The mob and violence on Jan 6, 2021

Clear thinking people were able to say what needed to be said.

I was sitting for hours watching a mob in Washington DC, in real-time yesterday (wrote this Jan. 7, 2021 in the morning). 

I knew this was history happening before my eyes.

"As the afternoon wore on, police found two pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., as well as a truck full of weapons and ammunition, and mobs gathered at statehouses across the country, including in Kansas, Ohio, Minnesota, California, and Georgia." Heather Cox Richardson said in her newsletter, Letters from an American on Jan 7 at 4:27 am.

In the 80s, I had watched the students who gathered by the thousands in Tienanmen Square in Beijing China...while Dan Rather narrated from a live feed.  I made sure my son who was not yet 10 also watched. I knew that history was happening. In China, the ending was that the student protesters didn't make much difference.

Richard Barnett of Gravette Arkansas with mail he stole from the office of Nancy Pelosi.  from Matthew Rosenberg

The noon newscast Thurs Jan 7 in Asheville NC

Yesterday, I think we saw that those who abuse power and manipulate crowds for their own sense of purpose, aren't always the winners. I've been unable to listen to tRump's lies, and to see how enthusiastic his followers were. I have been nauseated by it, by him, by his voice and his appearance.  I also have "hidden" posts by my 3 family members who supported him, who believed his lies. They had been brainwashed, was my best way of understanding their illogical emotional beliefs that he was right.

But the unruly mob which descended upon our Capitol in Washington DC yesterday, totally spurred on by tRump, was a historic occasion of abuse of power. It was a coup. It was an insurrection. It was treasonous.

I had been happy to hear in the Senate chambers, Vice President Pence saying that there were no discrepancies in the voting. And then Senator McConnell's remarks that did not support tRump's claims that he had been cheated out of winning. McConnell actually sounded as if he wanted to try to work together with Democrats (for the moment anyway.) 

Within thirty minutes of those remarks, the mob had broken into the building and the Capitol police had directed all members of Congress and their staff to safe locations. That may well have been where their manpower was when the mob flowed into the chambers...taking selfies all the time. But many of the police just stood by and watched the crowd of white men in various costumes, carrying flags for tRump, the Confederacy, and even Jesus.

Fortunately during the escape to safety, "four quick-thinking staffers brought along the electoral ballots, in their ceremonial boxes." (Richardson)

What was on the minds of the half dozen demonstrators squatting down in the balcony hiding? They had another member of the mob taking videos of them. This kind of illogical mob behavior had brought them into a place of our government's meeting, and suddenly they were just like kids misbehaving. They knew no leadership. They only knew they wanted to subvert the government's true mission of the day. That's what their only leader, President tRump, had ordered them to do.

He wanted his mob to somehow give him a legitimate win over Biden...which is about as silly as anything. But back when Nov 3 election became clearly a Biden win, tRump had said "I'm not going to lose," and "I'm not going to leave office."

"The election was not close—Biden won the popular vote by more than 7 million votes and the Electoral College by 306 to 232—but Trump contends that he won the election in a landslide and “fraud” made Biden the winner." (Richardson)

We are dealing with a mental/emotional breakdown. He hasn't done any presiding for weeks, but has played golf. His executive orders are primarily aimed at subverting Biden from accomplishing things in the future. He has stated illogical emotional things to his followers, which just give them incentive to break rules, but not to actually achieve anything. But like the cornered fox that he is, he continues to have his cunning ways to try to keep the hounds at bay.

"One rioter photographed himself sitting at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk with his feet on it." (Richardson)

Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Image

The photo-ops seemed to be the highest achievement of the rioters. I'm really determined that the receive justice for their invasion. Of the 4 people who died, one was killed by a legitimate police officer, and one died of a heart attack, and one tased himself and died. I don't know what happened to the other person. Over a dozen police were injured, and 52 people were arrested. That's not anywhere near as many as should have been!

The guards ready for Black Lives Matter demonstration.

Nine arrested from North Carolina, this bus from Asheville.

I would say Amendment 25 should be invoked by Pence, but tRump has fired most of his cabinet so there are mainly "acting Secretaries of departments" who might blindly follow his lead. And the vice president knows this. So an impeachment is the best course...and Pelosi will see that that happens.

But what everyone knows, including the saner group of Republicans, is that he is mentally unstable. This is the man who has the capability of sending nuclear bombs anywhere in the world, if he can get just one military man to agree with him. Many of them don't, and that's the saving grace at this moment. He is now practically alone. Those who used to want to seem to support him, in order that their elections might continue to keep them in office, have mostly deserted him. They have seen their future, and it doesn't include him.

Two more weeks until the inauguration of Joe Biden. I imagine tRump isn't finished with his tom-foolery, which continues to be at the expense of his followers.

I firmly support the DC police as well as the US Capitol police, to bring charges against each of the the mobsters, as well as tRump who incited the treasonous insurrection. I'm angry. And I'm not willing for lawbreakers to continue to act without consequences. The antics which have often been outside the law, by tRump, have blatantly incited an insurrection yesterday.

And the police didn't do their job at all. Why weren't the National Guard and other forces available the minute tRump got that rally going to the Capitol? They had sure been there for other demonstrations.

P.S. A comment by Marcia let me know that the Capitol Police had actually turned down any assistance from National Guard.  I heard (on Fri.Jan 8) that the head of Capitol Police had resigned.