As an early "boomer", I have not been this frightened

[Mme. Defarge]

for my country and our people since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

[Bluethroughu]

1. You are not alone.

It will not end until everyone of the traitors are in prison.

Round them up quickly.

[Eyeball_Kid]

9. We might anticipate that prosecutors, considering the events of this week,

will up their game and go at Trump full speed, as soon as he's a civilian. They will waste no time. If that doesn't happen, we're gone.

[Bluethroughu]

13. 1000%

It's the US vs them, every insurrectionist including trump, his family, elected officials, and the merry bunch of moronic terrorists.

[ansible]

2. At least you got to live through the best era of US history

Us younger folk are going to live through the worst.

[Mme. Defarge]

5. With Joe, Kamala and team I am praying

we can make this right for everyone who has quite literally been robbed of their rightful opportunities as citizens and human beings.

[ansible]

11. What can he do? Tossing all the Trump supporters in prison is going to trigger a civil war

Not doing anything will still start it anyway eventually

[LeftInTX]

41. Not really..LOL

We had better music and that's about it!

We really need to get serious about RW domestic terrorism. It started with McVeigh and it really hasn't been taken care of. It seems like every time, the government tries to get on top of these things, there is tremendous push back.

As you can see, a few elected officials were at the Capitol...the Republican Attorney Generals Association (States) sponsored the rally and splinter group from RAGA made robocalls and told rally participants to march to the capitol. When you have stuff like, it is hard to control.

The late 50s and early 60s had alot of race problems. The late 60s/early 70s had wars and some not so nice war demonstrations (bombings at University of Wisconsin). As a matter of fact a group called the Weather Underground were a Left wing Domestic Terrorism Group that planted bombs.

The late 70s were good times. Pretty carefree and disco was fun. It all ended when Reagan was elected.

When I was a young adult, all the crazy stuff from the 70s made me a little conservative. I was also pro math, pro space program, which was conservative. I voted for Ford in 1976. However, in 1980, I voted for carter because I was "woke"...Been a Dem ever since. I consider myself someone who just "wants our government to work"..So far no Republican has offered that platform in the last 45 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground

[ansible]

46. I'd be more worried about all the cheap AR15s now instead of bombs

Back in the 70s even the right wasn't as nuts about guns as today. And you didn't just have better music, you had a cheaper cost of living where a working class man could still dream of owning a house one day. God I'd love to live in the world you lived in, this one is a fucking nightmare.

[LeftInTX]

48. Yes, all the AR15s are everywhere...but back then bombs were a big scare

[LeftInTX]

44. 1970 had its problems from Weather Underground

1970

January - Silas and Judith Bissell placed a homemade bomb under the steps of the ROTC building. The bomb was made from an electric blasting cap, an alarm clock, a battery and a plastic bag filled with gasoline and explosives.[11]
February – The WUO closed the SDS National Office in Chicago, concluding the major campus-based organization of the 1960s. The first contingent of the VB returned from Cuba and the second contingent departed. By mid-February the bulk of the leading WUO members had gone underground.
February 21 – The house of Judge Murtagh, who was presiding over the Panther 21 trial, is fire-bombed with three Molotov cocktails by a WUO cell in New York City.[2][12]
March – Warrants are issued for several WUO members, who become federal fugitives when they fail to appear for trial in Chicago.
March 6 – WUO members Theodore Gold, Diana Oughton, and Terry Robbins are killed in the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion,[2][10] when a nailbomb they were constructing detonates. The bomb was intended to be planted at a non-commissioned officer's dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
March 30 – Chicago police discover a WUO "bomb factory" on Chicago's north side.
April 1 - Based on a tip Chicago Police find 59 sticks of dynamite, ammunition, and nitro glyerine in an apartment traced to WUO members.[13] The discover of the WUO weapons cache ends WUO activity in this city.
April 2 - A federal grand jury in Chicago returns a number of indictments charging WUO members with violation of federal anti-riot laws.[10] Also, a number of additional federal warrants charging "unlawful flight to avoid prosecution" are returned in Chicago based on the failure of WUO members to appear for trial in local cases. (The Anti-riot Law charges were later dropped in January, 1974.)
April 15 – The FBI arrests WUO members Linda Sue Evans and Dianne Donghi in New York City[10] with the help of WUO infiltrator, Larry Grathwohl.[2]
May 10 – The National Guard Association of the United States building in Washington, D.C. is bombed.[14]
May 21 – The WUO releases its "Declaration of a State of War" communique[14][15] under Bernardine Dohrn's name.
June 6 – In a letter, the WUO claims credit for bombing of the San Francisco Hall of Justice, although no explosion has occurred. Months later, workmen locate an unexploded bomb.[citation needed]
June 9 - The New York City Police headquarters is bombed by Jane Alpert and accomplices. Weathermen state this is in response to "police repression."[14][15] The bomb made with ten sticks of dynamite exploded in the NYC Police Headquarters. The explosion was preceded by a warning about six minutes prior to the detonation and subsequently by a WUO claim of responsibility.[16]
July 23 – A federal grand jury in Detroit, Michigan, returns indictments against thirteen WUO members and former WUO members charging violations of various explosives and firearms laws.[14][15] (These indictments were later dropped in October, 1973.)
July 25 - The United States Army base at The Presidio in San Francisco is bombed on the 11th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.[14] [NYT, 7/27/70] On the same day, a branch of the Bank of America is bombed in New York.[15]
July 28 - Bank of America HQ in NYC is bombed around 3:50 AM. WUO claims responsibility.[17]
September 15 – The WUO helps Dr. Timothy Leary escape from the California Men's Colony prison.[18]
October 6 - Second bombing of Chicago's Haymarket Police monument[19]
October 8 - Bombing of Marin County courthouse. WUO states this is in retaliation for the killings of Jonathan Jackson,[20] William Christmas, and James McClain[note 1]
October 10 - A Queens traffic-court building is bombed. WUO claims this is to express support for the New York prison riots. [NYT, 10/10/70, p. 12]
October 11 - A Courthouse in Long Island City, NY is bombed. An estimated 8 to 10 sticks of dynamite are used. A warning was given around 10 min. prior to the 1:23 AM blast by the WUO.[22]
October 14 - The Harvard Center for International Affairs is bombed by The Proud Eagle Tribe of Weather (later renamed the Women's Brigade of the Weather Underground).[20] WUO claims this is to protest the war in Vietnam. [NYT, 10/14/70, p. 30] The bombing was in reaction to Angela Davis' arrest and was the first action undertaken by an all-women's unit of WUO.[18][20]
October - Bernardine Dohrn, Katherine Ann Power, and Susan Edith Saxe were put on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List[23]
December – Fugitive WUO member Caroline Tanker, who fled the country for Cuba, is arrested by the FBI in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
December 5 - Five Weatherman are captured for trying to bomb First National City Bank of NY and other buildings on the anniversary of the death of Fred Hampton. These individuals subsequently plead guilty.[24]
December 11 - Vivian Bogart and Patricia Mclean from the WUO are arrested after throwing an incendiary bomb at the Royal National Bank in NYC around 1:30 AM.[25]
December 16 - Fugitive WUO member Judith Alice Clark is arrested on the Days of Rage indictments by the FBI in New York.[20]

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

52. Best era? Yeah, we had sex, drugs, rock&roll.

And legal segregation, Vietnam (with the military draft).

You youngsters (get off my lawn!) have sex, drugs, rap. And middle east wars (if you want to volunteer).

Just wait thirty years: these will become the good old days.

[johnp3907]

3. Wow.

That really puts it in perspective.
I was born in 1965. My brother was born in 1951 and he always told me he thought the world was going to end during the missile crisis.

[canetoad]

12. Ok, a little anecdote about the cuban missile crisis

I was eight or nine years old, living in the midlands of England. It was a very cold winter, and all people were talking about was the possiblity of a nuclear war between Russia and the US with Britain sitting right underneath in the flight path.

It was dark; all of a sudden the sky lit up with blinding white light and we heard buzzing an hissing. En masse, the whole street - adults and children, ran outside, I can remember grown-ups wailing that World War 3 had started.

Anyhow, nothing more happened and everyone became cautiously calm. It turns out it was a particularly vicious winter and so much ice had accumulated on the power lines that a long stretch of them broke and came down.

Long time ago, but I still remember that night.

[johnp3907]

18. Wow!

And a lot of those people had survived bombings in the forties too. They didn’t call it PTSD back then, but I imagine there was a lot of it.

[regnaD kciN]

28. Don't want to question your memories...

...but, since the Cuban Missile Crisis happened during the second half of October (JFK first broke the news to the nation on October 22nd, and the final resolution was on the 28th), I would assume that it wouldn't have yet been winter there, and that the incident you mention actually took place a few months afterwards.

[canetoad]

35. Quite possibly so

This may not have happened DURING the missile crisis, but afterwards. Do you remember the continuing tension about nuclear war in those days?

My parents often spoke of that night afterwards.

[canetoad]

39. Another lurking memory

It was particularly cold that year, hence the iced-up power lines.

Winter of 1962–63 in the United Kingdom

The winter of 1962–63, known as the Big Freeze of 1963, was one of the coldest winters (defined as the months of December, January
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_1962%E2%80%9363_in_the_United_Kingdom

[Nevilledog]

4. ...

[appalachiablue]

6. Not since 9/11 for me.

[doubleplusgood]

14. 9/11 at least brought us together briefly

This is much worse, we are being attacked from WITHIN, and the attack isn't over yet, we still have 12 days to go, 12 days in which an increasingly delusional and unhinged Trump may do, well, god knows what. And who knows what his MAGAt domestic terrorists will be up to till then. Can the DOJ and the FBI deal with them or will Trump continue to enable his mob?

[halfulglas]

29. In retrospect it didn't bring us together as much as we thought.

We were bullied a great deal by the fear and the Republicans almost forced us to "come together" with then. We were bullied into wearing flag pins to prove something. We were told we were unAmerican if we didn't support the war against a country that had no part in the attack. Liberal was treated as a dirty word to many of them and accelerated the assumption. To me that moment of unity did not last very long at all.

[doubleplusgood]

31. You are correct nt

[LeftInTX]

45. Agree...

We were traumatized for weeks...
Then came all these programs and then the War with Iraq

I applauded some of the programs to keep air travel and buildings safe etc. I think they work. I really don't mind TSA.

The war in Iraq was awful and one of our worst foreign interventions. (After the Mexican-American War...look it up) Afghanistan was slow and depressing and the Bush admin grew tired of lack of progress.

[crimsonandclover]

55. I thought the response to 9/11 was worse than the attack.

I predicted what G.W. would do and I was sickened. My company made us all go outside and sing "God Bless America". The attack on Iraq made me ill and I got divorced for the 2nd time for it.

[LeftInTX]

22. 9/11 much scarier because it happened

We changed for ever.

I was almost six during the Cuban Missile Crisis, so I didn't know anything beside, "Communist Bad"

[appalachiablue]

37. 9/11 was a national horror, I lived 3 mi from the CIA and

not far from the Pentagon, Capitol. It was mayhem.. Same for my cousin in NYC.

In 1962 I was too young to undertstand the Missle Crisis but know it was huge..

[Quixote1818]

24. This is potentially a lot more dangerous than the aftermath of 9/11

Telling 75 million supporters "Hey, I won't be at the inauguration. You're free to come in by the millions to take Washington DC."

More than anything, he is encouraging a million of home grown Timothy Mcveigh's out there. This is why the FBI sees white nationalists as by far the number 1 terror threat.

[appalachiablue]

33. In the 2001 attack I lived 3 mi from the CIA and not far

from the Pentagon, Capitol, etc. For me it was the most terrifying time and dangerous period of national security.

I also understand the seriousness of domestic US terrorism, not to worry. These are bloodthirsty lunatics.

[LeftInTX]

47. They will be more like these yahoos on Wed, than McVeigh.

[MuseRider]

7. I remember it

and I remember the Duck and Cover song and movie shorts. I remember going into the basement room and putting my hands over my head and I remember being so scared when my mom signed the paper that said I had to walk home if the bombs were coming.

I remember not knowing much about any of it, nobody would really explain what was happening or what would happen and that made it worse. It was pretty scary when you had to think about it.

My husband who is 6 years older remembers it like you do, enough to really worry about out country and be really frightened about the entire situation rather that just what might happen to you.

I am certainly not comfortable with this and there have been quite a few bad times in our lives but other than the CMC I do not recall anything quite like this feeling of dread and worry. Of course, being female I never had to worry about being drafted and I am sure that changes things in a big way for the males in our age group.

[Mme. Defarge]

10. Good point about the draft.

Being female and not having brothers, it wasn’t something I personally dreaded.

[Eyeball_Kid]

15. I think that the fascists took their best shot on Wednesday.

They had the element of surprise in some respects. The public and the press weren't aware that they are a serious threat. Now we are aware. So the state and local and federal governments will be geared up on the 17th and the 20th. And there will be better and more intelligence gathered from social media platforms. The press will be paying attention.

There will also be a transforming of Trump's "brand" with the public. The guy's lost his charm. Think of the image of him sitting in front of his big TV screen, leaning in like he's watching his favorite team in the World Series winning its fourth game. But he's watching rioters trashing the nation's Capitol, some of whom are searching for a public servant to kill. That's what's getting him excited. Trump might have half of the Republican voters eating out of his hand, but he's got no one else and he never will. So that's the demographic that Hawley and Cruz are going for, assuming Trump will falter or fade. Perhaps the blood on their hands will make a difference.

[regnaD kciN]

23. I was a bit younger than you, I think...

All I remember was that we kids weren't told, but our mothers were whispering tensely to each other as we played outside. Later, after the crisis was over, we were told that we had come very close to war over the past few days, but it had all been resolved and there was no longer anything to worry about.

[Walleye]

8. Yes I was about 12. When the adults were scared I knew we were in trouble

I still remember those enlarged spy plane pictures of the missile silos being presented on our black-and-white TV. Yeah we were scared. My uncle had a fall out shelter. I lived near a major East Coast Air Force Base. And now our own president has deliberately made us vulnerable to enemies around the world

[Greywing]

16. I was six and my Mom was pregnant so I was excited at the thought of a new baby coming

I remember adults being very somber and a lot more bomb / duck and cover drills in school for those weeks. I don't remember much more.

[Aristus]

17. This is why I drink as much as I do...

I didn't drink this much when Barack Obama was President.

Didn't need the escape...

[Mme. Defarge]

20. I think it's why I've had to go on

blood pressure medication.

[Aristus]

21. I may have to before this is all over...

One thing's for sure: I have to start working out again...

[Mme. Defarge]

27. Do it!

👍

[Aristus]

30. Tomorrow: chest presses...

I will have to give up alcohol, though.

Wait...

I may need to think this over...

[Mme. Defarge]

34. WHAT???

That’s your reward! At least it’s mine. 🍸🍸

[LeftInTX]

19. I lived in Japan with no real TV. I was in 1st grade anyway

I wouldn't have understood it if it was on TV

[ShazzieB]

25. I know what you mean!

I was 12 and in 7th grade.I didn't fully understand what was going on, but I knew it was serious, and that we might be on the verge of nuclear war, which was a terrifying thought.

[LeftInTX]

26. This reminds me more of Timothy McVeigh than anything...

Okla City opened up this whole world of domestic terrorism for the world to see. It has not gone anyway. It is not going to get better.

[Mme. Defarge]

32. Right!

My local Portland news station did a story tonight on how the Ammon Bundy group’s occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016 was a precursor to what we witnessed on Wednesday.

[lunasun]

54. Here is the article with some of that about being a precursor the link is in the tweet

Link to tweet

?s=21

[Mme. Defarge]

56. Merci!

This is a must read and deserves its own thread.

[nuxvomica]

36. The Cuban Missile Crisis was kinder in one way

If things went south, at least it would all be over with quickly.

[Mme. Defarge]

38. And we wouldn't be having this conversation

or any conversations at all.

[Ellipsis]

40. It'll be okay.

This the most relaxed I've been in 4 years.

[halfulglas]

42. I was 20 at the time.

I was working at the time and it was plenty scary, but we had to go on with our daily life. I didn't have a steady boyfriend at the time. The reason this is pertinent is because I read about 7 years later some sociology or psychology prof wrote a paper saying (apparently by doing interviews and surveys and extrapolating his data to a much larger population) that the greatest number of young women lost their virginity during that period of time than in American history to that time because so many young women and girls decided what the heck were they saving "it" for if we were all going to get nuked any minute. (I have no idea if this is accurate or what he used for numbers.) Just a hazy memory from the 60s.

[Mme. Defarge]

43. Ha! I missed out.

Who knew?

[LeftInTX]

49. the RW Terrorists are not going away

But we can make life more difficult for them...

[electric_blue68]

50. Cuban Missile Crisis then 9-11

I'm at the beginning of the 2nd third of Boomer bloom.

So I think I was in 5th grade gifted class in NYC. I was smart and precocious in certain ways. While I didn't get everything about the CMC I already had a good idea about how bad nuclear weapons were!
( In '63 we here in NYC didn't do the Duck & Cover. But we were civilian target #2 after DC had ? monthly air raid drills with those searing sirens, and we had a siren right on top of our school! And of course, they were going off all over our city. Terrifying. )
So we got the NYT in class which had the headlines and photos of the naval blockade ships heading to Cuba.
I knew there was going to be major obliteration; though not as badly posited as when we learned about Nuclear Winter ? 20 years later.

I remember someone a public radio journalist said at a panel I was at that was around the timec that "The Day After" town/neighborhood halls meeting were- that she felt we split off into a parallel Earth where JFK & Khruschev made the right decisions and we survived, but from where we split off; the other "us"went to nuclear hell. And for those of you who know the Many World's Theory that some Theorhectical Physicists subscribe to this follows their idea.

And 9-11 for me having worked on the NE corner office of the 73rd flr of South Tower (2) 20 years earlier for a year I knew thhat area well, and then in 2001 I was barely a mile away north of that general area much of the time - although thank goodness I woke up late - it had happened already (didn't even know it had at first) so I never made it into Manhattan as I lived not far north of downtown Brooklyn.

My god it was terrifying because besides the immediate carnage we just didn't know - was anything else going to happen? Just writing these last few sentences stirs up an echo of that fear. That's ok - it gives me a baseline look at temporarily heightened emotion stirred up briefly at this moment.

So yeah, and I know they're going to try something(s) again. I won't totally obsess, I have other things both extra chores needing doing, and thank goodness fun and creative at home stuff I can do.

Now I that I've spell checked, grammared, and tweaked this I'm feeling ok again (as I can be under these circumstances). 👍

[struggle4progress]

51. Duck and cover

[sinkingfeeling]

53. I think it's more frightening since it's coming from within.

[Voltaire2]

57. I just posted the same sentiment in another thread.

This really is the crisis level we are in.