This isn’t the article I wanted to publish today. Today was supposed to feature an incredible look into Serbia by Sam Spector. But the events of the last twenty-four hours a) need to be responded to, even by a small travel community, and b) leave me in no mood for a normal day. I warn you: this may offend some of you. I don’t care.

Over the past five years, since Donald Trump came down an escalator to launch his campaign by calling Mexicans murderers and rapists, the United States – my country of birth and residence – has spiraled quickly down his golden toilet. Yesterday, his supporters stormed the US Capitol at his egging on, claiming like he did that an election in which he received seven million fewer votes than his opponent and lost the electoral college by the same margin he won in a “landslide” victory in 2016 was “fraudulent” and “stolen.” They acted at his bidding to foment a revolution, a violent overthrow of the government.

Today, Donald Trump is still President, sadly. Those who enabled his racist and fascist rhetoric over the past few years are speaking out against it now, but still afraid of endangering their precious careers by doing what their oaths require. Worse still, those who participated in yesterday’s events – in which four people DIED – are bragging about it, and basking in the praise of those in their conspiracy-ridden right-wing-lunatic circles.

Even worse, merely hours after the building was breached, leaving members of the House and Senate, the Vice President, and their staffs running in gas masks for safety, members of both chambers – all Republicans, shocking nobody – continued to call the election rigged, asking Congress to throw out the votes of millions of Americans and declare Trump dictator. Tens of millions of Americans supported this, and likely still do.

The Royal Tour is a travel community, not a political one. But we – myself and the amazing people who write here – do our utmost to try to bring the best of the world to you. We are open, we are honest, and we are respectful, even in the face of death threats we have received over multiple articles we have published. What are we not? Silent, or cowed.

So today, as America reels from yet another totally preventable tragedy, I have this message for the country, and for you. If you support Donald Trump, his complicit enablers in the Republican Party, or the violent mob he incited yesterday and will likely show up again before Inauguration Day, you are part of the problem. You are the reason yesterday happened, and the reason it will happen again. You are the reason I have received death threats on no fewer than three separate occasions since starting The Royal Tour three and a half years ago, as you support violence as a solution to truth. (If you identify as Republican and don’t support what happened yesterday or what happened that led to it (election conspiracy, etc), you have a chance now to speak out, to jump off this train. Failure to do so is complicity in my eyes.)

If you support any of these entities, The Royal Tour is not a community for you. Kindly show yourself the door. Numbers – the lifeblood of trying to make a living as a travel blogger – aren’t nearly as important to me as integrity. I’ll gladly write in obscurity for people worthy of my effort. That doesn’t include you.

To those of you already readying your comments, your “what about BLM protests” or your “don’t blame us for what those we voted for did,” don’t embarrass yourself. Save the time. I don’t give a damn what you have to say.

To those who feel as I do, you are not alone. I hope you will find a bit of refuge in our community of travelers, reveling in the goodness that exists in the world and in the nobility of writing the truth.

Tomorrow we will return to normal content. Today, I am sad, I am angry, and I am not in the mood to have a polite discourse on where we may disagree. If you’re offended by my opinion, as I said, I don’t care.