It makes more sense than Antifa claiming to be anti-fascist, patriotic Americans.

was this the first time trump supporttrers had violence  . i don/t remember ever hearing they trump suppoeters started 

The events at the Capitol should not have happened.  It was wrong and senseless.  One protestor was shot and killed like a dog.  Five cops were injured.  Two died.  Everyone saw what happened.  

But here's the deal.  The selective grief and outrage is obscene.  What happened last week is a walk in the park, compared to what went on in blue cities like Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, and New York for 5 months.  Riots, looting and burning of homes and businesses, scores of police cars burned and destroyed.  Hundreds of cops injured.  Murders.  Shootings. Billions in losses.  Where was the media?  "Mum's the word" across the mainstream media.  They even had the audacity to declare these riots as "mostly peaceful protests" with images of burning cities in the background.  There were even instances of reporters getting assaulted while they were proclaiming these riots were "peaceful protests".  They managed to avoid having to address the lack of their precious "social distancing" rules and ignored any effect the riots and protests had on the Casedemic.  The media doesn't even try to hide their total abandonment of objective, unbiased journalism.  That doesn't exist anymore. While all that was going on, left wing progressive-Marxists were fund raising money to bail out the criminals and urging them to continue the fight....extolling their virtues.

That's how they can conjure up this "national outrage" at angry protestors from last week, while ignoring the 5 months of death and destruction across America.  
So now they are going to impeach Trump again, with a little more than a week remaining until Biden is sworn in.  Obviously, this is Pelosi's attempt to make Trump radioactive, even to Republicans.  Why?  
Because Donald Trump had the audacity to lay out an agenda, and actually deliver on his promises like nobody before him, that's why.  He embarrassed the political establishment.  They can't let that ever happen again.  Orange man bad.

How fortuitous.  Mecon is put in jail and you turn up.  What is your real name?  If your last name is really "Golytely" that is very unfortunate.  In medicine, Golytely is used as a bowel prep to clean out a person's colon before colonoscopy.  I'm guessing that is a clue and you have a sense of humor.  You are admitting you are a cathartic.

A first time poster on a Barrel racing Fourm and you go to a Politics thread first, hummmm The first timers always come on here looking for something to do with horses not politics, this is a bit strange... dont you think!!! So where you from BigTex? 

".....and then there's Tex....I don't know where he's from."

- Forrest Gump

Speaking on behalf of myself and Captain Obvious............all of the above plainly the case.

These people weren't afraid to burn and loot cities, rough up and kill cops, so why would following the same path of destruction deter them just because it happens to be the Capitol building.

Golytely? I'm not sure what you're talking about. My last name is Golitely, pronounced go-lightly.

But you're right about me having a sense of humor. 

I'm from north Texas. I've lurked here a couple of months. In a friend-of-a-friend sort of way, I ended up with a banged-up sorrel mare from some sorry circumstances this fall. She's got unknown background and breeding, though she looks like a possible Appendix to me. Her conformation and her attitude about arenas suggested to me that she might've been a barrel horse in her past life. That brought me here. 

I was interested in the discussion in this thread, so I posted. If that's strange, well, then it's strange, though true. Seems like a whole lot lately is both strange and true. 

Well, thank goodness you have a sense of humor.  Here's what I thought you were referencing.  My name is Scott H.  Friends like to call me "Preparation H". 

You and I agree on several points. The events of last Wednesday were indeed wrong and senseless, and I do think Trump embarrassed the political establishment. 

The news I watched and read last spring and summer, however, were full of images and stories of the protests, riots and unrest that happened after George Floyd's death. It was relentless, in fact, on my screen all the time. There were many protests and marches that devolved into angry clashes, burning and destruction and these were grave and deeply unsettling incidents that we're still parsing out. That said, many of the protests were indeed peaceful, with no clashes.

A chief difference between those race-related protests of the summer and January 6 is pretty profound. Our nation's leader encouraged a large crowd to go to the Capitol to protest an election that he legitimately lost. He urged people to subvert the genuine and legitimate will of the people - our votes - and they did so with violence in our nation's most hallowed ground, the Capitol. They threatened the lives of our elected officials and threatened the process that is at the very foundation of our republic. That's what's different. 

Both protests are heartbreaking and angering. That's where they're the same. 

Ah, but it's so much more than that.  

1.) Never before have we had a unity in purpose with the mainstream media, in terms of squelching the truth, when it was to Trump's advantage, and promoting lies when they were designed to thwart the President's agenda.

2.) Trump encouraged the protestors to go to the Capitol, but he did not instruct them to be violent or break the law.  

3.) For the first time in history, censorship of speech is widely accepted, even promoted.  Big tech oligarchs don't even try to hide the fact that they exert enormous control over free speech.  

4.) Tens of millions of patriotic citizens feel very strongly that this election was rigged and tampered with.  So far, a detailed, methodical presentation of all the evidence and allegations has not been revealed to the American people.  Certain undeniable facts certainly give many millions a "cause for a pause".  There are undeniable unprecedented anomalies and these people have essentially been told to sit down and shut up.  I needn't regurgitate these irregularities and aberrations....dead people, non-residents, Unfolded ballots sent "by mail", software "glitches", and so forth and so on.  A barely functioning man who didn't campaign and stayed in his basement defeated an incumbent who won more votes than any other incumbent ever.  An incumbent who won the overwhelming majority of "bell-weather" counties.  I'll stop here, but my point is 87% of Republicans feel the election was rigged.  

5.) Last but not least, you say these protestors "threatened the process that is at the very foundation of our republic".  I submit this past election was, in the minds of 74 million people, a "threat to the very foundation of our republic".  In other words, your outrage is obscenely selective, and I would be ashamed.  

Since you are new, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and not insult your intelligence by suggesting you actually believe what you claim.

Mainstream media entails everything from NBC to Rush to CNN to Fox and Newsmax. It's all mainstream, all easily and readily avaiilable. 

Yes, Trump did not utter the words, "Go to the Capitol, break in, beat up cops and root out Pence to harm him and others." Trump urged them to go. Once they got there, a mob mentality and a ginned-up sense of purpose propeled them into violence. I'm sure you've seen the photos of those who were armed, the guy with tons of zip ties, the photos of the crowd that chased down or physically harmed police. They were doing what they believed was what Trump wanted them to do, approved of doing. "I love you; you're very special." 

Regarding the ban of the President on Twitter et al - those are privately held companies. The President has all the right in the world to speak freely. In fact, he's spoken quite freely. It's Twitter's prerogative to ban whomever they see fit - it's their business and their rules about what they find acceptable on their platform. I hate all that stuff, personally. I don't have any social media and I never look at it. I'm sure the President can find other ways to express himself than Twitter and so forth. I don't think his first amendment rights are chilled because Twitter doesn't like what he has to say and temporariy stalls him from posting. 

Regarding the election, there have been counts and recounts and more recounts. The courts from various states and the Supremes have found nothing credible in the claims of illegitimacy. These have been painstaking processes, and it's an insult to the hardworking folks from rural little counties to great big cities that they have not done their job with integrity. It takes a metric ****-ton of people to work elections; there's no way, no possible way, that it could be fixed with all these thousands of people involved in the nation's count. If the election were rigged, why would so many Republicans have won all over the US? How could it have worked out that some Republicans won...but Trump did not? No one has come up with cold hard proof that the election was rigged in any form. Did you hear the taped Raffenberger call - the one where Trump insists that the Republican Secretary of State from Georgia find him extra votes? There was no funny business with the vote, other than Trump's claims of such. 

Honestly, I don't get what you're saying at the end of your note. You're ashamed for me? You think I don't believe what I believe?

Friend, we bat for the same team. We're Americans. As I've pointed out, we agree on more than a few points. I'm not closed off to you, but you're being lied to by the President and Facebook and lord knows who else. Take care. 

You missed the part where tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of ballots were marked "Biden" only with no down votes.  To have been mailed they had to have creases in them which they didn't and the Biden only box appeared to have been printed on automatically as the markings were all identical and perfect.

1.) Newsmax is very fledgling, like OAN.  Both are gaining popularity because of an absence of what is perceived to be fair news coverage.  The left has a virtual monopoly over the control of information and news reporting.  Rush Limbaugh is not part of mainstream media.  He is the opposite of mainstream media.  He's their nemesis and he's dying. 

2.) Google has algorithms that place conservative-leaning sources of information at the bottom of searches.  That's not disputed.  That's just one example, and when people try to create alternative social media sites they are thwarted, ostensibly on the basis that the free speech on those sites like Parler promote dangerous "conspiracy theories".  Big tech censorship of predominately conservative speech is a dangerous tactic.  They no longer even deny it.  What do you suppose this will do in this country?  Do you think people will just roll over and accept the demands that they submit to progressive-liberal dominance?  I have news for you....if something doesn't change, the unrest we've been seeing over the last year is a mild harbinger of things to come.  Within a few short years, the Democrats have gone from the party of the downtrodden and middle class to the party of ultra wealthy oligarchs.  Oligarchy usually doesn't end well. 

3.) I stand by my remarks on the election.  Tens of millions are not satisfied that the matter has been thoroughly and openly analyzed and debated in a robust, controlled, public forum.  In fact, even prominent Democrats have weighed in on widespread mail-in voting and they have warned us of the dangers of election fraud if widespread mail in voting is allowed....look up the 2005 bipartisan commission on federal election reform.....headed by James Baker and Jimmy Carter.  Indeed even Biden himself once warned us of the risks of mail in voting along with same day voter registration.  Were you aware of that? Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren warned us about Dominion voting machines.  Were you aware of that?  No?  I didn't think so.  Are you aware that the US is practically the only nation in the western world that does not have a national "voter ID" in place as a safeguard against fraud?  Can you give me one reason why we do not have a national voter ID law?  Please don't tell me those laws are "racist".  Practically every developed country on earth has voter ID.  Why couldn't we have in person voting like we have in the past?  Please don't tell me because of Covid.  That's just bullish!t.  Wear a mask, stay 6 feet apart and vote. We can still have absentee voting.  Trump predicted this mess.  Once again, it turned out he was right, and now we have a mess, no matter what the media and oligarchs say.  When you have completely lost confidence in the most precious of our constitutional guarantees amongst half the citizens, you are in uncharted territory.  

No I honestly don't think you really believe there is an equivalence between the episode at the Capitol and the hell we have witnessed in blue cities over a 5 month span.  If you think there is, then you are a lost cause.

"Newsmax is very fledgling, like OAN.  Both are gaining popularity because of an absence of what is perceived to be fair news coverage.  The left has a virtual monopoly over the control of information and news reporting.  Rush Limbaugh is not part of mainstream media.  He is the opposite of mainstream media.  He's their nemesis and he's dying." 

I know lots of people who watch Newsmax. Fox is outrageously popular. And EIB Network estimates Rush's audience as 43 million people daily. That ain't the underground. That's mainstream. 

"Google has algorithms that place conservative-leaning sources of information at the bottom of searches.  That's not disputed." 

Honestly, this is territory about which I'm not well informed, so I'll concede my own ignorance. I stand by my opinon, however, that the President of the United States has not had his First Amendment rights chilled. He's got lots of venues and avenues to make his opinions known. 

"I have news for you....if something doesn't change, the unrest we've been seeing over the last year is a mild harbinger of things to come."

Agreed!

Regarding the election, I'm not opposed to having a voter ID, but I think our driver's licenses and voter ID cards really function like that. We do vote in person. I voted in person this year, as did my husband. My 90 year old parents, who don't drive and, as current cancer patients, are at great risk for Covid, voted by mail, as did my son, who goes to college out of state but whose permanent residency is here. All these methods work. The point is inclusion. Let's get everyone to vote in whatever way is viable and accurate. 

"When you have completely lost confidence in the most precious of our constitutional guarantees amongst half the citizens, you are in uncharted territory."

Yes, agreed.

"No I honestly don't think you really believe there is an equivalence between the episode at the Capitol and the hell we have witnessed in blue cities over a 5 month span.  If you think there is, then you are a lost cause."

There is a great river of disenfranchisement, frustration and deep-seated anger among Americans these days, about race, about the economy, about Covid, about government, about opportunity, education, class and health and so much more. I'm not a lost cause. I don't think you're a lost cause either. 

First of all, I have listened to Rush for 31 years.  His listeners average about 20 million per week, not 43 million per day.  He says that with tongue in cheek, just like he says "talent on loan from God" and "proven to be right 98.7% of the time".  The 43 million per day figure is a spoof that stems from the highly revered "models" that were all over the place....predicting 2.2 million deaths from Covid by the end of 2020.  Rush Limbaugh is not a news journalist.  He is a political commentator.  He uses the news selectively for entertainment, commentary, and conservative analysis.  He calls himself a member of the mainstream media with tongue in cheek.  Nobody has ever seriously considered him to be an integral part of the MSM. 
Fox News has plummeted a great deal over the past few months, as they have fallen out of favor with a lot of conservatives.  Many feel they have lurched drastically to the left in the past 1-2 years.  The addition of people like Donna Brazile hasn't helped garner viewership from the right.  I still like several people on Fox.  
As far as squelching the views of the President, never before in history has there been such a concerted, widespread effort to silence a president.  I think that is an ominous precedent.  
Again, I will reiterate, there is absolutely nothing about voter ID that suppresses voting or interferes with inclusivity in the voting process. I think this notion that voter ID laws would somehow be an impediment to inclusion is lame and baseless.  There is only one reason to oppose voter ID, and everyone knows what that is.  If I have to present an ID to buy a dam cigar, or a beer, or catch a dam catfish, then asking for an ID to demonstrate you are a qualified voter isn't too much to ask.  If you ask an average black voter on the street from Harlem what they think about voter ID requirements, they wouldn't have a problem.  To think Voter ID laws are somehow racist is, in itself, a racist notion.  We need significant, substantial, sensible election reforms, and I think that should be a very high priority.  This nonsense and chaos and widespread mistrust is a rapidly spreading cancer. People with reasonable, valid excuses ought to be able to vote by absentee ballot, with certain safeguards in play to ensure the ID of the voter.  It's not asking too much.  Mass mailing of empty ballots is a disaster.....look around, if you don't believe me.  Cheating and corruption in elections can no longer be denied.  

I'm really curious to see if y'all's opinions will change years from now, after the history books are printed. Kind of reminds me of some WW2 documentaries that include interviews with former SS soldiers. The history buff in me is morbidly curious.

OK, since you are a self-described history buff, speaking of WWII, have a go at this.

It’s fascinating to me how history repeats itself.

This is a photo of the 1933 “Reichstag Fire”. I’ll keep this simple. The Reichstag was the German equivalent of the US Capitol. Prior to 1933, the German Weimar Republic was a representative democracy, and the President was an elderly, frail, Paul von Hindenburg. He had been president since 1925, and was re-elected in 1933. The Nazi’s did very well, as a new party, and captured about 33% of the vote, to von Hindenburg’s 52%. Because he was the second highest in the voting, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor. Under their government, the chancellor functioned much like a Vice President, assuming mostly symbolic or assorted administrative roles, but one important role was that the chancellor presided over the German parliament.....the Reichstag fire set the stage to change all that and strip the German people of most civil liberties.

A German-Dutch communist, Van der Lubbe, was arrested, tried, convicted and executed by beheading. Hitler urged President Paul von Hindenburg to issue an emergency decree to suspend civil liberties under the “Enabling Act”, which gave chancellor Hitler the power to create laws without the consent of parliament, and pursue a "ruthless confrontation" with the Communist Party of Germany. The Enabling Act suspended most civil liberties in Germany, including habeas corpus, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, the right of free association and public assembly, and the secrecy of anything sent by mail and telephone conversation. These rights were not reinstated during Nazi reign. The decree was used by the Nazis to ban publications not considered "friendly" to the Nazi cause. After the decree was issued, the government instituted mass arrests of communists, including all of the Communist Party's parliament delegates. With their bitter rival communists gone and their seats empty, the Nazi Party went from a minority to a majority, thus enabling Hitler to consolidate his power. In essence, the Nazi Party used the fire as a pretext to claim that communists were plotting against the German government, which made the fire pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany. Von Hindenburg died a year later, allowing Hitler to merge the offices of president and chancellor into one supreme leader - the Fuhrer.

And now we know the rest of the story.

Was yesterday’s events the crisis needed to consolidate power? Am I the only one to see similarities?

“Never let a crisis go to waste.”
- Rahm Emmanuel

-Rahm Emmanuel

Look at how Europe has been destroyed by the European Union. The EU has ridiculous policies that have shredded so many countries there. That's why England is removing its country from the EU tyranny. That's what's coming for America now, a socialist over regulated corrupt government who gives more to foreign countries than their own. The incoming administration is going to destroy the middle class of this country and sell out all our big industries to foreign powers. America is going to turn into a two class society, the elite rich and the poor ! The government doesn't care about the American people they only care about power and wealth and will sell you out for any price. They are using "race" to push their agenda because the sheep that play the race card and the anti American card fall in line like the patsy's they are!