Into The Woods

 Once upon a time, my mother who was a very big fan of musical theater, went to see a production of Stephen Sondheim's Into The Woods. As the various tales unfolded in front of her, she was enchanted. There was Jack and his Beanstalk, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Rapunzel along with many other characters from the world of the Brothers Grimm. As the stories begin to intertwine, there is comedy to be found in the way that Princes handsome but confused gather together and with all this gold and magic flowing through the area, zany mix-ups are sure to happen. Little Red trades in her cape for a wolf's pelt, and Cinderella wonders if life on the road might be preferable to being locked up in a palace. 

Witty fun, not unlike the Fractured Fairy Tales that showed up between segments of The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. When the lights came up, my mother was amused and happy with her night out, and was ready to go home. But, as it turned out, this was only intermission. There was an entire second act to Mister Sondheim's musical. That's when the giant comes down from the sky and crushes the witch's garden and the Baker's house. Rapunzel has gone mad, and eventually she flees into the woods, as the title suggests, followed by the rest of the company on various quests to right the wrongs that were set in motion during Act One. 

Spoiler Alert: Things get much darker from this point. When the lights came up again, my mother was devastated. The satirical romp she had enjoyed so much during the first half had not turned out so very happily after. 

At all. 

I relate this story to describe the way in which Young Tuck of Carlson is meting out the video he managed to squeeze out of Kevin McCarthy. By cherry-picking moments from forty thousand hours of recordings, he has painted a picture of calm tourists wandering "within the ropes" through the Capitol. Gone are the windows breaking, Confederate flag-bearing, police officer torturing mob that we know descended on our nation's capital on January 6, 2021. This was no insurrection. This was an assault on democracy and its process. So much so that three hundred thirty-five individuals have been charged with crimes related to the events of that day. Forty have been convicted of crimes and countless others, including the "QAnon Shaman" have pled guilty, avoiding additional jail time. 

Young Tuck of Carlson is happy to share Act One, but didn't bother to put any of Act Two up for his tiny-minded followers to digest. In case you were taking Tuck's word for it, I'll let you in on a little secret: It didn't end happily ever after.