Retired Lieutenant Colonel is identified as the MAGA rioter in body armor carrying zip ties

[MyOwnPeace]

54. About the "flag guy"........

From Charles Pierce, writer for Esquire:

The guy with the Confederate battle flag was walking through my favorite spot in the Capitol: just outside the Senate chamber, and to the right as you walk over from the House of Representatives. On the walls around that corner are portraits of Henry Clay, who tried to keep the country from coming apart by cutting deals with the slave power, and John C. Calhoun, who provided the philosophical basis for why those deals were futile, and Charles Sumner, who was beaten half to death at his desk in the Senate chamber, which was one of the first signs that Clay’s compromises were futile because Calhoun’s philosophy had triumphed over them, as much of the country knew it would. And there was the banner of its triumph, being walked past the chamber of the United States Senate, its meaning well-understood by the insurrectionist who bought it. A couple of days later, Josh Delaney, a Black staffer in the office of Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the woman holding the seat that once belonged to Charles Sumner, wrote in The Boston Globe:



Growing up in Georgia, I saw that flag several times a week in front of homes, restaurants, and stores as a symbol of hate that carried a simple message: You are not welcomed here. But this was the first time I’d seen that message on display at my place of work. I’ve walked the halls of Congress so often that I probably take for granted how my very presence in the building is a miracle — the result of years of hard-fought civil rights victories and justice work. And consequently, a threat to racists and white nationalists who wish to take us back to whenever they perceived America was “great.” I spent most of the afternoon letting friends know I was OK and safe, but this photo made me realize, no, I’m not. And the rioters in that mob did not intend for me or my colleagues to feel safe.



https://link.newsletter.esquire.com/view/59d4186d1acbcda1518b5027dggmv.8xr/0ff2c604