'They were terrorists'

Harry Dunn, a 13-year veteran of the U.S. Capitol Police Department, who was on duty on Jan. 6, spoke publicly about the assault on the Capitol for the first time yesterday. Dunn praised his fellow officers, including Ofc. Brian Sicknick, who lost his life in the attack, but did not mince words regarding the insurrectionists. "They beat police officers with Blue Lives Matter flags. They fought us, they had Confederate flags in the U.S. Capitol," he said. "They tried to disrupt this country's democracy—that was their goal ... And you know what? Y'all failed because later that night, they went on and they certified the election." —ABC News

• — First Senate hearing. Four law enforcement officials are answering questions today about what led to the mob violence at the Capitol. Witnesses include Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and acting D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee III, as well as former House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving and former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger. An FBI warning of potential violence reached the Capitol Police on the eve of the attack, but Sund, Irving, and Stenger testified that they did not see it. —The Washington Post
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• — A problem everywhere. The U.S. isn't the only country facing a violent extremist problem. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned yesterday that white supremacy and neo-Nazi movements are becoming a "transnational threat." Addressing the UN Human Rights Council, Guterres said, "Far too often, these hate groups are cheered on by people in positions of responsibility in ways that were considered unimaginable not long ago. We need global coordinated action to defeat this grave and growing danger." —Reuters
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• — Jihadism still a threat too. As right-wing extremism rises, jihadism persists as well, particularly in Europe. Six separate terrorist attacks took place in Europe between late September and late November of last year—three in France, and one each in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. All six were inspired by Salafi-jihadist ideology, which will remain a persistent terrorism threat to the West for the foreseeable future. —World Politics Review

Merrick Garland finally gets a hearing

Judge Merrick Garland testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday as part of his confirmation process for attorney general. Asked how he would handle the investigation of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, he pledged to follow all leads "wherever they take us." He added, "We must do everything in the power of the Justice Department to prevent this kind of interference with the policies of American democratic institutions, and I plan, if you confirm me for attorney general, to do everything in my power to ensure that we are protected." Garland's nomination is expected to clear the Judiciary Committee and head to a full Senate vote. —BuzzFeed News

MORE: White House stands behind Tanden as opposition mounts —The Hill

Montini: A Stalinist disinfo law in Arizona

"[Arizona] House Bill 2569 would deny election officials from receiving either private or public funds to combat disinformation about elections. During the discussion, Rep. John Kavanagh, doing his best Uncle Joe Stalin imitation, actually said, 'One person's disinformation is another person's truth.' No. Disinformation is the opposite of truth. Supporting disinformation is supporting lies. Worse than that, however, is a group of lawmakers not just supporting the spread of lies, but trying to protect those lies with a law. It's right out of the Communist Party playbook." —EJ Montini in The Arizona Republic

EJ Montini is a news columnist at The Arizona Republic.

MORE: Social media giants release code to fight disinfo —ABC News

Dealing with 'humanitarian catastrophe' in Iran

President Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Sunday that the U.S. has begun to communicate with Iran over the detention of American citizens. Iran has arrested several Americans in recent years, mostly on espionage charges, in a bid to win concessions from other countries, according to human rights activists. "We will not accept a long-term proposition where they continue to hold Americans in an unjust and unlawful manner," Sullivan said. Communications between Tehran and Washington are being conducted via the Swiss embassy. —The Guardian

MORE: U.S. wants to 'strengthen' Iran nuclear deal —Deutsche Welle

OWH Ed Board: Election reform we can all agree on

"[P]oll numbers show the urgent need for a bipartisan commission to examine the electoral system. It should be led by independent experts, balanced by a limited number of politicians from both parties, to definitively examine the 2020 conspiracy theories, identify weaknesses, and recommend best practices to the states to rebuild confidence as best we can." —Omaha World Herald

MORE: Dominion Voting sues MyPillow CEO for $1.3 billion —Forbes

Focus on election reform

The 2020 election was marred by falsehoods that ultimately led to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In response, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday to focus on the role of cable providers in "the spread of dangerous misinformation." Invited to the hearing, called "Fanning the Flames: Disinformation and Extremism in the Media," are Comcast, AT&T, Spectrum, Dish, Verizon, Cox, and Altice. Stay tuned. —The New York Times

• — Nebraska. The Nebraska legislature's executive board heard arguments last week for the Redistricting Act, which aims to eliminate politics from the once-a-decade redrawing of the state's political districts. Legislative Bill 107 would restructure the redistricting committee and prohibit partisan demographic data, including residents' party affiliation and voting records, from being used to draw district boundaries. —Norfolk Daily News
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• — New York. A coalition of voting groups are seeking changes to how New Yorkers cast ballots in elections. No-excuse absentee voting, same-day registration of voters, and an automatic restoration of voting rights for former inmates after incarceration are among the measures being pursued, with some support from state lawmakers. —Spectrum News NY 1
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• — Washington. State lawmakers in Washington are considering a bill that would allow cities, counties, port districts, and other local jurisdictions to start using ranked-choice voting as soon as 2024. House Bill 1156 has passed out of the House State Government & Tribal Relations and Appropriations committees, with four Republicans joining the committees' Democrats in approving it. —The News Tribune

Gerson: The party's over at the GOP

"Post-Trump Republicans have generally lost their standing to engage in these debates. Fiscal prudence? You've got to be kidding. Trump increased the national debt by some $7.8 trillion—nearly double the aggregate debt of Americans (not including their mortgages). Executive overreach? Come now. Trump was impeached for inciting a mob to attack the Capitol in an effort to overturn the constitutional order. Elected Republicans who cheered Trump are not just hypocrites on these matters. They are jokes. From an ideological perspective, the Republican Party is a patient without a pulse. The only real question: Are we ready to declare time of death?" —Michael Gerson in The Washington Post

Michael Gerson is a columnist at The Washington Post who formerly served as a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the chief speechwriter for former President George W. Bush.

The recent crisis in Texas, and the comments made by the governor of Texas, highlight a clear example of how the GOP relies on its "followers" to be uninformed/misinformed. The leaders of the GOP provide the misinformation/lies and play people for being just plain dumb. In the meantime, they call educated people "elitists," while many of them are well-educated themselves and went to the schools they knock. In truth, it is an educated, informed populace that worries them—people they cannot control because they can see through their BS.

Let's take Gov. Abbott of Texas and his claims about windmills and solar being the cause of the state's outage and crisis. He relies on his "followers" not being educated/informed of the fact that windmills and solar perform just fine in much colder places around the world than Texas was last week. But hey, own the libs, deny climate change, deny science, and your followers believe and parrot the nonsense. He blames the technology and science, rather than things like poor upkeep (if any), poor resource planning (if any), and so on. Or the fact that Texas has its own self-contained grid. And of course, he deflects all responsibility from himself. But the libs do not control Texas, so if windmills are so bad, why does Texas have them? Oh, right.

Here are a couple clues for the misinformed/uninformed. Windmills (wind farms) exist in Iowa and Nebraska, states just north of Texas. They also exist on Ross Island, which is off Antarctica. I've never been to Antarctica, but I am pretty sure it gets colder there than in Texas. There are wind farms in Sweden too—yes, designed and maintained to work, and they do so year-round in much colder areas than Texas. —Bill T., Arizona

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