A mob was allowed to enter the United States Capitol while Electoral College results were being accepted. If the president invokes the Insurrection Act, it will be the legal obligation of the military to uphold the Constitution and allow the proceedings to continue. It will not vacate the election. The call to insurrection and the riot that has followed are acts of open treason, and nobody, no matter their political persuasion, should condone this. There is nothing illegal about peaceful protest on the streets and in public spaces. The treason occurred when the mob entered the capitol and disrupted the proceedings of the government. The president and members of congress have called for them to leave. To learn more, read a brief history of the Insurrection Act and the times it has been invoked here.
A statement from Whitley Strieber: “While this is not a political website, we do feel that we should cover any event this momentous. On a personal level, while I am a political moderate, sometimes voting Republican and sometimes Democratic, many people close to me are conservatives and many of them Trump supporters. I cannot imagine one of them being willing to enter the Capitol Building with the intent of disrupting the government, and I must say that I feel certain that most supporters of the president would take the same position. Peaceful protest in public spaces is fine, but not disrupting the government. I feel that the conservative movement has been made to appear dangerous to this country today, which it is not. Conservatism and populism are two very different things.”
Subscribers, to watch the subscriber version of the video, first log in then click on Dreamland Subscriber-Only Video Podcast link.
Time and again, humans display a wide gamut of bipolar behavior. They can achieve monumental acts of love and genius that further the rights of all sentient beings. But they are also capable of sinking to the depths of insanity that not only threatens civilization but also all lifeforms. We must not kid ourselves that we do not live on that razor’s edge, a treacherous pendulum.
JUST SAYIN…….
The big bad wolf tried to huff and puff and blow the house down, but he could not. He kept trying for hours but the house was very strong and the little pigs were safe inside. He tried to enter through the chimney but the third little pig boiled a big pot of water and kept it below the chimney. The wolf fell into it and died.
Haha, great comment! And note Whit’s statement that has been added to the piece. Talk about moderation! On a day like this, it’s a masterpiece of that art. I often think that we need his brilliance and his peaceful heart in politics!
“…the conservative movement has been made to appear dangerous to this country…”
—
If what has occurred not clear evidence that the conservative movement is dangerous to the country I don’t know what is.
Yet on the other hand, two billion (according to some reports I hear) dollars of damage was done in the past year by “peaceful protestors”. Who did all that? Maybe it’s time to stop taking sides and start seeing history repeating itself.
So Jamie it sounds like you just want a one party one sided state. Never healthy as history proves. Shutting down dissenting voices like FB and Twitter et al are doing is just sowing the seeds for a shaming, narcing, rat on your neighbour, my way or the highway counry and culture. We don’t just need a two party system we need at least three.
I meant the conservative movement as I understand it, which is the movement of people like Ronald Reagan and his ideological successors. I don’t see it as being the same as the Trump movement.
I agree . Though there are some parallels in policy however slight.
Policies don’t have agendas. Identity politics and the populists that wield it , require policies to be owned by specific groups or individuals to give the policy a face. Then you can attack a policy by attacking a person (which is often simpler) … or visa versa.
So, back at the height of the cold war when tax rates for the rich were >70%, taxation was still contentious but it was just an issue. Now taxation is itself is a euphemism for “communist” and you can point to anyone who mentions it and they are too. Forget that the military and roads etc are paid for by taxes and will be paid for. It’s a way to tweak the conversation, and over time do things like minimise the amount the rich and corporations contribute towards things like aircraft carriers.
Hear hear ‘. I feel that the conservative movement has been made to appear dangerous to this country today, which it is not.’
From Stephen Colbert…….
https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/horrified-stephen-colbert-absolutely-torches-trump-gop-cowards-fox-news-over-capitol-mob-in-epic-commentary/ar-BB1cyAjL?ocid=msedgdhp
I should have thought to post this last night, but I would like to remind everyone that as per Unknown Country’s Privacy Policy and Posting Rules that while argument is not discouraged, we expect posts to remain civil, and posts containing personal attacks of any sort will not be tolerated and subsequently deleted; repeated offences will lead to the cancellation of the poster’s subscription.
https://www.unknowncountry.com/privacy-policy/
From the 60s to the 90s, my family lived in the Washington DC metropolitan area. Our local newspapers covered a vast amount of US national news as a result, because news from the US Federal government was a big part of our “local” news. That’s how I know for sure that neither major political party covers itself in glory all the time. In 2021, due to the new balance of political power, both of those political parties will have to work together most of the time … a sign of hope as we all move further into an era of increased climatic and public health instability.
There was a statement from former US Attorney General William Barr this morning to an Associated Press reporter. The key part of that quote is: “Orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress is inexcusable. The President’s conduct yesterday was a betrayal of his office and supporters.” Link:https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/07/politics-live-updates-joe-bidens-win-formalized-congress-count/6578456002/
I see “the insurrection” as having long-term positive benefits for our country and maybe other countries as well. The old phrase, “a bridge too far” comes to my mind as a way of purging this authoritarian/fascist behavior from our body politic. It has been my experience that shocking events personally and collectively can bring suddenly clear vision and focus our minds. Our national sleep walk has brought us to this historical moment. Now awakened what do we want knowing the likely consequences? Choose life or….
I strongly disagree. Republican leadership since the Nixon era have been deliberately testing the strength of the executive branch. They have gerrymandered voting districts, they have packed the lower courts and now the supreme courts with conservative judges to help support their moves to increase the power of the executive branch. They have infiltrated the media, homoginizing and pushing to the far right, messaging rife with falsehoods and inflammatory rhetoric, starting from the bottom of AM radio in the late 90’s/ early 2000’s into Sinclair, then Fox News and now finally OAN and NewsMax (not to mention Facebook and twitter.) This has always been their plan. The republican party’s leadership is the single largest danger to democracy in the US. I’m not talking about our family and friends who are republican, most of my family are republican and I can see that they mean no harm, but I have also watched them be slowly brainwashed by the media, espousing ideas that I could see changing, although when I question why their views have changed, their answer is “I’ve always believed this.” Its horrifying to watch and the Republican Party needs to be held accountable.
I hear you. I was thinking in terms of ideology and economics, not so much political action.
I’m an advocate for a two party system because it works so well with our constitution. You can see more about why in my recent journal entry: https://www.unknowncountry.com/whitleys-journal/how-the-american-republic-worked-and-can-work-again/
Both parties have been guilty of gerrymandering, incidentally. This abuse has been with us for too long and should be outlawed.
I respectfully submit that:
—–Antifa (and BLM? I don’t know) urged their “adherents” via social media to dress up as Trump supporters and engage in activities that would make the Trumpsters look bad. I’ve seen no mention of any Antifa activity at all yesterday, although I assume there must have been some presence in Washington (were they ordered to “stand back and stand down” or did they all put on MAGA hats and go looking for trouble?).
—–If one lends credibility to the idea that “foreign interests” attempted (and succeeded?) to influence the election (like what the CIA and many other spy agencies have been doing for decades around the world), can one ignore the possible presence of “agents provocateur” from God only knows where?
—–World War III is already underway via “nontraditional” methods, and us “reg’lar folks” probably don’t even know at this point who all the players and what all the agendas are, though it’s not hard to guess most of them. So much of this chaos is attributable to blowback from a badly executed US foreign policy (hegemony at any price) that has marshaled legions of opponents around the world…
—–As far as American politics are concerned, Gore Vidal pointed out in the Seventies that the US in effect has one political party (Bankster Fascist?) with two wings, while the dispossessed and disaffected thrash around, out on the extreme edges (I added the last part).
—–It’s going to take a lot of investigation, I think, before anyone can start throwing around the kind of rhetoric that we’re seeing in the media since yesterday; the world has become far too complex to have room for simple explanations any more. Indeed, the complexity is itself a major factor in the current chaos.
Oh it’s definitely more complex in my opinion. Zerohedge posted some stuff that looks awfully suspicious. I tried to link to it here earlier, but it would appear that has been purged. I guess that’s just how it goes these days! I just can’t wrap my head around this country anymore. On the one hand, you have the Trump crowd who has come to believe that he’s the resurrection of Thomas Jefferson or something even though he hasn’t done ANYTHING for them. I get why they’re angry though. I don’t know how people can see the things I’ve seen with this “election” and this inexcusably non transparent voting system and all the Dominion machine shenanigans, the laughable stastical anomalies, the many people who’ve testified to things they’ve seen – I don’t know which to believe and which not – but clearly something stinks with it all. Yet the other side seems all too willing to blatantly ignore reality as long as it’s in line with their political cult. They should’ve been out there with them! I mean – look who they got! Biden and Harris?? What were those clowns polling in the primaries – like one percent? And this is what they’ve been served? Lol.
I just can’t believe that so many people get suckered by this and can’t see that there’s something wrong here. There was a time not that long ago that pretty much everyone KNEW the government was lying to them. They KNEW the media was pushing propaganda. Yet now all they get are lies and the media roaches turn the propaganda up to redline and suddenly everyone’s gobbling it down like Thanksgiving dinner! Of course we can’t have a country that tolerates this kind of behavior – but maybe it is about time these clowns in DC got a taste of what they subjected people in cities all across the nation to for months. I’ve watched them and their media stooges exonerate political violence all that time – until the chickens came home to roost… Then you would’ve thought they were invaded like red dawn. I’m curious to see how they’re going to go on villifying 75 million people who are fed up with having their lives upended and their businesses destroyed and no addressing of their grievances while telling them that THEY aren’t allowed to get angry. There’s a valid question to be asked here as they go on about how they can’t use violence, when that’s what government does to them ALL THE TIME! Tell one of the 50 little dictators we have now that you’re not complying with unconstitutional “mandates” and see what happens… They send armed goons out to tell you otherwise. And the more you resist, the more the will of the state will be violently enforced.
At WHAT point does the monopoly on such force become no longer justified??
Appreciate the post Justin.
While I am extremely reluctant to get into an argument with you and the previous idiot EDITED on this subject because
I refuse to go down that rabbit hole, I must address the complete inappropriateness of EDITED poisonous politically mythological views on this site. ADDITIONAL SENTENCES REMOVED
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Too late to refuse to go down that rabbit hole – you’re in it. I think people just need to get back to asking questions. All the partisan political rhetoric is just there to manipulate emotions. NEITHER side cares one iota about democracy or their voters. Each and every one of them would turn this place into another North Korea with the stroke of a pen given the power to do so. Turn off the tempers, and step back and start thinking. What’s going on here? Remember Ron Paul on ’08? He smoked every other candidate in the debates – polls had him winning… And they finagled the rules to sideline him. Same kind of thing the DNC did to Bernie and Tulsi. Yet – how come nothing like that happened with Trump? What really has he done that was all that different from any other? The war drums kept beating, the same players kept getting richer while the nation (and his base for sure) were left behind again. All the while the media kept stoking the fire and now everyone is so blinded by emotion and cult like worship that they fail to see that something is fundamentally wrong. We’re being divided more and more. Everyone is being whipped up into a distracted rage over empty ideology from people who are in no way concerned with their interests. I wonder what the left is going to do once things deteriorate further, and they don’t have the big orange Goldstein to kick around anymore? We’re rapidly becoming the China we all used to snicker about. Remember the “great firewall”? Yeah that’s us now! Look at how the political and corporate landscape is galvanizing towards the same direction. Whitley is certainly right about one thing. The past four years have certainly caused the Republicans to be viewed in a very different light. One voice in the media has started calling out the need for a “cleansing” of such people. Interesting choice of words! That’s no accident. Neither do I think the events in DC were either. Let’s see what happens as a result of this. Remember the Rahm Emmanuel credo – never let a good crisis go to waste. The constitution might as well be in the shredder at this point, as we all now march to the step of rule by mandate. If Trump were revealed to be a Democrat operative (remember his history) tasked with sabotaging the opposition, well I can only tip my hat and say “well played” as I can’t think of a better way to have done it.
We have no government of “We the people” anymore. Some power has infiltrated it at all levels, and now it’s coiling around us like a snake – to use an analogy I heard from Whitley once. It’s really not that hard to see! We’d better stop fighting over hot air from propagandists and start taking this seriously. Whatever this power is, it’s not going to play nice! Man sometimes I feel like I could count on one finger how many people I know who are seeing this and figuring this out. Neither “side” of this entity is going to save things – because it’s now all the same side and yet we’re further divided, being set up for something we don’t want here.
I say, nuke DC from LEO. It’s the only way to be sure.
Nice riff, Justin.
Is it any wonder the Visitors’ will not get involved in our politics? Above the fray, they witness our madness. Also not getting involved, for it is ours alone to succeed at or to fail.
They have a history, too. I have seen that in their faces. Perhaps this is the primary reason that they will not interfere in ours. “It is ours alone to succeed at or fail.” So true.
Whitley, thinking of your new book ‘JESUS: A New Vision.’ Is there more going on here then what we are understanding? Too wrapped up in the emotions of it all? Question, “why did the riot come to pass on the 6th, of January, for Christians, THE EPIPHANY? What about the up and coming date of January 19th? Does your new book talk about time-lines?
https://www.ancient-origins.net/
https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/chalking-door-0014772
Epiphany for the year 2021 is celebrated/ observed on Wednesday, (((January 6th))).
Epiphany also called Three Kings’ Day, Theophany, Denha, Little Christmas, and Baptism of Jesus is celebrated on (((January 6th))) each year according to the Gregorian calendar and what most Western Christian Churches follow. Many Eastern Christian Churches will celebrate Epiphany on (((January 19th))) because they follow the Julian calendar.
Western Churches celebrate Epiphany with a feast that commemorates the visit of the Magi (Three Kings, or Three Wise Men) to baby Jesus, signifying Jesus’s physical revealing to the Gentiles. In some Western Churches the day starts the liturgical season of Epiphanytide that follows Christmastide and ends on different days depending on the denomination of the Church.
https://www.calendardate.com/epiphany_2021.htm
(((((((“…each entity must stand upon its OWN INNER developments to bring peace or harmony. So long as any is leaning upon another, or so long as self is leaning upon another, there CANNOT be the full or complete control of self.”)))))))
An interesting post indeed! My book doesn’t discuss the liturgical calendar except in relation to the connection between Christmas and the birth date of earlier gods such as Dionysus and some others, who share the same birth date. There is actually no record of Dec. 25 being the birth date of Jesus until 336 AD, when it is found recorded in a liturgical calendar. While the tradition must have started before then, that’s the first record of it. However, that doesn’t mean that these symbolic dates don’t have profound significance. For example, I would think that many, many people experienced an epiphany on that day, defined as a “sudden revelatory insight.” I know that I did.
Edgar Cayce…….
“…each entity must stand upon its OWN INNER developments to bring peace or harmony. So long as any is leaning upon another, or so long as self is leaning upon another, there CANNOT be the full or complete control of self.”
Edgar Cayce reading 165-22
I am reminded of the late, great Jim Marrs…In 2008 I attended the first Dreamland Festival where Jim discussed his book, ‘The Rise of the 4th Reich’, and I can see him rolling his eyes right now and shrugging his shoulders. It was a great talk, and I also corresponded with him thereafter, in particular about aspects of fascism that I was seeing around me in my everyday life, including my work, which ironically enough was in public health. Go figure…
For months I have seen people wishing away 2020, thinking that 2021 would magically make the problems of 2020 disappear. Only if it were so…
We have a hard road ahead, and politically this isn’t about being liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat. It’s about having decency and integrity and doing what is right and fair for everyone. We have lost our way, and the people and politicians (and President) that are pushing this country more and more in the direction of Fascism are the big problem that we must confront head on. We also have to learn that free-speech is not free, and that it can be a double-edged sword that should be used with great care and intent.
The clock is ticking and our window of opportunity is closing…
This is dead on! There’s an independent journalist named Whitney Webb who has done may podcasts detailing this as good as I have heard. She may become the next Jim Marrs, rest his soul.
“If the president invokes the Insurrection Act….” Really? Why would he? He egged his followers into doing this. “Let’s walk over there…” “we have to be strong…” NAME REMOVED you’re retreating into shameless mugwumpery. Eventually, if too many people fail to call out and resist these ego-driven megalomaniacs, our proud democratic experiment will end up under the jackboots of yet another dictatorship.
Poster, your post was edited because it violated our posting rule that you may not insult or disparage other posters by name.
Edited by Staff
I think you’re missing the point though. I’m not saying THEY necessarily were right or justified – of course they’re not. Read my reply post above and maybe you’ll see what I mean. This is a result of actions that were taken to create such a monster. What’s the motivation behind those actions? Perhaps the response to them will clarify it, as is often the case sometime later.
You misunderstand my point. I was just making it clear that he could not invoke the Insurrection Act for any purpose other than getting the military to take control of the Capitol. In other words, he could not invoke it to declare a national state of emergency and attempt to prolong his time in office. Our new site editor will see “shameless mugwumpery” and think to remove it because it is a direct attack on another poster, which is against our posting rules. But I love words like “mugwumpery,” so I’m memorializing it here in case he does so.
In the kitchen before morning coffee: meanderthal.
Mournful and/or out of tune singers or instrumentalists (e.g. the rural bands in the Godfather movies): lugubridors.
I watched the events unfold in real time and was horrified to see how inept the capitol police were. I kept thinking how easy it would have been for an even more deadly and powerful mob, or a paramilitary group equipped with machine guns, to storm the capitol and wipe out most of our congress people in a joint session. It would have sent our country into ultimate turmoil. It makes me think our democracy is much more fragile than we want to imagine.
Our entire electronic infrastructure is perilously fragile. One well-timed coronal discharge can send it into chaos and strand us in our cities.
All I can say is that whoever would make a future move for dictatorship in the U.S. will probably be no dummy, and is watching all this with a smirk, seeing his time as near.
Will we see him coming?
A truly sad time for your country Whitley. You have previously commented that the Visitors said that as the world’s situation worsens people will go insane. It would appear that many people have already reached that point. Very sad indeed and I feel great pity for your country.
There has been a push for disclosure by many but I don’t think they are ready for what would be disclosed. I think that the madness that would ensue would dwarf what is occurring now. I cannot imagine tiny fragile entities wanting to physically engage with a human species who too easily retreat to the untamed wildness that is a part of their makeup. With the all too often human response to shot first and ask questions later, I highly doubt that any sort of meaningful disclosure for the average human will happen anytime soon.
Rickety Man
Thank you, all of our British friends for this wonderful series. Thank you, all of you everywhere during a difficult time in America when good thoughts and friends are sooo appreciated.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/10/arts/television/all-creatures-great-and-small-pbs.html
‘All Creatures Great and Small’ Rehabilitates Cows and Soothes Souls
This charming mini-series adaptation of the James Herriot novel was a surprise pandemic hit in Britain. This week it arrives in an America in need of its own relief
Now “All Creatures,” premiering Sunday on PBS’s “Masterpiece,” arrives in an America in need of its own relief, amid a still-surging pandemic and wrenching political upheaval. “It has the warmth people are looking for during a really challenging time,” Susanne Simpson, the executive producer of “Masterpiece,” said. “It gets at emotional truths that are comforting for us.”
“The divide in views between the rural and metropolitan areas was really striking, and I was reminded of ‘All Creatures,’ because the books really bridged that divide and appealed so broadly,” he said. “I felt that living in such difficult and complicated times, there would be an audience that wanted a show that was gentle and entertaining, and would bring us together.”
And that, he added ruefully, “was before Covid.”