Josh First's Blog

January 6th is the modern July 4th

January 6th is traditionally the date upon which the previous national election is certified in the US Congress, in Washington, DC, barring any discrepancies or challenges.

Certification implies a process, and any process implies steps and checks and balances. An election cannot possibly be automatically certified. What the hell would that rubber stamp prove? Certification in its fullest meaning means that all of the questions have been answered, any outstanding challenges have been resolved, and everyone or most of everyone involved is on board.

Certifiying an election means that it is a kosher product, unadulterated and without question legitimate.

And so while tomorrow Congress is supposed to stick around DC to certify President Donald Trump’s electoral success last November, it appears an imminent snow storm has sent most congresscritters squawking for shelter. Which leaves us with the opportunity to reflect upon just what meaning January 6th has taken on since the January 6th of 2021.

I participated in a peaceful protest in Washington, DC, on January 6th 2021. Originally gathering at the Washington Monument, around 1:40PM we eventually started walking down Constitution Avenue to the US Capitol, where we were supposed to peacefully show our displeasure at the obvious rubber stamping of a blatantly stolen 2020 election.

At this point, my memory of exactly where we ended up standing out in front of the Capitol is lost to the haze of time and age. However, I recall standing on a large stone plaza with a lot of other American patriots, many of whom waved American flags and other types of flags (Gadsden, many Trump themes, gay, Vietnamese) while peacefully milling around. We were facing the Capitol and about forty feet away was a line of metal barricades.

Out of the blue an unexpected and unearned rain of flashbangs and other explosive munitions were launched into our midst, while I personally watched peaceful protestors standing in front of the barricades get shot directly in their faces with explosives by the police officers who we thought were there to protect us from Antifa thugs (I saw several protestors with destroyed faces stumbling away from the barricades). I also watch police officers lean across the barricades and spray chemical irritants into the faces of peaceful protestors, as well as smash people in the head with their batons. I myself was shot many times with rubber bullets by a single determined police officer, who seemed to be trying to hit my face, but who instead hit my chest and shoulders (a picture of some of them below that I brought back with me).

Like many other peaceful protestors gathered around me, I was also gassed several times by pepper and tear gas munitions fired by the police out over the barricades and into our peaceful gathering. Being gassed is an awful experience. Mind you, none of us were doing anything but singing the national anthem and other patriotc songs, as well as breaking out into spontaneous chants of USA! USA! USA! We were standing exactly where we were supposed to be standing. We did not deserve to be shot, gassed, bludgeoned, or blown up by the police who were sworn to protect us.

The fallout from January 6th 2021 has only begun.

January 6th was nothing like the fake presentations done by the corrupt US House January 6th Committee, which dubbed in riot sounds over the silent CCTV footage they carefully cobbled together. Nothing like the ridiculous narrative told by the mainstream media. The vast majority of protestors on January 6th were peaceful, if ultimately shocked by the illegal brutality rained down upon them by uniformed police officers.

We expect a great deal of investigation to be done this year, into the official lawlessness and criminal police brutality we protestors experienced. Only a small handful of people were in or near the Capitol or its doorways, and only a handful engaged in real violence against the police. The rest of us deserve justice, and especially those political prisoners who have been languishing away without receiving a speedy trial, often in solitary confinement, since their violent arrests in 2021.

If American citizens receive huge pay-outs for minor injuries incurred from violent police officers, then what are people like me entitled to? My right eye still has a purple clot in it that I got from the gas or pepper spray on January 6th. I still carry emotional trauma from that violent experience, not to mention the several subsequent visits I received from FBI agents, who told me up front that I had committed no crimes on January 6th, but that they “just wanted to talk with me.” Like mafia goons. Their lawlessness is breathtaking.

Other Americans were seriously injured and permanently disabled by the police on that terrible day. The January 6th political prisoners have undergone years of torture and beatings in prison. All of these people deserve just compensation, and I really hope we will get it.

If nothing else, January 6th 2021 was the modern day Kent State or even the new July 4th (recall that on January 6th four protestors were killed by police, and zero police – none, nada – were killed by the protestors). We, The People stood up to the lawless thieves and power-hungry tyrants of our time, challenged their phony election certification, declared our ownership of the government they hijacked and our independence from their tyranny.

With the 2024 election of freedom-fighter Donald John Trump, we have ultimately prevailed, despite the legacy media constantly lying about us and about what really happened on January 6th, 2021.

I stood in the vicinity of the red scratch mark on the plaza

Rubber bullets that hit Josh 1/6/21