U.S. Capitol Police plan to maintain their enhanced level of security around the Capitol at least through President Joe Biden's first official address to Congress because intelligence suggests that extremists could be planning an attack, acting Chief Yogananda Pittman said Thursday.That "enhanced and robust security posture" includes razor wire, fencing, presumably politically reliable armed troops including members of the Illinois National Guard, and armored personnel carriers presumably ready to ride to the rescue. That should be more than enough to see off any action by the patriot militias, unless the potentially pissed off population is way larger than I suspect it is. In addition, I'm dubious that the militia cells have gotten sufficiently more competent in the five months since law enforcement rolled up a plot to kidnap Michigan
"We know that members of the militia groups that were present on January 6th have stated their desires that they want to blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible with a direct nexus to the State of the Union, which we know that date has not been identified," she told members of Congress, referring to Biden's coming first address to a joint session of Congress.
"So based on that information, we think that it's prudent that Capitol Police maintain its enhanced and robust security posture until we address those vulnerabilities going forward," she said.
But continuing the security theater is desirable for the political classes.
According to January YouGov polling, 53 percent of Democrats, 56 percent of Republicans, and 57 percent of Independents "think that the biggest threat to their way of life comes from domestic enemies."Furthermore, postponing the coot's initial presentation to a joint session of Congress because of an unspecified militia threat will play more with the masses than rolling him out for a prime time address where he will suffer a brain fart with the whole world watching.
The best way to calcify those perceptions of "domestic enemies" is for a government in the hands of one political faction to start treating its opponents as insurgents. That will inevitably entail the excesses and abuses that come with turning the security services loose not just on those who have committed crimes against others, but on whole segments of society viewed as potential threats.
"Overreactions give people an incentive to become terrorists—not only by creating grievances but also by reducing the relative risks of turning to violence," Northeastern University's Max Abrahms, a professor of public policy, recently cautioned in Reason. "A standard assumption in political science is that terrorists are rational actors. Many people decide against becoming terrorists because they know that the costs to them will be severe. But if the government is going to treat innocent people like terrorists anyway, then no additional risk is incurred."
There’s a big problem with having Joe try to deliver a ninety-minute speech at 9:00 p.m. at night without a teleprompter in front of Congress. He has trouble just making it through basic remarks before media for a few minutes, much less a speech of that length. They must be wracking their brains to figure out how they’re going to pull it off.Heck, the coot loses the script even with a teleprompter with the largest type setting, or with index cards. Better that the people who voted to put him there not see what they put there? Not so fast, cautions Reason's J. D. Tuccille: "Giving Americans less reason to hate and battle each other sounds a lot more promising than deploying counterinsurgency tactics at home and risking making a bad situation much worse."
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