The FBI is posting a lot of photos of "persons-of-interest" on the Great S***hole, otherwise known as Facebook. My only use for it is to keep up with relatives and past schoolmates. The FBI's page is one of a scant few I follow. For the most part, they show photos of artifacts they have collected over the decades. I doubt they will be putting up any photos of these items for quite a while.

Local and national media are using the word "sedition" a lot. It is defined as "conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch." In this case, I believe the words "or monarch" can be removed. Many senators and former senior officials are calling for Trump to resign. Others are calling for the application of The 25th Amendment. Pence would have to do this, if I understand it correctly. There is also talk of impeachment. 12 days does not seem long enough for this to happen.

Trump apparently wanted to become the next strongman following the likes of Qaddafi, Noriega, Hussein, or Stalin. The system we have followed for over 200 years does not allow this. Fortunately, the original authors of The Constitution wrote their document in such a way that something of this nature would be covered, even though they would never have conceived of such a thing happening.

Trump said he is not going to the Inauguration; did that ever happen in History?

[QUOTE=MisterBitcoin;568753]Trump said he is not going to the Inauguration; did that ever happen in History?[/QUOTE]Yes, several times.

Not since the 19th century though.

[QUOTE=MisterBitcoin;568753]Trump said he is not going to the Inauguration; did that ever happen in History?[/QUOTE]Three in the Nineteenth Century purposely did did not attend their successors' first inaugural. They were John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Johnson (Thomas Jefferson in 1801, Andrew Jackson in 1829, and Ulysses Grant in 1869, respectively.)

There was one example in the Twentieth Century, due to unusual circumstances: On August 9, 1974 Richard Nixon's resignation became effective. He left in disgrace, and departed from the White House before Gerald Ford took the oath of office.

In the present instance, the outgoing cult leader is also leaving in disgrace.

[b]EDIT:[/b] It seems that many cult followers were intent on finding Mike Pence and executing him as a "traitor" because they had learned he was not going to illegally try to change the outcome of the election. There's video on line of rioters chanting, "Hang Mike Pence!"

While scanning the news, I couldn't help but hear (and not just once) the painfully familiar phrase for the ex-USSR folks: "[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality"]Cult of personality[/URL]". Which I find quite accurate, and it is a shame that people don't know history very well so it is not a very broad discourse.

Mind you, in the USSR, religion was suppressed so in a way it was a replacement mechanism (en masse, and in a larger context, the facade of communism was a faux religion cult). But in the U.S.of A? A huge portion of the base of trumpism are deeply religious. Don't they realize that they sin in idolatry? They don't think?

Trump's followers have been convinced of the following:
[LIST][*]that if you don't love America as much as Trump then you are not American enough[*]that Democrats have turned our country in to a s***hole[*]that all immigration (legal and not) takes jobs away from Americans[*]that most illegal immigrants are criminals[*]that Democrats do not support gun ownership[*]that Democrats do not support freedom of religion[*]that Democrats do not support freedom of speech[*]that Democrats are socialist/marxist/communist[*]that Democrats do not support the military and police[*]that all taxes are evil[*]that all attempts to address environmental concerns are an overreach of government[*]that all entitlements need to go away (note that Social Security and Medicare are not entitlements in their mind)[*]that media to the left of Fox News is "fake news" and not to be trusted[*]that the national flag is a sacred object deserving of devotion that borders on religious[/LIST]
These are all extremists positions, but shared by a large percentage of Trump supporters.

I was actually surprised by the lack of armed protesters on Wednesday. They have been carrying firearms everywhere else. I'm not certain why they were not carrying them during the protest.

I will answer some of these with some simple replies.
[QUOTE=rogue;568766][LIST][*]that all immigration (legal and not) takes jobs away from Americans[LIST][*][COLOR="SeaGreen"]A study by the National Foundation for American Policy determined that 44 out of 87 privately held companies valued at more than $1 billion had at least one immigrant founder. [/COLOR][/LIST][*]that Democrats do not support gun ownership[LIST][*][COLOR="SeaGreen"]Well have they seen this?[/COLOR]
[url]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/02/white-house-obama-shooting-gun[/url][/LIST][*]that Democrats do not support freedom of religion[LIST][*][COLOR="SeaGreen"]Jimmy Carter quite notably teaches Sunday School[/COLOR][/LIST][*]that Democrats do not support freedom of speech[LIST][*][COLOR="SeaGreen"]Who then was at all of the BLM protests?[/COLOR][/LIST][*]that Democrats do not support the military and police[LIST][*][COLOR="seagreen"]Biden's son served in the military and he has other ties to the military.[/COLOR][/LIST][*]that the national flag is a sacred object deserving of devotion that borders on religious[LIST][*][COLOR="seagreen"]The images from so many of their demonstrations show that they don't follow the US Flag Code.[/COLOR][/LIST][/LIST][/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;568769]I will answer some of these with some simple replies.[/QUOTE]
There’s no point trying to rationalize alas. The orange clown fans have to be reeducated in some other way.

I heard that 68% of the 70M Trump voters really think the election was stolen from them despite evdence of the contrary. I wish good luck to Biden. And to those in the R party that have not sold their soul to the orange golfer; their party really seems endangered by those extremists on their right.

[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_III_of_England[/url]
[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borat_Subsequent_Moviefilm[/url]

A bit of history and some contemporary parody that apply. In addition, Cohen's speech regarding his views should be seen as well..articulate and intelligent.
For anyone who traveled in dicey parts of the world "you do as they do in Rome" and glide through the various social strata talking the talk and walking the walk regardless of how Orwellian your surroundings are. An analogy would be Donnie Brasco. Look at present day Scandinavia and their politics as a whole and if you've traveled (or live there) so much the better; compare and contrast. And regarding the cult of personality, this correlates directly to intelligence,self-servitude and a fear factor compensated by mob association. Schools of fish have been known to follow the abnormal ones...and if they're sardines they all taste the same.

[url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/07/us/capitol-riots-people-fired-jobs-trnd/index.html]People at the US Capitol riot are being identified and losing their jobs[/url][quote]As images and social media posts of Wednesday's insurrection at the US Capitol circulate online, some of those who were present are being identified, and some have lost or left their jobs because of it.[/quote]My favorite is the guy I'd seen in one of the stills. He was wearing an ID badge. Not too smart, as illustrated by this [url=http://www.navistardirect.com/message]message from Navistar Direct Marketing[/url]:[quote]Navistar Direct Marketing was made aware that a man wearing a Navistar company badge was seen inside the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 during the security breach. After review of the photographic evidence the employee in question has been terminated for cause.[/quote]No word on whether he's been charged yet, but if not it seems likely he will be soon.

One guy who has been charged (so far only with misdemeanors) is a newly elected state lawmaker.

[url=https://wvmetronews.com/2021/01/08/manchin-evacuated-this-week-from-senate-chamber-says-new-delegate-evans-should-be-punished-for-role-in-capitol-mob/]New W.Va. delegate who yelled 'We're in! We're in! Derrick Evans is in the Capitol!' now faces federal charges reflecting that[/url][quote]Evans, a Republican from Wayne County just sworn into West Virginia's House of Delegates, is contending he was videoing history and swept along with the crowd. But his own video depicts him calling out "Move! Move!" before going through the Capitol door, as security alarms blare.
<snip>
Evans, R-Wayne, livestreamed and then deleted videos from inside the Capitol, but others took screenshots and videos of his original.[/quote]So - he was "videoing history" and then deleted the video, huh? I think that's known as "knowledge of guilt."

If stupidity qualified as an aggravating factor, he'd be executed.

[URL="https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/8/22220366/apple-google-parler-pressure-deplatform-violence-capitol"]Apple and Google face pressure to deplatform Parler over calls to violence[/URL]

Trump has already been banned from FaceBook and Twitter. Reddit has suspended the largest Trump group.

Unfortunately the right will call this "cancel culture" and accuse these companies of censorship.

If Trump were removed from office before Jan 20 (impeached or the 25th Amendment), would they try to make Pence president for the few remaining days of Trump's term? I'm curious because if Pence became president I would expect him to pardon everyone in the Trump family.

I only want to see Trump charged with a crime if they truly believe that he can be convicted of it. Again, Republicans will call it a witch hunt, but I would love to see the Trump family spend millions of their dollars on lawyers who bleed them dry. I think that the Trump family will have a lot of difficulty finding people willing to do business with them after this term ends.