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Pro-Trump Rioters Breached US Capitol; EC Confirms Biden; Trump "Responds"; Dems Win GA [Updates: 2]

posted by martyb on Wednesday January 06 2021, @10:01PM   
from the stock-up-on-popcorn! dept.

2021-01-07 14:44:44 UTC: UPDATE (See below the fold).

martyb writes:

Pro-Trump rioters breach the US Capitol on historic day in Congress:

Supporters of President Donald Trump breached the US Capitol on Wednesday while Congress was meeting to certify the Electoral College's votes for president and vice president.

The Capitol has been put on lockdown and the certification vote has been paused. Vice President Mike Pence was evacuated from the building. House and Senate leadership is safe and in undisclosed locations, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Congress' counting of electoral votes is typically little more than an afterthought. But this joint session was expected to be a contentious affair that would last late into the evening and possibly on Thursday. Some Republicans are objecting to the count and delaying the inevitable certification of President-elect Joe Biden's win.

Also at AlJazeera (In Pictures: Pro-trump mob storms US Capitol building) and c|net (Mob storms Capitol forcing halt of election vote count).

[2021-01-06 22:33:53 UTC; UPDATE] NOTE: This is a chaotic time.

The Electoral College votes are currently being confirmed and tallied. Runoff votes in Georgia are being tallied and the results may swing the balance of power in the US Senate. The Georgia secretary of state [has been] relocated from [State] Capitol for security reasons. Mitch McConnell goes off on Trump. Pro-Trump reporter gloats over access to fleeing Hill staffer's computer. And Trump hand-picks replacement for Atlanta's US attorney after surprise resignation.

Let's please try and keep the discussion civil.

Also, please be polite and share your popcorn!

[Updates Begin]:

(1) Fox News reports Biden's Electoral College victory certified -- hours after Capitol chaos:

The U.S. Congress early Thursday certified the Electoral College vote that gave Democrat Joe Biden his presidential victory -- after a day in Washington that was marred by pro-Trump protesters storming the U.S. Capitol.

Vice President Mike Pence, who had announced he would not overturn the will of voters, confirmed the Biden victory at 3:41 a.m. ET.

Lawmakers had returned to the chamber in an act of defiance, with some Republicans who initially vowed to challenge states' results due to voter fraud concerns announcing they'd instead vote to certify.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the breach of the Capitol a "failed insurrection," adding that those who "tried to disrupt our democracy" had not succeeded.

(2) President Trump "Responds" via Staffer's Twitter Account after His Account was Suspended:

Dan Scavino 🇺🇸 🦅@DanScavino:

Statement by President Donald J. Trump on the Electoral Certification:

"Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. I have always said we would continue our...

Dan Scavino 🇺🇸 🦅@DanScavino:

...fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it's only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!"

(3) Facebook, Twitter lock Trump's account following video addressing Washington rioters:

• Twitter and Facebook on Wednesday said they would lock the account of President Donald Trump after he continued to make false claims about the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
• Facebook, YouTube and Twitter on Wednesday removed a video by President Donald Trump addressing Washington rioters.
• Meanwhile, calls are mounting for Twitter and Facebook to suspend Trump's accounts.

(4) The Associated Press has called the results for the Georgia Senate elections: both Democratic candidates defeated their GOP opponents:

With projected victories in the twin races of Warnock and Ossoff, President-elect Joe Biden will have the narrowest majority in the Senate, with both parties holding 50-50 seats apiece, allowing the tie-breaking vote to be cast by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

Also at The New York Times.

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Original Submission

• Re:wswsws (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @07:48PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 07 2021, @07:48PM (#1096641)

  ISA/Socialist Alternative (ISA USA): As 2021 Begins: American Capitalism Faces Multifaceted Crisis [internationalsocialist.net]

  The left in the U.S. faces a very real challenge. Enormous protests against racism last summer pushed the right and the establishment back temporarily but failed to win a decisive victory. Bernie Sanders’ platform — including Medicare for All, a Green New Deal and free college — remains enormously popular but his capitulation to the corporate leadership of the Democratic Party has left a dangerous vacuum of leadership. The left and the labor movement needs to look reality in the face if we are to understand correctly the tasks we face in the coming months and years....

  The potential development of a mass far-right party is clearly dangerous from the point of view of the working class and all oppressed people in the U.S. We have warned that a Biden presidency will, like Obama’s presidency, tend to fuel this development rather than slow it down. In the short term, however, growing divisions in the GOP creates a certain opportunity for the Democratic Party but it is not at all clear to what degree they are capable of capitalizing on it....

  The Democratic Party establishment, as was clearly evident in the recent presidential election, no longer even pretends to fight for the interests of working people. They have completely failed to fight for the scale of stimulus needed while at state and local level they prepare to oversee massive cuts. Meanwhile, Trump, the billionaire populist, does pretend from time to time to represent working-class interests, referring to the GOP as a “workers’ party.” The Democrats instead use identity politics to cover their total servility to corporate donors with a fake “progressivism....”

  The scale of the crisis and mass pressure may well force Biden and the Democrats to go further than they intend with stimulus and other measures directly intervening into the economy. Comparisons are frequently made to the Great Depression in the 1930s when Roosevelt and the Federal government adopted “Keynesian” measures to put money in people’s pockets and boost demand. But, Keynesian measures only partially alleviated the situation facing working people and did not solve the underlying issues that created the Depression. Significant reforms, like the creation of Social Security, were a response to the massive union organizing drive and strike wave that began in 1934. Today, as in the ‘30s, real change will only come as a result of a mass working-class centered movement that is not under the control of the Democrats....

  There are two critical and intertwined questions: the rebuilding of a fighting labor movement and building an independent political force to represent the interests of the multiracial, multigender working class. Objectively we have the most favorable situation for the formation of a party on the left independent of corporate interests since the 1970s because of the massive disillusionment in neoliberal capitalism and capitalist institutions generally....

  Parent