For those who missed it yesterday when it was circulating on social media, here’s what “back the blue” meant to some of the cretins who descended on the Capitol last Wednesday. I don’t know for a fact that the cop being attacked is Officer Sicknick but I’d be amazed if the person who took this beating survived it.

See this photo and watch the video to get a fuller sense of what happened: https://t.co/SdvBvLVq1A pic.twitter.com/SSpmbiJG4Q

— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) January 10, 2021

The chanting of “USA!” while the mob unleashes is the sort of too-sinister dystopian flourish that would make you roll your eyes if it were fiction. As would the fact that the president whose fans did this refused to lower the flags at the White House to half-staff in honor of Sicknick until yesterday afternoon, following days of complaints about his curious refusal.

And it was mostly his fans who were at the Capitol, not Antifa. We knew that already, but in case there was any doubt:

The insurrectionist mob that showed up at the president’s behest and stormed the U.S. Capitol was overwhelmingly made up of longtime Trump supporters, including Republican Party officials, GOP political donors, far-right militants, white supremacists, members of the military and adherents of the QAnon myth that the government is secretly controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophile cannibals. Records show that some were heavily armed and included convicted criminals, such as a Florida man recently released from prison for attempted murder.

The Associated Press reviewed social media posts, voter registrations, court files and other public records for more than 120 people either facing criminal charges related to the Jan. 6 unrest or who, going maskless amid the pandemic, were later identified through photographs and videos taken during the melee…

The AP found that many of the rioters had taken to social media after the November election to retweet and parrot false claims by Trump that the vote had been stolen in a vast international conspiracy. Several had openly threatened violence against Democrats and Republicans they considered insufficiently loyal to the president. During the riot, some livestreamed and posted photos of themselves at the Capitol. Afterwards, many bragged about what they had done.

Another Capitol Police officer is in the news today. Eugene Goodman made it out alive, but only after he risked his own life to distract the approaching mob from the Senate. Watch NBC explain the sequence of events. Goodman seems to have recognized that the entrance to the Senate chamber was wide open and unguarded as the mob climbed the stairs. If they had turned right upon reaching the second floor, they would have been right at the entrance. So Goodman baited them into following him to the left. There are calls today on Twitter for Biden to give him the Medal of Freedom. God only knows how many senators would have beaten like the cop in the clip above absent Goodman’s quick thinking.

New details are emerging about the heroic effort of an officer to protect people inside the Capitol last week. Meanwhile, fellow cops are paying tribute to fallen officer Brian Sicknick. @kasie has the details. pic.twitter.com/REz8pDGI6c

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) January 11, 2021

In lieu of an exit question, watch another video that circulated widely yesterday. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Kristallnacht analogy is overbaked — we’re not at that level of widespread coordinated mob violence yet — but his heart’s in the right place. (Plus, there’s a cameo from Conan the Barbarian’s sword.) And it’s certainly not the worst Kristallnacht comparison percolating in major media today. Not by a long shot.

My message to my fellow Americans and friends around the world following this week's attack on the Capitol. pic.twitter.com/blOy35LWJ5

— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) January 10, 2021