So How Did You Hear about Jan 6 if you were at an office job, working from home, retired (@ home)?..

[electric_blue68]

Did you happen to be in DU as news was reported. Or did someone text, or phone you?


My getting up routine included/es since I got a smartphone (vs replacing a basic cellphone) for Covid shutdown March 2020, but no TV (need to get one again at some point) was/is checking e-mail, going on FB for family, friends, and interest groups.

In between those two I usually check DU.
I might have gone to sleep extremely late like 4AM+ (now, I have been a night owl but even that is extremely late for me) bc I didn't wake up till till after 2PM.

I hadn't turned my radio before I got on DU which by like 2:15P they'd already fought the Capital Police, breeched the barricades, and were inside! I was like WTF?! Obviously (luckily) missing drumphf's exhortations, while at the same time the insurrectionists had already gotten past the police.

So I woke up close to the middle of it.
Instant Sense of Surealness as I now watched!

But a bunch of you might have had a TV, or radio as part of your routine. Others might have been checking in in general on DU.
Did you watch as news reports broke in - if earlier with an increasing sense of incredulity, surrealness as they attacked the barricades/police? Climb the 'effing walls? Infuriation, etc?

Even having seen some of it Live - the earlier parts I caught later; but damn if it still feels "unreal" at times. Which makes sense in a way.

[Duncanpup]

1. I woke up after third shift sleeping doing day.

And my wife told me about it.

[electric_blue68]

64. Woah. Assyming she was shocked about it?

[Duncanpup]

67. She was crying and pissed off.

[electric_blue68]

69. I hope you gave her a big hug if she's the huggy type. Then your turn to be upset. Gah

[Duncanpup]

70. Affectionate Always

[electric_blue68]

71. ,good!

[Deep State Witch]

2. Facebook

I think I first heard about an incident at the Capitol on FB.

[electric_blue68]

65. I never made to FB till hours later!

[liberalla]

3. I was at work, and listening to NPR when it happened. I knew of the drumpf rally of course.

Hearing "shots fired" sent me to a new level.

[electric_blue68]

4. Woah, yeah, for sure!

[AngryOldDem]

5. Watching MSNBC on my tablet while at work.

Immediately texted my ex and son: “All hell is breaking loose in D.C.”

[electric_blue68]

18. Very true!

[scarletlib]

90. I was watching MSNBC on television. Saw it live as it was happening.

[Kennah]

6. MSNBC - Do work on the work computer and listen on my home computer

[electric_blue68]

7. Did it slow down your work routine?

[AngryOldDem]

14. Yes, it did.

I still got stuff done. A lot of people were watching on their desktops as well.

[FalloutShelter]

8. I was working in my painting studio.

Last edited Fri Jan 6, 2023, 05:06 PM - Edit history (1)

It was my long time practice to have MSNBC on in the background while I worked; on mute if I was listing to music as I had been on January 6, 2021. My back was turned to the set for a good while and when I turned around... I could not believe my eyes.

Off went the music and I turned the sound up. At first, my mind could not even make sense of what I was seeing, but the shock wore off pretty quickly and turned to horror and rage... absolute rage.

I did something I NEVER do during the day when I'm working.... I went back up the house and had a drink. I know that is the world's oldest cliche', but it did help me settle down. The cliche' was far more comforting than what was happening at the Capitol.

The surreality of the visual record of the Insurrection, as it has been played back over and over, is overshadowed now by my anger that, after two years...Donald Trump has still not been brought to justice and that the Republicans who voted to stop the count, and other wise aided or abetted, or given comfort to the Insurrectionists that day have ANY possibility of being seated again in the Congress is just outrageous.

[electric_blue68]

19. Talk about getting a visual "smack in the face" when you first turned around!

I understand the other part. I feel a mix of aggravation, and still belief & hope about drumpf being imprisuined. And yes those smug Insurrectionists Congress people walking around in those Chambers now can be infuriating, again I still hope for Justice.



(I'm an artist myself - how wonderful you have a studio!)

[FalloutShelter]

40. I DID have a studio.

Moved a year ago and am making do in a much smaller space. My paintings are in storage and for the last year I have been working with pastels on my drafting board and not painting. If you want to take a look: @suanzoondevlin on insta.

[electric_blue68]

66. Maybe you could paint small? I love pastels but too dusty for me!

Can't go on Insta bc I don't have the app AND I'm still moving a massive amount of screengrabs off my phone which has messed w my ability to add more apps.

My smartphone is my computer currently.

[bigtree]

25. I was painting, too

...the kitchen.

Also had my back to the tv, listening with disbelief. Then I finally turned to look at the set, and it was just off the hook crazy. Smoke, flash grenades, mobs of people beating police trying to hold them back, images of mobs breaking windows and climbing inside, and right as I sat down to watch, reports a rioter had been shot. I couldn't lift the bottom of my mouth off of the floor. Never in my wildest imagination, and I wondered where the packs of SWAT teams were that I had imagined since childhood were hiding and waiting to pounce in instances of violent attacks on the capitol. Hell, I'm old enough to remember a man shot dead threatening to blow up the Washington Monument.

[electric_blue68]

29. Wow... And as someone who loves visiting DC...

I don't remember that event (re GW Monument)!

[bigtree]

72. he was an anti-nuke activist

...claimed his van was full of explosives, later turned out he had absolutely nothing in there.

https://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/09/us/man-slain-in-capital-monument-threat.html

[woodsprite]

9. It was being talked about in our Teams meeting.

Pretty much was the topic for the rest of the day.

[electric_blue68]

20. At least good you had people to express yourself to.

[woodsprite]

28. I consider myself very lucky.

In that I’m surrounded by quite a few like-minded people. In our church we even had a group of people who gathered every couple of weeks or so for discussions after Trump was put into office.

[electric_blue68]

63. Oh definitely! Living in NYC where drumphf "enclaves" are rather fewer...

and having liberal friends, and almost all center to liberal relatives I'm very lucky that way!

I like you had discussion groups, too

[happybird]

10. We all check the news and our favorite sites on our phones during down time

I happened to have my iPad with me that day so we had it running on the prep table and through the bluetooth speaker we use for music when we heard what was going on.

At first, we were laughing at how dumb they were- not wearing masks to hide their identities at probably the only time in US history you could cover your face and not look suspicious as hell, the crazy instagram videos (“We’re stormin’ the Capitol, man!”)... then got very angry when we finally realized these fools were actually serious and good people were getting injured.

We have a mix of politics among my coworkers and everyone was shocked and angry and even sad, including the staunch Libertarian.

[electric_blue68]

21. Wow.

[happybird]

34. None of us thought it would amount to anything...

just a bunch of crazies acting crazy. We are in Northern VA, close to DC, so are used to all sorts of protests and whatnot going on downtown. Usually, none of them get out of hand. The idea of anyone actually breaching the Capitol was absolutely unthinkable.

[electric_blue68]

52. With your circumstances that'd make sense. It was unthinkable.

[joshcryer]

42. I was watching it live on CNN and I yelled to my mom something was going down.

I remember it vividly, we both had it on on our computers. Her health was already ailing. I feel that, looking at her FB after the fact, she was truly heart broken and hurt by Biden winning and thinking the country was heading in a bad direction. I felt so bad for her the poison she would read daily on FB.

[electric_blue68]

53. Woah, that's a personally serious circumstance!

[KarenS]

11. Settling in on the couch,,,,

(it was 11AM in Arizona) to watch a soap opera and take a nap and the the news came on for the electoral college vote,,,, then it started to happen,,,, I called a couple of friends (also retired) said "turn on the TV" they said "which channel?" I said "doesn't matter",,,, then proceeded to watch the rest of the afternoon,,,,,, couldn't believe that hardly anyone got arrested,,,

[electric_blue68]

31. "What channel?" "It doesn't matter". Wow, times like those!

[mnhtnbb]

12. I was moving into my new house on 1/6/2021

and I didn't know the Capitol had been attacked until my cable and internet were connected on Jan 7th!

[renate]

13. wow! That's pretty different!

It kind of reminds me of the guy who didn't want to know who won the 2016 election--I think he went at least weeks without finding out. Which can't have been easy! But in his case he did it deliberately.

How odd it must have been to turn on the news on the 7th and find out what you'd missed!

[mnhtnbb]

15. Odd is putting it mildly.

It felt as though I'd missed something like 9/11 which I watched in real time because in those days I usually had the TV on all the time in the morning.

[electric_blue68]

54. That definitely makes sense!

[electric_blue68]

32. Oh, never heard about that!

[electric_blue68]

22. Wow! Well, good in a way bc it would have put an emotional crimp on such extremely busy, challenging

day!

[xmas74]

16. I was a union steward

And a coworker called to complain that our employee demanded she bring a doctor's note due to already excessive absences. I asked where she was and if she needed to meet up asap, etc. She stated she had taken a bus to DC.
Yes, she was there for the protests so I turned in the TV to see if I could catch her in the crowd.

[electric_blue68]

33. Woah!

[xmas74]

80. At least the idiot wasn't in the crowd pics on tv

But she did post photos all over Facebook with her sign and a backdrop that was obviously DC.
I warned her before about accepting friend requests from management but she didn't listen. They saw the photos before I did. Her call in excuse was covid so she could take advantage of the special covid leave without burning her own time.

Yes, she was terminated. Yes, I repped her because everyone deserves representation. Yes, I knew it was a losing battle and no, I wasn't that sorry she was gone. She was an awful employee before any of this happened.

[electric_blue68]

82. Well, you did the job you were supposed to, and good riddance to her.

[Aristus]

17. Scrolling DU and Facebook in-between patients that day.

Almost couldn't believe what was happening. I suspect people felt the same way on December 7th, 1941 or November 22nd, 1963. A detached, disjointed feeling like one was looking at reality sideways. I was furious and dismayed at the same time.

No matter how much the Republicans had fucked up our country, no matter how many districts they gerrymandered, no matter how many squalid, substandard human beings they nominated to public office, we had still had an unbroken record of peaceful transition of power; the longest in history up to that point, I believe. They ruined that, too. I felt like (and quoting a pivotal moment in the TV series 'The West Wing') we joined the League Of Ordinary Nations.

[electric_blue68]

26. I though about the peaceful transition part some months later...

I had done a cartoon for a fanzine back in the early-mid 90's where a particular set of well known fictional characters dropped in on Clinton's first Inauguration. They were amazed at the peaceful transition.


So much for that I suddenly thought! 😑😔

[CatWoman]

23. I work from home and had purposely tuned out the news

as I was anxious about the Georgia senatorial races.

I work for HHS and was shocked to get an email from our director condemning the violence at the capitol, etc.

I was in shock and immediately turned on the news.

[electric_blue68]

35. Wow! Oh, yeah about Georgia! I remember the GD subforum that had ...

Last edited Fri Jan 6, 2023, 07:00 PM - Edit history (1)

threads about Georgia w Rev Warnock's win (and Osoff) and then more & more threads about 1/6 appearing!
.
How crazy getting an e-mail from your boss but being HHS makes perfect sense!

[CatWoman]

46. the email was sent out agency wide

[electric_blue68]

56. Of course! Lots of shocked work-at-home colleagues.

[Raven]

24. I had broken my hip on New Years Day and was stuck in bed with nothing but

the pain and the TV. The attack slowly unrolled before my eyes. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

[electric_blue68]

36. Oh, man... Take about shock and negative emotions while trying to rest & recover....

I hope you did have a full recovery in time!

[malaise]

27. Was here on DU

Will never forget - knew it was an attempted coup - scary shit

[electric_blue68]

37. Absolutely! 😔

[joshcryer]

41. DU was down.

I remember trying to come here.

[malaise]

44. Not for me and many others

We were here and posting - there are archives

[joshcryer]

49. Well archive.org doesn't have posts from that day.

So it wasn't just me.

[Elessar Zappa]

58. I was on DU all day on Jan. 6th.

I didn’t even turn on the tv, I followed it all right here.

[CBHagman]

30. I forget where I saw the news...

...but I was working from home and heard early on about what was going on. I had a meeting on Zoom, and I am pretty sure I was the only member of staff who had heard about the attack. But I didn't grasp how harrowing the attack was until a bit later in the day.

[electric_blue68]

47. Wow. Restraint for not blurting it out!

Last edited Fri Jan 6, 2023, 07:56 PM - Edit history (1)

[Arthur_Frain]

38. I was watching it unfold all day.

After all the rhetoric shithead and his cronies had been spewing, I couldn’t help but think something was up.

When shithead say “we’re going to march down the street, I’ll be right there with you”, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Shortly after they cut to the capitol under érigé, I had to take a easily for about an hour, but I watched it until the end that night.

My advantage is I live in Alaska. Started around 5 a.m. our time, all over before it got too late.

[electric_blue68]

68. Oh, boy...like "Spidey sense".

[Eugene]

39. Was following DU and streaming sites during the day. Couldn't tune out as the attack progressed.

[electric_blue68]

50. Like passing a "Constitutional Car wreck"!

[Eugene]

55. Exactly!

[Catherine Vincent]

43. I was wfh and watching it live

I was whatsapping my relatives and said look at these mfers.

[electric_blue68]

51. Since I only get The Net through my phone I didn't text, call anybody...

Last edited Fri Jan 6, 2023, 08:03 PM - Edit history (1)

till waaaay later

[Tree Lady]

45. Retired was putting xmas stuff away

And watching it on tv. Was horrified.

[electric_blue68]

57. Wow, what a extra sad confluence.

[raccoon]

48. Retired, and I was sitting on my couch looking at DU, and people were

Posting weird stuff like, What will other countries think about this? Then I looked around on the Internet and heard about the traitors storming the Capitol.

[electric_blue68]

61. Woah... that's kind of wild seeing seriously worrisome reactions to an event you'd yet to ...

find out about! Especially something as unusual as "what are other Counties think?!"

Similar kind of shock -
On 9/11 in Brooklyn I was leaving home late, at 10A+ and had not turned my Walkman.

So when I did - I came in the on the middle of the main radio broadcaster plus 2 others saying "firemen covered in ashes", it looks like a Science Fiction movie - but it's not!".

But I had No Idea of what/where they were talking about!
I thought of one these relatively massive 1 block wide, 10 12+ stories high massive apt buildings in Queens. When I finally found out bc they'd all gone for 15+ secs - till one said "The Towers are gone.".
You can imagine my shock.

[Emile]

59. Retired and watched it live on TV. I was pissed

and couldn't understand why they were not shot on the spot.

[Xolodno]

60. I was working from home.

Trying to fix a project a micro-managing Director decided to get involved with, plus she kind of had it out for me since I identify as Russian (she is Ukrainian), despite me belonging to an exiled group from Imperial Russia over a century ago and don't have a clue which "nationality" I'm composed of the most. She successfully gave the boot to a Russian immigrant in another department and turned her sights on me. But I'm rambling....

So I was at the kitchen table working, CNN was on in the background but wasn't paying attention to it. Then my wife says "you really should see this". I was in shock. Needless to say, I didn't get much done that day. During the attempted coup she asked "what do we do?". I replied by stating if this is successful, first we don't panic then start planning. Then quietly look for ways to liquidize our assets and leave the country. Those who dodged the exile back under Imperial Russia didn't fare so well on both sides of our families. Lost all contact of relatives as most eventually died from the Revolution, WW1, WW2 or were finally finished off in Afghanistan.

Violent changes in government often don't go well for those opposed and the definition of opposed gets expanded. You either whole heartedly agree with the overthrow and actively work for it, or you get regulated to traitor status.

[electric_blue68]

75. Wow, that's some personal background! I hear you about the "definition" of "opposition".

[Xolodno]

89. It's that background that keeps me grounded.

There is a lot of hubris on GOP/Right wing forums. But even here on DU, you will run into it frequently, granted, just not as bad.

But every government can quickly fall apart if the circumstances fit just at the right time. The Romanov Dynasty, the last Emperor of Europe and in existence for over three centuries...fell quite quickly. And it can and almost did here.

And then suddenly, that third world nation is more stable than what was a first world.

A coworker who is Armenian related to me that her grandparents met on a beach, looking for a ship close enough they could swim to to escape the genocide. They found that ship and helped each other get to it. Their families, were already gone.

I've got a lot of heartbreaking stories like this within my wife, myself and others family histories.

Always have an exit plan and hope you never have to use it.

[brooklynite]

62. I was on a lunchtime ZOOM call with a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a Pentagon staffer...

...and a bunch of others. We had set up a call to watch the EV count together and things developed. I think we were on the call for 6 hours.

[electric_blue68]

76. Woah, at least you watched together.

[MissMillie]

73. We had been in the grocery store

Al and I had gone w/ his son & DIL.

Al, his son (Jake) and I came out of the store. Al and I were at the back of the vehicle (loading up the groceries) while Jake got into the driver's seat to see if the final GA Senate race had been called (checking his phone or the radio).

I took the cart back to the front of the store and then joined Al & Jake in the car. Jake said that GA had been called for the Democrats. I got out of the car and started to dance around the parking lot. About a minute later, Jake came out to get me. Maybe not so much w/ the dancing, he suggested and then told me why.

[electric_blue68]

77. Ohhh, boy. Yeah, really.

[Hekate]

74. I was braced for violence because of reporting here over weeks, & Trump finally Tweeting...

“Be here. Will be wild.”

I’m a night owl, and I live in California. I got up about 9 or 10 am I think, and immediately turned on the tv to MSNBC. My gut reaction was the same as what Katy Tur expressed today: absolute shock, and I ended up standing in the living room screaming at the tv, “Where is the National Guard? Where are the reinforcements?”

Just utter disbelief that violence like that in our nation’s Capitol could go unanswered by the National Guard, that the police could be so badly betrayed — undermanned, unarmed, maimed, beaten to death.

I got on DU immediately, but the visuals in real time were absolutely engrossing — and surreal — and I felt entirely alone except for DU.

[electric_blue68]

78. Hoo, boy yeah.... I was too shocked to even think about the NG, and totally staring at my...

cellphone where I had a tab for DU, and a tab for TV just glued back and forth between them.

[wnylib]

79. I was up all night on J5 following the

Georgia run off elections on DU and on other websites. I knew that Trump was holding a rally in DC on J6 and thought that, if it got violent, it would be from clashes between MAGAs and counter protesters.

But after following the GA runoffs I forgot about DC. When it was pretty certain that both Dems had won in GA, I went to bed feeling pretty good about having a Senate majority. Slept straight through until my neighbor across the hall from me knocked on my door around 2 pm. She said that she had just bought a new speaker and wanted to know if it was too loud.

My kitchen radio was still on, tuned to NPR. So when my neighbor left, I heard something about violence at the Capitol and turned it up to listen. Could not believe what I was hearing. So much for the good feeling earlier after the GA votes. Got online to DU and other websites to follow and watch what was happening.

Even before election day I had believed that Trump would not accept a loss. I had expressed concern on DU that he might try to take over by stirring up clashes between protesters and then declaring martial law. Never occurred to me that he would stir up his MAGAs to attack Congress while it was in session. I was stunned.

[electric_blue68]

81. Not Sure I Remembered about the "it'll be wild" Rally when I woke up ...

and I'd gone to sleep before GA was called.

Which is (as I posted) getting on DU I first saw the
good news about GA, got all happy - then the Threads about The Capital really increased! What an horrific day!

[iemanja]

83. I think DU

I know I didn't watch it live on TV. I was busy working.

[electric_blue68]

85. Watching it would have been too distracting for you.

[Meowmee]

84. I turned on the tv

And it was happening. I still remember how the media seem to be very much downplaying it I didn’t get the feeling that was any violence like what happened until later that evening as I recall. 2 days later my father was negligently infected with covid at an er and it destroyed his health, turned him into an invalid and eventually killed him along with multiple negligences, which I consider to be a murder. Murdered by fascists in the country he served for 40 years.

I wish we could go back in time to change things. Compared to the loss of my father that day is nothing to me other than the continuation of fascism which was ushered in in 2016. Which caused grave harm to so many. And here we still are with these vile criminals walking free and still in the house/ government today, holding us hostage still and doing as much harm as they can get away with.

[electric_blue68]

86. I remember you talking about your father. : (

[Genki Hikari]

87. I don't even remember anymore how I found out

I just remember being furious when I did.

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

88. I was watching a documentary on the French Revolution

Yeah, the irony. I’d just gotten past the part about the Bastille when a friend texted me.

[shrike3]

91. My husband insisted on watching vote certification on C-span.

I said, "Don't you know that's like watching paint dry?"

[Greybnk48]

92. We put the T.V. on MSNBC in the morning and watched with horror

all day long as the coup unfolded. None of us, me, my husband, and one of our grown kids that lives with us right now, could understand why the police or National Guard, or the Army FFS, hadn't shown up and taken these morons out!

It went on for hours! And nothing happened. Nothing! That fact still makes me queasy when I remember it. Why were they permitted to run free?