We’re all sharing cookie recipes on the blogs today, right? Some baking tips, too? No? Okay, then, I guess we’ll talk about the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol yesterday.
Number of times I’ve felt compelled to watch a January 6th election certification process? Zero, but Election2020 has brought all the weird so yesterday found me camped out in front of CNN. I had an hour to kill so I figured I’d catch part of Trump’s rally which was…something. In summary: rigged election, fake news, stop the steal, DO THE RIGHT THING MIKE, cancel culture, HunterBidenBillBarrHillaryClinton, CHEATER CHEATER PUMPKIN EATER, let’s go to the Capitol.
Okey dokey then.
Fast forward to the joint session of Congress. I was trying to process this whole okay, objection, break for two hours of debate then gather and move on to the next state thing when stuff started to pop on twitter. The clips were alarming – angry confrontations, people screaming about traitors while pushing toward the Capitol. Not unheard of but it seemed to be escalating quickly and just as I told BrightSide surely CNN would break into their coverage if it was serious the scene flipped to outdoors where all hell had broken loose.
I’m not exaggerating when I say I stared at my tv in horror for the rest of the afternoon. HORROR. I watched rioters storm the U.S. Capitol where representatives were trying to finalize election results. People fought the police, people scaled the damn wall, they climbed the stairs and hung from scaffolding and I swear I was more scared than I’ve ever been. We got the kids and dug in.
https://twitter.com/BGOnTheScene/status/1346904244008456193
Reporters kept saying that “hopefully” it would remain a bloodless coup attempt up until a woman was shot after the mob breached the building. Rioters roamed the Capitol as lawmakers were evacuated to a safe location.
I had 9/11 flashbacks all over the place. Glued to the television all day long, afraid to look away for fear something would get blown up. Which as it turns out wasn’t outlandish since three pipe bombs were located and diffused in D.C. yesterday. By now mobs had been rioting for a full ninety minutes with nary a word from the White House and people started demanding Trump send his goons home. The mayor had declared a 6:00pm curfew but the insurrectionists declared it “a new 1776” and rioted on.
Trump and Ivanka both tweeted a version of “go home” because apparently twitter is MAGA’s primary language. Unsurprisingly, this didn’t work. After President Elect Biden called on Trump to step forward and speak Trump posted a video to twitter that was, to put it succinctly, bullshit. Even if they hadn’t deleted it I wouldn’t repost here simply because I won’t force that nonsense on anyone who managed to avoid it the first time. Ava DuVernay summarizes it well.
https://twitter.com/ava/status/1346938170156445699
Yesterday’s feeling of where the hell is law enforcement was disorienting, to say the least. I’ve developed a healthy skepticism regarding how helpful police will be in a situation but as I stared at these idiots raging through our Capitol building, damaging property and hunting for reps, I thought damn, SOMEBODY’S gotta flush them out. Watching police eventually open a back door and calmly usher them out is a post for another day. Then again, they let them in so…
https://twitter.com/aravosis/status/1346942645235494913
Another rabbit hole I won’t go down: Everyone had two months’ warning about this freaking rally that we all knew would turn violent. Trump publicly invited his followers to come protest the election certification so what we saw yesterday wasn’t a result of being unprepared.
As for yesterday, I’ll say this. I never thought I’d a) witness American extremists attacking the seat of our democracy and b) do so with little to no repercussions. Not gonna lie, I actually thought you’d be shot for rushing the Capitol. Food for thought.
Riddle from the Middle 
I had anxiety all day watching it unfold. I can’t believe we didn’t see the rubber bullets, mace, tear gas busted out for this.
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I think a lot of us struggled under the weight of watching that much violence unfold. We watched it with our daughter and there was no explaining why police didn’t meet them with the same force they brought to BLM protests. Actually, she didn’t need an explanation, she already knew why.
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It was all so horrifying to see this happening. Another thought I had, besides spewing their hatred and stupidity, was hardly any were wearing a mask. So they were spreading their probably covid germs all over the place, too.
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Yes indeed. Then they took them back to their hotels and spread germs there. Then they got back on their buses and took their germs back to their home states. We’re already dealing with the holiday spike and now we’re facing down the repercussions from yesterday’s super spreader event.
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My husband was glued to the TV, too. He sat down on an ottoman for a moment yesterday afternoon and 3 hours later he was still there frozen while watching the screen. I couldn’t take it so I left the room.
The people who stormed the Capitol are ungrateful idiots who follow a moron. I realize you can’t cure stupid, but until yesterday I thought you could at least stop it with proper law enforcement. Therein is the rub, though. The law enforcement was anything but proper.
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With every passing hour more video shows up outing police who participated. Turns out slapping a police uniform on stupid doesn’t fix it either or those morons never would have aided and abetted sedition on camera.
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Horror. Yes, that’s exactly what it was.
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I’ve been a bit shell shocked today, too. Gotta say I somehow was still surprised when they tried selling it as Antifa, though.
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Deflection and distraction…they are masters at it.
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Interesting and thanks for sharing all these tidbits. I admit I skimmed your post. I CAN’T watch that. I saw and read a longish segment by CNN when I first heard about that unbelievable mess this morning. All that came to my mind was W.T.F?? This WAS ‘The United States of America” when I went to bed last night. Who allowed some now certifiably insane individual to incite an actual coup attempt HERE? Take me back to the past. It had a lot of problems, but geezus. Not like this. NEVER like this. I’m gonna need a lot of anxiety meds in the days to come.
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I’m glad you read at least part of the post, Melanie. I’d encourage you to watch some of the videos. It’s hard to see but we all need to remember exactly where we are so we can push back against anyone who tries to rewrite yesterday’s events as “patriotic protest” or some other nonsense. And speaking as someone who was tear gassed while kneeling in a street it was striking to see how a literal MOB of white people were treated while violently attacking police and a government property.
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I have been moaning about what this country has come to for four or five years, and this! This has increased my worry many fold, and reduced my faith in mankind even further. Trump has become totally unhinged, Ted Cruz and his ilk need to be reprimanded for supporting the lies, people need to be arrested and jailed for their insurrection. Yet, the supporters will continue to support. What happened to the high road?
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I keep thinking about that boil-a-frog analogy. I need to see consequences for everyone from Trump and Congress who rallied/encouraged this nonsense to the insurrectionists who blew into the Capitol to the people who “just” stood outside and cheered them on.
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I’m ready for bolts of lightening, rolls of thunder, and the earth opening up beneath their very feet. As the sane people stand by and cheer.
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Too much damage can be done in 14 days. Horrifying
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I thought I was scared before but it turns out I was just anxious. Now I’m actively scared. I’m also flummoxed that there doesn’t seem to be a mechanism for protecting us from a president with only thirteen days left in office with a following that attacks for him.
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The Capital police leadership needs to answer a lot of questions? Why wasn’t security tighter. Why weren’t other Federal agencies called in to help? Why were only 13 insurrectionists arrested? I agree with Keith. Trump is done but there are some troubling issues that need tp be addressed. First off we need to have the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions at the inauguration to put a stop to this mayhem.
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The inauguration was already going to be strange due to covid, I can’t imagine what they’ll face now with security issues. Glad I don’t have to plan that one. I need someone with undeniable integrity to spearhead this investigation — there is a lot to answer for.
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I agree. Maybe the new AG
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it’s not over by a long shot. there will be consequences for this act of sedition.
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This right here. This is what I’m watching for.
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Laura, it broke my heart to see how low this outgoing president brought us, but democracy held serve. Yesterday was so over the top it will go down in infamy, but it also will be the day the political career of Donald J. Trump ended. He will retain his ardent supporters and I worry about what could happen, but the many Republican legislators who kept their disdain for him silent to garner votes have jumped ship or are about to. Just last night, several Trump staff resigned at the events of the day. What happened yesterday is on the shoulders of the outgoing president and his sycophants. Trumpism will remain a danger to contend with, but you can stick a fork in its namesake as a future candidate. He is done. Keith
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One can only hope. Every time I’ve thought surely this is it, that the mirage is gone & people see who he really is, there’s been a faction that sidesteps it with a weird theory. I’m sure they started spinning this yesterday on whatever platforms the Trumpers use.
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This is perhaps the most disturbing thing I’ve witnessed in this country. I don’t know why a) people weren’t shot, and b) why such restraint wasn’t exercised at actual peaceful protests earlier in the year.
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Both of these are my pressing questions. It feels odd to ask why aren’t they shooting but this mob was rushing our elected officials – aren’t we supposed to protect them?? And if people standing in a street protesting (or even looting a store but not threatening a life) get shot then how can anyone say it doesn’t matter what you look like?
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Given that the Capitol was breached, I’m hoping the foundation of “improved security” will foster a bipartisan inquiry.
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I surely hope they do. I understand they’re erecting what’s being described as a “7 foot unscalable wall” to be manned by National Guard for the next 3-4 weeks (I think). A little late, but if there’s anything further to come before/during/after the inauguration I guess we’ll need it there.
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They started erecting the fence this morning. That means it was available. That makes me ask why they didn’t effect this earlier.
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It is all so very disturbing. I see them invoking the 25th amendment and then tRump being pardoned. It’s disgusting to the Nth degree.
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I don’t know how they’ll handle it but I’ll go off if I hear one more “it’s almost over, what’s the worst he can do?”.
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Amen. G-d knows what he has planned.
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This will be the lasting legacy of Trump.
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I can’t see how it wouldn’t be.
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i will never forget
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We need that energy from everyone. I’m ready with reminders when the downplaying begins.
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It’s not only unbelievable but also an extreme show of bias from the administration.
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Yesterday was one of the longest days of my life.
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I agree.
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