Day 1 after the Putsch

[selenak]

Like I imagine a great many people I started my day yesterday with the good news from Georgia and ended it staring at various news sources in horror. If there is no consequence for the creature and his minions, this will only have been a prelude, so I really, really hope against every cynical bone I have that the arrest warrants are being prepared. Also, be safe, everyone, if you can.

This account from reporters who were inside the Capitol at the time is harrowing.

Comments

[lirazel]

I'm so worried about Inauguration Day.

[selenak]

Ditto. Thereafter, too, of course - all these fanatics are armed to the teeth and will get only more, not less weapons - but especially then.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, really crossing my fingers that there will be serious consequences. If there aren't prosecutions you have white supremacist mobs just act with more and more impunity until they just destroy stuff, lynch and massacre people and elected governments like they did in the Wilmington massacre back in 1898 that everyone's mentioning now, or all the post-WWI "race riots" etc.

[selenak]

Exactly. BTW, do we know what became of the lot who tried to storm the Reichstag last summer, and of the ones later let in by the AFD who aattacked MPs?

[ratcreature]

I haven't heard anything in a while, but then they don't usually update on cases. I do remember that they detained over 400 briefly to get their identities and started to investigate against the leader because of "aufwieglerischem Landfriedensbruch" and against some others because of "einfachem/schwerem Landfriedensbruch" so presumably that's still going on? There were a bunch of other documented crimes too like falsified health certificates etc. I hope a bunch get convicted to at least as much as these left wing Parkbank guys that recently got almost two years in prison for merely planning to torch a politician's car. Or the G20 protester who got three years for throwing a bottle at police. I heard the Reichstag mob hurt police too.

[kore]

I had a moment of TOTAL disconnect when the horror was still going on and the news started to come in that Ossof had won! Which was awesome! Control of the Senate!....and I was like, are we sure there is still going to be a Senate? (And then they went right back to work, which was so heartening, even if Ted Cruz should be gagged and not in the fun way.)

[selenak]

Ted Cruz gagged was a good idea even before he became a Trump enabler. Btw, this morning I see he deigns to inform us he's disagreed with 45s rethoric for the last four years, so maybe he's starting to sweat at least?

On a more cheering note, when will the two new senators from Georgia be sworn in?

[kore]

this morning I see he deigns to inform us he's disagreed with 45s rethoric for the last four years

OH MY GOD "LOLOLOLOL" is truly the only appropriate answer there.

It is bitterly satisfying, altho not at the expense of everything that's happened, to see the obsequious suck-ups like Cruz, Pence and Hawley finally face consequences for wanting the oh-so-powerful Trump base and support in 2024. Lindsey Graham remains as disgustingly slithery as ever, tho. "It's been a hell of a ride with Donald Trump and this is where I get off!....oh wait, 25th amendment? No no, I can't support that. But if something else happens, everything is on the table for me!" I have to wonder what that "something else" might be. Maybe Trump nuking Iran, IDEFK.

Also McConnell's tyranny over the Senate and the fucking nation ends with him having enabled an autocrat who did his best to literally torch the Capitol. I like to imagine it rubs salt in his wounds just a little bit more that the same autocrat trashed his chances in the election that made a Black Reverend and a young Jewish man represent Georgia. Times are changing.

The two new Georgia senators! Apparently what happens is, just going in chronological order, the next step is for Georgia's counties to certify the results of the runoff election, and that deadline is January 15th. Then good old Brad Raffensperger (ARGH) has until January 22nd to officially certify those results. Gabriel Sterling (also a Republican, but apparently not a ratfucker) said he thought the runoff election was clean. Then, Warnock and Ossoff present their certificates of election and take the oath in an open session of the Senate. So that will probably happen before January 22 -- might even happen on January 20th? Because that will be when Kamala Harris is sworn is as veep, and her appointed successor, Alex Padilla, fills her Senate seat. At that point, with Warnock, Ossoff, and Padilla all sworn in, there is a 50-50 balance and Harris as veep will be the tiebreaker vote. And the Biden administration will have a Dem WH, House and Senate, at least for the first two years, so maybe we can focus on stuff like shipping fucking vaccines instead of Trump's actual delicate snowflake feelings of crushed toxic masculinity and mortally wounded vanity.

[likeadeuce]

I have federal jury duty the week of inauguration and while it seems likely my city will not be overrun -- it's close enough to DC that anybody who wanted to make trouble here would probably rather be there -- but I'm not looking forward to being in a federal courthouse while stressed about whether they'll have proper COVID safety protocols AND heightened security (or heightened security theater as we're all really questioning what 'security' is even worth...

[selenak]

Crossing my fingers for you, on both counts. Incidentally, as a federal juror, would you serve in trials for people who cross statelines, i.e. like yesterday's domestic terrorists?

[likeadeuce]

Those folks would/will be tried in DC and not sure how that works since DC is a federal district and the crimes took place om federal property so 'cross state lines' doesn't really come into it.

Federal criminal trials are likely going to be for drug offenses though juries also are required for some civil suits

[sub_divided]

Another day of being glued to the news all day long... and maybe the first time I've watched an entire, totally procedural Session of Congress where the outcome was already certain in advance. It was soothing to watch VP Pence read out the electoral vote certifications one by one.

[selenak]

I can imagine. I myself went on a really long walk, but thoughts could only partly be distracted.