January 7, 2021

Who is that sniveling asshole from Georgia who objected to the Michigan vote (unsuccessfully)?

January 7, 2021

Intellectual heavyweight Sarah Palin weighs in on today's events:

https://www.rawstory.com/sarah-palin-riots-media/


None other than Sarah Palin has jumped into the fray for a little counterprogramming on behalf of the insurrectionists unleashed today by Donald Trump.

A large headline at Townhall.com blared: "'Knock It Off': What Has Sarah Palin Peeved About How Media Are Reporting DC Protesters"

https://twitter.com/SarahPalinUSA/status/1346920204509585409?s=20

https://twitter.com/SarahPalinUSA/status/1346920267713544194?s=20

January 7, 2021

Ed Markey !!!

Said we do have one of the most egregious examples of voter fraud -- the president talking to the GA SOS like a mafia boss.

January 7, 2021

Trump Wants Everything His Heart Desires -- Including Riots

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Donald Trump got what he wanted.

He was able to give yet another rambling, ludicrous speech claiming that the presidential election was riddled with fraud and stolen from him. He told throngs of his supporters assembled in front of the White House that he loved them, and they shouted back that they loved him, too. He asked them to march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol so they could give Republican legislators certifying the election “the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.” And they marched.

When the Trumpistas reached the Capitol, they breached police lines and swarmed the building, eventually breaking windows, occupying offices, parading through hallways and storming the floor of the Senate. As the “Save America” rally Trump hosted Wednesday erupted, prompting guns to be drawn inside the Capitol, reportedly leaving a woman shot dead and offering a searing image of democracy under assault, the president watched his insurrection unfold on a White House TV.

He couldn’t initially bring himself to ask his seditionists to leave the Capitol. Because he was getting what he wanted. “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country,” he tweeted amid the ferocity. “No violence!” Translation: “I lit the match, poured fuel on the fire, adore the flames and revel in the heat — but please, support your local firefighters.” ................(more)

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-still-getting-everything-heart-000341075.html

January 7, 2021

Lindsey, sit down and shut up. You were egging him on for a month.

January 7, 2021

This whole fucking family.......

Ivanka Trump has deleted a tweet in which she referred to the mob of President Trump’s supporters violently rioting at the US Capitol building as “patriots”.

On Wednesday, as pro-Trump rioters broke through security barricades and clashed with police to enter the Capitol Building in an effort to reject president-elect Joe Biden’s win, the president’s daughter tweeted: “American Patriots - any security breach or disrespect to our law enforcement is unacceptable.

“The violence must stop immediately. Please be peaceful.” .............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/06/trump-mob-storm-capitol-washington-coup-attempt

January 7, 2021

Call it what it was: a coup attempt

Call it what it was: a coup attempt
Rebecca Solnit

I call it a coup attempt because, though I assume that it will not prevent the Biden presidency, it certainly intended to
Wed 6 Jan 2021 18.42 EST


(Guardian UK) On Wednesday, a coup attempt was led by the president of the United States. A rightwing mob attempted the coup in the form of a violent riot that stormed the Capitol building. They disrupted the proceedings that would have completed the recognition of the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Those proceedings had been disrupted earlier by elected officials bringing forth bad-faith claims that the election was not legitimate and should instead produce a continuation of Trump’s presidency. This too was a coup attempt, an attempt to violate the constitution and override the will of the voters in this election. Inside and outside were two faces of the same thing, and both were fomented by the leaders of the Republican party and by the US president. The mob outside would not exist without the politicians inside. Those insiders will make noises of horror and repudiation, but they own this.

Had Mitch McConnell and other Republican leaders recognized the legitimate winner of the election in early November, had there been no challenge to a legitimate election from inside the government, there would have been no mob. Having failed to suppress enough votes to guarantee a Republican presidential victory, the Republican party and the Trump administration decided to try to suppress them retroactively. Trump invited the mob and whipped it up for months and set it off today, as surely as if he’d lit a bomb’s fuse.

I call it a coup attempt because, though I assume it will not prevent the Biden presidency, it certainly intended to, and is part of a campaign to delegitimize and thereby weaken the incoming administration. It was a long time coming, building up for years with white rage, especially white male rage fueled by everyone from Trump himself to the National Rifle Association, Fox News and the various rightwing pundits, the Republican party, the various faces of white supremacy, and the far-right groups such as the Proud Boys. It is a rage against the fact that other people might be equal under the law, that women and people of color might also govern as power begins to be distributed more equally, the same rage that attempted to delegitimize a black president with birtherism and obstruction. It is a rage against equality.

....(snip)....

What is at stake in America today is the outcome of an election. But it’s also the rule of law and the rights of voters. And in the end it’s also about the authority of facts and evidence and history and science, that no one has the right to override those things for personal gain. Trump’s position all along has been that he in particular has that right. Today it came to a head and became a crisis as a mob sabotaged a constitutionally mandated procedure for the peaceful transition of power. This was always going to happen because Trump’s power was always going to be finite in reach and duration under the law, and because he wants that power to be infinite, he was always at war with the law, and he always had a volunteer army willing to help him take it. Today they acted like an army, a hostile occupying force in the nation’s capital. This is what he wanted and this is what he orchestrated and this is what we got. ..........(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/06/trump-mob-storm-capitol-washington-coup-attempt

January 7, 2021

Hawley sent fundraising email on election objection as Capitol descended into chaos

Shortly before a group of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, disrupting a congressional debate on the 2020 Electoral College results, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley’s campaign sent a fundraising email promoting his planned objection to Pennsylvania’s votes.

Hawley, a first-term Republican and potential candidate for president in 2024, was the first senator to announce his plan to object to the electors of one of the states won by President-elect Joe Biden.

His move last week spurred more Republicans to join the effort, even though Biden won 51% of the popular vote and 306 electoral votes, above the required threshold of 270.

“Many career politicians in the D.C. establishment want me to stay quiet. I suppose you can assume nothing I do will matter. That it won’t matter if I object or not, so I should sit by and do nothing,” Hawley said in the fundraising email, sent after Congress had begun its joint session to count the Electoral College results.

“But this is not about me! It is about the people I serve, and it is about ensuring confidence in our elections.” ..............(more)

https://www.kansascity.com/article248316415.html

January 6, 2021

Corporate group urges officials to consider quick removal of Trump

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-election-companies/update-1-corporate-group-urges-officials-to-consider-quick-removal-of-trump-idUSL1N2JH2YD


WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The head of a major U.S. business group that represents 14,000 companies including Exxon Mobil Corp, Pfizer Inc and Toyota Motor Corp urged senior U.S. officials to consider removing President Donald Trump from office after supporters of the outgoing president stormed the U.S. Capitol.

National Association of Manufacturers President and CEO Jay Timmons said Trump “incited violence in an attempt to retain power, and any elected leader defending him is violating their oath to the Constitution and rejecting democracy in favor of anarchy.... Vice President (Mike) Pence, who was evacuated from the Capitol, should seriously consider working with the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to preserve democracy.”

January 6, 2021

One of Donald Trump's final legacies in office appears to be leading the Republican Party to defeat

Georgia runoffs cap a Democratic comeback: Last election of the Trump era may lock GOP out of power
One of Donald Trump's final legacies in office appears to be leading the Republican Party to defeat in Georgia

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
JANUARY 6, 2021 11:26AM


(Salon) As I write this, the results of the two Senate runoff races have not yet been officially certified, but most of the smart election analysts project both Democrats have won. The Cook Reports' Dave Wasserman issued his famous "I've seen enough" early Tuesday evening for Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock, who successfully challenged unelected incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, and a couple of hours later tweeted the same for Democrat Jon Ossoff, who has apparently defeated Republican multimillionaire David Perdue to become the first millennial in the Senate.

Anything's possible in close races so I am withholding my euphoria — but if this holds, it's hard to overstate just how important this result is going to be. If the Senate is ultimately tied 50-50, Kamala Harris is able to cast the deciding vote as vice president.

Georgia's election results mean the difference between the U.S. finally controlling the pandemic to recover economically and ... not doing that. Lives will be saved and families and businesses will be able to get back on their feet. That is the immediate crisis we face and with the Congress in Democrats' hands, the Biden administration can move much faster and more efficiently than if Mitch McConnell remained in the way as majority leader of the upper chamber.

....(snip)....

What happens now is anyone's guess. But now that the Senate appears to be in Democratic hands I would be lying if I didn't admit to feeling a tremendous sense of schadenfreude at what's about to take place in the Republican Party. It couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of people. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/01/06/georgia-runoffs-power-a-democratic-comeback-last-election-of-trump-era-may-lock-gop-out-of-power/