Today is January 6, 2026. I had written an entire newsletter for today that has nothing to do with that other January 6—January 6, 2021.
Then I thought: What exactly did I write back then? How did it strike me in the hours afterward?
Rather than try to reframe it all, I thought I’d just share exactly what I wrote here 1,823 days ago. Only about 2 percent of you now were subscribers back then, for what that’s worth.
(Bonus: Tomorrow’s completely unrelated newsletter is also done!)
I’ll be interested to hear people’s reactions in the comments.
No both sides
(originally published Jan. 7, 2021)
Writing this newsletter is a labor of love — but it’s still a labor.
So, I was proud of myself yesterday: Got to it very early, put together a smart, evergreen essay, had the entire day to go without thinking again about what to write…
Ha ha ha. Life comes at you fast. I’ll put that one in the vault for another day.
Because there is no bigger story on the planet this morning than the insurrectionist, anti-American mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol yesterday, and delayed one of the most sacred duties of the Congress: the peaceful transfer of power.
There’s no “both sides” on this one. It was insurrection, bordering on treason.
The images—rioters taking over the House and Senate chambers, intruders breaking into the offices of the Speaker of the House and playing dress-up on the floor of the House and Senate (while the Capitol Police basically seemed to stand down and let them)—were things I couldn’t have imagined, even just a few days ago.
I don’t know what else to say, really. One of the big reasons why I keep writing this every day is out of respect for you, the readers, who are all over the map politically.
That can make it challenging to write sometimes — but it’s a gift, because I can’t think of another media brand, even one as small as mine, that has that kind of diversity.
So I sometimes have wondered, what’s the line? What’s the daily story that could come up, where I’d think — there’s no real nuance to this. Either you’re on the side of the American experiment (which includes losing graciously, if not happily, sometimes), or you’re not.
I think we’ve found it. I’m disgusted. I’m angry. Sometimes, the best thing to say when you’re feeling that way is nothing at all. So I’ll leave you with some images. Pictures today are worth well more than a thousand words.
A rioter parades through the U.S. Capitol with a Confederate flag. This never even happened during the U.S. Civil War:
This kind of thing hadn’t happened before, either.
Other rioters tear down an American flag, replace it with a Trump flag.
I don’t know how there isn’t a 2nd photo of Capitol Police arresting this guy in the U.S. Senate chamber. But there isn’t.
Similar. Looks as if they had fun.
Office of the Speaker of the House
Back to 2026: I hesitated before sharing this—not to reopen old arguments, but because writing matters most when it serves as a record, not just a product. This is what I wrote at the time, unchanged, before hindsight had a chance to reshape it. You can read the original here, too.
7 other things worth the time it takes you to read them
Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism charges in New York and told a judge he was ‘kidnapped’ by the United States. The U.S. Department of State took to X to declare ‘This is OUR Hemisphere,’ afterward, adding: ‘President Trump will not allow our security to be threatened.’ Related-ish: “Trump hints at more military invasions. Here are the countries to watch.” The list includes Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, and Greenland. (Daily Mail, Axios)
An unkonwn person took an initial $96 wager last month on the cypto-based betting platform Polymarket that the U.S. would invade Venuzuela, then bet another $15,000 or so during the week while the U.S. military secretly prepared to act, and then made an additional $20,000 in bets the final 80 minutes before the attack, netting him or her a total of $410,000 and fueling suspicions that someone with inside knowledge used it to make a quick profit. (WSJ)
The mother of one of Elon Musk’s children has said she felt “horrified and violated” after fans of the near-trillionaire used Musk’s AI tool, Grok, to create fake sexualized images of her. Musk’s Grok has come under fire after has been used to virtually undress images of women and children, and show them in compromising sexualized positions. (The Guardian; X link to a comparatively mild but live example, distributed to about 140,000 people)
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, announced Monday that he is ending his bid for reelection. The reversal marks a major shake-up in Minnesota politics heading into the 2026 midterms. Sagging approval ratings and intensified scrutiny into fraud in state safety net programs in recent months has fueled nerves among Democrats and calls for Walz to step aside. (Axios)
The QAnon Shaman turned against Trump. Now he’s running for Arizona governor: Jake Angeli calls the president’s administration a ‘corrupt disaster’ despite being pardoned for January 6. Now he has a plan to cancel the national debt. (The Times)
Betty Boop and “Blondie” are joining Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh in the public domain. The first appearances of the classic cartoon and comic characters are among the pieces of intellectual property whose 95-year U.S. copyright maximum has been reached, putting them in the public domain as of Jan. 1. That means creators can use and repurpose them without permission or payment. (AP)
Respondents to an annual Michigan college survey of overused and misused words and phrases say “ 6-7 ” is “cooked” and should come to a massive full-stop heading into the new year. Those are among the top 10 words on the 50th annual “Banished Words List,” released Thursday by Lake Superior State University. Also in the top 10 are “demure,” “incentivize,” “my bad” and “reach out.” “My bad” and “reach out” also made the list decades ago — in 1998 and 1994, respectively. (AP)
Thanks for reading. Photo by Aaron Andrew Ang on Unsplash. I wrote about some of this before at Inc.com. See you in the comments.
It was true then and still true today no matter what the insurrectionists or their enablers say. These people were breaking the law and now most of them walk free. Something ain’t right. Stop rewriting history enablers.
Thank you for reposting this. It couldn't have been the easiest decision, knowing how every click matters to your livelihood. But if there are readers who think the insurrectionists of January 6th were "patriots", or "tourists", and that their enablers in Congress were anything but treasonous, they need to have this mirror held up in front of them again and again and again.