"A man who parked a truck carrying a guillotine in the heart of Washington was arrested by the United States Capitol Police on Tuesday...."

"The police arrested Philan-Tam-Duy Le, 35, of Julian, Calif., for 'being in possession of the guillotine,' the department said in the statement. He was charged with carrying a dangerous weapon. 'It did have a real blade,' the police’s public information office said.... The man had driven to the nation’s capital from California, the police said. The truck was parked not far from the Library of Congress and other prominent Washington buildings.... It was unclear whether Mr. Le had driven the truck across the country with the guillotine on it, a journey that could have been more than 2,500 miles."

From "Man Accused of Bringing Guillotine to D.C. Is Arrested/Philan-Tam-Duy Le, 35, of Julian, Calif., was taken into custody for 'being in possession of the guillotine,' the police said" (NYT).

Is "being in possession of a guillotine" a crime? There's this at Law Commentary:

D.C. law bans several weapons by name, including machine guns, sawed-off shotguns, switchblade knives, and knuckles. It also covers other dangerous weapons when someone possesses them with the intent to use them unlawfully against another person. A guillotine is not specifically listed.... Prosecutors must establish that it qualifies as a dangerous weapon under the law and address the required intent....

D.C.’s highest local court applied that rule last year in Carrington v. United States, throwing out a weapons conviction involving an umbrella because prosecutors had not shown that it was likely to cause death or serious injury in the way it was used....

 The police asked Le if it worked and he said, "Yeah, it’s the real deal, man."

"Madison’s independent police monitor told News 3 Now that she stands by her words after she was seen on video Tuesday saying she 'will burn this city down.'"

Channel 3000 reports. 

“That comment is a metaphor,” [Aeiramique] Glass told News 3 Now during an interview Wednesday evening. “So many people have used that comment when they're talking about whether it be fighting against injustice when something is wrong, or when something happens.” Glass went on to say that she made the comment while speaking to people who she trusted, who understood her words. “I don't care that they were recording me,” she said. “I was in pain and had just gotten jumped by a lot of officers.”

The crash of CRAZ.

Police have removed protestors pic.twitter.com/1UCL8law7e

— Laura Schulte (@SchulteLaura) August 4, 2026

ADDED: The protesters are ousted, but they have their photo op:

State police are now on scene too. Protestors are alleging that the streets division nearly hit a tent housing people with heavy equipment pic.twitter.com/J2vMshJ20g

— Laura Schulte (@SchulteLaura) August 4, 2026

Live look from about 5:20 this morning when I arrived at the encampment pic.twitter.com/v6fXE1keYG

— Laura Schulte (@SchulteLaura) August 4, 2026

"Seattle went though this years back. A whole block, lots of people. The city just gave it a little time and then one morning at about 4am..."

"... came in and announced the street will be cleaned in 10 minutes and everyone had to get out. They just rolled trucks down and tossed everything away and that was that. I think Madison will just need to do the same here. Let people do their thing for a bit, then wipe it clean and everyone moves on."

Says a commenter at the Reddit post, "A stroll through the autonomous zone. Who is responsible for bringing out all these porta-potties?"

"I just wanted to get to my house — that is it"/"We all just want to do something in this world."

🚨 NOW: Anti-police “protestors” are SURROUNDING a woman’s vehicle in Madison, Wisconsin as she BEGS for them to let her go

Madison is going to end up burning.

BLM is doing their best to make sure of it. pic.twitter.com/dliDbWvNXp

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) July 25, 2026

ADDED: That's not a minor residential intersection but one of the most important intersections in downtown Madison.

Is that E Wash?
Do people understand how important arterial roads are on an isthmus? pic.twitter.com/Bcs9KQnxYw

— JoRL (@spaceghostRL) July 25, 2026

The protesters are not just expressing themselves but demanding that other people stop living their lives freely and become one with the protest.

I am reminded of something Michelle Obama said back in 2008: "Barack Obama ... is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed." You can find that quote in "It’s All About Him," a William Kristol column in the NYT (gift link).

"This is a corrupt city. That's right. Have no fear, the anti-Zionist is here. You understand me?"

Emotions boiled over during today’s Madison Police Department press conference as community members interrupted Police Chief John Patterson following the fatal police shooting of Corey Ruiz.

The room reflected the grief, anger, and frustration many are feeling. One man took the… pic.twitter.com/F8uUmaL5O8

— Andrew Mercado (@AndrewMercado) July 23, 2026

That was yesterday, in Madison. Last night:

This looks and sounds all too familiar--I had a front row seat in Kenosha when it burned to the ground. Something about the cacophonous sounds of horns, whistles and the usual antifa noise makers has the memories rushing back from 6 years ago. Imagine this for 3 days straight,…

— The Corridor News (@CorridorScanner) July 24, 2026

"Mamdani himself put out a statement Sunday condemning 'white supremacist Jack Lang' for organizing a protest outside Gracie Mansion 'rooted in bigotry and racism'..."

"... that has 'no place in New York City.' 'What followed was even more disturbing,' he said. 'Violence at a protest is never acceptable. The attempt to use an explosive device and hurt others is not only criminal, it is reprehensible and the antithesis of who we are.' Critics slammed the mayor for failing to identify who was responsible for bringing bombs to a protest. 'This is insane… Mamdani calls out first, and by name, a "white supremacist" for protesting,' said Geiger Capital on X. 'He then leaves out the 2 Muslim men, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, who were arrested by NYPD after they yelled 'Allahu Akbar!' and threw a homemade bomb into the crowd."

From "Manhattan BP Brad Hoylman-Sigal ripped after he blamed wrong protesters for hurling bombs outside Gracie Mansion" (NY Post).

"Federal agents arrested the former CNN anchor Don Lemon late Thursday..."

"... on charges that he violated federal law during a Jan. 18 protest in St. Paul, Minn., against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, his lawyer said. The case had been rejected last week by a magistrate judge. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that she had ordered the arrests of Mr. Lemon and three others in connection with the demonstration at a church.... Mr. Lemon, who was scheduled to appear in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday morning to contest the charges, has said he was reporting as a journalist when he entered Cities Church in St. Paul to observe a demonstration against the immigration crackdown...."

The NYT reports.

"The right to publicly carry weapons is a centerpiece of Second Amendment advocacy and has emerged as a key issue in the shooting of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti...."

"Bill Essayli, Los Angeles' top federal prosecutor and a Trump ally, received fierce blowback from gun-rights groups over his Saturday claim that there is a 'high likelihood' law enforcement will be 'legally justified' in shooting someone who approaches them with a gun. The National Rifle Association responded on X that this sentiment was 'dangerous and wrong.' Gun Owners of America condemned Essayli's statement, writing that the Second Amendment 'protects Americans' right to bear arms while protesting—a right the federal government must not infringe upon.' Essayli claimed that condemnation 'mischaracterize[d]' his statement...."

From "Gun rights groups challenge shooting of legally armed Minneapolis man" (Axios).

And here's Jonathan Chait, in "What MAGA Really Thinks of the Second Amendment/Now Americans know" (The Atlantic)(gift link).

A lynch mob? A crowd chants "Kristi Noem will Hang!" in New York City.

NOW: "Kristi Noem will Hang!" Huge crowd chants in Foley Square NYC, also "Save a life, kill an ICE" as they gather to protest the ICE killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis.

Some in the crowd condemn the talk of killing. pic.twitter.com/ifrXNZB0dz

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) January 8, 2026

Democrats who hope to win back power need to act now to reconnect with peace and good order. They seem to have encouraged the chaos yesterday, and they need something quite different today lest they be seen as they wanted us to see Trump after January 6th, as having incited insurrection.

"So I feel like white tears are not always something that's helpful or necessary when black and brown people have been experiencing this for a long time."

A woman at the makeshift memorial for Renee Good told me it felt wrong for her to be there.

Because she’s a white woman with a lot of “privilege”

“I feel like white tears are not always helpful or necessary.” pic.twitter.com/B6ZASuWLEZ

— Brecca Stoll (@breccastoll) January 9, 2026

What is this person really saying? At first, you might think the idea is that she is a white lady and so perhaps she should minimize herself and not put herself forward as the crier of tears. That's self-dramatizing, privileged, and performative. But if you listen again and pay attention to the last part — "black and brown people have been experiencing this for a long time" — it sounds as though she is minimizing Renee Good! It seems that she is imagining persons of color who have suffered from violent law enforcement for many decades and who might be hurt to see extreme grief over the death of a white woman. It's confusing and she seems to understand herself as a good person in need of instruction in a complex situation.

"The artists who have protested in recent weeks include Kristy Lee, a folk singer from Alabama, who announced she was pulling out from a free concert...."

"'I won’t lie to you, canceling shows hurts,' she said in a social media post. 'This is how I keep the lights on. But losing my integrity would cost me more than any paycheck.'"

From "New Year’s Eve Concerts at Kennedy Center Are Canceled/The jazz drummer Billy Hart said the decision was 'evidently' connected to President Trump’s name being added to the arts center" (NYT).

Art is not logic.

"Wearing a shark costume while quoting [Cory Booker] seemed sweet and suburban. Maybe that was the point of the silly costumes."

"It was a small island of old norms within a national emergency. There were a small number of scowling dudes bullhorning loudly about their love of communism, as the First Amendment entitles them to do. But most of the other Chicagoans exercised their right to amble on by in, for example, inflatable corn costumes, without so much as a nod in the dudes’ direction. This humorous form of protest, known as tactical frivolity, shows the absurdity of the charge that all the protesters are armed militants...."

Writes Gary Shteyngart — one of my favorite novelists — in "The Rise of the Inflatable Chicken Resistance" (NYT)(free-access link, because of all the humorous details).

"Toward the end of the protest, around 2 p.m., I met two Jesus impersonators. 'He’s more classical, and I’m the more modern Jesus,' one of the Sons of God told me. He was wearing a crown of barbed wire instead of thorns, which is what made him more modern.... I left the parade full of the pleasure of being a part of a vast humanity. It’s a feeling that may soon be extinguished if we do not exercise our power of free assembly and free speech.... We must harness our best creative, humorous and frivolous selves in order to keep it from falling."

I'm reminded of Saul Alinsky's 6th rule in "Rules for Radicals": "A good tactic is one that your people enjoy. If your people are not having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic."

"Have you heard this idea that if 3.5% of a population protests nonviolently, social change is a slam dunk?..."

It's a "No King's Day reality check" from AntifascistDad:

"It is now a think tank-approved, purportedly evidence-based method, that guarantees movement success.... But do they really have the empirical data?

"Democrats say the use of silly inflatable costumes is a way to undercut Republican portrayals of such events as violent 'hate America rallies.'"

The Washington Post sets out to answer the question "Why protesters against Trump are wearing frog, chicken and T. rex costumes."

If you feel you need to put on a costume to disguise what you are, doesn't that suggest that you are the scary thing you're trying to cover up? I think of the wolf in sheep's clothing.

The image of wolf in sheep's clothing comes from in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."

From the WaPo article:

"Priceless crown of Empress Eugénie with 1,354 diamonds and 56 emeralds found broken in Paris."

Imagine a theft so big that you drop a thing like this in the getaway:

I'm reading "Louvre Museum Robbery: Priceless crown of Empress Eugénie with 1,354 diamonds and 56 emeralds found broken in Paris" (Economic Times).

Here in America, on the same day, we were disparaging royalty at our "No Kings" rallies. Many of the home-made signs relied on crown iconography....

So how do we feel about royalty these days? If you accept your little daughter in a getup like this....

... is it like letting your little son sport a swastika armband?

The "No Kings" rally in Madison was very mellow. Lots of homemade signs and costumes. People milling and lolling about in the sunshine and shade.

This afternoon in Madison, Wisconsin, we've got the Wisconsin/Ohio State football game and the big "No Kings" rally.

Am I worried about the chaos? Here's a helpful chart:

In short, it's a big Saturday, but a normal Saturday. A protest at the Capitol and a big football game at Camp Randall. The crowds should flow in and back out as crowds have ebbed and flowed from the isthmus from the beginning of football.

UPDATE, the next day: I'm seeing estimates that 10,000 to 15,000 attended, so that was much more than the "expected crowd" Grok put on the chart I asked it to make. The crowd was very peaceful. Reminding me of the Tea Party gatherings of yore. No one got arrested. I didn't see any hecklers or counter-protesters. There also weren't traffic problems. We easily drove downtown and parked in a parking structure a couple blocks from the Capitol. 

"The Trump administration’s push earlier this year to arrest and deport international students for their pro-Palestinian activism was illegal, a federal judge ruled Tuesday..."

"... calling the crackdown a 'truly scandalous and unconstitutional suppression of free speech.' In a sweeping rebuke, U.S. District Judge William Young in Boston said that the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department sought to target non-citizens 'for speaking out' with the 'goal of tamping down pro-Palestinian student protests and terrorizing similarly situated' students. Young [a Reagan appointee] decried the administration’s conduct in striking terms, quoting President Ronald Reagan’s declaration that freedom must 'be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.”

From "Trump administration illegally targeted pro-Palestinian protesters, judge rules/The efforts to detain and deport noncitizen activists earlier this year represented an unconstitutional infringement on the First Amendment, the ruling says" (WaPo)(gift link).

Knees news.

1. "'We will not live on our knees’: A defiant Comey mounts a video defense/The former FBI director said he is innocent..." (Politico).

2. "FBI fires agents seen kneeling in iconic photo during George Floyd protests five years ago" (CNN).