Why was DC not locked down, and all flights cancelled, on the day of the insurrection, to prevent the participants from fleeing?

Good question, but at least they did get him.

I think things happened too fast. And I think Trump-sympathetic people in positions to affect events neglected their jobs, before and after the rioting.

I am wondering how closed off DC will be around the time of the inauguration. I would bet real money that instead of DC, some Trumpanzees will be acting around the country.

And I think Trump-sympathetic people in positions to affect events neglected their jobs, before and after the rioting.

I think that is an important point. Based on how some of the police treated the mob initially, it seems clear that some authorities were sympathetic to these people and let this happen. There’s just no way that the protection would’ve been so lax if there had been a planned Antifa/BLM rally.

What makes you believe these people flew there? You want to bust magaheads? Stake out the gun stores and surveil the service stations for pickup trucks—the dead giveaway in a place like DC.

There’s just no way that the protection would’ve been so lax if there had been a planned Antifa/BLM rally.

Getty Images – Members of the D.C. National Guard stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as demonstrators participate in a peaceful protest against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, on June 2, 2020 in Washington, DC.

Fair question. Masha Gessen said in a New Yorker article that we aren’t taking this seriously enough, and I think she’s right. The Russian-born world-class expert on autocracy said Moscow journalists likewise told her that she was too worked up over Putin’s rise toward dictatorship in the Kremlin, and she believed they weren’t taking it seriously enough. On Michael Krasny’s KQED radio program yesterday, Gessen said this was and is an emergency and we ought to be reacting to it as an emergency right now, not carrying on business as usual, which suggests that it’s not that big a deal.

I’ve read her book Surviving Autocracy, and I feel pretty confident that she knows what she’s talking about.

Also now that I see that some lawmakers were involved, I can’t help wondering if someone, you know, left a window open.

“Among those charged was Derrick Evans, a newly elected lawmaker from West Virginia, Mr. Kohl said. Mr. Evans posted video to his Facebook page of him filming as he stood among the crowd outside a Capitol door and then rushing inside with them.”
—New York Times, 1/8/2021

Because they didn’t flee
They went home and had a keg party.

Heads are starting to roll, thank God. It’s about damn time there were some consequences to this crap.

@Jeruba Masha Gessen said in a New Yorker article that we aren’t taking this seriously enough, and I think she’s right. The Russian-born world-class expert on autocracy said Moscow journalists likewise told her that she was too worked up over Putin’s rise toward dictatorship

Yes, thank you. We are entering Weimar America. We can either descend into the authoritarian autocracy supported by Trump fans, or defeat the fascists now.

Have you ever been to DC? It’s a city that is surrounded by Virginia and Maryland. There are hundreds, even thousands, of streets (and buses, and cars use those streets). And the subway runs all over the city. Heck, you could walk across the street and get out of DC, and get a taxi to Baltimore.

There is no way to ‘close off’ Washington DC.

Probably because that is a stupid idea.

Some of them did fly home, prompting an American Airlines pilot to threaten to dump them if they didn’t settle down.

I was wondering about this also. Actually, one of my initial thoughts was they are going to probably wall off DC for the inauguration in a way that has never been seen before, but then I thought about routes getting out of the city and these criminals fleeing the city.

They certainly could have grounded flights going out and set up some check points along the major thoroughfares out of the city, but realistically they probably needed time to review the tapes and identify people, so would have to balance that with “inconveniencing” other people. On 9/11 we grounded planes, but there was a possibility of a threat of another plane hijack.

I think it wasn’t taken seriously enough. I watched some video of people who were part of the rioting and many of them seemed very naive and clueless how frightening a mob like that is, how much danger they put themselves in, and how insane it is to storm the US Capitol. This one young man had the blood of the woman shot in his hands, and what he was saying was like he was surprised and the government will shoot people who disagree. Like we are Cuba or North Korea I guess in his mind. I could look for that video. Not that I give a shit about how naive some of these people are. My only point is maybe officials didn’t see them as an immediate threat to the community.

Moreover, a lot of police were on Capitol grounds, and there are multiple ways out of the city as mentioned above, but still some efforts could have been made.

Side note: Regarding DC airports, Washington National Airport, now known as Ronald Reagan, has a curfew of 10:00pm unless it has changed since I lived there. That would be the closest airport, so it actually has no flight movement 10:00pm to 7:00am already, but there are two others in the area, one in Maryland and one in Virginia that are 24 hour airports. I wonder if Maryland or Virginia governors can close those airports? When COVID first hit big in March, New Yorkers were pouring into Florida and we Floridians were told our governor couldn’t stop it, that air travel was under federal control and the president wouldn’t stop the flights. I don’t know if that is for sure true, and I don’t know if that might be part of the reason.

They probably don’t really need to. They can identify them and go get them. Especially since most of them probably have cell phones and were likely even carrying them during the event.

I wonder what percent of the Trumptards Google and Apple know trespassed, and where they are now. I’m guessing 90% or more.

I actually feel badly for these people in exercising the same levels of judgement required to support Trump in the first place. This was the redneck equivalent of a frat boy prank, only these poor dummies will command neither the connections nor legal talent to obtain the “slap on the wrist” assured those privileged pranksters

A lot of them drove or took buses (big chartered buses, maybe), if they were coming from the East coast. From where I live, I could get to DC in about five hours. I wouldn’t fly.

@stanleybmanly some of them will be facing serious jail time. Sort of a dumb way to spend your next 25 years.

That’s what I mean. It’s both stupid and pointless. The footage of that grinning idiot gleefully running with that podium under his arm says it all.