Concerns that the COVID-19 vaccine may lose some of its effectiveness over time are leading to recommended booster shots eight months later. And eight months after the January 6 insurrection, America is going to get a fresh reminder that it is still infected by right-wing white supremacists ready to tear down democracy. On September 18, Washington D.C. is going to host a rally in support of the insurgents. As the Associated Press reports, police officials are “increasingly concerned” about how that rally intends to “demand justice” for the hundreds of people charged with crimes related to January 6.

That increasing police concern is coming as, on Thursday morning, a truck sits across from the Library of Congress, where the Associated Press reports a man is threatening to detonate a bomb.

Congress is in recess; staffers have been escorted out, and multiple buildings have been evacuated in the area. Police snipers have taken up positions around the suspect vehicle. As of noon, the Supreme Court buildings were also being evacuated.

Thursday, Aug 19, 2021 · 5:16:00 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Thursday, Aug 19, 2021 · 5:16:41 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Roseberry’s Facebook page has now been taken down.

Thursday, Aug 19, 2021 · 5:20:11 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Why aren’t police simply shooting? Because in his rambling statement Roseberry claimed to have a dead man’s switch, and indicated there are four “other bombs.” 

“You take me out, you will never know where the other four are until they go off. Chain reaction.”

Thursday, Aug 19, 2021 · 5:31:09 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Images from Roseberry’s now missing Facebook page supposedly showcased an array of assault weapons. It’s unclear if he has any of these weapons with him in the truck.

Thursday, Aug 19, 2021 · 5:32:24 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Also in the video was an image of Roseberry cradling what could be his bomb. If so, it’s small enough to be the object that police have noticed behind the driver seat of his truck.

Thursday, Aug 19, 2021 · 5:37:48 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Spoiler alert: This is not going to end with Roseberry going home to his wife.

Thursday, Aug 19, 2021 · 5:40:13 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

The suspicious package that cause a partial evacuation of Times Square has now been cleared. 

Thursday, Aug 19, 2021 · 5:48:01 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

And of course, there is now a Floyd Roseberry parody Twitter account. Just pointing that out before it starts getting quoted.

Thursday, Aug 19, 2021 · 6:01:56 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

It appears now that Roseberry actually livestreamed his bomb threats for hours before someone at Facebook managed to find the switch. If anyone learned anything from events on Jan. 6, it certainly wasn’t them.

Thursday, Aug 19, 2021 · 6:05:50 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Police statement. 

Thursday, Aug 19, 2021 · 6:19:10 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

A reminder of why we’re supposed to be scared of Afghan refugees. 

Thursday, Aug 19, 2021 · 6:20:24 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

MAGA terrorist Roseberry has reportedly surrendered to police.

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            Thursday, Aug 19, 2021 ·  6:30:40 PM +00:00

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      Mark Sumner
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The bomb threat is unresolved as of this writing, but it is only increasing the tension as Washington, D.C.., heads toward a rally in which super-racist white militia members are expected to openly join in the celebration of the “patriots” who battered police, pushed down fences, smashed windows, broke through doors, and smeared excrement on the halls of Congress while hunting for political leaders to execute. Whether the new rally will come complete with new gallows isn’t clear. The new event could fizzle, as did calls for other rallies in the immediate wake of the violent insurgency. Or it could showcase how much the right has worked to normalize insurrection since January.

In the last eight months, Republicans in Congress, along with right-wing media, have conspicuously not condemned the events of Jan. 6 and have regularly taken up the cause of those arrested for their violent acts. It seems more than probable that many of those members will be more than happy to join those organizing the “Justice for January 6” rally.

The truck currently idling near the Capitol is a pickup, not a closed van, so it’s unlikely there’s any kind of large, low-explosive weapon like the ammonium nitrate bomb used by Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City attack. This would seem to be not so much a “truck bomb” as a man in a truck claiming to have a bomb. Some reports indicate that the man claims to have a propane tank in the truck, which would generate relatively little damage beyond his immediate vicinity if true. However, that doesn’t mean the man sitting in that truck isn’t potentially armed with a high-explosive device that could generate significant force. Some reports indicate that the man is holding a detonator, which could mean a bomb is already in place at another location. 

It certainly doesn’t mean that this event is generating any less tension.

In the summer of 2020, Donald Trump ordered his own little wall in the form of a series of new fences around the White House and surrounding areas. More barriers went up at the Capitol following Jan. 6, and, for weeks, National Guard forces stood ready for any resumption of violence.

But the National Guard has gone home. Most of the barriers put up in the last year have come down. Washington has returned to something close to normal operations—or as normal as things can be in the midst of a deadly pandemic. 

The largest group behind the Sep. 18 rally, Look Ahead America, has already had small gatherings outside the D.C. municipal jail and the Department of Justice. As The Washingtonian reports, those smaller rallies were attended by the usual rogues’ gallery of Republicans who are anxious to affix their names to any attack on the nation—including Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Louie Gohmert, and Paul Gosar. Now they, and likely many others, will have a chance to join a rally that is out to fight “the phony insurrection narrative.”

Though the leader of Look Ahead America claims the rally is intended to be “100% peaceful,” he also says that thousands are expected to attend. Those thousands are likely to include members of the Proud Boys and other white nationalist militias that were instrumental in organizing and directing violence against the Capitol on Jan. 6. Other communications have declared that the goal is for the rally to be “massive.”

As the Associated Press reports, former acting police chief Yogananda Pittman is back in her old role as the head of intelligence for the Capitol Police. Pittman has faced criticism from inside and outside police ranks for failing to prepare for the size of the crowd and violence that came with the Jan. 6 assault. The Associated Press reports that it has obtained “four separate Capitol Police intelligence assessments in December and January that warned that crowds could number in the tens of thousands and include members of extremists groups.”  

However, it seems unlikely that anyone will go into the Sep. 18 rally unprepared. And what’s happening on Thursday certainly isn’t going to calm anyone’s fraying nerves.

Pipe bombs were left outside both the DNC and RNC headquarters the evening before the Jan. 6 assault. Both were removed without exploding, but their discovery provided a distraction that directed the necessary police force away from the Capitol building during the assault by Trump supporters. Though security cameras captured images of a hooded figure believed responsible for leaving those bombs, no one has been arrested in connection. It’s not known if the potential truck bomber is in any way connected to those devices.