After my little rant, there is space for feedback from the forum. What was your visit like? Would you visit there again?

A Democrat from New Jersey wants an investigation because she thinks that people along with Congresspersons were doing a recon mission just prior to the rush on the Capitol.

This sparked something in memory, and I checked: visitors from all around the world can make reservations for their groups [smaller groups now due to covid?] and they might be escorted by Congressional aides, staffers, or Congresspersons themselves. Identification is not required for these tours. What she described sounds like something off of the Capitol visitor's page online. So what seemed suspicious about tourists in the Capitol on that day as compared to all other tourists from all other tours of that building? Were people who rushed the capitol the only visitors to the Capitol? If not, she owes someone an apology.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/2021 09:18PM by Shop-et-al.

The building has been off limits to anyone not accompanied by staff since mid-March, due to covid.

Not sure if you meant the Capitol building or D.C. in general.

If the latter, it's worth a visit for the museum and historic site tours. There are so many and as a history buff (that's my reading of you), I'd think you'd like it.

I personally don't like the traffic and crowdedness of D.C., but enjoy it as a vacation/exploration trip.

I'd like to visit downtown Chicago as my next trip. I've toured so much of the East and West coasts, but not so much the Mid-West.

A long walk along the lake shore in Chicago can be a real treat. The Art Institute and the other museums are world class.

I've been to DC, but did not tour the Capitol building.

I enjoyed Arlington a lot the last time I went ( a few years ago).

It's a place (if I could afford it) I wouldn't mind living in long-term.

@walesmaven wrote:

A long walk along the lake shore in Chicago can be a real treat. The Art Institute and the other museums are world class.

Cool. Closest I've ever gotten is Detroit. And that is a very different urban landscape, as they're a struggling city.

I wish I had infinite money to just travel and explore towns (rich or poor, small or large...) across the world. It's a great joy of mine. I do it around MD, DC, VA, and...sliiightly in NC, as it's close and cheap enough.

@shoptastic wrote:

Not sure if you meant the Capitol building or D.C. in general.

If the latter, it's worth a visit for the museum and historic site tours. There are so many and as a history buff (that's my reading of you), I'd think you'd like it.

I personally don't like the traffic and crowdedness of D.C., but enjoy it as a vacation/exploration trip.

I'd like to visit downtown Chicago as my next trip. I've toured so much of the East and West coasts, but not so much the Mid-West.

Beautiful. I visited Chicago and stayed downtown at the Hyatt. I had great views of the lake, river, view of Navy Pier. I did a lot of walking downtown to restaurants, the park, and along the shoreline. Saw the Cubs at Wrigley the first day, ate dinner across the street from the stadium, and strolled around the neighborhood (Wrigleyville). Purchased tickets to Hamilton, and saw that downtown too.

My better half has been to DC many times, but I have never been. We were planning to go before Covid. I like history, and the DC trip is on my bucket list for sure.

Okay, gang. When you get to DC, give me a shout and we will plan a coffee visit, AFTER covid.

After? Or, when it calms itself down enough to be like the common cold. The CEO of Moderna supposedly said that we will always have covid, but it will be like the common cold. If this is true, we might follow through with some of our plans to get out there more. See the world!

@walesmaven wrote:

Okay, gang. When you get to DC, give me a shout and we will plan a coffee visit, AFTER covid.

A bit of history if I may, pre 9/11 there was very little security at the Capitol. Except security for guns etc. Then they built the entrance the visitor center, they screened the folks there even greater as you might imagine. Now, in the Covid generation you have to know someone to get into the building. I remember walking in and visiting the building, pre-9/11 and taking in the vast amount of historical statues and painting, climbing up the stairway toward the dome....Gez things have changed.

@Shop-et-al wrote:

This sparked something in memory, and I checked: visitors from all around the world can make reservations for their groups [smaller groups now due to covid?] and they might be escorted by Congressional aides, staffers, or Congresspersons themselves. Identification is not required for these tours. What she described sounds like something off of the Capitol visitor's page online. So what seemed suspicious about tourists in the Capitol on that day as compared to all other tourists from all other tours of that building? Were people who rushed the capitol the only visitors to the Capitol? If not, she owes someone an apology.

[www.politico.com]
"The lawmakers...noted that Capitol tours have been prohibited since March as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and they said the tours were so unusual that they were reported to security on Jan. 5, ahead of the following day's violence."

Seems no tours should have been allowed. Definitely worth an investigation.

When I worked in DC (2016-2019), I walked through the common areas of the Capitol. I did not need a reservation. There are metal detectors at the entrances. There are soft barriers to let visitors know which areas are off limits. There is a lot of visible security, both inside and outside.

I have not planned to visit the D.C area, but it is interesting to know how other people experience it. Keep up the interesting reports!

@1cent: If anyone was concerned about visitors on January 5, 2020, they should have reported their concerns at that time. I wonder why they did not speak up on that day. This information will emerge sooner or later.

@Shop-et-al wrote:

I have not planned to visit the D.C area, but it is interesting to know how other people experience it. Keep up the interesting reports!

@1cent: If anyone was concerned about visitors on January 5, 2020, they should have reported their concerns at that time. I wonder why they did not speak up on that day. This information will emerge sooner or later.

Do you even read?

To your jeer, I politely reply. Yes, 1cent, I read. Most recently, I read the bit in the US Constitution regarding militia and defense and the bit in the US Declaration of Independence regarding sedition. At this juncture, I would guess that the issue boils down to what these rioters objected to specifically and overall. How serious or frivolous were any of the matters they objected to, and who has the right to determine whether only government has the right to define this or whether the citizens themselves have the right to attempt to change the government? To what extent was any part of the government unresponsive to the citizens (if at all)? If the government failed in that respect, it might not be able to identify its fault. What then?

@1cent wrote:

....
Do you even read?

It wasn’t a jeer.

You wrote: “If anyone was concerned about visitors on January 5, 2020, they should have reported their concerns at that time.”

Which was covered in the short quotation in my post:
“... the tours were so unusual that they were reported to security on Jan. 5, ahead of the following day's violence."

Now you’re on a different ramble which avoids committing to anything of substance.

The NJ rep and her Chief of Staff reported their concerns to the House Sergeant-at-Arms on Jan. 5 per interviews given by Rep. Sherrill.
She reported that the House Sergeant-at-Arms concurred on in the conversations when this was reported, both her own and that of her Chief of Staff, All parties agreed that this was unusual and could only be done under current visitor prohibitions since March 2020 if visitors were accompanied by a Congressional member or their staff. But still the size of the groups was also concerning. The lack of COVID protocol adherence a further concern. I heard it described that masks were mostly pulled down beneath chins if worn at all.
This Rep and their Chief of Staff were apparently not the only ones to notice this (also PA Rep. Scanlon I recall by name), and some who noticed also reported I think per Sherrill's interviews.
Since she spent nearly 10 years in the USN, she prefaced this unease and reporting as a natural byproduct of her training. She explained that with each new assignment, ship, base, whatever, there would always be a basic security briefing as part of the new duty assignment. The emphasis was always on an awareness of your surroundings, if something seems unusual, observe, report, assume it is until you know it isn't. This encompassed her aircraft and extended to her surroundings on base and off.
This was her military training vigilance.

Thank you. If the group was larger than fifteen per escort (Congressperson or aide), that would have raised a red flag.

Here is one wee wonderment: if it is true that military hand signals were used and Trump probably never learned them (because he was not a military guy). does this suggest that people who directed others via military hand signals bear direct responsibility for events of January 6?

@HonnyBrown..... My how things have changed. How did we arrive at this point? How did we drift from your experience from 2016-2019 to 20,000 troops today? (Rhetorical question)

Let's all pray for peace this week. *nervous*

No nervousness here. Only a wee wonderment. If there were no big, splashy inauguration event, there would be no big expense. Instead of spending money on an event where people might have a difficult time with distancing, why not use this money for future stimulus payments? The reduced event would also reduce security risks. But that would be practical. And that would be bad.

I propose a new commandment. There shall be no curtailment of the dubious expenditures of meager funds by a government, especially when such interferes with the long-held necessity of seeing and being seen in public and to such extent that various or divers persons should suffer a lack of exposure and a reduction of networking and/or photo ops.

@shoptastic wrote:

Let's all pray for peace this week. *nervous*

All Federal buildings have Visitors' Centers that are self guided. Some, like the Environmental Protection Agency, are outside. The Capitol Visitors' Center is inside.

The National Mall ends at the Capitol. The grounds are stunning. The Capitol Police is very visible on the perimeters of the area.

During the times when I went, domestic terrorists were not making public threats.

@1forum1 wrote:

@HonnyBrown..... My how things have changed. How did we arrive at this point? How did we drift from your experience from 2016-2019 to 20,000 troops today? (Rhetorical question)

Biden & Harris with their spouses at Lincoln Memorial pool during COVID memorial honoring 400,000 American lives lost.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2021 05:35AM by shoptastic.

Or, they were having a touron-free photo op that professional photographers knew how to capture and had planned long in advance, all the way down to any possible weather eventuality for the scene. Remember, the media is going to make everything these new-ins do seem as wonderful as possible while making everything *hisses, 'those other people do* seem as horrid as possible. How many other people from all around the world have held such a view in whatever way they could will never receive an ort for having a sincere moment? Why must we see the media events at the exclusion of other possibilities?

So begins another term of wading through media bias and manipulations in hopes of finding a nugget of something that remotely resembles anything that might be even distantly related to the truth which could be considered for future use. *sigh*



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2021 05:54PM by Shop-et-al.

STILL can't fix crazy ....

Although my family visited Washington a number of times when I was a child and my Dad was called to DC for government meetings, I have not been in Washington since the late 1990s. What always struck me were the wide variety of foreign languages and dress of folks touring the Capitol, standing outside gawking at the White House and visiting the museums of the Smithsonian. Even as a kid it made me proud of being an American that the world was interested in our government and history.

A recent moment, whether from real or fake news is anyone's guess, might brighten someone's day. There was a pic online of the exterior of the White House illuminated by pride rainbow colors. That was interesting, but it excludes plaid, stripe, calico, polka dot, and other color and style aficionados. At least white paint is all paint colors in one. OTOH, it could become someone's job to change the lights on the white house as often as necessary to reflect any and all possible concepts. [what.]

You know what "they" say, pegc. Crazy is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. btw, how many times have you posted this crack?

@pegc wrote:

STILL can't fix crazy ....

I watched the inauguration with my dad today. I thought Biden's message was timely and moving, as were the other speaker's. The country needs healing (in so many ways) and it was encouraging to see him take the lead in that direction.

May God bring healing to our nation in 2021 and beyond.