Trump loyalists in Congress to challenge Electoral College results in Jan. 6 joint session (Update: Insurrectionists storm Congress)(And now what?) (29 Viewers)

[superchuck500]

I guess it's time to start a thread for this. We know that at least 140 members of Congress have pledged to join the objection. Under federal law, if at least one member of each house (HOR and Senate) objects, each house will adjourn the joint session for their own session (limited at two hours) to take up the objection. If both houses pass a resolution objecting to the EC result, further action can take place. If both houses do not (i.e. if one or neither passes a resolution), the objection is powerless and the college result is certified.

Clearly this is political theater as we know such a resolution will not pass the House, and there's good reason to think it wouldn't pass the Senate either (with or without the two senators from Georgia). The January 6 joint session is traditionally a ceremonial one. This one will not be.

Many traditional pillars of Republican support have condemned the plan as futile and damaging. Certainly the Trump loyalists don't care - and many are likely doing it for fundraising purposes or to carry weight with the fraction of their constituencies that think this is a good idea.

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32717.pdf

 

[samiam5211]

The loudest ones usually are the ones with most organized, higher earners in terms of donation, potential to cause trouble if their well-funded by outside pressure groups, on both the left and right. And buddy, most people do care or have opinions about inflation, gun rights/gun control, abortion/pro-life, or anti-death penalty/support death penalty in most districts in this country. Maybe they don't advertise it as loudly or less likely to tell people like me or you, but they do care and enough of them will vote out their congressmen/senators if they go against their wishes, a bit too much. Its hard to be an effective leader when you have a polarized, politicized community like this nation has been turning into for over 20 years now and you're shouted down as a smug, self-centered elitist too busy to be bothered to listen to angry voters and you ignore them.

Your analogy might've been accurate 40-45 years ago but the overall political atmosphere, across the board, has changed tremendously. There was a time political scientists really did believe that overall majority of Americans didnt have opinions on major issues and that gross assumption and mischaracterization of reality was disproven roundly.

What are people's opinions on inflation? I doubt 3 out of 10 people on the street would be able to put together a coherent statement about how to handle inflation.

Gun control? ask 10 people and you will likely get 5 - 10 different opinions on what specifically should be done about it. Same thing with abortion.

None of these issues are a binary choice. All we need is a non binary political system.

Right now everything is a 1 or 0, but just because someone is choosing 1 doesn't mean they don't actually believe that 0.75 is the correct answer.

 

[MT15]

I’m reading that Cheney is using some specific wording to describe what Trump did (or didn’t do) on and before Jan 6. it would be nice to see him finally get what he deserves after the way he has never been held accountable in his long life:

 

[The moose]

I’m reading that Cheney is using some specific wording to describe what Trump did (or didn’t do) on and before Jan 6. it would be nice to see him finally get what he deserves after the way he has never been held accountable in his long life:

yep she has done it twice now. this is gonna get fun.

 

[MT15]

This looks like most of the leaders of the Sedition Caucus:

 

[Optimus Prime]

This looks like most of the leaders of the Sedition Caucus:

So the people we assumed it was

Don’t know Perry or Hice

 

[MT15]

Yeah, I‘m not as familiar with those two.

 

[nolaspe]

Jamie Raskin dunked all over the 3-toed bridge troll...

 

[SamAndreas]

Jamie Raskin dunked all over the 3-toed bridge troll...

I remember when If a Congressperson had called the opposition "Communists" that would have had the speaker banging the podium with their gavel demanding order.

 

[MT15]

A fairly large portion of Rs are just plain ignorant of history and well, even the meaning of the words they use. What drives me crazy is that ivy-league Rs feel like they have to pander to the modern “know-nothings” and pretend to be just as dim.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Good article that could have gone in at least a couple threads
============
Not quite a year ago, on Dec. 19, 2020, Donald Trump lit a match. “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” he tweeted. “Be there, will be wild!” That night, on the social network Parler, a user posted, “Build the gallows.”


No one can draw a straight line from Trump’s tweet to the storming of the U.S. Capitol, but the events of Jan. 6 were born on social media — which makes it a good place to discover what the activists, influencers and organizers of the MAGA movement are up to on the ground. Then, they were charting a course to “stop the steal” on a national stage.

Now, they have taken their disparate causes and motives to the local level, refocusing on softer, more vulnerable targets such as local government agencies, because, according to the new motto of one of their ubiquitous leaders, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, “Local action has a national impact.”

I began using social media several months before the election to monitor the extremist elements that were taking control of the Republican Party — a party I had spent my life in but no longer recognized.

My goal at first was to share what I observed with moderate Republicans who may have been persuaded to vote for Joe Biden and not Trump. I wanted to show them that what was once a fringe element of the party was now on full display and spreading.

After the election, however, it became clear that much of the MAGA movement was not going to accept the outcome — not with all of the conspiracy theories and the constant sentiment of mistrust in our institutions coming from its leaders.
At first, the most commonly expressed views were that the courts, local election officials loyal to the cause, the military or Trump himself would keep the president in power.

But after Trump’s Dec. 19 tweet, the reaction of those I was monitoring cannot be overstated. They viewed it as an order, a call to arms. They began planning, and I began documenting how these groups were organizing, preparing for, threatening and intending to engage in violence.

On Dec. 30, a week before the “wild” protest, a leading figure of the Proud Boys, Joe Biggs, posted his group’s intent on Parler: “Attn: DC ANTIFA. We will not be attending DC in colors. We will be blending in as one of you. You won’t see us. You’ll even think we are you. We are going to smell like you. Move like you and look like you. The only thing we will do that’s us! Is think like us! Jan 6th is gonna be epic.”…..

What we’re seeing is that many of the activists and influencers who promoted and attended the rally that became the violent attempt to stop the certification of President Biden’s election have now turned their attention to three primary targets: school boards, city and county commissions, and secretaries of state and supervisors of elections.

The new endeavors give the appearance of grass-roots efforts but feature familiar characters teaming up with organizations long involved with financing and leading disruptions, protests and disinformation campaigns on a variety of issues — organizations like Morton Blackwell’s Leadership Institute, the Council for National Policy, Turning Point USA, the Heritage Foundation’s Action branch and Liberty Counsel.

What’s more, some of these activists have harnessed the anger, fear and resentment they have helped churn up and are using it for their personal and financial benefit.

We began noticing this shift between February and March, as these leaders launched new websites, created new business entities, and restarted their events and rallies……

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/12/10/michael-flynn-roger-stone-activists/

 

[Optimus Prime]

From the Atlantic
==============
technically, the next attempt to overthrow a national election may not qualify as a coup. It will rely on subversion more than violence, although each will have its place. If the plot succeeds, the ballots cast by American voters will not decide the presidency in 2024.

Thousands of votes will be thrown away, or millions, to produce the required effect. The winner will be declared the loser. The loser will be certified president-elect.

The prospect of this democratic collapse is not remote. People with the motive to make it happen are manufacturing the means. Given the opportunity, they will act. They are acting already.

Who or what will safeguard our constitutional order is not apparent today. It is not even apparent who will try. Democrats, big and small D, are not behaving as if they believe the threat is real.

Some of them, including President Joe Biden, have taken passing rhetorical notice, but their attention wanders. They are making a grievous mistake.

“The democratic emergency is already here,” Richard L. Hasen, a professor of law and political science at UC Irvine, told me in late October. Hasen prides himself on a judicious temperament.

Only a year ago he was cautioning me against hyperbole. Now he speaks matter-of-factly about the death of our body politic. “We face a serious risk that American democracy as we know it will come to an end in 2024,” he said, “but urgent action is not happening.”……

January 6 Was Practice

Donald Trump’s next coup has already begun—and today’s GOP is much better positioned to subvert future elections.

www.theatlantic.com

 

[MT15]

For some reason, LA Rs thought this was a good idea:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/phil-waldron-powerpoint-louisiana-voting/2021/12/14/e2fa4aaa-5cec-11ec-bda6-25c1f558dd09_story.html

 

[bird]

What is missing from discussion is the critical component of the foundation of our body politic and our political economy. That critical component is confidence. If that word does not seem important enough then belief may do as well.

Trump has managed to do what no foreign power has ever been able to accomplish, he has destroyed confidence in the system of government that is in place in this country. In combination with real or imagined slights and feelings of insecurity based upon shifting demographics and rampant inequality Trump's bellicose bleating of "fake news!" and insults toward individuals in government as well as completely false claims of cheating in the electoral process and attempts to overthrow the results have created the situation in which the country finds itself. Yes, Russia interfered and continues to interfere. Yet, without Trump or a similar character Russia's efforts would have been for naught. Such is not the case now. Now we see that the "natural state" of political processes in far too many people is authoritarianism, the "Strongman".

Because of the destruction of confience in the government and political economy by Trump and his enablers in the Republican Party who chose holding the reins of power over supporting the very institutions that Trump decided to destroy we see that the processes of the January 6 commission and other legal actions must not only proceed as smoothly as possible, they must also proceed as transparently as possible. Restoring the destroyed confidence/belief in the government will be a task that may take multiple years. Moving to do that is important and foundational to the maintenance of a democratic republic. Included in that is restoring the concept of the media which is vital as a check on politicians of all stripes.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Good
===============
An Ohio husband and wife will each serve jail time for their role in the January 6 Capitol riot after a federal judge ruled Wednesday that the government’s home detention request was insufficient.

U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan ordered Brandon Miller to serve 20 days behind bars for live streaming himself after climbing through a broken window into the besieged U.S. Capitol Building on January 6. His wife, Stephanie Miller, was ordered to serve 14 days in jail for also entering the building. Both will have to complete 60 hours of community service and pay $500 in restitution.

In its sentencing memo, the Justice Department asked for the Millers to each serve a period of home detention as part of a 36-month probationary period. Prosecutors included text and Facebook messages from the couple, including one from Stephanie in which she claimed she “enjoyed every part of what we did and was a part of.”

“We’re hoping we don’t get charges, but we’ll proudly take them if so,” she wrote in a private Facebook message.

The Millers’ attorneys described both as people who had lived hard lives and who had already experienced significant ostracism as a result of their arrests. William Welch, the attorney for Brandon Miller, said Brandon’s grandmother had refused to speak to him since he was charged. Welch suggested community service and a shorter period of probation would be an appropriate sentence.

But Chutkan rejected both the DOJ and defense attorneys’ suggestions and said what happened on January 6 warranted jail time for both Millers.

“They didn’t just walk through a door. They climbed through a broken window… they knew full well of the violence that had preceded their entry,” Chutkan said. “The fact is that they were part of a mob… that was intent on stopping the lawful transfer of power.”

“It amounted to an attempted overthrow of the government,” Chutkan said. “I don’t believe that’s hyperbole.”..........

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[bird]

Good
===============
An Ohio husband and wife will each serve jail time for their role in the January 6 Capitol riot after a federal judge ruled Wednesday that the government’s home detention request was insufficient.

U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan ordered Brandon Miller to serve 20 days behind bars for live streaming himself after climbing through a broken window into the besieged U.S. Capitol Building on January 6. His wife, Stephanie Miller, was ordered to serve 14 days in jail for also entering the building. Both will have to complete 60 hours of community service and pay $500 in restitution.

In its sentencing memo, the Justice Department asked for the Millers to each serve a period of home detention as part of a 36-month probationary period. Prosecutors included text and Facebook messages from the couple, including one from Stephanie in which she claimed she “enjoyed every part of what we did and was a part of.”

“We’re hoping we don’t get charges, but we’ll proudly take them if so,” she wrote in a private Facebook message.

The Millers’ attorneys described both as people who had lived hard lives and who had already experienced significant ostracism as a result of their arrests. William Welch, the attorney for Brandon Miller, said Brandon’s grandmother had refused to speak to him since he was charged. Welch suggested community service and a shorter period of probation would be an appropriate sentence.

But Chutkan rejected both the DOJ and defense attorneys’ suggestions and said what happened on January 6 warranted jail time for both Millers.

“They didn’t just walk through a door. They climbed through a broken window… they knew full well of the violence that had preceded their entry,” Chutkan said. “The fact is that they were part of a mob… that was intent on stopping the lawful transfer of power.”

“It amounted to an attempted overthrow of the government,” Chutkan said. “I don’t believe that’s hyperbole.”..........

MSN

www.msn.com

Awww, they have lived hard lives and experienced ostracism. Hmmm, maybe they know how a lot of people of color have lived their lives.

It appears the sentences didn’t make much of an impact. Should have been 6 months minimum.

 

[MT15]

Interesting.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

For some reason, LA Rs thought this was a good idea:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/phil-waldron-powerpoint-louisiana-voting/2021/12/14/e2fa4aaa-5cec-11ec-bda6-25c1f558dd09_story.html

Louisiana really has some stupid people. And these stupid people elect stupid people to represent them. Hence, our current situation.

 

[nolaspe]

Womp, womp. Sending tots and pears...