Take a long look at the image above. This is the Capitol of the United States four days after the siege of Trump supporters on January 6. The entire area around the Capitol, like that surrounding the White House and the Executive Office Building, is cordoned off by 7-foot high fencing. No one is permitted to enter Lafayette Park across from the White House, The closest you can get now is on foot and you are still at an extreme distance. The White House is all but invisible. The images below were taken with a long lens and do not accurately reflect how far away we were kept by the police stationed around the perimeter.

By now everyone is aware that the sitting president of the United States, having overwhelmingly lost the 2020 election, has, along with his Republican co-conspirators in Congress and at the White House, undertaken a campaign of false claims that the election was “stolen” by a country-wide cabal of liberal Democrats aided by certain Republicans in battleground states. Unwilling to accept the overwhelming evidence, including the judgment of some of his closest enablers like the just-former Attorney General William Barr, Trump decided to force the issue by disrupting the final Congressional process of counting, verifying and accepting the states’ certification of their Electoral College votes. He summoned his supporters to Washington on January 6, the day Congress would meet, gave an incendiary speech and directed the throng of screaming Trumpists to go to the Capitol where the Congress was meeting “to steal the election” from him. He said he would be with them, but that, of course, was just another Trump lie. The rest is history, labeled by many as one of the darkest days the country has ever seen.

Trump’s “army” assaulted the Capitol, inadequately defended by the Capitol Police, many of whom appeared on video to welcome the intruders. The attack was responsible for the death of one police officer, led to the death of one mob member on the verge of forcing her way into the room immediately outside the House chamber, and came close to reaching the members of Congress deliberating there. Three mob members died of medical problems in the heat of the attack.

So it has come to pass that the nation’s Capitol resembles a country being attacked by foreign armies. Members of the National Guard are stationed at various locations around the Capitol to guard the congressional office buildings. Trump has encouraged the mob to return and disrupt the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The various chat boards favored by right-wing conspiracy nuts are alive with phantasmagorical claims and assertions of intention to effectively take over the government on Trump’s behalf.

This may seem comical and absurd to some, but I assure you it is deadly serious. The mob that assaulted the Capitol were laughing and high-fiving each other after what they regarded as an easy and overwhelming victory. Man of them are now being arrested around the country and face serious federal criminal charges. Like some gang members, the prospect of “doing time” in support of Trump is seen as a badge of honor in their delusional imaginations.

Trump’s claims are preposterous — unsupported by evidence, rejected by multiple courts — yet, right after the Capitol invasion Republican Party officials had a party at Amelia Island to celebrate Trump and their accomplishments. There is no reason to think Trump is ready to face reality. He believes he is immune from accountability, as he has been throughout his life. Trump has turned the national capital into a dark place, fencing off the People’s House and now the citadel of freedom that the Capitol Building signifies to the world. The time to put a stop to Donald Trump’s presidency is at hand, It would be a grave mistake to underestimate his willingness to destroy the country to avoid the reckoning he rightly fears.

These images illustrate the extent and appearance of the fencing that seals off the White House, Supreme Court, Executive Office Building and Capitol.

Black Lives Matter Plaza is one of the closest approaches that can now be made to the White House. It is the site of a peace vigil and other elements.

The National Guard on the job and it is likely that many more are stationed close by but out of sight; I am not prepared to believe that the federal government will let itself be surprised and understaffed a second time:

Finally, do not despair. The republic will survive this challenge as it has others led by more serious foes than Donald Trump. These still fly outside the fencing:

Long may it wave.