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You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Senate Back In Session Open Thread

Senate Back In Session Open Thread

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Much speechifying, some predictable, some boring, some better. This is the discussion of the objection to the Arizona results. Whoever objected (Hawley?) obviously didn’t see fit to withdraw his objection. Elise Stefanik now sides with the seditionists.

Also, too, a mass resignation seems to be brewing in the Cabinet. But they should think about Lady Macbeth’s hands.

Reader Interactions

461Comments

  2. 2.

    dmsilev

    I’ve got CSPAN running in another tab. Elise Stefanik is giving a “I stand with all of Trump’s conspiracy theories” greatest hits speech.

  4. 4.

    Yutsano

    I have a really dumb question for my Ohio peeps.

    What the ever loving fuck do the Republicans of Ohio see in Rob Portman?

  11. 11.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Stefanik is a piece of shit. I hate that she was reelected. Same with that Van Drew turncoat.

    I figured violence was going to happen today in DC, but I never thought the Capitol was going to be broken into. I would’ve thought DC Metro and the Capitol Police would’ve been able to prevent it

  16. 16.

    Ken

    National security adviser Robert O’Brien, deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger and deputy chief of staff Chris Liddell are all considering resigning,

    Bravely following the example of the First Lady’s chief of staff.  Still, I guess we can add them to the “don’t think they need a pardon” list.

  17. 17.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): They were able. They just weren’t willing. The fact that some of them took selfies with the terrorists makes this plain.

    Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.

  19. 19.

    Archon

    Mitt gave a good speech, I’m prepared to accept he MIGHT be a Republican man of some principle and patriotism that transcends party.

  20. 20.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Mo Brooks (R-AL) comes out on the side of the insurrectionists.

    I’m really surprised that some many of these folks are sticking with the Trump program after today.

  22. 22.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @satby: Yeah, that’s my question. It was my question with Barr too. What is the calculation in resigning at this point?

  25. 25.

    Feathers

    @Yutsano:  Not an Ohioan, but I remember one who transplanted here to Mass that it was a place where almost everyone who could did leave, and those who stayed behind hated the world for it. Said that this was true for much of the Midwest. Huge unearned superiority complex.

  28. 28.

    Subsole

    @Cheryl Rofer: They believe there will be no consequences. And not without cause.

    It is on us to make sure they are wrong.

    If anyone has any ideas on that front, would love to hear ’em.

  30. 30.

    Ken

    @(((CassandraLeo))): Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.

    What’s the Latin for “I find your ideas interesting and would like to subscribe to your newsletter?”

  34. 34.

    CaseyL

    Graham’s up – or at least he is on my C-Span feed.  Muted the SOB.  He’s another one who should be tarred, feathered, and ridden out of town on a rail.

    BTW – Does C-Span record these sessions?  I can only listen to one chamber at a time, and would like to check out some of the more notable speeches later.

  37. 37.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    “He’s been a consequential president.”

    I agree. We’ll take decades to recover from those consequences, asshole.

  38. 38.

    Ken

    @Leto: Worthless Lindsey Graham up trying to talk about how SC ended Reconstruction.

    I don’t suppose the words “too soon” were somewhere in that speech?

  45. 45.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I just wonder how Mrs Scott feels about how much Lindsay loves Tim, NTTAWWT.

  48. 48.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Baud: Neither am I. I usually sit in the living room and read dead trees at this time of night, but I can’t stay away. It will be a long night for Congress, but not for me.

    This is really awful by Lindsay Graham. He’s giggling.

  52. 52.

    Ken

    @waratah: I think that now they are safe they still want to contest and get attention.

    Or they realized that the Trump cultists will tear them apart too, and think they can appease the mob.

  53. 53.

    Percysowner

    It sounds a heck of a lot like Lindsey Graham is going YAY Jim Crow was great!

    I’m from Ohio, can’t stand Portman, OTOH we also have Sherrod Brown. Ohio is more purple than you think because the 2010 election left Republicans able to gerrymander the HELL out of the State and years of Republican Supreme Court Justices said that was fine by them.

  56. 56.

    Martin

    @Quinerly: Whatever dirt Trump had on Lindsay is out of mind now. Whether that’s booze or just reaching the end of his rope, doesn’t matter.

  62. 62.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I’m likely going to see it through. My sleep pattern is already messed up this week, I woke up at 5 am, read election stuff till 7, then slept till 10 am.

    Hey, they’re doing a roll-call, sounds like we’re done with AZ and maybe all of the objections?

  63. 63.

    Mallard Filmore

    I thought Lindsey Graham gave a good speech.

    Still can’t forgive him for thowing in with the baby snatchers.

  69. 69.

    Patricia Kayden

    Watch for my sister’s treachery tonight as she attempts to spin today’s acts of sedition into acts of patriotism. She and her sidekicks at Fox are equally responsible for helping the Terrorist in Chief stoke today’s violence. @IngrahamAngle— Curtis Ingraham (@CurtisIngraham1) January 7, 2021

  70. 70.

    mac8

    @debbie:

    The state is burdened with an overabundance of weasels.

    And Portman is a prime example of a spineless weasel who excels at never having to take a principled stand about anything.   I am so much more incensed with Ohio’s pretend-moderate Republicans than I am even with Trump.

  71. 71.

    wuzzat

    Mid-thirties, Eastern-European descent — what are the odds that Stefanik is auditioning for the role of Mrs. Trump the Fourth?

  74. 74.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @TS (the original):

    I’ll never forget his “Boy y’all want power, god I hope you never get it.” speech at the Kavanaugh hearings. He’s probably been drinking because of the Senate victories in Georgia, too

  75. 75.

    Martin

    Starting to wonder if this wasn’t staged by the Electoral College to get the public to actually pay attention to what they did. When was the last time everyone was glued to watching the Senate vote for something like this?

  77. 77.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @JPL:

    Hawley is going to continue his charade and force a two hour debate

    My understanding was that it’s 2 hours maximum, and anyone who wants can give a 5 minute speech.  Granted that grandstanding is the abiding passion of all congressmen, I wonder if he’ll give whatever speech he has left, nobody will reply, and the state will be voted on?

  80. 80.

    JPL

    Had Graham not lied about his phone call with the Secretary of State of GA, trump’s phone call would not have been taped.    I wonder if he was drinking then also?

  83. 83.

    jl

    @Baud: ” I’m not staying up for a second state. ”

    Don’t go pissing off five swing states. Get some coffee and stay up tonight, dammit.

  87. 87.

    jl

    Graham can sure eat shit with an engaging style. Can imagine him gulping it down at diner countertop while talking with a Fox News reporter.

    Edit: though I agree with others, he seems to be smashed, which I suppose helps.

  88. 88.

    Citizen Alan

    @Archon: I have (a perhaps naive) hope that Mitt has accepted that he will never be President and so has decided instead to become someone his father George would be proud of.

  91. 91.

    sab

    @mac8:Rob Portman: For the first time ever he wrote me back, about the Post Office. I was so excited that he cares. He also cares a lot about the very very very very muddy Cuyahoga Valley National Park, even though it’s near Cleveland and he’s from Cincinnati ( at least four hours away.)

  93. 93.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Congrats to Lindsey for not breaking down in tears like he usually does when mom and dad are fighting.

  96. 96.

    jl

    @sab: “Cuyahoga Valley National Park”

    Send Portman a letter reminding him that if there is no federal government, then there is no Cuyahoga Valley National Park. That might get his attention, since he cares so deeply and sincerely.

  103. 103.

    lamh36

    Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been frantically calling White House staffers and asking them to hold off on resigning from the Trump administration and stay onboard for at least a few more hours, until things are clearer.

    @YahooNews

    Trump aides beg top officials to stay in the administration for the night https://yhoo.it/2L7Z0LS via @thedailybeast

  105. 105.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    OK, maybe I don’t have the stamina to make it to the end. House not expected to dismiss the AZ objection for at least an hour. Senate twiddling thumbs till then.

    6 aye’s, 93 no’s. They’re 99 because Perdue’s term expired and Ossoff isn’t certified, I believe? And unfortunately it’s still Loeffler voting from that seat.

  108. 108.

    Ken

    @JPL: Hawley is going to continue his charade

    You know how it is, new kid on the block, you’ve got to do something to stand out and find your place. With any luck his place will be the Senatorial equivalent of “despised snitch who gets beaten up behind the school every day”.

  114. 114.

    gene108

    @satby:

    the cabinet members think resigning will somehow save them?

    A protest against the despicable acts of today is still a protest for the right things, no matter how much of a shit weasel they’ve been otherwise

  116. 116.

    dmsilev

    @Leto: No abstentions then? Since one of the GA seats is vacant until the votes are certified that is.

    House is still ‘debating’.

  117. 117.

    Quinerly

    Not posting the site b/c not familiar with it but reports that woman shot and killed at Capitol was a vet, 14 plus years, IRAQ, strong Trump supporter. Has anyone seen anything?

  118. 118.

    Leto

    @Ken: Maybe we can get Duckworth to give him a fucking toilet swirly while we wait. You going to act like a twat, here you go.

  120. 120.

    JPL

    @lamh36: His wife is considering resigning, and what difference is it going to make whether she resigns now or in the morning.    This is not one of those sleep on it and things will be better tomorrow.   trump is still going to be crazy.

  122. 122.

    sab

    @Walker: Presidential and Senate elections cannot be gerrymandered but Comgress and the state legislature can be, and Ohio is very bad that way. Also we have term limits for state offices. Republicans get on the think tank gravy train in college (see Kasich bio) but Democrats have to figure out how to earn a livimg between elective office terms. So shallow bench for Democrats.

    Sherrod Brown is a survivor from the olden days, and a damn good politician. Although when he first won office the local joke had been that anyone named Brown would win any election in Ohio unless his opponent was also named Brown.

  128. 128.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Cheryl Rofer: Kennedy… that phony fuck. I really hate him.

    I kinda wish Cindy Hyde-Smith were better known, and hated, because I’m an Amy Sedaris fan and I’d like to see her get a regular check from Lorne Michaels

  129. 129.

    Ken

    @lamh36: Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

    Ah, just had to emphasize that.  Almost makes up for the rest of the day.

    …Mitch McConnell has been frantically calling White House staffers and asking them to hold off on resigning at least a few more hours, until things are clearer.

    Something’s still not clear to you, Mitch? What’s it take, a pipe bomb going off in the Capitol?

  134. 134.

    MoCA Ace

    @(((CassandraLeo))):They were able. They just weren’t willing. The fact that some of them took selfies with the terrorists makes this plain.

    Exactly, I was at work today when I got a text from a friend about the shit going down.  After checking the intertubes (this was before they broke into the capital) I told him they would scatter like rats once the shooting started.  I never considered that the Capital Police would stand down and let these traitors in.

    Joe has a fuck-ton of house cleaning to do!

  135. 135.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    You know Trump is watching this screaming he’s the president, not the guy presiding over the Senate.

  136. 136.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    LOL – from a friend of mine:

    ”Josh Hawley looks like an overrated high school QB with helicopter parents.”

    Followed by:

    “Josh Hawley’s dad just jumped in my twitter DM’s citing his son’s 1A stats and blaming college coaches’ preference for “running quarterbacks” as the reason his son had to resort to walking on at Stanford and majoring in Political Science.”

  139. 139.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Quinerly:

    From the NYT:

    The woman in the video seemed to climb onto a small ledge next to a doorway inside the building immediately before a single loud bang is heard. The woman, draped in a flag, fell to the ground at the top of a stairwell. A man with a helmet and a military-style rifle stood next to her after she fell, and shouts of “police” could be heard as a man in a suit approached the woman and crouched next to her.

    Sounds like she was definitely a rioter that got shot by police, given she had a flag draped around her shoulders

  143. 143.

    jl

    @Quinerly:  ” Kennedy kinda shocks me. That he’s hanging in with these freaks. ”

    I think some of these GOP pols really don’t know how to do anything but pander to white reactionary bigots. That is all they’ve done to get elected, and that is all they, being not very bright people, can ever even imagine doing.

    They don’t want to face the dilemma of the dishonest servant, who was ashamed to beg and unable to dig. This is their only trick, and they cling to it until they’re forced to beg for a living.

  144. 144.

    Kent

    @sab:@Walker: Presidential and Senate elections cannot be gerrymandered but Comgress and the state legislature can be, and Ohio is very bad that way. Also we have term limits for state offices. Republicans get on the think tank gravy train in college (see Kasich bio) but Democrats have to figure out how to earn a livimg between elective office terms. So shallow bemch for Democrats.

    Technically true. But the Electoral College itself is a form of gerrymander.  Votes in CA and WY are not equal.

  145. 145.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Kent:

    She was a dipshit and crashing where she shouldn’t have been. They’ll build a hagiography, but I want to see her drunk Facebook photos, nasty comments about exes, racist posts and nudes.

    Treat her like the thug she was.

  146. 146.

    Geminid

    @Quinerly: Figures that this mostly male crowd would get a woman killed. Could the ringleaders who organized the assault on the capitol be charged with felony murder? It seems like her death was a foreseeable consequence.

  148. 148.

    sab

    @Geminid: It is hard to replicate fifty years of trustworthy behavior. He looks out for workers, and they know they can count on that. He never went DLC on them.

  149. 149.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    OK, decision time. The beverages available to me as I keep listening to CNN blather are espresso and red wine. Decisions, decisions…

    Edit: Looks like the House is voting now.

  150. 150.

    m.glafmer

    @Yutsano: Portman’s mom has a nice trail named after her in the Edge of Appalachia in Adams County.

    And he’s taller than Dewine.

  151. 151.

    WaterGirl

    @JPL: Unless they are trying to keep the cabinet in place for some 25th amendment action.

    I’m sure that would be preferable to most republicans as compared to every Republican senator having to go on record either voting to acquit or convict if Trump is impeached again.

  154. 154.

    Baud

    That’s it for me. I’ll wake up to the news that Biden and Harris have been certified the winner.

  157. 157.

    TS (the original)

    From the Washington Post

    The challenge fell 93 to 6 with Sens. Ted Cruz (Tex.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Cindy Hyde Smith (Miss.), John Kennedy (La.), Roger Marshall (Kan.) and Tommy Tuberville (Ala.) objecting.

  161. 161.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Geminid: Considering the lack of firearms safety these clowns are noted for, how do we know one of the Insurgents didn’t just shoot her by accident.

  162. 162.

    satby

    @Geminid: She was a willing and active participant in a mob action. Don’t take away her agency even if it led to her own death. She chose to be part of the insurrection and stormed the Capitol along with the others. Being in a mob is dangerous and that was an action she decided to take.

    Nope, not sympathetic.

  164. 164.

    Barbara

    @lamh36: I agree that they should stay until after the certification.  Let that happen.  However, it does seem that most of those who are leaving are lower level or in communications positions.

  168. 168.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @jl:

    Plus, IIRC, Kennedy was one of those GOP pols that went to Moscow on Independence Day a few years back. It doesn’t surprise me about him

  172. 172.

    JPL

    @WaterGirl: Possibly, but at this point in time, impeachment would take too long.  Don Jr. probably called his dad to make sure the paper work for pardons was already completed, just in case.

  174. 174.

    Geminid

    @sab: Ah. So Brown’s success is more than a matter of effective messaging. There still might be some good lessons as to policy.

  176. 176.

    lamh36

    @Quinerly: Yes.  She was also on twitter.  Folks are posting her tweets made right before things went down.

    Of all the reasons to die storming the Capitol in support of Chump has got to be on of the stupidest ways to go…

  177. 177.

    Quinerly

    @Cheryl Rofer: antifa lie is really big. Yes… I went back to local Southern newspapers on line. Comment sections. I torture myself. But curiosity… I knew these people in another life. It’s all antifa, false flag, actors,

  178. 178.

    Another Scott

    @dmsilev: 61 GOP votes Aye, 36 Nay so far.  112 more to go.   All Democrats voting Nay so far.

    Yeah, the House Teabaggers are crazier than the Senate.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  185. 185.

    Leto

    Paging Cole:

    W.Va. delegate, just sworn in, was among the mob storming U.S. Capitol

    A newly-elected member of West Virginia’s House of Delegates was among the mob who stormed the U.S. Capitol today.

    Derrick Evans, R-Wayne, livestreamed and then deleted videos from inside the Capitol, but others took screenshots and videos of the original videos.

    In one, he is shoots cell phone video out into the Capitol interior while surging through a door. He says, “We’re in! We’re in! Derrick Evans is in the Capitol!”

  187. 187.

    gene108

    @satby:

    I thought you were referring to three Nat. Sec. people in Kaitlin Collins’ in OP.

    But yeah, the actual Cabinet Secretaries need to invoke the 25th Amendment. Quitting now is cowardice.

  188. 188.

    Punchy

    FWIW, Hawley is being shiv’d by the KC Star right now.  He did this stunt ostensibly for positive pub, but the hometown paper is savaging him for this shit.

  189. 189.

    Barbara

    @Quinerly: Law & Crime reports the same thing.  I have been reading their post-election coverage of legal proceedings, and I find it to be competent.  They’ve also done good reporting on the hearings as they are in progress.  They interviewed her husband and mother in law.  She lived in San Diego and ran a small business with her husband, who did not accompany her to DC.  No report on the circumstances of the shooting itself.

  191. 191.

    Ken

    @Another Scott: 61 GOP votes Aye, 36 Nay so far. 112 more to go.

    The Ayes may be more eager to go on the record. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of those who haven’t voted yet are in agony over their decision. In fact I’m hoping for it.

  192. 192.

    dmsilev

    @WaterGirl: Up to 77 now, with another 48 voting no, and 84 yet to vote. A majority (so far) of the House GOP is voting yes to object to the Arizona electors.

  193. 193.

    Redshift

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    What is the calculation in resigning at this point? 

    I have seen speculation that those with political ambitions are getting out before they’re called on to be involved in a 25th Amendment proceeding. I could see them being that weaselly, but overall I don’t believe it’s that likely.

  194. 194.

    satby

    @Geminid: Ok, the “figures a bunch of men would get a woman killed” comment was what I honed in on. Because they didn’t get her killed any more than her own actions did. But I’m sure there’s some charge that could be laid against the insurrection leaders. Which should by rights charge Trump first.

  195. 195.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @Ken: I’m 99% sure this was a rhetorical question, but I found it more interesting to provide a serious answer than to spend any more time thinking about the day’s events.

    I will note that I am by no means an expert, but for “Your ideas are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter” (which was Homer’s original quote), I came up with “Ideae tuae mē fascinant, et ego volō ācta diurna tua recipere.” (Literally, “Your ideas fascinate me, and I wish to receive your daily acts.”) However, several caveats are in order:

    1. Word order in Latin can be somewhat flexible, and I’m not familiar with all the rules; it’s possible there’s a better way to order some of these.
    2. If there’s a word for newsletter, I’m not aware of it, so I went with ācta diurna, literally meaning daily acts, which were the daily public records – basically equivalent to newspaper (although they weren’t literally printed on paper).
    3. The verb subscrībō is the root of our English subscribe, but doesn’t have the same meaning; it meant I sign my name, support, allow, or record. As a result, I went with recipiō, meaning I receive. (Note that custom is to use the first-person singular present active indicative as the generic form of a Latin verb, rather than the present active infinitive as in English; I’m not sure why.)
    4. Similarly, intrigue is descended from intrīcō, but that means I entangle, perplex, or embarrass. Fascinō means I enchant, bewitch, charm, or fascinate, which is somewhat closer in meaning…though admittedly, many of those meanings have supernatural connotations. (Also, I just re-watched Star Trek, so the word “Fascinating” was already on my mind.)
    5. Don’t rely too much on my translation – I’m sure I’m more reliable than Google Translate, but there’s a good chance I made an elementary grammar mistake somewhere. There’s an even better chance that I wasn’t aware of better vocabulary choices for some of the words in Homer’s quote.

    Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.

  196. 196.

    lamh36

    @gabrielsherman

    Per source, White House counsel Pat Cipollone told west wing staffers today not to help Trump stage a coup or else they could be prosecuted for treason. My latest:

    https://twitter.com/gabrielsherman/status/1347014773750308866

     

    It’s gonna get worse guys.  The question is can US survive 2 more weeks.  Like someone said, sure he can’t tweet or do FB or Instagram, but he still has his tiny hands on the nulear codes!!!

  199. 199.

    The Moar You Know

    I was asking if ringleaders can be charged with felony murder.

    @Geminid: in any state, yeah, accessory to murder (being a person inciting a riot where they could reasonably expect someone to get killed, I.e “storm the capitol”, for example) is construed as being responsible for it. But here’s the kicker: I don’t know what the federal rules are, and they’re the ones that matter here.  I would assume yes, but all I can do is assume.

  200. 200.

    Brachiator

    @JPL: 

    Possibly, but at this point in time, impeachment would take too long.

    I was talking with my sister earlier today. We both agree that the country cannot just let Trump roam around loose for the next 14 days.

    Don’t know what the solution is.

  201. 201.

    dmsilev

    @JPL: Probably, although given the 93-6 vote just now, McConnell might decide that the time has come to de-Trump.

  202. 202.

    WaterGirl

    @dmsilev: That’s what I’m thinking.

    For the sake of our place in the world, I think he either has to get removed with the 25th amendment or he has to be impeached.  I don’t see how we can do NOTHING without looking helpless and impotent, which will damage our position in the world even more.

  206. 206.

    NotMax

    I may be alone in this but foresee McConnell saying buh-bye soon after Warnock and Osssoff are seated.

    Rumors of Chao’s resignation may be a precursor.

  207. 207.

    Redshift

    @Quinerly: My favorite on Twitter this afternoon was the woman who was sure they couldn’t be real MAGA people because they always clean up after themselves and don’t leave a mess, not like those dirty liberal hippies. 😄

  208. 208.

    Citizen Alan

    @Ken: ORCHESTRA STALLS!! I’ve been wondering for 30 years what that line was. I thought it was “Hot potato, Ocean shores.”

  209. 209.

    dmsilev

    @WaterGirl: There were something like 120 GOP Reps that, as of yesterday, were planning on joining the objections, so “drunk their own kool-aid” sounds accurate.

  210. 210.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @lamh36:

    It’s gonna get worse guys.  The question is can US survive 2 more weeks.  Like someone said, sure he can’t tweet or do FB or Instagram, but he still has his tiny hands on the nulear codes!!!

    I’ve read that a military aide is always with Trump who carries the “nuclear football”. I’d like to think the aide would not give Trump the codes

  212. 212.

    Another Scott

    @The Moar You Know: I don’t know if DC law would somehow be applicable.

    § 22–2101. Murder in the first degree — Purposeful killing; killing while perpetrating certain crimes.

    Whoever, being of sound memory and discretion, kills another purposely, either of deliberate and premeditated malice or by means of poison, or in perpetrating or attempting to perpetrate an offense punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary, or without purpose to do so kills another in perpetrating or in attempting to perpetrate any arson, as defined in § 22-301 or § 22-302, first degree sexual abuse, first degree child sexual abuse, first degree cruelty to children, mayhem, robbery, or kidnaping, or in perpetrating or attempting to perpetrate any housebreaking while armed with or using a dangerous weapon, or in perpetrating or attempting to perpetrate a felony involving a controlled substance, is guilty of murder in the first degree. For purposes of imprisonment following revocation of release authorized by § 24-403.01(b)(7), murder in the first degree is a Class A felony.

    (Emphasis added.)

    It seems broad enough to cover what happened to the woman today. (IANAL.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  213. 213.

    Ken

    @Citizen Alan: There’s disagreement on google, I went with the version on wikipedia (though wikiquote has it different).  I always thought it was “opposite shores”.

  218. 218.

    Redshift

    @WaterGirl: I agree, calling my reps in the morning. He’s not going to stop trashing the place on his way out, and after this, anyone who thinks we can just wait out the next two weeks is fooling themselves.

    Also, if he’s impeached and convicted, they can additionally vote to bar him from holding office.

  222. 222.

    Percysowner

    @NotMax: Depends on how he feels about the Republican Party and working to thwart the Democrats. Andy Beshear, Kentucky’s Governor, is a Democrat and McConnell resigning would give the Democrats a clear majority. So, I think Mitch will stick around.

  223. 223.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Claire McCaskill telling a wild story on the MSNBC about Giuliani (drunk?) dialing the wrong Senator thinking he was calling Tuberville. The mis-dialed Senator gave the voicemail to a reporter. I’m guessing this story is being typed up? cause it’s gonna go through twitter like greased shit through a goose as soon as its released

  224. 224.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

     

    @UncleEbeneezer: Thanks! I’ve been lurking off and on for the last several months, but just haven’t been able to come up with much to say lately, and have been trying (with mixed results) to avoid obsessing over the news. Today’s (hopefully) failed coup makes that a lot more challenging, though. I was hoping I’d be able to spend at least one day feeling good about the fact that Georgia elected a Black man and a Jewish man for the first time in its history (some 105 years after the lynching of Leo Frank, no less), but nope, can’t have anything nice during the Trump administration*. (I was born in Atlanta and am slightly older than Ossoff, so I was particularly thrilled that he won.)

    @pacem appellant: Oh, this works too (in response to @Ken); thanks.

    Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.

  227. 227.

    Ken

    @NotMax: I may be alone in this but foresee McConnell saying buh-bye soon after Warnock and Osssoff are seated.

    You mean resigning his Senate seat?  It does seem unlikely to me. Then again, he’ll have lost considerable power – my own bet is that he wouldn’t remain minority leader.

    Rumors of Chao’s resignation may be a precursor.

    Oh, yeah, I forgot about that bit of family business.  He may have some inside info on the 25th amendment discussions.

  228. 228.

    John S.

    Who the fuck is the one Democrat in the House to vote FOR the objection?!

    ETA: Looks like it was a mistake. Just flipped back to zero. But 120+ Republicans (a clear majority) voted for sedition.

  229. 229.

    dmsilev

    Rudy, Rudy, Rudy…

    NEW: Rudy Giuliani meant to call Sen. Tommy Tuberville to ask him to object to 10 states’ electoral votes, to buy Team Trump more time. He accidentally left a voicemail on a different senator’s phone. We have the audio. From @stephenfhayes. https://t.co/0Xs98dJDXS— Declan Garvey (@declanpgarvey) January 7, 2021

     

    At approximately 7 p.m., Giuliani called newly sworn-in Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a staunch Trump ally, imploring him to stall the process. “I want to discuss with you how they’re trying to rush this hearing and how we need you, our Republican friends, to try to just slow it down so we can get these legislatures to get more information to you,” Giuliani said in a voicemail. “And I know they’re reconvening at 8 tonight, but it … the only strategy we can follow is to object to numerous states and raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow—ideally until the end of tomorrow. I know McConnell is doing everything he can to rush it, which is kind of a kick in the head because it’s one thing to oppose us, it’s another thing not to give us a fair opportunity to contest it.”

    Giuliani tells Tuberville that McConnell wants to narrow the objections to just three states and explains that the Trump team wants to object to 10. “So if you could object to every state and, along with a congressman, get a hearing for every state, I know we would delay you a lot, but it would give us the opportunity to get the legislators who are very, very close to pulling their vote, particularly after what McConnell did today.”

    The problem for Giuliani? He left his message on the voicemail of another senator, who shared it with The Dispatch.

  231. 231.

    Suzanne

    Am I alone in feeling that, while this is terrible, this is especially terrible for Republicans?

    Their filth is exposed to harsh sunlight.

  232. 232.

    Kattails

    And while all our elected officials are futzing around with a vote that should have been simple, and Mitch is calling whoever to keep them from quitting until–tomorrow? And the Cabinet won’t invoke the 25th and Congress is apparently uninterested in impeachment, this country has a madman at the helm and is vulnerable to any set of bad actors. It’s not just Trump that’s the threat.

  233. 233.

    lamh36

    oh good grief. His chidlren need to come and get their pop-pop

     

    @declanpgarvey

    NEW: Rudy Giuliani meant to call Sen. Tommy Tuberville to ask him to object to 10 states’ electoral votes, to buy Team Trump more time. He accidentally left a voicemail on a different senator’s phone. We have the audio. From
    @stephenfhayes
    .

    https://twitter.com/declanpgarvey/status/1347021060047335424

    Giuliani was trying to leave a message for Tuberville and sent it to a Dem senator instead. The message was about objecting to TEN states because Rudy Colludy claimed he’d provide “evidence” tomorrow.

  234. 234.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    I wonder what is going on with Chao possibly resigning, also the covey of other high-ranking officials considering the same. Seems like there must be something big behind the scenes; I can’t believe it’s just that their genteel sensibilities were so appalled by the seditionist riot today.

    Chao has kept a low profile and hasn’t been involved (overtly) in much controversial stuff, plus she has the ultimate insider connection of being married to the Senate majority leader. If anybody’s bulletproof she would be one, I think.

  236. 236.

    Leto

    @John S.:  I asked the same thing but then it flipped to a no vote. I think the yes/no button really confused them, so I’m glad they worked it out in the end…

  237. 237.

    dmsilev

    @Suzanne: You do have to admit, however, that it’s excellent news for John McCain.

    (who, like Generalissimo Francisco Franco, is still dead)

  238. 238.

    NotMax

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    It’s not as if there’s a candy apple red button that gets pushed. There are frequently updated booklets of procedures and codes to be read and then correctly entered (in order) inside the case. Then the commands must be properly confirmed by recipients. The aide does not know the codes. Also too, targeting is not something alterable by way of the football, it’s a complex procedure that cannot be done on the fly.

  242. 242.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    After this is all over, I think we need to have a serious national conversation about the lame-duck. It’s entirely too long. Transitions between prime ministers in the UK happen typically in less than a week; in Canada, it takes roughly two weeks. I know our government is a lot larger, but it’s preposterous for there to be more than two months between our elections and inaugurations. It allows the arsonists to do way too much damage on their way out the door.

    Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.

  243. 243.

    Geminid

    @satby: I see your point. The woman surely put her self in harm’s way through her criminal actions. I just tend to assign more culpability to the people who organized this mob action, and I want to see them held responsible.

  247. 247.

    Subsole

    @Quinerly: Same here.

    I almost can’t bear to look.

    It’s like…were they always this infantile, this pathologically unable to admit they were wrong??? Because I don’t remember that before…

  248. 248.

    mali muso

    Damn, I missed the name of the Senator speaking now, but he’s bringing it.  “Sedition!”

  249. 249.

    jl

    @lamh36: Yeah, just saw that on Josh Marshall’s blog. So, besides the butt dial, ten states to buy more time for what…. ? More beer bellies and fake Vikings roaming around the Capitol?

    Marshall’s tweet reports more info that Trump has checked out mentally in some way, and Pence is the de facto president right now.

    @joshtpm

    ” Lot of tea leaves here. But on this decision to bring in the Nat Guard, some reports say Sec Def and Chair of JCS simply didn’t talk to Trump and Pence gave the order. In those reports Trump’s portrayed as just checked out, uninterested. But other reports say that … ”

    https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1347028729248276480

    Things moving to fast for me to check comments, so apologies if this is already posted.

  251. 251.

    Another Scott

    Speaker Pelosi is telling House members to leave the chamber after voting (for social distancing), but of course there are dozens of people either standing around yacking or sitting in seats after she told them, at least twice.

    (sigh)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  252. 252.

    Ken

    @Steeplejack: If anybody’s bulletproof [Chao] would be one, I think.

    Only in the metaphorical sense. Today she might have realized that Trump’s supporters use real bullets, and IEDs, and are willing to use them against Republicans too.

  255. 255.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Oh apparently it’s personal for Turtle with Trump, now the word is Trump is telling his aids he delibertly screwed the Georgia election to punish Turtle for not being loyal enough.  Even Stephen Miller, of all people is saying this was a bad day.

  257. 257.

    Anya

     

    @dmsilev: He also says “object to every state”. As if this was not clear before, they know they don’t have a case, they just want chaos.

  258. 258.

    jl

    @Subsole: Going back to conversation on previous thread, they need to pretext for various kinds of violence, emotional, physical, intellectual, in order to keep the Trumpster dupes’ sympathy.

  260. 260.

    Ken

    @(((CassandraLeo))): After this is all over, I think we need to have a serious national conversation about the lame-duck. It’s entirely too long.

    But you’ve got to allow time for the horse-drawn carriages to get all the way from Georgia and New Hampshire to Philadelphia.

  262. 262.

    cmorenc

    @Walker:

    Presidential elections cannot be gerrymandered. The Trump vote in Ohio was not even close. It is a red state.

    Oh, yes Presidential elections potentially CAN be gerrymandered, if more swing states controlled by an R legislature + R governor pass legislation to allocate Presidential electoral votes by R-gerrymandered congressional districts.  (There are two states, Maine and Nebraska, which have separated at least one congressional district from the rest of the state for purposes of Electoral vote allocation – Maine and Nebraska).  IIRC either in the runup to the 2012 or 2016 election, movements were afoot in both Michigan and Pennsylvania to switch to splitting the state’s electoral votes according to the result in each respective congressional district, but which proposals failed to win enough support to pass (in substantial part because doing so also means the Rs would give up winner-take-all in years the R Presidential candidate narrowly won statewide).

  263. 263.

    jl

    Don’t know about other commenters, but I must have clicked on some links today that ID’d me as a Trumpster. I’m getting pitches for a subscription something or other that will explain the crimes of Hilary Clinton in detail, a man with a book on how he single handedly  stopped Obama’s plans to enslave us with a new gestapo, how to keep my pension safe with gold bars delivered to my  door step. And my favorite, an ancient Vietnamese food that will make me one huge tigeRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR in bed. Might look into that that last one, not that I need to, mind you.

  264. 264.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Anya: Yes, even Miller gets this mess is going to make it even harder to abuse people once it’s done.

  266. 266.

    Ken

    @mali muso: Damn, I missed the name of the Senator speaking now, but he’s bringing it. “Sedition!”

    Betcha a nickel that by Friday there will be a half-dozen parodies of “Tradition!” from Fiddler on youtube.

  267. 267.

    Another Scott

    The Joint Session is about to start.  11 D, 11 R from the House, 11 D, 11 R from the Senate.  The rest of the members should watch the proceedings in their offices.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  268. 268.

    NotMax

    @Quinerly

    supporting Hawley/Tulsi 2024

    Enough there for her to file an airtight small claims court action suing her drug dealer for a full refund. Plus damages.

    //

  270. 270.

    Anya

    I don’t see McConnell resigning his seat. But I can see him using the threat of resignation to retain his position as minority leader.

  271. 271.

    Ken

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Trump is telling his aids he delibertly screwed the Georgia election to punish Turtle for not being loyal enough.

    I wonder if “everything that happened is exactly what I always wanted” is part of the narcissistic spectrum.

  272. 272.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    CNN says the DC Mayor extended the State of Emergency for 15 days, so hopefully this will stop another coup attempt during the ingratiation.

  275. 275.

    Subsole

    @MoCA Ace: Maybe.

    But hey, I am actively rewatching vidi of the capitol cops beat the shit out of trumpers and man, seeing these fucking vermin get hurt feels positively cathartic at this point.

    So you might be a bad person, but I damn sure ain’t in a position to throw stones over it…

     

    @WaterGirl: If they wish to survive as a whole, sure. Now if they only care about surviving in their inbred little rump districts? That changes the equation drastically. Small world, small cares.

  277. 277.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Ken: People have been commenting for weeks that it looked like Trump was trying to lose those elections.

  278. 278.

    jl

    @cain: Yeah, I saw that. But OTOH, they only need to lose a couple of percentage points for them to be in big electoral trouble.

  279. 279.

    Captain C

    @Ken: Is there a reverse midas equivalent for a Xanatos Gambit ?

    A Xanatos Gambit is a plan for which all foreseeable outcomes benefit the creator — including ones that superficially appear to be failure.

    (Warning:  TV Tropes link)

  280. 280.

    Subsole

    @Suzanne: It is bad for them because even the most jaded, both-sides demiwit can understand ‘angry white beardo-wierdos storm government building, tear down American flag.” And that shit is waaaaaaaaaaaay too gauche for the Beltway Sunday Chardonnay Circuit to excuse.

  281. 281.

    pacem appellant

    @(((CassandraLeo))): Yes, I went with “mē tenet” for “I find it fascinating”, which is a construct I really like. There’s something so natural about “I hold (literally, it is held by me)” And I dropped the optional “I” and “you”. I didn’t work too hard on a substitute for subscribe, but recipio is a good call.

  282. 282.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Christ, my wife is in an argument with her father about this. We’ve been together nearly 32 years, and they’ve never had a cross word.

    Of course, a steady diet of Fox News, he’s bleating about soc!alism, China and Venezuela (his current lady friend has been pretty housebound for years and loves her some Fox).

    My mother-in-law, god rest her soul, would have kicked his ass to Saturn over this attitude.

  283. 283.

    Another Scott

    @L85NJGT: House.

    Nancy SMASH seemed to have been optimistic about the timing.  Warren is speaking in the Senate now, so it looks like they’re not going to be finished there for a while.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  284. 284.

    Ken

    @Subsole: If [Republicans] wish to survive as a whole, sure. Now if they only care about surviving in their inbred little rump districts?

    I think (hope) the GOP fundraising apparatus got monkey-wrenched today.  They may keep the “insane billionaires”, but I would imagine a lot of large donors are thinking “insurrection is bad for business”. Plus, Trump and spawn clearly plan to keep grifting as much as they can from the party, like the well-adapted parasites they are.

  285. 285.

    jl

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I don’t think Trump has been doing anything a normal person would consider to be thinking since the general election. The crimes and stunts he pulled over the last week and today are just inexplicable in terms of his own self-interest. Trump has lost it mentally  and needs to be thrown out of office immediately.

  286. 286.

    Jeffro

    @Cheryl Rofer: the ones sticking with trumpov (like Hawley and Brooks) think that the mob will spare them in their frenzy…they’ll recognize them as fellow seditionists, right there, on the spot.

     

    not the best strategy for the next time the Capitol is overrun

  287. 287.

    NotMax

    @Percysowner

    Andy Beshear, Kentucky’s Governor, is a Democrat and McConnell resigning would give the Democrats a clear majority

    Parting shiv to the straitjacket caucus.

    ;)

  288. 288.

    CatFacts

    ABC reporter Luke Barr is saying on Twitter that D.C. police found two pipe bombs at the DNC, one at the RNC, and a car with Molotov cocktails in it near the Capitol. I think there will be more arrests in the next few days.

  291. 291.

    Another Scott

    The Senate is in recess until Moscow Mitch calls them back (presumably they’re working on what the House sent over a few minutes ago).  Nancy SMASH is still at the chair, apparently waiting (as usual) for the Senate to do its job.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  292. 292.

    piratedan

    kind of funny that we’ve not seen a single news conference regarding what took place today…. zippity from Law Enforcement of ANY agency, from Capitol Police to the Dept of Justice.

  293. 293.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @jl: That’s my take on it, Trump’s acting like a teenager who just got dumped by their first love. That an’t right for a grown adult in their midlife.

    My god, is Trump going to start tweeting Emo poetry next?

  294. 294.

    Subsole

    @Captain C: No but there is a Twelve Xanatos Pileup, which is what happens when your Xanatos gambit is administered by someone other than Xanatos or vonDoom…

  295. 295.

    Subsole

    @Jeffro: Actually a very good strategy for the next time the capitol is overrun.

    Now, when the capitol is recaptured, they’re gonna go thru some shit…

  297. 297.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @jl:

    The crimes and stunts he pulled over the last week and today are just inexplicable in terms of his own self-interest. Trump has lost it mentally and needs to be thrown out of office immediately.

    Any predictions on what Trump does next? I think the odds of him having to be escorted from the WH have gone up tremendously

  300. 300.

    WaterGirl

    If anyone wants a palette cleanser, here is Jon Ossoff’s 3-minute victory speech from this morning.

    Watching it made me feel better.

    Also watching Michael Bennet for 5 minutes tonight reminded me of his wonderful rant in the Senate earlier this year, and even though I don’t recall what it was about, I was reminded of what a good man he is.  As are the two new senators from Georgia.  The senate will be better for them being there.

    I am also grateful that today happened today and not yesterday when people were voting in GA.  Today would have been 100x harder to take, I think, if I hadn’t known that we have the senate.

    Small favors that don’t feel so small.

  301. 301.

    jl

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: “Trump’s acting like a teenager who just got dumped by their first love.”

    That would be one teenager I don’t want to meet.

    How about, a severely narcissistic fool who can’t handle what he perceives as intolerable public humiliation of electoral loss, and a criminal desperate to retain the protection of public office. Those two surely  amplify each other, a resonance is set up and the psyche spins completely out of control.

  302. 302.

    Subsole

    @piratedan: I would hope capitol police leadership is too busy having the skin peeled off their asses in eighth-inch strips by mayor Bowser to give a press conference.

  303. 303.

    Mary G

    The media seems to be completely ignoring the fact that there were coordinated actions against a number of state capitols too. This interview is bonkers:

    Through a misty stream of mace-stung tears, the Knoxvillian whimpers in quiet despair, “We’re storming the Capital! It’s a revolution…” Knowing her tale is told and the hour lost, she returns to the Motel 6 in the arms of her lover. -The Ballad of Elizabeth- pic.twitter.com/WEp2q7UBjO— Robbie Daymond (@robbiedaymond) January 7, 2021

  309. 309.

    TS (the original)

    @WaterGirl:

    It was amazing that the democrats won both those races – today’s events have well overshadowed the win, but the next few months will highlight the benefits.  I watched Ossoff speech awhile ago – as many have said today – a perfect speech for a winner to make.

  310. 310.

    Kattails

    Oh goody. Jim Wright just tweeted that “Trump’s control of the nuclear weapons needs to be severed right now”.

  311. 311.

    Feathers

    Colbert is live!  Great intro, Trump blathering about how without law and order we don’t have a country, running over footage of Trumpers rampaging through the Capitol. Just said he hopes these cowards enjoy their tax cuts.

  312. 312.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: 

    That’s my take on it, Trump’s acting like a teenager who just got dumped by their first love.

    I’m thinking, an abuser who realizes his girlfriend is leaving and is just about to put a bullet in her brain.

  316. 316.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @pacem appellant: Oh yeah, that’s a really interesting construction; I don’t think I’d encountered that usage of teneō before, but I think it works well there. Of course, it falls into the typical Latin word pattern of having more than a dozen discrete meanings (in fact, it seems to have more meanings than most), so it’s little surprise that it was a new usage to me. And I left the extraneous pronouns in to reduce confusion, but it’s undeniably more concise without them.

    @chopper: Sontem tam accūsātum sum.

    (highlight for translation: “I am guilty as charged.”)

    @Subsole: Unfortunately, that trope has been renamed to “Gambit Pileup.” It’s too bad, as I really felt “Twelve Xanatos Pileup” (or was it “Thirty Xanatos Pileup”? whatever) was a rather amusing name.

    Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.

  319. 319.

    Another Scott

    Arkansas accepted without objection.

    California accepted without objection.

    …

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  320. 320.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl: They’re back in Joint Session in the House.  Going through the rest of the states.

    Presumably it will quickly wrap up if there are no more objections.

    Assuming Pennsylvania will be objected to, then they’ll break up into the 2 hour split debates again and go through another vote, and then return to Joint Session again.

    It may be a long night, but they’ll get it done.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  322. 322.

    Suzanne

    Hey, in 14 minutes, it will be my birthday. Y’all got me a new president. In all sincerity, it’s exactly what I wanted.

  323. 323.

    Mary G

    Sarah Palin is on Fox pushing the latest lie – that rioters were really Antifa in disguise.

  324. 324.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @TS (the original):

    I admit I was skeptical the Dems were going to win those runoffs, but I’m glad I was proved wrong! The wins make me feel a little better about the fact that Trump got 74 million votes. I hope Abrams tries another run at governor, but would support anything she does. She’s definitely going places imo. Well, already has, but you know what I mean

    A lot of southern states have large black populations. These elections provide a roadmap to winning in those states imo. It’ll be interesting to see how this figures into post 2020 election analysis. It was thought based on exit polling (suspect) and voting patterns that Trump had made in-roads into several minority demographics

  327. 327.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mary G: I don’t watch a lot of Fox, but my impression is she’s on their C or D list these days. Scrapign the bottom of the barrel to find someone to feed their audience what they want to hear

  328. 328.

    Another Scott

    @Ken: Georgia representative objecting.

    (sigh)

    Ah, but no Senator is objecting, so it’s disallowed.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  330. 330.

    West of the Rockies

    I sure hope the A-hole with a Confederate flag gets ID’d and figuratively strung up.

  335. 335.

    piratedan

    @Mary G: amazing how easily they were able to dress up in all of that Trump Paraphernalia and how NONE of those “Antifa bad faith actors” were called out for their behavior by the righteously protesting Trump loyalists with all of those cameras and cell phones going off.

  336. 336.

    Feathers

    Colbert calling this a Moo D’Etat. Also “The red hats are coming!” But mostly this is just sheer rage pouring out.

  338. 338.

    WaterGirl

    @Another Scott: Can our side just quit giving our speeches to move it all along?  Or would that give them a moral victory?

    I am heading to bed, but it’s obvious that they absolutely learned not-one-fucking-thing from today.  Shit piles, every of those who are objecting.

  343. 343.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Shut off the stream for a while. Listening again. I guess we’ve gotten up to Idaho without objection, so I guess Tuberville didn’t get the memo from Rudy to “Object to EVVVVERYTHING!!!!”

    Like the cat who ate the cheese, I await with baited breath for my state (PA) to once again be front and center in the fuckery headlines in this election.

  345. 345.

    David 🎅🎄Merry Christmas🎄🎅 Koch

    Hermann Goring and Heinrich Himmler now considering resigning after Führer’s tirade.

  346. 346.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @WaterGirl:

    but it’s obvious that they absolutely learned not-one-fucking-thing from today.  Shit piles, every of those who are objecting.

    Of course they didn’t. They never learned a lesson from the 2017 GOP Congressional Baseball Practice shooting either

  351. 351.

    Jinchi

    @dmsilev: “raise issues so that we get ourselves into tomorrow—ideally until the end of tomorrow.”

    Sooooo….. Why does Rudy want things delayed until tomorrow night?

  352. 352.

    dmsilev

    @WaterGirl: Now that they’re back to counting states, it’s going pretty quickly. About halfway through the alphabet so far. PA is probably going to be the next Objection!

  353. 353.

    sdhays

    @piratedan: The DC Chief of Police responded to questions at Mayor Bowser’s press conference and there was a representative from the DoD there as well. But that’s the only one I’m aware of.

  356. 356.

    dmsilev

    @Jinchi: There very well may not be any real plan, just delay as long as possible in case a plan or opportunity or something comes up.

    Also, Rudy is not a smart person.

  358. 358.

    hotshoe

    OMG the Senators have dropped out of objecting to Georgia because of the events earlier today.

    Repugs screwed themselves by not making it clear he must concede while Dumpster keep riling up his base for a whole month. Okay, I know that objecting to Georgia could not have changed the outcome of the election. but with Trump’s failed coup shaking up the Senators in their own session, they must have wised up – at least a little — to the risk if they themselves completely destroy the norms of peaceful transition. And so, the promised objection has evaporated.

    Thank the small gods!

  360. 360.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Jinchi:

    @dmsilev: I believe the mis-directed voicemail from Rudy said something about state legislatures just about ready to withdraw their certification.

    Which of course is not a thing.

    Edit: Goddamn. Objection on MI. Edit 2: But they screwed up the procedure (no Senator signature). MI passes without objection.

  362. 362.

    WaterGirl

    @dmsilev: Have we heard that they have gotten everyone out of the capital?  They must have for this to be proceeding, but I never heard a peep about how it happened, whether there were casualties, etc.

    Seems kind of strange, like there was a media blackout.

  364. 364.

    Feathers

    Amy Klobuchar Live on Colbert now. They were watching the goons in Pelosi’s office while in under protection in the Capitol.

    All though fuck ending the age of demonization.

    ETA. Colbert saying there needs to be consequences. Almost yelling. Not happy with the normality. Saying must include Hawley and Blackburn are the sinners here. The mob is ignorant

  367. 367.

    jl

    @dmsilev:  I keep coming back to the thought that these people must have stepped into shit deeper than we currently imagine.  They are going insane, hatching insane maniac plots to try to keep the possibility of keeping their political protection just barely alive. Or to pretend its alive. A specter of  a ghost of a possibility is prowling around in their heads, disappearing around corners, and they’re saying ‘it’s alive, it’s alive!’

  368. 368.

    Another Scott

    It’s nice that the people reading the information from the states are House and Senate members (Amy K now), so that the staff doesn’t have to read the same thing over and over.

    Some crank is objecting to Michigan.

    Not signed by a Senator, so it’s rejected.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  374. 374.

    dmsilev

    At this point, can we assume that the GOP Senate caucus has Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley tied up and locked in a broom closet somewhere in the Capitol?

  378. 378.

    Mary G

    I’m so old I remember when the press wailed about not calling the president a liar, at least some are learning to do better, and call it like it is:

    The front page of Thursday’s Washington Post:

    Trump mob storms Capitol

    President incites crowd to acts of insurrection, violence pic.twitter.com/4H8YVYO3jW
    — The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 7, 2021

  379. 379.

    Geminid

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: There is a theory I’ve seen that McConnell sandbagged trump by pushing Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination instead of delivering another stimulus package before the election. McConnell knew confirming Barrett in the lame duck session might be problematic, so he went for the sure thing. And while trump needed a good stimulus package to help his reelection, it was a low priority for McConnell. trump probably understands that McConnell got what he wanted while leaving trump hanging. And trump basically does not care about those Senate seats, or Barrett, or anything else besides his own interests.

  382. 382.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    How fucking dumb is Rudy Nosferatu Giuliani?

    So Rudy Giuliani tried to call Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville to urge him to delay the Electoral College vote count, but called the wrong senator, leaving a voicemail thinking it was for Tuberville, but the senator who Giuliani actually called subsequently leaked that voicemail to The Dispatch, which published it online.

    h/t https://www.mediaite.com/trump/giuliani-tries-to-urge-tommy-tuberville-to-delay-electoral-count-but-leaves-voicemail-with-wrong-senator-who-leaks-it/

  384. 384.

    Another Scott

    “Nevaaada”.

    Uh, oh!!

    AL objects to “Nevaaada”.

    No Senator signed.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  385. 385.

    Anya

    If Arizona is the only state that gets objection, how will people of Arizona feel about 121 House Republicans, including Minority Leader McCarthy voting to toss out Arizona’s electoral ballots?

  391. 391.

    TS (the original)

    Just as they near Pennsylvania ABC changes & goes to a news ad

    So now I’m at nbc

  392. 392.

    Anya

    STFU, Michael Steele. You are complicit when you stood by while they tried to delegitimize Obama’s presidency.

  393. 393.

    dmsilev

    @Anya: We’ll find out soon, but I’m guessing that PA will also have an objection. That seemed to be one of the focus points of their attention.

  394. 394.

    Kent

    @Wyatt Salamanca: How fucking dumb is Rudy Nosferatu Giuliani?

    So Rudy Giuliani tried to call Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville to urge him to delay the Electoral College vote count, but called the wrong senator, leaving a voicemail thinking it was for Tuberville, but the senator who Giuliani actually called subsequently leaked that voicemail to The Dispatch, which published it online.

    h/t https://www.mediaite.com/trump/giuliani-tries-to-urge-tommy-tuberville-to-delay-electoral-count-but-leaves-voicemail-with-wrong-senator-who-leaks-it/

    Didn’t say which “wrong” senator got the call and leaked it.  But must have been a GOP one.  How many Dem Senator phone numbers do you think Rudy has saved on his phone?

  395. 395.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Anya: yeah, him and David Jolly, every time I see them on TV I think I want to go back and see what Steele was saying about Democrats and Obama when he was actually head of the RNC, and Jolly when he last campaigned as an R, I believe on a ballot with trump in ’16

  396. 396.

    CaseyL

    I like the applause that breaks out when an objection is NOT entered. But who’s applauding?  I can’t imagine there’s anyone in the gallery, unless they’re staffers.

  398. 398.

    Kent

    @CaseyL:I like the applause that breaks out when an objection is NOT entered. But who’s applauding?  I can’t imagine there’s anyone in the gallery, unless they’re staffers.

    Has to be Dem members of Congress.

  400. 400.

    Mary G

    I just love hearing over and over that Kamala D. Harris of the State of California received ___ votes for Vice President. We got a woman almost to the top. Finally.

  402. 402.

    Ken

    It occurs to me that the proceedings could be sped up, and more in line with the form of government the seditionists and insurrectionists seem to want*, if when an objection failed those making the objection were shot.

    * “Want” in the sense that would-be theocrats always assume they’d be the ones in charge, and not the ones tied to the stake sniffing the kerosene fumes.

  403. 403.

    Anya

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I remember him being triggered by Obama’s election. For some reason, it was personal, and let the Republicans use him as their black friend and then they threw him out. He gets no respect from me.

  404. 404.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Wyatt Salamanca: I was wondering that, no one described Guilanie as a useless idiot during 911, yet the past four year he hasn’t missed an opportunity to step on his own dick at lest once a week. Early senility or serious drug use?

  405. 405.

    RedDirtGirl

    I just saw a protester on a Fox News clip who held a sign that had a number of things written on it, including…

    No Foreskin, No Peace!

    What the actual phuck?

  412. 412.

    Anya

    Trump is too dumb, I bet he’s watching this and he probably believes that he’ll gain EC votes if these craven assholes object.

    He must be losing his mind and he can’t rage tweet. I hope Twitter extends his twitter jail sentence.

  413. 413.

    Suzanne

    @RedDirtGirl: Everything with these people is about their dicks and how they’re all inadequate…. too small, too ugly, too limp, too whatever. I wish they’d take their psychodrama elsewhere. Like outer space.

  415. 415.

    dmsilev

    Pennsylvania. Objection! Blah blah blah. And a Senator signs, so away we go.

    Edit: Senator Hawley again. Figures.

  416. 416.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @RedDirtGirl: No Foreskin, No Peace!

    What the actual phuck?

    No Foreskin = Jew

    The Jews are shape shifting space lizards who want to socialize America so they can date all the white women and drink baby blood in the Qanon world.

  422. 422.

    Another Scott

    Pennsylvania has a Senator.

    (sigh)

    Clerk reads the objection.

    Hawley and Perry (sp?)

    Grr…

    So the Joint Session breaks and they return to the 2 hour speeches and votes.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  424. 424.

    Kattails

    Here is a really nice little video of a white guy yelling at the protestors to go home, and interacting with a black woman in a car around the difference between this and the BLM protests.  For Betty, he’s yelling “fucking crackers” LOL. It made me feel better.

  425. 425.

    CaseyL

    @dmsilev: This is one time I’m glad to be on the West Coast; it’s 9:15 here.

    Unfortunately, there were some complicated tasks I needed to get done today (for work) that I was flat unable to do more than get started on.   My head just wasn’t there.

    Oh shit:  They are separating back into their chambers for a 2-hour debate over objections to the PA electoral vote. I may not make it though the count after all.

  427. 427.

    mali muso

    Can’t imagine that Hawley is endearing himself to his colleagues, making them stay up until the wee hours of the morning with this traitorous stunt.  He needs to be thrown out STAT.

  430. 430.

    Ken

    @RedDirtGirl: There’s a rather mysterious incident in Exodus where Moses is returning to Egypt with his wife and infant son, and the Lord tries to kill Moses. But his wife circumcises her son and throws down the bloody foreskin, which appeases the Lord.  What that would have to do with seditious protest, I don’t know.

    EDIT: Ah, probably anti-Semitism, as Enhanced Voting Techniques said.

    EDIT EDIT: Or anti-circumcision, as Moar You Know said.  My, so many possibilities for any particular lunacy.

  431. 431.

    The Moar You Know

    I just a protester on a Fox News clip who held a sign that had a number of things written on it, including…

    No Foreskin, No Peace!

    What the actual phuck?

    @RedDirtGirl: this is an anti-circumcision activist, which is kind of a weird fringe outgrowth of the “Men’s Rights Movement”. They’re all batshit crazy, every last one.

    Suzanne got it right.

  432. 432.

    Anya

    “Must I shoot a simple soldier boy who deserts, but not touch a hair on the head of the wily agitator who induced him?” – Abraham Lincoln.

    Josh Hawley is a traitor.

  433. 433.

    Subsole

    @Feathers: The fuck they are. They were cognizant enough to put on their warpaint and roll to DC.

    I am so very tired of grown ass white folks getting treated like mentally incompetent toddlers.

    This fucking misery ends when these arrogant fuckers realize the rules apply to them as well, not one moment sooner.

  435. 435.

    OGLiberal

    @Kent: Her Twitter is full of the crazy.  Many re-tweets of Lin Wood/Mike Flynn insanity.  Lot of re-tweets about today’s rally, going back at least a week.  She tweeted yesterday that today was going to be “the Storm….dark to light” and that they will “not be stopped”.   She was a full-on Q loony.  She flew from San Diego to DC to watch some lunatics speak then got killed trying to bust into a barricaded Speaker’s Lobby.  Not sure what she thought was going to happen.

  439. 439.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Anya:

    Trump was told by the conspiracy loons he listens to that Pence or the Republicans could choose to count his (fake) electors instead of the certified electors.  He was told that Pence and McConnell could refuse to consider any electors that were not certified by the state legislatures after the fact.  Plus, he got a huge mob to attack people he didn’t like.  And yet despite all that, congress is certifying Biden’s win.  Today has turned to flaming shit in his hands.  Oh, and people on TV are insulting him.

  440. 440.

    CaseyL

    @Suzanne: Oh, Andrew Sullivan was/is also an “intactivist.”  Used to get very eloquent about how male circumcision was just as bad as female genital mutilation.  What a pedantic, smug, RW twit he is.  When the time comes, that’s another obituary I will read with pleasure.

    I was gonna say, I’ve never heard the alleged drawbacks of male circumcision actually keeping circumcised men from fucking and enjoying it… but then I remembered, these are MRAs/Incels we’re talking about.  Their lack of action is due to their overwhelming repulsiveness as human beings, but they’d rather blame a quarter-inch of skin.

  443. 443.

    Suzanne

    @CaseyL: All of those intactivists are just terrible garbage people. I even agree with their point — don’t modify someone’s body without their consent — but they’re so reprehensible that I can’t stand them. JUST STOP TALKING ABOUT YOUR DICKS.

  445. 445.

    Another Scott

    My brain is being hurted by this PA House member ranting about how horrible and unfair the election was in Pennsylvania.  “Latches”, brainiac.

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  446. 446.

    Punchy

    @Another Scott: here’s hoping Toomey, who’s already expressed anger at the questioning of his state’s elections, just walks right up to Pretty Hair Hawley and throws a knuckle slider right up in his lower maw.  Maybe he can object to stitches and concussion protocol instead.

  447. 447.

    Kent

    @CaseyL:

    @Suzanne: Oh, Andrew Sullivan was/is also an “intactivist.”  Used to get very eloquent about how male circumcision was just as bad as female genital mutilation.  What a pedantic, smug, RW twit he is.  When the time comes, that’s another obituary I will read with pleasure.

    I was gonna say, I’ve never heard the alleged drawbacks of male circumcision actually keeping circumcised men from fucking and enjoying it… but then I remembered, these are MRAs/Incels we’re talking about.  Their lack of action is due to their overwhelming repulsiveness as human beings, but they’d rather blame a quarter-inch of skin.

    It is so bizarre.  I grew up in 100% white protestant Oregon in the 1970s and early 80s and played plenty of HS football and basically spent 1/4 of my HS life in or around the locker room.  I can confirm that damn near everyone was circumcised.  And it didn’t prevent a single HS football player that I knew from spending most of his time thinking through his dick and spending most of his waking hours trying to stick it anywhere he could.  Didn’t slow them down one tiny bit.

  448. 448.

    Ken

    @CaseyL: This is one time I’m glad to be on the West Coast; it’s 9:15 here.

    So it’s 12:30 January 7th in DC, and Congress hasn’t certified the election.  I think I’ve figured out why Giuliani wanted to ask Tuberville to delay things a day – if I’m right, we should see a confirming tweet soon.

  449. 449.

    Another Scott

    The Senate is already voting, dunno if it is on the final objection or something else.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  451. 451.

    Kent

    @Ken:So it’s 12:15 January 7th in DC, and Congress hasn’t certified the election.  I think I’ve figured out why Giuliani wanted to ask Tuberville to delay things a day – if I’m right, we should see a confirming tweet soon.

    Well if they stop right now Biden wins 244 to 157.  That was the flaw in their genius plan (among many). CA votes get counted early and at no point in the process is Trump ever ahead in then electoral count so that they can stop things and call him the winner.

  452. 452.

    Ken

    @Another Scott: Both chambers would have to support the objection, right?  So maybe if the Senate quickly votes it down 93-6 again, the House can cut their side short and get back to the count?

    Naw, that would be too sensible.

  453. 453.

    MoCA Ace

    @Anya: When this is all over, I hope Josh Hawley losses everything dear to him.

    I believe that list would be

    1.  His life
    2. ?

    I second the motion!

  454. 454.

    Kent

    @Another Scott:

    The Senate is already voting, dunno if it is on the final objection or something else.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

    Hawley got his 5 minutes and no one else wanted to speak to his motion so they went right to the vote.  Well, maybe Cruz spoke too….they weren’t covering the speeches on CNN which is nice.  Why give the fuckers oxygen.

  455. 455.

    Another Scott

    7:91 (or 7:92?) in the Senate.  On to the Joint Session when the House is done.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  456. 456.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @Subsole: Much as I’d love to be able to blame 2020 for this, I think the trope rename happened a few years ago by now. I remember being sorely disappointed when I noticed it. I sort of get why it happened (people unfamiliar with TV Tropes lingo won’t be familiar with a Xanatos Gambit), but it still disappointed me. If nothing else, they could’ve left it as “Thirty Gambit Pileup”, which is still a more interesting trope name.

    Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpūblicānam dēlendam esse īgnī ferrōque.

  458. 458.

    frosty

    @Suzanne:  My understanding is that circumcision is common in the USA, regardless of religion. Based on a discussion with the doc about my infant son.

    I didn’t pay close enough attention in the locker room shower to confirm this way back in junior/senior high LOL.

  460. 460.

    Debbie(Aussie)

    @Suzanne:

    Happy birthday🥳🎂🍷🎆

    sorry it is happening in this surreal, frustrating and scary time. 🤗

    🤗to all the jackals. You are all in my thoughts. Sorry there is nothing more I can do. Deb

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