SPLITTERS.

 I've unlocked a newsletter item on the recent rash of secession stories -- which are a lot like other secession rashes that have flared up since the Obama years, because guess why. 

The example of January 6 at the Capitol has perhaps added salience to these fantasies. While conservatives have been trying to downplay the attempted coup as a celebration of freedom that just got a little out of hand, portraying the violence as insignificant and even suggesting the attackers didn't really kill Officer Sicknick, they're also beginning to use the attack as a warning of how far their goons may be willing to go if they don't get their way. 

At National Review Dan McLaughlin castigates the Supreme Court for kicking out a challenge to Pennsylvania's three-day extension of its citizens' vote-by-mail deadline in 2020. McLaughlin approves of and echoes the fit Justice Clarence Thomas threw over that decision, which in turn mirrors the election-fraud bullshit that Republicans are actively using to keep the Spirit of January 6 alive among its rabble. At the end of his column McLaughlin warns:

But the Court should have decided this case now, if not earlier. This issue will not go away, and it may return next time surrounded by the same sorts of popular rage that led to the Capitol riot. This was the time for cooler heads to say what the law is.

The description of the Capitol coup crew's rage as "popular" may seem weird to you, considering how badly the thing polls, until you realize that it only has to be popular among conservatives for McLaughlin to credit it as such. It's like old-time Southern Democrats and the KKK -- they don't want their prints on it, but they definitely want you scared enough to do what they say.