Hello and welcome to the Slate Political Gab Fest for July 29th, 2021, the medieval battle edition.

I'm David Floss of Citicast. I'm here in Washington, D.C.C. And I'm joined, of course, by my dear friends, John Dickerson of CBS's

Sunday morning and Face the Nation from Connecticut. Hello, John Dickerson. Hello, David.

And Emily Bazelon of the New York Times Magazine and Yale University Law School, usually from Connecticut,

today from New Hampshire. Hello, Emily.

Hello, all of New England, you know, every state, one at a time.

This week, we'll talk about the January 6th Commission, which got underway.

What can it reasonably hope to accomplish?

Then, vaccination rates are rising.

Mask mandates are coming back. Vaccination mandates are coming back, vaccination mandates are coming,

what else should be mandated to get us out of Delta August, to get us out of the Delta summer,

then the time tax, how government wastes our time with paperwork, confusing rules, other forms

of onerous, pointless bureaucracy, a brilliant new article in the Atlantic, confusing rules, other forms of onerous, pointless bureaucracy.

A brilliant new article in the Atlantic, the author Annie Lowry, will join us.

Plus, we will have cocktail chatter.

The House, January 6th Commission, got underway on Tuesday with gripping testimony from four

police officers who were attacked by the mob of pro-Trump protesters who invaded the

Capitol. The officers repeatedly called the insurrectionist terrorists. That was an interesting

bit of language. Police officer Akalino Gannel described the events of January 6 as more

like a medieval battle than a patriotic free expression, than quiet protest.

All of the officers described horrifying events, being called racist slurs, being tased,

being subjected to chance of kill him with his own gun.

...