After seeing the photos of "zip tie guy" - the man dressed in tactical gear with a fist full of zip-cuffs and a stun gun on his hip - it occurred to me that maybe the plan all along was to take hostages so Trump would have an excuse to declare martial law and stay in power as a result.
Completely agree. Some police standing by and allowing it, Trump's refusal to call National Guard, stealing of laptops, plans to take hostages, rioters knowing workspaces aside from congressiinal.offices, etc was all orchestrated and planned with inside help. Who on the inside helped, I dont know, but there was help.
@walden-ponderer I just want you to know that you are not alone, dealing with strong anxiety and panic attacks. I share these things with you. You write beautifully, even in this anxious time. Thank you for your post.
it was much more horrific and violent than first portrayed. I sense that may have been intentional. Too many videos shot and shared forced all to see just how violent it was. I saw one where the drug the body of the fallen policeman down the concrete steps and outdoors and continued to beat and abuse his dead body. He was gone and brain dead when they took him to the hospital to put him on life support until his family could come to him. It is my fervent prayer that everyone there be found and held accountable for what they did there that day. A clear and strong signal to all who would try to destroy our Democracy. I pray that Justice track them down swiftly and that our legal system moves to hold them fully accountable for sedition. I also pray our incoming leaders take all necessary actions to prevent and change what needs to change to derail any future happenings like this. The delay in summoning the National Guard is not acceptable. The people who aided and abetted need to be charged. Rudy Giuliani needs disbarred and charged as an accomplice to sedition and murder. Bob Barr needs to be investigated for what he knows/when he knew it.... all of them!!! All of his Cabinet and staff.
It was worse than anybody realized at the time, it was a miracle that the congress people were safe long enough for reinforcements. There was a vision from someone saying that a giant angel was protecting the Capital, I guess this was the result.
@walden-ponderer Crows to me are a bad sign. Last Tuesday, I went to Tulsa. Coming back, Three crows walked ,in a line (much like the Beatles) cross the road in front of me. I wondered what bad things were coming for me, but maybe it wasn't for me.
I agree with you. My rage at the situation has been fueled by the hypocricy that the Republicans continue to show even when faced with this unprecedent attack on our nation by a bunch of domestic terrorists.
After months of allowing Trump to threaten Republican officials, try to change the vote totals, and send false cases to the courts, the Republicans dare to call for healing and unity NOW?! How dare they demand that we hold off holding Trump accountable for his crimes! How dare they play politics with this!
We know Pence won't do anything. So Pelosi is going to impeach Trump this week. Now, McConnell will put this off as long as possible because he thinks that if the Democrats get bogged down with the impeachment proceedings, then it will harm Biden's ability to get his cabinet in. But he forgets that he is the minority leader now. Once the time comes, Schumer will ensure a vote, and he can do it on his terms. But what is important is that every single Republican will now have to vote. Their vote will be public record.
This incident on January 6 will not go away. It will be discussed for the next two years at least as many are brought before various hearings to discuss Trump's actions and their roles in them. The FBI and the people in charge of national security will welcome Biden because (1) he actually listens to them and (2) through Biden, they will have free reign to go after Trump and his allies.
People are worried about Trump supporters. And yes, they are a threat. But they are also a threat we can handle. But we must be stern. Every single instigator must be found, tried, and convicted for their role. It doesn't matter as long as they are convicted of a felony, which will ensure that they can't vote again until they take the necessary steps to regain their votes. For example, if someone involved in this incident gets ten years, then they can't vote until the ten years are up, and only then if they pay the hefty legal fees and fines for their cases (which will run into the thousands).
Think of it. Tens of thousands of Trump voters being kept from voting for the next few years.
Which begs the question-why would the Republican party try to pander to them.
Lawrence,
I was looking for a posting of yours from several days ago regarding T. being indicted soon, but I can't find it now.... I think you and I have always agreed that he is indicted under seal, along with his kids...is this something you see happening right after he is gone from office?
But simply prosecuting the Trump supporters aren't enough. We need to make them afraid of us. For example, Biden can announce a task force that will go after "pro-trump terrorists." Now, I live amongst Trump supporters. On January 5, I saw twenty pro-Trump banners outside various houses. Today, I drove in front of those same houses, and only two of them were still up.
No, I don't think these Trump supporters had a change of heart. The truth is that they are afraid.They know that the FBI will soon be coming for them and are now actively deleting their Facebook posts and trying to look as meek as possible. They truly fear that they could be tied to terrorism charges, especially the ones that encouraged calls to violence.
Amazing what happens when one is threatened with federal jail time!
Now, I am for healing this nation like every one else. But the sad truth remains that we can't afford to be kind and forgiving in a world that they (Trump and supporters) created. To show any mercy (letting these people go with a slap on the wrist and saying "they learned their lesson) is tantamount to slitting our own throats. We begged Republicans for reconciliation for years. When we were in power, we showed them respect, and they threw it back in our faces. We showed them deference, and they show us contempt. They stay silent and secretly rejoice in our pain, even when the pain that Trump inflicted was being used on members of their own party.
We need to make these people resign and/or force them from office. And as long as Trump has power of any sort, he will continue to harm us, so he must be incarcerated to ensure that this doesn't happen again. We saw what happens when we give mercy to these people. For our children's sake, we can't do so anymore.
If they want mercy, then they need to forsake their foolish ways and help us build this country back in a bipartisan manner. No more blocking bills. No more false outrage and lies. No more demanding their followers commit acts of harassment and violence on us. Otherwise, they can get out of our way.
@allyn I think we're going to be disappointed on the resignation front for some of our elected officials that spearheaded this on, particularly in the senate. At least in the short term. But Democratic control does come with some ways to punish regardless. It's not enough, but it's a start.
I'm hopeful those seeking re-election in 2022 and those who may try to hold the mantle of a top contender for Trump 2.0 in 2024 find themselves in a very different state of the world in 2 years and 4 years respectively. In this, the Dems have a very narrow but doable two years to enact an agenda that shows the country the stories of socialist boogiemen they've been fed are lies.
I'm not saying they WILL, but they have a chance. All the light I can muster the next two years to send to them to do it right.
I'll add - a lot of that agenda has got to be building back from COVID (check, that's Bidens' top priority) and easier social policies (The things we know the majority of the country can get behind) that only became controversial because conservatives made them controversial. I hope they take a lesson in thinking about 2022 from how badly they got spanked in 2010 and 2012 and don't go all in with Medicare For All right out the gate, even though it's possibly the most desperately needed social reform in our current era. I have no doubts we'll get there within the next 10 years, especially when looking at the predictions for the later half of this current decade all over this site.
Completely agree. Some police standing by and allowing it, Trump's refusal to call National Guard, stealing of laptops, plans to take hostages, rioters knowing workspaces aside from congressiinal.offices, etc was all orchestrated and planned with inside help. Who on the inside helped, I dont know, but there was help.
I agree. It's glaring at me and I can't get it out of my head. I don't believe the testimony of the top brass.
I hope this isn't going to go the way of the Kennedy Assassination investigation or the Mueller Report. We deserve to know everything.
We will never know everything because their inside help was from either House members(Gaetz, Gohmert, Jordan, Brooks?), Senators(Hawley, Cruz, Graham?), or the White House. There also is a decent chance that Russian operatives were in the group of rioters and stole the laptops for classified info. Im far from a conspiracy theorist but this stinks of a conspiracy just as much as Ruby killing Oswald did back 15 years before my existence.
One thing today baffles me and I cant get a read on it. Pence and his chief of staff were seen in the West Wing today after the COS was banned from there by Trump. Something is up. Either Pence is trying to help Trump and is more spineless than I thought, or they both went over there to talk Trump into resigning and threatened invoking the 25th in a power play. Those are the only 2 things that make any sense to me. Can someone throw cards on it or get a good read of what the purpose was?
I was just watching ABC news about t**** being told that he should not pardon himself because if he did it is an admission of guilt and it would leave him open to civil suits by those hurt during the riots. His response is that if he can’t get a pardon then no one else is going to get one. I hope he doesn’t pardon anyone and they all go to jail..
Maybe they are telling him that if he resigns then he can get his pardon and is off the hook. No impeachment. And even if any investigation by congress finds all kind of crimes he would be off the hook for them too.
Only problem is accepting a pardon means you are guilty of something and cannot use the fifth in any investigations.
@mas1581 I've got a bag a day habit going (Ruffles Baked), someone throw those cards soon.