post.
I will say this: the failure or refusal of the January 6 Committee to get into the myriad of issues that were either blocked, failed, stymied, dysfunctional, slow, in denial, or whatever the case was around January 6 in federal law enforcement, between federal national and homeland security institutions, in the intelligence community, in continuity of government (COG), and in coordination with state and local government is HUGE and damaging. It leaves us vulnerable… when many Americans and also professionals in those fields thought that at least some of this stuff would get addressed or analyzed.
We’re two damn years away from an insurrection and coup attempt, the Biden Administration has not leaned forward to dig into the same questions, issues, or failures… and now we have the largest domestic violent extremist threat that we’ve had in place since the civil war. We’re perhaps more vulnerable because here we’ve been waiting for some kind of secret Committee analysis for two years… and it didn’t show up. Had we known they were skipping that bit, perhaps some other efforts could have been undertaken to get into those critical, essential zones. It’s national security, for crying out loud.
Our institutions didn’t work the way they were supposed to on January 6… and really all the Committee seems to be offering is that that was mostly because of Trump. Only it wasn’t, and we shouldn’t act like that’s the case. And a lot of the same folks who were part of what went wrong then are still around running parts of the government.
So now what?
Oh by the way — the US Senate has issued a report that says domestic homeland security agencies have failed to shift their focus to domestic violent extremist threats from international terrorism… even as this institutional rot, failure, erosion, and dysfunction in the institutions that are supposed to be protecting us remains largely unexplored and un-focused-on.
Happy holidays?
I can offer best wishes for surviving this mind-blowing national weather event. It’s a doozy. Be very safe and very well. Try not to get dead, for real. The risks are there. Ask for help. Check on people if you’re in a postition to. As things intensify, we’re going to need so much more connection & community.
Keep the faith — in us, and in this democracy. And sign up for an event starting next week. Send money if you can, too! Or through ActBlue!
We’re going to dig into growing this shift. Waiting on politicians to shift this country is not going to work. We can drive big change… and so we will.