mirkwood

For over a decade, I've felt that pretty much all politicians on the federal level, follow two great commandments above all else:
1. Thou shalt get elected and gain power.
2. Thou shalt remain elected and increase power.
That viewpoint has helped me decipher pretty much everything every politician says and does.  
So, a political party is more a reflection on that party's power brokers (people and entities who can influence votes), than it is of any particular platform or ideology.
Trump seems to be a far superior deal maker than the rest of 'em.  I truly believe if he had won his 2nd term, Russia wouldn't have invaded Ukraine.  Trump would have made a deal with Putin, probably over NATO expansion and energy. 
 
Also this:

I'll go further. The Republican Party is corrupt, and many or most Republican leaders are also corrupt and care about power and influence much more than freedom and liberty. Of the two major parties that have been thrust upon us, the Republicans are significantly less corrupt and awful than the Democrats, which is why I nominally support the Republicans. But I am under no illusions as to the purity of the Republican cause.
My feelings about the Republicans are in line with my feelings about Donald Trump and a potential second Trump administration: It's much better than the alternative, but that does not make it ideal, or even particularly good.

Goldspot, you say?  Yes, I've shopped there - great people to buy from, very good customer support.  Highly recommend them.  

Even the Democratic appointed justices agree that the Democratic Party is more of a threat to Democracy than the Republican Party when it comes to properly interpreting the law.  This should be of great concern for those hard core members of the Democratic Party that cannot even consider voting republican – let alone going to lunch are being a friend to a MAGA Republican.  But not to go overboard with embarrassment; stanch Republicans are seldom embarrassed when they politically come down hard of the wrong side of good sense and have trouble realizing that the USA really is intended to stand for the UNITED States of America.
 
The Traveler

When Sotomayor and Jackson both join the majority in a unanimous decision, you know you're an idiot for your illegal actions. What an unmitigated failure for Colorado. What a rebuke to the orchestrating Democrats and other leftists. What a deep embarrassment to any sentient American who supported such a farcical move.

I didn't mean to suggest we weren't.  As far as I'm concerned, they can all be left to fend for themselves.
But that wasn't anywhere near my point.  Satan is the reason the US spends so much money on its military.  The end.

J6 just made life weird.  I'm used to being online interacting with lefties and atheists and church critics, and sometimes it seems like the sky in their world just isn't the same color as the sky in my world.   And here in a post-J6 world, I encounter a constant slew of folks on the right, my people, folks who think and vote like me, just saying such weird stuff about J6, that I wonder if the color of their sky is the same color as my sky.
@Jedi_Nephite, of course many of the horrible things that happened on J6 were "done by right-wing extremists".  I'm amazed that anyone could possibly argue against such an obvious set of facts.  Q-anon, Proud Boys, and Oathkeepers are 100% the dictionary definition of "right-wing", and a crapton of them fit the "extremist" definition like a glove.   1200 folks arrested, ~730 guilty pleas, ~165 convicted at trial.  Each one of 'em more red-blooded right wing American than the last one.  An awful lot of convictions for seditious conspiracy from those folks.   
I mean yes, there were also neo-nazis and white supremacists and neo-confederates and kkk folks and that Mormon cosplayer guy who showed up dressed like Captain Moroni with his Title of Liberty.  Those people can't be called "right wing", although the media sure pushes that narrative on occasion.  But holy crap - how can anyone who has given even a cursory scan of the facts, claim that "what happened was not done by right wing extremists"?
 
There I was - sitting in my basement office during Covid remote-work lockdown.  On one screen, I was doing my work.  On the other screen, I was watching Trump's "stop the steal" rally.
Holy, holy, holy, HOLY CRAP was Trump, and Guliani, and especially Trump's son yelling crap into their microphones.  Stoking outrage.  Claiming foul.  Demanding action.  Whipping up the crowd into marching on the capitol with inflammatory phrases like "go march and demand justice", and "take back our government".  Not so much Trump, but yes Guliani, and especially Trump's son.  
About an hour before we started seeing the news of people breaking in and doing damage, I came upstairs and expressed serious concern to my wife.  "I don't understand what the crap Trump is doing.  Doesn't he realize that the most mentally-ill and the fringe-est of the fringe are listening to him and getting ready to start hurting people and get themselves arrested?"
Trump was charged for "incitement of insurrection" by the house, (who impeached him over it and the senate acquitted him of it after he had left office).  So yeah, nobody got convicted of insurrection.  Just seditious conspiracy.  And not Trump. 
"Donald Trump never said anything even remotely close to inciting an insurrection."  Ugh.  What an impossible opinion to defend. 
 
He did indeed begin instructing people to be peaceful, but not until after all the horrible had happened.   The march hit the capitol a little after 2PM.    Pence and the Senators, engaged in certifying the election, had to stop certifying the election, and started getting evacuated around 2:13.  The peaceful transition of power, a founding cornerstone of our great republic, was interrupted by the people who hit the capitol.  These people had been whipped up into action by Trump, Guliani, and Trump Jr. 
This didn't happen until 2:38 PM.  Look at the time stamp on the tweet, and do the math to convert to Eastern Standard Time:
 
Trump's later appeal for calm happened at 3:13 PM. 
His video for calm happened even later.  
 
I'm a fan of fiery protests.  I'm a fan of people swarming the streets and demanding change.  I'm a fan of  "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances".  
I'm not a fan of this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bodycam_video_taken_at_US_Capitol,_January_6,_2021.webm
I'm not a fan of this (34:20 is when Ashley Babbit begins getting herself shot):
https://archive.org/details/nYiFQbNc65jwFYCWY?start=1993
 
Look, my fellow conservatives.  Our side screwed up royally on J6.  If we're gonna have problems with Antifa and BLM riots, and defend what happened on J6, then we're just as hypocritical as the folks who defend Antifa and BLM riots, but have problems with J6.  
Don't be like that.

Because it fits their narrative.
Period.

I’m confused as to why anyone would take any of the J6 accusations of “insurrection” seriously.  It’s been well established that what happened was not done by “right-wing extremists.”  Furthermore, those who listened to his speech that morning, know that Donald Trump never said anything even remotely close to inciting an insurrection.  In fact, he said the exact opposite.  He instructed everyone to be peaceful.  But…Donald Trump said it, so he was really telling them to incite violence. Right?
 
Also, those implying that Republicans trying to challenge the 2020 election are just doing the same thing that the Democrats did in the previous election, get real.  Anyone who can do basic math knows that the results from the 2020 election don’t add up.  In Detroit, on the night of the election, where thousands of ballots miraculously appeared overnight in favor of Biden, after Trump was winning, the election workers covered the windows during the count so that the public would not be able to see what was going on.  And don’t get me started on changing the rules before the election, along with all of the ballot harvesting.  It doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to know that there was blatant cheating going on.  People were questioning things before Republicans even said anything about it, but they did have a right and a duty to challenge it.  I just wish they wouldn’t have given up so easily.
I also don’t understand this idea of “Well, I want to be fair minded and impartial, so to prove that to myself and to others, instead of actually looking at the truth, I’m just going to claim that both sides are equally guilty.”  Please.  While the Republican Party certainly has its own issues, the biggest problem is that it has been infiltrated by the left.  However, in no way whatsoever are the Republicans wrong on this issue.  
 
 

Suspend?  No.
 
Cheat?  Yes.  I would argue they already are with the attempts to keep Trump off the ballot.

People have short memories when they talk about January 6th 2021.
In 2005, thirty-two Democrats in Congress including Barbara Boxer attempted overturn the results of the presidential election by objecting to Ohio's electoral votes in an attempt to elect John Kerry.
In 2016, celebrities saturated the media asking in December that the State electors swing vote for Hillary Clinton in the presidential election instead of Donald Trump.
Elections have been contested throughout history in America.  They will continue to do so in the future as well as long as America exists.

It is definitely a very big sign.  Almost over?  No, lots of things still have to happen, that is just a big red flag warning in my opinion.

It is definitely a very big sign.  Almost over?  No, lots of things still have to happen, that is just a big red flag warning in my opinion.

Here's the actual quote about the missionaries.
 
 
Heber C. Kimball, Deseret News, May 23, 1931.
            “An army of Elders will be sent to the four quarters of the earth to search out the righteous and warn the wicked of what is coming.  All kinds of religions will be started and miracles performed that will deceive the very elect if such were possible.  Our sons and daughters must live pure lives so as to be prepared for what is coming. 
            After a while the gentiles will gather to this place by the thousands, and Salt Lake City will be classed among the wicked cities of the world.  A spirit of speculation and extravagance will take possession of the Saints, and the result will be financial bondage. 
            Persecution comes next and all true Latter-Day Saints will be tested to the limit.  Many will apostatize and others will stand still, not knowing what to do.  Darkness will cover the earth and gross darkness the minds of the people.  The judgments of God will be poured out upon the wicked to the extent that our Elders from far and near will be called home, or in other words the gospel will be taken from the Gentiles and later on be carried to the Jews. 
            The western boundary of the State of Missouri will be swept so clean of its inhabitants that as President Young tells us, ‘When you return to that place, there will not be left so much as a yellow dog to wag his tail.’ 
            Before that day comes, however, the Saints will be put to tests that will try the integrity of the best of them.  The pressure will become so great that the more righteous among them will cry unto the Lord day and night until deliverance comes. 

Here's the actual quote about the missionaries.
 
 
Heber C. Kimball, Deseret News, May 23, 1931.
            “An army of Elders will be sent to the four quarters of the earth to search out the righteous and warn the wicked of what is coming.  All kinds of religions will be started and miracles performed that will deceive the very elect if such were possible.  Our sons and daughters must live pure lives so as to be prepared for what is coming. 
            After a while the gentiles will gather to this place by the thousands, and Salt Lake City will be classed among the wicked cities of the world.  A spirit of speculation and extravagance will take possession of the Saints, and the result will be financial bondage. 
            Persecution comes next and all true Latter-Day Saints will be tested to the limit.  Many will apostatize and others will stand still, not knowing what to do.  Darkness will cover the earth and gross darkness the minds of the people.  The judgments of God will be poured out upon the wicked to the extent that our Elders from far and near will be called home, or in other words the gospel will be taken from the Gentiles and later on be carried to the Jews. 
            The western boundary of the State of Missouri will be swept so clean of its inhabitants that as President Young tells us, ‘When you return to that place, there will not be left so much as a yellow dog to wag his tail.’ 
            Before that day comes, however, the Saints will be put to tests that will try the integrity of the best of them.  The pressure will become so great that the more righteous among them will cry unto the Lord day and night until deliverance comes. 

You should tell them that it hurts your feelings that they do not respect your commitments to sacred covenants.   I am most amazed with LDS that are offended with my Sabbath covenants - especially in-laws that want to have a family and friends get together (for mission farewells and other things) and skip (undesirable? – to them) church meetings on the Sabbath.
 
The Traveler

Not me.  You can't preach the gospel anymore without someone telling you to focus on forgiveness and compassion and stop teaching that we're expected to keep our covenants because it hurts their feelings.

@carlimac the problem with that video is the individuals have a heavy reliance on the book Visions of Glory.  It is filled with doctrinal problems and that renders it a spurious and therefore useless source of information.
 
Is the eclipse a sign?  Maybe.  Preparedness has always been a part of our beliefs and you should continue working on it whether this is a sign or not.
 
@LDSGator the Brethren are not likely to speak of end times signs.  In my lifetime only one time has a sign of the times been pointed out by our leaders.

And even then it wasn't one of the common ones people talk about.

Suspend?  No.
 
Cheat?  Yes.  I would argue they already are with the attempts to keep Trump off the ballot.

IF they do the same as you say, it will look a lot different.  As you said, Antifa and BLM love to burn and destroy.  That won't look anything like the J6 crowd and talk about respecting law and order would be a very different conversation.

Oh yeah.  June 2020 was lit.  We forget pretty quickly.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd_protests
Just my own personal experiences: 
My uncle was Facebooking live from Provo, the day after the mob shot the elderly guy trying to drive around them.
After Colorado Springs had 2 days of rioting and violence, largely centered around a couple of police stations, my kids and I took a drive.  We saw the ashes of the torched overturned car.  Around the corner there was the police station and some protesters, holding their BLM signs and smiling and waving at the cars that drove by.  A big difference between night and day.
As BLM tried to close down I-25, my county sheriff's Twitter account had an active day posting pics and video of the overwhelming LEO response to the blockading cars.  I guess my county was ready, because people were arrested quickly and the cars were impounded quickly.  Just one day. 
As the Antifa started an effort to "take it to the countryside", I saw a local video of a bunch of black bloc-wearing idiots getting into a fight in a rural field.  One large local resident had one of the idiots face down in the dirt, yelling "say uncle!".  Again, that only lasted about a day.
My buddy @mirkwood was talking about getting training on riot situations.
After the Rittenhouse verdict in Nov 2021, I watched some low-information leftie co-workers burst into tears at the terrible injustice.  Then I watched Daryl Brooks finally made good on his Facebook threats to start "bakk knokkin white people TF out ion wanna hear it...the old white ppl 2", and he drove his SUV through a parade of old white women in Waukesha, killing 6 and injuring 62.  4 of the dead were with the "Milwaukee Dancing Grannies".  The leftie co-workers didn't notice that part.
 
As for holding the left accountable, sometimes I feel like I'm the only person in the world who watches boring news.  All across 2021 and 2022, I saw brief footnote after brief footnote of rioters who were finally receiving their verdicts and sentences.  At least 2-3 dozen of them across the country.  Lots of Portland, Wisconsin, local stuff from Denver.  The guy in Colorado Springs who led the protest against the police chief's family, showing up at his private residence, got his sentence.  I watched a lot of the Daryl Brooks trial and verdict - they never mentioned any politics or racial motivation, his Facebook history of BLM support and advocating violence against white people didn't make it into the trial.  Nobody mentioned just before his SUV murder spree, he got released on zero bail for trying to run over his girlfriend - a recent change in how Minnesotans were handling bail, reacting to the defund-the-cops movement.
But yeah, I get it Mirk.  Nobody else seemed to notice any of that but me.  And yet we've been force-fed an endless tsunami of Jan6 news and commentary for 3 years now. 
 
 
Well, lots and lots of seditious conspiracy convictions.  I guess that's "insurrection light"?  I'm not smart enough to know the difference between seditious conspiracy and insurrection.   730 or more guilty pleas, mostly to minor charges.  
Trump was charged for "incitement of insurrection" by the house, (who impeached him over it and the senate acquitted him of it after he had left office).  It's sort of a weak nitpicky point - "inciting insurrection" is not actually committing insurrection.  So yeah, Mirk is correct - nobody has been charged with "insurrection", just "inciting insurrection".  This point is currently being argued by Trump in his brief to the Supreme Court, as they consider whether he can be on the ballot in Colorado or not.
And the current politically-timed charges Trump is facing is also not incitement.  
- One count of conspiracy to defraud the US
- One count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding
- One count of obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding
- One count of conspiracy against rights (an 1870-era charge created to keep the KKK from oppressing blacks in the South)

Okay, reading various news feeds and stumble across this on Yahoo News.
Jack Posbiec calls for the end of Democracy at CPAC
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THIS!!!!
I immediately tried to find a conservative slant or report on this as I can't believe this story has the entire context of what was being said.  If it is...what in the world!!!???
Certainly there had to be an uproar in the audience shouting down such a statement? 
I can't believe ANYONE in US politics would say something like this and get away with it!?
Something is seriously wrong with the party if they are having speakers that are allowed to say such things without a TON of pushback and then proclamations against such statements if the article states it in context (I can't believe it is saying all there is, there HAS to be more context to this type of statement than what the article shows...I can't find it though...hopefully someone here can find it where it doesn't sound as bad as it is made out to sound in the article).

I noticed this for the first time when Hilary was running.  The amount of hate directed at her from the hard left surprised the heck out of me.  But it made sense after a little thought.  15+ years ago, Democrats were the people-friendly anti-corporatists, and Republicans were the pro-business fans of deregulation.   By the time Hilary was on the ticket, we all knew the Dems were all making millions with insider stock trades, in bed with big business and lobbyists.  They were livid that Hil and Trump were basically both (in their minds) corrupt capitalists bankrolled by big business.
In fact, it was from a hard leftie that I got this pic:

 
Agreed.  They're all about supporting the 2020-21 BLM civil unrest, but they do it by wearing blinders and refusing to acknowledge the lawlessness/rioting/looting/destruction/violence.  The average democrat or liberal has zero interest in actually moving onto the street and trying to do something themselves.  They're all about having government do the things with other people's money.
As for J6, I'm grateful they found, arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced so many.  98% of what happened that day was just fine, but holy crap that 2% was a doozie.  

Happy birthday, mirk! Just remember:
SSM: I am getting too old.
Vort:

Just bringin' some blue into your red life!