The Race to Lead Boston Is Suddenly Wide Open

BOSTON — Sometimes the guard changes slowly. Sometimes it changes overnight.

That is what is happening in the city of Boston, which has been led by white men since its incorporation in 1822. With the nomination of Mayor Martin J. Walsh as President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s labor secretary, the 2021 mayoral race is suddenly wide open, and the front-runners are all women of color.

If Mr. Walsh is confirmed and resigns from his mayoral post, his replacement as acting mayor will be Kim Janey, president of the City Council, a 56-year-old community activist with deep roots in Roxbury, one of Boston’s historically Black neighborhoods. Ms. Janey has not said whether she plans to run.

The two declared challengers in the race are also, for Boston, nontraditional. Michelle Wu, 35, a Taiwanese-American woman, has as a city councilor proposed policies on climate, transportation and housing that have won her the support of progressives.

And Andrea Campbell, 38, a city councilor who grew up in public housing in Roxbury, has drawn on her own painful personal history — her twin brother died of an untreated illness in pretrial custody — to press for policing reforms and equity for Black residents.

Others are expected to jump into the race, but it has already deviated from the long-established pattern in this Democratic city, in which one figure from the white, working-class, pro-union left would hand off power to a similar man of the next generation.





https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/us/boston-mayor-election.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytnational

Tweet of the Day comes from AOC

Clyburn: They knew where I was supposed to be.

What I saw inside the House chamber as the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol closed in

WASHINGTON — Almost any reporter who works at the U.S. Capitol will tell you there’s an excitement and reverence when you enter the building, even after years of doing it.

You walk over the tile floors, through the Rotunda, past the Senate and House chambers, and you sense the history that has unfolded there. You feel lucky to have a chance to bear witness to more of it. Because of the pandemic and my 2020 election coverage, I hadn’t been there in months, but that familiar feeling hit me again when I returned Wednesday around 10 a.m.

I knew it would be a divisive day, and a very long one (I packed lunch, dinner, and snacks). But I felt privileged to watch what I knew would be a historic and important debate and vote, and bring that scene and information to our readers.

Instead, I ended up describing carnage and fear from inside the House chamber, on Twitter to the world, and in brief texts to my wife.



https://www.inquirer.com/politics/nation/us-capitol-attack-20210109.html

Rioter who died of heart attack allegedly tased humself in the balls.

After a pro-Trump crowd stormed the United States, a total of four people died. Wednesday's Capitol (Jan. 6).

In American history, Wednesday (Jan. 6) was an eventful day, to say the least. A pro-Trump crowd marched to the United States Capitol, and assaulted it while vandalizing congressional staff holders, stealing equipment, and assaulting police officers.

Like all of you, I watched as a gang laid siege to the U.S. Capitol, organized, violent and mad they had lost an election," Michelle Obama said about the chaos she witnessed on social media and TV like everyone else watching in horror around the globe." "We had gallows set up. They waved the Confederacy's traitorous flag proudly across the halls. They desecrated the American Government Center. And once the police had eventually taken control of the situation, the rioters and gang members were forced out of the premises, not in custody, but free to continue their days.



https://www.mebere.com/capitol-death-taser-kevin-greeson-tasering-testicles-balls-himself-and-heart-attack

It's been a crazy week so I just wanna leave this with you.

Dark money group behind Republican state attorneys general organized protest before the insurrection

As more and more detail emerges about the events in the nation's capital Wednesday, it becomes clearer that this was a planned revolt and that it was organized within the Republican establishment. So much so that the Republican Association of Attorneys General (RAGA)—the chief Republican law enforcement officers for their states—used its dark money group to help organize the mob. The Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), a "nonprofit" set up by the RAGA, appears in a list of groups "Participating in the March to Save America" along with Stop the Steal, Turning Point Action, Tea Party Patriots, and others.

The RLDF sent out a robocall to activists saying: "The march to save America is tomorrow in Washington D.C. at the Ellipse in President’s Park between E St. and Constitution Avenue on the south side of the White House, with doors opening at 7:00 a.m." So they're making sure everyone knows where to go. It gets worse. "At 1:00 p.m., we will march to the Capitol building and call on congress to stop the steal. We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue to fight to protect the integrity of our elections." The call gives a web address, MarchtoSaveAmerica.com, and concludes: "This call is paid for and authorized by the Rule of Law Defense Fund." Again, this is coming from state attorneys general, the people elected to uphold and enforce the rule of law.

RAGA's chair, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, insists he "unequivocally had no knowledge or involvement" in the robocall and "is working diligently to determine how this situation occurred and ensure that it does not happen again."

The executive director of RAGA, Adam Piper, had the gall to issue a statement saying that the RAGA and RLDF "had no involvement in the planning, sponsoring or the organization of Wednesday's event" despite the fact that they are listed on the website as an organizing entity of the event and they sent the goddamned robocall telling everyone where to go and what the agenda for the coup would be. So that's believable. He added: "No Republican AG authorized the staff's decision to amplify a colleague speaking at the event." So we had nothing to do with it, but if we had anything to do with it, it's the staff's fault.



https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/1/8/2007306/-Dark-money-group-behind-Republican-state-attorneys-general-organized-protest-before-the-insurrection?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=Sendible&utm_campaign=RSS

Bonus Tweet of the Day

VA-GOV: Republican Del. Cox Arranged Buses to Violent Trump Rally, Calls Vice President a 'Traitor'

Del. Daniel L. Cox (R-Frederick), a fervent supporter of President Trump, arranged for multiple tour buses to take constituents to Wednesday’s pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C.

“I am co-hosting two buses to the Million MAGA March/Rally with the Frederick County Conservative Club in support of President Trump @realDonaldTrump on January 6, 2021 to #StoptheSteal,” he wrote on Twitter on Jan. 1.

This effort was in partnership with the Frederick County Conservative Club. A third bus was eventually added on.

Wednesday’s rally in protest of the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory turned violent when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

It is unclear how long the group was in Washington or if any of its members participated in the attack on the Capitol.



https://www.marylandmatters.org/2021/01/07/del-cox-arranged-buses-to-violent-trump-rally-calls-vice-president-a-traitor/

Video footage of officer crushed in door by Capitol Hill mob