You’ve gotten us off to a solid first week of our TPM Journalism Fund drive. We’re hoping to get to the $125,000 milestone by the end of today. That’s 5/8 of the way toward our goal. This drive is really important for TPM and, as I’ve said, if you’re already a member it’s just a single click. Super easy. If you’ve been planning on contributing or considering it, please make today the day. Just take a moment right now. Like this actual moment and click right here. As I said, it’s just one click. Super easy.

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TPM alum Greg Sargent has a column up at the Post looking at the work of experts in the field of democratic breakdown. Not collapse — that’s a bit different. We hear a lot of predictions about a coming U.S. civil war. But if the analog is the civil war of the 1860s that’s never been realistic. If nothing else the political geography doesn’t work. This would rather be an era of chronic political violence and instability: with episodes of paramilitary violence often egged on by elected leaders, assassinations, bombings, political crises, claimed stolen elections and actual stolen elections.

Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State who Trump threatened and demanded “find” 11,000 votes is going to testify before the Jan 6th committee on Tuesday.

We are getting really close to closing the first week of the TPM Journalism Fund drive at $125,000. That will be more than half way to our goal of $200,000. Can you help us close the week strong? Just click right here. We’re super close.

I mentioned a few days ago that the most compelling part of the Jan 6 committee hearings so far for me has been the description of the particulars of how the breach of the Capitol complex happened. The story is usually presented as something like this. There was a big group of angry and potentially violent Trumpers. There was a much smaller group, maybe as few as a few dozens of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers with a more focused ideology, a clearer plan of the insurrection and so forth. They were both more eager to get violent and had a lot more experience getting violent. But they were in the extreme minority of the people up there. So even though they’re now the ones facing serious charges including seditious conspiracy they are only a small part of what happened.

Eric Greitens is a predator and a degenerate. We knew that and today’s ad showing him launching commando raids to murder or “hunt” RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) only cements that reputation. But his ad — of a piece with the Jan. 6th insurrection and mass shootings across the United States — is part of a much longer trajectory. While I was familiar with the different parts of the story I only really came to understand it when I read this email from TPM Reader SS ten years ago (yes, back in 2012, days after the Newtown massacre).

From TPM Reader MF …

Ryan Busse, former firearms industry exec, is definitely distorting his recollection of the industry 25 years ago. Once Wayne LaPierre became NRA president in 1991, and especially after Waco in 1993, the right-wing/tactical/AR-15 culture took off. The 1994 Clinton crime bill mobilized this politically. I know, I was in Congress answering a flood of constituent mail.

From TPM Reader JS …

I am not an “everything is racism” guy. But from my perspective, “tacticool” is all about a fantasy these guys have that involves something like a Falling Down rampage where they shoot—most of the time—blacks.

From TPM Reader FF …

I would object to the notion of our deployments in the Middle East being the prime mover in guns moving to a tactical culture. Instead, I would look closer at investment firms like Citadel and Black Rock, whose participation in the weapons market was very much predicated on flooding the market with more and powerful weaponry to increase returns.

From TPM Reader JS …

Just saw your take, via the wayback machine, regarding the “tactical” culture and Greitens’ ridiculous ad. One thing Busse left out in his Atlantic article and SS didn’t mention in his email is the impact the “Call of Duty” video game series has had on all of this. CoD is a first-person shooter game, which means you play the game from your character’s eye view – you literally feel like you’re in combat.