On any given morning in Washington, D.C., you can find some group of activists greeting everyone walking out of a Metro station behind the U.S. House office buildings. Over the past week I spent in the nation's capital city, I bumped into agriculture advocates handing out fruit bars on National Blueberry Day and volunteers for Plan International offering education on the plight of children around the globe.

I also found a table covered with the inaugural issue of Capitol Times Magazine, all with Sarasota resident Patrick Byrne on the cover. While a headline ponders if the Overstock CEO has become the Department of Homeland Security’s “Domestic Extremist #1,” the publication contains an extraordinarily lengthy and sympathetic interview. In it, Byrne commits to covering much of the damages from the Jan. 6 riot, but with the promise the federal government pays him back if it turns out federal agents secretly instigated the whole thing. And he makes some unverifiable accusations about Russian spy Maria Butina and the origins of the meddling investigation.

Of course, this magazine can hardly be considered a product of journalism; it barely poses as one. The only advertisements in the magazine promote a political action committee tied to another Sarasota County resident, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. The inaugural issue of this publication was announced by Veterans For Trump, with a statement from Flynn. He suggested Byrne’s interview serves as proof of a massive deep state conspiracy. "Patrick's story is for real, he's for real, and the corruption he's exposed is for real, and it only gets worse the further you read,” Flynn said in a statement.

It's a sign of the growing reach by the far-right movement Flynn runs from The Hollow, the Proud Boy-infested club of insurrectionists alternatively creating headaches for local leaders and eagerly shaking the foundations of American democracy.

Now, I don’t intend to overstate the influence of a group handing out glossy magazines at the same public transit stop where K Street interns offered strangers blueberry-colored stress balls the prior day. But the decision to distribute the publication widely and freely on Capitol Hill shows how serious the Flynn folks are about efforts nearly three years after Donald Trump lost the presidential election to uphold a false narrative the vote was fixed— and the inevitable conclusion no one should trust the outcome of the next election either.

At a local level, many of the same players spent the last few weeks undermining the selection of a new superintendent as a separate undermining of democracy. Flynn locally pushed for Charles Van Zant, a former Clay County Superintendent, to take over the local school districts. A new school board majority, you may recall, stunned even some supporters when they took office and immediately dismissed a widely respected superintendent. That wasn’t enough for The Hollow. 

But a majority of Sarasota School Board members, including newly elected Robyn Marinelli, instead chose Terrence O’Connor, a respected district administrator from Hillsborough County. Marinelli, of note, caught flak last year for posing with pictures and considering an invitation from Proud Boys-connected donors, but distanced herself quickly when she realized those connections.

From what I understand, Van Zant didn’t have near a majority of support among School Board members. This seems especially embarrassing to the Flynn machine mere weeks after an effort to install Van Zant as Collier County’s superintendent also failed. Flynn allies spent intervening weeks since trying to unravel that decision to no avail.

All this shows the degree to which distortion and disinformation remain tools at Flynn’s disposal. Sarasota County leaders at all levels must remain wary of anything they read with any connection at all these personalities.

Jacob Ogles is contributing senior editor for SRQ MEDIA.