This is a hard post to write. I'm still reeling from the events of the past few days. 

I had originally planned to watch the counting of the Electoral College to see just what would transpire with the different Senators and Congressmen/women vowing to object to certain states. I still didn't understand how they could object to states they weren't residents of, and they were only objecting to the presidential race votes. Seems to me if a ballot was fraudulent for that race, it was fraudulent for every race, including local races. But, no-one seemed to understand that.

When the barriers were breached, I called my sister who lives 350 miles away and together we watched in disbelief as more and more protestors stormed the building. Where were the Capitol police? The intelligence agencies had known this was possible for days and had offered help from the federal government, yet to all appearances, it was turned down. As scenes showed windows being broken and doors shattered, my sister and I both grew more horrified. This was not a peaceful protest anymore. This was now a full-blown riot, incited by our President himself.

Some people later just said they were caught up in the moment. Others couldn't believe they were being arrested. I heard one woman say that "I just wanted to hang the flag from the scaffolding!" But, you went behind barriers that were there to protect the building and its occupants.

A fellow blogger I've never met wrote a post to his blog and I've asked if I could share it. I'm only going to quote a little of it here, but I'm including the link to his blog so that you can read the entire post. It says it so much better than I can.

    "...I no longer recognize our country and I no longer recognize some in my own family and many friends who continue to stand by him, too blinded by the lies told to them by Trump and brainwashed by conservative media. You disappoint me for being the easy marks you are...There's a cancer spreading in our society that feeds off of conservative media and is then spread on social media platforms as people give life to the cancer with their lies and easily debunked conspiracies. It has spread to the highest levels of our government. There can be no unity among us until the purveyors of the sustenance the cancer feeds off of stop with the endless drip of lies, conspiracies, fear, and hate that they broadcast. That's the only cure for this but sadly, I don't see that happening. There are billions of dollars to be made off these fools and we're all paying the price for their gullibleness and stupidity."

You can read the entire blog post by clicking here. I'm not sure I've done the link right. It worked for me so hopefully it will work for you.

A couple of things made me feel better when the sessions resumed in the evening. My estimation of Vice-President Pence increased 3000%. He stood up to the President and the others who had been pressuring him to just announce that he was rejecting the entire Electoral College votes and the election. I also admired those is Congress who changed their minds over objecting to the results in the states they were going to protest. 

There has now been some fallout for those protesting in Congress. Josh Hawley from Missouri, who I understand is a presidential hopeful for 2024 has lost a book deal. He is now claiming that his free speech has been violated. Really? No-one has said he can't write the book, Simon and Schuster has just decided not to publish it.

I was also proud of both of my senators, and I don't say that lightly. I mostly disagree with just about everything Tom Cotton says, because he has been one of the President's most ardent supporters. But he and John Boozman both denounced the "protest" and declined to object to the election results. Unfortunately, my representative, Rick Crawford, did not and continued to vote against the results in Pennsylvania.

So many people are afraid of the next four years, saying we're going to be turning into a  Socialist country. Unfortunately I think the hatred and vitriol will continue for awhile. I just keep remembering what Rodney King said after the LA riots "Can't we all just get along?". We all need to remember we are Americans, not Republican or Democrat, but Americans, and we're better than this!