The "big lie" that President Joe Biden was not legitimately elected is not going away. One reason is Americans who care about their democracy are not learning how votes for president in 2020 were counted and verified — neither from the big lie's promoters nor from most of its fact-driven critics.

Most visibly, the absence of a clear and accurate explanation can be found among former President Donald Trump's ardent supporters. As seen in a July 15 briefing in Arizona's legislature, the contractors hired by the state Senate to assess the 2020 election's results unleashed a new thicket of finger-pointing and innuendo that fans doubts about Maricopa County's election administration and votes for Biden.

Andrew Quentin Taake was arrested Friday by the FBI, which has accused him of pepper-spraying officers and striking them with a metal "whip-like device" at the January 6 Capitol riot.

And apparently it was Taake's online dating foray that helped get him in trouble.

Matthew DaSilva had a signature black-and-gold scarf that he wore every day. But when he sashayed with it at the Capitol riot on January 6, it led two people who know him personally to identify him off on an FBI wanted poster.

DaSilva, from Texas, also was notable for his wildly unruly locks and facial hair. According to the witnesses, upon returning from the Capitol, DaSilva apparently thought a new fashion aura would be a wise idea, as he shaved his long hair and beard.

When Rep. Rodney Davis, was named to the Capitol riot commission Monday, what stood out most was the fact that he hadn't voted to overturn the election of President Joe Biden.

But recent media descriptions of Davis as a "moderate" are belied by his 88.8 percent pro-Trump voting record and the fact that he voted against both impeachments.

An unindicted co-conspirator involved in the Proud Boys' planning for the Jan. 6 gathering that led to the siege of the US Capitol is Aaron Whallon-Wolkind, the former vice president of the nationalistic pro-Trump street gang's Philadelphia chapter.

Whallon-Wolkind's identity as the unindicted co-conspirator was first reported by Alan Feuer, a reporter for the New York Times, on Twitter on Thursday. A knowledgeable source speaking on condition of anonymity provided the same information to Raw Story.

A Florida man who was recently forced out of his position as a police officer and his son rallied alongside the Proud Boys during the Jan. 6 siege on the US Capitol.

Kevin A. Tuck, who resigned from the the Windermere Police Department, and his son Nathaniel Tuck, formerly employed with the Apopka Police Department, have been indicted alongside Proud Boys Paul Rae and Arthur Jackman, who were previously arrested in March. The superseding indictment also includes Edward George Jr., who was arrested in North Carolina on Thursday.

More than six months after the storming of the US Capitol, more than 550 people have been arrested, with an estimated 800 people surging into the building during the hours-long assault. Members of the Oath Keepers, a loosely organized right-wing paramilitary, and Proud Boys street fighters galvanized by then-President Trump's call to "stand back and stand by" have been indicted on conspiracy to disrupt Congress, which delayed the certification of Joe Biden as president by almost six hours.

"Every single person charged, at the very least, contributed to the inability of Congress to carry out the certification of our presidential election," prosecutors wrote in memorandum filed with the court on Tuesday.

In the wake of the Pew Research Center's findings that 84 percent of the white evangelical Protestant vote went to former President Donald Trump in 2020, it is more important than ever for the American public to face the uncomfortable truth about the authoritarian Christian right's deleterious impact on society, culture and politics.

Some of us have been pushing for this conversation for years, with various iterations of relevant data and scholarship helping to elucidate key points. During the 2016 primaries, a few political scientists drew attention to a link between authoritarian personality traits and support for Trump. For Religion Dispatches, I wrote at the time, "if 'a desire for order and a fear of outsiders' predicts Trump support, the question of why white evangelicals are backing a trash-talking billionaire can be easily answered."

When thousands of people surged around the US Capitol, some of them fighting with police and pouring into the building, many believed they were acting on an authority vested in them as citizens to halt what they falsely believed to be a fraudulent election process.

Their conviction was reinforced by a swirl of other false beliefs, including that the incoming Biden administration was a Chinese Communist takeover, and that leading Democratic figures were part of a global pedophile ring that would soon be exposed by Trump and put on trial. Many rioters, most notably the Oath Keepers, hoped Trump would invoke the Insurrection Act and deputize them to mete out violence against left-wing resisters.

Founded by Gavin McInnes as pro-Trump men's drinking club in 2016, the Proud Boys transformed into the paramilitary vanguard of the MAGA movement in late 2020, providing security for campaign rallies and then playing an outsized role in the Capitol insurrection.

One thing hasn't changed since Jan. 6: Members of the self-proclaimed "Western chauvinist" group whose professed values provide a soft cover for thinly veiled white supremacy, remain an intimidating presence in cities across the country, further polarizing local struggles around issues of race, sexual orientation and police accountability.

In December 2020, the Proud Boys, a nationalist street gang that surged in popularity with Donald Trump's order to "stand back and stand by," began to turn against the police.

Up to then, the relationship had been cordial, with police amplifying the group's false claims and providing an escort to the Proud Boys as the gang meted out violence against antifascist adversaries, among other favors.

A 12^th member of the Oath Keepers military-style "stack" formation that ascended the east steps on Jan. 6 and entered the US Capitol has been charged with conspiracy in the government's widening investigation of the militia group.

David Moerschel, a 43-year-old resident of Punta Gorda, Fla., was arrested by an FBI task force officer in Fort Myers on July 2, according to court documents. He went before a magistrate judge in Fort Myers on the same day, and was released on condition that he not possess any devices that allow communication, with an exception for work.

Nationally, the Proud Boys organization is being tested by the ongoing prosecution of some of its top leaders for conspiracy in the assault on the US Capitol and internal dissension over the revelation that its chairman is a longtime federal informer.

But as the weight of state prosecution and media scrutiny bears down on the national leadership, the organization remains active and viable in many parts of the country — an indication that the future of the violent nationalist gang in the Biden era might focus on deepening engagement with local fights rather than highly publicized national-scale operations. California's Central Valley, where a 275-mile span of Highway 99 from Sacramento to Bakersfield allows members from various Proud Boys chapters to reinforce each other in varied local confrontations with leftist adversaries, provides one example.