Four Years Later, the Jan. 6, 2021, Insurrection Is Downplayed and Disregarded–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Jan. 6, 2025

Indy Digest: Jan. 6, 2025

Today marks the four-year anniversary of the insurrection at the Capitol.

Despite the violence and the horrors of that day, the country has returned the man largely responsible for that chaos to office. It’s almost certain that many of the perpetrators of that chaos will soon be pardoned.

The New York Times today published a story with interviews of some of the people who have been prosecuted. Here’s the start of that piece:

In the past four years, nearly 1,600 people have been prosecuted in connection with the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Some were accused of felonies like assault or seditious conspiracy and are still in prison. But hundreds charged with lesser crimes have wrapped up their cases and returned to their lives.

Jan. 6 was a turning point for everyone involved. In breaching the Capitol, a mob of Trump loyalists caused millions of dollars in damage, injured more than 140 police officers and, for the first time in American history, chased lawmakers away from their duty to certify a presidential election.

The attack also prompted the largest single investigation the Justice Department has ever undertaken, leading to arrests in all 50 states. Ever since, the defendants have been held to account in Washington’s federal courthouse, blocks away from the Capitol itself, for their roles in undermining a bedrock of democracy, the peaceful transfer of power.

While some have come to regret their actions on that day, others do not. At best, they say they have seen the realities of the criminal justice system, becoming more sympathetic to the plights of others facing prosecution. At worst, they remain convinced that the system treated them unfairly, hardened by their brushes with the law.

The judges who have overseen Capitol riot cases have routinely pushed back on that idea.

“I have been shocked to watch some public figures try to rewrite history, claiming rioters behaved ‘in an orderly fashion’ like ordinary tourists, or martyrizing convicted Jan. 6 defendants as ‘political prisoners’ or even, incredibly, ‘hostages,’” Judge Royce C. Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, said in court last year. “That is all preposterous.”

Still, President-elect Donald J. Trump has promised to pardon many, maybe most, of the rioters as soon as he takes office and could shut down the broad investigation into the Capitol attack.

I looked back on the Digest I wrote on that day four years ago. I concluded the introduction with this: “Jan. 6, 2021, is a day that will go into history books as one of the most awful moments in our nation’s history, because the words—of a narcissistic leader who is desperate to remain in power after losing an election—mattered.”

I was, in some ways, incorrect. Almost immediately after Jan. 6, 2021, an effort to revise history—to make us forget, downplay or disregard what we all saw with our own eyes that day—began. The thing I can not get over is how quickly some of the very members of Congress who had to evacuate to safety that day became enablers of that effort, in a craven, partisan, shameless effort to retain power.

There’s no question that effort succeeded. Two weeks from today, Donald Trump will be president again. Many of Trump’s enablers remain in office. Most of the people who tried to stop the certification of the election on that day will likely be pardoned.

I am having a hard time wrapping my head around this … but it’s reality. And it’s shameful.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• The proposed Chuckwalla National Monument will soon become a reality. We’ll soon have an in-depth story on this at CVIndependent.com soon—likely tomorrow—but for now, here’s a CBS News piece with the basics. A snippet: “President Biden plans to add another national monument, this one near Joshua Tree National Park, and is making plans to travel to California in the coming days to dedicate the Chuckwalla National Monument, according to people familiar with the matter. Some Native American tribes, environmentalists and members of Congress have been pushing Mr. Biden to set aside land for the proposed Chuckwalla monument, which lies between the Colorado River and Coachella Valley in Southern California.“

• Gov. Gavin Newsom said today he would be proposing a $322 billion budget with no deficit this year. However, that comes with a lot of caveats. The Los Angeles Times reports: “The early, yet incomplete look at his proposal shows that Newsom’s annual spending plan has grown by $24 billion compared to the current budget enacted in July. The governor announced a projection of an extra $16.5 billion in tax revenue above his administration’s prior estimates, which the Department of Finance said is spread over three years. The proposal kicks off the annual six-month process in which the governor and lawmakers negotiate a final spending plan to be approved in late June. … Despite the revenue increase, the cost of providing Medi-Cal coverage to seniors and more undocumented immigrants, offering pre-kindergarten to all 4-year-olds, creating a new $420-million tax break for Hollywood film studios and funding other signature Newsom policies leaves California with a spending problem. Newsom’s office said he plans to withdraw another $7.1 billion from California’s rainy day reserves in the upcoming budget year, after declaring a fiscal emergency last year to take out $5.1 billion to balance the current budget and another $900 million from a safety-net reserve.”

• The Associated Press’ piece on Newsom’s budget preview emphasized another unknown: Will Trump punish California by taking away federal dollars? The piece says: “… The budget Newsom announced Monday is mostly a placeholder as California waits to see if incoming President Donald Trump will follow through on threats to revoke billions in federal dollars, which could force lawmakers to make painful cuts to essential programs. About a third of California’s budget relies on funding from the federal government, including tens of billions of dollars to provide health care services. Trump takes office on Jan. 20, and Newsom must sign the final budget by the end of June.”

• Ann Telnaes, a Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist, has resigned from The Washington Post after editors killed her cartoon depicting various people and entities—including Jeff Bezos, owner of the newspaper—kneeling and offering cash to President-elect Trump. Here’s an explanation from Telnaes herself, and here’s an NPR story which includes a rebuttal from Telnaes’ editor, who claims the strip was spiked simply because it was too similar to other Post coverage. I’ll let you decide where the truth lies. All I’ll say is this: If journalists are supposed to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable,” The Washington Post’s owner and editorial page are NOT doing what journalists are supposed to do.

• A court decision made last week on net neutrality has not gotten the attention it should have, because it could have a MASSIVE effect on all sorts of internet-related matters—but only in some states, and not in California. The Los Angeles Times explains: “Despite the dismantling of the Federal Communications Commission’s efforts to regulate broadband internet service, state laws in California, New York and elsewhere remain intact. This week’s decision by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, striking down the FCC’s open internet rules, has little bearing on state laws enacted during the years-long tug-of-war over the government’s power to regulate internet service providers, telecommunications experts said. … ‘Absent an act of Congress, the FCC has virtually no role in broadband any more.’ Ernesto Falcon, a program manager for the California Public Utilities Commission, said in an interview. ‘The result of this decision is that states like California, New York and others will have to govern and regulate broadband carriers on our own.’ California has one of the nation’s strongest laws on net neutrality, the principle that internet traffic must be treated equally to ensure a free and open network. Former Gov. Jerry Brown signed the measure into law in 2018, months after federal regulators in President elect-Donald Trump’s first administration repealed the net neutrality rules put in place under President Obama. Colorado, Oregon and other states also adopted their own standards.”

• Is your vehicle violating your privacy by secretly collecting data about you? That’s a question being raised by the investigation into the incident involving the Tesla Cybertruck at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. The Associated Press reports: “Within hours of the New Year’s Day explosion that burned the driver beyond recognition and injured seven, Tesla was able to track Matthew Livelsberger’s movements in detail from Denver to Las Vegas, and also confirm that the problem was explosives in the truck, not the truck itself. Tesla used data collected from charging stations and from onboard software—and to great acclaim. ‘I have to thank Elon Musk, specifically,’ said Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill to reporters. ‘He gave us quite a bit of additional information.’ Some privacy experts were less enthusiastic. ‘It reveals the kind of sweeping surveillance going on,’ said David Choffnes, executive director of the Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute at Northeastern University in Boston. ‘When something bad happens, it’s helpful, but it’s a double edged sword. Companies that collect this data can abuse it.’”

• And finally … did you know some people who have their tonsils removed will re-grow them? It’s true. Here’s the lede from a recent CNN story: “In the summer of 1983, Katy Golden’s mom had stocked their kitchen in the suburbs of Detroit with Popsicles and bubble gum. Golden was 5 years old and about to have her tonsils removed to help with some ear issues she’d had since she was an infant. The procedure seemed to go well; her recovery was similar to that of many other kids she knew who also had their tonsils removed, and she was back to her talkative self in what felt like no time. But just a few weeks ago, Golden stopped at a supermarket to pick up two packs of grape bubble gum because she was about to have her tonsils removed—again.” It’s rare, but it happens; read the piece to learn more!

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