Jan. 6, 12:52 p.m.: Just eight minutes before the joint session of Congress is set to start, dozens, soon hundreds, of rioters breach the first of several Capitol Police barriers.

TV journalists and commentators on CNN and — click, click — MSNBC are no longer calling this a protest. Some are speaking in what just a few hours ago were unspeakable terms: "insurrection," "sedition," "coup d'etat attempt."

What makes this most horrific is that the thousands-strong mob is marching to the orders of the sitting president. Donald Trump promises he will walk with them to the Capitol. But his imaginary Vietnam-era bone spurs seem to have conveniently sprung back.

The mob seeking to take the hill includes thousands of Trump's beloved "undereducated" foot soldiers. "USA! USA! USA!" they say. "Stop the Steal! Stop the Steal!" they scream. "Whose house?" "Our house!" they respond.

Before nightfall, Trump will tell them that he loves them one more time.

But the throng is motley. It appears to be a cross-section of American conservatism. I see couples of grandparents dressed as they would for a church picnic, rubbing — actually, bumping — shoulders with vociferating thugs.

Many are clad in threatening camo or black assault military garb. Yet others seem to have made a stop at Party City. I see a lady, seemingly in her 80s, wearing a QAnon T-shirt and holding a foam Statue of Liberty crown; a short, stout man sports a Revolutionary-era outfit, three-cornered hat and all. Had he not been dressed in British Army red (MAGA red), he could have passed for Benjamin Franklin.

The fact that Trumpism has brought together trailer-park residents and CEOs, Klansmen and church ladies, the monosyllabic and the articulate, shall remain one of the century's most astonishing political feats.

Around 2:11 p.m., hundreds of rioters break into the Capitol, injuring policemen along the way. Footage shows one smashed against a glass door, gasping for air; others are hit repeatedly with hockey sticks, flag masts — anything that can hurt or kill.

At one point, we see a bloodied blond woman emerge out of the Capitol on a stretcher. Later, we will find out that she is the riot's first casualty, a rioter herself. Click, click. On Fox, Tucker Carlson opines that she does not look like a protester, and the screen shows footage of this summer's Black Lives Matter riots.

Within a few hours, another four fatalities are reported, one of them a police officer. The Capitol becomes a murder scene.

The mob, whose spiritual leader appears to be the buffalo-skin-clad self-ordained QAnon shaman, thirsts for more blood, none more precious than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's. Some are chanting, "Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!" A noose on makeshift gallows awaits outside.

History is invoked over and over again. Echoing former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, some are referring to the day as one that shall live in infamy. Indeed, Jan. 6 is joining the calendar of fateful and tragic days: Sept. 11, Nov. 22, Dec. 7.

Comparisons are being made with the burning of the Capitol and White House by British troops in 1814 and the Confederate assault on Fort Sumter in 1861.

Back on July 11, 1864, Confederate Gen. Jubal Early and his raggedy troops marched toward Washington, D.C. On the way, they captured Silver Spring, Maryland, and then Fort Stevens. The Confederates came within sight of the Capitol. The soon-to-be martyred President Abraham Lincoln came close enough to the line of fire that eyewitness reported enemy bullets flying past his top hat.

Trump watches his troops from the comfort and safety of the White House. A middle-aged Delawarean can be seen fulfilling Gen. Early's dream. He walks proudly inside the Capitol bearing the Confederate flag.

4:29 p.m., CNN: Any other day, it would have sucked the oxygen out of the nation's newsrooms, but given the unfolding carnage at Capitol Hill, the projection of Jon Ossoff's U.S. Senate win goes barely noticed. It is another historical event. He is Georgia's first Jewish senator, and his election will make another Jewish man, Charles Schumer, Senate majority leader.

The sun is down. Flash bombs explode. The acrid smell of tear gas envelops the hill. Union troop reinforcements pour in.

Once the rioters are dispersed, news cameras turn to the White House. It is midnight, the exterior unlit; a barely visible amount of light comes out from the inside. It is the capital city's darkest night.

Click, click.

Readers can reach Luis Martinez-Fernandez at LMF_Column@yahoo.com. To find out more about Luis Martinez-Fernandez and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.