Wednesday, January 6, 2021

"...in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives..."

Today was the day that Congress was set to affirm the certified Electoral College votes officially recognizing the new President-elect Joseph R Biden and his running mate as Vice-President Kamala Harris. This did not happen today.

The morning broke with the news that the special election in the state of Georgia had concluded with two new Senators, Warnock and Ossoff having been elected. This was even more significant since their election as members of the Democratic party gave the Senate an entirely new tenor. Now the Senate is divided evenly with fifty members in the Republican party and fifty from the Democratic party. This is the first time in ten years the Senate will be led with a Democrat as the majority leader.

But, the counting of the electoral college votes did not begin because there were a number of objections that members had put forward to block the count. Since the November election, the current resident Donald J Trump has refused to concede the national election claiming numerous fraudulent processes, including ballot stuffing, ballot shredding, fraud inducing electoral officials, fraudulent vote counting processes and even the voting by dead people. His subordinates have taken to the courts and the airwaves and the social media platforms claiming all of the above and much more but without proof, spinning controversy and conspiracies in an environment that seems to thrive on such poisonous ignorance. There have been sixty cases that the courts have struck down or thrown out due to lack of evidence or lack of standing by the plaintiffs. This, rather than dispelling the illusions of his followers, has instead only increased their frustration.

So, today several hundred of his supporters convened in Washington DC set on disrupting this official, constitutional process of counting the electoral college votes. At the moment that objections were being heard in due order, in the separate bicameral houses brought by representatives and Senators from their respective districts and states, individuals outside the building began breaching the security perimeter. Before long scores and then hundreds of people had stormed the building claiming they were holding a revolution. 

Representatives were rushed out of chambers to secure locations.Rioters scoured the buildings looking for accomplices. One woman, a vet who had formerly been in the Air Force was shot in the Capitol building and has since died. Several instances of vandalism and graffiti occurred and Representatives offices were broken into and items stolen, but no further injuries have been reported. At least one pipe bomb had been found and taken away and defused. After a couple hours, Vice-President Pence called on the National Guard to come help. The President's twitter account after tweeting a number of incendiary remarks was shut down temporarily. The mayor of Washington DC declared a curfew in the city limits from 6PM to 6AM. And with reserves built up the Capitol police began clearing the Capitol building and complex which was completed by 6PM. 

About two hours later, the buildings having been cleared and cleaned, members were told they could return and did. After a few short speeches, members began again the process where they had left off, debating the objections with votes being held on whether to sustain those objections to holding the count. At this time, none of those objections have been sustained, being resoundingly defeated, but there are a few members who voted for sustaining those objections. They are as follows.


Today was Epiphany
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Front page of tomorrow's New York Times:
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